Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Qualitative Investigation of Fifth- and Sixth-grade Students’ Attitudes towards Intellectual Disability

Abstract Research suggests that attitudes of typically developing children towards intellectual disability (ID) play an important role in the social integration and acceptance of children with IDs. To date, however, few studies have investigated children’s attitudes towards ID. The primary objective of this study was to examine the cognitive, affective, and behavioural components of children’s attitudes towards ID. Thirty-nine (14 boys, 25 girls) fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students participated in the study. Seven focus groups were created in five different schools. Results suggested that inaccurate beliefs and negative emotions regarding ID may contribute to social and school integration problems experienced by children with IDs. The findings of the present study could be useful for the development of education and awareness programs that promote the development of more positive attitudes towards ID.
Assessment of the Soil Organic Carbon Sink in a Project for the Conversion of Farmland to Forestland: A Case Study in Zichang County, Shaanxi, China

The conversion of farmland to forestland not only changes the ecological environment but also enriches the soil with organic matter and affects the global carbon cycle. This paper reviews the influence of land use changes on the soil organic carbon sink to determine whether the Chinese “Grain-for-Green” (conversion of farmland to forestland) project increased the rate of SOC content during its implementation between 1999 and 2010 in the hilly and gully areas of the Loess Plateau in north-central China. The carbon sink was quantified, and the effects of the main species were assessed. The carbon sink increased from 2.26×106 kg in 1999 to 8.32×106 kg in 2010 with the sustainable growth of the converted areas. The black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) soil increased SOC content in the top soil (0–100 cm) in the initial 7-yr period, while the sequestration occurred later (>7 yr) in the 100–120 cm layer after the “Grain-for-Green” project was implemented. The carbon sink function measured for the afforested land provides evidence that the Grain-for-Green project has successfully excavated the carbon sink potential of the Shaanxi province and served as an important milestone for establishing an effective organic carbon management program.
The Cold-Inducible RNA-Binding Protein (CIRP) Level in Peripheral Blood Predicts Sepsis Outcome

Objectives Sepsis is a lethal and complex clinical syndrome caused by infection or suspected infection. Cold-inducible RNA-binding protein (CIRP) is a widely distributed cold-shock protein that plays a proinflammatory role in sepsis and that may induce organ damage. However, clinical studies regarding the use of CIRP for the prognostic evaluation of sepsis are lacking. The purpose of this research was to investigate the prognostic significance of peripheral blood concentrations of CIRP in sepsis. Sepsis was assessed using several common measures, including the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score; the Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score; the lactate, serum creatinine, and procalcitonin (PCT) levels; the white blood cell (WBC) count; and the neutrophil ratio (N%). Design Sixty-nine adult patients with sepsis were enrolled in this study. According to the mortality data from the hospital, 38 patients were survivors, and 31 were nonsurvivors. The plasma levels of the biomarkers were measured and the APACHE II and SOFA scores were calculated within 24 hours of patient enrollment into our study. The CIRP level was measured via ELISA. Results The plasma level of CIRP was significantly higher in the nonsurvivors than in the survivors (median (IQR) 4.99 (2.37–30.17) ng/mL and 1.68 (1.41–13.90) ng/mL, respectively; p = 0.013). The correlations of the CIRP level with the APACHE II score (r = 0.248, p = 0.040, n = 69), the SOFA score (r = 0.323, p = 0.007, n = 69), the serum creatinine level (r = 0.316, p = 0.008, n = 69), and the PCT level (r = 0.282, p = 0.019, n = 69) were significant. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) for the CIRP level was 0.674 (p = 0.013). According to Cox proportional hazards models, the CIRP level independently predicts sepsis mortality. When the CIRP level in the peripheral blood increased by 10 ng/mL, the mortality risk increased by 1.05-fold (p = 0.012). Thus, the CIRP level reflects the degree of renal injury but does not predict the severity of sepsis or organ damage. Conclusion An elevated plasma concentration of CIRP was significantly associated with poor prognosis among patients with sepsis. Therefore, CIRP is a potential predictor of sepsis prognosis.
Disease, War, Hunger, and Deprivation: A Cross-National Investigation of the Determinants of Life Expectancy in Less-Developed and Sub-Saharan African Nations

