Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Relationship of Amniotic Membrane 11-Oxidoreductase Activity to Lung Maturation in the Human Fetus

Summary: This study demonstrates that the ability of amniotic membranes to interconvert cortisone and cortisol is significantly different in samples from pregnancies in which the infant develops respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) when compared with those from normal unaffected infants. We first calculated the percentage of conversion of cortisone to cortisol. The values were plotted according to gestational age, the control group and RDS group identified separately, and regression lines calculated. Comparison of the two regression lines showed them to be significantly different (P < 0.001). Comparison of expected values for all samples at a gestational age of 240 days again showed a highly significant difference (P < 0.001). After calculation of percentage of conversion of cortisol to cortisone, the regression lines for the two groups were shown to be not significantly different. However, after adjustment of data to a gestation period of 240 days the control group and the RDS group did show a difference (P < 0.01). For the “C-11 activation index,” a measure of the net gain or loss of biological activity at the C-11 position of the steroid molecule, direct comparison of regression lines failed to show a significant difference, but adjustment to 240 days of gestation showed the most significant difference seen between the two groups (P < 0.001). We also observed that when labor commences with spontaneous membrane rupture there is a significantly greater net production of cortisol by the membranes than if labor begins with contraction or bleeding ( P < 0.001). The fetus, by extracting cortisol from the amniotic fluid, can maintain a significant part of his circulating plasma cortisol from sources other than maternal blood or the fetal adrenal. Our findings are compatible with the concept that the amniotic membranes are a major source of the free cortisol found in amniotic fluid. Although it seems that the membranes act as an extraadrenal source of cortisol for the fetus, they probably share a control mechanism with the fetal adrenal.Speculation: The appreciation of an extraadrenal source of glucocorticoids for the fetus may be only one example of a nonplacental origin for active compounds reaching the fetus, which may in the future be amenable for utilization or manipulation to the advantage of the preterm infant in utero.
Transformational Leadership and Job Involvement: The Moderation of Emotional Contagion

This study examined the moderating effects of emotional contagion, including leaders' emotional contagion and subordinates' emotional susceptibility, on the relationship between transformational leadership and subordinates' job involvement. By investigating 210 soldiers from eight companies of the Taiwan Army, a three-way interaction effect was found. For leaders with high emotional contagion, the positive relationship between transformational leadership and subordinates' job involvement was stronger for subordinates' with high (versus low) susceptibility. For leaders with low emotional contagion, no such interaction was found. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research in this area.
Landmine detection and localization using chemical sensor array processing

We develop methods for the automatic detection and localization of landmines using chemical sensor arrays and statistical signal processing techniques. The transport of explosive vapors emanating from buried landmines is modeled as a diffusion process in a two layered system consisting of ground and air. The measurement and statistical models are derived by exploiting the associated concentration distribution. We derive a generalized likelihood ratio detector and evaluate its performance in terms of the probabilities of detection and false alarm. To determine the unknown location of a landmine we derive a maximum likelihood estimation algorithm and evaluate its performance by computing the Cramer-Rao bound. The results are applied to the design of chemical sensor arrays, satisfying criteria specific in terms of detection and estimation performance measure, and to optimally select the number and positions of sensors and the number of time samples. To illustrate the potential of the proposed techniques in a realistic demining scenario, we derive a moving sensor algorithm in which the stationary sensor array is replaced by a single moving sensor. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the applicability of our results.
Overlearning in Marginal Distribution-Based ICA: Analysis and Solutions

The present paper is written as a word of caution, with users of independent component analysis (ICA) in mind, to overlearning phenomena that are often observed.We consider two types of overlearning, typical to high-order statistics based ICA. These algorithms can be seen to maximise the negentropy of the source estimates. The first kind of overlearning results in the generation of spike-like signals, if there are not enough samples in the data or there is a considerable amount of noise present. It is argued that, if the data has power spectrum characterised by 1/f curve, we face a more severe problem, which cannot be solved inside the strict ICA model. This overlearning is better characterised by bumps instead of spikes. Both overlearning types are demonstrated in the case of artificial signals as well as magnetoencephalograms (MEG). Several methods are suggested to circumvent both types, either by making the estimation of the ICA model more robust or by including further modelling of the data.
The Irrational Chess Knight

