Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling Student Progress in Studies of Educational Effectiveness.

ABSTRACT It is argued that a crucial requirement in studies of educational effectiveness is the modelling of change or growth in student learning. To illustrate one approach to achieving this end, results are presented from multivariate multilevel analyses of three‐waves of data for three Grade level cohorts of students from a longitudinal study designed to explain variation in elementary school students' progress in literacy achievement. The article provides estimates of the influence of prior achievement and social background factors including ‘critical events’, on students’ progress, examines the extent to which progress can be accounted for by the grouping effects of students within classes and schools over successive years, and provides estimates of the effects of explanatory variables at the student‐and class/teacher‐levels. ∗An earlier version of this paper by Hill, Rowe, and Holmes‐Smith (1996) was presented at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, Minsk, Belarus, Ja.
Modeling Mathematics Achievement of Jewish and Arab Eighth Graders in Israel: The Effects of Learner-Related Variables

This study examined a structural model of mathematics achievement of 2 culturally different groups of Jewish and Arab 8th graders in terms of 5 learner-related variables, namely, gender, epistemological beliefs, self-efficacy, attitudes, and mathematics anxiety. Multigroup structural modeling analysis indicated that the goodness of fit of the hypothesized structural model and the total effects of mathematics self-efficacy and epistemological beliefs were comparable in both groups. The 2 groups differed in the effects that gender, attitudes toward mathematics, and mathematics anxiety exerted on mathematics achievement. They also diverged in terms of the amount of variance in mathematics achievement that the 5 learner-related variables accounted for.
South-North Migration and Trade : Survey and Policy Implications

This paper surveys aspects of the relationship between trade policy and South-North migration, and derives a number of policy implications. It first reviews the theory and evidence of that relationship in order to ascertain whether trade and migration are complements or substitutes, distinguishing between North-North and North-South migration. It then reviews the literature on the welfare impact of migration in one-sector models and of the welfare impact of migration and trade in two-sector models. Give me your tired, your poor Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free . Emma Lazarus (poem at the foot of the Statue of Liberty) Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens who will shortly become so numerous as to Germanize us instead of us Anglifying them? Cardinal de Richelieu, Memoires (On the expulsion of the Moors from Spain; unofficial translation)
Modulation of α Power and Functional Connectivity during Facial Affect Recognition

Research has linked oscillatory activity in the α frequency range, particularly in sensorimotor cortex, to processing of social actions. Results further suggest involvement of sensorimotor α in the processing of facial expressions, including affect. The sensorimotor face area may be critical for perception of emotional face expression, but the role it plays is unclear. The present study sought to clarify how oscillatory brain activity contributes to or reflects processing of facial affect during changes in facial expression. Neuromagnetic oscillatory brain activity was monitored while 30 volunteers viewed videos of human faces that changed their expression from neutral to fearful, neutral, or happy expressions. Induced changes in α power during the different morphs, source analysis, and graph-theoretic metrics served to identify the role of α power modulation and cross-regional coupling by means of phase synchrony during facial affect recognition. Changes from neutral to emotional faces were associated with a 10–15 Hz power increase localized in bilateral sensorimotor areas, together with occipital power decrease, preceding reported emotional expression recognition. Graph-theoretic analysis revealed that, in the course of a trial, the balance between sensorimotor power increase and decrease was associated with decreased and increased transregional connectedness as measured by node degree. Results suggest that modulations in α power facilitate early registration, with sensorimotor cortex including the sensorimotor face area largely functionally decoupled and thereby protected from additional, disruptive input and that subsequent α power decrease together with increased connectedness of sensorimotor areas facilitates successful facial affect recognition.
Histopathological Profile of Malignant Oculoadnexal tumours in a Tertiary Care Hospital : A 10 Year Retrospective Study

Aim: Toanalyze the histopathological profile of malignant oculoadnexal tumors among the patients treated in a tertiary care hospital in Northeast India and to compare findings with previously reported data and seek the cause of disparity wherever possible. Material& Methods:The present study is a 10 years retrospective study(March2004 toMarch2014)carried out in the lab of Regional Institute of Ophthalmology,Guwahati in Northeast India.All the tissues sent for HPE were routinely fixed, processed and stained. IHC was done wherever necessary. Only malignant cases were included in the study and the lab records of these cases were thoroughly reviewed. Results:A total of 135 consecutive histologically diagnosed malignant cases of ocular adnexal tumor were observed in the10 year period. Males (60.7%) were affected more than females (39.2%). The age incidence show two peaks, one in the first decade due to Retinoblastoma and the other in 5th to 6th decade. The most commonly affected site was intraocular (36.29%). Retinoblastoma was the most common malignancy followed by squamous cell carcinoma from various oculoadnexal sites (21.48%). Conclusion:Intraocular region was the most commonly affected site and retinoblastoma was the most commonly observed malignancy.
Psychosocial Adaptation in Pregnancy: Assessment of Seven Dimensions of Maternal Development

