Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MUC1 Vaccines, Comprised of Glycosylated or Non-Glycosylated Peptides or Tumor-Derived MUC1, Can Circumvent Immunoediting to Control Tumor Growth in MUC1 Transgenic Mice

It remains challenging to produce decisive vaccines against MUC1, a tumor-associated antigen widely expressed by pancreas, breast and other tumors. Employing clinically relevant mouse models, we ruled out such causes as irreversible T-cell tolerance, inadequate avidity, and failure of T-cells to recognize aberrantly glycosylated tumor MUC1. Instead, every tested MUC1 preparation, even non-glycosylated synthetic 9mer peptides, induced interferon gamma-producing CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells that recognized glycosylated variants including tumor-associated MUC1. Vaccination with synthetic peptides conferred protection as long as vaccination was repeated post tumor challenge. Failure to revaccinate post challenge was associated with down-regulated tumor MUC1 and MHC molecules. Surprisingly, direct admixture of MUC1-expressing tumor with MUC1-hyperimmune T-cells could not prevent tumor outgrowth or MUC1 immunoediting, whereas ex vivo activation of the hyperimmune T-cells prior to tumor admixture rendered them curative. Therefore, surrogate T-cell preactivation outside the tumor bed, either in culture or by repetitive vaccination, can overcome tumor escape.
Effects of Impulse Voltage Polarity, Peak Amplitude, and Rise Time on Streamers Initiated From a Needle Electrode in Transformer Oil

An electrothermal hydrodynamic model is presented to evaluate effects of the applied lightning impulse voltage parameters such as polarity, magnitude, and rise time on the initiation and propagation of the streamers formed in an IEC defined needle-sphere electrode geometry filled with transformer oil. Instantaneous velocity, column diameter, head curvature, maximum electric field, and the volume charge density have been investigated as the main characteristics of the streamer. Modeling results indicate that greater applied voltage peak amplitudes form streamers with higher velocity, greater head curvatures, and thicker columns. The bushy negative streamers usually initiate at almost twice the applied voltage magnitude and propagate slower than filamentary positive streamers. Results also show that in transformer oil at the same impulse voltage peak amplitude, shorter rise times create thicker positive and negative streamers.
Continuous Wavelet-Like Transform Based Music Similarity Features for Intelligent Music Navigation

Intelligent music navigation is one of the important tasks in today's music applications. In this context we propose several high-level musical similarity features that can be used in automatic music navigation, classification and recommendation. The features we propose use Continuous Wavelet-like Transform as a basic time-frequency analysis of a musical signal due to its flexibility in time-frequency resolutions. A novel 2D beat histogram is presented in the paper as a rhythmic similarity feature which is free from dependency on recording condition and does not require sophisticated adaptive algorithms of threshold finding in beat detection. This paper also describes a CWT based algorithm of multiple F0 estimation (note detection) and corresponding melodic similarity features. Evaluation of the both similarity measures is done in automatic genre classification context and playlist composition.
gender and age aspects of child psychological defenses in child-mother relationships

The high level of stress in modern society poses a need to study family factors and resources for the development of children’s defense mechanisms in the current social environment. This study investigates correlations between maternal and child psychological defense mechanisms, using interviews, a structured clinical survey, projective drawing, and a projective game. Analysis of data from 240 people (120 children and 120 mothers) revealed specifics of the formation of psychological defense mechanisms among children aged 4 to 12 years in child-mother relationships. We suggest that maternal and child defense mechanisms have some isomorphic traits, but the level and quality of isomorphism changes with each age period of the child. Certain defensive mechanisms of mother and child appear with the same frequency. The child’s gender influences the correlation between the mother’s and child’s psychological defense mechanisms. Initially, children are more likely to directly copy defense mechanisms observed from the mother’s behavior. As they grow older, they use defenses that they have learned consciously. Based on empirical data, we also found a correlation between the maturity of the maternal psychological defense mechanisms and specifics of child psychological defense mechanisms. We propose that the maturity of maternal psychological defense mechanisms has the greatest meaning for child psychological defense mechanisms at the earliest stages of ontogenesis — it provides consistency between the mother’s own psychological defense mechanisms and the psychological defense mechanisms that she teaches her child.
Accurate visual memory for previously attended objects in natural scenes

