Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Presentation of CEOs in the Press, 1990-2000: Increasing Salience, Positive Valence, and a Focus on Competency and Personal Dimensions of Image

Public relations researchers and practitioners acknowledge the importance of chief executive officers (CEOs) to the function and to organizational image, but studies of CEOs in media coverage are rare. This study used content analysis of 4 newspapers during the period from 1990 through 2000 to assess trends in the salience and valence of CEO press coverage and to examine dimensions of CEO images in the coverage. Results suggest increasing salience and a somewhat positive valence in coverage, as well as a sharp focus on competency and personal dimensions of CEO images. The study contributes to a thin literature on the topic by developing a baseline of data about CEOs and press coverage and by assessing implications of the findings for theory and practice.
Patterns in Intimate Partner Homicide

This article examines correlates and patterns of intimate partner homicide by relationship type and gender ratio of victimization with data for over 2,500 such homicides committed in California between 1987 and 1996. Many of Wolfgang's findings for spousal homicide in Philadelphia 40 years ago are reproduced in the authors' analysis of presentday California. Similar to Wolfgang, they find that female-perpetrated intimate homicides are especially likely to occur in private settings, to result from arguments, and to involve knives as the instrument of death. They also find, as did Wolfgang, that the ratio of female-to-male perpetrated killings is substantially higher among African Americans than among other groups. Although the range of relationship types is considerably broader than when Wolfgang conducted his research, encompassing large numbers of unmarried cohabiting couples, Wolfgang's research remains a durable foundation for understanding how the most intimate human relationships end in homicide.
Analysis of cultured keratinocytes from a transgenic mouse model of psoriasis: effects of suprabasal integrin expression on keratinocyte adhesion, proliferation and terminal differentiation

Abstract: Many important transgenic mouse models of benign and neoplastic skin diseases have been generated through the use of promoters that target transgene expression to the different epidermal layers. However, more mechanistic studies of the specific effects of the transgenes on keratinocytes have been hampered by difficulties in culturing keratinocytes from adult mouse epidermis and by the low differentiation potential of many established mouse keratinocyte lines. We have used the Rheinwald & Green technique to cultivate primary adult keratinocytes and to generate keratinocyte lines from transgenic mice which have a sporadic psoriatic phenotype due to expression of human integrin subunits under the control of the involucrin promoter. We show that the transgenes are induced when keratinocytes are placed in suspension and that the transgenic integrins are capable of clustering in focal adhesions and mediating cell adhesion and spreading. We also show that suprabasal integrin expression has no direct effect on proliferation of cells in the underlying basal layer, ruling this out as a possible explanation for the epidermal hyperproliferation observed in the transgenic mice.
Attachment and Borderline Personality Disorder: Implications for Psychotherapy

Background: Psychopathology researchers and theorists have begun to understand fundamental aspects of borderline personality disorder (BPD) such as unstable and intense interpersonal relationships, feelings of emptiness, bursts of rage, chronic fears of abandonment, intolerance for aloneness, and lack of a stable sense of self as stemming from impairments in the underlying attachment organization. In the present study, we will examine self-reported attachment in a study group of well-characterized patients reliably diagnosed with BPD. Sampling and Methods: Ninety-nine outpatients reliably diagnosed with BPD using the International Personality Disorders Examination, completed a number of attachment measures including the Relationship Questionnaire, Relationship Style Questionnaire, and Experiences in Close Relationships inventory. Results: Factor analysis revealed six factors that clustered into three groups corresponding to an avoidant attachment pattern, a preoccupied attachment pattern, and a fearfully preoccupied pattern. The preoccupied pattern showed more concern and behavioral reaction to real or imagined abandonments, whereas the avoidant group had higher ratings of inappropriate anger. The fearfully preoccupied group had higher ratings on identity disturbance, although only at the trend level. Conclusions: The psychometric properties and response characteristics of the ECR items suggest that the scales, keying, and domains are appropriate for assessment of attachment in BPD samples. The scales generally retain their factor structure and show a similar pattern of correlations and inter-relationships. Nevertheless, consistent with a developmental psychopathology model, there are some important differences in factor structure, indicating the need to look at both typical and atypical samples when constructing models of attachment. Further research is needed to delineate the prognostic and prescriptive significance of attachment patterns for treating patients with BPD.
Experiments of device failures in a planar nine-way metamaterial power-combined amplifier

The degradation characteristic of a planar nine-way metamaterial power-combined amplifier with device failures is investigated in this paper. The power-divider/combiner design is based on the metamaterial lens structure and is composed of positive refractive index material and zero refractive index (ZRI) material. Nine 1-W power amplifiers are inserted in the ZRI material to attain a nine-way power-combined amplifier. Due to its uniform isolation characteristics of the metamaterial power divider/combiner, the graceful degradation performance of this power-combined amplifier is shown to be independent of the amplifier failure sequence and is experimentally demonstrated.
Race, Class, and Schooling: Multicultural Families Doing the Hard Work of Home Literacy in America's Inner City

