Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Creating a Different Kind of Normal: Parent and Child Perspectives on Sibling Relationships When One Child in the Family Has Autism Spectrum Disorder

This article reports findings from a study that explored the nature of sibling relationships when one child in the family has autism. It employs a collective case study approach to capture the perspectives of parents and young children (aged four to seven years) from three different families. A multifaceted exploration of sibling relationships was achieved by employing qualitative methods including in-depth interviews with parents and children and naturalistic observations. Family systems theory and ecocultural theory provided the theoretical backdrop to this research. The results support previous research which points to issues such as differential treatment of siblings and the development of a non-typical relationship with the sibling with autism. Where this study diverges is in its interpretation of these findings. This article challenges the subjective nature of the concept of ‘normalcy’ which pervades the dominant discourse in disability research. It seeks to understand the resilience and processes of families as they set about creating their own kind of normal.
Micropolitics of Educational Organisations

operate, there remains the fundamental assumption that if plans are well-conceived, clearly set out, and adequately communicated, then systems can be improved. Yet everyone working in organisations is all too well aware of their often idiosyncratic, adventitious, unpredictable and intractable nature when every day brings a new organisational &dquo;pathology&dquo; to disrupt well laid plans. This uncertainty occurs at the highest levels of policy-making and implementation. In his much cited work on the Cuban missile crisis Allison (1971) showed that what had been interpreted as the outcome of carefully-considered and rationally-enacted policies could be viewed as the result of actors within a highly uncertain situation bargaining within their own camps as well as across national boundaries. In an interview, Zbegniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s adviser on national security stated: &dquo;My overwhelming observation from the experience of the last four years is that history is neither the product of design nor of conspiracy, but is rather the reflection of continuing chaos. Seen from the outside, decisions may often seem clear and consciously formulated . but one learns that so much of what happens . is the product of chaotic conditions and a great deal of personal struggle and ambiguity&dquo; (Urban, 1981). Policymakers and administrators in the less lethal field of education will recognise the aleatory dimension of the institution described by Kogan (1975) as &dquo;pluralistic, I incremental, -unsystematic and reactive&dquo; as they attempt to improve the service in conditions which appear to be perennially turbulent. Evidence of the quirky and idiosyncratic nature-of social institutions could lead one into a consideration of fundamental questions about the nature of the social sciences. However, this path will not be taken in this paper. The question to be
Development of a Comprehensive Fouling Model for a Rotating Membrane Bioreactor System Treating Wastewater

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are now main stream wastewater treatment technologies. In recent times, novel pressure driven rotating membrane disc modules have been specially developed that induce high shear on the membrane surface, thereby reducing fouling. Previous research has produced dead-end filtration fouling model which combines all three classical mechanisms that was later used by another researcher as a starting point for a greatly refined model of a cross flow side-stream MBR that incorporated both hydrodynamics and soluble microbial products’ (SMP) effects. In this study, a comprehensive fouling model was created based on this earlier work that incorporated all three classical fouling mechanisms for a rotating MBR system. It was tested and validated for best fit using appropriate data sets. The initial model fit appeared good for all simulations, although it still needs to be calibrated using further appropriate data sets.
A Framework for Reasoning About the Human in the Loop

Many secure systems rely on a "human in the loop" to perform security-critical functions. However, humans often fail in their security roles. Whenever possible, secure system designers should find ways of keeping humans out of the loop. However, there are some tasks for which feasible or cost effective alternatives to humans are not available. In these cases secure system designers should engineer their systems to support the humans in the loop and maximize their chances of performing their security-critical functions successfully. We propose a framework for reasoning about the human in the loop that provides a systematic approach to identifying potential causes for human failure. This framework can be used by system designers to identify problem areas before a system is built and proactively address deficiencies. System operators can also use this framework to analyze the root cause of security failures that have been attributed to "human error. " We provide examples to illustrate the applicability of this framework to a variety of secure systems design problems, including anti-phishing warnings and password policies.
The Effect of Experimental Alterations in Excess Mass on Pull‐up Performance in Fit Young Men

The pull-up (PU) test is widely used to assess body mass-relative dynamic muscular endurance. Although fat is a major compartment of body mass, the source of resistance for the PU, little is known of the effect of fat mass on PU. This investigation examined the effect of simulated fat mass on the PU performance in 30 fit young men. Allometric scaling (AS) was used to model the relationship between total mass lifted (KGT) and PU, and KGT was manipulated by adding known mass to each subject and having him do as many PUs as possible. AS was used to determine the value of the exponent a for each subject. The mean and standard deviation of the a values of all subjects was −7.91 ± 2.3. This meant, for example, that a 10% increase in KGT (the increase due to fat mass alone) would lead to a 53% decrease in PU. Given previous data suggesting that the PU test may substantially penalize those with larger FFM, it appears that this test may be too unduly influenced by body size and fatness to adequately measure mass-relative dynamic muscular endurance in fit young men.
NUCLEAR RECEPTOR, PREGNANE X RECEPTOR, IS REQUIRED FOR INDUCTION OF UDP-GLUCURONOSYLTRANSFERASES IN MOUSE LIVER BY PREGNENOLONE-16α-CARBONITRILE

