Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Examination of Two Procedures for Identifying Consequential Item Parameter Drift

The purpose of the present study was to develop and evaluate two procedures flagging consequential item parameter drift (IPD) in an operational testing program. The first procedure was based on flagging items that exhibit a meaningful magnitude of IPD using a critical value that was defined to represent barely tolerable IPD. The second procedure was based on flagging items in which the D2 statistic was more than two standard deviations from the mean. Both procedures were implemented using an iterative purification approach to detect IPD. A simulation study was implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of both detection procedures in flagging non-negligible IPD. Both procedures were able to identify IPD and the iterative purification method provided useful information regarding the consequences of excluding or including a flagged item. The advantages and disadvantages of both procedures as well as possible modifications intended to improve the procedures’ effectiveness are discussed in the article.
Zur Akzeptanz und psychologischen Wirkung generisch maskuliner Personenbezeichnungen und deren Alternativen in juristischen Texten

Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Akzeptanz verschiedener Personenbezeichnungsformen in einem juristischen Originaltext. In einer Online-Studie bearbeiteten Versuchsteilnehmende (N = 88) einen Luckentext, in dem sie an vorgegebenen Stellen aus verschiedenen Personenbezeichnungsformen - generisch maskulinen, geschlechterindifferenten sowie Beidnennungen - jeweils eine moglichst passende auswahlten. Die selbst gestalteten Texte wurden anschliesend von den Teilnehmenden hinsichtlich ihrer Verstandlichkeit und Geschlechtergerechtigkeit bewertet. Die Ergebnisse der Luckentextbearbeitung zeigen eine breite Akzeptanz geschlechterindifferenter Bezeichnungsformen. Diese realisieren zudem die Anforderung der Verstandlichkeit und Geschlechtergerechtigkeit amtlicher Texte am besten. Moglichkeiten einer so genannten kreativen Losung, das heist der flexiblen und kontextabhangigen Verwendung verschiedener Bezeichnungsformen in einem Text, werden anhand des untersuchten Rechtstextes aufgezeigt.
Affirming Control by Multiple Reinforcers via Progressive Treatment Analysis

It is common to isolate reinforcement contingencies across several test conditions in functional analyses of problem behavior; however, synthesizing all reinforcement contingencies in a single test condition may also have merit and even be necessary in some cases. Following a differentiated functional analysis, which relied on an interview-informed synthesized test condition, functional communication training (FCT) was applied across the three suspected contingencies of reinforcement, partly in an attempt to understand the relevance of each. Communication responses were acquired for all three reinforcers, and problem behavior ceased only when all contingencies were addressed via FCT, suggesting that problem behavior was controlled by multiple contingencies of reinforcement. These analyses suggest that control by multiple contingencies of reinforcement can be understood during the treatment development process following a highly efficient functional analysis. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
TENSION ANALYSIS IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: A TOOL FOR BREAKING DOWN COMMUNICATION BARRIERS

A communication barrier arises between overseas managers and head office staff when the latter cannot grasp foreign work contexts. The barrier hinders cross‐border management. Communication is likely to improve through training based on the research finding that managers tend to talk about problems in terms of dilemma, paradox and other tensions generated by environmental forces such as culture and politics. Such tensions pervade organizational, managerial and other literature. Learners who study the tension construct become adept at identifying tensions generated by forces affecting domestic as well as international scenarios. More research is needed, but indications are that head office staff learn to empathize with overseas colleagues, and become less inclined to rely on a domestic mindset when analyzing unfamiliar contexts. Study of the tension construct may also improve skills in other forms of scenario analysis, and refine learners' knowledge of negotiation dynamics. Tension analysis has potential as a generic skill for analyzing organizational issues at home and abroad.
Visual attentional processes in adults with dyslexia

6. Buchholz, J., & Aimola Davies, A. (2007). An attentional orienting deficit in adults with dyslexia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 13(Suppl 2), 72. 7. Buchholz, J., & Aimola Davies, A. (2007). An investigation of task constraints on attentional orienting in adults with dyslexia. Australian Journal of Psychology, 59(Suppl 1), 22.
A computational model for decision tree search

How do people plan ahead in sequential decision-making tasks? In this article, we compare computational models of human behavior in a challenging variant of tic-tac-toe, to investigate the cognitive processes underlying sequential planning. We validate the most successful model by predicting choices during games, two-alternative forced choices and board evaluations. We then use this model to study individual skill differences, the effects of time pressure and the nature of expertise. Our findings suggest that people perform less tree search under time pressure, and that players search more as they improve during learning.
Weighing the risks and benefits of tamoxifen treatment for preventing breast cancer.

