Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Casanova-Myth: Legend and Anxiety in the Seduction Community

The word Casanova is often treated as a synonym for womaniser, variously interpreted in a positive or negative light depending upon the audience. The Seduction Community (SC) largely comprises young heterosexual men who follow and adapt the teachings of commercial pick-up artists, typically in an effort to embody the Casanova-myth. This paper reports and analyses findings from a qualitative study of the SC. Drawing from life history interviews (n =29) and understandings generated during fieldwork in California in 2009 and 2013, the paper explores the meanings of the Casanova-myth qua urban legend. As explained in studies that view modern society as a ‘folk community’, urban legends help mediate anxieties following the Great Transformation in American community life. However, this paper contends that such legends may also produce the same gender anxieties they aim to ameliorate. Lascivious myth-making, which finds clear expression within the rationalised SC, constitutes a double-edged sword under conditions of rapid social change comprising confluent intimacies and the potential marketisation of everything.
Role management strategies of beginning teachers in Hong Kong

Abstract Beginning teachers encounter new challenges as the role system in contemporary society has become more and more demanding. By means of the life history method, role management strategies of four Hong Kong beginning teachers employed to cope with role demands and intra-role conflicts were located in their biographical, workplace and wider social-historical contexts. The study shows that strategies such as qualification matching, definition searching, strategic compliance and strategic redefinition were adopted in the professional socialization process. The employment of certain role management strategies, which was related to the novices' human agency, the structure and culture in the workplace as well as the rewards and punishment embedded in the wider social context, had an impact on the development of beginning teachers' professional identity.
Leader framing and follower sensemaking

Alternative workplaces are increasingly prevalent, combining flexible work practices, open landscape settings and a variety of acceptable working locations, especially for technology-enabled workers. In this article we examine the sensemaking response of technology-enabled, nomadic workers to the firm’s downsizing event at Telenor, Norway’s premier telecom company, in late 2002. We find two opposite interpretations of the firm’s employee database efforts and project-based structure emerge after the downsizing event. Our findings suggest the lack of geosocial boundaries in the organization influences sensemaking. Nomadic workers adopt frames that drive their interpretations and actions idiosyncratically. We suggest further research is needed to understand the influence of alternative work-places on patterns of behavior and human processes.
The Impact of Paid Work on the Academic Performance of Students: A Case Study from the University of Canberra

This article uses data collected from a survey of students at the University of Canberra to test the effects of paid employment on the average grade obtained in second semester, 2002. The results show that students who do well at school also tend to do well at university and that private study improves grades. Missing classes had a negative effect on grades. Paid employment did not have a large effect on grades. Our results show that some paid employment improves grades slightly, but working more than twenty-two hours per week has a negative effect.
Modeling of frequency response in vortex state of high temperature superconducting microstrip and slotline

A modeling technique to study the frequency response of electromagnetic signal fed to High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) microstrip and slotline exposed to a constant dc magnetic field is presented. The computation is done for a temperature close to the critical temperature where the vortex effects significantly influence the signal propagation. The flux related effects are modeled using a modified two-fluid theory proposed by Coffey and Clem (CC). The complex penetration depth obtained by CC model is used to derive a complex resistive boundary condition which, in turn, incorporates the HTS effects and modifies the dyadic Green's functions derived for microstrip and slotline using Spectral Domain Method (SDM). The propagation parameters are obtained using Galerkin procedure for a wide range of applied dc field and microwave signal frequency. Both the strip lines are of same geometrical dimensions for a comparative study. Phase constant of the signal varies with signal frequency whereas the attenuation constant is largely influenced by vortex movements. The study presents a comparative modeling method for microstrip and slotline and relates vortex physics with microwave signal propagation for a wide range of applied dc field and signal frequency.
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL ADJUSTMENT OF POST-INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILDREN FROM 12 TO 36 MONTHS OF AGE

