Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EXPLORING THE PARADOX OF SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE PROGRAMS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

Agricultural teachers in North Carolina were surveyed to assess their attitudes toward Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) and to identify barriers to implementation of SAE in their schools. The teachers gave the politically correct answers about why SAE was important. The teachers indicated that SAE was important (8.46 on a 10 point scale) but confessed the quality of their SAE program was only a 6.33 on the 10-point scale. Furthermore, less than 1/3 of the teachers had a 75% or higher participation rate in SAE. Clearly this is a paradox; the results don’t match the rhetoric. Teachers believe that SAE is not rewarded/recognized to the extent of involvement in FFA activities. Teachers identified the number of students they teach, conflicting demands on their time, lack of knowledge of new approaches to SAE, inadequate SAE opportunities in the community, and the difficulty in teaching record keeping as barriers to implementing SAE programs. The profession needs to develop a realistic plan for addressing the barriers to implementation of SAE.
Particle size, satiety and the glycaemic response.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the hypothesis that the smaller the particle size of the food, the higher the glycaemic-insulin response and the lower the satiety rating. DESIGN AND SUBJECTS Ten healthy subjects consumed equal carbohydrate portions of four test meals of equivalent nutritional composition based on four different grades of wheat: whole grains, cracked grains, coarse and fine wholemeal flour. RESULTS The mean overall plasma glucose response (area under the curve: AUC) was highest for the fine flour meal (4205 +/- 451 mmol/l.120 min), followed by the coarse flour and cracked grain meals and lowest for the whole grain meal (1524 +/- 190 mmol/l.120 min). Insulin responses showed the same ranking but satiety responses were the reverse, the fine flour meal giving the lowest satiety response [AUC: 231.4 +/- 31.6 rating scale (RS) units.120 min] and the whole grain meal the highest response (AUC: 318.4 +/- 29.3 RS units.120 min). Total insulin responses (AUC) were significantly associated with subjective satiety when analyses on an individual basis (analysis of covariance coefficient = -0.024, P < 0.04) such that for every 1000 unit increase in AUC insulin, satiety decreased by 24 units (13% on average). CONCLUSION The results suggest that the processing of cereals is not only a major determinant of the glycaemic and insulin response but also affects the levels of postprandial satiety.
Characterization of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Expressed by Cells of the SH-SY5Y Human Neuroblastoma Clonal Line

Radioligand binding studies show that cells of the SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma clonal line express a single class of neuronal/nicotinic alpha-bungarotoxin binding sites (nBgtS). These sites are defined by their ability to bind radioiodinated alpha-bungarotoxin (Bgt) with high affinity (K(D) = 4 nM) and nicotinic ligands with lower (muM) affinities. Radioligand binding studies also show that SH-SY5Y cells express high affinity specific binding sites for (3) H-labeled acetylcholine that could reflect interactions with two classes of sites (K(D') - 1 n/M, K(D'') = 100 nM). These sites are distinguished from nBgtS by their insensitivity to blockade by Bgt and by their ability to bind other nicotinic agonists with high (nM) affinity. (86) Rb(+) efflux studies indicate that SH-SY5Y cells express functional nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) ion channels that, like radioagonist binding sites, are insensitive to blockade by Bgt. However, there are far more functional nAChR than high affinity radioagonist binding sites. Functional nAChR have a pharmacological profile expected of ganglia-type receptors composed of nAChR alpha3 and beta4 subunits. Northern blot analysis indicates that genes corresponding to human alpha3, alpha5, beta2, and beta4 subunits are expressed by SH-SY5Y cells. We conclude that SH-SY5Y cells express at least two members of the nAChR family (nBgtS and ganglia-type nAChR) and that high affinity radioagonist binding sites are a subset of functional ganglia-type nAChR.
Plant Management, the Locus of Decision Making, and the Information Services Department

Abstract:A theory of intraorganizational power is discussed and applied to the information services department. This study involved the collection of data from 37 plant managers on their perceptions of the power of information services. The results indicate that plant managers, like their department manager counterparts in an earlier study, considered the information services department to be the least critical for success of five departments. Centralization of decision making was found to be positively related to information services department power. The implications of the study for distributed versus centralized information processing are discussed.
Regions, networks and innovative performance: The case of knowledge-intensive industries in Norway

