Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Worst-Case and Smoothed Analysis of k-Means Clustering with Bregman Divergences

The k-means algorithm is the method of choice for clustering large-scale data sets and it performs exceedingly well in practice. Most of the theoretical work is restricted to the case that squared Euclidean distances are used as similarity measure. In many applications, however, data is to be clustered with respect to other measures like, e.g., relative entropy, which is commonly used to cluster web pages. In this paper, we analyze the running-time of the k-means method for Bregman divergences, a very general class of similarity measures including squared Euclidean distances and relative entropy. We show that the exponential lower bound known for the Euclidean case carries over to almost every Bregman divergence. To narrow the gap between theory and practice, we also study k-means in the semi-random input model of smoothed analysis. For the case that n data points in ? d are perturbed by noise with standard deviation ? , we show that for almost arbitrary Bregman divergences the expected running-time is bounded by ${\rm poly}(n^{\sqrt k}, 1/\sigma)$ and k kd ·poly(n, 1/? ).
Effects of Audio Texts on the Acquisition of Secondary-Level Content by Students with Mild Disabilities

Secondary students with high-incidence cognitive disabilities often struggle to meet the demands of the general education curriculum due to poor reading skills. to address this challenge, we examined the effects of a CD-ROM audio textbook, alone and combined with a complementary strategy (SLiCK), on the academic performance of secondary students in content-rich history classes. Students were assigned to one of three conditions: audio textbook combined with the SLiCK strategy, the audio textbook alone, or a control condition. Students in the groups using the audio text, both alone and with the strategy, performed significantly higher on content-area assessments than students in the control condition; however, there was no significant difference in scores between the group using the SLiCK strategy and the group using the audio text alone. Still, it is noteworthy that use of the audio text had a significant effect on secondary-level content acquisition. Outcomes are discussed, and implications for practice, strategy development, and future research are presented.
In Preparation for Adulthood

The inclusion of minorities in the civic affairs of society is critical. Research indicates many of today's youth are less likely to engage in meaningful civic activities and more likely to experience social exclusion because of disparities in educational settings, economic disadvantages, and health disparities. This phenomenon is more likely to occur in communities overcome by crime, drug dealing, and other indicators of diminished quality of life, where there is greater anonymity and suspicion among neighbors and less trust. Social trust is a significant trait for adulthood because social trust promotes individuals' actively engaging in society and seeing themselves as valued members of their communities. Secondary data from the CIRCLE National Youth Survey, comprising 1,000 youths between ages 15 and 25 years, show that youth who trust in others and trust in government are more likely to participate in community service, voting, and political volunteerism, even among young minorities.
Towards unravelling task‐related modulations of neuroplastic changes induced in the human motor cortex

Stimulation with weak electrical direct currents has been shown to be capable of inducing stimulation‐polarity‐dependent prolonged diminutions or elevations of cortical excitability, most probably elicited by a hyper‐ or depolarization of resting membrane potentials. The aim of the present study was to test if cognitive task and motor exercise practiced during the stimulation are able to modify transcranial direct current stimulation‐induced plasticity in the left primary motor cortex in 12 healthy subjects. Motor evoked potentials were recorded before and after 10 min of anodal and cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation. In Experiment 1, subjects were required to sit passively during the stimulation, in Experiment 2 the subject's attention was directed towards a cognitive test and in Experiment 3 subjects were instructed to push a ball in their right hand. Both the cognitive task and motor exercise modified transcranial direct current stimulation‐induced plasticity; when performing the cognitive task during stimulation the motor cortex excitability was lower after anodal stimulation and higher after cathodal stimulation, compared with the passive condition. When performing the motor exercise, the motor cortex excitability was lower after both anodal and cathodal stimulation, compared with the passive condition. Our results show that transcranial direct current stimulation‐induced plasticity is highly dependent on the state of the subject during stimulation.
A Critical Appraisal of Gardner's Social‐Psychological Theory of Second‐Language (L2) Learning*

The social-psychological theory of second-language (L2) learning proposed by R. C. Gardner (Gardner & Lambert, 1959; Gardner, 1979; Gardner, 1982; Gardner, 1983) has been one of the most long-standing theories of L2 learning. For the past 25 years, it has generated a substantial number of studies in various parts of the world. Interestingly enough, a comprehensive and detailed evaluation of the theory has not been forthcoming1. This paper attempts to do just that. It begins with an overview of Gardner's theory. The theory is then analyzed into five major propositions, each of which will be evaluated in the light of relevant studies. Recent developments will then be discussed.
Increased neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio predicts persistent coronary no-flow after wire insertion in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention

OBJECTIVES: Acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients presenting persistent no-flow after wire insertion have a lower survival rate despite successful mechanical intervention. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio has been associated with increased mortality and worse clinical outcomes in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. We hypothesized that an elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio would also be associated with a persistent Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade of 0 after wire insertion in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention. METHODS: A total of 644 patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention within 12 hours of symptom onset were included in our study. Blood samples were drawn immediately upon hospital admission. The patients were divided into 3 groups according to their Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade: Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade 0 after wire insertion, Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade 1-3 after wire insertion and Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade 1-3 at baseline. RESULTS: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio was significantly higher in the group with Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade 0 after wire insertion compared with the group with Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade 1-3 after wire insertion and the group with Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade 1-3 at baseline. The group with Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction flow grade 0 after wire insertion also had a significantly higher in-hospital mortality rate. Persistent coronary no-flow after wire insertion was independently associated with the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. CONCLUSIONS: An increased neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio on admission is significantly associated with persistent coronary no-flow after wire insertion in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention.
Deaf children's short‐term memory for lip‐read, graphic and signed stimuli

Orally trained, profoundly deaf children's short-term memory for lip-read, signed and graphic stimuli was investigated using the serial ordered recall paradigm. Experiment 1 showed that both deaf and normally hearing boys exhibited more recency in their recall of lip-read lists of digits than in their recall of graphically presented lists, indicating that such recency effects are not restricted to auditory perception or processing. Experiment 2 studied the effects of phonological and non-phonological suffixes on good and poor deaf speakers' recall of lip-read lists. The two groups performed identically, and whereas the phonological suffix impaired end-of-list recall, the non-phonological suffix did not affect recency. Experiment 3 showed that both deaf and hearing subjects exhibited enhanced accuracy of end-of-list recall for moving, as compared with static, hand signs. It was concluded that deaf and hearing subjects did not differ in the way they remembered the visual stimuli presented, and that lip-read information was coded phonologically by deaf subjects, irrespective of their articulatory skill. Further, movement of stimulus features makes an important contribution to enhanced recency effects in the recall of visually presented lists for both deaf and hearing subjects.
Outside Finance, Dominant Investors and Strategic Transparency

This Paper studies the incentives for transparency under different forms of corporate governance in a context of product market competition. This Paper endogenizes the governance and financial structure of firms and determines a strategic decision on the degree of transparency in a context of product market competition. When firms seeking outside finance resort to actively monitored debt in order to commit against opportunistic behaviour, the dominant lender can influence corporate transparency. More transparency about a firm's competitive position has both strategic advantages and disadvantages: in general, transparency results in higher variability of profits and output. Thus lenders prefer less information dissemination, as this protects firms when in a weak competitive position, while equityholders prefer more disclosure to maximize profitability when in a strong position. We show that bank-controlled firms will be opaque, while shareholder-run firms prefer more transparency. We can predict a clustering of attributes: bank dominance, established firms with valuable investment, but also significant assets in place, opaqueness, low variability of profits, somewhat lower average profits, and a reversed pattern for equity-controlled firms. Finally, bank control may fail to keep firms less transparent as global trading volumes rise.
An Agent Morality View of Business Policy

We develop a philosophical perspective on the moral obligations of managers, which we call agent morality, by examining the moral implications of agency theory. Our view is grounded in noninstrumental ethics, which we argue is logically superior to instrumental ethics. We show that the principal-agent model of the firm, once properly considered, requires that managers fashion business policies with reference first to certain moral duties and second to shareholder wealth.
Beam-Stack Search: Integrating Backtracking with Beam Search

We describe a method for transforming beam search into a complete search algorithm that is guaranteed to find an optimal solution. Called beam-stack search, the algorithm uses a new data structure, called a beam stack, that makes it possible to integrate systematic backtracking with beam search. The resulting search algorithm is an anytime algorithm that finds a good, sub-optimal solution quickly, like beam search, and then backtracks and continues to find improved solutions until convergence to an optimal solution. We describe a memory-efficient implementation of beam-stack search, called divide-and-conquer beam-stack search, as well as an iterative-deepening version of the algorithm. The approach is applied to domain-independent STRIPS planning, and computational results show its advantages.
Emotionsregulation und aggressives Verhalten im Jugendalter

