Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
School exclusion : exploring young people's views

Although school exclusion's negative effects on children, their families, schools and on society in general have been extensively researched, the phenomenon of school exclusion still exists. Previous research has justified the procedure of obtaining pupils' own views as a valuable methodology to develop an understanding of the impact of school exclusion. It has also been suggested that in order to have a greater understanding of school exclusion, further research needs to consider contextual factors such as those related to school and family systems. The study employed a mixed methodological design. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the experiences of thirteen young pupils regarding school exclusion. In addition, an attitude questionnaire to school and the individual was administered to all participants. Two groups of pupils were involved in this project: pupils who had been permanently excluded (Group One: n=7) and pupils who were at the greatest risk of permanent exclusion but had managed to avoid exclusion. (Group Two: n=6). The sample involves Year 8 and Year 9 pupils, boys and girls educated in settings across an out of London authority (two out of school provisions and one mainstream secondary school). The main aim of this study was to identify risk factors that cause exclusion, but more importantly, ascertain critical factors that prevent exclusion from school by investigating pupils' narratives. Findings derived from the data analysis emphasised the importance of good, positive relationships among all parties (teachers, parents, child), as well as the importance of communication and coordination between the three systems (school, family, child). Furthermore, the data analysis revealed the presence of family support as the most substantial difference between the two groups and indicated how this factor was critical for pupils to avoid school exclusion. Particular attention is given to the factors that help exclusion to be avoided, in order to suggest ways of developing more positive strategies for dealing with school exclusion. Implications for educational psychology practice and service provision are discussed. Avenues for future research are suggested.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization and risk of subsequent infection in critically ill children: importance of preventing nosocomial methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus transmission.

BACKGROUND Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization is a predictor of subsequent infection in hospitalized adults. The risk of subsequent MRSA infections in hospitalized children colonized with MRSA is unknown. METHODS Children admitted to an academic medical center's pediatric intensive care unit between March 2007 and March 2010 were included in the study. Anterior naris swabs were cultured to identify children with MRSA colonization at admission. Laboratory databases were queried and National Healthcare Safety Network definitions applied to identify patients with MRSA infections during their hospitalization or after discharge. RESULTS The MRSA admission prevalence among 3140 children was 4.9%. Overall, 56 children (1.8%) developed an MRSA infection, including 13 (8.5%) colonized on admission and 43 (1.4%) not colonized on admission (relative risk [RR], 5.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.4-10.1). Of those, 10 children (0.3%) developed an MRSA infection during their hospitalization, including 3 of 153 children (1.9%) colonized on admission and 7 of 2987 children (0.2%) not colonized on admission (RR, 8.4; 95% CI, 2.7-25.8). African-Americans and those with public health insurance were more likely to get a subsequent infection (P < .01 and P = .03, respectively). We found that 15 children acquired MRSA colonization in the pediatric intensive care unit, and 7 (47%) developed a subsequent MRSA infection. CONCLUSIONS MRSA colonization is a risk factor for subsequent MRSA infection in children. Although MRSA colonized children may have lower risks of subsequent infection than adults, children who acquire MRSA in the hospital have similarly high rates of infection. Preventing transmission of MRSA in hospitalized children should remain a priority.
Local versus large-scale characteristics of monsoon onset and post-onset rainfall over Indonesia

