Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LGBTQ Youth in American Schools: Moving to the Middle

This article reflects the following This We Believe characteristics: School Environment — Adult Advocate — Guidance Services During early adolescence, emerging teens test social mores and engage in early dating behavior such as notepassing and crush-whispering. These skills are a natural part of the development of identity (Tolman, 2003). This developmental period can be especially challenging for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, whose biological inclinations often do not match the conventions they observe in society. Out for Equity (OFE), established by Minnesota’s Saint Paul Public Schools in 1994, remains one of five school-based programs designed to help LGBTQ students, families, and staff overcome the welldocumented social, emotional, and academic challenges they face in American schools. When OFE began, the average age for “coming out” was 15 years old (Remefedi, 1992). In 2006, OFE enrollment data showed that of the 97 youth who attended a LGBTQ recreation center in a three-week period, 50 identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and one as transgender. Of those 50, the mean response to the survey question “At what age were you ‘out’ to yourself? ” was 12.17 years old. This decrease in the average age of coming out is consistent with national trends (Hull, 2004; Ryan & Futterman, 1998). To address the decreasing age of program participants, OFE conducted a three-year investigation of practices aimed at decreasing homophobia and improving the learning environment for LGBTQ students in middle school—the Middle School Project (MSP). This project was continuously funded by the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation, with additional support from the Mardag and HRK Foundations and from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Funding provided a school social worker who served as project coordinator. This article aims to present a review of literature, an overview of project activities, and qualitative analysis and reflections based on outcomes of the project.
Humanitarian Intervention in World Politics

Wheeler, Nicholas; Bellamy, Alex, 'Humanitarian Intervention in World Politics', in The Globalization of World Politics : an Introduction to International Relations, eds., John Baylis, Steve Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 522-539 Established market leader with an impressive line-up of international contributors who are experts in their fields. Maps on to introductory courses, spanning history, theory, structures and processes, and international issues. Carefully edited by John Baylis, Steve Smith and Patricia Owens to ensure an integrated and coherent style throughout the book. Highly accessible and student-friendly text with excellent learning features throughout, including numerous boxes, figures, tables and maps, case studies and questions. Comprehensive Online Resource Centre including test bank, PowerPoint slides, case studies, multiple choice questions, video clips, i-casts of contributors and a news feed. New to this edition: 3 new chapters on the changing nature of war, human security, and international ethics. Each chapter includes a 400-word case study. Now in its fourth edition, this internationally successful title has been fully revised and updated in light of recent developments in world politics, with new chapters on the changing nature of war, human security, and international ethics. A comprehensive introduction to international relations, it is ideally suited to students coming to the subject for the first time.
Activation of the Hypothalamic Arcuate Nucleus Predicts the Anorectic Actions of Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor and Leptin in Intact and Gold Thioglucose‐Lesioned Mice

Similar to leptin, ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) suppresses appetite and selectively reduces body fat in leptin‐deficient ob/ob mice. To assess the relative importance of specific regions of the hypothalamus in mediating these effects, we administered a CNTF analogue (CNTFAx15) or leptin to mice made obese by administration of gold thioglucose (GTG), which destroys a well‐defined portion of the medial basal hypothalamus. CNTFAx15 treatment reduced appetite and body weight in obese GTG‐lesioned C57BL/6 mice, whereas leptin failed to effect similar changes regardless of whether treatment was initiated before or after the lesioned mice had become obese. Because leptin does not reduce food intake or body weight in most forms of obesity (a condition termed ‘leptin resistance’), we also investigated the actions of leptin in GTG‐lesioned leptin‐deficient (ob/ob) mice. By contrast to C57BL/6 mice, leptin treatment reduced food intake and body weight in GTG‐lesioned ob/ob mice, although the effect was attenuated. To further compare the neural substrates mediating the anorectic actions of leptin and CNTF, we determined the patterns of neurone activation induced by these proteins in the hypothalamus of intact and GTG‐lesioned mice by staining for phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (pSTAT3). CNTFAx15 stimulated robust pSTAT3 signalling in neurones of the medial arcuate nucleus in both intact and lesioned C57BL/6 and ob/ob mice. Leptin administration stimulated pSTAT3 signalling in only a few neurones of the medial arcuate nucleus in intact or lesioned C57BL/6 mice, but elicited a robust response in intact or lesioned ob/ob mice. By contrast to CNTFAx15, leptin treatment also resulted in prominent activation of STAT3 in several areas of the hypothalamus outside the medial arcuate nucleus. This leptin‐induced pSTAT3 signal was at least as prominent in intact and GTG‐lesioned C57BL/6 mice as it was in ob/ob mice, and thus was not correlated with appetite suppression or weight loss. These results indicate that the medial arcuate nucleus is a key mediator of appetite suppression and weight loss produced by CNTF and leptin, whereas GTG‐vulnerable regions play a role only in leptin‐induced weight loss. Other regions of hypothalamus in which pSTAT3 signal is induced by leptin may regulate energy metabolism through mechanisms other than appetite reduction.
Selves in Two Languages: Bilinguals' Verbal Enactments of Identity in French and Portuguese

