Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-Esteem Development Across the Lifespan

After decades of debate, a consensus is emerging about the way self-esteem develops across the lifespan. On average, self-esteem is relatively high in childhood, drops during adolescence (particularly for girls), rises gradually throughout adulthood, and then declines sharply in old age. Despite these general age differences, individuals tend to maintain their ordering relative to one another: Individuals who have relatively high self-esteem at one point in time tend to have relatively high self-esteem years later. This type of stability (i.e., rank-order stability) is somewhat lower during childhood and old age than during adulthood, but the overall level of stability is comparable to that found for other personality characteristics. Directions for further research include (a) replication of the basic trajectory using more sophisticated longitudinal designs, (b) identification of the mediating mechanisms underlying self-esteem change, (c) the development of an integrative theoretical model of the life-course trajectory of self-esteem.
Arterial oxygen saturation and diving response during dynamic apneas in breath‐hold divers

Competitive breath‐hold divers try to achieve maximum times, depths, or distances underwater, thereby risking hypoxic syncope. In the present study, the cardiorespiratory responses to dynamic apnea (simultaneously initiated apneas and dynamic leg exercise) were investigated in 10 breath‐hold divers. The divers performed 60 s dynamic apneas with the face in air (A) or face immersed in cold water (AFI). During apneas, the arterial oxygen saturation was reduced (A: −10%), but to a lesser extent during AFI (−6%, P<0.01), reaching a nadir 10–15 s post‐apnea. Also, changes in end‐tidal O2 and CO2 pressures (PetO2/PetCO2) were smaller during AFI than A (ΔPetO2: 8.2 vs 8.7 kPa, P<0.01; ΔPetCO2: 3.1 vs 3.2 kPa, P<0.05). The heart rate was lower during AFI than A (66 vs 78 bpm, P<0.01), reflecting an augmented diving response during AFI. The maximum safe breath‐hold time under the conditions of the present study was calculated to be 101 and 106 s for A and AFI, respectively, consistent with the dynamic apnea times achieved by world‐class apnea divers. It is concluded that the augmented diving response during face immersion apneas is associated with a slower reduction of the pulmonary (and arterial) oxygen store, probably delaying the occurrence of a hypoxic syncope.
DeXpression: Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Expression Recognition

We propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture for facial expression recognition. The proposed architecture is independent of any hand-crafted feature extraction and performs better than the earlier proposed convolutional neural network based approaches. We visualize the automatically extracted features which have been learned by the network in order to provide a better understanding. The standard datasets, i.e. Extended Cohn-Kanade (CKP) and MMI Facial Expression Databse are used for the quantitative evaluation. On the CKP set the current state of the art approach, using CNNs, achieves an accuracy of 99.2%. For the MMI dataset, currently the best accuracy for emotion recognition is 93.33%. The proposed architecture achieves 99.6% for CKP and 98.63% for MMI, therefore performing better than the state of the art using CNNs. Automatic facial expression recognition has a broad spectrum of applications such as human-computer interaction and safety systems. This is due to the fact that non-verbal cues are important forms of communication and play a pivotal role in interpersonal communication. The performance of the proposed architecture endorses the efficacy and reliable usage of the proposed work for real world applications.
WELLNESS, SELF EFFICACY AND BEHAVIOURAL CHANGES

Based on the Trans theoretical Model of Behaviour Change, a better understanding of the determinants of exercise behaviour is beginning to emerge. In this study exercise behaviour was examined to determine its association with self-efficacy and decisional making. One hundred seventy four freshman college students answered three questionnaires to assess their stage of exercise behaviour, self-efficacy and decisional balance (i.e., pros and cons). Frequency counts were used to determine the distribution of freshman students among the stages of adoption. Stage of exercise adoption was the independent variable, and self-efficacy and decisional balance were the dependent variables in the analysis. Analysis of variance showed that self-efficacy and decision-making were able to significantly differentiate one's stage of exercise change. Understanding the states of exercise behaviour change may yield important information for designing physical education curriculum that would enhance exercise adoption and adherence.
Anti-factor VIII Inhibitors and Lupus Anticoagulants in Haemophilia A Patients

Summary In a study of 170 haemophilia A patients, 43 were found to have an inhibitory effect; seven had anti-factor VIII inhibitors (a-fVIII) (A), 18 had lupus anticoagulants (LAs) with a strong (B: 12) or weak (C: 6) time-dependent effect and 18 had no time-dependent LAs (D). The a-fVIII showed a neutralizing effect only against factor VIII and negative diluted Russell viper venom time (dRVVT). The LAs were diagnosed by dRVVT; the Staclot® LA agreed with the dRVVT. During the study, three patients changed from an a-fVIII to an LA pattern; they also modified their clinical response. Our prevalence of a-fVIII was low (4%) and we found 21% of LA, with a high (50%) prevalence of time-dependent inhibition. This pattern raises the possibility of the coexistence of LA and a-fVIII, stressing the need to develop specific tests to identify a-fVIII and LA.
Validation of a Chinese Version of Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory.

