Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Applied cross-cultural psychology.

Applied Cross-Cultural Psychology - Richard W Brislin An Introduction Theoretical Concepts that are Applicable to the Analysis of Ethnocentrism - Harry C Triandis An Overview of Cross-Cultural Testing and Assessment - Walter J Lonner Interventions for Development Out of Poverty - Durganand Sinha Cross-Cultural Psychology and the Formal Classroom - Kenneth Cushner Family and Home-Based Intervention - Cigdem Kagitcibasi Indigenous Psychology - Uichol Kim Science and Applications International Students - R Michael Paige Cross-Cultural Psychological Perspectives Work Attitudes, Leadership Styles, and Managerial Behaviors in Different Cultures - C Harry Hui Dispute Processing - Kwonk Leung and Pei-Guan Wu A Cross-Cultural Analysis Psychology of Acculturation - John W Berry Understanding Individuals Moving Between Cultures The Environment, Culture, and Behavior - Janek Pandey Culture and Health - Lisa Marie Ilola Applications of Cross-Cultural Psychology in the Field of Mental Health - Juris G Draguns Cross-Cultural Orientation Programs - D P S Bhawuk
Contribution of activin receptor-like kinase 5 (transforming growth factor beta receptor type I) signaling to the fibrotic phenotype of scleroderma fibroblasts.

OBJECTIVE To use a specific transforming growth factor beta receptor type I (TGFbetaRI; activin receptor-like kinase 5 [ALK-5]) kinase inhibitor (SD208) to determine the role of activation of the TGFbetaRI kinase (ALK-5) in maintaining the profibrotic phenotype of dermal fibroblasts in systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS The effect of SD208 on the expression of key biochemical markers of the fibrotic phenotype was compared in fibroblasts cultured from clinically involved (lesional) and clinically uninvolved skin of patients with diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc) and in fibroblasts from healthy controls matched for age, sex, and anatomic site. Protein expression was compared together with the ability of fibroblasts to adhere to the extracellular matrix and to remodel and contract a free-floating fibroblast-populated type I collagen lattice. RESULTS Inhibiting TGFbetaRI kinase reduced the expression of a cohort of fibrotic markers by dermal fibroblasts from patients with dcSSc, including type I collagen and beta1 integrin. Moreover, inhibition also attenuated the elevated adhesive and contractile abilities of dcSSc fibroblasts. CONCLUSION Our data suggest that some of the key profibrotic features of lesional SSc fibroblasts are dependent upon ALK-5 activity. Thus, TGFbetaRI kinase-mediated signaling may contribute to dermal fibrosis in dcSSc.
Ethnic Conflict in the World Today

Changements economiques, transformations socio-politiques contemporaines, ethnicite et conflits ethniques participant et constitutifs d'une dialectique entre la dynamique d'une universalisation d'un mode de production et de vie d'une part, et les strategies de differenciation sociale identitaire qui l'accompagnent d'autre part
Organizational Vision

No previous research has examined systematically the construct of organizational vision in academic administration. The study presented here used a questionnaire design to evaluate and analyze the types of visions held by deans of AACSB business schools. A total of 128 deans responded from a random sample of 250 schools. Cluster analysis of the responses yielded three distinct groups for the 26-item vision instrument: proactive visionaries, reactive loners, and reactive communicators. The study also examined the question whether vision is partly a product of the individual or the situation, finding evidence supporting both sources. Suggestions are offered for further research and for application in the consulting process.
Preoperative chemoradiotherapy using concurrent capecitabine and irinotecan in magnetic resonance imaging-defined locally advanced rectal cancer: impact on long-term clinical outcomes.

