Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Log-Linear Smoothing to Improve Small-Sample DIF Estimation.

This study examined the extent to which log-linear smoothing could improve the accuracy of differential item functioning (DIF) estimates in small samples of examinees. Examinee responses from a certification test were analyzed using White examinees in the reference group and African American examinees in the focal group. Using a simulation approach, separate DIF estimates for seven small-sample-size conditions were obtained using unsmoothed (U) and smoothed (S) score distributions. These small sample U and S DIF estimates were compared to a criterion (i.e., DIF estimates obtained using the unsmoothed total data) to assess their degree of variability (random error) and accuracy (bias). Results indicate that for most studied items smoothing the raw score distributions reduced random error and bias of the DIF estimates, especially in the small-sample-size conditions. Implications of these results for operational testing programs are discussed.
The Mediatization of Politics

This article interprets the mediatization of television news generally and political news specifically in United Kingdom (U.K.) public and commercial evening bulletins. We argue that routine conventions (edited packages or two-ways) reflect different types of journalistic interventions, with the use of live, unscripted, and interpretive news practices representing a greater degree of mediatization, since they resemble the style and format of 24-hour media rather than fixed time bulletins. Our content analysis (N = 902) found more live news on commercial bulletins, but all broadcasters exhibited a degree of immediacy and interpretation in their editorial practices. This was most apparent in live two-ways—notably on Channel Five—which produced less source-driven political journalism than edited packages, with political editors playing the role of primary definer. The concept of mediatization, we suggest, can help interpret whether fixed time bulletins conform to their own media logic or adopt the values of 24/7 media.
Adolescet self-regulatory and psychological capacities: A 12 month longitudinal study of the impact on positive youth development

xi List of Tables xiii List of Figures xix List of Appendices xxiii List of Abbreviations xxv Preface 1 1. Chapter One 6 Introducing Positive Youth Development 6 1.1 Chapter Overview 6 1.2 Introduction to Adolescence 6 1.3 Historical Context of Positive Youth Development 14 1.4 Theoretical Foundations of PYD 16 1.5 The Construct of Positive Youth Development 26 1.6 Conclusions 51 2. Chapter Two 53 Adolescent Self-Regulation and Positive Youth Development 53 2.1 Chapter overview 53 2.2 Developmental Systems and Self-Regulation 53 2.3 Overview of Self-regulation 55 2.4 The Selection, Optimisation and Compensation Model 74 2.5 Criticisms of the SOC model 80 2.6 Proposing a Model of Adolescent Self-Regulation 94 2.7 Outline of Current Research 110
Tuberculosis-A common disease with uncommon oral features Report of two cases with a detailed review of literature

Tuberculosis is described as “king of diseases” in the Vedas and has been mentioned by Sushruta and Chakra in 600 B.C. Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease of worldwide prevalence, caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. The primary site of infection is usually the lungs, although it can affect any part of the body, including the oral cavity. Although oral manifestations of tuberculosis are rare, clinicians should be aware of their possible occurrence in their patient population in the form of ulcer, granulomas, involvement of the salivary glands and temporomandibular joints, osteomyelitis, desquamative gingivitis and tubeculous lymphadenitis. Such awareness can aid in diagnosing tuberculosis at an early stage, thereby preventing systemic complications and potential contaminations. This paper deals with two cases of tuberculosis diagnosed on the basis of oral manifestations, thereby emphasizing the importance of the dentist’s role in diagnosis of a multisystemic disorder. Keywords— Tuberculosis, Oral manifestations, chronic granulomatous disease
Acute alcohol-induced impairment of cognitive functions: Past and present findings

This paper deals with the acute impairing effects of alcohol on cognitive functions in healthy, non-alcohol dependent adults. The paper begins by describing how different aspects of human performance are not equally sensitive to the impairing effects of alcohol and that the majority of research on these differences poses unique challenges for summarizing and communicating this large body of evidence. The paper then discusses speeded and divided attention tasks as methods commonly used to assess the cognitive theories that have been offered to account for the findings based on these tasks. This is followed by a review of more contemporary methods and techniques that focus on how the drug impairs specific cognitive mechanisms that underlie the control and regulation of behavior. The paper concludes by explaining how acute impairments of such mechanisms might actually contribute to the abuse potential of alcohol for some individuals.
THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT TEST SETS ON QUALITY LEVEL PREDICTION: WHEN IS 80% BETTER THAN 90%?

