Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Grip strength comparison in immune‐mediated neuropathies: Vigorimeter vs. Jamar

The Jamar dynamometer and Vigorimeter have been used to assess grip strength in immune‐mediated neuropathies, but have never been compared to each other. Therefore, we performed a comparison study between these two devices in patients with immune‐mediated neuropathies. Grip strength data were collected in 102 cross‐sectional stable and 163 longitudinal (new diagnoses or changing condition) patients with Guillain‐Barré syndrome (GBS), chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP), gammopathy‐related polyneuropathy (MGUSP), and multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN). Stable patients were assessed twice (validity/reliability studies). Longitudinal patients were assessed 3‐5 times during 1 year. Responsiveness comparison between the two tools was examined using combined anchor‐/distribution‐based minimum clinically important difference (MCID) techniques. Patients were asked to indicate their preference for the Jamar or Vigorimeter. Both tools correlated highly with each other (ρ = 0.86, p < 0.0001) and showed good intra‐class correlation coefficients (Jamar [Right/Left hands]: ICC 0.997/0.96; Vigori: ICC 0.95/0.98). Meaningful changes were comparable between the two instruments, being higher in GBS compared to CIDP patients. In MGUSP/MMN poor responsiveness was seen. Significant more patients preferred the Vigorimeter. In conclusion, validity, reliability, and responsiveness aspects were comparable between the Jamar dynamometer and Vigorimeter. However, based on patients' preference, the Vigorimeter is recommended in future studies in immune‐mediated neuropathies.
Granularity Index of the SYSMEX XE-5000 hematology analyzer as a replacement for manual microscopy of toxic granulation neutrophils in patients with inflammatory diseases

Abstract Background: When certain inflammatory processes occur, toxic granulation neutrophils (TGNs) appear in the blood showing prominent cytoplasmic granules. Currently, the granularity of TGNs is analyzed by manual microscopy of blood smears. The SYSMEX XE-5000 is an automated hematology analyzer, which can measure toxic granulation of TGNs by calculating the Granularity (GI) Index. In this study we investigated if the GI-Index is suitable as a parameter for the TGN granularity in inflammatory diseases. Methods: An evaluation of the toxic granulation neutrophil (TGN) granularity by manual microscopy, the GI-Index and the C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations of 158 patients were determined. Blood samples from 40 healthy individuals were incubated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for in vitro kinetic measurements of the GI-Index. Furthermore, time course measurements of the GI-Index and CRP concentrations of 100 intensive care unit patients were performed. Results: The GI-Index correlated with the microscopic rating of TGNs (n=158; rs=0.839; p<0.0001). When incubating the blood samples with LPS, the neutrophils displayed hypogranulation 30 min after incubation and a hypergranulation after 90 min. In vivo, the GI-Index indicated changes of the bacterial infection status 1 day earlier than the CRP concentration. The correlation of CRP and GI-Index varied between the patient cohorts (n=158; rs=0.836) (n=100; r=0.177), depending on the cause and extent of inflammation. Conclusions: The GI-Index is suited to quantify the granularity of TGNs. The GI-Index is an automated, standardized parameter available on a 24 h basis. We suggest that it replace the time-consuming, subjective and semiquantitative microscopic procedure.
MATHEMATICS ANXIETY AND MATHEMATICAL SELF-CONCEPT: CONSIDERATIONS IN PREPARING ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL TEACHERS

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of type of educational system and years spent in teacher education programs on preservice teachers’ mathematics anxiety and mathematical self-concept scores. The sample consisted of 234 American and 276 Turkish early childhood and elementary school preservice teachers. The Abbreviated Mathematics Anxiety Scale (AMAS; Hopko, 2003) was used to measure how anxious preservice teachers feel during a specific mathematics related event. In order to measure the mathematical self-concept of preservice teachers, the Experience with Mathematics Questionnaire (EMQ; Gourgey, 1982) was used. Regarding the effect of the educational system, results revealed that while the American preservice teachers had significantly higher anxiety scores, Turkish preservice teachers had significantly higher self-concept scores. Results supported previous findings emphasizing the negative relationship between mathematical anxiety and mathematical self-concept.
Comparison off Sympathetic Nerve Activity in Normotensive and Hypertensive Subjects