BACKGROUND In response to findings from the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial that tamoxifen treatment produced a 49% reduction in the risk of invasive breast cancer in a population of women at elevated risk, the National Cancer Institute sponsored a workshop on July 7 and 8, 1998, to develop information to assist in counseling and in weighing the risks and benefits of tamoxifen. Our study was undertaken to develop tools to identify women for whom the benefits outweigh the risks. METHODS Information was reviewed on the incidence of invasive breast cancer and of in situ lesions, as well as on several other health outcomes, in the absence of tamoxifen treatment. Data on the effects of tamoxifen on these outcomes were also reviewed, and methods were developed to compare the risks and benefits of tamoxifen. RESULTS The risks and benefits of tamoxifen depend on age and race, as well as on a woman's specific risk factors for breast cancer. In particular, the absolute risks from tamoxifen of endometrial cancer, stroke, pulmonary embolism, and deep vein thrombosis increase with age, and these absolute risks differ between white and black women, as does the protective effect of tamoxifen on fractures. Tables and aids are developed to describe the risks and benefits of tamoxifen and to identify classes of women for whom the benefits outweigh the risks. CONCLUSIONS Tamoxifen is most beneficial for younger women with an elevated risk of breast cancer. The quantitative analyses presented can assist health care providers and women in weighing the risks and benefits of tamoxifen for reducing breast cancer risk.
Artificial Ear for Robots

Robots with sound localization capability have been developed mostly relying on machine vision or an array of more than two microphones. Humans can localize a sound source hidden to the eye and distinguish whether a sound is coming from front or rear, above or below with only two ears. This is mainly due to the complex shape of the pinna. In particular, reflections off the posterior wall of the concha produce spectral notches at different frequencies in the head-related transfer function (HRTF) as the sound source shifts in position. From the non-individualized HRTFs measured with a B&K HATS (head and torso simulator), we were able to confirm the relationship between the spectral notches and the geometry of the concha. Based on the observation of the HATS' pinna and resulting HRTFs, a novel design of artificial ear that can be mounted on a robot head is proposed in order to explore the possibility of developing sound localization sensors using only two microphones. Experimental results using a designed artificial ear show that the spectral notches are distinctively changed with respect to the elevation in the frontal region, whereas they disappear in the rear. In view of that result, it is expected to pinpoint a sound direction in 3-D space using only two microphones and the designed artificial ear can be a suitable mechanical sensor for sound source localization.
Relationship between Latitude and Melanoma in Italy

Objective. Evaluate the ecological relationship between skin melanoma epidemiology and latitude in Italy. Methods. We used data from the Italian network of cancer registries (Airtum). In a Poisson model, we evaluated the effect on incidence, mortality, and survival of latitude, adjusting for some demographic, social, phenotypic, and behavioural variables. Results. Incidence increased in Italy by 17% for each degree of increase in latitude. The effect of latitude was statistically significantly present also adjusting for other variables (incidence rate ratio = 1.08). The effect of latitude on increasing mortality (mortality rate ratio = 1.27) and improving survival (relative excess risk of death = 0.93) was no longer present in the multivariate model. Conclusion. Melanoma incidence, mortality, and survival vary in Italy according to latitude. After adjustment for several confounders, incidence still grows with growing latitude. Presumably, latitude expresses other variables that might be related to individual susceptibility and/or local care.
Identification of lipid synthesis and secretion proteins in bovine milk

Lactation physiology is a process that is only partly understood. Proteomics techniques have shown to be useful to help advance the knowledge on lactation physiology in human and rodent species but have not been used as major tools for dairy cows, except for mastitis. In this paper, advanced non-targeted proteomics techniques (Filter aided sample preparation and NanoLC-Orbitrap-MS/MS) were applied to study the milk fat globule membrane and milk serum fraction, resulting in the identification of 246 proteins. Of these, 23 transporters and enzymes were related to lipid synthesis and secretion in mammary gland and their functions are discussed in detail. The identification of these intracellular transporters and enzymes in milk provides a possibility of using milk itself to study lipid synthesis and secretion pathways. This full-scale scan of milk proteins by using non-targeted proteomic analysis helps to reveal the important proteins involved in lipid synthesis and secretion for further examination in targeted studies.
An Assessment of Clinical Performance Measures for Pediatric Emergency Physicians

The objectives were to evaluate clinical performance measures used for pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physicians for reliability, correlation with one another, and relationship with clinical experience. This retrospective cohort study collected performance data for PEM physicians working at an urban children’s hospital emergency department (ED) for each of 7 consecutive 6-month periods. Low correlations were seen between patients per hour or admission rate and 72-hour revisit rates. No significant association existed between level of experience and any performance measure. Physician treatment times appeared to be most reliable, and revisit rates were least reliable. Increase in number of patients seen per hour or lower admission rates in the ED are not significantly associated with an increase in revisit rates. Provider experience did not affect performance measures. Physician treatment time, patients per hour, admission rate, and charges per hour are reliable measures to assess the clinical performance of PEM physicians working at a single center.
Moving Forward With Evidence-Based Policing: What Should Police Be Doing and Can We Get Them to Do It?

