Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consciência fonológica e linguagem escrita: efeitos de um programa de intervenção

A consciencia fonologica, entendida como habilidade de reflexao e manipulacao dos sons da fala, esta relacionada ao exito na aquisicao da linguagem escrita. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivos avaliar a eficacia de um programa de intervencao para desenvolver habilidades metafonologicas e facilitar a aprendizagem da escrita em criancas falantes do portugues do Brasil. Participaram 90 criancas de 5 a 6 anos que frequentavam classes de alfabetizacao. Foi utilizado delineamento quase experimental em tres fases: pre-teste, intervencao e pos-teste, com aplicacao de provas as criancas. Os resultados mostraram que as habilidades metafonologicas tem papel facilitador no inicio do processo de aquisicao da linguagem escrita e podem ser desenvolvidas por meio de programas de intervencao em diferentes condicoes de aplicacao.
Resveratrol protects human endothelium from H(2)O(2)-induced oxidative stress and senescence via SirT1 activation.

AIM Silencing information regulator (SirT1), a NAD-dependent histone deacetylase, is an essential mediator of longevity in normal cells by calorie restriction. SirT1 has many biological functions, including transcription regulation, cell differentiation inhibition, cell cycle regulation, and anti-apoptosis. Resveratrol (RV)-induced SirT1 activation also improves endothelial dysfunction and suppresses vascular inflammation. In this study, we investigated the roles of RV-induced SirT1 activation in endothelial cells under oxidative stress. METHODS SirT1 mRNA expression levels were examined in the endothelium layer (endothelial cells) of cardiac coronary vessels from patients receiving coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) surgery and aged rats using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). To further explore the effect of SirT1 activation on oxidative stress-induced aging, senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) expression in RV-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) with or without H(2)O(2) treatment was evaluated. RESULTS SirT1 expression was decreased in aged and atherosclerotic vessels in vivo, and significantly reduced in endothelial cells purified from vessel tissues. Furthermore, SirT1 levels were dose-dependently increased in RV-treated HUVECs. The SA-β gal assay showed that RV inhibited the senescent phenotype of H(2)O(2)-treated HUVECs. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and the percentage of cells positive for SA-β gal were significantly increased in siRNA-SirT1 (knockdown of SirT1 expression)-treated HUVEC cells. Importantly, the treatment effect of RV was significantly abolished in the oxidative effects of H(2)O(2)-treated HUVECs by siRNA-SirT1. CONCLUSION Our data suggested that SirT1 could be a crucial factor involved in the endothelial cells of atherosclerotic CAGB patients and aging rats. RV is a potential candidate for preventing oxidative stress-induced aging in endothelial cells. RV may also prevent ROS-induced damage via increased endothelial SirT1 expression.
Career Patterns and Peak Creative Achievements of Creative High School Students Twelve Years Later

Dr. Torrance is head of Department of Educational Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. As a rather clear profile of the characteristics of the creative child unfolded during the 1960’s, there arose widespread skepticism and opposition to concerns about the more humane treatment of creative children and about a more creative kind of education in general. The skeptics expressed doubt that the children we have identified as creative will produce useful creative achievements as adults. The opponents contended that creative children such as those identified in our research
Reexamining the Workplace Justice to Outcome Relationship: Does Frame of Reference Matter?

Using a combination of self‐interest and deontological theories as justification, we propose a demarcated view of workplace justice that separates justice for an individual (personal justice) and inferred assessments of justice for organizational members (third party justice). Results of two studies confirmed the appropriateness of separate justice measures and demonstrated differential effects on key criteria based on the relevancy (personal or joint) of the outcome in question. Specifically, Studies 1 and 2 found that personal justice was a better predictor of organizational commitment and turnover intentions while third party justice was more closely related to workplace cohesion (Study 1), citizenship behaviours (Study 2), and deviance behaviours (Study 2). Implications of these findings and future research needs are discussed.
Recursive Estimation of Motion, Structure, and Focal Length

Presents a formulation for recursive recovery of motion, pointwise structure, and focal length from feature correspondences tracked through an image sequence. In addition to adding focal length to the state vector, several representational improvements are made over earlier structure from motion formulations, yielding a stable and accurate estimation framework which applies uniformly to both true perspective and orthographic projection. Results on synthetic and real imagery illustrate the performance of the estimator. >
Actors: A Model of Concurrent Computation in Distributed Systems Doctoral Dissertation

