Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Indigenous Engagement in Tropical River Research in Australia: The TRaCK Program

The literature on scientific-Indigenous ecological knowledge collaborations rarely analyses programmatic efforts undertaken by multi-disciplinary research groups over very large geographic scales. The TRaCK (Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge) research program was established to provide the science and knowledge needed by governments, industries, and communities to sustainably manage northern Australia's rivers and estuaries. A number of policies and procedures were developed to ensure that the needs of Indigenous people of the multi-jurisdictional region were addressed and to enhance the benefits they might derive from participating in the research. An overarching Indigenous Engagement Strategy undergirded the program's engagement activities, providing guidance on matters relating to the protection of intellectual property, negotiation of research agreements, remuneration for Indigenous expertise, and communications standards. This article reviews the achievements and shortcomings of the TRaCK experience of Indigenous engagement and highlights lessons for researchers and research organisations contemplating applied environmental science initiatives of this scale and scope.
Wie genau können Mütter die Mathematik- und Sprachleistungen ihrer Kinder einschätzen?

Es wurde gepruft, wie genau Mutter die Mathematik- und Sprachleistungen ihrer 6- bis 10-jahrigen Kinder (N = 382) einzuschatzen vermogen. Die mutterliche Einschatzung wurde verglichen mit der Testleistung in den Intelligence and Development Scales (IDS). Die Einschatzungen der Mutter korrelierten substantiell positiv mit den Testleistungen der Kinder. Mutter uberschatzten die Leistungen der Kinder. Die Mutter schatzten die Mathematikleistungen von Jungen hoher ein als jene von Madchen, wogegen sie die Deutschleistungen von Madchen hoher einschatzten als jene von Jungen. Gemessen an den Testleistungen wurden Madchen und Jungen von den Muttern gleich haufig uber-, unter- und genau eingeschatzt. Die vorliegenden Resultate bestatigen die Uberschatzung seitens der Eltern, welche in der Literatur zu allgemeinen Entwicklungsbereichen haufig berichtet und wiederholt repliziert wurde. Mit dieser Untersuchung kann dieses Wissen auf die schulischen Leistungsfacher erweitert werden.
Mood as a predictor of disability and survival in patients newly diagnosed with ALS/MND

Objectives. To investigate whether poor psychological status predicts shorter survival, faster progress of disease and greater disabiliry in patients with ALS/MND (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neurone disease). Design. A prospective study of mood as a predictor of 6-month outcome in a consecutive cohort of patients with ALS/MND. Methods. A cohort of 38 consecutive patients completed mood, self-esteem, well-being and disability measures at the time of diagnosis and 6 weeks later. Survival and disability were assessed at 6 months. Results. The 10 patients who died had poorer overall mood at the 6-week interviews. Low mood early in disease also predicted greater disability at 6 months. The poor outcomes of patients with poor psychological well-being were not due to confounding associations between mood and disease severity. Conclusions. The data confirm McDonald, Weidenfeld, Hillel, Carpenter & Walter's (1994) finding that poor psychological status predicts poor survival in ALS/MND. This study also extend their findings by (a) recruiting patients at the point of diagnosis and therefore controlling for effects due to the duration of disease, and (b) demonstrating that mood also predicts disease progression and disability. The findings are unlikely to be due to simple spurious association of the psychological status measures with recognized indices of disease or of expected survival. Explanations for the results can be considered in the context of other findings of mood predicting outcomes of life-threatening disease and the possible value of psychological interventions may be considered.
From Sign to Print: A Case Study of Picture Book “Reading” between Mother and Child

Early introduction (e.g. reading aloud and sharing a book as focus of attention) greatly aids the acquisition of literacy but for hearing parents of a deaf child these ploys do not come easily We have looked carefully at the practice of one hard- of-hearing mother with her three and one-half year old son and have identified fourteen strategies, in four large categories, that she uses. These seem likely to promote his future reading success, and some of them may also be useful for hearing parents with deaf children.
Connotative Meanings of Student Performance Labels Used in Standard Setting

The purpose of this study was to investigate the connotation of performance labels used in standard setting. For example, do the performance labels basic, proficient, and advanced hold different connotations than limited knowledge, satisfactory, and distinguished? If these terms hold different connotations, such differences may play a role in the standard-setting process. A nationally representative sample of participants (n = 167) provided connotation ratings to an online instrument containing an experimental manipulation. Results suggested that the selected terms themselves do hold different connotations. After definitions were provided with the terms, the differences in the evaluative nature of the labels were mitigated. However, some differences remained; the term limited knowledge was persistently perceived as less favorable than basic and apprentice, and satisfactory was persistently perceived as less favorable than proficient.
Autologous Matrix-Induced Chondrogenesis: A Systematic Review of the Clinical Evidence

