Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Being subject-centred: A philosophy of teaching and implications for higher education

Being subject-centred as a higher education teacher offers a rich and illuminating philosophical and practical understanding of learning. Building upon previous research on subject-centred learning, we draw on reflection, literature review and a phenomenological approach to show how our ways of being infuse the teaching and learning environment. Philosophically, it is our way of being with our subject as teachers that influences the learning within our students. We show how posing the question: 'What is the best way to teach this subject? ' helps a teacher find the best way to enhance the learning experience. It entails moving away from reliance solely on approaches that simply 're-present' content, such as lectures and online learning management systems, to interactive classrooms where space is created for the students to enter into their own engagement with the subject in a shared pursuit with the teacher, resulting in more effective teaching and learning. We illustrate this with personal accounts of our own journeys as teachers. We acknowledge that it takes courage to teach and to fully be subject-centred in the face of prevailing trends and pressures for other ways of teaching currently prominent in the higher education sector. But, ultimately, it is who we are as teachers that matters most, and being subject-centred provides the most effective way for us to most meaningfully reach our students.
SMEs and the Fallacy of Formalising CSR

There exists increasing pressure for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, including social reporting. Curiously in this promotional programme of CSR reporting, the only group whose ideas are not sought in this debate are the SME leaders themselves. The present ethnographic field analysis, based on discussions within entrepreneurs' circles, tends to suggest that the argument for expanding formalisation of CSR to SMEs rests upon several fallacies. It implicitly assumes that an apparent solution for large multinationals can be transposed to SMEs, and it underestimates the drawbacks of bureaucracy. Moreover, many SMEs experience inconsistency between the idealistic CSR communication of some large companies and their actions, especially in the supply chain. The author concludes that reports do not constitute the validation for real CSR, nor the proof of superior ethical behaviour. Formalisation can even be counterproductive. Conversely, the absence of social reporting does not imply that SMEs do not behave responsible. CSR in SMEs needs a specific approach, adapted to the informal nature and entrepreneurial character of the small business. The essence of CSR lies in the implementation of responsible business practices. It lies in the right attitudes, in the corporate culture, not in formalisation.
Reciprocated matrix metalloproteinase activation: a process performed by interstitial collagenase and progelatinase A.

Gelatinase A, a member of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family, is secreted possessing an 80 amino acid N-terminal propeptide that must be removed in order to generate the active enzyme. Purified progelatinase A was activated to 38% of maximum by a 6 h incubation at 37 degrees C with equimolar concentrations of trypsin-activated interstitial collagenase (another MMP). The increase in activity was accompanied by cleavage of the M(r) 72,000 progelatinase A to the M(r) 66,000 active enzyme that has Y81 as its N-terminus. At low concentrations, progelatinase A was processed via an inactive intermediate, suggesting that its activation is a biphasic process. This was confirmed by the action of collagenase on proE375-->A (a mutant of progelatinase A that cannot become active) because, in this instance, only an M(r) 68,000 species with L38 as the N-terminus was produced. The remaining propeptide amino acids to Y81 could be readily removed by added active gelatinase A, indicating that collagenase works by generating an intermediate that is susceptible to autolytic activation. Although relatively slow, the rate of activation could be increased approximately 10-fold by the addition of 100 micrograms/mL heparin. This binds to the C-terminal domain of collagenase and progelatinase A and presumably acts as a template that positions the reactants close to one another. Collagenase activated by trypsin retains 8 or 14 amino acids of its propeptide. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Beyond Photo-Domain Object Recognition: Benchmarks for the Cross-Depiction Problem

The cross-depiction problem is that of recognising visual objects regardless of whether they are photographed, painted, drawn, etc. It introduces great challenge as the variance across photo and art domains is much larger than either alone. We extensively evaluate classification, domain adaptation and detection benchmarks for leading techniques, demonstrating that none perform consistently well given the cross-depiction problem. Finally we refine the DPM model, based on query expansion, enabling it to bridge the gap across depiction boundaries to some extent.
Inhibitory Effects of Four Inhaled Anesthetics on Canine Tracheal Smooth Muscle Contraction and Intracellular Ca2+ Concentration

