Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nominator Attrition: Does It Affect the Accuracy of Children's Sociometric Classifications?.

The use of sociometric measures to study classroom social adjustment has prolif erated in recent years. Yet little attention has been devoted to common logistical constraints and their potential effects on sociometric measures. In the present research, a computer simulation technique was used to examine the possible ef fects of nominator attrition on the accuracy of sociometric classifications (e.g., popular, average, neglected, rejected). Accuracy was examined for 528 third and fifth graders by comparing the classifications they received from all classmates to those generated by randomly selected subsamples of peers (i.e., 90%, 80%, 70%, 60%, & 50% of their classmates). Findings indicate that, as the proportion of nominators declines, all sociometric classifications become less accurate. Of the groups typically compared in studies of children's social adjustment, the av erage and neglected groups appear least resistant, and the rejected group most resistant, to classification errors due to nominator attrition. Implications of nomi nator attrition for research and assessment are discussed.
Unexpected multiplicity of QRFP receptors in early vertebrate evolution

The neuropeptide QRFP, also called 26RFa, and its G protein-coupled receptor GPR103 have been identified in all vertebrates investigated. In mammals, this peptide-receptor pair has been found to have several effects including stimulation of appetite. Recently, we reported that a QRFP peptide is present in amphioxus, Branchiostoma floridae, and we also identified a QRFP receptor (QRFPR) that mediates a functional response to sub-nanomolar concentrations of the amphioxus peptide as well as short and long human QRFP (Xu et al., submitted). Because the ancestral vertebrate underwent two tetraploidizations, it might be expected that duplicates of the QRFP gene and its receptor gene may exist. Indeed, we report here the identification of multiple vertebrate QRFPR genes. Three QRFPR genes are present in the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae, representing an early diverging sarcopterygian lineage. Three QRFPR genes are present in the basal actinopterygian fish, the spotted gar. Phylogenetic and chromosomal analyses show that only two of these receptor genes are orthologous between the two species, thus demonstrating a total of four distinct vertebrate genes. Three of the QRFPR genes resulted from the early vertebrate tetraploidizations and were copied along with syntenic neuropeptide Y receptor genes. The fourth QRFPR gene may be an even older and distinct lineage. Because mammals and birds have only a single QRFPR gene, this means that three genes have been lost in these lineages, and at least one of these was lost independently in mammals and birds because it is still present in a turtle. In conclusion, these results show that the QRFP system gained considerable complexity in the early stages of vertebrate evolution and still maintains much of this in some lineages, and that it has been secondarily reduced in mammals.
Facilitating Collaboration among Children with Autism through Robot-assisted Play

This thesis discusses how autonomous robots can be used to foster and support collaborative play among children with autism in a number of different settings. Because autism impairs one’s skills in social communication and social interaction, this makes it particularly difficult for children with this disorder to participate in many different forms of social play, particularly collaborative play due to the interpersonal skills needed to coordinate and synchronize people’s actions through constantly communicating with them. Since these children have trouble playing collaboratively, this further hinders their ability to develop the necessary skills of interacting and communicating with others. I approached this idea from an empirical, behaviourist perspective instead of a theoretical one, in the sense that I conducted three different experiments in which I observed the behaviours of children with autism participating in controlled play sessions both with and without robots. To this end, I designed simple, effective control architectures which allowed LEGO NXT robots and KASPAR the humanoid robot to autonomously interact with people while playing with them. Additionally, I designed many collaborative video games such as arena games, “Tilt & roll”, and “Copycat”, that served as environments in which children with autism could play with the autonomous robots. The experiments in this thesis attempted to show that not only would children with autism improve their social behaviours while playing collaborative video
Functional morphology of the radialis muscle in shark tails