A microneurographic technique was used to record multiunit sympathetic activity in skin and muscle nerves of 24 healthy subjects and 21 hypertensive subjects. In both groups, the sympathetic activity recorded during rest appeared in bursts following one of two highly different temporal patterns—one characteristic for muscle nerves and the other characteristic for skin nerves. Muscle nerve sympathetic activity probably consisting of vasoconstrictor impulses, occurred in bursts that followed the pulse rhythm and waxed and waned in inverse relation to spontaneous blood pressure fluctuations. Transient random elevations of blood pressure above a certain level caused total suppression of the sympathetic bursts. This inhibitory blood pressure level was higher in hypertensive subjects than it was in normotensive subjects, suggesting an elevated baroreflex working range in hypertension. No other important differences in muscle nerve sympathetic activity were noted between the two groups. Skin nerve sympathetic activity, probably consisting of both vasoconstrictor and sudomotor impulses, had a similar temporal pattern in normotensive and hypertensive subjects at rest: bursts of variable duration occurred randomly or were loosely related to the respiratory rhythm. In both groups of subjects, the strength of this activity increased in response to arousal stimuli, mental stress, and body cooling. These findings emphasize the necessity of having highly standardized experimental conditions in future studies aimed at a quantitative comparison of the absolute strength of sympathetic activity in normotensive and hypertensive subjects.
Home Furlough Program Effects On Rates of Recidivism

In an effort to evaluate the effectiveness of the furlough program as a correctional device, an analysis of rates of recidivism for individuals released from Massachusetts' state correctional institutions in the years 1973 and 1974 was conducted. The following research question was addressed: are inmates who experience one or more furloughs during the term of their incarceration less likely to be reincarcerated within one year of their eventual release from prison than are similar types of inmates who do not participate in the furlough program during the period of their incarceration? Selection factors were controlled via the use of Base Expectancy Tables. Analysis of the data indicated that the participation in the Home Furlough Program led to a significant reduction in recidivism rates. The data were interpreted as providing preliminary evidence that the use of furlough programs during the period of incarceration provides a positive reintegrative function. It was concluded that programmatic contributions to the process of societal reintegration can be effective devices for reducing the repeated criminal behavior of the prison releasee.
Exacerbation of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in mice deficient for DCIR, an inhibitory C-type lectin receptor

Dendritic cell immunoreceptor (DCIR) is a C-type lectin receptor containing a carbohydrate recognition domain in its extracellular portion and an immunoreceptor tyrosine–based inhibitory motif, which transduces negative signals into cells, in its cytoplasmic portion. Previously, we showed that Dcir–/– mice spontaneously develop autoimmune diseases such as enthesitis and sialadenitis due to excess expansion of dendritic cells (DCs), suggesting that DCIR is critically important for the homeostasis of the immune system. In this report, we analyzed the role of DCIR in the development of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an autoimmune disease model for multiple sclerosis. We found that EAE was exacerbated in Dcir–/– mice associated with severe demyelination of the spinal cords. The number of infiltrated CD11c+ DCs and CD4+ T cells into spinal cords was increased in Dcir–/– mice. Recall proliferative response of lymph node cells was higher in Dcir–/– mice compared with wild-type mice. These observations suggest that DCIR is an important negative regulator of the immune system, and Dcir–/– mice should be useful for analyzing the roles of DCIR in an array of autoimmune diseases.
Prevalence of STI related consultations in general practice: results from the second Dutch National Survey of General Practice.

BACKGROUND The role of the GP in the care of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is unclear. AIM We studied the prevalence of STI related consultations in Dutch general practice in order to obtain insight into the contribution of the GP in STI control. DESIGN OF STUDY A descriptive study. SETTING The study took place within the framework of the second Dutch National Survey of General Practice in 2001, a large nationally representative population-based survey. METHOD During 1 year, data of all patient contacts with the participating GPs were recorded in electronic medical records. Contacts for the same health problem were clustered into disease episodes and their diagnosis coded according to the International Classification of Primary Care. All STI and STI related episodes were analysed. RESULTS In total, 1 524 470 contacts of 375 899 registered persons in 104 practices were registered during 1 year and 2460 STI related episodes were found. The prevalence rate of STI was 39 per 10 000 persons and of STI/HIV related questions 23 per 10 000. More than half of all STIs were found in highly urbanised areas and STIs were overrepresented in deprived areas. Three quarters of all STIs diagnosed in the Netherlands are made in general practice. An important number of other reproductive health visits in general practice offer opportunities for meaningful STI counselling and tailored prevention. DISCUSSION GPs contribute significantly to STI control, see the majority of patients with STI related symptoms and questions and are an important player in STI care. In particular, GPs in urban areas and inner-city practices should be targeted for accelerated sexual health programmes.
Contemporary capitalism : the embeddedness of institutions