PURPOSE To assess long-term clinical outcomes of preoperative chemoradiotherapy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-defined locally advanced rectal adenocarcinoma using concurrent irinotecan and capecitabine. PATIENTS AND METHODS One hundred ten patients without distant metastases entered this phase II trial North West/North Wales Clinical Oncology Group (NWCOG) -2 after MRI demonstration of tumor threatening (≤ 2 mm) or involving mesorectal fascia. Pelvic radiotherapy was given to 45 Gy in 25 fractions over 5 weeks with concurrent oral capecitabine at 650 mg/m(2) twice per day continuously days 1 through 35 and intravenous irinotecan at 60 mg/m(2) once weekly weeks 1 to 4. One hundred seven patients subsequently underwent surgical resection. RESULTS Comparing prechemoradiotherapy MRI scans with histology of the resected specimen, 72 patients (67%) had their initial MRI T stage downstaged and 64 patients (80%) had their N stage downstaged. Twenty-four patients (22%) demonstrated a pathologic complete response (ypCR) and 98 patients (92%) demonstrated a negative circumferential resection margin (> 1 mm). Three-year local recurrence-free survival was 96.9%, metastasis-free survival (MFS) was 71.1%, disease-free survival was (DFS) 63.5%, and overall survival (OS) was 88.2%. By univariate analysis, lower histologic stage was significantly associated with superior MFS, DFS, and OS, whether expressed as ypT0-2 versus ypT3-4, ypN0 versus ypN1-2, or ypCR/microfoci (near-ypCR) versus other patients. By multivariate analysis both ypN stage (P = .048) and ypCR/microfoci/others (P = .013) remained significant predictors of DFS but only ypCR/microfoci/others for OS (P = .005) with no difference in outcome between ypCR compared to microfoci. CONCLUSION This regimen demonstrates high response rates and promising long-term survival. Downstaging to ypCR/microfoci may be a useful short-term surrogate for long-term survival but needs validation in large phase III trials powered for survival outcomes.
JAMM: a peak finder for joint analysis of NGS replicates

MOTIVATION Although peak finding in next-generation sequencing (NGS) datasets has been addressed extensively, there is no consensus on how to analyze and process biological replicates. Furthermore, most peak finders do not focus on accurate determination of enrichment site widths and are not widely applicable to different types of datasets. RESULTS We developed JAMM (Joint Analysis of NGS replicates via Mixture Model clustering): a peak finder that can integrate information from biological replicates, determine enrichment site widths accurately and resolve neighboring narrow peaks. JAMM is a universal peak finder that is applicable to different types of datasets. We show that JAMM is among the best performing peak finders in terms of site detection accuracy and in terms of accurate determination of enrichment sites widths. In addition, JAMM's replicate integration improves peak spatial resolution, sorting and peak finding accuracy. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION JAMM is available for free and can run on Linux machines through the command line: http://code.google. com/p/jamm-peak-finder.
Nursing and caring: a personal construct theory study of some nurses' self-perceptions.

This report outlines the results of a survey of trained nurses' perceptions about themselves as professional carers Twenty-five nurses of charge nurse grade were interviewed using Kelly's personal construct theory and repertory grid technique Nurses were asked to elicit eight bipolar constructs and to rate eight elements, including a ‘myself as a carer’ element and an ‘ideal self as a carer’ element, on a seven-point rating scale A simple difference score was calculated to measure the degree of discrepancy between these two elements Observed differences were assumed to be indicative of the need for personal change Differences emerged for each of the 25 informants Some possible explanations for these findings are provided, in particular the personal cost of caring for the carer is emphasized Further research in this area must take account of this new finding.
India, Pakistan and the Kashmir insurgency: causes, dynamics and prospects for resolution

