Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organizational enhancement through recognition of individual spirituality

In today’s world of heightened change, many individuals are suffering from a perceived loss of meaning and purpose in their lives, engendering a sense of spiritual desolation and impelling a spiritual quest. The work environment, so central to their existence, often contributes to the sense of desperation and thwarts individual growth. However, if management recognizes the potential for mutual benefit in the nexus of the individual’s spiritual odyssey and the structure of the organization, the organization’s contribution can be truly positive. The paper proposes an integration of the theoretical frameworks of Carl Jung and Elliot Jaques as a source of managerial insight into the process of individual spiritual growth within the context of the organization. With such perspective, management not only enhances its prospect for precluding the dysfunctional behavior of the spiritually bankrupt, but also enhances the organization’s capacity to foster heightened initiative and productivity from its members.
Neonatal Insult to the Hippocampal Region and Schizophrenia: A Review and a Putative Animal Model

Objective: To review the mounting evidence implicating early hippocampal dysfunction in the pathogenesis and the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. An account is made of recent neurodevelopmental hypotheses indicating how an early dysfunction of the hippocampal region disrupts maturational events in brain systems connected to that structure, thus inducing dysfunctional connectional development. Finally, an animal model is presented. Method: Socioemotional behaviour of monkeys (Macaca mulatta) with selective neonatal hippocampal lesions was assessed by analyzing their interactions with their age-matched controls at 2 months, 6 months, and 5 to 8 years of age and by comparing the social interactions at each age with those of normal controls paired together. Results: At 2 months of age, monkeys with neonatal hippocampal lesions presented minor disturbances in initiation of social interactions. These subtle changes of behaviour were less evident at 6 months, although by that age, the operated monkeys displayed more withdrawals in response to an increase in aggressive responses from their unoperated peers. In adulthood, the amount of time spent by the hippocampectomized monkeys in social contacts with their normal peers decreased markedly. In addition, operated monkeys exhibited more locomotor stereotypies than normal controls. Conclusion: These experimental findings indicate that the time-course and nature of the behavioural disturbances resulting from early trauma to the hippocampal region have some similarities with the clinical symptoms of schizophrenic patients and the typical time-course of the disease.
A Geometrical Relationship between Broad-Line Clouds and an Accretion Disk around Active Galactic Nuclei

Recent hard X-ray spectroscopy of active galactic nuclei has strongly suggested that double-peaked, very broad Fe K emission arises from an accretion disk around the central engine. Model fitting of the observed Fe K emission line profile makes it possible to estimate a probable inclination angle of the accretion disk. In order to study the geometrical relationship between the accretion disk and broad emission-line regions (BLRs), we investigate the correlation between the inclination angle of the accretion disk and the velocity width of BLRs for 18 type-1 Seyfert galaxies. We found that there may be a negative correlation between them, i.e., Seyfert nuclei with a more face-on accretion disk tend to have larger BLR velocity widths, suggesting that the BLRs are not coplanar with respect to the accretion disk. The most probable Interpretation may be that the BLRs arise from outer parts (r ~ 0.01 pc) of a warped accretion disk illuminated by the central engine.
Computed Tomographic Angiography for Localization of the Cutaneous Perforators of the Leg

Background: Results of vascular anatomical studies of the lower limb in the past have been primarily descriptive in nature and are therefore less useful in directing the design of local perforator-based flaps. The purpose of this study was to document the three-dimensional anatomy of the cutaneous perforators arising from the anterior tibial, posterior tibial, and peroneal arteries and provide a statistically verified method for predicting perforator location for use in the clinical setting. Methods: Computed tomographic angiography and three-dimensional reconstructions of the lower limb using Mimics software were completed for five lead oxide–injected cadavers. The cutaneous perforators of the vessels of the tibial trunk were identified, and perforator diameter, course, and location relative to leg length were determined. Cluster analysis was performed to evaluate the consistency of perforator locations across individuals. Results: The anterior tibial artery had the greatest number of perforator vessels, which clustered into three groups centered at 83 ± 6 percent (percent of tibial height ± SD), 59 ± 7 percent, and 28 ± 9 percent. Peroneal artery perforators were clustered in two groups centered at 61 ± 9 percent and 27 ± 11 percent. The posterior tibial artery perforators could also be divided into two groups; however, a larger SD in the two groups suggests that perforators arising from this vessel are more evenly spaced. Conclusions: Statistical analysis demonstrated that the major perforator vessels of the tibial trunk are conserved across individuals and can be reliably dissected using the cluster's statistical distribution. Results of this study will allow for better preoperative planning of local flaps.
Decomposition of skin conductance data by means of nonnegative deconvolution

