Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Investigation Into the Structure, Validity, and Reliability of Guglielmino's Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale

This paper examines the structure, validity, and reliability of Guglielmino's self-directed learning readiness scale (SDLRS). It begins by reviewing claims made in the literature that the scale is sound, valid and reliable, and attempts to trace the source of these claims. This leads to scrutiny of Guglielmino's original thesis, which is found to be marred by both conceptual and methodological problems. The paper then reports data derived from an administration of the scale to students undertaking diplomas in vocational teaching or training. These data reveal a number of problems in the wording of the scale and show that the scale appears to measure a homogeneous construct that does not appear to be associated with readiness for self-directed learning. The paper concludes that the scale is structurally unsound and invalid.
How much can we learn about missing data?: an exploration of a clinical trial in psychiatry

Summary. When a randomized controlled trial has missing outcome data, any analysis is based on untestable assumptions, e.g. that the data are missing at random, or less commonly on other assumptions about the missing data mechanism. Given such assumptions, there is an extensive literature on suitable methods of analysis. However, little is known about what assumptions are appropriate. We use two sources of ancillary data to explore the missing data mechanism in a trial of adherence therapy in patients with schizophrenia: carer‐reported (proxy) outcomes and the number of contact attempts. This requires additional assumptions to be made whose plausibility we discuss. Proxy outcomes are found to be unhelpful in this trial because they are insufficiently associated with patient outcome and because the ancillary assumptions are implausible. The number of attempts required to achieve a follow‐up interview is helpful and suggests that these data are unlikely to depart far from being missing at random. We also perform sensitivity analyses to departures from missingness at random, based on the investigators’ prior beliefs elicited at the start of the trial. Wider use of techniques such as these will help to inform the choice of suitable assumptions for the analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Interaction between vision and language in category-specific semantic impairment

Abstract A category-specific semantic disorder, selectively affecting Living things and food and sparing inanimate objects, was observed in a patient (LA) who had made a partial recovery from herpes simplex encephalitis. This impairment was observed to have similar characteristics both with verbal and pictorial material, and a significant degree of consistency was observed between repeated presentations and across various modalities of administration of the same stimuli. In order to study the possible role of interactions between verbal-semantic and visual-semantic impairment, we constructed a test of “naming animals by definitions”, in which two sorts of definitions were contrasted: (1) those stressing visual perceptual features; and (2) those using verbal metaphorical expressions, or a description of the function accomplished by that animal for man, to allow identification. LA performed much better in the second than in the first condition. On the grounds of these results, the following hypotheses were .
Curriculum reform: a narrated journey

Objectives Curriculum reform poses significant challenges for medical schools across the globe. Understanding the medical educator’s personal and lived experience of curriculum change is paramount. This paper illustrates the use of narrative inquiry as a means of exploring the author’s own evolving professional identity as a medical educator engaged in planning and leading curriculum reform and in understanding the meanings she and other medical educators attribute to their roles as agents of change in a medical school.
Contact efflorescence as a pathway for crystallization of atmospherically relevant particles

Significance Atmospheric particles contain inorganic material that can effloresce to form a crystalline solid. The phase state of atmospheric particles influences the particle’s effect on climate and air quality. Despite the importance of particle phase, there is no comprehensive understanding of particle crystallization, and many climate models assume inorganic particles always remain liquid. Our study demonstrates that contact efflorescence, a previously unexplored pathway for crystallization, can lead to the formation of solid particulate at high relative humidity (RH, ∼80%) upon a single collision. Particles then remain crystalline at all relative humidities below their deliquescence point (<80% RH). Such a high efflorescence RH strongly suggests contact efflorescence may be an important atmospheric process to consider further. Inadequate knowledge of the phase state of atmospheric particles represents a source of uncertainty in global climate and air quality models. Hygroscopic aqueous inorganic particles are often assumed to remain liquid throughout their atmospheric lifetime or only (re)crystallize at low relative humidity (RH) due to the kinetic limitations of efflorescence (salt crystal nucleation and growth from an aqueous solution). Here we present experimental observations of a previously unexplored heterogeneous nucleation pathway that we have termed “contact efflorescence,” which describes efflorescence initiated by an externally located solid particle coming into contact with the surface of a metastable aqueous microdroplet. This study demonstrates that upon a single collision, contact efflorescence is a pathway for crystallization of atmospherically relevant aqueous particles at high ambient RH (≤80%). Soluble inorganic crystalline particles were used as contact nuclei to induce efflorescence of aqueous ammonium sulfate [(NH4)2SO4], sodium chloride (NaCl), and ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), with efflorescence being observed in several cases close to their deliquescence RH values (80%, 75%, and 62%, respectively). To our knowledge, these observations represent the highest reported efflorescence RH values for microdroplets of these salts. These results are particularly important for considering the phase state of NH4NO3, where the contact efflorescence RH (∼20–60%) is in stark contrast to the observation that NH4NO3 microdroplets do not homogeneously effloresce, even when exposed to extremely arid conditions (<1% RH). Considering the occurrence of particle collisions in the atmosphere (i.e., coagulation), these observations of contact efflorescence challenge many assumptions made about the phase state of inorganic aerosol.
Flexibility in MotiVated reasoning: strategic sHiFts oF reasoning Modes in coVariation judgMent

