Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cumulative deficit: A testable hypothesis?

Cumulative deficit is an hypothesis concerning the cause of lower mental test scores of groups considered environmentally deprived. It presupposes a progressive decrement in test scores, relative to population norms, as a function of age. Clarification of the theoretical issues and the methodological problems involved in establishing the progressive decrement phenomenon are discussed in relation to the relevant research on disadvantaged groups, especially American Negroes. In this group in particular there is no methodologically adequate evidence in the literature for a progressive decrement in IQ or other mental measurements. The present study,'using differences between younger and older siblings, which satisfies more rigorous methodological requirements for the detection of progressive decrement than have existed in previous studies, found a significant age decrement in verbal but not in nonverbal IQ among a large sample of Negro elementary school children, although the mean white-Negro difference is similar for nonverbal IQ and verbal IQ. The term cumulative deficit refers to one of the most fundamental concepts in the now vast literature of environmental deprivation and cultural disadvantage. It is also the keystone of the rationale for compensatory
Normative data for assessing the manual dexterity of visually handicapped adults in vocational rehabilitation

Nine hundred and ninety-one newly blinded and visually handicapped adults were tested with the Purdue Pegboard test of manual dexterity while they were undergoing vocational rehabilitation. Normative data were derived to enable comparisons to be made among various subgroups of the population on the basis of degree of residual vision, which together with the gender of the subjects is shown to be a significant determining variable. The results are also discussed in terms of the magnitude of the disparity between the performance of the visually impaired and the fully sighted adult subjects on whom the test was originally standardized.
Herschel-ATLAS : The far-infrared properties and star formation rates of broad absorption line quasi-stellar objects

We have used data from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large-Area Survey (H-ATLAS) at 250, 350 and 500 μm to determine the far-infrared (FIR) properties of 50 broad absorption line quasars (BAL QSOs). Our sample contains 49 high-ionization BAL QSOs (HiBALs) and one low-ionization BAL QSO (LoBAL) which are compared against a sample of 329 non-BAL QSOs. These samples are matched over the redshift range 1.5 ≤ z 5 σ level. We calculate star formation rates (SFRs) for our individually detected HiBAL QSOs and the non-detected LoBAL QSO as well as average SFRs for the BAL and non-BAL QSO samples based on stacking the Herschel data. We find no difference between the HiBAL and non-BAL QSO samples in the FIR, even when separated based on differing BAL QSO classifications. Using Mrk 231 as a template, the weighted mean SFR is estimated to be ≈240 ± 21 M⊙ yr−1 for the full sample, although this figure should be treated as an upper limit if active galactic nucleus (AGN)-heated dust makes a contribution to the FIR emission. Despite tentative claims in the literature, we do not find a dependence of C IV equivalent width on FIR emission, suggesting that the strength of any outflow in these objects is not linked to their FIR output. These results strongly suggest that BAL QSOs (more specifically HiBALs) can be accommodated within a simple AGN unified scheme in which our line of sight to the nucleus intersects outflowing material. Models in which HiBALs are caught towards the end of a period of enhanced spheroid and black hole growth, during which a wind terminates the star formation activity, are not supported by the observed FIR properties.
Theory and Application of Early Warning Systems for High School and Beyond

This article describes the development of early warning indicators for high school and beyond in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) by the Value-Added Research Center (VARC) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, working in conjunction with staff from the Division of Research and Evaluation at MPS. Our work in MPS builds on prior early warning work by using both preexisting and new district data sets to build predictive models for identifying students at elevated risk of an entire series of adverse outcomes in high school and beyond, beginning with grade 9 retention and continuing into postsecondary education. This early warning work in MPS makes at least 2 significant contributions to the existing base of research: (a) broadening the set of outcomes that early warning work can predict; and (b) investigating new ways of conveying early warning information to practitioners, such as probability estimates for each outcome and the total quality credits (TQC) measure.
Human Mast Cells Undergo TRAIL-Induced Apoptosis1

Mast cells (MC), supposedly long-lived cells, play a key role in allergy and are important contributors to other inflammatory conditions in which they undergo hyperplasia. In humans, stem cell factor (SCF) is the main regulator of MC growth, differentiation, and survival. Although human MC numbers may also be regulated by apoptotic cell death, there have been no reports concerning the role of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway mediated by death receptors in these cells. We examined expression and function of death receptors for Fas ligand and TRAIL in human MC. Although the MC leukemia cell line HMC-1 and human lung-derived MC expressed both Fas and TRAIL-R, MC lines derived from cord blood (CBMC) expressed only TRAIL-R. Activation of TRAIL-R resulted in caspase 3-dependent apoptosis of CBMC and HMC-1. IgE-dependent activation of CBMC increased their susceptibility to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis. Results suggest that TRAIL-mediated apoptosis may be a mechanism of regulating MC survival in vivo and, potentially, for down-regulating MC hyperplasia in pathologic conditions.
Lateral and radial growth uncoupled in reaggregated retinospheroids of embryonic avian retina.

