Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Caught between worlds of expertise: Elementary teachers amidst official curriculum development processes in Cyprus

ABSTRACT Against the background of a curriculum change in the Republic of Cyprus, this study focuses on teachers who volunteered to work along with academics and ministry officials in subject-area curriculum review committees to develop official curriculum texts. Teachers’ participation in these committees was construed in official rhetoric as a means to acknowledge teacher/classroom expertise, and, by extension, to democratize the curriculum change process. Analysis of teacher interviews indicates, however, that this process was replete with negotiations among people with differentially valued knowledge and expertise: academic expertise, classroom experience and expertise, and a combination of those that produced a hybrid expert-subject. To unpack these negotiations and thus discuss the politics of teacher participation in collaborative partnerships, we utilize the Foucauldian notions of subjectivation, subjection, and resistance, and suggest that (1) teachers were constituted as subjects and were subjected to institutional(ized) power relations that produced and were produced by particular constructions of knowledge/expertise, and (2) teacher participation was further complicated by possibilities for resistance and openings for the destabilization of those institutionalized hierarchical relations. The latter points towards the ongoing politics of teacher participation in curriculum change and of professionalism as a “permanent provocation”.
Prospect Theory, Mental Accounting, and Momentum

The tendency of some investors to hold on to their losing stocks, driven by prospect theory and mental accounting, creates a spread between a stock's fundamental value and its equilibrium price, as well as price underreaction to information. Spread convergence, arising from the random evolution of fundamental values and updating of reference prices, generates predictable equilibrium prices that will be interpreted as possessing momentum. Cross-sectional empirical tests are consistent with the model. A variable proxying for aggregate unrealized capital gains appears to be the key variable that generates the profitability of a momentum strategy. Past returns have no predictability for the cross-section of returns once this variable is controlled for.
The Relationship Between Behavioral Inhibition Strategies for Cognitive Regulation of Emotions and Young Adult Family of Life Events and Changes with Obsessive-Compulsive Traits in Students

Background: According to the observations, obsessive-compulsive traits are the most important among behavior among the high school male and female students. Individuals with obsessive-compulsive traits have less quality of life. Objectives: The present study aimed at determining the relationship between behavioral inhibition, strategies for cognitive regulation of emotions and young adult family of life events and changes with obsessive-compulsive traits in male and female high
Activity of latissimus dorsi muscle during inspiratory threshold loads.

The ability of the latissimus dorsi muscle (LD) to participate as an accessory inspiratory muscle has been the subject of controversy. Electromyographic (EGM) activity of LD was evaluated in 11 healthy subjects (aged 30 +/- 2 yrs; forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 106 +/- 5% predicted; maximal inspiratory pressure (Pmax), 120 +/- 6 cmH2O) under different breathing conditions. The ipsilateral biceps brachii was chosen as the control muscle. The EMG was recorded from surface electrodes, but needle electrodes were also used for LD evaluation in a subset of three subjects. The EMG signal from both muscles was recorded simultaneously, rectified and integrated, with subtraction of the electrocardiographic signal. Situations evaluated were: 1) maximal voluntary contraction (MVC); 2) apnoea; and 3) breathing under progressive inspiratory threshold loads (20-100% Pmax, at 20% intervals). A close relationship was evident between LD recordings from surface and needle electrodes (r = 0.975). Activity of LD at baseline was 1.8 +/- 0.4% MVC, and showed a phasic increase during inspiration under loads. This change had a linear tendency and was significant for loads corresponding to 40, 60, 80 and 100% of Pmax when compared to the control muscle. At this latter level, LD activity was equivalent to 32 +/- 5% MVC (range 11-61%), whereas mean activity of the control muscle was less than 7.5% MVC. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Modeling of open-loop stable linear systems using a combination of a finite fractional derivative and orthonormal basis functions

This paper presents new results in modeling of linear open-loop stable systems by means of discrete-time finite fractional orthonormal basis functions, in particular the Laguerre functions. New stability conditions are offered and a useful modification to finite fractional derivative is introduced, called normalized finite fractional derivative. Simulation examples illustrate the usefulness of the new modeling methodology.
The prevalence of chronic Chlamydia pneumoniae infection as detected by polymerase chain reaction in pharyngeal samples from patients with ischaemic heart disease.

