Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Juxtaposing Beliefs and Reality: Prevalence Rates of Intimate Partner Violence and Attitudes to Violence and Gender Roles Reported by New Zealand Women

This study documents the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) for four ethnic groups and explores ethnic-specific differences and similarities in women’s attitudes. Data are from a cross-sectional survey of 2,674 ever-partnered women aged 18 to 64 years. High rates of IPV among all ethnic groups reinforce the need to retain and expand current prevention and intervention efforts. Violence was not regarded as normative for any ethnic group. All women, but Pacific and Asian women in particular, would benefit from interventions that reinforce women’s acceptance of seeking and utilizing outside intervention in cases of partner maltreatment.
Translating Diabetes Prevention Into Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Communities: The PILI 'Ohana Pilot Project

Background. Native Hawaiians (NH) and Other Pacific Islanders (OPI) bear an excess burden of diabetes health disparities. Translation of empirically tested interventions such as the Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Intervention (DPP-LI) offers the potential for reversing these trends. Yet, little is known about how best to translate efficacious interventions into public health practice, particularly among racial/ethnic minority populations. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach that engages the community in the research process and has recently been proposed as a means to improve the translation of research into community practice.Objectives. To address diabetes health disparities in NHOPIs, CBPR approaches were used to: (1) culturally adapt the DPP-LI for NHOPI communities; and (2) implement and examine the effectiveness of the culturally-adapted program to promote weight loss in 5 NHOPI communities.Methods. Informant interviews (n=15) and focus groups (n=15, with 112 NHOPI participants) were completed to inform the cultural adaptation of the DPP-LI program. A team of 5 community investigators and 1 academic research team collaboratively developed and implemented the 12-week pilot study to assess the effectiveness of the culturally adapted program.Results. A total of 127 NHOPIs participated in focus groups and informant interviews that resulted in the creation of a significantly modified version of the DPP-LI, entitled the PILI 'Ohana Lifestyle Intervention (POLI). In the pilot study, 239 NHOPIs were enrolled and after 12 weeks (post-program), mean weight loss was -1.5 kg (95%CI -2.0, -1.0) with 26% of participants losing ≥3% of their baseline weight. Mean weight loss among participants who completed all 8 lessons at 12 weeks was significantly higher (-1.8 kg, 95%CI -2.3, -1.3) than participants who completed less than 8 lessons (-0.70 kg, 95%CI -1.1, -0.29). Conclusion. A fully engaged CBPR approach was successful in translating an evidence based diabetes prevention program into a culturally relevant intervention for NHOPI communities. This pilot study demonstrates that weight loss in high risk minority populations can be achieved over a short period of time using CBPR approaches.
The Effect of Eccentric Exercise on Serum Creatine Kinase Activity in Different Ethnic Groups

Eccentric exercise causes release of muscle creatine kinase (CK) 3–4 days after exercise. Racial variation in basal serum CK has been reported but the reasons for this are unknown. We studied 30 subjects of different ethnic origin (Caucasian, Afro-Caribbean, Asian) before and after eccentric exercise. Basal serum CK was significantly higher in the Afro-Caribbean group (201 ± 134IU/L, median ± SD) compared to Caucasians (81 ± 57 IU/L). The Asian group had intermediate CK values (144 ± 93 IU/L). The intra-individual range of peak post-exercise CK values obtained was very wide (95–30 200 IU/L) with little difference in median CK between the Afro-Caribbean (8450 ± 9020 IU/L) and Caucasian groups (7600 ± 8800 IU/L). The median value for the Asian group was lower (594 ± 5410 IU/L). A sub-group of 15 individuals undertook a second bout of exercise 2 weeks later and all subjects demonstrated a training effect resulting in a marked attenuation of enzyme efflux. The variation in CK between the ethnic groups was not related to measurements of muscle strength or body mass, although the torque: body mass ratio followed the same order as the basal CK, i.e. the Afro-Caribbeans had the highest values. These results highlight the importance of considering ethnic origin and previous exercise history when interpreting serum CK assay results.
Enzyme changes during Bacillus subtilis sporulation caused by deprivation of guanine nucleotides

