Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of Confidence and Competence Among Early Childhood Interventionists

The preservice and in-service predictors of 1,668 Part C early intervention and Part B(619) preschool special practitioners' perceived self-efficacy beliefs are reported. The preservice variables were type of degree (discipline), years of formal postsecondary education, licensure, and participants' judgment of how well their preservice training prepared the practitioners to work with young children and their families. The in-service variables were type of state training/technical assistance available to the participants, whether participants were required to have continuing education, and the amount of in-service training the participants received. Self-efficacy was measured in terms of the participants' perceived confidence and competence to successfully enact three procedural practices (family-centered practices, teaming practices, and assessment in education practices), and three intervention practices (IFSPs/IEPs, instructional practices, and natural environment/inclusion practices). Results suggest that participants' judgments of their preservice preparedness to work with young children and their families, and the number of different kinds of in-service training for which they availed themselves, were the best predictors of all four types of self-efficacy beliefs. Implications for preservice and in-service professional preparation and training are discussed.
RpoS and Indole Signaling Control the Virulence of Vibrio anguillarum towards Gnotobiotic Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) Larvae

Quorum sensing, bacterial cell-to-cell communication with small signal molecules, controls the virulence of many pathogens. In contrast to other vibrios, neither the VanI/VanR acylhomoserine lactone quorum sensing system, nor the three-channel quorum sensing system affects virulence of the economically important aquatic pathogen Vibrio anguillarum. Indole is another molecule that recently gained attention as a putative signal molecule. The data presented in this study indicate that indole signaling and the alternative sigma factor RpoS have a significant impact on the virulence of V. anguillarum. Deletion of rpoS resulted in increased expression of the indole biosynthesis gene tnaA and in increased production of indole. Both rpoS deletion and the addition of exogenous indole (50–100 µM) resulted in decreased biofilm formation, exopolysaccharide production (a phenotype that is required for pathogenicity) and expression of the exopolysaccharide synthesis gene wbfD. Further, indole inhibitors increased the virulence of the rpoS deletion mutant, suggesting that indole acts downstream of RpoS. Finally, in addition to the phenotypes found to be affected by indole, the rpoS deletion mutant also showed increased motility and decreased sensitivity to oxidative stress.
A Thermoelectric Heat Engine with Ultracold Atoms

Cold Thermoelectrics Thermoelectric effects—such as the creation of a voltage drop in response to a thermal gradient (known as the Seebeck effect)—can be used for a number of applications, including converting wasted heat into power. However, especially in solids that exhibit electronic interactions, this type of behavior is not well understood. Brantut et al. (p. 713, published online 24 October; see the Perspective by Heikkilä) studied the Seebeck effect in the very controllable setting of cold atomic gases. Two initially identical reservoirs of 6Li atoms were connected using a quasi–two-dimensional channel, and the particle current after heating one of the reservoirs was measured. The atoms moved from the warmer to the cooler reservoir, the extent of which fit with theoretical predictions as the disorder in the channel and its geometry were varied. A flow of particles in response to a thermal gradient is observed in a channel connecting two reservoirs of 6Li atoms. [Also see Perspective by Heikkilä] Thermoelectric effects, such as the generation of a particle current by a temperature gradient, have their origin in a reversible coupling between heat and particle flows. These effects are fundamental probes for materials and have applications to cooling and power generation. Here, we demonstrate thermoelectricity in a fermionic cold atoms channel in the ballistic and diffusive regimes, connected to two reservoirs. We show that the magnitude of the effect and the efficiency of energy conversion can be optimized by controlling the geometry or disorder strength. Our observations are in quantitative agreement with a theoretical model based on the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. Our device provides a controllable model system to explore mechanisms of energy conversion and realizes a cold atom–based heat engine.
On the placement of Internet instrumentation

The IDMaps project aims to provide a distance map of the Internet from which relative distances between hosts on the Internet can be gauged. Many distributed systems and applications can benefit from such a distance map service, for example, a common method to improve user-perceived performance of the Internet is to place data and server mirrors closer to clients. When a client tries to access a mirrored server, which mirror should it access? With IDMaps, the closest mirror can be determined based on distance estimates between the client and the mirrors. In this paper we investigate both graph theoretic methods and ad hoc heuristics for instrumenting the Internet to obtain distance maps. We evaluate the efficacy of the resulting distance maps by comparing the determinations of the closest replica using known topologies against those obtained using the distance maps.
Against the odds: resilience in mathematics students in transition

