Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The macro and micro views of political marketing: the underpinnings of a theory of political marketing

The multi-disciplinary nature of political marketing lends itself to a micro/macro analysis. The goal of the article is to present the theoretical frames allowing one to develop an approach to political marketing, which may become the foundations of a general theory of political marketing. Like microeconomics and macroeconomics are the two major categories within the field of economics, so are micro and macro approach to political marketing the two major perspectives that allow one to better understand the workings of modern democracies and the processes taking place there. Such an approach can integrate various theories of particular political behavior considered as part of an external macrostructure, understood as broad social, political, legal, economic, and technological context, with the theories of political behavior of individuals and institutions considered as internal microstructure. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Comparing perceived clarity of information on overdiagnosis used for breast and prostate cancer screening in England: an experimental survey

Objectives ‘Overdiagnosis’, detection of disease that would never have caused symptoms or death, is a public health concern due to possible psychological and physical harm but little is known about how best to explain it. This study evaluated public perceptions of widely used information on the concept to identify scope for improving communication methods. Design Experimental survey carried out by a market research company via face-to-face computer-assisted interviews. Setting Interviews took place in participants’ homes. Participants 2111 members of the general public in England aged 18–70 years began the survey; 1616 were eligible for analysis. National representativeness was sought via demographic quota sampling. Interventions Participants were allocated at random to receive a brief description of overdiagnosis derived from written information used by either the NHS Breast Screening Programme or the prostate cancer screening equivalent. Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome was how clear the information was perceived to be (extremely/very clear vs less clear). Other measures included previous exposure to screening information, decision-making styles and demographic characteristics (eg, education). Binary logistic regression was used to assess predictors of perceived clarity. Results Overdiagnosis information from the BSP was more likely to be rated as more clear compared with the prostate screening equivalent (adjusted OR: 1.43, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.75; p=0.001). Participants were more likely to perceive the information as more clear if they had previously encountered similar information (OR: 1.77, 1.40 to 2.23; p<0.0005) or a screening leaflet (OR: 1.35, 1.04 to 1.74; p=0.024) or had a more ‘rational’ decision-making style (OR: 1.06, 1.02 to 1.11; p=0.009). Conclusions Overdiagnosis information from breast screening may be a useful template for communicating the concept more generally (eg, via organised campaigns). However, this information may be less well-suited to individuals who are less inclined to consider risks and benefits during decision-making.
Porous Medium Flow Simulation in a Brush Seal with Radial Clearance

The application of sealing technologies in the field of turbo machinery brings a significant improvement at the turbo machine efficiency. The sealing technologies undergo constant development and improvement. If it is thought that the first brush seal application was tried in 40s, it can be rather said that the progress and development is unstoppable. One of the most important sealing technologies is brush seal technology. This sealing technology has an important role to improve the internal flow system in turbo machinery. Big power requirements from the aero engine gas turbines driven to higher pressure ratios, bypass ratios and turbine inlet temperatures. Due to these effects, the air flows in the internal air system and thermodynamically loses increase. Internal flow system is important for the engine efficiency. Therefore the aim is always reducing the internal airflows therewithal increasing thermodynamic efficiency. Brush seals give this opportunity for turbo machines. On the other hand, labyrinth seal technology is also very well developed but the leakages are still high. Brush seals fulfill such conditions. But brush seals have also different disadvantages like bristle wearing und etc. Therefore designers are always looking for new designs. And one of them is brush seal with radial clearance. With these designs, it is tried to reach optimum clearance between rotor and bristle tips. It is tried to avoid from the leakage like labyrinth seals, at the same time avoid from the wearing problem like in brush seals. This work's intention is to develop and to simulate a model which has optimum clearance with brush sealing and comparing with existing investigations.
Personal Development and Its Relationship to Mastery of Instructional Skills by Students in Elementary, Early Childhood and Special Education Programs.

