Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The divergent city: unequal and uneven development in St. Louis

In St. Louis, as in many other cities, decline and displacement occurred when key policies, prejudices, and plans interacted with broad economic restructuring to devastate poor and minority communities, while leaving White and middle-class communities largely intact. Amidst overall population loss and neighborhood decline are pockets of prosperity and gentrification within the central city. In this article, we analyze three significant planning interventions in St. Louis, Missouri, that spurred displacement of populations—urban renewal, triage, and the foreclosure crisis. We argue that the differential experiences of Black and White during each of these periods represent two faces of development: one in the north of the city that is largely Black, experiencing vacant land, high crime, and crumbling infrastructure; another in the south of the city that is largely White, enjoying pockets of vibrant commercial development, larger homes, and stable real estate markets. We analyze each period through a framework of uneven and unequal development and displacement, which we call the Divergent City Theory. Based on this theory, planners face an ethical obligation to plan for the future of their cities in a way that seeks to reconcile the structured race and class inequalities of the divergent city.
Novel interfaces for light directed neuronal stimulation: advances and challenges

Light activation of neurons is a growing field with applications ranging from basic investigation of neuronal systems to the development of new therapeutic methods such as artificial retina. Many recent studies currently explore novel methods for optical stimulation with temporal and spatial precision. Novel materials in particular provide an opportunity to enhance contemporary approaches. Here we review recent advances towards light directed interfaces for neuronal stimulation, focusing on state-of-the-art nanoengineered devices. In particular, we highlight challenges and prospects towards improved retinal prostheses.
Mind-mindedness in adult and adolescent mothers: Relations to maternal sensitivity and infant attachment

This article examines the quality of maternal mind-mindedness among adult and adolescent mothers, using an assessment of the appropriateness and emotional valence of maternal mind-related comments while interacting with their infants. Twenty-nine adult mothers and 69 adolescent mothers participated in two assessments with their 18-month-old infants. Results showed that adult mothers used more mind-related comments when interacting with their child, especially comments referring to infant mental states. Adult mothers also used more appropriate and positive mind-related comments. Home observations and strange situation assessments revealed that two dimensions of mind-mindedness were associated with maternal sensitivity and three with infant attachment in adult mothers, whereas only one dimension was associated with maternal sensitivity in adolescent mothers.
Self-Efficacy: A Key to Improving the Motivation of Struggling Learners

Self-efficacy . influence[s] task choice, effort, persistence, and achievement. Compared with students who doubt their learning capacities, those who have a sense of efficacy for [particular tasks] participate more readily, work harder, persist longer when they encounter difficulties, and achieve at a higher level . Students do not engage in activities they believe will lead to negative outcomes. (Schunk and Zimmerman 1997, 36)
Switching of movement direction is central to parkinsonian bradykinesia in sit‐to‐stand

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are known to manifest slowness in movements. We sought to identify the particular kinematic and kinetic disorders that contribute to the slowness in performing sit‐to‐stand in these patients. Two inter‐related studies were carried out. In the first study, 20 patients with PD and 20 control subjects were instructed to perform sit‐to‐stand at a natural speed. In the second study, 15 control subjects were instructed to simulate the slower speed of sit‐to‐stand of the patients identified in the first study. Kinematic and kinetic data were recorded by a PEAK motion analysis system and two force platforms. The results showed that patients with PD generated smaller peak horizontal and vertical velocities during the task. They took a longer time to complete each individual phase as well as the whole movement of sit‐to‐stand. Patients also produced smaller peak hip flexion and ankle dorsiflexion joint torques and had prolonged time‐to‐peak torques from sit‐to‐stand onset. When control subjects simulated the patients' speed of sit‐to‐stand, there was no difference in all the kinematic and kinetic data between groups. The only exception was that they exhibited a shorter transition time between peak horizontal velocity (flexion phase) and seat‐off (extension phase) than the patients. This study demonstrated that the slowness of PD patients during sit‐to‐stand at a natural speed could be attributed to inadequate peak hip flexion and ankle dorsiflexion torques, a prolonged torque production, as well as a difficulty in switching from the flexion to extension direction during sit‐to‐stand. As the latter difficulty persisted when the control subjects performed the task at a speed similar to that of the patients, our findings suggest that a fundamental problem of patients with Parkinson's disease could be a switch between movement directions. © 2002 Movement Disorder Society
Language and Education Orientations in Lithuania: A Cross-Baltic Perspective Post-EU Accession

Abstract This paper presents an up-to-date overview of language policies and practices in Lithuania, paying particular attention to the latest developments that have taken place in national educational contexts. Against the background of recent sociodemographic changes in the three Baltic republics, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, it analyzes issues pertaining to educational measures chosen in support of both Lithuanian and other locally used languages. In tracing re-evolving individual multilingualisms amongst majority and minority populations around EU accession, it will be shown that these are symbolic of changing orientations, which are socially, politically and economically motivated.
Role of cholesterol in SNARE-mediated trafficking on intracellular membranes