Bilinguals often report that they feel like a different person in their two languages. In the words of one bilingual in Koven’s book, “When I speak Portuguese, automatically, I'm in a different world…it's a different color. ” Although testimonials like this abound in everyday conversation among bilinguals, there has been scant systematic investigation of this intriguing phenomenon. Focusing on French-Portuguese bilinguals, the adult children of Portuguese migrants in France, this book provides an empirically grounded, theoretical account of how the same speakers enact, experience, and are perceived by others to have different identities in their two languages. This book explores bilinguals’ experiences and expressions of identity in multicultural, multilingual contexts. It is distinctive in its integration of multiple levels of analysis to address the relationships between language and identity. Koven links detailed attention to discourse form, to participants’ multiple interpretations how such forms become signs of identity, and to the broader macrosociolinguistic contexts that structure participants’ access to those signs. The study of how bilinguals perform and experience different identities in their two languages sheds light on the more general role of linguistic and cultural forms in local experiences and expressions of identity.
Mismatch Repair Proteins Regulate Heteroduplex Formation during Mitotic Recombination in Yeast

ABSTRACT Mismatch repair (MMR) proteins actively inhibit recombination between diverged sequences in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Although the molecular basis of the antirecombination activity exerted by MMR proteins is unclear, it presumably involves the recognition of mismatches present in heteroduplex recombination intermediates. This recognition could be exerted during the initial stage of strand exchange, during the extension of heteroduplex DNA, or during the resolution of recombination intermediates. We previously used an assay system based on 350-bp inverted-repeat substrates to demonstrate that MMR proteins strongly inhibit mitotic recombination between diverged sequences in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The assay system detects only those events that reverse the orientation of the region between the recombination substrates, which can occur as a result of either intrachromatid crossover or sister chromatid conversion. In the present study we sequenced the products of mitotic recombination between 94%-identical substrates in order to map gene conversion tracts in wild-type versus MMR-defective yeast strains. The sequence data indicate that (i) most recombination occurs via sister chromatid conversion and (ii) gene conversion tracts in an MMR-defective strain are significantly longer than those in an isogenic wild-type strain. The shortening of conversion tracts observed in a wild-type strain relative to an MMR-defective strain suggests that at least part of the antirecombination activity of MMR proteins derives from the blockage of heteroduplex extension in the presence of mismatches.
An Approach to Multiply Segmented Constraint Satisfaction Problems

This paper describes an extension to the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) approach called MUSE CSP (MUltiply SEgmented Constraint Satisfaction Problem). This extension is especially useful for those problems which segment into multiple sets of partially shared variables. Such problems arise naturally in signal processing applications including computer vision, speech processing, and handwriting recognition. For these applications, it is often difficult to segment the data in only one way given the low-level information utilized by the segmentation algorithms. MUSE CSP can be used to efficiently represent several similar instances of the constraint satisfaction problem simultaneously. If multiple instances of a CSP have some common variables which have the same domains and compatible constraints, then they can be combined into a single instance of a MUSE CSP, reducing the work required to enforce node and arc consistency.
Therapeutic Vaccines and Antibodies for Treatment of Orthopoxvirus Infections

Despite the eradication of smallpox several decades ago, variola and monkeypox viruses still have the potential to become significant threats to public health. The current licensed live vaccinia virus-based smallpox vaccine is extremely effective as a prophylactic vaccine to prevent orthopoxvirus infections, but because of safety issues, it is no longer given as a routine vaccine to the general population. In the event of serious human orthopoxvirus infections, it is important to have treatments available for individual patients as well as their close contacts. The smallpox vaccine and vaccinia immune globulin (VIG) were used in the past as therapeutics for patients exposed to smallpox. VIG was also used in patients who were at high risk of developing complications from smallpox vaccination. Thus post-exposure vaccination and VIG treatments may again become important therapeutic modalities. This paper summarizes some of the historic use of the smallpox vaccine and immunoglobulins in the post-exposure setting in humans and reviews in detail the newer animal studies that address the use of therapeutic vaccines and immunoglobulins in orthopoxvirus infections as well as the development of new therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.
The Predictive Mind

