Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of a quality assurance program for quantitation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA in plasma by the AIDS Clinical Trials Group virology laboratories

A number of quantitative assays have been developed by using amplification techniques to measure human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA in the plasma of infected individuals. The Virology Committee of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group in the Division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has established a quality assurance program (QAP) for quantitative assays of HIV-1 RNA levels in plasma. The primary objective of the QAP was to ascertain that a laboratory could maintain the precision required to have a 90% power to detect a fivefold difference in RNA copy number between two samples in the same batch. To achieve this goal, the QAP required an intra-assay standard deviation of no greater than 0.15 log10 RNA copies per ml. Panels for proficiency testing consisted of coded replicate samples and a common set of standards. To date, 41 laboratories have participated in the program and have used both commercial and in-house assays. We demonstrated that 65% of the laboratories were capable of attaining the necessary level of intra-assay precision. The fitted regressions indicated that the differences among laboratories that used the same kit were generally greater than the differences among population-average regressions for the kits themselves. The use of an external QAP and a common set of standards reduced differences both among laboratories that used the same kit and among laboratories that used different kits. Thus, use of a common set of standards across clinical trial protocols would allow for cross-protocol comparisons.
The last refuge of media persuasion: news use, national pride and political trust in China

This study examines theoretical connections among three variables, each in its own way engendering profound political implications for the Chinese society today: news use, national pride, and political trust. We focused on the impact of ‘positivity bias in news’ and advanced a theoretical model on the basis of framing theory to address the dynamics of propaganda and its persuasive effects. Using data from the World Value Survey, we found: (1) news use in general, television news viewing in particular, was positively associated with political trust and national pride; (2) impact of news use on political trust disappeared once national pride was statistically controlled; and (3) intensity of national pride moderated the bivariate relationship between news use and political trust. The effect of party propaganda intended to consolidate political trust in China was contingent upon both one's affective ties to the state and the form of news media regularly consumed.
Modeling benefits from nature: using ecosystem services to inform coastal and marine spatial planning

People around the world are looking to marine ecosystems to provide additional benefits to society. As they consider expanding current uses and investing in new ones, new management approaches are needed that will sustain the delivery of the diverse benefits that people want and need. An ecosystem services framework provides metrics for assessing the quantity, quality, and value of benefits obtained from different portfolios of uses. Such a framework has been developed for assessments on land, and is now being developed for application to marine ecosystems. Here, we present marine Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST), a new tool to assess (i.e., map, model, and value) multiple services provided by marine ecosystems. It allows one to estimate changes in a suite of services under different management scenarios and to investigate trade-offs among the scenarios, including implications of drivers like climate. We describe key inputs and outputs of each of the component ecosystem service models and present results from an application to the West Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The results demonstrate how marine InVEST can be used to help shape the dialogue and inform decision making in a marine spatial planning context.
Incremental growth of therizinosaurian dental tissues: implications for dietary transitions in Theropoda

Previous investigations document functional and phylogenetic signals in the histology of dinosaur teeth. In particular, incremental lines in dentin have been used to determine tooth growth and replacement rates in several dinosaurian clades. However, to date, few studies have investigated the dental microstructure of theropods in the omnivory/herbivory spectrum. Here we examine dental histology of Therizinosauria, a clade of large-bodied theropods bearing significant morphological evidence for herbivory, by examining the teeth of the early-diverging therizinosaurian Falcarius utahensis, and an isolated tooth referred to Suzhousaurus megatherioides, a highly specialized large-bodied representative. Despite attaining some of the largest body masses among maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs, therizinosaurian teeth are diminutive, measuring no more than 0.90 cm in crown height (CH) and 0.38 cm in crown base length (CBL). Comparisons with other theropods and non-theropodan herbivorous dinosaurs reveals that when controlling for estimated body mass, crown volume in therizinosaurians plots most closely with dinosaurs of similar dietary strategy as opposed to phylogenetic heritage. Analysis of incremental growth lines in dentin, observed in thin sections of therizinosaurian teeth, demonstrates that tooth growth rates fall within the range of other archosaurs, conforming to hypothesized physiological limitations on the production of dental tissues. Despite dietary differences between therizinosaurians and hypercarnivorous theropods, the types of enamel crystallites present and their spatial distribution—i.e., the schmelzmuster of both taxa—is limited to parallel enamel crystallites, the simplest form of enamel and the plesiomorphic condition for Theropoda. This finding supports previous hypotheses that dental microstructure is strongly influenced by phylogeny, yet equally supports suggestions of reduced reliance on oral processing in omnivorous/herbivorous theropods rather than the microstructural specializations to diet exhibited by non-theropodan herbivorous dinosaurs. Finally, although our sample is limited, we document a significant reduction in the rate of enamel apposition contrasted with increased relative enamel thickness between early and later diverging therizinosaurians that coincides with anatomical evidence for increased specializations to herbivory in the clade.
A remark on secret-key generation over correlated fading channels