Research on motivated reasoning has shown that people with certain preferred conclusions sometimes treat information in different ways, depending on what best serves those conclusions. However, this research has focused mostly on between-subjects differences, that is, motivated selection of different judgment strategies by different people with different preferred conclusions. There is little evidence of how flexible people are in switching judgment strategies from moment to moment depending on their motives. In our research, we used problems of covariation judgment where the favorable type of strategy changed both between- and within-subjects, across different problems. Results suggest that there is considerable flexibility in motivated reasoning, such that participants who are motivated to defend a specific conclusion strategically select, and switch between, simpler or more sophisticated reasoning modes, depending on which serves the desired conclusion.
Iterative Expectation for Multi Period Information Retrieval

Many Information Retrieval (IR) models make use of offline statistical techniques to score documents for ranking over a single period, rather than use an online, dynamic system that is responsive to users over time. In this paper, we explicitly formulate a general Multi Period Information Retrieval problem, where we consider retrieval as a stochastic yet controllable process. The ranking action during the process continuously controls the retrieval system's dynamics, and an optimal ranking policy is found in order to maximise the overall users' satisfaction over the multiple periods as much as possible. Our derivations show interesting properties about how the posterior probability of the documents relevancy evolves from users feedbacks through clicks, and provides a plug-in framework for incorporating different click models. Based on the Multi-Armed Bandit theory, we propose a simple implementation of our framework using a dynamic ranking rule that takes rank bias and exploration of documents into account. We use TREC data to learn a suitable exploration parameter for our model, and then analyse its performance and a number of variants using a search log data set; the experiments suggest an ability to explore document relevance dynamically over time using user feedback in a way that can handle rank bias.
Glucocorticoid receptor-mediated cell cycle arrest is achieved through distinct cell-specific transcriptional regulatory mechanisms

Glucocorticoids inhibit proliferation of many cell types, but the events leading from the activated glucocorticoid receptor (GR) to growth arrest are not understood. Ectopic expression and activation of GR in human osteosarcoma cell lines U2OS and SAOS2, which lack endogenous receptors, result in a G1 cell cycle arrest. GR activation in U2OS cells represses expression of the cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) CDK4 and CDK6 as well as their regulatory partner, cyclin D3, leading to hypophosphorylation of the retinoblastoma protein (Rb). We also demonstrate a ligand-dependent reduction in the expression of E2F-1 and c-Myc, transcription factors involved in the G1-to-S-phase transition. Mitogen-activated protein kinase, CDK2, cyclin E, and the CDK inhibitors (CDIs) p27 and p21 are unaffected by receptor activation in U2OS cells. The receptor's N-terminal transcriptional activation domain is not required for growth arrest in U2OS cells. In Rb-deficient SAOS2 cells, however, the expression of p27 and p21 is induced upon receptor activation. Remarkably, in SAOS2 cells that express a GR deletion derivative lacking the N-terminal transcriptional activation domain, induction of CDI expression is abolished and the cells fail to undergo ligand-dependent cell cycle arrest. Similarly, murine S49 lymphoma cells, which, like SAOS2 cells, lack Rb, require the N-terminal activation domain for growth arrest and induce CDI expression upon GR activation. These cell-type-specific differences in receptor domains and cellular targets linking GR activation to cell cycle machinery suggest two distinct regulatory mechanisms of GR-mediated cell cycle arrest: one involving transcriptional repression of G1 cyclins and CDKs and the other involving enhanced transcription of CDIs by the activated receptor.
Researching Mutual Help Group Participation in a Segregated Society

