Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Sharing and Information Type in Children's Categorization of Privileged and Conventional Information

Categorization is an essential part of our daily lives and an integral part of humans’ ability to function and interact within society. There are large bodies of research that document children’s categorization in domains such as natural kinds, artifacts and human kinds. One domain that has not been investigated is children’s ability to categorize different types of information; specifically conventional information, shareable to others with no restrictions, and privileged information, shareable to only a few. Study 1 investigated 4and 5-year-olds and adults’ ability to categorize conventional and privileged information. All participants correctly categorized both types of information equally well at above chance levels, though each older age group performed significantly better than the younger age group. Study 2 investigated whether 4and 6-year-old and adults categorize information by its category membership or whether the information is shared or not shared. Four-year-olds and adults categorized conventional information by its category membership and did so significantly more than 6-year-olds. There was no pattern of responses to the categorization for privileged information by participants in any age group. Though this ability develops with age, by the age of 4 children are able to distinguish between and identify conventional and privileged information. There appears to be a U-shaped curve of development for categorizing conventional information by its category membership, which is not apparent in the categorization of privileged information. Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Douglas Behrend, for his invaluable advice, support and encouragement as I have worked towards the completion of this dissertation. I would also like to thank Rachel Stevens, my fellow graduate research assistant at WordPlay Lab, and the following research assistants, Rachel Greenwood, Mary Logan Thomas and Kasey Spinks, for their help with stimuli creation and data collection. A special thanks is extended to our area preschools and elementary schools, teachers, parents and students who have participated in these studies. Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my parents. This would not have been possible without their continuous and unconditional support. Table of
Don’t Sweat It: Re-Examining the Somatic Marker Hypothesis Using Variants of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task

Current thinking on the role of emotions in decision making has been highly influenced by a theory—the somatic marker hypothesis (SMH), which emphasizes the role of physiological mechanisms in guiding decisions—and by variants of a single task—the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), whose development is closely tied to that theory. To address potential shortcomings in the IGT, we used 3 variants of another task—the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)—as a novel means of testing the SMH via behavioral and physiological arousal (skin conductance) data. We manipulated the emotional content of the task by altering its framing (loss vs. gain) and point of commitment to taking risk (in advance vs. in the moment), while also assessing skin conductance. We find consistent support for elements of the SMH: decisions ending in failure result in higher skin conductance than successes; and those failures inhibit risk taking on subsequent trials. However, we find little support for skin conductance guiding decision making—a core prediction of the SMH.
zSlices — towards bridging the gap between interval and general type-2 fuzzy logic

Higher order fuzzy logic systems such as interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems have been shown to be very well suited to dealing with the large amounts of uncertainties present in the majority of real world applications. General type-2 fuzzy logic systems are expected to further extend this capability. However, the complexity as well as the immense computational requirements have generally prevented a foray into general type-2 fuzzy logic research. This paper introduces an alternative approach termed zSlices for representing general type-2 sets based on interval type-2 sets. Thus, this will lead to a smooth transition from interval to general type-2 fuzzy systems. The proposed approach will lead to a significant reduction in both the complexity and the computational requirements for general type-2 fuzzy logic systems. Hence, this will lead to facilitating the application of general type-2 fuzzy logic to many real world applications.
Early Life Exposure to Fructose and Offspring Phenotype: Implications for Long Term Metabolic Homeostasis

The consumption of artificially sweetened processed foods, particularly high in fructose or high fructose corn syrup, has increased significantly in the past few decades. As such, interest into the long term outcomes of consuming high levels of fructose has increased significantly, particularly when the exposure is early in life. Epidemiological and experimental evidence has linked fructose consumption to the metabolic syndrome and associated comorbidities—implicating fructose as a potential factor in the obesity epidemic. Yet, despite the widespread consumption of fructose-containing foods and beverages and the rising incidence of maternal obesity, little attention has been paid to the possible adverse effects of maternal fructose consumption on the developing fetus and long term effects on offspring. In this paper we review studies investigating the effects of fructose intake on metabolic outcomes in both mother and offspring using human and experimental studies.
The Clarence Ayres Memorial Lecture: The Paradoxes of Happiness in an Old Institutionalist Perspective

