Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
From the (Academic) middle to the top: an evaluation of the AVID/TOPS college access program

Abstract Despite overall increases in college-going, college enrollment rates remain inequitable. Many programs attempt to address these persistent racial/ethnic and social class disparities in college attendance by intervening in the high school curriculum. Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) is among the longest standing and prevalent of these college access programs. In this paper, we present findings from a multi-year evaluation and cost analysis of the AVID/TOPS program – an enhanced AVID model – in place in Madison Metropolitan School District (Wisconsin). Taken together, the evaluation’s findings characterize AVID/TOPS as a promising program model that is associated with an increased likelihood for college readiness and matriculation, particularly for student groups underrepresented in higher education. We also report on the resources and costs required to implement the program, and show that the program’s benefits appear to exceed its costs.
Incentivising Prison Visits: new research findings on the needs of children with imprisoned mothers and fathers

In April 2013, the Justice Secretary announced plans to make significant reforms to the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) Scheme in adult male prisons throughout England and Wales. This represents just one step in achieving the coalition government’s proposals to toughen prison regimes and enforce harsher penalties for prisoners who fail to meet expectations. Despite the proposed reforms to the Scheme, it appears that extra visits and access to Family Days will continue to be offered as a reward to male prisoners who behave responsibly and engage with sentence plan objectives. This is in contrast to the female estate where visiting arrangements were detached from the IEP Scheme five years ago — this was based on recognition that incentivising contact was incompatible with meeting the needs of imprisoned mothers and their children. This paper presents findings from in-depth interviews with families affected by parental imprisonment in England and Wales. It emerged that early, frequent and good quality visits are equally important in meeting the emotional needs of children with either a mother or father in prison. It is argued that including visiting arrangements as a key earnable privilege is incongruous with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) since restricting the frequency of visits and access to Family Days is clearly not in the best interests of most children. It is recommended that to effectively meet the rights and needs of children, arrangements for contact should also be detached from the IEP Scheme in the male estate.
Probing Dust around Brown Dwarfs: The Naked LP 944-20 and the Disk of Chamaeleon Hα 2

We present the first mid-infrared (MIR) detection of a field brown dwarf (BD) and the first ground-based MIR measurements of a disk around a young BD candidate. We prove the absence of warm dust surrounding the field BD LP 944-20. In the case of the young BD candidate Cha Hα 2, we find clear evidence for thermal dust emission from a disk. Surprisingly, the object does not exhibit any silicate feature as previously predicted. We show that the flat spectrum can be explained by an optically thick flat dust disk.
Hot and Cold Market Cycle and IPO Performance: Theory and Evidence

The study develops a theoretical model, which describes the mechanism and causation of hot and cold market and their relationship to IPO underpricing. Empirical tests are conducted on a sample of 1,382 IPOs issued in the United States from 1st January 1988 to 30th June 1999. The empirical tests examine the propositions derived from the model, namely underpricing behavior and role of risk premium factor as well as risk-free interest rates in the hot and cold markets. The study demonstrates that interest rates and bond rating spread are highly correlated to the hot/cold markets thus can be used as a proxy of hot/cold market cycle. The study concludes that both interest rate and percentage of underpriced issues in the cold market are significantly higher than that in the hot market. It is also concluded that underpricing is higher in the hot market than in the cold market.
Contamination by organotin ( tributyltin and triphenyltin ) compounds from antifouling paints and endocrine disruption in marine gastropods

The third countrywide survey on imposex and organotin contamination in the rock shell was conducted in 93 locations along the Japan coast between September 1996 and January 1999. The percentage occurrence of imposex was still high in 86 locations whereas no or rare instances of imposex were found in the remaining seven locations. Severe imposex symptoms were observed in the rock shell populations from 40 locations. Temporal decreases in the tissue concentrations of tributyltin (TBT) were not very distinct although those of triphenyltin (TPT) were clearly observed in almost all surveyed locations. Decreased catches of the ivory shell were thought to be caused mainly by the dysfunction of ovaries due to suppressed ovarian maturity including spermatogenesis, accompanied by imposex possibly induced by TBT and/or TPT from antifouling paints. Endocrine disruption resulting in the masculinization of females was also observed in abalone, possibly caused by organotins, such as TBT and TPT.
1 Dichloroacetate selectively improves cardiac function and metabolism in female and male rainbow 1 trout 2 3

Dichloroacetate selectively improves cardiac function and metabolism in female and male rainbow 1 trout 2 3 Pavan K. Battiprolu* and Kenneth J. Rodnick 4 5 6 Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209-8007 7 8 *Current address: Department of Metabolic disorders, Amgen, Inc. South San Francisco, CA 94568. 9 10 Corresponding author. e-mail: rodnkenn@isu.edu; phone: 208-282-3790; fax: 208-282-4570. 11 12 13 Running Head: Sex differences in rainbow trout cardiac function 14 15 16
'Partnership policing' in three marginalised communities: An ethnographic study