This paper examines ‘resilience’ of mathematics students in transition from a sociocultural perspective, in which resilience is viewed as relational and in particular as a function of the social and cultural capital students may bring to the new field. We draw on two students’ stories of transition, in which we recognise elements traditionally viewed as ‘risks’ for mathematics students in transition into institutions where new demands are made. However, in each case it seems that some of their apparent background ‘risk factors’—coming from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds and disadvantaged schools—have come to serve to constitute capital, buttressing their particular resilience, as they provide a crucial kind of autonomy that is particularly valued in the new institution. We identify the learners’ reflexivity as having been crucial to this accumulation of capital and we discuss some educational implications.
PTP1B promotes focal complex maturation, lamellar persistence and directional migration

Summary Previous findings established that ER-bound PTP1B targets peripheral cell–matrix adhesions and positively regulates cell adhesion to fibronectin. Here we show that PTP1B enhances focal complex lifetime at the lamellipodium base, delaying their turnover and facilitating &agr;-actinin incorporation. We demonstrate the presence of catalytic PTP1BD181A–&agr;-actinin complexes at focal complexes. Kymograph analysis revealed that PTP1B contributes to lamellar protrusion persistence and directional cell migration. Pull-down and FRET analysis also showed that PTP1B is required for efficient integrin-dependent downregulation of RhoA and upregulation of Rac1 during spreading. A substrate trap strategy revealed that FAK/Src recruitment and Src activity are essential for the generation of PTP1B substrates in adhesions. PTP1B targets the negative regulatory site of Src (phosphotyrosine 529), paxillin and p130Cas at peripheral cell–matrix adhesions. We postulate that PTP1B modulates more than one pathway required for focal complex maturation and membrane protrusion, including &agr;-actinin-mediated cytoskeletal anchorage, integrin-dependent activation of the FAK/Src signaling pathway, and RhoA and Rac1 GTPase activity. By doing so, PTP1B contributes to coordinated adhesion turnover, lamellar stability and directional cell migration.
Running Performance at High Running Velocities Is Impaired but V′O2max and Peripheral Endothelial Function Are Preserved in IL-6−/− Mice

It has been reported that IL-6 knockout mice (IL-6−/−) possess lower endurance capacity than wild type mice (WT), however the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. The aim of the present work was to examine whether reduced endurance running capacity in IL-6−/− mice is linked to impaired maximal oxygen uptake (V′O2max), decreased glucose tolerance, endothelial dysfunction or other mechanisms. Maximal running velocity during incremental running to exhaustion was significantly lower in IL-6−/− mice than in WT mice (13.00±0.97 m.min−1 vs. 16.89±1.15 m.min−1, P<0.02, respectively). Moreover, the time to exhaustion during running at 12 m.min−1 in IL-6−/− mice was significantly shorter (P<0.05) than in WT mice. V′O2max in IL-6−/− (n = 20) amounting to 108.3±2.8 ml.kg−1.min−1 was similar as in WT mice (n = 22) amounting to 113.0±1.8 ml.kg−1.min−1, (P = 0.16). No difference in maximal COX activity between the IL-6−/− and WT mice in m. soleus and m. gastrocnemius was found. Moreover, no impairment of peripheral endothelial function or glucose tolerance was found in IL-6−/− mice. Surprisingly, plasma lactate concentration during running at 8 m.min−1 as well at maximal running velocity in IL-6−/− mice was significantly lower (P<0.01) than in WT mice. Interestingly, IL-6−/− mice displayed important adaptive mechanisms including significantly lower oxygen cost of running at a given speed accompanied by lower expression of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase and lower plasma lactate concentrations during running at submaximal and maximal running velocities. In conclusion, impaired endurance running capacity in IL-6−/− mice could not be explained by reduced V′O2max, endothelial dysfunction or impaired muscle oxidative capacity. Therefore, our results indicate that IL-6 cannot be regarded as a major regulator of exercise capacity but rather as a modulator of endurance performance. Furthermore, we identified important compensatory mechanism limiting reduced exercise performance in IL-6−/− mice.
Do Professional Development Schools (PDSs) Make a Difference? A Comparative Study of PDS and Non-PDS Teacher Candidates

This study assesses the impact of professional development schools (PDSs) on preservice teachers, comparing PDS and non-PDS candidates at the point of licensure. Data sources include student teaching evaluations and portfolio presentations. Statistical analyses reveal PDS candidates scored significantly higher than non-PDS candidates on aspects of planning, instruction, management, and assessment. Qualitative analysis of portfolio presentations reveals PDS candidates showed greater ownership of their school and classroom and more sophistication in applying and integrating Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium standards. Five differences are discussed: how and why versus what, standards connected versus standards isolated, assessment as driving instruction versus assessment as tools, reflection connected to practice versus reflection not connected to practice, and student focus versus self-focus. Contextual and programmatic differences are used to explain the differences. The case is made that PDS graduates may affect student learning sooner than traditionally trained beginning teachers.
Stroke After Coronary Artery Bypass: Incidence, Predictors, and Clinical Outcome