Preface Introduction PART I: THE MECHANISM 1. Perception as causal inference 2. Prediction error minimisation 3. Prediction error, context, and precision 4. Action and expected experience PART II: THE WORLD 5. Binding is inference 6. Is predicting seeing? 7. Precarious prediction 8. Surprise and misrepresentation PART III: THE MIND 9. Precision, attention, and consciousness 10. Perceptual unity in action 11. The fragile mirror of nature 12. Into the predictive mind Concluding remarks: The mind in prediction Acknowledgements Bibliography Index
Prevalence of Eating Disorders among Female Students o f University (Tehran - Iran)

The present paper has been carried out to investigate the prevalence of eating disorders among the female students of Islamic Azad University, central Tehran branch. The subjects of this descript ive research were 400 people who were selected using Stratified Random sampling and were assessed using demographic questionnaires, EAT - 26 eating observation test and diagnostic questionnaire of eating disorder. According to EAT - 26 results, 21.5 percent of the students scored above the cutting point 20 and were diagnosed to have eating disorders. According to diagnostic questionnaire of eating disorder, 1.8% suffered from anorexia nervosa and 7.8% suffered from bulimia nervosa. The frequency of eating disor ders is more or less similar to the stats of the other communities. It seems that now a high level of vulnerability against eating disorder exists in the women. These results refer to the necessity of planning for prevention and related activities to elude the consequences of this disorder and as a result, improve the level of the mental health of the individuals. ( Azam Roshandel, Mahboobeh Safavi , Iran G h asemi . Prevalence of Eating Disorders among Female Students o f University (Tehran - Iran) . Life Sci J 2 012;9( 4 ): 2822 - 2828 ) (ISSN:1097 - 8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com . 414
Preconception sex selection for non-medical reasons:a representative survey from Germany.

BACKGROUND Preconception sex selection for non-medical reasons raises serious moral, legal and social issues. The main concern is based on the assumption that a freely available service for sex selection will distort the natural sex ratio and lead to a severe gender imbalance. However, for a severe gender imbalance to happen, at least two conditions have to be met. First, there must be a significant preference for children of a particular sex, and second, there must be a considerable demand for preconception sex selection. To ascertain whether or not these two conditions are met, we have conducted a survey in Germany. METHODS As a representative sample of the German population, 1094 men and women aged 18-45 years were asked about their gender preferences and whether or not they could imagine selecting the sex of their children through flow cytometric separation of X- and Y-bearing sperm followed by intrauterine insemination. RESULTS 58% of respondents stated that they do not care about the sex of their offspring. 30% wish to have a family with an equal number of boys and girls. 4% would like to have more boys than girls, 3% more girls than boys, 1% only boys and 1% only girls. For first-borns, however, there is still a preference for boys over girls. While 75.6% claimed to have no gender preference, 14.2% would like their first child to be a boy and 10.1% would like their first child to be a girl. Whereas 6% could imagine taking advantage of preconception sex selection, 92% found this to be out of the question. Even in the hypothetical case that a medication for sex selection were ever to become available, 90% stated that they would not want to use it. CONCLUSION Given that a majority does not seem to care about the sex of their offspring and only a minority seem to be willing to select the sex of their children, a freely available service for preconception sex selection for non-medical reasons is rather unlikely to cause a severe gender imbalance in Germany.
A Model of Fair Process and Its Limits

Fair process research has shown that people care not only about outcomes, but also about the process that produces these outcomes. For a decision process to be seen as fair, the people affected must have the opportunity to give input and possibly to influence the decision, and the decision process and rationale must be transparent and clear. Existing research has shown empirically that fair process enhances both employee motivation and performance in execution. However, work to date has not addressed why fair process is so often violated in practice. This paper breaks new ground by analytically examining the subtle trade-offs involved. We develop a model of fair process in a principal-agent (i.e., manager-employee) context, rooted in psychological preferences for autonomy and fairness. We show that indeed fair process will not always be used, and why the hoped-for benefits may be insufficient to convince management to use fair process.
An e-Librarian Service that Understands Natural Language Questions from Students

In this paper we present an e-librarian service which is able to retrieve multimedia resources from a knowledge base in a more efficient way than by browsing through an index or by using a simple keyword search. Our premise is that more pertinent results would be retrieved if the e-librarian service had a semantic search engine which understood the sense of the user’s query. This requires that the user must be given the means to enter semantics. We explored the approach to allow the user to formulate a complete question in natural language. The background theory was implemented in two different prototypes.
Pinus flexilis and Picea engelmannii share a simple and consistent needle endophyte microbiota with a potential role in nitrogen fixation

