Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Presidential Succession Planning

Significant turnover among senior leadership is expected in higher education. This study sought to examine the degree of succession planning for the top position in private higher education institutions in Wisconsin. Twenty-five in-depth qualitative interviews with presidents, board chairs, and search firms were conducted. A significant percentage of participants reported a lack of succession planning in higher education and further identified the tradition of academy as a considerable challenge to succession planning. Results of the study suggest key factors to ensure success in filling leadership roles in the future.
Prosocial behavioural tendencies and orientation towards individualism–collectivism of Greek young adults

This study aimed to investigate the prosocial behavioural tendencies of Greek young adults and to examine the relationship between prosocial behavioural tendencies and individualism–collectivism. Four hundred and eighty four (N = 484) undergraduates completed the Prosocial Tendencies Measure and the Auckland's Individualism Collectivism Scale. Altruism and compliant were the most preferable prosocial types followed by dire and emotional, while public was the least preferable type. Females and social sciences students were found to hold more positive attitudes towards prosocial behaviour. Also, females were oriented towards collectivism, while males and science and technology students were oriented towards individualism. Correlation analyses indicated a constant positive relationship between altruism, emotional, compliant and anonymous types and collectivism, whereas individualism was positively correlated only with the public type. Multiple regression analysis revealed that gender, age, religiosity, field of studies and collectivism, but not individualism, are strongly related to the dependent variables indicating prosocial behavioural tendencies.
The Development of Logico-Mathematical Knowledge in a Block-Building Activity at Ages 1–4

Abstract To study the developmental interrelationships among various aspects of logico-mathematical knowledge, 80 one- to 4-year-olds were individually asked to build “something tall” with 20 blocks. Percentages of new and significant behaviors increased with age and were analyzed in terms of the development of logico-mathematical relationships. It was found, for example, that the new spatial relationships children made as they grew older also changed the classificatory, seriational, numerical, and temporal relationships they made. The educational implication drawn is that it is better to define objectives for preschool mathematics education in terms of the development of logico-mathematical knowledge rather than the learning of specific aspects of elementary school mathematics. More broadly, an argument is made in favor of encouraging preschool children to think and make many mental relationships rather than to teach them specific subject matter.
Audiovisual risk communication unravelled: effects on gut feelings and cognitive processes

Audiovisual material is increasingly applied in risk communication (e.g., information films on the Internet) to affect the public's risk perception. This study investigated how the sound/footage and text of videos can influence two processes of risk perception: a primary (associative) and a secondary (deliberate) evaluative process. Our main hypothesis was that the sound/footage of a video would particularly influence the primary evaluative process and its text would affect the secondary evaluative process. This was investigated using a two (text: yes/no) by two (sound/footage: yes/no) design. We applied an indirect test to measure the videos' effects on the primary evaluative process (the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task) and a direct test (questionnaire) to assess the effects on the secondary evaluative process. These two tests were applied immediately after the respondents had seen one of the videos and two weeks later. Text appeared to affect the self‐reported risk perception (questionnaire) only at the first measurement. Sound/footage influenced risk perception as measured by the EAST merely at the second measurement. The results are discussed in light of the two risk perception processes.
Long-Term Stimulation of Adenosine A2b Receptors Begun After Myocardial Infarction Prevents Cardiac Remodeling in Rats

Background— Adenosine inhibits proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts and hypertrophy of cardiomyocytes, both of which may play crucial roles in cardiac remodeling. In the present study, we investigated whether chronic stimulation of adenosine receptors begun after myocardial infarction (MI) prevents cardiac remodeling. Methods and Results— MI was produced in Wistar rats by permanent ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. One week after the onset of MI, animals were randomized into 8 groups: vehicle, dipyridamole (DIP; the adenosine uptake inhibitor, 50 mg/kg), 2-chroloadenosine (CADO; the stable analogue of adenosine, 2 mg/kg), and CADO in the presence of the nonselective adenosine receptor antagonist 8-sulfophenyltheophylline (8-SPT) or the selective antagonist for adenosine A1, A2a, A2b, or A3 receptor. Three weeks after treatment, hemodynamic and echocardiographic parameters in the DIP and CADO groups were significantly improved compared with the vehicle group. These hemodynamic and echocardiographic improvements were blunted by either 8-SPT or the selective adenosine A2b antagonist MRS1754 but not by the selective antagonists for other subtypes of adenosine receptors. The collagen volume fraction was smaller, and gene expression of the molecules associated with cardiac remodeling such as matrix metalloproteinase in noninfarcted areas was reduced in the DIP and CADO groups compared with the vehicle group, both of which were attenuated by either 8-SPT or MRS1754. Conclusions— Long-term stimulation of adenosine A2b receptors begun after MI attenuates cardiac fibrosis in the noninfarcted myocardium and improves cardiac function. Drugs that stimulate adenosine A2b receptors or increase adenosine levels are new candidates for preventing cardiac remodeling after MI.
The path to presbyopia: straight or crooked?