Mutual help organizations are strongly influenced by the context in which they exist. Therefore, research on mutual help group participation among minority groups must take into account such contextual variables as racial and cultural segregation and the differing roles/attitudes of professionals and local gatekeepers in Black and White communities. To develop this argument, a study of 12-step mutual help group involvement after substance abuse treatment was conducted. One year after treatment intake, African American (n = 233) and White (n = 267) substance abusers were attending 12-step groups at comparable rates, but different factors predicted attendance for each racial group. Among Whites, more severe substance abuse problems and legal problems negatively predicted mutual help group involvement, whereas being treated in a residential setting and being treated for a longer period predicted mutual help group involvement positively. Among Blacks, length of treatment positively predicted mutual help involvement, whereas psychological problems predicted it negatively. For both racial groups, similarity of the individual's race to the predominant race in the area predicted mutual help involvement positively. That is, Whites in predominantly White areas and Blacks in predominantly Black areas were more likely to go to a group than were individuals who were locally in the racial minority. The implications of these findings and the politics of research on African American mutual help organizations are discussed.
In Vitro Chemoresistance and Chemosensitivity Assays Policy # 00288

Background/Overview A variety of chemosensitivity and chemoresistance assays have been clinically evaluated in human trials. All assays use characteristics of cell physiology to distinguish between viable and nonviable cells to quantify cell kill following exposure to a drug of interest. With few exceptions, drug doses used in the assays are highly variable depending on tumor type and drug class, but all assays require drug exposures ranging from several-fold below physiologic relevance to several-fold above physiologic relevance. Although a variety of assays examine chemosensitivity or chemoresistance, only a few are commercially available. Available assays are outlined as follows.
Non-uniform state space reconstruction and coupling detection

We investigate the state space reconstruction from multiple time series derived from continuous and discrete systems and propose a method for building embedding vectors progressively using information measure criteria regarding past, current, and future states. The embedding scheme can be adapted for different purposes, such as mixed modeling, cross-prediction and Granger causality. In particular, we apply this method in order to detect and evaluate information transfer in coupled systems. As a practical application, we investigate in records of scalp epileptic EEG the information flow across brain areas.
Comigrants and friends: Informal networks and the transmission of traditional ecological knowledge among seminomadic pastoralists of Gujarat, India

Previous research has shown that social organization may affect the distribution of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) within local communities of natural resource users in multiple ways. However, in this line of research the potential role of informal relationships has mostly been overlooked. In this article, we contribute toward filling this research gap by studying how two types of informal relationships, namely migration partnership and friendship, affect the distribution of TEK within a community of seminomadic pastoralists from the Kutch area, Gujarat, India. Using social network analysis, we map three networks, migration, men friendship, and women friendship, and compare with similarity-based quantitative approaches the clusters extracted from these networks in relation to four domains of TEK: knowledge about soils, about ethnoveterinary practices, about sheep breeds, and in ethnobotany. Our results show that (1) migration clusters are associated to significant variations in three TEK domains, while (2) friendship clusters are associated to minor variations. We relate these results to the importance of common practical experiences involved by joint migration. Moreover, kin relations are shown to strongly underlie friendship and migration relations, and as such appear as a potential driver of the dynamics of the local TEK system. We conclude by advocating for a better inclusion of such informal relationships in future research on local TEK dynamics, following recent developments in studies on natural resource governance.
Generation of Anti-Idiotype scFv for Pharmacokinetic Measurement in Lymphoma Patients Treated with Chimera Anti-CD22 Antibody SM03

Pre-clinical and clinical studies of therapeutic antibodies require highly specific reagents to examine their immune responses, bio-distributions, immunogenicity, and pharmacodynamics in patients. Selective antigen-mimicking anti-idiotype antibody facilitates the assessment of therapeutic antibody in the detection, quantitation and characterization of antibody immune responses. Using mouse specific degenerate primer pairs and splenocytic RNA, we generated an idiotype antibody-immunized phage-displayed scFv library in which an anti-idiotype antibody against the therapeutic chimera anti-CD22 antibody SM03 was isolated. The anti-idiotype scFv recognized the idiotype of anti-CD22 antibody and inhibited binding of SM03 to CD22 on Raji cell surface. The anti-idiotype scFv was subsequently classified as Ab2γ type. Moreover, our results also demonstrated firstly that the anti-idiotype scFv could be used for pharmacokinetic measurement of circulating residual antibody in lymphoma patients treated with chimera anti-CD22 monoclonal antibody SM03. Of important, the present approach could be easily adopted to generate anti-idiotype antibodies for therapeutic antibodies targeting membrane proteins, saving the cost and time for producing a soluble antigen.
PLAYERS LOCALIZATIO , HIGHLIGHTI G A D TEAM CLASSIFICATIO I SOCCER GAME VIDEO

