Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cohesion during Military Operations

Military leaders and social scientists often regard unit cohesion as the key element in combat motivation and fighting resilience. However, a close look at today’s battlefield calls for rethinking this assumption. This study is based on observations of combat units during the current Arab-Israeli conflict (the “Al-Aqsa Intifada”). In contrast to the usual depiction found in the scholarly literature, these units were characterized by some rather unique features. Instead of socially cohesive structures (based upon mutual, continuous, and common experiences), the action of these combat units during operations is based upon temporary frameworks based on short-term, ad hoc, and diverse components. In general, the components comprising these ad hoc frameworks do not have a common background and do not belong to the same organizational arms of the Israeli military. Nevertheless, the fighting power of the emergent amalgamations has not been diminished or damaged. Our study depicts several possible explanations for the social dynamics of such “instant units” and focuses on the importance of “swift trust” to their functioning.
Endoscopic ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation of the pancreas: An experimental study with pathological correlation

Background: The treatment of pancreatic cancer represents a major objective in clinical research, as it still remains the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths among men and women, with approximately 6% of all cancer-related deaths. Materials and Methods: We studied the assessment of an endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) probe through a 19G needle in order to achieve a desirable necrosis area in the pancreas. Radiofrequency ablation of the head of the pancreas was performed on 10 Yorkshire pigs with a weight between 25 kg and 35 kg and a length of 40-70 cm. Using an EUS-guided RFA experimental probe, we ablated an area of 2-3 cm width. The biological samples were harvested after 3 days and 5 days and necropsy was performed 1 week after the procedure. Results: All pigs showed no significant change regarding their behavior and no signs of complication was encountered. Blood analysis revealed increased values of amylase, alkaline phosphatase, and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase on the 3rd day but a decrease on the 5th day. After necropsy and isolation of the pancreas, the ablated area was easily found, describing a solid necrosis. The pathological examination revealed a coagulative necrosis area with minimal invasion and inflammatory tissue at about 2 cm surrounding the lesion. Conclusion: EUS-RFA is a feasible technique and might represent a promising therapy for the future treatment of pancreatic cancer. However, further studies are necessary to investigate EUS-guided RFA as an option for palliation in pancreatic cancer until it can be successfully used in human patients.
The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations

An Approach to Political Culture Patterns of Political Cognition Feelings Toward Government and Politics Patterns of Partnership The Obligation to Participate The Sense of Civic Competence Citizen Competence and Subject Competence Competence, Participation, and Political Allegiance Social Relations and Civic Cooperation Organizational Membership and Civic Competence Political Socialization and Civic Competence Profiles of Nations and Groups The Civic Culture and Democratic Stability
Families in a High-Tech Age

This study analyzes a couple-level (N = 581), longitudinal data set of employees to provide evidence about technology use over time, the factors that predict use, and the potential for a spouse to influence an individual's use. Although longitudinal usage patterns suggest a trend toward adoption and use of e-mail, the Internet, cell phones, and pagers over time, this trend toward continuing use is stronger for some technologies (e-mail, the Internet) than for others (cell phones, pagers). Furthermore, correlates of use differ by gender and the type of technology used. Last, technology use tends to be an individual-rather than couple-level phenomenon, with one exception. In the case of cell phone or pager use, husbands’ past use influences wives’ use 2 years later.
Prevalence of lens opacities in the Barbados Eye Study.

OBJECTIVE To present population-based data on type and extent of age-related lens opacities in the predominantly black population of the Barbados Eye Study. DESIGN Prevalence study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS The Barbados Eye Study included 4709 participants (84% of those eligible), who were identified from a random sample of Barbadian-born citizens aged 40 to 84 years. DATA COLLECTION Lens gradings at the slit lamp, obtained with the use of the Lens Opacities Classification System II. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Prevalence of posterior subcapsular, nuclear, and cortical opacities (defined as a grade > or = 2 in either eye), as well as prevalence of any lens changes (including history of previous cataract surgery and/or cataract too advanced to grade). RESULTS Overall, 41% of the Barbados Eye Study population had any lens changes, including 3% with aphakia or an intraocular lens. Among the population of African descent, cortical opacities (34%) were most prevalent, followed by nuclear (19%) and posterior subcapsular (4%) opacities. Prevalence of all opacity types increased with age (P < .001). Cortical and nuclear opacities were more frequent in women than men. When prevalence of a single kind of opacity was considered, 21% of participants had cortical only, 6% had nuclear only, and 0.4% had posterior subcapsular only; 13% had mixed opacities. Visual acuity loss to worse than 20/40 in the more affected eye was present in 48%, 26%, and 18% of nuclear only, posterior subcapsular only, and cortical only types, respectively, and in 53% of mixed opacities. CONCLUSIONS The Barbados Eye Study provides the first prevalence data on different types of lens opacities in a large, predominantly black population. Whereas nuclear opacities are most common in white populations, cortical opacities were the most frequent type in the Barbados Eye Study, a finding of possible etiologic relevance. Other results highlight a higher frequency of opacities in women than men and a high prevalence of visual acuity loss in affected eyes.
The Effect of a Formal Instruction Context on the Lexico-Grammatical Development of Advanced Learners of L3 English.

