Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Public school management, leadership, and educational results in Brazil

This study emphasizes the relationship between an internal school factor — the principal’s leadership (as perceived by the school’s teachers) — and an external school factor — the principals’ selection process — with the students’ academic results. Using data provided by external national assessments (Prova Brasil), test editions from 2007, 2009 and 2011, this quantitative study initially describes principals’ profiles (considering all schools evaluated as to the fifth grade of elementary school). The research included the construction of a principal’s leadership index through factor analysis and a variable that indicates how the principal was selected. Finally, a linear regression was developed in order to relate these variables to the fifth-grade students’ performance in math (average per school). It was found that, after controlling for students’ socioeconomic status, an internal school factor (a principal’s leadership) and an external school factor (the principals’ selection process) analyzed in this study have statistically significant associations with students’ results, positive in the first case and negative in the second one.
Src/STAT3-dependent heme oxygenase-1 induction mediates chemoresistance of breast cancer cells to doxorubicin by promoting autophagy

Chemotherapeutic resistance in breast cancer, whether acquired or intrinsic, remains a major clinical obstacle. Thus, increasing tumor cell sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents will be helpful in improving the clinical management of breast cancer. In the present study, we found an induction of HO‐1 expression in doxorubicin (DOX)‐treated MDA‐MB‐231 human breast adenocarcinoma cells, which showed insensitivity to DOX treatment. Knockdown HO‐1 expression dramatically upregulated the incidence of MDA‐MB‐231 cell death under DOX treatment, indicating that HO‐1 functions as a critical contributor to drug resistance in MDA‐MB‐231 cells. We further observed that DOX exposure induced a cytoprotective autophagic flux in MDA‐MB‐231 cells, which was dependent on HO‐1 induction. Moreover, upregulation of HO‐1 expression required the activation of both signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)3 and its upstream regulator, protein kinase Src. Abrogating Src/STAT3 pathway activation attenuated HO‐1 and autophagy induction, thus increasing the chemosensitivity of MDA‐MB‐231 cells. Therefore, we conclude that Src/STAT3‐dependent HO‐1 induction protects MDA‐MB‐231 breast cancer cells from DOX‐induced death through promoting autophagy. In the following study, we further demonstrated the contribution of Src/STAT3/HO‐1/autophagy pathway activation to DOX resistance in another breast cancer cell line, MDA‐MB‐468, which bears a similar phenotype to MDA‐MB‐231 cells. Therefore, activation of Src/STAT3/HO‐1/autophagy signaling pathway might play a general role in protecting certain subtypes of breast cancer cells from DOX‐induced cytotoxicity. Targeting this signaling event may provide a potential approach for overcoming DOX resistance in breast cancer therapeutics.
A Unifying Framework in Vector-valued Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces for Manifold Regularization and Co-Regularized Multi-view Learning

This paper presents a general vector-valued reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS) framework for the problem of learning an unknown functional dependency between a structured input space and a structured output space. Our formulation encompasses both Vector-valued Manifold Regularization and Co-regularized Multi-view Learning, providing in particular a unifying framework linking these two important learning approaches. In the case of the least square loss function, we provide a closed form solution, which is obtained by solving a system of linear equations. In the case of Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification, our formulation generalizes in particular both the binary Laplacian SVM to the multi-class, multi-view settings and the multi-class Simplex Cone SVM to the semi-supervised, multi-view settings. The solution is obtained by solving a single quadratic optimization problem, as in standard SVM, via the Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO) approach. Empirical results obtained on the task of object recognition, using several challenging data sets, demonstrate the competitiveness of our algorithms compared with other state-of-the-art methods.
Korean graduate students’ self-perceptions of English skills and needs in an English-medium instruction context

