Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LPA Brief no. 13. The spatial integration of livestock markets in Niger

Livestock makes an important contribution to the livelihood of Sahelian farmers and herders and is a source of self-insurance against income shocks. By allocating livestock efficiently over space, spatial market integration should foster a sustainable use of pasture resources. It is also expected to favour the sharing of risk across regions by smoothing idiosyncratic price variations. Using monthly livestock price data from Niger, we show that livestock markets are poorly integrated. Prices are seldom cointegrated, suggesting that large price differentials occasionally persist between adjacent areas for long periods of time. A parity bounds approach indicates that one has to assume high transportation costs and large quality variations to reconcile the data with efficient spatial arbitrage. These results confirm descriptive studies that have emphasised regional segmentation in West African livestock trade. Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.
Levodopa effect on [18F]fluorodopa influx to brain: normal volunteers and patients with Parkinson's disease

Objectives – Levodopa is the immediate precursor of dopamine and the substrate for DOPA decarboxylase, an enzyme subject to regulation in living brain. To test whether this regulation changes in disease, we used Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with parametric mapping to measure the effect of levodopa on the net clearance of [18F]fluorodopa to brain (K, ml/g/min).
The Effect of &bgr;-Hydroxy-&bgr;-Methylbutyrate on Aerobic Capacity and Body Composition in Trained Athletes

Abstract Durkalec-Michalski, K and Jeszka, J. The effect of &bgr;-hydroxy-&bgr;-methylbutyrate on aerobic capacity and body composition in trained athletes. J Strength Cond Res 30(9): 2617–2626, 2016—The aim of this study was to investigate whether supplementation with &bgr;-hydroxy-&bgr;-methylbutyrate (HMB) affects body composition, aerobic capacity, or intramuscular enzymes activity, as well as in anabolic and/or catabolic hormones and lactate concentrations. A cohort of 58 highly trained males was subjected to 12-week supplementation with HMB (3 × 1 gHMB·d−1) and a placebo (PLA) in randomized, PLA controlled, double-blind crossover trials, with a 10-day washout period. Body composition and aerobic capacity were recorded, whereas the levels of creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, testosterone, cortisol, and lactate, as well as the T/C ratio, in blood samples were measured. After HMB supplementation, fat-free mass increased (+0.2 kgHMB vs. −1.0 kgPLA, p = 0.021), with a simultaneous reduction of fat mass (−0.8 kgHMB vs. +0.8 kgPLA, p < 0.001). In turn, after HMB supplementation, in comparison to PLA, maximal oxygen uptake (V[Combining Dot Above][Combining Dot Above]O2max: +0.102 L·min−1 HMB vs. −0.063 L·min−1 PLA, p = 0.013), time to reach ventilatory threshold (VT) (TVT: +1.0 minHMB vs. −0.4 minPLA, p < 0.0001), threshold load at VT (WVT: +20 WHMB vs. −7 WPLA, p = 0.001), and the threshold heart rate at VT (HRVT: +8 b·min−1 HMB vs. −1 b·min−1 PLA, p < 0.0001) increased significantly. Analysis of the tested biochemical markers shows significant differences only in relation to the initial concentration. In HMB group, testosterone levels increased (p = 0.047) and in both groups (HMB: p = 0.008; PLA: p = 0.008) higher cortisol levels were observed. The results indicate that supplying HMB promotes advantageous changes in body composition and stimulates an increase in aerobic capacity, although seeming not to significantly affect the levels of the analyzed blood markers.
Ethnic Minorities and the Challenge of Police Recruitment

This article considers some of the barriers to ethnic minority recruitment into the police, as well as those factors that would encourage interest in a police officer career. In addition to reviewing recent policy, the article incorporates results from research conducted on behalf of one UK police force. The research revealed a considerable degree of hostility towards the police among some ethnic minority respondents, many of whom would never consider pursuing a police officer career. The importance of securing a fully representative police service has been emphasised by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, and the Macpherson Inquiry (1999) added urgency to this aim. To encourage police recruitment, it is concluded that the quality of service to local ethnic minority communities is probably as important as any special police recruitment campaign.
Cognitive and Metacognitive Aspects of Learning Disabled Adolescents' Composing Problems

