Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Story Recall in Kindergarten Children: Effect of Method of Presentation on Psycholinguistic Performance.

BLANK, MARION, and FRANK, SHELDON M. Story Recall in Kindergarten Children: Effect of Method of Presentation on Psycholinguistic Performance. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 299-319. A story-retelling task was devised as a means of testing syntactic and semantic aspects of language performance in kindergarten children. Syntactic recall was reduced in amount and varied in pattern from the commonly used single sentence imitation task. Several factors appeared to be responsible, including such variables as semantic content and "stress" (the need to retain large amounts of of information). Linguistic performance, including both semantic and syntactic recall, was enhanced by varying the method of presentation so that S was required to play a more active role in the situation. In addition to the method of presentation, intelligence was found to influence performance in that children with higher MAs showed significantly better recall.
Rewarding Trading Skills Without Inducing Gambling

type="main"> This paper develops a model of active asset management in which fund managers may forgo alpha-generating strategies, preferring instead to make negative-alpha trades that enable them to temporarily manipulate investors' perceptions of their skills. We show that such trades are optimally generated by taking on hidden tail risk, and are more likely to occur when fund managers are impatient and when their trading skills are scalable, and generate a high profit per unit of risk. We propose long-term contracts that deter this behavior by dynamically adjusting the dates on which the manager is compensated in response to her cumulative performance.
Attribute-Graph: A Graph Based Approach to Image Ranking

We propose a novel image representation, termed Attribute-Graph, to rank images by their semantic similarity to a given query image. An Attribute-Graph is an undirected fully connected graph, incorporating both local and global image characteristics. The graph nodes characterise objects as well as the overall scene context using mid-level semantic attributes, while the edges capture the object topology. We demonstrate the effectiveness of Attribute-Graphs by applying them to the problem of image ranking. We benchmark the performance of our algorithm on the 'rPascal' and 'rImageNet' datasets, which we have created in order to evaluate the ranking performance on complex queries containing multiple objects. Our experimental evaluation shows that modelling images as Attribute-Graphs results in improved ranking performance over existing techniques.
Evaluation of an Instructors' Training Programme from the Instructors' Point of View.

In the premises of the educational reform across Europe, many countries have funded teacher training programmes regarding the integration of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in all areas of the curriculum, in the primary and secondary education sector. Apart from the infrastructure required, it is essential to focus on the human resources of education and to train teachers in order for them to acquire the skills necessary to integrate ICT into their courses and help their students attain knowledge in a constructivist way. Greece is also fostering educational reform and is running a number of projects towards this direction. One of these projects, EPENDYSH (http://www.ithaca.uom.gr) aims - among other things - in the postgraduate training of 40 secondary education teachers of all disciplines, who will be distributed to schools in order to train their colleagues. They are being trained to use ICT in the teaching of their subjects. The paper firstly states the overall philosophy and main issues regarding teacher training on ICT. We support a constructivist approach to teacher training, focusing on the training of a sub-group of trainees, teachers of foreign languages. The aim of this paper is to present the attitudes of this sub-group, based on the results of a questionnaire handed to them after completing their training at the University of Macedonia (http://www.uom.gr). It is therefore desirable to investigate how successful the actual training was viewed by teachers of foreign languages, whose subject matter is not affiliated with computing and computer science. These results are subjected to further discussion for future improvements on teacher training.
The Apgar Score and Infant Mortality

