Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A CREATIVE AND EFFECTIVE PHYSICAL LEARNING SPACE-Lessons learnt from the practise

Different kinds of learning environments aim to support students’ learning. The challenge is to create a learning environment that both gives structure and guidance for working but also leaves freedom for creativity. This paper describes the development of the physical learning environment where marketing related business development projects are managed in teams. Experiences from the practise are presented in order to discuss what works and what the challenges are for the future.
[Nutrient intake and eating habits in hemodialysis patients: comparison with a model based on mediterranean diet].

OBJECTIVES Inadequate nutrient intake seems to be one of the most important cause of malnutrition in hemodialysis patients. The purpose of this study was to analyse their nutrient intake and eating habits, comparing food groups' intake with standard Mediterranean diet values (Healthy Diet Guide 2004, Nutrition Community Spanish Society). MATERIAL AND METHODS There were 28 stable hemodialysis (HD) patients, 15 males and 13 females, mean age 62,9 +/- 16 years. Dietary evaluation was based on 7-day dietary recalls conducted by a single observer. We compare nutrients intake with recommended hemodialysis intake and we contrast food groups consumption with the theoretical ideal based on Mediterranean diet. RESULTS The protein intake was 1,33 +/- 0,2 g/kg/day and the energy intake 29,5 +/- 2,1 kcal/kg/day. Carbohydrates accounted 43,1% of energy intake, proteins 19% and lipids 37,9% (55,5% monounsaturated fatty acids, 16,4% polyunsaturated fatty acids and 28,1% saturated fatty acids). Complex carbohydrates (potatoes, cereals, vegetables, fruits) and olive oil consumption was lower than that recommended to the Spanish healthy population and to the chronic hemodialysis patients. The animal protein intake (meat, fish, eggs) was correct, although excessive in red and processed meats. Results: Potatoes and cereals recommended frequency (RF) 4-6 portions/day, HD patients frequency (HDF) 4,1 portions/day; vegetables RF > 2 portions/day, HDF 1,2; fruits RF > 3 portions/day, HDF 1,3; olive oil RF 3-6 portions/day, HDF 1,5; Fish RF 3-4 portions/week, HDF 4,2; White meat RF 3-4 portions/week, HDF 1,5; Poultry RF 3-4 portions/week, HDF 2,3; Eggs RF 3-4 portions/week, HDF 3,6; Pulses RF 3-4 portions/week, HDF 1,7; Nuts RF 3-7 portions/week, HDF 0; Red meat RF occasionally, HDF 4,8 portions/week; Processed meats RF occasionally, HDF 4,6 portions/week; Sweets, snacks, soft drinks RF occasionally, HDF 1,7 portions/week; Butter, margarine, processed bakery products, biscuits RF occasionally , HDF 0,5 portions/week. CONCLUSIONS Nutritional abnormalities are frequently found even in apparently stable patients on chronic hemodialysis. Caloric rather than protein undernutrition is the major abnormality. Inadequate caloric intake (< 35 kcal/kg/day) can lead to a negative nitrogen balance. Their eating habits are healthy and natural, but there is a deficit in slowly absorbed carbohydrates and olive oil intake (with caloric intake reduction), and an excessive consumption of red and processed meats (with saturated fats increase). The individual correction of these dietary patterns could reduce the saturated fats and increase the energy intake, obtaining a balanced diet integrated into our geographic region and culture.
Time precedence in the relationship between organizational climate and organizational performance: a cross-lagged study at the business unit level

This article presents a two-wave cross-lagged study (average interval of two years) on time precedence in the relationship between organizational climate and organizational performance in 171 branches of a financial services organization in the Netherlands. It is argued that four HR-induced organizational climate dimensions influence organizational performance. Additionally, it was also hypothesized that high organizational performance influences the four organizational climate dimensions through investments in HR practices and through signalling effects. Finally, it was reasoned that possibly both processes are present simultaneously. Results of testing a series of competing models in AMOS showed that organizational climate at time point 1 influenced organizational performance at time point 2 rather than the reverse, or both processes being present simultaneously.
Glucose Regulation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cell Cycle Genes