Drawing on a larger ethnographic study, this article documents (a) how and for what purposes literacy is used in 3 culturally diverse families of low socioeconomic status and (b) what various cultural, socioeconomic, and environmental factors shape the families' literacy practices in their home milieus in an urban context. Data analysis revealed that the families use literacy in both 1st and 2nd languages for a variety of purposes—helping with schoolwork, self-improvement, leisure and everyday living, and advocating for improved school practices. These literacy practices, however, are seriously constrained by various out-of-school factors, such as school–home literacy fracturing, declining neighborhood and school culture, different forms of racism, and family and neighborhood social class statuses. Findings suggest that there is a need to broaden existing efforts to improve minority literacy education within classrooms and schools to address the “limit situations” outside of school that affect students' lives and impede their school achievement. Experts must make a concerted endeavor to improve the urban social and physical environment as well as to implement pedagogical practices that connect students' learning inside school with their lived realities outside school.
Multispectral image segmentation using Gabor filtering and local homogeneity analysis with application to MSG

Image segmentation is an essential stage in many computer visions tasks. In the last decades, many segmentation methods based on the gray levels of the texture image have been proposed. However, the use of the spectral information improves the segmentation accuracy of the spectral textures. This paper describes a multispectral image segmentation method, which consists of two steps. In the first step, the Gabor filtering is applied to the spectral components of the texture images. By using Gabor analysis, the multispectral texture images can be segmented in multiples scales and orientations. To get an initial segmentation of the image, the obtained spectral textures features are first combined and then classified using the FCM algorithm. In the second step, local homogeneity analysis is carried out using Deng's criterion for “good” segmentation. The homogeneity analysis is applied to the extracted regions to get the final result of the segmentation. The proposed method has been tested successfully using synthetic and Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite images.
Improving discourse management in TRIPS-98

The discourse manager is the component of the TRIPS-98 system that maintains a list of candidate antecedents to be used for resolving anaphoric referring expressions. The model currently implemented in the system is a monologue-based model of context that has a variety of limitations. This paper discusses changes to the underlying model to make it handle a much broader range of referring expressions. Some of these changes have already been implemented in the system and some are the subject of a long-term project.
A novel mobile robot localization approach based on a model switching feature extraction

This paper studies natural feature based localization for mobile robot navigation in semi-structured outdoor environments using a laser range sensor. We propose an algorithm for feature extraction by using switching models between line model and circle model. In order to avoid the estimation error caused by the linearization in the extended Kalman filtering (EKF), a particle filter is applied to realize the prediction and validation process by integrating data from both the laser range sensor and encoders in outdoor environments. The proposed feature extraction and localization algorithms are verified in a artificial simulation environment. The results show that the proposed algorithms perform very well in an semi-structured outdoor environment.
Rapid Diminution in the Level and Activity of DNA-Dependent Protein Kinase in Cancer Cells by a Reactive Nitro-Benzoxadiazole Compound

The expression and activity of DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) is related to DNA repair status in the response of cells to exogenous and endogenous factors. Recent studies indicate that Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is involved in modulating DNA-PK. It has been shown that a compound 4-nitro-7-[(1-oxidopyridin-2-yl)sulfanyl]-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (NSC), bearing a nitro-benzoxadiazole (NBD) scaffold, enhances tyrosine phosphorylation of EGFR and triggers downstream signaling pathways. Here, we studied the behavior of DNA-PK and other DNA repair proteins in prostate cancer cells exposed to compound NSC. We showed that both the expression and activity of DNA-PKcs (catalytic subunit of DNA-PK) rapidly decreased upon exposure of cells to the compound. The decline in DNA-PKcs was associated with enhanced protein ubiquitination, indicating the activation of cellular proteasome. However, pretreatment of cells with thioglycerol abolished the action of compound NSC and restored the level of DNA-PKcs. Moreover, the decreased level of DNA-PKcs was associated with the production of intracellular hydrogen peroxide by stable dimeric forms of Cu/Zn SOD1 induced by NSC. Our findings indicate that reactive oxygen species and electrophilic intermediates, generated and accumulated during the redox transformation of NBD compounds, are primarily responsible for the rapid modulation of DNA-PKcs functions in cancer cells.
Social interactions of information systems development teams: a performance perspective

We report results from a longitudinal study of information systems development (ISD) teams. We use data drawn from 60 ISD teams at 22 sites of 15 Fortune 500 organizations to explore variations in performance relative to these teams’ social interactions. To do this, we characterize ISD as a form of new product development and focus on team‐level social interactions with external stakeholders. Drawing on cluster analysis, we identify five patterns of team‐level social interactions and the relationships of these patterns to a suite of objective and subjective measures of ISD performance. Analysis leads us to report three findings. First, data indicate that no one of the five identified patterns maximizes all performance measures. Second, data make clear that the most common approach to ISD is the least effective relative to our suite of performance measures. Third, data from this study show that early indications of ISD project success do not predict actual outcomes. These findings suggest two issues for research and practice. First, these findings indicate that varying patterns of social interactions lead to differences in ISD team performance. Second, the findings illustrate that singular measures of ISD performance are an oversimplification and that multiple measures of ISD performance are unlikely to agree.
The plasma lecithins:cholesterol acyltransferase reaction.