ABSTRACT Universities in East Asia are increasingly adopting English-medium instruction (EMI) to enhance their global competitiveness. Yet little research has been conducted on the impact of English on graduate students in this context, as past research has mostly examined undergraduates. This survey study investigates graduate students at a major university in Korea where EMI is increasingly common, specifically probing their self-perceptions for academic English skills, preferred language learning strategies, and intrinsic motivation to learn and use English. The results indicate correlations between strategy use, efficacy, and intrinsic motivation. They also show limitations in the graduate students’ academic English skills, and shortcomings in their training for English-related tasks. The results show how English and EMI affect graduate students, and also raise some questions about EMI at the graduate school level. Limitations need to be addressed for these students, who will enter academic and professional careers in the global marketplace that demand greater English expertise.
EULER CHARACTERISTIC OF REAL NONDEGENERATE TROPICAL COMPLETE INTERSECTIONS

We define nondegenerate tropical complete intersections imitating the correspond- ing definition in complex algebraic geometry. As in the complex situation, all nonzero inter- section multiplicity numbers between tropical hypersurfaces defining a nondegenerate tropical complete intersection are equal to 1. The intersection multiplicity numbers we use are sums of mixed volumes of polytopes which are dual to cells of the tropical hypersurfaces. We show that the Euler characteristic of a real nondegenerate tropical complete intersection depends only on the Newton polytopes of the tropical polynomials which define the intersection. Basically, it is equal to the usual signature of a complex complete intersection with same Newton polytopes, when this signature is defined. The proof reduces to the toric hypersurface case, and uses the notion of E-polynomials of complex varieties.
General Guideline Title Bibliographic Source(s) Guideline Status Recommendations Major Recommendations

Evaluation and management of blunt traumatic aortic injury: a practice management guideline from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. Evaluation and management of blunt traumatic aortic injury: a practice management guideline from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. This guideline meets NGC's 2013 (revised) inclusion criteria. The strength of recommendation (strong or weak/conditional) and levels of evidence (high, moderate, low or insufficient) are defined at the end of the "Major Recommendations" field. In patients with suspected blunt traumatic aortic injury (BTAI), should computed tomography (CT) of the chest with intravenous contrast be used versus conventional catheter-based angiography for the identification of clinically significant BTAI? Recommendation Despite the overall quality of evidence being low, the panel considered that most patients would place a high value on identification of clinically significant BTAI. The sensitivity of CT of the chest is comparable with aortography. There are also a higher number of "false positives" with CT of the chest, indicating that this screening modality may potentially identify minimal aortic injuries not identified on aortography. Furthermore, CT of the chest with intravenous contrast has the advantage of being readily available, less invasive, being less time consuming, and allowing for identification of other intrathoracic injuries. All of these factors resulted in the formulation of a strong recommendation by the committee.
Normal olfactory discrimination learning set and facilitation of reversal learning after medial-temporal damage in rats: implications for an account of preserved learning abilities in amnesia

Recent evidence of preserved skill learning in patients with “global” amnesia has led to the postulation of a qualitative distinction between functionally separate memory systems, one of which may remain preserved when the other is profoundly impaired. On one account, the separate memory systems support either the learning of declarative knowledge, i.e., facts and associations, or the learning of procedural knowledge, i.e., knowledge that permits the expression of skilled performance without reference to specific facts or associations. In an effort to develop a rodent model of amnesia that illustrates the same distinction between memory systems, rats were trained in a series of discrimination and reversal problems using olfaction, a sensory modality in which they rapidly learn new associations. Rats with bilateral fornix, amygdala, or combined fornix and amygdala damage learned successive two-odor discriminations as quickly as normal and sham-operated control subjects. Furthermore, all groups rapidly acquired the skills of discrimination as revealed in the development of a learning set. Subsequent presentation of a reversal of one discrimination elicited a marked dissociation among groups: Normal rats and rats with amygdala lesions required many more trials to acquire the reversal than to acquire a new discrimination problem, whereas rats with fornix lesions learned the reversal rather easily. A detailed analysis of response strategies suggested that normal rats and rats with amygdala lesions first extinguished the prior response tendencies and then abandoned the learning set skills and treated the reversal much as they did the initial discrimination problem. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
THE IMPACT OF METALLICITY ON THE RATE OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE

