Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of cognitive maps of the world as expressed in sketch maps

Sketch maps of the world drawn by Brazilian university students were coded for frequency of inclusion of nations. The relationship between inclusion, as an indicator of world knowledge, and physical/social characteristics of individual countries was examined using correlation and multiple regression analyses. Predictive variables included map features, economic development, geopolitical importance, and others. A split-sample strategy allowed for an exploratory regression analysis followed by a cross-validation phase, which generated a final model that accounted for 76 per cent of the variance of the dependent variable. The main influences upon the inclusion of nations on the sketch maps were exerted by world indicators of geo-political and military power, size of the country and economic importance, followed by less powerful determinants based on cultural similarities and location of the country on a world map. Sample specifics are presented and implications for the cumulative understanding of world knowledge are discussed within the conceptual framework of cognitive maps of all scales.
Are There Racial Differences in Patients’ Shared Decision-Making Preferences and Behaviors among Patients with Diabetes?

Background. In the United States, African Americans are more likely to experience lower quality patient/provider communication and less shared decision making (SDM) than whites, which may be an important contributor to racial health disparities. Patient factors have not been fully explored as a potential contributor to communication disparities. Methods. The authors analyzed cross-sectional data from a survey of 974 patients with diabetes seen at 34 community health centers (HC) in 17 midwestern and west-central states. They used ordinal and logistic regression models to investigate racial differences in patients’ preferences for SDM and in patients’ behaviors that may facilitate SDM (initiating discussions about diabetes care). Results. The response rate was 67%. In bivariate and multivariate analyses, race was not associated with patient preference for a shared role in the 3 measured SDM domains: agenda setting (odds ratio [OR]: 1.13 [0.86, 1.49]), information sharing (OR: 1.26 [0.97, 1.64]), or decision making (OR: 1.16 [0.85, 1.59]). African Americans were more likely to report initiating discussions with their physicians about 4 of 6 areas of diabetes care—blood pressure measurement (66% v. 52%, P < 0.001), foot examination (54% v. 47%, P = 0.04), eye examination (57% v. 46%, P = 0.002), and microalbumin testing (38% v. 29%, P = 0.01)—but not HbA1c testing (39% v. 43%, P = 0.31) or cholesterol testing (53% v. 51%, P = 0.52). In multivariate analysis, African Americans were still more likely to report initiating conversations about diabetes care (OR: 1.78 [1.10, 2.89]). Conclusions. The authors found that African Americans in this study preferred shared decision making as much as whites and were more likely to report initiating more discussions with their doctors about their diabetes care. This research suggests that, among diabetes patients receiving care at community health centers, patient preference or patient behaviors may be an unlikely cause of racial differences in shared decision making.
An Optimal Set of Flesh Points on Tongue and Lips for Speech-Movement Classification.

PURPOSE The authors sought to determine an optimal set of flesh points on the tongue and lips for classifying speech movements. METHOD The authors used electromagnetic articulographs (Carstens AG500 and NDI Wave) to record tongue and lip movements from 13 healthy talkers who articulated 8 vowels, 11 consonants, a phonetically balanced set of words, and a set of short phrases during the recording. We used a machine-learning classifier (support-vector machine) to classify the speech stimuli on the basis of articulatory movements. We then compared classification accuracies of the flesh-point combinations to determine an optimal set of sensors. RESULTS When data from the 4 sensors (T1: the vicinity between the tongue tip and tongue blade; T4: the tongue-body back; UL: the upper lip; and LL: the lower lip) were combined, phoneme and word classifications were most accurate and were comparable with the full set (including T2: the tongue-body front; and T3: the tongue-body front). CONCLUSION We identified a 4-sensor set--that is, T1, T4, UL, LL--that yielded a classification accuracy (91%-95%) equivalent to that using all 6 sensors. These findings provide an empirical basis for selecting sensors and their locations for scientific and emerging clinical applications that incorporate articulatory movements.
The meaning of dwelling features: Conceptual and methodological issues

This study is about the meaning of dwelling features. It relates the research areas of housing preferences and the meaning of a dwelling with each other and with aspects of the means-end approach as applied in marketing research. It results in a conceptual and methodological framework for studying the meaning of preferences for dwelling features. These features are viewed as functional for achieving the goals and values that people pursue. The meaning of dwelling features lies in these functional relationships. The model presented in this study therefore relates preferences for the features of a dwelling to the meaning they have for people. These relationships are called meaning structures. Meaning structures are measured by a semi-structured interviewing technique, which is an adapted version of the laddering technique for measuring means-end chains, and network methods are used for the representation and analysis of these meaning structures.
The Effect of Conflict Type and Organizational Crisis on Perceived Strategic Decision Effectiveness

