Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Place, Age, and Culture

The social ties that exist within an ethnic group are highlighted through the perceptions of adolescent children of Lebanese immigrants and examined to discern the process of acculturation and the negotiation of ethnic identity. The adolescents studied live in an ethnic community that continues to receive immigrants. They attend school where the majority of the students are of the same ethnic group. They are the first generation in their family to grow up in America. These conditions produce a unique intersection where place, age, and culture converge. Interviews were conducted with 20 Arab American adolescents from this ethnic community. They elaborate on factors that frame their identities through accounts of their social relationships. Positive and negative perceptions of living in an ethnic community are discussed. The parameters of ethnic identity formation and evidence of selective acculturation are detected through the adolescents’ descriptions of their social relationships within this ethnic community.
Dynamical Instability Produces Transform Faults at Mid-Ocean Ridges

Cracking Up Transform faults perpendicular to mid-ocean ridges are some of the most prominently visual features on the sea floor. Because they form slowly over thousands of years, the lack of observational data means their mechanism of formation has remained controversial. Taking a numerical modeling approach, Gerya (p. 1047) suggests that due to asymmetric growth of the plate boundary, sections of the mid-ocean ridge become unstable and eventually rotate 90°. As the ridge continues to grow, the transform faults continue to develop long after their initiation. This mechanism also explains how offsets of these transform faults occur discontinuously as a result of new fractures at the ridge. Transform faults on the sea floor are rotated and stretched sections of the mid-ocean ridge. Transform faults at mid-ocean ridges—one of the most striking, yet enigmatic features of terrestrial plate tectonics—are considered to be the inherited product of preexisting fault structures. Ridge offsets along these faults therefore should remain constant with time. Here, numerical models suggest that transform faults are actively developing and result from dynamical instability of constructive plate boundaries, irrespective of previous structure. Boundary instability from asymmetric plate growth can spontaneously start in alternate directions along successive ridge sections; the resultant curved ridges become transform faults within a few million years. Fracture-related rheological weakening stabilizes ridge-parallel detachment faults. Offsets along the transform faults change continuously with time by asymmetric plate growth and discontinuously by ridge jumps.
Seeing Is Eating: How and When Activation of a Negative Stereotype Increases Stereotype-Conducive Behavior

This research investigates the effect of activation of a negative stereotype on behaviors that are perceived to increase the chance of becoming a member of the stereotyped group. Activation of a negative stereotype (the overweight stereotype) is shown to lead to stereotype-consistent goal commitment (low health goal commitment), which partially explains increases in stereotype-conducive behavior (eating indulgent foods). Two theoretically relevant moderators are proposed and supported. Increased accessibility of the countervailing health goal and increased accessibility of the link between the behavior and membership in the stereotyped group both limit the effect of stereotype activation on stereotype-conducive behavior. Five experiments support the facilitative effect of stereotype activation on stereotype-conducive behavior, the role of goal commitment, and both moderators.
Investigating the episodic buffer

A brief account is presented of the three-component working memory model proposed by Baddeley and Hitch. This is followed by an account of some of the problems it encountered in explaining how information from different subsystems with different codes could be combined, and how it was capable of communicating with long-term memory. In order to account for these, a fourth component was proposed, the episodic buffer. This was assumed to be a multidimensional store of limited capacity that can be accessed through conscious awareness. In an attempt to test and develop the concept, a series of experiments have explored the role of working memory in the binding of visual features into objects and verbal sequences into remembered sentences. The experiments use a dual task paradigm to investigate the role of the various subcomponents of working memory in binding. In contrast to our initial assumption, the episodic buffer appears to be a passive store, capable of storing bound features and making them available to conscious awareness, but not itself responsible for the process of binding.
To Regulate Or Not To Regulate? Early Evidence on the Means Used Around the World to Promote Gender Diversity in the Boardroom

Despite the growing public concern in recent years about the place of women in business, gender diversity in corporate governance has made little progress. As a consequence, the issue has captured the worldwide attention of policymakers. Several countries are currently adopting or considering the adoption of laws or regulations to promote gender diversity on corporate boards. The purpose of this paper is to compare the effectiveness of using legislative or regulatory means to increase female representation instead of allowing firms to voluntarily fix their own non-legally binding targets. We find that the relation between gender diversity and performance is positive in countries using the voluntary approach while it is negative in countries using the regulatory approach. We conclude that public policy aimed at increasing the number of women on corporate boards should be introduced gradually and voluntarily rather than quickly and coercively to avoid sub-optimal board composition
When thinking that you are fat makes you feel worthless: Activation and application of meta-stereotypes when appearance matters.

