Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Politeness Principle in Cross-Culture Communication

As we all know, different people hold different views about politeness. To be polite, Leech thinks you should follow “Politeness Principle” while Levinson suggests paying attention to others’ “Face Wants”. Sometimes what the Chinese people considered to be polite may not be true according to western culture. In order to adequately provide an educated answer to this heartfelt question, this paper attempts to shed light on some of the important differences on politeness between Chinese and western culture and their values.
A randomized controlled trial comparing internet and video to facilitate patient education for men considering the prostate specific antigen test

AbstractBACKGROUND: Little is known about the relative advantages of video versus internet-based decision aids to facilitate shared medical decision making. This study compared internet and video patient education modalities for men considering the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test. METHODS: Two hundred and twenty-six men, aged 50 years or older, and scheduled to complete a physical examination at an HMO Health Appraisal Clinic were randomly assigned to access a website (N=114) or view a 23-minute videotape in the clinic (N=112) prior to deciding whether they wanted to be screened for prostate cancer. RESULTS: There were no between-groups differences in participants’ ratings of convenience, effort, or satisfaction following exposure to the decision aid. Participants assigned to the video group were more likely to review the materials than individuals assigned to the internet group (98.2% vs 53.5%). Participants in the video group showed significantly greater increases in PSA knowledge and were more likely to decline the PSA test than individuals assigned to the internet group. However, participants in the internet group who reviewed the entire online presentation showed similar increases in PSA knowledge as video participants. Only 5% of all participants visited other websites to inform themselves about the PSA test. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the video was significantly more effective than the Internet in educating participants about benefits and risks of PSA screening.
Changes in teaching in order to help students with learning difficulties improve in Cypriot primary classes

This article aims to explore what changes two Cypriot primary school teachers brought in their teaching in order to help students with learning difficulties improve in their classes. The study was qualitative and used non-participant observation in two primary classrooms in different primary schools and semi-structured interviews with the main teachers of these classes. The findings revealed that the main changes implemented by these teachers were a differentiated programme of literacy and numeracy, and opportunities to students to process information through many senses. In addition, the teachers boosted the learning of students with learning difficulties by focusing on essentials, using process-oriented praise, peer tutoring, and regular communication with parents. The article concludes with suggestions about how Cypriot primary school teachers can boost the learning of students with difficulties and how leaders can support their efforts.
Induction motor speed measurement using motor current signature analysis technique

As the procedure of nonintrusive method for field efficiency estimation of induction motor requires the actual motor speed from direct measurement by using shaft-mounted speed encoder or optical tachometer which reduces the reliability and also increases the cost. In this paper, the sensorless speed measurement scheme using implementation of motor current signature analysis (MCSA) is proposed. Both line-fed (sinusoidal) and inverter-fed (nonsinusoidal) motors with different operating frequencies are considered. In this technique, neither equivalent circuit parameters nor structures of machine are required. Moreover for inverter-fed motor, the information of inverter such as switching frequency and switching PWM scheme are not required. This proposed technique is verified from the experimental results of measured speeds of 2.2 and 4.0 kW three-phase induction motors operated under various load torques. The experimental results show that the overall speed estimation accuracy is approximately within 2 rpm errors.
The analysis of visual motion: from computational theory to neuronal mechanisms.

This paper reviews a number of aspects of visual motion analysis in biological systems from a computational perspective. We illustrate the kinds of insights that have been gained through computational studies and how these observations can be integrated with experimental studies from psychology and the neurosciences to understand the particular computations used by biological systems to analyze motion. The particular areas of motion analysis that we discuss include early motion detection and measurement, the optical flow computation, motion correspondence, the detection of motion discontinuities, and the recovery of three-dimensional structure from motion.
Between Brains and Breasts—Women Scientists in Fiction Film: On the Marginalization and Sexualization of Scientific Competence

The popular media, film, cinema and television, contribute to the public’s general understanding of science. This article focuses on the portrayal of female scientists and the reception of such depictions within the general understanding. The article questions: the images depicted; their relation to scientific reality; how such depictions have changed over time (1929-1997); and their significance within the broader social context.
Development of Social Competences in the Primary School‐study of specific pedagogic practices

This study intended to promote the development of socio-affective competences in children in the first two years of primary school (age 6-8). A model of pedagogic practice with particular characteristics in terms of the relations between subjects, discourses and spaces was implemented. The mediating influence of teacher's pedagogic practice, family's social class and gender was studied. The results showed that the pedagogic practice with general values of weak framing (i.e. where some control is given to the learner) but with strong framing in specific aspects was the practice which facilitated the development of the selected competences by all children.
Potentiality of Density-Functional Theory in Analyzing the Devices Containing Graphene-Crystalline Solid Interfaces: A Review

