Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HIV prevention through early detection and treatment of other sexually transmitted diseases--United States. Recommendations of the Advisory Committee for HIV and STD prevention.

In May 1997, the Advisory Committee for HIV and STD Prevention (ACHSP) reviewed data on the relation between curable sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the risk for sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ACHSP considered that the evidence was strong that early detection and treatment of other STDs is an effective strategy for preventing sexually transmitted HIV infection but was concerned that this strategy has not been clearly articulated or implemented as a core strategy for HIV prevention in the United States. In the context of persistently high prevalence of STDs in many parts of the United States and with emerging evidence that the U.S. epidemic of HIV infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) increasingly is affecting population groups with the highest rates of curable STDs, ACHSP recommends the following actions: Early detection and treatment of curable STDs should become a major, explicit component of comprehensive HIV prevention programs at national, state, and local levels. In areas where STDS that facilitate HIV transmission are prevalent, screening and treatment programs should be expanded. HIV and STD prevention programs in the United States, together with private and public sector partners, should take joint responsibility for implementing this strategy.
Social competence and social skills training for children and adolescents: a literature review

The concept of child and adolescent social competence is complex and multidimensional. Dodge (1985) has attempted to summarise various aspects of the concept into a parsimonious theoretical model. It is suggested that comprehensive assessment of social competence includes measures tapping into a range of dimensions illustrated by the model. A growing body of empirical data links children's low levels of social competence to various forms of maladjustment in adolescence and adulthood. Clinical and educational interventions directed at improving child and adolescent social competence offer a valuable direction for a preventative approach that should be considered and empirically evaluated. Available social skills interventions emerge from three major theoretical foundations: Behavioural, Cognitive Problem Solving, and Structuralist. Populations targeted for intervention also vary from children or adolescents with identified problems in clinical settings, to whole school educational approaches. Empirical comparison of alternative training approaches has demonstrated that social skills training is effective, and a combination of behavioural and cognitive components is important. Issues regarding child characteristics, outcome measures and consideration of wider systems are also discussed.
Success of ERP Systems in Chile : An Empirical Study

The success of the ERP systems is considered an important issue, however, and as a result of its newness, mainly the investigation of the phenomenon has been of type descriptive or it has been oriented to qualitative methodologies. This paper presents an explanatory model of the phenomenon and its empirical validation in a set of Chilean organizations. The results of applying a structural equation modeling technique identified significant relationships between a set of explanatory factors (information technologies skills, ERP training, learning and change readiness) and diverse dimensions of the system success (information quality, system quality, service quality or net benefits).
High-speed and accurate color-space short-read alignment with CUSHAW2

Summary: We present an extension of CUSHAW2 for fast and accurate alignments of SOLiD color-space short-reads. Our extension introduces a double-seeding approach to improve mapping sensitivity, by combining maximal exact match seeds and variable-length seeds derived from local alignments. We have compared the performance of CUSHAW2 to SHRiMP2 and BFAST by aligning both simulated and real color-space mate-paired reads to the human genome. The results show that CUSHAW2 achieves comparable or better alignment quality compared to SHRiMP2 and BFAST at an order-of-magnitude faster speed and significantly smaller peak resident memory size. Availability: CUSHAW2 and all simulated datasets are available at this http URL Contact: liuy@uni-mainz.de; bertil.schmidt@uni-mainz.de
Scheduling analysis using discrete event simulation

Describes a production shop which needed to undertake schedule analyses at the macro level of planning and explain the methods of using simulation to obtain valid, credible schedule analyses quickly. After a discussion of the simulation model itself, we present actual simulation results and conclusions. These successful simulation results help the production shop attain nimble adaptation to product mix requirements, optimal in-process buffer sizing, and speedy combination of the ability to schedule proposals to meet throughput targets.
Innovation and interactive governance The case of Båtsfjord