In the present article two different L3 learning contexts are distinguished: formal instruction (FI) and study abroad (SA). We analyze the effect of a formal instruction learning context (FI) on students of English as a foreign language. The main objective is to study the impact of FI on the students’ lexico-grammatical development. A study was carried out with 36 subjects (advanced L3 English university students) in order to compare their linguistic performance at the beginning of their FI period (T1) and after 80 hours of formal instruction (T2) as measured by a cloze and a sentence rephrasing test. L3 learner results were compared to baseline data (T0) (19 NSs of English, exchange university students) on the aforementioned tests. Statistically significant findings were found for L3 learners’ linguistic improvement over the FI period. Implications of the study are presented and discussed.
Region-Based Structure Preserving Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for Hyperspectral Unmixing

Hyperspectral unmixing is one of the most important techniques in the remote sensing image analysis. In recent years, the nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) method is widely used in hyperspectral unmixing. In order to solve the nonconvex problem of the NMF method, a number of constraints have been introduced into NMF models, including sparsity, manifold, smoothness, etc. However, these constraints ignore an important property of a hyperspectral image, i.e., the spectral responses in a homogeneous region are similar at each pixel but vary in different homogeneous regions. In this paper, we introduce a novel region-based structure preserving NMF (R-NMF) to explore consistent data distribution in the same region while discriminating different data structures across regions in the unmixed data. In this method, a graph cut algorithm is first applied to segment the hyperspectral image to small homogeneous regions. Then, two constraints are applied to the unmixing model, which preserve the structural consistency within the region while discriminating the differences between regions. Results on both synthetic and real data have validated the effectiveness of this method, and shown that it has outperformed several state-of-the-art unmixing approaches.
ZPD-activated languaging and collaborative L2 writing

Recent second/foreign language (L2) research has witnessed the application of sociocultural tenets to L2 classrooms. This study aimed to probe whether Iranian L2 learners’ engagement in ZPD-activated collaborative dialogue, or ‘languaging’, mediates their learning process and, specifically, their appropriate use of metadiscourse to address content, organisation and audience issues in writing. English-as-a-foreign-language-writing classes at two universities were assigned to four different instructional conditions, namely, ZPD-activated collaborative, ZPD-free collaborative, fine-tuned L2-input provision and prevalent teacher-fronted approaches. The data comprised metadiscourse-oriented writing test scores, weekly writings and audio-recorded in-class collaborative dialogues of the ZPD groups. The results demonstrated the ZPD-activated collaborative writing approach significantly facilitated the learners’ appropriate use of metadiscourse. Complementary interpretative analysis of the ZPD participants’ metadiscourse-related episodes showed that the initially-other-regulated (undistributed) writing tasks became progressively reciprocal with less-skilled peers displaying microgenetic use of L2 metadiscourse resources and dynamically assuming more participatory roles in regulating the writing tasks. The findings suggest engagement in ZPD-activated ‘languaging’ is crucial to shaping opportunities for L2 learners’ microgenetic learning and to their longer term cognitive development. In sum, the application of sociocultural tenets and notions has shown to be highly fruitful in explaining the social genesis of L2 development as a higher order psychological functioning.
CURRICULUM TRACKING AND STATUS MAINTENANCE

Prior studies of the role of curriculum tracking in status maintenance have offered contradictory results, suggesting either that (1) tracking sorts children from different backgrounds into different curricular programs where they receive differential educational treatments; (2) tracking sorts children on the basis of ability rather than class background, thus facilitating social mobility; or (3) while tracking may sort children, it has little effect upon educational outcomes and thus has no role in status maintenance. This paper uses 1980s data from the High School and Beyond Study to estimate the effects of curriculum tracking over a two-year period on a number of dependent variables for students who have experienced only one track placement. The results show that there are substantial differences among students from different socioeconomic origins in ultimate track destination. Track location is modestly to moderately related to number of courses taken,. academic performance, educational and occupational aspirations, satisfaction with school, perceived values of friends, self-esteem, extracurricular participation and leadership, enrollment in postsecondary education, disciplinary climate, and teacher treatment. A reopening of the status maintenance hypothesis is suggested.
Does Bullying Victimization Suppress IQ? The Effects of Bullying Victimization on IQ in Iraqi and African American Adolescents: A Traumatology Perspective

