Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generations and Gender Survey (GGS): Towards a better understanding of relationships and processes in the life course

The Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) is one of the two pillars of the Generations and Gender Programme designed to improve understanding of demographic and social development and of the factors that influence these developments. This article describes how the theoretical perspectives applied in the survey, the survey design and the questionnaire are related to this objective. The key features of the survey include panel design, multidisciplinarity, comparability, context-sensitivity, inter-generational and gender relationships. The survey applies the life course approach, focussing on the processes of childbearing, partnership dynamics, home leaving, and retiring. The selection of topics for data collection mainly follows the criterion of theoretically grounded relevance to explaining one or more of the mentioned processes. A large portion of the survey deals with economic aspects of life, such as economic activity, income, and economic well-being; a comparably large section is devoted to values and attitudes. Other domains covered by the survey include gender relationships, household composition and housing, residential mobility, social networks and private transfers, education, health, and public transfers. The third chapter of the article describes the motivations for their inclusion. The GGS questionnaire is designed for a face-to-face interview. It includes the core that each participating country needs to implement in full, and four optional sub-modules on nationality and ethnicity, on previous partners, on intentions of breaking up, and on housing, respectively. The participating countries are encouraged to include also the optional sub-modules to facilitate comparative research on these topics.
Paraphrasing of Chinese Utterances

One of the key issues in spoken language translation is how to deal with unrestricted expressions in spontaneous utterances. This research is centered on the development of a Chinese paraphraser that automatically paraphrases utterances prior to transfer in Chinese-Japanese spoken language translation. In this paper, a pattern-based approach to paraphrasing is proposed for which only morphological analysis is required. In addition, a pattern construction method is described through which paraphrasing patterns can be efficiently learned from a paraphrase corpus and human experience. Using the implemented paraphraser and the obtained patterns, a paraphrasing experiment was conducted and the results were evaluated.
Correlation Between the Severity of Neurological Deficits in Patients with Symptomatic Spinal Metastases and Short-Term Postoperative Functional Neurological Improvements

OBJECTIVE The correlation between the severity of neurological deficit of patients with symptomatic spinal metastases and short-term, postoperative, functional improvements after surgery is unclear. The aim of this clinical trial was to determine the influence of neurological deficit severity on short-term functional outcomes after surgery, and to devise optimal treatment strategies for this patient population. METHODS Between 01/1999 and 12/2004, 194 patients with symptomatic spinal metastases were surgically treated. Each patient underwent neurological examination pre- and postoperatively. The results were ranked according to the Frankel score. The pre- and postoperative Frankel score was compared in order to assess the development of neurostatus following a surgical procedure. RESULTS Complete postoperative remission was seen in 27% of all patients (27/101) with a preoperative Frankel score D, as well as in 5% of all patients (4/77) with a preoperative Frankel score C. Improvement of the preoperative neurologic deficits occurred in 27% of all patients (27/101) with a preoperative Frankel score D, 58% of all patients (45/77) with a preoperative Frankel score C, 36% of all patients (5/14) with a preoperative Frankel score B, and 50% of all patients (1/2) with a preoperative Frankel score A. CONCLUSION Surgical treatment of patients suffering from neurological deficits caused by spinal metastases results in neurological function improvements. The probability of neurological improvement does not correlate with the severity of the preoperative neurologic deficit. As a consequence, the decision to operate on these patients should not depend on the severity of pre-operative neurological symptoms alone.
CTCF physically links cohesin to chromatin

