Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Productive Play

In this article, the author argues against the assertion, originating with “canonical” game studies texts such as Homo Ludens and Man, Play, and Games, that inherent in the definition of games is that they are “unproductive. ” Instead, she makes a case for the notion of productive play, in which creative production for its own sake (as opposed to production for hire) is an active and integral part of play activities, particularly those enabled by networks. Citing from her recent ethnographic research studying intergame immigration between massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), the author describes one case in which players ejected from the MMOGUru: Ages Beyond Myst became highly productive, creating artifacts from Uru in other virtual worlds like There and Second Life. Over time, the Uru Diaspora expanded the game's culture, eventually creating their own original Uru-and Myst-inspired artifacts, including an entirely new game.
Sl-IAA3, a tomato Aux/IAA at the crossroads of auxin and ethylene signalling involved in differential growth

Whereas the interplay of multiple hormones is essential for most plant developmental processes, the key integrating molecular players remain largely undiscovered or uncharacterized. It is shown here that a member of the tomato auxin/indole-3-acetic acid (Aux/IAA) gene family, Sl-IAA3, intersects the auxin and ethylene signal transduction pathways. Aux/IAA genes encode short-lived transcriptional regulators central to the control of auxin responses. Their functions have been defined primarily by dominant, gain-of-function mutant alleles in Arabidopsis. The Sl-IAA3 gene encodes a nuclear-targeted protein that can repress transcription from auxin-responsive promoters. Sl-IAA3 expression is auxin and ethylene dependent, is regulated on a tight tissue-specific basis, and is associated with tissues undergoing differential growth such as in epinastic petioles and apical hook. Antisense down-regulation of Sl-IAA3 results in auxin and ethylene-related phenotypes, including altered apical dominance, lower auxin sensitivity, exaggerated apical hook curvature in the dark and reduced petiole epinasty in the light. The results provide novel insights into the roles of Aux/IAAs and position the Sl-IAA3 protein at the crossroads of auxin and ethylene signalling in tomato.
TERT Promotes Epithelial Proliferation through Transcriptional Control of a Myc- and Wnt-Related Developmental Program

Telomerase serves a critical role in stem cell function and tissue homeostasis. This role depends on its ability to synthesize telomere repeats in a manner dependent on the reverse transcriptase (RT) function of its protein component telomerase RT (TERT), as well as on a novel pathway whose mechanism is poorly understood. Here, we use a TERT mutant lacking RT function (TERTci) to study the mechanism of TERT action in mammalian skin, an ideal tissue for studying progenitor cell biology. We show that TERTci retains the full activities of wild-type TERT in enhancing keratinocyte proliferation in skin and in activating resting hair follicle stem cells, which triggers initiation of a new hair follicle growth phase and promotes hair synthesis. To understand the nature of this RT-independent function for TERT, we studied the genome-wide transcriptional response to acute changes in TERT levels in mouse skin. We find that TERT facilitates activation of progenitor cells in the skin and hair follicle by triggering a rapid change in gene expression that significantly overlaps the program controlling natural hair follicle cycling in wild-type mice. Statistical comparisons to other microarray gene sets using pattern-matching algorithms revealed that the TERT transcriptional response strongly resembles those mediated by Myc and Wnt, two proteins intimately associated with stem cell function and cancer. These data show that TERT controls tissue progenitor cells via transcriptional regulation of a developmental program converging on the Myc and Wnt pathways.
Wireless (Physical Layer) Network Coding With Limited Hierarchical Side Information: Maximal Sum-Rates in 5-Node Butterfly Network

Favorable characteristics of wireless channels (including the inherent broadcast and superposition nature) provide a fertile ground for the extension of conventional network coding (NC) principles to wireless communication networks. However, the research of emerging wireless (physical layer) network coding (WNC) techniques have already revealed several non-trivial research problems that do not appear in the conventional (wireline) NC systems, including the sensitivity to channel parametrization and challenging multi-source transmission synchronization. In this paper, we uncover another significant research challenge typical for multi-node WNC systems. We show that the performance of contemporary WNC bi-directional relaying strategies is dominated by the availability of a specific hierarchical side information (HSI), required for the successful decoding of desired information from hierarchical (WNC-coded) data streams. We analyze the impact of unreliable transmission of HSI on the performance of a wireless butterfly network (WBN), and we show that all state-of-the-art relaying strategies must be appropriately modified to avoid the deterioration of WBN performance in the limited HSI regime.
Outcome-Reporting Bias in Education Research