According to an earlier resented model (Layer and Willbold, Int. Rev. Cytol. 146: 1-47, 1993), growth of the retina can be conceived of as an areal increase of an epithelial tissue sheet ("lateralization") plus a concomitant establishment of the layered retina ("radialization"). To provide further support for this model, here we have reaggregated dissociated retinal plus pigmented cells from chick or quail embryos and observed their development into histotypic three-dimensional spheres in rotation culture. These so-called stratospheroids consist of a continuous fully laminated retinal part with a coiled-up pigmented epithelial core. Using BrdU-labeling, we show that radial growth, i.e. the sequential production of cell types in spheroids, is comparable to normal vitreal-scleral retinogenesis. The region next to the pigmented epithelial core represents a "lateral growth zone" (equivalent to an ora serrata in vivo), where mitotic cell numbers are highest, even when in the laminated part proliferation has already ceased. Gradients of lateral differentiation emanate from this growth zone into the retinal tissue, as revealed by immunostaining of the photoreceptor protein opsin and the cell recognition molecule F11. Moreover, we found that stratospheroids derived from older embryos consist only of a hollow monolayered neuroepithelium which develops in the absence of any radial growth. This indicates that cell production is sustained longer in lateral than in radial direction. These differently staged stratospheroids will be excellent models to characterize genes involved in the regulation of lateral and radial growth processes.
Linking Dimensions of Internet Use and Civic Engagement

Given scholars' concerns with media influences on civic life, it is not surprising that researchers have begun to focus on how the Internet may enhance or erode levels of civic engagement. Collectively, however, these studies are rife with inconsistencies in the explication and operationalization of the predictor variable, Internet use. This study investigates the role of Internet use in shaping civic engagement, looking specifically at multiple conceptualizations and measurements. Results from a community study (N = 301) indicate nuanced relationships between dimensions of Internet use and forms of civic engagement. These relationships are discussed in light of citizens' use of more traditional media.
Inquiry-based learning and the international student

The relationship between inquiry-based learning (IBL) and international students is of rising importance in the UK in the context of a growing focus on the connection between research and teaching and the increasing number of overseas students. This article explores this relationship, drawing on the findings of research undertaken in a Department of Politics at a research-intensive UK university. It concludes by suggesting some possible ways forward for both students and staff in meeting the challenges of IBL programmes.
Cross-National Explorations of the Impact of Affect at Work Using the State-Trait Emotion Measure: A Coordinated Series of Studies in the United States, China, and Romania

This series of studies using samples drawn in three diverse cultural contexts—the United States, China, and Romania—focused on the role of discrete emotion feelings (Izard, 2009) in predicting job satisfaction and performance. Our research goals required that we develop and validate a new measure, the State-Trait Emotion Measure (STEM), which provides assessments of a diverse array of discrete emotion feelings, dispositions corresponding to these, and aggregations of these to index state and trait positive and negative affect. Positive evidence for STEM's validity allowed for rigorous tests of hypotheses, which revealed, consistently across countries, that discrete emotion feelings show variations in their relationships with outcomes of performance and satisfaction and add incrementally to their prediction over dimensional measures of positive and negative affect. At the same time, the patterns of relationships across countries (e.g., positive relationships between positive emotion feelings and job satisfaction) were consistent with past research.
Reconceptualizing psychological climate in a retail service environment: A multiple-stakeholder perspective.

Confirmatory factor analyses of a priori models of psychological climate were conducted with data collected from 18,457 sales personnel in 567 stores in five regions of a national retail organization. The results provide good support for viewing employee work-climate perceptions as composed of two higher order factors—concern for employees and concern for customers. These higher order factors are posited to reflect employees' cognitive appraisals of the behavior of agents toward (a) employees' well-being in the organization's internal environment and (b) the well-being of other organizational constituencies or stakeholders (e.g., customers) in the task environment, respectively. The implications of a multiple-stakeholder perspective for extending notions of psychological climate are discussed. Recently, James and James (1989) proposed that work-climate perceptions represent valuations or cognitive appraisals of environmental attributes in terms of their acquired meaning and significance to the individual. From James and James's perspective, "Valuation appears to be the key to such cognitive appraisals in asmuch as (a) values serve as standards for assessing welfare (Locke, 1976), where welfare is denned in terms of a sense of well-being. and (b) valuation provides appraisals of the degree to which these standards are represented in environmental attributes" (James & James, 1989, pp. 739-740). James and James viewed valuations or cognitive appraisals as "emotional cognitions" because they are hypothesized to reflect the subjective meanings that, in combination with perceived physiological arousal, help to label emotion and to determine the direction and intensity of the experience and the emotion. Drawing from the work of Lazarus (1982,1984) and Lazarus and Folkman (1984), James and James (1989) further proposed that all emotionally relevant cognitions reflect a single higher order factor comprising the degree to which the environment is perceived as personally beneficial or detrimental to one's wellbeing. Results of James and James's confirmatory factor analyses on four diverse samples supported a hierarchical factor
Researching trends in initial teacher education policy and practice in an era of globalization and devolution: a rationale and a methodology for an Anglo‐Scottish ‘home international’ study