Every year thousands of children are adopted into USA families. Many of these children are adopted from countries where the primary form of care is institutions. While much research has focused on adjustment in middle childhood and adolescence, little is known about post-institutionalized (PI) children’s adjustment in early childhood. The primary goal of this study was to examine the social-emotional adjustment of PI children during the first three years of life. Furthermore, this study examined the association between age at adoption and time in the adoptive home on children’s outcomes. Also, attachment and indiscriminate friendliness (IF) were examined in relation to children’s social-emotional outcomes. Adoptive parents provided demographic and adoption information and filled out the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (ITSEA), The Attachment Questionnaire (23 questions), and Chisholm’s Indiscriminately Friendly Questions. The sample included 179 children (99 females) adopted between 6 and 30 months of age from Russia (85%), Belarus (8%), and other Easter European countries (7%) and had lived in the adoptive families for 1-27 months (M = 12.83 months). PI children were compared to the standardization sample of the ITSEA on mean standardized scores and percentage of children in the “Of Concern” range. Overall, results showed that PI children had lower social-emotional problem scores and a lower percentage of children with extreme scores than the standardization sample of the ITSEA. Also, PI children did not differ on competencies and attention skills from the standardization sample of the ITSEA. Age at adoption was related to most outcomes, consistent with the literature, but not time in the adoptive home. In addition, better security of attachment was associated with less behavior problems. PI children’s better than expected functioning was surprising considering the social-emotional deprivation of the institutional environment in which these children lived for most of their lives prior to adoption and possible reasons for the unexpectedly normative scores for PI children are discussed.
Buying into the business case: A bona fide group study of dialectical tensions in employee network groups

Buying into the Business Case: A Bona Fide Group Study of Dialectical Tensions in Employee Network Groups. (August 2009) Jane Stuart Baker, B.A., University of Texas; M.A., University of Houston Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Linda Putnam Objectives for managing diversity in organizations include reducing lawsuits, responding to changing employee demographics, enhancing image, attracting and retaining a variety of talent, reaching new customer bases, and improving group effectiveness. Diversity management also emphasizes strategies to help retain and promote minority members once they have been hired. One of these ways is through employee network groups. This research adopts a case approach to describing and comparing a Black and a Hispanic employee network group at a United States affiliate of the Fortune Global 100 energy corporation, Summit International. This study applies bona fide group theory and dialectics to examine the complex intergroup relationships that employee network groups have in their organizations. The study offers three key contributions to communication theory. In connection with dialectics, bona fide group theory helped to reveal the multiple units from which group tensions emerge and the complex decisions that group members must make in managing them. The application of bona fide group theory also revealed an unexpected finding: that the network groups
Dynamic Interactions of a Conserved Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Adhesin with Intestinal Mucins Govern Epithelium Engagement and Toxin Delivery

ABSTRACT At present, there is no vaccine for enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), an important cause of diarrheal illness. Nevertheless, recent microbial pathogenesis studies have identified a number of molecules produced by ETEC that contribute to its virulence and are novel antigenic targets to complement canonical vaccine approaches. EtpA is a secreted two-partner adhesin that is conserved within the ETEC pathovar. EtpA interacts with the tips of ETEC flagella to promote bacterial adhesion, toxin delivery, and intestinal colonization by forming molecular bridges between the bacteria and the epithelial surface. However, the nature of EtpA interactions with the intestinal epithelium remains poorly defined. Here, we demonstrate that EtpA interacts with glycans presented by transmembrane and secreted intestinal mucins at epithelial surfaces to facilitate pathogen-host interactions that culminate in toxin delivery. Moreover, we found that a major effector molecule of ETEC, the heat-labile enterotoxin (LT), may enhance these interactions by stimulating the production of the gel-forming mucin MUC2. Our studies suggest, however, that EtpA participates in complex and dynamic interactions between ETEC and the gastrointestinal mucosae in which host glycoproteins promote bacterial attachment while simultaneously limiting the epithelial engagement required for effective toxin delivery. Collectively, these data provide additional insight into the intricate nature of ETEC interactions with the intestinal epithelium that have potential implications for rational approaches to vaccine design.
The Predictive Utility of Neuropsychological Symptom Validity Testing as It Relates to Psychological Presentation

The present study examined the relationship between multiple neuropsychological symptom validity tests (SVTs) and psychological presentation. More formally, we set out to determine if performance on neuropsychological SVTs was related to psychological symptom credibility and which specific neuropsychological SVTs were most associated with noncredible psychological presentation. Archival records from 106 litigating examinees were utilized in this study. Our results illustrate that neuropsychological SVTs are modestly related to psychological symptom credibility and that specific neuropsychological SVTs are variably associated to this end. We conclude that when multiple, but not independent, neuropsychological SVTs are employed within the context of a neuropsychological examination, they do have clinical utility as it relates to credibility of psychological presentation and these constructs do share variance reciprocally in clinically meaningful ways. When independently employed, however, the observed relationship is modest at best. Hence, to place clinical opinion on firmer scientific grounds within the context of a neuropsychological examination, multiple cognitive SVTs, in hand with psychological test instruments that include validity indexes, are essential to derive opinion that is based on science rather than faith in the instance of litigation when an incentive to manifest disability for the sake of an external reward holds probable.
Electricity Production from Dual Chambers Microbial Fuel Cell Fed with Chicken Manure-Wastewater