The austral summer monsoon onset and post-onset rainfall and their associated low-level winds are analyzed during the August-February season over Indonesia from 1979 to 2006 using surface and satellite products as well as reanalyses and regional climate model simulations. Onset date is defined using a local agronomic definition. Its leading empirical orthogonal function is found to exhibit a large-scale spatially-coherent signal across " monsoonal " Indonesia, i.e. mostly south of the Equator, with an asymmetric temporal behavior, such that delayed onsets are more intense than early ones. Associated anomalies in rainfall tend to weaken quickly after mid-to-late November or early December, especially over land, while they tend to persist over ocean. This weakening is shown to be associated with the evolution of distinct weather types revealed by a k means clustering. In particular, late onsets—usually related to warm El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events—are found to be accompanied by an increased prevalence of a weather type characterized by weak low-level daily averaged winds across monsoonal Indonesia and increased (decreased) rainfall over most of the islands (seas). This land-sea rainfall contrast is shown to be associated with an enhanced diurnal sea-land breeze circulation.
Cognitive predictors of unsafe driving in older drivers: a meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Background: Older drivers are at a higher risk of being involved in a motor vehicle accident. However, on-road assessments of all older drivers are impractical, highlighting the need to screen for potentially unsafe drivers. This study undertook a meta-analysis of research examining the cognitive predictors of driving ability in older drivers in order to provide an evidence-based method for screening drivers. Methods: Comprehensive searches were undertaken of the PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Health-Source Nursing electronic databases between 1980 and 2007 in order to identify studies that examined cognitive differences between drivers aged over 55 years who either passed or failed a driving assessment. Twenty-one studies were eligible for inclusion. Weighted Cohen's d effect sizes, percentage overlap statistics, Fail-safe Ns and 95% CIs were calculated for all cognitive tests. Results: The best predictors of on-road driving were the Ergovision and Useful Field of View (UFOV) tests, a complex RT task, Paper Folding task, Dot Counting, WMS Visual Reproduction, and Computerized Visual Attention Task. Simulator driving performance was best predicted by the Benton Line Orientation Task, Clock Drawing, a Driver Scanning task, the UFOV, WAIS Picture Arrangement and MMSE. Finally, the Trail Making Test, Stroop, UFOV, WAIS Block Design, and Automated Psychophysical Test were good predictors of driving problems. Conclusions: There are a variety of tests that appear suitable for screening older drivers, the exact choice of which depends on the “gold standard” for determining driving ability (on-road driving, driving simulator, driving problems) and whether a computerized or paper-and-pencil task is required.
Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis, Mycoplasma hominis, Mycoplasma genitalium, and Ureaplasma urealyticum infections and seminal quality in infertile and fertile men in Kuwait.

This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis, mycoplasmas, and ureaplasmas in semen samples of infertile compared with fertile men and to evaluate the seminological variables of semen from infected and noninfected men. A total of 127 infertile and 188 fertile men seen in a maternity hospital clinic were recruited into the study over a period of 14 months. Specimens were obtained by masturbation and examined for the presence of Ureaplasma urealyticum, Mycoplasma hominis, Mycoplasma genitalium, and C trachomatis by polymerase chain reaction. Semen analysis was performed according to World Health Organization guidelines. U urealyticum, M hominis, M genitalium, and C trachomatis were demonstrated in the semen samples of 31 (24.4%) vs 49 (26.1%), 22 (17.1%) vs 61 (32.4%), 6 (4.7%) vs 6 (3.2%), and 5 (3.9%) vs 7 (3.7%), respectively, of infertile and control men. Mixed infections were detected in 14 (11%) of infertile and 29 (15.4%) of fertile men. The infertile men positive for M hominis had semen samples that showed statistically significant differences in the mean of sperm pH and leukocyte count between infected and uninfected men (P < .03 and P < .001, respectively). Similarly, there was statistically significant difference in the leukocyte counts of M genitalium and C trachomatis in infected compared with uninfected men. A similar trend was noted in infected fertile compared with uninfected men. The difference in prevalence of these urogenital pathogens among infertile compared with fertile men was not statistically significant. However, genital mycoplasmas and chlamydial infections appeared to influence semen quality negatively.
Collaborative planning in a stakeholder society

This paper explores emerging forms for the system and practice of British planning, set in the context of managing conflicts over the use and development of land, and promoting particular qualities of places. In some periods, these two purposes came together, at other times, they drifted apart. Economic, environmental, social and political pressures in the 1990s encourage reintegration. This presents a demanding challenge requiring both the invention of new ways of working and changes in the formal arrangements of the planning system. It promises a more sustainable approach to addressing contemporary concerns with qualities of place in a 'stakeholder society'.
Grounding the Meaning of Words through Vision and Interactive Gameplay

Currently, there exists a need for simple, easily-accessible methods with which individuals lacking advanced technical training can expand and customize their robot's knowledge. This work presents a means to satisfy that need, by abstracting the task of training robots to learn about the world around them as a vision- and dialogue-based game, I Spy. In our implementation of I Spy, robots gradually learn about objects and the concepts that describe those objects through repeated gameplay. We show that I Spy is an effective approach for teaching robots how to model new concepts using representations comprised of visual attributes. The results from 255 test games show that the system was able to correctly determine which object the human had in mind 67% of the time. Furthermore, a model evaluation showed that the system correctly understood the visual representations of its learned concepts with an average of 65% accuracy. Human accuracy against the same evaluation standard was just 88% on average.
Working memory, selective visual attention and hierarchical perception

