Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
People Searching for Meaning in Their Lives Find Literature More Engaging

Why are some people interested in complex literature and others not? This study experimentally investigated this question by assessing what cognitive traits moderated responses to literary and less-literary fictional vignettes. Specifically, participants were exposed to two variants of a celebrated literary text, one altered so as to remove overtly literary elements. A moderation analysis was performed on responses with respect to three variables: need for cognition (NC); meaning in life (measured in two subscales, search for meaning [SM] and presence of meaning [PM]); and intentionality/mentalizing ability (IM). Results showed that SM moderated interpretive response to the textual variation, such that those with increasing scores on the SM scale were increasingly more likely to rate the literary vignettes as worthy of appreciation. This result, in turn, gave grounds for a second study that investigated the role played by cloze values in identifying a text as “literary. ” The latter study showed that the literary and less-literary vignettes exhibited significant differences in cloze values. Taken together, these studies suggest that differences in responsiveness to literary materials may well be driven by preexisting cognitive factors.
An improved human physiological simulation model for healthcare applications

Healthcare is becoming more and more important in modern society. In order to prevent some health symptoms happening in daily life, it is important to develop an efficient model to simulate the human physiological performance for predicting and reducing accidents like dehydration, exertional heatstroke, syncope, even sudden death and so on. In this paper, a novel human physiological computer simulation model is introduced. A nonlinear heart rate regulation model and a two-node thermal regulation model are integrated together to simulate the human physiological indices like core temperature, dehydration amount and heart rate. Experiment results show that the proposed physiological simulation model can well simulate the human physiological mechanisms, and some important numerical computation results predict the same trends as the experimental measurements. These simulation results can be used to analyse human physiological symptoms and assist the health risk assessment in the healthcare.
Effects of eight weeks of TRX versus traditional resistance training on physical fitness factors and extremities perimeter of non-athlete underweight females

Introduction: New form of suspension training (TRX) has been introduced which has the ability to develop physical fitness factors. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of eight weeks of resistance training by traditional and TRX methods on physical fitness factors and extremities perimeter of non-athlete underweight girls. Material and methods: Thirty non-athlete underweight female students qualified with an average age of 23±1.64 years, weight of 43.53±0.28 kg, height of 162.66±6.6 cm and BMI of 16.31±0.2 kg/m2 were selected and randomly assigned into three groups of 10 subjects (traditional, TRX and control). Participants performed training of 3 sessions per week for eight weeks. Before and after the period of training, physical fitness variables including muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, thigh and arm circumferences were measured. Results: The results showed that both forms of training had a significant effect on muscular strength and endurance. There was no significant difference in flexibility and thigh and arm circumferences. Conclusion: It can be concluded, that the traditional and TRX training have created almost same improvements in physical fitness factors, so TRX training can be considered an efficient choice to do alongside traditional training or as its alternative in order to earn desired training achievements. It is noteworthy that when training goal is to enhance muscular strength and endurance especially in upper-body, TRX training appears to be accompanied by greater gains compared to traditional resistance training.
Micro-Finance and Poverty: Evidence Using Panel Data from Bangladesh

Micro-finance supports mainly informal activities that often have low market demand. It may be thus hypothesized that the aggregate poverty impact of micro-finance in an economy with low economic growth is modest or nonexistent. The observed borrower-level poverty impact is then a result of income redistribution or short-run income generation. The author addresses these questions using household level panel data from Bangladesh. The findings confirm that micro-finance benefits the poorest and has sustained impact in reducing poverty among program participants. It also has positive spillover impact, reducing poverty at the village level. But the effect is more pronounced in reducing extreme rather than moderate poverty.
The Negative Attitudes Towards Robots Scale and reactions to robot behaviour in a live Human-Robot Interaction study

