Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD THEIR UNIVERSITY AND ACADEMIC BURNOUT: EXAMINING THE MEDIATING ROLE OF ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION

Background and Objectives: Thoughts and behaviors of university students are influenced by their expectations from the university and their perception of the university environment. If these expectations are not met, they may even consider quitting the university. The current study evaluated the relationship between students’ attitude toward the university and academic burnout, and examined the mediating role of academic procrastination. Methods: The current cross sectional study was conducted on 384 students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences and Islamic Azad University, Sari Branch, who were selected using stratified random sampling based on the location of the university. The sample size was determined based on the specific population of the community. Data were collected using a standardized questionnaire on students’ attitude toward the university developed by Weinstein et al., which assessed their perception, expectations, emotions, and knowledge (PEEK). Additionally, the academic procrastination scale developed by Sevari, and the academic burnout questionnaire by Breso et al. were used. Data were analyzed using the independent t test, correlation coefficient test, and the path analysis method using repeated-measure regression models. Results: A significant correlation was observed between the students’ attitudes toward the university and their academic procrastination (r = 0.298) and academic burnout (r = 0.491). There was significant relationship between the students’ attitudes toward the university and their academic burnout mediated by two dimensions of procrastination: intentional and mental and physical fatigue (P value < 0.05). Further, a comparison of the studied variables between the students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences and Islamic Azad University, Sari Branch, indicated significant differences in the students’ academic and personal aspects, in their attitude toward the university, and in their academic failure component as a factor of academic burnout; but no significant difference was observed regarding the other studied variables. Conclusions: To promote the academic performance and psychological well-being of students, more attention should be paid to improving their attitudes toward the university in order to reduce and avoid academic procrastination and burnout.
New short-period stellar pulsators at large Galactocentric distances

We report the discovery of 31 blue, short period, pulsators made using data taken as part of the Rapid Temporal Survey (RATS). We find they have periods between 51–83 mins and full-amplitudes between 0.05–0.65 mag. Using the period-luminosity relationship for short period pulsating stars we determine their distance. Assuming they are pulsating in either the fundamental or first over-tone radial mode the majority are located at a distance greater than 3kpc, with several being more than 20 kpc distant. Most stars are at least 1 kpc from the Galactic plane, with three being more than 10 kpc. One is located in the direction of the Galactic anti-center and has Galactocentric distance of �30 kpc and is �20 kpc below the plane: they are therefore potential tracers of Galactic structure. We have obtained low-resolution spectra for a small number our targets and find they have temperatures between 7200–7900K and a metal content less than Solar. The colours of the pulsators and the spectral fits to �
Qualitative evaluation of a school intervention for the promotion of physical activity: learning from the perspective of the target population

Qualitative evaluations of school-based interventions for physical activity promotion are seldom undertaken, but can provide important insights into unforeseen limitations and consequences of interventions. These understandings can help the refinement of those aspects of school intervention implementation that are not easily identified a priori via quantitative evaluations. We illustrate this argument with the example of evaluative qualitative data collected during a physical activity promotion intervention that we carried out in two Spanish primary schools. The findings of this study uncovered a number of unexpected and difficult to quantify problem areas including; communication problems with parents, classroom-based interventions as off-putting, the legitimization of stereotypical health and body shape associations and even instances of marginalization of some of the very children the interventions were targeting. In conclusion we call for researchers to consider drawing on qualitative evaluations in order to aid the refinement of future school-based interventions.
A Lightweight Object Manager for Group-Aware Applications

Groupware applications used in distributed office environments are characterized by several users accessing and manipulating a shared document pool in a collaborative context. Supporting such application with relational database persistence and object technology requires two main features: (1) a sound and generic mapping from the object-oriented application schema to the relational data model, and (2) update notification, i.e., means to notify users easily about changes in the shared document pool. In this paper we present a lightweight object manager that implements (1) an object-relational mapping that allows for efficient persistency of application classes, and (2) group-awareness by update notification combining database triggers with client polling and object notification services.
A note on elliptic k3 surfaces

We study the relationship between an elliptic (cid:12)bration on an elliptic K3 surface and its Jacobian surface. We give an explicit description of the Picard lattice of the Jacobian surface. Then we use the description to prove that certain K3 surfaces do not admit a non-Jacobian (cid:12)bration. Moreover, we obtain an inequality involving the determinant of the Picard lattice and the number of components of reducible (cid:12)bres, which implies, among others, that if an elliptic K3 surface has Picard lattice with relatively small determinant, then every elliptic (cid:12)bration on it must have a reducible (cid:12)bre. Some examples of K3 surfaces are discussed.
Derivation of Transcranial Doppler Criteria for Rescue Intra-arterial Thrombolysis: Multicenter Experience From the Interventional Management of Stroke Study

