Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Re:Membering Fatherhood: Evaluating the Impact of a Group Intervention on Fathering

The Re:Membering Fatherhood Program is designed for men wanting to address and improve their fathering experience. The primary focus is on enhance the personal parenting capacity of each individual, not to develop or inculcate a specific set of parenting skills. This exploratory study evaluated the efficacy of an eight-week, manualized intervention using pre-and post-test measures. Scores on standardized measures demonstrated significant improvements for fathers and their participation within the family, including role performance, involvement, communication, task accomplishment within the family, self-esteem, a sense of increased competence and decreased stress in parenting. Significant changes were not observed in affective expression, competence, or global self-esteem.
Investigating Journalist Influences on Political Issue Agendas at Westminster

This piece investigates the role of news media and journalists in setting political agendas. It presents evidence to challenge the agenda-setting paradigm most often adopted in such research. Instead it argues for greater employment of methods and perspectives more usually employed in media sociology. It then presents findings from research on Members of Parliament (MPs) in Britain. The findings, based mostly on semistructured interviews with 40 MPs, offer some interesting perspectives on the relationship between political journalism and the political process at Westminster. The overall conclusion is that intense media attention on issues can shift political agendas and policy development, but not according to the simple stimulus-response model of agenda-setting commonly employed. More often, news content and journalists play a significant role in setting agendas because politicians use them, in a variety of ways, to promote or negotiate agendas and policy options among themselves. In other words, journalism and journalists have a significant social and cultural role in helping MPs, consciously or unconsciously, to reach agreed agendas and positions.
UEG Week 2015 Poster Presentations

Introduction: Dumping syndrome is a prevalent complication of gastric bypass surgery, characterised by early (cardiovascular and gastrointestinal response, along with rise in haematocrit [Ht] and pulse rate [PR]) and late (hypoglycaemia due to excess insulin) postprandial symptoms. Only a subset of patients (pts) responds to treatment based on dietary measures, off-label use of acarbose and somatostatin analogues (SSA). Pasireotide (PAS), a next-generation SSA with high affinity to 4 of the 5 somatostatin receptor subtypes (sst), being a potent inhibitor of incretin and insulin secretion (via sst2 and sst5), prevents postprandial hypoglycaemia. Aims & Methods: This is a single-arm, open-label, multicentre, intra-patient dose escalation, phase 2 study to evaluate the preliminary efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics of PAS subcutaneous (s.c.) and long-acting release (LAR) in pts with dumping syndrome. The 6-month (mo) core period included a 3-mo s.c. phase followed by a 3-mo LAR phase. Eligible pts started treatment with PAS s.c. 50μg tid (before meals); dose could be increased by increment of 50μg up to 200μg tid based on the presence of hypoglycaemia (plasma glucose75.0%) and 36.4% (12/33; 95% CI: 20.4%>54.9%) in the s.c. and LAR phases, respectively. Notably, plasma glucose levels during OGTT were higher at all time points with s.c. dose vs baseline and vs LAR dose. Fewer pts had an increase in PR of≥10 beat/min and an increase in Ht level of≥3% (from pre-OGTT to 30 min post-OGTT) at mo 3 than at the baseline (18.6% vs 60.5% and 16.3% vs 27.9%, respectively). Overall, the most frequent (>15% of pts [N=43]) AEs were headache (32.6%); diarrhoea, hypoglycaemia (25.6% each); abdominal pain (18.6%); upper abdominal pain and nausea (16.3% each). Grade 3/4 AEs occurred in 32.6% pts; most frequent (≥2 pts) were hypoglycaemia (9.3%); diarrhoea, upper abdominal pain, dizziness and small intestinal obstruction (4.7% each). Conclusion: These results suggest that PAS s.c. effectively controls postprandial hypoglycaemia and improves changes in PR and Ht in pts with dumping syndrome. PAS s.c. and LAR were well tolerated; no new safety signals were identified in this population. A phase 3 study is warranted to confirm the effects of PAS in dumping syndrome.
Why Case Studies? Reflections on Hord and Hall's Three Images

