Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Personality and intelligence: persistence, not self-directedness, cooperativeness or self-transcendence, is related to twins’ cognitive abilities

Background. A person-centered approach focusing on the interaction of an individual’s temperament-character-life events is essential in the path of individuals’ well-being. In this context, three character traits, Self-directedness (e.g., self-acceptance, self-control, goal-directed behavior), Cooperativeness (e.g., social affiliation, social tolerance, empathy and helpfulness) and Self-transcendence (e.g., spiritual acceptance, transpersonal identification), measured using Cloninger’s model of personality are suggested to help the individual to regulate and resolve the conflicts derived from her/his temperament combinations as a reaction to life events. However, if character is related to the individual’s cognitive ability, then this association might limit any intervention that focuses on character development. We used data from the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS) to investigate the relationship between personality and cognitive ability. Method. The sample consisted of 370 15-year-old twins (159 girls/211 boys), 192 of whom screen-positive with various types of mental health problems. We used the Temperament and Character Inventory to measure personality and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC-IV) to measure intelligence. The relationship was investigated using correlation analyses using random-selected twins from each dyad and separately for monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Additional analyses investigated the genetic and environmental effects on personality and cognitive ability in this specific sample. Results. There were no significant correlations between the WISC-IV indices and any of the character traits (i.e., Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence). Persistence was significantly related, if weak, to four WISC-IV indices: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, and the Full WISC-IV Scale. Post-hoc cross-twin/cross-trait analyses showed that the Persistence-cognitive ability correlation might depend on common genetic effects. The WISC-IV indices showed a relatively large genetic influence, while earlier findings about the etiology of temperament and character traits using the whole CATSS sample were replicated in this sub-sample of twins. Conclusions. The results indicate that what individuals make of themselves intentionally (i.e., their character) was not associated to intelligence. Persistence, a temperament dimension that measures heritable individual differences in eagerness of effort, ambition, perfectionism, and resistance to discouragement despite frustration and fatigue, was weakly linked to intelligence. Suggesting that, at least during adolescence, interventions targeting character development are not limited by the individual’s intelligence.
A Factor Analytic Study of the Construct Validity of the Pictorial Test of Intelligence

High intercorrelations among the six subtests of the Pictorial Test of Intelligence (PTI) raise questions regarding the construct validity of the instrument. An analysis of past research, through an examination of convergent and discriminant validity using a multitrait-multimethod design to compare PTI subtests and subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, failed to provide evidence for the adequacy of PTI subtests as measures of discrete mental functions. On this basis, it was hypothesized that a single factor could be found to account for the variation in PTI subtest scores. Forty- two male and forty-eight female kindergarten and second grade public school children were tested and retested on the PTI. A factor analysis was performed using the common factor model to test the hypothesis. A single factor with stable factor loadings emerged on both test and retest, providing support that a general factor of intelligence may be tapped by the PTI, and that individual subtests do not assess discrete mental functions.
The Growing Importance of Diabetes Screening

Aclassic report by T. Franklin Williams et al. (1) in 1967 documented glaring deficiencies in diabetes care that went largely uncorrected for the next 30 years. It is only in the last 10 years that we have seen substantial and sustained improvement in basic aspects of care such as glycemic control, blood pressure control, and lipid control (2). Since 1995, there have been substantial and sustained improvements in glucose, blood pressure, and lipid control in adults with diabetes, and in some reports from medical groups, A1C is now <7.0%, mean SBP <128 mmHg, and mean LDL <90 mg/dl (3). The increased likelihood that those with diabetes will receive adequate treatment increases the importance of early detention of diabetes through screening for diabetes and pre-diabetes. However, in the last decade sobering data have also emerged that indicate that more intensive control is not necessarily better. The hope that normalization of glucose in those with diabetes would virtually abolish the increased cardiovascular risk associated with type 2 diabetes is vanishing. Rather than confirm expected benefits, recent trials instead provide a most unwelcome quantification of the risks of intensive glycemic control, including high treatment costs, increased risk of severe hypoglycemia, substantial weight gain, and even, in the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) trial, an increased risk of death (4–6). These sobering and unexpected data have far reaching implications that will take years to appreciate. However, it is immediately apparent that more attention needs to be devoted to primary prevention of type 2 diabetes and to early identification of cases of diabetes and its insidious progenitor, pre-diabetes. Our recent success in achieving reasonable levels of glycemic control, and emerging data that more intensive control is not necessarily better, clearly indicate the need for more effective screening for and primary …
Peroxy radical chemistry and OH radical production during the NO 3 -initiated oxidation of isoprene