The development of community policing in the UK initiated the formation of ‘policing partnerships’. These early attempts, emerging in the 1980s, by police forces to establish partner relations with public and private sector organisations as well as communities followed a largely informal and ad hoc approach. In contrast, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and more recently the Neighbourhood Policing agenda are examples of attempts to formalise such methods of working through legislation and policy. This study, utilising data collected from extensive ethnographic research in three socio-economically deprived communities of Northern England, addresses a so far under developed area of the extant research on ‘policing partnerships’; namely, the relationships and outcomes that can be observed when state institutions come into contact with marginalised communities. This study has adopted the standpoint of critical criminology in order to foster an analysis of the subject matter. It is contended that despite local and national policy rhetoric to the contrary, ‘policing partnerships’ primarily serve a largely enforcement based agenda that offers little discernible benefit to residents. Residents in marginalised communities occupy a relatively powerless position in relation to other actors and have little capacity to influence local agenda setting in respect of local policing matters. The police remain the dominant player within ‘policing partnerships’ and continuously seek to reinforce the goals of the policing ‘mission’; which, in its modern day iteration, is a primary interest in intelligence, surveillance and enforcement. For residents within marginalised communities to seek redress for matters of local concern, largely related to their socio-economic position and environment, a radical departure is required. One form that this may take is the pursuance of local partnerships without a police presence, prioritising a welfare agenda over the current status quo.
Sustainable Shadow Banking

Banking regulation is beneficial because it constrains banks' portfolios to prevent excessive risk taking. But given that regulators usually know less than a bank about its investment opportunities, regulation comes at the cost of foregoing profitable investments. I argue that shadow banking improves welfare because it provides a channel to escape excessive regulation that is asymmetrically more valuable for banks with access to efficient investment opportunities. I propose a novel intervention that improves welfare further by taxing shadow activities, subsidizing regulated activities and allowing banks to self-select into being regulated or not.
THE MEASUREMENT OF EFFICIENCY OF PORTUGUESE SEA PORT AUTHORITIES WITH DEA

This paper analyzes the technical efficiency and technological change of Portuguese seaports. Depending on the managerial procedure adopted by management, improvements or deterioration of efficiency can be induced. In order to analyze the efficiency of the aforementioned activity, a benchmark procedure is employed: data envelopment analysis (DEA), which permits the separation of total productivity into technical efficiency and technological change. It is found that the seaport authorities, which are state-owned but in some cases have private exploration, did not achieve total productivity improvements in the period considered, with most of them achieving improvements in technical efficiency, but not all advancing in technological change, thus denoting that there is room for further improvement in this activity.
The Role of In Vitro-Induced Lymphocyte Apoptosis in Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Infection: Correlation with Different Markers of Disease Progression

ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency virus infection is characterized by a progressive decline in the number of peripheral blood CD4+T lymphocytes, which finally leads to AIDS. This T-cell decline correlates with the degree of in vitro-induced lymphocyte apoptosis. However, such a correlation has not yet been described in feline AIDS, caused by feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection. We therefore investigated the intensity of in vitro-induced apoptosis in peripheral blood lymphocytes from cats experimentally infected with a Swiss isolate of FIV for 1 year and for 6 years and from a number of long-term FIV-infected cats which were coinfected with feline leukemia virus. Purified peripheral blood lymphocytes were either cultured overnight under nonstimulating conditions or stimulated with phytohemagglutinin and interleukin-2 for 60 h. Under stimulating conditions, the isolates from the infected cats showed significantly higher relative counts of apoptotic cells than did those from noninfected controls (1-year-infected cats, P = 0.01; 6-year-infected cats, P = 0.006). The frequency of in vitro-induced apoptosis was inversely correlated with the CD4+ cell count (P = 0.002), bright CD8+ cell count (P = 0.009), and CD4/CD8 ratio (P = 0.01) and directly correlated with the percentage of bright major histocompatibility complex class II-positive peripheral blood lymphocytes (P = 0.004). However, we found no correlation between in vitro-induced apoptosis and the viral load in serum samples. Coinfection with feline leukemia virus enhanced the degree of in vitro-induced apoptosis compared with that in FIV monoinfected cats. We concluded that the degree of in vitro-induced apoptosis was closely related to FIV-mediated T-cell depletion and lymphocyte activation and could be used as an additional marker for disease progression in FIV infection.
Rebuilding the Cepheid Distance Scale. I. A Global Analysis of Cepheid Mean Magnitudes

