Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Internationalization and Exchanges in a Globalized University

Internationalization in higher education is an inevitable result of the globalized and knowledge-based economy of the 21st century. Other trends affecting the universities, including diversification, expansion, privatization, and so on, also have implications for the international role of academic institutions. The intersection of the logic of globalization and other pressures facing universities make a reconsideration of international programs and strategies necessary. Exchanges, university linkages, patterns of mobility, and international and regional arrangements among universities are all changing.
Segmenting a low-depth-of-field image using morphological filters and region merging

We propose a novel algorithm to partition an image with low depth-of-field (DOF) into focused object-of-interest (OOI) and defocused background. The proposed algorithm unfolds into three steps. In the first step, we transform the low-DOF image into an appropriate feature space, in which the spatial distribution of the high-frequency components is represented. This is conducted by computing higher order statistics (HOS) for all pixels in the low-DOF image. Next, the obtained feature space, which is called HOS map in this paper, is simplified by removing small dark holes and bright patches using a morphological filter by reconstruction. Finally, the OOI is extracted by applying region merging to the simplified image and by thresholding. Unlike the previous methods that rely on sharp details of OOI only, the proposed algorithm complements the limitation of them by using morphological filters, which also allows perfect preservation of the contour information. Compared with the previous methods, the proposed method yields more accurate segmentation results, supporting faster processing.
Heat Shock–Induced Fluctuations in Clock and Light Signaling Enhance Phytochrome B–Mediated Arabidopsis Deetiolation[C][W]

Transient exposures to high temperatures (heat shocks) in darkness make seedlings more responsive to subsequent light by rhythmically reducing the expression of repressors and by enhancing the nuclear abundance of positive regulators of photomorphogenesis. Moderately warm constant ambient temperatures tend to oppose light signals in the control of plant architecture. By contrast, here we show that brief heat shocks enhance the inhibition of hypocotyl growth induced by light perceived by phytochrome B in deetiolating Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. In darkness, daily heat shocks transiently increased the expression of PSEUDO-RESPONSE REGULATOR7 (PRR7) and PRR9 and markedly enhanced the amplitude of the rhythms of LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY) and CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED1 (CCA1) expression. In turn, these rhythms gated the hypocotyl response to red light, in part by changing the expression of PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR4 (PIF4) and PIF5. After light exposure, heat shocks also reduced the nuclear abundance of CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENIC1 (COP1) and increased the abundance of its target ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL5 (HY5). The synergism between light and heat shocks was deficient in the prr7 prr9, lhy cca1, pif4 pif5, cop1, and hy5 mutants. The evening element (binding site of LHY and CCA1) and G-box promoter motifs (binding site of PIFs and HY5) were overrepresented among genes with expression controlled by both heat shock and red light. The heat shocks experienced by buried seedlings approaching the surface of the soil prepare the seedlings for the impending exposure to light by rhythmically lowering LHY, CCA1, PIF4, and PIF5 expression and by enhancing HY5 stability.
Loss of hMSH 2 and hMSH 6 Expression Is Frequent in Sporadic Endometrial Carcinomas with Microsatellite Instability : A Population-based Study 1

Microsatellite instability (MSI) seems to be important in the development of various human cancers including sporadic endometrial cancer. It has previously been shown that alterations in the mismatch repair gene hMLH1 seem to be important for the development of MSI in these tumors. The role of the other mismatch repair genes hMSH2 and hMSH6 has been less well studied, but investigations on patients with hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer indicate that these genes also may be involved. We therefore wanted to investigate the pattern of hMSH2 and hMSH6 expression in a prospective and population-based series of endometrial carcinomas with known hMLH1 expression and MSI status. A total of 138 patients were studied, and pathological staining was seen in 19 cases (14%) for hMLH1, 26 cases (19%) for hMSH2, and 17 cases (12.3%) for hMSH6. Pathological hMLH1 expression was more frequent among tumors with high MSI (those positive for four to five of five markers), whereas pathological expression of hMSH2 and hMSH6 was more frequent among tumors with intermediate MSI (those positive for two to three of five markers). MSI was significantly correlated with pathological expression of hMLH1 (P < 0.001), hMSH2 (P 0.04), and hMSH6 (P 0.001). In the group with high MSI, 14 of 16 tumors (88%) showed pathological expression for at least one of the markers. The expression of hMLH1, hMSH2, or hMSH6 did not significantly influence survival. In conclusion, pathological expression of hMLH1 does not seem to account for all tumors with a MSI-positive phenotype in this population-based series of endometrial carcinomas. Our data indicate that the other mismatch repair genes hMSH2 and hMSH6 are also involved, especially in cases with intermediate MS
Cue reactivity to images of alcohol: Creation of a standardized picture set

