Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mad cows and British politicians: The role of scientific and national identities in managing blame for the BSE crisis

Adopting a discursive psychological approach, this article considers how identity ascription, warranted through rhetorically loaded descriptions of events, objects, places, and people, plays a fundamental role in locating blame for BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) within British House of Commons debates. The parliamentary debates at the 'peak' of the BSE crisis occurred between 20 and 25 March 1996. Within this time span the European Union ban upon the import and export of British beef was imposed. Whilst many theorists have noted that the introduction of the EU ban led to a change in emphasis within media reports, from health and science to national identity, there has been no work that considers how or why this was accomplished in the political debates themselves. At the heart of the parliamentary debates about BSE lies the question of blame. Arguments concerning whose fault the BSE crisis was and the legitimacy of particular kinds of information and action were highly contentious issues during 1996. It is argued that this attribution and avoidance of blame is linked to the construction and invocation of scientific and national identities within political debates.
Social Influences in Sequential Decision Making

People often make decisions in a social environment. The present work examines social influence on people’s decisions in a sequential decision-making situation. In the first experimental study, we implemented an information cascade paradigm, illustrating that people infer information from decisions of others and use this information to make their own decisions. We followed a cognitive modeling approach to elicit the weight people give to social as compared to private individual information. The proposed social influence model shows that participants overweight their own private information relative to social information, contrary to the normative Bayesian account. In our second study, we embedded the abstract decision problem of Study 1 in a medical decision-making problem. We examined whether in a medical situation people also take others’ authority into account in addition to the information that their decisions convey. The social influence model illustrates that people weight social information differentially according to the authority of other decision makers. The influence of authority was strongest when an authority's decision contrasted with private information. Both studies illustrate how the social environment provides sources of information that people integrate differently for their decisions.
Rate Effects and Load Relaxation in Static Fracture of Concrete

Reports an experimental study of the fracture of concrete at "arious crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) rates with time to peak loads ranging from about 1 sec to 3 days (over five orders of magnitude). Tests were conducted on three-point bend specimens of three sizes in the ratio 1:2:4. Quasi-elastic fracture analysis, based on the effective modulus jrom creep theory, is used to evaluate the results according to the size effect method. The fracture toughness is found to decrease in agreement with the trend known for the dynamic range. The effective length of the fracture process zone is found to decrease with increasing rate, which implies increasing brittleness and a shift toward linear elastic fracture mechanics behavior for slow loading. Load relaxation at constant CMOD in the prepeak and post-peak stages of fracture tests was also investigated. The response tends to a straight line in the logarithm of elapsed time, and the post-peak relaxation is nearly twice as strong as the linear viscoelastic relaxation of unnotched specimens, The difference between these two relaxations must be caused by time-dependent processes in the fracture zone. The results reveal that in concrete there is a strong interaction between fracture and creep, which might cause the load-carrying capacity of structures with cracks to decrease significantly with load duration. However, extrapolations to loads beyond several days of duration would be speculative.
Antecedents and Outcomes of Work-Family Conflict Among Employed Women and Men in Finland

The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence, antecedents, and consequences of work-family conflict among employed women and men in Finland. The data were obtained by questionnaire from a sample of 501 employees working in four organizations. The results showed that work-family conflict was more prevalent than family-work conflict among both sexes, but that there were no gender differences in experiencing either work-family or family-work conflict. Family-work conflict was best explained by family domain variables (e.g., number of children living at home) for both sexes, and work-family conflict by work domain variables (e.g., full-time job, poor leadership relations) among the women, and by high education and high number of children living at home among the men. Family-work conflict had negative consequences on family well-being, and work-family conflict, in particular, on occupational well-being. The findings suggest that in particular improvements in working life are needed to prevent problems in the work-family interface.
Metacognitive Attributes and Liberated Progress

Owing to the cardinal and acknowledged importance of autonomy (AU) in learning, especially second-language learning, and influenced by the importance of inspecting its nature and the way it is associated with other psychological/cognitive/metacognitive factors, this research investigated the relationship among English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ AU, creativity (CR), and critical thinking (CT). The population for this study comprised of undergraduate EFL learners, between the ages of 19 and 40 (Mage = 22 years), from which 182 male and female subjects were selected via random selection. These participants, who were receiving formal instruction mainly through English, filled out three questionnaires related to CR, CT, and AU. Pearson’s product–moment correlation coefficient was used to analyze the data obtained. The results indicated that there is a significant and positive relationship between EFL learners’ CR and AU, CR and CT, as well as their CT and AU. Considering AU as the predicted variable for this study, it was confirmed that CT makes the strongest unique contribution to explain AU. It is hoped that the results of this study will reveal the nature of AU more and will equip EFL teachers with a wider perspective on the characteristics of AU and the way CR and CT can predict and promote AU among EFL learners.
Is Alexithymia Associated With Dyadic Coping in Couples?