We study secret-key agreement with public discussion over a flat-fading wiretap channel model. The fading gains are correlated across the receivers and sampled independently at each time. Perfect receiver channel state information (CSI) is assumed, whereas a noisy CSI of the main channel is also available to the transmitter. We propose lower and upper bounds on the capacity. Our lower bound is achieved by a coding scheme that involves a separate binning of the receiver CSI sequence and its channel output sequence. In general it improves upon the joint-binning schemes considered in earlier works. Our upper and lower bounds coincide, establishing the capacity, when either the transmitter has no CSI or when the channel gains of the legitimate receiver and the eavesdropper are statistically independent.
Health locus of control and value for health as predictors of dietary behaviour

Measures of health locus of control, value for health and frequency of consumption of a variety of food items were measured in a representative population of 13,045 respondents. Consumption of healthier foods was greatest amongst respondents with higher internal locus of control and value for health scores, while consumption of less healthy food items was higher amongst those with low value for health and high chance locus of control scores. Interactions between health locus of control dimensions and value for health added little to the variance of frequency of food consumption explained. The implications of these results for explanatory models of dietary behaviour and for future research are discussed.
Personalised learning: lessons to be learnt

Personalised learning is now broadly endorsed as a key strategy to improve student curricular engagement and academic attainment, but there is also strong critique of this construct. We review claims made for this approach, as well as concerns about its conceptual coherence and effects on different learner cohorts. Drawing on literature around differentiation of the curriculum, self-regulated learning, and ‘relational agency’ we propose a framework for conceptualising and enacting this construct. We then report on an attempt to introduce personalised learning as one strategy, among several, to improve student academic performance and wellbeing in four low SES regional secondary schools in Australia. We report on a survey of 2407 students’ perceptions of the extent to which their school provided a personalised learning environment, and a case study of a programme within one school that aimed to apply a personalised approach to the mathematics curriculum. We found that while there were ongoing challenges in this approach, there was also evidence of success in the mathematics case.
Who Blinks First ? Legislative Patience and Bargaining with Governors

When legislators and governors clash over the size of American state government, what strategic factors determine who wins? Efforts to address this question have traditionally relied upon setter models borrowed from the congressional literature and have predicted legislative dominance. We offer an alternative simplification of state budget negotiations that follows the “staring match” logic captured by dividethe-dollar games. Our model predicts that governors will often be powerful but that professional legislatures can stand up to the executives when long legislative sessions give them the patience to endure a protracted battle over the size of the budget. In this article, we present our analysis of an original dataset comprising gubernatorial budget proposals and legislative enactments in the states from 1989 through 2004. The results indicate strong empirical support for our predictions.
Prevalence of some foodborne pathogens in meat products in Romania

An updated data analysis in the changing foodborne pathogens evolution in Romania and improvements in food chain traceability is provided for comparison with trends in the context of global food trade. This report represents a monitoring plan from 2013-2014, that was used to assess the prevalence of some foodborne pathogens from different meat (bovine, sheep, goat, pork, chicken, turkey carcasses, raw and ground meats) belonging to the intensive animal breeding farms, slaughterhouses and retail markets. A number of 41190 meat samples were collected from four different areas of Romania and examined. The foodborne pathogens Salmonella sp. , Escherichia coli Biotype I, Escherichia coli serotype O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, coagulase-positive Staphylococcus sp. were studied. Salmonella sp. isolates proved to be resistant to 7 out of the tested 17 antibiotics. The prevalence of E. coli Biotype I was the highest in the investigated samples (1.14%), while for L. monocytogenes was 0.38%, and none of the tested products was positive for Escherichia coli VTEC O157:H7 and coagulase-positive Staphylococcus sp.
“With God in our lives he gives us the strength to carry on”: African Nova Scotian women, spirituality, and racism-related stress

