Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Number and Case in the comprehension of relative clauses: Evidence from Italian and Greek

1. Introduction Relative clauses have been extensively studied from several perspectives. Cross-linguistic research findings indicate a relatively consistent pattern of performance since they show that subject relatives are significantly easier to acquire and process These findings have been interpreted in terms of the length of the dependencies required for subject and object relatives. As shown in the example below, the filler gap dependency in subject relatives is shorter than in object ones:
Cooperative support for computer work: a social perspective on the empowering of end users

The image of computers being used to empower people is a potent and appealing one. For the many working people whose autonomy is routinely challenged by the constraints of large organizations or the vagaries of the market, the spread of sophisticated desktop computers holds the promise of gaining in personal control. While testimonials to the efficacy of desktop computers and announcements of their increased capabilities are regular fare in the media and casual conversation, the easy equation of personal computing power with personal power is an attractive simplification that needs closer scrutiny.
Quasi-orthogonal STBC with minimum decoding complexity: further results

A new class of quasi-orthogonal space-time block code (QO-STBC) namely minimum-decoding-complexity QO-STBC (MDC-QOSTBC) has recently been proposed in the literature. In this paper, we analyze some of its essential code parameters and code properties. Specifically we derive its maximum achievable code rate expression for any number of transmit antennas. We also derive the closed form expression of its diversity product and use it to obtain the optimum constellation rotation in order to achieve optimum decoding performance. Other performance benefits of MDC-QOSTBC, such as low decoding complexity, good coding gain and power distribution property, flexibility in supporting any constellation and number of transmit antennas, are also presented and discussed.
Letter perception: from item-level ERPs to computational models

In the present study, online measures of letter identification were used to test computational models of letter perception. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to letters and pseudo-letters revealing a transition from feature analysis to letter identification in the 100-200 ms time window. Measures indexing this transition were then computed at the level of individual letters. Simulations with several versions of an interactive-activation model of letter perception were fitted with these item-level ERP measures. The results are in favor of a model of letter perception with feedforward excitatory connections from the feature to the letter levels, lateral inhibition at the letter level, and excitatory feedback from the letter to the feature levels.
Oil Price Shocks and Stock Market Returns: Evidence from 11 member countries of Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the size of impact that oil price shocks have on the stock market returns. The secondary purpose is to investigate which factors have greater influence on stock market returns in recent conditions in comparison to oil price shocks and to explore systematic effect across several countries.The study is carried out by applying unrestricted Vector Autoregressive model with Block significance / Granger causality test, Impulse response and Variance decomposition to structure the results and facilitate interpretation. Oil price shocks have negative impacts on all the countries except for Norway (in the sample period 1986-2010 and 1986-2008) and Canada (1986-2010). For the sample period 1986-2010, interest rate shocks have more impact on the real stock returns of most of the countries. But for 1986-2008, oil prices have more significant impact on the real stock returns compared to the interest rate shocks for most of the countries.Oil price shocks have negative impacts on real stock market returns depending on whether the country is a net oil exporting or an importing one. When the economy is in a more stable condition, oil price shocks contribute towards greater variability in real stock returns compared to interest rate shocks.
Factor Structure of Items from the Personality Adjective Check List in a Sample of Normal Adolescents

We present the results of a principal-components analysis of the Personality Adjective Check List (PACL) at the item level, rather than at the scale level. The PACL was constructed by Strack (1987) to evaluate the personality scales proposed by Millon (1981). Data were obtained from a sample of normal adolescents. A scree test was applied to determine the number of factors to be extracted, and the retained factors were then rotated using a varimax procedure. Using the data from this second analysis, congruence coefficients were calculated by correlating the factor weights from the two analyses of men and women. Results reveal the existence in the whole sample of five unipolar personality factors, which we have called: Aggressive, Conscientious, Inhibited, Impulsive and Gregarious. These are not similar to those obtained from a sample of normal adults. Se presentan los resultados de un análisis de componentes principales del Personality Adjective Check List (PACL) al nivel de los ítems en vez del nivel de escala. El PACL fue construido por Strack (1987) para evaluar las escalas de personalidad propuestas por Millon (1981). Los datos se obtuvieron de una muestra de adolescentes normales. Se aplicó una prueba scree para determinar el número de factores a extraer, y los factores retenidos se rotaron con el procedimiento varimax. Empleando los datos de este segundo análisis, se calcularon los coeficientes de congruencia al correlacionar los pesos factoriales de los dos análisis de varones y mujeres. Los resultados revelan la existencia en toda la muestra de cinco factores unipolares de personalidad, que hemos denominado: Agresivo, Concienzudo, Inhibido, Impulsivo y Gregario. No se parecen a los factores obtenidos de una muestra de adultos normales.
The Effect of Talent Management, Competence, and Training and Development on Employee's Transfer Pattern at Directorate General of State Assets Management of Ministry of Finance of Republic of Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of talent management, competency, education and training on transfer pattern of the Directorate General of State Assets Management (DGSAM), Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia.Quantitative approach is used in this research with 582 population consists of all echelon 4 officials (supervisors) and staff in the DGSAM head office. The sample was selected by simple random sampling method so that 2014 respondents were determined. The data were collected by interview and questionnaire. The questionnaires were randomly delivered to all echelon IV officials (supervisors) and staff in the DGSAM head office. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 25.0 software program. This study reveals that talent mangement, compentency, education and training have a significant positive effect on mutation pattern of DGSAM. Besides that, talent mangement, compentency, education and training together also have a significant positive effect on mutation pattern of DGSAM.
The effects of hillslope forage crop grazing in winter on soil erosion

