Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asynchronous and distributed process improvement: the role of collaborative technologies

Abstract. The recent proliferation of low‐cost computer networks has driven the development of a new type of organization, in which geographical and time constraints to collaboration among process teams have been gradually removed. As these organizations have to cope with a fast pace of change, they rely increasingly on distributed and asynchronous process improvement (PI) groups to redesign their processes. Yet little is known about the effects of asynchronous group support systems (GSSs) on PI groups. We investigate the effects of asynchronous GSSs on PI groups through a two‐stage action research study of 38 such groups in three organizations, one in Brazil and two in New Zealand, over 4 years and 4 months. Different PI groups voluntarily conducted all, part or none of their communication through an e‐mail conferencing (EC) tool. The research suggests that EC support causes a decrease in the organizational costs associated with PI groups, which, combined with an increase in the number of possible simultaneous PI groups, generates an increase in overall organizational PI efficiency. The research also suggests a neutral overall effect of EC support on PI group outcome quality. Two explanatory causal models summarizing these effects are developed, and implications for research and industry practice are discussed.
Dynamic Modeling of Soft Magnetic Film Actuated Scanners

Dynamic behavior of magnetic thin film actuators is investigated in detail and applied to various laser scanning applications. Magnetic hysteresis effects are incorporated into the model developed in the prior work, which assumes linear magnetization as a function of magnetic field and is based on the distributed point-by-point calculation of the magnetostatic moments and forces across the film surface. A simple functional form is used to model the major B-H loop of ferromagnetic films. The model is validated with permalloy (Ni-Fe) plated polymer actuators. The actuators are excited using an external electro-coil and the structures deflect due to magnetic anisotropy torque. The ac deflection of the actuators is modeled by calculating the point-by-point moments on the magnetic film and the solution can handle nonuniform external field and unsaturated magnetic film cases. A 25deg optical scan angle is demonstrated for laser scanning display and imaging applications with a nonoptimum coil. Scaling the model to MEMS devices is also discussed.
Accidental injury in children: hospital trauma records in a Spanish population

A significant reduction in disease as a cause of infant mortality has given prominence to accidental injury as a cause of death and disability. Spain occupies eighth place in the global mortality ranking for unintentional injury in the infant population (Roberts et al. 1998, Grossman 2000, UNICEF 2001). Paediatricians can play a crucial role in injury prevention by recording the information of the trauma records of the injured patient (Katcher et al. 1999). Defining the epidemiological situation of paediatric injury is the first step towards detecting problems and orientating prevention campaigns. An epidemiological registry for paediatric injury in the authors’ hospital has been designed.
Accounting and Billing for Federated Cloud Infrastructures

Emerging Cloud computing infrastructures provide computing resources on demand based on postpaid principles. For example, the RESERVOIR project develops an infrastructure capable of delivering elastic capacity that can automatically be increased or decreased in order to cost-efficiently fulfill established Service Level Agreements. This infrastructure also makes it possible for a data center to extend its total capacity by subcontracting additional resources from collaborating data centers, making the infrastructure a federation of Clouds. For accounting and billing, such infrastructures call for novel approaches to perform accounting for capacity that varies over time and for services (or more precisely virtual machines) that migrate between physical machines or even between data centers. For billing, needs arise for new approaches to simultaneously manage postpaid and prepaid payment schemes for capacity that varies over time in response to user needs. In this paper, we outline usage scenarios and a set of requirements for such infrastructures, and propose an accounting and billing architecture to be used within RESERVOIR. Even though the primary focus for this architecture is accounting and billing between resource consumers and infrastructure provides, future support for inter-site billing is also taken into account.
Kindergartners’ Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity in Relation to Their Number-Related Utterances During Numerical Picture Book Reading

ABSTRACT This study investigated the relationship between kindergartners’ Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity (SFON) and their number-related utterances during numerical picture book reading. Forty-eight 4- to 5-year-olds were individually interviewed via a SFON Imitation Task and a numerical picture book reading activity. We expected differences in the frequency of number-related utterances during picture book reading between children with a higher SFON score, providing more number-related utterances, and children with a lower SFON score. Our results showed large inter-individual differences in both kindergartners’ SFON and the frequency of their number-related utterances during picture book reading, yet SFON was not related to the frequency of number-related utterances. This unexpected result is discussed in terms of its scientific, methodological, and educational implications.
The Prevalence and Significance of Occult Hepatitis B Virus in a Prospective Cohort of HIV-Infected Patients