To clarify the mechanisms by which inhaled anesthetics directly inhibit tracheal smooth muscle contraction, we investigated the effects of these anesthetics on muscle tension and intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i). Tension was measured using an isometric transducer, and [Ca2+]i was measured using Fura-2, an indicator of [Ca2+]i. Addition of 1 μM carbachol increased muscle tension and [Ca2+]i. All inhaled anesthetics significantly decreased both muscle tension and [Ca2+]i in the following order of inhibitory potency: halothane ≫ isoflurane > enflurane ≫ sevoflurane. In the presence of 10 μM verapamil, carbachol moderately increased muscle tension, but induced a transient increase of [Ca2+]i followed by a substantial reduction. Inhaled anesthetics in the presence of both carbachol and verapamil significantly decreased muscle tension without decreasing [Ca2+]i. Potency for suppression of tension under these conditions, which appeared to be independent of [Ca2+]i, was in the order: halothane ≫ enflurane ≥ isoflurane >. sevoflurane. The best correlation we found with a measured reduction of muscle tension independent of [Ca2+]i was with oil/gas partition coefficients (r = −0.88, P > 0.001). In conclusion, inhaled anesthetics inhibit tracheal smooth muscle contraction by at least two mechanisms: 1) reduction of [Ca2+]i and 2) suppression of contractility, independent of [Ca2+]i. The close correlation between the muscle inhibition independent of [Ca2+]i and the oil/gas partition coefficients suggests that one of the major sites of action of inhaled anesthetics is membrane phospholipids.
Examining Functional Communication as Egocentric or Group-Centric: Application of a Latent Group Model

Functional communication in small groups is generally treated as a medium (i.e., reflecting and explained by individual proclivities) or as constitutive (i.e., interaction has independent effects on outcomes). Rather than approach the problem as either/or, we assume that functional communication consists of both processes. To explore this assumption, we applied two models that offer contrasting views on this debate—Hewes's (1986, 1996, 2009) socio-egocentric model and Gonzalez and Griffin's (2002) latent group model—to four published group interaction datasets to examine the extent to which communication has individual- and group-level characteristics. Analyzed individually, the data exhibited a large proportion of egocentricity but very little group-level connections. An analysis of the combined and recoded data, however, revealed that discussion consists of both egocentric and group speech, but that the patterns differ. We then discuss the theoretical implications for observed patterns at different levels of analysis in the data.
The Developmental Role of Agouti in Color Pattern Evolution

A regulatory mutation affecting expression of the Agouti gene shows color-specific selection in beach mice. Animal color patterns can affect fitness in the wild; however, little is known about the mechanisms that control their formation and subsequent evolution. We took advantage of two locally camouflaged populations of Peromyscus mice to show that the negative regulator of adult pigmentation, Agouti, also plays a key developmental role in color pattern evolution. Genetic and functional analyses showed that ventral-specific embryonic expression of Agouti establishes a prepattern by delaying the terminal differentiation of ventral melanocytes. Moreover, a skin-specific increase in both the level and spatial domain of Agouti expression prevents melanocyte maturation in a regionalized manner, resulting in a novel and adaptive color pattern. Thus, natural selection favors late-acting, tissue-specific changes in embryonic Agouti expression to produce large changes in adult color pattern.
Multilingual functionality in the TwentyOne project

TwentyOne is a EU funded project which aims at developing advanced indexing and retrieval techniques for multimedia document bases. The document base consists of documents in four languages: Dutch, English, French and German. This paper focusses on the multilingual aspects of the project: cross-language retrieval, partial document translation techniques and automatic hyperlinking between sour ce text and translations.
Confusion Matrix Stability Bounds for Multiclass Classification

In this paper, we provide new theoretical results on the generalization properties of learning algorithms for multiclass classification problems. The originality of our work is that we propose to use the confusion matrix of a classifier as a measure of its quality; our contribution is in the line of work which attempts to set up and study the statistical properties of new evaluation measures such as, e.g. ROC curves. In the confusion-based learning framework we propose, we claim that a targetted objective is to minimize the size of the confusion matrix C, measured through its operator norm ||C||. We derive generalization bounds on the (size of the) confusion matrix in an extended framework of uniform stability, adapted to the case of matrix valued loss. Pivotal to our study is a very recent matrix concentration inequality that generalizes McDiarmid's inequality. As an illustration of the relevance of our theoretical results, we show how two SVM learning procedures can be proved to be confusion-friendly. To the best of our knowledge, the present paper is the first that focuses on the confusion matrix from a theoretical point of view.
Advertising as information

Next time you hear a tobacco industry representative extolling the neo-classical economists' defense of tobacco advertising as “information”, here's a good example to put the claim to the test. The ad for Imperial Tobacco's Embassy was published in the scatological British comic Viz , immensely popular particularly among 14-year-old schoolboys who like reading about …
Happiness in Thailand: The Effects of Family, Health and Job Satisfaction, and the Moderating Role of Gender