ABSTRACT Nutrient-limited Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells rapidly resume proliferative growth when transferred into glucose medium. This is preceded by a rapid increase in CLN3, BCK2, and CDC28 mRNAs encoding cell cycle regulatory proteins that promote progress through Start. We have tested the ability of mutations in known glucose signaling pathways to block glucose induction of CLN3, BCK2, and CDC28. We find that loss of the Snf3 and Rgt2 glucose sensors does not block glucose induction, nor does deletion of HXK2, encoding the hexokinase isoenzyme involved in glucose repression signaling. Rapamycin blockade of the Tor nutrient sensing pathway does not block the glucose response. Addition of 2-deoxy glucose to the medium will not substitute for glucose. These results indicate that glucose metabolism generates the signal required for induction of CLN3, BCK2, and CDC28. In support of this conclusion, we find that addition of iodoacetate, an inhibitor of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase step in yeast glycolysis, strongly downregulates the levels CLN3, BCK2, and CDC28 mRNAs. Furthermore, mutations in PFK1 and PFK2, which encode phosphofructokinase isoforms, inhibit glucose induction of CLN3, BCK2, and CDC28. These results indicate a link between the rate of glycolysis and the expression of genes that are critical for passage through G1.
Naturally Occurring Disulfide-bound Dimers of Three-fingered Toxins

Disulfide-bound dimers of three-fingered toxins have been discovered in the Naja kaouthia cobra venom; that is, the homodimer of α-cobratoxin (a long-chain α-neurotoxin) and heterodimers formed by α-cobratoxin with different cytotoxins. According to circular dichroism measurements, toxins in dimers retain in general their three-fingered folding. The functionally important disulfide 26–30 in polypeptide loop II of α-cobratoxin moiety remains intact in both types of dimers. Biological activity studies showed that cytotoxins within dimers completely lose their cytotoxicity. However, the dimers retain most of the α-cobratoxin capacity to compete with α-bungarotoxin for binding to Torpedo and α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) as well as to Lymnea stagnalis acetylcholine-binding protein. Electrophysiological experiments on neuronal nAChRs expressed in Xenopus oocytes have shown that α-cobratoxin dimer not only interacts with α7 nAChR but, in contrast to α-cobratoxin monomer, also blocks α3β2 nAChR. In the latter activity it resembles κ-bungarotoxin, a dimer with no disulfides between monomers. These results demonstrate that dimerization is essential for the interaction of three-fingered neurotoxins with heteromeric α3β2 nAChRs.
Company‐based education programmes: what's the pay‐off for employers?

This article addresses the question of whether company-based programmes of education repay employer investment in terms of learning transfer to the workplace. Building on earlier work by the authors, we use an in-depth longitudinal case study of a long-standing programme of continuous education sponsored by the US-based NCR corporation in Scotland. As educators, we expected to find that the programme would have been associated with positive outcomes, based on the belief that 'embrained' or formal, abstract knowledge can be transferred to the workplace. We were aware, however, that research in this area has not been promising in demonstrating learning transfer, in part because such a process is mediated by the quality of the transfer climate. Drawing on survey data and in-depth interviewing of a sample cohort, we found that the programme of company-based education had significant implications for learning transfer. Surprisingly, however, transfer climate had little influence on the willingness of employees to use their knowledge to make improvements or generate innovations at work. Finally, we found that these data supported situated learning theory, stressing the importance of tacit knowledge, informal learning, the communal nature of workplace learning and the difficulties in evaluating learning transfer. We believe that these results have important implications for the literature on the evaluation of HRD interventions, for human resource development (HRD) specialists interested in developing programmes of so-called lifelong learning and for practitioners working in the area of organisational learning and learning organisations.
Voluntary disclosure narrative: reporting content, stakeholders, external materiality and usefulness