This paper describes the use of the Negative Attitudes Towards Robots Scale (NARS) to explain participants' evaluations of robot behaviour styles in a Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) study. Twentyeight participants interacted with a robot in two experimental conditions in which the robot’s behaviour was varied. Reliability analysis and a PCA was performed on the NARS items, creating three new subscales. Correlations between the subscales and other evaluations of the robot's behaviour found meaningful results, supporting the use of the NARS in English speaking samples.
Modulation of Gene Expression by Tumor-Derived p53 Mutants

p53 mutants with a single amino acid substitution are overexpressed in a majority of human cancers containing a p53 mutation. Overexpression of the mutant protein suggests that there is a selection pressure on the cell indicative of an active functional role for mutant p53. Indeed, H1299 cells expressing mutant p53-R175H, p53-R273H or p53-D281G grow at a faster rate compared with a control cell line. Using p53-specific small interfering RNA, we show that the growth rate of mutant p53-expressing cells decreases as mutant p53 level decreases, demonstrating that the increased cellular growth is dependent on p53 expression. Increased growth rate is not observed for H1299 cell clones expressing mutant p53-D281G (L22Q/W23S), which has been shown to be defective in transactivation in transient transcriptional assays. This shows that the increased growth rate imparted by mutant p53 in H1299 cells requires the transactivation function of mutant p53. By performing microarray hybridization analyses, we show that constitutive expression of three common p53 mutants (p53-R175H, p53-R273H, and p53-D281G) in H1299 human lung carcinoma cells evokes regulation of a common set of genes, a significant number of which are involved in cell growth regulation. Predictably, H1299 cells expressing p53-D281G (L22Q/W23S) are defective in up-regulating a number of these genes. The differences in expression profiles induced by individual p53 mutants in the cells may be representative of the p53 mutants and how they can affect gene expression resulting in the observed “gain of function” phenotypes (i.e., increased growth rate, decreased sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents, and so forth).
Umbilical Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin Level as an Early Predictor of Acute Kidney Injury in Neonates with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a primarily described complication after unbalanced systemic perfusion in neonates with congenital heart defects, including hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). The aim of the study was to compare the umbilical NGAL concentrations between neonates born with HLHS and healthy infants, as well as to analyze whether the determination of NGAL level could predict AKI in neonates with prenatally diagnosed HLHS. Twenty-one neonates with prenatally diagnosed HLHS were enrolled as study group and 30 healthy neonates served as controls. Perinatal characteristics and postnatal parameters were extracted from the hospital neonatal database. In umbilical cord blood, we determined plasma NGAL concentrations, acid base balance, and lactate and creatinine levels. In neonates with HLHS, complications (respiratory insufficiency, circulatory failure, NEC, IVH, and AKI) were recorded until the day of cardiosurgery. We observed in neonates with HLHS higher umbilical NGAL levels compared to controls. Among 8 neonates with HLHS and diagnosed AKI stage 1, we observed elevated NGAL levels in comparison to those newborns without AKI. Umbilical NGAL could predict, with high sensitivity and specificity, AKI development in study neonates. We suggest that the umbilical blood NGAL concentration may be an early marker to predict AKI in neonates with HLHS.
Marginal multi-Bernoulli filters ( extended version )

Random finite sets (RFSs) has been a fruitful area of research in recent years, yielding new approximate methods for multiple target tracking such as the probability hypothesis density (PHD), cardinalised PHD (CPHD), and multiple target multi-Bernoulli (MeMBer) filters. These new approaches have largely been based on approximations that side-step the need for measurement-to-track association in order to maintain tractability. In this paper, we derive a conjugate prior form for the full Bayes RFS filter under commonly invoked assumptions. We observe that data association is implicitly present in the form, and obtain alternative algorithms by approximating the discrete distribution of joint association events utilising a recently developed, high quality approximation of marginal association probabilities. The two resulting algorithms maintain a hybrid MeMBer/Poisson distribution of objects, but form Bernoulli components differently to the conventional MeMBer filter. The track-oriented marginal MeMBer/Poisson (TOM-MeMBer/P) is shown to be closely related to a variant of the popular joint integrated probabilistic data association (JIPDA) algorithm. The measurement oriented MeMBer/P (MOM-MeMer/P) adopts the structure of the MeMBer filter (collecting all hypotheses utilising a given measurement into a single multi-Bernoulli component), but uses marginal association probabilities to provide a significant improvement to performance in low probability of detection cases. We demonstrate both the performance and tractability of the filters in a challenging scenario involving multiple targets in close proximity.
The Role of Teacher Leadership in Professional Learning Community (PLC) in International Baccalaureate (IB) Schools: A Social Network Approach

