Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From Pi to Pie

Research introduced here examines the impact of social and structural transitions during the past three decades on middle-class working families in the United States. Through the telling narrative of an especially iconic case of urban-to-rural migration and career change, this article explores the meaning of relocation away from metropolitan areas and corporate careers to growing ex-urban, small-town communities. The author interprets this life-style migration as a manner of personally negotiating tension between experience of material demands in pursuit of a livelihood within the flexible New Economy and prevailing cultural conventions for the good life that shape the moral narratives that define individual character. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research involving interview and observation of recent migrants to Northern Michigan, this article contributes to our understanding of noneconomic migration and its part in the changing moral meanings of work in postindustrial America.
Elementary- and Middle-school Teachers' Reasoning about Intervening in School Violence: An examination of violence-prone school subcontexts

The study compared middle-school and elementary-school teachers' (N = 108) reasoning about their professional roles when violence occurred in "undefined" and potentially violence-prone school subcontexts (e.g. hallways, cafeterias, playgrounds). The study combined concepts from urban planing, architecture, criminology and cognitive developmental domain theory to explore teachers' moral attributions towards school spaces. Participants were asked to locate dangerous locations and discuss their professional roles in those locations. Teachers were also given hypothetical situations where the specific subcontexts (i.e. hallways, classroom, school yard) and school type (middle versus elementary schools) were systematically manipulated to assess the impact of context on reasoning and judgement. The results indicated that middle-school teachers were more likely than elementary-school teachers to identify school subcontexts where they would not intervene. Middle-school teachers' reasoning patterns were closely associated with their perceived role in "undefined" spaces. Furthermore, middle-school teachers' reasoning about intervention was complex and included moral, social-conventional and personal explanations as to why intervention was not possible in all school subcontexts. In contrast, elementary school teachers were more likely to perceive the entire school context as within their professional purview. Their reasoning about intervention focused mainly on the potential physical harm to the students. The data imply that teachers' views of "role within context" and "subcontext" influence their decisions to intervene or not intervene. Implications for research, theory and intervention are discussed.
Proton Therapy Reduces Treatment-Related Toxicities for Patients with Nasopharyngeal Cancer: A Case-Match Control Study of Intensity-Modulated Proton Therapy and Intensity-Modulated Photon Therapy

Abstract Purpose: The physical properties of proton therapy allow for decreased dose delivery to nontarget structures. The purpose of this study was to determine if this translates into a clinical benefit by comparing acute and chronic morbidity between patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma who are treated with intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) and those treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Materials and Methods: Patients receiving IMPT for nasopharyngeal cancer from 2011-13 were matched in a 2:1 IMPT to IMRT ratio. Matching criteria were, in order, T-stage, N-stage, radiation dose, chemotherapy type, World Health Organization classification, sex, and age. Results: Ten patients treated with IMPT and 20 matched patients treated with IMRT were included. By the end of treatment, 2 IMPT-treated patients (20%) and 13 IMRT-treated patients (65%) required gastrostomy tube (GT) insertion (P = .020). Patients receiving IMPT had significantly lower mean doses to the oral cavity, brain.
Self-Efficacy: A Foundational Concept for Positive Clinical Psychology

The term “self-efficacy” refers to your beliefs about your ability to effectively perform the tasks needed to attain a valued goal. Self-efficacy does not refer to your abilities but to how strongly you believe you can use your abilities to work toward goals. Self-efficacy is not a unitary construct or trait; rather, people have self-efficacy beliefs in different domains, such as academic self-efficacy, problem-solving self-efficacy, and self-regulatory self-efficacy. Stronger self-efficacy beliefs are associated with positive outcomes, such as better grades, greater athletic performance, happier romantic relationships, and a healthier lifestyle.
Continuity and change in the Community Development Employment Projects Scheme (CDEP)

The Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme is an example of an Indigenous‑specific program that combines community development and labour market program elements. This paper describes the nature of CDEP employment in 2008 and the extent to which it changed between 1994 and 2008. The paper also compares a selection of economic and social outcomes of CDEP participants with those of persons who were employed outside of CDEP, unemployed and not‑in‑the‑labour‑force (NILF) in 2008 and the extent to which these associations changed between 1994 and 2008. This paper also aims to assess the extent to which CDEP participation is consistent with the community development objectives of the scheme. The analysis shows that the nature of the jobs in which CDEP participants work and the experiences it provides to workers have changed little despite substantial changes in underlying policy settings. CDEP participation is associated with the maintenance of language and culture as well as facilitating an ongoing connection to traditional lands. Participation in the scheme is associated with better social and economic outcomes compared to those of the unemployed or those NILF, but much worse outcomes than those for people working in non-CDEP employment.
Clearing Away the Smoke and Mirrors: Response to Dr O'Reilly

The arguments made by Dr O’Reilly are largely smoke and mirrors, with facts taken out of context to buttress his position. We are told that studies of CTOs have exceeded 4000 subjects, but Dr O’Reilly does not mention that only 416 subjects have completed RCTs. Dr O’Reilly also fails to mention that the benefits of CTOs largely disappear when people are compared with randomly or appropriately matched control subjects. This finding includes preliminary results from Ontario comparing patients on ACT and CTOs with patients
Language Proficiency, Reading, and the Chinese-Speaking English Language Learner: Facilitating the L1-L2 Connection.