The aim of this study was to determine the role of pregnane X receptor (PXR) in the induction of UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) by pregnenolone-16-carbonitrile (PCN). Four- to sixmonth-old male wild-type and PXR-null mice received control or PCN-treated (1500 ppm) diet for 21 days. On day 22, livers were taken to prepare microsomes and total RNA to determine UGT activity and mRNA levels, respectively. In wild-type mice, PCN treatment significantly increased UGT activities toward bilirubin, 1-naphthol, chloramphenicol, thyroxine, and triiodothyronine. On control diet, the UGT activities toward the above substrates (except for 1-naphthol) in the PXR-null mice were significantly higher than those of wild-type mice. However, UGT activities in PXR-null mice were not increased by PCN. In agreement with the above findings, mRNA levels of mouse Ugt1a1 and Ugt1a9, which are involved in the glucuronidation of bilirubin and phenolic compounds, were increased about 100% in wild-type mice following PCN treatment, whereas the expression of Ugt1a2, 1a6, and 2b5 was not affected. In contrast, PCN treatment had no effect on the mRNA levels of these UGTs in PXR-null mice. Taken together, these results indicate that PCN treatment induces glucuronidation in mouse liver, and that PXR regulates constitutive and PCNinducible expression of some UGTs.
Suboptimal adherence to repeat testing recommendations for men and women with positive Chlamydia tests in the United States, 2008-2010.

BACKGROUND Chlamydia is prevalent among young persons in the United States. Infected persons have a high prevalence of infection several months later, most likely from reinfection. Retesting of all men and women with a positive test is recommended 3 months after treatment. A test-of-cure is recommended for pregnant women 3-4 weeks after treatment. METHODS We analyzed 2008-2010 chlamydia testing data from a large US laboratory to estimate test positivity by patient demographic characteristics and diagnoses, and patterns of repeat testing of men and nonpregnant women with a positive test and tests-of-cures of pregnant women with a positive test. RESULTS During the study period, 7.0% of 0.40 million tests performed in men and 4.0% of 2.92 million tests performed in women were positive. Among young women, positivity rates were highest among those aged 15-19 years, ranging from 8.5% to 10.0%. Retesting rates of persons with a positive test were suboptimal, with 22.3% of men and 38.0% of nonpregnant women retested. Although 60.1% of pregnant women with a positive test were retested, only 22.0% received a test-of-cure within the 4-week recommended time frame. Repeat tests were positive in 15.9% of men, 14.2% of nonpregnant women, and 15.4% of pregnant women. CONCLUSIONS Analyses of laboratory testing data provided important insights into chlamydia testing, retesting, and positivity among a diverse US population of men and women. Too few persons were retested as recommended, and interventions are needed to increase both healthcare provider and patient adherence to recommendations for retesting men and women with positive tests.
Measuring Pupil Progress: A Comparison of Standardized Achievement Tests and Curriculum-Related Measures

In a series of two studies, the relative sensitivity of traditional standardized achievement tests and alternative curriculum-based measures was assessed. In the first investigation, the magnitude of student growth over a 10-week period on the two types of instruments was compared in the areas of reading and written language. The second study was an operational replication employing different reading tests over a 16 week interval. Results indicated that the curriculum-based measures were more sensitive to student progress and related more consistently to a criterion measure of student growth. Implications for practice are discussed.
A Study on Expertise of Agents and Its Effects on Cooperative $Q$-Learning

Cooperation in learning (CL) can be realized in a multiagent system, if agents are capable of learning from both their own experiments and other agents' knowledge and expertise. Extra resources are exploited into higher efficiency and faster learning in CL as compared to that of individual learning (IL). In the real world, however, implementation of CL is not a straightforward task, in part due to possible differences in area of expertise (AOE). In this paper, reinforcement-learning homogenous agents are considered in an environment with multiple goals or tasks. As a result, they become expert in different domains with different amounts of expertness. Each agent uses a one-step Q-learning algorithm and is capable of exchanging its Q-table with those of its teammates. Two crucial questions are addressed in this paper: "How the AOE of an agent can be extracted? " and "How agents can improve their performance in CL by knowing their AOEs? " An algorithm is developed to extract the AOE based on state transitions as a gold standard from a behavioral point of view. Moreover, it is discussed that the AOE can be implicitly obtained through agents' expertness in the state level. Three new methods for CL through the combination of Q-tables are developed and examined for overall performance after CL. The performances of developed methods are compared with that of IL, strategy sharing (SS), and weighted SS (WSS). Obtained results show the superior performance of AOE-based methods as compared to that of existing CL methods, which do not use the notion of AOE. These results are very encouraging in support of the idea that "cooperation based on the AOE" performs better than the general CL methods
Researching Elder Abuse in Britian

