Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
To Share or Not to Share: The Impact of Disclosing Sexuality on Instructor Communication Apprehension, Instructional Effectiveness, and Student Relationships

To Share or Not to Share: The Impact of Disclosing Sexuality on Instructor Communication Apprehension, Instructional Effectiveness, and Student Relationships Rudnick, Justin J., M.A. Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2012. Previous research has explored the role LGBTQ instructor sexuality plays in the classroom. However, little research explores the effects of disclosing LGBTQ sexuality on the individual instructor. This study examines how LGBTQ instructors report disclosures of their sexuality to influence their Communication Apprehension, Instructional Effectiveness, and their Relationships with Students. Qualitative interviewing methods were used to survey nine self-identified LGBTQ college instructors from mid-size Midwest universities, and a grounded theory approach was used to identify emergent themes pertaining to LGBTQ instructors’ experiences with their sexuality in the classroom. Interviewees reported varying degrees of communication apprehension, instructional effectiveness, and heightened personal relationships with students as a result of disclosing their sexuality to students. Implications for critical and engaged pedagogy are provided.
Wheelchair Bound Not Sex Bound: Reconstruction of Self and Sexual Identity after Spinal Cord Injury

Wheelchair bound not sex bound explores how individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCI) create a new sexual self and identity after their injury. Graduate student Elisabeth Mumford in the Sociology and Corrections Department at Minnesota State University, Mankato examined how individuals reconstruct a new sexual self. Physical disabilities have become more prevalent with the increase of sport injuries. Most of these disabilities are often result in SCI leaving individuals in a wheelchair. In the hospital, individuals receive information on how to live with this new injury, but often rehabilitation programs ignore the aspect of sexuality. Without this aspect being covered individuals with disabilities are required to reconstruct a new sense of sexual selfhood. Most research on this topic lacks a theoretical framework and the purpose of this paper is to use symbolic interactionism and connect this theoretical framework to the literature on the sexuality of spinal cord injuries. This study uses symbolic integrationist’s Mead, Cooley, and Goffman in understanding the process and problems of reconstructing one’s self and sexual identity after an SCI. In interviewing ten individuals with a SCI in 2013-2014 it was found in order to create a new sexual self and identity individuals with SCI need to rewrite their own sexual scripts, find a partner who is educated and has an open mind to experiment what is possible, and men and women will experience the reconstruction of sexuality differently.
Priming of conflicting motivational orientations in heavy drinkers: robust effects on self-report but not implicit measures

We report results from three experimental studies that investigated the independence of approach and avoidance motivational orientations for alcohol, both of which operate within controlled and automatic cognitive processes. In order to prime their approach or avoidance motivational orientations, participants watched brief videos, the content of which (positive or negative depictions of alcohol, or neutral) varied by experimental group. Immediately after watching the videos, participants completed self-report (Approach and Avoidance of Alcohol Questionnaire; all studies) and implicit (visual probe task in study 1, stimulus-response compatibility task in studies 2 and 3) measures of alcohol-related approach and avoidance. In study 3, we incorporated an additional experimental manipulation of thought suppression in an attempt to maximize the influence of the videos on implicit measures. Findings were consistent across all three studies: increases in self-reported approach inclinations were mirrored by decreases in avoidance inclinations, and vice versa. However, a combined analysis of data from all studies demonstrated that changes in approach inclinations were partially independent of changes in avoidance inclinations. There were no effects on implicit alcohol-related processing biases, although methodological issues may partially account for these findings. Our findings demonstrate that subjective approach and avoidance inclinations for alcohol tend to fluctuate in parallel, but changes in approach inclinations may be partially independent from changes in avoidance inclinations. We discuss methodological issues that may partially account for our findings.
Occupational exposure to trichloroethylene and cancer risk for workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant

ObjectiveThe Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) became operational in 1952; it is located in the western part of Kentucky. We conducted a mortality study for adverse health effects that workers may have suffered while working at the plant, including exposures to chemicals.Materials and MethodsWe studied a cohort of 6820 workers at the PGDP for the period 1953 to 2003; there were a total of 1672 deaths to cohort members. Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a specific concern for this workforce; exposure to TCE occurred primarily in departments that clean the process equipment. The Life Table Analysis System (LTAS) program developed by NIOSH was used to calculate the standardized mortality ratios for the worker cohort and standardized rate ratio relative to exposure to TCE (the U.S. population is the referent for ageadjustment). LTAS calculated a significantly low overall SMR for these workers of 0.76 (95% CI: 0.72–0.79). A further review of three major cancers of interest to Kentucky produced significantly low SMR for trachea, bronchus, lung cancer (0.75, 95% CI: 0.72–0.79) and high SMR for Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) (1.49, 95% CI: 1.02–2.10). ResultsNo significant SMR was observed for leukemia and no significant SRRs were observed for any disease. Both the leukemia and lung cancer results were examined and determined to reflect regional mortality patterns. However, the Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma finding suggests a curious amplification when living cases are included with the mortality experience.ConclusionsFurther examination is recommended of this recurrent finding from all three U.S. Gaseous Diffusion plants.
Integrating fantasy role-play into the programming lab: exploring the 'projective identity' hypothesis