Previous research has shown that stimuli held in working memory can guide spatial allocation of attention, even when the stimuli are irrelevant to a subsequent search task. Responses are speeded when the content in working memory matches a target, and are slowed when the content matches a distractor (Downing, 2000; Soto, Heinke, Humphreys, & Blanco, 2005). The relevant literature reflects on whether or not this top-down process of attentional capture from working memory is an automatic mechanism where attention gets deployed without a need for voluntary effort, and on the neural process of this endogenous control working in conjunction with bottom-up exogenous factor. So far there have not been any explorations into how the working memory might influence non-spatial selection of attentional selection, whilst also testing for the automaticity of working memory. Using Navon stimuli, I explored if and how various types of items held in working memory affect the perception of visual targets non-spatially, at local and global levels in compound letters. The data show that information in working memory biases the selection of hierarchical forms whilst priming does not, that irrelevant part of memory item also influences attentional selection, that the specific type of attentional mode (distributed vs. focused) plays an important role in selection, and that it is not easy to eradicate the top-down working memory effect.
Validation of Reliability Forecasting for Power Transformers

Knowledge of the reliability of power transformers is of growing importance to the asset manager. A method is presented for determining the reliability of a power transformer based on the mechanical strength of winding insulation paper. In addition to the modelling technique, there is a validation method for the modelling technique presented. The validation method depends on a good data management system of the critical parameters. The modelling technique and validation method are both performed on a practical case, a scrapped machine transformer. The validation of the modelling technique resulted in good match, within the predicted accuracy of the methods.
Rigorous Statistical Analysis of Internet Loss Measurements

Loss measurements are widely used in today's networks. There are existing standards and commercial products to perform these measurements. The missing element is a rigorous statistical methodology for their analysis. Indeed, most existing tools ignore the correlation between packet losses and severely underestimate the errors in the measured loss ratios. In this paper, we present a rigorous technique for analyzing performance measurements, in particular, for estimating confidence intervals of packet loss measurements. The task is challenging because Internet packet loss ratios are typically small and the packet loss process is bursty. Our approach, SAIL, is motivated by some simple observations about the mechanism of packet losses. Packet losses occur when the buffer in a switch or router fills, when there are major routing instabilities, or when the hosts are overloaded, and so we expect packet loss to proceed in episodes of loss, interspersed with periods of successful packet transmission. This can be modeled as a simple on/off process, and in fact, empirical measurements suggest that an alternating renewal process is a reasonable approximation to the real underlying loss process. We use this structure to build a hidden semi-Markov model (HSMM) of the underlying loss process and, from this, to estimate both loss ratios and confidence intervals on these loss ratios. We use both simulations and a set of more than 18 000 hours of real Internet measurements (between dedicated measurement hosts, PlanetLab hosts, Web and DNS servers) to cross-validate our estimates and show that they are better than any current alternative.
Neuromuscular Responses During Aquatic Resistance Exercise With Different Devices and Depths

Abstract Colado, JC, Borreani, S, Santana Pinto, S, Tella, V, Martin, F, Flandez, J, and Kruel, LF. Neuromuscular responses during aquatic resistance exercise with different devices and depths. J Strength Cond Res 27(12): 3384–3390, 2013—Little research has been reported regarding the effects of using different devices and immersion depths during the performance of resistance exercises in a water environment. The purpose of this study was to compare muscular activation of upper extremity and core muscles during shoulder extensions performed at maximum velocity with different devices and at different depths. Volunteers (N = 24) young fit male university students performed 3 repetitions of shoulder extensions at maximum velocity using 4 different devices and at 2 different depths. The maximum amplitude of the electromyographic root mean square of the latissimus dorsi (LD), rectus abdominis, and erector lumbar spinae was recorded. Electromyographic signals were normalized to the maximum voluntary isometric contraction. No significant (p > 0.05) differences were found in the neuromuscular responses between the different devices used during the performance of shoulder extension at xiphoid process depth. Regarding the comparisons of muscle activity between the 2 depths analyzed in this study, only the LD showed a significantly (p ⩽ 0.05) higher activity at the xiphoid process depth compared with that at the clavicle depth. Therefore, if maximum muscle activation of the extremities is required, the xiphoid depth is a better choice than clavicle depth, and the kind of device is not relevant. Regarding core muscles, neither the kind of device nor the immersion depth modifies muscle activation.
The association between insomnia and cardiovascular diseases