The non‐linear trends in the mean amplitude of accommodation with age that are observed in transverse studies as presbyopia is approached can be explained in terms of the summated effect of many individual linear trends. Increases in the near addition that may be required by patients after their early fifties are probably associated with an age‐dependent decrease in acuity, which necessitates a closer working distance to increase angular subtense, rather than with any continuing decline in accommodation.
To act truthfully: Nonverbal behaviour and strategies during a police interrogation

Abstract In an experiment, nonverbal indicators of deception in police interrogations of mock crimes were examined. Both vocal and nonvocal behaviours were scored. Thirty participants were subjected to long interrogations (over 9 minutes) conducted by 30 experienced police officers, asked to interrogate as they normally do. Although the liars reported being significantly more nervous, and found the task more strenuous than the truth tellers, no differences in the nonverbal behaviours scored were found. In an analysis of the strategies employed, both truth tellers and liars were found to try to not make excess movements. The principal verbal content strategy for the liars was to keep the story simple, and for truth tellers to keep the story real. The reasons why, in this demanding situation, the truth tellers and liars could not be distinguished by their nonverbal behaviour are discussed.
Consumer‐based assessment of product creativity: A review and reappraisal

In the current value‐based economy, organizations compete to match customer needs and requirements by adding various types of value to products or programs. One example of this added value is product creativity, which is defined as the originality and appropriateness of a product that elicits a positive affect compatible with the consumer or judge. In this article, the authors review current research on creativity, product development, and consumer behavior and reappraise the current tools to measure product creativity. The overall conclusion of this review and reappraisal is that whereas product creativity shows relevance to consumer behavior, a more detailed model of product creativity and measurement tool needs to be developed and validated before fully understanding the impact of product creativity on consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 16: 155–175, 2006.
Caring for the Multiple and the Multitude: Assembling Animal Welfare and Enabling Ethical Critique

This paper constitutes a speculative bioethical intervention into the challenge of developing cultures of care and assembling enriched environments for genetically altered mice in laboratory environments. The principles of the 3Rs—to reduce, replace, and refine the use of laboratory animals—established in the late 1950s, are still the institutional and international starting point for humane animal experimentation. However, the proliferating diversity and numbers of genetically altered animals used in biomedical research are a challenge to the application of these universal principles. The different capacities of the many mice brought into being through scientific practices constitute biomedical experimentation as a multiple, challenging the identification of universal refinements. In this paper I argue that these capacities constitute a multitude: their indefinite number and irreducible multiplicity are both a threat to these principles and an opening to the possibility of new bioethical formulations. Drawing on ethnographic research with scientists and policy makers involved in animal welfare and biomedical research, this paper explores emerging strategies for reassembling animal welfare in the face of the multitude and the multiple. By using insights from Žižek, Haraway, and Hinchliffe, it aims to demonstrate the value of a speculative ethics, which, instead of seeking new universal principles to protect animals from harm, starts from the inevitable and particular entanglements of animal and human suffering, as a way of connecting affective capacities across space and time. This is illustrated through the experimental conjunctures of barbering mice. In conclusion, I suggest that such speculative bioethical formulations may contribute to renarrating modes of ethical engagement when sociotechnical assemblages are complex, objects and ontological forms are multiple and mutable, data are simultaneously abundant and inadequate, and formal ethical review procedures are incapable of either containing controversy or enabling critique.
Viral and Clinical Factors associated with Surface Gene Variants among Hepatitis B Virus Carriers

Background Understanding the prevalence of potential antigenic variation of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg) is fundamental for assay design and to future changes in vaccine formulation. In this study, the nature and frequency of HBsAg polymorphisms occurring in France in chronic carriers and in newly diagnosed patients were determined. We focused on variations in the major hydrophilic region (MHR), the central core of HBsAg known to be exposed on the surface and involved in antibody binding. Methods Two patient groups were identified: 51 chronic HBV carriers followed at our institution for >1 year; and 129 newly diagnosed patients (63 of whom had a first HBsAg-positive result at our hospital laboratory and 66 a first positive result in a private laboratory). DNA sequences of HBsAg were obtained from these 180 patients and compared with consensus sequences built with 168 full-length HBV sequences imported from GenBank. Polymorphisms of the MHR of HBsAg were analysed with the Mutation Master Software. Literature review and BLOSUM scores were used to define potentially altered antigenicity. Results The global frequency of MHR variants was 27.8%. Occurrence of MHR variants was independent of viral load, HBeAg status and sex, but was associated with the chronic carriers’ group, advancing age, the presence of antibodies to HBsAg, immunoprophylaxis administration, antiviral treatment and genotypic resistance to antivirals. In multivariate analysis, the independent variables associated with MHR variants were advancing age and the presence of genotypic resistance to nucleoside or nucleotide analogues. Conclusion Most MHR variants emerge with longer disease duration and upon indirect selective pressure. Variation of the MHR may serve to restore virus replication of resistant strains. Combined envelope and polymerase variants could impair diagnostic assays and limit treatment alternatives.
Research Into Practice: Interventions for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers

219 This issue features seven studies that address affective as well as academic educational outcomes. The first article incorporates teachers’ perceptions of the role of technology in supporting English language learners’ writing. The second article highlights results for two cohorts of young children served by an Early Reading First program at kindergarten and 1st grade entry, compared to peers not served by this intervention program. The third article continues a series of research studies on young teachers’ ability to deal with episodes of spurning by their peers and the effects of preservice training on their coping skills in these situations. The fourth article explores self-perceptions and emotional understanding among boys and girls ages 5 to 8. The fifth article provides results of a two-year study of children’s perceptions and insights about the child care programs they attended. The sixth article explores the relationships among teachers’ work environments in child care, administrative and leadership qualities, and the quality of the program children experience. The seventh article presents the results of a longitudinal study comparing high school academic achievement of Montessori-educated students to their traditionally schooled peers. This column summarizes the content of each article and suggests implications for educators and future research studies.
Human respiratory syncytial virus A2 strain replicates and induces innate immune responses by respiratory epithelia of neonatal lambs

Human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) is a pneumovirus that causes significant respiratory disease in premature and full‐term infants. It was our hypothesis that a common strain of RSV, strain A2, would infect, cause pulmonary pathology, and alter respiratory epithelial innate immune responses in neonatal lambs similarly to RSV infection in human neonates. Newborn lambs between 2 and 3 days of age were inoculated intrabronchially with RSV strain A2. The lambs were sacrificed at days 3, 6, and 14 days postinoculation. Pulmonary lesions in the 6‐day postinoculation group were typical of RSV infection including bronchiolitis with neutrophils and mild peribronchiolar interstitial pneumonia. RSV mRNA and antigen were detected by qPCR and immunohistochemistry, respectively with peak mRNA levels and antigen at day 6. Expression of surfactant proteins A and D, sheep beta‐defensin‐1 and thyroid transcription factor‐1 mRNA were also assessed by real‐time qPCR. There was a significant increase in surfactant A and D mRNA expression in RSV‐infected animals at day 6 postinoculation. There were no significant changes in sheep beta‐defensin‐1 and thyroid transcription factor‐1 mRNA expression. This study shows that neonatal lambs can be infected with RSV strain A2 and the pulmonary pathology mimics that of RSV infection in human infants thereby making the neonatal lamb a useful animal model to study disease pathogenesis and therapeutics. RSV infection induces increased expression of surfactant proteins A and D in lambs, which may also be an important feature of infection in newborn infants.
Rapid Orienting toward Face-like Stimuli with Gaze-Relevant Contrast Information

Human faces under natural illumination, and human eyes in their unique morphology, include specific contrast polarity relations that face-detection mechanisms could capitalise on. Newborns have been shown to preferentially orient to simple face-like patterns only when they contain face- or gaze-relevant contrast. We investigated whether human adults show similar preferential orienting towards schematic face-like stimuli, and whether this effect depends on the contrast polarity of the stimuli. In two experiments we demonstrate that upright schematic face-like patterns elicit faster eye movements in adult humans than inverted ones, and that this occurs only if they contain face- or gaze-relevant contrast information in the whole stimulus or in the eye region only. These results suggest that primitive mechanisms underlying the orienting bias towards faces and eyes influence and modulate social cognition not just in infants but in adults as well.
Supporting pre-service teachers to enhance the effectiveness of their classroom practice through engaging with the ‘voice’ of their pupils

The research reported here was focussed on accessing the perceptions of pre-service teachers regarding the critical factors which support highly effective learning in schools in the United Kingdom. Their perceptions were arranged into a taxonomy so that they can be used as a starting point for their reflections on the observations they make of teaching and learning in schools with the aim of enhancing the effectiveness of their own teaching. The choice of technique used to access the perceptions was driven by the desire to provide the pre-service teachers with a method that they could use themselves to engage with the ‘voice’ of their own pupils regarding the factors which support effective learning. The engagement of pupil voice has become increasingly significant in understanding effective pedagogy and in securing more personalised approaches to learning in United Kingdom school contexts.
The acheulean handaxe: More like a bird's song than a beatles' tune?