Outcome-reporting bias occurs when primary studies do not include information about all outcomes measured in a study. When studies omit findings on important measures, efforts to synthesize the research using systematic review techniques will be biased and interpretations of individual studies will be incomplete. Outcome-reporting bias has been well documented in medicine and has been shown to lead to inaccurate assessments of the effects of medical treatments and, in some cases, to omission of reports of harms. This study examines outcome-reporting bias in educational research by comparing the reports of educational interventions from dissertations to their published versions. We find that nonsignificant outcomes were 30% more likely to be omitted from a published study than statistically significant ones.
Quantitative Monitoring of the Chlamydia trachomatis Developmental Cycle Using GFP-Expressing Bacteria, Microscopy and Flow Cytometry

Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular bacteria. These pathogens develop inside host cells through a biphasic cycle alternating between two morphologically distinct forms, the infectious elementary body and the replicative reticulate body. Recently, C. trachomatis strains stably expressing fluorescent proteins were obtained. The fluorochromes are expressed during the intracellular growth of the microbe, allowing bacterial visualization by fluorescence microscopy. Whether they are also present in the infectious form, the elementary body, to a detectable level has not been studied. Here, we show that a C. trachomatis strain transformed with a plasmid expressing the green fluorescent protein (GFP) accumulates sufficient quantities of the probe in elementary bodies for detection by microscopy and flow cytometry. Adhesion of single bacteria was detected. The precise kinetics of bacterial entry were determined by microscopy using automated procedures. We show that during the intracellular replication phase, GFP is a convenient read-out for bacterial growth with several advantages over current methods. In particular, infection rates within a non-homogenous cell population are easily quantified. Finally, in spite of their small size, individual elementary bodies are detected by flow cytometers, allowing for direct enumeration of a bacterial preparation. In conclusion, GFP-expressing chlamydiae are suitable to monitor, in a quantitative manner, progression throughout the developmental cycle. This will facilitate the identification of the developmental steps targeted by anti-chlamydial drugs or host factors.
The Relationship Between Individual Characteristics, Quality of Confinement and Recidivism by Offenders Released From Privately and Publicly Managed Residential Community Corrections Facilities

This study examines Commonwealth of Pennsylvania state prison data on inmates released to a term of residential community corrections in either a publicly or privately managed institution (n = 7,204). Analyses indicate significant associations of race, facility orderliness, extent of educational/vocational programming, and type of facility management (Commonwealth or a private provider) with an offender’s subsequent reincarceration. Results demonstrate that private entity cost efficiency and effectiveness claims are not supported, and the growth of the private sector in Pennsylvania residential community corrections may even be having a detrimental effect on desistence efforts.
Diagnostic accuracy of large-core needle biopsy for nonpalpable breast disease: a meta-analysis

For the evaluation of non-palpable lesions of the breast, image-guided large-core needle biopsies are increasingly replacing needle-localized open breast biopsies. In this study, the diagnostic accuracy of this minimally invasive technique was evaluated by reviewing the available literature. Five cohort studies were included in a meta-analysis. Sensitivity rate, histological agreement between needle biopsy and subsequent surgery or long-term mammographic follow-up and clinical consequences for different disease prevalences were assessed. The sensitivity rate of large-core needle biopsy for the diagnosis of breast cancer was high (97%). The reclassified agreement rate between core biopsy and subsequent surgical biopsy or long-term mammographic follow-up was also high (94%). In case of 20% breast cancer prevalence among women referred after screening (as in the US), the risk of breast cancer despite benign large-core needle biopsy result is less than 1%. In European countries, however, prevalence of breast cancer among referred women is 60–70%. This would result in a risk of breast cancer despite benign large-core needle biopsy result of 4–6%. The results of this meta-analysis indicate that the image guided large-core needle biopsy is a promising alternative for the needle localized breast biopsy. However, additional research is needed to explore the limiting factors of the technique. Without such detailed knowledge, a benign histological diagnosis on large-core needle biopsy in countries with high prevalence of malignancy among referred women should be interpreted with caution. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign
Drumming in excess and chaos: Music, literacy and sustainability in early years learning

For children born in the 21st century, the enmeshing of natural and human forces in the survival of the planet requires conceptual and practical innovation. This paper comes from a project funded by the Australian Research Council investigating the integration of literacy and sustainability in early years learning. The methodology employed was ‘deep hanging out’, the purpose of which is to observe without bias or assumption. This paper focuses on a video from a preschool depicting children playing drums and percussion instruments outside, in the playground. We consider the nature of literacy differently, conceptualizing literacy+sustainability within the context of the more-than-human, intra-active world. In our example, the drumming ebbs and flows in intensity, children come and go, rhythms merge then diverge; a chaos of sound and vibration, a refrain of rhythm, movement and bodies, driven by the excess of the earth’s energy and musical force. We see children communicate a sense of the world – with drums, each other, earth – sustained by the vitality of place, the materiality of drums and sound, the energy of earth and the movement of bodies. In this example, we extend the conversation around what literacy and sustainability might look like, offering possibilities for producing new knowledge about literacy and new understandings of sustainability.
The maintained discharge of rat retinal ganglion cells