When sporulation is initiated by nutrient limitation, e.g., at the end of growth, certain biochemical processes occur in sequence. To determine which of these processes occur, even when the cells sporulate in the presence of a rapidly metabolizable carbon source, we induced sporulation of Bacillus subtilis by deprivation of guanine nucleotides, in a synthetic medium containing excess glucose, ammonium ions, and phosphate. The deprivation was produced either by decoyinine addition to a standard strain or by guanosin limitation of a guanine auxotroph. At 1 h after the onset of this deprivation, an extensive turnover of proteins began whose appearance was chloramphenicol sensitive. At least one enzyme (aspartate transcarbamylase) lost 70% of its activity within 15 min, indicating its rapid destruction. Whereas the magnitude of the above two changes was similar to that observed during sporulation at the end of growth in nutrient sporulation medium, protease (intracellular and extracellular) increased to less than one-tenth of the specific activity in nutrient sporulation medium, and alkaline phosphatase increased to less than one-half. However, glucose dehydrogenase, an enzyme made only in forespores, increased to the same specific activity under both conditions, presumably because the forespore compartment is protected from media (e.g., glucose) influences by the double membrane (two bilayers with opposite polarity).
Surveillance of drug use among young people attending a music festival in Australia, 2005-2008.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS In order to monitor trends in illicit drug use among youth, surveillance of drug use behaviours among a variety of populations in different settings is required. We monitored drug use among music festival attendees. DESIGN AND METHODS Cross-sectional studies of young people's reported drug use were performed at a music festival in Melbourne from 2005 to 2008. Self-administered questionnaires collected information on drug use, demographics and other risk behaviour. RESULTS From 2005 to 2008, over 5000 questionnaires were completed by people aged 16-29; 2273 men and 3011 women. Overall, use of any illicit drug in the past month was reported by 44%. After adjusting for demographic and behavioural characteristics, the prevalence of recent illicit drug use decreased significantly from 46% in 2005 to 43% in 2008 (OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.87-0.97). After adjusting for age and sex the downwards trend was repeated for amphetamines and cannabis, but a significant increase in prevalence was observed in hallucinogen, ecstasy and inhalant use. Drug use was more common among men, older participants and those engaging in high-risk sexual behaviour. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Illicit drug use was much more common in this sample than in the National Drug Strategy Household survey, but the direction of trends in drug use were similar; drug use prevalences were much lower than in the Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System, the Illicit Drug Reporting System or National Needle and Syringe Program Survey. Music festival attendees are a potentially useful group for monitoring trends in illicit drug use.
Gap-junctional communication between feeder cells and recipient normal epithelial cells correlates with growth stimulation

SummaryLA7 rat mammary tumor cells stimulate the proliferation, in culture, of three normal epithelial cell types, namely mouse mammary, rat mammary, and mouse thymic cells. Gap-junctional communication between LA7 feeders and mouse mammary cells was demonstrated by microinjection of lucifer yellow, which traveled from LA7 to the surrounding mouse mammary cells. The amount of 3H-uridine exchange between feeder and recipient mouse mammary, rat mammary, and mouse thymus cells correlated with the growth rate induced by the feeders. Cells of the Madin Darby canine kidney (MDCK) line, which do not appreciably stimulate mouse mammary cell growth when used as feeder cells, also exchange little 3H-uridine with them. Expression of connexins Cx43, 32, and 26 was studied in all these cell lines and strains by immunocytochemistry. Mouse mammary cells expressed Cx26, and a few mouse thymic cells expressed Cx32. LA7, mouse mammary, mouse thymic, and rat mammary cells all expressed easily detectable amounts of the gap-junction protein Cx43, in contrast to MDCK cells, which expressed only a hint of the protein. These results suggest that gap junctions composed of Cx43 are those by which the normal epithelial cells communicate with the LA feeders. Thus, the ability of feeder cells to stimulate proliferation in recipients correlates with the expression of Cx43 in both members of the feeder/recipient pair and the capacity to form functional gap junctions between these cells.
10-GHz clock recovery using an optoelectronic phase-locked loop based on three-wave mixing in periodically poled lithium niobate