forage crops to feed cows over winter. This farming practice is now commonly taking place on rolling to steep land in areas where stock are wintered off-farm, such as Southland and South Otago. While the impacts of forage crop grazing on soil physical properties such and pathogens have been studied, there is a lack of transport. This study used a novel technique to quantify the rate soil is pushed downslope by the hooves of cows while grazing kale, and found a linear relationship between soil transport and slope for slope gradients of less than 0.25. The steep slope of the linear relationship, rapid downslope soil movement relative to slope gradient. As a consequence, soil erosion on convex sites occurs at rates that likely exceed soil production rates. The formation of stock tracks on slopes greater than 0.25 caused greater uncertainty in soil transport rates, and more research is required to determine the effect of track formation on soil movement.
A Modular Multiscale Approach to Overlapping Community Detection

In this work we address the problem of detecting overlapping communities in social networks. Because the word "community" is an ambiguous term, it is necessary to quantify what it means to be a community within the context of a particular type of problem. Our interpretation is that this quantification must be done at a minimum of three scales. These scales are at the level of: individual nodes, individual communities, and the network as a whole. Each of these scales involves quantitative features of community structure that are not accurately represented at the other scales, but are important for defining a particular notion of community. Our work focuses on providing sensible ways to quantify what is desired at each of these scales for a notion of community applicable to social networks, and using these models to develop a community detection algorithm. Appealing features of our approach is that it naturally allows for nodes to belong to multiple communities, and is computationally efficient for large networks with low overall edge density. The scaling of the algorithm is $O(N~\overline{k^2} + \overline{N_{com}^2})$, where $N$ is the number of nodes in the network, $\overline{N_{com}^2}$ is the average squared community size, and $\overline{k^2}$ is the expected value of a node's degree squared. Although our work focuses on developing a computationally efficient algorithm for overlapping community detection in the context of social networks, our primary contribution is developing a methodology that is highly modular and can easily be adapted to target specific notions of community.
Identifying High-Redshift Active Galactic Nuclei Using X-Ray Hardness

The X-ray color (hardness ratio) of optically undetected X-ray sources can be used to distinguish obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at low and intermediate redshift from viable high-redshift (i.e., z > 5) AGN candidates. This will help determine the space density, ionizing photon production, and X-ray background contribution of the earliest detectable AGNs. High-redshift AGNs should appear soft in X-rays, with hardness ratio HR ~ -0.5, even if there is strong absorption by a hydrogen column density NH up to 1023 cm-2, simply because the absorption redshifts out of the soft X-ray band in the observed frame. Here the X-ray hardness ratio is defined as HR = (H - S)/(H + S), where S and H are the soft and hard band net counts detected by Chandra. High-redshift AGNs that are Compton thick (NH ≳ 1024 cm-2) could have HR ~ 0.0 at z > 5. However, these should be rare in deep Chandra images, since they have to be ≳10 times brighter intrinsically, which implies a ≳100 times drop in their space density. Applying the hardness criterion (HR < 0.0) can filter out about 50% of the candidate high-redshift AGNs selected from deep Chandra images.
Dendritic Cell-Induced Activation of Adaptive and Innate Antitumor Immunity

While studying Ag-pulsed syngeneic dendritic cell (DC) immunization, we discovered that surprisingly, unpulsed DCs induced protection against tumor lung metastases resulting from i.v. injection of a syngeneic BALB/c colon carcinoma CT26 or a syngeneic C57BL/6 lung carcinoma LL/2. Splenocytes or immature splenic DCs did not protect. The protection was mediated by NK cells, in that it was abrogated by treatment with anti-asialo-GM1 but not anti-CD8, and was induced by CD1−/− DCs unable to stimulate NKT cells, but did not occur in beige mice lacking NK cells. Protection correlated with increased NK activity, and increased infiltration of NK but not CD8+ cells in lungs of tumor-bearing mice. Protection depended on the presence of costimulatory molecules CD80, CD86, and CD40 on the DCs, but surprisingly did not require DCs that could make IL-12 or IL-15. Unexpectedly, protection sensitive to anti-asialo-GM1 and increased NK activity were still present 14 mo after DC injection. As NK cells lack memory, we found by depletion that CD4+ not CD8+ T cells were required for induction of the NK antitumor response. The role of DCs and CD4+ T cells provides a novel mechanism for NK cell induction and innate immunity against cancer that may have potential in preventing clinical metastases.
Effects of phenylephrine on cardiac output and venous return depend on the position of the heart on the Frank-Starling relationship.

