Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minority Representation in Special Education

Overrepresentation of minority students in special education has been a concern for more than 3 decades. Such overrepresentation has triggered a number of legal challenges, educational reforms, and legislative actions. However, a question still remains in the field: Have there been any recent changes or improvements? We addressed this question by analyzing data published by the federal government. Racial representation along with regional variations and state poverty rates were examined. The results indicated that American Indian/Alaskan Native and African American students were overrepresented in high-incidence disabilities (i.e., emotional and behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, and mental retardation); that significant regional variations existed in minority representation, but that these variations were not correlated with state poverty rates; and that racial representation in certain disability categories was negatively correlated with state poverty rates for certain racial groups.
A Critical Review of Expatriate Adjustment Research Through a Multiple Stakeholder View: Progress, Emerging Trends, and Prospects

This article is a critical review of the expatriate adjustment literature that focuses on studies that have considered other stakeholders in addition to expatriates themselves. To highlight current knowledge in this area, the most important, implicit assumptions that scholars seem to have made and that may have restricted the theoretical and empirical advancement of the literature are delineated. By focusing on these assumptions, this article underscores the importance of other stakeholders in influencing or being influenced by expatriates. This article also highlights three theoretical perspectives as exemplars to extend the existing literature. By so doing, this review identifies gaps and stimulates new research directions on expatriate adjustment.
Collaboration Patterns in Event-Driven Environments for Virtual Organizations

Modern enterprises tend to form virtual but legally consolidated schemas for collaborating in order to function and survive in constantly changing grounds, where competition always grows and the emergence of new technologies keeps on posing new challenges. They collaborate in virtual organizations, where several segments of work or parts of collaboration can be often identified as recurring and be reused. In order to take advantage of this repetition, we consider the introduction of Collaboration Patterns in VOs. We propose a combined schema for using Collaboration Patterns along with the initiatives of the Event driven technology, in order to capture the ad hoc nature of these collaborations and cope with the demanding and rapidly changing environments of virtual organizations.
Assessing the effectiveness of IEEE 802.11e in multi-hop mobile network environments

The IEEE 802.11e technology is receiving much interest due to the promising enhancements it offers to wireless local area networks in terms of QoS support. Until now, research has focused on single hop, access point based environments, which are the most common. We review the enhancements proposed in the last IEEE 802.11e draft (version 8.0). We analyze the performance of the IEEE 802.11e protocol on ad-hoc networks (multi-hop) in terms of throughput and end-to-end delay. We also measure the effectiveness for static and fully dynamic networks with a variable number of source stations. Finally, we analyze the performance of IEEE 802.11e when legacy IEEE 802.11 stations (no IEEE 802.11e support) are present in the network. Simulation results show that IEEE 802.11e does not lose effectiveness in multi-hop mobile environments, though the existence of legacy stations in the MANET provokes a severe performance drop.
Face Modeling by Information Maximization 1

A number of current face recognition algorithms use face representations found by unsupervised statistical methods. Typically these methods find a set of basis images and represent faces as a linear combination of those images. Principal component analysis (PCA) is a popular example of such methods. The basis images found by PCA depend only on pair-wise relationships between pixels in the image database. In a task such as face recognition, in which important information may be contained in the high-order relationships among pixels, it seems reasonable to expect that better basis images may be found by methods sensitive to these high order statistics. Independent component analysis (ICA), a generalization of PCA, is one such method. We used a version of ICA derived from the principle of maximum information transfer through sigmoidal neurons [12]. ICA was performed on face images in the FERET database under two different architectures, one which treated the images as random variables and the pixels as outcomes, and a second which treated the pixels as random variables and the images as outcomes. The first architecture found spatially local basis images for the faces. The second architecture produced a factorial face code. Both ICA representations were superior to representations based on principal component analysis for recognizing faces across days and changes in expression. A computational neuroscience perspective on face modeling and information maximization is discussed.
The Griffiths Scales of Mental Development: A Factorial Validity Study

Since the introduction of the Griffiths Scales of Mental Development (Griffiths Scales) to South Africa, extensive research has been conducted in both clinical and educational settings. The measure is currently undergoing revision, with one of the objectives being to explore its psychometric properties, in particular its construct validity. The aim of this study was to examine the underlying dimensions tapped by subscales A, B, C, D, E and F for years 5, 6 and 7. The sample consisted of 180 children between the ages of 48 and 60 months, 60+ and 72 months, and 72+ and 84 months for years 5, 6 and 7 respectively. The variables of gender, cultural group and central nervous system development were controlled for. Underlying factors in each subscale were identified by means of factor analysis. The findings suggest that each subscale taps more than one construct and that constructs differ for the different age groups. This implies that in the revision process subscales for each of the years need to be investigated further with regard to their construct validity.
Research on good and poor reader characteristics: Implications for L2 reading research in China

In reading research, studies on good and poor reader characteristics abound. However, these findings remain largely scattered in applied linguistics and cognitive and educational psychology. This paper attempts to synthesize current theory and research on the topic in the past 20 years along 3 dimensions: language knowledge and processing ability, cognitive ability, and metacognitive strategic competence. A profile of good readers follows a review of the literature. With a special reference to second language (L2) reading research and pedagogy in China, the author argues that a key difference between first language and L2 readers is that L2 readers typically have a gap between their L2 proficiency and their knowledge or conceptual maturation, and this tension determines to some degree the characteristics of good versus poor L2 readers. By examining L2 reading research in the country, the author proposes some areas worth exploring in the Chinese context.
Airborne electromagnetic footprints in 1D earths

