Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Settlement of the Americas: A Comparison of the Linguistic, Dental, and Genetic Evidence [and Comments and Reply]

The classification of the indigenous languages of the Americas by Greenberg distinguishes three stocks, Amerind, Na-Dene, and Aleut-Eskimo. The first of these covers almost all of the New World. The second consists of Na-Dene as defined by Sapir and, outside of recent. Athapaskan extensions in California and the American Southwest, is found in southern Alaska and northwestern Canada. The third, Aleut-Eskimo, is the easternmost branch of the Eurasiatic language family located in northern Asia and Europe. These three linguistic stocks are found to agree well with the three dental groups proposed by Turner and the genetic divisions of the New World population advanced by Zegura. The three groups are hypothesized as representing the settlement of the New World by successive migrations from Asia. The earliest is in all probability the Amerind; the relative priority of Na-Dene to Aleut-Eskimo is less certain. The evidence regarding the absolute chronology of these proposed migrations is discussed.
Measuring the Big Five with single items using a bipolar response scale

The convergence on the Big Five in personality theory has produced a demand for efficient yet psychometrically sound measures. Therefore, five single‐item measures, using bipolar response scales, were constructed to measure the Big Five and evaluated in terms of their convergent and off‐diagonal divergent properties, their pattern of criterion correlations and their reliability when compared with four longer Big Five measures. In a combined sample (N = 791) the Single‐Item Measures of Personality (SIMP) demonstrated a mean convergence of r = 0.61 with the longer scales. The SIMP also demonstrated acceptable reliability, self–other accuracy, and divergent correlations, and a closely similar pattern of criterion correlations when compared with the longer scales. It is concluded that the SIMP offer a reasonable alternative to longer scales, balancing the demands of brevity versus reliability and validity. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Accountability in Family Discourse

This article explores morality as situated activity and approaches the discursive practice of accountability in Italian family dinner conversations as an avenue for understanding the construction of moral behaviour in everyday interpersonal interaction. The article focuses in particular on vicarious accounts, namely accounts, or explanations, provided by parents for a child’s misbehaviour. It examines the multiple socializing functions that vicarious accounts accomplish and the different dimensions of responsibility that they mobilize. While scaffolding children’s participation in episodes of accountability, vicarious accounts set up constraints on children’s autonomy of action, neutralizing more subversive and blameworthy interpretations of their problematic conduct. In this sense, vicarious accounts are qualified concessions and are face-saving acts both for the child whose action was signalled as improper and for the parent who initially requested the account.
Psychosocial Predictors of Eating Disorder Risk in Overweight and Obese Treatment-Seeking Adolescents

Abstract This study explored eating disorder risk factors and possible psychosocial predictors of this risk in overweight and obese treatment-seeking adolescents. Prior to commencing treatment 108 overweight and obese adolescents aged 11 to 17 years (M = 14.31, SD = 1.57; 55% female) completed self-report measures of psychosocial factors. Females reported elevated levels of bulimic tendencies, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness (p ≤.001) and males reported elevated body dissatisfaction (p < .001). Age, sex and BMI-for-age z-score explained 15% (p < .001) of the variance in eating disorder risk and psychosocial predictors an additional 25%. Sex did not have a moderating effect on these relationships (p = .21). Among overweight and obese treatment-seeking adolescents, those experiencing lower self-esteem and elevated depression and anxiety symptomatology are at increased eating disorder risk. This highlights the need to consider psychosocial factors in preventing and treating overweight and obesity.
Producing the young biocitizen: secondary school students' negotiation of learning in physical education

Given that the health of the nation is often interpreted in and through the health of the nation's youth, the threat of the ‘childhood obesity epidemic’ garners much attention and it is hardly surprising that physical education has been recruited in the ‘war on [childhood] obesity'. This paper explores how students aged 13–15 years, at a secondary school in Toronto, Canada, make sense of, negotiate and embody the health messages embedded within the obesity-informed Health and Physical Education (HPE) curricula. A post-structural analysis of student narratives reveals the ways in which notions of biocitizenry constitute a visibly ‘healthy’, gendered, engaged, normalized body. The ‘good’ HPE student negotiates health discourse in productive and responsive ways, constructing a virtuous subjectivity and alienating the unruly or undisciplined, unhealthy body in HPE.
Condition-specific genetic interaction maps reveal crosstalk between the cAMP/PKA and the HOG MAPK pathways in the activation of the general stress response