While in the univariate case solutions of linear recurrences with constant coeecients have rational generating functions, in the multivariate case the situation is much more interesting: even though initial conditions have rational generating functions, the corresponding solutions can have generating functions which are algebraic but not rational, and perhaps even non-algebraic. We start by an existence and uniqueness theorem for partial recurrences of the form a n = (a n+h1 ; a n+h2 ; : : : ; a n+h k) ; for n s ; where the values of a n for n 6 6 s are given explicitly. In particular, we show that the lattice points in the rst orthant can be enumerated in such a way that for all n the points n+h i precede n in this enumeration, if and only if the convex hull of the set H = fh 1 ; h 2 ; : : : ; h k g does not intersect the rst orthant. This condition on H which ensures existence and uniqueness of solution is assumed to be satissed in the sequel. For linear partial recurrences with constant coeecients we show that when initial conditions grow at most exponentially, the same is true of the solution, which is consequently analytic in a neighbourhood of the origin. Next we consider the algebraic nature of the generating function of the solution of such recurrences, and deene the apex of H as the componentwise maximum of the points in H f0g. When the initial conditions have rational generating functions and the apex of H is 0, the generating function of the solution is rational and is given by an explicit formula. When the initial conditions have algebraic generating functions and the apex of H has at most one positive coordinate, the generating function of the solution is algebraic and can be found by solving an algebraic equation and a system of linear equations. We give several applications of this procedure to enumeration of various lattice paths with algebraic generating functions such as generalized Dyck paths and paths consisting of nonnegative steps and staying below a certain line. Finally, when the apex has more than one positive coordinate, and the initial conditions have rational generating functions, the generating function of the solution need not be rational, which we demonstrate on the problem of the chess knight with restricted moves. We also conjecture that in …
Using ICT at an Open Distance Learning (ODL) institution in South Africa: The learning experiences of students with visual impairments

Abstract For students with visual impairments, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important means through which they can learn and access learning materials at various levels of education. However, their learning experiences in using such form of technologies have been rarely documented, thus suggests society's lack of understanding and/or interest about the effectiveness of such technologies in responding to the learning needs of people with visual disability. Following narrative inquiry design, the research question that guided this study is: What are your learning experiences of using Information and Communication Technology at an Open Distance Learning institution in South Africa? The narratives were obtained in two ways, namely a written form and then followed up verbally using one-on-one interviews with each participant and were analyzed qualitatively. The findings are presented in the following themes: (a) challenges with mathematical, scientific and accounting signs; (b) difficulty in accessing graphic learning materials; (c) incompatibility of software; (d) lack of timely access to electronic learning materials; (e) unfulfilled promises; and (f) inflexible pedagogical practices. These challenges occur alongside perceptions, which narrowly view students with visual impairment as incapable of following particular subject streams [career], conceptions that make such students blame themselves for having impairments. The findings of this study will contribute towards the improvement of learning experiences of students with visual impairment in institutions of higher learning and fostering positive conceptions about visual impairment.
Exploring Differences in Attitudes Between Light and Heavy Brand Users

Prior research on attitude has suggested that examining differences in attitudinal dimensions between known groups is a fruitful area of inquiry. In this research, we examine differences in attitudinal dimensions between heavy and light users of a brand. In the first, exploratory study, we find that brand-name accessibility is linked with feelings about the brand for heavy users, and with thoughts about the brand for light users. In a second, follow-up study, we show that advertising messages that are feelings based are more likely to enhance brand-name accessibility for heavy users than messages that are attribute based.
The Resource Based View of the Firm and Innovation: Identification of Critical Linkages

Over the last years the resource-based view (RBV) of strategic management has attracted wide academic and managerial attention. Drawing on RBV literature, this paper analyses the interrelationships between RBV and organizational innovation. The authors examine those aspects of RBV that critically determine the firms capacity to innovate by integrating the relevant theoretical and empirical evidence. A number of contributions setting the ground for future empirical research are provided.
Crime Victimization: Assessing Differences Between Violent and Nonviolent Experiences

Abstract Experiencing a criminal victimization is among one of the most stressful human experiences. A cross-sectional study of victims of violent crime and victims of nonviolent crime suggests that there are statistically significant differences in experiences in the initial aftermath of the crime event and a few common effects. This article describes the common effects that are associated with criminal victimization in the context of intense distress and discusses the theoretical implications of well-being in the coping process. One hundred seventy-five victims of violent or nonviolent crime were interviewed. Implications for social work practice and theory and future research are delineated.
Cerebellum and the deciphering of motor coding

