Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Locus of Control in Relation to Cognitive Complexity

The present study explores the relationship between locus of control and cognitive complexity. It was hypothesized that persons having internal locus of control would show greater cognitive complexity than those having external locus of control, males would be more internally controlled than females and males would be more cognitively complex than females. 120 undergraduate students were taken as subjects. Among them 60 students were male and 60 were female students (Mean age=18.55years). Two tests were conducted to find out relationship between locus of control and cognitive complexity. One was Rotter’s Internal-External scale and the other was Kelly’s Role Construct Repertory test. It was found that internals are more cognitively complex than externals, males are more internally controlled than females and no significant sex difference exists in cognitive complexity.
Branden’s Self-Esteem Theory within the Context of Academic Psychology

The author proposes an integrated definition and theory of self-esteem that merges models from developmental, social, and clinical psychology. He identifies optimal, shared sources of self-esteem that he combines into a multidimensional model called the Intrapersonal Sources of Self-Esteem Theory. Based on this multidimensional theory, he designed a qualitative and quantitative measuring instrument, the Self-Esteem Sentence Completion Instrument, to assess people’s sources of self-esteem. He discusses research that applies this instrument, which suggests promising results in understanding self-esteem. Finally, he suggests a clinical application of the theory within a cognitive-behavioral therapy paradigm.
Attachment‐style differences in relationship maintenance strategies

This questionnaire study of the 324 partners from 162 romantic and marital relationships examined attachment‐style differences in reported use of relational maintenance strategies. For both males and females, persons with a Secure attachment style reported the highest mean scores on the prosocial maintenance strategies of Assurances and Romance, differing significantly from persons with a Dismissing attachment style. In addition, females were significantly more likely than males to report use of the Assurances and Romance maintenance strategies, whereas males were significantly more likely than females to report use of the Avoidance strategy.
Research on linear ultrasonic motor using longitudinal and bending mode

A novel linear ultrasonic motor based on the rectangular piezoelectric resonator with longitudinal and bending mode is presented in the paper. The solid model of the piezoelectric resonator is developed and the modal, harmonic responses and transient analysis for the piezoelectric resonator are inspected. Based on the analysis of the first order longitudinal mode and second-order bending mode of the piezoelectric resonator, we find that the value difference between the B2-mode frequency and the L1-mode frequency become smaller and the amplitudes of the piezoelectric resonator become bigger when there are holes in the elastic part. As the result, frequencies of the B2 and L1 vibration mode of the piezoelectric resonator can be optimized by changing the number and size of holes.
Superheavy dark matter

We show that in large-field inflationary scenarios, superheavy (many orders of magnitude larger than the weak scale) dark matter will be produced in cosmologically interesting quantities if superheavy stable particles exist in the mass spectrum. We show that these particles may be produced naturally during the transition from the inflationary phase to either a matter-dominated or radiation-dominated phase as a result of the expansion of the background spacetime acting on vacuum quantum fluctuations of the dark matter field. We find that as long as there are stable particles whose mass is of the order of the inflaton mass (presumably around 10{sup 13}thinspGeV), they will be produced in sufficient abundance to give {Omega}{sub 0}=1, quite independently of any details of the nongravitational interactions of the dark-matter field. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}
Mer tyrosine kinase (MerTK) promotes macrophage survival following exposure to oxidative stress

The MerTK plays several important roles in normal macrophage physiology, including regulation of cytokine secretion and clearance of apoptotic cells. Mer signaling in other cell types, including malignant cells that ectopically overexpress the RTK, leads to downstream prosurvival pathway activation. We explored the hypothesis that Mer has a prosurvival role in macrophages exposed to oxidative stress. H2O2 treatment of peritoneal exudate murine macrophages and J774 cells rapidly stimulated Mer phosphorylation in a concentration‐dependent manner. Mer phosphorylation was dependent on the ligand Gas6, as treatment with warfarin or MerFc (a fusion protein of the extracellular domain of Mer and the Fc portion of human Ig), inhibitors of Gas6 activity, blocked H2O2‐mediated activation of Mer. Antiapoptotic signals including pAkt and pErk 1/2 were increased dramatically (threefold and 4.5‐fold, respectively) in WT Mer‐positive macrophages compared with Mer KO macrophages stimulated with H2O2. In a consistent manner, Mer expression led to decreased cleavage of proapoptotic indicators PARP and Caspase‐3. Furthermore, Mer provided up to twofold enhanced cellular survival to primary macrophages exposed to H2O2. These data represent the first report of Mer activation in response to oxidative stress and demonstrate the ability of Mer RTK to promote macrophage survival in disease states that involve an oxidative stress environment.
Lysosomal enzyme precursors in coated vesicles derived from the exocytic and endocytic pathways