Barbara C. Palmer is a professor of reading and language arts in the College of Education at The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida; Nailing Zhang is an associate professor of English to speakers of Chinese at Taiyuan Normal University, China; Susan H. Taylor teaches English at North Florida Community College, Madison, Florida, and is a doctoral student in the Reading and Language Arts Program at The Florida State University; Judith T. Leclere is an adjunct professor of reading and language arts at The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. Language Proficiency, Reading, and the Chinese-Speaking English Language Learner
Location-Aware Routing for Service-Oriented Opportunistic Computing

Smartphones, tablets, netbooks and laptops are intensively used every day by a large part of the population. These devices--which are equipped with Wi-Fi interfaces--can form disconnected mobile ad hoc networks (DMANETs) dynamically. These networks may allow service providers, such as local authorities, to deliver new kinds of services in a wide area (e.g., a city) without resorting to the infrastructure-based networks of mobile phone operators. This paper presents OLFServ, a new location-aware forwarding protocol dedicated to service-oriented opportunistic computing in DMANETs. This protocol implements several self-pruning heuristics allowing mobile nodes to decide whether they efficiently contribute in the message delivery. The protocol has been implemented in a service-oriented middleware platform, and has been validated through simulations, which proved its efficiency.
Serum Aldosterone Is Associated with Inflammation and Aortic Stiffness in Normotensive Overweight and Obese Young Adults

Circulating aldosterone is increased in obesity and is associated with arterial stiffening in hypertensives and older adults. The aim of this article was to determine whether serum aldosterone is associated with pulse wave velocity (PWV), a measure of arterial stiffness, in normotensive overweight and obese adults aged 20–45 years (n = 344). Heart-femoral, femoral-ankle, and brachial-ankle PWV were measured. The sample was 77% female with mean body mass index 32.9 kg/m2 (SD 3.9), median serum aldosterone 106.5 pg/mL (interquartile range 79.9, 155.5), and mean 24-hour urinary sodium excretion 185.9 mEq/day (SD 69.6). Higher serum aldosterone was not significantly correlated with any PWV measure in bivariate analysis. However, in multiple linear regression, adjusting for age, sex, race, height, heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and waist circumference, higher log aldosterone was associated with greater log heart-femoral PWV (β(se) = 0.042(0.021), P = . 049). After adjusting for C-reactive protein, this association was no longer significant (β(se) = 0.035(0.021), P = . 10). Circulating aldosterone may play an important role in vascular inflammation and aortic stiffening in normotensive overweight and obese adults.
Tenure-based residential segregation in post-reform Chinese cities: a case study of Shanghai

The Chinese cities, once characterised by egalitarianism, are becoming the most unequal cities in the world. However, little is known about the spatial implications of such a tremendous transition. This paper examines residential segregation in post-reform Shanghai. For the first time in studying Chinese cities, fine resolution data on the level of the residential committee, from the fifth population census conducted in 2000, are used. The spatial variation of housing tenure is found to be prominent. Most variables in the Index of Dissimilarity (ID) for housing tenure are above 0.5, while the spatial variation of ‘commodity housing purchased’ and ‘public housing rental’ is as high as 0.7, indicating a remarkable concentration of various housing groups. No evidence, however, suggests a high extent of segregation of social groups comparable to the West such as in the UK and US. ID between rural migrants and local residents is just 0.2–0.4. ID between residents with low-level and high-level educational attainment is around 0.3. In terms of hukou (household registration) status, educational attainment and housing tenure, a division between the central city and its surrounding areas is identified. Most communities are characterised by homogeneous tenure and heterogeneous population. In all, post-reform urban China is characterised by tenure-based residential segregation. Through market-oriented housing consumption, a new stratified sociospatial structure is in the making; its outcome, however, will continue to be shaped by the sustained impact of institutions such as hukou and work units.
Treatment of Cushing disease: overview and recent findings

