Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diversity and adaptation in rodent copulatory behavior

Copulatory patterns of muroid rodents provide an ideal locus for comparative behavioral research. Such patterns are highly stereotyped within and between the individuals of a given species, variable across species, readily elicited in the laboratory, and of great biological significance. Detailed behavioral comparisons of a broad range of muroid species have revealed extensive behavioral diversity that was not anticipated from research confined to laboratory rats. Various muroid species display postejaculatory compulations without sperm transfer, locking, thrusting, and other behavioral patterns. This behavioral diversity appears not to be the result of a simple linear pattern of evolutionary history. Rather, patterns appear to have evolved repeatedly in response to particular selective pressures acting on particular species. While understanding of the adaptive significance of these behavioral patterns remains rudimentary, important beginnings have been made.
Higher Education Internationalization Strategies: Of Marginal Significance or All-Pervasive? The International Vision in Practice: A Decade of Evolution

The author, who is the Executive Director of the European Association for International Education, reflects on the relationship between the idea of the internationalization of higher education and its concrete expression in terms of professional organization and practice with special emphasis upon the role of her own organization. She traces the ways in which a progressive broadening of areas of attention in the internationalization of higher education have reached out to new activities and programmes, strategic integration, policy articulation, the juxtaposition of internationalization with Europeanization and globalization, and increased awareness of the possibilities of transnational education driven partly by the NICTs. Older conceptions of internationalization will co-exist with new conceptions of globalization and Europeanization.
Preparing Early Childhood Special Educators to Serve Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children and Families: Can a Multicultural Education Course Make a Difference?

There is no doubt that today's schools are faced with the challenge of educating an increasingly diverse school population. More teacher education programs address these challenges by adding courses in multicultural education and/or infusing content on teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students into the existing curriculum. This investigation reports on the changes in concepts and beliefs of 45 preservice teachers enrolled in a 17-week unified early childhood/special education multicultural education course. The course consisted of topics related to teaching students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Instructors used a variety of pedagogical strategies in the course including small group activities, case study illustrations, videotapes, thematic unit instruction, and traditional large group lectures. Students were asked to draw concept maps on “multicultural education” and write explanatory paragraphs on the first and last day of the course. Conceptual and belief changes were found in both the concept maps and supporting paragraphs.
The histologic spectrum, prognosis, and histogenesis of the sarcomatoid carcinoma of the pancreas

A series of 12 cases of pancreatic carcinoma with sarcoma‐like transformation were studied. Four distinctive histologic types were identified: spindle cell carcinoma, malignant giant cell tumor, pleomorphic giant cell carcinoma, and round cell anaplastic carcinoma. The spindle cell carcinoma had a predominance of malignant spindle and undifferentiated cells. Hemorrhage and sarcomatoid stroma with abundant osteoclast‐like giant cells were the features in the malignant giant cell tumor. The pleomorphic giant cell carcinoma was characterized by abundant malignant giant cells. The round cell anaplastic type was formed by monotonous sheaths of small, round, and plump cells with rare giant cells. The first three types are considered to be ductal in origin, whereas the fourth type is believed to arise from acinar or possibly insular tissue. The differential diagnosis includes various types of true sarcoma. Although the malignant giant cell tumor of the pancreas might have a better prognosis, the prognosis in the other three types does not differ significantly from that of the ordinary type of pancreatic carcinoma.
Party Identification, Political Preferences and Material Conditions

The paper reports the results of analysing the first two waves of the British Household Panel Survey, conducted in 1991 and 1992. The connections between respondents' party identifications and voting choices are examined and related to a range of exogenous factors, including social location, ideology, policy preferences and changing material conditions. It is argued that identifications may be indistinguishable from voting choices and that, as a result, models that include party identification as an explanatory variable may be mis-specified.
Advancing the Study of Adolescent Substance Use Through the Use of Integrative Data Analysis

A wealth of information is currently known about the epidemiology, etiology, and evaluation of drug and alcohol use across the life span. Despite this corpus of knowledge, much has yet to be learned. Many factors conspire to slow the pace of future advances in the field of substance use including the need for long-term longitudinal studies of often hard-to-reach subjects who are reporting rare and episodic behaviors. One promising option that might help move the field forward is integrative data analysis (IDA). IDA is a principled set of methodologies and statistical techniques that allow for the fitting of statistical models to data that have been pooled across multiple, independent samples. IDA offers a myriad of potential advantages including increased power, greater coverage of rare behaviors, more rigorous psychometric assessment of theoretical constructs, accelerated developmental time period under study, and enhanced reproducibility. However, IDA is not without limitations and may not be useful in a given application for a variety of reasons. The goal of this article is to describe the advantages and limitations of IDA in the study of individual development over time, particularly as it relates to trajectories of substance use. An empirical example of the measurement of polysubstance use is presented and this article concludes with recommendations for practice.
Fast and accurate rectilinear steiner minimal tree algorithm for VLSI design