FOR ERIC This study attempts to bridge the gap between two significant areas of learning and development in a pre-service teacher education program: personal development and mastery of instructional skills. The relationship between these two areas is explored by group analysis followed by more in-depth studies of four individual students. The assumption was that there is a pattern of personal development and behavior which influences each student to react uniquely to experiences with the qualities s/he brings to the situation. The sample N of 80 included 71 female, 9 male, 42 elementary, 11 early childhood, and 27 special education. Data collected upon entry to the teacher certiNcation program and at the end of student teaching were analyzed through descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and covariance, profile analysis, and single and multiple correlations. The three research questions posed were: 1. How well do the personal development instruments describe our students? 2. Are there relationships between personal development variables and instructional skill variables? 3. Which students have extreme ratings (high/low) of identity and anxiety, and how are these related to their self ratings on instructional skill variables? The personal development variables measured students well; students varied widely on the three personal development variables of identity achievement, state anxiety, and trait anxiety, individually, between program subgroups, and even within a fairly homogeneous program as early childhood. Personal development variables correlated consistently but moderately with each other, but the only personal development variable to correlate significantly with instructional skill was trait anxiety, and the only instructional skill to appear consistently in this relationship was classroom management. Depth study of individual students with extreme personal development self-ratings reflected clear differences in their professional growth patterns. Students with high identity achievement and low anxieties usually began confidently, realized early success and made great progress. Students with low identity achievement and high anxieties tended to be slow starters, lacking in confidence and the ability to control children, making progress in spurts rather than gradually, and succeeding only toward the end of student teaching.
Cerebrospinal Fluid Apolipoprotein E Levels in Delirium

Background/Aims: Delirium and the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele are risk factors for late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD), but the connection is unclear. We looked for an association. Methods: Inpatients with delirium (n = 18) were compared with LOAD outpatients (n = 19), assaying blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) using multiplex ELISA. Results: The patients with delirium had a higher Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) score (5.6 ± 1.2 vs. 0.0 ± 0.0; p < 0.001) and Delirium Index (13.1 ± 4.0 vs. 2.9 ± 1.2; p = 0.001) but a lower Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score (14.3 ± 6.8 vs. 20.8 ± 4.6; p = 0.003). There was a reduction in absolute CSF apolipoprotein E level during delirium (median [interquartile range]: 9.55 μg/mL [5.65–15.05] vs. 16.86 μg/mL [14.82–20.88]; p = 0.016) but no differences in apolipoprotein A1, B, C3, H, and J. There were no differences in blood apolipoprotein levels, and no correlations between blood and CSF apolipoprotein levels. CSF apolipoprotein E correlated negatively with the CAM score (r = –0.354; p = 0.034) and Delirium Index (r = –0.341; p = 0.042) but not with the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) index, or the MMSE or Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE). Conclusion: Reduced CSF apolipoprotein E levels during delirium may be a mechanistic link between two important risk factors for LOAD.
Clinical and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Predictors of Disability in Primary and Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis

The role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in predicting disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) remains unclear. In this study 21 patients with primary and secondary progressive MS were reviewed 5 years following a serial MRI study of 6 months duration. In the secondary progressive group (n=11) there was a significant relationship between the occurrence of enhancing lesions and clinical relapses during the initial 6 months and increase in diability 5 years later. For both groups change in disability over the initial study period was predictive of outcome. These results suggest that the presence and frequency of gadolinium enhancement (a marker of inflammation) and changes in disability over a short period are predictive of future deterioration in progressive patients.
Assessment of Primitive Reflexes in High-risk Newborns

Background Assessment of primitive reflexes is one of the earliest, simplest, and most frequently used assessment tools among health care providers for newborns and young infants. However, very few data exist for high-risk infants in this topic. Among the various primitive reflexes, this study was undertaken particularly to describe the sucking, Babinski and Moro reflexes in high-risk newborns and to explore their relationships with clinical variables. Methods This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Sixty seven high-risk newborns including full-term infants required intensive care as well as premature infants were recruited in a neonatal intensive care unit using convenient sampling method. The sucking, Babinski and Moro reflexes were assessed and classified by normal, abnormal and absence. To explore their relationships with clinical variables, birth-related variables, brain sonogram results, and behavioral state (the Anderson Behavioral State Scale, ABSS) and mental status (the Infant Coma Scale, ICS) were assessed. Results The sucking reflex presented a normal response most frequently (63.5%), followed by Babinski reflex (58.7%) and Moro reflex (42.9%). Newborns who presented normal sucking and Babinski reflex responses were more likely to have older gestational age, heavier birth and current weight, higher Apgar scores, shorter length of hospitalization, better respiratory conditions, and better mental status assessed by ICS, but not with Moro reflex. Conclusions High risk newborns presented more frequent abnormal and absence responses of primitive reflex and the proportions of the responses varied by reflex. Further researches are necessary in exploring diverse aspects of primitive reflexes and revealing their clinical implication in the high-risk newborns that are unique and different to normal healthy newborns. Keywords Primitive reflex; High risk infants; Korean; Moro reflex; Sucking reflex; Babinski reflex; The Anderson Behavioral State Scale; Infant Coma Scale
Characteristics of hospitalised US veterans with nosocomial pressure ulcers

