Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Survey of Coaches and Athletes about Sport Psychology in New Zealand

This investigation examined the current use and status of sport psychology in New Zealand. National coaches (n=46) and elite athletes (n=68) completed appropriate questionnaires that assessed their perceptions of sport psychology. They also indicated the importance of and the success they felt they had in changing and/or developing 21 psychological skills. Finally they were asked about their actual use of sport psychology and any problem areas. A general definition of sport psychology was given and sport psychology was rated by both coaches and athletes as being very important. Most coaches and athletes reported using it regularly. A positive response was received, with virtually all coaches and most athletes indicating they would be interested in having a sport psychologist work with them. Implications of the results are discussed and future research and practical recommendations are made.
The long term outcome of micturition, defecation and sexual function after spinal surgery for cauda equina syndrome

Background Cauda equina syndrome (CES) is a rare neurologic complication of lumbar herniated disc for which emergency surgical decompression should be undertaken. Despite the common belief that the restoration of functions that are affected by CES can take several years postoperatively, follow up seldom exceeds the first year after surgery. Long term outcome of especially micturition, defecation and sexual function—which are by definition affected in CES—are unknown. The aim of this study is to evaluate 1) postoperative long term outcome of micturition, defecation and sexual function in CES patients 2) attitude of patients towards received hospital care with regard to (recovery of) these functions. Methods CES patients were selected by screening the records of all patients operated on lumbar herniated disc in our university hospital between 1995–2010. A questionnaire was sent to the selected CES patients evaluating current complaints of micturition, defecation and sexual function and attitude towards delivered care with focus on micturition, defecation and sexual function. Results Thirty-seven of 66 eligible CES patients were included (response rate 71%, inclusion rate 56%). Median time after surgery was 13.8 years (range 5.8–21.8 years). Dysfunction at follow up was highly prevalent: 38% micturition dysfunction, 43% defecation dysfunction and 54% sexual dysfunction. Younger age at presentation was associated with sexual dysfunction at follow up: for every year younger at presentation, odds ratio for sexual dysfunction at follow up was 1.11 (p = 0.035). Other associations with outcome were not identified. Two-third of the CES patients wished their neurosurgeon had given them more prognostic information about micturition, defecation and sexual function. Conclusion The presented data demonstrate that dysfunction of micturition, defecation and sexual function are still highly prevalent in a large number of CES patients even years postoperatively. These alarming follow up data probably have a devastating effect on personal perceived quality of life, which should be studied in more detail. CES patients communicate a clear demand for more prognostic information. The presented figures enable clinicians to inform their CES patients more realistically about long term postoperative outcome of micturition, defecation and sexual function after surgical intervention.
Scaffolding middle school students' coordination of theory and evidence

Evidence-based explanations are a core element of scientific reasoning. Nonetheless, the literature reports that students often fail to support their hypotheses with evidence, or give explanations that are not grounded in the data. This research examined the role of software scaffolding in supporting middle school students' coordination of theory and evidence. Students in 1 of the 2 classes in the study used an inquiry-support software tool to manage their investigation, whereas the students in the other class used science journals. We argue that the software-based scaffolding helped students coordinate theory with evidence while the science journal was not effective in helping students construct evidence-based explanations.
Cross-border mobility and European identity: The effectiveness of intergroup contact during the ERASMUS year abroad

Cross-border people mobility has long been seen as a promising method to promote European integration. In this article, I test the premise that the ERASMUS student experience abroad and direct interpersonal contact promote a European identity. The results draw from a two-wave longitudinal survey on two samples of ERASMUS students who studied in continental Europe and England, respectively. Although studying abroad led to increased socializing with other Europeans, contact with host country students remained limited. The paired sample t-tests reveal that ERASMUS does not strengthen students’ European identity; on the contrary, it can have an adverse effect on it. Nevertheless, the regression analyses show that increased socializing with Europeans has a positive, though modest, impact on European identity.
Images Held by Jewish and Arab Children in Israel of People Representing their Own and the Other Group

This study examined the way Jewish and Arab children in Israel perceive their in-group and the respective out-group. The sample consisted of 365 children, 166 Jews and 199 Arabs, from two age groups, 7 to 8 and 11 to 13. Images of “a Jew” and “an Arab” were assessed using human figure drawings (HFD) and a related questionnaire that were scored on the dimensions of structure and content. Based on developmental and contextual perspectives and previous findings, it was hypothesized that younger children in both ethnic groups would favor the majority group, whereas early adolescents would favor their in-group and reject the out-group. The hypothesis was confirmed for the Jewish children. Arab children demonstrated rare differentiation between the images. The findings are discussed in relation to cognitive development and the different contextual influences in the two groups: the Israeli-Arab conflict for Jewish children and minority status for Arab children.
Cerebrospinal fluid protein carbonylation identifies oxidative damage in autoimmune demyelination