This study investigated the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of writing problems in learning disabled adolescents. Twenty-one learning disabled eighth and eleventh graders constituted the target population. The comparison groups included 15 normally achieving eighth graders and a reading-age control group of 23 normally achieving sixth graders. The participants wrote two reportive essays and one argument essay, and answered a questionnaire designed to probe their metacognition about the writing process. Results indicated that normally achieving eighth graders consistently and clearly surpassed their learning disabled counterparts in both quality and quantity of essay writing. Adult judges rated normally achieving eighth graders' essays to be substantially more interesting, much clearer in communicating the goals, and to contain a substantially more felicitous word choice than those of learning disabled eighth and eleventh graders. Moreover, they wrote longer essays with much fewer spelling errors than learning disabled eighth and eleventh graders. Finally, they possessed more mature and articulate conceptions of the writing task, and were more aware of the relevance of planning and audience in writing. In striking contrast, the learning disabled eighth and eleventh graders were comparable to the normally achieving sixth graders in their performances across a broad front. This comparability occurred in the three categories of holistic ratings of essays (interestingness, clarity in communication of goals, and word choice), structural ratings of paragraphs, and metacognition about the writing process. Interestingly, learning disabled eighth and eleventh graders were superior to normally achieving sixth graders in length of essays. However, the consistent, broad picture was that the learning disabled adolescents performed at a very similar level to that of younger normally achieving children. These findings permit the conclusion that the learning disabled adolescents in this study showed a developmental delay in the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of writing.
Strong invariance principles with rate for "reverse" martingales and applications

In this paper, we obtain almost sure invariance principles with rate of order $n^{1/p}\log^\beta n$, $2< p\le 4$, for sums associated to a sequence of reverse martingale differences. Then, we apply those results to obtain similar conclusions in the context of some non-invertible dynamical systems. For instance we treat several classes of uniformly expanding maps of the interval (for possibly unbounded functions). A general result for $\phi$-dependent sequences is obtained in the course.
p53-dependent delayed effects of radiation vary according to time of irradiation of p53 + / − mice

We previously reported that in p53 + / − mice that had been given a whole-body dose of 3 Gy at 8 weeks of age, p53-dependent delayed effects of radiation, as manifested in T-cell receptor (TCR) variant fractions (VF) instability in mouse splenocytes, were biphasic, namely, induction of TCR-VF mutation reappeared at 44 weeks. The manifestation of the delayed effects and the measures of biological markers varied according to the timing of irradiation. We also reported that the decrease in function of the p53 gene was related to the effects of a delayed mutation. In the present study, we investigated the functions and mutations of the p53 gene in old age for p53 + / − mice following irradiation at various ages. p53 + / − mice were given a whole-body dose of 3 Gy at 8, 28 or 40 weeks of age. There were significant differences for all variables tested at 8 weeks of age. This was similarly the case for mice irradiated at 28 weeks of age, in which there were also significant differences in TCR VF and the percentage of apoptosis. In mice irradiated at 40 weeks of age, there were significant differences for all considered variables except for the p53 allele. We demonstrated that the different patterns of delayed mutation of the p53 gene at 56 weeks of age depended on the age at which mice had undergone 3-Gy whole-body irradiation. Our conclusions are limited to variation in p53-dependent delayed effects according to the time of irradiation.
Evaluation of a screening and prevention programme for diabetic foot complications

Foot complications in diabetes can be decreased by preventive measures. The authors evaluated the current diabetic foot screening and prevention programme of the diabetes outpatient clinic of their university hospital, by assessing the presence of risk factors for the development of foot disorders and the preventive measures taken. Fifty (50) diabetic patients not known to have foot complications were selected at random. Risk factors and preventive measures were inventarised with the Coleman risk-categorization system and the Preventive Measures Scale, respectively. Sixty per cent (60%) of the patients were at risk of developing diabetic foot complications. The preventive measures were low in these patients. Patient knowledge was insufficient and behaviour even worse. Basal preventive shoe adaptations were absent in most patients at risk. No relation between risk category and the preventional status was found. Cross-sectional examination at a university outpatient clinic showed serious risk profiles for foot complications, which were not balanced by the application of generally accepted preventive measures. At the outpatient clinic, screening should be optimised.
Perceptions of Registered Counsellor Efficacy

The registration category of the Registered Counsellor has resulted in on ongoing debate regarding the training and efficacy of these practitioners in the delivery of psychological services. Although the category has been in existence for some years there is little evidence that the category is fulfilling the purpose for which it was developed, namely, to supply psychological services at a primary health-care level. Our aim in this article is to explore the roles that registered counsellors play in their practicum placements, in order to better understand and to provide evidence of the practical value of the skills and expertise that they can offer in a variety of settings. Through the use of semi-structured questionnaires, in face to face and telephone surveys, 15 supervisors were interviewed to obtain their perceptions and experiences of the efficacy of the registered counsellors and the role that registered counsellor trainees play in their different placement settings. Findings were extremely positive in terms of the perceived value of the registered counsellor across a variety of settings.
Electrophysiological measures of resting state functional connectivity and their relationship with working memory capacity in childhood