The aim of this study was to explore associations between alexithymia and dyadic coping in couples. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Dyadic Coping Inventory were administered to 112 heterosexual couples. The results showed that higher alexithymia was associated with lower dyadic coping for each partner. Unexpectedly, these associations were reversed regarding the couple's alexithymia: higher alexithymia in the couple was associated with higher dyadic coping. Associations differed by gender. This study provides a better understanding of the effect of alexithymia on the way couples face stress and underlines the need to investigate alexithymia in couple research and practice.
Hausdorff Dimension Estimates by Use of a Tubular Caratheodory Structure and Their Application to Stability Theory

The paper is concerned with upper bounds for the Hausdorff di- mension of flow invariant compact sets on Riemannian manifolds and the ap- plication of such bounds to global stability investigations of equilibrium points. The proof of the main theorem uses a special Caratheodory dimension struc- ture in order to get contraction conditions for the considered Caratheodory measures which majorize the Hausdorff measures. The Hausdorff dimension bounds in the general case are formulated in terms of the eigenvalues of the symmetric part of the operator which generates the associated system in nor- mal variations with respect to the direction of the vector field. For sets with an equivariant tangent bundle splitting dimension bounds are derived in terms of uniform Lyapunov exponents. A generalization of the well-known theorems of Hartman-Olech and Borg is given.
A Four Year Follow‐up Study of Low Socioeconomic Status, Latin American Children with Reading Difficulties

This paper presents the results of a follow‐up study of reading difficulties among Spanish‐speaking Latin American children of low socioeconomic background (SES) over four school years. The research started with a group of 93 children with reading difficulties (RD) by 2nd and 3rd grade teachers in four schools and a control group of 63 children without reading difficulties (ND), belonging to the same schools. Both groups were equivalent in age, grade, gender and SES. All children were tested on reading decoding and comprehension, reading and writing pseudo‐words, verbal abilities, visual perception, phonological processing, and the WISC‐R. Neither SES nor IQ accounted significantly for the reading difficulties in the RD group. The most predictive variables of the final reading level in the RD group were phonological processing, verbal abilities, and the initial level of decoding. After four years, 17% of the initial RD children had reached an average level of reading, but 11% of this group remained with s.
Race, Sex and Feminist Outlooks.

From a national NORC sample, two hypotheses are tested that link combinations of race and gender with sex-role outlooks: 1) black males will be more sex-role traditional in outlook than white males and 2) black females will be more sex-role feminist than white females. These hypotheses are developed from a multiple hierarchy approach to stratification: intersections of race and gender create unique social aggregates, the life chances and experiences of which assume patterns that cannot be anticipated by simply adding the effects of race to those of gender. It is found that black males are more traditional in sex-role outlook than white males, especially so among those identifying themselves as middle class. However, black females are not consistently more feminist in sex-role outlook than white females. Interpretations for these findings are discussed.
Reinforcing Separate Spheres

This study examines whether long work hours exacerbate gender inequality. As working long hours becomes increasingly common, a normative conception of gender that prioritizes men’s careers over women’s careers in dual-earner households may pressure women to quit their jobs. I apply multilevel models to longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to show that having a husband who works long hours significantly increases a woman’s likelihood of quitting, whereas having a wife who works long hours does not appear to increase a man’s likelihood of quitting. This gendered pattern is more prominent among workers in professional and managerial occupations, where the norm of overwork and the culture of intensive parenting are strong. Furthermore, the effect is stronger among workers who have children. Findings suggest that overwork can reintroduce the separate spheres arrangement, consisting of breadwinning men and homemaking women, to many formerly dual-earner households.
When Context Has Content

Reviews of research evaluating the impact of beginning teacher induction suggest that the mixed results may be due to the fact that the programs do not fully address school context. We examine how one induction program for urban teachers explicitly addresses teachers’ specific schools and students to illustrate how context becomes the content for teachers’ learning and work. We argue that the program’s “context-specific” supports may ease transition into the challenging role of urban teacher. In turn, this case suggests ways of addressing features of context that may help new teachers better understand and maintain a commitment to urban teaching.
Effect of modulation statistics on Raman crosstalk in WDM systems

Stimulated Raman scattering crosstalk in intensity-modulated WDM systems is analyzed, including modulation statistics. The actual penalty is found to be lower than that expected from a worst-case analysis. For a large number of channels, the depletion due to stimulated Raman scattering becomes half of the value found with a worst-case analysis and assumes a deterministic behavior. <<ETX>>
ART 2-A: an adaptive resonance algorithm for rapid category learning and recognition