The nature of the information retained from previously fixated (and hence attended) objects in natural scenes was investigated. In a saccade-contingent change paradigm, participants successfully detected type and token changes (Experiment 1) or token and rotation changes (Experiment 2) to a target object when the object had been previously attended but was no longer within the focus of attention when the change occurred. In addition, participants demonstrated accurate type-, token-, and orientationdiscrimination performance on subsequent long-term memory tests (Experiments 1 and 2) and during online perceptual processing of a scene (Experiment 3). These data suggest that relatively detailed visual information is retained in memory from previously attended objects in natural scenes. A model of scene perception and long-term memory is proposed. Because of the size and complexity of the visual environments humans tend to inhabit, and because high-acuity vision is limited to a relatively small area of the visual field, detailed perceptual processing of a natural scene depends on the selection of local scene regions by movements of the eyes (for reviews, see Henderson & Hollingworth, 1998, 1999a). During scene viewing, the eyes are reoriented approximately three times each second by saccadic eye movements to bring the projection of a local scene region (typically a discrete object) onto the area of the retina producing the highest acuity vision (the fovea). The periods between saccades, when the eyes are relatively stationary and detailed visual information is encoded, are termed fixations and last an average of approximately 300 ms during scene viewing. During each brief saccadic eye movement, however, visual encoding is suppressed (Matin, 1974). Thus, the visual system is provided with what amounts to a series of snapshots (corresponding to fixations), which may vary dramatically in their visual content over a complex scene, punctuated by brief periods of blindness (corresponding to saccades).
What challenges do staff in psychiatric inpatient settings face? : the development of the Staff Emotions, Attributions, Challenges & Coping Scale (SEACCS)

9 DECLARATION . 10 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT . 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 11 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 12 1.1 OVERVIEW . 12 1.2 SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS . 12 1.2.1 Definition of severe mental illness . 12 1.2.2 Definition of psychosis . 13 1.2.3 Prevalence of SMI . 13 1.2.4 SMI and psychiatric inpatient services . 13 1.3 CHALLENGING PRESENTATIONS . 14 1.3.1 Staff responses to challenging presentations . 15 1.4 ATTRIBUTION THEORY . 16 1.4. 1 Associations between attributions and emotions . 17 1.4. 2 Alternative model of associations between attributions and emotions . 17 1.4. 3 Associations of staff attributions and emotions . 18 1.4. 4 Associations of attributions and expressed emotion . 19 1.5 STAFF EMOTIONAL RESPONSES TO CHALLENGING PRESENTATIONS . 20 1.5. 1 Staff stress and burnout . 21 1.6 COPING THEORIES . 21 1.6. 1 Staff coping strategies associated with challenging presentations . 22 1.7 MEASURES USED TO ASSESS STAFF PERCEIVED CHALLENGING PRESENTATIONS, ATTRIBUTIONAL, EMOTIONAL AND COPING RESPONSES . 24 1.7. 1 Measures assessing challenging presentations of psychiatric inpatients . 24 1.7. 2 Measures assessing staff attributions . 25 1.7. 3 Measures assessing staff emotional response and stress . 26 1.7. 4 Measures assessing staff coping response . 27 1.7. 5 Adequacy of existing methods of assessment of staff perceived challenging presentations, attributional, emotional and coping responses . 27 1.8 STUDY RATIONALE . 28 1.9 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES . 29 1.9. 1 Aims . 29 1.9. 2 Objectives . 30 1.10 STUDY DESIGN . 31 1.11 THESIS STRUCTURE . 32 1.12 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS . 32 CHAPTER TWO . 34 PHASE I, STAGE I – SYSTEMATIC REVIEW . 34 2.1 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES . 34 2.2 DEFINITION OF TERMS . 34 2.3 METHOD . 34 3 2.3.1 Types of participants . 34 2.3.2 Guidance materials . 35 2.3.3 Search materials . 35 2.3.3.1 Review topics . 35 2.3.3.2 Inclusion & Exclusion criteria . 35 2.3.3.2.1 Inclusion criteria . 35 2.3.3.2.2 Rationale for inclusion of qualitative studies. 36 2.3.3.2.3 Exclusion criteria . 36 2.3.3. 3 Electronic searches . 37 2.4 PROCEDURE . 37 2.4. 1 Electronic search sets . 37 2.4. 2 Non-electronic searches . 38 2.4. 3 Search results . 38 2.4. 4 Data synthesis . 38 2.5 RESULTS . 39 2.5. 1 Overview of studies . 39 2.5. 2 Methodological findings . 39 2.5. 2.1 Quantitative studies. 39 2.5. 2.1.1 Design features . 39 2.5. 2.1.2 Demographic features . 40 2.5. 2.2 Qualitative and mixed design studies . 40 2.5. 2.2.1 Design features . 40 2.5. 2.2.2 Demographic features . 40 2.5. 3 Outcome findings for Research Question 1: What do psychiatric staff members perceive as the challenges service users present with? 41 2.5. 3.1 Studies . 41 2.5. 3.2 Measures .
Initial Comparison of Linguistic Networks Measures for Parallel Texts