Conifers predominantly occur on soils or in climates that are suboptimal for plant growth. This is generally attributed to symbioses with mycorrhizal fungi and to conifer adaptations, but recent experiments suggest that aboveground endophytic bacteria in conifers fix nitrogen (N) and affect host shoot tissue growth. Because most bacteria cannot be grown in the laboratory very little is known about conifer–endophyte associations in the wild. Pinus flexilis (limber pine) and Picea engelmannii (Engelmann spruce) growing in a subalpine, nutrient-limited environment are potential candidates for hosting endophytes with roles in N2 fixation and abiotic stress tolerance. We used 16S rRNA pyrosequencing to ask whether these conifers host a core of bacterial species that are consistently associated with conifer individuals and therefore potential mutualists. We found that while overall the endophyte communities clustered according to host species, both conifers were consistently dominated by the same phylotype, which made up 19–53% and 14–39% of the sequences in P. flexilis and P. engelmannii, respectively. This phylotype is related to Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus and other N2 fixing acetic acid bacterial endophytes. The pattern observed for the P. flexilis and P. engelmannii needle microbiota—a small number of major species that are consistently associated with the host across individuals and species—is unprecedented for an endophyte community, and suggests a specialized beneficial endophyte function. One possibility is endophytic N fixation, which could help explain how conifers can grow in severely nitrogen-limited soil, and why some forest ecosystems accumulate more N than can be accounted for by known nitrogen input pathways.
Uma análise do barômetro de satisfação norueguês no contexto supermercadista brasileiro

A lot of consumer satisfaction barometers have been proposed by the literature. However, a dilemma is that the va lidity, the reliability, and the methods used to assess customer satisfaction and related constructs continue to learn, to adapt, and to improve over time. Thus, this paper tries to understand the modifications and improvements proposed by the new NCSB in Brazil. New NCSB is considers one of the last satisfaction barometers projected by the literature. The results showed support to seven from twelve hypotheses proposed by the model. Conclusions and general comments end the paper. KEYWORDS: Satisfaction; Loyalty; Barometers; Supermarket; Models.
Low complexity hybrid sparse precoding and combining in millimeter wave MIMO systems

Millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication with large antenna arrays has been proposed to enable gigabit per second communication for next generation cellular systems and local area networks. A key difference relative to lower frequency solutions is that in mmWave systems, precoding/combining can not be performed entirely at digital baseband, due to the high cost and power consumption of some components of the radio frequency (RF) chain. In this paper we develop a low complexity algorithm for finding hybrid precoders that split the precoding/combining process between the analog and digital domains. Our approach exploits sparsity in the received signal to formulate the design of the precoder/combiners as a compressed sensing optimization problem. We use the properties of the matrix containing the array response vectors to find first an orthonormal analog precoder, since sparse approximation algorithms applied to orthonormal sensing matrices are based on simple computations of correlations. Then, we propose to perform a local search to refine the analog precoder and compute the baseband precoder. We present numerical results demonstrate substantial improvements in complexity while maintaining good spectral efficiency.
Ratio of creatine kinase 2 mass concentration to total creatine kinase activity not altered by heavy physical exercise.

Serum creatine kinase isoenzyme 2 concentrations (CK 2 mass) were measured in marathon runners during training and 1 and 2 days after a race and compared with values from 36 acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients whose total CK and (or) CK 2 activities were similar to those of runners in the basal state. During training, runners had CK and CK 2 activities 53% and 43% above reference values, respectively, and 36% had CK 2 activity > 5% of total CK. Nine runners (26%) showed CK 2 mass values > 6 micrograms/L but < or = 10 micrograms/L; 35 of the AMI subjects, despite having CK activities similar to those of runners, had values > 10 micrograms/L. The ratio of CK 2 mass to total CK activity was significantly (P < 0.0002) different between sexes for runners. At 1 and 2 days after racing, 100% of CK and CK 2 activities and 71% and 57% of the percentages of CK 2 activity, respectively, were abnormally high; 57% and 43% of CK 2 mass values were > 10 micrograms/L, being comparable with those observed for the AMI group. Basal CK 2 mass values of the runners appeared only slightly higher than that for sedentary subjects, but after exercise half the subjects presented increased values similar to those observed for AMI subjects. The ratio of CK 2 mass to total CK activity appeared unaltered by exercise in all but one of the samples assayed, indicating its utility in evaluating CK 2 mass increases originating in skeletal muscle.
Thompson Sampling for 1-Dimensional Exponential Family Bandits

Thompson Sampling has been demonstrated in many complex bandit models, however the theoretical guarantees available for the parametric multi-armed bandit are still limited to the Bernoulli case. Here we extend them by proving asymptotic optimality of the algorithm using the Jeffreys prior for 1-dimensional exponential family bandits. Our proof builds on previous work, but also makes extensive use of closed forms for Kullback-Leibler divergence and Fisher information (through the Jeffreys prior) available in an exponential family. This allow us to give a finite time exponential concentration inequality for posterior distributions on exponential families that may be of interest in its own right. Moreover our analysis covers some distributions for which no optimistic algorithm has yet been proposed, including heavy-tailed exponential families.