Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do They Make a Difference? The Impact of English Language Programs on Second Language Students in Canadian Universities

Few studies have investigated the impact of English language programs on second language (L2) students studying in Canadian universities (Cheng & Fox, 2008; Fox, 2005, 2009). This article reports on questionnaire responses of 641 L2 students studying in 36 English language programs in 26 Canadian universities. The researchers identified programs by their activity emphasis as either English as a second language (ESL) or English for academic purposes (EAP). Activity emphasizing speaking, social interaction, and general language development was viewed as ESL, whereas activity that emphasized academic reading, writing, and language development was considered EAP. The researchers used structural equation modeling procedures to examine the network of relationships between language program emphasis and participants’ background characteristics in influencing academic and social engagement. A model of moderated mediation (Wu & Zumbo, 2008) was confirmed; that is, language program activities were found to account for variation in strategies which mediated academic and social engagement. However, the impact was moderated (lessened or strengthened) by three personal background factors: anxiety, stress, and motivation. This study refines our understanding of the positive impact of ESL and EAP programs on L2 university students’ academic and social engagement.
The Role of Ethnic Identification and Perceived Social Support in Latinos' Adjustment to College

This study examines the role of perceived social support and ethnic identification in Latinos'adjustment to college. Included were five sources of perceived support (family, general peer, Latino peer, faculty, and institutional) and five types of college adjustment (overall, social, emotional, academic, and attachment). The authors' perceived support model accounted for as much as 51% of the variance in attachment, with different types of support contributing uniquely to different types of adjustment. Perceived support mediated the relationship between ethnic identification and adjustment. Highly identified Latinos were less adjusted to college, in part because they perceived lower support than less identified Latinos. Important differences emerged between Latino peer support and general peer support for Latinos' college adjustment. Both individual differences and situational factors are emphasized. The implications of these findings for understanding Latinos' adjustment to college are discussed.
Owl monkey astrocytoma cells in culture spontaneously produce infectious JC virus which demonstrates altered biological properties

A tumor cell suspension of an explanted JC virus (JCV)-induced owl monkey glioblastoma was inoculated intracranially into four recipient juvenile owl monkeys. Twenty-eight months following inoculation one owl monkey developed a glioblastoma, which was explanted into tissue culture. DNA from both the tumor tissue and tumor cells in culture hybridized to a JCV DNA probe by Southern analysis, indicating that free, as well as integrated, viral DNA may be present. At the time of the second culture passage, viral JCV DNA was extracted from these cells and cloned into a plasmid vector. Nucleotide sequencing of the regulatory region of the cloned DNA demonstrated homology with the prototype Mad-1 strain of JCV and revealed a 19-base-pair deletion in the second 98-base-pair tandem repeat that eliminated a second TATA box. This deletion is characteristic of the Mad-4 strain of JCV, which is highly neurooncogenic. By the third culture passage, 100% of the cells were T-antigen positive. Approximately one-third of the cells in culture hybridized to a biotinylated JCV DNA probe when in situ hybridization was used, a technique that only detects high-copy-number of replicating viral sequences. By the culture passage 5 and continuing through culture passage 14, viable JC virions could be recovered. The T protein synthesized by this virus, now termed JCV-586, differed from both the Mad-1 and Mad-4 strains in that it formed a stable complex with the cellular p53 protein in the tumor cells. Also, the JCV-586 T protein reacted to several monoclonal antibodies made to the simian virus 40 T protein that were not recognized by either the Mad-1 or Mad-4 strains.
Teachers' assessment knowledge and their perceptions of the impact of classroom assessment professional development

Assessing student performance is one of the most critical aspects of the job of a classroom teacher; however, many teachers in the United States do not feel adequately prepared to assess their students' performance. These feelings of inadequacy are exemplified when placed against the context of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, especially with its increased focus on accountability and assessment. This study examined the effectiveness of a two-week classroom assessment workshop for inservice teachers. The workshop was based on the Standards for Teacher Competence in the Educational Assessment of Students and focused on discussion, practice, and practical application through performance assessment tasks. The study utilized a parallel mixed-methods design. Teachers were pre-tested and post-tested using the Assessment Literacy Inventory. Additionally, teachers kept daily reflective journals in order to document their experiences. The training was shown to be highly effective for the teachers, as evidenced through the dramatic increase in post-test scores over pre-test scores, and perhaps even more so through critical examination of their reflective journals.
Human Bocavirus 1 Primary Infection and Shedding in Infants.

