Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is There a Link Between Teachers' Beliefs and Behaviors?

This study examined the link between beliefs and behaviors for early childhood teachers. Currently, consensus has not been reached regarding the belief-practice relationship for early childhood educators due to inconsistent attention to measurement specificity, perceived ability to practice beliefs, and strength of teacher training. The participants in this study were 47 early childhood educators. Teachers were primarily female and all worked with children aged 3–5. Teachers had worked with children aged 3–5 an average of 7.6 years (range = 0–30). Many teachers had training in early childhood. Twenty-nine had majored in early childhood and 26 held teaching certificates. Teaching beliefs were measured with a self-report questionnaire. Teaching actions were assessed with four observational measures via videotape. The results showed that there was not a relationship between teachers' beliefs and actions. In addition, the results indicated that when teachers had more experience with children they were less sensitive and that early childhood teaching certification held was a positive predictor of high level involvement and verbalizations.
Affective symptoms and intra-individual variability in the short-term course of cognitive functioning in bipolar disorder

Background Few studies have examined the short-term course of cognitive impairments in bipolar disorder (BD). Key questions are whether trajectories in symptoms covary with cognitive function and whether BD is associated with increased intra-individual variability in cognitive abilities. Method Forty-two out-patients with BD and 49 normal comparison (NC) subjects were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests at baseline, 6, 12 and 26 weeks, along with concurrent ratings of depressive and manic symptom severity. Mixed-effects regressions were used to model relationships between time, diagnosis and symptom severity on composite cognitive performance. Within-person variance in cognitive functioning across time was calculated for each subject. Results BD patients had significantly worse performance in cognitive ability across time points, but both groups showed significant improvement in cognitive performance over repeated assessments (consistent with expected practice effects). BD was associated with significantly greater intra-individual variability in cognitive ability than NCs; within-person variation was negatively related to baseline cognitive ability in BD but not NC subjects. Changes in affective symptoms over time did not predict changes in cognitive ability. Conclusions Moderate changes in affective symptoms did not covary with cognitive ability in BD. The finding of elevated intra-individual variability in BD may reduce capacity to estimate trajectories of cognitive ability in observational and treatment studies.
World heritage: observations on decisions related to cultural heritage

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the decision‐making process related to the inscription of properties on the World Heritage List.Design/methodology/approach – Consideration is given to the general framework provided by the 1972 World Heritage Convention, and elaborated by the World Heritage Committee in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the Convention.Findings – The paper examines the tasks and responsibilities of each partner to the World Heritage process, from the State Party to UNESCO and the Advisory Bodies. There is a panorama offered from the changes and trends that have impacted the decisions, including a number of cases as examples. Finally, the paper proposes some improvements to the system, taking into account the role of each stakeholder.Originality/value – This is the first paper examining the theme concerned.
Detailed discrete-time implementation of a battery-supported synchronverter for weak grids

The emulation of synchronous machines is an attractive solution to improve the integration of distributed energy resources in weak grids. In this sense, synchronverters have been widely analysed in the literature, but their digital implementation has been seldom studied. This paper presents the discrete-time implementation of the control algorithms for a battery-supported synchronverter in a weak grid. First of all, the formulation is described in a synchronous reference frame and a simple method to adjust the parameters is described. Some modifications are proposed to the classical synchronverter that will be implemented in its incremental form. By using this implementation method the control system a) becomes easier to implement, b) wind-up problems are avoided, and c) command signals are easier to saturate. Since the control system is non-linear, these features are of a particular relevance. All the control developments are tested experimentally in a 15 kVA converter with a 47.5 kWh Li-ion battery connected to a weak grid.
Rapid weight gain after birth predicts life history and reproductive strategy in Filipino males

Ecological cues during prenatal and postnatal development may allow organisms to adjust reproductive strategy. The hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis is a prime candidate for adaptive plasticity as a result of its critical period of birth to 6 mo (B6M) in humans and the role of testosterone in the development and maintenance of costly sexually dimorphic somatic and behavioral traits. We hypothesized that weight velocity specific to B6M would predict male life history characteristics, including maturational timing, reproductive hormones, adult size, strength, and sexual activity. Data come from 770 Filipino men (age 20.5–22.5 y) followed since birth, with predictor variables including birth weight and weight velocities calculated at 6-mo intervals during the first 2 y of life. As expected, infants who were breastfed experienced less diarrhea, lived in wealthier households with better hygiene, and grew faster from B6M. Males with rapid B6M growth reached puberty earlier and, as young adults, had higher testosterone levels, were taller, more muscular, and had higher grip strength. They also had sex earlier and were more likely to report having had sex in the past month, resulting in more lifetime sex partners. Relationships between B6M weight gain and physical outcomes were generally not present or weaker in female subjects. We conclude that rapid weight gain specific to the brief postnatal hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal critical period predicts early maturation and sexual activity, elevated hormone production, and more costly adult somatic characteristics among the male subjects in this sample. These findings provide evidence for early life developmental plasticity in male life history and reproductive strategy in humans.
The Principles of Effective Correctional Treatment Also Apply To Sexual Offenders