Hord and Hall's "Three Images: What Principals Do in Curriculum Implementation" (see previous article) is praiseworthy for at least two reasons. First, the study reported in this article emerged out of an extended line of inquiry: While a cohesive research program in which each new study builds incrementally upon prior ones is commonplace in most academic fields, such programs are not always easy to find in the field of education. Second, the study's design reflects methodological pluralism. The researchers not only collected both qualitative and quantitative data; they also analyzed their data at both aggragate and individual case levels. For example, as the title of the article suggests, the centerpiece of "Three Images: What Principals Do in Curriculum Implementation," is the presentation of data about three cases; the three case descriptions, however, are built around concepts which were developed during cross-case analysis. A closer look at the Hord and Hall article, however, reveals the need to mute laudatory comments somewhat. The fact that the study reported in the article is a component of an extended line of inquiry, for example, seems less impressive when the underlying assumptions and purposes of that line of inquiry are considered. Similarly, the authors' methodological pluralism seems less an asset when we focus on the nature of the qualitative data presented and on how data (both qualitative and quantitative) from individual cases are used in the article. I will discuss each of these problems in turn and then suggest how the two problems are related. Before proceeding, I should acknowledge that the focus of this critique is somewhat unusual. Normally critiques of research focus on narrow procedural questions. "Did the researchers do what they intended to do correctly? " is the question which traditionally gets asked. Although some procedural issues are discussed here, this critique also poses a very different sort of question. It questions the
Treatment of difficult intrahepatic stones by using extracorporeal and intracorporeal lithotripsy techniques: 10 years' experience in 55 patients.

BACKGROUND Intrahepatic lithiasis still is a complicated disease and merits special attention during therapeutic intervention. Although resection of the affected liver lobe or segment is the best therapeutic option to completely remove the source of recurrent infection, the need for endoscopic treatment modalities is evident because hepatic resections are combined with a high morbidity and mortality rate. METHODS Over a 10-year period (1988-1997) 55 patients with intrahepatic stones that were not accessible to routine endoscopic extraction were treated at our department. These patients underwent either extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy (n=27) or intracorporeal electrohydraulic (n=12) or laser lithotripsy (n=16). RESULTS Using these techniques, we achieved stone fragmentation in 33.3%, 41.6%, and 75%, respectively. With a combination of the different methods, more than 90% of intrahepatic stones could be removed endoscopically. Overall complication rate was 12.7%; complete recovery was achieved in all patients with conservative management. CONCLUSION The endoscopic approach to intrahepatic lithiasis appears to be a useful alternative to surgery, with a lower morbidity and mortality. If endoscopic therapy fails, surgery is still possible.
Modeling and Stability of PERT

Our modeling of PERT is composed of three parts: window adjustment, RED emulation, and queuing behavior. We start with the window dynamics. Similar to [7], we consider a single-link scenario and assume the forward propagation delay from the source to the router is negligible and thus the round-trip time R(t) measured by the end-user at time t is composed of backward propagation delay Tp and queuing delay Tq(t−R(t)), i.e.,
Spatial control of lipid droplet proteins by the ERAD ubiquitin ligase Doa10

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) plays a central role in the biogenesis of most membrane proteins. Among these are proteins localized to the surface of lipid droplets (LDs), fat storage organelles delimited by a phospholipid monolayer. The LD monolayer is often continuous with the membrane of the ER allowing certain membrane proteins to diffuse between the two organelles. In these connected organelles, how some proteins concentrate specifically at the surface of LDs is not known. Here, we show that the ERAD ubiquitin ligase Doa10 controls the levels of some LD proteins. Their degradation is dependent on the localization to the ER and appears independent of the folding state. Moreover, we show that by degrading the ER pool of these LD proteins, ERAD contributes to restrict their localization to LDs. The signals for LD targeting and Doa10‐mediated degradation overlap, indicating that these are competing events. This spatial control of protein localization is a novel function of ERAD that might contribute to generate functional diversity in a continuous membrane system.
Face recognition algorithm on the basis of truncated Walsh-Hadamard transform and synthetic discriminant functions

This work addresses face recognition algorithm by means of synthetic discriminant functions in reduced dimension space on appearance-based approach. Being apart from ideal conditions, where standard illumination, expression and frontal view are the normal case, we intend to process available information on the classic manner, providing useful and promising results. Half-tone facial image is 3D intensity shape, which we represent as being composed of a set of 2D binary images. Normalized gray image is sliced on the layers, which are further converted to binary maps. 2D truncated Walsh-Hadamard transform is then applied to these maps leading to significant reduction of dimensionality and producing translation-invariant feature vectors. These vectors are used to construct synthetic discriminant function (SDF), which is considered to be the facial image class descriptor and serves for face identification.
Nanoscale Three-Dimensional Patterning of Molecular Resists by Scanning Probes