BACKGROUND Human bocavirus 1 (HBoV-1) is frequently detected in young children. The role of HBoV-1 in respiratory illness is unclear, owing to frequent detection in asymptomatic children. METHODS Weekly oral fluid samples from a longitudinal cohort of infants were tested by quantitative polymerase chain reaction for HBoV-1 DNA. Symptoms during HBoV-1 primary shedding events were compared to those during 14-day control periods occurring 1 month prior to and following the primary event. Eight single-nucleotide polymorphisms were analyzed to assess HBoV-1 variants. RESULTS Sixty-six of 87 children (76%), followed for at least 18 months from birth, had a primary HBoV-1 infection. HBoV-1 was consistently detected for >1 month (maximum duration, 402 days) following 42 of 66 primary shedding events. Children were more likely to experience new cough symptoms (odds ratio [OR], 2.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4-5.5) and to visit a healthcare provider (OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.02-7.7) during the 14 days surrounding the time of initial detection of HBoV-1. Recurrent HBoV-1 shedding events were found in 33 children (50%). Twelve of 48 children with HBoV-1 variant data had multiple viral allelic patterns over time. CONCLUSIONS HBoV-1 primary shedding events are associated with mild respiratory illness with subsequent prolonged detection of HBoV-1 DNA for up to a year. HBoV-1 reinfection contributes to long-term shedding.
Robot leg motion in a planarized-SOI, two-layer poly-Si process

With the ultimate goal of creating autonomous microrobots, we developed a five-mask process that combines two polysilicon structural layers with 50-/spl mu/m-thick SOI structures and a backside substrate etch. The polysilicon layers provide three-dimensional (3-D) hinged structures, high compliance structures, and electrical wiring. The SOI structural layer yields much stronger structures and large-force actuators. This process was developed as a part of a three-chip solution for a solar-powered 10-mg silicon robot. Here, we describe the fabrication of this planarized-SOI, two-layer poly-Si process (henceforth called the SOI/poly process), basic modules in the design of robot legs in this process, and lastly, the results of fabricated robot legs. In designing the leg structures, we developed guidelines and test structures to provide a better understanding of the robot leg performance. These guidelines include understanding the relationship between the lateral etch depth to the actuator spacing and performing static friction tests of polysilicon flaps to more accurately model the frictional forces of the linkages. Last, we report on the performance of the robot legs and inchworm motors. On an 8 mm /spl times/ 3 mm robot, we have demonstrated a 1 degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot leg, 1 mm in length, which demonstrates up to 60 /spl mu/N of vertical leg force with an angular deflection of almost 30/spl deg/. A two-DOF robot leg, also 1 mm in length, operated with at least 90/spl deg/ of angular deflection, and each inchworm motor demonstrated a shuttle displacement of 400 /spl mu/m with speeds up to 6.8 mm/s. In addition to robot legs, a bidirectional inchworm motor that produces equivalent forces in both directions was also fabricated in this SOI/poly process. This motor uses an additional set of gap-closing-actuator (GCA) arrays to prebias the drive frame.
Does Ethics Pay?

