Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting Interpersonal Competence and Self-Worth From Adolescent Relationships and Relationship Networks: Variable-Centered and Person-Centered Perspectives

A two-year longitudinal investigation examined adolescents' (N = 100 girls and 99 boys) perceptions of social support in relationships with mothers, close friends, and romantic partners from Grade 10 (ages 14–16) to Grade 12 (ages 16–18). Adolescents, mothers, and close friends also provided descriptions of the participants' global self-worth and interpersonal competence. Variable-centered and person-centered analyses revealed that perceived social support tends to be similar across relationships and stable over time. Variable-centered analyses indicated that social support in mother-adolescent relationships was uniquely related to adolescent global self-worth; that social support in close friendships was uniquely related to social acceptance, friendship competence, and romantic competence; and that social support in romantic relationships was uniquely related to romantic competence. Person-centered analyses indicated that adolescents who reported high social support in all three relationships had higher self-worth and greater interpersonal competence than those who did not have a romantic relationship and who reported low social support in relationships with mothers and close friends; and that scores for adolescents who had a romantic [End Page 572] relationship but who reported low social support in all three relationships fell in between these two groups. Taken together, variable-centered analyses suggest that different relationships influence different dimensions of competence, but person-centered analyses indicate that a sizable proportion of adolescents have relationships that act in concert with one another.
Structural mechanism of Staphylococcus aureus Hfq binding to an RNA A-tract

Hfq is a post-transcriptional regulator that plays a key role in bacterial gene expression by binding AU-rich sequences and A-tracts to facilitate the annealing of sRNAs to target mRNAs and to affect RNA stability. To understand how Hfq from the Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (Sa) binds A-tract RNA, we determined the crystal structure of an Sa Hfq–adenine oligoribonucleotide complex. The structure reveals a bipartite RNA-binding motif on the distal face that is composed of a purine nucleotide-specificity site (R-site) and a non-discriminating linker site (L-site). The (R–L)-binding motif, which is also utilized by Bacillus subtilis Hfq to bind (AG)3A, differs from the (A–R–N) tripartite poly(A) RNA-binding motif of Escherichia coli Hfq whereby the Sa Hfq R-site strongly prefers adenosine, is more aromatic and permits deeper insertion of the adenine ring. R-site adenine-stacking residue Phe30, which is conserved among Gram-positive bacterial Hfqs, and an altered conformation about β3 and β4 eliminate the adenosine-specificity site (A-site) and create the L-site. Binding studies show that Sa Hfq binds (AU)3A ≈ (AG)3A ≥ (AC)3A > (AA)3A and L-site residue Lys33 plays a significant role. The (R–L) motif is likely utilized by Hfqs from most Gram-positive bacteria to bind alternating (A–N)n RNA.
1H‐MRS measured ectopic fat in liver and muscle is associated with the metabolic syndrome in Danish girls but not in boys with overweight and obesity

The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a complication to overweight and obesity, which can be observed already in childhood. Ectopic lipid accumulation in muscle and liver has been shown to associate with the development of insulin resistance and dyslipidemia. Thus, the interaction between MetS and ectopic fat may offer clinical relevance.
The Digital Divide

What factors have promoted and retarded the spread of the Internet globally? The Internet is one example of the diffusion of technology. Much as other technologies, the Internet has diffused unevenly across countries, raising concerns over a “digital divide. ” My main proposition is that its spread has been driven by neither technological nor economic factors alone. Rather, political factors exert a powerful influence. Groups that believe they will lose from the Internet use political institutions to enact policies that block the spread of the Internet. Some political institutions make this easier than others. Data from roughly 190 countries from 1991 to 2001 showthat a country's regime type matters greatly, even when controlling for other economic, technological, political, and sociological factors. Democratic governments facilitate the spread of the Internet relative to autocratic ones. Thus, the spread of democracy may help reduce the digital divide.
Camera Calibration from Images of Spheres

This paper introduces a novel approach for solving the problem of camera calibration from spheres. By exploiting the relationship between the dual images of spheres and the dual image of the absolute conic (IAC), it is shown that the common pole and polar with regard to the conic images of two spheres are also the pole and polar with regard to the IAC. This provides two constraints for estimating the IAC and, hence, allows a camera to be calibrated from an image of at least three spheres. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed approach
The impact of shared musical identity, shared family identity, and accommodation on satisfaction in parent/young adult relationships