This study explored the effects of bullying victimization (BV), as a Type II traumatic stressor, on intelligence quotient (IQ), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and complex PTSD symptoms. Participants were 390 African American and Iraqi refugee adolescents. Measures of BV, cumulative life trauma, PTSD, discrimination, and IQ were administered. Correlational, multilevel regression, and path analyses were conducted. BV, independent of cumulative trauma, and discrimination were found to have significant direct effects on increased PTSD symptoms and significant direct and indirect negative effects on perceptual reasoning, processing speed, and working memory. BV was also associated with increases in the discrepancy between perceptual reasoning and verbal comprehension. The implications of these results for the prevention and treatment of bullying victims are discussed.
Tempo And Beat Estimation Of Musical Signals

Tempo estimation is fundamental in automatic music processing and in many multimedia applications. This paper presents an automatic tempo tracking system that processes audio recordings and determines the beats per minute and temporal beat location. The concept of spectral energy ﬂux is deﬁned and leads to an efﬁcient note on-set detector. The algorithm involves three stages: a front-end analysis that efﬁciently extracts onsets, a periodicity detection block and the temporal estimation of beat locations. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using a large database of 489 excerpts from several musical genres. The global recognition rate is 89.7 %. Results are discussed and compared to other tempo estimation systems.
The Politics of the Multiple

Lenin famously recommended that would-be Marxist revolutionaries should study Hegel’s Logic. It is hard to say how many militants heeded Lenin’s call; the set of all those who have both read Hegel’s Logic (and understood it) and engaged in revolutionary activity might well be very modest.1 Devotees of Alain Badiou’s monumental L’Etre et l’evenement (fi rst published in 1988) would no doubt update Lenin’s advice. Today’s militants of thought, politics, art and love – to cite Badiou’s four generic procedures of subjective fi delity to truth – might be exhorted to work through Badiou’s extraordinary set of meditations on set theory as an ontology of being understood as the multiple. It is open, of course, what kind of set the readers committed to comprehending Badiou’s demanding set theory ontology of the multiple will eventually compose. As Jill Stauff er has observed, Badiou’s Being and Event “is a book no one is trained to read”. 2 It certainly seems to demand an impossibly hybrid kind of reader: a philosophical amphibian, at once analytic and continental, mathematician and poet, who is equally versed in Cantorian set theory and its axiomatic variants (from Zermelo-Frankel to Cohen’s theory of the indiscernible) and in the “continental” repertoire of master thinkers and poets including Spinoza, Leibniz, Hegel, Heidegger, Althusser, Lacan, Holderlin and Mallarme. Th e demands made on the reader are thus considerable. Whether Being and Event succeeds in the much-talked-about “rapprochement” between analytic and continental philosophy – or else demonstrates its practical diffi culties – remains to be seen.
Threat-Related Attentional Bias in Relation to Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in the General Population: The Potential Role of Sex Effects

Threat-Related Attentional Bias in Relation to Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in the General Population: The Potential Role of Sex Effects By Beril Yaffe, M.A. Advisor: Deborah J. Walder, Ph.D. Heightened sensitivity to relevant environmental stimuli (attentional bias) has been observed in relation to clinical and non-clinical anxiety and depression symptoms. While depression symptoms are associated with sensitivity to disorder and self-relevant words, hypervigilance to threatening stimuli is observed in relation to anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, attentional bias has been shown to play an important role in the development and maintenance of depressive and anxiety disorders. Accordingly, a large body of literature has examined threat-related attentional bias in relation to symptoms of anxiety and depression. However, several methodological inconsistencies exist across studies, including variability in definitions of threat, lack of consideration of differential aspects of anxiety (physical arousal versus general distress), and the overlooked potential role of sex effects. Therefore, the current study examined the specificity of threat-related attentional bias (for fear, disgust, anger, sadness), using a verbal emotional Stroop task (EST), among individuals from the general population reporting varying degrees of nonclinical symptoms of physical arousal, depression, and general distress (worry). The potential moderating effects of sex in the relationships of threat-related attentional bias with these symptoms were considered. One hundred twenty five (37 men/88 women) undergraduate students were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire of mood and anxiety symptoms and a
Visual stimulus parameters seriously compromise the measurement of approximate number system acuity and comparative effects between adults and children