It has been claimed that learning can be facilitated by a positive academic self-concept. Therefore, reinforcing this construct may benefit students and the application of 'projective identity' in educational multimedia could be a means of achieving this. To test this hypothesis, two versions of a debugging exercise were developed, with one incorporating elements of fantasy role-play. They were compared through a double-blind parallel-group randomised trial using a sample of 36 undergraduate computing students. Factor scores for academic self-concept in programming were imputed from responses to a 5-point Likert scale, validated through a confirmatory factor analysis of 91 responses. An ANCOVA revealed that students using the fantasy role-play learning activity developed a stronger self-concept than the control group, with respective gains of 2.4% and 1.1%. However, further work is required to determine if such modest gains are practically significant, can be further enhanced and maintained.
The impact of service quality perception on patient satisfaction in Government Hospitals in Southern Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT Objectives: To examine the impact of service quality perception on patient satisfaction and determine which dimension from 5 dimensions (tangible, reliability, responsive, assurance, and empathy) has the greatest impact on patient satisfaction. Methods: A total of 183 eligible patients participated in this study. This study was conducted in Al-Baha province, Saudi Arabia from June 2013 to August 2013. We utilized the cross-sectional method, using a modified Assessment of Service Quality questionnaire to collect the data. Results: To test the study hypothesis, multiple regression analysis was carried out. Analysis of variance revealed that the overall result showed a statistically significant impact of health service quality on patient satisfaction (p=0.000). The beta-weights (beta) suggested that the empathy dimension had the greatest influence on patient satisfaction (ß=0.476), followed by tangible (ß=0.198) and responsiveness dimensions (ß=0.164). Conclusion: Patient satisfaction was influenced by health service quality, with the empathy dimension as the greatest influence on patient satisfaction. Therefore, it should be considered a priority by government hospitals to train doctors in interpersonal relationship skills to enhance the doctor-patient relationship.
Ignoring Distant Genealogic Loops Leads to False‐positives in Homozygosity Mapping

Distant consanguineous loops are often unknown or ignored during homozygosity mapping analysis. This may potentially lead to an increased rate of false‐positive linkage results. We show that failure to take into account the distant loops may seriously underestimate the degree of consanguinity, especially for people from genetically isolated populations; in 6 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients the distant loops accounted for 57.7 % of inbreeding on average. Theoretical evaluation showed that ignoring distant loops, which account for 18‐75% of inbreeding, inflates the frequency of false positive conclusions substantially in 2‐point linkage analysis, up to several hundred times. In multipoint linkage analysis of the 6 AD patients a chromosome‐wide “empirical” significance of 5% corresponded to a true false positive rate of 11.1%. We show that converting multiple loops to a hypothetical loop capturing all inbreeding may be a convenient solution to avoid false positive results. When extended genealogic data are not available a hypothetical loop may still be constructed based on genomic data.
Transfusion safety in the 21st century: how tightly should the blood community close the window(s)?

HIV was present in 1.1% of transfused blood during the early 1980s in some communities [1]. Perceived shortcomings in the response of the blood community, regulators, and public health authorities led to an exceptionally precautionary approach to transfusion-transmitted infections [2]. In return for unprecedented protection of transfusion recipients, blood donors have since been subjected to behavioral interrogation and testing, which uses 9 assays for 6 transfusion-transmissible infections, with great success. Behavioral deferrals (blood donor deferrals for high-risk behaviors) are surrogates, usually developed in the absence of acceptable laboratory tests, and they are blunt instruments. Still, for HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV), donor recruitment and interviewing reduce the prevalence of infection in donations from first time blood donors by ~80% [3], compared with the US population. Behavioral deferrals are retained after test deployment as a layer of
Acute iridocyclitis in a patient with AIDS diagnosed as toxoplasmosis by PCR.