Chicken manure wastewaters are increasingly being considered a valuable resource of organic compounds. Screened chicken manure was evaluated as a representative solid organic waste. In this study, electricity generation from livestock wastewater (chicken manure) was investigated in a continuous mediator-less horizontal flow microbial fuel cell with graphite electrodes and a selective type of membrane separating the anodic and cathodic compartments of MFC from each other. The performance of MFC was evaluated to livestock wastewater using aged anaerobic sludge. Results revealed that COD and BOD removal efficiencies were up to 88% and 82%, respectively. At an external resistance value of 150 Ω, a maximum power and current densities of 278 m.W/m 2 and 683 mA/m 2 , respectively were obtained, hence MFC utilizing livestock wastewater would be a sustainable and reliable source of bio-energy generation .
STRONG-LENSING ANALYSIS OF THE POWERFUL LENSING CLUSTER MACS J2135.2-0102 (z = 0.33)

We present a light-traces-mass (LTM) strong-lensing model of the massive lensing cluster MACS J2135.2-0102 (z = 0.33; hereafter MACS2135), known in part for hosting the cosmic eye galaxy lens. MACS2135 is also known to multiply lens a z = 2.3 sub-millimeter galaxy near the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), as well as a prominent, triply imaged system at a large radius of ∼37″ south of the BCG. We use the latest available Hubble imaging to construct an accurate lensing model for this cluster, identifying six new multiply imaged systems with the guidance of our LTM method, so that we have roughly quadrupled the number of lensing constraints. We determine that MACS2135 is among the top lensing clusters known, comparable in size to the Hubble Frontier Fields. For a source at , we find an effective Einstein radius of , enclosing . We make our lens model, including mass and magnification maps, publicly available, in anticipation of searches for high-z galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope, for which this cluster is a compelling target.
Qualitative versus Quantitative Methods: Understanding Why Qualitative Methods are Superior for Criminology and Criminal Justice

The development of knowledge is important for criminology and criminal justice. Two predominant types of methods are available for criminologists’ to use--quantitative and qualitative methods. The value, appropriateness and necessity of using qualitative methods is discussed. Because of the unique contributions – depth of understandings being primary -- that qualitative methods can provide it is argued that such approaches should be used more frequently, be more frequently and strongly valued and seen as unique, often superior approaches to the creation of criminological and criminal justice knowledge. Qualitative research, one of the two primary approaches to the conduct of social science research, is a superior means for conducting meaningful research in criminology and criminal justice. The numerous advantages of qualitative methods provide a depth of understanding of crime, criminals and justice system operations and processing that far exceeds that offered by detached, statistical analyses. Because of the differences in the data, how data is collected and analyzed, and what the data and analyses are able to tell us about our subjects of study, the knowledge gained through qualitative investigations is more informative, richer and offers enhanced understandings compared to that which can be obtained via quantitative research. The superiority of qualitative research arises from the core differences in what qualitative and quantitative research are, and what they are able to contribute to bodies of knowledge. At the core, qualitative research focuses on the meanings, traits and defining characteristics of
A perceptual investigation of wavelet-based decomposition of f0 for text-to-speech synthesis

The Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) has been re- cently proposed to model f0 in the context of speech synthe- sis. It was shown that systems using signal decomposition with the CWT tend to outperform systems that model the signal di- rectly. The f0 signal is typically decomposed into various scales of differing frequency. In these experiments, we reconstruct f0 with selected frequencies and ask native listeners to judge the naturalness of synthesized utterances with respect to natural speech. Results indicate that HMM-generated f0 is compara- ble to the CWT low frequencies, suggesting it mostly generates utterances with neutral intonation. Middle frequencies achieve very high levels of naturalness, while very high frequencies are mostly noise.
Systematic execution of Android test suites in adverse conditions

Event-driven applications, such as, mobile apps, are difficult to test thoroughly. The application programmers often put significant effort into writing end-to-end test suites. Even though such tests often have high coverage of the source code, we find that they often focus on the expected behavior, not on occurrences of unusual events. On the other hand, automated testing tools may be capable of exploring the state space more systematically, but this is mostly without knowledge of the intended behavior of the individual applications. As a consequence, many programming errors remain unnoticed until they are encountered by the users. We propose a new methodology for testing by leveraging existing test suites such that each test case is systematically exposed to adverse conditions where certain unexpected events may interfere with the execution. In this way, we explore the interesting execution paths and take advantage of the assertions in the manually written test suite, while ensuring that the injected events do not affect the expected outcome. The main challenge that we address is how to accomplish this systematically and efficiently. We have evaluated the approach by implementing a tool, Thor, working on Android. The results on four real-world apps with existing test suites demonstrate that apps are often fragile with respect to certain unexpected events and that our methodology effectively increases the testing quality: Of 507 individual tests, 429 fail when exposed to adverse conditions, which reveals 66 distinct problems that are not detected by ordinary execution of the tests.
Human Mammospheres Secrete Hormone-Regulated Active Extracellular Vesicles

Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer-associated death worldwide. One of the most important prognostic factors for survival is the early detection of the disease. Recent studies indicate that extracellular vesicles may provide diagnostic information for cancer management. We demonstrate the secretion of extracellular vesicles by primary breast epithelial cells enriched for stem/progenitor cells cultured as mammospheres, in non-adherent conditions. Using a proteomic approach we identified proteins contained in these vesicles whose expression is affected by hormonal changes in the cellular environment. In addition, we showed that these vesicles are capable of promoting changes in expression levels of genes involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition and stem cell markers. Our findings suggest that secreted extracellular vesicles could represent potential diagnostic and/or prognostic markers for breast cancer and support a role for extracellular vesicles in cancer progression.
Israeli Teachers' Perceptions of Gifted Teachers' Desired Characteristics: A Case of Cultural Orientation

The aim of this study was to assess Israeli Jewish and Arab teachers' perceptions of the desired characteristics of teachers of the gifted. The research sample comprised 217 teachers (134 Jews and 83 Arabs) representing three groups: (a) teachers entering a professional development program for teachers of gifted students; (b) teachers of gifted students teaching gifted in pull-out centers; and (c) regular teachers. Measures of perceptions were based on two instruments: (a) a questionnaire measuring level of collectivism and (b) statements about the desired cognitive, personal, and pedagogical characteristics of teachers of the gifted. Significant effects for group and culture and a lower effect for the interaction between the two were detected. Study findings suggest that teachers' perceptions cannot be discussed distinctively from their contextual and cultural background. The study proposes a new lens for examining teaching of gifted students in collectivist cultures, in particular as it relates to cultural orientations, and discusses practical implications for teacher certification programs.
Tracking Sodium-Antimonide Phase Transformations in Sodium-Ion Anodes: Insights from Operando Pair Distribution Function Analysis and Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy

Operando pair distribution function (PDF) analysis and ex situ 23Na magic-angle spinning solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS ssNMR) spectroscopy are used to gain insight into the alloying mechanism of high-capacity antimony anodes for sodium-ion batteries. Subtraction of the PDF of crystalline NaxSb phases from the total PDF, an approach constrained by chemical phase information gained from 23Na ssNMR in reference to relevant model compounds, identifies two previously uncharacterized intermediate species formed electrochemically; a-Na3–xSb (x ≈ 0.4–0.5), a structure locally similar to crystalline Na3Sb (c-Na3Sb) but with significant numbers of sodium vacancies and a limited correlation length, and a-Na1.7Sb, a highly amorphous structure featuring some Sb–Sb bonding. The first sodiation breaks down the crystalline antimony to form first a-Na3–xSb and, finally, crystalline Na3Sb. Desodiation results in the formation of an electrode formed of a composite of crystalline and amorphous antimony networks. We link the different reactivity of these networks to a series of sequential sodiation reactions manifesting as a cascade of processes observed in the electrochemical profile of subsequent cycles. The amorphous network reacts at higher voltages reforming a-Na1.7Sb, then a-Na3–xSb, whereas lower potentials are required for the sodiation of crystalline antimony, which reacts to form a-Na3–xSb without the formation of a-Na1.7Sb. a-Na3–xSb is converted to crystalline Na3Sb at the end of the second discharge. We find no evidence of formation of NaSb. Variable temperature 23Na NMR experiments reveal significant sodium mobility within c-Na3Sb; this is a possible contributing factor to the excellent rate performance of Sb anodes.
Transformational and transactional leadership in interuniversity athletics management.

This study examined the leader behavior of interuniversity athletic administrators according to Bass's (1985) transformational/transactional leadership model. The impact of that behavior on subordinates’ satisfaction with leadership, perceived leader effectiveness, departmental commitment, and extra effort was also examined. A sample of head coaches from Ontario universities (N = 114) completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) Form 5X (Bass & Avolio, 1991) with regard to their athletic administrators. The resultant profile was one of predominantly transformational as opposed to transactional or nonleadership behavior. Furthermore, leader-centered behavior (idealized influence, attributed charisma) was used more often than subordinate-centered behavior (individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation). Coaches' satisfaction with leadership, perceived leader effectiveness, and extra effort were positively and strongly associated with transformational leadership and contingent reward beh.