This article explains the lack of British elder abuse research by focusing upon two aspects of the research process; the methadological difficulties of developing indicators of abuse and the ethical problems of using self-disclosure and victimisation surveys when researching a sensitive topic. As an illustration of these difficulties, the experience of using an American research methodology to determine the prevalence of elder abuse in Britain is described.
Measurement Invariance of Marketing Instruments: An Implication across Countries

Researchers have used the Narver and Slater’s construct (1990), hereafter (N&S), to operationalise market orientation (MO). The assumption is that the construct is universally equivalent across cultures, countries and research contexts. We develop a way of testing the invariance of N&S operationalisations as an example of how researchers can establish measure invariance across diflerent cultures, countries or languages. In this particular study we test the N&S operationalisation across Australian and UK samples. The results suggest that the conceptualisation of MO is similar in the two countries at a weak factorial invariance level. Thereafter the operationalisation is diferent ie intercepts are significantly diflerent and item reliabilities are also different. These results suggest that because measure equivalence is not strong, contextualisation of findings is necessary since generalisability may be limited. The significance of this research is in alerting researchers to the assumptions, rarely tested, that underlay comparisons across qualitatively distinct populations. We suggest researchers test these assumptions before substantive tests of theories are undertaken.
Engagement no trabalho: uma discussão teórica

Work engagement is considered as a positive cognitive state, of realization, related to the labour world, characterized by three dimensions: vigor, dedication and absorption. This construct is composed by a energetic-behavioral component (vigor), a emotional component (dedication), and a cognitive component (absorption). The objective of this study is to present a revision of the scientific international publications about the theme. The study of work engagement comes as a consequence of a numerous researches about the burnout syndrome, corroborating with the positive psychology premises. It’s concludes that there is a deficiency of publications about this construct, mainly in the Brazilian context.
Spirituality and Faith-Based Social Services

Abstract Spiritual aspects of faith-based social services are rarely addressed in discussions of policy initiatives encouraging greater involvement of faith-based providers in service delivery. This article reports findings of a qualitative study of the values, beliefs, and practices of non-congregational faith-based service providers. Twenty-two providers in Midwestern and northwestern regions of the U.S. were asked about the spiritual bases of their programs, spiritual dimensions of service relationships, distinctions between service communities and programs, and distinctions between service ministries and social work. Implications for collaborations among providers with different beliefs are discussed.
Cognitive Control Predicts Use of Model-based Reinforcement Learning

Abstract Accounts of decision-making and its neural substrates have long posited the operation of separate, competing valuation systems in the control of choice behavior. Recent theoretical and experimental work suggest that this classic distinction between behaviorally and neurally dissociable systems for habitual and goal-directed (or more generally, automatic and controlled) choice may arise from two computational strategies for reinforcement learning (RL), called model-free and model-based RL, but the cognitive or computational processes by which one system may dominate over the other in the control of behavior is a matter of ongoing investigation. To elucidate this question, we leverage the theoretical framework of cognitive control, demonstrating that individual differences in utilization of goal-related contextual information—in the service of overcoming habitual, stimulus-driven responses—in established cognitive control paradigms predict model-based behavior in a separate, sequential choice task. The behavioral correspondence between cognitive control and model-based RL compellingly suggests that a common set of processes may underpin the two behaviors. In particular, computational mechanisms originally proposed to underlie controlled behavior may be applicable to understanding the interactions between model-based and model-free choice behavior.
Understanding Transitivity of a Spatial Relationship: A Developmental Analysis.

