Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the Relationship Between Human Resource Practice, Organisational Support, Social Support, Performance and Intention to Leave of Teachers

This research was conducted to examine the relationship between human resource practice, organisational support, social support, performance and intention to leave of teachers in South Africa. Three hundred teachers at different schools were invited to participate in this research. Using a quantitative research approach, six standardised questionnaires, including a Biographical Questionnaire, a Human Resource Practice Scale, Organisational Support Scale, Social Support Scale, Performance Scale and Intention to Leave Scale were used. The findings revealed that a positive practical significant relationship with a medium effect exists between human resource practices, organisational support and intention to leave, but a negative practical significant relationship exists between human resource practices and intention to leave of teachers. Furthermore, a positive practical significant relationship with large effect was found between organisational support and social support, but a negative practical significant relationship with a medium effect exists between organisational support and intention to leave. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n13p93
Nerve Growth Factor Promotes Cardiac Repair following Myocardial Infarction

Rationale: Nerve growth factor (NGF) promotes angiogenesis and cardiomyocyte survival, which are both desirable for postinfarction myocardial healing. Nonetheless, the NGF potential for cardiac repair has never been investigated. Objective: To define expression and localization of NGF and its high-affinity receptor TrkA (tropomyosin-related receptor A) in the human infarcted heart and to investigate the cardiac roles of both endogenous and engineered NGF using a mouse model of myocardial infarction (MI). Methods and Results: Immunostaining for NGF and TrkA was performed on heart samples from humans deceased of MI or unrelated pathologies. To study the post-MI functions of endogenous NGF, a NGF-neutralizing antibody (Ab-NGF) or nonimmune IgG (control) was given to MI mice. To investigate the NGF therapeutic potential, human NGF gene or control (empty vector) was delivered to the murine periinfarct myocardium. Results indicate that NGF is present in the infarcted human heart. Both cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells (ECs) possess TrkA, which suggests NGF cardiovascular actions in humans. In MI mice, Ab-NGF abrogated native reparative angiogenesis, increased EC and cardiomyocyte apoptosis and worsened cardiac function. Conversely, NGF gene transfer ameliorated EC and cardiomyocyte survival, promoted neovascularization and improved myocardial blood flow and cardiac function. The prosurvival/proangiogenic Akt/Foxo pathway mediated the therapeutic benefits of NGF transfer. Moreover, NGF overexpression increased stem cell factor (the c-kit receptor ligand) expression, which translated in higher myocardial abundance of c-kitpos progenitor cells in NGF-engineered hearts. Conclusions: NGF elicits pleiotropic beneficial actions in the post-MI heart. NGF should be considered as a candidate for therapeutic cardiac regeneration.
An Exploratory Study of the Career Drivers of Accounting Students

The purpose of this study was to assess the relative importance of nine career drivers of undergraduate accounting students. Career drivers are motivational factors that influence students’ choices of careers. Faculty, academic advisors, and employment recruiters, among others, can benefit from knowing what accounting students consider to be important career factors. The three most important career drivers are expertise, security, and search for meaning. We also attempted to assess if there are significant differences in the career drivers of male and female students. Our results indicated that there are statistically significant differences between male and female respondents in the career drivers of expertise, security, and search for meaning.
Actinlike material in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Actinlike material was obtained from disrupted Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells by a modification of the method of Hancock and Nikaido (J. Bacteriol. 136:381-390) for isolating outer membrane vesicles. Pelleted membranes were dissolved in Laemmli sample buffer and electrophoresed in parallel lanes with purified rabbit skeletal muscle actin. The bacterial preparation migrated similarly to rabbit skeletal muscle actin. A doublet band was detectable by affinity-purified antiactin antibody in a passive transfer immunoblot. Molecular weight of the actinlike protein doublet was 60,000 to 63,000 as determined by linear regression analysis of Bio-Rad low-molecular-weight standards run on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Transmission electron microscopy of the actinlike material in high salt concentrations revealed 10- to 14-nm filaments of various lengths. Despite its ability to form filaments and to react with a polyclonal rabbit antiactin antibody, the bacterial filaments did not bind the S-1 fragment of heavy meromyosin.
Transfer from a home and community-based long-term care program to a nursing home: the Ohio experience

Home and community-based care programs have been growing due to the preferences of elderly clients to remain in their homes. This study examines factors associated with the transfer of the elderly from a home or community-based long-term care program to a nursing home. Data were collected from four suburban counties administered by an agency in the Ohio pre-admission screening system providing options and resources today program. Approximately 14% of participants disenrolled from the program and moved to a nursing home during the study period. Median and mean durations in the program were 7.9 and 8.2 months, respectively. Using the Cox proportional hazard model, we identified age, pre-enrolment nursing home experience, hospital episodes and the need for transportation assistance as important predictors. The program should pay close attention to clients experiencing hospital episodes and the provision of needed services, such as transportation, in order to delay program disenrolment of the elderly.
Phonologische und zentral-exekutive Arbeitsgedächtnisprozesse bei der mentalen Addition und Multiplikation bei Grundschulkindern