Patterning a Molecular Glass Lithographic patterning for device fabrication is usually based on initiating polymerization reactions with photons or electrons in a molecular resist. However, patterning can be achieved by mechanically removing a hard resist with scanning probe microscopy tips, but in many cases the resolution is low and excess material is left on the surface. Pires et al. (p. 732, published online 22 April) found that thin films of organic molecules could form glasses through weak interactions and be patterned to tens of nanometers with a heated scanning probe tip. These patterns could be transferred to other substrates or sculpted into three-dimensional shapes by successive rounds of patterning. A molecular glass can be patterned to dimensions of tens of nanometers with a heated scanning probe tip. For patterning organic resists, optical and electron beam lithography are the most established methods; however, at resolutions below 30 nanometers, inherent problems result from unwanted exposure of the resist in nearby areas. We present a scanning probe lithography method based on the local desorption of a glassy organic resist by a heatable probe. We demonstrate patterning at a half pitch down to 15 nanometers without proximity corrections and with throughputs approaching those of Gaussian electron beam lithography at similar resolution. These patterns can be transferred to other substrates, and material can be removed in successive steps in order to fabricate complex three-dimensional structures.
Partnerships for Demolition: The Governance of Urban Renewal in East Germany's Shrinking Cities

Recent discussions of urban governance have emphasized a trend towards the 'entrepreneurialization' of local politics. This model has been intensively discussed and well documented. However, although this concept has been well tested in economically prosperous locations, less attention has been paid to the situation in marginalized regions characterized by a weak economy and a declining population. Taking eastern Germany as an example of a socio-economic context marked by deindustrialization and population decline, the article discusses three main aspects of local governance arrangements under such conditions. First 'coping with decline' has become a more important issue in local politics than 'entrepreneurial' growth-strategies. Second, successful public-private coalition-building is severely complicated. Third, local politics are more dependent on resources from the national government than on private investment, lending greater significance to the national level and resulting in 'grant coalitions' rather than 'growth coalitions'. The article focuses on these different experiences and discusses their implications for the analysis of urban governance. Copyright (c) 2009 The Author. Journal Compilation (c) 2009 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Hormone replacement therapy and risk of venous thromboembolism in postmenopausal women: systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective To assess the risk of venous thromboembolism in women using hormone replacement therapy by study design, characteristics of the therapy and venous thromboembolism, and clinical background. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources Medline. Studies reviewed Eight observational studies and nine randomised controlled trials. Inclusion criteria Studies on hormone replacement therapy that reported venous thromboembolism. Review measures Homogeneity between studies was analysed using χ2 and I2 statistics. Overall risk of venous thromboembolism was assessed from a fixed effects or random effects model. Results Meta-analysis of observational studies showed that oral oestrogen but not transdermal oestrogen increased the risk of venous thromboembolism. Compared with non-users of oestrogen, the odds ratio of first time venous thromboembolism in current users of oral oestrogen was 2.5 (95% confidence interval 1.9 to 3.4) and in current users of transdermal oestrogen was 1.2 (0.9 to 1.7). Past users of oral oestrogen had a similar risk of venous thromboembolism to never users. The risk of venous thromboembolism in women using oral oestrogen was higher in the first year of treatment (4.0, 2.9 to 5.7) compared with treatment for more than one year (2.1, 1.3 to 3.8; P<0.05). No noticeable difference in the risk of venous thromboembolism was observed between unopposed oral oestrogen (2.2, 1.6 to 3.0) and opposed oral oestrogen (2.6, 2.0 to 3.2). Results from nine randomised controlled trials confirmed the increased risk of venous thromboembolism among women using oral oestrogen (2.1, 1.4 to 3.1). The combination of oral oestrogen and thrombogenic mutations or obesity further enhanced the risk of venous thromboembolism, whereas transdermal oestrogen did not seem to confer additional risk in women at high risk of venous thromboembolism. Conclusion Oral oestrogen increases the risk of venous thromboembolism, especially during the first year of treatment. Transdermal oestrogen may be safer with respect to thrombotic risk. More data are required to investigate differences in risk across the wide variety of hormone regimens, especially the different types of progestogens.
Innovativeness and initiative as mediators between achievement orientation and venture performance

A central question in entrepreneurship research is how to predict venture performance. In prior research, psychological characteristics of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial behaviours have been more or less found to be able to distinguish between successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs. The aim in this study was to extend earlier research and to test a model in which innovativeness and initiative are mediators between achievement orientation (including the psychological characteristics: self-efficacy, higher order need strength, need achievement, and internal locus of control) and venture performance. Data from 201 entrepreneurs were analysed with structural equation modelling to test the mediation model. The results suggest that innovativeness is a mediator between achievement orientation and venture performance, whereas initiative could not be confirmed as a mediator.
Transparency and credibility : Monetary policy with unobservable goals