Oxidative damage occurs in multiple sclerosis, but is difficult to identify antemortem and remains an unknown contributor to disease progression. Carbonylation is a quantitative measure of protein oxidation. Cerebrospinal fluid samples from multiple sclerosis patients showed elevated carbonylated protein levels compared to controls. In experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, carbonylated protein levels in cerebrospinal fluid correlated tightly with those found in inflamed spinal cord tissues. Furthermore, concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid and spinal cord responded in parallel to an antioxidant intervention that also attenuated disease symptoms. These data suggest that carbonylated cerebrospinal fluid proteins could be a quantitative, sensitive, and disease‐relevant biomarker in multiple sclerosis.
Generalized pattern in competition among tourism destinations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine competition between tourism destination brands in terms of how they share travelers with each other.Design/methodology/approach – The study analyzes survey data from four international markets (USA, UK, Japan and Singapore). The study examines the cross‐purchasing of travel destinations. It applies an established empirical generalization, the duplication of purchase law (DPL) to frame hypotheses and contextualize results.Findings – The overall results are consistent with the DPL. Destination brands share tourists with other destinations generally in‐line with the popularity of the competing destination. However, there are very noticeable market partitions, most of which take two forms: destinations that are either geographically close to each other, or close to the point of origin. Destination brands in these partitions share travelers far more than they would be expected to, given their respective size.Practical implications – Tourism marketers need to ap.
Optimal Detection of Discrete Markov Sources Over Discrete Memoryless Channels - Applications to Combined Source-Channel Coding

The authors consider the problem of detecting a discrete Markov source which is transmitted across a discrete memoryless channel. Two maximum a posteriori (MAP) formulations are considered: (i) a sequence MAP detection in which the objective is to determine the most probable transmitted sequence given the observed sequence and (ii) an instantaneous MAP detection which is to determine the most probable transmitted symbol at time n given all the observations prior to and including time n. The solution to the first problem results in a "Viterbi-like" implementation of the MAP detector (with Large delay) while the latter problem results in a recursive implementation (with no delay). For the special case of the binary symmetric Markov source and binary symmetric channel, simulation results are presented and an analysis of these two systems yields explicit critical channel bit error rates above which the MAP detectors become useful. Applications of the MAP detection problem in a combined source-channel coding system are considered. Here, it is assumed that the source is highly correlated and that the source encoder (a vector quantizer (VQ)) fails to remove all of the source redundancy. The remaining redundancy at the output of the source encoder is referred to as the "residual" redundancy. It is shown, through simulation, that the residual redundancy can be used by the MAP detectors to combat channel errors. For small block sizes, the proposed system beats Farvardin and Vaishampayan's channel-optimized VQ by wide margins. Finally, it is shown that the instantaneous MAP detector can be combined with the VQ decoder to form an approximate minimum mean-squared error decoder. >
New angiographic agents with less fibrillatory propensity.

Coronary angiography with Renografin-76 (meglumine sodium diatrizoate, Squibb) lowers the ventricular fibrillation threshold (VFT) significantly and in a dose-dependent manner. Recently new contrast materials have been synthesized for possible angiographic use. We compared the fibrillatory propensities of Hexabrix (meglumine sodium ioxaglate, Guerbet), a monacid dimer; Exypaque (Nyegaard; U.S. iohexol, Winthrop), a new nonionic agent; and Amipaque (metrizamide, Winthrop), an older nonionic agent, to Renografin-76 in anesthetized dogs. The VFT following subselective left circumflex artery injections of 370-mg I and 740-mg I doses of each agent was compared to the control (no injection) threshold in 115 paired experiments in 25 dogs. At the low dose, the VFT for Renografin was significantly lower (61.8 +/- 2.3% of control threshold) than that of Hexabrix or Exypaque (69.3 +/- 2.1%, respectively; P less than 0.05). At the higher dose, the differences were more pronounced among Renografin, Hexabrix, and Exypaque (32.4 +/- 1.4%, 65.7 +/- 2.6%, and 59.2 +/- 2.4%, respectively; P less than 0.001). No statistical difference was detected between the latter two agents at these doses in nonischemic dogs. Amipaque was also less fibrillatory than Renografin and equivalent to the other two agents. These newer agents appear to offer enhanced safety for use in angiographic studies in the heart.
The Process of Information Sharing in Small Groups: Application of a Local Model