INTRODUCTION phenylephrine is used daily during anesthesia for treating hypotension. However, the effects of phenylephrine on cardiac output (CO) are not clear. We hypothesized that the impact of phenylephrine on cardiac output is related to preload dependency. METHODS eight pigs were studied at a preload independent stage (after CO augmentation) and at a preload dependent stage (after a 21 ml/kg hemorrhage). At each stage, phenylephrine boluses (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 μg/kg) were given randomly while mean arterial pressure (MAP), CO, inferior vena cava flow (IVCf) (both measured using ultrasonic flow probes), and pulse pressure variation were measured. RESULTS at the preload independent stage, phenylephrine boluses induced significant increases in MAP (from 72 ± 6 to 100 ± 6 mmHg; P < 0.05) and decreases in CO and IVCf (from 7.0 ± 0.8 to 6.0 ± 1.1 l/min and from 4.6 ± 0.5 to 3.8 ± 0.6 l/min, respectively). At the preload-dependent stage, phenylephrine boluses induced significant increases in MAP (from 40 ± 7 to 65 ± 9 mmHg), CO (from 4.1 ± 0.6 to 4.9 ± 0.7 l/min), and IVCf (from 3.0 ± 0.4 to 3.5 ± 0.6 l/min; all data presented are for 4 μg/kg). Incremental doses of phenylephrine induced incremental changes in cardiac output. A pulse pressure variation >16.4% before phenylephrine predicted an increase in stroke volume with a 93% sensitivity and a 100% specificity. CONCLUSION impact of phenylephrine on cardiac output is related to preload dependency. When the heart is preload independent, phenylephrine boluses induce on average a decrease in cardiac output. When the heart is preload dependent, phenylephrine boluses induce on average an increase in cardiac output.
Comparing the Antibacterial and Functional Properties of Cameroonian and Manuka Honeys for Potential Wound Healing—Have We Come Full Cycle in Dealing with Antibiotic Resistance?

The increased incidence of bacterial resistance to antibiotics has generated renewed interest in “traditional” antimicrobials, such as honey. This paper reports on a study comparing physico-chemical, antioxidant and antibacterial characteristics (that potentially contribute in part, to the functional wound healing activity) of Cameroonian honeys with those of Manuka honey. Agar well diffusion was used to generate zones of inhibition against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus while broth dilutions were used to study the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs). Non-peroxide activity was investigated by catalase for hydrogen peroxide reduction. The Cameroonian honeys demonstrated functional properties similar to Manuka honey, with strong correlations between the antioxidant activity and total phenol content of each honey. They were also as effective as Manuka honey in reducing bacteria load with an MIC of 10% w/v against all three bacteria and exhibited non-peroxide antimicrobial activity. These Cameroon honeys have potential therapeutic activity and may contain compounds with activity against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. Antibacterial agents from such natural sources present a potential affordable treatment of wound infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria, which are a leading cause of amputations and deaths in many African countries.
Performance measurement systems, TQM and multi-level firm performance: a person–organisation fit perspective

For firms implementing total quality management (TQM), there is a need to redesign performance measurement systems (PMS). Innovated PMS ought to have measurement diversity in their structure with considering the spirit of TQM and emphasise the congruence of goals between employees and firms by adding the viewpoint of person–organisation fit (P–O fit). This paper adopts structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine Taiwanese manufacturing firms to study the association between the P–O fit of PMS and the implementation of TQM, as well as the effects of the adaptation of both to firm performance. Particularly, this paper examines firm performance at multiple levels and gathers data from multiple sources, including archival files and self-reported data from surveys.
Do Telomeres Adapt to Physiological Stress? Exploring the Effect of Exercise on Telomere Length and Telomere-Related Proteins

Aging is associated with a tissue degeneration phenotype marked by a loss of tissue regenerative capacity. Regenerative capacity is dictated by environmental and genetic factors that govern the balance between damage and repair. The age-associated changes in the ability of tissues to replace lost or damaged cells is partly the cause of many age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and sarcopenia. A well-established marker of the aging process is the length of the protective cap at the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres. Telomeres shorten with each cell division and with increasing chronological age and short telomeres have been associated with a range of age-related diseases. Several studies have shown that chronic exposure to exercise (i.e., exercise training) is associated with telomere length maintenance; however, recent evidence points out several controversial issues concerning tissue-specific telomere length responses. The goals of the review are to familiarize the reader with the current telomere dogma, review the literature exploring the interactions of exercise with telomere phenotypes, discuss the mechanistic research relating telomere dynamics to exercise stimuli, and finally propose future directions for work related to telomeres and physiological stress.
Brains and the Dynamics of " Wants " and " Cans " in Learning