We de ne and study transparency, credibility, and reputation in a model where the central banks characteristics are unobservable to the private sector and are inferred from the policy outcome. A low-credibility bank optimally conducts a more expansionary policy than a high-credibility bank, in the sense that it induces higher ination, but a less expansionary policy in the sense that it induces lower ination and employment than expected. Increased transparency makes the banks reputation and credibility more sensitive to its actions. This has a moderating inuence on the banks policy, and induces the bank to follow a policy closer to the socially optimal one. Full transparency of the central banks intentions is generally socially bene cial, but frequently not in the interest of the bank. Somewhat paradoxically, direct observability of idiosyncratic central bank goals removes the moderating incentive on the bank and leads to the worst equilibrium. JEL Classi cation: E52, E58 ¤ The authors thank participants in seminars at the Board of Governors, the Institute for International Economic Studies, Reserve Bank of Australia, University of Canterbury and Victoria University of Wellington, and especially David Bowman, Alex Cukierman, Avinash Dixit, Martin Flodén, Dale Henderson, Henrik Jensen, Andy Levin, Bennett McCallum, Allan Meltzer, Stefan Palmqvist, Torsten Persson and Michael Woodford, for helpful comments. They also thank Christina Lönnblad for secretarial and editorial assistance. Part of the paper was written when Lars Svensson visited the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Victoria University of Wellington; he thanks these institutions for their hospitality. Remaining errors are the authors own; the views in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reecting the views of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, or other members of their sta¤s. y Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, faustj@frb.gov, http://www.patriot. net/users/faustj. z Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University, Lars.Svensson@iies.su.se, http:// www.iies.su.se/leosven; CEPR and NBER.
Evaluation of renal function and immune system cells in elderly individuals from São Paulo City

OBJECTIVES: Both renal function and immune system function decline with age. Although controversial, a significant number of studies have shown that the decline in kidney function is associated with the worsening of the immune system. These findings are reinforced by the increased susceptibility to infections and deficient immunization coverage after vaccination both in patients with chronic renal disease and in elderly individuals. Our objective was to evaluate a non-institutionalized elderly population from São Paulo City and correlate the estimated glomerular filtration rate with the percentage of lymphocytes in circulation. METHODS: A random population of 237 individuals (107 men and 130 women), ranging in age from 60 to 101 years, who were enrolled in the Health, Well-Being and Aging Study was evaluated for renal function (Modification on Diet in Renal Disease formula) and lymphocyte percentage (flow cytometry). RESULTS: Aging was associated with a decrease in the estimated glomerular filtration rate in both male and female individuals. We did not identify a significant correlation between the estimated glomerular filtration rate and either the percentage of CD4, CD8, and B cells or CD4/CD8 ratio. The median percentage of CD8+ T cells was significantly lower in individuals with an estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m2. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, no statistical correlation was found between the estimated glomerular filtration rate and either the lymphocyte phenotype (CD4+, CD8+, and CD19+ cells) or the CD4/CD8 ratio in blood.
V(D)J Recombination: Modulation of RAG1 and RAG2 Cleavage Activity on 12/23 Substrates by Whole Cell Extract and DNA-bending Proteins

Antigen receptor gene rearrangement is directed by DNA motifs consisting of a conserved heptamer and nonamer separated by a nonconserved spacer of either 12 or 23 base pairs (12 or 23 recombination signal sequences [RSS]). V(D)J recombination requires that the rearranging DNA segments be flanked by RSSs of different spacer lengths, a phenomenon known as the 12/23 rule. Recent studies have shown that this restriction operates at the level of DNA cleavage, which is mediated by the products of the recombination activating genes RAG1 and RAG2. Here, we show that RAG1 and RAG2 are not sufficient for 12/23 dependent cleavage, whereas RAG1 and RAG2 complemented with whole cell extract faithfully recapitulates the 12/23 rule. In addition, HMG box containing proteins HMG1 and HMG2 enhance RAG1- and RAG2-mediated cleavage of substrates containing 23 RSS but not of substrates containing only 12 RSS. These results suggest the existence of a nucleoprotein complex at the cleavage site, consisting of architectural, catalytic, and regulatory components.
A Test of the Network Models of Political Priming

Extensive media coverage of a political issue has been shown to influence, or prime, the criteria used to judge overall performance of political leaders. This political priming effect is traditionally explained with network models of memory, which identify priming intensity and recency as key factors in determining the strength and endurance of a priming effect. However, these two assumptions of network models have not been directly tested in media studies. The potential of priming valence to influence the priming effect also has had little treatment. This experiment evaluated priming intensity, recency, and valence within a typical political priming context. In support of previous psychological findings, priming effects were apparent immediately following positively valenced primes, dissipating quickly thereafter. For negative primes, the influence of the prime on judgment formation was contingent on the individual's political leaning, in that individuals who would likely agree with the message exhibited priming effects and individuals who would likely disagree with the message exhibited little effect. The adequacy of applying associative memory models to political priming studies is discussed.