Abstract Action potentials were recorded from rat retinal ganglion cell fibers in the presence of a uniform field, and the maintained discharge pattern was characterized. Spike trains recorded under ketamine–xylazine anesthesia were generally stationary, while those recorded under urethane anesthesia often showed slow, undriven, quasiperiodic fluctuations in firing rate. In light of these nonstationarities, interspike interval distributions and power spectral densities are reported for data collected primarily under ketamine–xylazine. The majority of cells had multimodal interval distributions, with the first peak in the range of 25.0–38.5 ms and the subsequent peaks occurring at integer multiples of the first peak. Cells with unimodal distributions were fit well by a gamma distribution function. Interval and spike count statistics showed that ON cells tended to fire faster than OFF cells and that cells with higher rates fired in a more regular manner, with the coefficient of variation covering a wide range of values across all cells (0.43–0.97). Both ON and OFF cells show serial correlations between adjacent interspike intervals, while ON cells also showed second-order correlations. Cells with multimodal interval distribution showed a strong peak at high frequencies in the power spectra in the range of 28.9–41.4 Hz. Oscillations were present under both anesthetic conditions and persisted in the dark at a slightly lower frequency, implying that the oscillations are generated independent of any light stimulus but can be modulated by light level. The oscillation frequency varied slightly between cells of the same type and in the same eye, suggesting that multiple oscillatory generating mechanisms exist within the retina. Cells with high-frequency oscillations were described well by an integrate-and-fire model with the input consisting of Gaussian noise plus a sinusoid where the phase was jittered randomly to account for the bandwidth present in the oscillations.
Examining the Perspectives of Latino Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Towards Advocacy

ABSTRACT Rapidly becoming the largest ethnic group of American students, compared to White students with disabilities, Latino students with disabilities receive less services and their parents are more likely to struggle to receive services. Yet, it is unclear how Latino families advocate for their children with disabilities including how cultural values facilitate their advocacy efforts. In this study, four focus groups were conducted with 46 Latino parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. Parents reported advocating by being assertive but not aggressive, being involved in school activities, communicating with the school and documenting the communication, and relying on knowledge and faith. Parents also reported facilitators (i.e., knowledge and resources, increased parent-school communication, and greater peer support) and barriers (i.e., poor school experiences, school related-stress, and stigma and discrimination) to advocacy. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.
Dynamic Dictionary Algorithms for Model Order and Parameter Estimation

In this paper, we present and evaluate dynamic dictionary-based estimation methods for joint model order and parameter estimation. In dictionary-based estimation, a continuous parameter space is discretized, and vector-valued dictionary elements are formed for specific parameter values. A linear combination of a subset of dictionary elements is used to represent the model, where the number of elements used is the estimated model order, and the parameters corresponding to the selected elements are the parameter estimates. In static-based methods, the dictionary is fixed; while in the dynamic methods proposed here, the parameter sampling, and hence the dictionary, adapt to the data. We propose two dynamic dictionary-based estimation algorithms in which the dictionary elements are dynamically adjusted to improve parameter estimation performance. We examine the performance of both static and dynamic algorithms in terms of probability of correct model order selection and the root mean-squared error of parameter estimates. We show that dynamic dictionary methods overcome the problem of estimation bias induced by quantization effects in static dictionary-based estimation, and we demonstrate that dictionary-based estimation methods are capable of parameter estimation performance comparable to the Cramér-Rao lower bound and to traditional ML-based model estimation over a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios.
Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials Open Access Trends in Antibacterial Resistance among Streptococcus Pneumoniae Isolated in the Usa: Update from Protekt Us Years 1–4

Background: The increasing prevalence of resistance to established antibiotics among key bacterial respiratory tract pathogens, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, is a major healthcare problem in the USA. The PROTEKT US study is a longitudinal surveillance study designed to monitor the susceptibility of key respiratory tract pathogens in the USA to a range of commonly used antimicrobials. Here, we assess the geographic and temporal trends in antibacterial resistance of S. pneumoniae isolates from patients with community-acquired respiratory tract infections collected between Year 1 (2000–2001) and Year 4 (2003–2004) of PROTEKT US.
A Comparative Study of Serum Level of Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1(ICAM-1) and High Sensitive C - reactive protein (hs-CRP) in Normal and Pre-eclamptic Pregnancies

