Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of a Drama-Based Language Intervention on the Development of Theory of Mind and Executive Function in Urban Kindergarten Children

THE EFFECTS OF A DRAMA-BASED LANGUAGE INTERVENTION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEORY OF MIND AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION IN URBAN KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS by Heather Smith Because theory of mind (ToM; Samson, 2009) and executive function (EF; Meltzer, 2010) are important skill domains for children‟s academic and social success in school, researchers have focused on evaluating the impact of interventions designed to enhance the development of these skills (e.g., Peskin & Astington, 2004; Dowsett & Livesey, 2000). Using an experimental design, the current study evaluated the effectiveness of the Georgia Wolftrap (GWT) program, a drama-based language intervention, at improving ToM and EF in a sample of kindergarten students from low socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds. Researchers (Cole & Mitchell, 1998; Noble, Norman, & Farah, 2005) have indicated that low SES is associated with underdeveloped ToM and EF. Thirteen lessons designed to enhance children‟s understanding and use of symbols by exploring literature through imaginative role-play were implemented in place of the regular language arts curriculum. This intervention was hypothesized to engender growth in ToM because it incorporates elements found to be associated with ToM development, such as experience with language (e.g., Jenkins & Astington, 1996), mental state talk (e.g., Adrian, Clemente, & Villanueva, 2007), and pretend play (e.g., Cutting & Dunn, 2006). The impact on EF development, particularly inhibition and attentional control, was expected to be caused by children‟s participation in intervention activities that require sustained, active engagement and use of motor and cognitive self-control. Consistent with research describing early childhood as a period of dramatic growth in ToM and EF (e.g., Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001), the results of paired-sample t tests indicated that the intervention (n = 41) and control groups (n = 42) demonstrated significant improvement in ToM, inhibition, and attentional control from pre-test to post-test. Despite a trend for the intervention group to demonstrate stronger performance, analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) indicated that, after controlling for pre-test scores, there were no significant differences in post-test scores between the intervention and control groups. Possible explanations for the lack of significant differences between the intervention and control groups are discussed. Implications for future research are also suggested. THE EFFECTS OF A DRAMA-BASED LANGUAGE INTERVENTION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEORY OF MIND AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION IN URBAN KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS by Heather Smith
Types, bytes, and separation logic

We present a formal model of memory that both captures the low-level features of C's pointers and memory, and that forms the basis for an expressive implementation of separation logic. At the low level, we do not commit common oversimplifications, but correctly deal with C's model of programming language values and the heap. At the level of separation logic, we are still able to reason abstractly and efficiently. We implement this framework in the theorem prover Isabelle/HOL and demonstrate it on two case studies. We show that the divide between detailed and abstract does not impose undue verification overhead, and that simple programs remain easy to verify. We also show that the framework is applicable to real, security- and safety-critical code by formally verifying the memory allocator of the L4 microkernel.
Probability of error of M-ary PSK and DPSK on a Rayleigh fading channel

M-ary phase-shift keying and differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) on a slow fading Rayleigh channel without diversity is investigated. Expressions for the distribution of the phase angle between a vector with Rayleigh amplitude distribution and a noiseless reference, and between two vectors both with Rayleigh amplitude distribution perturbed by Gaussian noise are obtained. >
Model Reduction of Descriptor Systems by Interpolatory Projection Methods

In this paper, we investigate an interpolatory projection framework for model reduction of descriptor systems. With a simple numerical example, we first illustrate that directly applying the subspace conditions from the standard state space settings to descriptor systems generically leads to unbounded ${{\mathcal H}_2}$ or ${{\mathcal H}_{\infty}}$ errors due to the mismatch of the polynomial parts of the full and reduced-order transfer functions. We then develop modified interpolatory subspace conditions based on the deflating subspaces that guarantee a bounded error. For the special cases of index-$1$ and index-$2$ descriptor systems, we also show how to avoid computing these deflating subspaces explicitly while still enforcing interpolation. The question of how to choose interpolation points optimally naturally arises as in the standard state space setting. We answer this question in the framework of the ${{\mathcal H}_2}$-norm by extending the iterative rational Krylov algorithm to descriptor systems.
Work & Health. Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress applied in an organisational setting