The functional morphology of intrinsic caudal musculature in sharks has not been studied previously, though the kinematics and function of body musculature have been the focus of a great deal of research. In the tail, ventral to the axial myomeres, there is a thin strip of red muscle with fibers angled dorsoposteriorly, known as the radialis. This research gives the first anatomical description of the radialis muscle in sharks, and addresses the hypothesis that the radialis muscle provides postural stiffening in the tail of live swimming sharks. The radialis muscle fibers insert onto the deepest layers of the stratum compactum, the more superior layers of which are orthogonally arrayed and connect to the epidermis. The two deepest layers of the stratum compactum insert onto the proximal ends of the ceratotrichia of the caudal fin. This anatomical arrangement exists in sharks and is modified in rays, but was not found in skates or chimaeras. Electromyography of the caudal muscles of dogfish swimming steadily at 0.25 and 0.5 body lengths per second (Ls−1) exhibited a pattern of anterior to posterior activation of the radialis muscle, followed by activation of red axial muscle in the more anteriorly located ipsilateral myomeres of the caudal peduncle; at 0.75 L s−1, only the anterior portion of the radialis and white axial muscle of the contralateral peduncular myomeres were active. Activity of the radialis muscle occurred during periods of the greatest drag incurred by the tail during the tail beat and preceded the activity of more anteriorly located axial myomeres. This nonconformity to the typical anterior to posterior wave of muscle activation in fish swimming, in combination with anatomical positioning of the radialis muscles and stratum compactum, suggests that radialis activity may have a postural function to stiffen the fin, and does not function as a typical myotomal muscle. J. Morphol. 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The effects of digital signal processing features on children's speech recognition and loudness perception.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of hearing instruments set to Desired Sensation Level version 5 (DSL v5) hearing instrument prescription algorithm targets and equipped with directional microphones and digital noise reduction (DNR) on children's sentence recognition in noise performance and loudness perception in a classroom environment. METHOD Ten children (ages 8-17 years) with stable, congenital sensorineural hearing losses participated in the study. Participants were fitted bilaterally with behind-the-ear hearing instruments set to DSL v5 prescriptive targets. Sentence recognition in noise was evaluated using the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Speech in Noise Test (Niquette et al., 2003). Loudness perception was evaluated using a modified version of the Contour Test of Loudness Perception (Cox, Alexander, Taylor, & Gray, 1997). RESULTS Children's sentence recognition in noise performance was significantly better when using directional microphones alone or in combination with DNR than when using omnidirectional microphones alone or in combination with DNR. Children's loudness ratings for sounds above 72 dB SPL were lowest when fitted with the DSL v5 Noise prescription combined with directional microphones. DNR use showed no effect on loudness ratings. CONCLUSION Use of the DSL v5 Noise prescription with a directional microphone improved sentence recognition in noise performance and reduced loudness perception ratings for loud sounds relative to a typical clinical reference fitting with the DSL v5 Quiet prescription with no digital signal processing features enabled. Potential clinical strategies are discussed.
Lobbying Contests with Endogenous Policy Proposals

Lobbyists choose what to lobby for. If they can precommit to certain policy proposals, their choice will have an influence on the behavior of opposing lobbyists. Hence lobbyists have an incentive to moderate their policy proposals in order to reduce the intensity of the lobbying contest. This logic has been explored in a number of recent papers. I reconsider the topic with a perfectly discriminating contest. With endogenous policy proposals, there is a sub-game perfect equilibrium where the proposals of the lobbyists coincide and maximize joint welfare; moreover, this equilibrium is the only one that survives repeated elimination of dominated strategies. Hence there is no rent dissipation at all. A politician trying to maximize lobbying expenditures would prefer an imperfectly discriminating contest.
Suitability of MEMS Accelerometers for Condition Monitoring: An experimental study

With increasing demands for wireless sensing nodes for assets control and condition monitoring; needs for alternatives to expensive conventional accelerometers in vibration measurements have been arisen. Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometer is one of the available options. The performances of three of the MEMS accelerometers from different manufacturers are investigated in this paper and compared to a well calibrated commercial accelerometer used as a reference for MEMS sensors performance evaluation. Tests were performed on a real CNC machine in a typical industrial environmental workshop and the achieved results are presented.
Evaluating objectKarel - an educational programming environment for object oriented programming

Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece A common experience of those who teach introductory programming courses is that learning to program is difficult. So, special programming languages and educational environments have been devised with the aim of making the learning process easier. Unfortunately, in many cases the true value of these methods was not evaluated. Based on previous research findings and our experience in teaching object-oriented programming (OOP), we developed an environment called objectKarel. objectKarel is being used for three years in our University and this paper presents a systematic analysis of its didactic effectiveness based on evaluations from students themselves. Besides the evaluation of the effectiveness of the envi-ronment, this research allowed us to state some more general proposals regarding the design of programming languages and educational environments for an introduction to programming.
The Europeans: Political Identity in an Emerging Polity

Introduction: The Study of European Political Identity. The Idea of European Identity. Are There Any "Europeans" in Europe? Who are "the Europeans"? : Explaining Variance in Levels of European Identity. What Does It Mean to Be "European"? : The Nature and Content of European Identity. How "European" are the Europeans? : The Depth of European Identification. Conclusion: European Identity and Its Context. Appendixes.
Radiative τ decay and the magnetic moment of the muon

We discuss the decay ? 0? in terms of a model with the correct low-energy structure and with the relevant resonance degrees of freedom. The nontrivial radiative dynamics becomes visible for large photon momenta only. We use the model to calculate electromagnetic corrections for the two-pion contribution to hadronic vacuum polarization extracted from photon-inclusive two-pion decays. The corrections are insensitive to the details of the model and depend on the pion form factor only. Putting all relevant isospin violating corrections together, we obtain a shift ? a? = (? 120? 26? 3) ? 10? 11 to be applied to determinations of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon from photon-inclusive ? data.
Deficient activity in the neural systems that mediate self-regulatory control in bulimia nervosa.