In this paper, we present a very fast and accurate rectilinear Steiner minimal tree (RSMT) algorithm called FLUTE. The algorithm is an extension of the wirelength estimation approach by fast lookup table [1]. The main contribution of this paper is a new net breaking technique which is much better than the one in [1]. A scheme is also presented to allow users to control the tradeoff between accuracy and runtime.FLUTE is optimal for nets up to degree 9 and is still very accurate for nets up to degree 100. So it is particularly suitable for VLSI applications in which most nets have a degree 30 or less. We show experimentally that over 18 industrial circuits in the ISPD98 benchmark suite, FLUTE with default accuracy is more accurate than the Batched 1-Steiner heuristic and is almost as fast as a very efficient implementation of Prim's rectilinear minimum spanning tree (RMST) algorithm. By adjusting the accuracy parameter, the error can be further reduced with only a small increase in runtime (e.g., 2.7x error reduction with 2.2x runtime increase).
Adaptive data delivery framework for financial time series visualization

Nowadays, financial applications spread over various devices in both e-commerce and m-commerce. One of the major tasks in this kind of application is viewing the historical price movement of a stock for the market players before making any decision. However, due to the divergence of the configurations among different devices and platforms, adaptation is necessary for time series data delivery and visualization. In this paper, an adaptive framework of financial time series delivery and visualization is proposed to achieve this goal. The core system adapts the concept of data point importance and data points reordering for time series representation. The application of the proposed framework on stock price time series delivery and visualization is demonstrated in different devices using Web service.
Anaemia among school children older than five years in the Volta Region of Ghana

Introduction Anaemia among children is a public health issue in Ghana. The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) was instituted on pilot basis in an effort to provide nutritious lunch to school children. Evidence on the nutritional status of pupils is needed to inform the expansion of GSFP. This study sought to assess anaemia among Ghanaian pupils. Methods This cross-sectional study involved a random sample of 143 pupils aged 6 to 12 years. Blood samples were collected and analysed for serum-ferritin (SF), C-reactive protein (CRP), haemoglobin and malaria-parasitaemia (MP). Stool samples were examined for soil-transmitted helminthes. Dietary data were collected using the 24 hour-recall method on three non-consecutive days and a food frequency questionnaire. The Student's t-test was used to compare mean values between sexes. Binary logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with anaemia. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 Results SF and haemoglobin concentrations were 23.9±15ng/ml and 120±11g/L respectively. The prevalence of anaemia was 30.8%. More females (41.5%) than males (21.8%) had anaemia (p < 0.005). Seventy-one percent of pupils had low SF levels. MP prevalence was 67.8%. Hookworm infestation was only observed in males (18.0%). Dietary iron and vitamin C intakes were 18.98±8.8mg and 23.7±6.7mg, respectively. Child's sex, SF and MP were associated with anaemia. Males had a lower likelihood of being anaemic (OR = 0.2, CI 0.1-0.5, p = 0.002) Conclusion The study findings underscore the need for multi-pronged approaches that address both malaria control and nutrition in order to reduce anaemia among pupils.
Epidemiology of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Visitors for the London 2012 Olympic Games: A Review of Attendees at Sexual Health Services

Background Mass gatherings and large sporting events, such as the Olympics, may potentially pose a risk of increased sexually transmitted infection (STI) transmission and increase burden on local STI services. The objectives of this analysis were to assess whether the STI profile of Olympic visitors differed from that of the local STI clinic population and to investigate what impact these visitors had on local STI services. Methods Self-administered questionnaires (completed by 29,292 patients) were used to determine the visitor status of patients attending 20 STI clinics, between July 20, 2012, and September 16, 2012, in the host cities, London and Weymouth. Using routine surveillance data from the Genitourinary Medicine Clinic Activity Dataset version 2, Olympic visitors were compared with usual attendees (local residents and non-Olympic visitors) in terms of their demographic characteristics, services utilized, and STIs diagnosed using univariate and multivariate methods. Results Compared with usual attendees, Olympic visitors were more likely to be heterosexual males (56.0% vs. 34.9%, P = 0.001), aged between 15 and 24 years of age (47.1% vs. 34.0%, P = 0.001), of white ethnicity (81.9% vs. 66.4%, P = 0.001), and born in Australasia, Asia, North America, or South America (18.8% vs. 12.0%, P = 0.006). Olympic visitors constituted 1% of new clinic attendances and were less likely to be diagnosed as having a new STI (adjusted odds ratio, 0.69; 95% confidence interval, 0.48–0.98; P = 0.040). Conclusions In this first multisite study to examine the effect of Olympic visitors on local sexual health services, the 2012 Olympic Games was found to have minimal impact. This suggests that a “business as usual” approach would have been sufficient.
Yearning for faraway places: the construction of migration desires among young and educated Bangladeshis in Dhaka