Objective To evaluate if the Apgar score remains pertinent in contemporary practice after more than 50 years of wide use, and to assess the value of the Apgar score in predicting infant survival, expanding from the neonatal to the post-neonatal period. Methods The U.S. linked live birth and infant death dataset was used, which included 25,168,052 singleton births and 768,305 twin births. The outcome of interest was infant death within 1 year after birth. Cox proportional hazard-model was used to estimate risk ratio of infant mortality with different Apgar scores. Results Among births with a very low Apgar score at five minutes (1–3), the neonatal and post-neonatal mortality rates remained high until term (≥ 37 weeks). On the other hand, among births with a high Apgar score (≥7), neonatal and post-neonatal mortality rate decreased progressively with gestational age. Non-Hispanic White had a consistently higher neonatal mortality than non-Hispanic Black in both preterm and term births. However, for post-neonatal mortality, Black had significantly higher rate than White. The pattern of changes in neonatal and post-neonatal mortality by Apgar score in twin births is essentially the same as that in singleton births. Conclusions The Apgar score system has continuing value for predicting neonatal and post-neonatal adverse outcomes in term as well as preterm infants, and is applicable to twins and in various race/ethnic groups.
Single restart with time stamps for computational offloading in a semi-online setting

We study the problem of scheduling n tasks on m + m’ parallel processors, where the processing times on m processors are known while those on the remaining m’ processors are not known a priori. This semi-online model is an abstraction of certain heterogeneous computing systems, e.g., with the m known processors representing local CPU cores and the unknown processors representing remote servers with uncertain availability of computing cycles. Our objective is to minimize the makespan of all tasks. We initially focus on the case m' = 1 and propose a semi-online algorithm termed Single Restart with Time Stamps (SRTS), which has time complexity O(n log n). We derive its competitive ratio in comparison with the optimal offline solution. If the unknown processing times are deterministic, the competitive ratio of SRTS is shown to be either always constant or asymptotically constant in practice, respectively in cases where the processing times are independent and dependent on m. A similar result is obtained when the unknown processing times are random. Furthermore, extending the ideas of SRTS, we propose a heuristic algorithm termed SRTS-Multiple (SRTS-M) for the case m' > 1. Besides the proven competitive ratios, simulation results further suggest that SRTS and SRTS-M give superior performance on average over randomly generated task processing times, substantially reducing the makespan over the best known alternatives. Interestingly, the performance gain is more significant for task processing times sampled from heavy-tailed distributions.
Phylogenetic relationships of mormyrid electric fishes (Mormyridae; Teleostei) inferred from cytochrome b sequences.

The Mormyridae are African osteoglossomorph freshwater fishes of great interest because of their electric organs. They have become an important model in studies of electrophysiology and behavior but their phylogenetic relationships are poorly known. Phylogenetic relationships among mormyrids were determined by comparing cytochrome b sequences (588 bp) of 27 species belonging to 15 genera. Results showed that the Petrocephalus species (subfamily Petrocephalinae) are the sister-group of all other mormyrids (subfamily Mormyrinae). The monophyly of the Mormyrinae was supported, as well as three original intra-Mormyrinae clades. Three genera, Marcusenius, Pollimyrus, and Brienomyrus, were found to be polyphyletic with high support. Some of these polyphylies are tentatively explained. The results confirmed that the lateral ethmoid bone was lost several times within the Mormyrinae. These findings emphasize the necessity of systematic studies and taxonomic revision of the Mormyridae. The tree obtained from the mitochondrial data showed a single rise of each electrocyte type except for electrocyte with penetrating stalk ("Pa"). Constraining the single occurrence of electrocyte type Pa did not require an excessive number of extra steps (1.86%).
Psychological difficulties within a group of patients with vulvodynia

This study reviews and reports on some of the psychological difficulties seen in a group of women with vulval pain (vulvodynia). The investigation involved 164 women (82 suffering with Vulvodynia and 82 women in a control group with general dermatology conditions) to establish the prevalence of psychological difficulties using validated questionnaires (SCL-90R and the IBQ) and reports on the possible effect these may have on sexual and relationship function and satisfaction. The level of psychological difficulties revealed significantly higher levels of psychological distress in the vulvodynia group within the domains of somatisation, obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety & phobic symptoms as well as with interpersonal sensitivity hostility and paranoia.
The Sociomaterial Practice of IT-Enabled Change: A Case Study of a Global Transformation

