Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘Confused by multiple deities, ancient Egyptians embraced monotheism’: analysing historical thinking and inclusion in Egyptian history textbooks

Abstract Egyptian history textbooks are examined through the prism of historical thinking dimensions and skills, utilizing a critical discourse analysis. The analysis focuses on how the textbooks portray two historically significant events: the advent of Christianity (ca. 33 CE) and Islam (ca. 641 CE) to Egypt. It reveals that the historical narrative presented in the textbooks does two things: first, it essentializes a dominant identity—mainly an Arab Muslim one—eclipsing the multilayered identity informed by the country’s long history. Secondly, the textbooks miss several opportunities to promote historical thinking skills such as ‘cause and consequence’ and ‘change and continuity’. As an entry point to revising the textbooks to include currently missing indigenous minority narratives, a narrative approach that focuses on cultural continuity and change is proposed. The article also calls for further investigation of how these textbooks influence students’ sense of citizenship and historical consciousness, especially that they are increasingly exposed to alternative and competing historical narratives outside the history classroom.
Semantic Vectors: a Scalable Open Source Package and Online Technology Management Application

This paper describes the open source SemanticVectors package that efficiently creates semantic vectors for words and documents from a corpus of free text articles. We believe that this package can play an important role in furthering research in distributional semantics, and (perhaps more importantly) can help to significantly reduce the current gap that exists between good research results and valuable applications in production software. Two clear principles that have guided the creation of the package so far include ease-of-use and scalability. The basic package installs and runs easily on any Java-enabled platform, and depends only on Apache Lucene. Dimension reduction is performed using Random Projection, which enables the system to scale much more effectively than other algorithms used for the same purpose. This paper also describes a trial application in the Technology Management domain, which highlights some user-centred design challenges which we believe are also key to successful deployment of this technology.
Overrepresentation of Minority Students in Special Education

Approximately 25 years ago, Lloyd Dunn (1968) and Evelyn Deno (1970) provided us with analyses regarding the problems and pitfalls of special education. One of the primary areas of focus was the overrepresentation of minority and low-income students in programs for students with mild mental retardation. Unfortunately, this problem continues to hover over us today and has extended to other special education categories. Based on our analysis of the problem then and now, we extend the recommendations provided by advocates, educators, researchers, and policymakers.
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience Integrative Neuroscience

the neurocognitive nature of letter–speech sound processing might therefore contribute to theories of normal and abnormal literacy development. A behavioral study investigating the nature of letter– speech sound processing revealed differential infl uences of congruent and incongruent letter primes on reaction times in a speech sound identifi cation task, suggesting automatic letter–speech sound integration (Dijkstra et al., 1989). Converging evidence from several recent neuro-imaging studies points to heteromodal areas in the Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS) as a crucial locus of this integration process (Raij et al. In these studies, letter–speech sound pairs activated areas in STS stronger in comparison with single letters or speech sounds. Van Atteveldt et al. (2004, 2007a) furthermore showed that not only heteromodal areas in STS, but also low level auditory areas (Heschl's sulcus and Planum Temporale) are involved in letter–speech sound integration. These low level auditory areas were activated more by congruent letter–speech sound pairs in comparison with incongruent pairs (congruency effect). Based on these results the following neural mechanism for letter–speech sound processing was proposed: sensory specifi c input in low level sensory areas and letter–speech sound integration in STS, followed by feedback to " sensory specifi c " auditory areas modulating speech sound processing depending on the congruency of the letter–speech sound combinations (Van Atteveldt et al., 2004, 2007a; Blau et al., 2008).
Algunas reflexiones sobre el papel del contexto de inmersión en la adquisición de segundas lenguas