Skin conductance (SC) data are usually characterized by a sequence of overlapping phasic skin conductance responses (SCRs) overlying a tonic component. The variability of SCR shapes hereby complicates the proper decomposition of SC data. A method is proposed for full decomposition of SC data into tonic and phasic components. A two-compartment diffusion model was found to adequately describe a standard SCR shape based on the process of sweat diffusion. Nonnegative deconvolution is used to decompose SC data into discrete compact responses and at the same time assess deviations from the standard SCR shape, which could be ascribed to the additional process of pore opening. Based on the result of single non-overlapped SCRs, response parameters can be estimated precisely as shown in a paradigm with varying inter-stimulus intervals.
Does Trade Liberalization Harm the Environment? A New Test

Some believe that relatively lenient environmental standards give developing countries a comparative advantage in pollution-intensive goods. Thus, freer trade will harm their environment. This paper brings together the literature on openness and growth, and on the environmental Kuznet's curve, to demonstrate that the opposite may be true. A simultaneous-equations system is derived which incorporates multiple effects of trade liberalization on the environment. Estimation using pooled provincial data on Chinese water pollution, suggests that freer trade aggravates environmental damage via the terms of trade, but mitigates it via income growth. Simulations suggest that the net effect in China was beneficial.
USING CURRICULUM‐BASED MEASUREMENT TO EXAMINE SUMMER LEARNING LOSS

Summer loss of reading is a potential factor in maintaining, and potentially widening, the achievement gap. This study used curriculum-based measurement of reading (R-CBM) to investigate the effect of the summer on reading. For this study, 317 students in Grades 2 to 5 were assessed in the spring and fall using Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) measure. Repeated measures analysis of variance modeled overall change in ORF scores by grade, family income, ethnic minority status, English language learner status, and special education (SPED) status. Students in Grades 2 and 3 evidenced overall summer loss, whereas students in Grades 4 and 5 did not exhibit summer loss. In addition, students in Grade 2 showed differential loss based on family income and SPED status. These results support the broadening application of R-CBM and add to the summer loss literature. Findings are discussed relative to prevention and intervention.
A MIXTURE OF SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINES FOR AUDIO CLASSIFICATION

This paper describes the algorithm submitted by the authors to the Audio Genre Classification Contest organised in the context of the 2005 Music Information Retrieval Evaluation eXchange (MIREX 2005). The proposed algorithm parameterizes audio content by extracting 3 sets of features describing 3 different dimensions of music: timbre, energy and rhythm. Once features extracted, a mixture of Support Vector Machines (SVMs) is used for classification into musical genres. The underlying idea is to use separate models to approximate different parts of the problem and to combine the outputs from the experts with probabilistic methods. Using the proposed algorithm, classification of 73.11 % is achieved on the 2 databases used for the MIREX 2005 contest containing a total of 2929 songs.
Using Facebook out of habit

This article investigates the uses and gratifications of the popular social networking site Facebook. In the exploratory stage, 70 users generated phrases to describe the manner they used Facebook. Interestingly, some users not only described the uses, but also mentioned how they perceive these uses. These phrases were coded into 14 items and clustered into four factors. The principal component analysis that was conducted in the third stage of the study, which was addressed to 222 Facebook users, verified the validity of the four factors: Social Connection, Social Network Surfing, Wasting Time and Using Applications. Previous user studies on Facebook have examined the immediate social effects of this popular social networking site, but they have not regarded emerging uses of the platform, such as gaming and applications, which do have a social component as a feature and not as a core principle. The ‘Wasting Time’ factor and the growth of ‘Using Applications’ factor indicate that Facebook has already become an integral part of daily computing routine, alongside with the rest of the entertainment desktop and web applications.
An efficient FTN implementation of the OFDM/OQAM system

In this paper, we propose an implementation method for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Offset Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (OFDM/OQAM) with Faster-Than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling. The proposed scheme can bring several advantages: 1) it approaches the theoretical rate gain of FTN signaling; 2) it can flexibly switch between Nyquist and FTN modes; 3) it does not cause complexity increase for the modem components while switching from Nyquist to FTN mode, and vice versa. In addition, we also present an iterative detector method which can support high constellation order transmission. With the simulations, we intend to show the FTN limits, up to a rate increase by a factor of 2, that the proposed transceiver can reach with various pulse shapes.
Effect of mood states on QT interval and QT dispersion in eating disorder patients

Aim: Prolonged QT interval and QT dispersion have been reported in patients with eating disorders. Although the factors that cause prolongation remain unclear, mood states such as anxiety have been reported to influence QT interval and dispersion, probably via the autonomic nervous system. Therefore the aim of the present paper was to investigate mood effect on prolonged QT interval and QT dispersion.
Epidemiology of invasive group a streptococcus disease in the United States, 1995-1999.