This article applies a sociomaterial perspective to IT-enabled change. The empirical data consists of in-depth interviews and internal documents from a longitudinal case study of the telecommunications company Ericsson. They managed to successfully transform their finance and accounting (F&A) unit from a highly decentralized structure into a so-called shared service centre (SSC) structure. The transformation was executed within three years and was enabled by an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The findings consist of a framework with four dimensions that explains that IT-enabled change is a practice that is both social and material: a sociomaterial practice. The contribution of this article is that it shows that it is in the entanglement of the social and material elements across time where we can find a deeper understanding of IT-enabled change.
Reaching out: Instructional leadership in school districts

Abstract This study of the Superintendent's Office in a group of school districts in British Columbia, Canada, examines the similarities between the activities of superintendents in a group of high‐performing districts, and the contrasts with the activities of superintendents in other districts. The activities are defined inductively in terms of “reach,” which consists of the “vision” (norms underlying activities) of the superintendents, and the “range” (focus and intensity) of their activities. An explicit and coherent vision incorporating norms of consensuality and accountability underlies the activities of superintendents in high‐performing districts; the balance between these norms slightly favors the latter. The activities, diverse in topic and location, follow from the norms and seem designed to objectify and model them. The “reach” of the superintendency constitutes a personal professional ethos, which may help to shape district ethos, and hence may be related to district performance in student ach.
Skating on Thin Ice: A Comparison of Work Values and Job Satisfaction in CEE and EU Countries

The article presents a critical reading of opinion data on work and job values. Three cross-national surveys are used: the ISSP module on Work Orientations, the European Values Study, and the Households-Work-Flexibility survey. In the first part, some methodological problems are described and illustrated through previous research. In the second part, several specific results are displayed. In the third part, the focus is on job satisfaction. One of the main conclusions of the analysis is that although there are considerable differences between Central-Eastern Europe and the EU countries in a number of indicators, the value dimension exhibits large independence from personal work characteristics and the national economic regime. In conclusion, we discuss the problems involved in making generalizations out of these results and raise the question of the “true” change in values during the transition.
Tradução e validação da versão portuguesa da Goal Orientation in Exercise Scale (GOESp)

O objectivo deste estudo e a apresentacao dos resultados da traducao e validacao da versao Portuguesa da Goal Orientation in Exercise Scale (GOES), com recurso a analise factorial exploratoria (AFE) e confirmatoria (AFC), realizadas com dois grupos de praticantes de exercicio em ginasios, de ambos os generos e com idades entre os 15 e os 61 anos. Os resultados da AFE revelam uma estrutura factorial que explica 61% da variância dos resultados, pesos factoriais entre 0,63 e 0,86, e uma boa consistencia interna (αEgo=0,91; αTarefa=0,74). No entanto, os resultados da AFC indicam que o modelo nao se ajustou aos dados: S-Bχ2=154,59; gl=34; p=0,000; S-Bχ2/gl=4,55; SRMR=0,06; NNFI=0,87; CFI=0,90; RMSEA=0,10; 90% IC RMSEA=0,09-0,12, e so apresentou indices aceitaveis de ajustamento apos a sua re-especificacao, que conduziu a eliminacao de um item. Assim, aconselha-se alguma prudencia na sua utilizacao, e a realizacao de mais estudos sobre a sua validade.
Biotechnology Education in Schools