This paper discusses the use of stuck-at fault coverage as a means of determining quality levels. Data from a part tested with both functional and scan tests is analyzed and compared to three existing theories. It is shown that reasonable predictions of quality level are possible for the functional tests, but that scan tests produce significantly worse quality levels than predicted, Apparent clustering of defects resulted in very good quality levels for fault coverages less than 99%.
Structured Ring Spectra: Moduli spaces of commutative ring spectra

Let E be a homotopy commutative ring spectrum, and suppose the ring of cooperations E∗E is flat over E∗. We wish to address the following question: given a commutative E∗-algebra A in E∗E-comodules, is there an E∞-ring spectrum X with E∗X ∼= A as comodule algebras? We will formulate this as a moduli problem, and give a way – suggested by work of Dwyer, Kan, and Stover – of dissecting the resulting moduli space as a tower with layers governed by appropriate Andre-Quillen cohomology groups. A special case is A = E∗E itself. The final section applies this to discuss the Lubin-Tate or Morava spectra En. Some years ago, Alan Robinson developed an obstruction theory based on Hochschild cohomology to decide whether or not a homotopy associative ring spectrum actually has the homotopy type of an A∞-ring spectrum. In his original paper on the subject [35] he used this technique to show that the Morava K-theory spectra K(n) can be realized as an A∞-ring spectrum; subsequently, in [3], Andrew Baker used these techniques to show that a completed version of the Johnson-Wilson spectrum E(n) can also be given such a structure. Then, in the mid-90s, the second author and Haynes Miller showed that the entire theory of universal deformations of finite height formal group laws over fields of non-zero characteristic can be lifted to A∞-ring spectra in an essentially unique way. This implied, in particular, that the Morava E-theory (or Lubin-Tate) spectra En were A∞ (which could have been deduced from Baker’s work), but it also showed much more. Indeed, the theory of Lubin and Tate [25] gives a functor from a category of finite height formal group laws to the category of complete local rings, and one way to state the results of [34] is that this functor factors in an essentially unique way through A∞-ring spectra. It was the solution of the diagram lifting problem that gave this result its additional heft; for example, it implied that the Morava stabilizer group acted on En – simply because Lubin-Tate theory implied that this group acted on (En)∗. In this paper, we would like to carry this program several steps further. One step forward would be to address E∞-ring spectra rather than A∞-ring spectra. There is an existing literature on this topic developed by Robinson and others, some based on Γ-homology. See [36], [37], and [4]. This can be used, to prove, among other things, that the spectra En are E∞, and we guess that the obstruction theory we uncover here reduces to that theory. Another ∗The authors were partially supported by the National Science Foundation.
Induction of Protective Immunity to Listeria monocytogenes by Immunization with Plasmid DNA Expressing a Helper T-Cell Epitope That Replaces the Class II-Associated Invariant Chain Peptide of the Invariant Chain

ABSTRACT Listeria epitope-specific helper T (Th) cells were able to be primed and induced in vivo by immunization with a plasmid carrying an invariant chain (Ii) gene whose class II-associated invariant chain peptide (CLIP) region was replaced by a Listeria Th epitope. Immunization of C3H/He mice with an Ii-LLO 215-226 plasmid induced specific interferon-γ- and interleukin 2-producing Th cells and conferred significant protective immunity against listerial infection.
Theorizing the Democratic Legitimacy of European Governance: a Labyrinth with No Exit?

Abstract In recent years, the question of the legitimacy of European governance and the repercussions it has on democratic procedures in EU member states has led to an extraordinarily intricate and controversial debate. Indeed, it seems as if one is trapped in a labyrinth with no exit. This article makes an effort to disentangle the intertwined strands of theory and to present an analytical differentiation that sheds light on this complex maze. Taking the available categorizations into consideration, this article develops a meta‐theoretical framework that differentiates between particular concepts, objects, variables and standards of democratic legitimacy in the European multi‐level system. The result is a heuristic that enables a more precise analysis and evaluation of democracy and legitimacy criticisms with which the European Union is increasingly confronted.
Fpga-based prototype of a pram-on-chip processor

PRAM (Parallel Random Access Model) has been widely regarded a desirable parallel machine model for many years, but it is also believed to be "impossible in reality. " As the new billion-transistor processor era begins, the eXplicit Multi-Threading (XMT) PRAM-On-Chip project is attempting to design an on-chip parallel processor that efficiently supports PRAM algorithms. This paper presents the first prototype of the XMT architecture that incorporates 64 simple in-order processors operating at 75MHz. The microarchitecture of the prototype is described and the performance is studied with respect to some micro-benchmarks. Using cycle accurate emulation, the projected performance of an 800MHz XMT ASIC processor is compared with AMD Opteron 2.6GHz, which uses similar area as would a 64-processor ASIC version of the XMT prototype. The results suggest that an only 800MHz XMT ASIC system outperforms AMD Opteron 2.6GHz, with speedups ranging between 1.57 and 8.56.
Sound generation in the searobin (Prionotus carolinus), a fish with alternate sonic muscle contraction