MOVING FORWARD WITH EVIDENCE-BASED POLICING: WHAT SHOULD POLICE BE DOING AND CAN WE GET THEM TO DO IT? Cody W. Telep, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2013 Dissertation Director: Dr. David Weisburd This dissertation by articles is focused on moving forward with evidence-based policing, concentrating in particular on the tactics officers should be engaging in to reduce crime and disorder most effectively. Three important questions in moving forward are discussed in detail. The first is what exactly does the research evidence suggest police should be doing? Specifically, the dissertation focuses on drawing lessons for police on how they should be implementing strategies that have proven to be effective in rigorous evaluation studies. Drawing out these lessons is potentially one way of making research more digestible and usable for police agencies. This review of what the police should (and should not) be doing draws upon both primary studies and systematic reviews of the policing literature. A second key question is what does evidence-based policing look like in action? Can agencies successfully use the lessons gleaned from prior research to design and evaluate evidence-based approaches to crime control? An evaluation of a hot
Bidirectional Texture Function Compression Based on Multi‐Level Vector Quantization

The Bidirectional Texture Function (BTF) is becoming widely used for accurate representation of real‐world material appearance. In this paper a novel BTF compression model is proposed. The model resamples input BTF data into a parametrization, allowing decomposition of individual view and illumination dependent texels into a set of multi‐dimensional conditional probability density functions. These functions are compressed in turn using a novel multi‐level vector quantization algorithm. The result of this algorithm is a set of index and scale code‐books for individual dimensions. BTF reconstruction from the model is then based on fast chained indexing into the nested stored code‐books. In the proposed model, luminance and chromaticity are treated separately to achieve further compression. The proposed model achieves low distortion and compression ratios 1:233–1:2040, depending on BTF sample variability. These results compare well with several other BTF compression methods with predefined compression ratios, usually smaller than 1:200. We carried out a psychophysical experiment comparing our method with LPCA method. BTF synthesis from the model was implemented on a standard GPU, yielded interactive framerates. The proposed method allows the fast importance sampling required by eye‐path tracing algorithms in image synthesis.
Latino Identities in Context: Ethnic Cues, Immigration, and the Politics of Shared Ethnicity

Latinos have various options in how they identify and mobilize as a group. These choices include national origin, pan-ethnic, or even American based identities. Despite advances in understanding of how shared ethnicity shapes Latino political decisionmaking, there are still a number of unresolved questions as to how Latinos conceptualize their group and how these forms of group identity shape political preferences. I find evidence that levels of acculturation and national origin strongly predict group attachments. More acculturated Latinos are more likely to identify as American. I also find differences in pan-ethnic identification based on national origin. Dominicans and Salvadorans are more likely to identify as Latino or Hispanic than Mexicans. Latino identities also inform support on immigrant policy. Latinos with stronger perceptions of national origin and pan-ethnic interests are more supportive of pro-immigrant measures. However, this relationship is attenuated by levels of acculturation such that more acculturated Latinos are less supportive of pro-immigrant issues.
School Subject Paradigms and Teaching Practice in the Screen Culture: Art, Music and the Mother Tongue (Swedish) under Pressure

There are great expectations that new digital technology will become a powerful tool for developing education activities. Like many countries in Europe and worldwide, Sweden has invested a large amount of resources in new technology and new media (hereafter called digital media), and they have become a natural and important part of school teaching. The developed use of digital media is assumed to lead to educational change and, hence, better teaching. That such expectations have not been fulfilled, however, is shown in a number of Swedish, European and international studies. One explanation of this situation may be that the incorporation of digital media differs between different school subjects. School subjects have their characteristic structures, which are of great importance for how digital media can be integrated. Digital media influence the way in which school subjects can be described from a knowledge theory perspective — i.e. what constitutes the subject's paradigm and its teaching practice. The point of departure of this article is the school subjects of art, music and the mother tongue (Swedish), which, like other school subjects, are feeling the pressure of a digital media and screen culture to an ever increasing degree, and it queries whether and how teachers and pupils in these three school subjects conceive of and relate to the shifts that take place in the subjects when digital media are being increasingly integrated into the teaching. The study is based on interviews with pupils and teachers in the three school subjects, and the results are presented in terms of four themes that appear in the investigation — namely: (1) educational environments; (2) what teachers and pupils regard as the sacred and the profane; (3) motives for using digital media in teaching; and (4) whether and how working methods are changing with digital technology, i.e. questions concerning collective and individual aspects. In all three subjects, there are clear indications that digital media have already started to influence both the subject content and the working methods, while, at the same time, the proportion of digital media is limited and the impact is weak.
Cardiac Autonomic Modulation and the Kinetics of Heart Rate Responses in the On- and Off-Transient during Exercise in Women with Metabolic Syndrome

