Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How do student teachers experience the development of teacher identity during a three-year professional education degree?

For beginning teachers the development of a professional identity is significant because it influences decision making and impacts on longer term retention in the profession. This longitudinal research project explored the issue of professional identity development by early years’ student teachers during their three-year undergraduate degree programme. Whilst it is widely recognised those professionals working with the youngest children in formal education should be highly skilled and educated there is a paucity of research in relation to student teachers training to teach 3 – 5 year olds. It is useful to consider development of teacher identity within the current performative and highly accountable culture of English education. The study tracked the development of a teacher identity for seven undergraduate students using semi structured interviews in each year of study. These took place pre and post practicum and allowed the students an opportunity for reflection on their on-going experiences as a student teacher. The data was analysed using a hybridised thematic approach. Analysis showed that students may experience three forms of identity development: transformation; consolidation; and rejection. Five dimensions reaching across these different forms of identity development were identified as: relationships; agency; boundary crossing; expectations of others; and professional standards. Four areas of particular concern for these students included: affective relational elements; multiple identities; contextually situated negotiation; and external membership requirements. The findings have implications for practice in teacher education programmes including the need to consider developing a pedagogy of becoming a teacher, to support identity development, as an integral aspect of initial teacher education programmes. Recommendations are made for the development of such a pedagogical approach which surfaces: values; beliefs; role models; and student ideas around the teacher they wish to become.
Scaffolding and validation of bacterial genome assemblies using optical restriction maps

Motivation: New, high-throughput sequencing technologies have made it feasible to cheaply generate vast amounts of sequence information from a genome of interest. The computational reconstruction of the complete sequence of a genome is complicated by specific features of these new sequencing technologies, such as the short length of the sequencing reads and absence of mate-pair information. In this article we propose methods to overcome such limitations by incorporating information from optical restriction maps. Results: We demonstrate the robustness of our methods to sequencing and assembly errors using extensive experiments on simulated datasets. We then present the results obtained by applying our algorithms to data generated from two bacterial genomes Yersinia aldovae and Yersinia kristensenii. The resulting assemblies contain a single scaffold covering a large fraction of the respective genomes, suggesting that the careful use of optical maps can provide a cost-effective framework for the assembly of genomes. Availability: The tools described here are available as an open-source package at ftp://ftp.cbcb. umd.edu/pub/software/soma Contact: mpop@umiacs.umd.edu
Variance of the CTE Estimator

Abstract The Conditional Tail Expectation (CTE), also called Expected Shortfall or Tail-VaR, is a robust, convenient, practical, and coherent measure for quantifying financial risk exposure. The CTE is quickly becoming the preferred measure for statutory balance sheet valuation whenever real-world stochastic methods are used to set liability provisions. We look at some statistical properties of the methods that are commonly used to estimate the CTE and develop a simple formula for the variance of the CTE estimator that is valid in the large sample limit. We also show that the formula works well for finite sample sizes. Formula results are compared with sample values from realworld Monte Carlo simulations for some common loss distributions, including equity-linked annuities with investment guarantees, whole life insurance and operational risks. We develop the CTE variance formula in the general case using a system of biased weights and explore importance sampling, a form of variance reduction, as a way to improve the quality of the estimators for a given sample size. The paper closes with a discussion of practical applications.
Autonomous Skill Acquisition on a Mobile Manipulator

We describe a robot system that autonomously acquires skills through interaction with its environment. The robot learns to sequence the execution of a set of innate controllers to solve a task, extracts and retains components of that solution as portable skills, and then transfers those skills to reduce the time required to learn to solve a second task.
What regulates the velocity distribution of interstellar clouds

Kinetic energy stored in ISM bulk/turbulent motions is a crucial ingredient to properly describe most properties of observed galaxies. By using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate how this energy is injected by supernovae and dissipated via cloud collisions and derive the corresponding ISM velocity probability distribution function (PDF). The functional form of the PDF for the modulus of the velocity dispersion is p(v) ∝ v 2 exp[−(v/σ) � ]. The power-law index of the PDF depends only on the value of the average cloud collision elasticity h ǫi as β = 2exp(h ǫi − 1). If β and the gas velocity dispersion σ are known, the specific kinetic energy dissipated by collisions is found to be ∝ σ 2 ln(2/β)/(β − 0.947); in steady state, this is equal to the energy input from SNe. We predict that in a multiphase, low metallicity (Z ≈ 5 × 10 −3 Z⊙) ISM the PDF should be close to a Maxwellian (β = 2) with velocity dispersion σ > 11 km s −1 ; in more metal rich systems (Z > ∼ 5 × 10 −2 Z⊙), instead, we expect to observe almost exponential PDFs. This is in good agreement with a number of observations that we review and might explain the different star formation modes seen in dwarfs and spiral galaxies.
Facet Effusion without Radiographic Instability Has No Effect on the Outcome of Minimally Invasive Decompression Surgery

Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Objective Lumbar segmental instability is a key factor determining whether decompression alone or decompression and fusion surgery is required to treat lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS). Some recent reports have suggested that facet joint effusion is correlated with spinal segmental instability. The aim of this study is to report the effect of facet effusion without radiographic segmental instability on the outcome of less-invasive decompression surgery for LSS. Methods Seventy-nine patients with LSS (32 women, mean age: 69.1 ± 9.1 years) who had no segmental instability on dynamic radiographs before undergoing L4–L5 microsurgical decompression and who were followed for at least 2 years postoperatively were analyzed. They were divided into three groups on the basis of the existence and size of L4–L5 facet effusion using preoperative magnetic resonance imaging: grade 0 had no effusion (n = 31), grade 1 had measurable effusion (n = 35), and grade 2 had large effusion (n = 13). Japanese Orthopedics Association (JOA) score, visual analog scale (VAS), and the Short-Form (SF)-36 scores were recorded preoperatively and 12 and 24 months postoperatively. Results JOA score; VAS of low back pain, leg pain, and numbness; and SF-36 (physical component summary and mental component summary) scores did not differ significantly between the three groups in every terms (p = 0.921, 0.996, 0.950, 0.693, 0.374, 0.304, and 0.624, respectively, at final follow-up). Conclusion In the absence of radiographic instability, facet joint effusion has no effect on the outcome of less-invasive decompression surgery.
Kung Fu Training Improves Physical Fitness Measures in Overweight/Obese Adolescents: The “Martial Fitness” Study

Aim. To examine the efficacy of a six-month Kung Fu (KF) program on physical fitness in overweight/obese adolescents. Methods. Subjects were randomly assigned to the KF or sham exercise (Tai Chi, TC) control group. Physical measurements in cardiovascular fitness and muscle fitness occurred at baseline and after 6 months of training thrice weekly. Results. Twenty subjects were recruited. One subject was lost to follow-up, although overall compliance to the training sessions was 46.7 ± 27.8%. At follow-up, the cohort improved in absolute upper (P = .002) and lower (P = .04) body strength, and upper body muscle endurance (P = .02), without group differences. KF training resulted in significantly greater improvements in submaximal cardiovascular fitness (P = .03), lower body muscle endurance (P = .28; significant 95% CI: 0.37–2.49), and upper body muscle velocity (P = .03) relative to TC training. Conclusions. This short-term KF program improved submaximal cardiovascular fitness, lower body muscle endurance, and muscle velocity, in overweight/obese adolescents with very low baseline fitness.
An Encoding Technique for Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms Applied to Power Distribution System Reconfiguration

Network reconfiguration is an alternative to reduce power losses and optimize the operation of power distribution systems. In this paper, an encoding scheme for evolutionary algorithms is proposed in order to search efficiently for the Pareto-optimal solutions during the reconfiguration of power distribution systems considering multiobjective optimization. The encoding scheme is based on the edge window decoder (EWD) technique, which was embedded in the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA2) and the Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II). The effectiveness of the encoding scheme was proved by solving a test problem for which the true Pareto-optimal solutions are known in advance. In order to prove the practicability of the encoding scheme, a real distribution system was used to find the near Pareto-optimal solutions for different objective functions to optimize.
An Efficient 4D Processing Flow for Variable-depth Streamer Data

Variable-depth streamer acquisition is now widely used, achieving a bandwidth of more than 6 octaves (2.5 to 200 Hz) and excellent lateral resolution and providing improved impedance and reservoir analysis. This acquisition and processing method is based on towing the streamer deep, using a variable-depth profile optimized to ensure receiver notch diversity at the imaging stage and a deghosting method that takes advantage of the notch diversity. For 4D processing of monitors now acquired with variable-depth cables and with a baseline consisting of a flat towed streamer, we must deal with two processing issues. First, raypaths of traces acquired at the same surface locations differ; second, receiver ghosts lead to different wavelets. A 4D coprocessing flow is introduced that codatums 4D vintages to a common datum early in the sequence. Furthermore, a new deghosting technique is applied to variable-depth and conventional data. This processing flow gives excellent repeatability with 4D noise of less than 10% on a zero-time repeatability test with North Sea data from 2013.
Requirement of Cognate CD4+ T-Cell Recognition for the Regulation of Allospecific CTL by Human CD4+CD127−CD25+FOXP3+ Cells Generated in MLR