The metallicity of a star strongly affects both its evolution and the properties of the stellar remnant that results from its demise. It is generally accepted that stars with initial masses below ∼8 M☉ leave behind white dwarfs and that some sub-population of these lead to Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). However, it is often tacitly assumed that metallicity has no effect on the rate of SNe Ia. We propose that a consequence of the effects of metallicity is to significantly increase the SN Ia rate in lower-metallicity galaxies, in contrast to previous expectations. This is because lower-metallicity stars leave behind higher-mass white dwarfs, which should be easier to bring to explosion. We first model SN Ia rates in relation to galaxy masses and ages alone, finding that the elevation in the rate of SNe Ia in lower-mass galaxies measured by Lick Observatory SN Search is readily explained. However, we then see that models incorporating this effect of metallicity agree just as well. Using the same parameters to estimate the cosmic SN Ia rate, we again find good agreement with data up to z ≈ 2. We suggest that this degeneracy warrants more detailed examination of host galaxy metallicities. We discuss additional implications, including for hosts of high-z SNe Ia, the SN Ia delay time distribution, super-Chandrasekhar SNe, and cosmology.
Changes in Extracellular Dopamine Induced by Morphine and Cocaine: Crucial Control by D2 Receptors

An increase of extracellular dopamine (DA) concentration is a major neurobiological substrate of the addictive properties of drugs of abuse. In this article we investigated the contribution of the DA D2 receptor (D2R) in the control of this response. Extracellular DA levels were measured in the striatum of mice lacking D2R expression (D2R−/−) by in vivo microdialysis after administration of the psychostimulant cocaine and the opioid morphine. Interestingly, the increase in extracellular DA induced by both drugs was strikingly higher in D2R−/− than in wild-type littermates. This indicates that D2Rs play a key role in the modulation of DA release in response to drugs of abuse. Furthermore, this observation prompted us to investigate the dopaminergic autoreceptor function in the absence of D2 receptor in D2R−/− mice. Results obtained using complementary microdialysis and voltammetry analyses show that the autoreceptor function regulating DA release is totally abolished in the absence of D2R, despite unchanged DA uptake and basal DA efflux. Finally, we propose that the short isoform D2S receptor of the D2 receptors is the one controlling change in DA release induced by drugs of abuse. Indeed, the neurochemical effects of cocaine and morphine are unchanged in animals with a selective deletion of the long isoform D2L receptor. Thus, deregulated expression of D2R isoforms might be involved in the vulnerability of an individual to drug abuse.
Neuropsychological Performance in DSM-IV ADHD Subtypes: An Exploratory Study with Untreated Adolescents

Objective: To explore neuropsychological performance in untreated Brazilian adolescents suffering from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: We assessed 30 untreated adolescents with ADHD and 60 healthy control subjects, aged 12 to 16 years, using a neuropsychological battery including the Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test (WCST), the Stroop Test (ST), the Digit Span, and the Word Span. Results: We found neuropsychological differences among the DSM-IV ADHD subtypes. Adolescents with the predominantly inattentive subtype (ADHD-I) performed more poorly than did control subjects on both the Digit Span and the ST. On both the Digit Span and the WCST, adolescents with the combined subtype (ADHD-C) presented significantly more impairments than did control subjects. Adolescents with the predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type (ADHD-HI) did not differ significantly from the control subjects in any measure assessed, but had a better performance than did those with ADHD-C on both the Digit Span and the WCST. In addition, adolescents with ADHD-HI performed better on the ST than did adolescents with ADHD-I. Conclusions: These findings suggest cognitive differences among ADHD subtypes, supporting the diagnostic distinction among them. Adolescents with ADHD-HI do not seem to have significant cognitive deficits.
Chandra Observation of M84, a Radio Lobe Elliptical Galaxy in the Virgo Cluster

