Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Problems experienced by secondary school deputy principals in diverse contexts: a South African study

This paper reports on research that was undertaken to determine the problems experienced by deputy principals in secondary schools, and the extent to which these problems were experienced. Although some research was conducted on the deputy principalship, no research treats the problems that deputy principals experience upon appointment comprehensively. An understanding of the problems experienced by secondary school deputy principals is a necessary precursor of an induction program to address the problems. A quantitative approach which was underpinned by the post-positivist paradigm was adopted. In order to determine the extent to which the problems were experienced, a survey was conducted among one hundred and fifty seven secondary school deputy principals in the North West Province. The participants came from a diverse context of rural, township and urban schools. The deputy principals who participated in the study included those who were newly appointed (one to three years of service) and those who were experienced (more than three years of service). Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means and percentages. There were no significant differences in the responses of both newly-appointed and experienced deputy principals. The results revealed that deputy principals experienced administrative, financial management, work pressure, personal and physical resources problems. In an attempt to address the problems identified, a context-specific induction program is recommended. The induction program should be an on-going program of professional development and should preferably include specific aims, action steps to be taken to achieve the aims that are set and measures to evaluate progress. Jan B Khumalo (South Africa), Herman J Van Vuuren (South Africa), Philip C Van der Westhuizen (South Africa), C.P. Van der Vyver (South Africa) BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES LLC “СPС “Business Perspectives” Hryhorii Skovoroda lane, 10, Sumy, 40022, Ukraine www.businessperspectives. org Problems experienced by secondary school deputy principals in diverse contexts: A South African study Received on: 13th of November, 2017 Accepted on: 30th of March, 2018
Dye-dilution techniques using aminohippurate sodium: do they accurately reflect amniotic fluid volume?

Objective: To determine whether the dye-dilution technique using aminohippurate sodium accurately measures amniotic fluid volume. Methods: Singleton pregnancies with intact membranes undergoing a Cesarean delivery had their amniotic fluid volume assessed by the dye-dilution technique and direct measurement. Results: Fifteen women were prospectively assessed. Six patients had their amniocentesis on the delivery table and nine patients at 4-24 h prior to the Cesarean delivery. The six women undergoing an amniocentesis just before delivery had good concordance between the dye-determined and direct measurement of amniotic fluid volume (r = 0.99, p = < 0.001). Among the nine women with varying times from amniocentesis to direct measurement, the correlation was not significant (r = 0.36, p = 0.08). The percentage difference between the dye-determined and directly measured amniotic fluid volume was significantly smaller in the women undergoing amniocentesis just prior to delivery (7%) than in the women with varying times from amniocentesis to delivery (37%, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Dye-determined amniotic fluid volume accurately reflects actual amniotic fluid volume but the dye-determined concentrations, in vivo, may undergo rapid changes.
The evolution of blunt splenic injury: resolution and progression.

BACKGROUND Nonoperative management of blunt splenic injury (BSI) has become the standard of care for hemodynamically stable patients. Successful nonoperative management raises two related questions: (1) what is the time course for splenic healing and (2) when may patients safely return to usual activities? There is little evidence to guide surgeon recommendations regarding return to full activities. Our hypothesis was that time to healing is related to severity of BSI. METHODS The trauma registry at a level I trauma center was queried for patients diagnosed with a BSI managed nonoperatively between 2002 and 2007. Follow-up abdominal computed tomography scans were reviewed with attention to progression to healing of BSI. Kaplan-Meier curves were compared for mild (American Association for the Surgery of Trauma grades I-II) and severe (grades III-V) BSI. RESULTS Six hundred thirty-seven patients (63.9% mild spleen injury and 36.1% severe injury) with a BSI were eligible for analysis. Fifty-one patients had documented healing as inpatients. Ninety-seven patients discharged with BSI had outpatient computed tomography scans. Nine had worsening of BSI as outpatients and two (1 mild and 1 severe) required intervention (2 splenectomies). Thirty-three outpatients were followed to complete healing. Mild injuries had faster mean time to healing compared with severe (12.5 vs. 37.2 days, p < 0.001). Most healing occurred within 2 months but approximately 20% of each group had not healed after 3 months. CONCLUSION Although mild BSIs heal faster than severe BSIs, nearly 10% of all the BSIs followed as outpatients worsened. Close observation of patients with BSI should continue until healing can be confirmed.
Understanding the Adoption of Mobile Data Services: Differences among Mobile Portal and Mobile Internet Users

This study attempts to investigate the potential differences among individual adoption patterns between m-portal and m-internet services usage. A theoretical model that reflects a set of unique predominant factors of IS usage was developed. The model was empirically tested using data collected on mobile data services adoption. The results indicate that there are differences among the adoption behavior of mobile portal users and mobile internet users. Specifically, mobile internet use is likely to be driven by utilitarian expectations and overall usefulness of accessing the web through this alternative medium. On the contrary, mobile portals use is likely to be dependent on the users’ current state of innovativeness and not being affected by the actual utility of the mobile data service. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
Statin and beta-blocker therapy and the initial presentation of coronary heart disease.