Peroxy radical reactions (RO_2 + RO_2) from the NO3-initiated oxidation of isoprene are studied with both gas chromatography and a chemical ionization mass spectrometry technique that allows for more specific speciation of products than in previous studies of this system. We find high nitrate yields (~ 80%), consistent with other studies. We further see evidence of significant hydroxyl radical (OH) formation in this system, which we propose comes from RO_2 + HO_2 reactions with a yield of ~38–58%. An additional OH source is the second generation oxidation of the nitrooxyhydroperoxide, which produces OH and a dinitrooxyepoxide with a yield of ~35%. The branching ratio of the radical propagating, carbonyl- and alcohol-forming, and organic peroxide-forming channels of the RO_2 + RO_2 reaction are found to be ~18–38%, ~59–77%, and ~3–4%, respectively. HO_2 formation in this system is lower than has been previously assumed. Addition of RO_2 to isoprene is suggested as a possible route to the formation of several isoprene C_(10)-organic peroxide compounds (ROOR). The nitrooxy, allylic, and C_5 peroxy radicals present in this system exhibit different behavior than the limited suite of peroxy radicals that have been studied to date.
A HAMR Media Technology Roadmap to an Areal Density of 4 Tb/in$^2$

This paper discusses heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) media requirements and challenges for areal densities (AD) beyond 1 Tb/in2. Based on recent roadmap discussions the focus is primarily on granular chemically ordered L10 FePtX-Y-perpendicular media with reduced average grain size down to 〈D〉 = 3-5 nm relative to current CoCrPt based perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) media with average grain size 〈D〉 = 7-9 nm. In HAMR media the combination of thermal conductivity and Curie temperature TC determines the required laser power during recording. Key challenges are sigma variations of D and TC which need to be reduced to σD/D ~ 10-15% and σTC/TC ~ 2%. In addition AD is limited by switching field distribution (SFD) and thermal spot size. The key goal going forward is to optimize heads, media, head-media-spacing (HMS) and read-back channel technologies to extend AD to 4 Tb/in2 and beyond.
Developing reflective practice in higher degree students through a learning journal

ABSTRACT The development of reflective practice through the keeping of a learning journal by full-time and part-time students on taught modular higher degree courses in education is investigated. Two models for reflecting on personal, academic, professional and evaluative development are outlined, guidelines for the content of learning journals are indicated and their contributions to notions of student ‘empowerment˚s, recorded through a learning journal, are evaluated in practice.
Hierarchical Learning Induces Two Simultaneous, But Separable, Prediction Errors in Human Basal Ganglia

Studies suggest that dopaminergic neurons report a unitary, global reward prediction error signal. However, learning in complex real-life tasks, in particular tasks that show hierarchical structure, requires multiple prediction errors that may coincide in time. We used functional neuroimaging to measure prediction error signals in humans performing such a hierarchical task involving simultaneous, uncorrelated prediction errors. Analysis of signals in a priori anatomical regions of interest in the ventral striatum and the ventral tegmental area indeed evidenced two simultaneous, but separable, prediction error signals corresponding to the two levels of hierarchy in the task. This result suggests that suitably designed tasks may reveal a more intricate pattern of firing in dopaminergic neurons. Moreover, the need for downstream separation of these signals implies possible limitations on the number of different task levels that we can learn about simultaneously.
Influence of mothers' education on children's maths achievement in Kenya

Research shows that fathers' level of education predicts achievement of both boys and girls, with significantly greater effect for boys. Similarly, mothers' level of education predicts the achievement of girls but not boys. This study tests the mother–child education achievement hypothesis, by examining the effect of mothers' education on the maths test score of children, using data from 71 schools across 6 districts in Kenya. The findings of a multilevel random intercept model, based on a sample of 1907 learners reveal surprisingly negative effect of mothers' education on pupil's achievement, with an interaction effect of mother's and father's education being positive.
Toward a Neural Chronometry for the Aesthetic Experience of Music