Die Storungen des Sozialverhaltens treten im Jugendalter haufig auf und sind mit schwerwiegenden Konsequenzen verbunden. Einen proximalen Risikofaktor dafur stellt wahrscheinlich eine defizitare Emotionsregulation dar. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde daher der Zusammenhang zwischen Emotionsregulation und aggressivem Verhalten im Grundschulalter untersucht. 278 Jugendliche (12 – 17 Jahre) fullten Selbstberichtsfragebogen zu internalen, externalen, funktionalen sowie dysfunktionalen Emotionsregulationsstrategien und aggressivem Verhalten aus. Hierarchische multiple Regressionsanalysen analysieren den Einfluss von Emotionsregulationsmustern auf verschiedene Formen der Aggression. Die Ergebnisse zeigen zwar signifikante Geschlechtsunterschiede bei der Haufigkeit der Anwendung von Regulationsstrategien, die sich jedoch nicht im Ausmas aggressiven Verhaltens ausern. Internal- und external-dysfunktionale Emotionsregulation waren bedeutsame Pradiktoren oppositionell-aggressiven Verhaltens und allgemein aggressiv.
Severe mammal declines coincide with proliferation of invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park

Invasive species represent a significant threat to global biodiversity and a substantial economic burden. Burmese pythons, giant constricting snakes native to Asia, now are found throughout much of southern Florida, including all of Everglades National Park (ENP). Pythons have increased dramatically in both abundance and geographic range since 2000 and consume a wide variety of mammals and birds. Here we report severe apparent declines in mammal populations that coincide temporally and spatially with the proliferation of pythons in ENP. Before 2000, mammals were encountered frequently during nocturnal road surveys within ENP. In contrast, road surveys totaling 56,971 km from 2003–2011 documented a 99.3% decrease in the frequency of raccoon observations, decreases of 98.9% and 87.5% for opossum and bobcat observations, respectively, and failed to detect rabbits. Road surveys also revealed that these species are more common in areas where pythons have been discovered only recently and are most abundant outside the python's current introduced range. These findings suggest that predation by pythons has resulted in dramatic declines in mammals within ENP and that introduced apex predators, such as giant constrictors, can exert significant top-down pressure on prey populations. Severe declines in easily observed and/or common mammals, such as raccoons and bobcats, bode poorly for species of conservation concern, which often are more difficult to sample and occur at lower densities.
Artesunate Exerts a Direct Effect on Endothelial Cell Activation and NF-κB Translocation in a Mechanism Independent of Plasmodium Killing

Artemisinin and its derivates are an important class of antimalarial drug and are described to possess immunomodulatory activities. Few studies have addressed the effect of artesunate in the murine malaria model or its effect on host immune response during malaria infection. Herein, we study the effect of artesunate treatment and describe an auxiliary mechanism of artesunate in modulating the inflammatory response during experimental malaria infection in mice. Treatment with artesunate did not reduce significantly the parasitemia within 12 h, however, reduced BBB breakdown and TNF-α mRNA expression in the brain tissue of artesunate-treated mice. Conversely, mefloquine treatment was not able to alter clinical features. Notably, artesunate pretreatment failed to modulate the expression of LFA-1 in splenocytes stimulated with parasitized red blood cells (pRBCs) in vitro; however, it abrogated the expression of ICAM-1 in pRBC-stimulated endothelial cells. Accordingly, a cytoadherence in vitro assay demonstrated that pRBCs did not adhere to artesunate-treated vascular endothelial cells. In addition, NF-κB nuclear translocation in endothelial cells stimulated with pRBCs was impaired by artesunate treatment. Our results suggest that artesunate is able to exert a protective effect against the P. berghei-induced inflammatory response by inhibiting NF-κB nuclear translocation and the subsequent expression of ICAM-1.
Comparative avian phylogeography of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea mountains: implications for conservation

We illustrate the use of Faith’s ‘Phylogenetic Diversity’ measure to compare the phylogeographic structure of two bird species with patterns of avian endemism across six mountains in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. The Mountain Greenbul and Cameroon Blue‐headed Sunbird showed phylogeographic patterns that together defined three biogeographic regions: Bioko, Mt. Cameroon, and the northern mountains of Cameroon. In contrast, the distributions of endemic species were largely a function of geographical distance, with close mountains sharing more endemic species than distant mountains. Moreover, for both species, populations on Mt. Cameroon were distinctive with respect to the ecologically relevant character bill size. Our results, while preliminary, illustrate the utility of a comparative approach for identifying geographical regions that harbour evolutionarily distinct populations and caution against using only the distributional patterns of endemics to prioritize regions for conservation. Results show that patterns of endemism may not be concordant with patterns of phylogenetic diversity nor morphological variation in a character important in fitness. While incorporation of additional species from unrelated taxa will be necessary to draw definitive conclusions about evolutionarily distinct regions, our preliminary results suggest a conservation approach for the Afromontane region of the Gulf of Guinea that would: (i) emphasize protection of both Bioko and Mt. Cameroon, thereby maximizing preservation of within–species phylogenetic and morphologic diversity; (ii) emphasize protection within the northern mountains to further conserve intraspecific phylogenetic diversity and maximize protection of endemic species.
Prevalence of positional nystagmus during static positional testing in normal healthy population using video-nystagmography

