Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
“No One Will Speak for Us”: Empowering Undocumented Immigrant Women Through Policy Advocacy

ABSTRACT This article draws on data from an exploratory study involving an organized group of Mexican immigrant mothers engaged in community-based policy advocacy in the Pacific Northwest. Participants in the project lobbied state legislators on bills expanding the rights of undocumented immigrants—most notably, bills granting access to in-state tuition and driver’s licenses. In-depth interviews (n=12) reveal that through this process, participants came to see themselves as political subjects, despite their unauthorized legal status. Findings reveal that participants’ engagement in the policy process is centered on the idea of expressing needs and reflects their interest in improving individual, family, and community well-being. In this sense, their participation in politics flows from their roles as mothers and caregivers. By illuminating the experiences of a group—undocumented immigrant women—often overlooked in research on immigration policy and practice, this case offers a counter-narrative to the dominant portrayal of immigrant women and suggests ways to integrate community organizing and collective action into policy practice.
A Novel Exemplar-Based Image Completion Scheme with Adaptive TV-Constraint

Image completion is an important task in the field of image processing with broad applications in image and vision analysis. we consider the image completion problem arising in image restoration: part of an image has been removed, and we want to restore the image from the remaining, possibly noisy, portion. In this paper, we present a new approach based on exemplar-based completion model which combines the characters of in painting and texture synthesis. Firstly we decide the size of image template based on the gradient domain of the image. Secondly, the filling priority of the template is determined by the curvature of the level lines and the confidence item of the template. This is also interpreted by total variation (TV) method of partial differential equation(PDE). Because of considering the geometrical property of the level lines, the structure property of the image is preserved. Thirdly because of the gradient domain denoting the property of the texture, when comparing the similarity between the source template and destination template, not only we compute the sum of squared differences (SSD) of the all ready filled pixels but also combining the information of the gradient domain of the templates. Lastly we copy the determined source template to the destination template and update the information of the destination template. Some experiments will show the advantage of our method.
Analysis of Corruption from Sociocultural Perspectives

Since the 1990s, corruption has increasingly attracted global attention. Scholars often attribute the root causes of corruption to manifold reasons, including government bureaucracy, corporation monopolies, opaque government incomes, weak accountability, and lack of strict law enforcement and necessary public supervision. However, deeper sociocultural factors behind corruption are less examined and often underrated.This paper aims to explore the relationship between corruption and cultural psychology by examining Chinese society. The influences of sociocultural factors on corruption are investigated from two diverse viewpoints: (a) unique features of Chinese culture, including social relations, favors, face, and office standards; and (b) Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as a comparative Western framework. In addition, the paper includes a novel meta-analysis of convicted corrupt officials from China, revealing that the majority of corrupt officials have less privileged or lowincome agrarian family backgrounds (Appendix: Table 1). This paper postulates that an individual’s negative experiences in childhood (e.g., poverty, hunger) combined with a collectivist agrarian tradition likely have a strong impact on future corruption. By exploring the seldom discussed aspects of cultural psychology on Chinese corruption, this paper seeks to shed new light on corruption etiology that goes beyond traditional Western schools of thought.
Spirituality and religiosity in patients with systemic arterial hypertension

Abstract Systemic arterial hypertension is a major risk factor for complications such as acute myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accident, and chronic kidney disease, which results in an important public health problem in Brazil, generating high medical and socioeconomic costs due to such complications. Systemic arterial hyperten-sion associated with aspects such as spirituality and religiosity has been the subject of several studies. Thus, a descriptive, exploratory, cross-sectional study was conducted in order to assess the spirituality and religiosity of 65 hypertensive patients of a Service Center for Chronic Diseases. The domains “forgiveness” and “self-as-sessment” received better scores, with an average of 1.42 and 1.46, respectively. Whereas the “organizational religiosity” domain resulted in a higher average among respondents (3.00). Spirituality and religiosity of hyper-tensive patients are important dimensions that must be considered in developing a holistic treatment plan.
Beyond carrot-and-stick: How values and endogenous motivations affect residential Green IS adoption