The authors introduce ART 2-A, an efficient algorithm that emulates the self-organizing pattern recognition and hypothesis testing properties of the ART 2 neural network architecture, but at a speed two to three orders of magnitude faster. Analysis and simulation show how the ART 2-A systems correspond to ART 2 dynamics both at the fast-learn limit and at intermediate learning rates. Intermediate learning rates permit fast commitment of category nodes but slow recoding, analogous to properties of word frequency effects, encoding specificity effects, and episodic memory. Better noise tolerance is achieved without a loss of learning stability. The speed of ART 2-A makes practical the use of ART 2 modules in large-scale neural computation. <<ETX>>
Where is the Quality? Political Science Scholarship in Australia

This article presents a comparison of research quality in political science among Australian universities. Two sources are used to assess the output of high-quality political science scholarship. The first looks at publication totals in leading journals, using the hierarchy of journal quality from the Excellence in Research Australia program. The second counts Australian Research Council Discovery Grants awarded in political science. Although there is no attempt to present an authoritative master ranking, it is argued that common patterns do emerge regarding the distribution of high-quality political science research among different universities in Australia. More broadly, the data confirm earlier conclusions on the British or European character of the field in this country, despite the overwhelming dominance of the USA in political science worldwide.
Working Memory and the Observed Effectiveness of Recasts on Different L2 Outcome Measures.

This study examined whether the observed effectiveness of recasts is influenced by the type of outcome measure used and whether different aspects of working memory are differentially associated with learners’ performance on the various outcome measures. The participants were 90 learners of English as a foreign language, who were randomly assigned to a recast, a nonrecast, and a control group. A pretest–posttest–delayed posttest design was employed to detect any improvement in the learners’ knowledge of one usage of the English past progressive construction. Many-facet Rasch measurement and correlational analyses yielded two main findings. First, recasts generated the greatest gains on an oral production test, lesser gains on a written production test, and the least gains on a written grammaticality judgment test. Second, in the recast group, participants with higher reading spans achieved more development on the written tests, while those with higher digit and nonword spans showed greater improvement on the oral test. For the nonrecast group, no association was found between the working memory and developmental measures.
Cytotoxic effects of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate on human keratinocytes are not associated with proinflammatory cytokines expression

Background Keratinocytes play a crucial role in the biological function of skin barrier. The relationship between sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and keratinocytes has been studied. However, the cytotoxicity and effects of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS), a common detergent similar to SLS, on keratinocytes are still not known. This study aimed to investigate the effects of SDBS on cytotoxicity and expression of proinflammatory cytokines in cultured human keratinocytes. Methods This study was carried out using the keratinocytes cell line, HaCaT cells. The cytotoxicity of SDBS on HaCaT cells was evaluated with cell counting kit‐8 (CCK‐8) and phase‐contrast microscopy. After exposure to different concentrations of SDBS, the total RNA of the HaCaT cells was extracted for evaluating the relative mRNA expression of IL‐1&agr;, IL‐6, IL‐8, and TNF‐&agr; by qPCR. The supernatants of cells were collected for measuring the levels of IL‐6 and IL‐8 by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results SDBS at concentrations of 20 &mgr;g/ml and over showed direct cytotoxicity and induced morphological changes of the HaCaT cells. The mRNA expressions of IL‐1&agr;, IL‐6, IL‐8, and TNF‐&agr; in different concentrations of SDBS at different time were comparable with that of controls. SDBS at concentrations of 5, 10, and 15 &mgr;g/ml had no significant effects on IL‐6 and IL‐8 excretion from HaCaT cells after 24‐hour exposure. Moreover, no significant effects on the IL‐6 and IL‐8 excretion were found after 10 and 15 &mgr;g/ml SDBS stimulations for 6, 12, and 24 hours, respectively. Conclusion SDBS at higher concentrations had cytotoxicity on HaCaT cells but had no effects on the mRNA expression of IL‐1&agr;, IL‐6, IL‐8, and TNF‐&agr;, that was different from SLS.
Induced Giant Magnetoimpedance Effect by Current Annealing in Ultra Thin Co-Based Amorphous Ribbons

We have studied the magnetoimpedance (MI) response of near-zero magnetostriction (Co0.95Fe0.05)75Si10B15 (Co-based) amorphous ribbons (0.50 mm wide, 32 μm thick), thermally treated by current annealing, for different dc current of intensity varying from 440-680 mA during 5 min, was investigated in the frequency range of 10 MHz-1 GHz. It was not observed MI effect in the as-quenched ribbon, while the current annealed ribbons display large MI depending on the current annealing intensity in a similar way to that of the inhomogeneous induced magnetic anisotropy developed by this peculiar thermal treatment.
Analysis of background parenchymal echogenicity on breast ultrasound