Background: The addition of a type I/III collagen membrane in cartilage defects treated with microfracture has been advocated for cartilage repair, termed “autologous matrix-induced chondrogenesis” (AMIC). Purpose: To examine the current clinical evidence regarding AMIC for focal chondral defects. Study Design: Systematic review. Methods: A systematic review was performed by searching PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Cochrane Library databases. Inclusion criteria were clinical studies of AMIC for articular cartilage repair, written in English. Relative data were extracted and critically analyzed. PRISMA guidelines were applied, the methodological quality of the included studies was assessed by the modified Coleman Methodology Score (CMS), and aggregate data were generated. Results: Twenty-eight clinical articles were included: 12 studies (245 patients) of knee cartilage defects, 12 studies (214 patients) of ankle cartilage defects, and 4 studies (308 patients) of hip cartilage defects. The CMS demonstrated a suboptimal study design in the majority of published studies (knee, 57.8; ankle, 55.3; hip, 57.7). For the knee, 1 study reported significant clinical improvements for AMIC compared with microfracture for medium-sized cartilage defects (mean defect size 3.6 cm2) after 5 years (level of evidence, 1). No study compared AMIC with matrix-assisted autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) in the knee. For the ankle, no clinical trial was available comparing AMIC versus microfracture or ACI. In the hip, only one analysis (level of evidence, 3) compared AMIC with microfracture for acetabular lesions. For medium-sized acetabular defects, one study (level of evidence, 3) found no significant differences between AMIC and ACI at 5 years. Specific aspects not appropriately discussed in the currently available literature include patient-related factors, membrane fixation, and defect properties. No treatment-related adverse events were reported. Conclusion: This systematic review reveals a paucity of high-quality, randomized controlled studies testing the AMIC technique versus established procedures such as microfracture or ACI. Evidence is insufficient to recommend joint-specific indications for AMIC. Additional nonbiased, high-powered, randomized controlled clinical trials will provide better clinical and structural long-term evidence, thus helping to define possible indications for this technique.
Motivational Biases in Causal Attributions of Arousal

Snyder's attribute-ambiguity theory proposes that people sometimes seek ambiguity rather than clarity as to their behavior and the motives behind it. They do this to avoid learning something about themselves that they may not wish to i know, in other words, because of ego-defensiveness. Consistent with this reasoning, in the current research it was hypothesized that the desire to seek ambiguity as to the cause of a particular state of arousal will increase if either that arousal state or its source is potentially threatening to self-esteem. To test this hypothesis, two studies were run. In the first experiment, high- and low-sex-guilt male subjects were shown either an arousing erotic movie or a nonarousing movie; in the second experiment high- and low-guilt females were led to believe that they were very aroused by pictures of nude men. Ambiguity was introduced into both situations by means of a bogus, nonthreatening, alternative arousal source (a placebo). Results indicated that high-guilt subjects were actively involved in the process of determining which source was arousing them. More importantly, this involvement appeared to be motivated by ego-defensiveness. In both experiments, when high-guilt subjects were confronted by an erotic stimulus, they chose to attribute arousal to the bogus source—and thus create ambiguity as to the actual cause and nature of their arousal—more than did the low-guilt subjects.
Gender and Ethnicity: Patterns of Electoral Success and Legislative Advocacy Among Latina and Latino State Officials in Four States

SUMMARY In this article we examine the patterns of gendered representation and related legislative advocacy within Latino delegations to four state legislatures in the Southwest. Most agree that one of the most significant changes in American politics in the post-civil rights era is the increasing election of women and people of color, but there is less agreement about the magnitude, consistency, and impact of this representation. Moreover, little is known about how these patterns vary by state. First, we examine the patterns of gendered and ethnic election in the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas from 1990–2004. We find considerable variation across these states, relative to both women and Latinos, but the presence of Latinas within the Latino/a delegation has noticeably increased across all the states and at a rate that outpaces the increase in women in the legislatures overall. Second, using original survey data supplemented with elite interviews, we explore perceived differences in the representational priorities and related behaviors, issue agendas, and policy successes between Latinas and Latino men. We find a number of similarities but also find distinct differences that reveal Latinas place greater emphasis on representing the interests of multiple minority groups, promoting conflict resolution, and building consensus in both the legislature as a whole and within the Latino caucus. Latinas also are more likely than Latino men to introduce and successfully pass legislation that addresses the issue agenda held by both Latina and Latino legislators.
Development and initial validation of the Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I).