Most models of occupational stress propose that stressors in the work environment lead to negative psychological, physical, and behavioural changes in the individual employee (Jex & Bliese, 1999). This thesis focuses on three potential stressors in the work environment; downsizing, poor work environment in general, and poor leadership. What are the characteristics of these stressors, and can they be causes of ill health? Does a focus on the individual interpretation of the environment give a better understanding of the relation between work and health? The theoretical framework for these discussions is the Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress (CATS) (Ursin & Eriksen, 2004). This thesis consists of three papers, one for each of these three common causal explanations on the relation between work and health: Downsizing (Paper 1), poor work environment (Paper 2), and poor leadership (Paper 3). To study if an employee’s previous learning experience and characteristics of the working environment are associated with positive attitudes towards downsizing, a survey was done in the Norwegian branch of a global oil company (n=467). The results showed that when facing an organisational downsizing, 1/3 of the employees were positive to the coming change and 1/3 was not. There was a strong positive relation between employees’ perceptions of their work environment and their attitude
What determines the specificity of conflict adaptation? A review, critical analysis, and proposed synthesis

Over the past decade, many cognitive control researchers have studied to what extent adaptations to conflict are domain-general or rather specific, mostly by testing whether or not the congruency sequence effect (CSE) transfers across different conditions (e.g., conflict type, task sets, contexts, et cetera). The CSE refers to the observation that congruency effects in conflict tasks tend to be reduced following incongruent relative to following congruent trials, and is considered a prime measure of cognitive control. By investigating the transfer of this CSE across different conflict types, tasks, or contexts, researchers made several inferences about the scope of cognitive control. This method gained popularity during the last few years, spawning an interesting, yet seemingly inconsistent set of results. Consequently, these observations gave rise to a number of equally divergent theories about the determinants and scope of conflict adaptation. In this review, we offer a systematic overview of these past studies, as well as an evaluation of the theories that have been put forward to account for the results. Finally, we propose an integration of these various theoretical views in a unifying framework that centers on the role of context (dis)similarity. This framework allows us to generate new predictions about the relation between task or context similarity and the scope of cognitive control. Specifically, while most theories imply that increasing contextual differences will result in reduced transfer of the CSE, we propose that context similarity and across-context control follow a U-shaped function instead.
Emerging temporality: past tense and temporal/aspectual markers in Spanish-speaking children's intra-conversational narratives*

ABSTRACT This study describes how young Spanish-speaking children become gradually more adept at encoding temporality using grammar and discourse skills in intra-conversational narratives. The research involved parallel case studies of two Spanish-speaking children followed longitudinally from ages two to three. Type/token frequencies of verb tense, temporal/aspectual markers and narrative components were analyzed to explore interrelationships among grammatical and discourse skills. Children progressed from scattered unsystematic means of encoding temporality to mastering a basic linguistic system that included devices to mark location of events, temporal relations and aspectual meanings. The consolidation of perfective past tense to express narrative events marked a crucial developmental point which preceded an explosion of additional verb tenses and temporal markers. The value of spontaneous language data, and the need to study grammar and discourse simultaneously to construct a comprehensive developmental picture are highlighted. Results are discussed in relation to theoretical proposals on the development of temporality.
Visually Explainable Recommendation

Images account for a significant part of user decisions in many application scenarios, such as product images in e-commerce, or user image posts in social networks. It is intuitive that user preferences on the visual patterns of image (e.g., hue, texture, color, etc) can be highly personalized, and this provides us with highly discriminative features to make personalized recommendations. Previous work that takes advantage of images for recommendation usually transforms the images into latent representation vectors, which are adopted by a recommendation component to assist personalized user/item profiling and recommendation. However, such vectors are hardly useful in terms of providing visual explanations to users about why a particular item is recommended, and thus weakens the explainability of recommendation systems. As a step towards explainable recommendation models, we propose visually explainable recommendation based on attentive neural networks to model the user attention on images, under the supervision of both implicit feedback and textual reviews. By this, we can not only provide recommendation results to the users, but also tell the users why an item is recommended by providing intuitive visual highlights in a personalized manner. Experimental results show that our models are not only able to improve the recommendation performance, but also can provide persuasive visual explanations for the users to take the recommendations.
Lateralized Cognitive Processes and Lateralized Task Control in the Human Brain

The principles underlying human hemispheric specialization are poorly understood. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging of letter and visuospatial decision tasks with identical word stimuli to address two unresolved problems. First, hemispheric specialization depended on the nature of the task rather than on the nature of the stimulus. Second, analysis of frontal candidate regions for cognitive control showed increased coupling between left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and left inferior frontal gyrus during letter decisions, whereas right ACC showed enhanced coupling with right parietal areas during visuospatial decisions. Cognitive control is thus localized in the same hemisphere as task execution.
The economic impact of nocturia