In recent years, happiness research has become a strongly recognized new field of economic discourse. This contribution tries to delineate the insights and limitations of this research from a critical institutionalist vantage point. In a couple of articles on happiness research, Thorstein B. Veblen is mentioned. l The theoretical and intellectual affinity between Veblen's theory and path-breaking contributions in happiness research like Tibor Scitovsky's The Joyless Economy (1976), Fred Hirsch's The Social Limits to Growth (1976), and, for example, Robert Frank's Choosing the Right Pond (1985) is obvious. They are all skeptical about the assumption that changes in economic welfare indicate changes in social welfare in the same direction, if not in the same degree. Hirsch's positional goods underline Veblen's insight that economic value also depends on the relative position regarding, for example, the possessions of others. All recent authors refer to some degree to James Duesenberry, whose relative income hypothesis (1949) is directly derived from Veblen's theory of the leisure class. In this contribution I will focus on Veblen's analysis of the paradoxes of happiness in his major work on the leisure class, The Theory of the Leisure Class ([ 1899] 1994). It will be shown that Veblen can be assessed as a neglected founder of happiness research. I cannot describe happiness research in detail here.2 I will only mention the major finding of happiness research: in many countries real income has risen but self-reported subjective well-being has not (substantially) increased (Easterlin 2001). Its research strategy may be described as conceptual individualism; micro happiness functions are derived from the empirical-statistical measuring of the influences of variables on reported subjective statements of well-being.
A case study of culturally informed disability-inclusive education policy development in the Solomon Islands

ABSTRACT Inclusive education in general, and disability-inclusive education in particular, is a high-level priority for development work in aid-supported countries. This paper presents a bottom-up process of developing disability-inclusive education policy in one country – the Solomon Islands. It is well understood that the promotion of quality in disability-inclusive education requires a clearly stated policy; however, in many developing countries, there has been a history of policy borrowing rather than culturally informed policy development. This paper will critically discuss how policy development occurs in aid-funded development work and then offers an alternative model of Australian aid-supported policy development as an in-depth case study.
The Functions of Laryngeal Air Sacs in Primates: A New Hypothesis

A possible function of laryngeal air sacs in apes and gibbons was investigated by examining the relationships between air sac distribution, call rate, call duration and body weight in a phylogenetic context. The results suggest that lack of sacs in the smaller gibbons and in humans is a derived feature. Call parameters in primates, such as rate and duration, scaled to resting breathing rate (and therefore to body weight) only in species without air sacs, which appear to modify these relationships. Apes and larger gibbons may be able to produce fast extended call sequences without the risk of hyperventilating because they can re-breathe exhaled air from their air sacs. Humans may have lost air sacs during their evolutionary history because they are able to modify their speech breathing patterns and so reduce any tendency to hyperventilate.
Genome-wide association study of comorbid depressive syndrome and alcohol dependence

Objective Depression and alcohol dependence (AD) are common psychiatric disorders that often co-occur. Both disorders are genetically influenced, with heritability estimates in the range of 35–60%. In addition, evidence from twin studies suggests that AD and depression are genetically correlated. Herein, we report results from a genome-wide association study of a comorbid phenotype, in which cases meet the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV symptom threshold for major depressive symptomatology and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV criteria for AD. Methods Samples (N=467 cases and N=407 controls) were of European-American descent and were genotyped using the Illumina Human 1M BeadChip array. Results Although no single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) meets genome-wide significance criteria, we identified 10 markers with P values less than 1×10−5, seven of which are located in known genes, which have not been previously implicated in either disorder. Genes harboring SNPs yielding P values less than 1×10−3 are functionally enriched for a number of gene ontology categories, notably several related to glutamatergic function. Investigation of expression localization using online resources suggests that these genes are expressed across a variety of tissues, including behaviorally relevant brain regions. Genes that have been previously associated with depression, AD, or other addiction-related phenotypes – such as CDH13, CSMD2, GRID1, and HTR1B – were implicated by nominally significant SNPs. Finally, the degree of overlap of significant SNPs between a comorbid phenotype and an AD-only phenotype is modest. Conclusion These results underscore the complex genomic influences on psychiatric phenotypes and suggest that a comorbid phenotype is partially influenced by genetic variants that do not affect AD alone.
Amplification of Surface Temperature Trends and Variability in the Tropical Atmosphere

The month-to-month variability of tropical temperatures is larger in the troposphere than at Earth's surface. This amplification behavior is similar in a range of observations and climate model simulations and is consistent with basic theory. On multidecadal time scales, tropospheric amplification of surface warming is a robust feature of model simulations, but it occurs in only one observational data set. Other observations show weak, or even negative, amplification. These results suggest either that different physical mechanisms control amplification processes on monthly and decadal time scales, and models fail to capture such behavior; or (more plausibly) that residual errors in several observational data sets used here affect their representation of long-term trends.
e-Science Application Development: Analyst and User Perspectives