Abstract This study aims to illuminate how professional interactions among teachers form different types of teacher leadership in schools, which, in turn, shape different levels of teachers’ involvement in activities related to their professional learning community (PLC). To investigate certain patterns of teachers’ interactions that contribute to the formation of teacher leadership and thereby the development of PLC, two international schools that offer a full continuum of three International Baccalaureate (IB) programs were purposively chosen. The schools have similar numbers of students and are located in two different countries in East Asia. Using a mixed-methods research approach, the patterns of teacher professional interactions were first examined using social network analysis. Next, the degree to which teachers in the case study schools enact practices related to PLCs was assessed and compared through a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test. Further, based on findings from social network analysis, in-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with selected key participants to understand the linkage between teacher leadership and teachers’ involvement in their PLC in each case school. From the findings, we propose four conceptual types of teacher leadership that explain how teacher leadership shapes different levels of teachers’ engagement in PLC in the two case schools.
First in the family: A comparison of first-generation and non-first-generation engineering college students

This study investigates first-generation and non-first-generation engineering undergraduates' math/science identities, subject-related interests, and career plans. First-generation students are an understudied, but growing population. Understanding how these self-beliefs and background factors affect students' engineering choice can help widen pathways into engineering which continues to be defined as “pale and male. ” Additionally, identity has predictive value for practical outcomes like engineering choice in college. The data for this study comes from the nationally representative Sustainability and Gender in Engineering (SaGE) survey completed by 6,772 college students who enrolled in first-year English courses at 2- and 4-year colleges across the U.S. Data were analyzed using t-test and chi-square tests for linear and dichotomous outcomes respectively. Our results show differences in first-generation students' identities, interests, performance/ competence beliefs, and family support for science. These differences can serve as a stepping stone towards understanding the trajectories of first-generation college students in engineering. By understanding underrepresented students' identities, performance, and backgrounds, specific strategies can be developed to support these students in our engineering programs.
Rank Properties of Endomorphisms of Infinite Partially Ordered Sets

The relative rank (S : U) of a subsemigroup U of a semigroup S is the minimum size of a set V ⊆ S such that U together with V generates the whole of S. As a consequence of a result of Sierpiński, it follows that for U ⩽ TX, the monoid of all self‐maps of an infinite set X, rank(TX : U) is either 0, 1 or 2, or uncountable. In this paper, the relative ranks rank(TX : OX) are considered, where X is a countably infinite partially ordered set and OX is the endomorphism monoid of X. We show that rank(TX : OX) ⩽ 2 if and only if either: there exists at least one element in X which is greater than, or less than, an infinite number of elements of X; or X has |X| connected components. Four examples are given of posets where the minimum number of members of TX that need to be adjoined to OX to form a generating set is, respectively, 0, 1, 2 and uncountable. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification 08A35 (primary), 06A07, 20M20 (secondary).
CHARACTERIZATION OF OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF SU-8 AND FABRICATION OF OPTICAL COMPONENETS

SU-8 is a negative tone, near UV resist. Due to its unique properties, it is widely used as a structural material in diverse fields of MEMS. Its excellent optical transparency beyond 400nm makes it a preferred material for the fabrication of large variety of optical components and systems. UV-Visible spectroscopy and Spectroscopic ellipsometry were carried out for characterizing the optical properties of SU-8. Process parameters were optimized for the fabrication of different types of optical components like photonic bandgap structures, optical waveguides, splitters, directional couplers and gratings using Laser and electron beam lithography.
Evaluation of the MASW Technique In Unconsolidated Sediments

Shear (S) wave velocities derived from the MASW (multi-channel analysis of surface wave) technique and borehole measurements at seven well locations in unconsolidated sediments of the Fraser River Delta are compared. The overall difference between these two sets of S-wave velocities is about 15%. S-wave velocities from the MASW technique at an additional location are also obtained and await comparison with borehole measurements.
Short term outcome and predictors of survival among birth asphyxiated babies at a tertiary academic hospital in Enugu, South East, Nigeria