Endogenous Cushing syndrome is an endocrine disease caused by excessive secretion of adrenocorticotropin hormone in approximately 80% of cases, usually by a pituitary corticotroph adenoma (Cushing disease [CD]). It is a heterogeneous disorder requiring a multidisciplinary and individualized approach to patient management. The goals of treatment of CD include the reversal of clinical features, the normalization of biochemical changes with minimal morbidity, and long-term control without recurrence. Generally, the treatment of choice is the surgical removal of the pituitary tumor by transsphenoidal approach, performed by an experienced surgeon. Considering the high recurrence rate, other treatments should be considered. Second-line treatments include more radical surgery, radiation therapy, medical therapy, and bilateral adrenalectomy. Drug treatment has been targeted at the hypothalamic or pituitary level, at the adrenal gland, and also at the glucocorticoid receptor level. Frequently, medical therapy is performed before surgery to reduce the complications of the procedure, reducing the effects of severe hypercortisolism. Commonly, in patients in whom surgery has failed, medical management is often essential to reduce or normalize the hypercortisolemia, and should be attempted before bilateral adrenalectomy is considered. Medical therapy can be also useful in patients with CD while waiting for pituitary radiotherapy to take effect, which can take up to 10 years or more. So far, results of medical treatment of CD have not been particularly relevant; however, newer tools promise to change this scenario. The aim of this review is to analyze the results and experiences with old and new medical treatments of CD and to reevaluate medical therapies for complications of CD and hypopituitarism in patients with cured CD.
Synthesis and Characterization of Encapsulated Nanosilica Particles with an Acrylic Copolymer by in Situ Emulsion Polymerization Using Thermoresponsive Nonionic Surfactant

Nanocomposites of encapsulated silica nanoparticles were prepared by in situ emulsion polymerization of acrylate monomers. The synthesized material showed good uniformity and dispersion of the inorganic components in the base polymer, which enhances the properties of the nanocomposite material. A nonionic surfactant with lower critical solution temperature (LCST) was used to encapsulate the silica nanoparticles in the acrylic copolymer matrix. This in situ method combined the surface modification and the encapsulation in a single pot, which greatly simplified the process compared with other conventional methods requiring separate processing steps. The morphology of the encapsulated nanosilica particles was investigated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which confirmed the uniform distribution of the nanoparticles without any agglomerations. A neat copolymer was also prepared as a control sample. Both the neat copolymer and the prepared nanocomposite were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analyses (TGA), dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) and the flame resistance test. Due to the uniform dispersion of the non-agglomerated nanoparticles in the matrix of the polymer, TGA and flame resistance test results showed remarkably improved thermal stability. Furthermore, DMTA results demonstrated an enhanced storage modulus of the nanocomposite samples compared with that of the neat copolymer, indicating its superior mechanical properties.
Factors influencing the baby boomers’ intention to use domotics to live independently for longer

Domotics, a relatively new technology, can help older adults live independently for longer at their own homes. Because most of the domotics acceptance literature focussed on the age group for older adults, this study focussed on baby boomers. Where a low intention to use domotics is found under current elderly, this study suggests baby boomers have a better attitude towards new technologies. To give a complete overview on the acceptance of domotics, first factors from general technology acceptance were described. Eight factors were discovered: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social influence, triability, compatibility, hedonic motivation, trust and reliability. Then, factors from domotics acceptance literature were discussed. This resulted in another five factors: Increased independency, security improvement, stigmatization, loneliness, and privacy infliction. The description of factors was followed with the underlying relations of these factors. After the literature was discussed, a conceptual model was comprised out of the thirteen factors and the intentions to use domotics. To complete the model and to give further insights in the questionnaire, a series of interviews were held as a pilot study. Respondents were asked if they thought they would use domotics later in their lives and why. This added a new factor, contact possibilities, to the model. The main study used an online questionnaire to test if the data fits the model that was created from the literature. Results show that the overall intention to use domotics was high and almost all factors found in the literature were seen as having a direct or indirect effect on the intention to use. Only triability, stigmatization, and privacy infliction did not have any effect on the intention to use. In the discussion, the model made in this study is being discussed. The questionnaire and interviews are used to gain further insights in the acceptance of domotics in the baby boom generation. Possible explanations are given for the factors that did not have any effect on the intention to use. Finally limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.
The Roles of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae RecQ Helicase SGS1 in Meiotic Genome Surveillance