How to govern the complex? The question is highly valid for all sorts of societal systems. The many and diverse answers usually rests on a fundamental assumption, namely that it is possible to govern the complex, in one way or the other. However, the question has recently been reformulated. Is it, in principle, at all possible to govern complex societal systems? The background to this new question is the controversial application of complexity theory to societal systems. These days the concept of innovation systems are politically very much en vouge. There is no doubt whatsoever of the complexity of such systems. The immediate background to our paper, then, is the obvious political expectations of the innovation systems research framework to yield concrete and real world results as soon as possible: Is it possible to govern, i.e. to design, plan, implement, and manage an innovation system, local, regional and/or national? Some researchers say it is, some that it is not, and some say it is to some extent. In this paper we focus upon a fishing village of 2.600 inhabitants by the Arctic Sea, just east of the North Cape. The village, where all the people of the municipality live, is called Båtsfjord. Now, in a region (Troms and Finnmark) with notorious economic, demographic, and other problems, this particular village is flourishing. Business life is intensive, cultural life is lively, and political activity is high. Also, Båtsfjord is multiethnic with a majority of the workforce from Russia, Sri Lanka, and so on. Furthermore, people in Båtsfjord display an unusual sense of self-trust, both individually and collectively. The latest exploit of this community is to establish the “Båtsfjord University” in co-operation with the University of Tromsø. The concept of collective entrepreneurship comes easily to mind when one visits Båtsfjord. But, what is more, this fishing community is an exceptional good example of a successful system, which is consciously governed in order to create and exploit innovation. The research question of this paper is: How? In our attempt to answer this question we discuss concepts like “interactive governance”, “contingent necessity”, “interactive social design”, “governance networks”, “governance complexity of the second order”, “distributed learning” and “collective entrepreneurship”. We also apply thinking from regime theory and contrast it to triple helixand innovation systems thinking.
Disproportionality: A sociological perspective of the identification by schools of students with learning disabilities

The disproportionate identification of learning disabilities among certain sociodemographic subgroups, typically groups who are already disadvantaged, is perceived as a persistent problem within the education system. The academic and social experiences of students who are misidentified with a learning disability may be severely restricted, while students with a learning disability who are never identified are less likely to receive the accommodations and modifications necessary to learn at their maximum potential. In addition to inconsistent definitions of and criteria for diagnosing students with learning disabilities that may result in misdiagnoses, it is feared that discrimination also plays a role. We use the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) of 2002 to describe national patterns in learning disability identification by individual- and school-level characteristics. Our results indicate that sociodemographic characteristics are predictive of being identified with a learning disability. Whereas some conventional areas of disproportionality are confirmed (males and language minorities are more likely to be identified), differences in social class entirely account for black and Hispanic disproportionality. Discrepancy between the results of bivariate and multivariate analyses reaffirms the importance of employing sophisticated methodology in explorations of disproportionality.
On plugging "unplugged" into CS classes

A variety of experience reports and studies has shown Computer Science Unplugged to be an effective resource for outreach, and it has been suggested to build upon these benefits to augment teaching in a regular classroom as well. Based upon an analysis of the learning objectives, "Unplugged" activities seem to be particularly well suited to serve as an introduction to Computer Science concepts and algorithms; whether or not the effectiveness of using these activities compares to that of traditional teaching methods, however, has remained an open question so far. We present the first experimental study of using Computer Science Unplugged material as part of a regular Computer Science class in lower secondary education. The evaluation of our study affirmatively answers the above question, i.e., teaching using "Unplugged" activities can be at least as effective as when following more conventional approaches.
Antitumour activity of novel taxanes that act at the same time as cytotoxic agents and P-glycoprotein inhibitors

Taxanes antitumour agents such as paclitaxel and docetaxel represent a successful family of chemotherapeutic drugs. Unfortunately, acquired and innate resistance represents a clinical problem for these drugs. We investigated, on a panel of 7 human cancer cell lines, the growth inhibition effect of 3 newly developed taxanes (SB-T-1213, SB-T-1250 and SB-T-101187) with modification at the C10 and C3′ positions of the taxane framework. These positions have been previously characterized as critical to make taxanes highly active against cells overexpressing the efflux pump P-glycoprotein (P-gp). Paclitaxel and docetaxel were used as reference compounds. Results unambiguously indicate the exceptional activity of the novel taxanes toward P-gp positive cells (up to >400 fold higher potency than that of paclitaxel). SB-T-1213 and SB-T-1250 are also substantially more active than the reference compounds against P-gp negative cells. To better understand the mechanisms underlying the enhanced activity of the newly developed taxanes, we performed cell cycle and apoptosis analysis. This study demonstrates that the striking growth inhibition effect exhibited by the novel taxanes is ascribed to their increased ability in inducing apoptosis and G2/M cell cycle block. SB-T-1213 and SB-T-1250 are also more active than reference compounds in inducing intracellular accumulation of the beta-tubulin subunits. Finally, it is revealed that these novel taxanes have ability to inhibit the function of the P-gp efflux pump on the basis of the Rhodamine 123 assay. These findings strongly suggest that SB-T-1213, SB-T-1250 and SB-T-101187 represent a new tool to overcome innate or acquired P-gp mediated taxane-resistance. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer. com
New grids of ATLAS9 atmospheres I: Influence of convection treatments on model structure and on observable quantities