Sleep disturbances associated with nocturia cause direct, indirect, and intangible costs. Direct costs are primarily associated with injuries from falling. Indirect costs are associated with loss of work productivity. Intangible costs include emotional distress, behavioral modifications, feelings of loss of control, poor mood, and cancellation of planned activities. A study that compared the number of falls for patients with varying numbers of voids per night demonstrated that the incremental risk (population attributable risk [PAR]) of falling as a result of nocturia (≥2 voids compared with ≤1 void) was 16.2%. Using the 16.2% PAR, the annual direct cost of nocturia in the USA was estimated at $1.5 billion. An analysis in the EU‐15 countries estimated the total annual cost of hospitalizations for hip fracture due to severe nocturia to be approximately €1 billion. Studies have shown that periods of sick leave are significantly greater in both men and women who have more nocturnal voids, with an estimated annual indirect cost of nocturia of $61 billion in the USA. A similar European analysis showed an estimated annual cost of lost work productivity due to nocturia of €29 billion in the EU‐15. The intangible personal costs of nocturia are related to diminished quality of life and overall health status. High‐quality articles on the cost of illness associated with nocturia, as well as cost‐benefit analyses of nocturia treatment, are generally lacking. Neurourol. Urodynam. 33:S10–S14, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Fail-safe motion planning of autonomous vehicles

Formally verified methods for motion planning are required in order to guarantee safety for autonomous vehicles. In particular, we consider trajectory generation by considering the most probable trajectory of other traffic participants. However, if the surrounding vehicles perform unexpected maneuvers, a collision might be inevitable. In this paper, a fail-safe motion planner is developed, which generates optimal trajectories, yet guarantees safety at all times. Safety is achieved by maintaining an emergency maneuver which can safely bring the host vehicle to a stop while avoiding any collision. The emergency maneuver is computed by considering for a given time horizon the occupancy prediction which encloses all possible trajectories of the other traffic participants. The performance of the approach is evaluated through simulation against real traffic data.
Benzoic Acid Production with Respect to Starter Culture and Incubation Temperature during Yogurt Fermentation using Response Surface Methodology

Benzoic acid is occasionally used as a raw material supplement in food products and is sometimes generated during the fermentation process. In this study, the production of naturally occurring yogurt preservatives was investigated for various starter cultures and incubation temperatures, and considered food regulations. Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus paracasei, Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus plantarum, Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium lactis, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium infantis, and Bifidobacterium breve were used as yogurt starter cultures in commercial starters. Among these strains, L. rhamnosus and L. paracasei showed the highest production of benzoic acid. Therefore, the use of L. rhamnosus, L. paracasei, S. thermophilus, and different incubation temperatures were examined to optimize benzoic acid production. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on a central composite design was performed for various incubation temperatures (35-44℃) and starter culture inoculum ratios (0-0.04%) in a commercial range of dairy fermentation processes. The optimum conditions were 0.04% L. rhamnosus, 0.01% L. paracasei, 0.02% S. thermophilus, and 38.12℃, and the predicted and estimated concentrations of benzoic acid were 13.31 and 13.94 mg/kg, respectively. These conditions maximized naturally occurring benzoic acid production during the yogurt fermentation process, and the observed production levels satisfied regulatory guidelines for benzoic acid in dairy products.
The Role of Institutions in the Integration of Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions: A Multi-level Analysis

THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS IN THE INTEGRATION OF CROSS-BORDER MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: A MULTI-LEVEL ANALYSIS Ruth V. Aguilera College of Business & Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1206. S. Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820 Tel. (217) 333 7090 E-mail: ruth-agu@uiuc.edu John C. Dencker Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 504 E. Armory Ave., Champaign, IL 61820 Tel. (217) 333 2383 E-mail: dencker@uiuc.edu Zeynep Y. Yalabik Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 504 E. Armory Ave., Champaign, IL 61820 Tel. (217) 365 0955 E-mail: zyalabik@uiuc.edu July 2004 ****FIRST DRAFT. COMMENTS ARE WELCOME**** Paper prepared for the International Conference at IESE Business School on “Multinationals and the International Diffusion of Organizational Forms and Practices: Convergence and Diversity within the Global Economy,” July 15-17
Abnormalities of renal sodium handling in the metabolic syndrome. Results of the Olivetti Heart Study

Objective The mechanisms underlying high blood pressure in the framework of metabolic syndrome (MS) are not clarified: we thus analyzed the relationship of MS and its components to renal tubular sodium handling among participants of the Olivetti Heart Study, an epidemiological investigation of a representative sample of adult white male population in southern Italy. Methods Proximal (FPRNa) and distal (FDRNa) fractional sodium reabsorption were estimated by the clearance of exogenous lithium in 702 participants aged 25–75 years examined in 1994–1995. Blood pressure and relevant anthropometric and biochemical variables were also measured. The diagnosis of MS was based on modified National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP)-Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) criteria. Results FPRNa, but not FDRNa, was directly associated with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, diastolic pressure, serum triglyceride and uric acid, independently of age and of antihypertensive treatment. After adjustment for age, FPRNa, but not FDRNa, was significantly greater in individuals with MS, as compared to those without [77.6% (95% confidence interval = 76.7–80.1) versus 74.4% (73.7–75.1), P < 0.001]. A similar difference was observed after the exclusion of participants on current antihypertensive treatment (P = 0.018). In untreated individuals, a significant interaction was observed between obesity and insulin resistance as related to FPRNa (P = 0.002): the highest age-adjusted levels of FPRNa were detected in obese hypertensive and obese insulin-resistant participants. Conclusion In this sample of an adult male population, MS was associated with an increased rate of FPRNa. This finding is relevant to the pathophysiology of MS and possibly to the prevention of its cardiovascular and renal consequences.
Immediate Feedback and Learning in Athletic Training Education.