Music is often studied as a cognitive domain alongside language. The emotional aspects of music have also been shown to be important, but views on their nature diverge. For instance, the specific emotions that music induces and how they relate to emotional expression are still under debate. Here we propose a mental and neural chronometry of the aesthetic experience of music initiated and mediated by external and internal contexts such as intentionality, background mood, attention, and expertise. The initial stages necessary for an aesthetic experience of music are feature analysis, integration across modalities, and cognitive processing on the basis of long-term knowledge. These stages are common to individuals belonging to the same musical culture. The initial emotional reactions to music include the startle reflex, core “liking,” and arousal. Subsequently, discrete emotions are perceived and induced. Presumably somatomotor processes synchronizing the body with the music also come into play here. The subsequent stages, in which cognitive, affective, and decisional processes intermingle, require controlled cross-modal neural processes to result in aesthetic emotions, aesthetic judgments, and conscious liking. These latter aesthetic stages often require attention, intentionality, and expertise for their full actualization.
Changes of Sagittal Spinopelvic Parameters in Normal Koreans with Age over 50

Study Design A prospective comparative study. Purpose To describe the changes in the spinopelvic parameters on normal Koreans more than 50 years of age. Overview of Literature There are differing opinions regarding the changes in the thoracic kyphosis, lumbar lordosis, C7 plumb with age in the elderly population. Methods Sagittal standing radiographs of the whole spine including the pelvis in 132 Korean adult male volunteers more than 50 years of age were evaluated prospectively. Volunteers with a history of spine operation, spinal disease, pain in their back or legs, scoliosis, spondylolisthesis, monosegment disc space narrowing, or compression fracture in radiographs were excluded. The following parameters were included: thoracic kyphosis (T5 upper end plate [UEP]-T12 lower end plate [LEP]), thoracolumbar kyphosis (T10 UEP-L2 LEP), lumbar lordosis (T12 LEP-S1 UEP), lower lumbar lordosis (L4 UEP-S1 UEP), sacral slope, pelvic incidence, and the distances from the C7 plumb to the posterosuperior endplate of S1. These parameters in the 6th, 7th and 8th decade groups were compared and the changes in these parameters according to age were examined. Results The thoracic kyphosis demonstrated significant differences in the in the three age groups (p = 0.019), and increased with age (r = 0.239, p < 0.006). The other parameters did not show any significant difference or correlation. Conclusions Similar global sagittal balances and spinopelvic parameters may be observed in Korean males older than 50 years, with a trend towards increasing thoracic kyphosis with age.
Emotional investment

This study examined the utility of the investment model in understanding the experience and expression of emotion in young adult friendships (179 undergraduate students). The results provide support for the utility of the investment model components (i.e., satisfaction, investment, alternative quality, and commitment) in understanding (a) friends’ anger and guilt experiences and (b) the four types of anger expression examined (i.e., integrative assertion, passive aggression, distributive aggression, and non-assertive denial), but the model provided limited support for the four types of guilt expressions examined (i.e., apology–concession, explanations–justification, guilt appeasement, and denial–withdrawal). Support was found for the investment model’s claim that commitment serves a mediating role between the other model components (i.e., satisfaction, investment, and alternative quality) and other relational components.
TRPM7 facilitates cholinergic vesicle fusion with the plasma membrane

TRPM7, of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family, is both an ion channel and a kinase. Previously, we showed that TRPM7 is located in the membranes of acetylcholine (ACh)-secreting synaptic vesicles of sympathetic neurons, forms a molecular complex with proteins of the vesicular fusion machinery, and is critical for stimulated neurotransmitter release. Here, we targeted pHluorin to small synaptic-like vesicles (SSLV) in PC12 cells and demonstrate that it can serve as a single-vesicle plasma membrane fusion reporter. In PC12 cells, as in sympathetic neurons, TRPM7 is located in ACh-secreting SSLVs. TRPM7 knockdown by siRNA, or abolishing channel activity by expression of a dominant negative TRPM7 pore mutant, decreased the frequency of spontaneous and voltage-stimulated SSLV fusion events without affecting large dense core vesicle secretion. We conclude that the conductance of TRPM7 across the vesicle membrane is important in SSLV fusion.
Happiness, Economy and Institutions

Institutional factors in the form of direct democracy (via initiatives and referenda) and federal structure (local autonomy) systematically and sizeably raise self-reported individual well-being in a cross-regional econometric analysis. This positive effect can be attributed to political outcomes closer to voters' preferences, as well as to the procedural utility of political participation possibilities. Moreover, the results of previous microeconometric well-being functions for other countries are generally supported. Unemployment has a strongly depressing effect on happiness. A higher income level raises happiness, however, only to a small extent.
Identity development in gifted children: Moral sensitivity

