Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identity development among social workers, from training to practice: results from a three-year qualitative longitudinal study

Abstract During their training, social work students embark on a process of professional identity (PI) development which will continue to evolve even after graduation. While the literature has begun to point out factors that may facilitate PI development, research that documents the various processes and narratives of identity development is scarce, including in social work. Because PI is known to be influenced by many aspects pertaining to personal, educational and occupational contexts, and because those contexts can be varied, it becomes important to explore PI development from initial training to professional practice and map which aspects may be influencing the experience, and how they do so. Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative methodology, we explore the experience of six young social workers and map the development of their professional identities over the course of nearly three years. Meetings during their final year of undergraduate studies, and again after 6 and 18 months of employment, reveal some of the aspects that emerged as fundamental facilitators of or impediments to a strong PI. This article concludes by suggesting ways to foster a stronger sense of PI among social workers going forward.
Neuropeptide Y Knockout Mice Reveal a Central Role of NPY in the Coordination of Bone Mass to Body Weight

Changes in whole body energy levels are closely linked to alterations in body weight and bone mass. Here, we show that hypothalamic signals contribute to the regulation of bone mass in a manner consistent with the central perception of energy status. Mice lacking neuropeptide Y (NPY), a well-known orexigenic factor whose hypothalamic expression is increased in fasting, have significantly increased bone mass in association with enhanced osteoblast activity and elevated expression of bone osteogenic transcription factors, Runx2 and Osterix. In contrast, wild type and NPY knockout (NPY −/−) mice in which NPY is specifically over expressed in the hypothalamus (AAV-NPY+) show a significant reduction in bone mass despite developing an obese phenotype. The AAV-NPY+ induced loss of bone mass is consistent with models known to mimic the central effects of fasting, which also show increased hypothalamic NPY levels. Thus these data indicate that, in addition to well characterized responses to body mass, skeletal tissue also responds to the perception of nutritional status by the hypothalamus independently of body weight. In addition, the reduction in bone mass by AAV NPY+ administration does not completely correct the high bone mass phenotype of NPY −/− mice, indicating the possibility that peripheral NPY may also be an important regulator of bone mass. Indeed, we demonstrate the expression of NPY specifically in osteoblasts. In conclusion, these data identifies NPY as a critical integrator of bone homeostatic signals; increasing bone mass during times of obesity when hypothalamic NPY expression levels are low and reducing bone formation to conserve energy under ‘starving’ conditions, when hypothalamic NPY expression levels are high.
An Efficient High-Step-Up Interleaved DC – DC Converter with a Common Active Clamp

 Abstract— The high-voltage step-up dc–dc converters are required as an interface between the available low voltage sources and the output loads, which are operated at much higher voltages. Examples of such applications re as follows. Different distributed energy storage components such as batteries, fuel cells, and ultra capacitors are used in the power trains of hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), electric vehicles (EV), and fuel cell vehicles (FCV). Telecom and the computer industry utilize the standard batteries, with low voltage levels, as backup power source . The automotive headlamps, using the high-intensity discharge lamp ballasts.
Tiers in One-Sided Matching Markets: Theory and Experimental Investigation

The design of a matching market may affect behavior in prematch stages. In some settings, forward-looking agents might purchase low-priced properties with the intention of trading up. From a design standpoint, such behavior is undesirable. We investigate a tiered structure as a potential solution. Using a model that endogenizes prematch acquisition decisions, we show that tiers promote exchange while protecting the primary market. In the laboratory, we find that both firm revenue and total social surplus are improved by tiered matching, and the amount of improvement depends on the exchange mechanism the firm uses. We focus on two popular mechanisms—deposit first and request first. We find that subjects are less likely to take advantage of the match under tier-free deposit first mechanism, possibly because of risk aversion. Thus, a tiered approach is more critical under the request first mechanism. We confirm that risk aversion partly explains deviations from theory. This paper was accepted by Uri Gneezy, .
Natural amphiphilic phenols as bioactive compounds

