Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rankings and the Reshaping of Higher Education: The Battle for World-Class Excellence

University rankings have gained popularity worldwide because they appear to fulfil demands by students, parents, policymakers, employers, and other stakeholders for information and transparency. They are often equated with quality, and are now a significant factor shaping institutional reputation. Today, there are eleven global rankings, experiencing varying degrees of popularity, reliability and trustworthiness, and national rankings in over 40 countries. Despite their popularity, how much do we really know and understand about the influence and impact of rankings?
Independent exercise for glottal incompetence to improve vocal problems and prevent aspiration pneumonia in the elderly: a randomized controlled trial

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of a self-controlled vocal exercise in elderly people with glottal closure insufficiency. Design: Parallel-arm, individual randomized controlled trial. Methods: Patients who visited one of 10 medical centers under the National Hospital Organization group in Japan for the first time, aged 60 years or older, complaining of aspiration or hoarseness, and endoscopically confirmed to have glottal closure insufficiency owing to vocal cord atrophy, were enrolled in this study. They were randomly assigned to an intervention or a control group. The patients of the intervention group were given guidance and a DVD about a self-controlled vocal exercise. The maximum phonation time which is a measure of glottal closure was evaluated, and the number of patients who developed pneumonia during the six months was compared between the two groups. Results: Of the 543 patients enrolled in this trial, 259 were allocated into the intervention group and 284 into the control; 60 of the intervention group and 75 of the control were not able to continue the trial. A total of 199 patients (age 73.9 ±7.25 years) in the intervention group and 209 (73.3 ±6.68 years) in the control completed the six-month trial. Intervention of the self-controlled vocal exercise extended the maximum phonation time significantly (p < 0.001). There were two hospitalizations for pneumonia in the intervention group and 18 in the control group, representing a significant difference (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The self-controlled vocal exercise allowed patients to achieve vocal cord adduction and improve glottal closure insufficiency, which reduced the rate of hospitalization for pneumonia significantly. Clinical Trial.gov Identifier-UMIN000015567
Risk of Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes Among Young Twins and Singletons in Guinea-Bissau

OBJECTIVE Twins in Africa may be at increased risk of metabolic disorders due to strained conditions in utero, including high exposure to infections. We studied metabolic syndrome (MS) and diabetes mellitus (DM) among young twins and singletons in Guinea-Bissau. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The study was cross-sectional and occurred from October 2009 until August 2011 at the Bandim Health Project, a demographic surveillance site in the capital Bissau. Twins and singleton controls between 5 and 32 years were visited at home. Fasting blood samples for metabolic measurements were collected. Zygosity was established genetically for a subset. DM was defined as HbA1c ≥6.5% (48 mmol/mol) and MS by the International Diabetes Federation criteria. RESULTS HbA1c was available for 574 twins and 463 singletons. Mean age was 15.3 years versus 15.8 years, respectively. Eighteen percent of twins were monozygotic. There were no DM cases among twins but one among singletons. A total of 1.4% (8 of 574) of twins had elevated HbA1c (6.0–6.4%, 42–46 mmol/mol) compared with 2.4% (11 of 463) of singletons (P = 0.28). Mean HbA1c was 5.3% (34 mmol/mol) for both groups. MS data were available for 364 twins and 360 singletons. The MS prevalence was 3.0% (11 of 364) among twins and 3.6% (13 of 360) among singletons (P = 0.66). The prevalence of fasting blood glucose (F-glucose) ≥5.6 mmol/L was 34.9% (127 of 364) for twins versus 24.7% (89 of 360) for singletons (P = 0.003). Median homeostasis model assessment–insulin resistance did not differ (P = 0.34). CONCLUSIONS The MS and DM prevalences among young individuals in Guinea-Bissau were low. Twins did not have a higher MS and DM burden than singletons, though elevated F-glucose was more common among twins.
Borderline personality disorder features in nonclinical young adults: 1. Identification and validation.

Two studies were conducted that sought to (a) establish and validate a self-report method of identifying nonclinical young adults who present with significant borderline personality disorder (BPD) features and (b) evaluate the clinical correlates of this classification across a number of relevant areas of functioning. Specifically, the Personality Assessment Inventory Borderline Features Scale (PAI-BOR; Morey, 1991) was used to screen and select nonclinical participants whose scores indicated the presence of significant BPD features (B + group) and participants whose scores indicated the relative absence of BPD features (B − group). B+ and B− participants were compared across a range of domains that are believed to be related to BPD in clinical samples (e.g., depression, personality traits, coping, Axis I disorders, interpersonal problems). Results supported the validity of this method of classification based on PAI-BOR scores and documented the level of dysfunction exhibited by the B+ participants
PEKSrand: Providing Predicate Privacy in Public-Key Encryption with Keyword Search