Members of small groups do not always mention available information, and this leads to inferior decision making. A local model of participation was applied to information sharing discussions to evaluate the extent to which task-relevant judgments are related to comments that contain unique (i.e., data that only one member knows) and shared (i.e., known to all members) information. In addition, the model was applied to only “incorrect” groups, ones that did not choose the optimal solution. Findings revealed that the local model applied to incorrect groups in the sense that shared information figured prominently in the development and maintenance of judgments. Unique comments, however, played a limited role in the process. Other findings showed that shared contributions were not associated within groups, indicating somewhat skewed rates of participation. Discussion focuses on the distribution of variance related to judgments.
Perceptions of Learning Environment and On‐Task Orientation Among Students Reporting Different Achievement Levels: A Study Conducted Among Norwegian Secondary School Students

The aim of this study was to explore students’ perceptions of their learning environment and on‐task orientation across different achievement levels. Data were gathered in two independent cross‐sectional studies of Norwegian students in grades 8, 9, and 10 (n = 3453 in 2001 and n = 2987 in 2004). Students within the middle achievement levels reported more positive perceptions of learning environments than the high and low achievers. The amount of variance in on‐task orientation that was accounted for by the learning environment was higher for low achievers than for the rest of the students. Furthermore, students in the 2004 sample gave a more positive report of their learning environment and their on‐task orientation than students in 2001. Finally, we found that the improvement in the perceptions of learning environment was stronger for those students who reported low and high achievement than for the rest of the students.
GALAXY MERGERS AND DARK MATTER HALO MERGERS IN ΛCDM: MASS, REDSHIFT, AND MASS-RATIO DEPENDENCE

We employ a high-resolution ΛCDM N-body simulation to present merger rate predictions for dark matter (DM) halos and investigate how common merger-related observables for galaxies—such as close pair counts, starburst counts, and the morphologically disturbed fraction—likely scale with luminosity, stellar mass, merger mass ratio, and redshift from z = 0 to z = 4. We investigate both rate at which subhalos first enter the virial radius of a larger halo (the “infall rate”), and the rate at which subhalos become destroyed, losing 90% of the mass they had at infall (the “destruction rate”). For both merger rate definitions, we provide a simple “universal” fitting formula that describes our derived merger rates for DM halos a function of dark halo mass, merger mass ratio, and redshift, and go on to predict galaxy merger rates using number density matching to associate halos with galaxies. For example, we find that the instantaneous (destruction) merger rate of m/M > 0.3 mass-ratio events into typical L ≳ f L* galaxies follows the simple relation dN/dt ≃ 0.03(1 + f) Gyr−1(1 + z)2.1. Despite the rapid increase in merger rate with redshift, only a small fraction of >0.4 L* high-redshift galaxies (∼3% at z = 2) should have experienced a major merger (m/M > 0.3) in the very recent past (t < 100 Myr). This suggests that short-lived, merger-induced bursts of star formation should not contribute significantly to the global star formation rate at early times, in agreement with several observational indications. In contrast, a fairly high fraction (∼20%) of those z = 2 galaxies should have experienced a morphologically transformative merger within a virial dynamical time (∼500 Myr at z = 2). We compare our results to observational merger rate estimates from both morphological indicators and pair-fraction-based determinations between z = 0and2 and show that they are consistent with our predictions. However, we emphasize that great care must be made in these comparisons because the predicted observables depend very sensitively on galaxy luminosity, redshift, overall mass ratio, and uncertain relaxation timescales for merger remnants. We show that the majority of bright galaxies at z = 3 should have undergone a major merger (>0.3) in the previous 700 Myr and conclude that mergers almost certainly play an important role in delivering baryons and influencing the kinematic properties of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs).
MOTION VERBS WITH GOAL PPs IN THE L2 ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH AND JAPANESE

In English, manner-of-motion verbs (walk, run) and directed motion verbs (go) can appear with a prepositional phrase that expresses a goal (goal PP) as in John walked (ran, went) to school. In contrast, Japanese allows only directed motion verbs to occur with a goal PP. Thus, English allows a wider range of motion verbs to occur with goal PPs than Japanese does. Learnability considerations, then, lead me to hypothesize that Japanese learners will learn manner-of-motion verbs with goal PPs in English from positive evidence, whereas English learners will have difficulty learning that manner-of-motion verbs with goal PPs are impossible in Japanese because nothing in the input will tell them so. Forty-two intermediate Japanese learners of English and 21 advanced English learners of Japanese were tested using a grammaticality judgment task with pictures. Results support this prediction and provide a new piece of evidence for the previous findings indicating that L1 influence persists when an argument structure in the L2 constitutes a subset of its counterpart in the L1.
Diffusion-weighted MRI in assessment of renal dysfunction