Context: Immediate feedback has been shown to improve student learning more efficiently than delayed feedback in lower-level general education courses. No research exists examining the effects of immediate feedback on learning in higher-level athletic training coursework. Objective: To determine if using the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IF-AT) improves retention of information taught in upper-level athletic training courses better than traditional multiple choice (TMC) exams. The second purpose of this research was to determine students' perceptions of the IF-AT. Design: 2 x 2 randomized, crossover experimental design. Setting: A standard higher education classroom. Patients or Other Participants: A convenience sample of 23 students enrolled in an upper-level athletic training course. Interventions: Examination type (IF-AT and TMC) and examination session (initial and follow-up). Main Outcome Measures: Examination scores of the students on the initial examinations and the follow-up examination.
No improvement in endurance performance after a single dose of beetroot juice.

INTRODUCTION Dietary nitrate supplementation has received much attention in the literature due to its proposed ergogenic properties. Recently, the ingestion of a single bolus of nitrate-rich beetroot juice (500 ml, ~6.2 mmol NO3-) was reported to improve subsequent time-trial performance. However, this large volume of ingested beetroot juice does not represent a realistic dietary strategy for athletes to follow in a practical, performance-based setting. Therefore, we investigated the impact of ingesting a single bolus of concentrated nitrate-rich beetroot juice (140 ml, ~8.7 mmol NO3-) on subsequent 1-hr time-trial performance in well-trained cyclists. METHODS Using a double-blind, repeated-measures crossover design (1-wk washout period), 20 trained male cyclists (26 ± 1 yr, VO(2peak) 60 ± 1 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1), Wmax 398 ± 7.7 W) ingested 140 ml of concentrated beetroot juice (8.7 mmol NO3-; BEET) or a placebo (nitrate-depleted beetroot juice; PLAC) with breakfast 2.5 hr before an ~1-hr cycling time trial (1,073 ± 21 kJ). Resting blood samples were collected every 30 min after BEET or PLAC ingestion and immediately after the time trial. RESULTS Plasma nitrite concentration was higher in BEET than PLAC before the onset of the time trial (532 ± 32 vs. 271 ± 13 nM, respectively; p < .001), but subsequent time-trial performance (65.5 ± 1.1 vs. 65 ± 1.1 s), power output (275 ± 7 vs. 278 ± 7 W), and heart rate (170 ± 2 vs. 170 ± 2 beats/min) did not differ between BEET and PLAC treatments (all p > .05). CONCLUSION Ingestion of a single bolus of concentrated (140 ml) beetroot juice (8.7 mmol NO3-) does not improve subsequent 1-hr time-trial performance in well-trained cyclists.
L Dwarfs and the Substellar Mass Function

Analysis of initial observations sky surveys has shown that the resulting photometric catalogs, combined with far-red optical data, provide an extremely effective method of finding isolated, very low-temperature objects in the general field. Follow-up observations have already identified more than 25 sources with temperatures cooler than the latest M dwarfs. A comparison with detailed model predictions (Burrows & Sharp 1999) indicates that these L dwarfs have effective temperatures between ≈2000 ± 100 K and 1500 ± 100 K, while the available trigonometric parallax data place their luminosities at between 10-3.5 and 10. Those properties, together with the detection of lithium in one-third of the objects, are consistent with the majority having substellar masses. The mass function cannot be derived directly, since only near-infrared photometry and spectral types are available for most sources, but we can incorporate VLM/brown dwarf models in simulations of the solar neighborhood population and constrain Ψ(M) by comparing the predicted L dwarf surface densities and temperature distributions against observations from the Deep Near-Infrared Survey (DENIS) and 2 Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) surveys. The data, although sparse, can be represented by a power-law mass function, Ψ(M) ∝ M-α, with 1 < α < 2. Current results favor a value nearer the lower limit. If α = 1.3, then the local space density of 0.075 > M/M☉ > 0.01 brown dwarfs is 0.10 systems pc-3. In that case, brown dwarfs are twice as common as main-sequence stars but contribute no more than ~15% of the total mass of the disk.