Cohesin is required to prevent premature dissociation of sister chromatids after DNA replication. Although its role in chromatid cohesion is well established, the functional significance of cohesin's association with interphase chromatin is not clear. Using a quantitative proteomics approach, we show that the STAG1 (Scc3/SA1) subunit of cohesin interacts with the CCTC-binding factor CTCF bound to the c-myc insulator element. Both allele-specific binding of CTCF and Scc3/SA1 at the imprinted IGF2/H19 gene locus and our analyses of human DM1 alleles containing base substitutions at CTCF-binding motifs indicate that cohesin recruitment to chromosomal sites depends on the presence of CTCF. A large-scale genomic survey using ChIP-Chip demonstrates that Scc3/SA1 binding strongly correlates with the CTCF-binding site distribution in chromosomal arms. However, some chromosomal sites interact exclusively with CTCF, whereas others interact with Scc3/SA1 only. Furthermore, immunofluorescence microscopy and ChIP-Chip experiments demonstrate that CTCF associates with both centromeres and chromosomal arms during metaphase. These results link cohesin to gene regulatory functions and suggest an essential role for CTCF during sister chromatid cohesion. These results have implications for the functional role of cohesin subunits in the pathogenesis of Cornelia de Lange syndrome and Roberts syndromes.
Heroic leadership illusions in football teams: Rationality, decision making and noise-signal ratio in the firing of football managers

Similar to practices in top management positions worldwide, there has been an increasing tendency in recent decades to fire football managers when the team does not perform to the stakeholders' expectations. Previous research has suggested that improvements after change of manager are a statistical artefact. Based on 12 years of data from the Norwegian Premier League, we conduct a natural experiment showing what would have taken place if the manager had not been fired. In this case, the performance might have improved just as well and even quicker. Building on theories in expertise and decision making, we explore the data and argue that decision makers may be fooled by randomness and learn wrong lessons about team leadership. Our analyses support a post-heroic view of team leadership as an emergent, output variable. Exaggerated focus on the individual manager may ruin long-term performance. Practical implications are discussed.
COPD and chronic bronchitis risk of indoor air pollution from solid fuel: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Over half the world is exposed daily to the smoke from combustion of solid fuels. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the main contributors to the global burden of disease and can be caused by biomass smoke exposure. However, studies of biomass exposure and COPD show a wide range of effect sizes. The aim of this systematic review was to quantify the impact of biomass smoke on the development of COPD and define reasons for differences in the reported effect sizes. Methods A systematic review was conducted of studies with sufficient statistical power to calculate the health risk of COPD from the use of solid fuel, which followed standardised criteria for the diagnosis of COPD and which dealt with confounding factors. The results were pooled by fuel type and country to produce summary estimates using a random effects model. Publication bias was also estimated. Results There were positive associations between the use of solid fuels and COPD (OR=2.80, 95% CI 1.85 to 4.0) and chronic bronchitis (OR=2.32, 95% CI 1.92 to 2.80). Pooled estimates for different types of fuel show that exposure to wood smoke while performing domestic work presents a greater risk of development of COPD and chronic bronchitis than other fuels. Conclusion Despite heterogeneity across the selected studies, exposure to solid fuel smoke is consistently associated with COPD and chronic bronchitis. Efforts should be made to reduce exposure to solid fuel by using either cleaner fuel or relatively cleaner technology while performing domestic work.
Equipotentiality of thalamo-amygdala and thalamo-cortico-amygdala circuits in auditory fear conditioning

The goal of the present study was to examine the contribution of thalamo-amygdala and thalamo-cortico-amygdala projections to fear conditioning. Lesions were used to destroy either the thalamo-cortico- amygdala projection, the thalamo-amygdala projection, or both projections, and the effects of such lesions on the acquisition of conditioned fear responses (changes in arterial pressure and freezing behavior) to a tone paired with footshock were measured. In each group of animals examined, a large lesion of the acoustic thalamus, including all nuclei of the medial geniculate body and adjacent portions of the posterior thalamus, was made on one side of the brain to block auditory transmission to the forebrain at the level of the thalamus on that side. In this way, experimental lesions could be made on the contralateral side of the brain. Thus, animals with thalamo-amygdala pathway lesions received a large lesion of the acoustic thalamus on one side. Contralaterally, only the nuclei that project to the amygdala (the medial division of the medial geniculate body, the posterior intralaminar nucleus, and the suprageniculate nucleus) were selectively destroyed, leaving much of the thalamo-cortico-amygdala projection intact. For thalamo-cortico-amygdala pathway lesions, the acoustic thalamus was destroyed on one side and temporal and perirhinal cortices were ablated contralaterally. In these animals, thalamo-amygdala projections were intact on the side of the cortical lesion. Destruction of either pathway alone had no effect on auditory fear conditioning. However, combined lesions of the two sensory pathways disrupted conditioning. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
An Alternative to the Mahalanobis Distance for Determining Optimal Correspondences in Data Association

