Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional recovery of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in modeled microgravity

Immune function is suppressed in space flight, demonstrated by reduced mitogen‐stimulated proliferation of postflight astronaut peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). While flight studies are limited, the development of rotating wall vessel (RWV) bioreactors, such as the high aspect ratio vessel (HARV), has facilitated ground‐based studies of the effects of modeled microgravity (MMG) on cell‐mediated immunity. Astronauts regain immune function 3 days postflight, but this recovery has not yet been demonstrated following MMG. MMG eliminated phytohemagglutinin (PHA)‐stimulated proliferation of PBMCs. Upon removal from HARV, full recovery was gradually achieved over a 72 h period, in agreement with postflight studies of astronauts. Recovery from MMG delayed, but did not reduce, the maximal proliferative response compared with PHA‐activated stationary cultures. Likewise, peak expression of T cell surface activation markers CD69 and CD25 was delayed upon stimulation following exposure to MMG. MMG and recovery from MMG differentially affected the detection of IL‐2 and IFN in supernatants. Further development of this model of immune recovery is important for investigating the mechanisms of immune suppression and recovery in space flight, as well as possible countermeasures to prevent immunosuppression or enhance recovery. Given the analogous immune suppression observed in microgravity, MMG, and aging, further investigation may also lead to advances in anti‐aging medicine.
Regional, Seasonal, and Diurnal Variations of Extreme Convection in the South Asian Region

Abstract Temporal and spatial variations of convection in South Asia are analyzed using eight years of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) data and NCEP reanalysis fields. To identify the most extreme convective features, three types of radar echo structures are defined: deep convective cores (contiguous 3D convective echo ≥40 dBZ extending ≥10 km in height) represent the most vertically penetrative convection, wide convective cores (contiguous convective ≥40 dBZ echo over a horizontal area ≥1000 km2) indicate wide regions of intense multicellular convection, and broad stratiform regions (stratiform echo contiguous over an area ≥50 000 km2) mark the mesoscale convective systems that have developed the most robust stratiform regions. The preferred locations of deep convective cores change markedly from India’s east coast in the premonsoon to the western Himalayan foothills in the monsoon. They form preferentially in the evening and over land as near-surface moist flow is cap.
Declarative and Procedural Working Memory: Common Principles, Common Capacity Limits?

Working memory is often described as a system for simultaneous storage and processing. Much research – and most measures of working-memory capacity – focus on the storage component only, that is, people's ability to recall or recognize items after short retention intervals. The mechanisms of processing information are studied in a separate research tradition, concerned with the selection and control of actions in simple choice situations, dual-task constellations, or task-switching setups. both research traditions investigate performance based on representations that are temporarily maintained in an active, highly accessible state, and constrained by capacity limits. In this article an integrated theoretical framework of declarative and procedural working memory is presented that relates the two domains of research to each other. Declarative working memory is proposed to hold representations available for processing (including recall and recognition), whereas procedural working memory holds representations that control processing (i. e., task sets, stimulus-response mappings, and executive control settings). The framework motivates two hypotheses: Declarative and procedural working memory have separate capacity limits, and they operate by analogous principles. The framework also suggests a new characterization of executive functions as the subset of processes governed by procedural working memory that has as its output a change in the conditions of operation of the working-memory system.
Dealing with Negative Feelings : The Role of Working Memory in Emotion Regulation

Though negative emotions are often adaptive, they can occupy people's thoughts unwantedly and thereby undermine psychological and physical well-being. It is therefore important to look for ways in which people can shield themselves against the disruptive power of negative emotion. The pervasiveness of negative emotions is partly due to the strong impact of negative information on the human attention system. Consequently, one potentially effective way to deal with negative emotions may be to control the amount of attention that is to negative information. The present dissertation examines how processing of negative emotional information is influenced by the availability of working memory resources. Chapter 1 provides a theoretical overview and Chapters 2 to 4 report empirical tests of the role of working memory in dealing with negatively charged information. Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Chapter 1 introduces the key concepts of the present dissertation, which consist of attention, working memory, negative emotion, and their interplay, and provides an overview of relevant empirical findings on the role of working memory in dealing with negative emotions. The theoretical relations between these concepts are organized by a working memory model of distraction from negative emotion (Van Dillen & Koole, 2007). The central idea of the model is that distraction involves the use of limited processing capacity in working memory. The more working memory is being used by a distracting activity, the less room will remain for negative emotions to persist. The remainder of Chapter 1 considers how the working memory model fits with the empirical literature, including the research that is presented in Chapters 2-4. Moreover, the model's limitations and implications are discussed, along with directions for future work. Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Chapter 2 describes three experiments that examined whether and how loading working memory can attenuate negative mood. Participants were exposed to neutral, weakly negative or strongly negative pictures followed by a task and a mood scale. Working memory demands were varied by manipulating task presence (Study 1), complexity (Study 2), and predictability (Study 3). Participants in all three experiments reported less negative moods in negative trials with high compared to low working memory demand. Working memory demands did not affect mood in the neutral trials. When working memory demands were high, participants no longer reported more negative moods in response to strongly negative pictures than to weakly negative pictures. These findings suggest that loading working memory prevents mood-congruent …
The Differential Effects of Intimate Terrorism and Situational Couple Violence