Abstract : A foundational model of concurrency is developed in this thesis. It examines issues in the design of parallel systems and show why the actor model is suitable for exploiting large-scale parallelism. Concurrency in actors is constrained only by the availability of hardware resources and by the logical dependence inherent in the computation. Unlike dataflow and functional programming, however, actors are dynamically reconfigurable and can model shared resources with changing local state. Concurrency is spawned in actors using asynchronous message-passing, pipelining, and the dynamic creation of actors. The author defines an abstract actor machine and provide a minimal programming language for it. A more expressive language, which includes higher level constructs such as delayed and eager evaluation, can be defined in terms of the primitives. Examples are given to illustrate the ease with which concurrent data and control structures can be programmed. This thesis deals with some central issues in distributed computing. Specifically, problems of divergence and deadlock are addressed. Additional keywords: Object oriented programming; Semantics.
Self-reported cannabis use characteristics, patterns and helpfulness among medical cannabis users

Abstract Objectives: Little research has investigated the demographic and symptom profile of medical cannabis users in states in the USA that have legalized cannabis use. Methods: In the present cross-sectional study, we investigated the demographic profile of 217 adults currently receiving medical cannabis, as well as differences in problematic use and perceived helpfulness in terms of (i) symptoms of psychological disorders and pain, and (ii) motives for use. Results: Findings indicated that medical cannabis users (i) use and perceive cannabis to be beneficial for multiple conditions, some for which cannabis is not specifically prescribed or allowed at the state level; and (ii) report similar rates of disordered use as compared with population estimates among regular users. Furthermore, problematic cannabis use was predicted by several symptoms of psychological disorders (e.g. depression) and a variety of use motives (e.g. coping), while cannabis was reported as particularly helpful among those with several psychological symptoms (e.g. traumatic intrusions), as well as those reporting use for social anxiety reasons. Conclusions: Results are discussed in terms of future directions for research given the current debates regarding legalization of cannabis for medical purposes and, more generally, the lack of empirical data to inform such debates.
The discriminant validity of transformational and transactional leadership: A multitrait-multimethod analysis of and norms for the German Transformational Leadership Inventory (TLI).

The well known constructs of transformational and transactional leadership are still facing problems concerning their discriminant validity as substantive correlations have frequently been observed between them. Nine samples, including 178 supervisors and their 834 followers, completed the German version of the Transformational Leadership Inventory (TLI). Self-ratings and aggregated observer ratings were analyzed using a SEM-based multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approach. First, the factorial structure was confirmed for both rating perspectives and across them. In the MTMM analysis, controlling for the method effects reduced the correlations between leadership constructs from a high to a small resp. medium level and the leadership scales can be discriminated. Facilitating the use of the TLI in practical issues, norms are provided for self and observer ratings.
Pathway and sites for energy conservation in the metabolism of glucose by Selenomonas ruminantium

On the basis of enzyme activities detected in extracts of Selenomonas ruminantium HD4 grown in glucose-limited continuous culture, at a slow (0.11 h-1) and a fast (0.52 h-1) dilution rate, a pathway of glucose catabolism to lactate, acetate, succinate, and propionate was constructed. Glucose was catabolized to phosphoenol pyruvate (PEP) via the Emden-Meyerhoff-Parnas pathway. PEP was converted to either pyruvate (via pyruvate kinase) or oxalacetate (via PEP carboxykinase). Pyruvate was reduced to L-lactate via a NAD-dependent lactate dehydrogenase or oxidatively decarboxylated to acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) and CO2 by pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase. Acetyl-CoA was apparently converted in a single enzymatic step to acetate and CoA, with concomitant formation of 1 molecule of ATP; since acetyl-phosphate was not an intermediate, the enzyme catalyzing this reaction was identified as acetate thiokinase. Oxalacetate was converted to succinate via the activities of malate dehydrogenase, fumarase and a membrane-bound fumarate reductase. Succinate was then excreted or decarboxylated to propionate via a membrane-bound methylmalonyl-CoA decarboxylase. Pyruvate kinase was inhibited by Pi and activated by fructose 1,6-bisphosphate. PEP carboxykinase activity was found to be 0.054 mumol min-1 mg of protein-1 at a dilution rate of 0.11 h-1 but could not be detected in extracts of cells grown at a dilution rate of 0.52 h-1. Several potential sites for energy conservation exist in S. ruminantium HD4, including pyruvate kinase, acetate thiokinase, PEP carboxykinase, fumarate reductase, and methylmalonyl-CoA decarboxylase. Possession of these five sites for energy conservation may explain the high yields reported here (56 to 78 mg of cells [dry weight] mol of glucose-1) for S. ruminantium HD4 grown in glucose-limited continuous culture.
Naturally non-selective handset antennas with good robustness against impedance mistuning

An experimental study on capacitive coupling element based mobile terminal antennas is presented, with focus on impedance detuning caused by the electromagnetic interactions between the antenna and the user of the handset. Robustness against the detuning can be affected both with the design of the coupling element and with the design of the matching circuitry. With a naturally non-selective antenna and a suitable matching circuit design, the impedance detuning can be limited to a moderate level.
Who Turns Green with Envy? Conceptual and Empirical Perspectives on Dispositional Envy