BACKGROUND Coronary atherosclerosis develops slowly over decades but is frequently characterized clinically by sudden unstable episodes. Patients who present with unstable coronary disease, such as acute myocardial infarction, may systematically differ from patients who present with relatively stable coronary disease, such as exertional angina. OBJECTIVE To examine whether medication use or patient characteristics influence the mode of initial clinical presentation of coronary disease. DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Large integrated health care delivery system in northern California. PATIENTS Adults whose first clinical presentation of coronary disease was either acute myocardial infarction (n = 916) or stable exertional angina (n = 468). MEASUREMENTS Use of cardiac medications before the event from pharmacy databases and demographic, lifestyle, and clinical characteristics from self-report and clinical and administrative databases. RESULTS Compared with patients with incident stable exertional angina, patients with incident acute myocardial infarction were more likely to be men, smokers, physically inactive, and hypertensive but were less likely to have a parental history of coronary disease. Patients presenting with myocardial infarction were much less likely to have received statins (19.3% vs. 40.4%; P < 0.001) and beta-blockers (19.0% vs. 47.7%; P < 0.001) than patients presenting with exertional angina. After adjustment for potential confounders, recent use of statins (adjusted odds ratio, 0.45 [95% CI, 0.32 to 0.62]) and beta-blockers (adjusted odds ratio, 0.26 [CI, 0.19 to 0.35]) was associated with lower likelihoods of presenting with an acute myocardial infarction than with stable angina. LIMITATIONS This observational study did not have information on all possible confounding factors, including use of aspirin therapy. CONCLUSION Statin and beta-blocker use was associated with lower odds of presenting with an acute myocardial infarction than with stable angina. Additional studies are needed to confirm that these therapies protect against unstable, higher-risk clinical presentations of coronary disease.
Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and Speed of Performance

Objective: This study examined whether college students who reported higher levels of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) symptoms were actually more “sluggish” in their performance while completing speeded cognitive and academic measures. Method: College students (N = 253) completed self-reports of SCT and their reading and test-taking abilities as well as tests of processing speed, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Results: Across all variables, SCT symptoms were most significantly associated with self-reported difficulty on timed reading tasks. However, students with high SCT scores were not significantly slower than controls on any of the timed tasks. Conclusion: In college students, self-reports of high SCT levels do not suggest actual slow performance on cognitive and academic tasks.
Expression of regulatory nif genes in Rhodobacter capsulatus

Translational fusions of the Escherichia coli lacZ gene to Rhodobacter capsulatus nif genes were constructed in order to determine the regulatory circuit of nif gene expression in R. capsulatus, a free-living photosynthetic diazotroph. The expression of nifH, nifA (copies I and II), and nifR4 was measured in different regulatory mutant strains under different physiological conditions. The expression of nifH and nifR4 (the analog of ntrA in Klebsiella pneumoniae) depends on the NIFR1/R2 system (the analog of the ntr system in K. pneumoniae), on NIFA, and on NIFR4. The expression of both copies of nifA is regulated by the NIFR1/R2 system and is modulated by the N source of the medium under anaerobic photosynthetic growth conditions. In the presence of ammonia or oxygen, moderate expression of nifA was detectable, whereas nifH and nifR4 were not expressed under these conditions. The implications for the regulatory circuit of nif gene expression in R. capsulatus are discussed and compared with the situation in K. pneumoniae, another free-living diazotroph.
A Day Late and a Dollar Short: Liquidity and Household Formation Among Student Borrowers

The federal government encourages human capital investment through lending and grant programs, but resources from these programs may also finance non-education activities for students whose liquidity is otherwise restricted. This paper explores this possibility, using administrative data for the universe of federal student loan borrowers linked to tax records. We examine the effects of a sharp discontinuity in program limits? generated by the timing of a student borrower? s 24th birthday? on household formation early in the lifecycle. After demonstrating that this discontinuity induces a jump in federal support, we estimate an immediate and persistent increase in homeownership, with larger effects among those most financially constrained. In the first year, borrowers with higher limits also earn less but are more likely to save; however, there are no differences in subsequent years. Finally, effects on marriage and fertility lag homeownership. Altogether, the results appear to be driven by liquidity rather than human capital or wealth effects.
MISSING THE POOREST IN RURAL AREAS? TARGETING LOW INCOME VOTERS IN MAYORAL ELECTIONS

