Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Convergence at What Cost?: A Quasi Experiment of Professional Identity under the Bologna Process

The Bologna Process instituted measures promoting common curriculum throughout Europe with threeyear standards established for Bachelor programs in economics, humanistic and positive sciences, and four-year standards for engineering sciences. Dramatic reductions were made to programs resulting in students moving into the workforce at a faster pace and with fewer academic credits. Questions existed as to whether three-year programs were sufficient for professional identity development. Professional identity, a system of attributes and values one has about self in relation to professional role, is essential for professional culture integration. This chapter employs a quasi-experimental design to compare professional identity development of Romanian business students ranging from firstthrough third-year using 2012 data and fourth-year students using 2007 data. Findings reveal professional identity within post-Bologna Process programs rose from first year to second but fell in the end-of-program third year. Data from pre-Bologna Process programs show higher measures of professional identity for end-ofprogram fourth-year students. Interpretations are provided and student workforce readiness discussed.
US Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative Increases Organ Donation

More than 92000 Americans are on waiting lists for organ transplants, and an average of 17 of them die each day while waiting. The US Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative (ODBC), which began in 2003 at the request of the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, was a formal, concerted effort of the donation and transplantation community to bring about a major change to improve the organ donation system. The nationwide Collaborative was housed within a Health and Human Services agency, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Division of Transplantation, and included participation of the organ procurement organizations (OPOs) throughout the United States and the American hospitals with the largest organ-donor potential. HRSA leaders used the Breakthrough Series Collaborative method, originally developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, as the model for the intervention. Expert practitioners drawn from hospitals and OPOs that had already demonstrated their ability to achieve and sustain high organ donation rates were chosen as faculty for the collaborative and best practices were gleaned from their institutions. The number of organ donors in Collaborative hospitals increased 14.1% in the first year, a 70% greater increase than the 8.3% increase experienced by non-Collaborative hospitals. Moreover, the increased organ recovery continued into the post-Collaborative periods. Between October 2003 and September 2006, the number of total US organ donors increased 22.5%, an increase 4-fold greater than the 5.5% increase measured over the same number of years in the immediate pre-Collaborative period. The study did not involve a randomized design, but time-series analysis using statistical process control charts shows a highly significant discontinuity in the rate of increase in participating hospitals concurrent with the Collaborative program, and strongly suggests that the activities of the Collaborative were a major contributor to this increase. Given the stable nature of the historical increases over many years, the HRSA estimates that more than 4000 annual additional transplants have occurred in association and apparently as a result of these increases in organ donation.
Leaf and canopy scale drivers of genotypic variation in soybean response to elevated carbon dioxide concentration

The atmospheric [CO2] in which crops grow today is greater than at any point in their domestication history and represents an opportunity for positive effects on seed yield that can counteract the negative effects of greater heat and drought this century. In order to maximize yields under future atmospheric [CO2], we need to identify and study crop cultivars that respond most favorably to elevated [CO2] and understand the mechanisms contributing to their responsiveness. Soybean (Glycine max Merr.) is a widely grown oilseed crop and shows genetic variation in response to elevated [CO2]. However, few studies have studied the physiological basis for this variation. Here, we examined canopy light interception, photosynthesis, respiration and radiation use efficiency along with yield and yield parameters in two cultivars of soybean (Loda and HS93‐4118) previously reported to have similar seed yield at ambient [CO2], but contrasting responses to elevated [CO2]. Seed yield increased by 26% at elevated [CO2] (600 μmol/mol) in the responsive cultivar Loda, but only by 11% in HS93‐4118. Canopy light interception and leaf area index were greater in HS93‐4118 in ambient [CO2], but increased more in response to elevated [CO2] in Loda. Radiation use efficiency and harvest index were also greater in Loda than HS93‐4118 at both ambient and elevated [CO2]. Daily C assimilation was greater at elevated [CO2] in both cultivars, while stomatal conductance was lower. Electron transport capacity was also greater in Loda than HS93‐4118, but there was no difference in the response of photosynthetic traits to elevated [CO2] in the two cultivars. Overall, this greater understanding of leaf‐ and canopy‐level photosynthetic traits provides a strong conceptual basis for modeling genotypic variation in response to elevated [CO2].
Mechanism of Transcriptional Activation by the Proto-oncogene Twist1*♦