Research on the adoption of information systems (IS) has been dominated by mechanistic motivational theories (extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation). In contrast, the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) goes beyond the traditional dichotomy of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation by distinguishing between different types of motivation based on one’s perceived self-determination when performing a behavior (Ryan and Deci 2000). Our study contributes to IS research by examining the role of endogenous motivation on the adoption of Green IS. Our research model additionally investigates the role of personal values as they ultimately motivate actions (Schwartz 2009) and are suggested to be important antecedents of eco-innovations’ adoption. To test our model we collected data from an online survey from 1.319 consumers, both actual users and non-users. Results show that especially autonomous motivations are influential drivers of Green IS adoption. Further, a comparison of both groups reveals that extrinsic rewards tend to be more relevant for non-users.
An insight of traditional plasmid curing in Vibrio species

As the causative agent of foodborne related illness, Vibrio species causes a huge impact on the public health and management. Vibrio species is often associated with seafood as the latter plays a role as a vehicle to transmit bacterial infections. Hence, antibiotics are used not to promote growth but rather to prevent and treat bacterial infections. The extensive use of antibiotics in the aquaculture industry and environment has led to the emerging of antibiotic resistant strains. This phenomenon has triggered an alarming public health concern due to the increase number of pathogenic Vibrio strains that are resistant to clinically used antibiotics and is found in the environment. Antibiotic resistance and the genes location in the strains can be detected through plasmid curing assay. The results derived from plasmid curing assay is fast, cost effective, sufficient in providing insights, and influence the antibiotic management policies in the aquaculture industry. This presentation aims in discussing and providing insights on various curing agents in Vibrio species. To our best of knowledge, this is a first review written discussing on plasmid curing in Vibrio species.
Peningkatan Keterampilan Proses Sains Siswa Sekolah Dasar melalui Model Pembelajaran Berbasis Masalah

Penelitian ini dilatar belakangi oleh rendahnya keterampilan proses sains siswa kelas V SD Muhammadiyah 028 Penyasawan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menerapkan model pembelajaran berbasis masalah dalam meningkatkan keterampilan proses sains siswa kelas V SD Muhammadiyah Penyasawan yang berjumlah 22 peserta didik. Penelitian yang digunakan adalah Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (PTK) yang dilaksanakan dalam dua siklus pembelajaran. Setiap siklus terdiri dari dua pertemuan dan empat tahap pembelajaran yaitu: perencanaan, pelaksanaan, observasi, dan refleksi. Teknik pengumpulan data berupa dokumentasi, observasi, dan tes. Sedangkan teknik analisis data menggunakan analisis kualitatif dan analisis kuantitatif. Berdasarkan analisis data diperoleh hasil keterampilan proses sains siswa kelas V SD Muhammadiyah 028 Penyasawan pada pratindakan 36%. Pada siklus I pertemuan I dengan persentase ketuntasan belajar 55% dan pada siklus I pertemuan II mengalami peningkatan dengan persentase 68%. Pada siklus II pertemuan I mengalami peningkatan juga dengan ketuntasan belajar 77%, dan pada siklus II pertemuan II mengalami peningkatan lagi dengan persentase ketuntasan belajar 86%. Dengan demikian dapat disimpulkan bahwa dengan menggunakan model pembelajaran berbasis masalah dapat meningkatkan keterampilan proses sains kelas V SD Muhammadiyah 028 Penyasawan.
An Approach for Merging Two Classification-Trees

Classification-Tree Method (CTM) is widely used to generate test cases from functional specifications and is based on the idea of partition testing. Some few works have been done based on merging of two classification-trees. Existing method can be used to generate test cases by combining two classification trees based on information from the system specification and information from the COTS specification. The construction of combined classification-tree is rather ad hoc and it may vary from one test engineer to other test engineer. To overcome this problem, we provide all the basic cases for merging two classification-trees with their formal notations.
Virtual memory mapped network interface for the SHRIMP multicomputer