The objective of this study was to describe demographic and clinical characteristics of hospitalised US veterans with nosocomial pressure ulcer (NPU) referred to a certified Wound, Ostomy & Continence Nurse (WOCN). We conducted a retrospective review of electronic records at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the northwestern USA. Records of veterans with NPU referred to a WOCN (n = 29) from May 2005 to June 2006 were reviewed. Location and stage of pressure ulcer(s), Braden score on admission and when the ulcer was first noted, day of hospital stay when the ulcer was first noted, medical diagnoses and clinical conditions and events such as surgery, hypoxemia, hypoalbuminemia and hypotension were recorded. Mean age of the patients was 69·8. The most common location was the sacrum/coccyx. Most ulcers were stage 1 when identified. Braden score during admission classified half of the sample at risk, but 81% of Braden scores at ulcer occurrence were <18. Ninety percent of the sample had three or more comorbidities. Over half had died in the 1–14 months after the reviewed hospitalisation. Hospitalised veterans referred for WOCN consultation had multiple risk factors and comorbid conditions, including hypoxemia, serum albumin depletion, anaemia and hypotension. Veterans cared for in Veterans Affairs Medical Centers are known to have multiple health problems, and those in this sample not only had nosocomial pressure ulcer, but also other physiological derangements that may shorten survival.
What Makes the Spatial Prisoner's Dilemma Game Sensitive to Asynchronism?

We investigate aspects that control the Spatial Prisoner’s Dilemma game sensitivity to the synchrony rate of the model. Based on simulations done with the generalized proportional and the replicator dynamics transition rules, we conclude that the sensitivity of the game to the synchrony rate depends almost exclusively on the transition rule used to model the strategy update by the agents. We then identify the features of these transition rules that are responsible for the sensitivity of the game. The results show that the Spatial Prisoner’s Dilemma game becomes more and more sensitive for noise levels above a given noise threshold. Below this threshold, the game is robust to the noise level and its robustness even slightly grows, compared to the imitate the best strategy, if a small amount of noise is present in the strategy update process.
ROR1/RPA2A, a Putative Replication Protein A2, Functions in Epigenetic Gene Silencing and in Regulation of Meristem Development in Arabidopsis[W]

We screened for suppressors of repressor of silencing1 (ros1) using the silenced 35S promoter-neomycin phosphotransferase II (Pro35S:NPTII) gene as a marker and identified two allelic mutants, ror1-1 and ror1-2 (for suppressor of ros1). Map-based cloning revealed that ROR1 encodes a 31-kD protein similar to DNA replication protein A2 (RPA2A). Mutations in ROR1 reactivate the silenced Pro35S:NPTII gene but not RD29A promoter-luciferase in the ros1 mutant. DNA methylation in rDNA, centromeric DNA, and RD29A promoter regions is not affected by ror1. However, chromatin immunoprecipitation data suggest that histone H3 acetylation is increased and histone H3K9 dimethylation is decreased in the 35S promoter in the ror1 ros1 mutant compared with ros1. These results indicate that release of silenced Pro35S:NPTII by ror1 mutations is independent of DNA methylation. ROR1/RPA2A is strongly expressed in shoot and root meristems. Mutations in ROR1/RPA2A affect cell division in meristems but not final cell sizes. Our work suggests important roles of ROR1/RPA2A in epigenetic gene silencing and in the regulation of plant development.
Right‐hemisphere motor facilitation by self‐descriptive personality‐trait words

The emergent picture from the literature on the processing of self‐related information suggests that in addition to the neural mechanisms involved in recognizing one's own face, there may also be neural representations of the self that are modality independent and favour the right hemisphere. We used focal, single‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation in human subjects to assess cortical excitability during covert reading of self‐descriptive personality‐trait words. We hypothesized that the right hemisphere would show a greater overall facilitation to personality‐trait words than the left hemisphere. Overall, personality‐trait words led to significantly greater motor facilitation in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere. In addition, words rated as ‘never’ self‐characteristic yielded significant right hemisphere facilitation, and words rated as ‘always’ self‐characteristic showed a similar trend. The results are discussed in terms of the notion that the right hemisphere plays a dominant role in both self‐relevant processing and the processing of affective stimuli.
Propane Oxidation in a Plasma Torch of a Low-Current Nonsteady-State Plasmatron

This paper describes the plasma-assisted combustion system intended to generate a torch flame with a high power density per unit area. In the system, a kind of hybrid concept is proposed. A primary unit for combustion sustaining is a low-current nonsteady-state plasmatron with a low level of electric power. The plasmatron activates an air/hydrocarbon mixture and sustains the oxidation processes in the plasma torch. In turn, the heat power of the torch sustains the main burning process in the torch flame. The results of experiments on propane oxidation in the plasma torch of plasmatron in a wide range of equivalence ratio are presented. As applied to the combustion system design, the plasma torch can provide both the complete and the partial propane oxidation with syngas generation.
Interaction of Hepatitis C Virus Core Protein with Viral Sense RNA and Suppression of Its Translation