Severe invasive group A streptococcal (GAS) disease is believed to have reemerged during the past 10-20 years. We conducted active, laboratory, population-based surveillance in 5 US states (total population, 13,214,992). From 1 July 1995 through 31 December 1999, we identified 2002 episodes of invasive GAS (3.5 cases per 100,000 persons). Rates varied by age (higher among those <2 or >/=65 years old), surveillance area, and race (higher among black individuals) but did not increase during the study period. The 5 most common emm types (1, 28, 12, 3, and 11) accounted for 49.2% of isolates; newly characterized emm types accounted for 8.9% of isolates. Older age; presence of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, meningitis, or pneumonia; and infection with emm1 or emm3 were all independent predictors of death. We estimate that 9600-9700 cases of invasive GAS disease occur in the United States each year, resulting in 1100-1300 deaths.
Essential role for natural killer cells in the lethal lipopolysaccharide‐induced Shwartzman‐like reaction in mice

Observations in our laboratory have provided evidence that interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) is a key regulator of inflammatory responses to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (Heremans et al., J. Exp. Med. 1990. 171: 1853): treatment of mice with neutralizing monoclonal antibody against IFN‐γ was found to completely prevent lethal shock reactions, in particular the generalized Shwartzman reaction, whereas treatment with IFN‐γ sensitized the mice to the development of such reactions. Since activated T cells and natural killer (NK) cells are the main if not the only potential source of LPS‐induced IFN‐γ, we investigated the relative importance of these cells in the development of the generalized Shwartzman‐like reaction in mice by depleting them selectively with relevant monoclonal antibodies. Treatment with antibodies directed against the CD4+ T cell subset was not effective in protecting mice. Anti‐CD8 antibody did attenuate the reaction to some extent. However, markedly reduced mortality was seen in mice which were depleted of NK cells by systemic administration of polyclonal anti‐asialo GM1 or monoclonal anti‐NK1. 1 antibodies. Failure of T cells to promote the Shwartzman reaction was also evidenced by the observation that thymus‐less nude mice, which are deficient in T cells, were more rather than less sensitive to the reaction. Approximately 20 times less LPS was needed to induce the lethal reaction in these mice than in NMRI mice and 58 times more anti‐IFN‐γ antibody was required to block mortality. Nu/nu mice reportedly have an over‐active NK cell compartiment. IFN‐γ production by these cells in LPS‐treated mice may account for the augmented sensitivity. Our data suggest that NK cells may be the most important source of endogenous IFN‐γ which mediates the LPS‐induced lethal reactions in mice.
Female genital mutilation: multiple-case studies of communication strategies against a taboo practice

This thesis examined female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa and the gl obal movement to eliminate the practice. Despite three decades of concerted eff orts, behavior change of FGM-practicing population has been small. This thesis outlined internati onal actions and how they influenced activities at the national and the local level. A textual analysis of secondary sources revealed that the international communi ty, guided by concerned UN organizations and large donor groups, define FGM as a violation of human rights and set a uniform goal to completely eliminate all forms of F GM. By coordinating actions not only at the international but also at the local level, an y alternative being raised by cultural relativists is strictly ruled out. However, an in-depth analysis of strategies implemented at the local leve l found that less attention has been focused on the effectiveness of messages that are being introduced to FGM-practicing communities. In particular, the case studies found that intr oducing the concept of human rights, in most cases, failed to succeed. The human rights argument did not correspond to the local reasons for practicing FGM. The case studies showed that t he abstractness of the concept needs to be tailored to the realities and experienc es of the FGMpracticing communities. A large majority of communication strategies a nd theories followed the traditions of the dominant paradigm. However, upon implementation, many lacked community-driven behavior change. Implementation of theories and strategies tha t take participatory approach are suggested in order to evoke community-based and community-l ed solutions to FGM. Finally, this thesis suggests a decentralized model of behavior communication that permits greater flexibility of approaches to anti-FGM communication.
The Effect of Corporate Transparency on Bank Risk-taking and Banking System Fragility