Researchers note a recent trend of increasing inequality in cross-national life expectancy rates, largely due to conditions in the poorest of nations. Threats to life expectancy in less-developed nations include poverty, warfare, intense hunger, and disease, particularly AIDS/HIV. This article utilizes structural equation models for a sample of less-developed nations and a subsample of Sub-Saharan African nations to test interrelationships among predictors. Findings indicate modernization to be the most robust predictor of life expectancy across less-developed nations and HIV to be the strongest determinant of life expectancy in Sub-Saharan African nations. Somewhat surprisingly, warfare and hunger do not have direct impacts on life expectancy among less-developed nations; however, important linkages among warfare, hunger, and disease are evidenced in the Sub-Saharan African sample, along with a notable positive influence of modernization on HIV rates. The findings demonstrate the significance of HIV on cross-national life expectancy scores and illuminate unique dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Electron transport at metal-semiconductor interfaces: General theory.

A dipole-layer approach is presented, which leads to analytic solutions to the potential and the electronic transport at metal-semicondutor interfaces with arbitrary Schottky-barrier-height profiles. The presence of inhomogeneities in the Schottky-barrier height is shown to lead to a coherent explanation of many anomalies in the experimental results. These results suggest that the formation mechanism of the Schottky barrier is locally nonuniform at common, polycrystalline, metal-semiconductor interfaces
Moderating effects of consumer knowledge on the perception of small probabilities of risk

Perceived probabilities do not perfectly correspond to the stated probabilities. Prospect theory suggests that small probabilities are often overestimated, and such overestimation of negative prospects reflects a tendency toward risk aversion. We examine how two types of consumer knowledge, objective and subjective knowledge, influence the perception of a small probability of risk. Subjective knowledge appears to reinforce objective judgment (i.e., being less biased by small probabilities) once consumers are knowledgeable. On the other hand, subjective knowledge could facilitate the tendency to risk aversion (i.e., overestimation of small probabilities of risk), when the regulating force of objective knowledge is low.
Temporal Dynamics of Neural Activity at the Moment of Emergence of Conscious Percept

From which regions of the brain do conscious representations of visual stimuli emerge? This is an important but controversial issue in neuroscience because some studies have reported a major role of the higher visual regions of the ventral pathway in conscious perception, whereas others have found neural correlates of consciousness as early as in the primary visual areas and in the thalamus. One reason for this controversy has been the difficulty in focusing on neural activity at the moment when conscious percepts are generated in the brain, excluding any bottom–up responses (not directly related to consciousness) that are induced by stimuli. In this study, we address this issue with a new approach that can induce a rapid change in conscious perception with little influence from bottom–up responses. Our results reveal that the first consciousness-related activity emerges from the higher visual region of the ventral pathway. However, this activity is rapidly diffused to the entire brain, including the early visual cortex. These results thus integrate previous “higher” and “lower” views on the emergence of neural correlates of consciousness, providing a new perspective for the temporal dynamics of consciousness.
Finding Long and Multiple Repeats with Edit Distance

We present a tool for detecting long similar fragments that occur two or more times in a set of biological sequences. The problem has interesting applications in the analysis of biological sequences and their correlation, and becomes computationally challenging when a certain non negligible number of insertions, deletions and substitutions are allowed. For this reason exact exhaustive methods are hardly of practical use. In this paper we introduce a tool, FilmRed, that performs this task, and that manages instances whose size and parameters combination cannot be handled by any existing tool. This is achieved by using a filter as a preprocessing step, and by using the information that the filter has gathered also in the successive inference phase. To the best of our knowledge, FilmRed is the first ab initio tool that can deal with repeats occurring possibly several times, that have length of hundreds or thousands bases, and whose occurrences may differ in even more than 10% of their positions in terms of substitutions and indels.
Conserved and acquired features of neurogenin1 regulation