Previous research has conceptualized dispositional envy as a general construct that does not vary across comparison domains. In five studies (N = 1393), we examine dispositional envy as a domain–specific construct. In Study 1, we present the development of a domain–specific measure of dispositional envy. Across samples from different populations and two countries (Studies 2 and 3), the measure is shown to have good reliability, construct validity and stability over three months, highlighting the trait–like character of the construct. State levels of envy were also examined in the academic domain (Study 4) and in dyadic interactions between unacquainted participants (Study 5). Results show a Person × Situation Interaction effect (i.e. Dispositional Envy × Situation) on experiences of envy. By placing domain–specific dispositional envy into a network of similar and dissimilar constructs, the current findings serve as a foundation for drawing conclusions about the nature of dispositional envy. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology
Developmental Synaptic Changes Increase the Range of Integrative Capabilities of an Identified Excitatory Neocortical Connection

Excitatory synaptic transmission between pyramidal cells and fast-spiking (FS) interneurons of layer V of the motor cortex was investigated in acute slices by using paired recordings at 30°C combined with morphological analysis. The presynaptic and postsynaptic properties at these identified central synapses were compared between 3- and 5-week-old rats. At these two postnatal developmental stages, unitary EPSCs were mediated by the activation of AMPA receptors with fast kinetics at a holding potential of −72 mV. The amplitude distribution analysis of the EPSCs indicates that, at both stages, pyramidal–FS connections consisted of multiple functional release sites. The apparent quantal size obtained by decreasing the external calcium ([Ca2+]e) varied from 11 to 29 pA near resting membrane potential. In young rats, pairs of presynaptic action potentials elicited unitary synaptic responses that displayed paired-pulse depression at all tested frequencies. In older animals, inputs from different pyramidal cells onto the same FS interneuron had different paired-pulse response characteristics and, at most of these connections, a switch from depression to facilitation occurred when decreasing the rate of presynaptic stimulation. The balance between facilitation and depression endows pyramidal–FS connections from 5-week-old animals with wide integrative capabilities and confers unique functional properties to each synapse.
Evaluating Impacts of Performance Funding Policies on Student Outcomes in Higher Education

Concerns about performance and cost efficiency have taken center stage in discussions about the funding and oversight of public universities in recent years. One of the primary manifestations of these concerns is the rise of performance funding policies, or policies that seek to directly link state appropriations to the outcomes institutions generate for students. Despite the popularity of these policies, relatively little systematic research examines their effect on student outcomes at public colleges and universities. We use data collected from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to analyze the effectiveness of performance funding policies as a mechanism for improving student graduation, persistence, and degree attainment in more than 500 postsecondary institutions in all fifty states over a span of 18 years. We find that current performance funding policies are not associated with higher levels of student performance and that these policies may in fact contribute to lower performance over a longer period of time. However, more recent policies linked to institutional base funding may produce some likelihood of long-term improvement and require additional research.
Doctoral Research in Library and Information Science in India: Some Observations and Comments

This article gives a state-of-the-art overview of library and information science (LIS) education in India as a background to reviewing the doctoral research in the field. It traces the origin and growth of Ph.D. programmes in LIS in India and highlights the initiative and efforts of Dr S. R. Ranganathan (1892-1972). The article provides annual data on the quantitative output of LIS Ph.D. theses and ranks major Indian universities by their output. It includes lists of the major areas of researcl and identifies some arid areas. The author laments the irrelevance and lack of use of research results in library schools and libraries. He attributes this to a low quality of research work because of a mindless proliferation of programmes and a lack of co-operation and resources for research.
A touch of class - The persistence of class cultures among Norwegian youth

ion and aesthetization are related processes. As we have seen, Bourdieu (1984) emphasizes aesthetic interests as a distinctive feature of the cultural capital of ’the dominant classes’. The production-oriented culture prevails among people close to the ’business end’ of material production, people involved in manual or routine labor: workers, farmers and fishermen. Skepticism towards abstraction and people involved in intellectual pursuits is deeply embedded, and practical sense is contrasted to remote speculations. Theory is only legitimate as generalization of practical experience (Gullestad, 1984; Mjelde, 1986;Willis, 1979). The attitudes toward the instrumental value of theory, through education, within the production-oriented culture have been much discussed. Some research has indicated that there has been a tendency to deny even this instrumental value, at least within the ’core’ industrial working class, as the positions potentially obtained by education were considered undesirable (Willis, 1977; 1979). As we have seen, others maintain that precisely the instrumental value of theory through education has always been acknowledged within the mainstream working class (Brown, 1987; 1990). Education and the theory that goes with it has been viewed as a necessary ordeal in order to secure one’s future position, whether within the working class or outside it. Anti-intellectualism is an effort to construct meaning on the basis of what one is familiar with, i.e. material production, practical solutions to practical problems and (perhaps particularly in males) a deep-felt pride in technical abilities and ingenuity. It is also rooted in the experience of discrepancy between abstract thinking, theoretical solutions and the problems of’the real world’, for instance plans devised by engineers or civil service bureaucrats that actually do not work, but which are forced’ upon people from a position of power (Willis, 1979; Lysgaard, 1961/1976). Cultural power relations have been tangible in many areas. This has put the production-oriented culture under pressure, and many of its elements have been regarded as deficiencies by exponents of the dominant culture. Dismissing core values in the dominant culture is therefore also a defense of one’s own dignity (Lutrell, 1989). Skepticism and defensive attitudes toward formal forms of social interaction obviously have a similar origin. Relatively context-bound communication patterns must be assumed to originate from the shared material conditions in dense communities (Foley, 1989:
Supporting pupils with special health needs in mainstream schools: Policy and practice