We show real effects of financial reporting transparency on the domestic banking sector. Transparent financial reporting facilitates non-financial firms’ access to arm’s-length financing from external capital markets and foreign banks. This diminishes non-financial firms’ reliance on domestic banks for their financial services. Domestic banks thus face increased competition from the alternate providers of financing and are expected to react as follows. First, domestic banks take on more risk and reduce their cost structure. Second, corporate transparency enhances bank development by forcing banks to research and identify profitable ventures. Third, the overall effect of these activities is to lower the likelihood of a banking crisis in countries with greater corporate transparency. Additional tests suggest that risk-taking is channeled more through non-lending than lending activities, pointing to the beneficial role of diversification in reducing bank fragility. Tests using the mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as a shock to corporate transparency indicate that endogeneity is unlikely to be driving our findings. A difference-in-differences design shows that bank risk-taking, cost efficiency and bank development in IFRS adopting countries are more salient than those in non-adopting countries. Overall, the evidence suggests corporate transparency promotes vibrancy and stability in the domestic banking sector.
Crossings of Second-Order Response Processes Subjected to LMA Loadings

The focus of this paper is on the estimation of the crossing intensities of responses for second-order dynamical systems, subjected to stationary, non-Gaussian external loadings. A new model for random loadings—the Laplace driven moving average (LMA)—is used. The model is non-Gaussian, strictly stationary, can model any spectrum, and has additional flexibility to model the skewness and kurtosis of the marginal distribution. The system response can be expressed as a second-order combination of the LMA processes. A numerical technique for estimating the level crossing intensities for such processes is developed. The proposed method is a hybrid method which combines the saddle-point approximation with limited Monte Carlo simulations. The performance and the accuracy of the proposed method are illustrated through a set of numerical examples.
On the UWB system performance studies in AWGN channel with interference in UMTS band

This paper studies the performances of ultra wideband (UWB) systems in an AWGN channel when interference in the UMTS/WCDMA band is present. The interfering band in the frequency division duplexing mode has been considered to be fully covered for both uplink and downlink cases. The interference is actually modelled as sinc-pulse jamming having a spectrum in a predefined UMTS band. The uncoded UWB system performance is studied through the bit-error-rate as a function of signal-to-noise ratio as well as jamming-to-signal power ratio. Several modifications of a generic Gaussian pulse have been selected for the deeper study. The UWB systems are based on time hopping and direct sequence spread spectrum techniques, which utilizes a binary baseband pulse amplitude data modulation. The results showed that UWB system performance degradation is the highest when the interfering signal and the nominal center frequency of the UWB system overlap. UWB systems based on the time hopping concept seem to outperform those based on the corresponding direct sequence concepts. However, for high values of interfering power, the UWB performances are converging.
A primary stem cell lesion in experimental chronic hypoplastic marrow failure.

Following a course of busulfan, mice sustain a residual injury to the marrow which is characterized by prolonged or permanent mild marrow hypoplasia and which frequently terminates in severe marrow aplasia and death. The stem cells and the marrow environment of mice bearing this residual injury were studied by assessing the ability of cells from these mice to grow when transplanted into irradiated normal hosts and by assessing the ability of normal cells to correct the residual injury when transplanted into mice previously treated with busulfan. Stem cells from busulfan-treated mice grew poorly, both in the tibial and splenic environment of normal recipients. Normal cells transplanted into busulfan-treated mice corrected most of the lesion in that they restored the number of granulocytic progenitor cells to normal, the number of pluripotential stem cells to, or almost to, normal; but they were unable to restore completely the number of more differentiated, nucleated marrow cells. Thus, the major factor in residual lesions produced in mice by busulfan is a lesion of the stem cell itself, but an additional minor factor may be a lesion of the marrow environment.
Dendritic Calcium Signaling in ON and OFF Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the output cells of the retina; they convert synaptic input into spike output that carries visual information to the brain. Synaptic inputs are received, integrated and communicated to the spike initiation zone of the axon by dendrites whose properties are poorly understood. Here simultaneous patch-clamp recording and 2-photon Ca2+ imaging are used to study voltage- and light-evoked Ca2+ signals in the dendrites of identified types of mouse RGCs from parallel ON and OFF pathways, which encode the onset and offset of light, respectively. The results show pathway-specific differences in voltage-dependent Ca2+ signaling. While both ON and OFF cells express high-voltage-activated (HVA) Ca2+ channels, only OFF RGCs also express low-voltage-activated (LVA) Ca2+ channels. LVA Ca2+ channels in OFF cells are deinactivated by hyperpolarization from the resting potential and give rise to rebound excited Ca2+ spikes at the termination of a step of either hyperpolarizing current or light. This suggests that the differential expression of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels in ON and OFF RGC dendrites contributes to differences in the way the two cell types process visual stimuli.