Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unspeakable Bodies

In this article, I explore the extent to which the `virtual community' has been imagined as coming into being through acts of erasure that create unmarked citizens. In contrast, `pro-ana' websites that celebrate eating disorders aim to create a community in which a sense of collectivity is constituted precisely through the body, specifically the anorexic body. By encouraging members to speak out, these communities aim to subvert the economy of difference through which the anorexic body is always positioned as `other', as the body that `has' difference. I argue that the public outcry surrounding pro-ana communities represents an appeal to censorship as a means by which, as Kristeva argues, outsiders might be `ejected beyond the scope of the possible, the tolerable, the thinkable' in order to reinstate the notion of consensus through the suppression of some forms of difference.
Potency of Pancuronium at the Diaphragm and the Adductor Pollicis Muscle in Humans

The measurement of force of contraction of the adductor pollicis muscle following supramaximal stimulation of the ulnar nerve has become a standard method to assess the effect of neuromuscular blocking drugs. However, the diaphragm is regarded as resistant to these drugs, and considerable residual respiratory power might still be present after total block of adductor pollicis function. To quantify this differential effect, train-of-four stimulation was applied to the ulnar and the phrenic nerves in patients under N2O-halothane anesthesia. The force of contraction of the adductor pollicis muscle was measured with a force-displacement transducer and compared with the diaphragmatic electromyogram (EMG). Pancuronium cumulative dose-response curves for both muscles were determined in 10 ASA Class I adults. The mean dose (±SEM) required to depress adductor pollicis and diaphragm responses to first twitch stimulation (ED50) was 29.5 ± 3.5 μg/kg and 59.5 ± 7.0 μg/kg, respectively. Corresponding values for ED90 were 45 ± 5 μg/kg and 95 ± 11 μg/kg, respectively, indicating that the diaphragm required approximately twice as much pancuronium as the adductor pollicis for an identical block. At 90% adductor pollicis block, the diaphragm was only 24 ± 4% blocked. It is concluded that the adductor pollicis response might underestimate the degree of diaphragmatic relaxation. On the other hand, the administration of pancuronium in a dose sufficient to produce total paralysis might result in the inability to antagonize neuromuscular block in all muscles.
Race, Local Life Circumstances, and Criminal Activity

Objective. Life–course researchers suggest that changes in local life circumstances explain changes in criminal activity in adulthood. Although the extent to which local life circumstances propel offenders toward/away from criminal behavior is a subject of considerable debate, the issue of race has largely been ignored. The objective in this research is to incorporate race into a life–course perspective that examines the influence of changes in life circumstances on changes in criminal activity. Methods. This objective is met by using longitudinal data on 524 parolees released from the California Youth Authority (CYA) who were followed for seven consecutive years after release. Results. The results suggest that changes in local life circumstances are related to changes in criminal activity, but do not eliminate the race/crime relationship for violence. At the same time, the effect of local life circumstances on criminal activity appears more similar than different across race, with the exception that common–law marriages are crime–generating among nonwhites as compared to whites. Conclusions. Because race continues to be associated with criminal activity over the life course, future research should increase efforts to better understand how race might condition life circumstances when influencing criminal activity. Implications of these findings for life–course theory are discussed.
Ritual Labour and Contemporary Politics

Rituals have had a long historical application and have been used as a powerful tool to demonstrate and communicate strength and dominance to allies and foes alike. In order to truly understand how modern political leaders create and utilize their charisma to elevate themselves in the eyes of the general public, historical ideas that connect kings with gods have to be properly analyzed and understood. The most important link between kings and politicians lies in the fact that both have used and continue to use ritual as a way of legitimising their respective roles. Political ritual under its various guises has the power to strongly engage the emotions of the spectators, and therefore create the powerful illusion that they are somehow connected with the charismatic political figure and are an integral part of the power structure itself.
Baby lead the way: Mental health group work for infants, children and mothers affected by family violence