ABSTRACT To clarify the binding properties of hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein and its viral RNA for the encapsidation, morphogenesis, and replication of HCV, the specific interaction of HCV core protein with its genomic RNA synthesized in vitro was examined in an in vivo system. The positive-sense RNA from the 5′ end to nucleotide (nt) 2327, which covers the 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR) and a part of the coding region of HCV structural proteins, interacted with HCV core protein, while no interaction was observed in the same region of negative-sense RNA and in other regions of viral and antiviral sense RNAs. The internal ribosome entry site (IRES) exists around the 5′UTR of HCV; therefore, the interaction of the core protein with this region of HCV RNA suggests that there is some effect on its cap-independent translation. Cells expressing HCV core protein were transfected with reporter RNAs consisting of nt 1 to 709 of HCV RNA (the 5′UTR of HCV and about two-thirds of the core protein coding regions) followed by a firefly luciferase gene (HCV07Luc RNA). The translation of HCV07Luc RNA was suppressed in cells expressing the core protein, whereas no significant suppression was observed in the case of a reporter RNA possessing the IRES of encephalomyocarditis virus followed by a firefly luciferase. This suppression by the core protein occurred in a dose-dependent manner. The expression of the E1 envelope protein of HCV or β-galactosidase did not suppress the translation of both HCV and EMCV reporter RNAs. We then examined the regions that are important for suppression of translation by the core protein and found that the region from nt 1 to 344 was enough to exert this suppression. These results suggest that the HCV core protein interacts with viral genomic RNA at a specific region to form nucleocapsids and regulates the expression of HCV by interacting with the 5′UTR.
Effects of carotid artery stenting on cognitive function in patients with mild cognitive impairment and carotid stenosis

Carotid stenosis is known to be an independent risk factor in the transformation process of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to dementia and is treated by carotid artery stenting (CAS); however, the effects of CAS on cognitive function are unclear. In this study, 240 patients were prospectively assigned to a CAS or control group according to patient preference and underwent detailed neuropsychological examinations (NPEs) before and 6 months after treatment. Cerebral perfusion was assessed with computed tomography perfusion (CTP). Among the 240 patients included in the study, 208 patients completed NPEs at baseline and 6 months after therapy. The patients in the two groups did not differ with regard to baseline characteristics, educational level, vascular risk factors (VRFs) and NPEs prior to therapy. Significant improvements in the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE; before, 24.6±1.7 vs. after, 24.8±1.9; P=0.016), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA; before, 23.7±1.7 vs. after, 24.1±2.0; P=0.006), Fuld Object Memory Evaluation (FOME; before, 13.8±2.2 vs. after, 14.0±2.3; P=0.031) and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-digital span (WAIS-DS; before, 6.7±2.1 vs. after, 6.9±2.3; P=0.040) were observed in the CAS group; however, improvements were not observed in the control group. Of the 84 patients in the CAS group who received CTP follow-up, 72 (86%) presented improvements in ipsilateral brain perfusion 6 months after the procedure; however, no improvement was observed in the control group. Close correlations were identified between the change in perfusion and the change in MMSE (r=0.575) and MOCA (r=0.574). CAS improves global cognitive function in patients with carotid stenosis and MCI and the improvement of cognition is closely related to the improvement of cerebral perfusion.
Interference aware routing in multi-radio wireless mesh networks

We address the problem of interference aware routing in multi-radio infrastructure mesh networks wherein each mesh node is equipped with multiple radio interfaces and a subset of nodes serve as Internet gateways. We present a new interference aware routing metric - iAWARE that aids in finding paths that are better in terms of reduced interflow and intra-flow interference. We incorporate this metric and new support for multi-radio networks in the well known AODV routing protocol to design an enhanced AODV-MR routing protocol. We study the performance of our new routing metric by implementing it in our wireless testbed consisting of 12 mesh nodes. We show that iAWARE tracks changes in interfering traffic far better than existing well known link metrics such as ETT and IRU. We also demonstrate that our AODV-MR protocol delivers increased throughput in single radio and two radio mesh networks compared to similar protocol with WCETT and MIC routing metrics. We also show that in the case of two radio mesh networks, our metric achieves good intra-path channel diversity.
International movements of labour under conditions of economic integration: the case of Western Europe.

The dynamics of labor migration in and among the countries of the European Community are reviewed. The authors show that the elimination of legal barriers to migration has been followed by a decline rather than an increase in international labor migration. As of 1980, only two percent of the European labor force is comprised of foreigners.