This study investigates the potential influence of shared musical identities of young adult children and their parents in relation to communicative and relational aspects of family, in order to determine whether musical tastes of individuals impact family relationships. In this research study, 196 college students reported on their perceptions of shared musical identity with their parents, shared family identity, parental accommodative communication behaviors, and family satisfaction. Results indicated that shared musical identity positively predicted perceptions of shared family identity, parental accommodative behaviors, including general accommodation, overaccommodation, topic management, and family satisfaction. Furthermore, shared musical identity and shared family identity positively predicted perceptions of parental accommodative behaviors and family satisfaction. Finally, perceptions of parental accommodative communication behaviors mediated the relationship between shared musical identity and family satisfaction. These findings indicate that music may have a noteworthy influence on family relationships, including impacting perceptions of communication and satisfaction between parents and their children, as well as perceptions of family identity. These findings also suggest that social identity theory, communication accommodation theory, and shared family identity can be applied to, and illuminate
Rival Strategies of Validation

The challenge of finding appropriate tools for measurement validation is an abiding concern in political science. This article considers four traditions of validation, using examples from cross-national research on democracy: the levels-of-measurement approach, structural-equation modeling with latent variables, the pragmatic tradition, and the case-based method. Methodologists have sharply disputed the merits of alternative traditions. We encourage scholars—and certainly analysts of democracy—to pay more attention to these disputes and to consider strengths and weaknesses in the validation tools they adopt. An online appendix summarizes the evaluation of six democracy data sets from the perspective of alternative approaches to validation. The overall goal is to open a new discussion of alternative validation strategies.
Backward-facing step calculations using the shear improved Smagorinsky model

Recently a simple modification of the standard Smagorinsky model was proposed that takes into account the physics associated with strong shear in wall-bounded flows. After its initial proposal in Toschi et al. (2000) the model was first tested in Leveque et al. (2006) in the context of channel flow. Here we test its validity on the more complex backward-facing step geometry. We compare results against experimental data, DNS data, and results obtained with the dynamic model. The model gives accurate results, comparable with those achieved with the dynamic model, at the low Reynolds number of the computations. We identified several issues that should be addressed in order to broaden the applicability of the model to non-stationary flows.
Bayesian Extraction of Minimal SCFG Rules for Hierarchical Phrase-based Translation

We present a novel approach for extracting a minimal synchronous context-free grammar (SCFG) for Hiero-style statistical machine translation using a non-parametric Bayesian framework. Our approach is designed to extract rules that are licensed by the word alignments and heuristically extracted phrase pairs. Our Bayesian model limits the number of SCFG rules extracted, by sampling from the space of all possible hierarchical rules; additionally our informed prior based on the lexical alignment probabilities biases the grammar to extract high quality rules leading to improved generalization and the automatic identification of commonly re-used rules. We show that our Bayesian model is able to extract minimal set of hierarchical phrase rules without impacting the translation quality as measured by the BLEU score.
Blended shelf: reality-based presentation and exploration of library collections

We present the user interface Blended Shelf, which provides a shelf browsing experience beyond the physical location of the library. Blended Shelf offers a 3D visualization of library collections with the integration of real-world attributes like the size and availability of books. The application reflects the actual arrangement of items in the physical library and enables implicit serendipitous support of the shelf browsing process in the digital world. The interface offers multiple views with different levels of detail regarding the collection as well as various entrance points to it. The user can explore and search the shelves by touch interaction. Tracking the user's position and line of sight ensures the ideal perspective on the interface. Thus, a user can explore collections in a familiar way and benefit from serendipitous browsing discoveries without forfeiting the advantages of the digital domain.
Sequential Analysis of Player Behavior

Understanding how interaction unfolds over time is a key factor for understanding the dynamics aspects of player behavior. Thus far, analysis of sequential patterns of player behavior has, however, mainly focused on discovering frequently recurring patterns. However, frequency of occurrence is not always a reliable indicator of a pattern's importance as infrequent patterns can also offer valuable insights about in-game behavior. In this paper we thus propose the use of lag sequential analysis (LSA) -- which, rather than relying on frequency counts, makes use of statistical methods to determine the significance of sequential transitions -- to aid analysis of behavioral streams of players. For this purpose we apply LSA to in-game data of two well-known games. The meaningfulness of the identified sequences is verified by comparing them to documented and established strategies. In addition, results obtained through LSA are discussed in relation to results from frequency-based sequence mining. Our results suggest that LSA is a promising complement to frequency based methods for analyzing sequential behavior patterns of players.
Targeting the neurophysiology of cognitive systems with transcranial alternating current stimulation