In this paper, a framework of player segmentation, tracking, highlighting and team classification in soccer game video is proposed. Main contributions consist of: 1) playfield modeling combining the Gaussian model with the dominant color extraction to segment the players/referees; 2) mean shift-based tracking with soft constraints from the foreground map to alleviate the shortcomings in handling the fast moving players; 3) discriminant similarity metric de-weighted by the surrounding background distribution applied for scale adaptation; 4) conservative update of the target model by aligning with its initial; 5) bi-histogram matching employed for team classification. Experimental results are given to demonstrate the proposed approach’s performance.
The p53MH algorithm and its application in detecting p53-responsive genes

A computer algorithm, p53MH, was developed, which identifies putative p53 transcription factor DNA-binding sites on a genomewide scale with high power and versatility. With the sequences from the human and mouse genomes, putative p53 DNA-binding elements were identified in a scan of 2,583 human genes and 1,713 mouse orthologs based on the experimental data of el-Deiry et al. [el-Deiry, W. S. , Kern, S. E. , Pietenpol, J. A. , Kinzler, K. W. & Vogelstein, B. (1992) Nat. Genet. 1, 45–49] and Funk et al. [Funk, W. D. , Pak, D. T. , Karas, R. H. , Wright, W. E. & Shay, J. W. (1992) Mol. Cell. Biol. 12, 2866–2871] (http://linkage.rockefeller.edu/p53). The p53 DNA-binding motif consists of a 10-bp palindrome and most commonly a second related palindrome linked by a spacer region. By scanning from the 5′ to 3′ end of each gene with an additional 10-kb nucleotide sequence appended at each end (most regulatory DNA elements characterized in the literature are in these regions), p53MH computes the binding likelihood for each site under a discrete discriminant model and then outputs ordered scores, corresponding site positions, sequences, and related information. About 300 genes receiving scores greater than a theoretical cut-off value were identified as potential p53 targets. Semiquantitative reverse transcription–PCR experiments were performed in 2 cell lines on 16 genes that were previously unknown regarding their functional relationship to p53 and were found to have high scores in either proximal promoter or possible distal enhancer regions. Ten (∼63%) of these genes responded to the presence of p53.
Gramsci, Class and Post-Marxism

Often Gramsci is presented in the social sciences, particularly by post-Marxists, as a precursor of and justification for abandoning the concept of class. This is incorrect. This article outlines Gramsci’s ideas of class, class composition, formation and alliance which Gramsci based on a detailed, accurate reconnaissance of the Italy of his time. This journal article is available in International Gramsci Journal: http://ro.uow. edu.au/gramsci/vol1/iss1/2 GRAMSCI, CLASS AND POST-MARXISM Mike Donaldson, Sociology, University of Wollongong While Gramsci was without doubt a revolutionary Marxist at least since 1920 and at the time of his imprisonment at the end of 1926, Ernesto Laclau and others have claimed that because of fascism’s victory, Gramsci fundamentally rethought his ideas in writing the Prison Notebooks (Poynting, 1995: 181). Laclau and other postMarxists almost exclusively rely on the Notebooks for their understanding of Gramsci even though most of the concepts central to the Notebooks are in his preprison writings (Bellamy, 1994: x). Germino and Fennema (1998: 183) can find “no justification for the all too common practice of largely ignoring the pre-prison notebooks”. The prison writings have an “organic continuity with the political universe within which Gramsci had operated prior to his arrest” (Hoare and Nowell Smith, 1971/1999, SPN: 91), and Alastair Davidson (1977: 162, 246) is certain that Gramsci himself “makes clear that his overall view had not changed since 1916, except in details” and that “on the eve of his imprisonment Gramsci maintained much the same view of Marxism as he always had”. There had, he added, “certainly been no stupendous rupture in Gramsci’s intellectual development since 1919–20”. In Derek Boothman’s (2005: 4; 1995/1999 FSPN: 36–37) view, too, there is “nothing in the Notebooks to indicate that he changed his opinion on these preprison stances [on religion], the last of which was written just six months before his arrest”. And according to Germino and Fennema (1998: 192), “It is clear from the Vienna letters that Gramsci had already worked out in 1924 what in his Prison Notebooks he was to call his theory of hegemony and the conquest of civil society through the ‘war of position’”. The strict limit imposed by the prison authorities on the number of books, including notebooks, that Gramsci could have in his cell at one time, meant that his considerations on a particular subject were often written in whatever notebook was to hand (Boothman, 1995/1999 FSPN: 30, 31). The post-Marxists, Stuart Hall (1991/1999a: 8) in particular, found that this “fragmentary nature of his writings was