Abstract ‘Infant led’ and ‘child led’ interventions designed to address the affects related to familial violence honour a ‘child up’, rather than a ‘parent down’ approach to dyadic work. The capacity to form healthy attachments is largely developed within early childhood. Relational disruption resulting from familial violence threatens to impair healthy attachments and the subsequent neurodevelopmental sequences involved in affect modulation. Two innovative mental health group work interventions within the Western Region of Metropolitan Melbourne work to enhance the attachments of infants and mothers, and children and mothers/carers affected by family violence.
Heuristic Evaluation of Programming Language Features Technical Report UCSC-SOE-1106 February 11 , 2011

Usability is an important feature for programming languages. However, user studies which compare programming languages or systems are both very expensive and typically inconclusive. In this paper, we posit that discount usability methods can be successfully applied to programming languages concepts such as language features. We give examples of useful feedback received from applying heuristic evaluation to a selection of language features targeted at parallel programming. Author
Engaging Boundary Objects in OMS and STS? Exploring the Subtleties of Layered Engagement

This paper considers STS aspirations to engage with the field of Organization and Management Studies (OMS). It does so by investigating the employability of the concept of boundary object in OMS. Through an extensive literature review, the paper shows that rather than a simple engagement between STS and OMS the relation between the two consists of multi-layered (non-)engagements. The paper shows that the `successful' uptake of and the active engagement with the concept of boundary object in OMS cannot simply be regarded as a (successful) engagement of STS with OMS. The situated and contingent character of what counts as successful engagement explains the tensions that arise when a concept is taken up in a new field.
A Longitudinal Study of Disability, Cognition and Gray Matter Atrophy in Early Multiple Sclerosis Patients According to Evidence of Disease Activity

New treatment options may make “no evidence of disease activity” (NEDA: no relapses or disability progression and no new/enlarging MRI lesions, as opposed to “evidence of disease activity” (EDA) with at least one of the former), an achievable goal in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The objective of the present study was to determine whether early RRMS patients with EDA at one-year follow-up had different disability, cognition, treatment and gray matter (GM) atrophy rates from NEDA patients and healthy controls (HC). RRMS patients (mean age 34 years, mean disease duration 2.2 years) were examined at baseline and one-year follow-up with neurological (n = 72), neuropsychological (n = 56) and structural MRI (n = 57) examinations. Matched HC (n = 61) were retested after three years. EDA was found in 46% of RRMS patients at follow-up. EDA patients used more first line and less second line disease modifying treatment than NEDA (p = 0.004). While the patients groups had similar disability levels at baseline, they differed in disability at follow-up (p = 0.010); EDA patients progressed (EDSS: 1.8–2.2, p = 0.010), while NEDA patients improved (EDSS: 2.0–1.7, p<0.001). Cognitive function was stable in both patient groups. Subcortical GM atrophy rates were higher in EDA patients than HC (p<0.001). These results support the relevance of NEDA as outcome in RRMS and indicate that pathological neurodegeneration in RRMS mainly occur in patients with evidence of disease activity.
Role of oxidative stress in defective renal dopamine D 1 receptor-G protein coupling and function in old Fischer 344 rats