This study begs the question to what extent is an immersion setting superior to a formal classroom setting alone. Past research has found a positive effect on students’ oral fluency (Freed, 1995; Segalowiz & Freed, 2004), pronunciation (Diaz Campos, 2006), vocabulary acquisition (Collentine, 2004, DeKeyser, 1986), as well as on the students’ oral narrative skills (Collentine, 2004). However, the results of previous studies are not conclusive on the potential improvement of grammatical features after a period of studying abroad. While some studies (Howard, 2001; 2005; Isabelli & Nishida, 2005; Martinez Arbelaiz & Pereira, 2006) showed a positive effect in the particular grammatical features under investigation, Collentine (2004) found that the foreign experience did not improve student’ grammatical abilities when compared to students instructed at home. Lafford (2006) proposes that Collentine s surprising results may be due to a hypothetical threshold level, under which the effects of the immersion setting cannot be noticed. In this paper we debate the particular point in the acquisition process where this threshold level could be placed.
Evaluating the Efficiency of FOMC's New Economic Projections

Since 2007, FOMC policymakers have been publishing detailed numerical projections of macroeconomic series over the next three years. By testing whether the revisions to these projections are unpredictable, I find that FOMC’s efficiency is generally accepted for inflation, but often rejected for real economic variables, notably for the unemployment rate. The rejection is due to the strong autocorrelation of revisions, which reflects the rigidity of FOMC’s forecasts about unemployment. The joint efficiency of the entire projection is accepted in most cases.
Rac1 Activity Is Required for the Activation of Hypoxia-inducible Factor 1*

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) is a transcription factor that mediates cellular and systemic homeostatic responses (including erythropoiesis, angiogenesis, and glycolysis) to reduced O2 availability in mammals. Hypoxia induces both the protein expression and transcriptional activity of the HIF-1α subunit. However, the molecular mechanisms of sensing and signal transduction by which changes in O2 concentration result in changes in HIF-1 activity are poorly understood. We report here that the small GTPase Rac1 is activated in response to hypoxia and is required for the induction of HIF-1α protein expression and transcriptional activity in hypoxic cells.
The effect of hydration status on appetite and energy intake

Abstract This study investigated the effect of hypohydration produced by exercise and sub-optimal rehydration on appetite and energy intake. Ten males lost ~2% body mass through evening exercise in the heat (35°C). Over the next 13 h, participants were re-fed and either rehydrated (RE: water equal to 175% of body mass loss (BML)) or remained hypohydrated (HYPO: 200 ml water), until the following morning. Urine samples, blood samples and subjective feelings were collected pre-exercise, post-exercise and 13 h post-exercise, with an ad libitum breakfast provided 13 h post-exercise. Total BML at 13 h post-exercise was greater during HYPO (2.8 (0.5)%) than RE (0.5 (0.5)%). Energy intake at the ad libitum breakfast was similar between trials (RE: 4237 (1459) kJ; HYPO: 4612 (1487) kJ; P = 0.436), with no difference in energy consumed in foods (P = 0.600) or drinks (P = 0.147). Total water ingestion at the ad libitum breakfast meal was greater during HYPO (1641 (367) ml) than RE (797 (275) ml) (P < 0.001), with this being explained by increased water intake through fluids (P < 0.001). Thirteen hours post-exercise, participants reported greater thirst (P < 0.001) and lower fullness (P < 0.01) during HYPO. Alterations in hydration status produced by exercise are unlikely to influence post-exercise food intake and consequently other aspects of recovery or adaptation.
Difference of solvent polarity to phytochemical content and antioxidant activity of Pluchea indicia Less leaves extracts