Cells must quickly respond and efficiently adapt to environmental changes. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has multiple pathways that respond to specific environmental insults, as well as a generic stress response program. The later is regulated by two transcription factors, Msn2 and Msn4, that integrate information from upstream pathways to produce fast, tunable, and robust response to different environmental changes. To understand this integration, we employed a systematic approach to genetically dissect the contribution of various cellular pathways to Msn2/4 regulation under a range of stress and growth conditions. We established a high‐throughput liquid handling and automated flow cytometry system and measured GFP levels in 68 single‐knockout and 1,566 double‐knockout strains that carry an HSP12‐GFP allele as a reporter for Msn2/4 activity. Based on the expression of this Msn2/4 reporter in five different conditions, we identified numerous genetic and epistatic interactions between different components in the network upstream to Msn2/4. Our analysis gains new insights into the functional specialization of the RAS paralogs in the repression of stress response and identifies a three‐way crosstalk between the Mediator complex, the HOG MAPK pathway, and the cAMP/PKA pathway.
Track misperceptions and frustrated college plans: an analysis of the effects of tracks and track perceptions in the National Longitudinal Survey

Social allocation processes in schools have recently attracted interest in the status-attainment literature, particularly in studies of the effects of high school tracking. However, although studies of tracking have often taken students' reports as indicators of their track placements, some case studies have suggested that students may not understand or correctly perceive their track placements. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey, the present study compares the effects of tracking in two versions of a status-attainment model, one using students' track perceptions and the other using their actual tracks (taken from school records), and then combines the two in a single model. This study finds that students often misperceive their tracks and that students' track perceptions significantly underestimate tracking's relationship with important antecedents and outcomes. In particular, it finds that tracking has an important influence on students' college attendance after controlling for students' plans, but track perceptions do not. This suggests that although tracking frustrates many students' plans to attend college, students' incorrect perceptions of their track placements make them less able to anticipate that this will happen. The methodological implications of this analysis for tracking research are considered, and some speculations are offered about how track misperceptions may originate and how they may influence the operation and stability of track systems.
Population Trend of the World’s Monitored Seabirds, 1950-2010

Seabird population changes are good indicators of long-term and large-scale change in marine ecosystems, and important because of their many impacts on marine ecosystems. We assessed the population trend of the world’s monitored seabirds (1950–2010) by compiling a global database of seabird population size records and applying multivariate autoregressive state-space (MARSS) modeling to estimate the overall population trend of the portion of the population with sufficient data (i.e., at least five records). This monitored population represented approximately 19% of the global seabird population. We found the monitored portion of the global seabird population to have declined overall by 69.7% between 1950 and 2010. This declining trend may reflect the global seabird population trend, given the large and apparently representative sample. Furthermore, the largest declines were observed in families containing wide-ranging pelagic species, suggesting that pan-global populations may be more at risk than shorter-ranging coastal populations.
The Relationships Among Academic Attitudes, Psychological Attitudes, and the First-Semester Academic Achievement of First-Year College Students

This study examined the relationships among academic and psychological attitudes and academic achievement of first-year students. The College Resilience Scale, the Academic Motivation Scale, the College Self-Efficacy Inventory, and the University Environment Scale were administered to 164 first-year undergraduate students enrolled at a large RU/VH university in the northeastern United States. Only two variables, race and resilience, were significantly related to first-semester grade point average; however, findings indicated significant relationships among the core variables in this study, specifically academic motivation, resilience, and self-efficacy. The implications of these results for research and practice are explored.
Ethnic Group Population Change and Neighbourhood Belonging

The community cohesion agenda in Britain has focused attention on the ethnic character of neighbourhoods and how population change affects cohesion. This paper examines the relationship between neighbourhood ethnic group population change and belonging. The paper measures population change as immigration, gross internal migration and with a categorisation of ethnic group population dynamics that combines migration and natural change. Pooled 2005 and 2007 Citizenship Survey data are analysed using multilevel logistic regression models. The paper does not find evidence for relationships between immigration or local population turnover and levels of neighbourhood belonging; nor is there evidence that ethnically differentiated population change matters. However, belonging does vary by individualâ€™s ethnicity; and strong belonging is associated with high co-ethnic density for minorities. In addition, the overall population change of an area may be significant: highest levels of belonging were found in areas of White and Minority population growth driven by migration.
Superdiffusive Behavior of Mobile Nodes and Its Impact on Routing Protocol Performance