The telencephalon shows vast morphological variations among different vertebrate groups. The transcription factor neurogenin1 (ngn1) controls neurogenesis in the mouse pallium and is also expressed in the dorsal telencephalon of the evolutionary distant zebrafish. The upstream regions of the zebrafish and mammalian ngn1 loci harbour several stretches of conserved sequences. Here, we show that the upstream region of zebrafish ngn1 is capable of faithfully recapitulating endogenous expression in the zebrafish and mouse telencephalon. A single conserved regulatory region is essential for dorsal telencephalic expression in the zebrafish, and for expression in the dorsal pallium of the mouse. However, a second conserved region that is inactive in the fish telencephalon is necessary for expression in the lateral pallium of mouse embryos. This regulatory region, which drives expression in the zebrafish diencephalon and hindbrain, is dependent on Pax6 activity and binds recombinant Pax6 in vitro. Thus, the regulatory elements of ngn1 appear to be conserved among vertebrates, with certain differences being incorporated in the utilisation of these enhancers, for the acquisition of more advanced features in amniotes. Our data provide evidence for the co-option of regulatory regions as a mechanism of evolutionary diversification of expression patterns, and suggest that an alteration in Pax6 expression was crucial in neocortex evolution.
Targeting multiple Her-2 epitopes with monoclonal antibodies results in improved antigrowth activity of a human breast cancer cell line in vitro and in vivo.

Her-2 (p185(erbB-2)) is a transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor, which is encoded by the Her-2/neu proto-oncogene. Her-2 is overexpressed on 30% of highly malignant breast cancers. Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against Her-2 inhibit the growth of Her-2-overexpressing tumor cells and this occurs by a variety of mechanisms. One such MAb, Herceptin (Trastuzumab), has been approved for human use. We have generated a panel of murine anti-Her-2 MAbs against nine different epitopes on the extracellular domain of Her-2 and have evaluated the antitumor activity of three of these MAbs alone and in combination, both in vitro and in vivo. We found that MAbs (against different epitopes) make a highly effective mixture, which was more effective than the individual MAbs in treating s.c. tumor nodules of BT474 cells in SCID mice. In vitro, the MAb mixture was also more effective than the single MAbs in inducing antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and complement-dependent cytotoxicity, inhibiting cell growth and inducing apoptosis, and inhibiting the secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor. Taken together, these activities might explain the superior performance of the MAb mixture in vivo.
A Signal for Independent Coastal and Continental histories among North American wolves

Relatively little genetic variation has been uncovered in surveys across North American wolf populations. Pacific Northwest coastal wolves, in particular, have never been analysed. With an emphasis on coastal Alaska wolf populations, variation at 11 microsatellite loci was assessed. Coastal wolf populations were distinctive from continental wolves and high levels of diversity were found within this isolated and relatively small geographical region. Significant genetic structure within southeast Alaska relative to other populations in the Pacific Northwest, and lack of significant correlation between genetic and geographical distances suggest that differentiation of southeast Alaska wolves may be caused by barriers to gene flow, rather than isolation by distance. Morphological research also suggests that coastal wolves differ from continental populations. A series of studies of other mammals in the region also has uncovered distinctive evolutionary histories and high levels of endemism along the Pacific coast. Divergence of these coastal wolves is consistent with the unique phylogeographical history of the biota of this region and re‐emphasizes the need for continued exploration of this biota to lay a framework for thoughtful management of southeast Alaska.
Racial Crime Stereotypes and Offender Juvenility

Recent theoretical advancements of the racial threat model of punitiveness suggest that because youthful offending has driven crime trends in recent decades, and because racially exclusive conceptions of childhood have historically structured public opinion on juvenile justice, Black criminal stereotypes may be especially consequential for attitudes toward juvenile punishments. Building on this work, the current study uses national survey data to examine whether the strength of the relationship between Black criminal stereotypes and support for punitive policies varies according to whether punishments are targeted toward juvenile delinquents or criminals in general. We find that Black criminal stereotypes are positively associated with punitive attitudes and that the magnitude of this effect is statistically identical in the cases of youth-specific and nonyouth-specific sanctions. Thus, the results suggest that racialized support for punitive crime policies is not influenced by the juvenility of the offender.
A temperature and voltage measurement cell for VLSI circuits