This mixed-methods study explored the racism-related experiences of 50 mid-life African-heritage women living in Nova Scotia, Canada, along with their use of spirituality as a coping strategy for dealing with racism-related stress. Four standardised instruments, along with qualitative in-depth interviews, were used to examine women's experiences of racism, depression, stress, and spirituality. Spirituality provided a key coping mechanism for racism-related stress, providing church community, spiritual community, faith, guidance, a personal relationship with God, and a source of meaning-making. For some women, spiritual belief provided a means of cognitive reinterpretation, allowing them to make sense of racism and other life challenges, recasting these as tests and trials which they were capable of surmounting with God's blessing and protection. Implications for mental health practitioners include working with spiritual and religious venues to help lessen stigma against mental health problems.
Real Teaching and Real Learning vs Narrative Myths about Education

All real classrooms are saturated in the fictional narratives about education from TV and movies that swirl about thickly and persistently in western culture, yet the influence that these fictions exert on real teachers and real students is seldom examined. This article argues that since these fictional narratives nearly always deal in recycled stereotypes of both students and teachers, and that since these stereotypes are both ubiquitous and compelling, and that since they seldom receive critical attention, the influence they exert on real teachers and real students is to mislead, confuse, and impoverish their evaluations of and expectations about the nature of genuine education.
An Estimating Model of Node Accesses for INN Search Algorithm in Multidimensional Spaces

Nearest Neighbor (NN) search has been widely used in spatial databases and multimedia databases. Incremental NN (INN) search is regarded as the optimal NN search because of the minimum number of node accesses and it can be used no mat- ter whether the number of objects to be retrieved is xed or not in advance. R*-tree is still regarded as being among the best high-dimensional indices. This paper presents an analytical model for estimating per- formance of the INN search algorithm on R*-tree. For the rst time, our model takes m (the number of neighbor objects reported nally), n (database cardi- nality) and d (dimensionality) as parameters, focus- ing on the number of node accesses. In our model, (1) the two key factors of dm (distance from the m-th NN object to the query point) and h (side length of each node) are estimated using their upper bounds and their lower bounds, which is very helpful to ef- fectiveness of our model; (2) the particularity on the number of entries in the root node and the possible dierence of fanouts between the leaf nodes and the other nodes are taken into account. The theoretical analysis is veried by experiments.
Shooting War Or Peace Photographs? An Examination of Newswires’ Coverage of the Conflict in Gaza (2008-2009)

According to Galtung, a peace journalism frame is one that highlights peace initiatives and tones down differences by promoting conflict resolution. A war journalism frame, in his view, is one that highlights differences between opposing parties, urging violence as means to a resolution. Thus, based on the above classification of these two competing frames of war coverage, this is one of the first studies to empirically test the model via a visual quantitative analysis. Using news photographs, this study analyzes the extent to which the Gaza War (2008-2009) was represented as war versus peace journalism in the three leading Western newswires (Associated Press, Reuters, and AFP/Getty Images). Findings indicate that all three wires combined provided a variety of visual frames to communicate a comprehensive coverage of the event. This observed pattern therefore highlights the role of gatekeeping in providing a broad-based understanding of conflicts. In other words, it becomes crucial to note that photo selections in terms of war versus peace journalism ultimately has an impact in shaping public opinion and influencing perceptions of news events. Furthermore, from a theoretical standpoint, this work expands the classification of war versus peace journalism by operationalizing these frames into concrete pictorial patterns from a visual communication perspective.
Work, leisure, and psychological well-being in a sample of young adults

This study of 20 ‘white-collar’ workers aged 20–30 measured motivation, enjoyment and access to various categories of experience in both work and leisure, and examined their relationship with psychological well-being on a number of dimensions. The method used a short questionnaire, psychological scales and the innovatory ‘experience sampling methodology’ (ESM) where respondents answer questions in a diary on the receipt of a signal from a pre-programmed watch or radio pager eight times a day for 1 week. The results show, in line with other studies, that intrinsic motivation in daily life is correlated with happiness but that, not previously reported, when motivation at work is examined both extrinsic motivation and instances where a person had to do the activity but did not wish to be doing something else, i.e. ‘positive motivational change’, are correlated with positive aspects of psychological well-being, while instances where a person wanted to do the activity but wished to be doing something else, i.e. ‘negative motivational change’, correlated with negative aspects. The results also show that enjoyment in both work and leisure correlates with aspects of psychological wellbeing; and that macro ‘flow’ experiences, where high skills and high challenges are perceived as equal, are enjoyable and interesting and come primarily from work. The study also shows that categories of experience considered important for psychological well-being and deemed to come primarily from work can be obtained in leisure. The results are discussed in the context of person—situation interactions and processes, and it is advocated that these should be studied in a variety of samples.
Retrospective Review of Critically Ill Patients Experiencing Alcohol withdrawal: Dexmedetomidine versus Propofol and/or Lorazepam Continuous Infusions

