Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Municipal size and local electoral participation

The issue of the appropriate scale for local government has regularly appeared on the agenda of public sector reformers. In the empirical work devoted to this issue, the principal focus has been on the implications of size for efficiency in local service provision. Relatively less emphasis has been placed on the implications of size for the character and vitality of local democracy. This paper summarizes findings from a comparative research project which has sought to redress this imbalance by means of undertaking a closer inspection of relationships between municipal size and a set of indicators regarding the character of local democracy in four European countries, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. The investigation draws upon cross-section interview data collected by means of a nested sample design consistent with the hierarchical nature of the issues involved. Empirical analyses are based on a strategy whereby theoretical models are developed and investigated for several different indicators of local democracy in a successive, cumulative fashion using a ‘funnel of causality logic’. This paper reports on results concerning local electoral political participation. We conclude that with the exception of the Dutch case there is no clear evidence of significant direct or indirect effects of municipal size on the likelihood of voting in local elections.
MULTIDIMENSIONAL FAMILY THERAPY FOR ADOLESCENT DRUG ABUSE: RESULTS OF A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL

Random assignment was made of 182 clinically referred marijuana- and alcohol-abusing adolescents to one of three treatments: multidimensional family therapy (MDFT), adolescent group therapy (AGT), and multifamily educational intervention (MEI). Each treatment represented a different theory base and treatment format. All treatments were based on a manual and were delivered on a once-a-week outpatient basis. The therapists were experienced community clinicians trained to model-specific competence prior to the study and then supervised throughout the clinical trial. A theory-based multimodal assessment strategy measured symptom changes and prosocial functioning at intake, termination, and 6 and 12 months following termination. Results indicate improvement among youths in all three treatments, with MDFT showing superior improvement overall. MDFT participants also demonstrated change at the 1-year follow-up period in the important prosocial factors of school/academic performance and family functioning as measured by behavioral ratings. Results support the efficacy of MDFT, a relatively short-term, multicomponent, multitarget, family-based intervention in significantly reducing adolescent drug abuse and facilitating adaptive and protective developmental processes.
New Insights into the Genetic Diversity of the Bacterial Plant Pathogen ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ as Revealed by a New Multilocus Sequence Analysis Scheme

‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ (Lso) has emerged as a serious threat on solanaceous and apiaceous crops worldwide. Five Lso haplotypes (LsoA, LsoB, LsoC, LsoD and LsoE) have been identified so far. To decipher genetic relationships between Lso strains, a MLSA study of seven housekeeping genes (acnA, atpD, ftsZ, glnA, glyA, gnd and groEL) was performed on a representative bacterial collection of 49 Lso strains. In all, 5415 bp spanning the seven loci were obtained from each of the 49 strains of our bacterial collection. Analysis of sequence data was consistent with a clonal population structure with no evidence of recombination. Phylogenies reconstructed from individual genes, and with concatenated data, were globally congruent with each other. In addition to the five highly supported and distinct genetic clusters, which correspond to the five established haplotypes, our phylogenetic data revealed the presence of a sixth haplotype, designated ‘LsoG’. This new haplotype is currently represented by two strains from France which had distinct sequences in four out of the seven tested housekeeping genes. Altogether, the data presented here provide new information regarding the genetic structure of Lso and the evolutionary history of the haplotypes defined within this bacterial species.
Hospital service quality measurement models: patients from Asia, Europe, Australia and America

This study explores how service quality in hospitals is perceived and measured among different groups of patients from four major continents (i.e. Asia, Europe, Australia and North America) who came to receive medical services in Thailand. Using stratified random sampling, data were collected from 2189 patients from 80 countries and four continents at six hospitals which provide healthcare services to international patients in Thailand. Four different models of measuring service quality based on different continents were developed with different numbers of quality dimensions and also a variation in the number of quality attributes. Asian patients provided a four-dimension model with 20 items; while a two-dimension model with 16 items was identified for European patients. Australian patients also revealed a two-dimension model but with 22 items, while patients from America provided a three-dimension model, also with 17 items. The study reveals that the development of service quality measurement models should not only consider context-specific items such as size and location, but should also include the nationality and demographic of the patient population. The findings also support that service quality has a significant impact on service satisfaction and the retention level of customers at the hospital. The concluded frameworks may guide healthcare providers to deliver better quality healthcare services and to sustain competitiveness.
Vulnerability at Work: (Un)Safety Culture in Temporary Jobs