The current study aims to investigate the effects of cognitive and affective conflict on two important attributes of perceived strategic decision effectiveness: perceived strategic decision quality and commitment. Specifically, we identify cognitive conflict as a nonlinear phenomenon and test whether the presence of an organizational crisis alters the relationship between conflict types (cognitive and affective) and perceived decision quality and commitment. Our analysis of data from 264 executives comprising a total of 64 strategic decision-making (SDM) teams indicates that the effect of cognitive conflict on perceived strategic decision outcomes is, in fact, nonlinear. Furthermore, the findings of the study also revealed that organizational crisis is a significant moderator of the relationship between both level of cognitive and affective conflict and perceived strategic decision quality. These results help clarify the mixed findings about the effects of cognitive conflict within SDM teams and provide some insight on how SDM teams can maximize conflict in the decision-making process, without incurring its costs. More important, our findings indicate that high crisis contexts tend to lessen the influence of both cognitive and affective conflict on perceived strategic decision quality, suggesting that intrateam conflict dynamics among top management teams to some extent could be superseded by the urgent need for prompt decision making and collaboration. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
The norm of reciprocity as an internalized social norm: Returning favors even when no one finds out

We examined whether individuals return favors even when the initial favor giver will never know of their behavior. A confederate gave undergraduate participants in one condition an unexpected bottle of water, whereas other participants received no favor. Later the confederate asked participants to take a survey home with them and return it to a specified place during a specified time 2 or 3 days later. Half the participants believed the confederate herself would be present to receive the survey, and half were told to return the survey to a drop‐off box. Participants who received a favor were more likely to return the survey than those who received no favor. Moreover, this reciprocity effect was found regardless of whether the requester would know of the participant's behavior. The results lend support to an internalized social norm explanation for the reciprocity effect. Thanks are extended to Lauren Baines and Janene Lopez‐Fairfield for their help with some of the data collection. This research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, 2007.
Visual Search Strategy in Judo Fighters during the Execution of the First Grip

Visual search behaviour is believed to be very relevant for athlete performance, especially for sports requiring refined visuo-motor coordination skills. Modern coaches believe that optimal visuo-motor strategy may be part of advanced training programs. Gaze behaviour of expert and novice judo fighters was investigated while they were doing a real sport-specific task. The athletes were tested while they performed a first grip either in an attack or defence condition. The results showed that expert judo fighters use a search strategy involving fewer fixations of longer duration than their novice counterparts. Experts spent a greater percentage of their time fixating on lapel and face with respect to other areas of the scene. On the contrary, the most frequently fixed cue for novice group was the sleeve area. It can be concluded that experts orient their gaze in the middle of the scene, both in attack and in defence, in order to gather more information at once, perhaps using parafoveal vision.
The political nature of brand governance: a discourse analysis approach to a regional brand building process

The present paper takes the empirical phenomenon of place branding as an appropriate point of view to understand the communicative process of brand governance in the realm of the public.The paper explores the modalities through which a brand governance emerges as a negotiated and contested mechanism reproduced through language. By drawing on the analytical approach of interpretative repertoires, the analysis demonstrates that a process of governance can be seen as a ‘text’ in a constant state of negotiation in which the level of involvement in the brand building process can be discursively contested, with language illustrating the ways in which different actors express their positionalities (hegemonic or subalternate). The analysis suggests that this can be seen as a power political process in which politics of space and time are expressed linguistically by the different actors involved in brand governance.
A Critique of Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory of Crime

Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) general theory of crime is appealing because of its versatility and simplicity: in the general theory, criminal behavior is a function of low or absent individual self-control. However, the theory does not adequately account for distinctive features of male violence committed against women nor does it adequately consider the implications for women of taking primary responsibility for caregiving and socialization, those aspects of parenting that are most critical to the development of self-control. Gottfredson and Hirschi's inattention to gendered power differences and inequalities results in a theory of crime that does not challenge social relations and institutions, creates a false gender-neutrality when gender specificity is appropriate, and implicitly blames woman-dominated child-care for contemporary criminal behavior.
Einstellungen zur Homosexualität