CONTEXT Disturbances in neural systems that mediate voluntary self-regulatory processes may contribute to bulimia nervosa (BN) by releasing feeding behaviors from regulatory control. OBJECTIVE To study the functional activity in neural circuits that subserve self-regulatory control in women with BN. DESIGN We compared functional magnetic resonance imaging blood oxygenation level-dependent responses in patients with BN with healthy controls during performance of the Simon Spatial Incompatibility task. SETTING University research institute. PARTICIPANTS Forty women: 20 patients with BN and 20 healthy control participants. Main Outcome Measure We used general linear modeling of Simon Spatial Incompatibility task-related activations to compare groups on their patterns of brain activation associated with the successful or unsuccessful engagement of self-regulatory control. RESULTS Patients with BN responded more impulsively and made more errors on the task than did healthy controls; patients with the most severe symptoms made the most errors. During correct responding on incongruent trials, patients failed to activate frontostriatal circuits to the same degree as healthy controls in the left inferolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area [BA] 45), bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44), lenticular and caudate nuclei, and anterior cingulate cortex (BA 24/32). Patients activated the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (BA 32) more when making errors than when responding correctly. In contrast, healthy participants activated the anterior cingulate cortex more during correct than incorrect responses, and they activated the striatum more when responding incorrectly, likely reflecting an automatic response tendency that, in the absence of concomitant anterior cingulate cortex activity, produced incorrect responses. CONCLUSIONS Self-regulatory processes are impaired in women with BN, likely because of their failure to engage frontostriatal circuits appropriately. These findings enhance our understanding of the pathogenesis of BN by pointing to functional abnormalities within a neural system that subserves self-regulatory control, which may contribute to binge eating and other impulsive behaviors in women with BN.
The first $L^2$-Betti number and approximation in arbitrary characteristic

Let G be a finitely generated group and (G_i) a descending chain of finite index normal subgroups of G. Given a field K, we consider the sequence b_1(G_i;K)/[G:G_i] of normalized first Betti numbers of G_i with coefficients in K, which we call a K-approximation for b_1^(2)(G), the first L^2-Betti number of G. In this paper we address the questions of when Q-approximation and F_p-approximation have a limit, when these limits coincide, when they are independent of the sequence (G_i) and how they are related to b_1^(2)(G). In particular, we show that the limit of the sequence b_1(G_i;F_p)/[G:G_i] is greater than or equal to b_1^(2)(G) under the assumptions that (G_i) has trivial intersection and each G/G_i is a finite p-group.
Caregiver strain among Chinese adult children of oldest old parents

The fast growth of the Chinese oldest old population indicates higher demand for long-term care. In China, families assume the primary responsibility of caring for older adults. Since the oldest elders are more likely to be widowed, their adult children usually become their caregivers. Focusing on the Chinese adult children who provide care for their oldest-old parents, this study documented and helped to explain Chinese adult children’s caregiving strain. A conceptual framework was developed based on Pearlin’s stress process theory, Higgins’ framework of self-concept discrepancy, and previous studies on family caregivers of elders. Using an existing dataset from the 2005 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey of 895 caregivers and their care recipients, the researcher tested whether and how caregiving context (caregiver’s structured context and care recipients’ needs for care), caregiving performance, and sibling support were related to five types of caregiving strain including sacrifice strain, exhaustion strain, capability strain, expectation strain, and dependency strain. The results indicate that caregiving context and caregiving performance are statistically related to different types of caregiver strain. Three independent variables in the set of caregiving context, self-evaluation of living standard, education, and cultural identity, were related to two types of caregiver strain in different directions. The caregivers who were the eldest sons, who were females caring for female elders, who had a close relationship with their care recipients, who lived with the care recipients, who provided care for the elders with more needs for care in ADL (Activities of Daily Living), or whose care recipients had health insurance reported higher levels of at least one type of caregiver strain. Care recipients’ cognitive status and entitlement to pension
Lactoferrin inhibits or promotes Legionella pneumophila intracellular multiplication in nonactivated and interferon gamma-activated human monocytes depending upon its degree of iron saturation. Iron-lactoferrin and nonphysiologic iron chelates reverse monocyte activation against Legionella pneumophi

