Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toward Best Practice

This article provides an overview of existing research on 11 curriculum models in the field of gifted education, including the schoolwide enrichment model and the talent search model, and several others that have been used to shape high-level learning experiences for gifted students. The models are critiqued according to the key features they contribute to student learning, teacher use, and contextual fit, including alignment to standards and use with special populations of gifted and nongifted learners. The authors also provide a set of key principles derived from the research studies on what has been learned as a field about curriculum and instruction for the gifted. The article concludes with a set of practical considerations for educators in implementing any of the curricula analyzed and specific district applications of the Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM) that illustrate effective implementation over time.
Feature selection in affective speech classification

The increasing role of spoken language interfaces in human-computer interaction applications has created conditions to facilitate a new area of research — namely recognizing the emotional state of the speaker through speech signals. This paper proposes a text independent method for emotion classification of speech signals used for the recognition of the emotional state of the speaker. Different feature selection criteria are explored and analyzed, namely Mutual Information Maximization (MIM) feature scoring criterion and its derivatives, to measure how potentially useful a feature or feature subset may be when used in a classifier. The proposed method employs different groups of low-level features, such as energy, zero-crossing rate, frequency bands in Mel scale, fundamental frequency or pitch, the delta- and delta-delta regression and statistical functions such as regression coefficients, extremums, moments etc., to represent the speech signals and a Neural Network classifier for the classification task. For the experiments the EMO-DB dataset is used with seven primary emotions including neutral. Results show that the proposed system yields an average accuracy of over 85% for recognizing 7 emotions with 5 of the best performing feature selection algorithms.
BECOMING A TWEEP

Despite much excitement about the microblogging platform Twitter, little is known about predictors of its adoption and how its uses relate to other online activities in particular. Using a unique longitudinal data set from 2009 to 2010 surveying over 500 diverse young American adults about their online experiences, we look at how adoption of Twitter relates to prior engagement in other types of online activities. Our findings suggest that online skills as well as prior consumption and production activities especially in the domain of entertainment news are significant predictors of subsequent Twitter use. Our results caution about the potential biases that may result from studies that sample on Twitter users excluding other populations.
Complement C1 Esterase Inhibitor Levels Linked to Infections and Contaminated Heparin-Associated Adverse Events

Activation of kinin-kallikrein and complement pathways by oversulfated-chondroitin-sulfate (OSCS) has been linked with recent heparin-associated adverse clinical events. Given the fact that the majority of patients who received contaminated heparin did not experience an adverse event, it is of particular importance to determine the circumstances that increase the risk of a clinical reaction. In this study, we demonstrated by both the addition and affinity depletion of C1inh from normal human plasma, that the level of C1inh in the plasma has a great impact on the OSCS-induced kallikrein activity and its kinetics. OSCS-induced kallikrein activity was dramatically increased after C1inh was depleted, while the addition of C1inh completely attenuated kallikrein activity. In addition, actual clinical infection can lead to increased C1inh levels. Plasma from patients with sepsis had higher average levels of functional C1inh and decreased OSCS-induced kallikrein activity. Lastly, descriptive data on adverse event reports suggest cases likely to be associated with contaminated heparin are inversely correlated with infection. Our data suggest that low C1inh levels can be a risk factor and high levels can be protective. The identification of risk factors for contact system-mediated adverse events may allow for patient screening and clinical development of prophylaxis and treatments.
A geometry-based stochastic MIMO model for vehicle-to-vehicle communications