BACKGROUND There is a need for a measure of fear of falling that assesses both easy and difficult physical activities and social activities and is suitable for use in a range of languages and cultural contexts, permitting direct comparison between studies and populations in different countries and settings. OBJECTIVE To develop a modified version of the Falls Efficacy Scale to satisfy this need, and to establish its psychometric properties, reliability, and concurrent validity (i.e. that it demonstrates the expected relationship with age, falls history and falls risk factors). DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Community sample. METHOD 704 people aged between 60 and 95 years completed The Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I) either in postal self-completion format or by structured interview. RESULTS The FES-I had excellent internal and test-retest reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.96, ICC=0.96). Factor analysis suggested a unitary underlying factor, with two dimensions assessing concern about less demanding physical activities mainly in the home, and concern about more demanding physical activities mainly outside the home. The FES-I had slightly better power than the original FES items to discriminate differences in concern about falling between groups differentiated by sex, age, occupation, falls in the past year, and falls risk factors (chronic illness, taking multiple or psychoactive medications, dizziness). CONCLUSIONS The FES-I has close continuity with the best existing measure of fear of falling, excellent psychometric properties, and assesses concerns relating to basic and more demanding activities, both physical and social. Further research is required to confirm cross-cultural and predictive validity.
Influencing expert judgment: Attributions of crime causality

Purpose: The present research aimed to investigate the effects of attribution on expert clinical judgment in comparison to semi-experts and lay-people. Two research questions were addressed. Firstly, would experts be less subject to attributional manipulations, in terms of their perceived ratings of dangerousness, than would semi-experts or lay-people? Second, would experts be less subject to attributional manipulations, in terms of their assessments of offender responsibility, than would semi-experts or lay-people? Method: A 3x3x2 mixed groups design was implemented. Participants read nine crime scenarios that had been internally or externally manipulated. For each scenario, participants were asked to rate offender dangerousness, offender responsibility and the seriousness of the crime and to suggest a suitable sentence length. Targeted recruitment was employed, yielding 12 experts, 21 semi-experts and 22 lay-people. Results: Offenders were considered to be more responsible for their actions and more dangerous to others in the internal manipulations than in the external ones across all crime types and by all levels of expertise. Findings indicate that semi-experts are less subject to the influence of attributional manipulations than both experts and lay-people. Marked similarities in the pattern of expert and lay-person judgments can be observed from the present analyses Conclusions: The current findings lend support to previous research in the area in that similarities between expert and lay-person judgment were observed. However, through expanding and clarifying the levels of expertise investigated, the current findings highlight the need for greater research into the distinct ‘semi-expert’ group.
Swift and XMM-Newton observations of the dark GRB 050326

We present Swift and XMM- Newton observations of the bright gamma-ray burst GRB 050326, detected by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. The Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and XMM- Newton discovered the X-ray afterglow beginning 54 min and 8.5 h after the burst, respectively. The prompt GRB 050326 fluence was $(7.7\pm0.9) \times 10^{-6}$ erg cm -2 (20–150 keV), and its spectrum was hard, with a power law photon index $\Gamma = 1.25 \pm 0.03$. The X-ray afterglow was quite bright, with a flux of $7 \times 10^{-11}$ erg cm -2 s -1 (0.3–8 keV), 1 h after the burst. Its light curve did not show any break nor flares between ${\sim} 1$ h and ${\sim} 6$ d after the burst, and decayed with a slope $\alpha = 1.70\pm0.05$. The afterglow spectrum is well fitted by a power-law model, suffering absorption both in the Milky Way and in the host galaxy. The rest-frame hydrogen column density is significant, $N_{{\rm H},z} \ga 4 \times 10^{21}$ cm -2 , and the redshift of the absorber was constrained to be $z > 1.5$. There was good agreement between the spatial, temporal, and spectral parameters as derived by Swift -XRT and XMM- Newton . By comparing the prompt and afterglow fluxes, we found that an early break probably occurred before the beginning of the XRT observation, similarly to many other cases observed by Swift . However, the properties of the GRB 050326 afterglow are well described by a spherical fireball expanding in a uniform external medium, so a further steepening is expected at later times. The lack of such a break allowed us to constrain the jet half-opening angle $\vartheta_{\rm j} \ga 7\degr$. Using the redshift constraints provided by the X-ray analysis, we also estimated that the beaming-corrected gamma-ray energy was larger than $3 \times 10^{51}$ erg, at the high end of GRB energies. Despite the brightness in X rays, only deep limits could be placed by Swift -UVOT at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. Thus, this GRB was a “truly dark” event, with the optical-to-X-ray spectrum violating the synchrotron limit. The optical and X-ray observations are therefore consistent either with an absorbed event or with a high-redshift one. To obey the Ghirlanda relation, a moderate/large redshift $z \ga 4.5$ is required.
Squamous cell carcinoma antigen: prognostic significance and role in the monitoring of neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in cervical cancer.