Many recent studies maintain that regional characteristics influence the innovative performances, innovation processes and innovation patterns of firms. Based on a representative sample of knowledge-intensive firms in Norway, this paper analyses the innovation output, innovation partners, knowledge sources, and localization of sources and partners for knowledge-intensive firms in three types of region: large urban regions, small urban regions and rural areas.The empirical results contradict some of the assumptions of the literature dealing with agglomeration economies, regional clusters, and so on. We find, for example, that the firms’ innovation partners and knowledge sources are quite similar irrespective of location. This may indicate that the relevant innovation systems in knowledge-intensive industries in Norway are sectoral and national rather than regional. The paper also finds that the small urban regions and the rural regions have a higher share of innovating, knowledge-intensive firms than the large urban regions, which may partly be explained by a much higher rate of public funding of innovation activity in the first two regional types. However, the large urban regions have higher new firm formation rates and more radically innovating firms than the other two types of region. The paper discusses to what extent the concept of open innovation may contribute to explaining the empirical results, because firms in large urban regions can rely more on open innovation than firms in other regions.
Internationalization of Higher Education in the OECD Countries: Challenges and Opportunities for the Coming Decade

This article explores the possible development of internationalization of higher education in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, analyzing how the main driving forces may influence the internationalization process, globalization and the changing role of nation-states, regional and international bodies, and multilateral frameworks and agreements. The analysis is carried out based on four future scenarios for higher education developed by the OECD. Implications of various scenarios are analyzed in terms of their broader meaning for the main functions of higher education and issues of access, quality, and equity. Consequently, the implications for internationalization are derived. A special focus is placed on the consequences of the various scenarios for cooperation and competition as major strategic categories in the internationalization process. Finally, some further questions are raised with respect to the internationalization mission of higher education institutions in a globalized world and how the concept of internationalization may evolve.
Public Policy and Industrial Location in the Lower Mississippi Delta in an Era of Restructuring

The purpose of this study is to use a recently published statement by the Lower Mississippi Delta Economic Development Commission as a starting point for examining the extent to which public policy in the nonmetropolitan South acknowledges and accommodates the locational implications of restructuring processes. The analysis takes the form of a literature-based assessment of the locational implications of the Delta Commission's recommendations and concludes that their recommendations, while meritorious in intent, understated the significance of issues related to the role of industrial "flexibility," branch-plant economies, and labor.
Sports Journalists and England’s Barclays Premier League: A Case Study Examining Reporters’ Takes on Modern Football

England’s Barclays Premier League is one of the most successful and widereaching sporting organizations in the world, attracting the best football players and managers from around the world as well as a global audience. Since its formation in 1992, the Premier League has focused on commercial success for both the League and its constituent clubs. This emphasis has brought tremendous change to English football as a whole. This case study analysis seeks to understand the perceptions and experiences of sports reporters tasked with covering these Premier League sides. These football journalists describe limited access brought on by the clubs’ decisions to emphasize global brands and manage their own branded content through club-run websites and material. Respondents also perceive this limited access is exacerbated by increased multiculturalism and a growing culture of suspicion that widens the gulfs between teams and the reporters who cover them.
The influence of pension plan risk on equity risk and credit ratings: a study of FTSE100 companies

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between funding risk of defined benefit pension plans and both corporate debt ratings and equity risk measures for FTSE100 companies. Panel based models highlighted a direct relationship between pension plan risk and equity risk. Pension risk was also demonstrated to be factored into credit ratings with the analysis highlighting that the greater the pension risk, the greater the probability of obtaining a lower debt rating. From a rating agency viewpoint, this is positive news, particularly at present when agencies are being criticized for a perceived failure to reflect sub-prime mortgage problems in firm-specific ratings.
High attrition among HIV-infected patients with advanced disease treated in an intermediary referral center in Maputo, Mozambique

Background In Mozambique, antiretroviral therapy (ART) scale-up has been successfully implemented. However, attrition in care remains a major programmatic challenge. In 2009, an intermediary-level HIV referral center was created in Maputo to ensure access to specialized care for HIV-infected patients with complications (advanced clinical-immunological stage, Kaposi sarcoma, or suspected ART failure). Objective To determine the attrition from care and to identify risk factors that lead to high attrition among patients referred to an intermediary-level HIV referral center. Design This was a retrospective cohort study from 2009 to 2011. Results A total of 1,657 patients were enrolled, 847 (51%) were men, the mean age was 36 years (standard deviation: 11), the mean CD4 count was 27 cells/µl (interquartile range: 11–44), and one-third were severely malnourished. The main reasons for referral were advanced clinical stages (WHO stages 3 and 4, and CD4 count <50 cells/µl) in 70% of the cases, and 19% had Kaposi sarcoma. The overall attrition rate was 28.7 per 100 person-years (PYs) – the mortality rate was 5.0 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.2–5.9) per 100 PYs, and the loss-to-follow-up rate was 23.7 (95% CI: 21.9–25.6) per 100 PYs. There were 793 attritions – 137 deaths and 656 lost to follow-up (LTFU); 77% of all attrition happened within the first year. The factors independently associated with attrition were male sex (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.0–1.3), low body mass index (aHR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.2–1.8), WHO clinical stage 3 or 4 (aHR: 1.30, 95% CI: 1.0–1.6; and aHR: 1.91, 95% CI: 1.4–2.5), later year of enrollment (aHR 1.61, 95% CI 1.3–1.9), and ‘being already on ART’ at enrollment (aHR 13.71, 95% CI 11.4–16.4). Conclusions Attrition rates among HIV-infected patients enrolled in an intermediary referral center were high, mainly related to advanced stage of clinical disease. Measures are required to address this, including innovative strategies for HIV-testing uptake, earlier ART initiation and nutritional supplementation, and special attention to men and those who are already on ART at enrolment. Qualitative research is required to understand the reasons for being LTFU and design informed evidence-based interventions.
Development of water scenarios for large lakes in Europe: the case of Lake Peipsi