Background:Occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) is defined as low-level HBV DNA without hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Prevalence estimates vary widely. We determined the prevalence of occult HBV at the University of Cincinnati Infectious Diseases Center (IDC). Methods:Patients in the IDC HIV database (n = 3867) were randomly selected using a 25% sampling fraction. Samples were pooled for HBV nucleic acid extraction. Pools were tested for HBV DNA by a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to coamplify core/surface protein regions. The PCR assay was run on all individual samples from each DNA+ pool. DNA+ samples were tested for HBV serologic markers. Results:A total of 909 patients without known HBV were selected. The mean CD4 count was 384 cells/mm3. Forty-three patients were HBV DNA+. Twelve of 43 were DNA+/HBsAg− (95% confidence interval for database: 0.58% to 1.90%). Five of 12 were negative for all serologic markers. Alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and HBV DNA titers were elevated in HBsAg+ patients versus occult patients and versus HIV-monoinfected patients. No other significant differences were detected. No occult HBV patient was on treatment with anti-HBV activity. Conclusions:Forty-three percent of those with HBV were not previously identified as HBV+, indicating the need for ongoing screening in high-risk populations. Occult HBV may occur in persons with all negative serologic markers, representing a challenge for identification.
The Role of Classroom Management Efficacy in Predicting Teacher Burnout

The purpose of this study was to examine to what extend classroom management efficacy, marital status, gender, and teaching experience predict burnout among primary school teachers. Participants of this study were 523 (345 female, 178 male) teachers who completed inventories. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that three dimensions of teacher burnout (Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, Personal Accomplishment) were affected differently from four predictor variables. Findings indicated that for the emotional exhaustion, classroom management efficacy, marital status and teaching experience; for depersonalization dimension, classroom management efficacy and marital status and finally for the personal accomplishment dimension, classroom management efficacy, gender, and teaching experience were significant predictors. Keywords—Classroom management efficacy, teacher burnout.
Understanding the Test Automation Culture of App Developers

Smartphone applications (apps) have gained popularity recently. Millions of smartphone applications (apps) are available on different app stores which gives users plethora of options to choose from, however, it also raises concern if these apps are adequately tested before they are released for public use. In this study, we want to understand the test automation culture prevalent among app developers. Specifically, we want to examine the current state of testing of apps, the tools that are commonly used by app developers, and the problems faced by them. To get an insight on the test automation culture, we conduct two different studies. In the first study, we analyse over 600 Android apps collected from F- Droid, one of the largest repositories containing information about open-source Android apps. We check for the presence of test cases and calculate code coverage to measure the adequacy of testing in these apps. We also survey developers who have hosted their applications on GitHub to understand the testing practices followed by them. We ask developers about the tools that they use and ''pain points'' that they face while testing Android apps. For the second study, based on the responses from Android developers, we improve our survey questions and resend it to Windows app developers within Microsoft. We conclude that many Android apps are poorly tested - only about 14% of the apps contain test cases and only about 9% of the apps that have executable test cases have coverage above 40\%. Also, we find that Android app developers use automated testing tools such as JUnit, Monkeyrunner, Robotium, and Robolectric, however, they often prefer to test their apps manually, whereas Windows app developers prefer to use in-house tools such as Visual Studio and Microsoft Test Manager. Both Android and Windows app developers face many challenges such as time constraints, compatibility issues, lack of exposure, cumbersome tools, etc. We give suggestions to improve the test automation culture in the growing app community.
The Influence of Test Anxiety on Academic Performance of Agricultural Student

The society is requiring that the labor force continually gain new knowledge to remain productive. Formal schooling plays an important role in the development of labor forces and enhancement of economic growth. Academic performance of students is one of the most important pieces of information used by employers in decision making as a signal of individuals’ ability. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of test anxiety on academic performance of agricultural students. The statistical population included senior students of agricultural colleges in Iran. A sample of 116 students was selected by using random sampling method. Data were collected by use of a questionnaire. Students’ grade point average at the completion of the junior academic year was applied to measure academic performance of students. The validity of questionnaire was established by an experts’ panel consisting of faculty members at colleges of agriculture in Tehran University. Instrument reliability was established * Corresponding author. Tel. : +98 26 32818709; fax: +98 26 32818709. E-mail address: m_pouratashi@yahoo.com © 2013 Published by C-crcs. Peer-review under responsibility of Editor or Guest Editor of the EJSBS.
The Simulation Extrapolation Method for Fitting Generalized Linear Models with Additive Measurement Error

We discuss and illustrate the method of simulation extrapolation for fitting models with additive measurement error. We present this discussion in terms of generalized linear models (GLMs) following the notation defined in Hardin and Carroll (2003). As in Hardin, Schmiediche, and Carroll (2003), our discussion includes specified measurement error and measurement error estimated by replicate error-prone proxies. In addition, we discuss and illustrate three extrapolant functions.
Measuring the Conservation Value of Tropical Primary Forests: The Effect of Occasional Species on Estimates of Biodiversity Uniqueness