Immordino-Yang's description of the unexpected recovery of 2 boys with severe brain trauma is an example of the interplay between the plasticity of the brain and the plasticity of the context. It highlights the dynamics of "wants and cans" and the specific role of motivation in this dynamic. As an example of how this dynamic can evolve in different directions, we focus on learning trajectories of children with developmental psychopathology using a model of the process of social interaction to explain the interplay between behavior and performance on short-term and long-term timescales. The idea is that the flexibility of the short-term process allows for a particular quality of teaching and learning and helps explain highly unexpected developmental trajectories such as those described by Immordino-Yang (2008). The explanation of the long-term outcomes of the educational process lies not in the determinism of the (dysfunctional) brain but in the positive characteristics of interacting creative minds.
Quantitative evaluation of dental abfraction and attrition using a swept-source optical coherence tomography system

Abstract. A fast swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) system is employed to acquire volumes of dental tissue, in order to monitor the temporal evolution of dental wear. An imaging method is developed to evaluate the volume of tissue lost in ex vivo artificially induced abfractions and attritions. The minimal volume (measured in air) that our system could measure is 2352 μm3. A volume of 25,000 A-scans is collected in 2.5 s. All these recommend the SS-OCT method as a valuable tool for dynamic evaluation of the abfraction and attrition with remarkable potential for clinical use.
Antineoplastic Effect of Decoy Oligonucleotide Derived from MGMT Enhancer

Silencing of O(6)-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) in tumors, mainly through promoter methylation, correlates with a better therapeutic response and with increased survival. Therefore, it is conceivable to consider MGMT as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of cancers. Our previous results demonstrated the pivotal role of NF-kappaB in MGMT expression, mediated mainly through p65/NF-kappaB homodimers. Here we show that the non-canonical NF-KappaB motif (MGMT-kappaB1) within MGMT enhancer is probably the major inducer of MGMT expression following NF-kappaB activation. Thus, in an attempt to attenuate the transcription activity of MGMT in tumors we designed locked nucleic acids (LNA) modified decoy oligonucleotides corresponding to the specific sequence of MGMT-kappaB1 (MGMT-kB1-LODN). Following confirmation of the ability of MGMT-kB1-LODN to interfere with the binding of p65/NF-kappaB to the NF-KappaB motif within MGMT enhancer, the efficacy of the decoy was studied in-vitro and in-vivo. The results of these experiments show that the decoy MGMT-kB1-LODN have a substantial antineoplastic effect when used either in combination with temozolomide or as monotherapy. Our results suggest that MGMT-kB1-LODN may provide a novel strategy for cancer therapy.
Minimum Distance Estimation of Possibly Noninvertible Moving Average Models

This article considers estimation of moving average (MA) models with non-Gaussian errors. Information in higher order cumulants allows identification of the parameters without imposing invertibility. By allowing for an unbounded parameter space, the generalized method of moments estimator of the MA(1) model is classical root-T consistent and asymptotically normal when the MA root is inside, outside, and on the unit circle. For more general models where the dependence of the cumulants on the model parameters is analytically intractable, we consider simulation-based estimators with two features. First, in addition to an autoregressive model, new auxiliary regressions that exploit information from the second and higher order moments of the data are considered. Second, the errors used to simulate the model are drawn from a flexible functional form to accommodate a large class of distributions with non-Gaussian features. The proposed simulation estimators are also asymptotically normally distributed without imposing the assumption of invertibility. In the application considered, there is overwhelming evidence of noninvertibility in the Fama-French portfolio returns.
The Innate Differences in the Adipocyte Membrane Fatty Acid Composition Could Be Modified By Dietary Fats in Obese Mice

Obesity-related insulin resistance is the risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus. The fatty acid composition of plasma membrane is known as a mediator to affect insulin action. This study aimed to investigate the differences in the adipocyte membrane fatty acid profile between genetically obese (ob/ob) mice and their lean (+/? ) counterparts. In addition, the influence of dietary manipulation with different polyunsaturated/saturated (P/S) fatty acid ratio was also studied. The results showed that ob/ob mice had lower unsaturated (18:1, 18:2) and higher saturated (16:0, 18:0) fatty acids in their adipocyte membranes compared to those of their lean counterparts. Moreover, the unsaturation index of the adipocyte membrane in ob/ob mice that fed a high-fat diet (P/S=0.6) was significantly decreased. In summary, our data indicated that the adipocyte membrane fatty acid composition of ob/ob mice was innately different from their lean counterparts and could be modified by dietary P/S ratio.