This PhD by published work comprises 11 papers published between 2006 and 2009. The research is focussed upon voluntary and related financial reporting by UK companies in their annual report. The level, and more importantly, the importance of voluntary disclosure has significantly increased over the last 20 years (Campbell, Moore and Shrives, 2006) and this submission provides academic and policy relevant contributions to that field. The papers make specific contributions to the extant literature in discrete areas primarily; philanthropy, social and environmental reporting. These 11 publications adopt a range of research methods appropriate to different research questions. The qualitative papers demonstrate successful engagement with a number of high level participant stakeholders from the building society sector, fair trade organisations and UK capital markets as well as capturing disclosure content relevant to other stakeholder groups. Other papers have adopted a positivist approach with appropriate longitudinal and cross sectional data used to test theory. Two of the research projects relating to strategic philanthropy and decision–usefulness of disclosure were supported by external research funding and therefore demonstrate the policy relevance and impact of the research contribution in those areas. Within the commentary, the research is presented in two sections, followed by a conclusion which shows the research impact of the publications and the international dissemination of the research contribution and findings. The key findings of Section 1 show the financial and non-financial influences on levels of philanthropy; inconsistency of philanthropy policy reporting; social disclosure responses to legitimacy threats and the reporting validity of the annual report; a holistic approach to responsible business practice and insights into the mainstreaming of Fair Trade. Section 2 provides findings into the decision-usefulness of a range of voluntary disclosure narratives in the annual report, developed in detail in respect of environmental disclosures and related risk factors and insights into the current issues facing accounting.
Recidivous cholesteatoma: DWI MR after canal wall up and canal wall down mastoidectomy.

OBJECTIVES To investigate the correlation between preoperative non-echo planar diffusion-weighted (non-EPI DWI) MR imaging with surgical findings of recidivous middle ear cholesteatoma after canal wall up (CWU) and canal wall down (CWD) mastoidectomy. BACKGROUND The detection of recidive cholesteatoma after CWU and after CWD procedures, when the trepanation cavity is spontaneously closed by soft tissue, is possible by second-look and revision surgery. However, many cases prove to be negative of the disease. To avoid unnecessary operational risks we adopted a novel imaging method to evaluate its potential in the detection of recidivous cholesteatoma. MATERIAL AND METHODS The prospective study included 27 cases. Fifteen cases were revised after CWD and 12 cases were second-look surgeries after CWU procedures. All patients underwent the MR protocol: T2-weighted, T1-weighted and non-EPI DWI. The finding on MR correlated with peroperative presence of cholesteatoma. RESULTS Non-EPI DWI sequence showed an increased signal intensity in 16/27 (59 %) cases. This correlated with surgical findings in all 7 patients after CWU and in 8 patients after CWD. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of non-EPI DWI were 83.3 %, 88.8 %, 93.8 % and 72.7 %, respectively. DWI presented a sensitivity of 100 % and specificity of 85.7 % in the subgroup of patients after CWD mastoidectomy. CONCLUSION Residual and/or recurrent cholesteatoma can be accurately detected by DWI MR. It can be used as a screening method to select patients, who are indicated to second-look or revision surgery after CWU and CWD mastoidectomy (Tab. 1, Fig. 3, Ref. 49).
The Macroeconomic Aggregates for England, 1209-2008

Estimates are developed of the major macroeconomic aggregates ? wages, land rents, interest rates, prices, factor shares, sectoral shares in output and employment, and real wages ? for England by decade between 1209 and 2008. The efficiency of the economy 1209-2008 is also estimated. One finding is that the growth of real wages in the Industrial Revolution era and beyond was faster than the growth of output per person. Indeed until recently the greatest recipient of modern growth in England has been unskilled workers. The data also creates a number of puzzles, the principle one being the very high levels of output and efficiency estimated for England in the medieval era. This data is thus inconsistent with the general notion that there was a period of Smithian growth between 1300 and 1800 which preceded the Industrial Revolution, as expressed in such recent works as De Vries (2008).
The Response of Worker Effort to Piece Rates

