Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
School and family effects on the ontogeny of children's interests, self-perceptions, and activity choices.

In this chapter we have presented two perspectives on the link between social context and the following motivational constructs: self-concept of ability and sense of personal efficacy in specific activity domains; perceptions of the value of skills in various domains; interest in various activities; activity choice; persistence; performance; and general self-esteem. In the first section, we discussed how social-contextual variables in both the family and the home could produce individual differences in the motivational constructs of interest. We presented a general framework for thinking about this issue and summarized our recent empirical work. In the second section, we discussed how systematic changes in the social environments that confront children as they develop could explain age-related changes in the motivational constructs of interest. Again we presented a general framework for thinking about this issue and summarized our empirical work testing the hypotheses generated from this framework. Throughout this section we have argued that optimal development takes place when there is good stage-environment fit between the needs of developing individuals and the opportunities afforded in their social environments. Furthermore, we suggested that the negative changes in motivational variables often associated with early adolescent development result from regressive changes in school and home environments. For example, the transition to junior high school, in particular, often confronts early adolescents with regressive environmental changes such as a decrease in the opportunity to participate in classroom decision making, a decrease in teacher support and teacher efficacy, and an increase in teaching styles and reporting practices likely to induce a focus on relative ability and comparative performance as well as excessive social comparison. Not surprisingly, there is also a decrease in intrinsic motivation and an increase in school misbehavior associated with this transition, and these changes are most apparent among adolescents who report regressive changes in the characteristics of classroom and school social environment. Such motivational changes are not apparent in adolescents who report the more developmentally appropriate shifts in the social context at school. Although our analysis of the family data is not as complete as our analysis of the classroom data, we have found evidence that a similar process may be going on in the family in relation to issues of control and autonomy. Excessive parental control is linked to lower intrinsic school motivation, to more negative change in self-esteem following the junior high school transition, to more school misbehavior, and to relatively greater investment in peer social attachments. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Some epistemological concerns about dissociative identity disorder and diagnostic practices in psychology

In this paper we argue that dissociative identity disorder (DID) is best interpreted as a causal model of a (possible) post-traumatic psychological process, as a mechanical model of an abnormal psychological condition. From this perspective we examine and criticize the evidential status of DID, and we demonstrate that there is really no good reason to believe that anyone has ever suffered from DID so understood. This is so because the proponents of DID violate basic methodological principles of good causal modeling. When every ounce of your concentration is fixed upon blasting a winged pig out of the sky, you do not question its species’ ontological status. James Morrow, City of Truth (1990)
The Relative Importance of Anticipated Test Format and Anticipated Test Difficulty on Performance

In this investigation, the relative importance of the effects of anticipated test format and anticipated test difficulty on performance was examined by simultaneously manipulating both. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that test performance was affected more by anticipated test format than by anticipated test difficulty. This suggests that the superior performance of subjects who had anticipated a recall test versus those who had anticipated a recognition test, reported here and in previous studies, is more likely to be due to anticipating a recall format than to anticipating a more difficult test. Experiment 2 showed that subjects who had anticipated a recall test studied longer than subjects who had anticipated a recognition test, even when recall tests were less difficult than recognition tests. One explanation for this finding is that subjects inaccurately monitor the relative difficulty of tests across test formats. Subjects rated recall items as more difficult than recognition items, even when recall items are actually less difficult (Experiment 3). These findings suggest that a priori metacognitive knowledge may reduce the accuracy of on-line metacognitive monitoring.
Comparison of dosimetric parameters and acute toxicity after whole-pelvic vs prostate-only volumetric-modulated arc therapy with daily image guidance for prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVE To compare dosimetric parameters and acute toxicity rates between whole-pelvic (WP) and prostate-only (PO) volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) in patients with localized prostate cancer. METHODS A total of 224 consecutive patients treated with definitive VMAT to 78 Gy in 39 fractions were enrolled. Of these, 119 patients received initial WP VMAT at 46.8 Gy in 26 fractions using a simultaneous integrated boost technique, and 105 patients received PO VMAT. Image-guided radiotherapy was practised with daily cone beam CT. RESULTS The mean rectal dose, the rectal volume receiving ≥30 Gy (V30Gy), rectal V50Gy, the mean bladder dose, bladder V30Gy and bladder V50Gy were significantly increased in the WP group (p < 0.05 each); however, the rectal V70Gy did not differ between groups (p = 0.101), and the bladder V70Gy was significantly lower in the WP group (p = 0.029). The WP group experienced a significantly increased frequency of acute grade 2 diarrhoea relative to the PO group (5.9% vs 0%; p = 0.015). No differences were seen between the WP and PO groups in terms of acute grade 2 proctitis (10.1% vs 6.7%; p = 0.360) and genitourinary (GU) toxicity (12.6% vs 10.5%; p = 0.620). CONCLUSION Despite larger rectum and bladder volumes at low- and medium-dose levels, WP VMAT resulted in no significant increase in acute proctitis or GU toxicity when compared with PO VMAT. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE This study demonstrates that whole-pelvic radiotherapy has comparable acute toxicity to those observed with prostate-only radiotherapy when VMAT with daily image guidance is used.
Punishment Sensitivity Predicts the Impact of Punishment on Cognitive Control

