Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
External Sandhi in a Second Language: The Phonetics and Phonology of Obstruent Nasalization in Korean-Accented English

This article presents the results of an acoustic study of nasal assimilation and gestural overlap at word boundaries in Korean and Korean-accented English. Twelve speakers of Seoul Korean recorded phrases containing obstruent#nasal and obstruent#obstruent sequences in both Korean and English. Nasalization of the word-final obstruent, predicted by the rules of Korean phonology, occurred in 93% of obstruent#nasal sequences in Korean and in 32% of such sequences in Korean-accented English, a rate of application higher than that reported in most other studies of external sandhi alternations in nonnative speech. Acoustic analysis found categorical nasalization in the L1 Korean productions, but both categorical and gradient nasalization, along with a high degree of inter- and intraspeaker variation, in the L2 English productions. For a subset of speakers, there was a significant correlation between quantitative measures of nasalization in English and measures of consonant overlap in the English obstruent#obstruent sequences. An analysis in terms of articulatory gestures and the coupled-oscillator model of speech planning is supported. The analysis is based on the articulatory phonology model (Browman & Goldstein 1990a,b, 1992, 2000, Goldstein et al. 2006), though with modifications. Implications for phonetic and phonological representations, and for speech planning in both L1 and L2, are explored.
17.2 A 0.0013mm2 3.6μW nested-current-mirror single-stage amplifier driving 0.15-to-15nF capacitive loads with >62° phase margin

This paper introduces a nested-current-mirror (NCM) single-stage amplifier to advance its GBW-to-power/area efficiency and CL drivability beyond the multi-stage designs, while preserving a rail-to-rail output swing. The fabricated NCM amplifier demonstrates 33x higher GBW and 47dB higher DC gain than those of a typical differential-pair (DP) amplifier at equal power and area. By benchmarking with the recent three-stage amplifiers, this work improves FOM1 [=GBW.CL/(Power.Area)] by >6.6x, and upholds a comparable FOM2 [=SR.CL/(Power.Area)]. The CL drivability is >10x wider, while avoiding the stability limit at the heavy-CL side. These results justify advanced single-stage amplifiers as a potential replacement for multi-stage designs in traditional (e.g. 100pF/m coaxial cable) and advanced (e.g. low temperature polysilicon LCD) buffer interfaces.
Quality and Quantity of Learning Time in Preprimary Programs

This article addresses 3 issues in the organization and delivery of preprimary instruction. Attendance issues, including who will attend, who will provide the services, and whether attendance is mandatory or optional, are considered first. The second issue involves the basis for program entry, focusing primarily on the benefits/problems of using age as a criterion for school entry. Third, the article examines the effects of alternative curricula and length of school day on student achievement. The longer kindergarten day was found to have short-term benefits, particularly for disadvantaged students. Several approaches to kindergarten and prekindergarten instruction were found to be effective. The limitations of existing studies for addressing these policy questions are described. Finally, the problem of the increasing academic nature of the preprimary curriculum is discussed.
Metabolic organization and effects of feeding on enzyme activities of the dogfish shark (Squalus acanthias) rectal gland

SUMMARY In order to investigate the metabolic poise of the elasmobranch rectal gland, we conducted two lines of experimentation. First, we examined the effects of feeding on plasma metabolites and enzyme activities from several metabolic pathways in several tissues of the dogfish shark, Squalus acanthias, after starvation and at 6, 20, 30 and 48 h post-feeding. We found a rapid and sustained ten-fold decrease in plasma β-hydroxybutyrate at 6 h and beyond compared with starved dogfish, suggesting an upregulation in the use of this substrate, a decrease in production, or both. Plasma acetoacetate levels remain unchanged, whereas there was a slight and transient decrease in plasma glucose levels at 6 h. Several enzymes showed a large increase in activity post-feeding, including β-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase in rectal gland and liver, and in rectal gland, isocitrate dehydrogenase, citrate synthase, lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate amino transferase, alanine amino transferase, glutamine synthetase and Na+/K+ ATPase. Also notable in these enzyme measurements was the overall high level of activity in the rectal gland in general. For example, activity of the Krebs' TCA cycle enzyme citrate synthase (over 30 U g-1) was similar to activities in muscle from other species of highly active fish. Surprisingly, lactate dehydrogenase activity in the gland was also high (over 150 U g-1), suggesting either an ability to produce lactate anaerobically or use lactate as an aerobic fuel. Given these interesting observations, in the second aspect of the study we examined the ability of several metabolic substrates (alone and in combination) to support chloride secretion by the rectal gland. Among the substrates tested at physiological concentrations (glucose, β-hydroxybutyrate, lactate, alanine, acetoacetate, and glutamate), only glucose could consistently maintain a viable preparation. Whereas β-hydroxybutyrate could enhance gland activity when presented in combination with glucose, surprisingly it could not sustain chloride secretion when used as a lone substrate. Our results are discussed in the context of the in vivo role of the gland and mechanisms of possible upregulation of enzyme activities.
Daily repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) improves mood in depression