We analyzed a deep Chandra observation of M84, a bright elliptical galaxy in the core of the Virgo Cluster. We find that the spatial distribution of the soft X-ray emission is defined by the radio structure of the galaxy. In particular, we find two low-density regions associated with the radio lobes and surrounded by higher density X-ray filaments. In addition to a central active galactic nucleus (AGN) and a population of galactic sources, we find a diffuse hard source filling the central 10 kpc region. Since the morphology of the hard source appears round and is different from that seen in the radio or in soft X-rays, we propose that it is hot gas heated by the central AGN. Finally, we find that the central elemental abundance in the X-ray gas is comparable to that measured optically.
The role of the universally conserved A2450–C2063 base pair in the ribosomal peptidyl transferase center

Despite the fact that all 23S rRNA nucleotides that build the ribosomal peptidyl transferase ribozyme are universally conserved, standard and atomic mutagenesis studies revealed the nucleobase identities being non-critical for catalysis. This indicates that these active site residues are highly conserved for functions distinct from catalysis. To gain insight into potential contributions, we have manipulated the nucleobases via an atomic mutagenesis approach and have utilized these chemically engineered ribosomes for in vitro translation reactions. We show that most of the active site nucleobases could be removed without significant effects on polypeptide production. Our data however highlight the functional importance of the universally conserved non-Watson-Crick base pair at position A2450–C2063. Modifications that disrupt this base pair markedly impair translation activities, while having little effects on peptide bond formation, tRNA drop-off and ribosome-dependent EF-G GTPase activity. Thus it seems that disruption of the A2450–C2063 pair inhibits a reaction following transpeptidation and EF-G action during the elongation cycle. Cumulatively our data are compatible with the hypothesis that the integrity of this A-C wobble base pair is essential for effective tRNA translocation through the peptidyl transferase center during protein synthesis.
Effects of soil moisture on the temperature sensitivity of heterotrophic respiration vary seasonally in an old‐field climate change experiment

Microbial decomposition of soil organic matter produces a major flux of CO2 from terrestrial ecosystems and can act as a feedback to climate change. Although climate‐carbon models suggest that warming will accelerate the release of CO2 from soils, the magnitude of this feedback is uncertain, mostly due to uncertainty in the temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter decomposition. We examined how warming and altered precipitation affected the rate and temperature sensitivity of heterotrophic respiration (Rh) at the Boston‐Area Climate Experiment, in Massachusetts, USA. We measured Rh inside deep collars that excluded plant roots and litter inputs. In this mesic ecosystem, Rh responded strongly to precipitation. Drought reduced Rh, both annually and during the growing season. Warming increased Rh only in early spring. During the summer, when Rh was highest, we found evidence of threshold, hysteretic responses to soil moisture: Rh decreased sharply when volumetric soil moisture dropped below ~15% or exceeded ~26%, but Rh increased more gradually when soil moisture rose from the lower threshold. The effect of climate treatments on the temperature sensitivity of Rh depended on the season. Apparent Q10 decreased with high warming (~3.5 °C) in spring and fall. Presumably due to limiting soil moisture, warming and precipitation treatments did not affect apparent Q10 in summer. Drought decreased apparent Q10 in fall compared to ambient and wet precipitation treatments. To our knowledge, this is the first field study to examine the response of Rh and its temperature sensitivity to the combined effects of warming and altered precipitation. Our results highlight the complex responses of Rh to soil moisture, and to our knowledge identify for the first time the seasonal variation in the temperature sensitivity of microbial respiration in the field. We emphasize the importance of adequately simulating responses such as these when modeling trajectories of soil carbon stocks under climate change scenarios.
Morphometric Analysis of Tor tambroides by Stepwise Discriminant and Neural Network Analysis