Mobility is the most important component in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and delay-tolerant networks (DTNs). In this paper, we first investigate numerous GPS mobility traces of human mobile nodes and observe superdiffusive behavior in all GPS traces, which is characterized by a ¿faster-than-linear¿ growth rate of the mean square displacement (MSD) of a mobile node. We then investigate a large amount of access point (AP) based traces, and develop a theoretical framework built upon continuous time random walk (CTRW) formalism, in which one can identify the degree of diffusive behavior of mobile nodes even under possibly heavy-tailed pause time distribution, as in the case of reality. We study existing synthetic models and trace-based models in terms of the capability of producing various degrees of diffusive behavior, and use a set of Levy walk models due to its simplicity and flexibility. In addition, we show that diffusive properties make a huge impact on contact-based metrics and the performance of routing protocols in various scenarios, and that existing models such as random waypoint, random direction model, or Brownian motion lead to overly optimistic or pessimistic results when diffusive properties are not properly captured. Our work in this paper, thus, suggests that the diffusive behavior of mobile nodes should be correctly captured and taken into account for the design and comparison study of network protocols.
Pupil size, affect and exposure frequency

Four investigations of the affect-pupil size relationship are reported here as attempts to test Hess’s (1965) attraction-dilation and aversion-constriction hypotheses. In the first 2 studies, no evidence was found for a relationship between pupil size and frequency of exposure to a stimulus as defined by Zajonc (1968). However, it was observed that the stronger a stimulus was rated in terms of affect (like-dislike), whether positive or negative, the larger the pupil size. Pupil size at the neutral point was not smallest, as expected, but was elevated, relative to the points adjacent to it. Two additional studies, using a pseudo task which induced feelings of success or failure, confirmed the previous findings. A positive relationship was found between pupil size and affect intensity, and again, elevated pupil size at the neutral points. There was no evidence of constriction to any stimulus, positive or negative, in any of the 4 studies. It was concluded that pupil size is linearly related to the intensity continuum of affect and curvilinearly related to its valence (positive-negative) continuum.
On the Landscape of Combinatorial Optimization Problems

This paper carries out a comparison of the fitness landscape for four classic optimization problems: Max-Sat, graph-coloring, traveling salesman, and quadratic assignment. We have focused on two types of properties, local average properties of the landscape, and properties of the local optima. For the local optima we give a fairly comprehensive description of the properties, including the expected time to reach a local optimum, the number of local optima at different cost levels, the distance between optima, and the expected probability of reaching the optima. Principle component analysis is used to understand the correlations between the local optima. Most of the properties that we examine have not been studied previously, particularly those concerned with properties of the local optima. We compare and contrast the behavior of the four different problems. Although the problems are very different at the low level, many of the long-range properties exhibit a remarkable degree of similarity.
Nitric oxide induces heme oxygenase-1 gene expression in mesangial cells.

BACKGROUND Nitric oxide (NO) release as a result of activation of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) can be sustained and reach cytotoxic concentrations. It is unknown whether cells possess intrinsic systems to attenuate NO-mediated cytotoxicity. One potential system is the heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) enzyme because it catabolizes heme and therefore may limit synthesis or availability of iNOS. These studies were undertaken to explore whether NO derived from NO donors or from activation of iNOS induces HO-1 in mesangial cells. METHODS The expression of the HO-1 gene was evaluated at the mRNA (Northern blot analysis) and protein (Western blot analysis) levels in mesangial cells treated with two NO donors, sodium nitroprusside (SNP) and S-nitroso-N-acetyl-DL-penicillamine (SNAP), or was stimulated by the combination of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) to induce iNOS in the presence and absence of NOS inhibitor NG-Monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA). RESULTS HO-1 was constitutively expressed in mesangial cells. Both SNP and SNAP induced HO-1 mRNA in a dose-dependent manner. The increase in mRNA was associated with an increase in HO-1 protein in SNP-treated cells. The combination of the LPS/IFN-gamma mixture induced iNOS expression and NO production in murine mesangial cells, as assessed by Western blot analysis and measurement of nitrite levels. HO-1 expression was also increased in response to LPS/IFN-gamma. L-NMMA dose dependently attenuated HO-1 mRNA and protein levels. In contrast, iNOS expression was dose dependently enhanced. CONCLUSIONS Our studies demonstrate that both exogenously or iNOS-derived NO enhance HO-1 expression in mesangial cells and point to regulatory interactions between the iNOS and HO pathways. HO-1 activation may defend against NO-mediated toxicity.
Adoption of the Personas Technique in the Open Source Software Development Process