Abstract: The relationship between ethics and economics has never been easy. Opponents in a tug of war, friends in a warm embrace, ships passing in the night—the relationship has been highly variable. In recent years, the friendship model has been gaining credence, particularly among U.S. corporate executives. Increasingly, companies are launching ethics programs, values initiatives, and community involvement activities premised on management’s belief that “Ethics pays. ”
A comprehensive review for industrial applicability of artificial neural networks

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the industrial applications of artificial neural networks (ANNs), in the last 12 years. Common questions that arise to practitioners and control engineers while deciding how to use NNs for specific industrial tasks are answered. Workable issues regarding implementation details, training and performance evaluation of such algorithms are also discussed, based on a judiciously chronological organization of topologies and training methods effectively used in the past years. The most popular ANN topologies and training methods are listed and briefly discussed, as a reference to the application engineer. Finally, ANN industrial applications are grouped and tabulated by their main functions and what they actually performed on the referenced papers. The authors prepared this paper bearing in mind that an organized and normalized review would be suitable to help industrial managing and operational personnel decide which kind of ANN topology and training method would be adequate for their specific problems.
Moment Analysis of Metabolic Heterogeneity: Conjugation of Benzoate with Glycine in Rat Liver Studied by Multiple Indicator Dilution Technique

Metabolic zonation was assessed with the multiple indicator dilution (MID) technique in the single-pass perfused rat liver with use of moment analysis of the formed metabolite (M) data. During single-pass, retrograde rat liver perfusion with 17 μM benzoate, a bolus containing tracer preformed metabolite (PM) [3H]hippurate was injected rapidly into the hepatic vein at 20 min postperfusion, followed by injection of a second bolus containing [14C]benzoate at 30 min. Both doses also contained noneliminated reference indicators (51Cr-labeled RBCs,125I-labeled albumin, [14C]- or [3H]sucrose, and 2H2O). The steady-state extraction ratio of benzoate, the area under the curve (AUC) and its mean transit time (MTT) during retrograde flow were identical to those previously observed for prograde flow. Values of AUCPM and MTTPM and AUCM were also similar to previously published prograde data, but the MTTMwith retrograde perfusion was smaller than that for prograde perfusion. This, according to theory based on the tubes-in-series model, was consistent with perivenous enrichment of glycination activity when transport of drug was even and when the ratio of drug influx/efflux coefficient exceeded that for metabolite. Similar benzoate transport in periportal, homogeneous and perivenous isolated rat hepatocytes existed, and the influx/efflux coefficients (partition ratio) of benzoate from MID indeed exceeded that of hippurate. However, metabolism by zonal hepatocytes failed to reveal the anticipated metabolic zonation, and this is likely due to the shallow gradient of metabolic activity. The study demonstrates that moment theory is useful in delineating the perivenous enrichment of glycine conjugation activity.
Language Attitudes, Shift and the Ethnolinguistic Vitality of the Greek Orthodox Community in Istanbul

The Greek Orthodox community of Istanbul has long existed as a bilingual Greek and Turkish grouping and remains largely unstudied. The sharp decrease in the size of this community to approximately 1000 members raises questions as to the maintenance of Greek in this setting. This study attempts to establish the current status of Greek in the community and explores key sociolinguistic and sociopsychological parameters relevant to its potential survival or loss. In particular, it investigates whether the symbolic status of Greek, its link with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul and the strength of the community's ethnocultural identity are crucial factors that might underpin its survival. Data gathered via a questionnaire (investigating language use, attitudes and the ethnolinguistic status of the community) and interviews revealed that Greek has high symbolic status and plays a key role in defining ethnocultural identity. However Greek competence in the younger generation appears to be significantly declining. Greek is now widely spoken only in the home and at Church; and without significant changes language shift may in practice accelerate, despite a strong desire by the community to preserve their language.
Factor Structure Analysis of the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Scale on International Students

The authors investigated the factor structure of the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence (SSREI) scale on international students. Via confirmatory factor analysis, the authors tested the fit of the models reported by Schutte et al. and five other studies to data from 640 international students in the United States. Results show that although Gignac, Palmer, Manocha, and Stough’s modified hypothesized nested model fit the sample data, this model was not parsimonious. As a result, this study proposed a new model that also fitted the data. Results further indicate convergent and concurrent criterion-related validities and reliability of the model. The findings support the use of the modified SSREI for international students.
Effect of intraventricular infusion of anti-prion protein monoclonal antibodies on disease progression in prion-infected mice.