Background Developing effective conservation plans for multi-functional landscapes requires an accurate knowledge of the relative conservation value of different land-uses. A growing number of tropical ecologists have evaluated conservation value using the number (or proportion) of species that are unique to primary or old-growth forests. However, estimates of the conservation value of modified land-uses may be inflated by the presence of occasional species (e.g. singletons and doubletons) that may be unable to exist as viable populations in isolation. Methodology/Principal Findings We use a unique 15-taxa dataset from a mixed-use forest landscape in the Brazilian Amazon to test the hypothesis that the removal of occasional species from sample data can increase estimates of the value of primary forest for biodiversity conservation. Conclusions/Significance Estimates of conservation value that are based on the proportion of species that are unique to tropical primary or old-growth forests are highly sensitive to decisions researchers make regarding the inclusion or exclusion of occasional species. By removing singletons from modified forest samples, and considering only those species known to occur in primary forest, we almost double estimates of the conservation value of tropical primary forests.
Non-asymptotic convergence analysis of inexact gradient methods for machine learning without strong convexity

Many recent applications in machine learning and data fitting call for the algorithmic solution of structured smooth convex optimization problems. Although the gradient descent method is a natural choice for this task, it requires exact gradient computations and hence can be inefficient when the problem size is large or the gradient is difficult to evaluate. Therefore, there has been much interest in inexact gradient methods (IGMs), in which an efficiently computable approximate gradient is used to perform the update in each iteration. Currently, non-asymptotic linear convergence results for IGMs are typically established under the assumption that the objective function is strongly convex, which is not satisfied in many applications of interest; while linear convergence results that do not require the strong convexity assumption are usually asymptotic in nature. In this paper, we combine the best of these two types of results by developing a framework for analysing the non-asymptotic convergence rates of IGMs when they are applied to a class of structured convex optimization problems that includes least squares regression and logistic regression. We then demonstrate the power of our framework by proving, in a unified manner, new linear convergence results for three recently proposed algorithms—the incremental gradient method with increasing sample size [R.H. Byrd, G.M. Chin, J. Nocedal, and Y. Wu, Sample size selection in optimization methods for machine learning, Math. Program. Ser. B 134 (2012), pp. 127–155; M.P. Friedlander and M. Schmidt, Hybrid deterministic–stochastic methods for data fitting, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 34 (2012), pp. A1380–A1405], the stochastic variance-reduced gradient (SVRG) method [R. Johnson and T. Zhang, Accelerating stochastic gradient descent using predictive variance reduction, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 26: Proceedings of the 2013 Conference, 2013, pp. 315–323], and the incremental aggregated gradient (IAG) method [D. Blatt, A.O. Hero, and H. Gauchman, A convergent incremental gradient method with a constant step size, SIAM J. Optim. 18 (2007), pp. 29–51]. We believe that our techniques will find further applications in the non-asymptotic convergence analysis of other first-order methods.
Sinking Jelly-Carbon Unveils Potential Environmental Variability along a Continental Margin

Particulate matter export fuels benthic ecosystems in continental margins and the deep sea, removing carbon from the upper ocean. Gelatinous zooplankton biomass provides a fast carbon vector that has been poorly studied. Observational data of a large-scale benthic trawling survey from 1994 to 2005 provided a unique opportunity to quantify jelly-carbon along an entire continental margin in the Mediterranean Sea and to assess potential links with biological and physical variables. Biomass depositions were sampled in shelves, slopes and canyons with peaks above 1000 carcasses per trawl, translating to standing stock values between 0.3 and 1.4 mg C m2 after trawling and integrating between 30,000 and 175,000 m2 of seabed. The benthopelagic jelly-carbon spatial distribution from the shelf to the canyons may be explained by atmospheric forcing related with NAO events and dense shelf water cascading, which are both known from the open Mediterranean. Over the decadal scale, we show that the jelly-carbon depositions temporal variability paralleled hydroclimate modifications, and that the enhanced jelly-carbon deposits are connected to a temperature-driven system where chlorophyll plays a minor role. Our results highlight the importance of gelatinous groups as indicators of large-scale ecosystem change, where jelly-carbon depositions play an important role in carbon and energy transport to benthic systems.
Supporting the transition to inclusive education: teachers’ attitudes to inclusion in the Seychelles