PURPOSE To study the etiology of an acute iridocyclitis in a patient with AIDS using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of aqueous humor. METHODS Case report describing a patient diagnosed with toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis in his left eye. He stopped his treatment after three weeks and subsequently developed an acute iridocyclitis without chorioretinitis in the fellow eye. Anterior chamber paracentesis was performed and aqueous humor was assayed by PCR. RESULTS PCR of the aqueous humor showed positivity for Toxoplasma gondii. The iridocyclitis responded to topical dexamethasone and oral treatment with pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine. CONCLUSION PCR is an effective method to diagnose toxoplasmic iridocyclitis in a patient with AIDS.
Analysis of Deletion Mutants Indicates that the 2A Polypeptide of Hepatitis A Virus Participates in Virion Morphogenesis

ABSTRACT Unlike all other picornaviruses, the primary cleavage of the hepatitis A virus (HAV) polyprotein occurs at the 2A/2B junction and is carried out by the only proteinase encoded by the virus, 3Cpro. The resulting P1-2A capsid protein precursor is subsequently cleaved by 3Cpro to generate VP0, VP3, and VP1-2A, which associate as pentamers. An unidentified cellular proteinase acting at the VP1/2A junction releases the mature capsid protein VP1 from VP1-2A later in the morphogenesis process. Although these aspects of polyprotein processing are well characterized, the function of 2A is unknown. To study its role in the viral life cycle, we assessed the infectivity of synthetic, genome-length RNAs containing 11 different in-frame deletions in the 2A region. Deletions in the N-terminal 40% of 2A abolished infectivity, whereas deletions in the C-terminal 60% resulted in viruses with a small-focus replication phenotype. C-terminal deletions in 2A had no effect on RNA replication kinetics under one-step growth conditions, nor did they have an effect on capsid protein synthesis and 3Cpro-mediated processing. However, C-terminal deletions in 2A altered the VP1/2A cleavage, resulting in accumulation of uncleaved VP1-2A precursor in virions and possibly accounting for a delay in the appearance of infectious particles with these mutants, as well as a fourfold decrease in specific infectivity of the virus particles. When the capsid proteins were expressed from recombinant vaccinia viruses, the N-terminal part of 2A was required for efficient cleavage of the P1-2A precursor by 3Cpro and assembly of structural precursors into pentamers. These data indicate that the N-terminal domain of 2A must be present as a C-terminal extension of P1 for folding of the capsid protein precursor to allow efficient 3Cpro-mediated cleavages and to promote pentamer assembly, after which cleavage at the VP1/2A junction releases the mature VP1 protein, a process that appears to be necessary to produce highly infectious particles.
Chemical patterns of erupting silicic magmas and their influence on the amount of degassing during ascent

[1] We present a chemical model of magma degassing based on nine volatile species part of S-O-H-C-Fe-bearing rhyolitic melts. It is based on equilibrium, closed-system degassing, and does not take in account the crystallization of mineral phases. For given initial conditions at depth, the model calculates the gas composition as pressure decreases, as well as physical variables controlling conduit flow. We conducted a parametric study of degassing by varying initial conditions at depth within the range typical of arc magmas and characterizing the chemical evolution of the volatile components during the ascent to the surface. The resulting complex patterns of chemical changes are controlled by four groups of interrelated parameters: (1) redox state, fH2, and H2S/SO2 ratio in the gas phase, (2) gas amount, (3) melt water content and fH2O, and (4) relative melt sulfur content, fCO2, and C/S ratio in the gas phase. The other degrees of freedom (temperature, initial pressure, and melt iron content) alter the amplitude of the chemical fluctuations during ascent, but do not change the general degassing patterns. When degassing starts at depth, volatile chemistry has little effect on the amount of degassing as measured by the evolution of porosity. Magma expansion at shallow levels, however, can be greatly affected by degassing chemistry.
Analysis of Metabolic Flux Phenotypes for Two Arabidopsis Mutants with Severe Impairment in Seed Storage Lipid Synthesis1[W][OA]

Major storage reserves of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seeds are triacylglycerols (seed oils) and proteins. Seed oil content is severely reduced for the regulatory mutant wrinkled1 (wri1-1; At3g54320) and for a double mutant in two isoforms of plastidic pyruvate kinase (pkpβ1pkpα; At5g52920 and At3g22960). Both already biochemically well-characterized mutants were now studied by 13C metabolic flux analysis of cultured developing embryos based on comparison with their respective genetic wild-type backgrounds. For both mutations, in seeds as well as in cultured embryos, the oil fraction was strongly reduced while the fractions of proteins and free metabolites increased. Flux analysis in cultured embryos revealed changes in nutrient uptakes and fluxes into biomass as well as an increase in tricarboxylic acid cycle activity for both mutations. While in both wild types plastidic pyruvate kinase (PKp) provides most of the pyruvate for plastidic fatty acid synthesis, the flux through PKp is reduced in pkpβ1pkpα by 43% of the wild-type value. In wri1-1, PKp flux is even more reduced (by 82%), although the genes PKpβ1 and PKpα are still expressed. Along a common paradigm of metabolic control theory, it is hypothesized that a large reduction in PKp enzyme activity in pkpβ1pkpα has less effect on PKp flux than multiple smaller reductions in glycolytic enzymes in wri1-1. In addition, only in the wri1-1 mutant is the large reduction in PKp flux compensated in part by an increased import of cytosolic pyruvate and by plastidic malic enzyme. No such limited compensatory bypass could be observed in pkpβ1pkpα.
Multicenter Evaluation of Clinical Diagnostic Methods for Detection and Isolation of Campylobacter spp. from Stool

