Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the Impediments to English Vocabulary Learning and Teaching

Learning a foreign or second language at different levels of proficiency involves the acquisition of a great number of words. Language learners look for effective ways to increase opportunities for retaining new words in long-term memory, but forgetting is a common problem. Language learners often complain that they forget new words soon. The importance of vocabulary learning also poses some challenges for teachers. They like to know in what ways instructional programs might foster the acquisition of so many words. Students face some barriers when they try to assign the vocabularies to their long term memories. In this paper, learners’ problems in vocabulary learning are elaborated on and some guidelines are offered to ameliorate or even to remove them. In so doing, it introduces language learning strategies that make vocabulary learning interesting and easy for learners. It also familiarizes teachers with useful techniques and activities for presentation. Ideas and viewpoints put forward by distinguished scholars in this area will be utilized to substantiate the arguments. The purpose of this study is to present practical vocabulary learning strategies that can help learners and to offer influential teaching techniques and activities, which are of help to the teachers.
Phlebotomists Do It Better: Exploring Soft Interaction In The Medical Domain

ForceForm is a dynamically deformable interactive surface in which lumps and indents can be created, and feels soft to the touch. In this paper, we present a study to explore users' ability to identify different levels of firmness generated in the soft surface of ForceForm. Our results show that those with medical training, in this case phlebotomists, perform the task with significantly better accuracy than those without a medical background and those without a medical background can achieve an accuracy similar to the medical group with five to six repeats of the experiment. We outline possible directions for future work given these results.
Enhancing the involvement of parents in the mathematics education of their elementary school children

An emergent construct in modern education is the recognition by educators and policy makers that involving parents in the education of their children is an important matter. This is clear in the policies of the British Columbia Ministry of Education and the efforts of educational leaders internationally which aim to create conditions, attitudes and supports for parents to become more instrumentally involved in schooling. The object of this study is to clarify how a principal can increase effective parental involvement in learning at home. The curricular area of focus was intermediate level mathematics. Parents were invited to attend two workshops with the goal of promoting increased parent knowledge and comfort with mathematics as taught in contemporary classrooms in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Survey and interview data helped to build the profiles of attitudes, beliefs and practices of four participants selected as case studies. The resulting profiles combined with a comprehensive literature review helped to answer three research questions: What difficulties do parents express with respect to their involvement in mathematics? What is the effect of attending parent workshops about supporting students in mathematics? What gives parents confidence and motivates them to be involved? Results revealed a greater understanding and acceptance of change and a willingness to engage with their children and their homework at a deeper level than before the workshop experience. There were subtle, yet notable, shifts in understanding of curriculum change and the education system. Since reform-minded educational leaders seek first to prepare the community in a way that facilitates change, these subtle shifts may be significant. The time limitations of this study prohibit comment on long-term effects, which points to the need for further research on the effect of parent attendance at curriculum-related workshops.
Megakaryocyte progenitors in the bone marrow and peripheral blood of patients with myeloproliferative diseases

We studied the behavior in culture of megakaryocyte progenitor cells (CFU‐Mk) from peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM) cells in eight patients with myeloproliferative diseases (MPD). In seven patients we observed megakaryocyte (Mk) colony formation from PB cells, which were generated in the absence of any added stimulator and which did not increase after the addition of a source of Mk‐colony stimulating activity (CSA‐Mk). The number of BM CFU‐Mk was significantly higher in patients than in controls, and in seven out of eight patients the responsiveness to added CSA‐Mk was retained. Plasma obtained from six patients did not stimulate normal donors' BM target cells to form Mk colonies. These data demonstrate an expansion of the CFU‐Mk pool in MPD patients without increased plasma levels of CSA‐Mk, and suggest that PB and BM CFU‐Mk of MPD patients might have different kinetic properties.
Draft Sugar sulfates are not hydrolyzed by the acid-inducible sulfatase AslA from Salmonella enterica Enteritidis