Cognitive impairment represents one of the most debilitating and most difficult symptom to treat of many psychiatric illnesses. Human neurophysiology studies have suggested that specific pathologies of cortical network activity correlate with cognitive impairment. However, we lack demonstration of causal relationships between specific network activity patterns and cognitive capabilities and treatment modalities that directly target impaired network dynamics of cognition. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), a novel non-invasive brain stimulation approach, may provide a crucial tool to tackle these challenges. Here, we propose that tACS can be used to elucidate the causal role of cortical synchronization in cognition and, eventually, to enhance pathologically weakened synchrony that may underlie cognitive deficits. To accelerate such development of tACS as a treatment for cognitive deficits, we discuss studies on tACS and cognition performed in healthy participants, according to the Research Domain Criteria of the National Institute of Mental Health.
The cognitive underpinnings of non-symbolic comparison task performance

Over the past twenty years, the Approximate Number System (ANS), a cognitive system for representing non-symbolic quantity information, has been the focus of much research attention. Psychologists seeking to understand how individuals learn and perform mathematics have investigated how this system might underlie symbolic mathematical skills. Dot comparison tasks are commonly used as measures of ANS acuity, however very little is known about the cognitive skills that are involved in completing these tasks. The aim of this thesis was to explore the factors that influence performance on dot comparison tasks and discuss the implications of these findings for future research and educational interventions. The first study investigated how the accuracy and reliability of magnitude judgements is influenced by the visual cue controls used to create dot array stimuli. This study found that participants performances on dot comparison tasks created with different visual cue controls were unrelated, and that stimuli generation methods have a substantial influence on test-retest reliability. The studies reported in the second part of this thesis (Studies 2, 3, 4 and 5) explored the role of inhibition in dot comparison task performance. The results of these studies provide evidence that individual differences in inhibition may, at least partially, explain individual differences in dot comparison task performance. Finally, a large multi-study re-analysis of dot comparison data investigated whether individuals take account of numerosity information over and above the visual cues of the stimuli when comparing dot arrays. This analysis revealed that dot comparison task performance may not reflect numerosity processing independently from visual cue processing for all participants, particularly children. This novel evidence may provide some clarification for conflicting results in the literature regarding the relationship between ANS acuity and mathematics achievement. The present findings call into question whether dot comparison tasks should continue to be used as valid measures of ANS acuity.
Total Quality Management: A Critical Component for Effective Delivery of Manufacturing Project

The world becoming a global village comes with its challenges. One of such challenge is that both local and international manufacturing firms are engaged in fierce competition of winning customer’s loyalty through Total Quality Management (TQM). The methodology of this paper used both questionnaire and statistical tools like t-test, F-test, ANOVA, regression and correlation analysis to study the components of TQM and how they affect effective delivery of manufacturing projects. The result of analysis indicates that staff training, staff empowerment, genuine quality culture, top management support, quality-based custom design and product improvement are critical to effective delivery of manufacturing projects. It is therefore very important that for the transformation of the nation, manufacturing sector of the Nation must imbibe the culture and practice of Total Quality Management in their product development and delivery.
Decreased Levels of Secretory Leucoprotease Inhibitor in the Pseudomonas-Infected Cystic Fibrosis Lung Are Due to Neutrophil Elastase Degradation1