This paper presents preliminary results of Croatian syllable networks analysis. Syllable network is a network in which nodes are syllables and links between them are constructed according to their connections within words. In this paper we analyze networks of syllables generated from texts collected from the Croatian Wikipedia and Blogs. As a main tool we use complex network analysis methods which provide mechanisms that can reveal new patterns in a language structure. We aim to show that syllable networks have much higher clustering coefficient in comparison to Erd\"os-Renyi random networks. The results indicate that Croatian syllable networks exhibit certain properties of a small world networks. Furthermore, we compared Croatian syllable networks with Portuguese and Chinese syllable networks and we showed that they have similar properties.
Reconceptualizing Women's STEM Experiences: Building a Theory of Positive Marginality

RECONCEPTUALIZING WOMEN’S STEM EXPERIENCES: BUILDING A THEORY OF POSITIVE MARGINALITY Valerie N. Streets Old Dominion University, 2016 Director: Dr. Debra A. Major Since the 1980s, disciplines such as psychology and sociology have discussed the construct of positive marginality. Positive marginality describes the perception that belonging to a non-dominant cultural or demographic group can be advantageous rather than oppressing. To date, research on positive marginality has explored the construct in a qualitative manner across a number of demographic groups (e.g., Jewish women in social sciences, African American women in predominantly Caucasian workplaces). Because women are largely underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, the current research examined positive marginality in a STEM context. This research advances the existing understanding of positive marginality through two studies. Study 1 tested the psychometric properties of a new measure of positive marginality. A qualitative pilot study informed the generation of a measure of positive marginality which was administered to a sample of 105 sophomore and junior STEM majors (Study 1A) and a sample of 433 women working in STEM occupations (Study 1B). Exploratory factor analyses were conducted in Study 1A and 1B as well as a confirmatory factor analysis in Study 1B to test a hypothesized 3-factor structure of positive marginality. Results of Study 1 supported a single-factor structure of positive marginality. Study 2 identified and assessed a partial nomological network of the unidimensional construct among women working in STEM occupations. Specifically, a sample of 313 women working in
Selective Tuning for Contrast in Macaque Area V4