Cognitive control theories predict enhanced conflict adaptation after punishment. However, no such effect was found in previous work. In the present study, we demonstrate in a flanker task how behavioural adjustments following punishment signals are highly dependent on punishment sensitivity (as measured by the Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) scale): Whereas low punishment-sensitive participants do show increased conflict adaptation after punishment, high punishment-sensitive participants show no such modulation. Interestingly, participants with a high punishment-sensitivity showed an overall reaction time increase after punishments. Our results stress the role of individual differences in explaining motivational modulations of cognitive control.
Investigating the Secretome: Lessons About the Cells That Comprise the Heart

Interaction among different types of cells is a common response of the heart to injury. Interplay between various cell types constituting the heart or the vasculature occurs either through direct cell contact (eg, gap junctions or adhesion molecules) or via paracrine and autocrine action. Cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts, the primary cells that comprise the heart, as well as resident cardiac stem cells (CSCs), respond to changes in their local environment, whereas it is the cell surface that translates the extracellular signal into a cellular response through direct or indirect interactions. The main site of this response is the cell-environment interface, which includes both cell surface proteins and proteins that are secreted by cells as a reaction to these changes. Various methods have been developed to identify these subproteomes and clarify protein alterations in vivo. The ability to target and define the proteins responsible for the repair process could lead to improved therapy and to the development of potential biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis. In this article, we will discuss the technical issues related to identification of 1 of these subproteomes, ie, the proteins secreted by cardiac cells as a response to the alteration in their environment caused by cardiovascular diseases. The proteins secreted by a particular type of cell, secretomes, play important roles in the regulation of many physiological processes via paracrine/autocrine mechanisms, and they are of increasing interest as potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets in diseases. The proteins released by cells into conditioned media in vitro have been studied to better understand pathological conditions and mechanisms in vivo. For damaged myocardium, current therapeutic approaches are limited, because postnatal cardiac myocytes have minimum or no regenerative capacity. Thus, the ability to regenerate the myocardium by use of cell therapy has potential, and several experimental and clinical studies have demonstrated …
The Concept of Race on Campus: Exploring the Nature of College Students’ Racial Conceptions

Despite the widely documented benefits associated with racial diversity in higher education, less is known about why and how race matters. A potential answer may be found in how students conceptualize race. This qualitative study explores students’ underlying racial conceptions, which have been shown to influence various attitudes and behaviors. Semistructured interviews with 18 undergraduates at one racially diverse campus reveal four distinct racial conceptions that are related to the line of inquiry in which race is evoked and influenced by campus contexts. The findings suggest a potential model of campus racial conceptualization with implications for student affairs research and practice.
Hyperprolactinemia with Antipsychotic Drugs in Children and Adolescents

There is increasing use of antipsychotic drugs in pediatric and psychiatry practice for a wide range of behavioral and affective disorders. These drugs have prominent side effects of interest to pediatric endocrinologists, including weight gain and associated metabolic risk factors and hyperprolactinemia. The drugs block dopamine action, thus disinhibiting prolactin secretion. Hyperprolactinemia is especially prominent with first-generation antipsychotics such as haloperidol and the second-generation drugs, most commonly risperidone, with some patients developing gynecomastia or galactorrhea or, as a result of prolactin inhibition of gonadotropin releasing hormone from the hypothalamus, amenorrhea. With concern about the long-term effects of antipsychotics on bone mass and pituitary tumor formation, it is prudent to monitor serum prolactin levels in antipsychotic drug-treated pediatric patients and consider treatment with an agent less likely to induce hyperprolactinemia.
Effects of carbazole-degradative plasmid pCAR1 on biofilm morphology in Pseudomonas putida KT2440.