Secretory leucoprotease inhibitor (SLPI) is a neutrophil serine protease inhibitor constitutively expressed at many mucosal surfaces, including that of the lung. Originally identified as a serine protease inhibitor, it is now evident that SLPI also has antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory functions, and therefore plays an important role in host defense. Previous work has shown that some host defense proteins such as SLPI and elafin are susceptible to proteolytic degradation. Consequently, we investigated the status of SLPI in the cystic fibrosis (CF) lung. A major factor that contributes to the high mortality rate among CF patients is Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. In this study, we report that P. aeruginosa-positive CF bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, which contains lower SLPI levels and higher neutrophil elastase (NE) activity compared with P. aeruginosa-negative samples, was particularly effective at cleaving recombinant human SLPI. Additionally, we found that only NE inhibitors were able to prevent SLPI cleavage, thereby implicating NE in this process. NE in excess was found to cleave recombinant SLPI at two novel sites in the NH2-terminal region and abrogate its ability to bind LPS and NF-κB consensus binding sites but not its ability to inhibit activity of the serine protease cathepsin G. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that SLPI is cleaved and inactivated by NE present in P. aeruginosa-positive CF lung secretions and that P. aeruginosa infection contributes to inactivation of the host defense screen in the CF lung.
MGMT and MLH1 promoter methylation versus APC, KRAS and BRAF gene mutations in colorectal cancer: indications for distinct pathways and sequence of events.

BACKGROUND To study how caretaker gene silencing relates to gatekeeper mutations in colorectal cancer (CRC), we investigated whether O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) and Human Mut-L Homologue 1 (MLH1) promoter hypermethylation are associated with APC, KRAS and BRAF mutations among 734 CRC patients. METHODS We compared MGMT hypermethylation with G:C > A:T mutations in APC and KRAS and with the occurrence of such mutations in CpG or non-CpG dinucleotides in APC. We also compared MLH1 hypermethylation with truncating APC mutations and activating KRAS and BRAF mutations. RESULTS Only 10% of the tumors showed both MGMT and MLH1 hypermethylation. MGMT hypermethylation occurred more frequently in tumors with G:C > A:T KRAS mutations (55%) compared with those without these mutations (38%, P < 0.001). No such difference was observed for G:C > A:T mutations in APC, regardless of whether mutations occurred in CpG or non-CpG dinucleotides. MLH1 hypermethylation was less common in tumors with APC mutations (P = 0.006) or KRAS mutations (P = 0.001), but was positively associated with BRAF mutations (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS MGMT hypermethylation is associated with G:C > A:T mutations in KRAS, but not in APC, suggesting that MGMT hypermethylation may succeed APC mutations but precedes KRAS mutations in colorectal carcinogenesis. MLH1-hypermethylated tumors harbor fewer APC and KRAS mutations and more BRAF mutations, suggesting that they develop distinctly from an MGMT methylator pathway.
New designs for signal sets with low cross correlation, balance property, and largelinear span: GF(p) case

New designs for families of sequences over GF(p) with low cross correlation, balance property, and large linear span are presented. The key idea of the new designs is to use short p-ary sequences of period /spl upsi/ with the two-level autocorrelation function together with the interleaved structure to construct a set of long sequences with the desired properties. The resulting sequences are interleaved sequences of period /spl upsi//sup 2/. There are /spl upsi/ cyclically shift distinct sequences in each family. The maximal correlation value is 2/spl upsi/ + 3 which is optimal with respect to the Welch bound. Each sequence in the family is balanced and has large linear span. In particular, for binary case, cross/out-of-phase autocorrelation values belong to the set {1, -/spl upsi/, /spl upsi/ + 2, 2/spl upsi/ + 3, -2/spl upsi/ - 1}, any sequence where the short sequences are quadratic residue sequences achieves the maximal linear span. It is shown that some families of these sequences can be implemented efficiently in both hardware and software.
Motion capture with high-speed RGB-D cameras

This paper proposes a new motion capture system to track human motion with high-speed RGB-D cameras. The proposed system uses synchronized and calibrated high-speed RGB-D cameras to simultaneously record color and depth image sequences of human motion. A new particle-based skeleton tracking process with color and depth features are adopted to track human motion without markers from high-speed RGB-D image sequences. The proposed system is very useful for digitizing performance.
Secure smart home: A voiceprint and internet based authentication system for remote accessing

Smart home is now becoming prevalent with the development of the Internet of things (IOT) techniques. It is aimed at providing the user with a user-friendly method to control the home appliances such as doors, lights, even in a condition of long-distance. This controlling is generally achieved by a mobile phone which can access to the Internet. However, this can easily be breached if no security measures are taken. In this paper, we present a voiceprint and Internet based mobile authentication system, which can make authentication of smart home faster, more convenient and more secure. In addition, we proposed a dynamic threshold method to calculate a user-specific score threshold of voiceprint verification. Result shows it reduce the false rejection rate when given the equal false acceptance rate.