Data from the National Violence Against Women Survey show that the two major forms of husband violence toward their wives (intimate terrorism and situational couple violence) have different effects on their victims. Victims of intimate terrorism are attacked more frequently and experience violence that is less likely to stop. They are more likely to be injured, to exhibit more of the symptoms of posttraumatic stress syndrome, to use painkillers (perhaps also tranquilizers), and to miss work. They have left their husbands more often, and when they do leave, they are more likely to acquire their own residence. If we want to understand the true impact of wife abuse from survey data (rather than from agency data), we must make distinctions among types of violence so that the data used to describe battering are not diluted by data regarding other types of partner violence.
Professional and Disciplinary Status of Adapted Physical Activity

Adapted physical activity has debated its professional and disciplinary status, but agreement has not been achieved. As a means of objectively evaluating the field for evidence of discipline status, the contents of APAQ (all issues between 1984-2000) and Clinical Kinesiology (1991-2000) were reviewed and compared against four criteria of a discipline: unique knowledge base, methodology, theoretical framework, and terminology. The review indicated that adapted physical activity has a distinct knowledge base but borrows considerable terminology, research methodology, and theory from allied fields. This is likely a reflection of our history, which has been tied to medicine, kinesiology, physical and special education, and some therapies. We conclude that adapted physical activity is a professional field of study with a crossdisciplinary knowledge base, rather than a discipline in its own right.
Student Differences in Self-Regulated Learning: Relating Grade, Sex, and Giftedness to Self-Efficacy and Strategy Use.

Forty-five boys and 45 girls of the 5th, 8th, and 1 lth grades from a school for the academicallygifted and an identical number from regular schools were asked to describe their use of 14 self-regulated learning strategies and to estimate their verbal and mathematical efficacy. The groupsof students from both schools included Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. Students camefrom middle-class homes. Gifted students displayed significantly higher verbal efficacy, mathe-matical efficacy, and strategy use than regular students. In general, 1 lth-grade students surpassed8th graders, who in turn surpassed 5th graders on the three measures of self-regulated learning.Students' perceptions of both verbal and mathematical efficacy were related to their use of self-regulated strategies. Evidence of relations between students' strategic efforts to learn and percep-tions of academic self-efficacy is concordant with a triadic view of self-regulated learning.
The Academic and Social Integration of Persisting Community College Transfer Students

This qualitative study sought to discern the applicability of Tinto's theory of the importance of academic and social integration to students' persistence by interviewing community college transfer students who had persisted for several semesters in a large, public, research extensive university. Twelve students who participated in a 2004 study about factors affecting the transfer process and their subsequent integration into the receiving institution were interviewed again in 2006 about their academic and social integration into the university. The researchers found that persisting community college transfer students' academic and social integration needs appeared to be different from those of first-year, traditional-age college students at a residence-oriented 4-year institution. The primary institutional influences affecting their integration were university size, the opportunity to join clubs in their major, and the opportunity to conduct research with a professor. Individual or situational influences were working and living off-campus and having the goal of completing the baccalaureate, but not necessarily at the receiving university.
Sparsifying time-frequency distributions for gravitational wave data analysis