The open reading frames (ORFs), SEN0085 and SeKA_A4361, from Salmonella enterica Enteritidis Nal R and Kentucky 3795, corresponding to the acid-inducible sulfatase gene, aslA from S. e Typhimurium, were previously suggested by microarray analysis to be differentially expressed under acid conditions. However, growth and enzyme activity tests in the present study demonstrated that both wild type strains exhibited sulfatase activity with 4-nitrophenyl sulfate and 5-bromo-4-chloro-3 indolyl sulfate at pH 5.5. The acid sulfatase does not appear to be involved in sugar sulfate, tyrosine sulfate and 4hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylglycol sulfate, heparin or chondroitin sulfate hydrolysis at pH 5.5. Adhesion and invasion assays did not reveal differences between the serotypes and their corresponding aslA deletion mutants. Thus the role and substrate(s) of AslA, a protein unique to Salmonella and encoded in all sequences Salmonella strains, remain elusive.
F1000 Recommendations as a Potential New Data Source for Research Evaluation: A Comparison With Citations

F1000 is a postpublication peer review service for biological and medical research. F1000 recommends important publications in the biomedical literature, and from this perspective F1000 could be an interesting tool for research evaluation. By linking the complete database of F1000 recommendations to the Web of Science bibliographic database, we are able to make a comprehensive comparison between F1000 recommendations and citations. We find that about 2% of the publications in the biomedical literature receive at least one F1000 recommendation. Recommended publications on average receive 1.30 recommendations, and more than 90% of the recommendations are given within half a year after a publication has appeared. There turns out to be a clear correlation between F1000 recommendations and citations. However, the correlation is relatively weak, at least weaker than the correlation between journal impact and citations. More research is needed to identify the main reasons for differences between recommendations and citations in assessing the impact of publications.
Evaluation of Craniocerebral Trauma Using Computed Tomography

Aims And Objective: Objective of the present study is to evaluate and assess the role of computed tomography in patients with craniocerebral trauma in respect to:  study the different traumatic lesions in trauma to the head  to establish that CT has a significant role in management of patients with head injury  to assess the prognostic significance of CT in outcome of patients of head injury. Methods:This is a prospective analysis of 100 patients with craniocerebral trauma using computed tomography who were treated at our institution from Nov 2009 to Oct 2011. Findings of the computed tomography using Helical CT scanner, GE CT machine were computed and compiled. Result: The results of the study revealed that the incidence of craniocerebral trauma was more in male population. The peak incidence of age was found in the age group of 18-30 years. Although fractures and contusions constituted about 84.6% and 57% respectively, subdural hematoma was commonest cause of morbidity and mortality in craniocerebral trauma forming about 32.1% followed by extradural hematomas 12.5% Conclusion: Computed Tomography is one of the comprehensive diagnostic modality for accurate localisation of the site of injury in acute craniocerebral trauma. The early and timely diagnosis of the precise lesion by CT not only had substantial impact over instituting appropriate treatment and timely surgical intervention but also helped in predicting the ultimate outcome.
Language and Speech Perception Outcomes in Hearing-Impaired Children with and without Connexin 26 Mutations

This study addressed the question of whether a hearing loss caused by mutations in the connexin 26 gene had a significant effect on language and speech perception outcomes in children using cochlear implants or hearing aids. The families of children who had participated in two previous studies of language development were invited to participate in this genetic study. From the 52 children whose families agreed to participate, 15 children with connexin 26 mutations in both chromosomes were identified. After taking into account other factors which are known to affect language development and speech perception in children with impaired hearing, no significant differences were found between the 15 children where connexin 26 was known to be the cause of deafness and the other 37 children in the study.
Molecular analysis of mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIB in Portugal: evidence of a single origin for a common mutation (R234C) in the Iberian Peninsula

Mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIB (Sanfilippo B disease) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by defective α‐N‐acetylglucosaminidase (NAGLU). We examined the NAGLU gene in 11 MPS IIIB Portuguese patients, having identified five novel (M1K, W147X, G304V, S522P, and R533X) and four previously reported mutations (W168X, R234C, R565W and R643C). R234C attained the high prevalence of 32% of the mutated alleles. Because R234C had already been reported to be common in Spanish patients, a haplotypic analysis was conducted to address the question of its origin in the Iberian Peninsula. Three neutral markers were studied that allowed for the identification of the probable founder haplotype (174‐234‐G) on which R234C arose. The sharing of the ancestral haplotype by Portuguese and Spanish patients clearly implied a common origin of the mutation in Iberia, through an event that was inferred to have been rather recent. Therefore, the reconstructed history of R234C explains the high incidence of the mutation in Iberian patients with Sanfilippo B disease.
Electrophysiological indices of phonological impairments in dyslexia.

PURPOSE A range of studies have shown difficulties in perceiving acoustic and phonetic information in dyslexia; however, much less is known about how such difficulties relate to the perception of individual words. The authors present data from event-related potentials (ERPs) examining the hypothesis that children with dyslexia have difficulties with processing phonemic information within spoken words compared to age-matched readers with typical development. METHOD The authors monitored ERPs to auditory words during a simple picture-word matching task. The key manipulation was the inclusion of both matching stimuli and three types of mismatches (cohort, CONE-comb; rhyme, CONE-bone; and unrelated, CONE-fox). RESULTS Children with dyslexia showed atypical N400 ERP waveforms to both types of phonological mismatches, but not to phonologically unrelated mismatches, reflecting a relative insensitivity to phonological overlap among auditory words. CONCLUSION The data suggest that children with dyslexia have impairments in integrating phonological information into word-level representations. The results suggest that speech perception difficulties in dyslexia might have consequences for processing auditory words.
Gauge Factor Tuning, Long-Term Stability, and Miniaturization of Nanoelectromechanical Carbon-Nanotube Sensors

Integrated piezoresitive strain gauges are established transducers for measuring displacements in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Due to large gauge factors (GFs) and low power operation and nanometer dimensions, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are ideal candidates for further downscaling strain-gauge-based MEMS devices. Here, we present zero-level packaged strain gauges based on individual single-walled CNTs in a field-effect transistor configuration, which can be utilized as long-term stable and tunable transducers for measuring membrane deflections in ultraminiaturized pressure sensors. The gate electrode allows adjusting GFs of nanotube strain gauges by almost a factor of 10. Studies on nanotube segments of different lengths show highly reproducible GFs along the same CNT. The zero-level packaged pressure sensors show stable GFs over a period of at least 14 months. This paper is an important step toward reliable nanoscaled strain gauges with many potential applications, such as ultraminiaturized pressure-sensitive membranes or cantilever-based transducers.
Enhancement of Hepatitis C Virus RNA Replication by Cell Culture-Adaptive Mutations

ABSTRACT Studies of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication cycle have been made possible with the development of subgenomic selectable RNAs that replicate autonomously in cultured cells. In these replicons the region encoding the HCV structural proteins was replaced by the neomycin phosphotransferase gene, allowing the selection of transfected cells that support high-level replication of these RNAs. Subsequent analyses revealed that, within selected cells, HCV RNAs had acquired adaptive mutations that increased the efficiency of colony formation by an unknown mechanism. Using a panel of replicons that differed in their degrees of cell culture adaptation, in this study we show that adaptive mutations enhance RNA replication. Transient-transfection assays that did not require selection of transfected cells demonstrated a clear correlation between the level of adaptation and RNA replication. The highest replication level was found with an adapted replicon carrying two amino acid substitutions located in NS3 and one in NS5A that acted synergistically. In contrast, the nonadapted RNA replicated only transiently and at a low level. The correlation between the efficiency of colony formation and RNA replication was corroborated with replicons in which the selectable marker gene was replaced by the gene encoding firefly luciferase. Upon transfection of naive Huh-7 cells, the levels of luciferase activity directly reflected the replication efficiencies of the various replicon RNAs. These results show that cell culture-adaptive mutations enhance HCV RNA replication.
Expression of phosphorylated Akt, mTOR and MAPK in type I endometrial carcinoma: clinical significance.