It is well known that anti-prion protein (PrP) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) inhibit abnormal isoform PrP (PrPSc) formation in cell culture. Additionally, passive immunization of anti-PrP mAbs protects the animals from prion infection via peripheral challenge when mAbs are administered simultaneously or soon after prion inoculation. Thus, anti-PrP mAbs are candidates for the treatment of prion diseases. However, the effects of mAbs on disease progression in the middle and late stages of the disease remain unclear. This study carried out intraventricular infusion of mAbs into prion-infected mice before and after clinical onset to assess their ability to delay disease progression. A 4-week infusion of anti-PrP mAbs initiated at 120 days post-inoculation (p.i.), which is just after clinical onset, reduced PrPSc levels to 70-80 % of those found in mice treated with a negative-control mAb. Spongiform changes, microglial activation and astrogliosis in the hippocampus and thalamus appeared milder in mice treated with anti-PrP mAbs than in those treated with a negative-control mAb. Treatment with anti-PrP mAb prolonged the survival of mice infected with Chandler or Obihiro strain when infusion was initiated at 60 days p.i. , at which point PrPSc is detectable in the brain. In contrast, infusion initiated after clinical onset prolonged the survival time by about 8 % only in mice infected with the Chandler strain. Although the effects on survival varied for different prion strains, the anti-PrP mAb could partly prevent disease progression, even after clinical onset, suggesting immunotherapy as a candidate for treatment of prion diseases.
Citizen (Dis)satisfaction: An Experimental Equivalence Framing Study

This article introduces the importance of equivalence framing for understanding how satisfaction measures affect citizens’ evaluation of public services. Does a 90 percent satisfaction rate have a different effect than a logically equivalent 10 percent dissatisfaction rate? Two experiments were conducted on citizens’ evaluations of hospital services in a large, nationally representative sample of Danish citizens. Both experiments found that exposing citizens to a patient dissatisfaction measure led to more negative views of public service than exposing them to a logically equivalent satisfaction metric. There is some support for part of the shift in evaluations being caused by a negativity bias: dissatisfaction has a larger negative impact than satisfaction has a positive impact. Both professional experience at a hospital and prior exposure to satisfaction rates reduced the negative response to dissatisfaction rates. The results call for further study of equivalence framing of performance information. Practitioner Points The valence (positive/negative) of performance information can have substantial effects on citizens’ perception of public services—even if the underlying performance is exactly the same. Presenting citizens with a dissatisfaction rate of 10 percent induces a much more negative evaluation of public services than presenting them with a logically equivalent satisfaction rate of 90 percent. Policy makers must carefully consider how minor equivalent changes in the presentation of performance information can induce large shifts in citizens’ perceptions of public service performance.
Mediating culture in transnational spaces: An example of young people from refugee backgrounds

Many young people with refugee backgrounds struggle to develop positive social and cultural identities in their new settlement locations and often experience disadvantage and marginalization. Yet, recent developments in low cost, accessible Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) potentially provide new opportunities for them to seek their sources of identity and identification elsewhere – through family, peer and cultural connections that transcend the limitations of place. But do youth from refugee backgrounds take advantage of these opportunities for cultural renewal and reconstruction and, if they do, what are the consequences for their local and transnational identities and social networks? As more young people experience mobility – either forced or voluntary – in the course of their early lives, virtual interactions become an important domain of social and cultural practice. In this paper, I explore the mediating effects of digital communications for a small group of young people from refugee backgrounds who currently live in Melbourne but conduct their lives across the globe, in order to reflect on what these experiences suggest about a new set of possibilities for creating trans-local cultures.
HTLV EM GESTANTES DE DOIS MUNICÍPIOS DA