This research examined whether normal-weight people who believe they are overweight expect that other people negatively stereotype them when their appearance becomes relevant. Moreover, it was examined whether these negative “meta-stereotypes” in turn make people feel worthless. Indeed, the first study showed that body weight dissatisfied women automatically activated negative meta-stereotypes about being overweight when they thought their appearance was evaluated. Study 2 revealed that only meta-stereotypes about being overweight, and not traits that are unrelated to the meta-stereotype, mediate the relation between body weight dissatisfaction and self-evaluation. Study 3 replicated this finding by manipulating body weight dissatisfaction. Finally, study 4 revealed that body weight dissatisfied women are especially likely to feel negative about themselves as a result of applying negative meta-stereotypes when their body is visible.
Microsoft Excel™ as a Tool for Teaching Basic Statistics

Many instructors use specialized statistics packages, such as SPSS or SAS/STAT in teaching quantitative and research methods courses. As an alternative to the specialized packages, Microsoft Excel™ offers charting capabilities and the Analysis ToolPak, which provides a set of data analysis tools beyond those normally found in spreadsheets. With Analysis ToolPak, Excel resembles what one would expect from a specialized low-level statistics program. We have successfully integrated Excel into our introductory statistics courses and developed a tutorial manual to guide students through various statistical procedures in Excel. We present student ratings of an intermediate form of the manual and its exercises and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using Excel rather than a specialized statistical package for teaching basic statistics.
It Isn’t Always Mutual

Scholars have called for examinations of trust at the dyadic level, but only recently have we begun to see trust examined as a dyadic phenomenon from multiple perspectives. This review examines three approaches to understanding dyadic trust: reciprocal trust, wherein one party’s trust influences the other party’s trust; mutual trust, wherein both parties share a given level of trust that has important consequences for the dyad; and asymmetric trust, wherein each party has a different level of trust, and this disparity has consequences for the dyad. We provide a critical analysis of the empirical research addressing these three approaches and suggest future research directions to provide a more comprehensive view of dyadic trust.
The World’s Not Ready for This

The United States has become an ideal marketplace for those seeking selective technologies that are illegal, inaccessible, or unavailable in their own countries. Specifically, technologies such as commercial egg donation, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), and sex selection are prohibited or highly regulated in many nations, but remain legal and largely unregulated in the United States. Based on in-depth interviews with US fertility industry providers, including physicians and egg donor and surrogate brokers, this article analyzes how the ideologies of genetic determinism and consumer choice are embedded in the industry. These are transformed into competitive advantages that may appeal to foreign nationals unable to acquire the technologies, services, and reproductive materials to which they feel entitled. Regardless of providers’ particular attitudes regarding the uses of selective technologies, their overall practice reinforces intended parents’ desires to have some control over their potential children’s appearance, temperament, abilities, and behavior. Despite other nations’ laws and policies, ideologies supportive of the use of selective technologies do not, obviously, end at the US borders, and the globalization of communications, media, and transportation technologies enable their spread.
Training Responding Behaviors in Students with Autism

Videotaped self-modeling (VSM) has been developed as a means to allow participants to view themselves in situations where they are performing at a more advanced level than they typically function. VSM has been effectively used to train positive behaviors and to reduce unwanted behaviors across a range of ages and behaviors; however, studies of VSM have not been conducted with students with autism Our study was designed to analyze the effects of VSM on the acquisition and maintenance of appropriate verbal responses to questions by children with autism. A multiple baseline design across students was used to evaluate performance. The results indicated that the three participants almost doubled their rates of appropriate responding to questions during play situations. The findings suggest that VSM may constitute a positive behavior change intervention worthy of consideration in a treatment regimen.
Understanding the Coping Strategies of International Students: A Qualitative Approach

Abstract International students encounter a range of additional challenges as a part of their tertiary study experience. A qualitative approach was used to understand the challenges faced by international students, coping strategies that promoted their personal resilience and advice they have for future international students. Twenty-two international students from an Australian university participated in four focus groups. The challenges identified by students included adjustment, social isolation, English language skills, academic difficulties, unmet expectations, employment, culture shock and psychological distress. Participants shared their own personal experiences and strategies used by them to cope and identified strategies that future students could use prior to leaving their home country and whilst in Australia to improve their adjustment. Uses of international student stories in prevention interventions are discussed.
Effects of Type and Combination of Feedback upon Conceptual Learning by Children: Implications for Research in Academic Learning