AIMS Cross-sectional serological studies have suggested an association between ischaemic heart disease and infections from Chlamydia pneumoniae and Helicobacter pylori. We therefore sought to find out if patients with ischaemic heart disease had an increased prevalence of C. pneumoniae in the pharynx. As the course of the C. pneumoniae infection remains unclear, both acute and follow-up samples were taken and compared with antibody levels. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 282 patients with ischaemic heart disease. One hundred and two subjects without history or symptoms of ischaemic heart disease served as controls. Pharyngeal specimens for polymerase chain reaction detection of C. pneumoniae, and blood samples for C. pneumoniae and H. pylori antibody detection, were collected. In patients with positive polymerase chain reaction or C. pneumoniae IgA titres > or = 32, indicating current infection, convalescent samples were taken at least 6 weeks later. An immunofluorescent antigen detection test was used to confirm the presence of C. pneumoniae elementary bodies in specimens found to be polymerase chain reaction positive. The prevalence of positive polymerase chain reaction tests was 36% among patients and 22% among controls (P<0.05). Forty-seven percent of patients with positive polymerase chain reaction remained positive in the convalescent test. Elevated C. pneumoniae IgG titres > or = 512 were found in 39% of patients and 26% of the controls (P<0.05). IgA titres > or = 32 were found in 46% of the patients and 44% of the controls (ns). Antibody titres remained largely unchanged at convalescent testing. Two patients and none of the controls had IgM titres > 16. There was no link between positive H. pylori serology and positive C. pneumoniae polymerase chain reaction tests. CONCLUSIONS The high prevalence and persistence of positive pharyngeal C. pneumoniae polymerase chain reaction and elevated antibody titres in patients with ischaemic heart disease indicate a chronic infection. The pharyngeal presence of C. pneumoniae might contribute to a low grade inflammatory activation or be a source for further spread of the bacteria to atherosclerotic vessels.
Glick's conjecture on the point of collapse of axis-aligned polygons under the pentagram maps

The pentagram map has been studied in a series of papers by Schwartz and others. Schwartz showed that an axis-aligned polygon collapses to a point under a predictable number of iterations of the pentagram map. Glick gave a different proof using cluster algebras, and conjectured that the point of collapse is always the center of mass of the axis-aligned polygon. In this paper, we answer Glick's conjecture positively, and generalize the statement to higher and lower dimensional pentagram maps. For the latter map, we define a new system -- the mirror pentagram map -- and prove a closely related result. In addition, the mirror pentagram map provides a geometric description for the lower dimensional pentagram map, defined algebraically by Gekhtman, Shapiro, Tabachnikov and Vainshtein.
Information Content and Dividend Policy of Publicly Listed Real Estate Firms in Singapore

Publicly listed real estate firms offer an indirect form of real estate investment in Singapore, which are less restrictive in terms of dividend distribution and asset holding requirements compared to the REITs. Do the dividend policies of these real estate firms differ from those adopted by the US REITs as shown in the earlier findings by Wang, Erickson and Gau (1993) and Bradley, Capozza and Seguin (1998)? Our empirical results favor the agency costs hypothesis, which predicts a positive relationship between firms’ debt-to-asset ratio and dividend payouts. The agency costs effects were mainly differentiated by the dividend yields of real estate firms. Firm size was not a good proxy for cash flow volatility, and there were no significant signal in the dividend policy of firms with different market capitalization. The results rejected the dividend signaling hypothesis. However, the value-penalty hypothesis of Bradley, Capozza and Seguin (1998) that imposes downward corrections of stock prices for firms that fail to meet the divided target was not rejected. Firms with constant dividend payouts were also penalized with a 7.6% discount to the stock price compared to firms that distribute higher dividends than the previous years.
Community Resilience throughout the Lifespan – The Potential Contribution of Healthy Elders