Received ; accepted Abstract. We present several new sets of grids of model stellar atmospheres computed with modified versions of the ATLAS9 code. Each individual set consists of several grids of models with different metallicities ranging from (M/H) = 2.0 to +1.0 dex. The grids range from 4000 to 10000 K in Teff and from 2.0 to 5.0 dex in log g. The individual sets differ from each other and from previous ones essentially in the physics used for the treatment of the convective energy transport, in the higher vertical resolution of the atmospheres and in a finer grid in the (Teff, log g) plane. These improvements enable the computation of derivatives of color indices accurate enough for pulsation mode identification. In addition, we show that the chosen vertical resolution is necessary and sufficient for the purpose of stellar interior modelling.To explain the physical differences between the model grids we provide a description of the currently available modifications of ATLAS9 according to their treatment of convection. Our critical analysis of the dependence of the atmospheric structure and observable quantities on convection treatment, vertical resolution and metallicity reveals that spectroscopic and photometric observations are best represented when using an inefficient convection treatment. This conclusion holds whatever convection formulation investigated here is used, i.e. MLT(� = 0.5), CM and CGM are equivalent. We also find that changing the convection treatment can lead to a change in the effective temperature estimated from Stromgren color indices from 200 to 400 K.
GENEFIS: Toward an Effective Localist Network

Nowadays, there is increasing demand for an integrated system usable to real-time environments under limited computational resources and minimum operator supervision. In contrast, the model is also supposed to actualize high predictive quality in order to confirm the process safety and attractive working framework allowing the user to grasp how the particular task is settled. A holistic concept of a fully data-driven modeling tool namely Generic Evolving Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (GENEFIS) is proposed in this paper. The major spotlight of GENEFIS is in delivering a sensible tradeoff between high predictive accuracy and parsimonious rule base while reckoning tractable rule semantics. The viability of GENEFIS is numerically validated via a series of experimentations using real world and artificial datasets and is compared against state of the art of the evolving neuro-fuzzy systems (ENFSs), where GENEFIS not only showcases higher predictive accuracies but also lands on more frugal structures than other algorithms.
Ageing as a migrant: vulnerabilities, agency and policy implications

ABSTRACT This paper starts with a short review of the growing literature on the topic of older migrants, particularly in relation to this population’s diversity, social vulnerability, loneliness, (transnational) care and support networks. It then introduces the collection of papers of this special issue by proposing an approach to studying older migrants as social actors who develop strategies to surpass vulnerabilities. Older migrants mobilise their resources while taking into account structural opportunities and restrictions from the meso and macro levels. Hence their strategies are placed at the intersection between family obligations and resources, social networks, and migration and care regimes. Such an interdisciplinary and multi-level model acknowledges the heterogeneity of older migrants. The paper concludes with a discussion of the research results that have implications for policies targeting the growing population of older migrants.
Handbook of Research on Computer-Enhanced Language Acquisition and Learning

Language learning is one of the most rapidly changing disciplines. Along with changing perspectives in learning in the field of Second Language Acquisition, information communication technology (ICT) has also created many learning paths to assist the process of learning a second language (L2). In such an ever-evolving environment, teachers, researchers, and professionals in a diverse number of disciplines need access to the most current information about research on the field of computer-enhanced language acquisition and learning. The Handbook of Research on Computer-Enhanced Language Acquisition and Learning provides comprehensive coverage of successful translation of language learning designs utilizing ICT in practical learning contexts. This authoritative reference source offers researchers, scholars, students, and professionals worldwide, access to the latest knowledge related to research on computer-enhanced language acquisition and learning.
Three-Phase Hybrid Multilevel Inverter Based on Half-Bridge Modules

A novel three-phase hybrid multilevel converter is proposed for medium-voltage applications. The converter employs a conventional three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) linking series connected half-bridge modules at each phase. With the proposed connection, a large portion of energy can be processed by the VSI by employing a single multi-pulse rectifier, while smaller power shares are processed within the half-bridge modules. Thus, the requirements for galvanically insulated dc sources are reduced. Modularity is naturally achieved. A modulation scheme for a four-level version is proposed and analyzed in detail. This scheme allows unidirectional power flow in all dc sources and, consequently, enables diode bridges to be employed in the rectification input stage for unidirectional applications.
Molecular and Phylogenetic Characterization of Non-O157 Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli Strains in China