Laboratory research was reviewed that compared the effects of various types (verbal, symbolic, tangible) and combinations (right-wrong, right-blank, wrong-blank) of feedback upon children’s conceptual learning. This research was evaluated in terms of theories involving reinforcement, motivation, and information-processing interpretations. In general, the findings have been consistent in two respects: (1) Verbal and symbolic feedback produce more rapid acquisition than does tangible feedback. (2) The wrong-blank combination produces faster acquisition and more resistance to extinction than does the right-blank condition. Results yielded by the right-wrong combination have been inconsistent. Several variables which interact with the type and combination of feedback children receive have not been systematically evaluated (e.g., incentive value, instructions, feedback accumulation, mode of delivery). Implications of laboratory research findings were then considered in relation to prototypic research designed to modify and improve children’s academic learning. The general conclusion was that those concerned with applied research have overlooked some important findings, implications, and issues derived from laboratory research.
Novel Unsupported and Empirically Supported Therapies: Patterns of Usage Among Licensed Clinical Social Workers

Background: While considerable attention has been focused in recent years on evidence-based practice, less attention has been placed on clinical social workers’ choice to use ineffective or harmful interventions, referred to in the present paper as Novel Unsupported Therapies (NUSTs). Method: The present study surveyed 400 Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) across the United States in order to determine the extent of their usage of NUSTs, as well as their usage of conventional therapies that lacked support and empirically supported therapies (ESTs). Reasons for selecting interventions were also assessed. Results: While the vast majority (97.5%) reported using some form of EST, 75% of our sample also reported using at least one NUST. Logistic regression analysis revealed that NUST usage was related to female gender and trauma specialization. A split plot ANOVA revealed that respondents rated positive clinical experience higher than published research as a reason for selecting an intervention. LCSWs with a CBT theoretical orientation rated research evidence more highly than those of other theoretical orientations. However, even within the group of LCSWs with a CBT orientation, clinical experience was rated more highly than research evidence. Conclusions: Implications for practice are discussed.
A cell-phone-based brain–computer interface for communication in daily life

Moving a brain–computer interface (BCI) system from a laboratory demonstration to real-life applications still poses severe challenges to the BCI community. This study aims to integrate a mobile and wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) system and a signal-processing platform based on a cell phone into a truly wearable and wireless online BCI. Its practicality and implications in a routine BCI are demonstrated through the realization and testing of a steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based BCI. This study implemented and tested online signal processing methods in both time and frequency domains for detecting SSVEPs. The results of this study showed that the performance of the proposed cell-phone-based platform was comparable, in terms of the information transfer rate, with other BCI systems using bulky commercial EEG systems and personal computers. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate a truly portable, cost-effective and miniature cell-phone-based platform for online BCIs.
The role of valence in the perception of agency and communion

Social judgments necessarily carry evaluative connotations that may mask other dimensions of interest. With reference to bi-dimensional models of stereotype content, we analyzed the role of valence in the study of agency and communion. Because agency and communion are both positively evaluated dimensions, we hypothesize that valence may function as a “third variable” that obscures their obverse relation. In Study 1, investigating people's lay understanding of agency and communion, ratings of 130 adjectives revealed a positive correlation between the two dimensions, unless valence was controlled for, in which case the correlation became negative. In Study 2, exemplifying the role of valence in the case of gender stereotyping, a word frequency analysis of Italian language revealed that more agentic traits were more likely to occur in masculine and more communal traits in feminine form, but again this link emerged only after controlling for valence. This research highlights the importance of controlling for valence when studying the distinct roles of agency and communion in social perception. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Complex and chaotic tourism systems: towards a quantitative approach.

Purpose – Tourism systems have been considered more and more in the light of complexity and chaos theories. Most of the work done in this area has highlighted the reasons for and the issues regarding this approach. A steadily growing strand of the recent literature uses the theories to overcome the problems of a reductionist and mechanistic view that is considered unable to provide a full understanding of the structural and dynamic characteristics of tourism systems, and specifically of tourism destinations. This paper seeks to continue this approach and to provide a series of quantitative methods to assess the dynamics of non‐linear complex tourism systems.Design/methodology/approach – The time series used in the paper contains data collected from a sample of 23 large (four‐star) hotels located in Milan, Italy. For each structure daily data of occupancy, average room rate and RevPAR (revenue per available room) were recorded for the period 2006‐2009. The daily distributions of these observations are high.
Control of Listeria monocytogenes in a Biofilm by Competitive-Exclusion Microorganisms