SUMMARY The Northern searobin (Prionotus carolinus) contracts its paired sonic muscles alternately rather than simultaneously during sound production. This study describes this phenomenon and examines its effect on sound production by recording sound and EMGs during voluntary and electrically stimulated calls. Sounds produced by a single twitch resulted in a two-part sound representing contraction and relaxation sounds. The relaxation sound of one twitch coincides with the contraction sound of the next twitch of that muscle. Maximum amplitude of evoked sounds occurs between 100 Hz and 140 Hz, approximately half the fundamental frequency of a voluntarily calling fish. The muscle is capable of following electrical stimulation at frequencies of up to 360 Hz. Rapid damping and response over a wide frequency range indicate that the swimbladder is a highly damped, broadly tuned resonator. A consequence of alternate contraction is a 3.3 dB loss in acoustic pressure due to the contraction of a single sonic muscle at a time. This decrease in amplitude is offset by a doubling of fundamental frequency and a constructive interaction between the sides of the bladder, resulting in increased amplitude of each unilaterally produced sound. The alternate contraction of the bilateral sonic muscles represents a novel solution to the inherent trade-off between speed and force of contraction in rapidly contracting sonic muscles.
The Attractions of Violent Entertainment

This article summarizes a project supported by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation on the attractions of violent entertainment. We consider why violence is such a prominent feature of entertainment. The audiences for violent entertainment are examined, as is the nature of the violence that attracts them. The role of sensation-seeking, context, the justice motive, and social control in the entertainment experience are considered. Violent entertainment is placed in historical and social contexts, demonstrating that its appeal varies with the times.
Lateralization of tool use in New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides)

We studied laterality of tool use in 10 captive New Caledonian (NC) crows (Corvus moneduloides). All subjects showed near–exclusive individual laterality, but there was no overall bias in either direction (five were left–lateralized and five were right–lateralized). This is consistent with results in non–human primates, which show strong individual lateralization for tool use (but not for other activities), and also with observations of four wild NC crows by Rutledge & Hunt. Jointly, these results contrast with observations that the crows have a population–level bias for manufacturing tools from the left edges of Pandanus sp. leaves, and suggest that the manufacture and use of tools in this species may have different neural underpinnings.
Does Community-Oriented Policing Help Build Stronger Communities?

Advocates of community-oriented policing contend that it has great potential to reduce crime and fear because it strengthens community social organization and cohesion. Previous studies of community policing, however, fail to include community process variables as outcome measures and instead focus on outcome measures such as crime rates and fear of crime. Despite the recent focus by criminologists on community context in general studies of crime and delinquency, no direct attempt has been made to investigate the potential relationship between community policing and broader community processes such as community organization, cohesion, and cooperative security. Using data from a comprehensive community policing study conducted in Oakland, California, and Birmingham, Alabama, from 1987 to 1989, this article investigates whether community policing strategies have effects on community processes. Findings indicate that community policing tactics do not have strong effects on community processes. These results may help explain why community policing has so far had little measurable impact on crime and fear of crime, and may be instructive for the design and evaluation of future community policing studies.
How automatic is “automatic vigilance”? The role of working memory in attentional interference of negative information

Whereas attentional interference of negative information has previously been assumed to be automatic, the present research hypothesised that this effect depends on the availability of working-memory resources. In two experiments, participants judged the gender of angry versus happy faces. Working-memory load was manipulated by the presence or absence of a math task (Study 1) or mental rehearsal of a one- versus 8-digit number (Study 2). The results showed that angry faces interfered more with gender naming than happy faces, but only when working-memory load was low. As such, attentional interference of negative stimulus features can be modulated by top-down attentional control processes.
Significance of isolated antibody to hepatitis B core antigen in Dutch national vaccination campaign of behavioural high-risk groups

SUMMARY In the Dutch national vaccination campaign for behavioural risk groups, anti-HBcore is used as the primary HBV screening test. Samples with positive results undergo testing for active infection (HBsAg) but are otherwise accepted as indicating past infection, thereby assuming immunity. This study evaluated evidence for immunity in the target population screened on the basis of this algorithm, by re-analysing 1000 anti-HBcore-positive blood samples equally divided among risk groups: 14·7% of confirmed anti-HBcore lacked anti-HBs (‘isolated’ anti-HBcore). Independent risk factors for isolated anti-HBcore were risk group, HCV infection in hard-drug users (DU) and origin from Sub-Saharan Africa. After extrapolation, the proportion of participants who were said to be immune but lacked any additional evidence of immunity amounted to 9·6% (ranging from 12·5% in DU to 6·5% in men who have sex with men). It is recommended that as a minimum anti-HBs screening is included in testing algorithms used to determine vaccination programmes for risk groups, in particular in DU.
Vagotomy and subsequent risk of Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) may be caused by an enteric neurotropic pathogen entering the brain through the vagal nerve, a process that may take over 20 years. We investigated the risk of PD in patients who underwent vagotomy and hypothesized that truncal vagotomy is associated with a protective effect, whereas superselective vagotomy has a minor effect.
The Effects of Comparative Advertising on Attention, Memory, and Purchase Intentions