The network interfaces of existing multicomputers require a significant amount of software overhead to provide protection and to implement message passing protocols. The authors describe the design of a low-latency, high-bandwidth, virtual memory-mapped network interface for the SHRIMP multicomputer project at Princeton University. Without sacrificing protection, the network interface achieves low latency by using virtual memory mapping and write-latency hiding techniques, and obtains high bandwidth by providing a user-level block data transfer mechanism. The authors have implemented several message passing primitives in an experimental environment, demonstrating that their approach can reduce the message passing overhead to a few user-level instructions. <<ETX>>
Understanding the Parochial Church Council: Dynamics of Psychological Type and Gender

Summary A sample of 74 female and 40 male members from six Parochial Church Councils completed Form G (Anglicized) of the MBTI. The data demonstrated that both men and women preferred introversion over extraversion and judging over perceiving. The women also demonstrated clear preference for sensing over intuition, and for feeling over thinking, while the men demonstrated clear preferences for intuition over sensing, and for thinking over feeling. Attention is drawn to possible areas of conflict. Website: www.bangor. ac.uk/rs/pt
Towards Efficient Multi-Modal Emotion Recognition

The paper presents a multi-modal emotion recognition system exploiting audio and video (i.e., facial expression) information. The system first processes both sources of information individually to produce corresponding matching scores and then combines the computed matching scores to obtain a classification decision. For the video part of the system, a novel approach to emotion recognition, relying on image-set matching, is developed. The proposed approach avoids the need for detecting and tracking specific facial landmarks throughout the given video sequence, which represents a common source of error in video-based emotion recognition systems, and, therefore, adds robustness to the video processing chain. The audio part of the system, on the other hand, relies on utterance-specific Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) adapted from a Universal Background Model (UBM) via the maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) estimation. It improves upon the standard UBM-MAP procedure by exploiting gender information when building the utterance-specific GMMs, thus ensuring enhanced emotion recognition performance. Both the uni-modal parts as well as the combined system are assessed on the challenging multi-modal eNTERFACE'05 corpus with highly encouraging results. The developed system represents a feasible solution to emotion recognition that can easily be integrated into various systems, such as humanoid robots, smart surveillance systems and alike.
Examining the variation of fidelity across an intervention: Implications for measuring and evaluating student learning

ABSTRACT Fidelity of implementation is a commonly used term that is not well understood yet frequently assessed in schools today. This paper will discuss the different approaches commonly used in schools (e.g., structural, procedural, etc.) and then present them in relation to student outcomes within a seven-month intervention study with at-risk kindergarteners. Variation across different types of fidelity measures (e.g., time, quality of delivery, student engagement, etc.) will be examined over intervention time as well as in relation to student academic achievement. Implications will be provided on how practitioners should consider measuring and monitoring fidelity of implementation within their schools with a focus on doing it to improve outcomes for students.
Learning to Incentivize: Eliciting Effort via Output Agreement

In crowdsourcing when there is a lack of verification for contributed answers, output agreement mechanisms are often used to incentivize participants to provide truthful answers when the correct answer is hold by the majority. In this paper, we focus on using output agreement mechanisms to elicit effort, in addition to eliciting truthful answers, from a population of workers. We consider a setting where workers have heterogeneous cost of effort exertion and examine the data requester's problem of deciding the reward level in output agreement for optimal elicitation. In particular, when the requester knows the cost distribution, we derive the optimal reward level for output agreement mechanisms. This is achieved by first characterizing Bayesian Nash equilibria of output agreement mechanisms for a given reward level. When the cost distribution is unknown to the requester, we develop sequential mechanisms that combine learning the cost distribution with incentivizing effort exertion to approximately determine the optimal reward level.
Zinc- and bicarbonate-dependent ZIP8 transporter mediates selenite uptake