Abstract Functional connectivity is the statistical association of neuronal activity time courses across distinct brain regions, supporting specific cognitive processes. This coordination of activity is likely to be highly important for complex aspects of cognition, such as the communication of fluctuating task goals from higher‐order control regions to lower‐order, functionally specific regions. Some of these functional connections are identifiable even when relevant cognitive tasks are not being performed (i.e. at rest). We used magnetoencephalographic recordings projected into source space to demonstrate that resting state networks in childhood have electrophysiological underpinnings that are evident in the spontaneous fluctuations of oscillatory brain activity. Using the temporal structure of these oscillatory patterns we were able to identify a number of functional resting state networks analogous to those reported in the adult literature. In a second analysis we fused this dynamic temporal information with the spatial information from a functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis of functional connectivity, to demonstrate that inter‐subject variability in these electrophysiological measures of functional connectivity is correlated with individual differences in cognitive ability: the strength of connectivity between a fronto‐parietal network and lower‐level processing areas in inferior temporal cortex was associated with spatial working memory capacity, as measured outside the scanner with educationally relevant standardized assessments. This study represents the first exploration of the electrophysiological mechanisms underpinning resting state functional connectivity in source space in childhood, and the extent to which the strength of particular connections is associated with cognitive ability.
Free Space Estimation on Nonflat Plane Based on V-Disparity

Recent progress in free space estimation provides precise segmentation between the ground and obstacles on flat plane. However, it remains challenging on nonflat plane, especially with the varying latitudinal and longitudinal slope or in the case of multiground plane. This letter presents a well-integrated framework for free space estimation in this challenge. Our approach couples an improved V-disparity with a proposed confidence map in a probabilistic fashion. The improved V-disparity representation adopts the sliding windows paradigm and a new V-disparity filter is designed. The proposed confidence map represents the ownership of pixels like occupancy grids, but is built only using the information of the disparity map. The free space estimation is implemented in the confidence map with the global optimization paradigm of dynamic programming. We demonstrate our superior performance compared to two other methods from the literature on a manually labeled dataset from KITTI's object detection benchmark.
Understanding the Sustainability of Virtual Communities in China

The sustainability of virtual communities is determined by the extent to which users are willing to continue using the supported virtual space. Building upon the information system continuance model and the information adoption model, a research model explaining user continuance intention to use virtual communities (e.g., Web-based Bulletin Board Systems) is proposed. The proposed model was tested using an online survey with the users of a non-profit-making Bulletin Board System established by a local university in mainland China. The results suggest that satisfaction and information usefulness are the two key factors influencing users’ continuance intention to use virtual communities. Satisfaction in turn is determined by information usefulness and source credibility, while information usefulness is determined by both information quality and source credibility. Surprisingly, information quality does not have any significant direct impact on user satisfaction. The findings provide important implications for both researchers and practitioners.
Rate‐Controlled Speech in Foreign Language Education

This publication is the sixty-first in the CAL·ERIC/CLL Series on Languages and Linguistics. The material in this publication was prepared pursuant to a contract with the National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Contractors undertaking such projects under Government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their judgment in professional and technical matters. Prior to publication, the manuscript was submitted to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages for critical review and determaintion of professional competence. This publication has met such standards. Points of view or opinions, however, do not necessarily represent the official view or opinions of either the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages or the National Institute of Education.
The Mediating Effect of Place Attachment on the Relationship between Festival Satisfaction and Loyalty to the Festival Hosting Destination

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that drive festival visitor loyalty to host destinations. Our analysis focused on the role of place attachment as a mediator of the relationship between visitors’ positive evaluation of their festival experience and their loyalty to the host destination. Using structural equation modeling, we found that satisfied visitors at a festival develop a moderate level of emotional attachment to the festival host destination and ultimately become loyal to that destination. Not all dimensions of place attachment and festival satisfaction, however, were statistically significant, nor were they of equal valence in their prediction of the destination loyalty dimensions. Based on these findings, both theoretical and practical implications of this investigation are discussed.
Discrepancies between clinical and postmortem diagnoses in Jamaica: a study from the University Hospital of the West Indies