Die vorliegende Studie geht vor dem Hintergrund des Arbeitsgedachtnismodells von Baddeley und Hitch (2000) der Frage nach, inwieweit sich im Rahmen einer zunehmenden Automatisierung von mentaler Addition und Multiplikation phonologische und zentral-exekutive Arbeitsgedachtnisanteile am Rechenprozess verandern. Dazu losten Kinder der dritten und vierten Klassenstufe in zwei Experimenten mentale Additions- und Multiplikationsaufgaben unterschiedlicher Komplexitat. Als abhangige Variablen dienten die Losungsgute und die Losungszeiten. Im Sinne des Dual Task Paradigmas bearbeiteten die Probanden simultan zu den visuell dargebotenen Rechenaufgaben unterschiedliche Zweitaufgaben. Experiment 1 fokussierte die Funktion des Rehearsalprozesses und des passiven phonologischen Speichers und damit die Bedeutung der phonologischen Schleife fur den Rechenprozess. Dazu verwendeten wir neben einer neutralen Kontrollbedingung eine einfache und eine kanonische artikulatorische Unterdruckungsaufgabe sowie irrelevante Hintergrundsprache. Die Befunde weisen auf eine Relevanz des artikulatorischen Kontrollprozesses fur mentale Rechenoperationen hin. In Experiment 2 kam neben der neutralen Kontrollbedingung eine zentral-exekutive Interferenzaufgabe, die Random Number Generation Aufgabe, zum Einsatz. Die Ergebnisse zeigen fur beide Rechenarten deutliche zentral-exekutive Beteiligungen auf. In beiden Experimenten zeigte sich mit zunehmender Automatisierung der Rechenoperationen eine Abnahme der interferierenden Effekte der phonologischen (Experiment 1) und der zentral-exekutiven (Experiment 2) Zweitaufgaben. Rechenartspezifische Unterschiede in der Beteiligung beider Subsysteme werden beschrieben und diskutiert.
Association of fetuin-A levels with the progression of aortic valve calcification in non-dialyzed patients.

AIMS Fetuin-A has been identified as a potent circulating inhibitor of ectopic calcification. We investigated the relationship between baseline fetuin-A serum levels and the rate of progression of aortic valve calcification (AVC) in non-dialyzed patients with aortic valve disease (AVD). METHODS AND RESULTS Seventy-seven patients (mean age 70 +/- 8 years) with echocardiographically proven AVD were collected. In all patients, serum fetuin-A levels, creatinine, calcium, lipid parameters, and C-reactive protein were measured at baseline. For quantification of AVC progression, all patients underwent multislice spiral computed tomography examinations at baseline and after a mean follow-up of 12.6 +/- 1.4 months (range 7-18 months). In a multifactorial analysis of covariance including fetuin-A levels, baseline AVC score, the covariables sex, age, body mass index, C-reactive protein, glomerular filtration rate, serum lipids, diabetes, smoking status, and hypertension, only serum fetuin-A levels significantly predict the progression of AVC (P < 0.001). Post hoc analysis demonstrated that patients with baseline fetuin-A levels lower than the median of the cohort (0.72 g/L) showed a significantly higher increase of AVC scores (34.6 +/- 31.4%) than patients with fetuin-A levels larger than the median (10.0 +/- 11.2%, P < 0.001) despite comparable baseline AVC scores. In addition, fetuin-A levels were associated with major adverse clinical events (MACE; P = 0.03). CONCLUSION Serum levels of the calcification inhibitor fetuin-A are associated with the progression of AVC and MACE, independent of the renal function and inflammation.
[Acceptance and commitment therapy in the treatment of chronic pain].

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this article is to present the characteristics of the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for the treatment of chronic pain. The historical context of the development of cognitive and behavioural therapy (CBT) for chronic pain will be described and the theoretical aspects of ACT will be introduced. The components of an acceptance and mindfulness based treatment will also be presented by exploring various processes of the psychological flexibility model. Finally, the article will summarize the scientific evidence supporting ACT based on experimental, correlational and clinical studies in the field of chronic pain. METHOD The theoretical aspects underlying ACT, as well as its clinical components in the specific domain of chronic pain were described based on major books in this area, such as McCracken (2005) and Dahl et al. (2005). A descriptive literature review was undertaken to explore the data on the efficacy of ACT for the treatment of chronic pain. Psycinfo and Medline, as well as the Association for Contextual Science website were analyzed for relevant articles. The key search terms were: "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" or "ACT" or "acceptance" or "mindfulness" or "defusion" and "chronic pain" or "pain. " The reference lists of the articles retrieved were also analyzed. The articles that were not in English or French were excluded as well as those that were not specific to ACT and chronic pain. RESULTS Results show that ACT is a relevant and empirically supported approach that may be used as a complement to CBT strategies in the treatment of chronic pain. There is growing evidence stemming from experimental and correlational studies that support the majority of the ACT processes. Clinical studies undertaken in the field of chronic pain from different backgrounds support the efficacy of ACT for the management of this condition. CONCLUSION ACT is a promising and evidence-based approach for the treatment of chronic pain. More research is needed to further validate its theoretical model and further refine our understanding of how ACT could be effective for the management of chronic pain and enhance quality of life for people who suffer from this health condition. For now, ACT is considered to be as effective as traditional cognitive and behavioral therapy for chronic pain.
Stomatal Patterning and Differentiation by Synergistic Interactions of Receptor Kinases