The most common criteria to determine data association rely on minimizing the squared Mahalanobis distance (SMD) between observations and predictions. We hold that the SMD is just a heuristic, while the alternative matching likelihood is the optimal statistic to be maximized. Thorough experiments undoubtedly confirm this idea, with false positive reductions of up to 16%.
High rates of primary care and emergency department use among injection drug users in Vancouver.

BACKGROUND Frequent use of emergency rooms by injection drug users (IDUs) has been attributed to a lack of access to primary care and barriers to health services. Using a community-based sample of IDUs, we examined rates of primary care and emergency room use among IDUs and identified correlates of frequent emergency department use. METHODS From January to November 2003, we enrolled IDUs into a prospective cohort study involving a baseline questionnaire, comprehensive retrospective and prospective health record linkages. We examined rates of primary care and emergency department utilization, and diagnoses upon arrival in the emergency room. Logistic regression was used to determine factors independently associated with frequent emergency room use. RESULTS Of the 883 IDUs included in this analysis, 687 (78 per cent) accessed a primary care clinic in the previous year, while 528 (60 per cent) participants accessed the emergency room (ER) during the years 2002 and 2003. Abscesses, cellulitis and other skin infections accounted for the greatest proportion of ER use. Factors independently associated with frequent ER use included: frequent crystal methamphetamine injection (AOR = 2.4, 95 per cent CI: 1.0-5.6); non-fatal overdose (AOR = 2.1, 95 per cent CI: 1.4-3.3); HIV-positive status (AOR = 1.5, 95 per cent CI: 1.1-2.1), having been physically assaulted (AOR = 1.5, 95 per cent CI: 1.1-2.1); and primary care utilization (AOR = 1.5, 95 per cent CI: 1.0-2.1). DISCUSSION high rates of ER use were observed among IDUs, despite high rates of primary care use among this same population. ER use was due primarily to preventable injection-related complications that are less amenable to primary care interventions, and therefore educational and prevention efforts that encourage and enable sterile injection practices should be promoted.
Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Yalnızlık ve Beden İmgelerinden Doyum Sosyal Kaygı Düzeyleri ile İlişkisinin İncelenmesi

Bu arastirma, universite l. sinif ogrencilerinin yalnizlik ve beden Imgesi doyum duzeylerinin sosyal kaygi duzeyleri ile Iliskisinin olup olmadigini belirlemek amaci ile yapilmistir. Arastirma, 1998-1999 ogretim yilinda Kocaeli Universitesi Teknik Egitim Fakultesi'nde okuyan I. sinifogrencilerinden 190 kisi Ile gerceklestirilmistir. Arastirmada veri toplamak icin uc olcek kullanilmistir: Sosyal Durumlarda Kendini Degerlendirme Envanteri, UCLA Yalnizlik Olcegi ve Beden Bolgelerinden ve Ozelliklerinden Hosnut Olma Anketi. Bu olcekler araciligi ile toplanan veriler uzerinde yapilan Istatistik Islemler sonucunda universite I. sinif ogrencilerinin yalnizlik ve beden Imgesi doyum duzeyleri ile sosyal kaygi duzeyleri arasinda 0.05 duzeyinde anlamli bir iliski oldugu bulunmustur.
Lemurs in a complex landscape: mapping species density in subtropical dry forests of southwestern Madagascar using data at multiple levels

