Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Post-traumatic growth and bereavement

Abstract There is no uniform response to death, and the range of initial responses may run from delighted, satisfied and relieved, through to distraught, depressed and traumatised. This variability in initial response means that the subsequent course of bereavement is likely to be equally varied – with final outcomes often dependent upon what has preceded them. Where some subset of final outcomes is of research interest, it is essential that the antecedents of, or preconditions for, the final outcome are of at least equal interest. This appears in some cases to have become less of a focus in the bereavement research on post-traumatic growth (PTG). Without at least attempting to distinguish normal mourning from depression, and traumatic from other pathological responses to bereavement, it is unlikely that PTG will be consistently associated with adjustment or distress. In this review, we outline some of the conceptual distinctions that may be important in increasing our understanding of responses to death and conclude that making such distinctions, where possible, can enhance our treatment approaches in terms of ensuring they are tailored to accommodate particular psychiatric syndrome(s) that can follow bereavement, but are also aimed at facilitating PTG in certain individuals.
Cost-effectiveness of exercise and diet in overweight and obese adults with knee osteoarthritis.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to compare the cost-effectiveness of dietary and exercise interventions in overweight or obese elderly patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) enrolled in the Arthritis, Diet, and Physical Activity Promotion Trial (ADAPT). METHODS ADAPT was a single-blinded, controlled trial of 316 adults with knee OA, randomized to one of four groups: Healthy Lifestyle Control group, Diet group, Exercise group, or Exercise and Diet group. A cost analysis was performed from a payer perspective, incorporating those costs and benefits that would be realized by a managed care organization interested in maintaining the health and satisfaction of its enrollees while reducing unnecessary utilization of health care services. RESULTS The Diet intervention was most cost-effective for reducing weight, at $35 for each percentage point reduction in baseline body weight. The Exercise intervention was most cost-effective for improving mobility, costing $10 for each percentage point improvement in a 6-min walking distance and $9 for each percentage point improvement in the timed stair climbing task. The Exercise and Diet intervention was most cost-effective for improving self-reported function and symptoms of arthritis, costing $24 for each percentage point improvement in subjective function, $20 for each percentage point improvement in self-reported pain, and $56 for each percentage point improvement in self-reported stiffness. CONCLUSIONS The Exercise and Diet intervention consistently yielded the greatest improvements in weight, physical performance, and symptoms of knee OA. However, it was also the most expensive and was the most cost-effective approach only for the subjective outcomes of knee OA (self-reported function, pain, and stiffness). Perceived function and symptoms of knee OA are likely to be stronger drivers of downstream health service utilization than weight, or objective performance measures and may be the most cost-effective in the long term.
Transforming organizational identity under institutional change

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to report a case study investigating how organizational identity evolves during institutional change within a UK building society.Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs an inductive case study, which is appropriate for examining such change processes. It builds on grounded theory, considered appropriate for such an explanatory research.Findings – The paper finds that: institutional change, especially regulation and practice changes, serves as the trigger to increasing salience of identity issues, i.e. identity ambiguity, legitimacy crisis and perceived identity obsolescence; leadership, organizational culture and strategic exercises are salient apparatuses to tackle identity problems caused by external pressure; and a new identity is formed as a result of the managerial interventions, characterised by the rediscovery of historical roots, modernization and dualism.Research limitations/implications – The paper provides an account of identity change, given a .
Polyandry in Lepidoptera: a heritable trait in Spodoptera exigua Hübner

The genetic basis as well as the mode of inheritance of polyandry in Spodoptera exigua Hübner was studied in the laboratory by using a simple divergent selection experiment followed by F1 reciprocal crosses, F2 and backcrosses. There was an effective response to artificial selection for high (H line) and low (L line) female mating frequency with significant separation of the lines by the second generation of selection. The mean female mating frequency in the parental generation (1.57 matings per female) reached plateaus of 2.50 and 1.25 matings per female in the H and L lines, respectively, after six generations of selection. Selection response becomes saturated at about 90% and 25% levels of polyandry (percentage females re-mating) in the H and L lines, respectively, and consequently mono- and polyandric pure strains were not obtained. Polyandry levels in offspring from the H and L lines and their hybrids in F1, F2 and backcrosses consistently indicate that female mating frequency was more or less proportional to the relative amounts of genes derived from the H and L lines. Such a clear pattern of hybrid responses, together with the gradual selective changes under artificial selection, suggests the involvement of a polygenic system. Female mating frequencies from progeny of the two reciprocal F1 crosses were not significantly different, which suggest that the trait was autosomally inherited. Moreover, female mating frequency of F1 (pooled) progeny was not significantly different from the mid-parental value, which suggest no dominance. The computation of the Cavalli’s joint scaling test consistently confirmed these results yielding values of d=0.51 ± 0.10 and h=0.12 ± 0.21. The broad sense heritability estimate was H2=0.73. It is concluded that polyandry in S. exigua is a polygenic, autosomal heritable trait and that additive genetic variance is available for selection for female mating frequency. The implications of the genetic basis of polyandry are briefly discussed in the context of current theories about this crucial insect mating system.
AUEB at TAC 2009