This research investigates the association between family, health, and job satisfaction, and happiness in Thailand. The data were collected by means of telephone survey questionnaires developed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The research data are from simple random sampling and stratified multi-stage sampling from master 2012-NIDA (National Institute of Development Administration) poll data proportioned to the population, age, and household income in each region of Thailand. This poll data had a total of 1,004 respondents but this research focuses on employed people and consists of a total of 799 respondents. All research hypotheses were tested by means of hierarchical regression analysis and analysis of variance was used to verify some interesting issues relating to demographic factors. The analysis results indicate that all three types of satisfaction (i.e., family, health, and job satisfaction) have positive effects on happiness (measured in present and future happiness) in Thailand. Although only family satisfaction has a positive effect on future happiness, all three types of satisfaction have positive effects on present happiness. Additionally, among all three model variables, family satisfaction plays the most important role in predicting present and future aspects of happiness. Further, our results indicate that gender is of little influence as a moderator. Our results not only validate research findings in other countries but also verify the importance of subjective appreciation of life and happiness for public policy makers.
Self-reported and physiologically measured dental anxiety, coping styles and personality traits

Studied the relationship between verbal-cognitive and physiological measures of dental anxiety, coping styles, and personality traits among 53 undergraduate psychology students (aged 18-31 yrs). Data were collected during 2 separate sessions. The 1st (stress) session involved continuous and simultaneous physiological measurements of systolic and diastolic BP, heart period, skin-conductance level, and saliva cortisol concentration. Ss then completed self assessment inventories of dental anxiety, coping behavior, and personality traits, immediately followed by a pre-announced dental check-up. During the second session, 1 mo later, only the physiological measures were made. Coping style was assessed by the Utrecht Coping List. The personality traits under investigation included neuroticism, extraversion, self-esteem, and general trait anxiety. Self-reported dental anxiety was associated with the coping behaviors "palliative responding" and "depressive reaction", and with neuroticism. No relations were found for either extraversion, self-esteem, or trait anxiety. Physiological activity associated with the oncoming dental check-up could be predicted by emotion-focused coping styles.
Obesity and Movement Competency in Children

The primary purpose of this study was to document the actual gross movement competencies, as measured by the Test of Gross Motor Development, in obese versus nonobese children. A 2 Gender (male, female) × 2 Groups (obese, nonobese) × 2 Age Categories (Grade 1, Grade 4) × 2 Programs (quality daily physical education [QDPE], non-QDPE) completely randomized factorial design was used. A significant three-way interaction effect (Group × Age × Program) was found for the Locomotor Skills subscale, such that the difference in movement competency in locomotor skills between obese and nonobese children increased as children got older if they did not receive QPDE. A significant main program effect was also found for the Object Control Skills subscale, with the QDPE children scoring higher than the non-QDPE children. It appears, then, that QDPE programs offer a “protective” effect for the development of locomotor skills in obese children. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Joint Beamforming and Scheduling for a Multi-Antenna Downlink with Imperfect Transmitter Channel Knowledge

We consider the downlink of a wireless system where the base-station has M ges 1 antennas and K user terminals have one antenna each. We study the weighted rate sum maximization in the case of non-perfect Channel State Information at the Transmitter (CSIT). Some relevant downlink optimization problems, such as the stabilization of the transmission queues under random packet arrivals and the proportional fair scheduling for infinite backlogged systems, can be solved as special cases of the proposed problem. We restrict the transmitter strategy to be based on Gaussian coding and beamforming. Even under this simplifying condition, the problem at hand is non-convex and it does not appear to lend itself to a simple algorithmic solution. Therefore, we introduce some approximations that yield a definition of signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) commonly used in the classical array- processing/beamforming literature. For the simpler (but still non-convex) approximated problem, we propose a powerful heuristic solution based on greedy user selection and a gradient iteration that converges to a local maximum of the objective function. This method yields very competitive results with relatively low computational complexity. Extensive simulations show that, in the case of perfect CSIT, the proposed heuristic scheme performs very closely to the optimal (dirty-paper coding) strategy while, in the case of non-perfect CSIT, it significantly outperforms previously proposed suboptimal approaches, such as random beamforming and approximated zero-forcing with greedy user selection.
A near‐annual palaeohydrological study based on testate amoebae from a sub‐alpine mire: surface wetness and the role of climate during the instrumental period