ABSTRACT The cell surface delivery of extracellular matrix (ECM) and integrins is fundamental for cell migration in wound healing and during cancer cell metastasis. This process is not only driven by several soluble NSF attachment protein (SNAP) receptor (SNARE) proteins, which are key players in vesicle transport at the cell surface and intracellular compartments, but is also tightly modulated by cholesterol. Cholesterol-sensitive SNAREs at the cell surface are relatively well characterized, but it is less well understood how altered cholesterol levels in intracellular compartments impact on SNARE localization and function. Recent insights from structural biology, protein chemistry and cell microscopy have suggested that a subset of the SNAREs engaged in exocytic and retrograde pathways dynamically ‘sense’ cholesterol levels in the Golgi and endosomal membranes. Hence, the transport routes that modulate cellular cholesterol distribution appear to trigger not only a change in the location and functioning of SNAREs at the cell surface but also in endomembranes. In this Commentary, we will discuss how disrupted cholesterol transport through the Golgi and endosomal compartments ultimately controls SNARE-mediated delivery of ECM and integrins to the cell surface and, consequently, cell migration.
“Elections” or “Selections”? Blogging and Twittering the Nigerian 2007 General Elections

This article examines the linguistic construction of textual messages in the use of blogs and Twitter in the Nigerian 2007 electoral cycle comprising the April 2007 general elections and rerun elections in April, May, and August 2009. A qualitative approach of discourse analysis is used to present a variety of discursive acts that blogging and microblogging afford social media users during the electoral cycle. The data are culled from 245 blog posts and 923 tweets. The thesis of the study is that citizens’ access to social media electronically empowers the electorates to be actively involved in democratic governance. Electronic empowerment is a direct result of access to social media (and mobile telephony) by more citizens who constitute the electorates. This encourages more public discussions about politics and makes the democratic process more dynamic than in the pre—social media era. An analysis of the data shows that there is a dialectical relationship between social media discourse and the process of political empowerment.
Dynamical response of equatorial Indian Ocean to intraseasonal winds: Zonal Flow

Nonlinear and linear 4½‐layer ocean models are used to explore the dynamics of intraseasonal (20–90 day periods) zonal flow in the equatorial Indian Ocean. The model simulations suggest that the observed 40–60 day zonal surface current is forced primarily by wind associated with the Madden‐Julian Oscillation (MJO), which peaks at 40–60 days. The strongest spectral peak of zonal flow, however, occurs at 90‐day period in the model and a corresponding 90‐day peak appears in the observed sea level data. The 90‐day current results from the preferential excitation of Kelvin and Rossby waves by the lower‐frequency component of intraseasonal wind and from the enhancement by Rossby waves reflected from the eastern ocean boundary.
Asymptotic structure of topologically massive gravity in spacelike stretched AdS sector

We introduce a natural set of asymptotic conditions in the spacelike stretched AdS sector of topologically massive gravity. The Poisson bracket algebra of the canonical generators is shown to have the form of the semi-direct sum of a u(1) Kac-Moody and a Virasoro algebra, with central charges. Using the Sugawara construction, we prove that the asymptotic symmetry coincides with the conformal symmetry, described by two independent Virasoro algebras with central charges. The result is in complete agreement with the hypothesis made in [6].
Limited microsynteny between the genomes of Pristionchus pacificus and Caenorhabditis elegans.

Nematodes are an attractive group of organisms for studying the evolution of developmental processes. Pristionchus pacificus was established as a satellite organism for comparing vulva development and other processes to Caenorhabditis elegans. The generation of a genetic linkage map of P.pacificus has provided a first insight into the structure and organization of the genome of this species. Pristionchus pacificus and C.elegans are separated from one another by >100 000 000 years such that the structure of the genomes of these two nematodes might differ substantially. To evaluate the amount of synteny between the two genomes, we have obtained 126 kb of continuous genomic sequence of P.pacificus, flanking the developmental patterning gene pal-1. Of the 20 predicted open reading frames in this interval, 11 have C.elegans orthologs. Ten of these 11 orthologs are located on C.elegans chromosome III, indicating the existence of synteny. However, most of these genes are distributed over a 12 Mb interval of the C.elegans genome and only three pairs of genes show microsynteny. Thus, intrachromosomal rearrange ments occur frequently in nematodes, limiting the likelihood of identifying orthologous genes of P.pacificus and C.elegans based on positional information within the two genomes.
Frankenstein's glue: transition functions for approximate solutions