Zusammenfassung. Die Studie untersucht die Auspragung homosexuellenfeindlicher Einstellung und ihre psychologischen Korrelate bei in Deutschland lebenden Jugendlichen mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund. Neben Jugendlichen ohne Migrationshintergrund wurden Jugendliche, die bzw. deren Vorfahren aus einem Staat der ehemaligen UdSSR stammen, und Jugendliche mit turkischem Migrationshintergrund im Sommer 2006 mit Hilfe eines Fragebogens zu folgenden Themen befragt: Einstellung zur Homosexualitat, personliche Kontakte zu Homosexuellen, Ausmas der personlichen Integration in die deutsche Gesellschaft, wahrgenommene Diskriminierung von Migranten, Akzeptanz traditioneller Mannlichkeitsnormen sowie Religiositat. Die Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund zeigen durchweg eine starker ausgepragte homosexuellenfeindliche Einstellung als die Jugendlichen ohne Migrationshintergrund. Bei den anderen Variablen zeigen sich parallele bzw. komplementare Unterschiede. Die in Regressionsanalysen identifizierten psychologischen.
Affective and Social Self- Regulatory Efficacy Beliefs as Determinants of Positive Thinking and Happiness

In line with prior work, the present study aimed at examining a conceptual model positing that affective and social self-regulatory efficacy beliefs influence one's cognitive and affective components of subjective well-being, namely, positive thinking and happiness. Positive thinking corresponds to the latent dimension underlying life satisfaction, self-esteem, and optimism. Happiness, instead, corresponds to the difference between positive and negative affect, as they are experienced in a variety of daily life situations. The study was conducted on 683 Italian adults belonging to six different age groups. The findings of the study corroborated the paths of relations linking the examined variables.
Core Practices and Pedagogies of Teacher Education

Currently, the field of teacher education is undergoing a major shift—a turn away from a predominant focus on specifying the necessary knowledge for teaching toward specifying teaching practices that entail knowledge and doing. In this article, the authors suggest that current work on K-12 core teaching practices has the potential to shift teacher education toward the practice of teaching. However, the authors argue that to realize this vision we must reimagine not only the curriculum for learning to teach but also the pedagogy of teacher education. We present one example of what we mean by reimagined teacher education pedagogy by offering a framework through which to conceptualize the preparation of teachers organized around core practices. From our perspectives, this framework could be the backbone of a larger research and development agenda aimed at engaging teachers and teacher educators in systematic knowledge generation regarding ambitious teaching and teacher education pedagogy. We conclude with an invitation to the field to join with us in imagining approaches to generating and aggregating knowledge about teaching and the pedagogy of teacher education that will move not only our individual practice but also our collective practice forward.
TeachCloud: a cloud computing educational toolkit

Cloud computing is an evolving and fast-growing computing paradigm that has gained great interest from both industry and academia. Consequently, universities are actively integrating cloud computing into their IT curricula. One major challenge facing cloud computing instructors is the lack of a teaching tool to experiment with. This paper introduces TeachCloud, a modelling and simulation environment for cloud computing. TeachCloud can be used to experiment with different cloud components such as: processing elements, data centres, storage, networking, service level agreement (SLA) constraints, web-based applications, service oriented architecture (SOA), virtualisation, management and automation, and business process management (BPM). Also, TeachCloud introduces MapReduce processing model in order to handle embarrassingly parallel data processing problems. TeachCloud is an extension of CloudSim, a research-oriented simulator used for the development and validation in cloud computing.
Detecting Repeating Objects Using Patch Correlation Analysis

In this paper we describe a new method for detecting and counting a repeating object in an image. While the method relies on a fairly sophisticated deformable part model, unlike existing techniques it estimates the model parameters in an unsupervised fashion thus alleviating the need for a user-annotated training data and avoiding the associated specificity. This automatic fitting process is carried out by exploiting the recurrence of small image patches associated with the repeating object and analyzing their spatial correlation. The analysis allows us to reject outlier patches, recover the visual and shape parameters of the part model, and detect the object instances efficiently. In order to achieve a practical system which is able to cope with diverse images, we describe a simple and intuitive active-learning procedure that updates the object classification by querying the user on very few carefully chosen marginal classifications. Evaluation of the new method against the state-of-the-art techniques demonstrates its ability to achieve higher accuracy through a better user experience.
Management Education's Blind Spot: Management of Workplace Relations.