In recent years, many studies have highlighted particular changes in working conditions and in the composition of the workforce: among others, the increasing use of temporary contracts and the massive entrance of immigrant workers into Western labour markets. These structural changes imply the redefinition of health and safety standards and the introduction of a new analytical category, called “vulnerable work. ” In order to contribute to the debate, this article presents the results of a qualitative research project on the health and safety conditions of temporary workers carried out in a province of northeastern Italy. First, the aim of the article is to highlight the hazards and risks faced by temporary workers, which contribute to the production of a specific condition of vulnerability. The culturalist approach adopted here shows that the construction of (un)safety at work is the result of the intersection among different dimensions of vulnerability. Second, the article has an operational goal. On the basis of the research results, in particular on the basis of the interviews conducted with key informants, some recommendations for policymaking and human resource management are provided. In particular, the article points out that injuries sustained by temporary workers are often the consequence of an underestimation both of their specific risks and of a more general state of vulnerability.
Abuse History and Chronic Pain in Women: I. Prevalences of Sexual Abuse and Physical Abuse

Objective: To compare the prevalences of childhood and adult physical and sexual abuse in women with chronic pelvic pain to those in women with chronic nonpelvic pain (headache) and pain-free women. Methods: Using a structured interview, we assessed the prevalence rates of both sexual abuse and physical abuse in 64 women with chronic pelvic pain, 42 women with chronic headache, and 46 pain-free women. Abuse histories were stratified by age at occurrence and severity. Demographic characteristics of the three groups were also assessed. Results: Women with chronic pelvic pain were found to have a higher lifetime prevalence of sexual abuse, involving penetration or other contact with the unclothed genitals or anus (ie, major sexual abuse), than either comparison group. Further, more women in the chronic pelvic pain group had experienced major sexual abuse in both childhood and adulthood than women in the headache group, but there was no difference with the pain-free group. With respect to physical abuse, women in the chronic pelvic pain group had a higher lifetime prevalence than pain-free women, but not compared to those with chronic headache. In addition, more women with chronic pelvic pain reported physical abuse in both childhood and adulthood and both major sexual abuse and physical abuse at some time in their lives than did either comparison group. Conclusion: These results support a specific association between major sexual abuse and chronic pelvic pain and a more general association between physical abuse and chronic pain. Moreover, the global nature of the abuse histories of the women in the chronic pelvic pain group suggests that more rigorous studies of the relation between abuse history and chronic pelvic pain are needed.
Feature Extraction of Hyperspectral Images With Image Fusion and Recursive Filtering

Feature extraction is known to be an effective way in both reducing computational complexity and increasing accuracy of hyperspectral image classification. In this paper, a simple yet quite powerful feature extraction method based on image fusion and recursive filtering (IFRF) is proposed. First, the hyperspectral image is partitioned into multiple subsets of adjacent hyperspectral bands. Then, the bands in each subset are fused together by averaging, which is one of the simplest image fusion methods. Finally, the fused bands are processed with transform domain recursive filtering to get the resulting features for classification. Experiments are performed on different hyperspectral images, with the support vector machines (SVMs) serving as the classifier. By using the proposed method, the accuracy of the SVM classifier can be improved significantly. Furthermore, compared with other hyperspectral classification methods, the proposed IFRF method shows outstanding performance in terms of classification accuracy and computational efficiency.
Regional differences in supply of organic matter from kelp forests drive trophodynamics of temperate reef fish

Regional differences in trophic structure and availability of alternate sources of basal organic matter to food webs can affect the volume of organic matter converted into fish biomass. The present study combined stable isotope analyses (δ13C and δ15N) with estimates of biomass density of 22 common reef fishes to compare supply of organic matter derived from macroalgae versus phytoplankton to reef fish communities among 30 sites distributed across Fiordland and the Marlborough Sounds, 2 contrasting regions in terms of land-based stressors on the South Island, New Zealand. Fish communities in the Marlborough Sounds were supported by food webs that incorporated less organic matter derived from macroalgae compared to those in Fiordland. Contribution of organic matter derived from macroalgae to fish biomass decreased with trophic level in the Marlborough Sounds, while fishes in Fiordland were supported by a more equal mixture of organic matter derived from phytoplankton and macroalgae among trophic levels. Total fish biomass density was 1.72 times higher in Fiordland, yet the fish community converted 2.91 times more organ ic matter to fish biomass, as a result of a higher proportion of biomass at high trophic levels. The observed patterns were consistent with limitation in supply of organic matter derived from macroalgae in the Marlborough Sounds, where extensive losses of kelp forest habitat linked to land-based stressors have been reported. The results highlight the importance of considering regional variability in basal organic matter source pools, particularly those produced from sensitive kelp forest habitats, when applying ecosystem-based approaches to managing coastal resources.
Coalition oversight and blame avoidance in Greece