Fardoun, Riham Zein, Mohammad Asghar, and Mustafa Lokhandwala. Role of oxidative stress in defective renal dopamine D1 receptor-G protein coupling and function in old Fischer 344 rats. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 291: F945–F951, 2006. First published June 6, 2006; doi:10.1152/ajprenal.00111. 2006. —Aging is associated with an increase in oxidative stress. Previously, we have reported that dopamine failed to inhibit proximal tubular Na-K-ATPase and to promote sodium excretion in old rats (Beheray S, Kansra V, Hussain T, and Lokhandwala MF. Kidney Int 58: 712–720, 2000). This was due to uncoupling of dopamine D1 receptors from G proteins resulting from hyperphosphorylation of D1 receptors. The present study was designed to test the role of oxidative stress in the age-related decline in renal dopamine D1 receptor function. We observed that old animals had increased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, a biomarker of oxidative stress, and decreased D1 receptor number and protein in the proximal tubules (PT) compared with adult rats. In old rats, there was increased G protein-coupled receptor kinase-2 (GRK-2) abundance, increased basal serine phosphorylation of D1 receptors, and defective D1 receptor-G protein coupling in PT membranes. Interestingly, supplementation with an antioxidant, tempol (1 mmol/l in drinking water for 15 days), lowered MDA levels and normalized D1 receptor number and protein in old rats to the level seen in adult rats. Furthermore, tempol decreased GRK-2 abundance and D1 receptor serine phosphorylation and restored D1 receptor-G protein coupling in PT of old rats. The functional consequence of these changes was the restoration of the natriuretic response to D1 receptor activation in tempol-supplemented old rats. Therefore, in old rats, tempol reduces oxidative stress and prevents GRK-2 membranous abundance and hyperphosphorylation of D1 receptors, resulting in restoration of D1 receptor-G protein coupling and the natriuretic response to SKF38393. Thus tempol, by lowering oxidative stress, normalizes the age-related decline in dopamine receptor function.
Anxiety in the College Japanese Language Classroom

The purpose of this study was to investigate 2 potential sources of the anxiety of college learners of Japanese in oral practice: (a) an individual student’s fear of negative evaluation, and (b) his or her self-perceived speaking ability. A survey was administered to 212 students in Japanese courses at 2 major universities. Using correlations and regression, the study found that: (a) An individual student’s anxiety was higher as his or her fear of negative evaluation was stronger, and the strength of this tendency depended on the instructional level and the experience of going to Japan; (b) an individual student’s anxiety was higher as he or she perceived his or her ability as lower than that of peers and native speakers; (c) the anxiety level of a male student became higher as he perceived himself less competent; and (d) the fear of negative evaluation and the self-perceived speaking ability did not interact to influence the anxiety level of an individual student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Effect of dialysis flux and membrane material on dyslipidaemia and inflammation in haemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND Dyslipidaemia, inflammation and oxidative stress are prominent risk factors that potentially cause vascular disease in haemodialysis patients. Dialysis modalities affect uraemic dyslipidaemia, possibly by modifying oxidative stress, but the effects of dialyser flux and membrane material on atherogenic remnant particles and oxidized low-density lipoproteins (LDL) are unknown. METHODS We performed a randomized crossover study in 36 patients on haemodialysis to analyse the effect of dialyser flux and membrane material on plasma lipids, apolipoproteins and markers of inflammation and oxidative stress. Stable patients on low-flux dialysis with polysulphone for >/=6 weeks were assigned to high-flux polysulphone or high-flux modified cellulose with similar dialyser surface area and permeability characteristics and crossed over twice every 6 weeks. RESULTS Thirty patients completed the study per protocol. Treatments with high-flux polysulphone and modified cellulose lowered serum triglyceride (by 20% and 10%, respectively; P<0.05) and remnant-like particle cholesterol by 32% (P<0.001) and 11% (NS) after the first 6 weeks of treatment. Oxidized LDL decreased significantly with high-flux polysulphone, but not with modified cellulose. Apolipoproteins CII and CIII were reduced, whereas the ratio CII/CIII was increased (all P<0.05). Acute-phase proteins and LDL and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol remained unaffected. CONCLUSIONS This randomized crossover study demonstrates a potent effect of high-flux haemodialysis on uraemic dyslipidaemia. Polysulphone membrane material showed superiority on oxidatively modified LDL, an indicator of oxidative stress in haemodialysis patients.
Equivalence between priority queues and sorting