This article presents the conceptual and methodological framework of a two‐year comparative research project (2002–2004), funded by the University of Paisley. The study, entitled ‘Convergence or Divergence? Initial Teacher Education in Scotland and England’, investigated initial teacher education (ITE) policy and practice in England and Scotland in order to establish whether there is evidence of convergence or divergence between the two systems. The article first sets out the rationale for such work in the dual contexts of globalization and devolution before presenting and justifying the specific comparative methodological approach selected. The second half of the article focuses particularly on the study design and some of the challenges involved with its implementation, relating the discussion to the existing methodological literature. Finally, the authors attempt to highlight the methodological potential of the study for others working in the field of comparative education.
A performance of difference

• Approximately 90 people. Age range 18–60; women to men ratio about 2:1. Mixture of Australian and international students. Mixed cultures including Aboriginal Australian, Anglo Australian, Cambodian, Chinese Australian, Greek Australian, Thai Australian, Indian, Norwegian, Solomon Islands, Vietnamese Australian. Various sexualities and abilities. For approximately half the cast English is their second, third, or fourth language. • Director: Debbie Horsfall, course co-ordinator, tenured senior lecturer, English migrant, white, age 40. • Assistant director: Donna Bridges, PhD candidate, contracted tutor, Irish Australian, white, age 35. • Assistant director: Catherine Camden Pratt, PhD candidate, contracted tutor, Anglo Australian, white, age 45. • Assistant director: Lesley Sammon, PhD candidate, contracted tutor, Anglo/Irish Australian, white-ish, age 43. • A selected flock of various writers, theorists and previous students.
Epidemiological findings of ocular trauma in childhood.

PURPOSE To describe epidemiological findings of ocular trauma in childhood in an emergency unit. METHODS A retrospective study was carried out including patients under 16 years old who were treated for ocular trauma at the emergency unit of the Federal University of São Paulo from September 2001 to September 2004. Age, sex, involved eye, place, circumstance and mechanism of injury, initial visual acuity and immediate management were recorded. RESULTS A total of 273 patients were included in the study. The age group comprising most cases was 7 to 10 years (39.9%). The most frequent cause of ocular injury was traumatism by external agents like stone, iron and wood objects (27.9%). The commonest place was the home (53.1%). Initial visual acuity was over 20/40 in 63.4% of cases. Closed globe injury occurred in 201 (73.6%) accidents. Seventy-six children (27. 8%) were treated with medicines and in forty-eight (17.6%) cases surgery was necessary. CONCLUSION Ocular trauma in childhood was more frequent in the male schoolchild and was due mostly to traumatism with agents like stone, wood and iron pieces, domestic utensils and leisure objects. The injuries occurred most frequently at home. Closed globe injuries predominated. Programs of education and prevention for ocular trauma in childhood are necessary.
Temporal light field reconstruction for rendering distribution effects

Traditionally, effects that require evaluating multidimensional integrals for each pixel, such as motion blur, depth of field, and soft shadows, suffer from noise due to the variance of the high-dimensional integrand. In this paper, we describe a general reconstruction technique that exploits the anisotropy in the temporal light field and permits efficient reuse of samples between pixels, multiplying the effective sampling rate by a large factor. We show that our technique can be applied in situations that are challenging or impossible for previous anisotropic reconstruction methods, and that it can yield good results with very sparse inputs. We demonstrate our method for simultaneous motion blur, depth of field, and soft shadows.
Population growth and collapse in a multiagent model of the Kayenta Anasazi in Long House Valley