Mammalian Twist1, a master regulator in development and a key factor in tumorigenesis, is known to repress transcription by several mechanisms and is therefore considered to mediate its function mainly through inhibition. A role of Twist1 as transactivator has also been reported but, so far, without providing a mechanism for such an activity. Here we show that heterodimeric complexes of Twist1 and E12 mediate E-box-dependent transcriptional activation. We identify a novel Twist1 transactivation domain that coactivates together with the less potent E12 transactivation domain. We found three specific residues in the highly conserved WR domain to be essential for the transactivating function of murine Twist1 and suggest an α-helical structure of the transactivation domain.
Evaluation of effectiveness of the 23-valent pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide vaccine for HIV-infected patients.

BACKGROUND We conducted a retrospective case-control study to evaluate effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccine against invasive disease among adults with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in San Francisco, Calif, and Atlanta, Ga. METHODS Case patients were 18- to 55-year-old subjects with HIV infection who were admitted to selected hospitals in Atlanta or San Francisco from February 1992 to April 1995 from whom Streptococcus pneumoniae was isolated from a normally sterile site. Controls were HIV-infected patients of similar age matched to cases by hospital of admission and CD4 lymphocyte count (<0.20, 0.20-0.499, >/=0.50 x 10(9)/L [<200, 200-499, >/=500 cells/mm(3)]) or clinical stage of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Case and control subjects were restricted to persons known to have HIV infection before hospital admission. Analysis used matched univariate and conditional logistic regression. RESULTS One hundred seventy-six case patients and 327 controls were enrolled. By univariate analysis, persons with pneumococcal disease were more likely to be black, be current smokers, and have close contact with children. Adjusted for these factors and CD4 cell count, pneumococcal vaccine effectiveness was 49% (95% confidence interval [CI], 12%-70%). Adjusting for all variables and key interaction terms, vaccine effectiveness among whites was 76% (95% CI, 35%-91%), whereas effectiveness among blacks was 24% (95% CI, -50% to 61%). Among controls, vaccination was significantly less common among blacks (29% vs 45%; P<.005). CONCLUSIONS Pneumococcal vaccine demonstrated protection against invasive pneumococcal infections among white but not black HIV-infected adults. Failure to demonstrate effectiveness among blacks may be due to limited power because of low use of the vaccine in this population, immunization at more advanced stages of immunosuppression, or unmeasured factors. These data support current recommendations for use of pneumococcal vaccine in HIV-infected persons and highlight a clear need for strategies to improve vaccine-induced protection.
Anatomic relationship of the esophagus and left atrium: implication for catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Atrioesophageal fistulas have been reported to be a lethal complication following catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF). The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the esophagus and posterior left atrium (LA) and provide the anatomic information necessary to minimize the risk of esophageal injury during AF ablation. METHODS AND RESULTS Forty-eight patients (43 men; mean +/- SD age, 59 +/- 12 years) with drug-refractory paroxysmal AF and 32 control subjects (26 men; mean age, 60 +/- 9 years) were included. All underwent a CT scan for delineation of the relationship between the esophagus and posterior LA. In the paroxysmal AF group, two major types of esophageal routes were demonstrated. Type 1 routes were found in 42 patients with the lower portion of esophagus close to the ostium of the left inferior pulmonary vein (LIPV), including three subtypes of courses according to the proximity to the left superior pulmonary vein (PV) and LIPV. Type 2 routes were found in six patients with the lower portion of esophagus close to the ostium of the right inferior pulmonary vein (RIPV), including three subtypes of courses according to the proximity to the right superior PV and RIPVs. The mean shortest distance of the esophagus to the four individual PVs significantly differed between type 1 and type 2: 28.4 +/- 6.1 mm vs 10.5 +/- 5.7 mm (to the right superior), 19.6 +/- 7.0 mm vs 3.7 +/- 3.4 mm (to the right inferior), 10.1 +/- 3.4 mm vs 22.8 +/- 4.2 mm (to the left superior), and 2.8 +/- 2.5 mm vs 18.7 +/- 5.2 mm (to the left inferior), respectively (p < 0.001 for all). Contact of the esophagus and middle part of posterior LA was observed in each patient. However, direct contact of the aorta with the posterior LA wall was more frequent in type 2 than in type 1 (p = 0.001). The clinical characteristics, type of esophageal routes, distance from the esophagus to the four PVs, and diameter of the thoracic cage, LA, and aorta in the control group were similar to those in the AF group (p > 0.05 for all). CONCLUSION Although the anatomic relationship between the esophagus and LA posterior wall varied widely, two major patterns of esophageal routes could be depicted. This information is important for deciding the location of the ablation lesions around the PV ostia and LA and for avoiding the potential risk of esophageal injury.
On the synthesis of robust strictly positive real discrete-time systems