Selenite (HSeO3−) is a monovalent anion of the essential trace element and micronutrient selenium (Se). In therapeutic concentrations, HSeO3− has been studied for treating certain cancers, serious inflammatory disorders, and septic shock. Little is known, however, about HSeO3− uptake into mammalian cells; until now, no mammalian HSeO3− uptake transporter has been identified. The ubiquitous mammalian ZIP8 divalent cation transporter (encoded by the SLC39A8 gene) is bicarbonate-dependent, moving endogenous substrates (Zn2+, Mn2+, Fe2+ or Co2+) and nonessential metals such as Cd2+ into the cell. Herein we studied HSeO3− uptake in: human and mouse cell cultures, shRNA-knockdown experiments, Xenopus oocytes, wild-type mice and two transgenic mouse lines having genetically altered ZIP8 expression, and mouse erythrocytes ex vivo. In mammalian cell culture, excess Zn2+ levels and/or ZIP8 over-expression can be associated with diminished viability in selenite-treated cells. Intraperitoneal HSeO3− causes the largest ZIP8-dependent increases in intracellular Se content in liver, followed by kidney, heart, lung and spleen. In every model system studied, HSeO3− uptake is tightly associated with ZIP8 protein levels and sufficient Zn2+ and HCO3− concentrations, suggesting that the ZIP8-mediated electroneutral complex transported contains three ions: Zn2+/(HCO3−)(HSeO3−). Transporters having three different ions in their transport complex are not without precedent. Although there might be other HSeO3− influx transporters as yet undiscovered, data herein suggest that mammalian ZIP8 plays a major role in HSeO3− uptake.
Bacteriophage therapy of Salmonella enterica: a fresh appraisal of bacteriophage therapy.

BACKGROUND The most serious criticisms leveled at bacteriophage therapy are as follows: phages induce neutralizing antibodies, phages are active only when administered shortly after bacterial infection, and phage-resistant bacteria emerge rapidly in the course of therapy. METHODS Phages lytic for several Salmonella enterica serovars were isolated by means of standard protocols from feces of patients with gastroenteritis. Growth of S. enterica serovar Paratyphi B (Salp572(phi1S)) in the presence of phage phi1 (selected from among 8 phages for its larger host range) provided a phage phi1-resistant bacterial strain (Salp572(phi1R)). The properties of the Salp572(phi1S) and Salp572(phi1R) strains and of phage phi1 were studied in a mouse model of experimental infection. RESULTS Phages induced nonneutralizing antibodies and were active 2 weeks after experimental infection of mice; phage-resistant bacteria were avirulent and short lived in vivo. More importantly, phage-resistant bacteria were excellent vaccines, protecting against lethal doses of heterologous S. enterica serovars. CONCLUSIONS Phage therapy effectiveness has not yet been properly assessed.
Chapter 2 : Privatization , Diffusion of Share Ownership , and Politics 1

Since the 1980s, many national governments have pursued privatization programs. Although the word "privatization" encompasses a variety of government policies, from deregulation policies to the sale of state-owned enterprises to the private sector, a central feature of privatization policies is the change from public to private ownership. The scale of these programs varies across countries, but the trend toward privatization is worldwide. The biggest privatization program in a capitalist country to date was implemented by the conservative Thatcher government in Britain, primarily in the 1980s. In 1979, at the beginning of the privatization process, state-owned enterprises accounted for about 10.5 percent of the country's GDP. Today almost everything has been privatized, from quasi-competitive activities, like transportation, automobile manufacturing, steel and port operations, to public utilities like telecommunication, gas, electricity, and water. With the exception of postal services, which are still in public hands, all British public utilities are now private enterprises. The British Conservative government adopted its privatization plans with at least three intended (and declared) goals: improve the economic efficiency of the enterprise
Psychosocial antecedents of political beliefs in adolescence