This article examines the behavior of Greek political parties before, as well as during, the recent austerity period. Drawing on coalition oversight and blame avoidance literature, it argues that the unpopularity of austerity governments leads to extreme levels of dissent within the coalition. I operationalize this ‘intra-coalition opposition’ behavior using parliamentary questions, a legislative institution that has not been studied in the context of coalition politics. The analysis demonstrates that junior members in unpopular austerity governments increase their use of parliamentary questions to a degree that matches or even exceeds the formal opposition. However, intra-coalition dissent is conditional on the type of unpopular government policies, and on the ideology of coalition members. Specifically, using a new method of text analysis, I show that while the socialist Panhellenic Socialist Movement uses its parliamentary questions to avoid or minimize the blame associated with austerity policies, the conservative New Democracy does not, because left-leaning parties are electorally vulnerable to austerity measures. The results have implications for studying dissent in coalition politics in general, and the politics of austerity in particular.
Gastrointestinal fluids proteomics

Seventy million people suffer from diseases of the gastrointestinal tract annually in US, translating to US$85.5 billion in direct healthcare costs. The debilitating effects of these gastrointestinal (GI) diseases can be circumvented with good biomarkers for early detection of these disorders, which will greatly increase the success of curative treatments. GI fluids represent a potential reservoir of biomarkers for early diagnosis of various GI and systemic diseases since these fluids are the most proximal fluid bathing diseased cells. They are anticipated to have proteomes that closely reflect the ensemble of proteins secreted from the respective GI tissues. Most importantly, the disease markers present in GI fluids should be present in higher concentrations than in sera, thus offering greater sensitivity in their detection. However, proteome analysis of GI fluids can be complex mainly due to the dynamic range of protein content and the numerous PTMs of proteins in each specialized GI compartment. This review attempts to discuss the physiology of the various GI fluids, the special technical considerations required for proteome analysis of each fluid, as well as to summarize the current state of knowledge of biomarker discoveries and clinical utility of GI fluids such as salivary, gastric, pancreatic, and biliary secretions.
An analysis of bimanual actions in natural feeding of semi-wild chimpanzees.

OBJECTIVE The objective of the current study was to investigate the lateral dominance for a bimanually coordinated natural feeding behavior in semi-wild chimpanzees. METHODS Strychnos spp. fruit consumption behaviors in semi-wild chimpanzees as an ecologically comparable feeding behavior to those found in cerebral lateralization studies of non-primate species was investigated. Video recordings of 33 chimpanzees were assessed while they consumed hard-shelled strychnos fruits. Statistical and descriptive measures of hand dominance to highlight lateralized patterns were explored. RESULTS Statistical evaluation of feeding bouts revealed a group-level right-handed bias for bimanual coordinated feeding actions, however, few individuals were statistically lateralized. Descriptive analyses revealed that the majority of individuals were lateralized and possessed a right-handed bias for strychnos feeding behavior. CONCLUSIONS The results provided empirical evidence in support of an early evolutionary delineation of function for the right and left hemispheres. The present findings suggest that great apes express an intermediate stage along the phylogenetic trajectory of human manual lateralization.
Mathematical modelling of the contribution of mechanical inhomogeneity in the myocardium to contractile function.

Earlier we developed a mathematical model of the cardiac muscle that allowed for inactivation through the effects of cooperativity of contractile proteins. In the present work we used the model to analyze the mechanical function of an inhomogeneous myocardium. To simulate the latter we chose, as the simplest sytstem, a duplex in which muscles with different mechanical properties were connected in series and in parallel. Numerical experiments showed that the basic effect due to the inhomogeneity consists in the non-additivity of the mechanical characteristics of the muscle, e.g., of the relationship between end-systolic length and end-systolic force (Les - Pes). As a rule, non-additivity consists in a negative inotropic effect. The analysis showed that the cause of non-additivity is redistribution of loads between muscles (in a parallel duplex), redistribution of lengths (in a serial duplex), changes in the rate of contraction of each muscle compared to contraction that when working separately, shifts in time to Les. Also, the model predicts that additional inactivation of contractile proteins in a muscle within a duplex against isolation is the substantial mechanism of enhanced non-additivity. Among the factors of inhomogeneity studied the basic determinants are difference in amplitudes between isometric tensions developed by each muscle in isolation and the asynchronism in the development of these tensions.
Cost-effective Diagnosis of Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism

Summary Suspected acute venous thromboembolism is a frequent and challenging clinical problem. Phlebography and pulmonary angiography are costly and invasive and, hence, ill-suited for diagnosing a disease present in only 20% of patients in whom it is suspected. Novel noninvasive instruments, such as plasma D-dimer measurement, lower limb compression ultrasonography and helical CT scan are important breakthroughs in the management of patients with suspected venous thromboembolism. However, none of these instruments is ideal, and they must be combined in rational and cost-effective diagnostic algorithms including clinical assessment, which is increasingly standardized. Such strategies must be validated in management studies, in which patients without venous thromboembolism are not treated and followed up during 3 months. Suspected massive pulmonary embolism is a distinct clinical situation requiring a specific diagnostic approach, in which echocardiography plays a major role. This paper reviews the performance of clinical evaluation and diagnostic tests for venous thromboembolism, and recently validated diagnostic schemes.
Repair of critical-size bone defects using bone marrow stem cells or autogenous bone with or without collagen membrane: a histomorphometric study in rabbit calvaria.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate bone healing after the use of a xenograft scaffold enriched with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs), an autogenous bone graft, or the scaffold without BM-MSCs. MATERIALS AND METHODS Eighteen rabbits were used for this study; bilateral 12-mm-diameter defects were created in the animals' parietal bones. The bilateral defects were filled with a xenograft enriched with BM-MSCs (test group [TG]), with autogenous bone graft (positive control group [PCG]), or with a xenograft alone (negative control group [NCG]). In all groups, randomly, one defect was covered with a collagen membrane. The rabbits were sacrificed 8 weeks after surgery, and their parietal bones were harvested and analyzed histomorphometrically. RESULTS Within the PCG and the NCG, the defects covered with the barrier membrane showed better bone healing. In the TG, the defects covered with the barrier membrane did not show better bone healing (intragroup comparisons by Wilcoxon and Friedman tests for paired data). TG showed percentage of mineralized tissue (MT) of 56.03% ± 3.49% with membrane and 57.71% ± 5.31% without membrane. PCG showed MT of 55.13% ± 4.83% and 49.69% ± 3.81% with and without membrane, respectively, and NCG showed MT of 26.77% ± 7.29% and 19.67% ± 2.66% with and without membrane, respectively. CONCLUSION Both autogenous bone graft and a xenograft enriched with BM-MSCs were equally effective for bone reconstruction and better than the xenograft alone. The use of a barrier membrane seemed to have a synergistic effect on bone healing in PCG and NCG but not in TG.
Lymphocyte subset alterations and viral determinants of immunodeficiency disease induction by the feline leukemia virus FeLV-FAIDS

The FeLV-FAIDS strain of feline leukemia virus consistently induces fatal immunodeficiency. To investigate the immunopathogenesis and viral genetic determinants responsible for the induction of immunodeficiency disease in vivo, we have generated chimeras between the two major viral genomes in the original virus isolate, designated common form clone 61E and major variant clone 61C, which were molecularly cloned directly from DNA of the same animal and tissue. Each of three 61E/C chimeras, containing at minimum a 34-amino-acid segment (including a 6-amino-acid insertion and one amino acid substitution) near the C terminus of the 61C surface glycoprotein (gp70), induced fatal immunodeficiency disease in all (12 of 12) infected animals over a course of 33 +/- 10 weeks. By contrast, animals infected with virus 61E, although persistently antigenemic, remained asymptomatic throughout a 48-week observation period. Beginning 14 weeks after infection, a significant decrease (8 to 10%) in the percent of circulating CD4+ T lymphocytes developed in the 61E/C chimera-infected cats, compared with either 61E-infected or control animals. At this time, no significant changes were seen in CD8 cells, B cells, or mitogen-induced blastogenesis. Prior to this initial decline in CD4 cells, the ability of all antigenemic 61E/C-infected cats to generate a primary antibody response to the T-cell-dependent antigen keyhole limpet hemocyanin was markedly impaired, whereas all 61E-infected cats, one 61E/C-infected but nonviremic cat, and all uninfected control cats produced normal antibody responses. The results reported here demonstrate that a major determinant of in vivo immunodeficiency induction by FeLV-FAIDS is contained within a 34-amino-acid C-terminal segment of its surface glycoprotein and that this gp70 alteration determines the early and persistent deficits in CD4+ T lymphocytes and T-cell-dependent antibody responses. We hypothesize that these early immunologic alterations could result from early deletion of a CD4+ helper T-cell subset.
Novel molecular targeted therapies for refractory thyroid cancer

The incidence of thyroid cancer continues to increase and this neoplasia remains the most common endocrine malignancy. No effective systemic treatment currently exists for iodine‐refractory differentiated or medullary thyroid carcinoma, but recent advances in the pathogenesis of these diseases have revealed key targets that are now being evaluated in the clinical setting. RET (rearranged during transfection)/PTC (papillary thyroid carcinoma) gene rearrangements, B‐Raf gene mutations, and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR‐2) angiogenesis pathways are some of the known genetic alterations playing a crucial role in the development of thyroid cancer. Several novel agents have demonstrated promising responses. Of the treatments studied, multi‐kinase inhibitors such as axitinib, sorafenib, motesanib, and XL‐184 have shown to be the most effective by inducing clinical responses and stabilizing the disease process. Randomized clinical trials are currently evaluating these agents, results that may soon change the management of thyroid cancer. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2012