Problem Statement:Students’ metacognition can play a critical role in their reading learning, and their metacognitive awareness of reading strategies has attracted the interest of both educational researchers and teachers. However, there is not an existing questionnaire for the research of students’ metacognition on reading in China. An instrument is needed to assess students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies in the Chinese context. Purpose of Study:The aim of the present research is to validate the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory in the Chinese educational context (MARSI-CN). This inventory can be used by Chinese teachers to improve their students’ reading skills. Methods:The present research was comprised of two pilot studies and one main study. In the first pilot study, a translated version of the original questionnaire was administered to a sample of 216 students in six different middle schools, and then in the second pilot study, a revised version of the initial translation was tried out on 494 students. Finally, in the main study, the revised MARSI-CN was tested with 2119 students. In the second pilot study phase, exploratory factor analysis was applied, and in the main study, confirmatory factor analysis was carried out. Findings and Results: A three-factor structure of the MARSI-CN resulted from the exploratory factor analysis on the second pilot study data. The consecutive confirmatory factor analysis – building on data from the main study – confirmed the three-factor structure and reflected good fit indices (χ²/df =1.613, RMSEA= .035, TLI= .959, GFI= .960, CFI= .966). Internal consistency in the questionnaire, as measured with Cronbach’s Alpha, was . 863. Test–retest reliability was also high (r= .91, p< .01). Conclusions and Recommendations: The results from the study help to conclude that the translated and adapted instrument MARSI-CN reflects good reliability and validity, and that it can be used in research on students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies in Chinese middle schools.
Single-example Learning of Novel Classes using Representation by Similarity

We describe an object classification method that can learn from a single training example. In this method, a novel class is characterized by its similarity to a number of previously learned, familiar classes. We demonstrate that this similarity is well-preserved across different class instances. As a result, it generalizes well to new instances of the novel class. A simple comparison of the similarity patterns is therefore sufficient to obtain useful classification performance from a single training example. The similarity between the novel class and the familiar classes in the proposed method can be evaluated using a wide variety of existing classification schemes. It can therefore combine the merits of many different classification methods. Experiments on a database of 107 widely varying object classes demonstrate that the proposed method significantly improves the performance of the baseline algorithm.
Improvement of Cardiac Function in Patients with Severe Congestive Heart Failure and Coronary Artery Disease by Dual Chamber Pacing with Shortened AV Delay

Medical therapy often fails to control symptoms of severe heart failure. The possibility of modifying to some degree the global ventricular performance with the implantation of a physiological dual chamber pacemaker, set with a short atrioventricular delay (100 msec), has been adopted in two patients with severe heart failure due to coronary artery disease. The baseline clinical condition of both patients was characterized by leg edema, ascites, dyspnea at rest, or even orthopnea with a functional New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III‐IV. Acute measurements of hemodynamic and echocardiographic parameters during stepwise shortening of AV interval guided the pacemaker implantation and setting of AV delay in the chronic phase. Within a few days after pacemaker implantation, both patients considerably improved their clinical status as well as their functional NYHA class, improving to class U in one patient and to class II‐III in the other patient. In addition, modification of systolic and diastoJic parameters paralleled these improvements functional class and clinical condition. Pacemaker therapy in severe heart failure refractory to medical therapy can be of considerable benefit in patients whose quality‐of‐life is severely compromised when pharmacological therapy is no longer effective. Acute hemodynamic and echocardiographic testing is useful in assessing the most appropriate AV delay and pacing mode.
Vestibular modulation of spatial perception

Vestibular inputs make a key contribution to the sense of one’s own spatial location. While the effects of vestibular stimulation on visuo-spatial processing in neurological patients have been extensively described, the normal contribution of vestibular inputs to spatial perception remains unclear. To address this issue, we used a line bisection task to investigate the effects of galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) on spatial perception, and on the transition between near and far space. Brief left-anodal and right-cathodal GVS or right-anodal and left-cathodal GVS were delivered. A sham stimulation condition was also included. Participants bisected lines of different lengths at six distances from the body using a laser pointer. Consistent with previous results, our data showed an overall shift in the bisection bias from left to right as viewing distance increased. This pattern suggests leftward bias in near space, and rightward bias in far space. GVS induced strong polarity dependent effects in spatial perception, broadly consistent with those previously reported in patients: left-anodal and right-cathodal GVS induced a leftward bisection bias, while right-anodal and left-cathodal GVS reversed this effect, and produced bisection bias toward the right side of the space. Interestingly, the effects of GVS were comparable in near and far space. We speculate that vestibular-induced biases in space perception may optimize gathering of information from different parts of the environment.
Isolation of a recombinant murine leukemia virus utilizing a new primer tRNA