The molecular forms of two lysosomal enzymes, cathepsin C and cathepsin D, have been examined in lysosomes and coated vesicles (CVs) of rat liver. In addition, the relative proportion of these lysosomal enzymes residing in functionally distinct CV subpopulations was quantitated. CVs contained newly synthesized precursor forms of the enzymes in contrast to lysosomes where only the mature forms were detected. Exocytic and endocytic CV subpopulations were prepared by two completely different protocols. One procedure, a density shift method, uses cholinesterase to alter the density of CVs derived from exocytic or endocytic pathways. The other relies on electrophoretic heterogeneity to accomplish the CV subfractionation. Subpopulations of CVs prepared by either procedure showed similar results, when examined for their relative proportion of cathepsin C and cathepsin D precursors. Within the starting CV preparation, exocytic CVs contained approximately 80-90% of the total steady-state levels of these enzymes while the level in the endocytic population was approximately 10-13%. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to lysosome trafficking.
Integrating world cities into production networks : the case of port cities

In this article we analyse the location patterns of firms that provide specialized advanced producer services (APS) to international commodity chains that move through seaports. Such activities can take place in world cities or in port cities. The analysis of APS location patterns in port cities provides a good opportunity to integrate the study of world cities into the framework of Global Production Networks. Based upon our empirical findings, we conclude that while port-related APS activities predominantly follow the world city hierarchy, a number of port cities stand out because they act as nodes in global commodity flows and as centres of advanced services related to shipping and port activities. Based on these empirical findings we address future avenues of research.
Exploring communication processes in workplace meetings: A mixed methods study in a Swedish healthcare organization

BACKGROUND: An efficient team and a good organizational climate not only improve employee health but also the health and safety of the patients. Building up trust, a good organizational climate and a healthy workplace requires effective communication processes. In Sweden, workplace meetings as settings for communication processes are regulated by a collective labor agreement. However, little is known about how these meetings are organized in which communication processes can be strengthened. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore communication processes during workplace meetings in a Swedish healthcare organization. METHODS: A qualitatively driven, mixed methods design was used with data collected by observations, interviews, focus group interviews and mirroring feedback seminars. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and conventional content analysis. RESULTS: The communication flow and the organization of the observed meetings varied in terms of physical setting, frequency, time allocated and duration. The topics for the workplace meetings were mainly functional with a focus on clinical processes. Overall, the meetings were viewed not only as an opportunity to communicate information top down but also a means by which employees could influence decision-making and development at the workplace. CONCLUSIONS: Workplace meetings have very distinct health-promoting value. It emerged that information and the opportunity to influence decisions related to workplace development are important to the workers. These aspects also affect the outcome of the care provided.
Pipelined language model construction for Polish speech recognition

Abstract The aim of works described in this article is to elaborate and experimentally evaluate a consistent method of Language Model (LM) construction for the sake of Polish speech recognition. In the proposed method we tried to take into account the features and specific problems experienced in practical applications of speech recognition in the Polish language, reach inflection, a loose word order and the tendency for short word deletion. The LM is created in five stages. Each successive stage takes the model prepared at the previous stage and modifies or extends it so as to improve its properties. At the first stage, typical methods of LM smoothing are used to create the initial model. Four most frequently used methods of LM construction are here. At the second stage the model is extended in order to take into account words indirectly co-occurring in the corpus. At the next stage, LM modifications are aimed at reduction of short word deletion errors, which occur frequently in Polish speech recognition. The fourth stage extends the model by insertion of words that were not observed in the corpus. Finally the model is modified so as to assure highly accurate recognition of very important utterances. The performance of the methods applied is tested in four language domains.
Do Presumed Online Media Effects Have an Influence on the Online Activities of Politicians

According to theoretical approaches, such as the influence of presumed media influence approach, individuals’ attitudes and behaviors are affected by the influences they believe the media has on others. Politicians, for example, are thought to perform media relations activities because they ascribe great importance to the media. This has been tested regarding politicians’ online activities using data from two surveys of members of Germany's national parliament, the Bundestag (nt1/t2 = 194/149). It was hypothesized that parliamentarians use Facebook and Twitter more extensively when they believe that these social media tools have a strong political influence on the public, journalists, and other politicians. However, the results indicate that parliamentarians use Facebook and Twitter regardless of whether they expect it to have an impact on other people. Therefore, politicians’ online activities are determined by other reasons and not such strategic motives. Thus, although (or precisely because) the hypotheses are rejected, the findings are an important contribution to the research on politicians’ motives for online communication.
Connectionist and Memory-Array Models of Artificial Grammar Learning