When students deal with Biotechnology in Science or Biology courses at school they get to know a technology that is on the one hand very old – if we think of techniques of making bread or wine – but that on the other hand - when we think of genetic engineering for example - comprises very new aspects. This “modern” part of biotechnology shows a high potential for solving various problems of our modern world but at the same time it is accompanied by new and especially ethical questions and problems. From the high relevance as well as from the ambivalence of the topic biotechnology a particular responsibility of the science subjects at school concludes. This is the responsibility to – on the one hand - inform the students in a sound way of the scientific and technical aspects of biotechnology and – on the other hand - to qualify them as the decision makers of the future to cope in a reasoned way with the chances and the risks of biotechnology. From a pedagogical and from a didactical point of view school education must deal with the basic knowledge as well as with the effects of Biotechnology. In addition its aim should be to improve the students ability of reasoned decision making in respect to this technological field. Education should lead the students to a basic understanding of the methods, the achievements and the effects of biotechnology on the one hand. On the other hand on the basis of this knowledge it should help the students to find own, justified decisions in respect to this topic and to act in a corresponding way. As the knowledge in the life - sciences has exploded during the last two decades, for science teachers it is necessary to restrict to the main fields of biotechnology for teaching. However, the central application fields of biotechnology (pharmaceutical industry, medicine, farming, nutrition and environmental technology) as well as the procedures (
"Grand" Expectations: The Experiences of Grandparents and Adult Grandchildren

<p> Within the context of social and demographic change and in dialogue with theories of individualization and the concept of intergenerational ambivalence, this paper explores the existence of normative "grand" role expectations among grandparents and adult grandchildren. The data from qualitative life-history interviews with both generations (n=37) indicate that while sometimes proscriptive rather than prescriptive, there are identifiable, albeit general, normative behavioral expectations associated with both familial roles. According to both generations' accounts, these expectations are instructive and provide a general framework as individuals negotiate and evaluate their interactions and relationships with one another. Placed within a wider social context, these expectations reflect and reinforce cultural emphasis on personal freedom and independence, as well as prevailing social discourses relating to youth, old age and family life. <br /> Résumé Dans un contexte de changement social et démographique et de dialogue relatif aux théories de l'individualisation et du concept de l'ambivalence entre les générations, cet article explore l'existence d'attentes « normatives » du rôle de grands-parents chez les grands-parents et les petits-enfants adultes. Les données provenant d'entrevues qualitatives sur les cycles de vie avec les deux générations (n=37) indiquent que, bien qu'il s'agisse souvent de proscriptions plutôt que de prescriptions, il existe bel et bien des attentes normatives identifiables, quoique générales, en matière de comportement relativement aux deux rôles familiaux. Selon les témoignages des deux générations, ces attentes s'avèrent révélatrices et fournissent un cadre général permettant aux individus de négocier et d'évaluer les interactions et relations qu'ils entretiennent l'un avec l'autre. Vu dans un contexte social plus large, ces attentes traduisent et renforcent l'importance culturelle de la liberté et indépendance personnelle ainsi que les discours sociaux dominant en matière de jeunes, d'aînés et de la vie de famille. </p>
An Adaptive Mechanism for Multipath Video Streaming over Video Distribution Network (VDN)

In the objective of improving the video quality as perceived by end-users, multipath video streaming in Video Distribution Network (VDN) comes as a promising solution. In this paper, we present a new adaptive mechanism to maximize the overall video quality at the client. Overlay path selection is dynamically done based on available bandwidth estimation, while the Quality of Experience (QoE) is subjectively measured using Pseudo-Subjective Quality Assessment (PSQA) tool. Simulation results show that our proposed method can automatically adapt to the load variation on the different Internet paths, in a way that it guarantees a best perceived quality by end-users.
Co-administration of cyclosporine an alleviates thioacetamide-induced liver injury.