What kind of phenolic lipids? The phenolic lipids are a large group of natural compounds, biogenetically derived from the polyacetate pathway, i.e. they are non-isoprenoic compounds. In general, this group include one-ring molecules related to the phenol or dihydroxyphenol. The latter representatives are derivatives of 1,2-1,3-or 1,4-dihydroxybenzene, i.e. catechol, resorcinol or hydroquinone. The phenolic lipids are considered to be lipids because they consist of a phenolic structure and a long aliphatic hydrocarbon chain (of varying length) attached to the ring structure. They are very hydrophobic molecules, especially those with the chain exceeding 11 carbon atoms in the lengths. Although the catechol and hydroquinone derivatives of significant biological activities are known we will deal with resorcinol derivatives only as they are more frequently distributed in various living organisms. This group is also called resorcinolic lipids. The members of this group occur, in general, in the plants, fungi and bacterial kingdoms [1]. In bacteria, resorcinolic lipids have been demonstrated in such as genera as Azotobacter, Pseudomonas and Mycobacterium. These compounds were also demonstrated in several genera of fungi The higher plants, however is the most prominent group of their occurrence (over 40 genera and 11 families) [1]. There are few reports claiming the occurrence of phenolic lipids in such as simple animal organism as spongues and ciliata [2, 3]. The most know sources of resorcinolic lipids in plants are the members of families Anacardiaceae (Cashew, Mango), Ginkgoaceae (Ginkgo biloba) and Granineae (cereals). In general, resorcinolic lipids present in these plants have C15 to C29 side chain and, what is very striking, the cereals contains the widest spectrum of homologs. Resorcinolic lipids present in rye, wheat, barley, rice are the mixtures of 1,3-dihydroxy-5-alk(en)ylbenzene homologs with various side-chain length and various its unsaturation. In contrast, the same compounds
SIR repression of a yeast heat shock gene: UAS and TATA footprints persist within heterochromatin

Previous work has suggested that products of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Silent Information Regulator (SIR) genes form a complex with histones, nucleated by cis‐acting silencers or telomeres, which represses transcription in a position‐dependent but sequence‐independent fashion. While it is generally thought that this Sir complex works through the establishment of heterochromatin, it is unclear how this structure blocks transcription while remaining fully permissive to other genetic processes such as recombination or integration. Here we examine the molecular determinants underlying the silencing of HSP82, a transcriptionally potent, stress‐inducible gene. We find that HSP82 is efficiently silenced in a SIR‐dependent fashion, but only when HMRE mating‐type silencers are configured both 5′ and 3′ of the gene. Accompanying dominant repression are novel wrapped chromatin structures within both core and upstream promoter regions. Strikingly, DNase I footprints mapping to the binding sites for heat shock factor (HSF) and TATA‐binding protein (TBP) are strengthened and broadened, while groove‐specific interactions, as detected by dimethyl sulfate, are diminished. Our data are consistent with a model for SIR repression whereby transcriptional activators gain access to their cognate sites but are rendered unproductive by a co‐existing heterochromatic complex.
Numerical Simulation of Nonlinear Lamb Waves Used in a Thin Plate for Detecting Buried Micro-Cracks

Compared with conventional linear ultrasonic inspection methods, which are sensitive only to severe defects, nonlinear ultrasonic inspection methods are better for revealing micro-cracks in thin plates. However, most nonlinear ultrasonic inspection methods have only been experimentally investigated using bulk or Rayleigh waves. Numerical studies, especially numerical simulations of Lamb ultrasonic waves, have seldom been reported. In this paper, the interaction between nonlinear S0 mode Lamb waves and micro-cracks of various lengths and widths buried in a thin metallic plate was simulated using the finite element method (FEM). The numerical results indicate that after interacting with a micro-crack, a new wave-packet was generated in addition to the S0 mode wave-packet. The second harmonics of the S0 mode Lamb waves and the new wave-packet were caused by nonlinear acoustic effects at the micro-crack. An amplitude ratio indicator is thus proposed for the early detection of buried micro-cracks.
An iterative method using conditional second-order statistics applied to the blind source separation problem

This paper is concerned with the problem of blind separation of an instantaneous mixture of sources (BSS), which has been addressed in many ways. When power spectral densities of the sources are different, methods using second-order statistics are sufficient to solve this problem. Otherwise, these methods fail and others (higher order statistics, etc.) must be used. In this paper, we propose an iterative method to process the case of sources with the same power spectral density. This method is based on an evaluation of conditional first and second-order statistics only. Restrictions on characteristics of sources are given to reach a solution, and proofs of convergence of the algorithm are provided for particular cases of probability density functions. Robustness of this algorithm with respect to the number of sources is shown through computer simulations. A particular case of sources that have a probability density function with unbounded domain of definition is described; here, the algorithm does not lead directly to a separation state but to an a priori known mixture state. Finally, prospects of links with contrast functions are mentioned, with a possible generalization of them based on results obtained with particular sources.
On Leading Meetings

Leading meetings represent a typically and frequently performed leadership task. This study investigated the relationship between the leadership style of supervisors and employees’ perception of meeting outcomes. Results showed that participants reported greater meeting satisfaction when their meeting leader was assessed as a considerate supervisor, with the relationship between considerate leadership style and meeting satisfaction being mediated by both relational- and task-oriented meeting procedures. The results, however, provide no support for initiating structure being associated with meeting effectiveness measures. More generally, the findings imply that leadership behavior is a crucial factor in explaining important meeting outcomes.
Recognition of legal amount words on Persian bank checks using Hidden Markov Model