Abstract Background: Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) in renal diseases is an evolving field and its potential is yet to be fully realized. Purpose: To study the relationship between apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of renal parenchyma and serum markers of renal function and stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Materials and Methods: A retrospective review was performed of all adult patients who underwent DW-MRI (at b-values of 0 and 500 s/mm2 ) for renal lesions from January 2009 to September 2010 and revealed 88 patients, of which 22 patients had renal dysfunction and 66 had normal renal function. Of these 22, 15 patients were known cases of CKD and were staged depending on disease severity. ADC values were determined for renal parenchyma and compared. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn to establish cut-off ADC values. Pearson′s correlation coefficient (R) was calculated between ADC and renal function parameters. Results: ADC values in patients with renal dysfunction were significantly lower than in patients with normal renal function (2.1133 ± 0.2851 vs. 2.3198 ± 0.1246 (×10-3 mm2/s)). ADC values lower than 2.0354 (×10-3 mm2/s) were seen only with renal dysfunction and higher than 2.4516 (×10-3 mm2/s) were seen only with normal function. There was significant inverse correlation between ADC and serum creatinine (R = -0.530), blood urea (R= -0.502), and significant linear correlation (R = 0.784) with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). ADC values showed a statistically significant decreasing trend with increasing stage of CKD. Conclusion: ADC values may serve as an additional marker for the presence and degree of renal dysfunction.
Efficient Energy Distribution in a Smart Grid using Multi-Player Games

Algorithms and models based on game theory have nowadays become prominent techniques for the design of digital controllers for critical systems. Indeed, such techniques enable automatic synthesis: given a model of the environment and a property that the controller must enforce, those techniques automatically produce a correct controller, when it exists. In the present paper, we consider a class of concurrent, weighted, multi-player games that are well-suited to model and study the interactions of several agents who are competing for some measurable resources like energy. We prove that a subclass of those games always admit a Nash equilibrium, i.e. a situation in which all players play in such a way that they have no incentive to deviate. Moreover, the strategies yielding those Nash equilibria have a special structure: when one of the agents deviate from the equilibrium, all the others form a coalition that will enforce a retaliation mechanism that punishes the deviant agent. We apply those results to a real-life case study in which several smart houses that produce their own energy with solar panels, and can share this energy among them in micro-grid, must distribute the use of this energy along the day in order to avoid consuming electricity that must be bought from the global grid. We demonstrate that our theory allows one to synthesise an efficient controller for these houses: using penalties to be paid in the utility bill as an incentive, we force the houses to follow a pre-computed schedule that maximises the proportion of the locally produced energy that is consumed.
Partner Concordance in Reports of Joint Risk Behaviors

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of self reports on sexual and drug use behaviors. Methods: Data from a network study of HIV transmission among a sample of drug users and nonusers are used to compare reports of sexual and drug use behaviors by partners who engaged in those behaviors. Partner concordance (self‐report agreement between two people) was used as an estimate of validity. Results: Results showed that persons are able to recall and report about 85% of their recent partners (15%‐20% less for recent drug use partners). For relationships that were reported by both partners, a high degree of concordance existed about recent behaviors (83%‐96%) and variable agreement about frequency (0.48 ≤ r ≤ 0.86). When the time between interviews was longer, then recall, behavioral concordance, and agreement about frequency were lower. Conclusions: Underreporting of sex and drug partners may make HIV prevention and intervention efforts more difficult if risk partners cannot be identified. The ability to reach out to all affected partners is critical in the effort to contain any epidemic. Underreporting may also skew epidemiologic projections on which many policy decisions are made.
Close Encounters of the Initial Kind: Implicit Self-Esteem, Name-Letter Similarity, and Social Distance

This study examined the impact of implicit egotism on social distance. Sixty-one participants with high or low implicit self-esteem were assigned to conditions where they believed they would be working with someone with the same initials as their own or someone with different initials. Participants with high implicit self-esteem sat closer to a partner who shared their initials and further from a partner with different initials. Participants with low implicit self-esteem did the opposite. No differences were observed for explicit evaluations. These results extend previous studies that have shown that implicit self-esteem influences evaluations of similar and dissimilar others.
Mispronounced lexical items in polish English of advanced learners

Abstract The paper is a continuation of the author’s earlier studies in which she argues that it is the mispronunciation of whole words due to their incorrect phonological storage in the learners’ phonetic memory that is more detrimental to successful communication via English than an inaccurate production of individual segments and suprasegmentals. Consequently, phonetically difficult words deserve to be thoroughly investigated and pedagogically prioritized. The present study is a report on an experiment in which 20 English Department students, all advanced learners of English, were recorded having been asked to read a list of diagnostic sentences containing 80 words known to be problematic for Poles in terms of their pronunciation. This has been done in order to isolate and examine the major error types, to establish a hierarchy of difficulty among 8 sources of pronunciation errors, to compare the obtained results with the most common error types made by intermediate learners and to juxtapose the participants’ subjective evaluation of the phonetic difficulty of words with their actual phonetic performance. The final goal is to draw pedagogical implications for the phonetic training of advanced students of English.