AIM To investigate the effects of cyclosporine A (CsA) on thioacetamide (TAA)-induced liver injury. METHODS CsA was co-administrated (7.5 microg/kg body weight per day, i.p.) into rat to investigate the role of CsA on TAA-(200 mg/kg body weight per 3 d for 30 d, i.p.)induced liver injury. RESULTS The data show that TAA caused liver fibrosis in rat after 30 d of treatment. CsA alleviates the morphological changes of TAA-induced fibrosis in rat liver. The blood glutamyl oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT)/glutamyl pyruvic transaminase (GPT) in the TAA-injury group is elevated compared to that of the normal rat. Compared with the TAA-injury group, the blood GOT/GPT and TGFbeta1 (by RT-PCR analysis) are reduced in the CsA plus TAA-treated rat. The level of the transforming growth factor receptor I (TGFbeta-R1) in the CsA plus TAA-treated group shows higher than that in the TAA only group, but shows a lower level of the fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) in the CsA plus TAA-treated group, when using the Western blot analysis. After immunostaining of the frozen section, TGFbeta-R1 and FGFR4 are more concentrated in rat liver after CsA plus TAA injury. CONCLUSION This result suggests that CsA has an alleviated effect on TAA-induced liver injury by increasing the multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein and could be through the regulation of TGFbeta-R1 and FGFR4.
A pipeline architecture with 1-cycle timing error correction for low voltage operations

We present a new timing error correction scheme which allows each pipeline stage to halt for one cycle only. The small timing penalty for the error correction operation in the proposed scheme makes it possible to eliminate the extra timing guardband that was needed to accommodate timing uncertainty due to process variations. As a result, lower supply voltage can be used with the proposed scheme for low power operations. Compared to the previous 1-cycle error correction scheme which uses two-phase transparent latch based pipeline [1], the proposed scheme can be applied to the pipeline based on more popular clocking elements such as flip-flop or pulsed latch.
Minority Identity Discourse: The Impact of Viewing the Play An Arab Dream on the Identity Crisis of Palestinians in Israel

This article was written as part of a comprehensive research study whose main goal was to explore and assess the effectiveness of Israeli drama as an instrument to change young Israelis' perceptions and positions toward the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. The article will present the findings of the qualitative study of two distinct audiences: Palestinian students in the Israeli education system and senior Jewish education officials who view the theater play An Arab Dream. The findings show that for the Palestinian teenagers theater offers an opportunity to address sensitive and complex issues of minority group identity and serves as a trigger for social, emotional, and intellectual discourse. However the Jewish education officials were unable to allow the voices of a national minority to be heard within themselves, as they perceived the play as a provocative play of no educational value and they even believed it could harm the Jewish Israeli teenage audience.
The Use of Wavelength Modulated Raman Spectroscopy in Label-Free Identification of T Lymphocyte Subsets, Natural Killer Cells and Dendritic Cells

Determining the identity of cells of the immune system usually involves destructive fixation and chemical staining, or labeling with fluorescently labeled antibodies recognising specific cell surface markers. Completely label-free identification would be a significant advantage in conditions where untouched cells are a priority. We demonstrate here the use of Wavelength Modulated Raman Spectroscopy, to achieve label-free identification of purified, unfixed and untouched populations of major immune cell subsets isolated from healthy human donors. Using this technique we have been able to distinguish between CD4+ T lymphocytes, CD8+ T lymphocytes and CD56+ Natural Killer cells at specificities of up to 96%. Additionally, we have been able to distinguish between CD303+ plasmacytoid and CD1c+ myeloid dendritic cell subsets, the key initiator and regulatory cells of many immune responses. This demonstrates the ability to identify unperturbed cells of the immune system, and opens novel opportunities to analyse immunological systems and to develop fully label-free diagnostic technologies.
Effects of Individualized Instruction upon Low- and High-achieving Students, Study Behavior, and Students' Evaluation of Mastery.

AbstractThree hypotheses concerning the effects of a modified form of individuzlized instruction were tested: (1) that individualized instruction is of more benefit to low-than to high-achieving students; (2) that individualized instruction promotes improved study behavior which is maintained later under conventional instructional situations; and (3) that students in individualized instruction are more accurate in evaluating their mastery of course material than students receiving conventional instruction. Exam performance data supported the third but not the first hypothesis. With regard to the second hypothesis, self-report data suggested that individualized instruction promotes improved study behavior, but both self-report and exam performance data indicated the improvement was not maintained under conventional instruction conditions.