We have been exploring the role of iron in the pathogenesis of the intracellular bacterial pathogen Legionella pneumophila. In previous studies, we have demonstrated that L. pneumophila intracellular multiplication in human monocytes is iron dependent and that IFN gamma-activated monocytes inhibit L. pneumophila intracellular multiplication by limiting the availability of iron. In this study, we have investigated the effect on L. pneumophila intracellular multiplication of lactoferrin, an iron-binding protein which is internalized via specific receptors on monocytes, and of nonphysiologic iron chelates which enter monocytes by a receptor-independent route. Apolactoferrin completely inhibited L. pneumophila multiplication in nonactivated monocytes, and enhanced the capacity of IFN gamma-activated monocytes to inhibit L. pneumophila intracellular multiplication. In contrast, iron-saturated lactoferrin had no effect on the already rapid rate of L. pneumophila multiplication in nonactivated monocytes. Moreover, it reversed the capacity of activated monocytes to inhibit L. pneumophila intracellular multiplication, demonstrating that L. pneumophila can utilize iron from the lactoferrin-lactoferrin receptor pathway. The capacity of iron-lactoferrin to reverse monocyte activation was dependent upon its percent iron saturation and not just its total iron content. Similarly, the nonphysiologic iron chelates ferric nitrilotriacetate and ferric ammonium citrate completely reverse and ferric pyrophosphate partially reversed the capacity of IFN gamma-activated monocytes to inhibit L. pneumophila intracellular multiplication, demonstrating that L. pneumophila can utilize iron derived from nonphysiologic iron chelates internalized by monocytes independently of the transferrin and lactoferrin endocytic pathways. This study suggests that at sites of inflammation, lactoferrin may inhibit or promote L. pneumophila intracellular multiplication in mononuclear phagocytes depending upon its degree of iron saturation. In addition, this study suggests a potential role for PMN in host defense against L. pneumophila--providing apolactoferrin to infected monocytes--and it supports the concept that PMN and monocytes may cooperate in host defense against intracellular parasites and other pathogens.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEING DIFFERENT: SINISTRAL COILING IN CERION

The overwhelming predominance of dextral coiling in gastropods is an outstanding and puzzling phenomenon. A few sinistral specimens (left coiling individuals) have been found in many dextral species. Only six sinistral shells have ever been found in Cerion; we base this analysis on the five available shells.
Mitochondrial Apoptotic Pathway Is Activated by H2O2-Mediated Oxidative Stress in BmN-SWU1 Cells from Bombyx mori Ovary

Apoptosis is a known regulator of morphogenetic events. In mammals, the critical role of oxidative stress-induced apoptosis has been well-studied; however, in insects the role of oxidative stress in apoptosis is not clear. In a previous study, we showed that apoptosis-related genes are present in the silkworm Bombyx mori, an important lepidopteran insect model. In this study, we evaluated the effect of H2O2-induced oxidative stress on apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, mitochondrial response, cytochrome c release and apoptosis-related gene expression in the BmN-SWU1 cell line from B. mori ovaries. Our results showed that BmN-SWU1 cells exposed to H2O2 showed cell protuberances, cytoplasmic condensation, apoptotic bodies, DNA ladder formation and caspase activities indicating apoptosis. H2O2-induced apoptosis also increased intracellular ROS level, changed mitochondrial distribution, reduced mitochondrial membrane potential and increased the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria. Furthermore, western blot analysis revealed a significant increase in p53 and cytochrome c expression, and a decrease in Bcl-2 expression compared to the controls. Moreover, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) showed an increase in the transcript levels of BmICE, Bmapaf-1 and BmEndoG by 439.5%, 423.9% and 42.2%, respectively, after treatment with 1 μM H2O2 for 24 h. However, the transcript levels of Bmbuffy declined by 41.4% after 24 h of exposure to 1 μM H2O2. These results show that H2O2 treatment induced apoptosis in BmN-SWU1 cells via the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. Further, it appears that oxidative stress induced by H2O2 activates both caspase-dependent and caspase-independent mitochondrial apoptotic pathways in silkworm cells. Taken together, these findings improve our knowledge of apoptosis in silkworm and the apoptotic pathways in insects.
An Instrumental Analysis of the Voicing Contrast in Word-Initial Stops in the Speech of Four-Year-Old English-Speaking Children

This paper reports on an investigation of the voice-onset-time (VOT) characteristics of word-initial stops produced by four four-year-old children. Instrumental analysis of the children's spontaneous speech showed that they had distinct distributions for voiced and voiceless stops at all three places of articulation and that there was very little overlap between voiced and voiceless cognates. Comparison of words uttered in isolation with words uttered in a sentence context revealed that these children had shorter VOT values in running speech. Reanalysis of data from younger children showed evidence of such modification according to context at age 1;9. However, even at age 4 the data were not completely adult-like: Compared with adults, the four-year-olds had longer mean VOT values, there was a greater range of values and there was less modification according to sentence context. The four-year-olds' data were interpreted as further evidence for the position that in producing voiceless stops in terms of mean VOT values, children first overshoot adult values and then only gradually draw them back towards adult values.