Vehicle-to-vehicle (VTV) wireless communications have many envisioned applications in traffic safety and congestion avoidance, but the development of suitable communications systems and standards requires accurate models for the VTV propagation channel. In this paper, we present a new wideband multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) model for VTV channels based on extensive MIMO channel measurements performed at 5.2 GHz in highway and rural environments in Lund, Sweden. The measured channel characteristics, in particular the nonstationarity of the channel statistics, motivate the use of a geometry-based stochastic channel model (GSCM) instead of the classical tapped-delay line model. We introduce generalizations of the generic GSCM approach and techniques for parameterizing it from measurements and find it suitable to distinguish between diffuse and discrete scattering contributions. The time-variant contribution from discrete scatterers is tracked over time and delay using a high resolution algorithm, and our observations motivate their power being modeled as a combination of a (deterministic) distance decay and a slowly varying stochastic process. The paper gives a full parameterization of the channel model and supplies an implementation recipe for simulations. The model is verified by comparison of MIMO antenna correlations derived from the channel model to those obtained directly from the measurements.
Influence of Cobalamin on Arsenic Metabolism in Bangladesh

Background Arsenic is a carcinogen to which 35 million people in Bangladesh are chronically exposed. The enzymatic transfer of methyl groups to inorganic As (iAs) generates monomethylarsonic (MMA) and dimethylarsinic acids (DMA) and facilitates urinary As (uAs) elimination. This process is dependent on one-carbon metabolism, a pathway in which folate and cobalamin have essential roles in the recruitment and transfer of methyl groups. Although DMAV is the least toxic metabolite, increasing evidence suggests that MMAIII may be the most cytotoxic and genotoxic As intermediary metabolite. Objective We examined the associations between plasma cobalamin and uAs metabolites. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study of 778 Bangladeshi adults in which we over-sampled cobalamin-deficient participants. Participants provided blood samples for the measurement of plasma cobalamin and urine specimens for As measurements. Results Cobalamin was inversely associated with the proportion of total uAs excreted as iAs (%iAs) [unstandardized regression coefficient (b) = –0.10; 95% confidence interval (CI), −0.17 to −0.02; p = 0.01] and positively associated with %MMA (b = 0.12; 95% CI, 0.05 to 0.20; p = 0.001). Both of these associations were stronger among folate-sufficient participants (%iAs: b = −0.17; 95% CI, −0.30 to −0.03; p = 0.02. %MMA: b = 0.20; 95% CI, 0.11 to 0.30; p < 0.0001), and the differences by folate status were statistically significant. Conclusions In this group of Bangladeshi adults, cobalamin appeared to facilitate the first As methylation step among folate-sufficient individuals. Given the toxicity of MMAIII, our findings suggest that in contrast to folate, cobalamin may not favorably influence As metabolism.
Transgenic Mice Expressing Human Interleukin-10 in the Antigen-Presenting Cell Compartment Show Increased Susceptibility to Infection with Mycobacterium avium Associated with Decreased Macrophage Effector Function and Apoptosis

ABSTRACT Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is thought to play an important role in the regulation of microbial immunity. While T-cell-derived IL-10 has been shown to suppress cell-mediated immunity, there has been debate as to whether antigen presenting cell (APC)-derived cytokine can perform the same function in vivo. To assess the influence of APC-produced IL-10 on host resistance to mycobacterial infection, transgenic mice expressing human IL-10 under the control of the major histocompatibility complex class II promoter (hu10Tg) were infected with Mycobacterium avium, and bacterial burdens and immune responses were compared with those observed in wild-type (wt) animals. Hu10Tg mice harbored substantially higher numbers of M. avium and succumbed 16 to 18 weeks postinfection. The granulomas in infected hu10Tg mice showed marked increases in both acid-fast bacilli and host macrophages. In addition, these animals displayed a dramatic increase in hepatic fibrosis. The increased susceptibility of the hu10Tg mice to M. avium infection is independent of T-cell-produced endogenous murine IL-10, since bacterial burdens in mice derived by crossing hu10Tg mice with murine IL-10-deficient mice were not significantly different from those in hu10Tg mice. Importantly, gamma interferon (IFN-γ) responses were not decreased in the infected transgenic animals from those in wt animals, suggesting the normal development of Th1 effector cells. In contrast, mycobacterium-induced macrophage apoptosis as well as production of TNF, nitric oxide, and IL-12p40 were strongly inhibited in hu10Tg mice. Together, these data indicate that APC-derived IL-10 can exert a major inhibitory effect on control of mycobacterial infection by a mechanism involving the suppression of macrophage effector function and apoptosis.
Metformin reduces serum CA199 levels in type 2 diabetes Chinese patients with time-effect and gender difference.