Bacteria typically form biofilms under natural conditions. To elucidate the effect of the carriage of carbazole-degradative plasmid pCAR1 on biofilm formation by host bacteria, we compared the biofilm morphology, using confocal laser scanning microscopy, of three pCAR1-free and pCAR1-carrying Pseudomonas hosts: P. putida KT2440, P. aeruginosa PAO1 and P. fluorescens Pf0-1. Although pCAR1 did not significantly affect biofilm formation by PAO1 or Pf0-1, pCAR1-carrying KT2440 became filamentous and formed flat biofilms, whereas pCAR1-free KT2440 formed mushroom-like biofilms. pCAR1 contains three genes encoding nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs), namely, Pmr, Pnd and Phu. The enhanced filamentous morphology was observed in two double mutants [KT2440(pCAR1ΔpmrΔpnd) and KT2440(pCAR1ΔpmrΔphu)], suggesting that these NAPs are involved in modulating the filamentous phenotype. Transcriptome analyses of the double mutants identified 32 candidate genes that may be involved in filamentation of KT2440. Overexpression of PP_2193 in KT2440 induced filamentation and overexpression of PP_0308 or PP_0309 in KT2440(pCAR1) enhanced filamentation of cells over time. This suggests that pCAR1 induces development of an abnormal filamentous morphology by KT2440 via a process involving overexpression of several genes, such as PP_2193. In addition, pCAR1-encoded NAPs partly suppress too much filamentation of KT2440(pCAR1) by repressing transcription of some genes, such as PP_0308 and PP_0309.
On the Performance of Byzantine Fault-Tolerant MapReduce

MapReduce is often used for critical data processing, e.g., in the context of scientific or financial simulation. However, there is evidence in the literature that there are arbitrary (or Byzantine) faults that may corrupt the results of MapReduce without being detected. We present a Byzantine fault-tolerant MapReduce framework that can run in two modes: nonspeculative and speculative. We thoroughly evaluate experimentally the performance of these two versions of the framework, showing that they use around twice more resources than Hadoop MapReduce, instead of the three times more of alternative solutions. We believe this cost is acceptable for many critical applications.
Becoming numerate with information and communications technologies in the twenty‐first century

This article draws on data from a three‐year Australian Research Council‐funded study that examined the ways in which young children become numerate in the twenty‐first century. We were interested in the authentic problem‐solving contexts that we believe are required to create meaningful learning. This being so, our basic tenet was that such experiences should involve the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) where relevant, but not in tokenistic ways. This article highlights learning conditions in which young children can become numerate in contemporary times. We consider ‘academic’ or ‘school‐based’ mathematical tasks in the context of a Mathematical Tasks Continuum. This continuum was conceptualised to enable focused and detailed thinking about the scope and range of mathematical tasks that young children are able to engage within contemporary school contexts. The data from this study show that most of the tasks the children experienced in early years mathematics classes were unidimensional in their make up. That is, they focus on the acquisition of specific skills and then they are practiced in disembedded contexts. We suggest that the framework created in the form of the Mathematical Tasks Continuum can facilitate teachers’ thinking about the possible ways in which they could extend children’s academic work in primary school mathematics, so that the process of becoming numerate becomes more easily related to authentic activities that they are likely to experience in everyday life.
Measuring organisational learning capability among the workforce

Purpose – The present study sets out to propose and validate a measurement scale that aims to capture the organisational capability to learn, based on a comprehensive analysis of the facilitating factors for learning. The organisational learning capability scale consists of 14 items grouped into five dimensions: experimentation, risk taking, interaction with the external environment, dialogue, and participative decision making. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from eight Spanish ceramic tile manufacturers. The survey was addressed to shop floor workers. A total of 157 valid questionnaires were obtained, representing a response rate of 61 per cent. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the construct measurement model was tested and the scale was validated. Findings – The results of the study indicate that the operational measure developed here satisfies the criteria for unidimensionality, reliability, and validity. Research limitations/implications – Because of the sample features, final results should be considered with caution. Further research is needed to validate the organisational learning capability scale in other contexts and addressed to other kinds of respondents. However, this study contributes to organisational learning research by providing a valid and reliable operational measure that is expected to help researchers in future theory testing. Practical implications – The proposed measurement scale for organisational learning capability could be implemented as an audit tool. Thus, managers could unveil which organisational learning issues are strong and which are weak. This would provide guidance for improvement. Originality/value – This paper provides a new measurement instrument for organisational learning capability.
Transnational Islam, Immigrant NGOs and Poverty Alleviation: The Case of the IGMG