We develop a statistical method for using multicolor photometry to determine distances using Cepheid variables, including the effects of temperature, extinction, and metallicity, and apply it to UBVRIJHK photometry of 694 Cepheids in 17 galaxies. We derive homogeneous distance, extinction, and uncertainty estimates for four models, starting from the standard extragalactic method and then adding the physical effects of temperature distributions and extinction distributions, requiring positive definite extinctions and metallicity. While we find general agreement with published distances when we make similar systematic assumptions, there is a clear problem in the standard distances because they require Cepheids with negative extinctions, particularly in low-metallicity galaxies, unless the mean LMC extinction exceeds E(B - V) ≳ 0.20. The problem can be explained by the physically expected metallicity dependence of the Cepheid distance scale, where metal-poor Cepheids are hotter and possibly fainter at V and I than metal-rich Cepheids, or by large systematic errors in Cepheid photometry. For V and I we found that the mean magnitude change is -0.14 ± 0.14 mag dex-1 and the mean color change is 0.13 ± 0.04 mag dex-1, with the change in color dominating the change in distance. The effect on Type Ia supernova estimates of the Hubble constant is dramatic because most were found in the metal-poor galaxies with the bluest Cepheids. The Type Ia multicolor light-curve shape method estimate for H0 formally rises from 69 ± 8 to 80 ± 6 km s-1 Mpc-1 with the metallicity correction.
Accountability for Abstract Component Design

The importance of the services-based market, 62.9% of the World gross domestic product (GDP) [1], triggered an increase in the use of software offered on-line as services (SaaS). The use of such software usually implies the flow of personal data on-line between several parties. This can make users reluctant to their use. In this work, we consider this issue at the design-time of the software and we propose some foundations for an accountable software design. Accountability for a software is a property describing, among other aspects, its liability to end-users for the usage of the data it has been entrusted. We propose to enrich software's component design by accountability clauses using an abstract accountability language (AAL). We also define conditions for the well-formedness of an accountable component design and show how they can be checked using a model-checking tool.
Variational methods for the solution of problems of equilibrium and vibrations

As Henri Poincare once remarked, "solution of a mathematical problem" is a phrase of indefinite meaning. Pure mathematicians sometimes are satisfied with showing that the non-existence of a solution implies a logical contradiction, while engineers might consider a numerical result as the only reasonable goal. Such one sided views seem to reflect human limitations rather than objective values. In itself mathematics is an indivisible organism uniting theoretical contemplation and active application. This address will deal with a topic in which such a synthesis of theoretical and applied mathematics has become particularly convincing. Since Gauss and W. Thompson, the equivalence between boundary value problems of partial differential equations on the one hand and problems of the calculus of variations on the other hand has been a central point in analysis. At first, the theoretical interest in existence proofs dominated and only much later were practical applications envisaged by two physicists, Lord Rayleigh and Walther Ritz ; they independently conceived the idea of utilizing this equivalence for numerical calculation of the solutions, by substituting for the variational problems simpler approximating extremum problems in which but a finite number of parameters need be determined. Rayleigh, in his classical work—Theory of sound—and in other publications, was the first to use such a procedure. But only the spectacular success of Walther Ritz and its tragic circumstances caught the general interest. In two publications of 1908 and 1909 [39], Ritz, conscious of his imminent death from consumption, gave a masterly account of the theory, and at the same time applied his method to the calculation of the nodal lines of vibrating plates, a problem of classical physics that previously had not been satisfactorily treated. Thus methods emerged which could not fail to attract engineers and physicists; after all, the minimum principles of mechanics are more suggestive than the differential equations. Great successes in applications were soon followed by further progress in the understanding of the theoretical background, and such progress in turn must result in advantages for the applications.
Relationship between Self-Regulated Learning Behaviors (SRLBs) and Academic Achievement of College Students: Teaching How to Learn

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between Self- Regulated Learning Behaviors (SRLBs) and academic achievement of college students. Accordingly, a correlational research design was employed to effectively assess the association among motivational, meta-cognitive and learning strategy self-regulation and college academic performance. To achieve this objective, 126 third year students (male= 66, female=60) from Robe and Assela Colleges of Teacher Education were randomly selected and involved in the study. Basically, a highly adapted instrument from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was used to collect data from the students. Moreover, a five-semester academic achievement or GPA was collected from the respective registrar offices of the colleges. The collected data was analyzed using Pearson correlation test, regression methods and SEM path analysis. Moreover, t-test was used to identify the differences between male and female participants of the two sample colleges in their self-regulated learning behaviors and academic achievement. The analysis of the result showed that self-regulated learning constructs have significantly predicted academic achievement of the students. It also indicated that learning strategy regulation and meta-cognitive self-regulation directly and significantly predict academic achievement whereas motivational self- regulation is an indirect predictor of academic achievement. No statistically significant difference was identified between male and female participants of the two colleges in their SRLBs and academic achievement.
Method to convert analog filters to digital filters