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) causes diarrhea and hemorrhagic colitis with life-threatening complications, such as hemolytic uremic syndrome. The aim of this study was to assess the molecular epidemiologic features of non-O157 STEC strains from different resources in China and illustrate the role of animal reservoirs or animal-derived foodstuffs in human STEC infections. A collection of 301 non-O157 STEC isolates from domestic and wild animals (i.e., cattle, goat, pig, yak, pika, and antelope), raw meats (i.e., beef, pork, mutton, chicken, and duck), diarrheal patients, and healthy carriers in different regions of China were selected in this study. Of the 301 analyzed STEC isolates, 67 serogroups, and 118 serotypes were identified; this included some predominant serogroups associated with human disease, such as O26, O45, O103, O111, and O121. Eighteen different combinations of stx subtypes were found. Eleven isolates carried the intimin gene eae, 93 isolates contained ehxA, and 73 isolates carried astA. The prevalence of other putative adhesion genes saa, paa, efa1, and toxB was 28.90% (87), 6.98% (21), 2.31% (7), and 1% (3), respectively. The phylogenetic distribution of isolates was analyzed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Ninety-four sequence types were assigned across the 301 isolates. A subset of isolates recovered from yak and pika residing in the similar wild environments, Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, showed similar genetic profiles and more tendencies to cluster together. Isolates from goat and mutton exhibited close genetic relatedness with those from human-derived isolates, providing evidence that transmission may have occurred locally within intraspecies or interspecies, and importantly, from animal reservoirs, or raw meats to humans. Comparing isolates in this study with highly virulent strains by MLST, along with serotyping and virulence profiles, it is conceivable that some of isolates from goat, yak, or raw meats may have potential to cause human diseases.
Variation of NimC1 expression in Drosophila stocks and transgenic strains

The NimC1 molecule has been described as a phagocytosis receptor, and is being used as a marker for professional phagocytes, the plasmatocytes, in Drosophila melanogaster. In studies including tumor-biology, developmental biology, and cell mediated immunity, monoclonal antibodies (P1a and P1b) to the NimC1 antigen are used. As we observed that these antibodies did not react with plasmatocytes of several strains and genetic combinations, a molecular analysis was performed on the structure of the nimC1 gene. In these strains we found 2 deletions and an insertion within the nimC1 gene, which may result in the production of a truncated NimC1 protein. The NimC1 positivity was regained by recombining the mutation with a wild-type allele or by using nimC1 mutant lines under heterozygous conditions. By means of these procedures or using the recombined stock, NimC1 can be used as a marker for phagocytic cells in the majority of the possible genetic backgrounds.
We are all talking: a whole-school approach to professional development for teachers of English learners

Abstract This study investigates the impact of a professional development program that included two distinct components: strategies for infusing student-talk into grade-level lessons in science and mathematics; and school-level learning communities focused on readings and discussions of student-talk research. This article reports the program’s impact on longitudinal school-level outcomes in a high-minority, low-socioeconomic school district in the United States. Data include the English Language Arts and Mathematics California Standards Test scores for second-grade students before the professional development began and at the end of each program year. Based on linear regressions that cluster standard errors at the school level, the findings show greater increases in Test scores for English learners (and all students) in participating schools than in non-participating schools. The results suggest that professional development which integrates language with content and focuses on school-level collaboration is a potential model for addressing needs of English learners.
Empirical color transformations between SDSS photometry and Other photometric systems.

Aims. We present empirical color transformations between the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) ugriz photometry and the Johnson-Cousins UBVRI system and Becker's RGU system, respectively. Owing to the magnitude of data that is becoming available in the SDSS photometric system it is particularly important to be able to convert between this new system and traditional photometric systems. Unlike earlier published transformations we based our calculations on stars actually measured by the SDSS with the SDSS 2.5-m telescope. The photometric database of the SDSS provides in a sense a single-epoch set of “tertiary standards” covering more than one quarter of the sky. Our transformations should facilitate their use to easily and reliably derive the corresponding approximate Johnson-Cousins or RGU magnitudes. Methods. The SDSS survey covers a number of areas that were previously established as standard fields in the Johnson-Cousins system, in particular, fields established by Landolt and by Stetson. We used these overlapping fields to create well-photometered star samples on which our calculated transformations are based. For the RGU photometry we used fields observed in the framework of the new Basel high-latitude field star survey. Results. We calculated empirical color transformations between SDSS photometry and Johnson-Cousins UBVRI and Becker's RGU system. For all transformations we found linear relations to be sufficient. Furthermore we showed that the transformations between the Johnson-Cousins and the SDSS system have a slight dependence on metallicity.