Visually responsive neurons typically exhibit a monotonic-saturating increase of firing with luminance contrast of the stimulus and are able to adapt to the current spatiotemporal context by shifting their selectivity, therefore being perfectly suited for optimal contrast encoding and discrimination. Here we report the first evidence of the existence of neurons showing selective tuning for contrast in area V4d of the behaving macaque (Macaca mulatta), i.e., narrow bandpass filter neurons with peak activity encompassing the whole range of visible contrasts and pronounced attenuation at contrasts higher than the peak. Crucially, we found that contrast tuning emerges after a considerable delay from stimulus onset, likely reflecting the contribution of inhibitory mechanisms. Selective tuning for luminance contrast might support multiple functions, including contrast identification and the attentive selection of low contrast stimuli.
Prospective study of the impact of fear of falling on activities of daily living, SF-36 scores, and nursing home admission.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to assess the impact of fear of falling on the health of older people. METHODS A total of 528 subjects (mean age 77 years) were recruited from two hospitals in Sydney, Australia, and followed for approximately 12 months. Eighty-five subjects died during follow-up, and 31 were admitted to an aged care institution. Tinetti's Falls Efficacy Scale (FES) was successfully administered to 418 subjects as part of the baseline assessment. Among those with baseline FES scores, ability to perform 10 activities of daily living (ADLs) was assessed at baseline and follow-up in 307 subjects, and SF-36 scores were assessed at baseline and follow-up in 90 subjects recruited during the latter part of the study. Falls during follow-up were identified using a monthly falls calendar. RESULTS Compared with those with a high fall-related self-efficacy (FES score = 100), those with a low fall-related self-efficacy (FES score < or = 75) had an increased risk of falling (adjusted relative risk 2.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.31-3.33). Those with poorer fall-related self-efficacy had greater declines in ability to perform ADLs (p < .001): the total ADL score decreased by 0.69 activities among persons with low FES scores (< or =75) but decreased by only 0.04 activities among persons with FES scores of 100. Decline in ADLs was not explained by the higher frequency of falls among persons with low FES scores. SF-36 scores (particularly scores on the Physical Function and Bodily Pain subscales) tended to decline more among persons with poor fall-related self-efficacy. Nonfallers who said they were afraid of falling had an increased risk of admission to an aged care institution. CONCLUSIONS Fear of falling has serious consequences for older people. Interventions that successfully reduce fear of falling and improve fall-related self-efficacy are likely to have major health benefits.
Student, Teacher, and School Context Variables Predicting Academic Achievement in Biology: Analysis from a Multilevel Perspective

The current investigation analyzed how student variables and context variables predicted high school students’ academic achievement. The participants were 988 twelfth graders and their corresponding 57 Biology teachers. Data were analyzed using the multilevel method. Results indicate that 85.6% of the variation observed in Biology achievement was explained by variables at the individual level, while the remaining 14.4% was explained by variables at the class level. At the individual level, Biology achievement was associated with approaches to learning, prior knowledge, class absence, and parents’ education level. At the class level, academic achievement was only associated with teachers’ approaches to teaching, not directly, but through students’ approaches to learning.
Constraints on the Physical Parameters of TeV Blazars

We consider the constraints that can be derived from the spectral shape and variability of TeV blazars on the homogeneous synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model. Assuming that the relativistic electron spectrum is a broken power law, in which the break energy is a free parameter, we write analytical formulae that allow us to connect observable quantities to the physical parameters of the model. We also give approximate analytic formulae for the case of Compton scattering occurring in the Klein-Nishina regime, which is of particular relevance for TeV Blazars. In particular we find that, even in the latter regime, a power-law component can be present at the highest energies. Further restrictions in the parameter space are set on the assumption that the break energy results from a balance between cooling and escape and that the soft photon lags measured in some sources derive from radiative cooling of high-energy particles. The constraints can be summarized as allowed regions in the Doppler factor-magnetic field parameter space and are in principle sufficient to determine the model parameters and their uncertainties unequivocally. We apply the method to three well-studied sources: Mrk 421, PKS 2155-304, and Mrk 501. For Mrk 421 the available data are sufficient to constrain the model fully. The additional restrictions are found to be consistent with the model parameters, supporting the proposed interpretation. In the case of PKS 2155-304, not yet detected in the TeV band, we estimate the peak frequency of the Compton component (≃40 GeV) and the expected TeV flux. The derived physical parameters are similar for the two sources, with a relatively large value of the Doppler factor (δ ~ 25) and a magnetic field of B ≃ 0.2 G. For Mrk 501 we consider both the historical low state and the flaring state observed in 1997 April. In the first case, consistency between the various assumptions is reached for δ ≃ 10 and B ≃ 0.3 G. For the high state, a similar value of the Doppler factor and a somewhat larger value of the magnetic field are indicated, while the extremely large frequency of the observed synchrotron peak requires continuous injection/reacceleration of relativistic particles.
Measuring Organizational Performance in Strategic Human Resource Management: Problems and Prospects