BACKGROUND/AIM The Akt/mTOR and MAPK pathways are frequently activated in various tumor types but data on endometrial carcinoma are limited. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical significance of the expression of phosphorylated MAPK, Akt and mTOR (p-MAPK, p-Akt, p-mTOR) in type I endometrial carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study comprised of 103 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) type I endometrial carcino ma cases, retrospectively retrieved and assessed by immuno histochemistry for p-MAPK, p-Akt and p-mTOR expression. The expression of these proteins was also studied in non-neoplastic endometrial tissue adjacent to the tumor. RESULTS The expression patterns of these molecules differed between malignant and non-tumorous tissue specimens. The immuno reactivity for p-Akt was exclusively detected in the neoplastic tissues. Expression levels of p-MAPK were higher in tumors compared to non-neoplastic endometrium (p<0.001), while p-mTOR was found to be over-expressed in non-neo plastic endometrium compared to carcinomas (p=0.001). Expression of p-Akt was correlated with p-MAPK protein levels (p=0.022, r=0.229). On the other hand, no association was found with clinicopathological parameters and with disease-free (DFS) or overall survival (OS) of the patients. CONCLUSION Our findings support the de-regulation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR and MAPK signaling pathways in type I endometrial carcinomas suggesting involvement of these pivotal pathways in endometrial carcinogenesis.
Upregulation of MMPs by soluble E‐cadherin in human lung tumor cells

Loss of E‐cadherin/catenin mediated cell–cell adhesion and overexpression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are largely involved in tumor invasion. It has been recently shown that high levels of a soluble 80 kDa fragment of E‐cadherin, resulting from a cleavage by MMPs, are found in serum and in urine from cancer patients. Additionally, this soluble E‐cadherin (sE‐CAD) promotes cell invasion into chick heart and into collagen type I gels. The aim of our study was to examine the mechanism of sE‐CAD‐induced cell invasion. Since MMPs play a crucial role in invasion, we looked for induction of MMPs by sE‐CAD in noninvasive human lung tumor cells 16HBE. An induction of MMP‐2, MMP‐9 and MT1‐MMP expression was observed both at the mRNA and at the protein level in the presence of sE‐CAD (in conditioned medium form or in E‐cadherin HAV peptide form). No induction of MMP‐1, ‐3 and ‐7 or variation of the levels of their inhibitors, TIMP‐1 and TIMP‐2, were detected. The biologic relevance of the sE‐CAD‐induced MMP upregulation was tested by demonstrating that sE‐CAD promotes in vitro cell invasion in a modified Boyden chamber assay. These data provide new insight into mechanisms of tumor invasion by ectodomain shedding of the cell–cell adhesion molecule E‐cadherin. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
p53 Gene Codon 72 Polymorphism but Not Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Gene Is Associated with Prostate Cancer

Objective: A polymorphism of gene p53 codon 72 is associated with various cancer formations. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) one of the cytokines secreted by macrophages in response to inflammation and is also related to cancer formation. We aimed to evaluate the association between prostate cancer and the polymorphisms of the TNF-α gene promoter –308 and p53 gene codon 72. Patients and Methods: In our study, a normal control group of 126 healthy people and 96 patients with prostate cancer were examined. The polymorphism (G/A) of TNF-α gene was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based restriction analysis (Nco I endonuclease) and the polymorphism of p53 gene was detected by two PCRs (one for proline and one for arginine form). Results: There was a significant difference in the distribution of codon 72 polymorphism the p53 gene between prostate cancer patients and the normal controls (p < 0.001). The proline form of p53 gene codon 72 was significantly higher than the arginine form, with an odds ratio of 2.606 (95% CI = 1.052–6.455). This difference was also revealed in the tumor staging (p = 0.035) as the proline form was significantly higher in the metastasis group of prostate cancer. There were no statistical differences in the distribution of –308 polymorphism of the TNF-α gene between cancer patients and the control subjects (p = 1.0). Conclusion: Prostate cancer appears to be associated with the p53 gene codon 72 polymorphisms, but not with the TNF-α gene. The proline form of p53 gene codon 72 might be a more significant risk factor for the development of metastasis than the arginine form.
Labels and Stigma in Special Education