Potential users of e-science software often have strong technical skills, ranging from the use of scripting languages to the development of substantial pieces of software used by other members of their communities. In this paper we reflect on the experience of designing and developing software with a technically expert end user, and consider how the software development process might be structured to take advantage of the expertise of such users.
Body Image and Relationship Satisfaction Among Couples: The Role of Perceived Partner Appearance Evaluations and Sexual Satisfaction

Previous research suggests that body image dissatisfaction is associated with decreased romantic relationship satisfaction, but little is known about why these variables are related. The purpose of the current study was to investigate mediating mechanisms involved in the association between body satisfaction and relationship satisfaction, building on earlier research that has highlighted the potential importance of sexual satisfaction, and incorporating the literature on partner perceptions. The study was informed by Murray, Holmes, and Collins’ (2006) risk regulation framework, which identifies perceived partner regard as an important contributing factor to romantic relationship satisfaction. Specifically, the model states that people need to feel accepted by their partners in order to experience the sense of security necessary to engage in emotionally risky, relationship-enhancing behaviours, such as sexual intimacy. Participants were partners in 251 heterosexual dyads involved in committed relationships. Partners within each dyad completed online self-report questionnaires independently. Consistent with hypotheses, body dissatisfied individuals perceived that their partners shared their negative opinions of the respondent’s body, regardless of their partner’s actual feelings. Perceived partner dissatisfaction with the respondent’s body predicted reduced sexual satisfaction, which in turn, predicted reduced relationship satisfaction. Major contributions of the current study include identifying explanatory processes underlying the body image and relationship satisfaction association, and showing that this process does not differ by gender. Significant methodological and statistical strengths of the current study include the inclusion of both romantic partners, the use of statistical
Association between white matter microstructure, executive functions, and processing speed in older adults: The impact of vascular health

Cerebral white matter damage is not only a commonly reported consequence of healthy aging, but is also associated with cognitive decline and dementia. The aetiology of this damage is unclear; however, individuals with hypertension have a greater burden of white matter signal abnormalities (WMSA) on MR imaging than those without hypertension. It is therefore possible that elevated blood pressure (BP) impacts white matter tissue structure which in turn has a negative impact on cognition. However, little information exists about whether vascular health indexed by BP mediates the relationship between cognition and white matter tissue structure. We used diffusion tensor imaging to examine the impact of vascular health on regional associations between white matter integrity and cognition in healthy older adults spanning the normotensive to moderate–severe hypertensive BP range (43–87 years; N = 128). We examined how white matter structure was associated with performance on tests of two cognitive domains, executive functioning (EF) and processing speed (PS), and how patterns of regional associations were modified by BP and WMSA. Multiple linear regression and structural equation models demonstrated associations between tissue structure, EF and PS in frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital white matter regions. Radial diffusivity was more prominently associated with performance than axial diffusivity. BP only minimally influenced the relationship between white matter integrity, EF and PS. However, WMSA volume had a major impact on neurocognitive associations. This suggests that, although BP and WMSA are causally related, these differential metrics of vascular health may act via independent pathways to influence brain structure, EF and PS. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Urotensin System Is Up-Regulated in the Pre-Hypertensive Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat

Urotensin II (UII) concentrations are raised both in humans with hypertension and in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Since the urotensin system acts to regulate glomerular filtration in the kidney it may play a greater role in the pre-hypertensive SHR in which renal dysfunction is known to precede the onset of severe hypertension. This study aimed to determine the renal actions and expression of the urotensin system in the young SHR. Intravenous rat UII (6 pmol. min-1. 100 g body weight-1) had no significant effect on GFR; however urotensin-related peptide (URP) reduced GFR (P<0.05) in 4-5 week old SHR. Administration of the UT antagonist SB-706375 evoked marked increases in GFR (baseline 0.38 ± 0.07 vs antagonist 0.76 ± 0.05 ml. min-1. 100 g body weight-1, P<0.05), urine flow and sodium excretion (baseline 2.5 ± 0.4 vs antagonist 9.1 ± 2.1 µmol. min-1. 100 g body weight-1, P<0.05) in the SHR. Normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats showed little response to UT antagonism. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that neither UII nor UT mRNA expression differed between the kidneys of young SHR and WKY rats; however expression of URP was 4-fold higher in the SHR kidney. Renal transcriptional up-regulation indicates that URP is the major UT ligand in young SHR and WKY rats. Enhanced tonic UT activation may contribute to known renal dysfunction in pre-hypertensive SHR.
Tap Loading of Subcarrier Equalizers for Wireless Multicarrier Transceivers