Subjects exposed to strings of letters generated by a finite state grammar can later classify grammatical and nongrammatical test strings, even though they cannot adequately say what the rules of the grammar are (e.g., Reber, 1989). The MINERVA 2 (Hintzman, 1986) and Medin and Schaffer (1978) memory-array models and a number of connectionist outoassociator models are tested against experimental data by deriving mainly parameter-free predictions from the models of the rank order of classification difficulty of test strings. The importance of different assumptions regarding the coding of features (How should the absence of a feature be coded? Should single letters or digrams be coded? ), the learning rule used (Hebb rule vs. delta rule), and the connectivity (Should features be predicted only by previous features in the string, or by all features simultaneously? ) is investigated by determining the performance of the models with and without each assumption. Only one class of connectionist model (the simultaneous delta rule) passes all the tests. It is shown that this class of model can be regarded by abstracting a set of representative but incomplete rules of the grammar.
Validation of mission critical software design and implementation using model checking [spacecraft]

Over the years, the complexity of space missions has dramatically increased with more of the critical aspects of a spacecraft's design being implemented in software. With the added functionality and performance required by the software to meet system requirements, the robustness of the software must be upheld. Traditional software validation methods of simulation and testing are being stretched to adequately cover the needs of software development in this growing environment. It is becoming increasingly difficult to establish traditional software validation practices that confidently confirm the robustness of the design in balance with cost and schedule needs of the project. As a result, model checking is emerging as a powerful validation technique for mission critical software. Model checking conducts an exhaustive exploration of all possible behaviors of a software system design and as such can be used to detect defects in designs that are typically difficult to discover with conventional testing approaches.
Preimplantation genetic screening: a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs.

BACKGROUND Preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) has increasingly been used in the past decade. Here we present a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs on the effect of PGS on the probability of live birth after IVF. METHODS PubMed and trial registers were searched for RCTs on PGS. Trials were assessed following predetermined quality criteria. The primary outcome was live birth rate per woman, secondary outcomes were ongoing pregnancy rate, miscarriage rate, multiple pregnancy rate and pregnancy outcome. RESULTS Nine RCTs comparing IVF with and without PGS were included in our meta-analysis. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was used in all trials and cleavage stage biopsy was used in all but one trial. PGS significantly lowered live birth rate after IVF for women of advanced maternal age (risk difference: -0.08; 95% confidence interval: -0. 13 to -0.03). For a live birth rate of 26% after IVF without PGS, the rate would be between 13 and 23% using PGS. Trials where PGS was offered to women with a good prognosis and to women with repeated implantation failure suggested similar outcomes. CONCLUSIONS There is no evidence of a beneficial effect of PGS as currently applied on the live birth rate after IVF. On the contrary, for women of advanced maternal age PGS significantly lowers the live birth rate. Technical drawbacks and chromosomal mosaicism underlie this inefficacy of PGS. New approaches in the application of PGS should be evaluated carefully before their introduction into clinical practice.
Effect of age on characteristics of forward and backward gait at preferred and accelerated walking speed.

BACKGROUND Backward walking is used increasingly in rehabilitation programs to promote balance, strength, and aerobic conditioning. This study examines the effect of movement direction on the temporal-spatial gait characteristics of old versus young adults when progressing at a comfortable pace and as fast as possible. METHODS Participants included 40 old (mean age 77.7, standard deviation +/- 6.2) and 30 young volunteers (mean age 24.0, standard deviation +/- 2.3), who were independent walkers. Using a computer-based walkway system, participants were requested to walk forward and backward at a normal pace and as fast as possible. Analyses of variance and Tukey-Kramer tests were conducted to determine effects of age, movement direction, and acceleration of gait speed on various gait parameters. RESULTS Forward and backward walking of elderly persons is generally characterized by a lower velocity, cadence, stride length, and swing phase, accompanied by an increase in the double-support phase. Reversing from forward to backward walking presents a similar pattern in both age groups, with a decrease in gait velocity, stride length, and swing phase, an increase in the double-support phase, and no change in cadence. However, the decrease in stride length is significantly greater among elderly persons. In young persons, higher gait velocities are achieved by concurrent increases in stride length and cadence, regardless of movement direction. Ability of older persons to increase backward ambulation is limited and relies solely on increasing cadence. CONCLUSIONS Elderly persons demonstrate difficulties in walking backward, with stride length particularly affected. These difficulties must be considered when using backward ambulation for rehabilitation of elderly persons.
Prognostic Factors That Affect the Surgical Outcome of the Laminoplasty in Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy

Background This study examined the prognostic factors that affect the surgical outcome of laminoplasty in cervical spondylotic myelopathy patients by comparative analysis. Methods Thirty nine patients, 26 males and 13 females, who were treated with laminoplasty for cervical myelopathy from September 2004 to March 2008 and followed up for 12 months or longer, were enrolled in this study. The mean age of the subjects was 62.4 years (range, 37 to 77 years). The patients' age, number of surgical segments, spinal cord compression ratio, segment number, level, localized marginal pattern of high signal intensity within the spinal cord in the T2 image, preoperative Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scoring System (JOA) score with the recovery ratio were compared respectively. The JOA score was used for an objective assessment of the patients' preoperative and postoperative clinical status. The recovery ratios of surgery were graded using the Hirabayashi equation. Statistical analysis was carried out using Pearson correlation analysis. Results The patients' JOA score increased from a preoperative score of 11.1 (range, 5 to 16) to a postoperative score of 14.9 (range, 7 to 17). The average recovery ratio was 65.8% (range, 0 to 100%). The number of segments with high signal changes in the T2 image, a localized marginal pattern with high signal change, signal intensity changes in the upper cervical spinal cord were inversely associated with the recovery ratio, whereas the spinal cord compression ratio showed a significant positive correlation. However, the currently known prognostic factors, such as number of surgical segment, age, and preoperative JOA score, showed no statistically significant correlation. Conclusions The number of segments, localized marginal pattern, rostral location of signal intensity changes with a high signal change in the T2 image and a low spinal cord compression ratio in cervical spondylotic myelopathy patients treated by laminoplasty can indicate a poor prognosis.
Public opinion and the reform of the pensions systems in Europe

espanolLos cambios demograficos que se han producido en los paises europeos en las ultimas decadas han convertido el sistema publico de pensiones en una de las politicas del estado de bienestar mas sometidas a debate. En este trabajo se analizan las actitudes de la opinion publica ante las diferentes alternativas de reforma que se estan barajando en el debate publico. Para ello se utilizan datos comparativos del Eurobarometro con el fin de comparar las diferencias en los climas de opinion por paises. En el trabajo se constata que existen importantes diferencias entre paises que pueden ser parcialmente explicadas en funcion de la tipologia de estados de bienestar. Al mismo tiempo, se contrasta empiricamente si la formacion de las opiniones en torno a la reforma del sistema de pensiones viene determinada por motivaciones ideologicas o si, por el contrario, las preferencias individuales pueden explicarse en funcion de la posicion en la estructura social. Los resultados muestran que los principios distributivos que inspiran los diferentes modelos de estado de bienestar tienen una gran influencia sobre el tipo de reforma del sistema de pensiones preferida. Los principios liberal y familista correlacionan positivamente con la preferencia por un incremento de la edad de jubilacion, mientras que los principios universalista y conservador correlacionan positivamente con la preferencia por un incremento de la cotizaciones sociales. EnglishThe demographic changes occurring in European countries in recent decades have made the public pension system one of the most debated policies of the welfare state. This paper analyzes attitudes in public opinion to the different reform alternatives being discussed in the public debate. To perform this analysis, we use comparative data from the Eurobarometer to compare the differences in the climates of opinion by country. The paper argues that there are significant differences between countries that may be explained in part by the typology of welfare state in each. At the same time, we contrast empirically whether the formation of opinions around the reform of the pension system is determined by ideological issues or whether, in contrast, individual preferences can be explained based on position in the social structure. In order to test the joint influence of national characteristics and individual variables on attitudes toward the reform, we use a combination of methodologies for multilevel analysis and joint estimation.
A formal theorem in Church's theory of types

This note is concerned with the logical formalism with types recently introduced by Church [1] (and called (C) in this note) It was shewn in his paper (Theorem 26α) that if Yα stands for (a form of the “axiom of infinity” for the type α), Yα can be proved formally, from Yι and the axioms 1 to 7, for all types α of the forms ι′, ι″, …. For other types the question was left open, but for the purposes of an intrinsic characterisation of the Church type-stratification given by one of us, it is desirable to have the remaining cases cleared up. A formal proof of Yα is now given for all types α containing ι, but the proof uses, in addition to Axioms 1 to 7 and Yι, also Axiom 9 (in connection with Def. 4), and Axiom 10 (in Theorem 9).