Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The relationship among storytelling, values, and resilience of college students from Eastern and Western cultural backgrounds

ABSTRACT Accumulating evidence suggests that storytelling may be related to personal values and provide an important role in promoting resilience. Western (American and German) and Eastern (Chinese and Vietnamese) college students (total n = 845) were asked to respond to survey items on two predictors (storytelling experiences and value preferences) and the outcome resilience. Correlational analysis established significant relationships among storytelling, values, and resilience. The t-test comparisons of Eastern vs. Western mean scores indicated significant cultural differences for storytelling and values, but not resilience. Structural equation modeling found a significant path from storytelling through values to resilience. The final model revealed that college students of Western countries who reported having significant childhood experiences of storytelling preferred openness to change values such as Benevolence, Self-direction, and Stimulation. The results were discussed in terms of the conceptual context.
Blunted frequency-dependent upregulation of cardiac output is related to impaired relaxation in diastolic heart failure

Aims We tested the hypothesis that, in heart failure with normal ejection fraction (HFNEF), diastolic dysfunction is accentuated at increasing heart rates, and this contributes to impaired frequency-dependent augmentation of cardiac output. Methods and results In 17 patients with HFNEF (median age 69 years, 13 female) and seven age-matched control patients, systolic and diastolic function was analysed by pressure–volume loops at baseline heart rate and during atrial pacing to 100 and 120 min−1. At baseline, relaxation was prolonged and end-diastolic left ventricular stiffness was higher in HFNEF, whereas all parameters of systolic function were not different from control patients. This resulted in smaller end-diastolic volumes, higher end-diastolic pressure, and a lower stroke volume and cardiac index in HFNEF vs. control patients. During pacing, frequency-dependent upregulation of contractility indices (+dP/dtmax and Ees) occurred similarly in HFNEF and control patients, but frequency-dependent acceleration of relaxation (dP/dtmin) was blunted in HFNEF. In HFNEF, end-diastolic volume and stroke volume decreased with higher heart rates while both remained unchanged in control patients. Conclusion In HFNEF, frequency-dependent upregulation of cardiac output is blunted. This results from progressive volume unloading of the left ventricle due to limited relaxation reserve in combination with increased LV passive stiffness, despite preserved force–frequency relation.
Exemplar Hidden Markov Models for classification of facial expressions in videos

Facial expressions are dynamic events comprised of meaningful temporal segments. A common approach to facial expression recognition in video is to first convert variable-length expression sequences into a vector representation by computing summary statistics of image-level features or of spatio-temporal features. These representations are then passed to a discriminative classifier such as a support vector machines (SVM). However, these approaches don't fully exploit the temporal dynamics of facial expressions. Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), provide a method for modeling variable-length expression time-series. Although HMMs have been explored in the past for expression classification, they are rarely used since classification performance is often lower than discriminative approaches, which may be attributed to the challenges of estimating generative models. This paper explores an approach for combining the modeling strength of HMMs with the discriminative power of SVMs via a model-based similarity framework. Each example is first instantiated into an Exemplar-HMM model. A probabilistic kernel is then used to compute a kernel matrix, to be used along with an SVM classifier. This paper proposes that dynamical models such as HMMs are advantageous for the facial expression problem space, when employed in a discriminative, exemplar-based classification framework. The approach yields state-of-the-art results on both posed (CK+ and OULU-CASIA) and spontaneous (FEEDTUM and AM-FED) expression datasets highlighting the performance advantages of the approach.
Community (in) Colleges

Objective: This study explores the relationship between online social network involvement and academic outcomes among community college students. Prior theory hypothesizes that socio-academic moments are especially important for the integration of students into community colleges and that integration is related to academic outcomes. Online social networks offer a forum for socio-academic contact and integration on 2-year campuses. Is involvement with online social networks positively related to academic outcomes? Method: This study draws on institutional and online network data. We qualitatively code text from the network (N = 8,749) to examine the extent of socio-academic interaction. Using logistic and multiple regression, we examine the relationships between socio-academic exchanges, other forms of online network involvement, and student academic outcomes in a large sample of students (N = 27,040). Results: Participation in socio-academic exchange is associated with higher grade point average. In addition, the prior academic outcomes of a student’s online friends are predictive of the student’s own outcomes after joining the network, suggesting the possibility of peer effects. Other network behaviors are not significantly related to the academic outcomes we study. Contributions: This study is the first to consider online social networks as a forum for socio-academic integration at a community college. Our study fills a gap in the research literature with respect to understanding the socio-academic integration of community college students and the potential of social media to foster integration. Through our findings, this study offers strategic ways for practitioners to think about implementing social media to benefit students academically.
Aldose reductase activation is a key component of myocardial response to ischemia