The impetus for this book originated from research on the relationship between psychosocial conflicts during pregnancy and selected complications that arise during labor. It became apparent during the interviews with expectant mothers that all the women experienced some conflict in relation to pregnancy and childbearing, and that the patterns of response to conflict could be identified as either adaptive or maladaptive. These patterns of adaptive responses were observed to be progressive in nature in that the gravid woman advanced toward an orientation to a maternal parenting role. When responses were maladaptive, the mother-to-be struggled with her ambivalence about pregnancy and motherhood, and little progress was made in role clarification in the current or in future pregnancies (based on our separate research projects with both primigravid and multigravid women).
Polymorphic tandem repeats within gene promoters act as modifiers of gene expression and DNA methylation in humans

Despite representing an important source of genetic variation, tandem repeats (TRs) remain poorly studied due to technical difficulties. We hypothesized that TRs can operate as expression (eQTLs) and methylation (mQTLs) quantitative trait loci. To test this we analyzed the effect of variation at 4849 promoter-associated TRs, genotyped in 120 individuals, on neighboring gene expression and DNA methylation. Polymorphic promoter TRs were associated with increased variance in local gene expression and DNA methylation, suggesting functional consequences related to TR variation. We identified >100 TRs associated with expression/methylation levels of adjacent genes. These potential eQTL/mQTL TRs were enriched for overlaps with transcription factor binding and DNaseI hypersensitivity sites, providing a rationale for their effects. Moreover, we showed that most TR variants are poorly tagged by nearby single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) markers, indicating that many functional TR variants are not effectively assayed by SNP-based approaches. Our study assigns biological significance to TR variations in the human genome, and suggests that a significant fraction of TR variations exert functional effects via alterations of local gene expression or epigenetics. We conclude that targeted studies that focus on genotyping TR variants are required to fully ascertain functional variation in the genome.
Muting the Meaning A Social Function of Irony

According to the tinge hypothesis, the evaluative tone of the literal meaning of ironic utterances automatically colors the hearer's perception of the intended meaning. In Experiment 1, participants read short stories that end with either a literal or an ironic insult. Ironic insults are rated as less critical than literal insults, and the ironic speaker is rated as less annoyed than the literal speaker. In addition, the speaker-target relationship is affected less negatively when the insult is delivered ironically rather than literally. These results are obtained regardless of whether the addressee or a third person is the target of the remark and regardless of whether the story characters know one another or have just met. In Experiment 2, participants read similar short stories that end with either a literal or ironic compliment. Results mirror those of Experiment 1. Ironic compliments are rated as less praising than literal compliments, and the ironic speaker is rated as less pleased than the literal .
Induction in CEGAR for Detecting Counterexamples

Induction has been studied in model checking for proving the validity of safety properties, i.e., showing the absence of counterexamples. To our knowledge, induction has not been used to refute safety properties. Existing algorithms including bounded model checking, predicate abstraction, and interpolation are not efficient in detecting long counterexamples. In this paper, we propose the use of induction inside the counterexample guided abstraction and refinement (CEGAR) loop to prove the existence of counterexamples. We target bugs whose counterexamples are long and yet can be captured by regular patterns. We identify the pattern algorithmically by analyzing the sequence of spurious counterexamples generated in the CEGAR loop, and perform the induction proof automatically. The new method has little additional overhead to CEGAR and this overhead is insensitive to the actual length of the concrete counterexample.
Mate-Selection Systems and Criteria: Variation according to Family Structure.

This paper examines the relationships between family structure type of mate-selection system and the cultural endorsement of romantic love as a basis for mate selection. Previous research in this aera has produced results which appear to be contradictory. Crosscultural data from a sample of 117 societies are employed to test hypotheses to the effect that autonomous mate selection and romantic love are more common in societies with nuclear than extended family systems; the hypotheses are supported with certain qualifications. An attempt is made to reconcile these findings with earlier research. (authors)
A 40-Gb/s low-power wireline transceiver architecture with multi-phase injection-locked clocking scheme

A low-power transceiver architecture that employs multi-phase injection-locked clocking scheme is presented. The minimal power consumption is realized by reducing global clock frequency and using the interleaving/multi-phase techniques. Besides, injection-locked clocking is utilized to prevent the degradation of transceiver jitter performance. In a 65-nm CMOS process, the proposed 40-Gb/s transceiver consumes 170 mW and achieves the power efficiency of 4.25 mW/Gb/s.
Defining the pathogenicity of creatine deficiency syndrome