Background Different hypotheses have been elaborated to explain how the HTLV spread throughout the world. It has been proposed, for example, that the virus was introduced in Bahia, Brazil, during the slave-trade period from 16 century to 19century. This Brazilian state has the highest prevalence of HTLV infection in the country. However, there is no information about the HTLV evolutionary history in southern Bahia. Therefore, data regarding its phylogeny are fundamental in order to clarify its introduction, dynamics and dispersion.
An efficient parallel stochastic simulation method for analysis of nonviral gene delivery systems

Gene therapy has a great potential to become an effective treatment for a wide variety of diseases. One of the main challenges to make gene therapy practical in clinical settings is the development of efficient and safe mechanisms to deliver foreign DNA molecules into the nucleus of target cells. Several computational and experimental studies have shown that the design process of synthetic gene transfer vectors can be greatly enhanced by computational modeling and simulation. This paper proposes a novel, effective parallelization of the stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA) for pharmacokinetic models that characterize the rate-limiting, multi-step processes of intracellular gene delivery. While efficient parallelizations of the SSA are still an open problem in a general setting, the proposed parallel simulation method is able to substantially accelerate the next reaction selection scheme and the reaction update scheme in the SSA by exploiting and decomposing the structures of stochastic gene delivery models. This, thus, makes computationally intensive analysis such as parameter optimizations and gene dosage control for specific cell types, gene vectors, and transgene expression stability substantially more practical than that could otherwise be with the standard SSA. Here, we translated the nonviral gene delivery model based on mass-action kinetics by Varga et al. [Molecular Therapy, 4(5), 2001] into a more realistic model that captures intracellular fluctuations based on stochastic chemical kinetics, and as a case study we applied our parallel simulation to this stochastic model. Our results show that our simulation method is able to increase the efficiency of statistical analysis by at least 50% in various settings.
Helping children to talk and think together more effectively

Este artigo baseia-se em pesquisa recente e em andamento realizada pelo autor e colegas da Open University em escolas britânicas de ensino primario. Descreve como a pesquisa de sala de aula propicia o desenvolvimento e a avaliacao de um programa de atividades para reestruturar e fomentar o trabalho colaborativo das criancas e assim desenvolver suas habilidades em argumentacao e uso da linguagem falada. Esta pesquisa insere-se na perspectiva sociocultural de ensino e aprendizagem e os resultados obtidos fornecem apoio empirico a uma concepcao Vygotskiana ao relacionamento entre linguagem e pensamento e ao papel do professor em propiciar andaimes para o desenvolvimento intelectual da crianca.
Oxygen‐enhanced proton imaging of the human lung using T2*

Magnetic susceptibility gradients caused by tissue/air interfaces lead to very short T2* times in the human lung. These susceptibility gradients are dependent on the magnetic susceptibility of the respiratory gas and therefore should influence T2* relaxation. In this work, a technique for quantitative T2* mapping of the human lung during one breath hold is presented. Using this method, the lung T2* relaxation time was measured under normoxic (room air, 21% O2) and hyperoxic (100% O2) conditions to verify this assumption. The mean T2* difference between room air and 100% O2 is about 10% and contains ventilation information, since only ventilated regions contribute to signal change due to different susceptibility gradients. Magn Reson Med 53:1193–1196, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The inverted-U relationship between stress and performance: A field study

Abstract To investigate the shape of the relationship between stress resulting from excessive demand and performance, 306 officer cadets in the Israel Defence Forces completed stress questionnaires during their training. Stress was consistently negatively related to various measures of performance. The prediction derived from the inverted-U hypothesis, that those whose ability exceeded demand and those who felt that demands taxed their ability would perform worse than those whose ability matched their demands, was not supported. Until all the requisite conditions for testing the inverted-U hypothesis are met, the authors propose relegating it to the laboratory.