We examine the potential of sparse time-frequency representations for gravitational wave data analysis, as regards: i) characterizing the fine structure of the nonstationary disturbances (glitches) of instrumental/environmental origin affecting the interferometric detectors, and ii) improving the network detection of unmodeled and nonstationary gravitational wave signals coexisting with glitches. These goals are achieved by elaborating on classical and new results about time-frequency and sparse representations. We propose to use a compressed sensing technique (which enables exploiting time-frequency sparsity), in conjunction with an adaptive smoothing of the Wigner-Ville distribution (which enables exploiting the different coherency properties of the different signals of interest).
Variability of snore parameters in time and frequency domains in snoring subjects with and without Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Several studies have shown differences in spectral parameters between simple snorers and patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Most of them analyzed a reduced number of snores and/or only post-apneic snores were selected in OSAS patients. Previous findings suggest that snore parameters have a greater variability as the severity of OSAS increases. In this work we propose to analyze the snoring variability through the magnitude of the first difference of snore parameters. The technique is applied to long time sound recordings from 9 simple snorers (15795 snores) and 15 OSAS patients (19263 snores). The snores are characterized by their sound intensity an by a set of spectral parameters The variability of snore parameters is well correlated to OSAS severity (r>0.7) and is significantly greater in OSAS patients than in simple snorers (p<0.005). The results are similar when post-apneic snores are excluded from the analysis. Snoring subjects are classified with a logistic regression model, which is validated with the live-one-out method. The model is adjusted to correctly classify 100% of OSAS patients for screening purposes previously to enroll for a whole polysomnographic study
Should Problem Solving Be Used as a Learning Device in Mathematics

A theory of expertise has developed over the last few years on the basis of research into expert-novice differences. This research has shown an impressive degree of consistency in a variety of fields of knowledge and is beginning now to have direct implications for the teaching of mathematics and related disciplines. Research data, generated in part by current theories of expertise, call into question many long-held assumptions and procedures. We suggest that some views of mathematics and the way it should be taught owe more to tradition than to our current knowledge of cognitive processes. The purpose of this paper is to outline the theory, describe some of the associated experimental findings, and indicate the consequences of those findings for educational practice in mathematics. The work on expert-novice differences can be divided into three sets of interrelated findings: the memory of relevant problem details, modes of categorizing problems, and problem-solving strategies. There is now strong evidence that experts have a better memory than novices for realistic problem states or configurations. De Groot (1966) and Chase and Simon (1973a, 1973b), using realistic chess configurations; Egan and Schwartz (1979), using electronic circuit diagrams; Jeffries, Turner, Polson, and Atwood (1981), using computer programs; and Sweller and Cooper (1985), using algebra, all found a superior memory by experts for relevant items. With respect to modes of categorizing problems, Chi, Glaser, and Rees (1982) found, when studying the differences between experts and novices in solving physics problems, not only that the experts possess a greater body of knowledge, as one might expect, but more significantly that experts classified problems according to the underlying physics principle (e.g., the conservation of energy) that must be invoked to solve the problem. Novices, however, classified on the basis of surface features mentioned in the problem statement (e.g., inclined planes or pulleys) regardless of the principle underlying the solution method. Novices and experts also differ dramatically in their use of problem-solving strategies. A great many routine mathematics and mathematics-related problems
Reproducing advantage: the perspective of English school leavers on studying abroad

This paper presents results of a questionnaire survey of 1400 Year 13 (final-year) school and sixth-form pupils in two contrasting areas of England, which asked them about their thoughts and plans to study at university abroad. Key questions that the survey sought to answer were the following. How many and what proportion of all higher education (HE) applicants, apply, or consider applying, to university outside the UK? What are their reasons for doing so? What are their distinguishing characteristics as regards type of school (state vs. private), academic record, parental socio-occupational background and prior contacts abroad? The questionnaire data were supported, but occasionally contradicted, by interviews with school staff members responsible for coordinating and advising on the HE application process. Approximately 3% of pupils apply to study abroad (most also apply to UK universities) and another 10% consider applying but do not do so. North America, Australia and Ireland are favoured destinations; not mainland, non-English-speaking Europe. Quality of university and desire for adventure are the most important motivations. Decisions to apply abroad are strongly correlated to the academic results of pupils (the best apply), to prior connections abroad (travel, holidays, residence abroad, etc.) and to a range of overlapping indicators of parental wealth and social class. The theoretical and policy implications of the research are also considered. Study abroad creates an ‘elite within an elite’ and works against government agendas of widening participation. On the other hand, English students’ foreign experience potentially enhances their interculturalism and graduate labour market competitiveness, yet raises spectres of ‘brain drain’ of the ‘brightest and best’.
A life‐devastating cause of gastroenteritis in an immunocompetent host: was it suspected?