Background and Purpose— Early postoperative stroke is a serious adverse event after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). This study sought to investigate risk factors, prevalence, and prognostic implications of postoperative stroke in patients undergoing CABG. Methods— We investigated the predictors of postoperative stroke (n=333, 2%) in 16 528 consecutive patients who underwent CABG between September 1989 and June 1999 in our institution. Predictors of postoperative stroke were identified by logistic regression analysis. Results— Among the preoperative and postoperative factors, significant correlates of stroke included (1) chronic renal insufficiency (P <0.001), (2) recent myocardial infarction (P =0.01), (3) previous cerebrovascular accident (P <0.001), (4) carotid artery disease (P <0.001), (5) hypertension (P <0.001), (6) diabetes (P =0.001), (7) age >75 years (P =0.008), (8) moderate/severe left ventricular dysfunction (P =0.01), (9) low cardiac output syndrome (P <0.001), and (10) atrial fibrillation (P <0.001). Postoperative stroke was associated with longer postoperative stay (11±4 versus 7±3 days for patients without stroke, P <0.001) and with higher in-hospital mortality (14% versus 2.7% for patients without stroke;P <0.001). Conclusions— Stroke after CABG is associated with high short-term morbidity and mortality. Increased stroke risk can be predicted by preoperative and postoperative clinical factors.
Field dependence-independence and hemisphericity as variables in L2 achievement

Following an extensive review of the literature, this study explores the relationship between L2 achievement and two learner characteristics - field dependence-independence and hemisphericity. Sixty-nine Turkish students of 11 to 12 years of age in an intensive EFL programme were administered the GEFT, the CLEM, and tests of L2 achievement. Significant positive correlations were observed between the GEFT scores and scores on L2 achievement tests. As expected, field independent learners performed better on the discrete-point and cloze tests. Hemisphericity, however, was not found to be related to L2 achievement. These results are evaluated critically and their implications for further research are discussed.
Adaptive CMAC-based supervisory control for uncertain nonlinear systems

An adaptive cerebellar-model-articulation-controller (CMAC)-based supervisory control system is developed for uncertain nonlinear systems. This adaptive CMAC-based supervisory control system consists of an adaptive CMAC and a supervisory controller. In the adaptive CMAC, a CMAC is used to mimic an ideal control law and a compensated controller is designed to recover the residual of the approximation error. The supervisory controller is appended to the adaptive CMAC to force the system states within a predefined constraint set. In this design, if the adaptive CMAC can maintain the system states within the constraint set, the supervisory controller will be idle. Otherwise, the supervisory controller starts working to pull the states back to the constraint set. In addition, the adaptive laws of the control system are derived in the sense of Lyapunov function, so that the stability of the system can be guaranteed. Furthermore, to relax the requirement of approximation error bound, an estimation law is derived to estimate the error bound. Finally, the proposed control system is applied to control a robotic manipulator, a chaotic circuit and a linear piezoelectric ceramic motor (LPCM). Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme for uncertain nonlinear systems.
Fuel for Success

Objective: Despite the fairly substantial body of literature devoted to understanding whether dual enrollment programs are related to academic success in college, less is known regarding how dual enrollment transmits its potentially positive influence, especially among two-year college students. In this study, we fill this gap by delving into the process of how dual enrollment is related to academic success among students attending two-year technical colleges. Specifically, we examine academic momentum as a potential mediator of the relationship between dual enrollment and educational outcomes. Methods: We draw on a sample of more than 15,000 first-time postsecondary students who entered Wisconsin’s two-year technical colleges in 2009 to 2010 after graduating from high school between 2007 and 2009. Using a path analysis, we investigate student transcript records, along with data from the National Student Clearinghouse. Results: Participation in dual enrollment is found to be related to more attempted credits, higher likelihood of college entry without delay, summer enrollment, as well as stronger academic performance. These early academic momentum indicators are then positively related to students’ college completion or retention, fully accounting for the positive relationship between dual enrollment participation and college outcomes. Contributions: Our study provides a finer look into two-year college students’ academic progress and success and how dual enrollment may fuel this process by promoting students’ academic momentum early during their college careers.
Extended SAX: Extension of Symbolic Aggregate Approximation for Financial Time Series Data Representation