The Strict Positive Real (SPR) property of discrete-time transfer functions plays a fundamental role in the analysis of the behaviour of several recursive schemes employed in identification and adaptive control. In the context of uncertain systems, this leads to the so called robust SPR problem (RSPR), i.e., given a set P of polynomials and a regionΛ of the complex plane, determine, provided it exists, a polynomial or a rational filterF such that each rational function P/F, P ∈ P is strictly positive real over Λ. In this paper the discrete-time case of P being anl2 ball in coefficient space is considered. It will be shown in a constructive way that under the assumption that all the polynomials of such a family are Schur, the sought filter can be provided in closed form as a rational function of known degree. The proposed synthesis procedure is based on the solution of a polynomial factorization problem.
Pluralist logics and organizational dynamics in CSOs: challenges for governance

A core feature of civil society organizations (CSOs) is their embeddedness in pluralist institutional environments. Institutional theory claims that organizations tend to adapt to norms in the environment and to develop systems for governance that are supported as legitimate by dominant external actors (Meyer & Rowan, 1991). In diverse environments one might assume that CSOs are influenced by and may adopt diverse, and perhaps competing governance systems (Kraatz & Block, 2008). This paper examines how organizations in pluralist environments institutionalize competing logics over time, and which are the internal consequences of this diversity. The main questions are 1) Which sets of governance logics may emerge in diverse environments? ; and 2) Which internal organizational dynamics are created as a result of diverse governance logics? Is the organization capable of harmonizing diversity, or do these logics create lasting internal cleavages?
Wearable devices

Wearable devices, refer to electronic component or computers that are designed to be worn on the human body. The health issues are increasing day by day and many chronic diseases are there which needs continuous monitoring Hence there is a need of system which can monitor person continuously Developed system will monitor person continuously without any support of Professionals Also it will send measured parameter to server so that anyone can monitor it from anywhere. The wearable devices will allow user to access information in real time by using some form of communications capability. Android based mobile data acquisition (DAQ) solution based will collects end-user personalized health information of the physiological signals, which are acquired by the sensors attached on the human body, store analyze and visualize it on the smart phone and sends it towards the server for further processing. Also for continuous monitoring, system should be power efficient hence BLE Device is used which is more efficient than classical Bluetooth. Thus it will increase the efficiency of device and since monitoring the human body is done on continuous basis, it will not only help to cure many chronic diseases but also help to avoid future health issues which will help to minimize the risk of life.
A link between hostility and disease: poor health habits?