Approximations are commonly employed to find approximate solutions to the Einstein equations. These solutions, however, are usually only valid in some specific spacetime region. A global solution can be constructed by gluing approximate solutions together, but this procedure is difficult because discontinuities can arise, leading to large violations of the Einstein equations. In this paper, we provide an attempt to formalize this gluing scheme by studying transition functions that join approximate analytic solutions together. In particular, we propose certain sufficient conditions on these functions and prove that these conditions guarantee that the joined solution still satisfies the Einstein equations analytically to the same order as the approximate ones. An example is also provided for a binary system of non-spinning black holes, where the approximate solutions are taken to be given by a post-Newtonian expansion and a perturbed Schwarzschild solution. For this specific case, we show that if the transition functions satisfy the proposed conditions, then the joined solution does not contain any violations to the Einstein equations larger than those already inherent in the approximations. We further show that if these functions violate the proposed conditions, then the matter content of the spacetime is modified by the introduction of a matter shell, whose stress–energy tensor depends on derivatives of these functions.
Exogenous Ethyl Pyruvate versus Pyruvate during Metabolic Recovery after Oxidative Stress in Neonatal Rat Cerebrocortical Slices

Background:Exogenous pyruvate and ethyl pyruvate (EP), the key ingredient in a new Ringer’s solution in clinical trials, are antioxidants as well as metabolic substrates. In vivo studies show both to be protective in oxidative stress, with EP being better. The authors used an acute rat brain slice preparation to compare EP and pyruvate rescue after H2O2 oxidative stress, asking whether EP was again better and whether its actions were exclusively metabolic. Methods:Oxygenated neonatal P7 cerebrocortical slices were exposed for 1 h to 2 mm H2O2, and recovered for 4 h with artificial cerebrospinal fluid having 2 mm glucose and (1) 20 mm EP, (2) 20 mm pyruvate, or (3) 1 mm of the nonmetabolizable radical scavenger N-tert-butyl-&agr;-phenylnitrone (PBN). Perchloric acid extracts were studied with 31P/1H nuclear magnetic resonance at 14.1 T. Acute cell injury was assessed by counting terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated uridine 5′-triphosphate-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL)–stained cells. Results:At the end of recovery, preservation of adenosine triphosphate and N-acetylaspartate was better with EP than with pyruvate. Adenosine triphosphate preservation was best when PBN and EP were coadministered. 1H nuclear magnetic resonance revealed changes in lactate, alanine, &ggr;-aminobutyric acid, glutamate, glutamine, succinate, taurine, and myoinositol. Two-dimensional [1H-13C] heteronuclear single quantum coherence spectroscopy found that 13C-EP administration produced the same tricarboxylic acid metabolites as 13C-pyruvate. TUNEL-positive cell percentages with EP were less than half of those for PBN or pyruvate rescue (P < 0.05). Conclusion:EP enters cells, provides pyruvate as a tricarboxylic acid substrate, and is more protective. Although EP provides metabolic protection of adenosine triphosphate levels, it does not maximize antioxidant protection.
Energy consumption forecasting using genetic fuzzy rule-based systems based on MOGUL learning methodology

One of the most challenging tasks for energy domain stakeholders is to have a better preview of the electricity consumption. Having a more trustable expectation of electricity consumption can help minimizing the cost of electricity and also enable a better control on the electricity tariff. This paper presents a study using a Methodology to Obtain Genetic fuzzy rule-based systems Under the iterative rule Learning approach (MOGUL) methodology in order to have a better profile of the electricity consumption of the following hours. The proposed approach uses the electricity consumption of the past hours to forecast the consumption value for the following hours. Results from this study are compared to those of previous approaches, namely two fuzzy based systems: and several different approaches based on artificial neural networks. The comparison of the achieved results with those achieved by the previous approaches shows that this approach can calculate a more reliable value for the electricity consumption in the following hours, as it is able to achieve lower forecasting errors, and a less standard deviation of the forecasting error results.
Improving the comprehensibility of stories: The effects of revisions that improve coherence

TWO STORIES from basal readers were revised to improve their coherence without altering their plot. Although the revisions increased the difficulty of the passages as indexed by traditional readability formulas, they enhanced comprehension of both skilled and less skilled readers as indexed by recall and answers to forced-choice questions. Implications for assessing text difficulty are discussed.
An examination of the quality of psychiatric court reports for juvenile perpetrators of homicide

This study aimed to examine the proportion of psychiatric reports prepared by experts in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry; to discuss the quality of information available in reports submitted to the court in juvenile homicide trials and to make recommendations for report content in these cases. An eight-year (1996–2004) cross-sectional survey of 363 juvenile homicide perpetrators in England and Wales was examined. In 45% (n = 165) of the cases, at least one report was submitted to court. Of these, 61% (101 cases) were prepared by adult psychiatrists and 27% (44 cases) by child and adolescent psychiatrists. Information provided in reports varied depending on the author, with child and adolescent psychiatrists providing more detailed information on developmental items. Our results suggest that more efforts should be made to ensure the most appropriate expert is commissioned to provide a thorough assessment of the juvenile and their mental state at the time of the offence.
Comparative Experimental Study and FE Analysis of Corrugated Steel Pipe Culverts with Different Stiffness