A temperature and voltage measurement cell (TVM cell) for VLSI circuits has been developed. It requires less than 1 mm/sup 2/ of core area (for a 2 mu m CMOS technology) and only 4 I/O pins. It can be integrated into any GMOS VLSI circuit, permitting the measurement of the circuit die temperature (T) and its core power supply voltage (V) while the chip is operated normally in a system. It achieves simultaneously an accuracy better than 50 mV and 3 degrees C. Output values are averages of the parameter values during a 1 ms period. <<ETX>>
An Evaluation of Digital Elevation Models to Short-Term Monitoring of a High Energy Barrier Island, Northeast Brazil

The morphological short-term evolution of Ponta do Tubarão Island (PTI) was investigated through high accurate surveys based on post-processed kinematic (PPK) relative positioning on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). PTI is part of a barrier island system on a high energy northeast Brazilian coastal environment and also ans area of high environmental sensitivity. Surveys were carried out quarterly over a two years period from May 2010 to May 2012. This paper assesses statically the performance of digital elevation models (DEM) derived from different interpolation methods to represent morphologic features and to quantify volumetric changes and TIN models shown the best results to that purposes. The MDE allowed quantifying surfaces and volumes in detail as well as identifying the most vulnerable segments of the PTI to erosion and/or accumulation of sediments and relate the alterations to climate conditions. The coastal setting and geometry of PTI protects a significant mangrove ecosystem and some oil and gas facilities installed in the vicinities from damaging effects of strong oceanwaves and currents. Thus, the maintenance of PTI is extremely required but the prediction of its longevity is uncertain because results indicate an irregularity of sedimentary balance and a substantial decline in sediment supply to this coastal area. Keywords—DEM, GNSS, short-term monitoring, Brazil.
A bioinformatic survey of distribution, conservation, and probable functions of LuxR solo regulators in bacteria

LuxR solo transcriptional regulators contain both an autoinducer binding domain (ABD; N-terminal) and a DNA binding Helix-Turn-Helix domain (HTH; C-terminal), but are not associated with a cognate N-acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) synthase coding gene in the same genome. Although a few LuxR solos have been characterized, their distributions as well as their role in bacterial signal perception and other processes are poorly understood. In this study we have carried out a systematic survey of distribution of all ABD containing LuxR transcriptional regulators (QS domain LuxRs) available in the InterPro database (IPR005143), and identified those lacking a cognate AHL synthase. These LuxR solos were then analyzed regarding their taxonomical distribution, predicted functions of neighboring genes and the presence of complete AHL-QS systems in the genomes that carry them. Our analyses reveal the presence of one or multiple predicted LuxR solos in many proteobacterial genomes carrying QS domain LuxRs, some of them harboring genes for one or more AHL-QS circuits. The presence of LuxR solos in bacteria occupying diverse environments suggests potential ecological functions for these proteins beyond AHL and interkingdom signaling. Based on gene context and the conservation levels of invariant amino acids of ABD, we have classified LuxR solos into functionally meaningful groups or putative orthologs. Surprisingly, putative LuxR solos were also found in a few non-proteobacterial genomes which are not known to carry AHL-QS systems. Multiple predicted LuxR solos in the same genome appeared to have different levels of conservation of invariant amino acid residues of ABD questioning their binding to AHLs. In summary, this study provides a detailed overview of distribution of LuxR solos and their probable roles in bacteria with genome sequence information.
Antibacterial Activity of As-Annealed TiO2 Nanotubes Doped with Ag Nanoparticles against Periodontal Pathogens