The Cook and Medley Hostility (Ho) Scale has been found to predict the occurrence of coronary heart disease, as well as total mortality, and to be related to the severity of coronary artery disease. It has been proposed that the relationship between Ho scores and health status is mediated by an unhealthy psychosocial risk profile. The present study investigated the health habits of 202 young adults; it used a shortened version of TestWell, a self-report inventory of health behaviors. Subjects were classified as high or low scorers on the Ho scale and their overall TestWell scores and those of four subscales were compared. High scorers reported poorer health habits overall (p = .003) and on three of the four subscales (Physical Fitness, p = .04; Self-Care, p = .04; Drugs and Driving, p = .0001). These results suggest that the poor health habits of individuals with high hostility scores may be an additional explanation of the link between hostility and subsequent disease to the psychosocial risk profile explanation recently proposed.
Differential gene expression at gestational days 14 and 16 in normal and nitrofen‐induced hypoplastic murine fetal lungs with coexistent diaphragmatic hernia

The purpose of this study was to identify differentially expressed genes in normal and nitrofen‐induced hypoplastic lungs in fetal mice. Such genes may play a role in the regulation of lung development. CD‐1 pregnant dams were gavaged with 25 mg of nitrofen on gestational day (Gd) 8 to induce pulmonary hypoplasia and diaphragmatic hernia (DH). Normal and nitrofen‐treated fetuses were removed on Gd 14 and Gd 16. Lungs were examined in all nitrofen‐exposed fetuses and only those that had developed severely hypoplastic lungs with coexistent diaphragmatic hernia were taken for molecular analyses. RNA was extracted from normal and nitrofen‐treated lungs, reverse transcribed, and PCR‐amplified using 48 combinations of anchor and arbitrary primers for each condition. The resulting cDNAs from normal and hypoplastic lungs were run on 6% polyacrylamide differential display gels.
Planar inverted F-antenna with suppressed harmonic

In this paper, a novel method to suppress harmonic component of PIFA is proposed. The spur-line is inserted between the feed and short line of PIFA and obstructs the feed line to suppress harmonic without induction of dual-band resonance. Additionally, partial ground is inserted the bottom side of radiator to improve the performance of suppression. The simulated and measured results show that the proposed method can suppress the harmonic component of PIFA without any distortion of operating band and can be used widely in many applications using PIFA.
"This is a Problem for the Entire Nation, Not Just My Mom": Poverty and Homelessness in a Mathematics Course for Preservice K-8 Teachers

Public schools in the United States are becoming increasingly diverse, requiring a teaching force that is responsive to students’ needs, cognizant of their strengths, and aware of the challenges they face. Preparing preservice teachers to teach diverse populations is relevant to all areas of teacher education, including mathematics courses for preservice teachers. Mathematics is a subject intrinsically linked with social justice and as such plays an important role in deepening preservice teachers’ understanding of students and their lives. This manuscript shares one example of a social justice-based lesson conducted in a mathematics content course for preservice K-8 teachers. The lesson engaged preservice teachers in mathematical problem solving while challenging their perceptions about homelessness.
Toward Optimal Day-Ahead Scheduling and Operation Control of Microgrids Under Uncertainty

In this paper, we present optimal day-ahead scheduling and control models for microgrids under uncertainty. The traditional deterministic mixed integer programming used in wholesale market fails to produce adequate results, especially when variations and risks are high. We develop stochastic programming optimization models with risk neutral and risk-averse options. We also characterize microgrids with their mean design capacity configuration and operational volatility. A dissimilarity measure determines the relative volatility between two microgrids. We demonstrate that risk-based decision-making in microgrids can significantly change the day-ahead scheduling and control outcomes, and capacity configuration and volatility measures are determining factors for microgrid risks and savings.
Folate deficiency disturbs hepatic methionine metabolism and promotes liver injury in the ethanol-fed micropig