BACKGROUND This study was designed to clarify the influence of metformin on serum carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199) levels and its associated factors in Chinese type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS In total, 1,253 T2DM patients were enrolled, including a non-metformin group (n = 616), a short-term metformin group (at least 1 week to 2 years; n=325), and a long-term metformin group (≥ 2 years; n = 312). Their clinical and biochemical characteristics were collected and compared. After 1 year, the biochemical parameters were re-examined in 296 patients. Sex hormones were determined, and associations between CA199 and other variables were assessed. RESULTS At baseline, the incidence of abnormal CA199 levels was 14.7%, 8.9%, and 4.7% in the non-metformin, short-term metformin, and long-term metformin groups, respectively. CA199 levels in females were significantly higher than in males (P < 0.01) and decreased significantly with the time of taking metformin (25.60 ± 13.68 U/mL in non-metformin controls vs. 17.62 ± 10.87 U/mL in the short-term group vs. 10.54 ± 8.14 U/mL in the long-term group; P = 0.000). The correlation and multiple stepwise regression analysis revealed that glycosylated hemoglobin, metformin, gender, total cholesterol, and follicle-stimulating hormone were independent impact factors on CA199 concentrations (all P < 0.05). Binary logistic regression revealed that the risk of abnormal CA199 concentrations of the total population with short-term metformin or long-term metformin treatment decreased 11% (odds ratio = 0.89; P = 0.001) and 30% (odds ratio = 0.70; P = 0.000), respectively, at baseline. After a 1-year follow-up, the incidence of high CA199 level decreased in both the short-term and the long-term metformin group compared with that of controls (P < 0.05). The extent of CA199 decrease in the long-term metformin group was the greatest (-17% vs. -4.9% in the short-term group vs. 3% in controls, P = 0.000), and the group's risk of high blood CA199 level was reduced 67% (odds ratio = 0.33; P = 0.023). The reduction in women was more apparent than that in men (-18% vs. -5%, P = 0.000). CONCLUSIONS Metformin therapy reduced the CA199 level in Chinese T2DM patients, and its greatest decrease occurred in women with longer therapeutic time.
Mediating and Moderating Effects in Job Design

A test of the complete Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham, 1976, 1980) was conducted, with particular emphasis on the little-investigated mediating and moderating effects specified by the model. Three hundred lower level managers provided questionnaire data. Results indicated that the model's psychological states generally mediated the relationship between job characteristics and outcomes. However; the correspondence between the job characteristics and the states was not precisely that specified by the model, all states were not needed to predict most outcomes, and common method variance was a concern. Moderator effects due to personal characteristics, context satisfaction, and petformance-reward contingencies were observed at several locations in the model, a number in an opposite direction from that predicted by the model.
Glucose sensing in saline solutions using V-band waveguides

We present results from an experimental system employed to study the impact of glucose content on measured transmission data. The measurements have been performed at frequencies between 50 GHz and 75 GHz using V-Band waveguides, and the measured samples consisted of saline solutions with glucose concentrations down to 0.025 wt%. The performed transmission measurements show that it is possible to establish an approximately linear relationship between the transmission coefficient and the glucose content in the samples. This linear dependence is also verified via simulations. The results are of interest for developing a miniaturized mobile glucose sensing system.
Polynomial Interpretations for Higher-Order Rewriting