Although immunoregulation of alloreactive human CTLs has been described, the direct influence of CD4+ Tregs on CD8+ cytotoxicity and the interactive mechanisms have not been well clarified. Therefore, human CD4+CD127−CD25+FOXP3+ Tregs were generated in MLR, immunoselected and their allospecific regulatory functions and associated mechanisms were then tested using modified 51Chromium release assays (Micro-CML), MLRs and CFSE-based multi-fluorochrome flow cytometry proliferation assays. It was observed that increased numbers of CD4+CD127−CD25+FOXP3+ cells were generated after a 7 day MLR. After immunoselection for CD4+CD127−CD25+ cells, they were designated as MLR-Tregs. When added as third component modulators, MLR-Tregs inhibited the alloreactive proliferation of autologous PBMC in a concentration dependent manner. The inhibition was quasi-antigen specific, in that the inhibition was non-specific at higher MLR-Treg modulator doses, but non-specificity disappeared with lower numbers at which specific inhibition was still significant. When tested in micro-CML assays CTL inhibition occurred with PBMC and purified CD8+ responders. However, antigen specificity of CTL inhibition was observed only with unpurified PBMC responders and not with purified CD8+ responders or even with CD8+ responders plus Non-T “APC”. However, allospecificity of CTL regulation was restored when autologous purified CD4+ T cells were added to the CD8+ responders. Proliferation of CD8+ cells was suppressed by MLR-Tregs in the presence or absence of IL-2. Inhibition by MLR-Tregs was mediated through down-regulation of intracellular perforin, granzyme B and membrane-bound CD25 molecules on the responding CD8+ cells. Therefore, it was concluded that human CD4+CD127−CD25+FOXP3+ MLR-Tregs down-regulate alloreactive cytotoxic responses. Regulatory allospecificity, however, requires the presence of cognate responding CD4+ T cells. CD8+ CTL regulatory mechanisms include impaired proliferation, reduced expression of cytolytic molecules and CD25+ activation epitopes.
Mining the relationship between anti-patterns dependencies and fault-proneness

Anti-patterns describe poor solutions to design and implementation problems which are claimed to make object oriented systems hard to maintain. Anti-patterns indicate weaknesses in design that may slow down development or increase the risk of faults or failures in the future. Classes in anti-patterns have some dependencies, such as static relationships, that may propagate potential problems to other classes. To the best of our knowledge, the relationship between anti-patterns dependencies (with non anti-patterns classes) and faults has yet to be studied in details. This paper presents the results of an empirical study aimed at analysing anti-patterns dependencies in three open source software systems, namely ArgoUML, JFreeChart, and XerecesJ. We show that, in almost all releases of the three systems, classes having dependencies with anti-patterns are more fault-prone than others. We also report other observations about these dependencies such as their impact on fault prediction. Software organizations could make use of these knowledge about anti-patterns dependencies to better focus their testing and reviews activities toward the most risky classes, e.g., classes with fault-prone dependencies with anti-patterns.
Survival and cure trends for European children, adolescents and young adults diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia from 1982 to 2002

Proportion cured is a potentially more informative cancer outcome measurement than 5-year survival. We present population-based estimates of cure for young patients diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Europe from 1982 to 2002. Thirty-five European cancer registries provided data. Survival was estimated by age, period of diagnosis and European region, and used as input for parametric cure models, which assume cured patients have the same mortality as the general population. For acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnosed in 1–14 year olds in 2000–2002, over 77% were estimated cured. The proportion cured improved significantly over the study period: an impressive 26–58% in infants (up to 1 year), 70–90% in 1–4 year olds, 63–86% in 5–9 year olds, 52–77% in 10–14 year olds, and 44–50% in 15–24 year olds. Regional variations in proportion cured reduced over time for 1–14 year-olds, but persisted in infants and 15–24 year olds. Five-year survival was always slightly higher than proportion cured. Considerable proportions of young patients were estimated cured of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Nevertheless, a small excess risk of death persisted beyond five years after diagnosis when patients remained at risk for late treatment effects, late relapses and second primaries.
Association of physical activity and health status with intelligence quotient of high school students in Jeddah

[Purpose] The present study investigated the relationships of physical activity and healthiness with the intelligence quotients of high school students in Jeddah. [Subjects and Methods] A total of 135 male and female students were randomly drawn from public and private secondary schools in Jeddah. A self-designed questionnaire was distributed to the students that included demographic, physical activity, and health status sections. Body mass index measurement and an intelligence quotient test were carried out for all students. In addition, samples of blood were collected to estimate hemoglobin and serum iron. [Results] The highest proportions of males and females (39.1% and 51% respectively) had an intelligence quotient score of more than 75%. Moreover, the findings revealed that about 35% of the students were categorized as overweight obesity, and there was aninverse correlation between body mass index and physical activity. Students who shared physical education classes and exercising at and outside school showed a positive correlation with high IQ scores. Regarding hemoglobin and iron levels, there were significant correlations between their levels in blood and IQ. [Conclusion] The intelligence quotient of adolescent students is positively associated with physical activity and health status.
On the Psychological Function of Nationalistic “Whitelash”