Clock recovery is a critical function of any digital communications system. To replace the classical electronic phase-locked loops (PLLs) at higher bit rates, several all-optical or optoelectronic clock recovery methods are being studied. This letter presents an optoelectronic PLL where three-wave mixing in a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) device provides the phase comparator. Since PPLN is passive, it generates no amplified spontaneous emission noise; also, the error signal is in the visible (763 nm), therefore easily separated from infrared input signals. Clock recovery is performed on a 10-GHz sinusoidal optical signal. Being based on ultrafast nonlinear effects, this scheme should be able to reach still higher bit rates, on the order of several hundred gigahertz. Also, subclock extraction (e.g., 40-to-10 GHz) should be possible without modifications.
Higher education reform in Brazil : some voices of the academia

This thesis examines the rationale underlying the recent changes concerned with the expansion, organisation, social commitment and public sponsorship of non-research-intensive Brazilian universities, which represent the biggest (though not much investigated) segment of the Brazilian higher education system. Unlike the approach adopted by a significant part of the Brazilian research conducted in this area — which is based on the assumption that the changes are largely the outcome of the national educational policies of the mid 1990s — this study focuses on the role played by the academics themselves. A qualitative research strategy was employed that drew on the findings of semi-structured interviews with 40 lecturers from different departments of a non-research-intensive Brazilian university. The findings revealed that the complex situation partially resulting from the new educational policies had led to two distinct reactions within the university. The first was characterized by a movement of resistance against such policies, which were regarded as harmful to the university's practices and the academic work. The other attitude was characterised by a willingness to engage in commercial practices and establish closer links with private companies, mainly through the provision of services in outreach programmes. The significance of this entrepreneurial involvement was shown in its effect on the concept of outreach — traditionally a form of social service provided by the universities. The research also obtained evidence that the financial resources derived from these commercial practices have allowed the university to improve its facilities and the quality of its activities. This contradicts the assertions of several Brazilian authors who claim that these practices have had an adverse effect on the university's autonomy and social role. However, further research is needed to understand the full implications of the benefits and drawbacks of these commercial practices.
ANN-based hybrid state estimation and enhanced visualization of power systems

The paper presents an artificial neural network (ANN)-based hybrid state estimator for estimating the states of a power system in the presence of conventional asynchronous as well as synchronous phasor measurements. Case studies on test systems show promising results for the ANN-based estimator. The paper also presents methodologies to enhance the visualization of the power system during the intervals between successive outputs of the conventional state estimator. The ANN-based state estimators trained with measurements from phasor measurement units (PMUs) are shown to be useful for enhancing the visualization of the power system during such intervals.
Evolution of PAU/PARIS End-to-end Performance Simulator (P2EPS) towards GNSS reflectometry, radio occulation and Scatterometry simulator (GEROS-SIM)

This work shows a state-of-the-art GNSS reflectometry end-to-end performance simulator, selected for the ESA's GNSS rEflectometry, Radio Occultation and Scatterometry onboard International Space Station (GEROS-ISS). For the efficient development process, the PAU/PARIS End-to-end Performance Simulator (P2EPS) are used as main building blocks for the GEROS-Simulator. To accommodate the GEROS specific situation of platform and instrument, P2EPS is modified. Additionally, several considerations in spaceborne GNSS-R techniques are newly updated in GEROS-SIM, improving the performance in terms of accuracy and completeness. GEROS-SIM will be delivered as a web application, i.e., executable via web browser connecting GEROS-SIM webpage hosted by UPC-BarcelonaTech.
Drosophila melanogaster males respond differently at the behavioural and genome‐wide levels to Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans females