Part I: 1. Coordination of economic actors and social systems of production Rogers Hollingsworth and Robert Boyer Part II: Introduction: the variety of institutional arrangements and their complementarity in modern economics Rogers Hollingsworth and Robert Boyer 2. The variety and unequal performance of markets Robert Boyer 3. A typology of cooperative interorganizational relationships and networks Jerald Hage and Catherine Alter 4. Weathering the storm: associational governance in a globalizing era William Coleman 5. Constitutional orders: trust building and response to change Charles F. Sabel Part III: Introduction: how and why do social systems of production change? Robert Boyer and Rogers Hollingsworth 6. Beneficial constraints: on the economic limits of rational voluntarism Wolfgang Streeck 7. Flexible specialization: theory and evidence in the analysis of industrial change 8. Globalization, variety and mass production: the metamorphosis of mass production in the new competitive age Benjamin Coriat 9. Continuities and changes in social systems of production: the cases of Japan, Germany, and the United States Rogers Hollingsworth Part IV: Introduction: levels of spatial coordination and the embeddedness of institutions Philippe Schmitter 10. Perspectives on globalization and economic coordination Wyn Grant 11. Globalization in question: international economic relations and forms of public governance Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson 12. The formation of international regimes in the absence of a Hegemon: clubs are trump Lorraine Eden and Fen Osler Hampson 13. The emerging Euro-polity and its impact upon national systems of production Philippe Schmitter Part V: Conclusion: from national embeddness to spatial and institutional nestedness Robert Boyer and Rogers Hollingsworth.
Positive affect facilitates the effect of a warning on false memory in the DRM paradigm

Increasing evidence that positive affect enhances associative processing has lent weight to the idea that positive affect increases false memory for information that is thematically interrelated. Using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, we examined whether mild positive affect facilitates monitoring processes in modulating false memory for associate words. When participants in the warned condition – in contrast to those in the unwarned condition – were overtly warned about possible false recognition of the critical lure, we found that positive affect, compared to neutral affect, significantly enhanced monitoring through a warning and reduced false recognition. Signal detection analyses suggest that when a warning is provided, positive affect enhances sensitivity to discriminate list items from critical lures, but it does not shift the overall decision criterion. Taken together, we conclude that positive affect facilitates the effect of a warning in reducing false memories for semantic associates.
H.M.'s Language Production Deficits: Implications for Relations between Memory, Semantic Binding, and the Hippocampal System ☆ ☆☆ ★

Abstract To test the claim that H.M. exhibits a “pure memory deficit” that has left his language production intact, we compared the language production of H.M. and controls in three studies. In Study 1, participants described the two meanings of visually presented sentences that they knew were ambiguous, and H.M. 's descriptions suggested a semantic-level production deficit: Relative to controls of comparable age, intelligence, and education, H.M. 's descriptions were significantly less effective, less clear, less concise, and more repetitious at lexical, phrase, and sentence levels of language production. In Study 2, naive judges rated H.M. 's descriptions as less grammatical, less comprehensible, and less coherent than descriptions of controls. Study 3 replicated these results for conversational speech about childhood events that occurred long before H.M. 's operation, his epilepsy, and his epilepsy treatments. Present results contradict stages of processing theories that localize H.M. 's deficit to a storage stage that is independent of processes for retrieving and producing verbal materials, and instead support a distributed-memory theory in which memory storage and retrieval involving verbal materials are inherent aspects of normal language production.
Public School Administrators and Technology Policy Making

Given little information about administrators' predilections toward participation in policy making, this study measured 256 midwestern principals' involvement in technology policy making at the building, district, state, and national levels. The study tested a conceptual model identifying influences on principals' involvement in technology policy making. Using hierarchical ordinary least squares regression analysis, administrators' disposition for participation set the stage for actual involvement at the building, district, and state levels. At the district, state, and national levels, involvement on a lower policy-making level was a strong predictor of involvement at a higher level. Principals' familiarity with the policy process was a predictor for involvement at the building level. Urban principals are less likely to become involved in technology policy making in their buildings and districts than suburban and rural principals are. Elementary principals are less likely to become involved in technology policy making than their high school and middle school counterparts.
Developmental Expectations of Personal Change for the Self and Others

This study extended what is known about self-other differences in expectations of personal change by further examining in-group favoritism and self-enhancing biases. Using a between-subject design, 100 adults (age range = 16-76 years) were asked to evaluate either themselves or an unknown other person of the same sex at one of 3 specified ages (20, 45, or 70 years) using a modified Aging Semantic Differential Scale (Rosencranz & McNevin, 1969). Although no evidence of in-group favoritism was observed, the results did reveal a self-enhancing bias for both Canadian and U.S. respondents: Evaluations of the self became more positive with increasing target age, and evaluations of others declined with increasing age. Finally, the between-subject design yielded results similar to those found with within-subjects designs. Unknown older targets were rated neutrally, suggesting a positive bias associated with younger targets rather than a negative bias toward older targets.
Effects of Self-concept Traits and Entrepreneurial Orientation on Firm Performance