This paper describes AUEB’s participation in TAC 2009. Specifically, we participated in the textual entailment recognition track for which we used string similarity measures applied to shallow abstractions of the input sentences, and a Maximum Entropy classifier to learn how to combine the resulting features. We also exploited WordNet to detect synonyms and a dependency parser to measure similarity in the grammatical structure of T and H.
Time-out with Parents: A Descriptive Analysis of 30 Years of Research

The current data-based review encompasses 30 years of research involving parental use of time-out (TO). Although extensively researched for decades, parental usage of TO continues to vary widely across a number of procedural variables. As such, the current review provides descriptive data for 40 articles published between 1977 and 2007 along both participant-related and TO procedural variables. Although results indicate wide parental usage of TO as a behavior management strategy, the application of specific procedural variables remains diverse and often unable to be ascertained. Based on current data, the review also includes specific practitioner recommendations and cautions in easily accessible bulleted form related to parental use of TO.
AR-Jig: A Handheld Tangible User Interface for Modification of 3D Digital Form via 2D Physical Curve

We introduce AR-Jig, a new handheld tangible user interface for 3D digital modeling in augmented reality (AR) space. AR-Jig has a pin array that displays a 2D physical curve coincident with a contour of a digitally displayed 3D form. It supports physical interaction with a portion of a 3D digital representation, allowing 3D forms to be directly touched and modified. Traditional tangible user interfaces physically embody all the data; in contrast, this project leaves the majority of the data in the digital domain but gives physicality to any portion of the larger digital dataset via a handheld tool. This tangible intersection enables the flexible manipulation of digital artifacts, both physically and virtually. Through an informal test by end-users and interviews with professionals, we confirmed the potential of the AR-Jig concept while identifying the improvements necessary to make AR-Jig a practical tool for 3D digital design.
Preparation of Stable and Highly Active Hemoglobin by Using Antiglycosylspecific Hemoglobin Polyclonal Antibodies

The highly purified oligosaccharide chains obtained from glycoprotein invertase were coupled with bovine hemoglobin with the help of cross linking agent . The neoglycoprotein hemoglobin was highly purified to homogeneity by column chromatography and characterized on SDSPAGE . Rabbits were immunized to produce glycosylspecific antihemoglobin polyclonal antibodies. Antibodies were purified by (NH4)SO2 precipitation followed by DEAE cellulose chromatography. The IgG-Sepharose was prepared by covalently coupling the purified polyclonal antibodies to CNBr-activated Sepharose 4B. The large amount of hemoglobin was immobilized on IgG-Sepharose by alternate incubation of hemoglobin and glycosylspecific antihemoglobin polyclonal IgG. The immunoaffinity based layered assembled preparation were highly active . The amount of hemoglobin immobilized could be raised 55 fold after four binding cycles. A layer by layer immobilization of hemoglobin significantly increases its life span and improved in stability against high temperature and other several denaturants (pH and salicylate). The results show the excellent platform for protein immobilization with high affinity. The polyclonal antibodies as supporting material has been found challenging for immobilizing the proteins. Further antiglycosylated hemoglobin can be used as a nanoparticle for immobilizing high amount of hemoglobin with no cytotoxicity to cell and this technique enhances the incorporation of hemoglobin properties (recognition, transport and catalytic properties). The applications of the immobilized glycosylated hemoglobin are found in the field of medicine, biotechnology, nanotechnology and biosensors.
Self-Fulfilling Credit Market Freezes

This paper develops a model of a self-fulfilling credit market freeze and uses it to study alternative governmental responses to such a crisis. We study an economy in which operating firms are interdependent, with their success depending on the ability of other operating firms to obtain financing. In such an economy, an inefficient credit market freeze may arise in which banks abstain from lending to operating firms with good projects because of their self-fulfilling expectations that other banks will not be making such loans. Our model enables us to study the effectiveness of alternative measures for getting an economy out of an inefficient credit market freeze. In particular, we study the effectiveness of interest rate cuts, infusion of capital into banks, direct lending to operating firms by the government, and the provision of government capital or guarantees to finance or encourage privately managed lending. Our analysis provides a framework for analyzing and evaluating the standard and nonstandard instruments used by authorities during the financial crisis of 2008-2009.
Resolving occlusion and segmentation errors in multiple video object tracking