To study alcohol approach inclinations in a laboratory setting, researchers commonly use cue reactivity paradigms involving presentation of alcohol cues and measurement of responses. However, available picture sets present potential limitations due to their multidimensional nature. A critical task was to develop a set of standardized images without brand labels, actors, or settings, in order to gain a clearer assessment of college students’ reactions to alcohol, and alcohol alone, while minimizing contextual influences. In Study 1, a set of images with satisfactory reliability was created. To replicate and expand upon these findings, Study 2 included a sample of 163 participants (82 women, M age = 18.8, 59.3% Caucasian). Following completion of a questionnaire packet of different measures of approach toward alcohol, participants rated 30 affective images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), and 30 images of alcohol (beer, wine, liquor). Results demonstrated that our standardized picture set has acceptable psychometric properties associated with an approach valence. Specifically, valence ratings showed (a) acceptable internal consistency and (b) convergent validity with other measures of behavioral approach toward alcohol (viz., reported frequency of alcohol consumption, average number of drinks consumed per drinking day, number of binge drinking days and total drinks consumed per week). These findings suggest that our alcohol images were associated with producing an approach response and support their continued use in college populations. CUE REACTIVITY TO IMAGES OF ALCOHOL: CREATION OF A STANDARDIZED PICTURE SET by Kelsey M. Krueger B.A., St. John Fisher College, 2011 Master’s Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Clinical Psychology Syracuse University May 2015 Copyright © Kelsey M. Krueger, 2015 All Rights Reserved
Virulence plasmids of enteroinvasive Escherichia coli and Shigella flexneri integrate into a specific site on the host chromosome: integration greatly reduces expression of plasmid-carried virulence genes

The ability of enteroinvasive Escherichia coli and Shigella flexneri to cause disease depends on the presence of a large virulence plasmid (pINV). In this report we show that pHN280, the pINV of the O135:K-:H- enteroivasive strain E. coli HN280, and pWR100, the pINV of S. flexneri serotype 5 strain M90T, are able to integrate into a specific site on the host chromosome. pINV-integrated HN280 and M90T strains required methionine (Met-) to grow in minimal medium, were noninvasive, did not produce contact-mediated hemolysin, and had lost the ability to bind Congo red (Crb-) at 37 degrees C. Immunoblots of whole bacterial extracts from pHN280-integrated HN280 derivatives revealed that integration severely reduced the expression of ipa and virG (icsA) plasmid genes. Met- HN280 and M90T derivative strains spontaneously generated Met+ revertants that either contained excised forms of pINV or had lost pINV. Restriction analysis of excised pINVs showed that they either were virtually identical to parental pINVs (precise excision) or had suffered some deletion (imprecise excision). Precisely excised pINVs expressed the full pattern of virulence, whereas imprecisely excised pINVs were always Crb- and noninvasive. The revertion to Met+ was shown to be recA dependent, indicating that homologous plasmid and chromosomal DNA sequences are involved in the integration-excision process. The maintainance of pINV through integration and downregulation of its virulence genes may represent an advantageous mechanism for enteroinvasive bacteria, particularly when they are outside host cells and/or have to face adverse environmental conditions.
Disclosure of HIV serostatus among pregnant and postpartum women in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review

Disclosure of one's HIV status can help to improve uptake and retention in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services; yet, it remains a challenge for many women. This systematic review evaluates disclosure rates among pregnant and postpartum women in sub-Saharan Africa, timing of disclosure, and factors affecting decisions to disclose. PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched to identify relevant studies published between January 2000 and April 2014. Rates of HIV serostatus disclosure to any person ranged from 5.0% to 96.7% (pooled estimate: 67.0%, 95% CI: 55.7%–78.3%). Women who chose to disclose their status did so more often to their partners (pooled estimate: 63.9%; 95% CI: 56.7%–71.1%) than to family members (pooled estimate: 40.1; 95% CI: 26.2%–54.0%), friends (pooled estimate: 6.4%; 95% CI: 3.0%–9.8%), or religious leaders (pooled estimate: 7.1%; 95% CI: 4.3%–9.8%). Most women disclosed prior to delivery. Decisions to disclose were associated with factors related to the woman herself (younger age, first pregnancies, knowing someone with HIV, lower levels of internalized stigma, and lower levels of avoidant coping), the partner (prior history of HIV testing and higher levels of educational attainment), their partnership (no history of domestic violence and financial independence), and the household (higher quality of housing and residing without co-spouses or extended family members). Interventions to encourage and support women in safely disclosing their status are needed.
Chapter 4

Educational levels in the population have grown enormously during the twentieth century, primarily through a process of cohort succession. Educational growth has been concentrated through the spread of grade and high school education, and not through increases in rates of progression from high school to college. Educational growth results from improvements in family socioeconomic standing, shifts in economic incentives, legislative changes facilitating school attendance, and changes in the organization of schools. School enrollment levels since World War II have been heavily influenced by the postwar baby boom and the fertility decline in the 1960s and 1970s. College enrollments will fall significantly in the next few years, but this may be mitigated by increases in the favorability of family circumstances for educational attainment. Socioeconomic differences in educational attainment have been approximately constant through the twentieth century, whereas race differentials in schooling have significantly converged. Performances on standardized aptitude and achievement tests for high school students have declined dramatically since the mid-1960s, a trend due partly to changes in schools' curricula. Elementary schools have consolidated throughout the twentieth century, while secondary schools have been approximately constant in number and institutions of higher education have proliferated.
Interstitial fibrosis and growth factors.