The termination method of weakly monotonic algebras, which has been defined for higher-order rewriting in the HRS formalism, offers a lot of power, but has seen little use in recent years. We adapt and extend this method to the alternative formalism of algebraic functional systems, where the simply-typed lambda-calculus is combined with algebraic reduction. Using this theory, we define higher-order polynomial interpretations, and show how the implementation challenges of this technique can be tackled. A full implementation is provided in the termination tool Wanda.
Ripples in epitaxial graphene on the Si-terminated SiC(0001) surface

The interaction with a substrate can modify the graphene honeycomb lattice and, thus, alter its outstanding properties. This could be particularly true for epitaxial graphene where the carbon layers are grown from the SiC substrate. Extensive ab initio calculations supported by the scanning tunneling microscopy experiments demonstrate here that the substrate indeed induces a strong nanostructuration of the interface carbon layer. It generates an apparent $6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}6$ modulation different from the interface $6\sqrt{3}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}6\sqrt{3}R30$ symmetry used for the calculation. The top carbon layer roughly follows the interface layer morphology. This creates soft $6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}6$ ripples in the otherwise graphene-like honeycomb lattice. The wavelength and height of the ripples are much smaller than the one found in exfoliated graphene. Their formation mechanism also differs; they are due to the weak interaction with the interface layer and not to the roughening of the plane due to the instability of a strictly two-dimensional crystal.
ARNO regulates VEGF-dependent tissue responses by stabilizing endothelial VEGFR-2 surface expression.

AIMS The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) stimulates angiogenesis by induction of vessel permeability, proliferation, and migration of endothelial cells, an important process in ischaemic diseases. ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF) nucleotide-binding site opener (ARNO) (cytohesin-2) is a guanine exchange factor important for cellular signalling through ARF GTPases. However, a role for ARNO in VEGF-dependent endothelial processes has so far not been documented. Therefore, we investigated whether ARNO has a role in VEGF-dependent activation of endothelial cells and thus vessel permeability. METHODS AND RESULTS ARNO expression was observed in endothelial cells in vitro by RT-PCR, western blotting, and immunofluorescence as well as ex vivo by immunohistochemical staining of mouse aorta. Treatment with the cytohesin inhibitor SecinH3 or with an ARNO siRNA prevented VEGF-dependent Akt activation, assessed by detection of phosphorylated Akt, and proliferation of endothelial cells in vitro, measured by methylthiazoletetrazolium (MTT) reduction. In addition, ARNO suppression reduced VEGF-induced permeability in vessels of the mouse (C57BL/6) cremaster muscle in vivo, as measured by extravasation of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextran. Moreover, ARNO knock-down accelerated ligand-induced reduction in vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) surface expression, internalization, and degradation, as assessed by flow cytometry and western blotting, respectively. CONCLUSION Our findings indicate an important and novel role for endothelial ARNO in VEGF-dependent initiation of angiogenesis by regulation of VEGFR-2 internalization in endothelial cells, resulting in the activation of the Akt pathway, vessel permeability, and ultimately endothelial proliferation. Thus, ARNO may be a new essential player in endothelial signalling and angiogenesis.
Both Laminin and Schwann Cell Dystroglycan Are Necessary for Proper Clustering of Sodium Channels at Nodes of Ranvier

Nodes of Ranvier are specialized axonal domains, at which voltage-gated sodium channels cluster. How axons cluster molecules in discrete domains is mostly unknown. Both axons and glia probably provide constraining mechanisms that contribute to domain formation. Proper sodium channel clustering in peripheral nerves depends on contact from Schwann cell microvilli, where at least one molecule, gliomedin, binds the sodium channel complex and induces its clustering. Furthermore, mice lacking Schwann cell dystroglycan have aberrant microvilli and poorly clustered sodium channels. Dystroglycan could interact at the basal lamina or at the axonglial surface. Because dystroglycan is a laminin receptor, and laminin 2 mutations [merosin-deficient congenital muscular dystrophy (MDC1A)] cause reduced nerve conduction velocity, we asked whether laminins are involved. Here, we show that the composition of both laminins and the dystroglycan complex at nodes differs from that of internodes. Mice defective in laminin 2 have poorly formed microvilli and abnormal sodium clusters. These abnormalities are similar, albeit less severe, than those of mice lacking dystroglycan. However, mice lacking all Schwann cell laminins show severe nodal abnormalities, suggesting that other laminins compensate for the lack of laminin 2. Thus, although laminins are located at a distance from the axoglial junction, they are required for proper clustering of sodium channels. Laminins, through their specific nodal receptors and cytoskeletal linkages, may participate in the formation of mechanisms that constrain clusters at nodes. Finally, abnormal sodium channel clusters are present in a patient with MDC1A, providing a molecular basis for the reduced nerve conduction velocity in this disorder.
The influence of intergroup contact on minority perceptions and definitions of ethnic identity