Using firm-level payroll data from the Midwest logging industry, I compute a worker’s productivity response to a change in piece-rate pay, an elasticity of effort, using an empirical specification developed in Paarsch and Shearer (1999). Maximum-likelihood estimation of an agency-based structural econometric model of worker choice yields elasticities ranging from 0.413 to 1.507. These estimates are smaller than, but qualitatively similar to, those reported in Paarsch and Shearer, suggesting that their model has perhaps more general applicability than their British Columbia tree-planting example.
Wages, Prices and Politics: Evidence from Norway

This paper studies the empirical relevance of the close ties between a central trade union and the social democratic political party using time series data for Norway. Using a structural wage-price model we estimate that changing from a bourgeois to a social democratic government reduces manufacturing wages in the long run by 2.3 percent. This result is consistent with a wage bargaining model augmented by political preferences of the union leaders. Private service wages are not directly affected by government type, but wage spillover effects imply that the long-run dampening effect in the private service sector is around 2 percent. The results also support the proposition of the Scandinavian model of inflation that the traded goods sector is the wage leader.
Rituximab in the treatment of dermatomyositis: an open-label pilot study.

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that B cells play a role in the pathophysiology of dermatomyositis (DM) by examining the effect of B cell depletion in patients with symptomatic DM. Patients were treated with rituximab, a CD20+ B cell-depleting monoclonal antibody. METHODS This was an open-label uncontrolled pilot trial in 7 adult patients with DM, 6 of whom had longstanding illness that was responding inadequately to a number of currently available immunosuppressive agents. All patients received 4 intravenous infusions of rituximab given at weekly intervals. Patients were followed up for up to 1 year without further treatment with rituximab. One patient was lost to followup. The principal efficacy outcome was muscle strength, measured by quantitative dynomometry. RESULTS All 6 evaluable patients exhibited major clinical improvement, with muscle strength increasing over baseline by 36-113%. Maximal improvements in muscle strength occurred as early as 12 weeks after the initial infusion of rituximab. CD20+ B cells were effectively depleted in all patients by 12 weeks. Four patients experienced a return of symptoms that coincided with the return of B cells before the 52-week end point. Two patients maintained their increased muscle strength at 52 weeks, and 1 of these patients maintained this strength even after the return of B cells. Other symptoms of DM, including rash, alopecia, and reduced forced vital capacity, improved markedly in patients with these symptoms. Rituximab was well tolerated, with no treatment-related severe or serious adverse events during the observation period of this study. CONCLUSION This small open-label study of DM patients treated with rituximab provided sufficiently encouraging results to justify a more formal evaluation of the value of B cell depletion therapy in the treatment of DM.
Implant system for guiding a new layer of bone. Computed microtomography and histomorphometric analysis in the rabbit mandible.

OBJECTIVE To prove the concept that an implant system with osteoconductive surface characteristics and an osteoinductive scaffold material has the capacity to guide vertical supracrestal bone growth in a rabbit mandible onlay model. MATERIAL AND METHODS Thirteen adult white New Zealand rabbits each received custom-designed dental implants. All implants had sandblasted, acid-etched (SLA) surfaces, with the coronal aspect (3 mm) of each implant was left outside the lateral aspect of posterior mandibular bone, but covered by periosteum, muscle, subcutaneous tissue, and skin. Bone formation around implants placed adjacent to osteoinductive demineralized bone matrix (DBM) scaffolds were compared with contralateral implants without scaffolds in six rabbits using micro-CT imaging. Bone formation around implants with scaffolds from seven additional rabbits was measured using both micro-CT imaging and quantitative histology. RESULTS At 8 weeks, new supracrestal bone was seen adjacent to all implants placed with DBM and two implants without DBM. The mean supracrestal bone heights achieved for implants with and without DBM scaffolds as measured by micro-CT was 2.1+/-0.9 and 0.8+/-0.9 mm, respectively (P=0.008). Histomorphometric analysis illustrated that supracrestal bone-to-implant contact for implants with DBM scaffolds was 58.1+/-14% and that mean supracrestal bone height was 2.4+/-0.6 mm. CONCLUSIONS Successful implant-guided supracrestal osteogenesis has been demonstrated in a rabbit model with the combined use of osteoconductive implant surfaces, an osteoinductive scaffold, and a device that prevents soft tissue downgrowth and provides scaffold stabilization.
Word Clarity as a Metric in Sampling Keyboard Test Sets