We present the first testate amoeba‐based palaeohydrological reconstruction from the Swiss Alps, and the first depth to the water table (DWT) calibration dataset for this region. Compared to existing models, our new calibration dataset performs well (RMSEP = 4.88), despite the length of the water table gradient covered (53 cm). The present‐day topography and vegetation of the study mire Mauntschas suggest that it is partly ombrotrophic (large Sphagnum fuscum hummocks, one of which was the coring site) but mostly under the minerotrophic influence of springs in the mire and runoff from the surrounding area. Ombrotrophic Sphagnum fuscum hummocks developed at the sampling site only during the last 50 years, when testate amoebae indicate a shift towards dry and/or acid conditions. Prior to AD 1950 the water table was much higher, suggesting that the influence of the mineral‐rich water prevented the development of ombrotrophic hummocks. The reconstructed DWT correlated with Pinus cembra pollen accumulation rates, suggesting that testate amoebae living on the mire and P. cembra growing outside of it partly respond to the same factor(s). Finally, temperature trends from the nearby meteorological station paralleled trends in reconstructed DWT. However, contrary to other studies made on raised bogs of northwestern Europe, the highest correlation was observed for winter temperature, despite the fact that testate amoebae would more logically respond to moisture conditions during the growing season. The observed correlation with winter temperature might reflect a control of winter severity on surface moisture during at least the first part of the growing season, through snow melt and soil frost phenomena influencing run‐off. More ecohydrological work on sub‐alpine mires is needed to understand the relationships between climate, testate amoebae and peatland development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Efficacy of Organic Soil Amendments in the Control of Meloidogyne incognita and on Some Growth and Yield Parameters of Pepper Capsicum fruitscens in Southwestern Nigeria

Field trials were conducted in 2007 and 2008 planting seasons to evaluate the efficacy of different sources of organic manure in the control of Meloidogyne incognita infection on four varieties of pepper, Capsicum fruitscens. The organic manure (poultry manure, pacesetter organic fertilizer and Chromolacna odoratum based compost) were each incorporated 15cm deep, within the pepper plant rhizosphere, into the soil at the rates of 0, 5, 10 and 20 tha . Each of the organic manure was allowed to undergo full decomposition 1 period of 4 months prior to application time. Untreated plots served as the control treatment. Different pepper cultivars were NHV A, NHV B, NHV F and "Sombo". Seedlings of four varieties of pepper raised in sterilized 1 1 1 sandy-loam top soil were transplanted 0.5m x 0.75m apart in plots of sizes 2.50m x 1.50m. The experimental field was naturally infested with Meloidogyne incognita, Pratylenchus brachyurus and Hoplolaimus species. The experiment was a factorial design fitted into a randomized complete block design with four replications. Data obtained during the two years field trial were pooled together and analyzed. The results showed that the pepper varieties displayed varying levels of susceptibility to the nematode infection. Tolerance to the nematode attack was highest in NHV A while susceptibility to infection was significantly high in "Sombo" variety. Poultry 1 manure had the most significant suppressive effect on soil and root nematode populations, number of egg mass per plant and gall index. Nematode populations in C. odoratum based compost amended soil were the highest. There were inverse relationships between nematode populations and rate of each organic amendment. Yield of pepper were positively correlated with increase in the rate of applied treatment. Poultry manure significantly influenced the number and weight of pepper fruit with the highest yield in plots where 20t/ha poultry manure was applied. The interactive effects between manure and pepper variety, types of organic fertilizer and application rate of organic fertilizer and application rate of organic fertilizer and pepper variety on the growth and yield of pepper showed similar trends. Regardless of the pepper variety, all interactions involving 20t/ha of poultry manure recorded outstanding results on the growth and yield of pepper. These results suggest that exploitation of organic soil amendment in nematode management would be a useful control measure in organic pepper production in southwest Nigeria.
Investigating the U sers ’ Behavioral Intention Toward Using 3 G Mobile VAS in Macedonia

The launch of 3G networks in Macedonia opened up a new revenue opportunity in mobile broadband offerings. Although the importance of 3G mobile value-added services (MVAS), it is surprising that Macedonia’s society show little interest towards them. Based on extant literature, the factors which are observed as more influential in the 3G MVAS adoption, together with the factors derived from previously proposed models on technology adoption, such as technology acceptance model and Innovation Diffusion Theory (TAM, IDT), constitute the research model of this study.The results reveal that the total effect of the factors that influence the behavioral intention of Macedonian consumers to use 3G MVAS is ranked as follows: Compatibility, Perceived Enjoyment, Self – Efficacy, Perceived Cost, Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness and Attitude. The results give telecom service providers in Macedonia an insight on the behavioral intention criteria of their customers, suggesting them to focus on educating their consumers about the offered services, foster the expansion of their 3G network coverage and also introduce new versatile and entertaining services which are easy to use in order to attract new customers and also to retain the old ones.