ABSTRACT Biofilms from drains in food processing facilities with a recent history of no detectable Listeria monocytogenes in floor drains were cultured for microorganisms producing antilisterial metabolites. A total of 413 microbial isolates were obtained from 12 drain biofilm samples and were assayed at 15 and 37°C for activities that were bactericidal or inhibitory to L. monocytogenes, by two agar plate assays. Twenty-one of 257 bacterial isolates and 3 of 156 yeast isolates had antilisterial activity. All 24 isolates which produced metabolites inhibitory to L. monocytogenes were assayed for antilisterial activity in coinoculated broth cultures containing tryptic soy broth with yeast extract (TSB-YE). A five-strain mixture of 103 CFU of L. monocytogenes/ml and 105 CFU of the candidate competitive-exclusion microorganism/ml was combined in TSB-YE and incubated at 37°C for 24 h, 15°C for 14 days, 8°C for 21 days, and 4°C for 28 days. Substantial inhibition of L. monocytogenes growth (4 to 5 log CFU/ml) was observed for nine bacterial isolates at 37°C, two at 15 and 8°C, and three at 4°C. The inhibitory isolates were identified as Enterococcus durans (six isolates), Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis (two isolates), and Lactobacillus plantarum (one isolate). The anti-L. monocytogenes activity of these isolates was evaluated in biofilms of L. monocytogenes on stainless steel coupons at 37, 15, 8, and 4°C. Results revealed that two isolates (E. durans strain 152 and L. lactis subsp. lactis strain C-1-92) were highly inhibitory to L. monocytogenes (growth inhibition of >5 log10 CFU of L. monocytogenes/cm2). These two bacterial isolates appear to be excellent competitive-exclusion candidates to control L. monocytogenes in biofilms at environmental temperatures of 4 to 37°C.
Training Restricted Boltzmann Machines via the Thouless-Anderson-Palmer Free Energy

Restricted Boltzmann machines are undirected neural networks which have been shown to be effective in many applications, including serving as initializations for training deep multi-layer neural networks. One of the main reasons for their success is the existence of efficient and practical stochastic algorithms, such as contrastive divergence, for unsupervised training. We propose an alternative deterministic iterative procedure based on an improved mean field method from statistical physics known as the Thouless-Anderson-Palmer approach. We demonstrate that our algorithm provides performance equal to, and sometimes superior to, persistent contrastive divergence, while also providing a clear and easy to evaluate objective function. We believe that this strategy can be easily generalized to other models as well as to more accurate higher-order approximations, paving the way for systematic improvements in training Boltzmann machines with hidden units.
In Vivo Dynamics of EBNA1-oriP Interaction during Latent and Lytic Replication of Epstein-Barr Virus*

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) is required for maintenance of the viral genome DNA during the latent phase of EBV replication but continues to be synthesized after the induction of viral productive replication. An EBV genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation assay revealed that EBNA1 constantly binds to oriP of the EBV genome during not only latent but also lytic infection. Although the total levels of EBNA1 proved constant throughout the latter, the levels of the oriP-bound form were increased as lytic infection proceeded. EBV productive DNA replication occurs at discrete sites in nuclei, called replication compartments, where viral replication proteins are clustered. Confocal laser microscopic analyses revealed that whereas EBNA1 was distributed broadly in nuclei as fine punctate dots during the latent phase of infection, the protein became redistributed to the viral replication compartments and localized as distinct spots within and/or nearby the compartments after the induction of lytic replication. Taking these findings into consideration, oriP regions of the EBV genome might be organized by EBNA1 into replication domains that may set up scaffolding for lytic replication and transcription.
Collaborative Goal-Setting with Families: Resolving Differences in Values and Priorities for Services

Parents and professionals often differ in values and priorities for services. This article argues that interventionists should not attempt to force their values on families; rather they should engage in collaborative goal-setting in order to achieve a mutually acceptable plan. Issues related to value conflicts between parents and professionals are discussed and strategies for effective collaborative goal-setting are described.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) part two: evaluation and intervention

Part one of this article focused on the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a specific childhood disorder. The evaluation and diagnosis of this complex disorder requires a team approach by using a multidimensional formulation. The management and treatment of children with ADHD has challenged different medical, psychological, educational and therapy professionals over the last 3 decades. In part two of this article, information related to evidence-based evaluation and intervention procedures provided by a multidisciplinary team is synthesized by integrating information from different research studies.