Starting from an early age, many gifted children show evidence of moral sensitivity. These children tend to care about others, want to relieve pain and suffering or show advanced ability to think about such abstract ideas as justice and fairness. The beginnings of moral sensitivity are found in the development of empathy between child and care‐taking parent. This is also the basis of identity formation and development of the self. This article also includes a discussion of how the phenomenon of asynchrony manifests in moral development of gifted children and the paradigms these children develop to give form to their moral concerns.
‘With a little help from our friends’: The role of new solidarities and alliances in the remaking of Warsop Vale

This article comprises a longitudinal study of community activism and regeneration following pit closure in the small Nottinghamshire ex-mining village of Warsop Vale. Based on more than a hundred interviews carried out between 1998 and 2004, the article highlights the significance of ‘new’ solidarities and alliances between residents and external agencies in the gradual revitalisation of a community once teetering on the brink of extinction.
In search of the Holy Grail: Media discourse and the new human genetics

It has widely been recognized that the media play a key role in framing debates about genetic issues. This paper provides an overview of the major areas of debate within the social scientific literature on media, public understanding of science and human genetics. It evaluates current approaches to assessing the role of the media in influencing public policy debates. It argues that an analysis of the strategies of news sources should occupy a central role in furthering understanding about the ways in which various social actors seek to influence public policy agendas. At present, within the field of human genetics, only a handful of researchers have systematically examined the strategies of news sources from the perspective of the sources themselves. While recent research has focused upon identifying the major sources and how they are used in science reporting, there remains much to be done in uncovering the processes of negotiation and contestation among social actors prior to issues gaining media coverage.
Escalation of Commitment to an Ineffective Course of Action: The Effect of Feedback Having Negative Implications for Self-Identity.

The authors thank Max Bazerman, Audrey Jacobs Brockner, Jeff Greenberg, Gerald Salancik, Lance Sandelands, and three anonymous ASQ reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We are also indebted to Clotilde DiDomenico and Kiki Olivera for their competent assistance in collecting the data. The first author also expresses his gratitude to the University of Arizona for its research support. Address all correspondence to Joel Brockner, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027. Entrapment refers to the process by which organizational decision makers escalate their commitment to an ineffective course of action in order to justify the allocation of previous resources. This paper presents the results of two laboratory experiments that explored the effect on entrapment of individuals' perceptions that the ineffectiveness of prior resource allocations had negative implications for their self-identity. The first experiment showed that entrapment was greater when subjects were told that their ineffective performance reflected their self-identity than when they were told that it did not. The second experiment explored the joint effects on entrapment of performance feedback and the extent to which the feedback was perceived to have negative implications for self-identity. Feedback was manipulated so that half the subjects were told their performance was increasingly ineffective and half that it was increasingly more effective, though still not successful. Half of each group was told performance was due to skill and half that it was mainly due to luck. Entrapment was greater in the skill than the luck condition among those who received the somewhat positive feedback, but the skill-luck difference in entrapment was significantly reduced among those who received negative feedback. Practical and theoretical implications of these and other related findings are discussed.
Lactation Persistency as a Component Trait of the Selection Index and Increase in Reliability by Using Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in Net Merit Defined as the First Five Lactation Milk Yields and Herd Life

We first sought to clarify the effects of discounted rate, survival rate, and lactation persistency as a component trait of the selection index on net merit, defined as the first five lactation milks and herd life (HL) weighted by 1 and 0.389 (currently used in Japan), respectively, in units of genetic standard deviation. Survival rate increased the relative economic importance of later lactation traits and the first five lactation milk yields during the first 120 months from the start of the breeding scheme. In contrast, reliabilities of the estimated breeding value (EBV) in later lactation traits are lower than those of earlier lactation traits. We then sought to clarify the effects of applying single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on net merit to improve the reliability of EBV of later lactation traits to maximize their increased economic importance due to increase in survival rate. Net merit, selection accuracy, and HL increased by adding lactation persistency to the selection index whose component traits were only milk yields. Lactation persistency of the second and (especially) third parities contributed to increasing HL while maintaining the first five lactation milk yields compared with the selection index whose only component traits were milk yields. A selection index comprising the first three lactation milk yields and persistency accounted for 99.4% of net merit derived from a selection index whose components were identical to those for net merit. We consider that the selection index comprising the first three lactation milk yields and persistency is a practical method for increasing lifetime milk yield in the absence of data regarding HL. Applying SNP to the second- and third-lactation traits and HL increased net merit and HL by maximizing the increased economic importance of later lactation traits, reducing the effect of first-lactation milk yield on HL (genetic correlation (rG) = −0.006), and by augmenting the effects of the second- and third-lactation milk yields on HL (rG = 0.118 and 0.257, respectively).