So far, various works in the field of Persian handwritten words recognition have been conducted, but very little work has been done about recognition of legal amount words on Persian bank checks. Nowadays, researchers use different methods for recognition of handwritten words that among them Hidden Markov Model (HMM) has attracted a lot of attention. In this paper, due to high efficiency of HMM on Latin words recognition, it is utilized for legal amount words recognition of Persian bank checks. In our method, for feature extraction a sliding window used to scan the images of the words from right to left. In each window, the four statistical features are extracted to represent parts of handwritten words. Then, right-left discrete Hidden Markov Model and Fuzzy vector quantization are used for classification of the words based on these features. Our experimental results on the valid databases show the efficiency of HMM for the recognition of legal amount words of the Persian bank checks.
Fibrates down-regulate IL-1-stimulated C-reactive protein gene expression in hepatocytes by reducing nuclear p50-NFκB-C/EBP-β complex formation

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a major acute-phase protein in humans. Elevated plasma CRP levels are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. CRP is predominantly expressed in hepatocytes and is induced by interleukin-1 (IL-1) and IL-6 under inflammatory situations, such as the acute phase. Fibrates are hypolipidemic drugs that act through the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPAR-α). Fibrates have been shown to reduce elevated CRP levels in humans, but the molecular mechanism is unknown. In this study, we demonstrate that different PPAR-α, activators suppress IL-1-induced, but not IL-6-induced, expression of CRP in primary human hepatocytes and HuH7 hepatoma cells. Induction of CRP expression by IL-1 occurs at the transcriptional level. Site-directed mutagenesis experiments show that IL-1 in-duces CRP expression through 2 overlapping response elements, the binding sites for CCAAT-box/enhancer-binding protein-β (C/EBP-β) and p50-nuclear factor-κB (p50-NFκB). Cotransfection of C/EBP-β and p50-NFκB enhances CRP promoter activity, and coimmunoprecipitation experiments indicate that the increase in CRP promoter activity by IL-1 is related to the generation and nuclear accumulation of C/EBP-β-p50-NFκB complexes. Interestingly, PPAR-α activators reduce the formation of nuclear C/EBP-β- p50-NFκB complexes, and thereby CRP promoter activity, by 2 mechanisms. First, PPAR-α increases IκB-α expression and thus prevents p50-NFκB translocation to the nucleus. Second, fibrates decrease hepatic C/EBP-β and p50-NFκB protein levels in mice in a PPAR-α-dependent way. Our findings identify C/EBP-β and p50-NFκB as novel targets for PPAR-α and provide a molecular explanation for the reduction of plasma CRP levels by fibrates. © 2003 by The American Society of Hematology. Chemicals/CAS: bezafibrate, 41859-67-0; C reactive protein, 9007-41-4; ciprofibrate, 52214-84-3; fenofibric acid, 26129-32-8, 42017-89-0; peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha, 147258-70-6; pirinixic acid, 50892-23-4; simvastatin, 79902-63-9; Antilipemic Agents; Bezafibrate, 41859-67-0; C-Reactive Protein, 9007-41-4; CCAAT-Enhancer-Binding Protein-beta; ciprofibrate, 52214-84-3; Clofibric Acid, 882-09-7; Interleukin-1; NF-kappa B p50 Subunit; NF-kappa B; Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear; Transcription Factors
Assessing linkset quality for complementing third-party datasets

Linked data best practices are getting extremely popular: various companies and public institutions have started taking advantage of linked data principles for exposing their datasets, and for relating their datasets to those served by third parties. Such enthusiasm is due to the linked data promise of evolving into a Global Data Space. Linksets are sets of links relating datasets and they surely play a fundamental role in this promise. However, a stable and well-accepted notion of linkset quality has not been yet defined. This paper contributes to overcome this lack by proposing a linkset quality measure. Among the different quality dimensions that can be addressed, the proposed measure focuses on completeness. The paper formally defines novel scoring functions and proposes an interpretation of these functions when maintaining and complementing third party datasets.
Revisiting the Effects of Anger on Risk-Taking: Empirical and Meta-Analytic Evidence for Differences Between Males and Females

That anger elicited in one situation can carry over to drive risky behavior in another situation has been described since the days of Aristotle. The present studies examine the mechanisms through which and the conditions under which such behavior occurs. Across three experiments, as well as a meta-analytic synthesis of the data, results reveal that incidental anger is significantly more likely to drive risky decision making among males than among females. Moreover, the experiments document that, under certain circumstances, such risk-taking pays off financially. Indeed, the present experiments demonstrate that, because the expected-value-maximizing strategy in these studies rewarded risk-taking, angry-male individuals earned more money than did both neutral-emotion males and angry females. In sum, these studies found evidence for robust disparities between males and females for anger-driven risk-taking. Importantly, although men did not experience more anger than women, they did show a heightened tendency to respond to anger with risk-taking. Published 2016. This article has been contributed to by US Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.
Experiments with Infinite-Horizon, Policy-Gradient Estimation