The cerebellum is a key-actor in motor control. Attempting to extract the motor codes underlying the organization of movement and the rules of signal processing applied by the cerebellar modules has been and remains a major goal for many researchers worldwide. There is an impressive body of evidence showing that the cerebellar pathways influence basic aspects of movement control including: anticipation, timing of motor commands, sensorimotor synchronization, sensorimotor associations and tuning of the magnitudes of muscle activities. The cerebellum contains more neurons than any other part of the brain and is considered as an extremely powerful machine for deciphering information. In this issue, we have gathered scientists working on the field of motor control to provide an overview of recent advances in our understanding of the contribution of this remarkable circuitry in the elaboration and shaping of motor commands.
Please Scroll down for Article Connection Science Learning Location-invariant Orthographic Representations for Printed Words Learning Location-invariant Orthographic Representations for Printed Words

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Neural networks were trained with backpropagation to map location-specific letter identities (letters coded as a function of their position in a horizontal array) onto location-invariant lexical representations. Networks were trained on a corpus of 1179 real words, and on artificial lexica in which the importance of letter order was systematically manipulated. Networks were tested with two benchmark phenomena – transposed-letter priming and relative-position priming – thought to reflect flexible orthographic processing in skilled readers. Networks were shown to exhibit the desired priming effects, and the sizes of the effects were shown to depend on the relative importance of letter order information for performing location-invariant mapping. Presenting words at different locations was found to be critical for building flexible orthographic representations in these networks, since this flexibility was absent when stimulus location did not vary.
Syllable Structure and Stress in Spanish: A Nonlinear Analysis

James Harris is widely recognized aspioneering investigator of both the Spanish language and the general principles that underlie the modern generative theories of linguistics. In this book, he outlines important new results that impose strong constraints on the theory of Spanish phonology, with consequences beyond Spanish and beyond the family of Romance languages.The first part of the book deals with problems of syllable structure, and the second part with stress (accentuation). In both, Harris presents evidence and arguments showing that previous analyses are descriptively and theoretically inadequate, and he proposes new interpretations. These include a proposition for analyzing syllable structure by combining a set of rules that apply to strings of phonemes and a set of filters that mark labeled constituents as deviant under specified conditions. Harris provides a systematic description of the stress contours of Spanish words that follows from morphological and markedness considerations.Markedness is in turn interpreted in terms of the universal theory of "extrametricality. " The book formulates and illustrates the Peripherality Condition, a universal principle that strongly constrains the theory of extrametricality, with highly desirable consequences for the description of Spanish grammar.James W. Harris is Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at MIT. This is the eighth volume in the series Linguistic Inquiry Monographs.
Enhancing Performance of Lexicalised Grammars

This paper describes how external resources can be used to improve parser performance for heavily lexicalised grammars, looking at both robustness and efficiency. In terms of robustness, we try using different types of external data to increase lexical coverage, and find that simple POS tags have the most effect, increasing coverage on unseen data by up to 45%. We also show that filtering lexical items in a supertagging manner is very effective in increasing efficiency. Even using vanilla POS tags we achieve some efficiency gains, but when using detailed lexical types as supertags we manage to halve parsing time with minimal loss of coverage or precision.
Collaboration across the Power Line

Collaboration requires good com munication; but when individuals or groups begin working togeth er, they frequently encounter barriers that threaten to subvert their efforts. In the academic community, these barriers may be institutional (e.g., disciplinary divisions), physical (e.g., architectural or geographical factors), or interper sonal (e.g., race or gender distinctions). Roles of authority and power can also pose particular difficulties for collabo ration, particularly when the parties in clude both faculty and students. In what follows, we will examine this troubling barrier to effective collaboration in an effort to understand its dimensions and to learn how to avoid its ill effects. We
Erythropoietin: a novel therapy for hypoxic–ischaemic encephalopathy?