Qualitative or quantitative description of the future by developing scenarios is a key method when taking a long-term view, e.g., up to 2050. Previously the time frames covered by the scenarios have usually been no more than 20 years. This period can be too short for achieving long-term goals when, for example, testing watershed management plans. This paper is an attempt to introduce and illustrate the potential of the Story-and-Simulation methodology and Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping when drawing up qualitative and semi-quantitative scenarios and the future of Lake Peipsi, one of the largest surface water bodies in Europe. The lake is shared between Estonia and Russia and consists of three unequal parts with different natural conditions and socio-economic problems in the catchment. The scenarios developed in cooperation by the stakeholders and experts were used for assessment of the importance of the major socio-economic and political drivers on water resources and water quality in the area. The results indicate that a stakeholders9 panel could provide comprehensive expertise to develop scenarios. However, a participatory scenario development is likely to produce varying results depending on the composition of the stakeholders9 panel.
A Twin Protection Effect? Explaining Twin Survival Advantages with a Two-Process Mortality Model

Twin studies that focus on the correlation in age-at-death between twin pairs have yielded important insights into the heritability and role of genetic factors in determining lifespan, but less attention is paid to the biological and social role of zygosity itself in determining survival across the entire life course. Using data from the Danish Twin Registry and the Human Mortality Database, we show that monozygotic twins have greater cumulative survival proportions at nearly every age compared to dizygotic twins and the Danish general population. We examine this survival advantage by fitting these data with a two-process mortality model that partitions survivorship patterns into extrinsic and intrinsic mortality processes roughly corresponding to acute, environmental and chronic, biological origins. We find intrinsic processes confer a survival advantage at older ages for males, while at younger ages, all monozygotic twins show a health protection effect against extrinsic death akin to a marriage protection effect. While existing research suggests an increasingly important role for genetic factors at very advanced ages, we conclude that the social closeness of monozygotic twins is a plausible driver of the survival advantage at ages <65.
Improving the automatic measurement of plant root growth

The measurement of plant root growth is important in gauging the effect of experimental changes (nutrients, illumination, orientation, etc) made to plants. The most commonly used software is a combination of the common optical flow measurement method of Horn and Shunk with a ruggedized backward forward block matching method. The best results for this method show a low reliability for the optic flow measurement (less than 5%) and mostly rely on the ruggedized backwards forwards block matching. The current paper demonstrates that by correct tuning of the aperture a scale space based optical flow measurement can produce a higher reliability than the former tensor method. In addition, when the output of the scale space optical flow measurements are used to constrain the search space of the block matching method a still higher reliability is achievable. Systematic errors introduced by the forward backward matching with a non-optimally constrained search space are also eliminated.
Effect of antidepressant medication treatment on suicidal ideation and behavior in a randomized trial: an exploratory report from the Combining Medications to Enhance Depression Outcomes Study.

OBJECTIVE To explore relationships between baseline sociodemographic and clinical features and baseline suicidal ideation, and treatment effects on suicidal ideation and behavior, in depressed outpatients. METHOD From March 2008 to September 2009, the Combining Medications to Enhance Depression Outcomes study, a single-blind, 7-month randomized trial, enrolled outpatients with nonpsychotic chronic and/or recurrent major depressive disorder (DSM-IV-TR criteria) in primary and psychiatric care (N = 665). Participants received escitalopram plus placebo, bupropion sustained release (SR) plus escitalopram, or venlafaxine extended release (XR) plus mirtazapine. The primary outcome measure for this report is presence of suicidal ideation assessed by the Concise Health Risk Tracking Self-Report, which measures suicidal ideation and behaviors over the last 24 hours. Sociodemographic and clinical features were compared in those with versus without baseline ideation. At 4, 12, and 28 weeks, treatment effects on suicidality were assessed, and unadjusted and adjusted outcomes were compared among those with and without baseline ideation using linear, logistic, ordinal logistic, and negative binomial regression models. RESULTS Baseline suicidal ideation was associated with greater depressive severity, childhood neglect, childhood abuse, early major depressive disorder onset, greater psychiatric comorbidity, and worse functioning and quality of life. After adjustment for treatment, gender, age at first depressive episode, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and depressive severity, depressive symptom outcomes did not differ between ideation groups at 12 or 28 weeks or between treatments. Overall, 79% of participants with baseline suicidal ideation had none at week 4, 83% had none at week 12, and 86% had none at week 28. All treatments reduced ideation, with bupropion-SR plus escitalopram the most effective at week 12 (P < .01). In participants without baseline ideation, emergent ideation did not differ between treatments: 2.5% had ideation at 4 weeks, 1.3% had ideation at 12 weeks, and only 1.7% had ideation at 28 weeks. Four patients (all receiving venlafaxine-XR plus mirtazapine) attempted suicide (P = .0162). CONCLUSION Baseline ideation did not affect depressive symptom outcome. Bupropion-SR plus escitalopram most effectively reduced ideation. Ideation emergence was uncommon. Venlafaxine-XR plus mirtazapine may pose a higher risk of suicide attempts. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00590863.
Effect of Tourism on Balanced Regional Development: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis in Coastal and Inland China