Abstract The purpose of this study was to analyze the background parenchymal echotexture (BP echo) on breast ultrasound in detail and to evaluate the relation BP echo with menopausal status. In addition, we correlated BP echo with mammographic breast density (MGD) and background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The institutional review board of our hospital approved this retrospective study, and the requirement of informed consent was waived. We studied 138 women (mean age 51.6 years, range from 26 to 79 years) with newly diagnosed invasive breast cancer, who had performed preoperative mammography, ultrasound, and MR from June 2013 to June 2015. BP echo was classified as homogeneous and heterogeneous according to the BI-RADS US lexicon. MGD was described into fatty, scattered, heterogeneously dense, and extremely dense. BPE was categorized as minimal, mild, moderate, and marked. The relationship between the BP echo and menopausal status was investigated. Associations between the degree of BP echo with MGD grades and BPE grades were also evaluated. Of the 138 women, 74 (54%) were premenopausal and 64 (46%) were postmenopausal. Premenopausal women were more likely to have heterogeneous BP echo (60/74, 81%) compared with postmenopausal women (10/64, 16%) (P = .000). BP echo showed significant correlation with BPE in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women (P = .000). However, MGD showed no significant correlation with BP echo or BPE, regardless of menopausal states. In the postmenopausal group, 70% women (21/30) with dense MGD showed homogeneous BP echo and 77% women (23/30) with dense MGD showed nondense BPE. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the BP echo was influenced by menopausal status. Our data support the concept that BP echo is influenced by breast hormonal changes. Because there was a significant association between BP echo and BPE in pre- and post-menopausal women, the BP echo might be a good predictor for BPE.
Differences in Primary Mental Abilities Between Musicians and Nonmusicians

Abstract. In the present study, psychometric performance on different aspects of primary mental abilities (verbal comprehension, word fluency, space, flexibility of closure, perceptual speed, reasoning, number, and memory) was compared in 70 adult musicians and 70 nonmusicians matched for age, sex, and level of education. No significant differences could be confirmed for either mean full-scale scores or for specific aspects of mental abilities, except Flexibility of Closure and Perceptual Speed. In both these subtests, musicians performed reliably better than nonmusicians. Musicians' superior performance may reflect nonaural aspects of musical ability or the result of long-term musical training. Eventually, a similar factor structure of intelligence does not support the notion of qualitative differences in the conception of intelligence between musicians and nonmusicians.
Characterization of DNA methylation errors in patients with imprinting disorders conceived by assisted reproduction technologies.

BACKGROUND There is an increased incidence of rare imprinting disorders associated with assisted reproduction technologies (ARTs). The identification of epigenetic changes at imprinted loci in ART infants has led to the suggestion that the techniques themselves may predispose embryos to acquire imprinting errors and diseases. However, it is still unknown at what point(s) these imprinting errors arise, or the risk factors. METHODS In 2009 we conducted a Japanese nationwide epidemiological study of four well-known imprinting diseases to determine any association with ART. Using bisulfite sequencing, we examine the DNA methylation status of 22 gametic differentially methylated regions (gDMRs) located within the known imprinted loci in patients with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS, n=1) and also Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS, n= 5) born after ART, and compared these with patients conceived naturally. RESULTS We found a 10-fold increased frequency of BWS and SRS associated with ART. The majority of ART cases showed aberrant DNA methylation patterns at multiple imprinted loci both maternal and paternal gDMRs (5/6), with both hyper- and hypomethylation events (5/6) and also mosaic methylation errors (5/6). Although our study may have been limited by a small sample number, the fact that many of the changes were mosaic suggested that they occurred after fertilization. In contrast, few of the patients who were conceived naturally exhibited a similar pattern of mosaic alterations. The differences in methylation patterns between the patients who were conceived naturally or after ART did not manifest due to the differences in the disease phenotypes in these imprinting disorders. CONCLUSION A possible association between ART and BWS/SRS was found, and we observed a more widespread disruption of genomic imprints after ART. The increased frequency of imprinting disorders after ART is perhaps not surprising given the major epigenetic events that take place during early development at a time when the epigenome is most vulnerable.
A study of skin disease in Chitral.

Two thousand six hundred and twenty five cases were examined in five different villages of Chitral to study the prevalence of skin disease. One thousand nine hundred and three (72.5%) were actually found to have a dermatological problem. Nail disorders (27.8%), pediculosis capitis (15.2%), branding (12.5%), mouth diseases (10.6%), hyperkeratosis (10.2%), cutaneous tumours (7.8%), eczema (6.6%), xeroderma (6.2%), lnsect bites (6%) and pityriasis alba (5%) were the ten common dermatoses (JPMA 37: 247 , 1987).