A noticeable feature of the political discourse accompanying the rise of Nationalism in White-majority countries is that White people fare worse than other ethnic groups in their societies. However, it is unclear based on the extant literature why group-based relative deprivation (GRD) would correlate with majority-group Nationalism. Here, we propose that the psychological function of Nationalism for majority-group members lies in its ability to assuage the negative feelings arising from GRD. Accordingly, in a New Zealand national probability sample (N= 15,607), we found that GRD among Whites was negatively associated with wellbeing. However, we also found an opposing indirect association mediated by Nationalism. GRD was associated with higher Nationalism, which was in turn associated with higher wellbeing. These findings suggest that endorsing beliefs about national superiority is one way a nation’s dominant ethnic group can cope with the negative psychological consequences of perceiving that their group is deprived.
Topics in econometrics of financial markets

This paper investigates the distribution of high frequency financial returns, with special emphasis on the seasonality. Using quantile regression, we show the expansions and shrinks of the probability law through the day for three years of 15 minutes sampled stock returns. Returns are more dispersed and less concentrated around the median at the hours near the opening and closing. We provide intraday value at risk assessments and we show how it adapts to changes of dispersion over the day. The tests performed on the out-of-sample forecasts of the VaR show that the model is able to give good risk assessments and it outperforms Gaussian and Student’s t GARCH models.
Self-Reported Periodontitis and Incident Type 2 Diabetes among Male Workers from a 5-Year Follow-Up to MY Health Up Study

Aims The purpose of this study was to examine whether periodontitis is associated with incident type 2 diabetes in a Japanese male worker cohort. Methods The study participants were Japanese men, aged 36–55 years, without diabetes. Data were extracted from the MY Health Up study, consisting of self-administered questionnaire surveys at baseline and following annual health examinations for an insurance company in Japan. The oral health status of the participants was classified by two self-reported indicators: (1) gingival hemorrhage and (2) tooth loosening. Type 2 diabetes incidence was determined by self-reporting or blood test data. Modified Poisson regression approach was used to estimate the relative risks and the 95% confidence intervals of incident diabetes with periodontitis. Covariates included age, body mass index, family history of diabetes, hypertension, current smoking habits, alcohol use, dyslipidemia, and exercise habits. Results Of the 2895 candidates identified at baseline in 2004, 2469 men were eligible for follow-up analysis, 133 of whom were diagnosed with diabetes during the 5-year follow-up period. Tooth loosening was associated with incident diabetes [adjusted relative risk = 1.73, 95% confidence interval = 1.14–2.64] after adjusting for other confounding factors. Gingival hemorrhage displayed a similar trend but was not significantly associated with incident diabetes [adjusted relative risk = 1.32, 95% confidence interval = 0.95–1.85]. Conclusions Tooth loosening is an independent predictor of incident type 2 diabetes in Japanese men.
Set membership with a few bit probes

We consider the bit-probe complexity of the set membership problem, where a set S of size at most n from a universe of size m is to be represented as a short bit vector in order to answer membership queries of the form "Is x in S? " by adaptively probing the bit vector at t places. Let s(m, n, t) be the minimum number of bits of storage needed for such a scheme. Buhrman, Miltersen, Radhakrishnan, and Srinivasan [4] and Alon and Feige [2] investigated s(m, n, t) for various ranges of the parameter t. We show the following. For two probes (t = 2): (a) There is a constant C > 0, such that for all large m, s(m, n, 2) ≤ C · m1−1/4n+1. This improves on a result of Alon and Feige that states that for n ≤ log m, s(m, n, 2) = O(mn log((log m)/n)/log m). (b) There is a constant D > 0, such that for 4 ≤ n and all large m, we have s(m, n, 2) ≥ D · m1−1/⌊n/4⌋. Thus, s(m, n, 2) = Ω(m) for n ≥ log m, that is, the requirement n ≤ log m in the upper bound of Alon and Feige is essential for any asymptotic improvement over the characteristic vector representation. For three probes (t = 3): s(m, n, 3) = O([EQUATION]mn log m). This improves on a result of Alon and Feige that states that s(m, n, 2) = O(m2/3 n1/3). In general: We show that for t ≥ 3, s(m, n, t) = Ω(m1/t−1). This lower bound improves on (for n ≤ log m) the lower bound s(m, n, 3) = Ω([EQUATION]mn/log m) (valid only for n ≥ 16 log m and for non-adaptive schemes) due to Alon and Feige; for small values of n, it also improves on the lower bound s(m, n, t) = Ω([EQUATION]) due to Buhrman et al. [4].