A 44‐year‐old immunocompetent man with gastroenteritis received supportive care and empiric antibiotics. After an initial response, he developed septic shock. Blood cultures grew Gram‐positive bacilli with antibiotic adjustment. However, he succumbed within 36 h. After the patient's death, Listeria monocytogenes was identified on blood culture.
The Geography of AIDS: Patterns of Urban and Rural Migration

We sought to describe the migration patterns of patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who seek health services in North Carolina. Of 390 consecutive adult patients with HIV seen at one tertiary care medical center in the southeastern United States in the summer of 1990, 340 (87%) were approached, and 325 (83%) completed surveys. Thirty-seven percent of respondents thought they had been infected and 20% were told they were infected with HIV while living outside of North Carolina. One in five patients thought they had been infected while living in a rural county and more than half now live in rural communities (population of <50,000). Sixty percent of patients had moved to North Carolina since 1980; 61% of these were North Carolina natives. Injecting drug users were more likely than those with other modes of exposure to HIV to have been diagnosed with HIV infection out of state (34% vs 18%). Patients' reasons for moving to North Carolina included social support (88%), health reasons (54%), and better work/educational opportunities (52%). We found that most patients with HIV who seek health care services in North Carolina live in rural areas with their families, and a substantial proportion migrated in after they were diagnosed out of state. Characterizing these migration patterns is crucial for predicting the diffusion of HIV to rural areas; designing AIDS prevention strategies, education, and health service needs; and assessing federal HIV care funding policies.
Perceptions of tourists at risky destinations. A model of psychological influence factors

Purpose – This paper aims to present a model including essential constructs for the measurement of travellers' characteristics in a perceived unsafe destination. This model functions as the basis for three empirical case studies testing the relevance and explanatory power of stable factors regarded as crises‐resistant (e.g. values and holiday preferences) and dependent aspects regarded as crises‐sensitive (attitudes, perceptions and holiday activities). Design/methodology/approach – In total, 930 tourists completed a standardized questionnaire in three regions confronted with or threatened by terrorist attacks as a specific form of tourist crisis (Bali, Indonesia; Sinai, Egypt and Catalonia, Spain). Owing to the coincidence that during fieldwork the second attack on Bali happened it was possible to compare travellers before and after the attack and to test the conception of crises‐stable and crises‐sensitive factors (RQ1). Linear multiple regressions were run to detect significant influence factors on sens.
Language teacher research engagement

The aim of this review is to provide a critical analysis of language teacher research engagement. The term ‘research engagement’ here covers both engagement in teacher research (i.e. by doing it) as well as engagement with research (i.e. by reading and using it). Research engagement is commonly recommended to language teachers as a potentially productive form of professional development and a source of improved professional practice; empirical accounts of teachers’ practices and experiences in doing teacher research and reading research, and of the benefits that accrue to them from such activities are, however, limited and diffuse. This review examines the available evidence on research engagement in language teaching and discusses this in relation to the educational literature more broadly. The analysis presented here highlights both the benefits and the challenges that are associated with teacher research engagement, and sheds light on why teacher research remains largely a minority activity in the field of language teaching. It also illustrates the complex relationship between research knowledge and what teachers do, and considers the implications of this relationship for the contribution that reading research can make to teachers’ professional activities. The paper concludes by outlining a number of conditions which facilitate teachers’ attempts to engage both in and with research. An awareness of these conditions is fundamental to the success of initiatives which aim to promote language teacher research engagement.
Emotions and goals: Assessing relations between values and emotions

Whereas most current theories on emotions posit a central position to goals, direct tests of associations between emotions and goals have been sparse. We investigated such relations by comparing ratings of value importance and frequency of emotional experiences in daily life. The results confirmed our general expectation that associations would be found between values and emotions related to corresponding goals. We argue that data like these are fundamental to further development of emotion theory.
AN EVALUATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION MICRO PROJECTS IN NIGERIA: THE CASE OF EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT IN CROSS RIVER STATE

This study evaluated the impact of European Union Micro Projects Programme six on enrolment rates in affected rural schools in Cross River State, Nigeria. The aim is to assess the extent to which the programme’s objectives of enhancing enrolment rate in the affected rural schools through the construction of classroom blocks was achieved. The study’s main hypothesis was that “there is no significant impact of the EUMPP6 education infrastructure Programme on improved enrolment in affected schools in rural Cross River State, Nigeria after the intervention”. Data were collected through document study, questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion and were analyzed with t-test statistical tools. The result of the analysis revealed that EUMPP6 intervention in classroom blocks improved the rate of enrolment in the affected schools. It is recommended that consistent efforts be made in attracting more interventions to rural communities especially to those that were not affected by the EUMPP6 programme.