An increase in the exposure and predisposition of civilian populations to disasters has been recorded in the last decades. In major disasters, as demonstrated recently in Nepal (2015) and previously in Haiti (2010), external aid is vital, yet in the first hours after a disaster, communities must usually cope alone with the challenge of providing emergent lifesaving care. Communities therefore need to be prepared to handle emergency situations. Mapping the needs of the populations within their purview is a trying task for decision makers and community leaders. In this context, the elderly are traditionally treated as a susceptible population with special needs. The current study aimed to explore variations in the level of community resilience along the lifespan. The study was conducted in nine small to mid-size towns in Israel between August and November 2011 (N = 885). The Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measure (CCRAM), a validated instrument for community resilience assessment, was used to examine the association between age and community resilience score. Statistical analysis included spline and logistic regression models that explored community resiliency over the lifespan in a way that allowed flexible modeling of the curve without prior constraints. This innovative statistical approach facilitated identification of the ages at which trend changes occurred. The study found a significant rise in community resiliency scores in the age groups of 61–75 years as compared with younger age bands, suggesting that older people in good health may contribute positively to building community resiliency for crisis. Rather than focusing on the growing medical needs and years of dependency associated with increased life expectancy and the resulting climb in the proportion of elders in the population, this paper proposes that active "young at heart" older people can be a valuable resource for their community.
Suffix perceptual salience in morphological masked priming

A masked priming experiment was conducted in order to determine whether suffixes and morphological schemas play a role in the access and processing of Italian complex words like bases do and, more precisely, whether (i) the suffix salience and (ii) the consistency of the suffix series affect processing. To this end, three suffixes with different perceptual characteristics, i.e.,-tore,-ico and-etto, and whose series present a different degree of functional consistency, were manipulated. The results indicate very clear base priming effects for-tore and-ico targets (e.g., nostalgia-nostaligico; pescare-pescatore) but no effect for-etto targets. On the other hand, while the suffix priming condition did not reveal any effect for-tore and-ico (e.g., sinfonico-nostaligico; traditore-pescatore) compared to the unrelated condition,-etto series yielded the longest reaction times (RTs). The distributional properties, together with the non-prototypical semantic and functional characteristics of-etto, seem therefore to affect also the relation between the base and the suffixed word. We conclude that different nature of morphological entities might imply different priming effects and that suffixes might need more activation than bases to emerge.
Calcium Imaging of AM Dyes Following Prolonged Incubation in Acute Neuronal Tissue

Calcium-imaging is a sensitive method for monitoring calcium dynamics during neuronal activity. As intracellular calcium concentration is correlated to physiological and pathophysiological activity of neurons, calcium imaging with fluorescent indicators is one of the most commonly used techniques in neuroscience today. Current methodologies for loading calcium dyes into the tissue require prolonged incubation time (45–150 min), in addition to dissection and recovery time after the slicing procedure. This prolonged incubation curtails experimental time, as tissue is typically maintained for 6–8 hours after slicing. Using a recently introduced recovery chamber that extends the viability of acute brain slices to more than 24 hours, we tested the effectiveness of calcium AM staining following long incubation periods post cell loading and its impact on the functional properties of calcium signals in acute brain slices and wholemount retinae. We show that calcium dyes remain within cells and are fully functional >24 hours after loading. Moreover, the calcium dynamics recorded >24 hrs were similar to the calcium signals recorded in fresh tissue that was incubated for <4 hrs. These results indicate that long exposure of calcium AM dyes to the intracellular cytoplasm did not alter the intracellular calcium concentration, the functional range of the dye or viability of the neurons. This data extends our previous work showing that a custom recovery chamber can extend the viability of neuronal tissue, and reliable data for both electrophysiology and imaging can be obtained >24hrs after dissection. These methods will not only extend experimental time for those using acute neuronal tissue, but also may reduce the number of animals required to complete experimental goals.
Spatial Scaling of Satellite Soil Moisture using Temporal Correlations and Ensemble Learning