The effectiveness of treatment for sexual offenders remains controversial, even though it is widely agreed that certain forms of human service interventions reduce the recidivism rates of general offenders. The current review examined whether the principles associated with effective treatments for general offenders (risk-need-responsivity; RNR) also apply to sexual offender treatment. Based on a meta-analysis of 23 recidivism outcome studies meeting basic criteria for study quality, the unweighted sexual and general recidivism rates for the treated sexual offenders were lower than the rates observed for the comparison groups (10.9%, n = 3,121 vs. 19.2%, n = 3,625 for sexual recidivism; 31.8%, n = 1,979 vs. 48.3%, n = 2,822 for any recidivism). Programs that adhered to the RNR principles showed the largest reductions in sexual and general recidivism. Given the consistency of the current findings with the general offender rehabilitation literature, the authors believe that the RNR principles should be a major consideration in the design and implementation of treatment programs for sexual offenders.
An adrenocortical tumor secreting weak mineralocorticoids.

An adrenocortical carcinoma (15.5 g) secreting excessive amounts of steroids with weak mineralocorticoid activity in a 25-year-old woman was studied with particular reference to its in vivo and in vitro secretions of steroids. Severe hypertension, occasional low serum potassium and suppressed PRA were the major clinical findings, and were improved with removal of the tumor. In the preoperative stage, plasma levels of 11-deoxycorticosterone, 18-hydroxy-11-deoxycorticosterone, corticosterone and 18-hydroxycorticosterone were all increased. However, the plasma level of aldosterone was repeatedly normal. Although plasma levels of pregnenolone, 17-hydroxypregnenolone, progesterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone were very high, those of other late step steroids, i.e. 11-deoxycortisol, cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone, androstenedione and testosterone were almost normal. From these findings, a major etiological role of weak mineralocorticoids such as 11-deoxycorticosterone, 18-hydroxycorticosterone and corticosterone in her hypertension was suggested. Pregnenolone and 17-hydroxypregnenolone in tumor tissue were increased, but 11-deoxycorticosterone, corticosterone, aldosterone, cortisol and adrenal androgens such as dehydroepiandrosterone, androstenedione and testosterone were below normal or low normal. In vitro production of 11-deoxycorticosterone, aldosterone or cortisol by the tumor tissue slices was very low and scarcely responded to synthetic ACTH.
Telling the Columbia Story

This content analysis of newspaper stories seeks to answer three questions about the Columbia space shuttle disaster: What sources did journalists cite in telling the Columbia story? What did those sources say? Which sources were heard most often? Stories analyzed were published by the New York Times, Washington Post, and Houston Chronicle in the 217-day period following the accident. News reporters most frequently used elected and appointed government leaders and NASA administrators, engineers, and other agency employees as sources. Those sources most often communicated “neutral” facts and observations while not placing blame for the accident or evaluating the shuttle program's progress. Astronauts and their relatives, NASA contractors who built and maintained the shuttle fleet, and government accident investigators from agencies other than NASA or the Columbia Accident Investigation Board rarely appeared in the stories. Journalistic routines call for reporters to balance their story narratives with sources representing different viewpoints. In the Columbia story, however, this was not necessarily the case.
Literature Mining for the Discovery of Hidden Connections between Drugs, Genes and Diseases

The scientific literature represents a rich source for retrieval of knowledge on associations between biomedical concepts such as genes, diseases and cellular processes. A commonly used method to establish relationships between biomedical concepts from literature is co-occurrence. Apart from its use in knowledge retrieval, the co-occurrence method is also well-suited to discover new, hidden relationships between biomedical concepts following a simple ABC-principle, in which A and C have no direct relationship, but are connected via shared B-intermediates. In this paper we describe CoPub Discovery, a tool that mines the literature for new relationships between biomedical concepts. Statistical analysis using ROC curves showed that CoPub Discovery performed well over a wide range of settings and keyword thesauri. We subsequently used CoPub Discovery to search for new relationships between genes, drugs, pathways and diseases. Several of the newly found relationships were validated using independent literature sources. In addition, new predicted relationships between compounds and cell proliferation were validated and confirmed experimentally in an in vitro cell proliferation assay. The results show that CoPub Discovery is able to identify novel associations between genes, drugs, pathways and diseases that have a high probability of being biologically valid. This makes CoPub Discovery a useful tool to unravel the mechanisms behind disease, to find novel drug targets, or to find novel applications for existing drugs.
From Ritual to Relationship