We present a novel algorithm for defining the lengths of subcarrier equalizers employed by wireless multicarrier transmission systems operating in frequency-selective fading channels. The equalizer lengths across the subcarriers are incrementally varied in a ldquogreedyrdquo fashion until the global cost function is below some prescribed threshold. By varying the equalizer lengths, the overall complexity of the equalization is constrained while the system meets a minimum error performance. Moreover, we investigate four strategies for terminating the proposed algorithm when an adequate number of equalizer taps have been allocated in this process. The results show that a system that employs variable-length equalizers defined by the proposed algorithm can achieve an improvement in error robustness of as much as an order of magnitude, relative to a system that employs constant length equalizers with the same overall complexity.
Finding spatial units for land use classification based on hierarchical image objects

Remote sensing in urban areas has been a challenger for quite some time due to their complexity and fragment with combination of man-made features and natural features. High-resolution satellite images and airborne laser altimetry data offered potential possibilities for feature extraction and spatial modelling in urban areas. Land use classification of urban areas may become possible by exploiting current high-resolution sensor data. The proposed approach incorporates spectral information from multi-spectral IKONOS images and height information from laser scanning data in hierarchical image segmentation based on semantically meaningful thresholds. By image segmentation, we obtain image objects at several levels with certain properties, which make it possible to include the spatial relations between adjacent image objects. Land cover classification and identification of image objects can be carried out mainly according to their properties. Land use classification at a higher level need to be inferred based on land cover objects and structural information at lower levels. We use Delaunay triangulation for deriving spatial relations between image objects and for structural analysis. Based on adjacency relationships of image objects, human settlements and other urban spaces are formed that create a base for land use identification as well as for structural analysis of urban areas. In this paper, the hierarchical image segmentation schema and the corresponding semantic-based thresholds are presented. To test the approach, we selected a site in a suburban area in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The experiments show that hierarchically formed image objects are useful tools for image analysis and spatial modelling as compared to pixel-based approaches. Structural information can be derived based on hierarchical image objects, which plays an important role in land use classification in urban areas. We could cluster 704 image objects (buildings) into 82 spatial units for land use classification based on the measurement of shortest distance between adjacent buildings.
Evidence that the mismatch negativity system works on the basis of objects

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the system that underlies the mismatch negativity (MMN) of event-related potentials would operate on the basis of objects if stimuli were delivered in such a way as to create the impression of two objects. To this end, tones were alternated between ears with one combination of features for each ear. Deviant tones, which differed from the standard tones of both ears, were delivered separately to each ear. The deviants elicited MMNs only with respect to the standards of the ear to which they were delivered. The data indicate that the MMN system operated on the basis of objects and that the integration of objects occurs preattentively in the auditory system.
The hydrodynamics of filter feeding in choanoflagellates

Choanoflagellates are filter feeding heterotrophic nanoflagellates. Fluid flow generated by the motion of the flagellum delivers suspended prey particles to the surface of a crown-like filtering apparatus. Hydrodynamic characteristics are consequently of great importance to understanding prey capture in these organisms. This paper reports on the use of video-microscopy to investigate the hydrodynamics of filter feeding in choanoflagellates. The cell and collar morphology, and the flagellar and fluid motion of three species of choanoflagellates, one from each family of the phylum, are described. Inter-species differences in these parameters are compared to one another and to optima theoretically determined by Higdon (1979). The motion of a flagellum close to an infinite boundary is modelled using a line of stokeslets. This model predicts the occurrence of viscous eddies in the fluid streamlines. Viscous eddies are observed in the far field fluid flow of two species of sessile choanoflagellates. Balancing forces over a control volume and using slender body theory allows estimates of pressure drop across the collar of the three species of choanoflagellate to be made. The magnitude of pressure drop (Δp) was found to be consistent with previous publications, suggesting that Δp may be a constraining parameter for filter feeders.
Quantum liquid signatures in dwarf stars

We develop further the proposal of arXiv:0806.3692 that a new state of matter — charged condensate of spin-0 nuclei — may exist in helium-core dwarf stars. The charged condensate and its fluctuations are described by an effective field theory Lagrangian. The spectrum of bosonic fluctuations is gapped, while electrons, at temperatures of interest, give rise to gapless excitations near the Fermi surface. These properties determine the evolution of the dwarfs with condensed cores. In particular, we show that such dwarf stars would cool significantly faster than their crystallized counterparts. As a result, the luminosity function for the helium-core dwarfs will have a sharp drop-off after the condensation. It is tempting to interpret the recently discovered abrupt termination of a sequence of 24 helium-core dwarf candidates in NGC 6397 as a signature of the charged condensation.