This work examined nine patients with creatine deficiency syndrome (CDS): six with a creatine transport (CRTR) defect and three with a GAMT defect. Eleven nucleotide variations were detected: six in SLC6A8 and five in GAMT. These changes were analyzed at the mRNA level and specific alleles (most of which bore premature stop codons) were selected as nulls because they provoked nonsense‐mediated decay activation. The impact of these CDS mutations on metabolic stress (ROS production, p38MAPK activation, aberrant proliferation and apoptosis) was analyzed in patient fibroblast cultures. Oxidative stress contributed toward the severe form of CDS, with increases seen in the intracellular ROS content and the percentage of apoptotic cells. An altered cell cycle was also seen in a number of CRTR and GAMT fibroblast cell lines (mostly those carrying null alleles). p38MAPK activation only correlated with oxidative stress in the CRTR cells. Based on intracellular creatine levels, the contribution of energy depletion toward metabolic stress was demonstrable only in selected CRTR cells. Together, these findings suggest that the apoptotic response to genotoxic damage in the present CDS cells may have been triggered by different cell signaling pathways. They also suggest that reducing oxidative stress could be helpful in treating CDS. Hum Mutat 32:1–10, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Numerical simulations of standing shocks in accretion flows around black holes: a comparative study

We compare the results of numerical simulations of thin and quasi-spherical (thick) accretion flows with existing analytical solutions. We use a Lagrangian code based on the Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) scheme and an Eulerian finite difference code based on the Total Variation Diminishing (TVD) scheme. In one-dimensional thin flows, the results of the simulations, with or without shocks, agree very well with each other and with analytical solutions. In two-dimensional thick flows, the general features, namely the locations and strengths of centrifugal and turbulent pressure supported shocks, centrifugal barriers, and the funnel walls which are expected from analytical models, agree very well, though the details vary. Generally speaking, the locations of the shocks may be better obtained by SPH since the angular momentum is strictly preserved in SPH, but the shocks themselves are better resolved by TVD. The agreement of these code test results with analytical solutions provides us with confidence to apply these codes to more complex problems which we will discuss elsewhere.
Two-Stage Approach for Detection and Reduction of Motion Artifacts in Photoplethysmographic Data

Corruption of photopleythysmograms (PPGs) by motion artifacts has been a serious obstacle to the reliable use of pulse oximeters for real-time, continuous state-of-health monitoring. In this paper, we propose an automated, two-stage PPG data processing method to minimize the effects of motion artifacts. The technique is based on our prior work related to motion artifact detection (stage 1) [R. Krishnan, B. Natarajan, and S. Warren, ``Analysis and detection of motion artifacts in photoplethysmographic data using higher order statistics,'' in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Acoust. , Speech, Signal Process. (ICASSP 2008), Las Vegas, Nevada, Apr. 2008, pp. 613-616] and motion artifact reduction (stage 2) [R. Krishnan, B. Natarajan, and S. Warren, ``Motion artifact reduction in photoplethysmography using magnitude-based frequency domain independent component analysis,'' in Proc. 17th Int. Conf. Comput. Commun. Network, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Aug. 2008, pp. 1-5]. Regarding stage 1, we present novel and consistent techniques to detect the presence of motion artifact in PPGs given higher order statistical information present in the data. We analyze these data in the time and frequency domains (FDs) and identify metrics to distinguish between clean and motion-corrupted data. A Neyman-Pearson detection rule is formulated for each of the metrics. Furthermore, by treating each of the metrics as observations from independent sensors, we employ hard fusion and soft fusion techniques presented in [Z. Chair and P. Varshney, ``Optimal data fusion in multiple sensor detection systems,'' IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron. Syst. , AES, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 98-101, Jan. 1986] and [C. C. Lee and J. J. Chao, ``Optimum local decision space partitioning for distributed detection,'' IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron. Syst. , AES, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 536-544, Jul. 1989], respectively, in order to fuse individual decisions into a global system decision. For stage two, we propose a motion artifact reduction method that is effective even in the presence of severe subject movement. The approach involves an enhanced preprocessing unit consisting of a motion detection unit (MDU, developed in this paper), period estimation unit, and Fourier series reconstruction unit. The MDU identifies clean data frames versus those corrupted with motion artifacts. The period estimation unit determines the fundamental frequency of a corrupt frame. The Fourier series reconstruction unit reconstructs the final preprocessed signal by utilizing the spectrum variability of the pulse waveform. Preprocessed data are then fed to a magnitude-based FD independent component analysis unit. This helps reduce motion artifacts present at the frequencies of the reconstruction components. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the overall motion artifact reduction method.
The Stability of Individual Well-Being in Short Windows of Time: Women’s Perceptions across the Ovulatory Cycle