There is an increasingly relevant debate around consent, particularly around persons with a dementia, across research and practice. This article will begin by critically reviewing the traditional competency-based approach to informed consent in research with older people who have dementia. Currently, most researchers are not describing how persons with dementia are included in the consent process other than through an extension of the traditional competency-based informed consent method. As yet there is little in the way of academic publications on developing methodologies or practical methods of inclusionary consent, despite the rapid development of so-called person-centred participatory research in dementia. The remainder of the article will describe work in progress on a theoretical foundation and an evolving method for including persons with dementia in consent processes. The article concludes that a revisionist person-centred inclusionary approach to consent, which values the interests of all parties involved, including the person with dementia, is a way forward in person-centred research. It is also suggested that dementia-friendly methods must be more rigorously tested and reported.
3DFS: Deformable Dense Depth Fusion and Segmentation for Object Reconstruction from a Handheld Camera

We propose an approach for 3D reconstruction and segmentation of a single object placed on a flat surface from an input video. Our approach is to perform dense depth map estimation for multiple views using a proposed objective function that preserves detail. The resulting depth maps are then fused using a proposed implicit surface function that is robust to estimation error, producing a smooth surface reconstruction of the entire scene. Finally, the object is segmented from the remaining scene using a proposed 2D-3D segmentation that incorporates image and depth cues with priors and regularization over the 3D volume and 2D segmentations. We evaluate 3D reconstructions qualitatively on our Object-Videos dataset, comparing to fusion, multiview stereo, and segmentation baselines. We also quantitatively evaluate the dense depth estimation using the RGBD Scenes V2 dataset [Henry et al. 2013] and the segmentation using keyframe annotations of the Object-Videos dataset.
Speaking of Qualities

Indefinites in intensional contexts, such as attitude reports or intensional argument positions, give rise to a well-known ambiguity. Consider (1): On the so-called specific reading, it says that there is a particular object which happens to be a jacket like Malte’s jacket such that Adrian wants to buy that particular object. Adrian need not know that that object is a jacket like Malte’s. On the so-called unspecific reading, Adrian wants to buy some jacket or other which meets his requirement of being like Malte’s jacket.
Changes in ankle joint stiffness due to stretching: The role of tendon elongation of the gastrocnemius muscle

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in ankle joint stiffness and the associated changes in the gastrocnemius muscle and tendon due to static stretching. Seven healthy male participants lay supine with the hip and knee joints fully extended. The right ankle joint was rotated into dorsiflexion from a 30° plantar flexed position and the torque measured by a dynamometer. The ankle joint was maintained in a dorsiflexed position for 20 min (static stretching of the calf muscles). We performed surface electromyography of the medial and lateral gastrocnemii, the soleus, and the tibialis anterior of the right leg to confirm no muscle activity throughout static stretching and the passive test (passive dorsiflexion). During static stretching, the ankle joint angle and elongation of the gastrocnemius were recorded by goniometry and ultrasonography, respectively. Tendon elongation of the gastrocnemius was calculated based on the changes in the ankle joint angle and muscle elongation. In addition, the relationships between passive torques and ankle joint angles, and elongation of muscle and tendon, were examined before and after static stretching. The ankle dorsiflexion angle and tendon elongation increased significantly by 10 min after the onset of static stretching, while there was no further increase in muscle length. In addition, ankle dorsiflexion angle and tendon elongation at an identical passive torque (30 N · m) increased significantly (from 24±7° to 33±5° and from 17±2 mm to 22±1 mm, respectively) after static stretching. However, muscle elongation was unchanged. In conclusion, the current results suggest that an increase in the ankle joint dorsiflexion angle due to static stretching is attributable to a change in tendon not muscle stiffness.
Exploring the dimensions of ad creativity