In this paper, we present algorithms that perform gradient ascent of the average reward in a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). These algorithms are based on GPOMDP, an algorithm introduced in a companion paper (Baxter & Bartlett, 2001), which computes biased estimates of the performance gradient in POMDPs. The algorithm's chief advantages are that it uses only one free parameter β ∈ [0, 1], which has a natural interpretation in terms of bias-variance trade-off, it requires no knowledge of the underlying state, and it can be applied to infinite state, control and observation spaces. We show how the gradient estimates produced by GPOMDP can be used to perform gradient ascent, both with a traditional stochastic-gradient algorithm, and with an algorithm based on conjugate-gradients that utilizes gradient information to bracket maxima in line searches. Experimental results are presented illustrating both the theoretical results of Baxter and Bartlett (2001) on a toy problem, and practical aspects of the algorithms on a number of more realistic problems.
Silkworm genomics - progress and prospects

The biology and genetics of silkworm, Bombyx mori, is the most advanced of any lepidopteran species. Its rich repertoire of genetic resources and potential applications in sericulture and as a model for other Lepidoptera led to the initiation of genomics research. During the past decade much effort has been made in the areas of marker development, and molecular maps have been constructed in standard strains with the use of RFLPs, RAPDs, ISSRs, STSs, and microsatellites. The potential applications of molecular markers and linkage maps include stock identification, Marker Assisted Selection (MAS), identification of Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL), and, ultimately, positional cloning of visible mutations and QTL. To these ends, BAC libraries have been constructed and are being used to make large-scale physical maps, with markers based on ESTs as framework anchors. Altogether this work provides a foundation for identification of gene function, gene and chromosome evolution, and comparative genomics.
Compassion satisfaction in victim services : focusing on the rewards of trauma work

Victim support volunteers are often a first line of intervention for individuals affected by crime or tragedy. In their efforts to provide support to survivors of criminal victimization, these volunteers are exposed to an intense array of traumatic events. Although this process increases volunteers’ risks of experiencing traumatic stress and falling into crisis themselves, it is possible for them to counter this negative impact and experience fulfillment in witnessing victims transform into survivors (Radey & Figley, 2007). Compassion satisfaction (CS) denotes the positive feelings and energy derived from helping others to recover from crisis and trauma (Stamm, 2002). CS plays an important role in the lives of victim support volunteers, as it functions to strengthen resiliency and sustain well-being. However, there is insufficient research focus on CS and even less attention is placed on teaching victim support volunteers how to develop CS. In this article, we propose strategies that victim support volunteers (and other crisis workers) may use to cultivate greater CS in their work. We hope this information can be integrated into Victim Services training to promote a more optimistic perspective of victim support work and shift the focus from being traumatized by the work to being energized.
Effects of Combined Exercise on Body Composition, Blood Lipids, and BDNF in Obese Adolescents

Exercise leads to the release of certain neurotransmitters in the brain that alleviate pain, both physical and mental. The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of combined exercise on body composition, blood lipids, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in overweight and obese adolescents. The subjects of this study were 18 boys who were divided into a combined exercise group (EG: n=9) and a control group (CG: n=9). The combined exercise program required exercise 50-60 minutes per day, three times a week, for 12 weeks. The results of the comparative analysis are as follows: The between-group comparison of the difference in the means before and after the intervention revealed a significant decrease in the EG compared with the CG: weight (p<0.01), BMI (p <0.05), %fat (p<0.05), fat mass (p<0.01). The %LBM of the EG showed a more significant increase (p<0.05) compared with the CG. The TC, LDL-C, and BDNF were not different between the EG and the CG. However, the TC and the LDL-C were decreased more in the EG than in the CG. The BDNF was increased more in the EG than in the CG. In conclusion, the combined exercise improved body composition but did not affect serum lipids or the BDNF.
Social Support, Social Networks, and Health

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the prominent research areas regarding the impact of supportive communication on health. Several important literature reviews already exist (e.g. Burleson Albrecht & Sarason 1994; Heaney & Israel 1995; Uchino Cacioppo & Kiecolt-Glaser 1996; Sarason Pierce & Sarason 1990). However most derive from the domains of interpersonal communication sociology health education and social psychology. Our contribution is to provide a review of this terrain from the vantage point of health communication. We include a brief overview of the history of conceptualizing social support as communication a summary of representative findings on the relationship between supportive interaction and health and illness a discussion of promising frameworks and directions for research and a review of the implications for further practice and interventions. (excerpt)