PURPOSE The aim of the study was to investigate the role of squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC) in the management of patients with locally advanced cervical cancer treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radical surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS SCC assay was performed with a radioimmunoassay kit in a series of 102 patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. The values of 2.5, 5, and 7 ng/mL were used to define SCC antigen positivity. The chi 2 and Fisher's exact test and the stepwise logistic regression were used to evaluate the distribution of marker values. Analysis of survival was performed using the Kaplan and Meier test and Cox multivariate regression analysis. RESULTS SCC levels were elevated in 65%, 45%, and 32% of patients with primary tumors for cutoff values of 2.5, 5, and 7 ng/mL, respectively. SCC pretreatment levels correlated with stage, tumor volume and lymph node status. In the multivariate analysis, SCC expression proved to be an independent predictor of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. SCC posttreatment levels were strongly related to chemotherapy response. Moreover, the overall correlation between the clinical course of the disease and the variation of SCC levels was 83%. In patients with squamous cell tumors, survival was significantly longer in SCC-negative cases compared with SCC-positive cases (P = .04). Moreover, in patients undergoing surgery after response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, low SCC values were associated with better prognosis (P = .02). In the multivariate analysis, parametrial involvement and SCC status proved to retain an independent prognostic value. CONCLUSION Our data show that SCC assay may provide useful information to improve the prognostic characterization and disease monitoring of patients with locally advanced cervical cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
More complex distribution models or more representative data

Distribution models for species are increasingly used to summarize species’ geography in conservation analyses. These models use increasingly sophisticated modeling techniques, but often lack detailed examination of the quality of the biological occurrence data on which they are based. I analyze the results of the best comparative study of the performance of different modeling techniques, which used pseudo-absence data selected at random. I provide an example of variation in model accuracy depending on the type of absence information used, showing that good model predictions depend most critically on better biological data.
Expanding Research on Decentering as Measured by the Portuguese Version of the Experiences Questionnaire

Abstract For long decentering has been regarded as a crucial process for well-being and health. Thus, reliable measures are needed to assess decentering. This study aimed at examining the psychometric characteristics of the Portuguese version of the Experiences Questionnaire (EQ), and to contribute to gather new evidence on the role of this particular measure of decentering on the well-known relationship between rumination and depressive symptoms. The EQ factorial structure was assessed through a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) conducted in 709 participants (66% women; 34% men). CFA’ results supported a 10-item solution (χ2/df = 2.62; CFI = .96; TLI = .95; RMSEA = .05, CI = .04 to .06) with high internal consistency (α = .81), test-retest reliability (r = .86; p < .010) and construct validity. Two path analyses were further conducted in a subsample exploring the indirect effect of rumination on depression through the mechanism of decentering as assessed by the specific measure of EQ, and by the non-specific measure of decentering TMS. Decentering, only when measured by EQ, significantly emerged as a mechanism through which the relationship between rumination and depressive symptoms also operates (R 2 = .22). Findings highlight the importance of using EQ as a specific measure of this transdiagnostic process in research and clinical settings.
Tumor necrosis factor‐α augmented tumor response in B16BL6 melanoma‐bearing mice treated with stealth liposomal doxorubicin (Doxil®) correlates with altered Doxil® pharmacokinetics

The application of tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF) for the treatment of solid tumors is limited by its severe, life‐threatening, toxicity. Therefore, only low dosages of this cytokine can be applied systemically, which results in poor tumor response. It has been demonstrated previously that administration of high‐dose TNF in a so‐called isolated perfusion system markedly improved tumor response when combined with chemotherapy. It appeared that TNF had a major impact specifically on the tumor‐associated vasculature. At these high concentrations, endothelial cell death is induced by TNF, resulting in complete collapse of the tumor vascular bed. Strikingly, this effect alone is not enough to induce a tumor response, but addition of a chemotherapeutic drug is mandatory to obtain an anti‐tumor effect. We showed that TNF has no anti‐tumor effect by itself but augmented drug accumulation mainly in the tumor, most likely by enhancing vascular leakage. It seems that enhanced vascular leakage, but not endothelial cell death, explains the interaction between TNF and the co‐administered drug. We hypothesized that in a low‐dose setting TNF could induce tumor accumulation of chemotherapeutic drugs and consequently improve tumor response. We demonstrate that free TNF has a strong effect on the pharmacokinetics of co‐administered Doxil® in B16BL6 melanoma‐bearing mice, resulting in strongly augmented drug accumulation in the tumor and improved tumor response. Co‐injection of Stealth® liposomal TNF with Doxil® resulted in comparable or less pronounced tumor responses as compared to free TNF. These results imply that systemic application of clinically tolerable doses of TNF may improve drug distribution and tumor response and could be useful in a number of anti‐cancer therapies. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.