Test sets play an essential role in evaluating text entry techniques. In this paper, we argue that in addition to the widely adopted metric of bigram representativeness and memorability, word clarity should also be considered as a metric when creating test sets from the target dataset. Word clarity quantifies the extent to which a word is likely to confuse with other words on a keyboard. We formally define word clarity, derive equations calculating it, and both theoretically and empirically show that word clarity has a significant effect on text entry performance: it can yield up to 26.4% difference in error rate, and 25% difference in input speed. We later propose a Pareto optimization method for sampling test sets with different sizes, which optimizes the word clarity and bigram representativeness, and memorability of the test set. The obtained test sets are published on the Internet.
The 2011 local elections campaigns in the Tlokwe municipality, North-West Province: enhancing participatory governance?

The South African Local Government Municipal Systems Act (Act 32 of 2000) requires participatory governance. Although this Act is not concerned with electoral participation in the first instance, it is argued that it also sets the tone for electoral communication. In the spirit of participatory governance it could be expected of political parties to inform the electorate about issues relevant to local government, stimulate debate, motivate voters to participate in the elections and promote democratic values. Against this background, this article endeavours to investigate to what extent the campaigns of political parties in the 2011 local elections displayed the context of local developmental government and enhanced participatory governance. A qualitative content analysis was done of the election material (manifestos, posters, television advertisements and pamphlets) of the ANC, DA, FF+ and Cope in the Tlokwe Municipality. It was found that all the parties adhered to the spirit of and actively promoted local developmental government in their manifestos, although they did so to a lesser extent in the more popular media (posters, television advertisements and pamphlets). It was concluded that these messages were not harmful to the sustainability of local developmental democracy. * Professor Lynnette Fourie1 lectures in the School for Communication Studies at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. 8. Lynette Fourie 11/18/11 3:53 PM Page 131
Alterations in properties of L-type Ca channels in aging rat heart.

Previous studies of whole-cell L-type Ca currents in aging heart have demonstrated an increase in the peak Ca current magnitude in proportion to the increase in membrane area, and a slowing of the time course for inactivation. However, the single-channel mechanisms underlying this upregulation, and for the slowed inactivation are not known. We have therefore compared the properties of single L-type Ca channel currents recorded from ventricular myocytes obtained from young adult (3 month), adult (6-8 month) and aging (24 month) Wistar rats, using 5 m m Ba ions as the permeant ion. We report that the peak ensemble-averaged single Ca channel currents from aging heart (-280+/-57 fA) were enhanced compared to those from young adult (-137+/-16 fA), or adult hearts (-144+/-38 fA). This surprising result was related, in part, to an apparent increase in the number of active Ca channels per patch in aging (1.90+/-0.23) v young adult (1.33+/-0.19) or adult heart (1.50+/-0.2). Moreover, there was an increase in the time constant for inactivation of the ensemble-averaged Ca currents of aging (471+/-169 ms), compared with young adult (198+/-43 ms), or adult heart (196+/-32 ms). The aging-related changes were also traced to alterations in single Ca channel gating, including an increase in the average probability of being open, and an increase in the availability of single Ca currents in aging heart. In contrast, the unitary Ca current amplitude was unchanged with aging. These novel findings suggest that the compensatory increase in the L-type Ca currents during aging is a consequence of an apparent increase in both the number, and the activity of individual L-type Ca channels.