It is important to develop functional transmucosal implant surfaces that reduce the number of initially adhering bacteria and they need to be modified to improve the anti-bacterial performance. Commercially pure Ti sheets were anodized in an electrolyte containing ethylene glycol, distilled water and ammonium fluoride at room temperature to produce TiO2 nanotubes. These structures were then annealed at 450°C to transform them to anatase. As-annealed TiO2 nanotubes were then treated in an electrolyte containing 80.7 g/L NiSO4 ·7H2O, 41 g/L MgSO4 ·7H2O, 45 g/L H3BO3, and 1.44 g/L Ag2SO4 at 20°C by the application of 9 V AC voltage for doping them with silver. As-annealed TiO2 nanotubes and as-annealed Ag doped TiO2 nanotubes were evaluated by SEM, FESEM, and XRD. Antibacterial activity was assessed by determining the adherence of A. actinomycetemcomitans, T. forsythia, and C. rectus to the surface of the nanotubes. Bacterial morphology was examined using an SEM. As-annealed Ag doped TiO2 nanotubes revealed intense peak of Ag. Bacterial death against the as-annealed Ag doped TiO2 nanotubes were detected against A. actinomycetemcomitans, T. forsythia, and C. rectus indicating antibacterial efficacy.
ANTIHYPERTENSIVE MEDICATION PRESCRIBING PATTERNS IN A UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL IN SOUTH DELHI

Study objective: To investigate the use of antihypertensive drugs in hypertensive patients and to identify whether such pattern of prescription is appropriate in accordance with international guidelines for management of hypertension. Methods: This was a prospective analysis. A prescription based survey among patients with established hypertension was conducted at the Medicine Out-Patient Department of University Teaching Hospital in South Delhi, India. Data were collected from patients’ medical records as well as patients’ interviews. Results: A total of 192 hypertensive patients fulfilled the criteria for inclusion in the study analysis. Combination therapy was used more commonly than monotherapy (54.6% vs 45.4). Among the monotherapy category, the various classes of drugs used were as follows: betablockers (28.8%), diuretics (24.1%), calcium channel blockers (21.8%), ACE inhibitors (18.4%), angiotensin II receptor blockers (5.7%) and α 1blocker (1.1%). With respect to overall utilization pattern, diuretics (42.2%) were the most frequently prescribed class, betablockers (41.2%) ranked second followed by calcium channel blockers (39.1%), ACE inhibitors (26.0%), angiotensin II receptor blockers (23.4%) and α 1blocker (9.4%). As for individual medicines, amlodipine (35.4%) was the most commonly prescribed antihypertensive drug followed by atenolol (17.8%), ramipril (17.2 %) and furosemide (13.0 %). Among the combination therapies, 2drug treatment was preferred for 75% of the hypertensive patients with CCB and β-blocker being the most frequent drug combination (22.4%). Conclusion: The general pattern of antihypertensive utilization seems to be in accordance with the international guidelines for management of hypertension. INTRODUCTION: Hypertension is associated with increased risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, and renal disease .
A 3-dimensional representation for fast rendering of complex scenes

Hierarchical representations of 3-dimensional objects are both time and space efficient. They typically consist of trees whose branches represent bounding volumes and whose terminal nodes represent primitive object elements (usually polygons). This paper describes a method whereby the object space is represented entirely by a hierarchical data structure consisting of bounding volumes, with no other form of representation. This homogencity allows the visible surface rendering to be performed simply and efficiently. The bounding volumes selected for this algorithm are parallelepipeds oriented to minimize their size. With this representation, any surface can be rendered since in the limit the bounding volumes make up a point representation of the object. The advantage is that the visibility calculations consist only of a search through the data structure to determine the correspondence between terminal level bounding volumes and the current pixel. For ray tracing algorithms, this means that a simplified operation will produce the point of intersection of each ray with the bounding volumes. Memory requirements are minimized by expanding or fetching the lower levels of the hierarchy only when required. Because the viewing process has a single operation and primitive type, the software or hardware chosen to implement the search can be highly optimized for very fast execution.