This study examined relationships among three self-concept traits, entrepreneurial orientation, and firm performance using survey data from 96 entrepreneurs. We used path analysis to test the direct and indirect effects of the trait variables on perceptual measures of firm performance. Entrepreneurial orientation - operationalized to reflect the dimensions of innovativeness, proactiveness, and propensity to take risks - was used as the mediating variable for explaining the relationship between self-concept traits and firm performance. The results indicated that internal locus of control was positively related to firm performance, and entrepreneurial orientation did not play a mediating role in this relationship. In contrast, generalized self-efficacy had no direct effects on firm performance; however, it influenced firm performance positively through its effect on entrepreneurial orientation. Finally, self-attributed achievement motive was not significantly related to entrepreneurial orientation or firm performance. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Localization and Solubilization of the Iron(III) Reductase of Geobacter sulfurreducens

ABSTRACT The iron(III) reductase activity of Geobacter sulfurreducens was determined with the electron donor NADH and the artificial electron donor horse heart cytochrome c. The highest reduction rates were obtained with Fe(III) complexed by nitrilotriacetic acid as an electron acceptor. Fractionation experiments indicated that no iron(III) reductase activity was present in the cytoplasm, that approximately one-third was found in the periplasmic fraction, and that two-thirds were associated with the membrane fraction. Sucrose gradient separation of the outer and cytoplasmic membranes showed that about 80% of the iron(III) reductase was present in the outer membrane. The iron(III) reductase could be solubilized from the membrane fraction with 0.5 M KCl showing that the iron(III) reductase was weakly bound to the membranes. In addition, solubilization of the iron(III) reductase from whole cells with 0.5 M KCl, without disruption of cells, indicated that the iron(III) reductase is a peripheral protein on the outside of the outer membrane. Redox difference spectra of KCl extracts showed the presence of c-type cytochromes which could be oxidized by ferrihydrite. Only one activity band was observed in native polyacrylamide gels stained for the iron(III) reductase activity. Excision of the active band from a preparative gel followed by extraction of the proteins and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed the presence of high-molecular-mass, cytochrome-containing proteins in this iron(III) reductase activity band. From these experimental data it can be hypothesized that the iron(III) reductase of G. sulfurreducens is a peripheral outer membrane protein that might contain ac-type cytochrome.
Using Language Models for Text Classification

paper describes an approach to text classification using language models. This approach is a natural extension of the traditional Naive Bayes classifier, in which we replace the Laplace smoothing by some more sophisticated smoothing methods. In this paper, we tested four smoothing methods commonly used in information retrieval. Our experimental results show that using a language model, we are able to obtain better performance than traditional Naive Bayes classifier. In addition, we also introduce into the existing smoothing methods an additional factor of smoothing scale according to the amount of training data of the class, and this allows us to further improve the classification performance.
Involving Employers in Transition: The Bridges Model

FEDERAL POLICY INITIATIVES on school to work transition for youth with disabilities are entering their tenth year. From the start, transition has been envisioned as the process through which special education students move from school programs to employment (Will, 1983) and/or other aspects of adult citizenship (Halpern, 1985). By the end of the 1980s, considerable data had been generated; these data subsequently provided the foundation for passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990. Through its inclusion of school to adult life
Assessing the Prospects for Community-Based Wildlife Management: The Himalayan Musk Deer (Moschos chrysogaster) in Nepal

Community-based wildlife management has been the subject of debate in recent years. We argue for more ex ante assessments of community-based wildlife management to distinguish good prospects from poor ones. We develop a conceptual framework, the Collective Resource Management framework, to carry out such evaluations and apply it to a case study community in northeastern Nepal that involves live capture and extraction of musk from the endangered Himalayan musk deer (Moschos chrysogaster). We find that the case study presents a number of favorable conditions conducive to community-based wildlife management but with several serious limitations. For example, the Nepali government must be willing to allow this activity on a legal basis, because wildlife exploitation has not been allowed within national parks historically; however, there are signs this may be changing. More importantly, the presence of a strong tourism industry in the case study community makes alternative economic activities like musk extraction less attractive, in comparison to poorer regions of Nepal where there is no tourism. The Collective Resource Management evaluation approach shows promise as a structured method to check the viability of community-based wildlife management projects before they are initiated.
Australian core Catholic youth, Catholic schools and religious education

This paper reports on research on the attitudes of a differentiated sample of students to Catholic schools in general and religious education in particular. Core Catholic youth are described, following Fulton et al. (2000: Young Catholics at the New Millennium, Dublin, University College Press), as individuals who have an existing connection with the parish community. Some results that emerge from 58 in‐depth interviews with 14‐ and 15‐year‐old core Catholics are that they value their time in Catholic schools, feel that they are in a safe environment and are not well networked with others of a similar background. Attitudes to religious education by core Catholic youth are described as weak positive. Religious education is not unpopular but is not seen as a discipline that helps resolve some of the difficulties that they experience as young Catholics. These difficulties relate to trying to reconcile what they see as the conflict between the scientific and religious view of creation and many supernatural religious claims.