A novel algorithm is developed to downscale soil moisture (SM), obtained at satellite scales of 10-40 km by utilizing its temporal correlations to historical auxiliary data at finer scales. Including such correlations drastically reduces the size of the training set needed, accounts for time-lagged relationships, and enables downscaling even in the presence of short gaps in the auxiliary data. The algorithm is based upon bagged regression trees (BRT) and uses correlations between high-resolution remote sensing products and SM observations. The algorithm trains multiple regression trees and automatically chooses the trees that generate the best downscaled estimates. The algorithm was evaluated using a multi-scale synthetic dataset in north central Florida for two years, including two growing seasons of corn and one growing season of cotton per year. The time-averaged error across the region was found to be 0.01 $\mathrm{m}^3/\mathrm{m}^3$, with a standard deviation of 0.012 $\mathrm{m}^3/\mathrm{m}^3$ when 0.02% of the data were used for training in addition to temporal correlations from the past seven days, and all available data from the past year. The maximum spatially averaged errors obtained using this algorithm in downscaled SM were 0.005 $\mathrm{m}^3/\mathrm{m}^3$, for pixels with cotton land-cover. When land surface temperature~(LST) on the day of downscaling was not included in the algorithm to simulate "data gaps", the spatially averaged error increased minimally by 0.015 $\mathrm{m}^3/\mathrm{m}^3$ when LST is unavailable on the day of downscaling. The results indicate that the BRT-based algorithm provides high accuracy for downscaling SM using complex non-linear spatio-temporal correlations, under heterogeneous micro meteorological conditions.
Effects of dance on movement control in Parkinson's disease: a comparison of Argentine tango and American ballroom.

OBJECTIVE The basal ganglia may be selectively activated during rhythmic, metered movement such as tango dancing, which may improve motor control in individuals with Parkinson's disease. Other partner dances may be more suitable and preferable for those with Parkinson's disease. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of tango, waltz/foxtrot and no intervention on functional motor control in individuals with Parkinson's disease. DESIGN This study employed a randomized, between- notsubject, prospective, repeated measures design. SUBJECTS/PATIENTS Fifty-eight people with mild-moderate Parkinson's disease participated. METHODS Participants were randomly assigned to tango, waltz/foxtrot or no intervention (control) groups. Those in the dance groups attended 1-h classes twice a week, completing 20 lessons in 13 weeks. Balance, functional mobility, forward and backward walking were evaluated before and after the intervention. RESULTS Both dance groups improved more than the control group, which did not improve. The tango and waltz/foxtrot groups improved significantly on the Berg Balance Scale, 6-minute walk distance, and backward stride length. The tango group improved as much or more than those in the waltz/foxtrot group on several measures. CONCLUSION Tango may target deficits associated with Parkinson's disease more than waltz/foxtrot, but both dances may benefit balance and locomotion.
A Mixed-Voltage Sensor Readout Circuit With On-Chip Calibration and Built-In Self-Test

This paper reports a mixed-voltage mixed-signal chip for interfacing multiple capacitive transducers to embedded processors in integrated microsystems. A programmable switched-capacitor readout circuit accommodates capacitive sensors from 16 fF to 40 pF and allows self-test and online calibration. The 20 mm2 chip has a sensitivity of 1.25 mV/fF and is realized in a 1 mum n-well BiCMOS 2 P/2 M process that permits high-voltage operation, large-value resistors, and nonvolatile on-chip memory. An on-chip charge pump generates voltages up to 30 V that permits transducer electrostatic self-test. In normal operation mode, the chip provides a fast sensor readout consuming only 90 nj of energy, making it suitable for portable applications.
Reconstituted Human Upper Airway Epithelium as 3-D In Vitro Model for Nasal Polyposis