We have previously described the construction of a mutant of Moloney murine leukemia virus bearing a deletion at the normal site of integration of the viral DNA. We have now recovered a revertant of the virus after abortive infection of mouse cells and have determined the structure of the new virus. The revertant is a recombinant virus containing a 500-base-pair patch of new sequences derived from the mouse genome. The integration site was perfectly restored to the wild-type sequence, although the patch of DNA was overall only 80% homologous to Moloney murine leukemia virus. Surprisingly, the tRNA primer binding site was no longer homologous to the usual proline tRNAs, but was a perfect match for glutamine tRNA. This result suggests that the Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase is not specific to one tRNA, but can utilize different tRNAs to prime the synthesis of viral DNA. Comparisons with published reports allowed the identification of sequences that are 94% homologous to the patch sequence, present in one of the endogenous retroviral sequences of the mouse. No replication-competent members of this family, utilizing the glutamine tRNA primer, have been previously isolated.
Understanding the varieties of self-generated thought

Although self-generated thought (SGT i.e. cognition unrelated to the here and now) has traditionally been considered as a homogeneous phenomenon, recent findings challenge this assumption by showing that SGT can have both costs and benefits, and that SGT can be linked to both executive control and executive failure. To gain insight into these discrepancies, this PhD tested the hypothesis that SGT is a heterogeneous phenomenon and examined whether the content of the thoughts is one factor underlying the heterogeneities observed. By taking into account the temporal, social and emotional dimensions of SGT content, we were able to systematically identify distinct types of thoughts. In addition, we observed that these different SGT types can have heterogeneous functional outcomes (for example, in terms of their relation to task performance or to measures of self-concept). We also found that these SGT types can have different phenomenological properties, suggesting that heterogeneous cognitive correlates are recruited during the generation of distinct types of thoughts. Finally, we demonstrated that the neural substrates of SGT (as assessed using resting state fMRI) varied according to individual differences in thought content. Altogether, the empirical findings described in the current thesis strongly support the hypothesis that SGT is a heterogeneous phenomenon and highlight that taking into account SGT content allows a better understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings supporting this subjective experience.
Effect of seedling stock on the early stand development and physiology of improved loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) seedlings

Abstract: This study assessed the effects of spacing and genotype on the growth and physiology of improved loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) seedlings from three distinct genotypes planted in Drew County, Arkansas (USA). Genotype had a significant effect on survival and height. Clone CF Var 1 showed greater height and survival compared to other seedlings. Genotype had significant effects on uniformity in height both years and ground line diameter (GLD) first year. However, genotype had no significant effects on leaf water potential and coefficient variation of leaf water potential. These growth and physiology should be further studied to assess potential genetic differences among seedlings and to determine if they can be identified early for improved growth at later ages.
Sexually dimorphic distribution of orbitofrontal sulcogyral pattern in schizophrenia

Aim: The sulcogyral pattern of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is characterized by a remarkable inter‐individual variability that likely reflects neurobehavioral traits and genetic aspects of neurodevelopment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the OFC sulcogyral pattern of patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and healthy controls (HC) to determine group differences in OFC sulcogyral pattern as well as gender differences between groups.
Whose socioeconomic status influences a woman's obesity risk: her mother's, her father's, or her own?

BACKGROUND Evidence on the relative influence of childhood vs adulthood socioeconomic conditions on obesity risk is limited and equivocal. The objective of this study was to investigate associations of several indicators of mothers', fathers', and own socioeconomic status, and intergenerational social mobility, with body mass index (BMI) and weight change in young women. METHODS This population-based cohort study used survey data provided by 8756 women in the young cohort (aged 18-23 years at baseline) of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. In 1996 and 2000, women completed mailed surveys in which they reported their height and weight, and their own, mother's, and father's education and occupation. RESULTS Multiple linear regression models showed that both childhood and adulthood socioeconomic status were associated with women's BMI and weight change, generally in the hypothesized (inverse) direction, but the associations varied according to socioeconomic status and weight indicator. Social mobility was associated with BMI (based on father's socioeconomic status) and weight change (based on mother's socioeconomic status), but results were slightly less consistent. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest lasting effects of childhood socioeconomic status on young women's weight status, independent of adult socioeconomic status, although the effect may be attenuated among those who are upwardly socially mobile. While the mechanisms underlying these associations require further investigation, public health strategies aimed at preventing obesity may need to target families of low socioeconomic status early in children's lives.
Languaging Among Fifth Graders: Code-switching in Conversation 501 of the Køge Project