Recently, Shen, Shi, and Waters introduced the notion of predicate privacy, and proposed a scheme that achieves predicate privacy in the symmetric-key settings. In this paper, we propose two schemes. In the first scheme, we extend PEKS to support predicate privacy based on the idea of randomization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that ensures predicate privacy in the public-key settings without requiring interactions between the receiver and potential senders, the size of which may be very large. Moreover, we identify a new type of attacks against PEKS, i.e., statistical guessing attacks. Accordingly, we introduce a new notion called statistics privacy, i.e., the property that predicate privacy is preserved even when the statistical distribution of keywords is known. The second scheme we proposed makes a tradeoff between statistics privacy and storage efficiency (of the delegate). Compared to PEKS, both schemes introduce reasonable communication and computation overheads and can be smoothly deployed in existing systems.
Titanium oral implants: surface characteristics, interface biology and clinical outcome

Bone-anchored titanium implants have revolutionized oral healthcare. Surface properties of oral titanium implants play decisive roles for molecular interactions, cellular response and bone regeneration. Nevertheless, the role of specific surface properties, such as chemical and phase composition and nanoscale features, for the biological in vivo performance remains to be established. Partly, this is due to limited transfer of state-of-the-art preparation techniques to complex three-dimensional geometries, analytical tools and access to minute, intact interfacial layers. As judged by the available results of a few randomized clinical trials, there is no evidence that any particular type of oral implant has superior long-term success. Important insights into the recruitment of mesenchymal stem cells, cell–cell communication at the interface and high-resolution imaging of the interface between the surface oxide and the biological host are prerequisites for the understanding of the mechanisms of osseointegration. Strategies for development of the next generation of material surface modifications for compromised tissue are likely to include time and functionally programmed properties, pharmacological modulation and incorporation of cellular components.
Frontiers of test validity theory: measurement, causation, and meaning

As signalled by the title of their book, Frontiers of Test Validity Theory: Measurement, Causation, and Meaning, Markus and Borsboom (2013) tackle the foundational issues of measurement, causality, and meaning as they apply to validity and validation. They draw from many disciplines (e.g. philosophy, linguistics, psychometrics), and although they do not develop the technical details of any of these disciplines in this book, they do provide enough of an introduction to each topic to enable the reader to follow the development. The book is intended as an exploration of topics on the frontier and not a manual of current practice in validation. It is engaging and informative, and I am inclined to read some parts again to become better informed about issues (especially causality) that have not gotten much explicit attention in validity theory. Chapter 13 consists of an extended dialogue between the two authors on six topics that reflect major threads in the book, and it is clear from that dialogue that Markus and Borsboom are not in full agreement on many questions and seem quite far apart on a few. That the two perspectives are brought together into a coherent whole enriches the book, but it also makes it more challenging; I had a sense of tension between a narrow view of validity in terms of explicit measurement models and causal models, and a more expansive view in terms of interpretations, uses, and meanings. The authors focus on three topics: measurement, causality, and meaning. I will discuss each of these in turn. I will identify some of the main points made by Markus and Borsboom under each of these headings, examine their take on these topics, and consider the implications of their analyses for validity theory and practice.
Marginal structural models for estimating principal stratum direct effects under the monotonicity assumption

In epidemiological and clinical research, investigators are frequently interested in estimating the direct effect of a treatment on an outcome that is not relayed by intermediate variables. In 2009, VanderWeele presented marginal structural models (MSMs) for estimating direct effects based on interventions on the mediator. This paper focuses on direct effects based on principal stratification, i.e. principal stratum direct effects (PSDEs), which are causal effects within latent subgroups of subjects where the mediator is constant, regardless of the exposure status. We propose MSMs for estimating PSDEs. We demonstrate that the PSDE can be estimated readily using MSMs under the monotonicity assumption.
Special Education at Starcross before 1948

Recent comments by Baroness Warnock have reignited controversy over the relative merits of policies designed to promote inclusion and address special educational needs. These debates, conducted mainly between practitioners and parents, do not encourage input from historians but can usefully contextualize earlier models of service delivery. This paper concentrates on the interwar period when provision for children, whom we would now understand to have a moderate to severe learning disability, was shaped by the requirements of the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Existing studies that have examined the implementation of this legislation have tended to concentrate on the management of long‐stay institutions. This has led to a focus on medical care and the social control of adolescents and adults. Education has featured in these accounts but often in a fairly limited way, with more emphasis on school failure leading to admission than the educational potential of either the mental deficiency institution or its inmates. This paper seeks to redress the balance by offering a brief survey of the way education served as a way in, through and out of one of the largest specialist institutions in the South West of England before 1948.
Parents' Educational Involvement: A Developmental Ecology Perspective