Converging evidence points to hypofunction of the left prefrontal cortex in depression. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) activates neurons near the surface of the brain. We questioned whether daily left prefrontal rTMS might improve mood in depressed subjects and report a pilot study of such treatment in six highly medication-resistant depressed inpatients. Depression scores significantly improved for the group as a whole (Hamilton Depression Scores decreased from 23.8 ± 4.2 (s.d.) at baseline to 17.5 ± 8.4 after treatment; t = 3.03, 5DF, p = 0.02, two-tailed paired t-test). Two subjects showed robust mood improvement which occurred progressively over the course of several weeks. In one subject, depression symptoms completely remitted for the first time in 3 years. Daily left prefrontal rTMS appears to be safe, well tolerated and may alleviate depression.
Learning Deep Representation for Imbalanced Classification

Data in vision domain often exhibit highly-skewed class distribution, i.e., most data belong to a few majority classes, while the minority classes only contain a scarce amount of instances. To mitigate this issue, contemporary classification methods based on deep convolutional neural network (CNN) typically follow classic strategies such as class re-sampling or cost-sensitive training. In this paper, we conduct extensive and systematic experiments to validate the effectiveness of these classic schemes for representation learning on class-imbalanced data. We further demonstrate that more discriminative deep representation can be learned by enforcing a deep network to maintain both intercluster and inter-class margins. This tighter constraint effectively reduces the class imbalance inherent in the local data neighborhood. We show that the margins can be easily deployed in standard deep learning framework through quintuplet instance sampling and the associated triple-header hinge loss. The representation learned by our approach, when combined with a simple k-nearest neighbor (kNN) algorithm, shows significant improvements over existing methods on both high-and low-level vision classification tasks that exhibit imbalanced class distribution.
Prevalence of body shape concerns and associated factors among brazilian early adolescents

Purpose. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of body shape concerns and associated factors among Bra­ zi lian early adolescents. Methods. This was a school­based cross­sectional epidemiological study conducted with 526 girls between 11 and 14 years enrolled in thirteen public schools in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The Body Shape Question­ naire and Eating Attitude Test (EAT­26) was administered. Sociodemographic variables (age group, household head education, and socioeconomic status), sexual maturation (pubic hair growth, breast development, and menarche) and percentage of body fat (%BF) were collected. Analyses were conducted using Poisson regression and a confidence level of 95%. Results. The preva­ lence of body shape concerns was 24.1% (95% confidence interval – CI: 17.5–30.7). Adolescent girls aged 13–14 years (prevalence ratio – PR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.03–1.11; p = 0.02), with very high (PR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.21–1.90; p = 0.004) and high %BF (PR = 1.25, 95% CI: 1.18–1.32; p = 0.004), and those girls showing risk behaviors for anorexia and bulimia (PR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.19–1.59; p = 0.01) were more concerned with their body image. Conclusions. The prevalence of body shape concerns among Brazilian girls was considerable and was associated with age, %BF, and risk behaviors for anorexia and bulimia. This study highlights the importance of screening for body image concerns in schools, preventing the adoption of unhealthy body weight ideals, and the development of excessive body shape concerns in this population.
Evolutionary artificial neural network based on Chemical Reaction Optimization

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are very popular tools to design and evolve artificial neural networks (ANNs), especially to train them. These methods have advantages over the conventional backpropagation (BP) method because of their low computational requirement when searching in a large solution space. In this paper, we employ Chemical Reaction Optimization (CRO), a newly developed global optimization method, to replace BP in training neural networks. CRO is a population-based metaheuristics mimicking the transition of molecules and their interactions in a chemical reaction. Simulation results show that CRO outperforms many EA strategies commonly used to train neural networks.
Personality characteristics of engineers

Abstract The objective of the current study was to investigate the personality characteristics of a group of engineers with a variety of years of experience. It was executed to remedy shortcomings of the literature concerning this issue and to produce suggestions for a postgraduate training programme for engineers. A total of103 engineers were tested with the five-factor personality inventory (FFPI), a ‘big five’ personality test of Dutch origin. The engineers were shown to score lower on the factor agreeableness, and higher on the factors extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and autonomy than a national comparison group. The older the engineers, the more conscientious and autonomous they were. In addition, engineers with lower degrees were more conscientious than engineers with higher degrees. A practical implication of the findings for the postgraduate training of engineers is that more attention should be paid to the development of interpersonal skills.
Knowledge construction, meaning-making and interaction in CLIL science classroom communities of practice