We present a general deterministic linear space reduction from priority queues to sorting implying that if we can sort up to n keys in S(n) time per key, then there is a priority queue supporting delete and insert in S(n)+O(1) time and find-min in constant time. Conversely, a priority queue can trivially be used for sorting: first insert all keys to be sorted, then extract them in sorted order by repeatedly deleting the minimum. Hence, asymptotically this settles the complexity of priority queues in terms of that of sorting. Besides nailing down the complexity of priority queues to that of sorting, and vice versa, we translate known sorting results into new results on priority queues for integers and strings in different computational models.
Le sion Detectability in Di ag nos tic Ul tra sound with Short-Lag Spa tial

We dem on strate a novel im ag ing tech nique, named short-lag spa tial co her ence (SLSC) im ag ing, which uses short dis tance (or lag) val ues of the co her ence func tion of back scat tered ul tra sound to cre ate im ages. Sim u la tions us ing Field II are used to dem on strate the de tec tion of le sions of vary ing sizes and con trasts with and with out acous ti cal clut ter in the back scat tered data. B-mode and SLSC im ag ing are shown to be nearly equiv a lent in le sion de tec tion, based on the con trast-to-noise ra tio (CNR) of the le sion, in noise-free con di tions. The CNR of the SLSC im age, how ever, can be ad justed to achieve an op ti mal value at the ex pense of im age smooth ness and res o lu tion. In the pres ence of acous tic clut ter, SLSC im ag ing yields sig nif i cantly higher CNR than B-mode im ag ing and main tains higher im age qual ity than B-mode with in creas ing noise. Com pres sion of SLSC im ages is shown to be re quired un der high-noise con di tions but is un nec es sary un der noand low-noise con di tions. SLSC im ag ing is ap plied to in vivo im ag ing of the ca rotid sheath and dem on strates sig nif i cant gains in CNR as well as vi su al iza tion of ar te ri oles in the ca rotid sheath. SLSC im ag ing has a po ten tial ap pli ca tion to clut ter re jec tion in ul tra sonic im ag ing.
AZD1152, a Selective Inhibitor of Aurora B Kinase, Inhibits Human Tumor Xenograft Growth by Inducing Apoptosis

Purpose: In the current study, we examined the in vivo effects of AZD1152, a novel and specific inhibitor of Aurora kinase activity (with selectivity for Aurora B). Experimental Design: The pharmacodynamic effects and efficacy of AZD1152 were determined in a panel of human tumor xenograft models. AZD1152 was dosed via several parenteral (s.c. osmotic mini-pump, i.p., and i.v.) routes. Results: AZD1152 potently inhibited the growth of human colon, lung, and hematologic tumor xenografts (mean tumor growth inhibition range, 55% to ≥100%; P < 0.05) in immunodeficient mice. Detailed pharmacodynamic analysis in colorectal SW620 tumor-bearing athymic rats treated i.v. with AZD1152 revealed a temporal sequence of phenotypic events in tumors: transient suppression of histone H3 phosphorylation followed by accumulation of 4N DNA in cells (2.4-fold higher compared with controls) and then an increased proportion of polyploid cells (>4N DNA, 2.3-fold higher compared with controls). Histologic analysis showed aberrant cell division that was concurrent with an increase in apoptosis in AZD1152-treated tumors. Bone marrow analyses revealed transient myelosuppression with the drug that was fully reversible following cessation of AZD1152 treatment. Conclusions: These data suggest that selective targeting of Aurora B kinase may be a promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of a range of malignancies. In addition to the suppression of histone H3 phosphorylation, determination of tumor cell polyploidy and apoptosis may be useful biomarkers for this class of therapeutic agent. AZD1152 is currently in phase I trials.
Cross‐level effects of demography and diversity climate on organizational attachment and firm effectiveness

We studied the impact of demographic diversity on individual attachment and firm unit performance in a relatively diverse organization. We implemented cross-level regression to study gender and race/ethnic categorical, relational, and organizational demography in a sample of 26 units part of a regional restaurant chain. At the individual level, we found that diversity climate (DC) moderates the impact of relational and categorical demography on affective organizational commitment, organizational identification, and intention to quit. At the organizational level, we found that DC moderates the impact of organizational diversity on firm productivity and return on profit. We discuss the importance of organizational DC as organizational context on individual attachment, and implications for firm effectiveness in diverse organizations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Healthcare workers' self-reported effect of an interventional programme on knowledge and behaviour related to infection control