Background Alcohol withdrawal symptoms can be difficult to manage and may lead to an intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Patients experiencing severe alcohol withdrawal often require high doses of sedatives, which can lead to respiratory depression and the need for endotracheal intubation. Dexmedetomidine, an alpha-2 adrenoreceptor agonist, provides adequate sedation with little effect on respiratory function when compared to other sedatives. Objective To evaluate sedation with a continuous infusion of dexmedetomidine versus propofol and/or lorazepam in critically ill patients experiencing alcohol withdrawal. Methods A retrospective chart review was conducted on ICU admissions between March 2002 and April 2009 for alcohol withdrawal patients who necessitated treatment with a continuous infusion of dexmedetomidine, propofol, and/or lorazepam. Primary outcomes included the incidence of mechanical ventilation, length of mechanical ventilation (if applicable), and ICU and hospital length of stay. Results Fifteen patients were treated with a continuous infusion of dexmedetomidine, and 17 were treated with an infusion of propofol and/or lorazepam. Two patients (13.3%) required intubation and mechanical ventilation in the dexmedetomidine group versus 10 (58.8%) in the propofol and/or lorazepam group (P = .006). Length of stay in the ICU was 53 hours for patients treated with dexmedetomidine versus 114.9 hours in the propofol and/or lorazepam group (P = .016). Hospital length of stay was less for the dexmedetomidine group, 135.8 hours versus 241.1 hours in the propofol and/or lorazepam group (P = .008). Conclusions Dexmedetomidine use was associated with a decrease in the incidence of endotracheal intubation when used to sedate patients experiencing alcohol withdrawal. Patients transferred to a lower level of care faster and were discharged from the hospital sooner when treated with dexmedetomidine.
Cross-National Survey Designs

Valid and reliable cross-national estimates of rape are needed to more fully understand the extent and nature of these victimizations. Methodological issues that compromise the integrity of cross-national comparisons of self-report survey data have been identified. These issues have neither been systematically addressed, nor is there a consensus as to how to correct them. This article examines the effects that the definition and operationalization of rape have on completed and attempted rape estimates from the National Violence Against Women Survey in the United States and the Swiss component of the International Violence Against Women Survey. Survey design issues related to operationalizing the victim-offender relationship and its effect on rape estimates are discussed. Cross-national rape estimates with and without addressing the comparability issues are presented. The implications for engaging in comparative rape research are also discussed.
Classification and launch-impact point prediction of ballistic target via multiple model maximum likelihood estimator (MM-MLE)

The paper deals with the problems of (i) launch and impact point prediction (LPP, IPP) of ballistic targets (BT) and (ii) BT classification by processing measurements acquired either by 3D surveillance or multifunctional phased-array radars. It is assumed that the radar acquires a limited number of measurements (plots) that do not encompass the whole target trajectory; thus, the established target track has to be extrapolated ahead in time in order to predict the coordinates of the impact point. A procedure based on multiple model maximum likelihood estimator (MM-MLE) has been conceived and tested using a Monte Carlo simulation approach; the parameters selected for testing are the probability of BT correct classification (Pcc), the IPP and the LPP. The new procedure is compared with the estimator described in A. Farina et al. (2004).
The Move Towards Managerialism: Perceptions of staff in “traditional” and “new” UK universities

The raison d’être of higher education institutions is to educate individuals, undertake research, and disseminate knowledge into the public domain. Changing values and norms in HEIs, partly as a product of “managerialism”, as well as increased competition for funding and other environmental factors, have moved autonomous institutions towards more business-like and private-sector ideals. These factors have different effects on the different “traditional” and “new” universities that operate within the higher education sector in the UK. This paper utilises the results of a UK survey of universities to determine the impact of these changes in universities. Results of a quantitative survey indicate that staff members in “traditional” universities feel strongly pressured to be research-recognised but that academic decisions are made by academics, whilst “new” universities viewed higher education as a business. Interestingly, both groups felt pressured to improve student numbers.