Aims: It has previously been shown that the low necropsy request rate at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) in Jamaica (35.3%) results primarily from clinicians’ confidence in clinical diagnoses and laboratory investigations. This study aimed to determine the rates of discrepancy between clinical and necropsy diagnoses at the UHWI, because many previous studies from other institutions have shown persistent high rates of discrepancy, despite advances in medical investigative technology over the past several years. Methods: Data were extracted retrospectively from consecutive necropsies performed at the UHWI over a two year period. The data were analysed to determine the categories and rates of discrepancy, and to determine the relation between discrepancy rates and age, sex, type and number of diagnoses for each patient, hospital service, and length of hospitalisation. Results: Necropsies were performed on 446 patients; 348 were suitable for further analysis. The overall discrepancy rate was 48.4% and the diagnoses with the highest individual discrepancy rates were pneumonia (73.5%), pulmonary thromboembolism (68.3%), and myocardial infarction (66.7%). Males and older patients were more likely to have discrepant diagnoses. There was a high frequency of discrepancies in patients who died within 24 hours of admission, but there was no consistent relation between length of hospitalisation and discrepancy rate. Conclusions: The high discrepancy rates documented at the UHWI are similar to those reported globally. This study supports previous attestations that the necropsy remains a vital tool for determining diagnostic accuracy, despite modern modalities of clinical investigation and diagnosis.
Improving intergroup relations with extended and vicarious forms of indirect contact

Research in social psychology has provided impressive evidence that intergroup contact reduces prejudice. However, to the extent that strategies based on direct contact are sometimes difficult to implement, scholars have more recently focused on indirect contact. An effective form of indirect contact is extended contact. According to the extended contact hypothesis, simply knowing that ingroup members have outgroup friends (extended contact), or observing these friendships vicariously (vicarious contact), can improve intergroup relations. Since its initial formulation a large body of studies has supported the validity of the extended contact hypothesis. In reviewing the available literature on two forms of indirect contact (extended and vicarious), we outline a model that identifies their antecedents and consequences, spanning from cognitive to affective to behavioural outcomes. In addition to identifying the main moderators of indirect contact, we also distinguish two different routes, one cognitive and one affective, that underlie what processes mediate their effects. Finally, we indicate some possible avenues for future research and we consider how direct and indirect contact strategies can be used in combination to improve intergroup relations.
Interference In Learning English: Grammatical Errors In English Essay Writing Among Rural Malay Secondary School Students In Malaysia

The purpose of this article is to present an analysis of interference effect, a factor that plays an important role in inhibiting the acquisition of English among young Malay learners in Malaysian schools. The data substantiating the discussion throughout this article came from an empirical study of errors in essays written by Form One students in six schools in Malaysia. The findings of the study show that despite having gone through six years of learning English in school environment, the learners are still having difficulty in using correct English grammar in their writings. The three most frequent errors are: 1) the use of articles, 2) subject-verb agreement, and 3) copula ‘be’.
Soil-plant relationships of radioactive elements.

The plant concentration of various radioactive elements, after they have been added to soils in water-soluble forms, may be several orders of magnitude higher or lower than the concentration in the soil. Those that are most readily absorbed are soluble in the soil or are isotopic with elements that have metabolic functions in the plant. Those that are least absorbed are quite insoluble in the soil. The gamma radiation doses to plants would come predominantly from the soil, as would the beta radiation doses except for the beta radiation from those few elements which may be highly concentrated in certain plant tissues. The role of plants in movement of radionuclides in soil is minor except over very long periods of time.
Charismatic, Ideological, and Pragmatic Leaders' Influence on Subordinate Creative Performance Across the Creative Process

Using the charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic (CIP) model of leadership as a framework, 2 primary research questions were examined. First, when engaging in different tasks along the creative process, does leadership style influence the creative performance of subordinates? Second, how does the level of stress, to which subordinates are exposed, moderate the relationship between leadership style and creative performance? Hypotheses were tested using a laboratory-based design, where 336 participants engaged in 3 unique creative tasks specifically designed to represent the different steps along the creative process. The results indicate that charismatic leaders influence subordinate creative performance above and beyond pragmatic and ideological leaders on middle-stage creative tasks. Moreover, higher levels of stress decreased individual creative performance in terms of ratings of quality, but not originality. Additionally, stress had the least amount of impact on those individuals with a pragmatic leader. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Autoimmune Thyroiditis with Associated Proteinuria: Report of Two Patients

The association of renal disease and autoimmune thyroid disorders has been reported previously. Renal findings associated with autoimmune thyroiditis present more commonly as proteinuria ranging from mild to nephrotic levels. We report here two adolescent girls with hyperthyroidism associated with transient proteinuria correlated with thyroid hormone levels. They had positive antithyroid peroxidase and antithyroglobulin antibodies. Ultrasonographic and scintigraphic findings of the thyroid gland were consistent with Graves' disease in both. Their renal functions were normal except proteinuria (daily protein excretion of 13.5 mg/m2/h in patient 1 and 11 mg/m2/h in patient 2). When they became euthyroid on antithyroid treatment, proteinuria decreased without associated hematuria and/or hypertension. In conclusion, patients with autoimmune thyroid disease should be assessed for the possibility of proteinuria and the etiological investigation of proteinuria should include evaluation of thyroid functions.