This article aims to examine whether tourism can promote or hinder balanced regional development (BRD) in China. Unlike previous studies that mostly employ simple descriptive analysis, this study empirically analyzes the effects of tourism on BRD, especially on regional economic disparity within and between inland and coastal areas, by using the conditional convergence model of Barro and Sala-i-Martin. Results indicate that tourism development in China has a positive effect on BRD. Nevertheless, inland area (less developed region) has faster conditional convergence than coastal area (developed region) because of the tourism development. In addition, tourism has a stronger positive effect on economic growth in inland area than in coastal area, which denotes that tourism development can reduce regional inequality in China.
Evaluation of accurate indoor localization systems in industrial environments

Due to the fast emergence of location-based services and the absence of a widely adopted localization technology for indoor environments, Indoor Localization Systems have become a central topic of research in the last decade. Although there is a significant amount of research targeting indoor localization technologies and their performance, most of these efforts only focus on theory, system design or evaluation in non-industrial environments, usually offices or healthcare spaces. In this work, a detailed performance evaluation of two commercially available accurate localization technologies, based on Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) and Ultra-wideband (UWB), in an industrial environment is presented to create an experimental understanding of their behaviour in similar conditions and to investigate their potential to be used in industrial applications with concrete localization requirements. For this purpose, these localization technologies are examined with respect to various performance criteria in several scenarios in a real industrial site.
Reconciling Embodied and Distributional Accounts of Meaning in Language

Over the past 15 years, there have been two increasingly popular approaches to the study of meaning in cognitive science. One, based on theories of embodied cognition, treats meaning as a simulation of perceptual and motor states. An alternative approach treats meaning as a consequence of the statistical distribution of words across spoken and written language. On the surface, these appear to be opposing scientific paradigms. In this review, we aim to show how recent cross-disciplinary developments have done much to reconcile these two approaches. The foundation to these developments has been the recognition that intralinguistic distributional and sensory-motor data are interdependent. We describe recent work in philosophy, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and computational modeling that are all based on or consistent with this conclusion. We conclude by considering some possible directions for future research that arise as a consequence of these developments.
Expression of gelatinase (MMP-2 and MMP-9) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in endometrial carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are key players in the degradation of extracellular matrix and basement membranes, and are thus important in tumor invasion. Gelatinases (MMP-2 and MMP-9) in particular are prognostic factors in many solid tumors. In this study the immunohistochemical expression of both COX-2 and matrix metalloproteinases has been shown for the first time in endometrium carcinoma. METHODS Forty-two endometrial carcinoma tissues were immunostained for MMP2 antibody (1:100, Rabbit polyclonal), MMP9 antibody (1:100, Rabbit polyclonal) and CoX2 antibody (1:100, Epitope specific rabbit antibody). RESULTS 90.5% of the cases were positive for MMP-2 and MMP-9, and 83.3% of the cases were positive for COX-2. A statistically significant association was found between COX-2 overexpression and FIGO stage (p = 0.001). A positive correlation was also found with histological grade (p = 0.006), myometrial invasion (p = 0.033), vascular invasion (p = 0.017), and lymphatic invasion (p = 0.007). A positive correlation was found between MMP-2 overexpression and vascular and lymphatic invasion (p = 0.030 and p = 0.003, respectively). MMP-9 overexpression was also found to be correlated with vascular and lymphatic invasion (p = 0.001 and p = 0.012, respectively). Furthermore, there was a statistically significant correlation between MMP-2 and MMP-9 overexpression (p = 0.0001). CONCLUSION The results showed that COX-2, MMP-2 and MMP-9 were expressed in a high percentage of primary endometrial carcinomas and their expressions may be associated closely with parameters of tumor aggressiveness.