Introduction Adherence to infection control guidelines is low, and several efforts have been made to improve healthcare workers' performance of infection control measures. In this study, the performance and evaluation of a hospital-wide infection control programme is described. The most important measure was distribution of an infection control newsletter. Methods In evaluation of the programme, a randomised selection of healthcare workers received a questionnaire to investigate in what degree the healthcare workers was aware of the programme and whether they reported behavioural change and refreshed knowledge as result of the programme. Results The intervention made it possible to reach >80% of the personnel in a Norwegian university hospital. Among those who actually read Infection Control Newsletter, 92.9% reported that their knowledge was refreshed and 60.6% reported behavioural change. Discussion The intervention had a significant impact on nurses and nurse assistants' reports on knowledge and behaviour related to infection control. Our study supports the importance of a long-term and multimodal approach to healthcare workers in infection control work. The time and resources spent to produce and distribute the Infection Control Newsletter was an effective way to reach out to a large number of healthcare workers.
The Journal of Sports Sciences continues to grow with confidence

This editorial provides a short report of the progress made by the Journal of Sports Sciences (JSS) over the past 12 months. Although much of the information reported here has been published recently by the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) in their annual report, it was felt that readers who are not BASES members would also like to know how JSS is trying to develop and improve its status as a leading journal of sports science. Over the past 12 months, JSS has made excellent progress as one of the premier academic journals of sport science both in the UK and worldwide. The journal has just received (June 2003) its impact factor for the calendar year 2002 (1.082), which is an improvement on that for 2001 (0.928). However, the relative standing of JSS has progressed from being 3 1 of 68 journals in 2001 to 22 of 69 journals in 2002, a jump of nine places. Afier 7 years as General Editor and 13 years as the Section Editor for Biomechanics, Roger Bartlett retired from the editorial board of JSS at the end of 2001 (see note of thanks in Nevill, 2001). Alan Nevill agreed to take over this important role, although upon his appointment the title of 'General Editor' was replaced with the more traditional one of 'Editor in Chief. The Journal of Sports Sciences has made several changes to its editorial policy over the past year. Together with the introduction of new Section Editors of Sports Performance (Gregory Atkinson), Kinanthropometry (Roger Eston) and Psychology (Nanette Mutrie), several Advisory Board members were retired and replaced with new members who were thought better able to support the new Section Editors. A more important change of editorial board policy was the decision to invite all members of the Advisory Board to see the minutes of, and suggest agenda items for, future editorial board meetings. This has proved a welcome and popular decision for the dissemination of knowledge to all Advisory Board members. The journal continues to publish 12 issues per year, with one issue consisting entirely of the abstracts from the BASES annual conference. The 2002 Manchester conference was held jointly with the 12th Commonwealth Games International Sports Conference and the abstracts were published in the April issue of this year. Another special issue, published in September, contains iTaylor&Francis healthsciences
The Composition Effect in Symbolizing: The Role of Symbol Production vs. Text Comprehension

A person's ability to translate a mathematical problem into symbols is an increasingly important skill as computational devices play an increasing role in academia and the workplace. Thus it is important to better understand this "symbolization" skill and how it develops. We are working toward a model of the acquisition of skill at symbolizing and scaffolding strategies for assisting that acquisition. We are using a difficulties factors assessment as an efficient methodology for identifying the critical cognitive factors that distinguish competent from less competent symbolizers. The current study indicates there is more to symbolizing than translating individual phrases into symbols and using longterm schematic knowledge to fill in implied information. In particular, students must be able to compose these individual translation operations into a complete symbolic sentence. We provide evidence that in contrast to many prior models of word problem solving which address story comprehension skills, a critical element of student competence is symbolic production skills.