The study of southern dry forest lemurs has been largely restricted to small reserves; yet, the majority of the region's lemur populations reside outside protected areas. Lemur catta and Propithecus verreauxi occupy the same forests but have different dietary preferences. This study assessed L. catta and P. verreauxi population densities across a 3‐km dry forest gradient (1,539 ha) in southern Madagascar. The study was designed to allow lemur densities to be related to particular forest types. A particular aim of this study was to collect lemur data in both protected and unprotected areas. Density estimates were calculated using point transect distance sampling in a study area that contained the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve and the adjacent disturbed forests. The highest densities recorded for each species were in the protected area where the two species were most segregated in their distribution, with L. catta density highest in gallery forest type and P. verreauxi density highest in dry deciduous. Densities of both species varied widely outside the protected area, but P. verreauxi density was more uniform than was L. catta. Results of this study indicate that patterns of lemur density in protected areas are not representative of patterns in disturbed forests; this also suggests that we cannot fully understand the ecological constraints facing primate species by studying them only in protected areas. This research highlights the value of pairing the study of landscape‐level patterns of species distribution with both local ground‐level ecological interpretations and broad‐scale satellite data; information from only one level may give an incomplete view of the community. Am. J. Primatol. 73:38–52, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Reaction Pathways of Clay Minerals in Tropical Soils: Insights from Kaolinite-Smectite Synthesis Experiments

Pedogenic smectite from a young (Holocene) tropical soil was reacted in Al-rich solution at 150ºC for a range of reaction times (3 to 120 days) in orderto study mechanisms and rates associated with the transformation of smectite to kaolinite via interstratified kaolinite-smectite (K-S). As has been observed in tropical soils, the overall reaction rate is logarithmic, with rapid initial transformation of smectite to K-S with ~50% smectite layers, followed by progressively slower transformation of intermediate K-S to kaolinite-rich K-S and eventually Fe-kaolinite. Sub-micron hexagonal non-Fe-bearing kaolinite forms in the final stage (after 120 days) as a minor mineral in an assemblage dominated by Fe-kaolinite. The pedogenic smectite used as starting material consisted of two end-members, Fe-beidellite and Al-smectite, enabling comparison of reaction pathways. Fe-beidellite transforms to K-S or Fe-kaolinite within 3 days, whereas Al-smectite transforms much more slowly, appearing to reach a maximum rate in intermediate stages. This difference is probably due to hydrolysis of relatively weak Mg-O and Fe-O bonds (relative to Al-O bonds) in Fe-beidellite octahedral sheets, which drives rapid reaction, whereas the driving force behind transformation of Al-smectite is more likely to be related to stripping of tetrahedral sheets which reaches its maximum rate at intermediate stages. Multiple analytical approaches have indicated that Al is rapidly fixed from solution into smectite interlayers within K-S, and that K-S and Fe-kaolinite inherit octahedral Fe and Mg from precursor smectite; as the reaction progresses, octahedral sheets become progressively more Al-rich and Fe and Mg are lost to solution. These results demonstrate that: (1) early-formed pedogenic smectite in tropical soils is expected to transform to kaolinite via interstratified K-S; (2) K-S has a strong potential to sequester plant-toxic Al in tropical soil; and (3) the presence in tropical soils of Fe-kaolinites with relatively large cation exchange capacities may be related to inheritance of octahedral sheets from precursor smectite and K-S.
Mineralization of LCFA associated with anaerobic sludge: Kinetics, enhancement of methanogenic activity, and effect of VFA.

Long-chain fatty acids (LCFA) associated with anaerobic sludge by mechanisms of precipitation, adsorption, or entrapment can be biodegraded to methane. The mineralization kinetics of biomass-associated LCFA were established according to an inhibition model based on Haldane's enzymatic inhibition kinetics. A value around 1,000 mg COD-LCFA.g VSS(-1) was obtained for the optimal specific LCFA content that allowed the maximal mineralization rate. For sludge with specific LCFA contents of 2,838 +/- 63 and 4,571 +/- 257 mg COD-LCFA.g VSS(-1), the specific methanogenic activities in the presence of acetate, butyrate, and H(2)/CO(2) were significantly enhanced after the mineralization of the biomass-associated LCFA. For sludge with a specific LCFA content near the optimal value defined by the kinetic model, the effect of adding VFA to the medium was studied during the mineralization of the biomass-associated LCFA. Different patterns were obtained for each individual substrate. Acetate and butyrate were preferentially consumed by the consortium, but in the case of propionate no evidence of a sequential consumption pattern could be withdrawn. It was concluded that LCFA do not exert a bactericidal neither a permanent toxic effect toward the anaerobic consortia. A discussion is addressed to the relative roles of a reversible inhibitory effect and a transport limitation effect imposed by the LCFA surrounding the cells.
The Influence of Genre over the Semantic Prosody of the Word 'Propose'