A major challenge for Strategic Human Resource Management research in the next decade will be to establish a clear, coherent and consistent construct for organizational performance. This paper describes the variety of measures used in current empirical research linking human resource management and organizational performance. Implications for future research are discussed amidst the challenges of construct definition, divergent stakeholder criteria and the temporal dynamics of performance. The concept of performance information markets that addresses these challenges is proposed as a framework for the application of multi-dimensional weighted performance measurement systems.
Quantifying Microvascular Density and Morphology in Diabetic Retinopathy Using Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography

Purpose To quantify changes in retinal microvasculature in diabetic retinopathy (DR) by using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography angiography (SD-OCTA). Methods Retrospective, cross-sectional, observational study of healthy and diabetic adult subjects with and without DR. Retinal microvascular changes were assessed by using SD-OCTA images and an intensity-based optical microangiography algorithm. A semiautomated program was used to calculate indices of microvascular density and morphology in nonsegmented and segmented SD-OCTA images. Microvascular density was quantified by using skeleton density (SD) and vessel density (VD), while vessel morphology was quantified as fractal dimension (FD) and vessel diameter index (VDI). Statistical analyses were performed by using the Student's t-test or analysis of variance with post hoc Tukey honest significant difference tests for multiple comparisons. Results Eighty-four eyes with DR and 14 healthy eyes were studied. Spearman's rank test demonstrated a negative correlation between DR severity and SD, VD, and FD, and a positive correlation with VDI (ρ = −0.767, −0.7166, −0.768, and +0.5051, respectively; P < 0.0001). All parameters showed high reproducibility between graders (ICC = 0.971, 0.962, 0.937, and 0.994 for SD, VD, FD, and VDI, respectively). Repeatability (κ) was greater than 0.99 for SD, VD, FD, and VDI. Conclusions Vascular changes in DR can be objectively and reliably characterized with SD, VD, FD, and VDI. In general, decreasing capillary density (SD and VD), branching complexity (FD), and increasing average vascular caliber (VDI) were associated with worsening DR. Changes in capillary density and morphology were significantly correlated with diabetic macular edema.
PHOTOMETRIC REDSHIFT AND CLASSIFICATION FOR THE XMM–COSMOS SOURCES

We present photometric redshifts and spectral energy distribution (SED) classifications for a sample of 1542 optically identified sources detected with XMM in the COSMOS field. Our template fitting classifies 46 sources as stars and 464 as nonactive galaxies, while the remaining 1032 require templates with an active galactic nucleus (AGN) contribution. High accuracy in the derived photometric redshifts was accomplished as the result of (1) photometry in up to 30 bands with high-significance detections, (2) a new set of SED templates, including 18 hybrids covering the far-UV to mid-infrared, which have been constructed by the combination of AGNs and nonactive galaxies templates, and (3) multiepoch observations that have been used to correct for variability (most important for type 1 AGNs). The reliability of the photometric redshifts is evaluated using the subsample of 442 sources with measured spectroscopic redshifts. We achieved an accuracy of for i*AB < 22.5 ( for i*AB < 24.5). The high accuracies were accomplished for both type 2 (where the SED is often dominated by the host galaxy) and type 1 AGNs and QSOs out to z = 4.5. The number of outliers is a large improvement over previous photometric redshift estimates for X-ray-selected sources (4.0% and 4.8% outliers for i*AB < 22.5 and i*AB < 24.5, respectively). We show that the intermediate band photometry is vital to achieving accurate photometric redshifts for AGNs, whereas the broad SED coverage provided by mid-infrared (Spitzer/IRAC) bands is important to reduce the number of outliers for normal galaxies.