Minority perceptions have been mostly investigated by comparing minority group members with majority group members in terms of group power, group status and group size. This approach does not take into account situational specific differences, such as intergroup contact, through which the awareness of differences between cultures is increased, which is contrary to what is expected by Contact Hypothesis and the Common Ingroup Identity Model. The present research investigates the extent to which intergroup contact affects minority perception and preferences acculturation strategies to provide insight into the identification process of minority groups. It was expected that intergroup contact was related to increased minority perceptions, as well as decreased attempts to adapt to the minority and increased attempts to maintain own cultural values that were deemed significant for the ethnical identity. Therefore German students living in Dutch areas near to the German boarder were asked to complete a survey, to measure the amount of contact, minority perceptions and cultural maintenance. Results indicated that there was not enough evidence to conclude if minority perceptions based on group power, group status and group size were affected by intergroup contact whereas preferences for acculturation strategies were affected by intergroup contact. It can be concluded that intergroup contact may only lead to the forming of intergroup harmony under optimal circumstances. In case that circumstances are not optimal, intergroup contact may thus lead towards intergroup bias.
Language Policies and In-group Favoritism

This study investigates the influence of sex of respondent, context valence, and type of generic on the naming of female personalities in Norway where the feminine suffixing has dropped away in reaction to the problem of linguistic sexism. A total of 162 participants were asked to name either their most- or least-liked personalities. The survey employed either the generic form only or the generic form together with the obsolete feminine forms. Adding the feminine forms led to a significant increase in the number of female personalities named, suggesting that the Norwegian policy of gender neutralization has not (yet) been successful. Furthermore, the sex of respondent was positively related to the naming of same-sex personalities in the positive but not in the negative valence condition, thus documenting malleability in the interpretation of generics.
Your emotion moves into my motor system

In the present PhD thesis, using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, we tested the role of the motor system on visual recognition of emotional body expression. We tested both right and left primary motor cortices (M1) from 100 to 300 ms after stimulus onset. Our findings outline a 3-stage model of the motor system’s involvement in processing others’ emotions. In the first stage (100 ms), we find that, regardless of the stimulated hemisphere, the facilitatory intracortical connections are inhibited when subjects observe fearful stimuli, suggesting the existence of fast motor reactions that we interpret as suppression of motor readiness when seeing potentially harmful stimuli. At a second stage (150 ms), the right M1 shows an inhibitory modulation that is independent of the emotional meaning of the stimuli. We interpret this response, which is also paralleled by a general drop in categorization accuracy, as the sign of an orienting reaction toward emotionally relevant stimuli. In the meantime, left M1 shows a facilitatory response to negative stimuli to prepare a motor reaction of the dominant hand. In the last stage (300 ms), we bilaterally record sign of motor simulation of the implied motion of the stimuli. Our data demonstrate that, as proposed by evolutionary theorists, fast reactions towards threat-related stimuli are detectable in the motor system. On the other hand, as proposed by embodied simulation theorists, we found motor resonance processes observing dynamic stimuli. However, our data show that motor resonance processes are not necessary to extract the emotional meaning of such stimuli.