This study attempts to concern the semantic prosody of the word ‘propose’. In semantic prosody lexical items, by nature, desire to occur with positive, negative, or neutral collocations as in the word ‘rife’ which has a negative semantic prosody since it frequently collocates with words such as crime, misery, or disease. In this study, to identify the occurring tendency of the target word ‘propose’, it was processed in a 464-million-word corpus (Davies, 2008) which is made up of five different genres namely: spoken language, fiction, magazines, newspapers, and academic journals. Collocational variety of ‘propose’ in academic contexts was compared with the abovementioned genres. The results presented that the word ‘propose’ has a neutral semantic prosody in academic contexts, while in other contexts it tends to collocate mostly with negative lexical items.
Trade-based Asset Model using Dynamic Junction Tree for Combinatorial Prediction Markets

Prediction markets have demonstrated their value for aggregating collective expertise. Combinatorial prediction markets allow forecasts not only on base events, but also on conditional and/or Boolean combinations of events. We describe a trade-based combinatorial prediction market asset management system, called Dynamic Asset Cluster (DAC), that improves both time and space efficiency over the method of, which maintains parallel junction trees for assets and probabilities. The basic data structure is the asset block, which compactly represents a set of trades made by a user. A user's asset model consists of a set of asset blocks representing the user's entire trade history. A junction tree is created dynamically from the asset blocks to compute a user's minimum and expected assets.
The Power of SDN to Improve the Estimation of the ISP Traffic Matrix Through the Flow Spread Concept

Traffic matrix estimation in communication network is a long standing problem for its intrinsic difficulty and potential benefit to a vast number of network optimization and management functions. We address the improvement of the traffic matrix estimation by means of selected traffic flow measurements, besides the easily obtained link load measurements. The key contribution of this paper is the definition and assessment of an effective criterion, based on the flow spread parameter, to identify the flows to be measured that reduce the estimation error most. It turns out that a small percentage of flows are enough to drive the estimation error an order of magnitude lower than the one obtained with the classical solution solely based on link load measurements. Our algorithm, referred to as flow spread-based algorithm (FSBA), is also able to distribute measurement tasks fairly among network nodes, taking into account the available forwarding tables space. We also show that FSBA outperforms the state-of-the-art similar approaches. A detailed discussion on how the observation of the desired flows can be performed is done as well, by addressing the SDN paradigm. This is in fact a rapidly growing concept that enables individual flow measurements, though for only a limited number of flows to be practical with current technology.
Retrieval Using Content Information

With the rapid development of the multimedia technologies such as compression and digital image sensor technologies, it is more and more necessary to build up a large database. Therefore robust and efficient methodology for image retrieval techniques has gained the attention of researchers. In the last few years the booming interest in the web images has paved a way to make people on content based Image retrieval techniques and also supporting systems for the retrieval process. In this paper, a general review of Content based image retrieval process by comparing with existing retrieval techniques along with experimental results and applications are presented. Some of the major challenges in the adaptation of content based image retrieval algorithms are also discussed. Copyright © 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
Antioxidant Supplementation Enhances Erythrocyte Antioxidant Status and Attenuates Cyclosporine-Induced Vascular Dysfunction

aPhysiology Laboratory, School of Community Health, Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia bDepartment of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Australia cRenal Research Unit, Launceston General Hospital, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia dExercise and Oxidative Stress Research Group, School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland, Australia ∗Corresponding author: Dr. Louise A. Lexis, llexis@csu.edu. au