Long House Valley in the Black Mesa area of northeastern Arizona (U.S.) was inhabited by the Kayenta Anasazi from about 1800 before Christ to about anno Domini 1300. These people were prehistoric ancestors of the modern Pueblo cultures of the Colorado Plateau. Paleoenvironmental research based on alluvial geomorphology, palynology, and dendroclimatology permits accurate quantitative reconstruction of annual fluctuations in potential agricultural production (kg of maize per hectare). The archaeological record of Anasazi farming groups from anno Domini 200-1300 provides information on a millennium of sociocultural stasis, variability, change, and adaptation. We report on a multiagent computational model of this society that closely reproduces the main features of its actual history, including population ebb and flow, changing spatial settlement patterns, and eventual rapid decline. The agents in the model are monoagriculturalists, who decide both where to situate their fields as well as the location of their settlements. Nutritional needs constrain fertility. Agent heterogeneity, difficult to model mathematically, is demonstrated to be crucial to the high fidelity of the model.
Similarity and Features of Natural Textures

In 3 experiments the type of model that is best for conceptualizing the attentive similarity of natural textures was investigated. Different groups of participants placed pictures into groups however they wished, described the resulting clusters and multidimensional scaling dimensions, identified the objects or surfaces depicted in the pictures, and ranked the pictures along several hypothesized attribute-based dimensions. Results indicate that similarity is context dependent, that natural textures seem to be organized according to family resemblances, and that a dimensional model is inappropriate. These outcomes suggest that models of preattentive segregation and attentive cognition may be incommensurable.
Possible involvement of fibrocytes in atrial fibrosis in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND Chronic atrial fibrillation (AF) is characterized by a remodeling process with prominent atrial fibrosis. Fibrocytes, a bone marrow-derived population of fibroblast-like cells, have been placed at the center of a number of fibrosing conditions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the contribution of fibrocytes to atrial fibrosis in patients with chronic AF and the possible mechanisms. METHODS AND RESULTS We enrolled 22 consecutive valvular heart disease patients with chronic AF (>6 months: CAF group) and 15 valvular heart disease patients in sinus rhythm served as controls (SR group). Left atrial tissue samples were obtained during cardiac surgery. The infiltration of fibrocytes into the atrial interstitium was observed by confocal microscopy. The number of atrial fibrocytes was approximately three-fold higher in the CAF group compared with the SR controls, and positively correlated with both the atrial collagen volume fraction (r=0.713; P=0.0002) and the left atrial volume index (r=0.631; P=0.002). In the peripheral blood samples collected before the operation, approximately 2.5-fold higher percentage of circulating fibrocytes was identified in the CAF group. These fibrocytes showed a stronger proliferative capacity (≍2.5-fold) and higher level expression of collagen I and α-SMA (≍2-fold and 4-fold, respectively) compared with the SR controls. CONCLUSIONS The results suggested that fibrocytes may be involved in atrial fibrosis in chronic AF through enhanced profibrotic characteristics.
Absolute Quantification of Selected Proteins in the Human Osteoarthritic Secretome

Osteoarthritis (OA) is characterized by a loss of extracellular matrix which is driven by catabolic cytokines. Proteomic analysis of the OA cartilage secretome enables the global study of secreted proteins. These are an important class of molecules with roles in numerous pathological mechanisms. Although cartilage studies have identified profiles of secreted proteins, quantitative proteomics techniques have been implemented that would enable further biological questions to be addressed. To overcome this limitation, we used the secretome from human OA cartilage explants stimulated with IL-1β and compared proteins released into the media using a label-free LC-MS/MS-based strategy. We employed QconCAT technology to quantify specific proteins using selected reaction monitoring. A total of 252 proteins were identified, nine were differentially expressed by IL-1 β stimulation. Selected protein candidates were quantified in absolute amounts using QconCAT. These findings confirmed a significant reduction in TIMP-1 in the secretome following IL-1β stimulation. Label-free and QconCAT analysis produced equivocal results indicating no effect of cytokine stimulation on aggrecan, cartilage oligomeric matrix protein, fibromodulin, matrix metalloproteinases 1 and 3 or plasminogen release. This study enabled comparative protein profiling and absolute quantification of proteins involved in molecular pathways pertinent to understanding the pathogenesis of OA.
Adaptive Cross-Generation Differential Evolution Operators for Multiobjective Optimization

Convergence performance and parametric sensitivity are two issues that tend to be neglected when extending differential evolution (DE) to multiobjective optimization (MO). To fill this research gap, we develop two novel mutation operators and a new parameter adaptation mechanism. A multiobjective DE variant is obtained through integration of the proposed strategies. The main innovation of this paper is the simultaneous use of individuals across generations from an objective-based perspective. Good convergence-diversity tradeoff and satisfactory exploration-exploitation balance are achieved via the hybrid cross-generation mutation operation. Furthermore, the cross-generation adaptation mechanism enables the individuals to self-adapt their associated parameters not only optimization stage-wise but also objective-space-wise. Empirical results indicate the statistical superiority of the proposed algorithm over several state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms in handling MO problems.