The endemic instability and insecurity in South Asia continue to stem from the unresolved Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. Indo-Pak hostility has resulted in the bifurcation of the erstwhile princely state and led to two major wars and several near misses in the past. With the onset of a secessionist ethnoreligious insurgency in Indian Kashmir in 1989, a proxy war developed between India and Pakistan, which brought bilateral relations between the two states to its nadir, contributed directly to an arms race and nuclear weapons testing in the subcontinent, undermined regional integration efforts, and resulted in gross human rights violations in the state. This Indo-Pak proxy war eventually led to a short conventional war along the line of control (LoC) in Kashmir in 1999. Although contained through intense international pressure, it momentarily raised fears of a catastrophic nuclear exchange. Resolving the secessionist insurgency in Indian Kashmir and the wider Indo-Pak dispute over the region has thus never been more urgent than it is today. This article analyses the origins and dynamics of the secessionist insurgency in Indian Kashmir, its impact on Indo- Pakistan relations, and the prospects for its resolution.
Adjustment of combination weights over adaptive diffusion networks

We show how the convergence time of an adaptive network can be estimated in a distributed manner by the agents. Using this procedure, we propose a distributed mechanism for the nodes to switch from using fixed doubly-stochastic combination weights to adaptive combination weights. By doing so, and by knowing when to switch, the agents are able to enhance their steady-state mean-square-error performance without degrading the rate of convergence during the transient phase of the learning algorithm.
Transabdominal and endoluminal ultrasonic scanning of the lower ureter.

I.v. urography is often insufficient for visualization of the intramural and juxtavesical portion of the ureter. In 30 consecutive patients (July 1st 1993-January 31st 1994) where i.v. urography was inconclusive, but had evoked suspicion of pathology in--or adjacent to--the lower ureter, abdominal ultrasound (including color Doppler) and endoluminal (transrectal or -vaginal) ultrasound were performed. A final diagnosis was obtained in 26: Ureteric stone (14), prostatic cancer (4), bladder cancer (2), stricture of ureteric orifice (1), TURB sequelae (1), ureterocele (1), bladder stone (1), detrusor hypertrophy (1), normal ureter (1). Abdominal ultrasound scanning gave more, same, and less information than i.v. urography in 8, 8, and 10 cases, respectively. In 14 of 22 cases abdominal color Doppler revealed a unilateral abnormal "ureteral jet"--in 13 of the cases on the side with suspected obstruction. Endoluminal ultrasound scanning gave more, same, and less information than i.v. urography in 20, 4, and 2 cases, respectively. The 20 cases where endoscanning gave more information included detection of 14 distal ureteric stones. In 3 cases it identified other types of distal obstruction, in two cases it determined the length of cancer obstruction and in one it detected the presence of ureteral dilatation. It is concluded, that endoluminal ultrasound of the ureter is indicated when i.v. urography evokes suspicion of pathology in the intramural or juxtavesical part of the ureter.
Heart rate responses to temperature in free-swimming Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis)

SUMMARY The bluefin tuna heart remains at ambient water temperature (Ta) but must supply blood to warm regions of the body served by countercurrent vascular heat exchangers. Despite this unusual physiology, inherent difficulties have precluded an understanding of the cardiovascular responses to Ta in free-swimming bluefin tunas. We measured the heart rate (fH) responses of two captive Pacific bluefin tunas (Thunnus orientalis; 9.7 and 13.3 kg) over a cumulative period of 40 days. Routine fH during fasting in the holding tank at a Ta of 20°C was 45.1±8.0 and 40.7±6.5 beats min−1 for Tuna 1 and Tuna 2, respectively. fH decreased in each fish with a Q10 temperature coefficient of 2.6 (Tuna 1) and 3.1 (Tuna 2) as Ta in the tank was slowly decreased to 15°C (~0.4°C h−1), despite a gradual increase in swimming speed. The same thermal challenge during digestion revealed similar thermal dependence of fH and indicated that the rate of visceral cooling is not buffered by the heat increment of feeding. Acutely decreasing Ta from 20 to 10°C while Tuna 1 swam in a tunnel respirometer caused a progressive increase in tail-beat frequency and oxygen consumption rate (). fH of this fish decreased with a Q10 of 2.7 as Ta decreased between 20 and 15°C, while further cooling to 10°C saw a general plateau in fH around 35 beats min−1 with a Q10 of 1.3. A discussion of the relationships between fH, and haemoglobin–oxygen binding sheds further light on how bluefin cardiorespiratory systems function in a changing thermal environment.
Cost-aware multihop handover in multihop radio access network