Aldose reductase, a member of the aldo‐keto reductase family, has been implicated in the development of vascular and neurological complications in diabetes. Despite recent studies from our laboratory demonstrating protection of ischemic hearts by an aldose reductase inhibitor, the presence and influence of aldose reductase in cardiac tissue remain unknown. Our goal in this study was to isolate and characterize the kinetic properties of cardiac aldose reductase, as well as to study the impact of flux via this enzyme on glucose metabolism and contractile function in hearts subjected to ischemia‐reperfusion. Results demonstrate that ischemia increases myocardial aldose reductase activity and that these increases are, in part, due to activation by nitric oxide. The kinetic parameter of cardiac aldose reductase (Kcat) was significantly higher in ischemic tissues. Aldose reductase inhibition increased glycolysis and glucose oxidation. Aldose reductase inhibited hearts, when subjected to ischemia/reperfusion, exhibited less ischemic injury and was associated with lower lactate/pyruvate ratios (a measure of cytosolic NADH/NAD+), greater tissue content of adenosine triphosphate, and improved cardiac function. These findings indicate that aldose reductase is a component of ischemic injury and that pharmacological inhibitors of aldose reductase present a novel adjunctive approach for protecting ischemic hearts.
Plasticity of directional place fields in a model of rodent CA3

We propose a computational model of the CA3 region of the rat hippocampus that is able to reproduce the available experimental data concerning the dependence of directional selectivity of the place cell discharge on the environment and on the spatial task. The main feature of our model is a continuous, unsupervised Hebbian learning dynamics of recurrent connections, which is driven by the neuronal activities imposed upon the network by the environment‐dependent external input. In our simulations, the environment and the movements of the rat are chosen to mimic those commonly observed in neurophysiological experiments. The environment is represented as local views that depend on both the position and the heading direction of the rat. We hypothesize that place cells are intrinsically directional, that is, they respond to local views. We show that the synaptic dynamics in the recurrent neural network rapidly modify the discharge correlates of the place cells: Cells tend to become omnidirectional place cells in open fields, while their directionality tends to get stronger in radial‐arm mazes. We also find that the synaptic learning mechanisms account for other properties of place cell activity, such as an increase in the place cell peak firing rates as well as clustering of place fields during exploration. Our model makes several experimental predictions that can be tested using current techniques. Hippocampus 1998;8:651–665. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Contributions of After School Programs to the Development of Fundamental Movement Skills in Children

Fundamental movement skill (FMS) proficiency or the ability to perform basic skills (e.g., throwing, catching and jumping) has been linked to participation in lifelong physical activity. FMS proficiency amongst children has declined in the previous 15 years, with more children performing FMS at a low-mastery level. These declines may help explain the insufficient levels of participation in health promoting physical activity seen in today’s youth. The after school time period (e.g., 3 to 6 p.m.), is increasingly considered an opportune time for physical activity interventions. To date, little research has examined the potential for after school programming to improve FMS proficiency. Participants (n=40, 6–10 years) of two existent physical activity based after school programs, a low-organized games and a sports-based program, were pre- and post-tested for FMS proficiency using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2) over an 11-week period. The sports-based program participants showed no improvement in FMS over the 11-week study (p=0.91, eta2=0.00) and the games-based program participants significantly improved their proficiency (p=0.00, eta2=0.30). No significant (p=0.13, eta2 = 0.06), differences were found in change in FMS scores between the low-organized games program participants and the sport-based program participants. These results suggest that after school programs with a low-organized games-based focus may support a moderate improvement in FMS proficiency in young children. Better training of after school program leaders on how to teach FMS may be necessary to assist children in acquiring sufficient proficiency in FMS.
A new construction of 16-QAM Golay complementary sequences

We present a new construction of 16-QAM Golay sequences of length n = 2/sup m/. The number of constructed sequences is (14 + 12m)(m! /2)4/sup m+1/. When employed as a code in an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system; this set of sequences has a peak-to-mean envelope power ratio (PMEPR) of 3.6. By considering two specific subsets of these sequences, we obtain new codes with PMEPR bounds of 2.0 and 2.8 and respective code sizes of (2 + 2m)(m! /2)4/sup m+1/ and (4 + 4m)(m! /2)4/sup m+1/. These are larger than previously known codes for the same PMEPR bounds.
What features underline the /s/ vs. /s’/ contrast in Korean?