Purpose – Developing interpersonal relationships is widely recognised as a key managerial capability, but business schools have been criticised for the limited attention given to the subject. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to address this deficiency in the area of teaching workplace relationships.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews and critiques existing literature on the teaching of interpersonal relationships. It examines possibilities for content and methods by which they could be taught, including the limitations of each method.Findings – The limitations of skills‐based courses are recognised and a case is argued for a broad‐based approach to teaching interpersonal relations that draws on a motivational, behavioural, cognitive, emotion and personality approach. A large number of options exist and it is argued that techniques be used that complement one another.Practical implications – Lectures of general management courses are frequently constrained by their limited training but t.
Alginates and similar exopolysaccharides in biomedical application and pharmacy: Controled delivery of drugs

Due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability, hydrophility, technological properties and vast availability, polysaccharides are widely used as natural non-toxic polymers in different branches of industry (food, cosmetic, textile, construction industries). Exopolysaccharides (as dextran, pullulan) have recently taken up a significant position in pharmaceutical industry. Alginate has an irreplaceable role in biomedicine, since its hydrogel form is successfully applied for immobilization of a wide range of enzymes, therapeutics, biochemical agents and different kinds of microorganisms and cells (herbal, animal or human). Alginate microspheres and microcapsules are used for controlled release of biologically active molecules, as well as cell carriers in tissue engineering. Special benefits are brought by the simplicity of configuration of alginate hydrogel, including the possibility of the controlled production of micro- and nanoparticles. Taking into account a very important role of alginates in the form of hydrogel in biomedicine, in this paper a specific attention is paid on the preparation and application of alginate matrices, microspheres and microcapsules that may have essential and unexchangeable usage/application. This paper therefore displays various possibilities of use of polysaccharide matrices for biomolecules, polysaccharide as excipients of pharmaceutical products for oral or local application, and provides a review of the examples of innovative applications.
Hard Peg and Monetary Unions . Main Lessons from the Argentine Experience

Currency board (CB) was a corner solution for Argentine hyperinflation, however its balance is controversial. How does a CB work as a long run regime? After evaluating the result of ten years CB regime, we obtain important lessons for a monetary union and for dollarization proposals. We discuss: 1) the capacity of such a regime to deal with real and nominal volatility, 2) fiscal problems and debt dynamics, 3) financial problems under currency substitution, 4) CB regime compared with dollarization and 5) the feasibility of a single–peg CB in a flexible exchange rate world.
What Influences the Mathematical Understanding of Elementary-School Teachers?

"Education programs for mathematics teachers are not only below any reasonably acceptable standards, but they are getting steadily worse. " This concern expressed by Rising can hardly be ignored (1). Research on the mathematics education of the elementary-school teacher must become more relevant, valid, and available. Weaver summarized the impact of research on mathematics education (2) and suggested a framework for studies of the problem (3). Of the five components he listed as necessary for establishing any comprehensive framework for research in mathematics education, this article examines two: the teacher and the mathematics program. The investigators gathered data to answer the following questions: Is there a significant mean difference in the mathematical understandings of elementary-school teachers who desire to teach in a large city, a medium city, a small city, a small town, or a rural area? Is there a significant mean differ-
CEO Wage Dynamics: Estimates from a Learning Model

The level of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pay responds asymmetrically to good and bad news about the CEO's ability. The average CEO captures approximately half of the surpluses from good news, implying CEOs and shareholders have roughly equal bargaining power. In contrast, the average CEO bears none of the negative surplus from bad news, implying CEOs have downward rigid pay. These estimates are consistent with the optimal contracting benchmark of Harris and Holmstrom (1982) and do not appear to be driven by weak governance. Risk-averse CEOs accept significantly lower compensation in return for the insurance provided by downward rigid pay.
A survey of fuzzy clustering algorithms for pattern recognition. I

Clustering algorithms aim at modeling fuzzy (i.e., ambiguous) unlabeled patterns efficiently. Our goal is to propose a theoretical framework where the expressive power of clustering systems can be compared on the basis of a meaningful set of common functional features. Part I of this paper reviews the following issues related to clustering approaches found in the literature: relative (probabilistic) and absolute (possibilistic) fuzzy membership functions and their relationships to the Bayes rule, batch and on-line learning, prototype editing schemes, growing and pruning networks, modular network architectures, topologically perfect mapping, ecological nets and neuro-fuzziness. From this discussion an equivalence between the concepts of fuzzy clustering and soft competitive learning in clustering algorithms is proposed as a unifying framework in the comparison of clustering systems. Moreover, a set of functional attributes is selected for use as dictionary entries in the comparison of clustering algorithms, which is the subject of part II of this paper.