In this work, we propose a method to integrate the Kalman filter and adaptive particle sampling for multiple video object tracking. The proposed framework is able to detect occlusion and segmentation error cases and perform adaptive particle sampling for accurate measurement selection. Compared with traditional particle filter based tracking methods, the proposed method generates particles only when necessary. With the concept of adaptive particle sampling, we can avoid degeneracy problem because the sampling position and range are dynamically determined by parameters that are updated by Kalman filters. There is no need to spend time on processing particles with very small weights. The adaptive appearance for the occluded object refers to the prediction results of Kalman filters to determine the region that should be updated and avoids the problem of using inadequate information to update the appearance under occlusion cases. The experimental results have shown that a small number of particles are sufficient to achieve high positioning and scaling accuracy. Also, the employment of adaptive appearance substantially improves the positioning and scaling accuracy on the tracking results.
Circulating Estrone Levels Are Associated Prospectively With Diabetes Risk in Men of the Framingham Heart Study

OBJECTIVE In postmenopausal women and preclinical murine models, estrogen administration reduces diabetes risk; however, the relationship of estradiol and estrone to diabetes in men is poorly understood. We determined the relationship between circulating estradiol and estrone levels and diabetes risk in community-dwelling men of the Framingham Heart Study (FHS). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Cross-sectional relationships of estradiol and estrone levels with diabetes were assessed at examination 7 (1998–2001) in FHS generation 2 men (n = 1,458); prospective associations between hormone levels at examination 7 and incident diabetes were assessed 6.8 years later at examination 8. Type 2 diabetes mellitus was defined as fasting glucose >125 mg/dL, medication use, or both. Estradiol, estrone, and testosterone levels were measured with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, and free estradiol and estrone were calculated. RESULTS In cross-sectional models, men with elevated estrone and estradiol had 40% and 62% increased likelihoods of existing diabetes per cross-sectional doubling of estrone and estradiol levels, respectively. Free estrone (cross-sectional odds ratio 1.28 [95% CI 1.02–1.62], P = 0.04) was associated with impaired fasting glucose at examination 7. There was an increase in risk of existing diabetes with increasing quartiles of total and free estrone and estradiol and an increase in risk of incident diabetes with increasing quartiles of estrone levels. In multivariate longitudinal analyses, a twofold increase in total or free estrone levels at examination 7 was associated with 77 and 93% increases, respectively, in odds of incident diabetes at examination 8. CONCLUSIONS Although both estradiol and estrone exhibit cross-sectional associations with diabetes in men, in longitudinal analyses estrone is a more sensitive marker of diabetes risk than is estradiol.
Effects of diethylstilbestrol and ethinylestradiol on gene transcription of very low‐density apolipoprotein II in the liver of Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica

Very low‐density apolipoprotein II (apoVLDL) is one of the constituents of yolk in avian eggs. The expression of the apoVLDL gene is highly specific to the liver in mature female birds during the egg‐laying period but is stimulated by exogenous estrogens in immature male birds. In the present study, we compared the effects of two estrogenic compounds, diethylstilbestrol and ethinylestradiol, on the expression of apoVLDL mRNA in the liver of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica). Three‐week‐old, immature male quail were treated with a single intraperitoneal injection of the estrogenic compounds, and the level of apoVLDL mRNA in the liver was measured by gene‐specific real‐time polymerase chain reaction. Diethylstilbestrol and ethinylestradiol had a similar effect on the level of mRNA, increasing it in a dose‐dependent manner. Next, the levels of apoVLDL mRNA in the liver of male embryos, which were developed in fertile eggs laid by quail injected with the estrogenic compounds during yolk formation, were measured. Maternal exposure to ethinylestradiol caused an increase in the mRNA in embryos, whereas exposure to diethylstilbestrol had no effect. These results point out the importance of the route of administration to the evaluation of the estrogenic effects of endocrine disruptors in oviparous species.
Evaluation Of A Head Tracked 3-D Document Visualization

This paper describes a controlled experiment in which we outfitted a simple electronic document viewer with 3-D display capabilities and head tracking technologies, to provide a convincing 3-D representation of a document at different viewing angles. The head orientation and position of a user viewing a document is also tracked, to allow the user to browse the entirety of a page simply through head movements. This system was compared to conventional paper documents and simple electronic views of documents, by evaluating search and reading comprehension tasks involving academic research papers. We determined that the modified system showed no significant benefit with regard to these tasks, in comparison to the views provided by standard paper and electronic documents.
Random Orderings and Unique Ergodicity of Automorphism Groups