The objective of this review is to examine research on home-based and school-based parental involvement and generate new research questions by employing Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework consisting of the micro-, meso-, exo-, and macrosystems. This analysis shows that, although both family-based and school-based parental involvement are positively related to educational outcomes, their examination in the ecological framework prompts consideration of additional aspects of the micro- and mesosystems and their embeddedness in four exosystemic aspects (parents' networks and workplace, neighborhood, and educational policy) and two macrosystemic types (immigrant and ethnic groups). Guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological thinking and the availability of advanced multivariate analysis methods, the next stage of this research should test multiple-step models describing factors that prompt parental involvement and mediate and moderate the parental involvement - educational outcomes links in different sociocultural settings.
Domestic Violence: A Global Perspective

Domestic Violence defined as intimate partner violence is differentially understood and responded to within and between countries and it frequently falls short of being seen as a human rights issue which requires government, community and professional responses. This article explores definitions and explanations of domestic violence that have been put forward and considers the associations that have been made between violence and abuse. It also reviews multi-country links between women's health and domestic violence and examines controversial issues surrounding fathers who have been domestically violent. As part of the discussion, professional responsibility and responses are also appraised. It is argued that domestic violence is intrinsically related to gendered power imbalances which have different manifestations in different social and cultural contexts. However the view that violence is inevitable in certain situations is challenged. The ethical imperative of zero tolerance is emphasized, but further research in relation to how gendered power imbalances foster intimate partner violence in some contexts but not in others and how this can be explored in ways which move the discussion away from pathologising explanations, is highlighted as an area for further investigation.
A Novel Category of Anti-Hypertensive Drugs for Treating Salt-Sensitive Hypertension on the Basis of a New Development Concept

Terrestrial animals must conserve water and NaCl to survive dry environments. The kidney reabsorbs 95% of the sodium filtered from the glomeruli before sodium reaches the distal connecting tubules. Excess sodium intake requires the renal kallikrein-kinin system for additional excretion. Renal kallikrein is secreted from the distal connecting tubule cells of the kidney, and its substrates, low molecular kininogen, from the principal cells of the cortical collecting ducts (CD). Formed kinins inhibit reabsorption of NaCl through bradykinin (BK)-B2 receptors, localized along the CD. Degradation pathway of BK by kinin-destroying enzymes in urine differs completely from that in plasma, so that ACE inhibitors are ineffective. Urinary BK is destroyed mainly by a carboxypeptidase-Y-like exopeptidase (CPY) and partly by a neutral endopeptidase (NEP). Inhibitors of CPY and NEP, ebelactone B and poststatin, respectively, were found. Renal kallikrein secretion is accelerated by potassium and ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel blockers, such as PNU-37883A. Ebelactone B prevents DOCA-salt hypertension in rats. Only high salt intake causes hypertension in animals deficient in BK-B2 receptors, tissue kallikrein, or kininogen. Hypertensive patients, and spontaneously hypertensive rats, excrete less kallikrein than normal subjects, irrespective of races, and become salt-sensitive. Ebelactone B, poststatin, and KATP channel blockers could become novel antihypertensive drugs by increase in urinary kinin levels. Roles of kinin in cardiovascular diseases were discussed.
A Linear Storage-Retrieval Policy for Robust Warehouse Management

Assigning products to and retrieving them from proper storage locations in a unit-load warehouse are crucial in minimizing its operating cost. The problem becomes intractable when the warehouse faces uncertain demand in a dynamic setting. We assume a factor-based demand model in which demand for each product in each period is affinely dependent on some uncertain factors. The distributions of these factors are only partially characterized. We introduce a robust optimization model that minimizes the worst-case expected total operating cost of a warehouse under distributional ambiguity. Under a linear decision rule, we can obtain a storage and retrieval policy by solving a moderate-size linear optimization problem. Surprisingly, despite imprecise specification of demand distributions, our computational studies suggest that the simple linear policy achieves close to the expected value given perfect demand information, and significantly outperforms existing heuristics in the literature.
Seasonality in fruit availability affects frugivorous primate biomass and species richness

We examine the effect of total annual food abundance and seasonal availability on the biomass and species richness for frugivorous primates on three continents (n=16 sites) by data on fruit fall. We reveal that the best-fit models for predicting primate biomass include total annual fruit fall (positive), seasonality (negative) and biogeography (Old World>New World and mainland>island) and that these factors explain 56–67% of the variation. For the number of species, the best-fit models include seasonality (negative) and biogeography (Old World>New World and mainland>island) but not total annual fruit fall. Annual temperature has additional effects on primate biomass when the effects of fruits and biogeography are controlled, but there is no such effect on species richness. The present results indicate that, measured on local scales, primate biomass and number of species is affected by the seasonal variation in food availability.
Concentration Bounds for Two Timescale Stochastic Approximation with Applications to Reinforcement Learning