Background and Purpose— Transcranial Doppler (TCD) has the potential to identify acute stroke patients with arterial occlusion when treatment with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) may fail to open the vessel. We examined clinical utility and prognostic value of TCD flow findings in patients enrolled in an intravenous/intra-arterial rtPA pilot trial (Interventional Management of Stroke [IMS] study). Methods— Patients enrolled in the IMS trial who underwent urgent TCD performed before intra-arterial rtPA treatment were included. TCD findings were analyzed by a mean flow velocity (MFV) ratio using reciprocal middle carotid artery (MCA) depths bilaterally (affected MCA-to-contralateral MCA MFV ratio [aMCA/cMCA MFV ratio]). The clinical utility of TCD was determined by its ability to predict outcome and identify a proximal arterial occlusion that requires intra-arterial lysis per protocol. Results— Twenty-nine of 80 patients enrolled in IMS trial had pre–intra-arterial lysis TCD (mean age, 61±11; men-to-women ratio: 17:12; median baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Score, 17). No temporal window was found in 3 patients (10%). Cerebral angiography was performed at mean 174±36 minutes from stroke onset. TCD was performed at median 93.5 minutes from onset. The aMCA/cMCA MFV ratio <0.6 had a sensitivity of 94% (95% confidence interval [CI], 63% to 99%), specificity of 100% (97.5%; lower CI of 54%), positive predictive value of 100% (lower CI, 80%); and negative predictive value of 86% (CI, 42% to 99%) for identifying proximal occlusion in the anterior circulation that require intra-arterial lysis. All patients with absent MCA flow (n=6) had poor outcomes (modified Rankin Scale ≥3) (P=0.014). Conclusion— TCD is a useful modality for evaluating the arterial circulation in acute ischemic stroke patients; it may have significant potential as a screening tool for intravenous/intra-arterial lysis protocols.
Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning

Most persons who take religious experience seriously seem to intuitively appreciate the variety of ways in which persons articulate and experience something named faith. One person who has set himself about the task of turning intuition into data is James Fowler. Fowler's interest in religious experience has led him into seminal, pioneering research which culminated in the recent publication of Stages of Faith,' This book makes a provocative statement which is likely to have profound impact on pastoral specialists and human development specialists of all varieties. This contribution by Fowler, who is now Director of the Center for Faith Development and Associate Professor of Human Development and Theology at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, deserves appreciative reading, clear critique, and imaginative application. This review article will both summarize Fowler's key contributions as stated in Stages of Faith and propose several applications of his perspective. 2
A Novel Use of Structural Equation Models to Examine Factors Associated With Prediabetes Among Adults Aged 50 Years and Older

OBJECTIVE To use structural modeling to test a hypothesized model of causal pathways related with prediabetes among older adults in the U.S. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Cross-sectional study of 2,230 older adults (≥50 years) without diabetes included in the morning fasting sample of the 2001–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Demographic data included age, income, marital status, race/ethnicity, and education. Behavioral data included physical activity (metabolic equivalent hours per week for vigorous or moderate muscle strengthening, walking/biking, and house/yard work), and poor diet (refined grains, red meat, added sugars, solid fats, and high-fat dairy). Structural-equation modeling was performed to examine the interrelationships among these variables with family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, BMI, large waist (waist circumference: women, ≥35 inches; men, ≥40 inches), triglycerides ≥200 mg/dL, and total and HDL (≥60 mg/dL) cholesterol. RESULTS After dropping BMI and total cholesterol, our best-fit model included three single factors: socioeconomic position (SEP), physical activity, and poor diet. Large waist had the strongest direct effect on prediabetes (0.279), followed by male sex (0.270), SEP (−0.157), high blood pressure (0.122), family history of diabetes (0.070), and age (0.033). Physical activity had direct effects on HDL (0.137), triglycerides (−0.136), high blood pressure (−0.132), and large waist (−0.067); poor diet had direct effects on large waist (0.146) and triglycerides (0.148). CONCLUSIONS Our results confirmed that, while including factors known to be associated with high risk of developing prediabetes, large waist circumference had the strongest direct effect. The direct effect of SEP on prediabetes suggests mediation by some unmeasured factor(s).
Radial mixing and the transition between the thick and thin Galactic discs