Objective(s): Pre-eclampsia is characterized by hypertension, dyslipidemia, and increased systemic inflammatory response and has been associated with an increased maternal risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. Endothelial dysfunction is thought to be a central pathogenic feature in pre-eclampsia on the basis of elevated adhesion molecules. The aim of this study was to determine the level of plasma serum level of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), intercellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1), high sensitive C- reactive protein (hs-CRP) in pre-eclampsia and to compare hs-CRP levels between normal pregnant women, mild and severe pre-eclampsia. Materials and Methods : A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the plasma concentrations of sVCAM-1, ICAM-1 and hs-CRP in peripheral blood obtained from normal pregnant women (n=40), mild pre-eclampsia (n=37) and severe pre-eclampsia (n=38). Concentrations of soluble adhesion molecule was determined with enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: There were significant difference in the means serum hs-CRP between normal pregnant women and mild pre-eclamptic women (P<0.05). Serum concentration of hs-CRP, sVCAM-1(ng.ml) and sICAM-1(ng.ml) were significantly higher in severe pre-eclampsia (P<0.05) than normal pregnancy. There were also significant differences in hs-CRP, s ICAM- 1 and in sVCAM- 1 levels between mild and severe pre-eclampsia (P<0.05). There was no difference in the mean plasma log sVCAM-1, sICAM-1 between normal pregnant women and mild pre-eclamptic women. Conclusion: We have determined the serum concentration of soluble adhesion molecule ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and hsCRP in normal pregnancy and pre-eclampsia. Adhesion molecule is elevated in severe pre-eclampsia compared with normal pregnancy, hsCRP are elevated in severe preeclampsia compared with mild preeclampsia and normal pregnancy and may be useful in predicting the severity of pre-eclampsia.
Feature Set Selection and Optimal Classifier for Human Activity Recognition

Human activity recognition is an essential ability for service robots and other robotic systems which are in interaction with human beings. To be proactive, the system must be able to evaluate the current state of the user it is dealing with. Also future surveillance systems will benefit from robust activity recognition if realtime constraints are met, allowing to automate tasks that have to be fulfilled by humans yet. In this paper, a thorough analysis of features and classifiers aimed at human activity recognition is presented. Based on a set of 10 activities, the use of different feature selection algorithms is evaluated, as well as the results different classifiers (SVMs, Neural Networks, Bayesian Classifiers) provide in this context. Also the interdependency between feature selection method and chosen classifier is investigated. Furthermore, the optimal number of features to be used for an activity is examined.
Critically Compassionate Intellectualism in Teacher Education: The Contributions of Relational–Cultural Theory

Cammarota and Romero describe how they utilized a framework they call critically compassionate intellectualism (CCI)—a trilogy of critical pedagogy, authentic caring, and social justice–oriented curriculum—to lift up previously disempowered Latinx youth. CCI can also serve as an appropriate framework for emancipatory pedagogy and curriculum in teacher education and other settings, especially those committed to a mission of educational justice for our most disadvantaged students. Because the compassion element in CCI is understudied in teacher education, yet crucial to the success of the framework as a whole, in this article, I apply the tenets of relational–cultural theory (RCT) to enhance existing understandings of this component. Based on feminist theories of psychosocial and moral development, RCT expands the original framework to account for varied experiences of privilege and vulnerability when applying CCI beyond its original contexts while retaining core emphases on relationships, empathy, and associated aspects of authentic caring.
Deep Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of Sextans A. III. The Star Formation History

We present a measurement of the star formation history of Sextans A, based on WFPC2 photometry that is 50% complete to V = 27.5 (MV ∼ +1.9) and I = 27.0. The star formation history and chemical enrichment history have been measured through modeling of the color-magnitude diagram (CMD). We find evidence for increased reddening in the youngest stellar populations and an intrinsic metallicity spread at all ages. Sextans A has been actively forming stars at a high rate for ∼2.5 Gyr ago, with an increased rate beginning ∼0.1 Gyr ago. We find a nonzero number of stars older than 2.5 Gyr, but because of the limited depth of the photometry, a detailed star formation history at intermediate and older ages has considerable uncertainties. The mean metallicity was found to be [M/H] ≈ -1.4 over the measured history of the galaxy, with most of the enrichment happening at ages of at least 10 Gyr. We also find that an rms metallicity spread of 0.15 dex at all ages allows the best fits to the observed CMD. We revisit our determination of the recent star formation history (age ≤ 0.7 Gyr) using blue helium-burning (BHeB) stars and find good agreement for all but the last 25 Myr, a discrepancy resulting primarily from different distances used in the two analyses and the differential extinction in the youngest populations. This indicates that star formation histories determined solely from BHeB stars should be confined to CMD regions where no contamination from reddened main-sequence stars is present.