This paper is concerned with how the Korean lenis and fortis fricatives /s, s’/ are laryngeally specified. Based on the sound patterning of the fricatives as well as recent phonetic studies (H. Kim et al. 2008, 2010b; H. Kim & Park 2010), we propose that both of the voiceless fricatives are specified for the feature [-spread glottis] and that they are different in terms of the feature [tense]: the lenis /s/ is specified as [-tense] and the fortis /s’/ as [+tense], like lenis and fortis stops (H. Kim 2003, 2005; H. Kim et al. 2005, 2010a). It is also proposed that the fortis /s’/ is distinguished from the lenis /s/ by the feature [tense] and not by a timing slot in phonetics and phonology. Keywords: Korean lenis and fortis fricatives; [spread glottis]; [tense]
Bridging the gap: Children's developing inferences about objects' labels and insides from causality-at-a-distance

Previous research had shown that 4-year-olds were likely to extend labels and internal properties of objects based on those objects’ causal properties even in light of perceptual conflict. All of these studies presented causal relations that acted on contact. This study examined the effect of adding causality at a distance to perceptual conflict tasks. We found that 4and 5year-olds preferred to extend labels to objects with similar perceptual properties over objects with similar causal properties when those properties conflicted and the causation was at a distance. When children were asked to make inferences about internal properties instead of labels, they were much more likely to make causal responses, and we found development between 4and 5-year-olds. We interpret the results as support for the idea that young children understand mechanism as part of causation, and suggest further investigations relating causality, internal properties, and object
Lorentzian manifolds isometrically embeddable in L^N

We characterize those spacetimes which admit a isometric (or conformal) embedding in some Lorentz-Minkowski space L^N. In particular, any globally hyperbolic spacetime can be isometrically embedded in L^N. This is proven by a result of its own interest: the construction of a smooth time function whose gradient is bounded away from zero -and, thus, an orthogonal global splitting of the spacetime with bounded lapse. The role of the so-called "folk problems on smoothability" is stressed.
Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition and Cell Invasion

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a complex process in which epithelial cells acquire the characteristics of invasive mesenchymal cells. EMT has been implicated in cancer progression and metastasis as well as the formation of many tissues and organs during development. Epithelial cells undergoing EMT lose cell-cell adhesion structures and polarity, and rearrange their cytoskeletons. Several oncogenic pathways such as transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, Wnt, and Notch signaling pathways, have been shown to induce EMT. These pathways have activated transcription factors including Snail, Slug, and the ZEB family which work as transcriptional repressors of E-cadherin, thereby making epithelial cells motile and resistant to apoptosis. Mounting evidence shows that EMT is associated with cell invasion and tumor progression. In this review, we summarize the characteristic features of EMT, pathways leading to EMT, and the role of EMT in cell invasion. Three topics are addressed in this review: (1) Definition of EMT, (2) Signaling pathways leading to EMT, (3) Role of EMT in cell invasion. Understanding the role of EMT in cell invasion will provide valuable information for establishing strategies to develop anti-metastatic therapeutics which modulate malignant cellular processes mediated by EMT.
Does Organizational Structure Affect Firm Strategy and Performance ? Evidence from Consumer Automobile Leasing

Why do manufacturer-owned car lessors lose so much money on leases, despite having proprietary information unavailable to other lessors? This paper explores how conflicts in organizational focus within vertically integrated firms can hurt subsidiary performance. To examine this, I identify the differences between the reaction of the captive leasing subsidiaries of automobile manufacturers to product and market characteristics and the reaction of their independent leasing competitors. While independent lessors write contracts that reflect risk from obsolescence and durability concerns, captives clearly pursue a second agenda from their corporate parents—the use of lease subsidization to sell unwanted vehicles. And while intentional lease subsidization may ultimately benefit the manufacturer, the organizational focus of car manufacturers on sales and market share has the additional effect of hindering the captive subsidiary’s ability to account for risk in lease contracts even when subsidization is unnecessary. I find evidence that unlike their independent competitors, captive lessors fail to adjust lease terms to variation in the durability of their vehicles. This is consistent with evidence from field research that product sales teams and executives pressure captive lessors to support vehicles with favorable lease terms, despite product quality or viability concerns. I also find evidence that captive lessors may benefit from proprietary information about the timing of new model introductions. This paper suggests that accurate forecasting is only half the battle for subsidiaries. Subsidiaries with accurate forecasts may be unable to implement this knowledge when it conflicts with the goals or focus of the corporate parent.
Intermittent Hypoxia Selects for Genotypes and Phenotypes That Increase Survival, Invasion, and Therapy Resistance