Graphene-based devices have initiated unprecedented breakthrough in nanoelectronics. Due to its intrinsic ultrathin 2-D nature, the unique structural, mechanical, electronic, optical, and magnetic properties of graphene are found to be extremely dependent on its substrate material. For the synthesis of graphene with pretailored features or fabrication of graphene-based device with tunable functionality, understanding of the graphene interfaces with other materials are of pivotal importance. Density-functional theory (DFT) computations have been proved to be a powerful tool in investigating the interface properties of graphene-crystalline solids and to subsequently correlate the experimental findings with underlying mechanisms, as well as to explore their potential applications. This paper presents a comprehensive review on utility of DFT-based analysis for graphene interfaces/heterostructures with other crystalline solid materials including metals, semiconductors, and insulators. DFT computational efforts to choose the appropriate material for substrate catalyst, probe, and electrode in graphene synthesis/graphene-based nanodevice design have been critically reviewed including the investigation of different combination of complex interfaces as well as unconventional materials. Salient features, advantages, and constraints of the approach have also been summarized.
New frontier trail guides: faculty‐librarian collaboration on information literacy

Information literacy is essential for successful expeditions into the ever‐expanding knowledge frontier. Faculty and librarians can guide each other, and the learners they serve, past wastelands to fertile soil and reliable wells to sustain inquiry and cultivate deeper understanding in their fields of study. The authors present definitions of information literacy, describe challenges in promoting it, and offer possible solutions for promoting faculty‐librarian collaboration on information literacy.
Associations of polymorphisms in TXNIP and gene–environment interactions with the risk of coronary artery disease in a Chinese Han population

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in thioredoxin‐interacting protein (TXNIP) gene may modulate TXNIP expression, then increase the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). In a two‐stage case–control study with a total of 1818 CAD patients and 1963 controls, we genotyped three SNPs in TXNIP and found that the variant genotypes of SNPs rs7212 [odds ratio (OR) = 1.26, P = 0.001] and rs7211 (OR = 1.23, P = 0.005) were significantly associated with increased CAD risk under a dominant model. In haplotype analyses, compared with the reference haplotype, haplotype ‘G‐T’ had a 1.22‐fold increased risk of CAD (P = 0.003). We also observed the cumulative effects of SNPs rs7212 and rs7211 on CAD risk and the severity of coronary atherosclerosis. Moreover, the gene–environment interactions among the variant genotypes of SNP rs7212, smoking habit, alcohol drinking habit and history of type 2 diabetes were associated with a 3.70‐fold increased risk of CAD (P < 0.001). Subsequent genotype‐phenotype correlation analyses further observed the significant effects of SNP rs7212 on TXNIP mRNA expression, plasma TXNIP and malondialdehyde levels. Taken together, our data suggest that TXNIP SNPs may individually and cumulatively affect CAD risk through a possible mechanism for regulating TXNIP expression and gene–environment interactions.
The Price of Optimum in Stackelberg Games

Considerasystem M ofparallelmachines,eachwithastrictlyincreasinganddifierentiable load dependent latency function. The users of such a system are of inflnite number and act selflshly,routingtheirinflnitesimallysmallportionofthetotal∞ow r theycontrol,tomachines ofcurrentlyminimumdelay. Itiswellknownthatsuchselflshnessifmodeledbyanoncooperative gamemayyieldaNash EquilibriumonMwithcostunboundedlyworstthantheoverallOptimum one. We model such a system as a Stackelberg or Leader-Followers game, and present a simple algorithm that computes the least ∞ow flM (or \price of optimum") that must be controlled by a Leader in order to impose the overall optimum cost on M, as well as Leader’s optimum strategy. Thee‐ciencyofouralgorithmdependsonthecomputationoftheoptimumandNash assignmentonsuchsystems. Suchassignmentscanbecomputede‐ciently[4]fortheclassesof latency functions that we are interested in. Our motivation was [21] were the open question of computing flM on a arbitrary system M was posed. We were also greatly inspired from [7], in which the computation of flM was a major issue. InthatarticlesystemswithM/M/1latencyfunctionswerestudied,whicharewidelymetinreal world applications. Furthermore, flM(n) was computed explicitly for Stackelberg games with either n=1oraflnitenumber nof Followers. Itwasdemonstratedthat flM(n)isnondecreasing on n,andas nincreasesitbecomesharderforthe Leadertoimposetheoveralloptimum. Most notably, it was conjectured that if n ! 1 then it is not possible for the Leader to impose system’soveralloptimum. Thiscomesintocontrasttoourtheoreticalresults. Asaby-product, wepresentasimplealgorithmthatcomputesthe Nash Equilibriumforasystem M withM/M/1 latency functions. We should stress here that the model of parallel machines, despite its simplicity, incurs the worst coordination ratio as proved in [19].
PURIFY: a new approach to radio-interferometric imaging