Insomnia, the most common sleep complaint in the general population, is defined by difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or nonrestorative sleep, accompanied by some form of daytime impairment. In the current review, we present an overview of recent studies on the association between insomnia and cardiovascular disease. It can be concluded that there is growing evidence for the hypothesis that insomnia is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease independently of classic coronary risk factors. Furthermore, insomnia is likely to be associated with hypertension and elevated resting heart rate, both known to lead to cardiovascular disease. However, the existing evidence is not totally consistent and most findings have not been replicated unequivocally. The major limitations of the cited studies include the failure to use state-of-the-art criteria for insomnia diagnosis, the failure to control for depression, and the use of hypnotic medication and sleep apnea as potential confounders. However, the results suggest that insomnia is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease mediated by hypertension or elevated resting heart rate. Consequently, more effort should be dedicated to cope with the high prevalence of insomnia in the general population.
The introduction of a shared interactive surface into a communal space

We describe a user study of a large multi-user interactive surface deployed for an initial period within a real world setting. The surface was designed to enable the sharing and exchange of a wide variety of digital media. The setting for the study was the common room of a high school where students come together to mix, socialize, and collaborate throughout the day. We report on how the students use the new technology within their own established communal space. Findings show that the system was used extensively by the students in a variety of ways, including sharing of photos, video clips, and websites, and for facilitating social interaction. We discuss how the interactive shared surface was appropriated by the students and introduced into their everyday lives in ways that both mirrored and extended their existing practices within the communal space.
A Multi-Objective Approach to Predicting Motor and Cognitive Deficit in Parkinson's Disease Patients

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative condition. Traditionally categorised as a movement disorder, nowadays it is recognised that PD can also lead to significant cognitive dysfunction including, in many cases, full-blown dementia. Due to the wide range of symptoms, including significant overlap with other neurodegenerative conditions, both diagnosis and prognosis remain challenging. In this paper, we describe our use of a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm to explore trade-offs between polynomial regression models that predict different clinical measures, with the aim of identifying features that are most indicative of motor and cognitive PD variants. Our initial results are promising, showing that polynomial regression models are able to predict clinical measures with good accuracy, and that suitable predictive features can be identified.
Bearing Fault Diagnosis Based on the Switchable Normalization SSGAN with 1-D Representation of Vibration Signals as Input

The bearing is a component of the support shaft that guides the rotational movement of the shaft, widely used in the mechanical industry and also called a mechanical joint. In bearing fault diagnosis, the accuracy much depends on the feature extraction, which always needs a lot of training samples and classification in the commonly used methods. Neural networks are good at latent feature extraction and fault classification, however, they have problems with instability and over-fitting, and more labeled samples must be trained. Switchable normalization and semi-supervised learning are introduced to solve the above obstacles in this paper, which proposes a novel bearing fault diagnosis method based on switchable normalization semi-supervised generative adversarial networks (SN-SSGAN) with 1-dimensional representation of vibration signals as input. Experimental results showed that the proposed method has a desirable 99.93% classification accuracy in the case of less labeled data from the public data set of West Reserve University, which is better than the state-of-the-art methods.
The Hegemony of English as a Global Language: Reclaiming Local Knowledge and Culture in China.

English has become the dominant global language of communication, business, aviation, entertainment, diplomacy and the intemet. Govemments as well as some scholars appear to be accepting such a spread of English uncritically. However, we argue that the increasing dominance of the English language is contributing to neocolonialism by empowering the already powerful and leaving the disadvantaged further behind, an issue that needs attention. Specifically, we discuss how English as a dominant language worldwide is forcing an unfamiliar pedagogical and social culture on to its leamers, along the way socio-psychologically, linguistically and politically putting them in danger of losing tueir first languages, cultures and identities, and contributing to the devaluation of local knowledge and cultures. Drawing on the work of critical theorists who have drawn our attention to the close relationship between language and power, we show how the global spread of English is not only a product of colonialism, but also the most potent instmment of cultural control and cultural constmct of colonialism. We call for more inclusive and egalitarian language policies and practices and suggest some new strategies that may be Convergence, Volume XL, Number 1-2, 2007
A compact 500GHz SIS receiver system for POST

We introduced here a compact 500GHz SIS (Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor) heterodyne receiver system developed for POST (POrtable Sub-millimeter Telescope). The system is proved to have a small volume to be integrated with the small Dewar, which is cooled by a compact close-cycled 100mW@ 4K cryo-cooler. Test results shows that a good LO coupling and low signal loss is achieved with a less than 250K overall receiver noise at 500GHz waveband.