Two notions about the delivery of services to disadvantaged deprived, and mildly retarded children are advanced: (a) that insufficient attention has been given to the fact that certain special education labels imply deficiencies and shortcomings in children and (b) that no systematic inquiry has been made of children's perceptions of the labels and services offered them. Analyses of data from several studies involving more than 10,000 public school students, graduates, and dropouts; college students; prospective and inservice teachers; and counselors revealed (a) that children reject the labels culturally disadvantaged and culturally deprived as descriptive of themselves, (b) that acceptance of such labels is associated with lowered school attitudes, (c) that teachers hold lowered expectations for performance of the deprived and disadvantaged child, (d) that the educable mentally retarded report (and teachers confirm) stigma associated with special class placement, and (e) that few strategies for the management of stigma in classes for the educable mentally retarded have been developed by teachers.
The impact of the planetary scale on the decay of blocking and the use of phase diagrams and Lyapunov exponents as a diagnostic

In recent years, several studies have partitioned atmospheric quantities into planetary and synoptic scale components in order to examine either the relative role of each scale and their interactions, or to examine the nature of the interactions themselves (e.g., Tsou and Smith, 1990; Tracton, 1990; Lupo and Smith, 1995b; Lupo, 1997; Marques and Rao, 1999; Colucci, 2001; Burkhardt and Lupo, 2005; Lupo et al., 2005). The above list represents studies in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. In addition to these studies, and from those of earlier pioneers (e.g., Kalnay-Rivas and Merkine, 1981; Frederiksen, 1982; Shutts 1983; Mullen 1986, 1987), a consistent picture emerges that the synopticscale plays an important role in the lifecycle of blocking events (necessary, but not sufficient condition). Many of the studies represented above show that the magnitude of the synoptic-scale forcing is large compared to that of the planetary-scale forcing. However, others have shown that the planetary-scale is very influential in the lifecycle of blocking events (e.g., Haines and Holland, 1998; Colucci and Baumhefner, 1998). While the studies referenced in the above paragraph do not downplay the role of the planetary-scale, they do focus more on the role of synoptic-scale contributions. In their model study, Haines and Holland suggest that blocking regimes will break down when there is a substantial change in the planetary-scale flow regime. Colucci and Baumhefner, 1998) focus on the role of planetary-scale deformation as providing for a pre-conditioned environment for the formation of blocking events (Colucci, 2003, personal communication). These two studies together support the notion that while the planetary-scale may not itself lead to block formation and maintenance, but this scale can provide for a favorable environment in the interaction with the synoptic-scale environment. Thus, a substantial change in the large-scale flow regime would not support blocking and these events would decay fairly quickly. The goal of this work is to demonstrate that abrupt changes in the planetary-scale environment can lead to the rapid decay of blocking, and that it may be possible to use phase diagrams to identify when these changes occur and correlate them with the decay of three Southern Hemisphere blocking events studies in Burkhardt and Lupo (2005) and __________________________________________________ *Corresponding author address: Anthony R. Lupo, Department of Soil, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences, 302 E Anheuser Busch Natural Resources Building, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211. Email: LupoA@missouri.edu. Lupo et al. (2005). Additionally, this work will look at the utility of Lyapunov exponents (Lyapunov, 1966) as a diagnostic tool in blocking studies.