Objective: To test whether women with metabolic syndrome (MS) have impairments in the on- and off-transients during an incremental test and to study whether any of the MS components are independently associated with the observed responses. Research Design and Methods: Thirty-six women aged 35–55 years were divided into a group with MS (MSG, n = 19) and a control group (CG, n = 17). R-R intervals (RRi) and heart rate variability (HRV) were calculated on a beat-to-beat basis and the heart rate (HR) at the on- and off-transient were analyzed during an incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). Results: MSG showed lower aerobic capacity and lower parasympathetic cardiac modulation at rest compared with CG. HR values in on-transient phase were significantly lower in MSG compared with CG. The exponential amplitudes “amp” and the parameters “τ” [speed of heart rate recovery (HRR)] were lower in MSG. MSG exhibited higher HR values in comparison to CG during the off-transient indicating a slower HRR. In MSG, there was an inverse and significant correlation between fasting plasma vs. ΔF and glucose vs. exponential “τ” of HRR dynamics. Conclusion: MS is associated with poor heart rate kinetics. The altered HR kinetics seems to be related to alterations in cardiac parasympathetic modulation, and glucose metabolism seems to be the major determinant.
Fluoroquinolone consumption and resistance in haematology-oncology patients: ecological analysis in two university hospitals 1999-2002.

OBJECTIVES To compare rates of in vitro fluoroquinolone resistance of bacterial isolates obtained from inpatients of two haematology-oncology services with high and low fluoroquinolone consumption. METHODS Two hospitals with consistently high (A) and low (B) fluoroquinolone use in their haematology-oncology services between the years 1999 and 2002 were identified in a hospital antibiotic use surveillance project. Rates of in vitro resistance to fluoroquinolones in inpatients of the services were determined for Escherichia coli and coagulase-negative staphylococcal bloodstream isolates, and also for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus isolates from any site. RESULTS Fluoroquinolone resistance of E. coli was significantly higher in hospital A than in hospital B, but there was no such correlation between fluoroquinolone use and resistance rates for P. aeruginosa and staphylococci. CONCLUSION The impact of antibiotic consumption on the prevalence of resistance may differ widely between different pathogens. Interventions using ecological analyses of the relationship between hospital antibiotic use and resistance need to consider pathogen-specific dynamics in the emergence and control of bacterial resistance.
Inequality in Higher Education: a study of class barriers

Abstract This paper is based on a study conducted among four groups of people who have direct experience of how social‐class position affects students’ access to, and participation in, higher education. Intensive interviews were undertaken with 122 people deliberately chosen from a range of counties, schools and higher educational institutions in Ireland. Interviews were undertaken with 40 low‐income working‐class second‐level students, 40 others at third level, 10 community workers who were both activists and parents in working‐class communities, 16 teachers and school principals including four from feepaying schools, and 16 second‐level students from fee‐paying secondary schools. The aim of the study was to examine the barriers experienced by low‐income working‐class students in accessing and succeeding in higher education. The study also set out to identify strategies for change as seen from the perspectives of the different groups, and to examine the ways in which more privileged students were able to.
Two distinct desynchronization processes caused by lesions in globally coupled neurons

To accomplish a task, the brain works like a synchronized neuronal network where all the involved neurons work together. When a lesion spreads in the brain, depending on its evolution, it can reach a significant portion of relevant area. As a consequence, a phase transition might occur: the neurons desynchronize and cannot perform a certain task anymore. Lesions are responsible for either disrupting the neuronal connections or, in some cases, for killing the neuron. In this work, we will use a simplified model of neuronal network to show that these two types of lesions cause different types of desynchronization. Received: 20 November 2014, Accepted: 10 March 2015; Edited by: C. A. Condat, G. J. Sibona; DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.4279/PIP.070002 Cite as: F A S Ferrari, R L Viana, Papers in Physics 7, 070002 (2015) This paper, by Fabiano A. S. Ferrari, Ricardo L. Viana , is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 .
Definite Noun Phrases in Statistical Machine Translation into Danish

There are two ways to express definiteness in Danish, which makes it problematic for statistical machine translation (SMT) from English, since the wrong realisation can be chosen. We present a part-of-speech-based method for identifying and transforming English definite NPs that would likely be expressed in a different way in Danish. The transformed English is used for training a phrase-based SMT system.This technique gives significant improvements of translation quality, of up to 22.1% relative on Bleu, compared to a baseline trained on original English, in two different domains.