Drosophila melanogaster are found in sympatry with Drosophila simulans, and matings between the species produce nonfertile hybrid offspring at low frequency. Evolutionary theory predicts that females choose mates, so males should alter their behaviour in response to female cues. We show that D. melanogaster males quickly decrease courtship towards D. simulans females. Courtship levels are reduced within 5 min of exposure to a heterospecific female, and overall courtship is significantly lower than courtship towards conspecific females. To understand changes at the molecular level during mate choice, we performed microarray analysis on D. melanogaster males that courted heterospecific D. simulans females and found nine genes have altered expression compared with controls. In contrast, males that court conspecific females alter expression of at least 35 loci. The changes elicited by conspecific courtship likely modulate nervous system function to reinforce positive conspecific signals and dampen the response to heterospecific signals.
Community–engaged curricula in higher education: the case of a master's programme in play therapy

CITATION: Bitzer, E. M. , Wilson, L. & Newmark, R. 2015. Community-engaged curricula in higher education : the case of a master's programme in play therapy. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(4):296–314, doi:10.20853/29-4-511.
The Tyrosyl-DNA Phosphodiesterase 1β (Tdp1β) Gene Discloses an Early Response to Abiotic Stresses

Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 1 (Tdp1) is involved in DNA repair pathways as it mends the topoisomerase I—DNA covalent complexes. In plants, a small Tdp1 gene family, composed by Tdp1α and Tdp1β genes, was identified, but the roles of these genes in abiotic stress responses are not fully understood. To investigate their specific stress response patterns, the present study made use of bioinformatic and molecular tools to look into the Tdp1β gene function, so far described only in the plant kingdom, and compare it with Tdp1α gene coding for the canonical, highly conserved α isoform. The expression profiles of Tdp1α and Tdp1β genes were examined under abiotic stress conditions (cold, heat, high osmolarity, salt, and UV-B) in two model species, Arabidopsis thaliana and Medicago truncatula. The two isoforms of topoisomerase I (TOP1α and TOP1β) were also taken into consideration in view of their known roles in DNA metabolism and cell proliferation. Data relative to gene expression in Arabidopsis were retrieved from the AtGenExpress microarray dataset, while quantitative Real-Time PCR was carried out to evaluate the stress response in M. truncatula cell cultures. These analyses revealed that Tdp1β gene expression was enhanced during the first hour of treatment, whereas Tdp1α enhanced expression succeeded at subsequent timepoints. In agreement with the gene-specific responses to abiotic stress conditions, the promoter regions of Tdp1α and Tdp1β genes are well equipped with stress-related cis-elements. An in-depth bioinformatic characterization of the HIRAN motif, a distinctive feature of the Tdp1β protein, showed its wide distribution in chromatin remodeling and DNA repair proteins. The reported data suggests that Tdp1β functions in the early response to abiotic stresses.
The changing nature of participation in design : a practice-based study of social technologies in early design research

Social technologies put a new emphasis on participation. This thesis investigates the impact of social technologies on how we enable, conceive and manage participation in early design. The research questions in this thesis address how, and in what ways, using social technologies as design tools can support participation in the early stages of design, and how using such tools creates new opportunities for participation in early design when social technologies themselves are the subject of design. It develops and presents concepts and strategies that account for the sharable, social and participatory nature of social technologies and encourages designers to reconsider how notions of participation are currently embedded and framed within existing design methods and models. The questions are explored through a practice-based investigation into the use of social technologies as self-reporting tools. Over the course of two field studies a self-reporting method, Mobile Diaries, was iteratively designed, evaluated and implemented in a specific commercial design context. The analysis demonstrated that using social technologies as design tools enhances the capacity for self-reporting to enable participants to contribute to design from the context of their own lives. This greater integration between the activities of research and everyday life blurs some traditional design research boundaries, with ethical and methodological implications for which we are only beginning to account. In addition, when social technologies are the subject of design, using social technologies as design tools creates an experiential connection between the activities of researching, designing and using. This creates new opportunities for participation through use early in the design process that blur traditional boundaries between the activities of research, design and use. Barriers to embracing these opportunities in commercial contexts include the assumption that the activities of design and use progress consecutively and the value of early participation in design is largely embodied in the tangible outputs of design research. This research extends existing knowledge about the nature of participation in design, and how participation can be supported, through three main contributions: 1. The development of Mobile Diaries, a specific self-reporting method beneficial to early design research and suited to commercial use
Online Spatiotemporal Extreme Learning Machine for Complex Time-Varying Distributed Parameter Systems