Education policy favouring ‘inclusion’, together with medical advances, mean that a growing number of pupils in mainstream schools may have health-related support needs in respect of a chronic illness or physical disability. Data from an empirical research study investigating these needs and carried out between 1996 and 1998 are used to reflect on the position of this group of pupils within policy guidance on special educational needs (SEN) and medical needs. Evidence of confusion and ambiguity, both in the guidance and its interpretation, suggests that the needs of this group remain somewhat hidden. More recent developments in special needs policy guidance are discussed in terms of the prospect for strengthening support for this group of pupils. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Quantitative analysis of the relative mutagenicity of five chemical constituents of tobacco smoke in the mouse lymphoma assay.

Quantifying health-related biological effects, like genotoxicity, could provide a way of distinguishing between tobacco products. In order to develop tools for using genotoxicty data to quantitatively evaluate the risk of tobacco products, we tested five carcinogens found in cigarette smoke, 4-aminobiphenyl (4-ABP), benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), cadmium (in the form of CdCl2), 2-amino-3,4-dimethyl-3H-imidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (MeIQ) and 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK), in the mouse lymphoma assay (MLA). The resulting mutagenicity dose responses were analyzed by various quantitative approaches and their strengths and weaknesses for distinguishing responses in the MLA were evaluated. L5178Y/Tk (+/-) 3.7. 2C mouse lymphoma cells were treated with four to seven concentrations of each chemical for 4h. Only CdCl2 produced a positive response without metabolic activation (S9); all five chemicals produced dose-dependent increases in cytotoxicity and mutagenicity with S9. The lowest dose exceeding the global evaluation factor, the benchmark dose producing a 10%, 50%, 100% or 200% increase in the background frequency (BMD10, BMD50, BMD100 and BMD200), the no observed genotoxic effect level (NOGEL), the lowest observed genotoxic effect level (LOGEL) and the mutagenic potency expressed as a mutant frequency per micromole of chemical, were calculated for all the positive responses. All the quantitative metrics had similar rank orders for the agents' ability to induce mutation, from the most to least potent as CdCl2(-S9) > BaP(+S9) > CdCl2(+S9) > MeIQ(+S9) > 4-ABP(+S9) > NNK(+S9). However, the metric values for the different chemical responses (i.e. the ratio of the greatest value to the least value) for the different chemicals ranged from 16-fold (BMD10) to 572-fold (mutagenic potency). These results suggest that data from the MLA are capable of discriminating the mutagenicity of various constituents of cigarette smoke, and that quantitative analyses are available that can be useful in distinguishing between the exposure responses.
Recruitment of the Host Plant Heat Shock Protein 70 by Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Coat Protein Is Required for Virus Infection

A functional capsid protein (CP) is essential for host plant infection and insect transmission of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) and other monopartite begomoviruses. We have previously shown that TYLCV CP specifically interacts with the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) of the virus insect vector, Bemisia tabaci. Here we demonstrate that during the development of tomato plant infection with TYLCV, a significant amount of HSP70 shifts from a soluble form into insoluble aggregates. CP and HSP70 co-localize in these aggregates, first in the cytoplasm, then in the nucleus of cells associated with the vascular system. CP-HSP70 interaction was demonstrated by co-immunopreciptation in cytoplasmic - but not in nuclear extracts from leaf and stem. Inhibition of HSP70 expression by quercetin caused a decrease in the amount of nuclear CP aggregates and a re-localization of a GFP-CP fusion protein from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. HSP70 inactivation resulted in a decrease of TYLCV DNA levels, demonstrating the role of HSP70 in TYLCV multiplication in planta. The current study reveals for the first time the involvement of plant HSP70 in TYLCV CP intracellular movement. As described earlier, nuclear aggregates contained TYLCV DNA-CP complexes and infectious virions. Showing that HSP70 localizes in these large nuclear aggregates infers that these structures operate as nuclear virus factories.