Abstract This article utilizes an original household survey of two regency-level elections in Indonesia to explore campaign targeting. It uses a list experiment to show that direct survey questions about accepting transfers from campaigns elicit honest responses from respondents in Indonesia. Although the relationship between income and whether a respondent accepted transfers from political campaigns decreases over the entire distribution of income, it increases initially, producing a curvilinear relationship between income and accepting transfers from campaigns. This article argues that the poorest voters face barriers to being targeted by campaigns. However, these barriers recede as they become relatively richer, at which point a negative relationship is found due to diminishing marginal utility of accepting these transfers. Finally, in-kind transfers, as opposed to cash transfers, target low-income voters more effectively.
What Do You Believe? School Leaders and an Ideology of Achievement

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE? SCHOOL LEADERS AND AN IDEOLOGY OF ACHIEVEMENT Andrew T. Lloyd Old Dominion University, 2017 Director: Dr. Steve Myran Beliefs about achievement impact the educational experiences of students. The mainstream ideology of achievement espouses that anyone can be successful as long as they put forth effort and work hard. This belief fails to account for systemic barriers that have limited historically marginalized groups of people from achieving. Research has focused on the beliefs of teachers with scant research done on the beliefs of school leaders. This study focused on what school leaders believe about achievement and how it impacts their daily practice. In addition, the ideologies of the school leaders were compared and contrasted with an ideology rooted in social justice. The goal of this study was to gain insight into what school leaders believe about achievement and add to the literature about achievement ideologies and school leaders. This study utilized a qualitative method rooted in grounded theory. The triangulated protocol used interviews and questionnaires to guide the data collection process. Participants’ beliefs about achievement, challenges to achievement, their impact on achievement, and how these beliefs impact their daily practice were revealed. The shared experiences of secondary urban school leaders provided insight into what school leaders believe about achievement, how they do and do not operate with an ideology rooted in social justice, and how these beliefs guide their praxis.
Effects of a policosanol supplement on serum lipid concentrations in hypercholesterolaemic and heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemic subjects

Policosanol is a mixture of higher aliphatic primary alcohols that is extracted from purified sugar cane wax or a variety of other plant sources, and has been shown to have beneficial effects on serum lipid concentrations. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of a policosanol supplement (Octa-60) on lipid profiles of hypercholesterolaemic and heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemic subjects. Nineteen hypercholesterolaemic and familial hypercholesterolaemic subjects completed this randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. The subjects received either a daily dose of 20 mg policosanol or placebo for 12 weeks. After a wash-out period of 4 weeks, the interventions were crossed over. Lipid levels were measured at baseline and at the end of each intervention period. No significant differences in total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol from baseline to end or between policosanol and placebo were seen in the hypercholesterolaemic or familial hypercholesterolaemic groups. There were small reductions in total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol from baseline to end in the hypercholesterolaemic group, but these changes did not differ significantly from the changes with the placebo, indicating that the observed decrease in cholesterol in the policosanol group was not due to the specific effect of policosanol treatment. The differences in response may be ascribed to the differences in composition of the higher aliphatic primary alcohols in the previously used products, compared with the local policosanol supplement. An intake of 20 mg/d policosanol for 12 weeks had no significant effect on serum lipid levels in hypercholesterolaemic and heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemic patients when compared with placebo intake.
Phishing websites classifier using polynomial neural networks in genetic algorithm

Genetic Algorithms are group of mathematical models in computational science by exciting evolution in AI techniques nowadays. These algorithms preserve critical information by applying data structure with simple chromosome recombination operators by encoding solution to a specific problem. Genetic algorithms they are optimizer, in which range of problems applied to it are quite broad. Genetic Algorithms with its global search includes basic principles like selection, crossover and mutation. Data structures, algorithms and human brain inspiration are found for classification of data and for learning which works using Neural Networks. Artificial Intelligence (AI) it is a field, where so many tasks performed naturally by a human. When AI conventional methods are used in a computer it was proved as a complicated task. Applying Neural Networks techniques will create an internal structure of rules by which a program can learn by examples, to classify different inputs than mining techniques. This paper proposes a phishing websites classifier using improved polynomial neural networks in genetic algorithm.
Penal Cultures and Female Desistance

This book makes a unique contribution to the internationalisation of criminological knowledge about gender and desistance through a qualitative cross-national exploration of the female route out of crime in Sweden and England. By situating the female desistance journey in diverse penal cultures, the study addresses two major gaps in the literature: the neglect of critical explorations of gender in desistance-related processes, and the lack of internationally comparative perspectives on the lived experience of desistance.
The Outcome of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants Without Total Body Irradiation in Pediatric Patients With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: Single Centre Experience