The population structure of the Tor tambroides was investigated with morphometric data (i.e. morphormetric measurement and truss measurement). A morphometric analysis was conducted to compare specimens from three waterfalls: Sunanta, Nan Chong Fa and Wang Muang waterfalls at Khao Nan National Park, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Southern Thailand. The results of stepwise discriminant analysis on seven morphometric variables and 21 truss variables per individual were the same as from a neural network. Fish from three waterfalls were separated into three groups based on their morphometric measurements. The morphometric data shows that the nerual network model performed better than the stepwise discriminant analysis. Keywords—Morphometric, Tor tambroides, Stepwise Discriminant Analysis , Neural Network Analysis.
Bioinformatics tools in predictive ecology: applications to fisheries

There has been a huge effort in the advancement of analytical techniques for molecular biological data over the past decade. This has led to many novel algorithms that are specialized to deal with data associated with biological phenomena, such as gene expression and protein interactions. In contrast, ecological data analysis has remained focused to some degree on off-the-shelf statistical techniques though this is starting to change with the adoption of state-of-the-art methods, where few assumptions can be made about the data and a more explorative approach is required, for example, through the use of Bayesian networks. In this paper, some novel bioinformatics tools for microarray data are discussed along with their ‘crossover potential’ with an application to fisheries data. In particular, a focus is made on the development of models that identify functionally equivalent species in different fish communities with the aim of predicting functional collapse.
Mission accomplished? Organizational identity work in response to mission success

How do nonprofit organizations reinvent their identities after they have accomplished all or part of their missions? This comparative case study of two Irish peacebuilding organizations explores what happens when their raison d’etre is fundamentally challenged. A successful peace process in Northern Ireland resulted in reduced support for peacebuilding organizations and a perception of mission accomplished. Conventional literature on nonprofit organizations portrays mission success as positive. We show that mission success paradoxically threatens the very existence of the organization as it may lead to member and donor dissociation. We find that mission success leads to identity ambiguity, which catalyses organizational identity work including different rhetorical strategies of self–other talk. We develop a process model illustrating competitive versus integrative approaches to organizational identity work to understand nonprofits adapting to mission success. We draw out lessons for practitioners. Focusing on a renewed mission that is consistent with the organization’s history is more important than finding a quick financial fix. Social purpose organizations can efficiently and effectively be redeployed to address new challenges, rather than recreating new organizations each time.
Dictionary learning under global sparsity constraint

A new method is proposed in this paper to learn overcomplete dictionary from training data samples. Differing from the current methods that enforce similar sparsity constraint on each of the input samples, the proposed method attempts to impose global sparsity constraint on the entire data set. This enables the proposed method to fittingly assign the atoms of the dictionary to represent various samples and optimally adapt to the complicated structures underlying the entire data set. By virtue of the sparse coding and sparse PCA techniques, a simple algorithm is designed for the implementation of the method. The efficiency and the convergence of the proposed algorithm are also theoretically analyzed. Based on the experimental results implemented on a series of signal and image data sets, it is apparent that our method performs better than the current dictionary learning methods in original dictionary recovering, input data reconstructing, and salient data structure revealing.
Lesions of Left Basal Ganglia and Insula Structures Impair Executive Functions but not Emotion Recognition: A Case Report

Increasing research evidence suggests that basal ganglia are an important part of frontal-subcortical circuit which is involved not only in motor control but also in affective, cognitive and executive functions. In this article, we describe the ability of facial emotion recognition and cognitive functioning in a patient with left basal ganglia and insula damage. The patient's ability to recognise facial emotional expressions was intact in spite of unilateral injury of the left insula and basal ganglia. He showed preserved intellectual function in general, but experienced difficulties on subsets of the executive functions: set-shifting and ability to activate or generate cognitive strategies, commonly found in patients with caudate lesions. This case contributes to evidence that striatal structures are important for executive functions.