Cilem prace je popsat prediktory politických přesvědceni v pozdni adolescenci. Pozornost je věnovana třem typům politických přesvědceni: (1) vnimanemu politickemu vlivu, (2) vnimane ucinnosti různých forem politicke aktivity, a (3) politicke důvěře. Na zakladě přehledu aktualnich teoretických a metodologických diskuzi v oblasti politicke socializace je politický vývoj adolescentů chapan jako propojený s dalsimi oblastmi jejich psychosocialniho vývoje. Jadro prace tvoři trojice empirických studii, ktere spojuje důraz na socialně kognitivni aspekty politicke socializace. Vsechny studie analyzuji longitudinalni data nasbirana v ramci projektu ELSPAC. V prvni studii je testovana otazka, zda vnimaný vliv na konflikt v rodině predikuje vnimaný politický vliv na urovni komunity. Druha studie si klade otazku, zda preference pro některou z kognitivnich strategii utvařeni identity predikuje vnimanou ucinnost různých typů politických aktivit. Třeti studie zkouma vztah mezi ranými charakteristikami adolescentů a jejich pozdějsi politickou důvěrou.
3D Analysis of HCMV Induced-Nuclear Membrane Structures by FIB/SEM Tomography: Insight into an Unprecedented Membrane Morphology

We show that focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopy (FIB/SEM) tomography is an excellent method to analyze the three-dimensional structure of a fibroblast nucleus infected with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). We found that the previously described infoldings of the inner nuclear membrane, which are unique among its kind, form an extremely complex network of membrane structures not predictable by previous two-dimensional studies. In all cases they contained further invaginations (2nd and 3rd order infoldings). Quantification revealed 5498 HCMV capsids within two nuclear segments, allowing an estimate of 15,000 to 30,000 capsids in the entire nucleus five days post infection. Only 0.8% proved to be enveloped capsids which were exclusively detected in 1st order infoldings (perinuclear space). Distribution of the capsids between 1st, 2nd and 3rd order infoldings is in complete agreement with the envelopment/de-envelopment model for egress of HCMV capsids from the nucleus and we confirm that capsid budding does occur at the large infoldings. Based on our results we propose the pushing membrane model: HCMV infection induces local disruption of the nuclear lamina and synthesis of new membrane material which is pushed into the nucleoplasm, forming complex membrane infoldings in a highly abundant manner, which then may be also used by nucleocapsids for budding.
An Alternative Explanation of the Price Puzzle

This paper proposes a simple explanation for the frequent appearance of a price puzzle in VARs designed for monetary policy analysis. It suggests that the best method of solving the puzzle implies a close connection between theory and empirics rather than the introduction of a commodity price. It proves that the omission of a measure of output gap (or potential output) spuriously produces a price puzzle (and several other incorrect conclusions) in a wide class of commonly used models. This can happen even if the model admits a triangular identification and if the forecasts produced by the misspecified VAR are optimal. When the model is tested on US data, all predictions are supported.
Sulphur Status Of Some Soils In Edo State, Nigeria

Sulphur status of some soils in Edo Central, Nigeria was evaluated in five different locations; Ekpoma, Irrua, Uromi, Ubiaja and Agbede. The area lies within the derived savanna-forest transitional zone. Surface soil samples (0 – 15 cm) collected from the five localities wasanalyzed for their physico-chemical properties, inorganic, organic and total sulphur contents. Results showed that inorganic, organic and total sulphur ranged from 0.10 to 0.37, 0.79 to 2.75 and 6.30 to 16.41 mg/kg respectively. Inorganic sulphur content of all the locations was generally below the critical level of 8.50 mg/kg and therefore generally deficient in inorganic sulphur. Inorganic sulphur correlated significantly with available phosphorus but was negative and nonsignificant with organic carbon, pH, nitrogen, ECEC, clay and silt contents. Application of sulphur fertilizer is recommended for adequate crop yield in the agro-ecological zone. Key words; inorganic sulphur, organic sulphur,sulphur, physico-chemical properties, total sulphur ————————————————————