In a recent article series, the authors have promoted convex optimization algorithms for radio-interferometric imaging in the framework of compressed sensing, which leverages sparsity regularization priors for the associated inverse problem and defines a minimization problem for image reconstruction. This approach was shown, in theory and through simulations in a simple discrete visibility setting, to have the potential to outperform significantly CLEAN and its evolutions. In this work, we leverage the versatility of convex optimization in solving minimization problems to both handle realistic continuous visibilities and offer a highly parallelizable structure paving the way to significant acceleration of the reconstruction and high-dimensional data scalability. The new algorithmic structure promoted relies on the simultaneous-direction method of multipliers (SDMM), and contrasts with the current major-minor cycle structure of CLEAN and its evolutions, which in particular cannot handle the state-of-the-art minimization problems under consideration where neither the regularization term nor the data term are differentiable functions. We release a beta version of an SDMM-based imaging software written in C and dubbed PURIFY (http://basp-group.github.io/purify/) that handles various sparsity priors, including our recent average sparsity approach SARA. We evaluate the performance of different priors through simulations in the continuous visibility setting, confirming the superiority of SARA.
Exploiting wideband spectrum occupancy heterogeneity for weighted compressive spectrum sensing

Compressive sampling has shown great potential for making wideband spectrum sensing possible at sub-Nyquist sampling rates. As a result, there have recently been research efforts that aimed to develop techniques that leverage compressive sampling to enable compressed wideband spectrum sensing. These techniques consider homogeneous wideband spectrum, where all bands are assumed to have similar PU traffic characteristics. In practice, however, wideband spectrum is not homogeneous, in that different spectrum bands could have different PU occupancy patterns. In fact, the nature of spectrum assignment, in which applications of similar types are often assigned bands within the same block, dictates that wideband spectrum is indeed heterogeneous, as different application types exhibit different behaviors. In this paper, we consider heterogeneous wideband spectrum, where we exploit this inherent, block-like structure of wideband spectrum to design efficient compressive spectrum sensing techniques that are well suited for heterogeneous wideband spectrum. We propose a weighted ίι —minimization sensing information recovery algorithm that achieves more stable recovery than that achieved by existing approaches while accounting for the variations of spectrum occupancy across both the time and frequency dimensions. Through intensive numerical simulations, we show that our approach achieves better performance when compared to the state-of-the-art approaches.
Clostridium perfringens Epsilon Toxin: A Malevolent Molecule for Animals and Man?

Clostridium perfringens is a prolific, toxin-producing anaerobe causing multiple diseases in humans and animals. One of these toxins is epsilon, a 33 kDa protein produced by Clostridium perfringens (types B and D) that induces fatal enteric disease of goats, sheep and cattle. Epsilon toxin (Etx) belongs to the aerolysin-like toxin family. It contains three distinct domains, is proteolytically-activated and forms oligomeric pores on cell surfaces via a lipid raft-associated protein(s). Vaccination controls Etx-induced disease in the field. However, therapeutic measures are currently lacking. This review initially introduces C. perfringens toxins, subsequently focusing upon the Etx and its biochemistry, disease characteristics in various animals that include laboratory models (in vitro and in vivo), and finally control mechanisms (vaccines and therapeutics).
The Chinese Debate Over Village Self-Government

Western interest in the prospect of village democracy in China is booming. Journalists, diplomats and international grant officers have all taken heed of the fact that elections are being held at China's lowliest grass-roots. At least some of these elections are the real thing ? competitive, clean, with significant stakes and results that stick. Organizations as diverse as the Ford Foundation, the International Republican Institute, the Asia Foundation and the United Nations Development Program have patronized this glint of democratic change with advice and money. Western scholars have also invested substantial fieldwork expertise to monitor the progress in democratic development.1 Such first-hand observation provides the best information we have about potential democracy in Chinese villages. Yet in this essay I want to
Difficulties facing healthcare workers in the era of AIDS treatment in Lesotho

Abstract Sub-Saharan Africa is most affected by the AIDS pandemic and Lesotho is no exception. In many countries, healthcare workers are at the forefront of the fight against AIDS. This study explores the difficulties facing healthcare workers in Lesotho using a combination of qualitative methods – focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. The findings suggest that healthcare workers are afraid of contracting HIV from their patients and this affects their delivery of services. In addition, the results revealed that poor infrastructure and shortage of supplies at the facilities hinder healthcare workers from performing their duties effectively. The other concern was the heavy workload and severe time constraints which puts enormous stress on healthcare workers. Stigma and discrimination emerged as major problems for healthcare workers. Addressing the challenges facing healthcare workers is essential in effectively managing the AIDS pandemic facing the continent.
Role of classic signs as diagnostic predictors for enteric fever among returned travellers: Relative bradycardia and eosinopenia