This study explored the influence of dimensions of creativity—novelty (expectancy), meaningfulness (relevancy), and emotion (valence of feelings)—on attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, and purchase intention. The results indicate that unexpectedness enhanced ad effectiveness over expectedness when the ad has positive feelings. When the ad contains negative feelings, attitude toward the ad was diluted with unexpectedness vs. expectedness. Relevance was not critical in encouraging favorable responses when the ad is unexpected. With an unexpected–relevant–positive-feeling ad used as the baseline, a creative ad generated more favorable attitude toward the ad than other ad conditions. However, ad creativity resulted in more favorable brand attitude and purchase intention only against selected ad conditions. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed and directions for future research furnished. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Genetic Diversity of Glioblastoma Multiforme: Impact on Future Therapies

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM; WHO grade IV) is the most malignant type of glioma and in addition the most abundant malignant cancer of the adult human brain. Despite progress in diagnosis, surgery and chemotherapy, the median survival time of patients suffering from GBM is approximately 15 months (Stupp et al., 2005). The five years survival time is less than 5% (CBTRUS, 2010). Because glioblastoma cells show a highly infiltrating growth into the brain tissue, a total resection is not possible. In addition, glioblastoma cells are remarkably resistant to chemotherapy and ionizing radiation. In addition, the association of a portion of these cells with hypoxic and necrotic areas within the tumor increases their resistance. Gliobastoma multiforme tumors can be classified: 1. by histopathology (WHO) in conventional glioblastomas (93%), giant cell glioblastoma (5%) and gliosarcoma (2%); 2. by pathogenesis in primary GBM (90%) and secondary GBM (10%); 3. by gene expression analysis in (I) classical, (II) mesenchymal, (III) proneural or (IV) neural type of GBM; 4. by genomic analysis in subgroups harboring specific mutations and/or altered gene dosage/chromosome number. Conventional glioblastomas constitute approximately 93% of all glioblastomas and can be divided into primary or secondary tumors: primary glioblastomas represent approximately 90% and develop de novo, whereas the incidence of secondary glioblastomas that arise from astroyctomas WHO grade II and III is in the range of 5 to 10%. Primary and secondary glioblastomas differ in their genetic defects: for example 39% of primary glioblastomas harbor an amplification of the EGF receptor (EGFR) locus, whereas in secondary glioblastomas no amplification was detected. Mutations within the p53 gene are more abundant in secondary glioblastomas. Unconventional glioblastomas include giant cell glioblastomas, gliosarcomas and other rare types (for details see section 4).
Increasing Preservice Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs for Technology Integration

Abstract This study was designed to explore how vicarious learning experiences and goal setting influence preservice teachers’ self-efficacy for integrating technology into the classroom. Two hundred and eighty students, enrolled in an introductory educational technology course at a large Midwestern university, participated. Students were divided into eighteen lab sections, which were assigned to one of four conditions (three experimental and one control). Pre- and post-surveys were administered to examine participants’ self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration. Results showed significant treatment effects for vicarious experiences and goal setting on participants’ judgments of self-efficacy for technology integration. A significantly more powerful effect was found when vicarious learning experiences and goal setting were both present compared to when only one of the two factors was present. Therefore, from the perspective of teacher educators, the use of vicarious learning experiences and the incorporation of specific goals may help preservice teachers develop the confidence they need to become effective technology users within their own classrooms.
A Kernel Statistical Test of Independence

Although kernel measures of independence have been widely applied in machine learning (notably in kernel ICA), there is as yet no method to determine whether they have detected statistically significant dependence. We provide a novel test of the independence hypothesis for one particular kernel independence measure, the Hilbert-Schmidt independence criterion (HSIC). The resulting test costs O(m2), where m is the sample size. We demonstrate that this test outperforms established contingency table and functional correlation-based tests, and that this advantage is greater for multivariate data. Finally, we show the HSIC test also applies to text (and to structured data more generally), for which no other independence test presently exists.
A Quality Improvement Initiative to Improve Patient Adherence to Vitamin Supplementation in Cystic Fibrosis

Objectives: Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and pancreatic insufficiency are prescribed fat-soluble vitamins, although compliance remains low. Our objective was to identify patient and caregiver knowledge deficits regarding vitamin supplementation, provide targeted education, and examine serum vitamin levels pre-and posteducation. Methods: This prospective quality improvement study involved 118 patients. A vitamin knowledge survey was given to patients/caregivers during a clinic visit, education was provided targeting knowledge deficits, and the survey was re-administered at the next clinic visit. Serum vitamin levels were collected at pre- and postsurvey. Results: Results showed significant pre-post increases for patient and caregiver knowledge scores, and significant decreases in self-reported nonadherence to vitamin use and number of reported barriers affecting adherence. A significant change in vitamin E level to therapeutic range post-education was demonstrated. Conclusions: Our brief, targeted educational interventions regarding vitamin supplementation showed utility in a routine clinic setting.