Abstract Pears and Bryant (1990) found that children as young as 4 years old could make correct transitive inferences on a task examining their understanding of the relation "higher than," if the premises were presented in the form of sets of two block towers. This study extended their investigation by looking at children′s transitive inferences in situations in which the representation of the premises provided contradictory information depending on relative or ordinal position of the A and B elements of the three part series, A > B > C was used. The results showed that performance on problems similar to those used by Pears and Bryant was very high for 6- and 8-year olds. However, the 6-year-olds had great difficulty with the more complex problems, whereas the 8-year-olds did significantly better. These results are interpreted as indicating the presence of a developmental sequence of algorithms that enable children to resolve progressively more complex transitive inference problems.
Pleurotus biomass production on vinasse and its potential use for aquaculture feed

The vinasse is a by-product generated during the manufacture of alcohol from sugarcane fermentation. Rich in organic matter, it is known that the vinasse has the potential to be used as a source of nutrients for plants as well as microorganisms. In this study, the fungi Pleurotus sajor-caju, P. ostreatus, P. albidus and P. flabellatus were cultivated in vinasse and utilised as a complementary diet for Danio rerio fish. The fungi mycelia cultured in vinasse for 15 days were lyophilised and offered to the fishes at a rate of 2% (medium/body weight) for 28 days. P. albidus produced the highest biomass (16.27 g L−1). Bromatological analysis of mycelia showed similar values to commercial rations. Toxicity tests showed that fish survival was 100% and no significant biomass loss was observed, indicating that the tested fungi grown in vinasse showed no toxicity. Our results showed that vinasse is a promising by-product for fungal growth and the mycelia of Pleurotus sp. fungi can be included in the diets of fish as a nutritional supplement.
The Impact of Listening Strategy on Listening Comprehension

Successful FL learners are characterized by knowing how to use language learning strategies effectively. This article reports a study of the effect of strategy training on listening comprehension. In the study, 56 intermediate foreign language learners at Shandong Economic College were either participants in a strategies-based instructional treatment or were comparison students receiving the regular listening course. Data were obtained and analyzed through the performance of a set of three listening tasks on a pre-post basis by both groups. The subsample of twelve students also provided verbal report data to show their cognitive insights into strategy use and the instruction itself. It was found that the increased use of listening strategy contributed positively to listening comprehension, which led to the implication that formal strategy training should have a role in the foreign language listening classroom.
An Israeli Perspective

Abstract The Israeli system, an environment that most closely parallels the competitive environment in many regions of the United States where there is an oversupply of long-term beds is presented. With a variety of settings from which to choose, and an increasing shift to home and community-based services, the traditional nursing home has evolved into offering “niche” services, seeking applicants for their beds. Social workers are “required to be more business oriented and more involved in marketing” as well as resident oriented. The need for social workers to deal with conflicts of interest which arise and must be resolved are addressed.
Full duplex cognitive radio: a new design paradigm for enhancing spectrum usage

With the rapid growth of demand for ever increasing data rates, spectrum resources have become more and more scarce. As a promising technique to increase the efficiency of the spectrum utilization, cognitive radio has great potential to meet such a requirement by allowing unlicensed users to coexist in licensed bands. In conventional CR systems, spectrum sensing is performed at the beginning of each time slot before data transmission. Unfortunately, this results in two major problems: transmission time reduction due to sensing, and sensing accuracy impairment due to data transmission. To tackle these problems, in this article we present a new design paradigm for future CR by exploring full duplex techniques to achieve simultaneous spectrum sensing and data transmission. With FD radios equipped at secondary users (SUs), the SUs can simultaneously sense and access the vacant spectrum, and thus significantly improve sensing performance while increasing data transmission efficiency. The aim of this article is to transform the promising conceptual framework into a practical wireless network design by addressing a diverse set of challenges such as protocol design and theoretical analysis. Several application scenarios with FD-enabled CR are elaborated, and key open research directions and novel algorithms in these systems are discussed.
Electromagnetic Field Seems to Not Influence Transcription via CTCT Motif in Three Plant Promoters

It was proposed that magnetic fields (MFs) can influence gene transcription via CTCT motif located in human HSP70 promoter. To check the universality of this mechanism, we estimated the potential role of this motif on plant gene transcription in response to MFs using both bioinformatics and experimental studies. We searched potential promoter sequences (1000 bp upstream) in the potato Solanum tuberosum and thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana genomes for the CTCT sequence. The motif was found, on average, 3.6 and 4.3 times per promoter (148,487 and 134,361 motifs in total) in these two species, respectively; however, the CTCT sequences were not randomly distributed in the promoter regions but were preferentially located near the transcription initiation site and were closely packed. The closer these CTCT sequences to the transcription initiation site, the smaller distance between them in both plants. One can assume that genes with many CTCT motifs in their promoter regions can be potentially regulated by MFs. To check this assumption, we tested the influence of MFs on gene expression in a transgenic potato with three promoters (16R, 20R, and 5UGT) containing from 3 to 12 CTCT sequences and starting expression of β-glucuronidase as a reported gene. The potatoes were exposed to a 50 Hz 60–70 A/m MF for 30 min and the reporter gene activity was measured for up to 24 h. Although other factors induced the reporter gene activity, the MF did not. It implies the CTCT motif does not mediate in response to MF in the tested plant promoters.