The goal of this paper is to provoke debate about the nature of an iconic artifact—the Acheulean handaxe. Specifically, we want to initiate a conversation about whether or not they are cultural objects. The vast majority of archeologists assume that the behaviors involved in the production of handaxes were acquired by social learning and that handaxes are therefore cultural. We will argue that this assumption is not warranted on the basis of the available evidence and that an alternative hypothesis should be given serious consideration. This alternative hypothesis is that the form of Acheulean handaxes was at least partly under genetic control.
Exploring miniaturized EEG electrodes for brain-computer interfaces. An EEG you do not see?

Electroencephalography (EEG) allows the study of the brain–behavior relationship in humans. Most of what we have learned with EEG was through observing the brain–behavior relationship under well‐controlled laboratory conditions. However, by reducing “normal” behavior to a minimum the ecological validity of the results can be limited. Recent developments toward mobile EEG solutions allow to study the brain–behavior relationship outside the laboratory in more natural situations. Besides mobility and robustness with respect to motion, mobile EEG systems should also interfere as little as possible with the participant's behavior. For example, natural interaction with other people could be hindered when it is obvious that a participant wears an EEG cap. This study evaluates the signal quality obtained with an unobtrusive solution for EEG monitoring through the integration of miniaturized EEG ton‐electrodes into both a discreet baseball cap and an individualized ear piece. We show that such mini electrodes located at scalp and ear locations can reliably record event related potentials in a P300 brain–computer–interface application.
Re-constructing the peaceful nation: negotiating meanings of whiteness, immigration and Islam after a shopping mall shooting

In many European countries, gendered violence has become a topic frequently used to construct distinctions and hierarchies on the basis of ‘race’ and ethnicity. Focusing on the media coverage and political debates following the shootings at a Finnish shopping mall on New Year's Eve 2010, when a former Kosovan refugee killed his ex-girlfriend, four other people and himself, the article analyses the negotiation of difference and the shifting processes of racialisation in relation to whiteness, migrant ‘others’ and Islam. It examines how whiteness figures as a source of differentiation and sameness when the perpetrator is constructed as both a white European and a Muslim ‘other’ from the war-ridden Balkan area. I argue that what was at stake in the debates was the fracture that the event caused to the imagined national identity – Finland as a peaceful, civilised and rational white European nation – and attempts to solve this dilemma by defusing the threat (of violence) and re-installing the (peaceful) national self-image. In the process, the dilemma was solved, first, by a privatisation of the threat originally coined as public and national; and secondly, by emphasising the ‘outsider’ position of the perpetrator: a move that enabled the ‘bad’ to be symbolically excised from the national body.
Bcl-XL–Caspase-9 Interactions in the Developing Nervous System: Evidence for Multiple Death Pathways

Programmed cell death is critical for normal nervous system development and is regulated by Bcl-2 and Caspase family members. Targeted disruption of bcl-xL, an antiapoptotic bcl-2 gene family member, causes massive death of immature neurons in the developing nervous system whereas disruption of caspase-9, a proapoptoticcaspase gene family member, leads to decreased neuronal apoptosis and neurodevelopmental abnormalities. To determine whether Bcl-XL and Caspase-9 interact in an obligate pathway of neuronal apoptosis, bcl-x/caspase-9 double homozygous mutants were generated. The increased apoptosis of immature neurons observed in Bcl-XL-deficient embryos was completely prevented by concomitant Caspase-9 deficiency. In contrast,bcl-x−/−/caspase-9−/−embryonic mice exhibited an expanded ventricular zone and neuronal malformations identical to that observed in mice lacking only Caspase-9. These results indicate both epistatic and independent actions of Bcl-XL and Caspase-9 in neuronal programmed cell death. To examine Bcl-2 and Caspase family-dependent apoptotic pathways in telencephalic neurons, we compared the effects of cytosine arabinoside (AraC), a known neuronal apoptosis inducer, on wild-type, Bcl-XL-, Bax-, Caspase-9-, Caspase-3-, and p53-deficient telencephalic neurons in vitro. AraC caused extensive apoptosis of wild-type and Bcl-XL-deficient neurons. p53- and Bax-deficient neurons showed marked protection from AraC-induced death, whereas Caspase-9- and Caspase-3-deficient neurons showed minimal or no protection, respectively. These findings contrast with our previous investigation of AraC-induced apoptosis of telencephalic neural precursor cells in which death was completely blocked by p53 or Caspase-9 deficiency but not Bax deficiency. In total, these results indicate a transition from Caspase-9- to Bax- and Bcl-XL-mediated neuronal apoptosis.