Two-timescale Stochastic Approximation (SA) algorithms are widely used in Reinforcement Learning (RL). In such methods, the iterates consist of two parts that are updated using different stepsizes. We develop the ﬁrst convergence rate result for these algorithms; in particular, we provide a general methodology for analyzing two-timescale linear SA. We apply our methodology to two-timescale RL algorithms such as GTD(0) , GTD2 , and TDC .
Update on local anesthetics: focus on levobupivacaine

In recent years levobupivacaine, the pure S (−)-enantiomer of bupivacaine, emerged as a safer alternative for regional anesthesia than its racemic parent. It demonstrated less affinity and strength of depressant effects onto myocardial and central nervous vital centers in pharmacodynamic studies, and a superior pharmacokinetic profile. Clinically, levobupivacaine is well tolerated in a variety of regional anesthesia techniques both after bolus administration and continuous postoperative infusion. Reports of toxicity with levobupivacaine are scarce and occasional toxic symptoms are usually reversible with minimal treatment with no fatal outcome. Yet, levobupivacaine has not entirely replaced bupivacaine in clinical practice. In anesthesia and analgesia practice, levobupivacaine and bupivacaine produce comparable surgical sensory block with similar adverse side effects, and equal labor pain control with comparable maternal and fetal outcome. The equipotency of the two drugs has been recently questioned, prompting clinicians to increase the dose of levobupivacaine in an attempt to ensure adequate anesthesia and analgesia and offsetting, therefore, the advantages of less motor block with levobupivacaine. In this review we aim to discuss the pharmacological essentials of the safer profile of levobupivacaine, and analyze the evidence regarding the current clinical indications.
Erythroid-Specific Transcriptional Changes in PBMCs from Pulmonary Hypertension Patients

Background Gene expression profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) is a powerful tool for the identification of surrogate markers involved in disease processes. The hypothesis tested in this study was that chronic exposure of PBMCs to a hypertensive environment in remodeled pulmonary vessels would be reflected by specific transcriptional changes in these cells. Methodology/Principal Findings The transcript profiles of PBMCs from 30 idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension patients (IPAH), 19 patients with systemic sclerosis without pulmonary hypertension (SSc), 42 scleroderma-associated pulmonary arterial hypertensio patients (SSc-PAH), and 8 patients with SSc complicated by interstitial lung disease and pulmonary hypertension (SSc-PH-ILD) were compared to the gene expression profiles of PBMCs from 41 healthy individuals. Multiple gene expression signatures were identified which could distinguish various disease groups from controls. One of these signatures, specific for erythrocyte maturation, is enriched specifically in patients with PH. This association was validated in multiple published datasets. The erythropoiesis signature was strongly correlated with hemodynamic measures of increasing disease severity in IPAH patients. No significant correlation of the same type was noted for SSc-PAH patients, this despite a clear signature enrichment within this group overall. These findings suggest an association of the erythropoiesis signature in PBMCs from patients with PH with a variable presentation among different subtypes of disease. Conclusions/Significance In PH, the expansion of immature red blood cell precursors may constitute a response to the increasingly hypoxic conditions prevalent in this syndrome. A correlation of this erythrocyte signature with more severe hypertension cases may provide an important biomarker of disease progression.
Ontologies for molecular biology and bioinformatics

About five years ago, ontology was almost unknown in bioinformatics, even more so in molecular biology. Nowadays, many bioinformatics articles mention it in connection with text mining, data integration or as a metaphysical cure for problems in standardisation of nomenclature and other applications. This article attempts to give an account of what concept ontologies in the domain of biology and bioinformatics are; what they are not; how they can be constructed; how they can be used; and some fallacies and pitfalls creators and users should be aware of.
Nostalgia for early experience as a determinant of consumer preferences

Studies of music, motion pictures, movie stars, and fashion products have shown that styles popular during a consumer's youth can influence the consumer's lifelong preferences. The authors present an integrative model of this phenomenon and propose that these nostalgic effects are not limited to products that relate to the arts and entertainment or are primarily aesthetic. As an illustrative example, the authors investigate the effects of early experience on consumer preferences for automobile styles. Consistent with expectations, they find that men do but women do not show evidence of nostalgic attachment to the styles experienced in their youth—that is, their preferences peaked for products that were popular when they were young. Also, as expected, individual differences in the psychographic variable of nostalgia proneness play a role in moderating these effects. These findings expand the understanding of the generality, the boundaries, and the managerial relevance of the age-related peak-preference phenomenon. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.