We show that the only random orderings of finite graphs that are invariant under isomorphism and induced subgraph are the uniform random orderings. We show how this implies the unique ergodicity of the automorphism group of the random graph. We give similar theorems for other structures, including, for example, metric spaces. These give the first examples of uniquely ergodic groups, other than compact groups and extremely amenable groups, after Glasner and Weiss’s example of the group of all permutations of the integers. We also contrast these results to those for certain special classes of graphs and metric spaces in which such random orderings can be found that are not uniform.
Special Education Students as Tutors: A Review and Analysis

Although accounts of cross-age and peer tutoring date back to the first century A.D., only recently have special educators begun to investigate its effects with handicapped students. The purpose of the present article is to synthesize the results of these investigations, emphasizing the effects of tutoring on the academic and personal/social skills of both tutors and tutees. In general, research has shown that handicapped and remedial students can be trained to tutor both peers and younger students in a variety of content areas. Results further show that academic and personal/social benefits come to special education students, as well as to those they tutor, although the data regarding academic achievement is more convincing than the data regarding changes in general self-esteem. Following the summary of results of tutoring implications for instruction are discussed, and suggestions are given for improving the quality of future tutoring research.
A Liquid Level Sensor Based on a Race-Track Helical Plastic Optical Fiber

A multi-point liquid level sensor was proposed in this letter, which is based on a plastic optical fiber with a race-track helical structure. The principle of liquid sensing is based on higher modes leak out and regenerate repeatedly in the bend and straight sections, respectively. Therefore, propagation loss was introduced in the bend sections of the fiber submerged under the liquid. The liquid level shift can be detected by observing alterations in the propagation loss changes. The sensor features compactness and independence from the refractive index of the liquid. The level measurement resolution is flexible and expected to reach the same order of magnitude as the diameter.
Processing Parameters and Property of AZO Thin Film Prepared by Magnetron Sputtering

As we all know, transparent and conductive Al:ZnO (AZO) films are being considered for manufacturing transparent electrodes in flat panel displays, solar cells and organic light emitting diodes due to their high electro optical quality, high material availability and low material cost for large area applications. In this experiment, AZO thin films were prepared on glass substrate by Magnetron Sputtering method with a 2wt % Al -doped ceramic target . The processing parameters on electrical properties of AZO thin film were investigated. When processing pressure is 0.8Pa,the sputtering power is 225W,the temperature of substrate is 225°, the AZO thin films have a lowest resistivity of 9.81×10−4 Ω. cm and visible light transmittance of more than 85%.
Role of intracellular calcium in modification of mu and delta opioid receptor-mediated antinociception by diabetes in mice.

We examined the effects of calcium modulators on mu and delta opioid receptor agonist-induced antinociception in both diabetic and nondiabetic mice. In nondiabetic mice, intracerebroventricular (i.c. v.) pretreatment with calcium and thapsigargin, which increase intracellular calcium, reduced [D-Ala2,N-MePhe4,Gly-ol5]-enkephalin (DAMGO)-induced antinociception by shifting its dose-response curve to the right. However, in diabetic mice i.c. v. pretreatment with calcium and thapsigargin did not affect DAMGO-induced antinociception. In contrast i.c. v. administration of agents that decrease intracellular calcium, such as EGTA and ryanodine, enhanced DAMGO-induced antinociception in both diabetic and nondiabetic mice. In contrast with DAMGO i.c. v. pretreatment with calcium and thapsigargin enhanced (-)-TAN67-induced antinociception in nondiabetic mice by shifting its dose-response curve to the left. However, (-)-TAN67-induced antinociception in diabetic mice was not affected by pretreatment with calcium or thapsigargin. Moreover i.c. v. pretreatment with EGTA, but not with ryanodine, reduced (-)-TAN67-induced antinociception in nondiabetic mice. In diabetic mice i.c. v. pretreatment with both EGTA and ryanodine reduced (-)-TAN67-induced antinociception. These results suggest that cytosolic calcium has different effects on mu and delta opioid receptor agonist-induced antinociception. Further, these results suggest that the modification of mu and delta opioid receptor agonist-induced antinociception by diabetes in mice may be due to increased levels of intracellular calcium.
The effects of a stress management program in a high security government agency

Abstract Forty-four employees of a regional of a branch federal government agency volunteered to participate in a three month stress management program. After a series of pretests, the participants were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: Transcendental Meditation (TM) or an education control designated “Corporate Stress Management” (CSM). After the twelve-week intervention period, and again after three years, participants were re-administered the same test battery. The three-month results revealed a reduction in anxiety and depression in the TM group. The three-year results suggested a reduction in anxiety, depression, and improved self-concept in the TM group.