Hypoxia in tumors correlates with greater risk of metastases, increased invasiveness, and resistance to systemic and radiation therapy. The evolutionary dynamics that links specific adaptations to hypoxia with these observed tumor properties have not been well investigated. While some tumor populations may experience fixed hypoxia, cyclical and stochastic transitions from normoxia to hypoxia are commonly observed in vivo. Although some phenotypic adaptations to this cyclic hypoxia are likely reversible, we hypothesize that some adaptations may become fixed through mutations promoted by hypoxia-induced genomic instability. Here we seek to identify genetic alterations and corresponding stable phenotypes that emerge following cyclic hypoxia. Although these changes may originate as adaptations to this specific environmental stress, their fixation in the tumor genome may result in their observation in tumors from regions of normoxia, a condition known as pseudohypoxia. We exposed several epithelial cell lines to 50 cycles of hypoxia-normoxia, followed by culture in normoxia over a period of several months. Molecular analyses demonstrated permanent changes in expression of several oncogenes and tumor-suppressors, including p53, E-cadherin, and Hif-1α. These changes were associated with increased resistance to multiple cytotoxins, increased survival in hypoxia and increased anchorage-independent growth. These results suggest cycles of hypoxia encountered in early cancers can select for specific and stable genotypic and phenotypic properties that persist even in normoxic conditions, which may promote tumor progression and resistance to therapy.
Investigating Differences among the Commonly Used Video Lecture Styles

Many educational organizations are motivated to create and share instructional videos, but there are no guidelines about the presentation styles. In practice, the presentation style of video lectures ranges from simple video capturing of classroom teaching, up to highly elaborate authoring of video presentations that include close-ups and video-cuts of instructors, slides, animations, and interactive drawing boards. In particular, there is limited research about the effects of each presentation style on student learning performance and attitudes. In this work, we examine the effects of video presentation styles in supporting the teaching of mathematics in the secondary education. In addition to a control group that studied through a paper-book, two groups of students attended two distinct styles of video lectures: 1) video capture of class teaching (Talking head style), and 2) close-up video capture of an interactive drawing board with voice-over (Khan style). The participants of our study consisted of 36 students (15 boys and 21 girls, 16 years old), who received the respective three treatments (paper book, talking head, khan style), over the course of three math modules in three weeks’ time. We found that learning effects show up only after the second week and that the Talking Head style was more effective than the book for complex topics. Copyright © 2013 for the individual papers by the papers' authors. Copying permitted only for private and academic purposes. This volume is published and copyrighted by its editors. WAVe 2013 workshop at LAK’13, April 8, 2013, Leuven, Belgium. Christina Ilioudi Department of Informatics
A mechanistic model of early sensory processing based on subtracting sparse representations

Early stages of sensory systems face the challenge of compressing information from numerous receptors onto a much smaller number of projection neurons, a so called communication bottleneck. To make more efficient use of limited bandwidth, compression may be achieved using predictive coding, whereby predictable, or redundant, components of the stimulus are removed. In the case of the retina, Srinivasan et al. (1982) suggested that feedforward inhibitory connections subtracting a linear prediction generated from nearby receptors implement such compression, resulting in biphasic center-surround receptive fields. However, feedback inhibitory circuits are common in early sensory circuits and furthermore their dynamics may be nonlinear. Can such circuits implement predictive coding as well? Here, solving the transient dynamics of nonlinear reciprocal feedback circuits through analogy to a signal-processing algorithm called linearized Bregman iteration we show that nonlinear predictive coding can be implemented in an inhibitory feedback circuit. In response to a step stimulus, interneuron activity in time constructs progressively less sparse but more accurate representations of the stimulus, a temporally evolving prediction. This analysis provides a powerful theoretical framework to interpret and understand the dynamics of early sensory processing in a variety of physiological experiments and yields novel predictions regarding the relation between activity and stimulus statistics.
Non-monotonic learning

This paper addresses methods of specialising rst-order theories within the context of incremental learning systems. We demonstrate the shortcomings of existing rst-order incremental learning systems with regard to their specialisation mechanisms. We prove that these shortcomings are fundamental to the use of classical logic. In particular, minimal \correct-ing" specialisations are not always obtainable within this framework. We propose instead the adoption of a specialisation scheme based on an existing non-monotonic logic formalism. This approach overcomes the problems that arise with incremental learning systems which employ classical logic. As a side-eeect of the formal proofs developed for this paper we deene a function called \deriv" which turns out to be an improvement on an existing explanation-based-generalisation (EBG) algorithm. Prolog code and a description of the relationship between \deriv" and the previous EBG algorithm are described in an appendix.
Generalizing Dependency Features for Opinion Mining

We explore how features based on syntactic dependency relations can be utilized to improve performance on opinion mining. Using a transformation of dependency relation triples, we convert them into "composite back-off features" that generalize better than the regular lexicalized dependency relation features. Experiments comparing our approach with several other approaches that generalize dependency features or ngrams demonstrate the utility of composite back-off features.