Perinatal hypoxic–ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) occurs in 1 to 3 per 1000 term births. HIE is not preventable in most cases, and therapies are limited. Hypothermia improves outcomes and is the current standard of care. Yet, clinical trials suggest that 44–53% of infants who receive hypothermia will die or suffer moderate to severe neurological disability. In this article, we review the preclinical and clinical evidence for erythropoietin (EPO) as a potential novel neuroprotective agent for the treatment of HIE. EPO is a novel neuroprotective agent, with remarkable neuroprotective and neuroregenerative effects in animals. Rodent and primate models of neonatal brain injury support the safety and efficacy of multiple EPO doses for improving histological and functional outcomes after hypoxia‐ischaemia. Small clinical trials of EPO in neonates with HIE have also provided evidence supporting safety and preliminary efficacy in humans. There is currently insufficient evidence to support the use of high‐dose EPO in newborns with HIE. However, several on‐going trials will provide much needed data regarding the safety and efficacy of this potential new therapy when given in conjunction with hypothermia for HIE. Novel neuroprotective therapies are needed to further reduce the rate and severity of neurodevelopmental disabilities resulting from HIE. High‐dose EPO is a promising therapy that can be administered in conjunction with hypothermia. However, additional data are needed to determine the safety and efficacy of this adjuvant therapy for HIE.
Press Coverage of Black Statewide Candidates

This article examines the newspaper treatment of L. Douglas Wilder's 1985 lieutenant governor's campaign and his 1989 gubernatorial campaign. Using content analysis, the author analyzes one liberal newspaper and one conservative newspaper, both of which serve the Virginia area. This article found that although these publications devoted most of their attention to the Wilder campaigns, they also gave the majority of negative coverage to the Wilder campaigns. Some of the coverage included unflattering references to Wilder's race. In sum, this study supports the claim by Black politicians that the media often distort and misrepresent the campaigns of Black office seekers in a way that makes it difficult for them to garner White votes.
Aspects of a computer-managed test of children's reading vocabulary: Reliability, validity, and characterization of knowledge.

This paper presents a description of the measurement qualities of a computer‐managed test of children's reading vocaculary, and the resultant representational patterns of vocabulary knowledge. Students from grades 4, 7, and 10 at three ability levels responded to a sample of 340 words and non‐words in terms of whether or not they knew what each word meant (a simple yes/no task). Systematically constructed non‐words were included as test items to permit estimation of individual response biases. The test is shown to be generally highly reliable. More importantly, the test is shown to possess two important types of validity: convergent validity, with an interview on representative test items; and known‐groups validity, with respect to predicted word knowledge differences across grade and ability levels. A key outcome from this computer‐managed test is its comprehensive depiction of the characteristics of a child's vocabulary knowledge across a range of very common words to very rare words. The theoretical pr.
Global Policies and Local Practice: Loose and Tight Couplings in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives

ABSTRACT: This paper extends scholarship on multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) in the context of corporate social responsibility in three ways. First, I outline a framework to analyze the strength of couplings between actors participating in MSIs. Characterizing an MSI as consisting of numerous local networks that are embedded in a wider global network, I argue that tighter couplings (within local networks) and looser couplings (between local networks) coexist. Second, I suggest that this coexistence of couplings enables MSIs to generate policy outcomes which address the conditions of a transnational regulatory context. I argue that MSIs’ way of organizing enables them to cope with three challenges: the stability, flexibility, and legitimacy of governance. Reflecting on these challenges, the article identifies a number of problems related to MSIs’ role in transnational governance. Third, I discuss the UN Global Compact as an illustrative case and examine problems and opportunities related to its stability, flexibility, and legitimacy.
The effect of selected “desirable difficulty” learning strategies on retention of physiology information

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of interleaving and expanding schedules of information retrieval on the retention of physiology concepts. Participants (n = 189) read dozens of passages that described immunology and reproductive physiology concepts. Approximately half of the participants read them in a blocked manner (e.g., aabbcc) and the other half in an interleaved manner (e.g., abcbca). Participants were then repeatedly assessed, without feedback, after either a uniform or an expanding series of intervals. Approximately half of the students from both the blocked and interleaved groups completed the assessments 1, 2 and 3 days after reading the passages (uniform schedule), whereas the other half completed the assessments immediately, 1 and 3 days after reading the passages (expanding schedule). One week after the 3rd assessment, all participants completed a final assessment. There were no significant differences in the assessment scores between the blocked and interleaved conditions, but those that followed the expanding schedule scored significantly higher on all four assessments than those that followed the uniform schedule. On the final assessment, the mean scores were 47.58±19.81 and 40.11±17.12 for the expanding and uniform schedules, respectively (F = 7.25, P < 0.00). The results indicate that the participants benefited more from an expanding schedule of retrieval practice.