Efficient and accurate similarity searching for a large amount of time series data set is an important but non-trivial problem. Many dimensionality reduction techniques have been proposed for effective representation of time series data in order to realize such similarity searching, including Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), the Discrete Fourier transform (DFT), the Adaptive Piecewise Constant Approximation (APCA), and the recently proposed Symbolic Aggregate Approximation (SAX). In this work we propose a new extended approach based on SAX, called Extended SAX in order to realize efficient and accurate discovering of important patterns, necessary for financial applications. While the original SAX approach allows a very good dimensionality reduction and distance measures to be defined on the symbolic approach, SAX is based on PAA (Piecewise Aggregate Approximation) representation for dimensionality reduction that minimizes dimensionality by the mean values of equal sized frames. This value based representation causes a high possibility to miss some important patterns in some time series data such as financial time series data. Extended SAX, proposed in the paper, uses additional two new points, that is, max and min points, in equal sized frames besides the mean value for data approximation. We show that Extended SAX can improve representation preciseness without losing symbolic nature of the original SAX representation. We empirically compare the Extended SAX with the original SAX approach and demonstrate its quality improvement.
The politics of transparency and the calibration of knowledge in the digital age

This article analyses the complex work of human actors and technologies that goes into producing that which appears to us as ‘transparent’. Drawing on studies of governance and surveillance, affordance theory, actor-network theory and sociological work on numbers, we analyse the role played by mediating technologies in the production of transparency and relate it to the question of how knowledge is created, recycled and modified in organizational settings. This perspective is largely absent from existing research on transparency, which construes transparency as unmediated or fails to investigate the organizing properties of specific mediating technologies. We argue that mediating technologies, conceptualized here as disclosure devices, have distinctive organizing properties that are important to scrutinize. They play a central role in attempts to shed light on objects, subjects and practices, and to help build or break up relationships within and across sites and organizations. We focus on three disclosure devices and their respective knowledge creation processes: (a) due diligence, whose emphasis is on qualitative knowledge production; (b) rankings, which is about quantitative knowledge production; (c) big data analysis, which underscores algorithmic knowledge production. We conceptualize the distinct features of these disclosure devices, indicate ways in which they shape organizational processes and discuss some of the ethical and political challenges they pose.
Fire and Ice

Extending research on complex problem solving (CPS) and dynamic decision making (DDM), this study investigated the relationship between horizontal-vertical individualism-collectivism, complex problem-solving strategies, and performance in two computer-simulated problem scenarios with different task demands. Participants were 535 students from Germany and the United States (both high on horizontal individualism), Brazil (high on horizontal collectivism), and India and the Philippines (both high on vertical collectivism). Path analyses revealed that horizontal individualism, horizontal collectivism, and vertical collectivism were related to action orientation, and action orientation and planning strategies were related to performance. Strategies were even stronger predictors of performance than the control variables computer experience and intelligence. The structural path model was confirmed for the overall sample and for each of the five national samples. Cross-cultural differences in the process model are discussed. Results showed the importance of cultural values in cognitive processing, specifically for the selection of CPS strategies.
Research on Organizational Configurations: Past Accomplishments and Future Challenges

Organizational configurations are sets of firms that are similar in terms of important characteristics. This article is intended to help close three gaps in the literature on organizational configurations. First, the authors propose clear definitions that may facilitate progress in the literature. Second, they provide the first major review since 1993 of accomplishments and struggles within organizational configurations research. Third, they describe how the configurational approach to organizations can make greater contributions within its traditional domains of organization theory and strategic management and can be extended to inform areas such as human resource management, organizational behavior, ethics, entrepreneurship, and international business.
MEASUREMENT ERRORS IN DYNAMIC PANEL DATA ANALYSIS: A SYNTHESIS ON MODELING AND GMM ESTIMATION

A panel data model which combines an autoregressive fixed effects panel data equation and a static equation with measurement errors is considered. Examples of models for pure time series data with errors in variables are the starting point. Two versions of the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) for this panel data model are considered, with fixed effects accounted for by, respectively, (i) transforming the equation to differences and keeping the instruments in levels, (ii) keeping the equation in levels and transforming the instruments to differences. In specifying the set of valid moment conditions and instrument sets, patterns with finite memory of disturbances, of latent regressors and of the measurement errors are discussed. Focus is on examining how the potential instrument sets which satisfy both the rank conditions for the instrumented variables and the orthogonality conditions for the composite errors and disturbances, change when the model’s memory pattern changes. Sometimes the joint occurrence of measurement errors and long memories implies that the potential instrument sets becomes too small to make consistent estimation possible. An application based on panel data for capital stock and output from Norwegian manufacturing firms is presented.