It has been suggested that a simple non-symbolic magnitude comparison task is sufficient to measure the acuity of a putative Approximate Number System (ANS). A proposed measure of the ANS, the so-called “internal Weber fraction” (w), would provide a clear measure of ANS acuity. However, ANS studies have never presented adequate evidence that visual stimulus parameters did not compromise measurements of w to such extent that w is actually driven by visual instead of numerical processes. We therefore investigated this question by testing non-symbolic magnitude discrimination in seven-year-old children and adults. We manipulated/controlled visual parameters in a more stringent manner than usual. As a consequence of these controls, in some trials numerical cues correlated positively with number while in others they correlated negatively with number. This congruency effect strongly correlated with w, which means that congruency effects were probably driving effects in w. Consequently, in both adults and children congruency had a major impact on the fit of the model underlying the computation of w. Furthermore, children showed larger congruency effects than adults. This suggests that ANS tasks are seriously compromised by the visual stimulus parameters, which cannot be controlled. Hence, they are not pure measures of the ANS and some putative w or ratio effect differences between children and adults in previous ANS studies may be due to the differential influence of the visual stimulus parameters in children and adults. In addition, because the resolution of congruency effects relies on inhibitory (interference suppression) function, some previous ANS findings were probably influenced by the developmental state of inhibitory processes especially when comparing children with developmental dyscalculia and typically developing children.
Collective Task Responsibility Allocation

This article explores differences in individual- and group-level allocation of responsibility for task performance following positive and negative performance feedback. In two studies, 330 participants completed and received veridical feedback for a verbal performance task. A group identity measure showed higher levels of group identification in groups with face-to-face interaction compared with those that did not interact. On several measures, both individual-and group-level responses exhibited the classic self- or group-serving response pattern (higher internal attributions for success than for failure). Empirical evidence documents and further refines understanding of a group-serving response pattern in several types of actual collectives.
Exclusionary Discipline of Students With Disabilities

Given the negative outcomes associated with suspension, scholars and practitioners are concerned with discipline disparities. This study explored patterns and predictors of suspension in a sample of 2,750 students with disabilities in 39 schools in a Midwestern district. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling demonstrated that disability type, gender, race/ethnicity, and free/reduced lunch status were significant predictors of suspension among students with disabilities. Adjusting for gender and race/ethnicity attenuated suspension risk associated with disability type, and adjusting for student-level socioeconomic variables attenuated risk associated with race/ethnicity, but significant disparities remained. School characteristics were not predictive of suspension risk, but their inclusion in the models was associated with increased risk of suspension among students with emotional disturbance. Results underscore the value of multilevel modeling when identifying predictors of suspension and the need to explore a wider variety of classroom and school factors that may account for inequitable discipline.
Temperature sensitivity of acid-sensitive outwardly rectifying (ASOR) anion channels in cortical neurons is involved in hypothermic neuroprotection against acidotoxic necrosis

The acid-sensitive outwardly rectifying (ASOR) anion channel has been found in non-neuronal cell types and was shown to be involved in acidotoxic death of epithelial cells. We have recently shown that the ASOR channel is sensitive to temperature. Here, we extend those results to show that temperature-sensitive ASOR anion channels are expressed in cortical neurons and involved in acidotoxic neuronal cell death. In cultured mouse cortical neurons, reduction of extracellular pH activated anionic currents exhibiting phenotypic properties of the ASOR anion channel. The neuronal ASOR currents recorded at pH 5.25 were augmented by warm temperature, with a threshold temperature of 26 °C and the Q10 value of 5.6. After 1 h exposure to acidic solution at 37 °C, a large population of neurons suffered from necrotic cell death which was largely protected not only by ASOR channel blockers but also by reduction of temperature to 25 °C. Thus, it is suggested that high temperature sensitivity of the neuronal ASOR anion channel provides, at least in part, a basis for hypothermic neuroprotection under acidotoxic situations associated with a number of pathological brain states.
Traumatic brain injury: An EEG point of view

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a silent epidemic. Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) causes brain injury that results in electrophysiologic abnormalities visible on electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. The purpose of this brief review was to discuss the importance of EEG findings in traumatic brain injury. Relevant articles published during the 1996-2016 period were retrieved from Medline (PubMed). The keywords were in English and included "traumatic brain injury", "EEG" and "quantitative EEG". We found 460 articles, analyzed 52 and selected 13 articles. EEG after TBI shows slowing of the posterior dominant rhythm and increased diffuse theta slowing, which may revert to normal within hours or may clear more slowly over many weeks. There are no clear EEG or quantitative EEG (qEEG) features unique to mild traumatic brain injury. Although the literature indicates the promise of qEEG in reaching a diagnosis and indicating prognosis of mTBI, further study is needed to corroborate and refine these methods.