Pluchea indica Less called local name Beluntas or Luntas, one of herb plants, is usually used as traditional medicine by people in Indonesia. Phytochemical content in this Pluchea leaves can reduce odor body and prevent many diseases. Phytochemical polarity in Pluchea leaves is various so that can be extracted by different solvents. The phytochemical contents determine their antioxidant capacity. The study was conducted to determine difference of solvent polarity (water, methanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate, and hexanes) to phytochemical contents and antioxidant activity of Pluchea leaves extracts. The results showed that major phytochemical in Pluchea leaves was polar properties extracted by water, methanol, and ethanol, including flavonoid, saponin, phenol hydroquinone, alkaloid, sterol, tannin, and reducing sugar. A part of them had semi polar properties, such as sterol, flavonoid, phenol hidroquinone, and alkaloid. Another of them had non polar properties, i.e. sterol, flavonoid, and phenol hydroquinone, and alkaloid. Phytochemical content was correlated with total phenolic and total flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity. Methanolic extract had the highest total phenol and total flavonoid, 1185.2 mg GAE/g samples dry base and 911.9 mg CE/g samples dry base, respectively, consequently it had the highest a DPPH free scavenging activity and iron ion reducing power, 794.9 mg GAE/g samples dry base and 2.14 mg GAE/g samples dry base, respectively.
Families matter--even for kids in child care.

Editor’s Note. A commentary by Jay Belsky on the impact of the amount of child care on children’s socioemotional development appeared in the June 2002 issue of the Journal. Belsky, a member of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Child Care Research Network, based his argument that a lot of time in child care has worrisome negative effects on children’s socioemotional development partly on his interpretation of findings from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. We promised more discussion on the impact of child care on children’s development. We are pleased to now publish this Commentary from the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. The authors emphasize the important influence of families on children with extensive child care experience. We are hopeful that these commentaries will continue to advance discourse on this important topic. We welcome further thoughts from our readers.
CULTURAL EFFECT ON ELECTRONIC CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: The Effect of Uncertainty Avoidance on Online Trust for the Egyptian Internet Users

The ubiquitous nature of e-commerce demands an innovative conceptualization of consumer behaviour that responds to various cultural preferences. Culture has been identified as an underlying determinant of consumer behaviour, and this extends to e-commerce. This research investigates this phenomenon for the Egyptian consumer. This research designed a plausible, integrated framework for investigating the target phenomenon, especially for un-explored cultures. To help to identify salient components of the phenomenon, a three-study exploratory phase, that included: interviews, a survey, and card sorting sessions, was undertaken. The exploratory results highlighted the roles of trust, uncertainty avoidance, Internet store familiarity, and reputation as the main salient factors affecting the perception of the targeted group toward e-commerce. The research hypotheses were then developed based on the exploratory results. Finally, a model testing phase to empirically assess the research hypotheses through a laboratory experiential survey with 370 Egyptian Internet users was undertaken. The experiential survey results support the significant role of the Internet store’s perceived familiarity and reputation as the main antecedents of online trust. The relationship between trust and its two antecedents are found to be culturally sensitive; the high uncertainty avoidance of the consumer is found to be associated with a stronger effect of the store’s reputation on trust, and a stronger effect of store’s familiarity on trust. The research also highlights the significant effect of trust on the attitude towards and the willingness to buy from an e-commerce site. This research, by providing an understanding of the cultural drivers of e-commerce, contributes to building a theory of consumer’s cultural trust within an Internet store context. The research reports on the development of an integrated cultural trust model that highlights recommendations for expanding the adoption of e-commerce. The systematic research framework, introduced by this research, can be a robust starting point for further related work in this area. VII _________________________________________________________________________________
ABLATION OF ABNORMAL CORTEX IN CEREBRAL PALSY*

Cerebral palsy may be defined, in a broad sense, as loss of function due to brain injury. Such injury may affect motor centres producing spastic paralysis of an arm or leg, but it may also affect other areas of the brain and thus cripple other functions than those of movement of the arm and leg. Hemispherectomy has been proposed recently as a method of treatment of infantile hemiplegia by Krynauw (1950) followed by Cairns (1951). The claim made is (1) that cerebral seizures may be stopped, (2) the mental state improved, and (3) motor function facilitated because of a lessening of spasticity in the paretic limbs. In the 12 cases of severe hemiplegia reported by Krynauw this very radical procedure was apparently well justified. The question to be decided is whether less radical ablations may not be preferable. The results reported for these hemispherectomies illustrate the truth of the thesis, to which I have subscribed for some time, that abnormal cortex, incapable of useful service, does, in some cases, exert a noxious influence upon the rest of the brain which miht otherwise function normally Let us examine tis thesis under the headings of epilepsy, mental retardation, and spasticity.
Deaths due to medical error: jumbo jets or just small propeller planes?