The analog filters are usually converted to IIR digital filters using appropriate transformation of system function from s-domain to z-domain. Recently another approach of converting an analog filter described by a diagram or a netlist to a digital filter has been proposed. Using this Analog Filter Netlist to Digital Filter Statements (AFN-DFS) approach, one can use a previous implementation in analog domain and a software code for the digital filter may be available rapidly. In this paper, we present a state-space (SS) based approach that provides an automatic procedure to convert an analog filter described by a diagram or a netlist to a digital filter described in system function form. The procedure consists of three main parts: first the state-space of the analog filter is computed based on diagram or netlist of the analog circuit, then a conversion from analog domain to digital domain is used. Finally the digital filter is delivered in system function form.
Realistic versus non-realistic counterfactual thinking and affective reactions to decision outcomes

Previous research has documented a triple role of counterfactual thinking; counterfactuals influence causality judgements; they influence people’s affective reactions to outcomes and events (“emotional amplification”); finally, recent findings indicate that counterfactuals not only amplify affective reactions, they actually shape them. Following these latter findings, the present research investigates the influence of non-realistic counterfactuals on affective reactions to decision outcomes. In Study 1 participants were asked to rate their regret and disappointment after an unfortunate outcome, which was or was not their own fault. Before reporting the experienced affect, half of the participants generated non-realistic counterfactuals. It was found that participants’ reported disappointment decreased. In the light of previous findings suggesting a possible interaction between regret and disappointment ratings due to their joint assessment, in Study 2 we sought to replicate this pattern of results assessing the two emotions separately. Results revealed that non-realistically thinking participants’ reported regret decreased. Implications of these findings for the role of counterfactuals in shaping affective reactions, and the measurement of affect are discussed.
Slogger: Smashing Motion-based Touchstroke Logging with Transparent System Noise

Recent research shows that it is possible to infer a user's touchscreen inputs (e.g., passwords) on Android devices based on inertial (motion/position) sensors, currently freely-accessible by any Android app. Given the high accuracies of such touchstroke logging attacks, they are now considered a significant threat to user privacy. Consequently, the security community has started exploring defenses to such side channel attacks, but the suggested solutions are either not effective (e.g., those based on vibrational noise) and/or may significantly undermine system usability (e.g., those based on keyboard layout randomization). In this paper, we introduce a novel and practical defense to motion-based touchstroke leakage based on system-generated, fully automated and user-oblivious sensory noise. Our defense leverages a recently developed framework, SMASheD, that takes advantage of the Android's ADB functionality and can programmatically inject noise to various inertial sensors. Although SMASheD was originally advertised as a malicious app by its authors, we use it to build a defense mechanism, called Slogger ("Smashing the logger"), for defeating sensor-based touchstroke logging attacks. Slogger transparently inserts noisy sensor readings in the background as the user provides sensitive touchscreen input (e.g., password, PIN or credit card info) in order to obfuscate the original sensor readings. It can be installed in the user space without the need to root the device and to change the device's OS or kernel. Our contributions are three-fold. First, we introduce Slogger, identifying a novel, benign use case of SMASheD that can defeat touchstroke logging attacks. Second, we design and implement the Slogger app system that can be used to protect sensitive touchscreen input from leaking away. Third, we comprehensively evaluate Slogger against state-of-the-art touchstroke detection and inference attacks. Our results show that Slogger can significantly reduce the level of touchstroke leakage to the extent these attacks may become unworkable in practice, without affecting other benign apps. We also show that the leakage can be minimized even when attacks utilize a fusion of multiple motion-position sensors.
Coordinated Reinforcement Learning for Decentralized Optimal Control

We consider a multi-agent system where the overall performance is affected by the joint actions or policies of agents. However, each agent only observes a partial view of the global state condition. This model is known as a decentralized partially-observable Markov decision process (DEC-POMDP), which can be considered more applicable in real-world applications such as communication networks. It is known that the exact solution to a DEC-POMDP is NEXP-complete and memory requirements grow exponentially even for finite-horizon problems. In this paper, we propose to address these issues by using an online model-free technique and by exploiting the locality of interaction among agents in order to approximate the joint optimal policy. Simulation results show the effectiveness and convergence of the proposed algorithm in the context of resource allocation for multiagent wireless multi-hop networks.