Positional nystagmus (PN) is a type of nystagmus that occurs as a result of the head or the head and body being moved from one position to another and then statically maintained in the critical position. Until recently, PN was always considered as an abnormal finding regardless of its character. However, with emergence of the highly sensitive technique of videonystagmography (VNG) it has become apparent that PN does occur frequently in healthy individuals. Since the present criteria for determining pathological PN have been based on electronystagmography (ENG), which provides less sensitive measure of vertical eye movements than VNG, there have been attempts to outline new criteria based on the VNG method. However, to date, no new explicit criteria have been agreed on by scientists. Further to this, a number of factors have been found to affect results of static position testing, including mental alerting, response repeatability, and the number of head and body positions tested, and these factors all need to be examined. Apart from investigating prevalence of PN in healthy normal individuals, this experiment examined three variables: the effects of mental alerting, within session repeatability of PN, and the prevalence of PN across different head and body positions. Eighteen participants (13 female, 5 male) aged 22 to 76 years with no history of balance disorder were tested in four identical sets of static positional testing using VNG. Each test set included 11 head and body positions. Two of these test sets were conducted with mental alerting and two sets without mental alerting. Gathered data were analysed with respect to presence of PN, direction of PN, and peak slow phase velocity (SPV). In total 66.7% of the participants developed persistent PN in at least one test position in at least one of the four test sets. Three main types of PN were found in this study: vertical, horizontal, and oblique. The most common type of PN across the entire study was vertical up-beating (VUB) PN (45.6%); however, the most common type of PN across individual participants was horizontal PN (75%). Oblique PN had the greatest mean peak SPV. Mental alerting had significant effect on prevalence of PN, but it did not increase the magnitude of the SPV. The prevalence of PN was only modestly repeatable within the paired mental alerting and non-mental alerting test sets, and the repeatability was greater for the test sets with mental alerting. There were no significant differences between the SPV magnitudes within the paired test sets, suggesting good within-session repeatability of the SPV magnitudes. The „supine with head straight? (SHS) and „supine with head turned right? (SHR) positions provoked the highest rates of PN; however, there was no one position that would not provoke PN in at least one participant and at least one test set. Overall 22.2% of the participants did not fit the current criteria for „normality? based on ENG, indicating the need for refinement of those criteria using VNG.
COMPETENCIAS GENÉRICAS EN LA EDUCACIÓN SUPERIOR TECNOLÓGICA MEXICANA: DESDE LAS PERCEPCIONES DE DOCENTES Y ESTUDIANTES

Los modelos educativos, a nivel mundial, estan sufriendo modificaciones hacia la implementacion del enfoque en competencias. Tal es el caso del Sistema Nacional de Educacion Superior Tecnologica en Mexico. Dada la relevancia, se llevo a cabo un estudio para conocer la perspectiva que tienen los docentes y estudiantes sobre las competencias genericas (CG). El trabajo se desarrollo mediante encuestas aplicadas en Institutos Tecnologicos a nivel nacional. En este articulo se presentan los resultados obtenidos sobre los siguientes topicos: la importancia de las CG, la identificacion de las esenciales, y la relacion que tienen entre las diferentes categorias de carreras de los Institutos Tecnologicos. Se encontro que los docentes otorgan mayor importancia a las CG que los estudiantes; ademas, se advierte una concordancia de los resultados entre las CG esenciales tanto por los docentes como por los estudiantes; asimismo, se observan varias diferencias entre categorias de carreras. Se concluye que tanto academicos y estudiantes perciben positivamente la incorporacion de las CG en los programas de estudio, dejando entrever un ambiente propicio para su implementacion. Se propone, ademas, un estudio complementario. El analisis revelo que a cada carrera le corresponden diferentes CG esenciales. The educational models around the world are undergoing modifications to the implementation of the competences approach. Such is the case of the National Higher Technological Education System in Mexico. Given the importance of this, conducted a study to determine the perspective which teachers and students on generic competences (CG). The work was developed through surveys completed in Institutes of Technology nationwide. This article presents the results obtained on the following topics: the importance of the CG, the identification of essential and the relationship they have between different categories of careers in research centers. We found that the teachers give greater importance to the CG than students, in addition, we see a concordance of results between the essential CG both teachers and the students, on the other side there were several key differences between categories careers. We conclude that both faculty and students perceived positively by the inclusion of CG in the curriculum, suggesting an environment conducive to its implementation. It also proposes an additional study. The analysis revealed that each career will show different CG essential.