This paper proposes cost-aware multihop handover in multihop radio access network, where multihop handover is performed based on a cost function, which is a weighted sum of hop count and the inverse of minimum available bandwidth. Then the performance of the proposed handover is analyzed via NS-2 simulation. Simulation result shows that there is tradeoff between the previous handovers and the proposed handover for varying traffic load, and the proposed handover outperforms the previous handovers as traffic load increases.
Search for new bath formulations Of Zn(S, O, OH) buffer layer to outperform record performances Of CdS-based CIGSe solar cells

Zn(S, O, OH) represents the most studied Cd-free material for replacing chemical bath deposited (CBD)-CdS buffer layers in Cu(In, Ga)Se2-based solar cells. However, the record performances remain lower than the CdS. The aim of this work is to study new bath compositions for CBD-Zn(S, O, OH), by introducing new complexing and non-complexing reactants for higher efficiencies, and to analyze their effects on growth mechanisms. Promising bath compositions based on the combined used of H2O2 and tri-sodium citrate have been developed, and could be a new avenue to outperform the CdS-based solar cells.
The Effect of Functional Family Therapy for Delinquents on Adult Criminal Behavior

Functional family therapy, based on Alexander's model for treating families of juvenile delinquents, was provided to 27 rural, lower socioeconomic status delinquents and their families. A comparison group of 27 delinquents received only probation service. Outcome during adulthood was measured by the number of offenses committed during a 32-month period following the 28-month adolescent follow-up period reported on by Gordon, Arbuthnot, Gustafson, and McGreen. The delinquents who had received family therapy showed a rate of 9% for adult criminal offenses, while those delinquents who had received only probation services had a rate of 41%. These results were consistent with the study's previously reported adolescent follow-up rates. Procedural differences between Alexander's work and the present approach are noted, and may account for the current study's lower rate of recidivism.
Childhood learning, life skills and well‐being in adult life: a Senegalese case

Education is not easily converted into human capital and well‐being in low‐income countries, because these countries do not have a high degree of economic and labour market differentiation that makes it possible to convert acquired knowledge and skills. Consequently, to have completed primary or even secondary education does not necessarily lead to a better life situation than some types of Islamic education. This paper reports findings from an ongoing longitudinal research project in Senegal. The study compares the relationships between educational/learning background, life skills and well‐being in adult life among individuals who attended primary school, Quranic, Arabic or Indigenous learning systems at the beginning of the 1980s. The findings illustrate some of the complexities in the relationships between, on the one hand, education and life skills and, on the other hand, individual well‐being in a low‐income society. Since this study enters into an area that has not been very much researched, this study is explorative and employs concepts heuristically. Some findings in relation to different theoretical approaches are also discussed here.
Head Finalization: A Simple Reordering Rule for SOV Languages

English is a typical SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) language, while Japanese is a typical SOV language. Conventional Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) systems work well within each of these language families. However, SMT-based translation from an SVO language to an SOV language does not work well because their word orders are completely different. Recently, a few groups have proposed rule-based preprocessing methods to mitigate this problem (Xu et al., 2009; Hong et al., 2009). These methods rewrite SVO sentences to derive more SOV-like sentences by using a set of handcrafted rules. In this paper, we propose an alternative single reordering rule: Head Finalization. This is a syntax-based preprocessing approach that offers the advantage of simplicity. We do not have to be concerned about part-of-speech tags or rule weights because the powerful Enju parser allows us to implement the rule at a general level. Our experiments show that its result, Head Final English (HFE), follows almost the same order as Japanese. We also show that this rule improves automatic evaluation scores.
Probiotics for Standard Triple Helicobacter pylori Eradication