This paper describes comparative experiment on corrugated steel pipe culverts with different stiffness. The two culverts both with 1.2m span and 4m backfill height but with different corrugation pattern and plate thickness were constructed side by side. Displacement, strain and soil pressure at critical points were tested during construction. Two-dimensional (2D) finite element (FE) models were established and the computed values were compared with measured values to verify the effectiveness of FE models and the reasonability of the test. The study shows that the deformation trend is the same but the deformations of the flexible pipe were much larger. Only after the backfill finished and the soil-structure bear the load together the FE simulation could basically reflect the stress state of the structure due to the nonlinearity of soil and the complexity of soil-structure interaction. The larger deformation of the flexible pipe makes the soil-structure interaction obvious, which reduces the pressure of backfill soil on the structure. Therefore realities should be considered when choosing corrugation pattern and thickness of corrugated plates to optimize design and save construction cost.
VideoKheti: making video content accessible to low-literate and novice users

Designing ICT systems for rural users in the developing world is difficult for a variety of reasons ranging from problems with infrastructure to wide differences in user contexts and capabilities. Developing regions may include huge variability in spoken languages, and users are often low- or non-literate, with very little experience interacting with digital technologies. Researchers have explored the use of text-free graphical interfaces as well as speech-based applications to overcome some of the issues related to language and literacy. While there are benefits and drawbacks to each of these approaches, they can be complementary when used together. In this work, we present VideoKheti, a mobile system using speech, graphics, and touch interaction for low-literate farmers in rural India. VideoKheti helps farmers to find and watch agricultural extension videos in their own language and dialect. In this paper, we detail the design and development of VideoKheti and report on a field study with 20 farmers in rural India who were asked to find videos based on a scenario. The results show that farmers could use VideoKheti, but their success still greatly depended on their education level. While participants were enthusiastic about using the system, the multimodal interface did not overcome many obstacles for low-literate users.
Hard-decision decoding of LDPC codes under timing errors: Overview and new results

This paper contains a survey on iterative decoders of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes built form unreliable logic gates. We assume that hardware unreliability comes from supply voltage reduction, which causes probabilistic gate failures, called timing errors. We are able to demonstrate robustness of simple Gallager B decoder to timing errors, when applied on codes free of small trapping sets, as well as positive effects that timing errors have on the decoding of codes with contain small trapping sets. Furthermore, we show that concept of guaranteed error correction can be applied to the decoders made partially from unreliable components. In contrast to the decoding under uncorrelated gate failures, we prove that bit-flipping decoding under timing errors can achieve arbitrary low error probability. Consequently, we formulate condition sufficient that memory architecture, which employs bit-flipping decoder, preserved all stored information.
Evaluation of a novel method for delivering a synthetic analogue of feline facial pheromone to control urine spraying by cats

Twenty-two cats with a problem of urine spraying in the home were enrolled onto a double-blinded placebo-controlled study designed to evaluate the efficacy of feline facial pheromone (FFP) delivered continuously into the atmosphere in the home through an electrically heated diffuser for controlling the problem. The cats were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups according to a predetermined schedule and later analysis suggested that there were no significant differences in the demographic characteristics of the two groups. Compared with a baseline week during which no treatment was given, the mean level of spraying was significantly lower in the treated group after four weeks, but not significantly lower in the control group. The baseline level of spraying and the treatment, but not the week of treatment, were significant predictors of the amount of spraying during the trial. However, only the type of treatment given was a significant factor in the occurrence of new marks. Linear regression analysis suggested that there was a significant relationship between the amount of spraying and the duration of the use of FFP.
Teacher Autonomy Perceptions of Iranian and Turkish EFL Teachers

Abstract The study aimed at examining Iranian (N= 218) and Turkish (N=142) high school EFL teachers’ opinions about teacher autonomy over (a) the choice of appropriate teaching methods, strategies and techniques and implementation of the established curriculum (b) teacher involvement in decision making processes and (c) teachers’ use of personal initiative in solving their work problems. An 11-item questionnaire (I±= .758) was used to measure autonomy perceptions of the participants. The results revealed that Turkish teachers’ autonomy perceptions were greater than that of Iranian teachers in the three teacher autonomy dimensions. Moreover, it was observed that male and master- holder teachers perceive less autonomy than female and bachelor-holder ones; whereas, no significant relationship were observed for the age and marital status variables with any teacher autonomy dimensions. Lastly, decision making dimension was the strongest predictor of teacher autonomy among both Iranian and Turkish teachers.