These days, the imagined destinations of ever more people, particularly in the ‘global South’, are not where they were born but elsewhere. Using a case study of educated (lower) middle-class youth in Dhaka, this paper attempts to demonstrate that for many ‘aspiring migrants’, the yearning for leaving is a metaphor for disappointment and disengagement rather than the first step towards transnational migration. Economic growth, rapid urbanisation and the increasing investment in education infest the emerging urban (lower) middle-class youth with new ‘modern’ lifestyle desires that cannot be fulfilled in their home country and generate a sense of disengagement with Bangladesh. The paper focuses in particular on how the – culturally embedded – imaginations of foreign places link up to personal (re-)evaluations of local lives. Nearly all informants explained how local socio-economic, political and existential insecurities made them yearn for ‘safe’ places where their dreams could be fulfilled.
Phase II trial of 9-nitrocamptothecin (RFS 2000) for patients with metastatic cutaneous or uveal melanoma

The camptothecin derivative 9-nitrocamptothecin (9-NC) has demonstrated clinical activity in patients with ovarian and pancreatic carcinomas. Preclinical studies have shown promising activity of 9-NC for melanoma. We have thus conducted a phase II clinical trial of 9-NC for patients with metastatic cutaneous and uveal melanoma. Twenty-eight patients were enrolled in the trial, with diagnoses evenly divided between the two types of melanoma. 9-NC was administered orally at a starting dose of 1.5 mg/m2/day for 5 consecutive days of each week. No complete or partial responses were observed. Stabilization of disease was achieved in four individuals (15%) for durations of 3, 4, 6 and 8 months. Hematologic toxicity was moderate. Gastrointestinal side effects were common with 43% of the patients experiencing grade 3 or 4 diarrhea and 18% reporting grade 3 or 4 vomiting. In contrast to other 9-NC clinical trials, no patients developed chemical cystitis with gross hematuria. We conclude that, in keeping with the general chemoresistance of melanoma, 9-NC at the dose and schedule studied in this trial is significantly toxic and is not active for metastatic melanoma of cutaneous or uveal origin.
Sex Differences in Tactual-Kinaesthetic and Visual Perception of Vertically

Previous studies on visual and tactual-kinaesthetic perception with head tilted sidewise have shown that the greater deviations are to the left, i.e. the adjustments of a luminous line or a pivoting rod tend to fall counter-clockwise to the perpendicular. This paper shows significant sex difference in tactual-kinaesthetic perception only. Men and women show similar and small deviations to the right with head tilted to the left but, with head tilted to the right, women show clearly greater deviations to the left. The discussion of the visual perception of verticality (the so-called Aubert phenomenon) has been confusing. Our results in the visual experiments show small deviations, and they support Aubert's statement.
AUTOMATIC VS. MANUAL TOPIC SEGMENTATION AND INDEXATION IN BROADCAST NEWS

This paper describes the latest progress in our work on Broadcast News for European Portuguese. The central modules of our media watch system that matches the topic of each news story against the user preferences registered in the system are: audio pre-processing, speech recognition and topic segmentation and indexation. The main focus of the paper is on the impact of the errors made by the earlier modules in the last ones. This impact is in our opinion an essential diagnostic tool for the improvement of the overall pipeline system.
A near real-time signal to interference ratio measurement technique in a frequency-selective multipath fading channel for the WCDMA system

This paper presents a new concept of realtime SIR estimation for CDMA systems. Unlike conventional symbol-based SIR estimator according to the successively received symbols, we propose a new chip-based SIR estimation method. The key contribution of this paper is to propose a mechanism to exploit the spreading codes of CDMA signals to estimate SIR. Under the COST 259 W-CDMA channel model, the simulation results demonstrate that the proposed chip-based SIR estimation algorithm can accurately measure SIR in less than 10/sup -4/ second in several chips, which is about over 1,000 times faster than the traditional symbol-based SIR estimation algorithms.
Academics and a Culture of Caring: The Relationship Between School Achievement and Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors in Four Urban Middle Schools

Researchers and practitioners attest to the importance of school culture for school effectiveness, however, critics contest that school culture is neither measurable, nor manipulable. Results from the present study suggest otherwise. The frequency of prosocial and antisocial student behaviors were rated by 1503 students and 92 teachers in four urban middle schools rank ordered by achievement. The highest achieving school combined an emphasis on academics with a culture of caring that was reflected in higher rates of prosocial behaviors and lower rates of antisocial behaviors among students. The second ranked school had a law and order environment but lacked the synergy that a culture of caring achieved. The lower achieving schools had significantly lower rates of prosocial behaviors and higher rates of antisocial behaviors among students. Both student and teacher perceptions supported these findings.
The PON1-108C/T polymorphism, and not the polycystic ovary syndrome, is an important determinant of reduced serum paraoxonase activity in premenopausal women.