The growth in the number of non-developer open source software (OSS) application users and the escalating use of these applications have led to the need and interest in developing usable OSS. OSS communities do not generally know how to apply usability techniques and are unclear about which techniques to use in each activity of the development process. The aim of our research is to adopt the Personas usability technique in the PSeInt OSS project and determine the feasibility of adapting the technique for application. To do this, we participated as volunteers in the project. We used the case study research method during technique application and participation in the community. As a result, we identified adverse conditions that were an obstacle to technique application and modified the technique to make it applicable. We can conclude from our experience that these changes were helpful for applying the technique, although it was not easy to recruit OSS users to participate in usability technique application.
Structures and Mechanisms of Community Participation in School Management

Realizing that community involvement is vital for quality improvement, the government of Nepal decided to transfer the school management authority to the community as a reform measure for school improvement. But the teaching force, one of the important segments of the community is opposing the government’s strategies. This paper attempts to discuss significance and importance of transferring management responsibility to the community from the perspective of theory and practice and highlights the benefits and prerequisites based on the review of international practices. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3126/jer.v1i0. 7954 Journal of Education and Research 2008, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 72-85
On the temporal fidelity of nonlinear inverse reconstructions for real- time MRI – The motion challenge.

Purpose: To evaluate the temporal accuracy of a self-consistent nonlinear inverse reconstruction method (NLINV) for real-time MRI using highly undersampled radial gradient-echo sequences and to present an open source framework for the motion assessment of real-time MRI methods. Methods: Serial image reconstructions by NLINV combine a joint estimation of individual frames and corresponding coil sensitivities with temporal regularization to a preceding frame. The temporal fidelity of the method was determined with a phantom consisting of water-filled tubes rotating at defined angular velocity. The conditions tested correspond to real- time cardiac MRI using SSFP contrast at 1.5 T (40 ms resolution) and T1 contrast at 3.0 T (33 ms and 18 ms resolution). In addition, the performance of a post-processing temporal median filter was evaluated. Results: NLINV reconstructions without temporal filtering yield accurate estimations as long as the speed of a small moving object corresponds to a spatial displacement during the acquisition of a single frame which is smaller than the object itself. Faster movements may lead to geometric distortions. For small objects moving at high velocity, a median filter may severely compromise the spatiotemporal accuracy. Conclusion: NLINV reconstructions offer excellent temporal fidelity as long as the image acquisition time is short enough to adequately sample ("freeze") the object movement. Temporal filtering should be applied with caution. The motion framework emerges as a valuable tool for the evaluation of real-time MRI methods.
Configuration Encoding Techniques for Fast FPGA Reconfiguration

This thesis examines the problem of reducing reconfiguration time of an island-style FPGA at its configuration memory level. The approach followed is to examine configuration encoding techniques in order to reduce the size of the bitstream that must be loaded onto the device to perform a reconfiguration. A detailed analysis of a set of benchmark circuits on various island-style FPGAs shows that a typical circuit randomly changes a small number of bits in the null or default configuration state of the device. This feature is exploited by developing efficient encoding schemes for configuration data. For a wide set of benchmark circuits on various FPGAs, it is shown that the proposed methods outperform all previous configuration compression methods and, depending upon the relative size of the circuit to the device, compress within 5% of the fundamental information theoretic limit. Moreover, it is shown that the corresponding decoders are simple to implement in hardware and scale well with device size and available configuration bandwidth. It is not unreasonable to expect that with little modification to existing FPGA configuration memory systems and acceptable increase in configuration power a 10-fold improvement in configuration delay could be achieved. The main contribution of this thesis is that it defines the limit of configuration compression for the FPGAs under consideration and develops practical methods of overcoming this reconfiguration bottleneck. The functional density of reconfigurable devices could thereby be enhanced and the range of potential applications reasonably expanded.
Characterization of Rape Field Microwave Emission and Implications to Surface Soil Moisture Retrievals

In the course of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission calibration and validation activities, a ground based L-band radiometer ELBARA II was situated at the test site Puch in Southern Germany in the Upper Danube Catchment. The experiment is described and the different data sets acquired are presented. The L-band microwave emission of the biosphere (L-MEB) model that is also used in the SMOS L2 soil moisture algorithm is used to simulate the microwave emission of a winter oilseed rape field in Puch that was also observed by the radiometer. As there is a lack of a rape parameterization for L-MEB the SMOS default parameters for crops are used in a first step which does not lead to satisfying modeling results. Therefore, a new parameterization for L-MEB is developed that allows us to model the microwave emission of a winter oilseed rape field at the test site with better results. The soil moisture retrieval performance of the new parameterization is assessed in different retrieval configurations and the results are discussed. To allow satisfying results, the periods before and after winter have to be modeled with different parameter sets as the vegetation behavior is very different during these two development stages. With the new parameterization it is possible to retrieve soil moisture from multiangular brightness temperature data with a root mean squared error around