In the literature of economic development and civil society, extensive research has been done on the role of western NGOs in fighting poverty; however, there is hardly any study on the role of the NGOs originating from Muslim nations on this issue. There is even a complete silence when it comes to expatriate Muslim NGOs that are functional in the West. This paper aims to fill this gap by studying a Muslim immigrant NGO, Islamische Gemeinschaft Milli Gorus, (IGMG), with a focus on its Kurban (meat distribution) projects in more than 70 countries between 2004 and 2009. It argues that a strong transnationalism tendency exists in the expatriate Turkish community living in Germany. The Kurban projects have both the characteristics of this transnational leaning and play an important role in strengthening their own identity in Germany. Through such projects, immigrants not only get first hand information about the situation of Muslims in other countries but also feel part of transnational Islamic community, ummah. Such activities create awareness about poverty among Muslim immigrants and directly contribute to poverty alleviation by aid, investment and projects. From a broader perspective, this study argues that such projects reinforce their identity as immigrants internally/domestically by highlighting the transnational role of Islam and challenges the argument that immigrants are only consumers rather than active contributors to the poverty alleviation.
High-frequency signal transmission characteristics of coplanar waveguides with cone bump interconnections

We evaluated high frequency signal transmission characteristics of coplanar waveguides fabricated using cone bump interconnections on flip-chip bonded surfaces. The signal insertion loss (S21 parameter) increased with the number of bump interconnections. At 40 GHz, the signal insertion loss due to the bump interconnections was 0.017 dB / bump. This value was small enough for application to most radio-frequency devices. Besides, the bump interconnections did not alter the characteristic impedance of the waveguide from the designed even at 40 GHz. The results indicate that the cone bump offers high-frequency signal data transmission lines for chip-stack integration of LSIs.
Joint patch and multi-label learning for facial action unit detection

The face is one of the most powerful channel of nonverbal communication. The most commonly used taxonomy to describe facial behaviour is the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). FACS segments the visible effects of facial muscle activation into 30+ action units (AUs). AUs, which may occur alone and in thousands of combinations, can describe nearly all-possible facial expressions. Most existing methods for automatic AU detection treat the problem using one-vs-all classifiers and fail to exploit dependencies among AU and facial features. We introduce joint-patch and multi-label learning (JPML) to address these issues. JPML leverages group sparsity by selecting a sparse subset of facial patches while learning a multi-label classifier. In four of five comparisons on three diverse datasets, CK+, GFT, and BP4D, JPML produced the highest average F1 scores in comparison with state-of-the art.
Diffusion tensor imaging assesses white matter injury in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy

With improvements in care of at-risk neonates, more and more children survive. This makes it increasingly important to assess, soon after birth, the prognosis of children with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Computed tomography, ultrasound, and conventional magnetic resonance imaging are helpful to diagnose brain injury, but cannot quantify white matter damage. In this study, ten full-term infants without brain injury and twenty-two full-term neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (14 moderate cases and 8 severe cases) underwent diffusion tensor imaging to assess its feasibility in evaluating white matter damage in this condition. Results demonstrated that fractional anisotropy, voxel volume, and number of fiber bundles were different in some brain areas between infants with brain injury and those without brain injury. The correlation between fractional anisotropy values and neonatal behavioral neurological assessment scores was closest in the posterior limbs of the internal capsule. We conclude that diffusion tensor imaging can quantify white matter injury in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.
Photosensitivity of the Frog Iris

The absorption of quanta by rhodopsin leads to the contraction of frog iris muscle. The contractions reach a maximum after about 8 sec. in the light. When the light is turned off the irises relax exponentially with a half-time of about 6 sec. Membrane polarization is not necessary for the response but calcium movement and membrane permeability changes probably are. The response is not mediated by acetylcholine or epinephrine. The curves of log It vs. log t for constant response amplitude bend progressively upward away from a unit slope line at short times as larger response criteria are used because (a) light influences tension development over longer times and (b) the higher intensity, shorter duration flashes are less effective.
Overexpression of BiP in Tobacco Alleviates Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

To study the role of the lumenal binding protein (BiP) in the transport and secretion of proteins, we have produced plants with altered BiP levels. Transgenic plants overexpressing BiP showed dramatically increased BiP mRNA levels but only a modest increase in BiP protein levels. The presence of degradation products in BiP overproducers suggests a regulatory mechanism that increases protein turnover when BiP is abundant. Antisense inhibition of BiP synthesis was not successful, demonstrating that even a minor reduction in the basal BiP level is deleterious to cell viability. Overexpression of BiP leads to downregulation of the basal transcript levels of endogenous BiP genes and greatly reduces the unfolded protein response. The data confirm that BiP transcription is regulated via a feedback mechanism that involves monitoring of BiP protein levels. To test BiP activity in vivo, we designed a functional assay, using the secretory protein α-amylase and a cytosolic enzyme as a control for cell viability. During tunicamycin treatment, an overall reduction of α-amylase synthesis was observed when compared with the cytosolic marker. We show that the tunicamycin effect is due to the depletion of BiP in the endoplasmic reticulum because coexpressed BiP alone is able to restore efficient α-amylase synthesis. This is a novel assay to monitor BiP activity in promoting secretory protein synthesis in vivo.