BACKGROUND Because serum paraoxonase activity is influenced by the -108C/T polymorphism in the PON1 gene, we studied its involvement in the decreased paraoxonase activity recently described in the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). METHODS Paraoxonase activity, PON1-108C/T genotypes and clinical, hormonal and biochemical variables were evaluated in a case-control study involving 139 consecutive PCOS patients and 85 healthy controls matched for BMI and prevalence of smoking. RESULTS Women homozygous for -108T presented with reduced serum paraoxonase activity compared with carriers of C alleles (P < 0.001), both in PCOS patients and in controls. Although homozygosity for T alleles was more prevalent in PCOS patients than in controls (P = 0.003), serum paraoxonase activity was not significantly different in the PCOS and control groups. In a stepwise multivariate linear regression model, homozygosity for PON1-108T alleles was the only significant predictor of the logarithm of serum paraoxonase activity (beta = -0.328, t = -4.176, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS In premenopausal women from the Spanish population, the PON1-108C/T polymorphism, and not PCOS, is an important determinant of serum paraoxonase activity.
Steep-Switching Germanium Junctionless MOSFET With Reduced OFF-State Tunneling

In this paper, we report on the reduction of the off-state band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) while maintaining sub-60 mV/decade switching in Germanium (Ge) Junctionless (JL) transistor through well-calibrated simulations. Recognizing the product of current density (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${J}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and electric field (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${E}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) to be the key generic parameter governing device optimization, it is shown that a device with thicker film operated at lower drain bias (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\text {ds}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) can sustain impact ionization and limit BTBT, thereby balancing the conflicting requirements of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${J}\cdot {E}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for tunneling and impact ionization. An optimal workfunction and gate-to-drain underlap of 5 nm in Ge JL MOSFET can further suppress BTBT while achieving a subthreshold swing of ~5 mV/decade with nearly four decades of steep current transition at the threshold voltage along with a low off-current (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text {10}^{\text {$-10$}}\text{A}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\text {ds}} = \text {0.9}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> V. Results highlight new viewpoints for the design optimization of steep-switching Ge JL MOSFETs.
Time-Course of Changes in Choroidal Thickness after Complete Mydriasis Induced by Compound Tropicamide in Children

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the time-course of changes in choroidal thickness (ChT) following complete mydriasis induced by compound tropicamide. Methods ChT was measured by OCT with the enhanced-depth imaging technique (Spectralis HRA+OCT, Heidelberg Engineering, Germany) at nine locations of the fundus: subfoveal ChT (SFChT) and ChT at 1 mm and 3 mm from the fovea in four quadrants. Mydriasis was induced with compound tropicamide (0.5% tropicamide plus 0.5% phenylephrine hydrochloride, three doses at 5-minute intervals). Measurements were conducted prior to the instillation and at 0, 30, and 60 min following complete mydriasis. Results at different time-points were compared using repeated-measures ANOVA to investigate the time-course of the changes. Results Thirty-nine subjects (mean age 11.9±2 years; 16 males and 23 females) were enrolled in the study. Compound tropicamide resulted in a statistically significant decrease in SFChT at 0, 30, and 60 min after complete mydriasis, as compared to baseline (−5±4 μm, −12±4 μm, and −13±4 μm, respectively; all P<0.0001). No significant changes were detected in the parafoveal choroid except at 1 mm temporal (T1mm) and nasal (N1mm) to the fovea at 30 and 60 min (T1mm: −6±4 μm and −7±5 μm at 30 and 60 min; N1mm: −6±4 μm and −7±5 μm at 30 and 60 min, respectively; all P<0.0001). Repeated-measures ANOVA showed a significant interaction between the time after complete mydriasis and the effect of the mydriasis agent. Conclusions Complete mydriasis induced by compound tropicamide led to choroidal thinning, and the magnitude varied over time.
Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of Two Luminous Submillimeter Galaxies at z ~ 2.8

Using the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope, we have obtained rest-frame mid-infrared spectroscopy of two bright submillimeter galaxies. SMM J02399-0136 at z = 2.81 shows a superposition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission features and a mid-infrared continuum, indicating significant and roughly equal contributions to its bolometric luminosity from star formation and from a Compton-thick active galactic nucleus. We derive a new redshift of z = 2.80 for MM J154127+6616 from the IRS spectrum and find this object is dominated by starburst PAH emission. The rest-frame mid- to far-infrared spectral energy distributions are consistent with these submillimeter galaxies being scaled-up versions of local ultraluminous infrared galaxies. The mid-infrared spectra support the scenario that submillimeter galaxies are sites of extreme star formation and represent a key phase in the formation of massive galaxies.