Background The lack of characteristic clinical findings and accurate diagnostic tools has made the diagnosis of enteric fever difficult. We evaluated the classic signs of relative bradycardia and eosinopenia as diagnostic predictors for enteric fever among travellers who had returned from the tropics or subtropics. Methods This matched case-control study used data from 2006 to 2015 for culture-proven enteric fever patients as cases. Febrile patients (>38.3°C) with non-enteric fever, who had returned from the tropics or subtropics, were matched to the cases in a 1:3 ratio by age (±3 years), sex, and year of diagnosis as controls. Cunha’s criteria were used for relative bradycardia. Absolute eosinopenia was defined as an eosinophilic count of 0/μL. Results Data from 160 patients (40 cases and 120 controls) were analysed. Cases predominantly returned from South Asia (70% versus 18%, p <0.001). Relative bradycardia (88% versus 51%, p <0.001) and absolute eosinopenia (63% versus 38%, p = 0.008) were more frequent in cases than controls. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, return from South Asia (aOR: 21.6; 95% CI: 7.17–64.9) and relative bradycardia (aOR: 11.7; 95% CI: 3.21–42.5) were independent predictors for a diagnosis of enteric fever. The positive likelihood ratio was 4.00 (95% CI: 2.58–6.20) for return from South Asia, 1.72 (95% CI: 1.39–2.13) for relative bradycardia, and 1.63 (95%CI: 1.17–2.27) for absolute eosinopenia. The negative predictive values of the three variables were notably high (83–92%);. however, positive predictive values were 35–57%. Conclusions The classic signs of relative bradycardia and eosinopenia were not specific for enteric fever; however both met the criteria for being diagnostic predictors for enteric fever. Among febrile returned travellers, relative bradycardia and eosinopenia should be re-evaluated for predicting a diagnosis of enteric fever in non-endemic areas prior to obtaining blood cultures.
The Moderating Effect of Identity Style on the Relation Between Adolescent Problem Behavior and Quality of Psychological Functioning

The present study examines the moderating effect of identity decision-making styles on the relation between adolescent problem behavior and quality of psychological functioning. Participants were 1,857 adolescents aged 16 and 17 who completed the Youth Self-Report Questionnaire in Cycle 4 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. It was hypothesized that the negative relation between problem behavior involvement and quality of psychological functioning would be stronger for individuals classified as having a predominantly diffuse-avoidant identity processing style than for normative or informational participants, and that this relation would be stronger in the normative group than in the informational group. All hypotheses were supported in a structural equation model linking problem behavior and psychological functioning.
Multiple determinants of satisfaction from a specific waterfowl hunting trip.

Abstract This paper builds upon the multiple satisfaction approach to game management by evaluating the individual and combined effects of three basic dimensions—wildlife, human interaction, and nature/sport—on overall hunting satisfaction. In contrast to previous studies that focused on either hunting in general or deer hunting, this analysis was based on hunter evaluations of a specific waterfowl hunting trip. Results generally support the concept of multiple satisfactions, with a combination of wildlife, human interaction, and nature/sport variables accounting for 36% of the variance in satisfaction. Taken individually, nature/sport items explained more of the variation in satisfaction (R2 = .23) than either the wildlife (R2 = .08) or the human interaction variables (R2 = .14). Some discrepancies were noted between the findings presented here and those reported in previous investigations. For example, contrary to several earlier studies that found success to be an important determinant of satisfaction,.
Dialogism in the novel: A computational model of the dialogic nature of narration and quotations

Understanding how spoken language is represented in novels over time is a key question in the Digital Humanities. We propose a new metric for characterizing spoken dialogue in the novel, called dialogism, that instantiates Bakhtin’s claim that all texts are fundamentally dialogic. This measurement uses abstract grammatical features in a span of text (such as the use of pronouns, mood, or subordinate clause structure) to measure the extent to which the span is dialogic, i.e. exhibits the grammatical structures common to natural spoken dialogue. We use this metric to explore the dialogism of 1,100 largely canonical English novels over 230 years. We combine quantitative and qualitative investigation of the dialogic properties of both dialogue and narration to show novel stylistic properties of literary innovation during three periods: the late 18th century, the turn of the 19th century, and the mid-20th century. We find that during these moments, certain authors reject literary conventions by changing the dynamic between the narrative and dialogue portions of the texts. Our analysis shows that these changed dynamics are behind rises in persuasive writing, reflections of psychological processes, and the use of dialogue as an increasingly important driver of the novel as a whole. These results show that computational models that characterize style grammatically, generalizing across time and genre, can lead to literary and methodological insights.