The analysis of the kinematics of solar neighbourhood stars shows that the low- and high-metallicity tails of the thin disc are populated by objects which orbital properties suggest an origin in the outer and inner Galactic disc, respectively. Signatures of radial migration are identified in various recent samples, and are shown to be responsible for the high-metallicity dispersion in the age–metallicity distribution. Most importantly, it is shown that the population of low-metallicity wanderers of the thin disc (−0.7 < [Fe/H] < −0.3 dex) is also responsible for the apparent hiatus in metallicity with the thick disc (which terminal metallicity is about −0.2 dex). It implies that the thin disc at the solar circle has started to form stars at about this same metallicity. This is also consistent with the fact that ‘transition’ objects, which have α-element abundance intermediate between that of the thick and thin discs, are found in the range [−0.4, −0.2] dex. Once the metal-poor thin disc stars are recognized for what they are – wanderers from the outer thin disc – the parenthood between the two discs can be identified on stars genuinely formed at the solar circle through an evolutionary sequence in [α/Fe] and [Fe/H]. Another consequence is that stars that can be considered as truly resulting of the chemical evolution at the solar circle have a metallicity restricted to about [−0.2, +0.2] dex, confirming an old idea that most chemical evolution in the Milky Way have preceded the thin disc formation.
Evolutionary Computing Techniques for Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch: An Overview and Key Issues

Optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) is carried out to reduce losses, to improve the voltage profile and voltage stability in a power system. In recent years, several evolutionary computing based optimization techniques to solve optimal reactive power dispatch problem has been proposed. These techniques include genetic algorithm (GA), artificial bee colony (ABC), particle swarm optimization (PSO) and differential evolution (DE) etc. The ORPD problem has been solved as a single objective as well as multi-objective optimization problem using these techniques. This paper presents a brief literature review of the work carried out by the various researchers in this field by using evolutionary computing based techniques.
A truncated EM approach for spike-and-slab sparse coding

We study inference and learning based on a sparse coding model with 'spike-and-slab' prior. As in standard sparse coding, the model used assumes independent latent sources that linearly combine to generate data points. However, instead of using a standard sparse prior such as a Laplace distribution, we study the application of a more flexible 'spike-and-slab' distribution which models the absence or presence of a source's contribution independently of its strength if it contributes. We investigate two approaches to optimize the parameters of spike-and-slab sparse coding: a novel truncated EM approach and, for comparison, an approach based on standard factored variational distributions. The truncated approach can be regarded as a variational approach with truncated posteriors as variational distributions. In applications to source separation we find that both approaches improve the state-of-the-art in a number of standard benchmarks, which argues for the use of 'spike-and-slab' priors for the corresponding data domains. Furthermore, we find that the truncated EM approach improves on the standard factored approach in source separation tasks--which hints to biases introduced by assuming posterior independence in the factored variational approach. Likewise, on a standard benchmark for image denoising, we find that the truncated EM approach improves on the factored variational approach. While the performance of the factored approach saturates with increasing numbers of hidden dimensions, the performance of the truncated approach improves the state-of-the-art for higher noise levels.
Value-Enhancing Capital Budgeting and Firm-specific Stock Return Variation

We document a robust cross-sectional positive association across industries between a measure of the economic efficiency of corporate investment and the magnitude of firm-specific variation in stock returns. This finding is interesting for two reasons, neither of which is a priori obvious. First, it adds further support to the view that firm-specific return variation gauges the extent to which information about the firm is quickly and accurately reflected in share prices. Second, it can be interpreted as evidence that more informative stock prices facilitate more efficient corporate investment.
Leadership in Organizations

Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Managerial Work Chapter 3. Effective Leadership Behavior Chapter 4. Leading Change and Innovation Chapter 5. Participative Leadership and Empowerment Chapter 6. Leadership Traits and Skills Chapter 7. Contingency Theories and Adaptive Leadership Chapter 8. Power and Influence Tactics Chapter 9. Dyadic Relations and Followers Chapter 10. Leadership in Groups and Teams Chapter 11. Strategic Leadership in Organizations Chapter 12. Charismatic and Transformational Leadership Chapter 13. Ethical, Servant, Spiritual, and Authentic Leadership Chapter 14. Cross-cultural Leadership and Diversity Chapter 15. Developing Leadership Skills Chapter 16. Overview and Integration
Poor prognosis in carcinoma is associated with a gene expression signature of aberrant PTEN tumor suppressor pathway activity