The most widely accepted conditioning regimen to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation consists of total body irradiation, especially in patients affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In this retrospective study, we report our experience on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in 44 pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia using a non-radiation–based conditioning regimen (busulfan/cyclophosphamide). Median age at transplantation was 12.5 years (range, 4 to 14 y). 39 out of 44 patients received transplants in complete remission. At a median follow-up of 390 days, the probabilities of 3-year disease-free survival and overall survival were 50% and 68%, respectively. Disease status of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was the only significant variable affecting the overall survival. Acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease occurred in 23 (64%) and 12(18%) patients, respectively. Relapse was significantly higher among patients transplanted in advanced disease status. The results of the study indicate that non-radiation–based preparative regimens can be used in pediatric patients with ALL. However, well-designed comparative trials are needed to better clarify the difference between radiation and non-radiation–based conditioning regimens in pediatric ALL.
Pose manifolds for efficient visual servoing

In order to adequately accomplish vision-based manipulation tasks, robotic platforms require an accurate estimation of the 3D pose of the target, which is efficiently approached by imaging techniques excessively utilizing large databases that consist of images of several objects captured under varying viewpoints. However, such approaches are characterized by large computational burden and complexity accompanied by limited capacities to interpolate between two known instances of an object. To address these issues we propose a robust 3D object pose estimation technique that entails a manifold modeling procedure based on appearance, geometrical and shape attributes of objects. We utilize a bunch-based method that is followed by a shape descriptor module, in order to establish low dimensional pose manifolds capable of distinguishing similar poses of different objects into the corresponding classes. Finally, an accurate estimation of the 3D pose of a target is provided by a neural network-based solution that encompasses a novel input-output space targeting method. We have comparatively studied the performance of our method against other related works, whilst experimental results justify our theoretical claims and provide evidence of low generalization error.
The utility of procalcitonin in critically ill trauma patients

BACKGROUND Procalcitonin (PCT), the prohormone of calcitonin, has an early and highly specific increase in response to systemic bacterial infection. The objectives of this study were to determine the natural history of PCT for patients with critical illness and trauma, the utility of PCT as a marker of sepsis versus systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), and the association of PCT level with mortality. METHODS PCT assays were done on eligible patients with trauma admitted to the trauma intensive care unit (ICU) of a Level I trauma center from June 2009 to June 2010, at hours 0, 6, 12, 24, and daily until discharge from ICU or death. Patients were retrospectively diagnosed with SIRS or sepsis by researchers blinded to PCT results. RESULTS A total of 856 PCT levels from 102 patients were analyzed, with mean age of 49 years, 63% male, 89% blunt trauma, mean Injury Severity Score of 21, and hospital mortality of 13%. PCT concentration for patients with sepsis, SIRS, and neither were evaluated. Mean PCT levels were higher for patients with sepsis versus SIRS (p < 0.0001). Patients with a PCT concentration of 5 ng/mL or higher had an increased mortality when compared with those with a PCT of less than 5 ng/mL in a univariate analysis (odds ratio, 3.65; 95% confidence interval, 1.03–12.9; p = 0.04). In a multivariate logistic analysis, PCT was found to be the only significant predictor for sepsis (odds ratio, 2.37; 95% confidence interval,1.23–4.61, p = 0.01). CONCLUSION PCT levels are significantly higher in ICU patients with trauma and sepsis and may help differentiate sepsis from SIRS in critical illness. An elevated PCT level was associated with increased mortality. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic study, level II.
International Journal of Web Information Systems A method for detecting local events using the spatiotemporal locality of microblog posts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a method to detect local events in real time using Twitter, an online microblogging platform. The authors especially aim at detecting local events regardless of the type and scale. Design/methodology/approach – The method is based on the observation that relevant tweets (Twitter posts) are simultaneously posted from the place where a local event is happening. Specifically, the method first extracts the place where and the time when multiple tweets are posted using a hierarchical clustering technique. It next detects the co-occurrences of key terms in each spatiotemporal cluster to find local events. To determine key terms, it computes the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TFIDF) scores based on the spatiotemporal locality of tweets. Findings – From the experimental results using geotagged tweet data between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on October 9, 2011, the method significantly improved the precision of between 50 and 100 per cent at the same recall compared to a baseline method. Originality/value – In contrast to existing work, the method described in this paper can detect various types of small-scale local events as well as large-scale ones by incorporating the spatiotemporal feature of tweet postings and the text relevance of tweets. The findings will be useful to researchers who are interested in real-time event detection using microblogs.