Background Primary human airway epithelial cells cultured in an air-liquid interface (ALI) develop a well-differentiated epithelium. However, neither characterization of mucociliar differentiation overtime nor the inflammatory function of reconstituted nasal polyp (NP) epithelia have been described. Objectives 1st) To develop and characterize the mucociliar differentiation overtime of human epithelial cells of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) in ALI culture system; 2nd) To corroborate that 3D in vitro model of NP reconstituted epithelium maintains, compared to control nasal mucosa (NM), an inflammatory function. Methods Epithelial cells were obtained from 9 NP and 7 control NM, and differentiated in ALI culture for 28 days. Mucociliary differentiation was characterized at different times (0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days) using ultrastructure analysis by electron microscopy; ΔNp63 (basal stem/progenitor cell), β-tubulin IV (cilia), and MUC5AC (goblet cell) expression by immunocytochemistry; and mucous (MUC5AC, MUC5B) and serous (Lactoferrin) secretion by ELISA. Inflammatory function of ALI cultures (at days 0, 14, and 28) through cytokine (IL-8, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, and IL-12p70) and chemokine (RANTES, MIG, MCP-1, IP-10, eotaxin-1, and GM-CSF) production was analysed by CBA (Cytometric Bead Array). Results In both NP and control NM ALI cultures, pseudostratified epithelium with ciliated, mucus-secreting, and basal cells were observed by electron microscopy at days 14 and 28. Displaying epithelial cell re-differentation, β-tubulin IV and MUC5AC positive cells increased, while ΔNp63 positive cells decreased overtime. No significant differences were found overtime in MUC5AC, MUC5B, and lactoferrin secretions between both ALI cultures. IL-8 and GM-CSF were significantly increased in NP compared to control NM regenerated epithelia. Conclusion Reconstituted epithelia from human NP epithelial cells cultured in ALI system provides a 3D in vitro model that could be useful both for studying the role of epithelium in CRSwNP while developing new therapeutic strategies, including cell therapy, for CRSwNP.
A Review of the Functions and Contribution of Educational Psychologists in England and Wales in light of “Every Child Matters: Change for Children',

The implementation of the ? Every Child Matters? (ECM) legislation represents, forEducational Psychologists (EPs), the most significant national strategic developmentsince the DfEE (2000) report on the role of educational psychology services. TheECM agenda makes outcomes for children central to integrated children? s servicesthat form a team around the child and family in the context of community and school.Outcomes for children are specified through aims, targets, indicators and inspectioncriteria which are grouped around five main areas.There are a number of ways in which the developments embodied within the ECMagenda have an impact on the role of EPs. Among the most significant is therestructuring of local authorities (LAs) into children? s services combining educationaland social services. This places EPs more centrally within community contexts whereschools form only one of the settings in which they work. A further consequence isthe renewed emphasis on the importance of multi agency work and the resultingrestructuring of services around multi-agency teams. Within this context there arealso a number of related initiatives to improve services for children such as BESTs,CAMHSs and YOTs. In addition there is ongoing concern as to whether the needs ofspecific groups of children and their carers are being met, for example those with lowincidencedisabilities, those with BESD and those who are subject to a local authoritycare order (? Looked After? ). These changes reflect an evolving context in which EPs? work that is markedly different from 2000 when the DfEE research on the role andgood practice of educational psychology services was undertaken.This new and rapidly changing context forms the backdrop against which this reviewwas conducted. The overall aims are to consider the contribution that EPs can make tomeeting the needs of children as set out in the Every Child Matters agenda and theextent to which they make a distinctive contribution working with, and alongside,other related services.