The concept of medical harm has existed since antiquity, famously discussed by Hippocrates and passed on in the term ‘iatrogenesis’, from the Greek for ‘originating from a physician’. The influential 9th century Arab physician, al-Ruhāwī, wrote on this topic, and many others acknowledged the problem of medical harm over the centuries. In the 1860s, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr, a prominent American physician and popular writer, stated in an address to the Massachusetts Medical Society: “If the whole materia medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind—and all the worse for the fishes”. This same decade also saw the first appearance of Florence Nightingale's work with William Farr on hospital mortality reports, drawing attention to the much higher mortality in London hospitals compared with rural ones.1 In the early 20th century, Ernest Codman introduced morbidity and mortality conferences, promoting the idea of systematically monitoring patient outcomes in order to improve quality.2 Formal studies of iatrogenic injury appeared in the 1960s,3–6 and Ivan Illich's indictment of modern medicine in the 1970s7 briefly brought the problem of iatrogenesis to popular attention. By the 1980s, many individuals had begun to labour in the vineyard of improving healthcare quality, but their efforts produced only sporadic general interest. Even the Harvard Medical Practice Study8 did not generate sustained attention for the problem of medical harm or healthcare quality. Large scale studies began to appear from other countries,9 and the Harvard Medical Practice Study was replicated in Utah and Colorado.10 However, these studies would not have gained much traction were it not for the US Institute of Medicine publication, To Err is Human , in late 1999.11 The committee that produced this report included many individuals …
Proceedings of the Consensus Conference on Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Carcinoma of the Breast, April 26–28, 2003, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Breast Journal, Volume 10, Number 4, 2004 273–294 Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Gordon F. Schwartz, MD, MBA, 1015 Chestnut St., Suite 510, Philadelphia, PA 19107-4305, or e-mail: gordonschwartz@yahoo.com. This article was first published in CANCER Vol. 100, No. 12, 2004, pages 2512–2532. Copyright 2004 American Cancer Society. Reprinted by permission of Wiley-Liss, Inc., a subsidiary of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Blackwell Publishing, Ltd. M y/June 2004 10 3Original Article Consensus Conference on Neoadjuvant ChemoRx schwartz t al. ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Variations in the human cannabinoid receptor (CNR1) gene modulate striatal responses to happy faces

Happy facial expressions are innate social rewards and evoke a response in the striatum, a region known for its role in reward processing in rats, primates and humans. The cannabinoid receptor 1 (CNR1) is the best‐characterized molecule of the endocannabinoid system, involved in processing rewards. We hypothesized that genetic variation in human CNR1 gene would predict differences in the striatal response to happy faces. In a 3T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning study on 19 Caucasian volunteers, we report that four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CNR1 locus modulate differential striatal response to happy but not to disgust faces. This suggests a role for the variations of the CNR1 gene in underlying social reward responsivity. Future studies should aim to replicate this finding with a balanced design in a larger sample, but these preliminary results suggest neural responsivity to emotional and socially rewarding stimuli varies as a function of CNR1 genotype. This has implications for medical conditions involving hypo‐responsivity to emotional and social stimuli, such as autism.
An intensive treatment program of interpersonal psychotherapy plus pharmacotherapy for depressed inpatients: acute and long-term results.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article was to determine the relative efficacy of a psychotherapy program when combined with pharmacotherapy versus medication and clinical management in more severely depressed patients. METHOD A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 124 hospitalized patients with DSM-IV major depressive disorder that compared 5 weeks of interpersonal psychotherapy modified for depressed inpatients (15 individual and eight group sessions) plus pharmacotherapy with a regimen that involved medication plus intensive clinical management. The study included a prospective, naturalistic follow-up 3 and 12 months after acute treatment in 97 of 105 treatment completers. The 17-item version of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) was the primary outcome measure. RESULTS For the intent-to-treat cohort (N=124), analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that patients treated with interpersonal psychotherapy had a significantly greater reduction of depressive symptoms at week 5. Response rates differed significantly between the two treatment conditions, favoring the group that received adjuvant interpersonal psychotherapy (70%) versus clinical management (51%). Remission rates also tended to be higher for patients in the interpersonal psychotherapy group (49% versus 34%). Patients who initially responded to interpersonal psychotherapy exhibited greater treatment gains at the 3-month follow-up evaluation, since only 3% of these subjects relapsed, compared with 25% of the clinical management subjects. Nine months later, this difference lost statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS An inpatient treatment program with both brief and intensive psychotherapy plus pharmacotherapy is superior to standard treatment. The results, which add to a growing body of evidence, suggest that this combination treatment may offer an advantage over treatment with medication and clinical management for more severely depressed patients.
Substance Use and Abuse in First-Episode Psychosis: Prevalence Before and After Early Intervention