Empirical research on well-being has rapidly increased in recent years. One of the most dominant issue concerns the degree of cross-situational consistency and stability of well-being across time, and this is of particular relevance to women life. The aim of this study was to verify the stability of women well-being in short windows of time, specifically across menstrual cycle phases. A within-subject design with 25 normally cycling women (range: 19–26 years) was carried out. The multidimensional assessment of well-being included the administration of psychological well-being, self-esteem, and emotional self-efficacy beliefs questionnaires during both high and low-fertility phases. The results showed the stability of the level of individual well-being across menstrual cycle phases. Albeit preliminary, results indicated that women representations of their well-being do not change according to menstrual cycle. Rather, an effective organization and integration of the entire self-system appears sustained by the stability of well-being measured through a multi-componential assessment over short periods of time.
Regression Trees and Random forest based feature selection for malaria risk exposure prediction

This paper deals with prediction of anopheles number, the main vector of malaria risk, using environmental and climate variables. The variables selection is based on an automatic machine learning method using regression trees, and random forests combined with stratified two levels cross validation. The minimum threshold of variables importance is accessed using the quadratic distance of variables importance while the optimal subset of selected variables is used to perform predictions. Finally the results revealed to be qualitatively better, at the selection, the prediction , and the CPU time point of view than those obtained by GLM-Lasso method.
Combined effect of early life stress and acute stress on colonic sensory and motor responses through serotonin pathways: Differences between proximal and distal colon in rats

Clinically, adults who have experienced stresses in childhood present with episodes of serious symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome that are associated with acute stress, but the mechanism is not well understood. This study aimed to investigate the colonic sensory/motor responses to acute water avoidance stress (WAS) in male adult rats subjected to neonatal maternal separation (NMS), and the underlying mechanism of sensory/motor responses. Effects of the combined acute and early life stress on visceral sensation, colonic motility, and the tissue and luminal content of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) in the proximal and distal colon were evaluated using the abdominal withdrawal reflex test, faecal pellet output measurement and capillary electrophoresis analysis, respectively. Results showed that WAS significantly increased not only visceral sensitivity but also colonic motility in NMS rats compared to the normal rats. These alterations were accompanied by significant increase in 5-HT content in the proximal but not the distal colonic tissues; these alterations were also associated with increased density of enterochromaffin (EC) cells in the proximal segment. In contrast, the faecal content of 5-HT increased similarly in both segments. Consecutive administration of parachlorophenylalanine to NMS rats was more potent at 500 mg kg− 1 day− 1 than at 150 mg kg− 1 day− 1 in suppressing colonic sensory/motor responses to WAS, corresponding to the greater reduction of the tissue and faecal content of 5-HT and of EC cell density in the colon. These data indicate that combined early life stress and acute stress effectively induce visceral hyperalgesia and motility disorder through 5-HT pathways in the colon of rats, and the proximal and distal colon have different responses towards the combined stressors.
Extensive Characterization of Oxide-Coated Colloidal Gold Nanoparticles Synthesized by Laser Ablation in Liquid

Colloidal gold nanoparticles are a widespread nanomaterial with many potential applications, but their aggregation in suspension is a critical issue which is usually prevented by organic surfactants. This solution has some drawbacks, such as material contamination and modifications of its functional properties. The gold nanoparticles presented in this work have been synthesized by ultra-fast laser ablation in liquid, which addresses the above issues by overcoating the metal nanoparticles with an oxide layer. The main focus of the work is in the characterization of the oxidized gold nanoparticles, which were made first in solution by means of dynamic light scattering and optical spectroscopy, and then in dried form by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and finally by surface potential measurements with atomic force microscopy. The light scattering assessed the nanoscale size of the formed particles and provided insight in their stability. The nanoparticles’ size was confirmed by direct imaging in transmission electron microscopy, and their crystalline nature was disclosed by X-ray diffraction. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed measurements compatible with the presence of surface oxide, which was confirmed by the surface potential measurements, which are the novel point of the present work. In conclusion, the method of laser ablation in liquid for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles has been presented, and the advantage of this physical approach, consisting of coating the nanoparticles in situ with gold oxide which provides the required morphological and chemical stability without organic surfactants, has been confirmed by using scanning Kelvin probe microscopy for the first time.
KORSAKOFF'S SYNDROME AFTER OPERATION ON RUPTURED ANEURYSM OF THE ANTERIOR COMMUNICATING ARTERY

In 1953 Norle‘n & Olivecrona observed two cases which apparently developed Korsakoff‘s syndrome after operation on aneurysm of the anterior communicating artery. In both cases the aneurysm had been exposed after retraction of the frontal lobe from the falx, which had required ligation of a number of veins from the frontal lobe to the sinus. A methodical psychiatric study was started to analyse the amnestic disorders in patients operated upon for this kind of aneurysm, but for various reasons it could not be concluded. During the last few years, however, it has again become possible for us to attack these problems.