Evidence for the existence of a plasma lecithin : cholesterol acyltransferase is reviewed with emphasis not only on the lipid reactants, but also on the lipoprotein "substrates" and "products. " The cholesteryl esters of all major lipoprotein classes become labeled when plasma is incubated with cholesterol-(14)C. However, the smaller, lecithin-rich high density lipoproteins appear to be preferred substrates. Most studies of factors that influence the acyltransferase reaction have not adequately distinguished between effects on the enzyme and effects on the lipoprotein substrates. However, the fact that cholesterol esterification is diminished in plasma from eviscerated animals or from patients with reduced liver function suggests that the liver may regulate both the level of the enzyme and that of the substrates. Several indications exist that the acyltransferase reaction is the major source of plasma esterified cholesterol in man. Furthermore, the reaction may have a broader, extracellular function. One possibility is that it plays a role in the transport of cholesterol from peripheral tissues to the liver.
A Survey of Modeling and Simulation of Skeletal Muscle

Muscles provide physiological functions to drive body move ment and anatomically characterize body shape, making them a crucia l component of modeling animated human figures. Substantial efforts hav e been expended on developing computational models of muscles for th e purpose of increasing realism and accuracy in a broad range of applic ations, including computer graphics and biomechanics. We survey various a ppro ches that have been employed to model and simulate muscles both mo rphol gically and functionally. Modeling the realistic morpholog y of muscle requires that muscle deformations be accurately depicted. To this end, several methodologies have been presented, including geometr ically-based, physically-based, and data-driven approaches. On the othe r hand, the simulation of physiological muscle functions aims to identify t he biomechanical controls responsible for realistic human motion. Estimati ng these muscle controls has been pursued through static and dynamic simula t ons. We review and discuss all these approaches, and conclude with sug ge tions for future research.
Interleukin-1β Modulates Melatonin Secretion in Ovine Pineal Gland: Ex Vivo Study

The study was designed to determine the effect of proinflammatory cytokine, interleukin- (IL-) 1β, on melatonin release and expression enzymes essential for this hormone synthesis: arylalkylamine-N-acetyltransferase (AA-NAT) and hydroxyindole-O-methyltransferase (HIOMT) in ovine pineal gland, taking into account the immune status of animals before sacrificing. Ewes were injected by lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 400 ng/kg) or saline, two hours after sunset during short day period (December). Animals were euthanized three hours after the injection. Next, the pineal glands were collected and divided into four explants. The explants were incubated with (1) medium 199 (control explants), (2) norepinephrine (NE; 10 µM), (3) IL-1β (75 pg/mL), or (4) NE + IL-1β. It was found that IL-1β abolished (P < 0.05) NE-induced increase in melatonin release. Treatment with IL-1β also reduced (P < 0.05) expression of AA-NAT enzyme compared to NE-treated explants. There was no effect of NE or IL-1β treatment on gene expression of HIOMT; however, the pineal fragments isolated from LPS-treated animals were characterized by elevated (P < 0.05) expression of HIOMT mRNA and protein compared to the explants from saline-treated ewes. Our study proves that IL-1β suppresses melatonin secretion and its action seems to be targeted on the reduction of pineal AA-NAT protein expression.
Comparison of the VIDAS Clostridium difficile toxin A immunoassay with C. difficile culture and cytotoxin and latex tests

The VIDAS Clostridium difficile toxin A immunoassay (CDA) is a new, automated, enzyme-linked fluorescent-antibody assay for detection of C. difficile toxin A antigen in stool specimens. Simultaneous, parallel testing was performed by using the VIDAS CDA, the Culturette brand CDT latex test for C. difficile antigens, and conventional laboratory cell culture tests for C. difficile, cytotoxicity and C. difficile culture. One hundred ninety-four consecutive fresh soft or liquid stool samples submitted for C. difficile testing between July and September 1990 were evaluated. Of the 194 samples tested, 19 (10%) were from 16 patients who met our case definition for C. difficile-associated disease. The in vitro tests were evaluated in relation to two forms of a clinical case definition. In one form, a positive culture for toxin-producing C. difficile or a positive cytotoxin result obtained directly from the stool specimen was required as laboratory evidence of C. difficile. In the other, a positive result of any of the four laboratory tests was accepted for the laboratory portion of the case definition. No significant difference between the sensitivity of the VIDAS CDA and that of the Culturette brand CDT latex test was found (48 to 58% sensitivity for the CDT latex test and 52 to 63% sensitivity for the VIDAS CDA compared with 93 to 100% sensitivity for culture and 70 to 100% sensitivity for cytotoxin testing). The performance of the VIDAS CDA, however, was hampered by a high percentage of tests (19%) which gave an uninterpretable result.
Eating the Vernacular, Being Cosmopolitan