Pathway-specific therapy is the future of cancer management. The oncogenic phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is frequently activated in solid tumors; however, currently, no reliable test for PI3K pathway activation exists for human tumors. Taking advantage of the observation that loss of PTEN, the negative regulator of PI3K, results in robust activation of this pathway, we developed and validated a microarray gene expression signature for immunohistochemistry (IHC)-detectable PTEN loss in breast cancer (BC). The most significant signature gene was PTEN itself, indicating that PTEN mRNA levels are the primary determinant of PTEN protein levels in BC. Some PTEN IHC-positive BCs exhibited the signature of PTEN loss, which was associated to moderately reduced PTEN mRNA levels cooperating with specific types of PIK3CA mutations and/or amplification of HER2. This demonstrates that the signature is more sensitive than PTEN IHC for identifying tumors with pathway activation. In independent data sets of breast, prostate, and bladder carcinoma, prediction of pathway activity by the signature correlated significantly to poor patient outcome. Stathmin, encoded by the signature gene STMN1, was an accurate IHC marker of the signature and had prognostic significance in BC. Stathmin was also pathway-pharmacodynamic in vitro and in vivo. Thus, the signature or its components such as stathmin may be clinically useful tests for stratification of patients for anti-PI3K pathway therapy and monitoring therapeutic efficacy. This study indicates that aberrant PI3K pathway signaling is strongly associated with metastasis and poor survival across carcinoma types, highlighting the enormous potential impact on patient survival that pathway inhibition could achieve.
The Self-Regulatory and Task-Specific Strategies of Elite-Level Amateur Golfers in Tournament Preparation

Little is known regarding the factors that are important for tournament preparation in golf. Eighteen elite amateur golfers and 12 expert coaches/practitioners were interviewed to identify the self-regulatory and task-specific strategies important for tournament preparation. Thematic analysis revealed four themes: understanding tournament preparation, planning, tournament preparation strategies, and self-reflection. Players used specific strategies to optimize their physiological and psychological state, develop course strategy, and structure and implement preparatory routines. The findings of this study have implications for coaches and players in developing a system for preparation, and could provide a framework to improve coaching curricula and guide further research.
The Global Impacts of Biofuel Mandates

The rise in world oil prices, coupled with heightened interest in the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions, led to a sharp increase in biofuels production around the world. Previous authors have devoted considerable attention to the impacts of these policies on a country-by-country basis. However, there are also strong interactions among these programs, as they compete in world markets for feedstocks and ultimately for a limited supply of global land. In this paper, we offer the first global assessment of biofuel programs Ð focusing particularly on the EU and US. We begin with an historical analysis of the period 2001-2006, which also permits us to validate the model. We then conduct an ex ante analysis of mandates in the year 2015. We find that if these mandates are indeed fulfilled the impact on global land use could be substantial, with potentially significant implications for greenhouse gas emissions.
Coherence and Coreference Revisited

For more than three decades, research into the psycholinguistics of pronoun interpretation has argued that hearers use various interpretation 'preferences' or 'strategies' that are associated with specific linguistic properties of antecedent expressions. This focus is a departure from the type of approach outlined in Hobbs (1979), who argues that the mechanisms supporting pronoun interpretation are driven predominantly by semantics, world knowledge and inference, with particular attention to how these are used to establish the coherence of a discourse. On the basis of three new experimental studies, we evaluate a coherence-driven analysis with respect to four previously proposed interpretation biases-based on grammatical role parallelism, thematic roles, implicit causality, and subjecthood-and argue that the coherence-driven analysis can explain the underlying source of the biases and predict in what contexts evidence for each will surface. The results further suggest that pronoun interpretation is incrementally influenced by probabilistic expectations that hearers have regarding what coherence relations are likely to ensue, together with their expectations about what entities will be mentioned next, which, crucially, are conditioned on those coherence relations.
A Vadose Zone Flow and Transport Model for Los Alamos Canyon, Los Alamos, New Mexico

A vadose zone flow and transport model for Los Alamos Canyon is presented that demonstrates that a comprehensive understanding of vadose zone hydrologic processes can be obtained by integrating data from geologic, hydrologic, and site characterization sources. The complex hydrostratigraphy of the canyon is captured using geologic characterization of extensive deep‐well drilling samples, along with surface mapping. A water budget study for the surface and shallow subsurface hydrology is used to estimate spatially varying infiltration rates along the canyon. Three‐dimensional flow model results show that mesa‐top infiltration rates on the order of 1 mm yr−1, and canyon‐bottom rates several orders of magnitude higher, capture the water content profiles from available wells within the model domain. However, a range of a factor of three higher and lower than these mean values is also consistent with the data. Transient flow simulations show that episodic infiltration events can be effectively averaged in steady‐state flow modeling, but transients that last on the order of a decade or more, such as climate related or anthropogenically induced transients, significantly change the predicted water content. Modeling of tritium transport through the vadose zone indicates that even for a nonsorbing contaminant, most, but not all, of the contaminant released since in the past 40 yr should still be present in the vadose zone. The mass predicted to reach the water table is primarily in locations in the canyon where the Bandelier Tuff is not present. Available groundwater surveillance data for regional aquifer water are consistent with this result.