Despite the high prevalence of substance abuse among first-episode psychosis (FEP) populations, few studies examine whether early intervention (EI) improves substance abuse. Objective: To examine the prevalence and pattern of substance use and abuse among an FEP sample over 12 months. Methods: All the participants were diagnosed with a first episode of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. The participants were followed prospectively. The prevalence rates of substance use and abuse from this sample were compared before and after 12 months of EI services and were compared with rates observed in a sample from the general population. Results: A total of 200 participants (80.0% males; mean age 24 years) entered the study: 183 participants completed all the assessments at baseline, 131 participants completed all the assessments at 12 months. At baseline, the findings showed similar prevalence rates between the FEP sample and the general sample for lifetime cannabis use (60% vs 55%, respectively) and hazardous alcohol use (26% vs 21%) but significantly different prevalence rates for lifetime hallucinogen (29% vs 15%; P < .001) and cocaine use (20% vs 14%; P < .001). At 12 months, the prevalence rates for drug abuse (P < .01), hazardous alcohol use (P < .01), and concurrent drug abuse and hazardous alcohol use (P < .05) were significantly lower than at baseline. Conclusion: Substance use and abuse decreased significantly after 12 months of EI services; EI services may be able to detect and to reduce substance use among FEP patients before it becomes a more serious disorder.
Factors useful in predicting the response to interferon therapy in chronic hepatitis C

To determine how various factors influence the response to interferon (IFN) therapy, we retrospectively studied 157 consecutive Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C who received various treatment schedules of IFN. They were divided into two groups on the bases of outcome. One group was comprised of 65 patients who achieved a sustained normalization of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels for at least 6 months after treatment, while the other group was comprised of 84 patients with persistent elevation of serum ALT levels, despite treatment. Genotyping of hepatitis C virus (HCV) was done by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with genotype specific primers, analysing the variations in nucleotide sequence within the NS 5 region of the HCV genome, namely genotypes PT, K1, K2a and K2b. We then used a multivariate analysis to determine the factors related to mode of treatment, patient characteristics and HCV genotype in relation to the response to IFN therapy. Of the 16 factors analysed, the HCV genotype (genotype K2a or K2b, P < 0.0008), treatment schedule (intermittent administration following a daily schedule, designated as combined schedule, P > 0.0014) and liver histology just before treatment (chronic persistent hepatitis or mild chronic aggressive hepatitis, P < 0.0324) were the most strongly correlated with a normalizing response to IFN therapy. These results suggest that not only are the IFN treatment schedule and patient profile significant, but the properties of the virus also influences the response. However, as the IFN treatment schedule is the only changeable factor, it should be designed to maximize the benefit of IFN therapy.