Using a mixed methodology of ethnography in Australia, Vietnam and India, auto-ethnography and textual analysis of Australian migrants' biographies, this article uses the stories of 'insiders' and 'outsiders' to explore the importance of the vernacular, and the implications of authenticity in the maintenance of homely identities and the development of cosmopolitan ones.
Cultural influences on the news

This study explored how cultural context influences news content by comparing American and Swedish news about the Iraq war in 2003. Using a theoretical foundation derived from the works of Hall (1980, 1997) and Hofstede (1979, 1980, 1991), a theme analysis of television and print news was conducted. The results revealed that the war was portrayed differently in the two countries and that emphasis was placed on different aspects. American media focused on military strategy, interpreted the war from the troops’ perspective, and explained it as the US bringing freedom to the Iraqi people. Swedish media interpreted the war from the international community’s and the suffering Iraqi civilians’ points of view and explained it as a failure of the international community. As hypothesized, American media had comparatively more masculine content while Swedish media had comparatively more feminine content. Findings suggest that culture is an important variable that should be considered when studying news production and coverage.
A graph-based approach for ontology population with named entities

Automatically populating ontology with named entities extracted from the unstructured text has become a key issue for Semantic Web and knowledge management techniques. This issue naturally consists of two subtasks: (1) for the entity mention whose mapping entity does not exist in the ontology, attach it to the right category in the ontology (i.e., fine-grained named entity classification), and (2) for the entity mention whose mapping entity is contained in the ontology, link it with its mapping real world entity in the ontology (i.e., entity linking). Previous studies only focus on one of the two subtasks and cannot solve this task of populating ontology with named entities integrally. This paper proposes APOLLO, a grAph-based aPproach for pOpuLating ontoLOgy with named entities. APOLLO leverages the rich semantic knowledge embedded in the Wikipedia to resolve this task via random walks on graphs. Meanwhile, APOLLO can be directly applied to either of the two subtasks with minimal revision. We have conducted a thorough experimental study to evaluate the performance of APOLLO. The experimental results show that APOLLO achieves significant accuracy improvement for the task of ontology population with named entities, and outperforms the baseline methods for both subtasks.
Contemporary attitudes to landscape and implications for policy: a research agenda.

Abstract This paper aims to discuss the potential contribution of research on public perceptions and preferences and to identify possible topics for future research. A general criticism of much landscape research is that for all its apparent sophistication and scientific rigour, it adds little to present knowledge and its contribution to practice is slight. This failing stems from two causes: a lack of integrating theory which would enable individual studies to make incremental contributions to a body of knowledge; and a lack of clarity in defining the objectives of the research. This paper attempts to synthesize a selection of pertinent studies according to the three broad themes with the aim of suggesting new lines of enquiry to assist environmental agencies in fulfilling their policy goals.
Notch and Kras reprogram pancreatic acinar cells to ductal intraepithelial neoplasia

Efforts to model pancreatic cancer in mice have focused on mimicking genetic changes found in the human disease, particularly the activating KRAS mutations that occur in pancreatic tumors and their putative precursors, pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN). Although activated mouse Kras mutations induce PanIN lesions similar to those of human, only a small minority of cells that express mutant Kras go on to form PanINs. The basis for this selective response is unknown, and it is similarly unknown what cell types in the mature pancreas actually contribute to PanINs. One clue comes from the fact that PanINs, unlike most cells in the adult pancreas, exhibit active Notch signaling. We hypothesize that Notch, which inhibits differentiation in the embryonic pancreas, contributes to PanIN formation by abrogating the normal differentiation program of tumor-initiating cells. Through conditional expression in the mouse pancreas, we find dramatic synergy between activated Notch and Kras in inducing PanIN formation. Furthermore, we find that Kras activation in mature acinar cells induces PanIN lesions identical to those seen upon ubiquitous Kras activation, and that Notch promotes both initiation and dysplastic progression of these acinar-derived PanINs, albeit short of invasive adenocarcinoma. At the cellular level, Notch/Kras coactivation promotes rapid reprogramming of acinar cells to a duct-like phenotype, providing an explanation for how a characteristically ductal tumor can arise from nonductal acinar cells.