AbstractThe primary objective in the study is determination of efficacy of probiotic preparation as a supportive therapy in eradication of Helicobacter pylori.The study was multicenter, prospective, randomized, placebo controlled, and double-blind. The subjects first filled out a specially designed questionnaire to assess the severity of the 10 symptoms, which can be related to eradication therapy to be monitored during the trial. Each subject then received 28 capsules of probiotic preparation or matching placebo capsules, which they were supposed to take over the following 14 days, twice a day, at least 2 hours prior to or after the antibiotic therapy administration.A total of 804 patients were enrolled in the trial, of which 650 (80.85%) were included in the analysis. The results show a significantly larger share of cured subjects in the probiotic arm versus the placebo arm (87.38% vs 72.55%; P < 0.001). Additionally, presence and intensity of epigastric pain, bloating, flatulence, taste disturbance, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, rash, and diarrhea were monitored over the study period. At 15 days postinclusion, probiotic treatment was found superior to placebo in 7 of 10 mentioned symptoms. Average intensity for symptoms potentially related to antibiotic therapy was significantly higher in the placebo group, 0.76 vs 0.55 (P < 0.001). Adding probiotics to the standard triple therapy for H pylori eradication significantly contributes to treatment efficacy and distinctly decreases the adverse effects of therapy and the symptoms of the underlying disease.
Individual Trust and Consumer Risk Perception

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between trust and risk perceptions of online activities. Specifically, we study the impact of an individual’s trust of other people on the severity and certainty of risk, which in turn influence an individual’s risk perception. We administer a 23-item survey to 386 participants at a large southeastern university, and test our model using structural equation modeling. We find evidence that supports the proposed relationship, implying that perceived certainty of risk is negatively associated with trust of individuals and that both certainty and severity of risk have a positive impact on an individual’s risk perception. Our results indicate that users may underestimate risks when they interact with people they trust, suggesting the need for a higher level of protection for transactions between individuals who are familiar with each other. From a modeling perspective, our straightforward model of trust and risk could be used in future studies that examine specific online activities.
Memory Self-Efficacy, Aging, and Memory Performance: The Roles of Effort and Persistence

The relative importance of mental effort, as indicated by strategy use, and persistence as potential mediators of the memory self-efficacy (MSE)/memory performance relationship was investigated within a sample of 26 adults aged 65 years and older. It was found that persistence but not strategy use was predictive of performance on a free-recall task. Age-related declines were found in persistence, performance, and MSE but not in strategy use. Counter to expectation, neither strategy use nor persistence was significantly related to a global measure of MSE. These results highlight the importance in MSE research of distinguishing mental effort and persistence, of task-specific measures of MSE, and of considering age-related changes within the elderly population. Implications for MSE intervention programs are briefly discussed.
Comparing Data Mining Techniques for Mining Patents

Today is the world of knowledge economy. The business unit which believes in creating new innovations and implementing this technology in their organization as it always provides an edge over traditional working. Patents are used for preserving this knowledge. A large number of patents are filed every day. Identifying the best patent as per business need and extracting relevant knowledge from patients will help organizations to enhance their business. There are many technologies of data mining that can be suitably used for this purpose. This paper compares the key features of different techniques used for mining hidden patterns from patents.
Facilitating the evaluation of complexity in the public sector: learning from the NHS in Scotland

It is necessary for public managers to be able to evaluate programmes in the context of complexity. This article offers key learning and reflections based on the experience of facilitating the evaluation of complexity with a range of public sector partners in Scotland. There have been several articles that consider evaluating complexity and theory-based approaches to evaluation; however, the literature is scarce when it comes to actually facilitating such approaches within the public sector. The article discusses the main steps used when facilitating outcomes planning with stakeholders and identifies some key challenges and learning in relation to undertaking this work. The article will be of interest to those that want to know more about the core components of outcomes-based evaluation and, moreover, to those that will undertake this type of facilitation within the public sector as part of organisational development and professional development.