Interstitial pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is scarring of the lung caused by a variety of inhaled agents including mineral particles, organic dusts, and oxidant gases. The disease afflicts millions of individuals worldwide, and there are no effective therapeutic approaches. A major reason for this lack of useful treatments is that few of the molecular mechanisms of disease have been defined sufficiently to design appropriate targets for therapy. Our laboratory has focused on the molecular mechanisms through which three selected peptide growth factors could play a role in the development of IPF. Hundreds of growth factors and cytokines could be involved in the complex disease process. We are studying platelet-derived growth factor because it is the most potent mesenchymal cell mitogen yet described, transforming growth factor beta because it is a powerful inducer of extracellular matrix (scar tissue) components by mesenchymal cells, and tumor necrosis factor alpha because it is a pleiotropic cytokine that we and others have shown is essential for the development of IPF in animal models. This review describes some of the evidence from studies in humans, in animal models, and in vitro, that supports the growth factor hypothesis. The use of modern molecular and transgenic technologies could elucidate those targets that will allow effective therapeutic approaches. ImagesFigure 1Figure 2
An algorithm for constructing the aspect graph

In this paper we present tight bounds on the maximum size of aspect graphs and give worstcase optimal algorithms for their construction, first in the convex case and then in the general case. In particular, we give upper and lower bounds on the maximum size (including vertex labels) of Θ(n3) and Θ(n5) and algorithms for constructing the aspect graph which run in time O(n3) and O(n5) for the convex and general cases respectively. The algorithm for the general case makes use of a new 3D object representation called the aspect representation or asp. We also show a different way to label the aspect graph in order to save a factor of n in the asymptotic size (at the expense of label retrieval time) in both the convex and general cases, and we suggest alternatives to the aspect graph which require less space and store more information.
THE HUMAN PYRAMIDAL TRACT: A FIBER AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

Because of the lack of agreement existing in respect to the origin of the pyramidal tract, it was thought that the application of a refined silver stain to the lower part of the human pyramid might give a clue as to its cells of origin and, in addition, furnish information about the size and number of its component fibers. It is commonly taught that the fibers of the pyramidal tract originate from the gigantopyramidalis cells of Betz in the motor area (area 4). As these cells are the largest found in the cerebral cortex, it is logical to assume that they give rise to reasonably large fibers. These cells, although conspicuous by their size, are not abundant numerically. On the basis of counts made by Campbell,1there are about 25,000 Betz cells on one side of the human cerebral cortex. In contrast to this, Weil and Lassek,2using
Emotion Detection in Infants’ Cries Based on a Maximum Likelihood Approach

This paper proposes a new procedure based on a maximum likelihood approach using hidden Markov models to detect infants’ emotions through their cries. Our procedure uses stochastic acoustic models for each kind of emotion. The acoustic models are generated using infant’s cries that are labeled segmentally according to their acoustic features. The procedure detects segment sequences with the highest likelihood among all kinds of emotions. The results of our preliminary recognition experiments on two emotions using three types of segment labeling show that the proposed procedure is applicable to emotion detection in an infant’s cry and that the detailed transcription of acoustic segments is useful. In this paper, using detailed transcriptions, we broaden the experiments to include five emotions. Assuming the judgment of each infant’s mother to be correct, we compared the result of the experiment and that of a subjective opinion test. We conducted the opinion test with the help of three child-rearing experts. Emotion recognition using the proposed procedure displays a favorable comparison with the judgment of our experts, showing the validity of the proposed procedure.
Numerical Analysis of a Second Order Pure Lagrange-Galerkin Method for Convection-Diffusion Problems. Part II: Fully Discretized Scheme and Numerical Results

We analyze a second order pure Lagrange--Galerkin method for variable coefficient convection-diffusion (possibly degenerate-diffusion) equations with mixed Dirichlet--Robin boundary conditions. In a previous paper the proposed second order pure Lagrangian time discretization scheme was introduced and analyzed for the same problem. More precisely, the $l^{\infty}(H^{1})$ stability and $l^{\infty}(H^{1})$ error estimates of order $O(\Delta t^{2})$ had been obtained. Moreover, for the particular case of incompressible flows, stability inequalities with constants independent of the final time have been stated. In the present paper $l^{\infty}(H^{1})$ error estimates of order $O(\Delta t^{2})+O(h^k)$ are obtained for the fully discretized pure Lagrange--Galerkin method. To prove these results we use some properties obtained in the previous paper. Finally, numerical tests are presented that confirm the theoretical results.
UTTime: Temporal Relation Classification using Deep Syntactic Features