There is discrepancy between practitioners' views of comparative advertising and null findings by academics. However, in most studies, subjects' attention to and memory of the comparative claims were inflated, which may have precluded effects on these variables and on purchase intentions. This study manipulated market share and type of comparative claim, used nonforced exposure, measured attention via a computerized magazine, and assessed memory and purchase intentions after a 24-hour delay. Some findings are that direct comparative claims attract attention and thereby enhance purchase intentions for low-share brands but detract from purchase intentions for established brands by increasing awareness of competitors and sponsor misidentifications. Copyright 1990 by the University of Chicago.
Reevaluating Interrater Reliability in Offender Risk Assessment

Offender risk and needs assessment, one of the pillars of the risk–need-responsivity model of offender rehabilitation, usually depends on raters assessing offender risk and needs. The few available studies of interrater reliability in offender risk assessment are, however, limited in the generalizability of their results. The present study examined interrater reliability in Dutch offender risk assessment by 38 raters who independently assessed 75 offenders. The results show substantial reliability (Tinsley and Weiss’s T value ≥ .61) for risk of reconviction and moderate (T value ≥ .41) to substantial reliability for offender needs, such as accommodation, finances, or education. These results are discussed in light of a recent British study on the interrater reliability of a comparable risk assessment instrument. The results from the present study show similar to better reliability, leading to the conclusion that greater external validity does not negatively influence interrater reliability results.
Organizational discourse and subjectivity

This article seeks to contribute to the debate on the relationship between organizational discourses and subjectivity, revolving around whether organizational discourses determine individual subjectivity and the extent to which there is room for human agency. It does so by providing empirical illustrations of how organizational discourses constitute subjectivity during processes of recruitment in a large American consultancy firm operating in Sweden. The analysis illustrates how interviewers, by various discursive moves, initiate, support, control and follow up candidates’ decision to join the company, as if it was an independent choice to join. Findings suggest that to the extent that subjectification takes place during the recruitment process it is dependent on the candidate’s use and acceptance of organizational discourses as expressions of their own motives for working at the company. These findings have implications for the understanding of the relationship between organizational discourses and individual subjectivity and how subjectification processes may be studied in other practices and organizations. It argues that subjectification is an effect of the interaction between human agency and organizational discourses rather than in the determination of one to the other. Any attempt to analyse the impact of organizational discourse on individual subjectivity must take into account the possibility that subjects actively take part in their own self-construction and that this construction is produced in social interaction.
Action naming with impaired semantics: Neuropsychological evidencecontrasting naming and reading for objects and verbs

We contrast naming from pictures, and reading words, for objects and verbs (actions relating to the objects) in a patient with a large, posterior left-hemisphere lesion. We present evidence for spared picture naming for verbs relative to objects, whilst the opposite pattern of sparing occurred in reading. Objects were also spared relative to verbs in tasks requiring that written words be matched to either pictures or auditory words, in the presence of semantically related or unrelated distractors. We conclude that verb semantics were more impaired than semantic knowledge for objects, and that the better semantic knowledge for object names supported word reading. With pictures, however, action verb retrieval was maintained through a nonsemantic route from vision to action, or though preserved right-hemisphere “action semantics. ”
Examining Preservice Music Teachers’ Perceptions of Initial Peer- and Field- Teaching Experiences

The purpose of this study was to examine phenomenologically a peer-teaching and a field-teaching experience as perceived by six participants. The research questions guiding this study were (a) How was an initial peer-teaching experience in a laboratory setting perceived by the participants? (b) How was an initial field-teaching experience perceived by the participants? (c) How did the participants’ perceptions of each experience compare? Findings suggested that the preservice teachers valued the peer-teaching experience for the opportunity it afforded them to concentrate on the technical aspects of teaching, and the main drawback of peer-teaching was the lack of authentic context. The field-teaching experience was valued by the participants for the opportunity it afforded them to be immersed in an authentic context. The most difficult challenges of the field-teaching experience for the participants were the lack of ability to predict the achievement level of the public school students, the misinterpretation of the their verbal instructions by the public school students, and the lack of ability to assess the impact of their teaching. Additionally, the observation process was valuable to the participants to the extent that it provided context.