Background Birth asphyxia (BA) is a preventable cause of cerebral insults in newborns. It is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Of the 120 million babies born in third world countries annually, it is estimated that about 3.6 million will develop BA. Objectives We aimed to determine the short term outcome and predictors of survival among birth asphyxiated babies using Apgar score. Methods This study was carried out in the Newborn Unit of Enugu State University Teaching Hospital. In-hospital deliveries (Inborn) and those from other centers (Out-born) with one minute Apgar score ≤ 6 were included. Interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data from caregivers. Information sought included gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW), Apgar score, place of delivery and outcome. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were done. Results Of the 150 neonates, 61.3% survived. Majority of the dead were out-born. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The inborn were about 1.2 times (AOR = 1.22; 95% CI: 1.06–1.78) more likely to survive BA. Among low birth weights (LBWs), 73.9% died, 23.7% of normal weights and 14.3% of macrosomics died. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The normal weights were about 2 (AOR = 2.23, 95% CI: 1.76–6.25) and the macrosomics about 5 times more likely to survive BA than LBWs. Regarding GA, 78.8%, 17.2% and 18.2% of the pre-terms, term and post-dates died respectively. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The term babies were about 11 (AOR = 11.27; 95% CI: 4.02–31-56) and post-dates about 9 (AOR = 8.79; 95% CI: 1.43–54.04) times more likely to survive BA than preterms. Other significant factors were degree of asphyxia (p = 0.003), and parental education (p < 0.001). Conclusion BW, GA, degree of asphyxia, place of delivery and parental education all predicts survival among birth asphyxiated newborns.
Early pregnancy IVF culture medium affects human intrauterine growth as early as the second trimester of pregnancy †

Ewka C.M. Nelissen1,*, Aafke P.A. Van Montfoort1, Luc J.M. Smits2, Paul P.C. A. Menheere3, Johannes L.H. Evers1, Edith Coonen4, Josien G. Derhaag1, Louis L. Peeters1, Audrey B. Coumans1, and John C.M. Dumoulin1 Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, GROW School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands Department of Clinical Chemistry, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands Department of Clinical Genetics, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Quantizing Yang-Mills Theory on a 2-Point Space

We perform the Batalin-Vilkovisky quantization of Yang–Mills theory on a 2-point space, discussing the formulation of Connes–Lott as well as Connes’ real spectral triple approach. Despite of the model’s apparent simplicity the gauge structure reveals inﬁnite reducibility and the gauge ﬁxing is aﬄicted with the Gribov problem.
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN HOTELS: SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES AND PRACTICES APPLIED IN HOTELs1

Abstract The 1990s highlighted the creation of new business dynamics focused on environmental responsibility. In the tourism sector, hotels have incorporated this concept in an attempt to improve the efficiency of natural resource use and quality of life. As a result, sustainable technologies and practices became part of the management strategies of many companies and new legal obligations and business incentive programs have arisen. Through interdisciplinary analysis, this study analyzed environmental management in hotels through the incorporation of sustainable technologies and practices and considering guests’ requirement of social and environmental responsibility. By means of questionnaires answered by hotel owners/managers and guests, the study assessed environmental management in hotels using a sustainability index. The overall level of sustainability in hotel management in João Pessoa, Brazil was considered intermediary and guests’ requirements regarding environmental matters were high.
An Enhanced Collaborative Optimization Methodology for Multidisciplianry Design Optimization

Collaborative optimization (CO) is a hierarchical decomposition strategy in multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) for the design of large-scale complex coupled engineering systems. In CO approach, an original design problem is decomposed into system-level and subsystem-level design problems, and interdisciplinary compatibility constraints (ICC) are defined for the complex coupled relationships between all the individual subsystems. However, confronted with the problems that system objective functions partially rely on local design variables and local state variables in some subsystems, CO can’t guarantee the consistency between these local variables and corresponding system design variables. Additionally, ICC can be violated easily by the large fluctuation caused by a small variation of some design variables with big values. This paper concentrates on the ICC in CO, makes some modifications on them and proposes an enhanced collaborative optimization (ECO) methodology. With the ECO strategy, we successfully solve the classical gear reducer design problem in the MDO integration software called iSIGHT. The better results show that ECO is effective and valuable.
Readers with less cognitive control are more affected by surprising content : Evidence from a self-paced reading experiment in German (Thought and Language)

A mechanism of predictions for language implies that the parser has to build up potential upcoming continuations and then evaluate them given the evidence. We show that the difficulty produced by the mismatch between the actual continuation and the predictions is modulated by cognitive control as measured by a modification of the Stroop task. We ran a self-paced reading task in German using a paradigm similar to the one from DeLong et al. (2005) and Van Berkum et al (2005). Our results show a larger slowdown for readers with less cognitive control while reading surprising content. The results suggest that cognitive control modulates the ability to suppress irrelevant predictions.