In this paper, we present a system, UTTime, which we submitted to TempEval-3 for Task C: Annotating temporal relations. The system uses logistic regression classifiers and exploits features extracted from a deep syntactic parser, including paths between event words in phrase structure trees and their path lengths, and paths between event words in predicateargument structures and their subgraphs. UTTime achieved an F1 score of 34.9 based on the graphed-based evaluation for Task C (ranked 2 nd ) and 56.45 for Task C-relationonly (ranked 1 st ) in the TempEval-3 evaluation.
How Effective is Peer Education in Addressing Young People's Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs in Developing Countries?

This review article questions the assumptions at the core of peer education interventions adopted in young people’s sexual and reproductive health programmes in developing countries. Peer education is a more complex and problematic approach than its popularity with development agencies and practitioners implies. Its rise to prominence is more indicative of the desire to find effective tools to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic, than of peer education’s proven effectiveness. The often simplistic model of social relations that underlies peer education interventions leads to the reinforcement of gendered power relations, and a failure to take account of the social dynamics of poverty. The dominant rationales for peer education are examined and contested. In spite of the mismatch between rhetoric and experience, the appeal of the approach remains powerful, stemming largely from the objective of engaging young people in health interventions in a way that increases their autonomy and capacity.
Determinants of Participation and Nonparticipation in Job-Related Education and Training in Shenzhen, China

In the fast-growing market-oriented economy of Shenzhen, China, most employees have continued to participate in job-related education and training. We argue that as firms have acquired autonomy in their operations and individuals have gained the right to pursue their personal occupational aspirations, non–state-sponsored education and training systems for the working population have developed to respond to the demands from firms, as well as individuals. With survey data from 3,475 employees in seventy-six firms from Shenzhen, this study uses a mul tinomialmodelto examine patterns in employee participation in job-related education and training. There are basically four options open to employees: taking part in education and training provided by a firm to its own employees, enrolling in education and training offered by institutions outside the firm, availing themselves of both options simultaneously, or not participating. Our findings suggest that these four groups of employees vary in terms of their cultural and symbolic attributes, their individualsocioeconomic attributes in rel ation to their workplace, and the economic attributes of their firm.
Effects of a Conservation Education Camp Program on Campers' Self-Reported Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior

In this study, the authors examined the effects of a conservation education camp program offered through one zoo education department. The conservation education program included 4 levels of camps with increasing levels of animal husbandry. Campers rated their conservation knowledge, attitude, and behavior prior to, immediately after, and 1 month after the camp experience. Results indicated that conservation knowledge scores increased over the study period, as did attitude and behavior, though patterns of change were varied in each level of camp. Campers' self-reported knowledge, attitude, and behavior also increased with increased levels of animal husbandry. And, campers with previous conservation education camp experience had higher knowledge and attitude self-ratings than did those without experience. However, as knowledge, attitude, and behavior are complex characteristics and difficult to assess, more research is needed to verify the effectiveness of conservation education programs in effecting change.
An aggregate import demand function for India: a cointegration analysis

This paper investigates the behaviour of Indian aggregate imports during the period 1971–1995. In the empirical analysis of the aggregate import demand function for India, cointegration and error correction modelling approaches have been used. In the aggregate import demand function for India, import volume is found to be cointegrated with relative import price and real GDP. The econometric estimates of the import-demand function for India suggest that import-demand is largely explained by real GDP, and is generally less sensitive to import price changes. Import liberalization is found to have had little impact on import demand.
A Distorted Nation: Perceptions of Racial/Ethnic Group Sizes and Attitudes Toward Immigrants and Other Minorities

Using a special module (MEUS) of the 2000 General Social Survey, we investigate Americans' perceptions of the racial and ethnic composition of the United States. We show that, because of innumeracy, it is critical to gauge perceptions through relative, rather than absolute, group sizes. Even so, it appears that, as of 2000, roughly half of Americans believed that whites had become a numerical minority; such perceptions were even more common among minority-group members than among whites. Majority-group respondents' perceptions of the relative sizes of minorities affect their attitudes towards immigrants, blacks and Hispanics, with those having the most distorted perceptions holding the most negative attitudes. Although perceptions of group sizes in the nation are linked to the perceived racial/ethnic composition of the communities where respondents reside, the effects of the former on attitudes are largely independent of the latter. Our findings highlight the frequently overlooked value of an old bromide against prejudice: education.