Background The Saccharomyces cerevisiae RecQ helicase Sgs1 is essential for mitotic and meiotic genome stability. The stage at which Sgs1 acts during meiosis is subject to debate. Cytological experiments showed that a deletion of SGS1 leads to an increase in synapsis initiation complexes and axial associations leading to the proposal that it has an early role in unwinding surplus strand invasion events. Physical studies of recombination intermediates implicate it in the dissolution of double Holliday junctions between sister chromatids. Methodology/Principal Findings In this work, we observed an increase in meiotic recombination between diverged sequences (homeologous recombination) and an increase in unequal sister chromatid events when SGS1 is deleted. The first of these observations is most consistent with an early role of Sgs1 in unwinding inappropriate strand invasion events while the second is consistent with unwinding or dissolution of recombination intermediates in an Mlh1- and Top3-dependent manner. We also provide data that suggest that Sgs1 is involved in the rejection of ‘second strand capture’ when sequence divergence is present. Finally, we have identified a novel class of tetrads where non-sister spores (pairs of spores where each contains a centromere marker from a different parent) are inviable. We propose a model for this unusual pattern of viability based on the inability of sgs1 mutants to untangle intertwined chromosomes. Our data suggest that this role of Sgs1 is not dependent on its interaction with Top3. We propose that in the absence of SGS1 chromosomes may sometimes remain entangled at the end of pre-meiotic replication. This, combined with reciprocal crossing over, could lead to physical destruction of the recombined and entangled chromosomes. We hypothesise that Sgs1, acting in concert with the topoisomerase Top2, resolves these structures. Conclusions This work provides evidence that Sgs1 interacts with various partner proteins to maintain genome stability throughout meiosis.
Monte Carlo vs Molecular Dynamics for Conformational Sampling

A comparison study has been carried out to test the relative efficiency of Metropolis Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations for conformational sampling. The test case that has been examined is liquid hexane. OPLS potential functions have been used with sampling of external motions and internal angle bending and torsions. The BOSS 3.6 and AMBER 4.0 programs were used to perform the internal-coordinate Monte Carlo and Cartesian molecular dynamics simulations, respectively, for samples of 267 molecules in the NPT ensemble at 25 °C and 1 atm with periodic boundary conditions. The initial configurations of the system were equilibrated with the hexane molecules in the all trans configuration. The major findings are (1) the Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics results for thermodynamic properties and conformer populations are in accord, (2) the conformer populations reach equilibrium in ca. 107 Monte Carlo configurations or 100 ps of molecular dynamics, and (3) the molecular dynamics calculations require .
Effect of methomyl formulation, a carbamate pesticide on ovarian follicular development and fertility in albino mice.

Administration of 5 mg methomyl (40%) kg(-1) b.wt. mouse(-1) (equal to 50% of LD50 dose), every day for 90 days to adult female mice resulted in a significant decrease in body weight, relative weight of the ovary, uterus and fallopian tube; mean number of small, preantral, antral and pre-ovulatory follicles and fertility compared to controls. On the other hand, total duration of the estrous cycle was significantly increased compared to controls. One month after the cessation of the treatment (a commercial methomyl preparation-lannate) the effect on estrous cycle and organ weight was not restored. Treatment of 2.5 mg or 1 mg lannate kg(-1) b. wt. , although did not alter duration of the estrous cycle; relative weight of the ovary, uterus, and fallopian tube and fertility, caused a significant decrease in mean number of small follicles compared to controls. All the groups of mice treated with lannate showed loss in body weight (15.15% in 1 mg, 6.61% in 2 mg and 12.16% in 5 mg treated groups) whereas controls showed a gain in body weight (20.02%) during the period of experimentation. The results indicate that 5 mg lannate kg(-1) b. wt causes loss of follicles and infertility, whereas lower dosages (2.5 and 1 mg) reduce the number of small follicles which might shorten reproductive life span of mice.
Personality and Characteristic Work Attitudes of Persons with High, Moderate, and Low Political Tendencies

DuBrin's Office Politics Questionnaire, which measures a person's tendency to engage in office politics, was used in an exploratory study to examine the characteristics of persons with high, moderate, and low tendencies to use office politics. 71 MBA students completed the Office Politics Questionnaire (shortened by subsequent analysis to 50 items), the Mach IV, Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control, Rosenberg's Self-esteem and social desirability scales, and six single-item measures of work attitude. The Office Politics Scale showed a significant Pearson correlation only with the Mach scale, suggesting that the politics scale may be largely a surrogate for Mach. Descriptive statistics comparing groups scoring high, moderate, and low political tendency on the politics scale suggest that people with high political tendency are somewhat higher in Machiavellianism and (although these differences were not statistically significant), higher in self-esteem, see other people as less competitive than themselves, see themselves as being less satisfied with their work. These are characteristics consistent with those proposed by others.
Constrained NMF-Based Multi-View Clustering on Unmapped Data

Existing multi-view clustering algorithms require thatthe data is completely or partially mapped betweeneach pair of views. However, this requirement couldnot be satisfied in most practical settings. In this paper,we tackle the problem of multi-view clustering for unmappeddata in the framework of NMF based clustering.With the help of inter-view constraints, we definethe disagreement between each pair of views by the factthat the indicator vectors of two instances from two differentviews should be similar if they belong to the samecluster and dissimilar otherwise. The overall objectiveof our algorithm is to minimize the loss function of NMFin each view as well as the disagreement betweeneach pair of views. Experimental results show that, witha small number of constraints, the proposed algorithmgets good performance on unmapped data, and outperformsexisting algorithms on partially mapped data andcompletely mapped data.