Many industrial processes are complex nonlinear distributed parameter systems (DPSs) with time-varying spatiotemporal dynamics. However, time-varying spatiotemporal dynamics and the nonlinear relationships between spatial points are currently not given much consideration in the existing data-driven modeling methods. Thus, accurately modeling a nonlinear DPS with time-varying spatiotemporal dynamics using these current methods is challenging. Here, we propose a spatiotemporal extreme learning machine (ELM) to accurately model time-varying and nonlinear DPSs. First, we develop the nonlinear spatial activation function to describe the nonlinear relationships between spatial points. As a result, in contrast to the traditional ELM method which is only used to model the temporal dynamics, the spatiotemporal ELM inherently takes the spatial information into consideration. Next, an online time coefficient model is developed, which accounts for the time-varying temporal dynamics of the DPS. After the integration of the spatial activation function with the time coefficient model, this modeling method is able to adapt to real-time spatiotemporal variation. Unlike the existing data-driven DPS modeling approaches, the proposed method has the capability to accurately represent the nonlinear relationships between spatial points and has the adaptive ability for modeling time-varying dynamics. Finally, through application on practical curing experiments, the proposed method can improve the modeling precision for an unknown, time-varying, and nonlinear DPS due to smaller modeling error as compared to the several commonly used DPS modeling methods.
Delayed trauma team activation: Patient characteristics and outcomes

BACKGROUND The study aimed to characterize factors linked to delayed trauma team activation (DTTA) and to establish whether these delays are linked to worse outcomes. METHODS Registry data were analyzed in regard to DTTA for years 2008 to 2010 at a Level II trauma center. DTTA was defined as cases when a trauma team activation or trauma consult occurred more than 30 minutes after arrival at the emergency department in the presence of triaging criteria or clinical evidence of traumatic injury. Characteristics and outcomes were studied in relation to DTTA using contingency tables (&khgr;2 test), Student’s t tests, Wilcoxon statistics, and multivariate methods. RESULTS DTTA occurred in 1.5% of the 9,525 patients and was significantly linked to age of 55 years or older, nonwhite ethnicity, blunt assault (i.e., struck with blunt object), Injury Severity Score of 16 or higher, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 15, and head injury with maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale score of 3 or higher (MAIS3+). Firearm and motor vehicular injuries were significantly less common among those with DTTA. No link was found for sex, falls, stabbings, or blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 80 mg/dL or more. Although mortality did not differ, hospital stay was longer, and discharge to rehabilitation was more common among those with DTTA. Multivariate models predicting DTTA revealed significant associations with age of more than 55 years (odds ratio [OR], 3.77 [2.54–5.53]), white ethnicity (OR, 0.47 [0.27–0.76]), blunt assault (OR, 3.42 [2.20–5.19]), and GCS score of 15 (OR, 4.48 [2.02–12.71]). Multivariate analyses did not reveal any association of DTTA with length of stay and mortality. CONCLUSION DTTA occurs infrequently and is linked to older age, nonwhite ethnicity, blunt assaults, and normal GCS score. The higher rates of MAIS3+ head injuries with a maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale score of more than 3 among those with DTTA should encourage better recognition of those with these injuries. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic study, level III.