ABSTRACT The use of culture-independent diagnostic tests (CIDTs), such as stool antigen tests, as standalone tests for the detection of Campylobacter in stool is increasing. We conducted a prospective, multicenter study to evaluate the performance of stool antigen CIDTs compared to culture and PCR for Campylobacter detection. Between July and October 2010, we tested 2,767 stool specimens from patients with gastrointestinal illness with the following methods: four types of Campylobacter selective media, four commercial stool antigen assays, and a commercial PCR assay. Illnesses from which specimens were positive by one or more culture media or at least one CIDT and PCR were designated “cases. ” A total of 95 specimens (3.4%) met the case definition. The stool antigen CIDTs ranged from 79.6% to 87.6% in sensitivity, 95.9 to 99.5% in specificity, and 41.3 to 84.3% in positive predictive value. Culture alone detected 80/89 (89.9% sensitivity) Campylobacter jejuni/Campylobacter coli-positive cases. Of the 209 noncases that were positive by at least one CIDT, only one (0.48%) was positive by all four stool antigen tests, and 73% were positive by just one stool antigen test. The questionable relevance of unconfirmed positive stool antigen CIDT results was supported by the finding that noncases were less likely than cases to have gastrointestinal symptoms. Thus, while the tests were convenient to use, the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of Campylobacter stool antigen tests were highly variable. Given the relatively low incidence of Campylobacter disease and the generally poor diagnostic test characteristics, this study calls into question the use of commercially available stool antigen CIDTs as standalone tests for direct detection of Campylobacter in stool.
Spatiotemporal topic association detection on tweets

The analysis of Twitter data can help to predict or explain many real world phenomena. The relationships among events in the real world can be reflected among the topics on social media. In this paper, we propose the concept of topic association and the associated mining algorithms. Topics with close temporal and spatial relationship may have direct or potential association in the real world. Our goal is to mine such topic associations and show their relationships in different time-region frames. We propose to use the concepts of participation ratio and participation index to measure the closeness among topics and propose a spatiotemporal index to calculate them efficiently. With the topic filtering and the topic combination, we further optimize the mining process and the mining results. The algorithms are evaluated on a Twitter dataset with 27,956,257 tweets.
Warning: You are about to be Nudged

Presenting a default option is known to influence important decisions. That includes decisions regarding advance medical directives, documents people prepare to convey which medical treatments they favor in the event that they are too ill to make their wishes clear. Some observers have argued that defaults are unethical because people are typically unaware that they are being nudged toward a decision. We informed people of the presence of default options before they completed a hypothetical advance directive, or after, then gave them the opportunity to revise their decisions. The effect of the defaults persisted, despite the disclosure, suggesting that their effectiveness may not depend on deceit. These findings may help address concerns that behavioral interventions are necessarily duplicitous or manipulative.
NMR‐Based Screening of Membrane Protein Ligands

Membrane proteins pose problems for the application of NMR‐based ligand‐screening methods because of the need to maintain the proteins in a membrane mimetic environment such as detergent micelles: they add to the molecular weight of the protein, increase the viscosity of the solution, interact with ligands non‐specifically, overlap with protein signals, modulate protein dynamics and conformational exchange and compromise sensitivity by adding highly intense background signals. In this article, we discuss the special considerations arising from these problems when conducting NMR‐based ligand‐binding studies with membrane proteins. While the use of 13C and 15N isotopes is becoming increasingly feasible, 19F and 1H NMR‐based approaches are currently the most widely explored. By using suitable NMR parameter selection schemes independent of or exploiting the presence of detergent, 1H‐based approaches require least effort in sample preparation because of the high sensitivity and natural abundance of 1H in both, ligand and protein. On the other hand, the 19F nucleus provides an ideal NMR probe because of its similarly high sensitivity to that of 1H and the lack of natural 19F background in biologic systems. Despite its potential, the use of NMR spectroscopy is highly underdeveloped in the area of drug discovery for membrane proteins.