Alcoholic liver disease is associated with abnormal hepatic methionine metabolism and folate deficiency. Because folate is integral to the methionine cycle, its deficiency could promote alcoholic liver disease by enhancing ethanol-induced perturbations of hepatic methionine metabolism and DNA damage. We grouped 24 juvenile micropigs to receive folate-sufficient (FS) or folate-depleted (FD) diets or the same diets containing 40% of energy as ethanol (FSE and FDE) for 14 wk, and the significance of differences among the groups was determined by ANOVA. Plasma homocysteine levels were increased in all experimental groups from 6 wk onward and were greatest in FDE. Ethanol feeding reduced liver methionine synthase activity, S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), and glutathione, and elevated plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) and alanine transaminase. Folate deficiency decreased liver folate levels and increased global DNA hypomethylation. Ethanol feeding and folate deficiency acted together to decrease the liver SAM/S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) ratio and to increase liver SAH, DNA strand breaks, urinary 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine [oxo(8)dG]/mg of creatinine, plasma homocysteine, and aspartate transaminase by more than 8-fold. Liver SAM correlated positively with glutathione, which correlated negatively with plasma MDA and urinary oxo(8)dG. Liver SAM/SAH correlated negatively with DNA strand breaks, which correlated with urinary oxo(8)dG. Livers from ethanol-fed animals showed increased centrilobular CYP2E1 and protein adducts with acetaldehyde and MDA. Steatohepatitis occurred in five of six pigs in FDE but not in the other groups. In summary, folate deficiency enhances perturbations in hepatic methionine metabolism and DNA damage while promoting alcoholic liver injury.
Bipolar I and bipolar II disorder: cognition and emotion processing

Background. Cognitive impairment may be part of the endophenotype of bipolar disorder (BP), but little is known about patterns and severity of impairment in BP subgroups and their relation to depression. The same applies to deficits in emotion processing known to be present in BP. Method. To explore the relationship between depression and impairment in cognition and emotion processing and the differences between BP subgroups, we assessed 36 (25 BP I and 11 BP II) patients using a cognitive battery and a facial emotion recognition task. Results. BP patients were impaired compared to published norms on memory, naming and executive measures (Binomial Single Proportion tests, p<0·05). Cognitive performance was largely unrelated to depression ratings. Surprise recognition was the only emotion processing impairment in BP patients compared to controls (patients' recognition score 75% v. controls' 89%, p=0·024). Patients with higher depression ratings were more impaired in recognizing expressions of anger (t23=2·21, p=0·037). BP II patients were more impaired than BP I patients in IQ, memory and executive measures (Mann–Whitney tests, p<0·05). Depression severity or exposure to medication or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) did not explain these differences. Conclusions. We confirm cognitive impairment and an isolated facial emotion processing deficit in BP patients and suggest that these deficits are largely unrelated to depressive symptoms. Our study also provides evidence that cognitive deficits are more severe and pervasive in BP II patients, suggesting that recurrent depressive episodes, rather than mania, may have a more detrimental and lasting effect on cognition.
Transcription Factor GATA-6 Is Expressed in Malignant Endoderm of Pediatric Yolk Sac Tumors and in Teratomas

Transcription factors GATA-4 and GATA-6 play critical roles in mammalian yolk sac differentiation and function. Previously, we showed that GATA-4 is a potential marker for malignant yolk sac endoderm in pediatric germ cell tumors. This highly malignant tissue can cause diagnostic problems because yolk sac components may be difficult to differentiate from other, especially immature, tissue types in teratomas. In the search for new molecular markers for germ cell tumors, we have surveyed GATA-6 expression in benign and malignant pediatric germ cell tumors using mRNA in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. GATA-6 was expressed in most yolk sac tumors examined and also in nonmalignant tissues including gut/respiratory epithelium, sebocytes, and neuroepithelium in mature and immature teratomas. Given that GATA-6 has not been discovered in sebocytes before, this finding was confirmed by immunohistochemistry of normal mouse samples, indicating a function for this transcription factor in the mammalian skin. Taken together, GATA-6 can be used to identify yolk sac components in pediatric germ cell tumors. Furthermore, it is also expressed in specific tissues in teratomas. GATA-6, together with GATA-4, can thus be used as a novel molecular marker in characterizing of pediatric germ cell tumors.