ABSTRACT The inclusion of children with disability in regular classroom settings has been identified worldwide as crucial to the provision of effective education for all children and to the creation of more inclusive societies. To this end there has been significant focus on pre-service and in-service teacher education to ensure that teachers are adequately prepared to teach in inclusive classrooms. When delivering a unit on inclusive education in the Seychelles, which was developed in Australia, we considered it essential to determine the suitability of the unit in supporting Seychellois teachers to teach inclusively. Teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about people with disability are two aspects that have consistently been shown to impact on a teacher’s willingness to include children with disability. Therefore, the Seychellois teachers were asked to complete questionnaires in the first and final weeks of the semester in which the teachers undertook the unit. The two sets of responses were analysed to determine significance and effect sizes of any change in attitudes and beliefs. Data revealed that the Seychellois teachers reported more positive attitudes and beliefs about the inclusion of children with disability in regular classrooms after completing the unit, suggesting that the unit of study was suitable for the Seychellois context.
Bad Medicine

Research on the risk factors associated with gang joining suggests that the best predictor of gang membership is the accumulation of risk factors across a number of domains. These same risk factors are also associated with poor mental health and suicide, suggesting that gang members may be at risk for these outcomes. The current study utilized a nationally representative sample to examine two related issues. First, do youth who later become gang involved report levels of self-esteem, depression, suicidal thoughts, and attempted suicide that are substantively different than the general population? Second, how does gang membership affect these indicators of mental health? Results suggest that youth who become gang involved have significantly higher levels of depression and report a substantively higher rate of suicidal thoughts and behaviors than comparison youth. Furthermore, membership in gangs exacerbates these underlying problems, creating higher levels of depression and a higher prevalence of suicidal thoughts and actions.
Rosiglitazone Restores G-Protein Coupling, Recruitment, and Function of Renal Dopamine D1A Receptor in Obese Zucker Rats

Abstract—Hypertension related to insulin resistance results from increased sodium retention. Dopamine, by activating D1A receptors in renal proximal tubules, increases sodium excretion. Recently, dopamine has been shown to augment its own signaling by recruiting intracellular D1A receptors to cell surface in proximal tubules. In this study, we hypothesized that coupling of D1A receptors to G proteins and dopamine-induced recruitment of D1A receptors to the plasma membrane are impaired in obese Zucker rats, resulting in a diminished natriuretic and diuretic response to D1A receptor agonist, SKF-38393. We also examined effects of rosiglitazone (3 mg/kg per day, 15 days) in restoring the defects in D1A receptor signaling and function in these animals. In obese rats, D1A receptors did not couple to G proteins, as shown by a lack of fenoldopam-sensitive [35S] GTP&ggr;S binding. In addition, we observed, by using radioligand binding and immunoblotting, that dopamine recruited D1A receptors to cell surface in lean Zucker rats but failed to do so in obese rats. Rosiglitazone treatment resulted in restoration of G-protein coupling of D1A receptors and their recruitment by dopamine in obese rats similar to that seen in lean rats. Furthermore, SKF-38393 failed to increase natriuresis and diuresis in obese rats compared with lean rats. However, in rosiglitazone-treated obese rats, SKF-38393 elicited a diuretic and natriuretic response similar to that in lean rats. Collectively, these results suggest that insulin resistance may be responsible for impaired renal dopamine D1A receptor signaling and function as treatment with an insulin-sensitizer, rosiglitazone, normalizes these parameters in obese Zucker rats.
Female and Male Moths Display Different Reproductive Behavior when Facing New versus Previous Mates

Multiple mating allows females to obtain material (more sperm and nutrient) and/or genetic benefits. The genetic benefit models require sperm from different males to fertilize eggs competitively or the offspring be fathered by multiple males. To maximize genetic benefits from multiple mating, females have evolved strategies to prefer novel versus previous mates in their subsequent matings. However, the reproductive behavior during mate encounter, mate choice and egg laying in relation to discrimination and preference between sexes has been largely neglected. In the present study, we used novel and previous mate treatments and studied male and female behavior and reproductive output in Spodoptera litura. The results of this study do not support the sperm and nutrient replenishment hypotheses because neither the number of mates nor the number of copulations achieved by females significantly increased female fecundity, fertility and longevity. However, females showed different oviposition patterns when facing new versus previous mates by slowing down oviposition, which allows the last male has opportunities to fertilize her eggs and the female to promote offspring diversity. Moreover, females that have novel males present called earlier and more than females that have their previous mates present, whereas no significant differences were found on male courtship between treatments. These results suggest that S. litura females can distinguish novel from previous mates and prefer the former, whereas males generally remate regardless of whether the female is a previous mate or not. In S. litura, eggs are laid in large clusters and offspring competition, inbreeding and disease transfer risks are thus increased. Therefore, offspring diversity should be valuable for S. litura, and genetic benefits should be the main force behind the evolution of female behavioral strategies found in the present study.