Coordinated spacing and patterning of stomata allow efficient gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere. Here we report that three ERECTA (ER)–family leucine-rich repeat–receptor-like kinases (LRR-RLKs) together control stomatal patterning, with specific family members regulating the specification of stomatal stem cell fate and the differentiation of guard cells. Loss-of-function mutations in all three ER-family genes cause stomatal clustering. Genetic interactions with a known stomatal patterning mutant too many mouths (tmm) revealed stoichiometric epistasis and combination-specific neomorphism. Our findings suggest that the negative regulation of ER-family RLKs by TMM, which is an LRR receptor–like protein, is critical for proper stomatal differentiation.
A monolithic active conical horn antenna array for millimeter and submillimeter wave applications

In this paper, a novel active integrated conical horn array is presented. Specifically, a 95 GHz quasioptically fed mixer integrated with an annular slot ring antenna was used as the basic element of the proposed active system. For efficient reception, a low cost micro-machined conical horn array was fabricated and placed on the top of active elements. A modified nonorthogonal finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) approach was applied for analyzing the basic conical horn antenna and a hybrid matrix manipulation technique for efficient antenna array modeling. The proposed active conical horn antenna array was fabricated and measured. Numerical simulations have verified the design at its distributed stages presenting very good agreement with the experimental data
Animal Studies Repository Animal Studies Repository Mutual Mother–offspring Vocal Recognition in an Ungulate Hider Species (capra Hircus) Mutual Mother–offspring Vocal Recognition in an Ungulate Hider Species (capra Hircus)

Parent–offspring recognition can be essential for offspring survival and important to avoid misdirected parental care when progeny mingle in large social groups. In ungulates, offspring antipredator strategies (hiding vs. following) result in differences in mother–offspring interactions, and thus different selection pressures acting on the recognition process during the first weeks of life. Hider offspring are isolated and relatively stationary and silent to avoid detection by predators, whereas follower offspring are mobile and rapidly mix in large social groups. For these reasons, hiders have been suggested to show low offspring call individuality leading to unidirectional recognition of mothers by offspring and followers high offspring call individuality and mutual recognition. We hypothesised that similar differences would exist in hider species between the hiding phase (i.e. unidirectional recognition) and the phase when offspring join social groups (i.e. mutual recognition). We tested these predictions with goats (Capra hircus), a hider species characterised by strong mother–offspring attachment. We compared the individuality of kid and mother calls, and the vocal recognition ability, during the early phase of life when kids are usually hidden and later when kids have typically joined social groups. Contrary to our predictions, we found that both kids and mothers had individualised contact calls and that mutual recognition existed even during the hiding phase. The large differences in the duration of the hiding phase and in the rate of mother–offspring interactions (possibly partially driven by domestication in some species) probably cause variations among hider species in the mother–offspring recognition process.
Long-Term Survival Benefit of Coronary Revascularization in Patients Undergoing Stress Myocardial Perfusion Imaging.

BACKGROUND We assessed the relationship between clinical outcome and coronary revascularization according to stress-gated myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (MPS) in an observational series of patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease (CAD), on long-term follow-up. METHODSANDRESULTS The study group consisted of 2,059 patients. During a median follow-up of 61 months, 184 events occurred (126 cardiac deaths and 58 non-fatal MI). The impact of revascularization during follow-up on event-free survival was evaluated using an extended Cox regression model, adjusting for potential clinical and MPS confounders. Revascularization was treated as a binary non-reversible time-dependent covariate. Predefined interactions tested were: (1) revascularization and summed difference score (SDS); (2) revascularization and post-stress left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF); and (3) SDS and post-stress LVEF. Revascularization had a significant effect on event-free survival (adjusted HR, 0.19; P<0.001). Significant interactions were found between revascularization and SDS (P=0.045), and between LVEF and SDS (P=0.015). The protective effect of revascularization increased as SDS increased. For SDS <6 the reduction in HR was detectable only for reduced LVEF. CONCLUSIONS Both the degree of stress-induced ischemia and LVEF predict the effect of revascularization on outcome in patients with suspected or known CAD. The protective effect of revascularization appears to be greater in patients with severe ischemia and preserved LVEF.
Mashic Compiler: Mashup Sandboxing Based on Inter-frame Communication