Conversation 501 from the Køge Project is analysed for the four adolescent speakers' use of five to six different langauges or varieties. The code choice patterns are shown to function in a range of different ways, all of which can be described as phenomena that are not inherently different from the language use of youth as it is described in youth languages studies. In the conclusion, the article argues that 'bi-lingualism' – understood as something which involves two units of which 'mono-lingualism' only involves one – is meaningless. The multifaceted behaviour of the Turkish-Danish adolescents is languaging, which is in principle the same as what other human beings do.
Causes of abortion on New Zealand dairy farms with a history of abortion associated with Neospora caninum

Abstract AIM: To investigate the cause of abortion in cows from farms with a history of abortion associated with Neospora caninum. METHODS: Cows and primiparous heifers (n = 2,246) that were enrolled in a clinical trial of a vaccine for N. caninum, and 403 cows and heifers that conceived >6 weeks after the planned start of mating (PSM), were monitored for abortion on five dairy farms with a history of abortion associated with N. caninum. When abortion was detected the fetus and/or placenta were submitted for histopathological examination and maternal paired sera were collected for the detection of antibodies to N. caninum using the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT), bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) using ELISA, and Leptospira spp. using the microscopic agglutination test (MAT). RESULTS: At the start of the clinical trial, 189/1,760 (10.7%) of cows and 61/486 (12.6%) of heifers had IFAT titres ≥1:200 for N. caninum. Abortions were detected in 111 (4.9%) enrolled and 37 (9.2%) non-enrolled cows and heifers. The relative risk of abortion was 4.21 (95% CI 2.92–6.08) times greater in enrolled animals that were seropositive to N. caninum than seronegative animals (p < 0.01). Among all animals, histopathological lesions suggestive of protozoal abortion were seen in nine, and of bacterial infection in 15, of the 40 cases where the fetus and/or placenta were recovered. IFAT titres for N. caninum ≥1:1,000 were detected in 66 cows at abortion, including 7/9 cases where there were fetal lesions indicative of N. caninum infection. In nine cows that aborted, there was evidence of seroconversion to BVDV and eight cows had MAT titres for Leptospira spp. ≥1:200. Histopathology revealed dual infectious aetiologies in two cases and, in another 17 cases, there was serological evidence of recent exposure to a second infectious agent capable of causing abortion in conjunction with N. caninum lesions in the fetus or fetal bacteraemia. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple infectious aetiologies occur at herd-level and in individual cows on farms with a history of abortion associated with N. caninum. A diagnosis of abortion due to N. caninum infection was made in 9/34 (26.5%) cases where fetal histopathology was undertaken. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Thorough and ongoing diagnostic investigations should be undertaken in herds with higher than expected abortion losses to identify all causative agents as control measures could be implemented that may also reduce the risk of abortion in cows infected with N. caninum.
Purification and biochemical characterization of a 65-kilodalton mannoprotein (MP65), a main target of anti-Candida cell-mediated immune responses in humans

A 65 kDa-constituent (MP65) of a whole-cell mannoprotein (MP) fraction of Candida albicans was purified by immunoaffinity chromatography with monoclonal antibodies directed against periodate-insensitive, protease-sensitive MP epitopes, putatively polypeptide in nature. These antibodies were obtained by immunization of mice with concanavalin A bead-coupled, low-glycosylated MP from hyphal cells of C. albicans grown in the presence of a subinhibitory dose of tunicamycin. The immunoaffinity-purified MP65 molecule had a pI of 4.1 and a protein/polysaccharide ratio of 1.8:1. It was resistant to hydrolysis by endoglycosidase H, endoglycosidase F, or N-glycoffanases but still reactive with concanavalin A. The polysaccharide moiety of MP65 was composed exclusively of mannose and glucose at a ratio of 12.7 to 1. The protein moiety showed numerous potential O-glycosidic linkage sites as suggested by the high proportion of serine and threonine (together accounting for more than 20% of the total amino acid composition) and susceptibility to diluted alkali. This treatment and digestion with alpha-mannosidase caused a reduction in the MP65 molecular mass to around 54 kDa. The N-terminal sequence of MP65 protein moiety was rich in alanine and valine (7 of 13 amino acids) and did not show any significant homology with deposited sequences in data banks. Purified MP65, at doses of a few nanograms, induced extensive T-cell proliferation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This proliferation was specifically inhibited, in a dose-response fashion, by the antigen-binding fragment of the monoclonal antibody used for immunoaffinity purification. Overall, these results highlight biochemical and molecular details of MP65, a main target of human T-cell response to C.albicans.