This paper draws on Wenger's model of community of practice to present preliminary findings on how processes of negotiation of meaning and identity formation occur in knowledge construction, meaning-making and interaction in two secondary Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) science classrooms. It uses a multimodal conversation analysis methodology to provide detailed analyses of how teachers and students use talk-in-interaction and other semiotic resources to build and maintain their communities of practice. The data come from two CLIL classrooms in Spain in the same curricular area (biology) but which differ in geographical and sociolinguistic context (Barcelona and Madrid), and in terms of age, level of secondary education and pedagogical approach. The findings show the complex patterns of participation and reification as teachers and learners use different linguistic and other resources to make meaning. The paper argues that a combination of Wenger's meso-level practice model and micro-level multimodal conversation analysis is highly effective in elucidating how learning and identity formation are accomplished in CLIL classrooms. It also suggests that the efforts to understand classroom processes and language use in CLIL classrooms can be strengthened by forging links between CLIL research and the classroom discourse work across different disciplines.
Different kinds of folks may need different kinds of strokes: The effect of patients' characteristics on therapeutic process and outcome.

In response to recent discussion of the importance of identifying theoretically derived patient characteristics to be included in the study of patient-therapy (PT) and patient-outcome (PO) interactions in psychotherapy research, this paper presents a model of two broad configurations of personality style and psychopathology that appear to be related to aspects of therapeutic process and outcome. Anaclitic psychopathologies are disorders primarily preoccupied with issues of interpersonal relatedness such as trust, caring, intimacy and sexuality, and which use primarily avoidant defenses (e.g., denial and repression) to cope with psychological conflict and stress. In contrast, introjective psychopathologies are disorders primarily concerned with establishing and maintaining a viable sense of self, ranging from a basic sense of separateness, to concerns about autonomy and control, to issues of self-worth, and that use primarily counteractive defenses (e.g., projection, doing and undoing, intellectualization,.
Components of aesthetic experience: aesthetic fascination, aesthetic appraisal, and aesthetic emotion

In this paper aesthetic experience is defined as an experience qualitatively different from everyday experience and similar to other exceptional states of mind. Three crucial characteristics of aesthetic experience are discussed: fascination with an aesthetic object (high arousal and attention), appraisal of the symbolic reality of an object (high cognitive engagement), and a strong feeling of unity with the object of aesthetic fascination and aesthetic appraisal. In a proposed model, two parallel levels of aesthetic information processing are proposed. On the first level two sub-levels of narrative are processed, story (theme) and symbolism (deeper meanings). The second level includes two sub-levels, perceptual associations (implicit meanings of object's physical features) and detection of compositional regularities. Two sub-levels are defined as crucial for aesthetic experience, appraisal of symbolism and compositional regularities. These sub-levels require some specific cognitive and personality dispositions, such as expertise, creative thinking, and openness to experience. Finally, feedback of emotional processing is included in our model: appraisals of everyday emotions are specified as a matter of narrative content (eg, empathy with characters), whereas the aesthetic emotion is defined as an affective evaluation in the process of symbolism appraisal or the detection of compositional regularities.
Hate Crimes Hurt More

Constitutional questions about hate crime laws in the United States were settled in the early 1990s. Yet, critics persist in arguing that the laws punish “improper thinking. ” In this context, this article addresses the question of the justification of punishing motivation—or bias—behind hate crimes when the type of expression and the thought behind it used to indicate motivation are largely protected. There has been considerable legal scholarship on this question but little empirical investigation of how supporters of legislation respond to the question. The article draws from in-depth interviews carried out with a purposive sample of “elite” informants in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1999. A key theme that emerged was that alleged greater harms inflicted by hate crimes—over and above the harms inflicted by the same underlying but otherwise motivated crimes—justify greater punishment. A conceptualization is provided of alleged harms involved.
Transitional Behavior of $q$-Composite Random Key Graphs With Applications to Networked Control

Random key graphs have received considerable attention and been used in various applications including secure sensor networks, social networks, the study of epidemics, cryptanalysis, and recommender systems. In this paper, we investigate <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$q$</tex-math></inline-formula>-composite random key graphs, whose construction on <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$</tex-math></inline-formula> nodes is as follows: each node independently selects a set of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K_n$</tex-math></inline-formula> different keys uniformly at random from the same pool of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_n$</tex-math></inline-formula> distinct keys, and two nodes establish an undirected edge in between if and only if they share at least <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$q$</tex-math></inline-formula> key(s). Such <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$q$</tex-math></inline-formula>-composite random key graphs allow modeling secure sensor networks employing the well-known <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$q$</tex-math></inline-formula>-composite key predistribution. For such graphs, we analyze the probabilities of having <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k$</tex-math></inline-formula>-connectivity, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k$</tex-math></inline-formula>-robustness, a Hamilton cycle, and perfect matching, respectively. The derived results reveal that <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$q$</tex-math></inline-formula>-composite random key graphs exhibit a sharp transition for each property: as <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K_n$</tex-math></inline-formula> increases, the probability of the property sharply increases. These results provide guidelines to design secure sensor networks for different control-related applications: distributed in-network parameter estimation, fault-tolerant consensus, and resilient data backup.
Forty-nine-month survival in a metastatic renal cell carcinoma patient across six lines of targeted therapy