We propose a new compiler, called Mashic, for the automatic generation of secure Javascript-based mashups from existing mashup code. The Mashic compiler can effortlessly be applied to existing mashups based on a wide-range of gadget APIs. It offers security and correctness guarantees. Security is achieved via the Same Origin Policy. Correctness is ensured in the presence of benign gadgets, that satisfy confidentiality and integrity constrains with regard to the integrator code. The compiler has been successfully applied to real world mashups based on Google maps, Bing maps, YouTube, and Zwibbler APIs.
Yersinia enterocolitica Promotes Deactivation of Macrophage Mitogen-activated Protein Kinases Extracellular Signal-regulated Kinase-1/2, p38, and c-Jun NH2-terminal Kinase

The enteropathogenic bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica counteracts host defense mechanisms by interfering with eukaryotic signal transduction pathways. In this study, we investigated the mechanism by which Y. enterocoliticaprevents macrophage tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) production. Murine J774A.1 macrophages responded to Y. enterocoliticainfection by rapid activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), p38, and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK). However, after initial activation, the virulent Y. enterocolitica strain harboring the Y. enterocolitica virulence plasmid caused a substantial decrease in ERK1/2 and p38 tyrosine phosphorylation. Simultaneously, the virulent Y. enterocolitica strain gradually suppressed phosphorylation of the transcription factors Elk-1, activating transcription factor 2 (ATF2), and c-Jun, indicating time-dependent inhibition of ERK1/2, p38, and JNK kinase activities, respectively. Analysis of different Y. enterocolitica mutants revealed that (i) MAPK inactivation parallels the inhibition of TNFα release, (ii) the suppressor effect on TNFα production, which originates from the lack of TNFα mRNA, is distinct from the ability of Y. enterocoliticato resist phagocytosis and to prevent the oxidative burst, (iii) the tyrosine phosphatase YopH, encoded by the Y. enterocoliticavirulence plasmid, is not involved in the decrease of ERK1/2 and p38 tyrosine phosphorylation or in the cytokine suppressive effect. Altogether, these results indicate that Y. enterocoliticapossesses one or more virulence proteins that suppress TNFα production by inhibiting ERK1/2, p38, and JNK kinase activities.
Eye tracking performance improvement

In this paper, solutions to improve the stability and time response for head mounted eye tracking system are presented. The detection of eye pupil centre coordinates is affected by noise due to physiologic eye tremor, noisy images and the algorithm used for pupil detection. That leads to unstable point of gaze detection, affecting the eye tracking precision. Treating pupil centre coordinates as two separate signals, filters can be applied to improve the pupil detection stability. The point fixation can be more accurate detected by adding a snap to point technique fixation.
Polymorphism rs2274911 of GPRC6A as a Novel Risk Factor for Testis Failure.

CONTEXT The G protein-coupled receptor GPRC6A is an emerging effector with multiple endocrine roles, including stimulation of T production from the testis. Recently, two men with an inactivating mutation (F464Y) of GPRC6A have been identified, and they showed primary testicular failure and deranged spermatogenesis. Furthermore, one of them also reported cryptorchidism at birth. In addition, a polymorphism (rs2274911, Pro91Ser) in GPRC6A is associated with prostate cancer, a typical androgen-sensitive cancer. OBJECTIVE To study the possible association between rs2274911 polymorphism and male fertility and/or cryptorchidism. Design, Patients, Settings: A total of 611 subjects, including 343 infertile patients, 197 normozoospermic controls, and 71 cryptorchid newborns, were retrospectively selected. METHODS Sequencing analysis for rs2274911 polymorphism and F464Y mutation, and serum levels of FSH, LH, and T were assessed. In vitro functional studies for rs2274911 and F464Y were also performed. RESULTS Homozygous subjects for the risk allele A of rs2274911 had a 4.60-fold increased risk of oligozoospermia and 3.52-fold increased risk of cryptorchidism. A significant trend for increased levels of LH in the GA and AA genotypes, compared with GG homozygotes, was detected in men with azoospermia/cryptozoospermia (P for trend = .027), further supporting an association with primary testicular failure. The mutation F464Y was found in one cryptorchid child (one in 71; 1.41%). Functional studies showed that the A allele of rs2274911 and the F464Y substitution were associated with lower exposition of the receptor on the cell membrane and a reduced downstream phosphorylation of ERK1/2 with respect to wild type. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that GPRC6A inactivation or sub-function contributes to reduced exposure to androgens, leading to cryptorchidism during fetal life and/or low sperm production in adulthood.