A better understanding of the aetiopathogenetic molecular targets in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and the subsequent advent of targeted therapeutic agents have greatly improved the management and prognosis of RCC and patient survival. However, optimising therapeutic outcomes through appropriate sequential or combination therapy remains a challenge. Our 45-year-old male patient presented with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC); we effectively managed his aggressive, progressive disease across six lines of treatment, including sequential monotherapy and combination therapy, with targeted agents like sunitinib, everolimus, sorafenib, temsirolimus, and bevacizumab, resulting in a >48-month survival. Appropriate therapy with agents that have non-overlapping target profiles minimised treatment-related toxicities, enabling our patient to tolerate therapy at full doses. This case represents a good example of a significant clinical benefit of targeted therapy beyond the fourth line in mRCC. The survival and prognosis of mRCC patients may thus be significantly improved with the suitable use of newer targeted agents.
Inter‐cultural student interaction in post‐graduate business and information technology programs: the potentialities of global study tours

Extant academic literature, the media and views expressed by staff and students report that both local and international students are experiencing dissatisfaction with the lack of inter‐cultural student interaction occurring in classrooms, group discussions and teamwork in post‐graduate studies in the Australian higher education sector. It has been argued that increased interaction between local and international students may improve the overall student experience. This interpretive empirical study explores the potential of global study tours to increase inter‐cultural student interaction through the provision of opportunities for greater cultural understandings.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1 Reverse Transcriptase

Mutations were made in recombinant human immunodeficiency virus type-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) by substituting methionine 184 with alanine (M184A) or valine (M184V), and steady-state and pre-steady-state kinetic constants were determined. The Km values of M184A RT for dNTPs were larger than those of wt RT for RNA-directed synthesis; the kcat values of M184A RT for processive or distributive synthesis were similar. In contrast to M184A RT, the Km and kcat values of M184V RT for dNTP substrates were similar to those of wt RT. The Ki values of M184V RT for 1-β-L-nucleoside analogs were increased 30-500-fold relative to wt RT for both RNA- and DNA-directed synthesis. The Kd and kp values of wt RT and M184V RT for dCTP and cis-5-fluoro-1-[2-(hydroxymethyl)-1,3-oxathiolan-5-yl]cytosine 5′-triphosphate (1-β-L-FTCTP) were estimated from pre-steady-state kinetics for single nucleotide incorporation. The Kd value of M184V RT for 1-β-L-FTCTP was 19-fold greater than that of wt RT; the kp values of the two enzymes were similar. These results support the hypothesis that methionine 184 in the highly conserved YMDD region of wt RT participates in the binding of the nucleoside (analog) 5′-triphosphate.
2011 Young Surgeon's Award Winner: high endothelial venules: a novel prognostic marker in cancer metastasis and the missing link?

INTRODUCTION The extent of lymph nodes (LNs) metastasis is a major determinant for the staging and the most reliable adverse prognostic factor. Primary tumours can induce lymphatics and vasculature reorganisations within sentinel LN before the arrival of cancer cells and these key blood vessels are identified as high endothelial venules (HEV). The alterations of HEV in the presence of cancer, coupled with the increased proliferation rate of the endothelial cells, results in a functional shift of HEV from immune response mediator to blood flow carrier. We aim to evaluate tumour-induced vascularisation in regional LN of cancer patients by studying the morphological and functional alterations of HEV and its correlation to clinico-pathological features. MATERIALS AND METHODS This multi-centre study with a prospective database identified 65 consecutive patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) who underwent primary surgical treatment from 2001 to 2005. Immunohistochemical staining for HEV and image analysis were performed and analysed with correlation to the patients' clinico-pathological features. RESULTS The total number of HEV is significantly associated to disease-free interval when controlling for the group (P = 0.022) as well as combining both groups as one cohort (P = 0.023). There is also a similar association comparing the HEV parameters to overall survival. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that HEV possibly plays a key role in the pathogenesis of lymphatic and subsequent distant metastases and may provide the missing link in cancer metastasis. Confirmation of this hypothesis would offer a novel therapeutic approach to preventing metastasis by blocking the remodeling processes of HEV in LN.