Existing estimates of footprint size for airborne electromagnetic (AEM) systems have been based largely on the inductive limit of the response. We present calculations of frequency-domain, AEM-footprint sizes in infinitehorizontal, thin-sheet, and half-space models for the case of finite frequency and conductivity. In a half-space the original definition of the footprint is extended to be the side length of the cube with its top centered below the transmitter that contains the induced currents responsible for 90% of the secondary field measured at the receiver. For a horizontal, coplanar helicopter frequency-domain system, the in-phase footprint for induction numbers less than 0.4 (thin sheet) or less than 0.6 (half-space) increases from around 3.7 times the flight height at the inductive limit to more than 10 times the flight height. For a vertical-coaxial system the half-space footprint exceeds nine times the flight height for induction numbers less than 0.09. For all models, geometries, and frequencies, the quadrature footprint is approximately half to two-thirds that of the in-phase footprint. These footprint estimates are supported by 3D model calculations that suggest resistive targets must be separated by the footprint dimension for their individual anomalies to be resolved completely. Analysis of frequency-domain AEM field data acquired for antarctic sea-ice thickness measurements supports the existence of a smaller footprint for the quadrature component in comparison with the in-phase, but the effect is relatively weak. In-phase and quadrature footprints estimated by comparing AEM to drillhole data are considerably smaller than footprints from 1D and 3D calculations. However, we consider the footprints estimated directly from field data unreliable since they are based on a drillhole data set that did not adequately define the true, 3D, sea-ice thickness distribution around the AEM flight line.
Nitric Oxide-Donating Aspirin Inhibits Colon Cancer Cell Growth via Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Activation

Nitric oxide-donating aspirin (NO-aspirin), representing a new concept in the development of more efficacious nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, consists of traditional aspirin bearing -ONO2, which releases NO. Conventional aspirin prevents human colon cancer, but its toxicity precludes its application as a chemopreventive agent. NO-aspirin seems safer and in cultured cancer cells it is >1000-fold more potent than aspirin. To determine the mechanism by which NO-aspirin inhibits cell growth, we studied its effect on mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling in HT-29 human colon cancer cells. NO-aspirin stimulated the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 and Akt only marginally. The greatest increases in phosphorylation were seen in cJun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 MAP kinases, which were observed as early as 5 min and after 1 h of treatment, averaged more than 10-fold over control. The activation of JNK and p38 was accompanied by large increases in the phosphorylation of the downstream transcription factors cJun and activating transcription factor 2 (ATF-2). We used specific MAPK inhibitors, small interfering (siRNA) gene silencing methods, and dominant-negative cJun to determine the relevance of these phosphorylation events to the ability of NO-aspirin to inhibit colon cancer cell growth. Only the dual inhibitor of p38 and JNK and the use of combined siRNA silencing of p38 and cJun abrogated the ability of NO-aspirin to block cell growth. Our data indicate that NO-aspirin is dependent on both the p38 and the JNK MAP kinase pathways for its ability to inhibit the growth of colon cancer cells.
Physiological suppression of a transport defect in Escherichia coli mutants deficient in Ca2+, Mg2+-stimulated adenosine triphosphatase

Transport properties of membrane vesicles isolated from two adenosine triphosphatase-deficient mutants of Escherichia coli, NR70 and DL54, were compared with those of vesicles prepared from the corresponding parental strains. As reported previously (Rosen, 1973; Altendorf et al., 1974), vesicles prepared from these mutants grown under aerobic conditions exhibited defective amino acid transport, and activity was restored after treatment with dicyclohexylcarbodiimide. In sharp contrast, however, vesicles isolated from the same mutants grown anaerobically in the presence of nitrate exhibited completely normal transport activity when assayed under either anaerobic or aerobic conditions. Suppression of the transport defect was not due to the manner by which the vesicles were prepared, and the adenosine triphosphatase deficiency was not ameliorated by anaerobic growth in the presence of nitrite. Finally, the transport activity of vesicles prepared from the mutants grown under aerobic conditions was relatively resistant to the effect of 1.0 M guanidine hydrochloride extraction, whereas the activity of vesicles prepared from mutants grown anaerobically was totally refractory to the effect of the chaotrope.
Does Social Context Affect Value Structures? Testing the Within-Country Stability of Value Structures With a Functional Theory of Values

Previous research showed that the stability of value structures across cultures is influenced by both sample fluctuations and social context. This study tests the within-country stability of value structures in a large sample of physicians (N = 13,414) across all states in Brazil. The authors use a new value instrument that differentiates values according to their theoretical functions (type of orientation: personal versus social; type of motivation: materialistic versus humanitarian). Although the proposed structure of the value functions was relatively robust, systematic fluctuations in structure emerged. In line with previous research, the authors found strong effects of sampling fluctuations as well as socioeconomic development indices on the stability overall. Examining the differential effect of various social indicators, social living conditions were found to mediate the effect of socioeconomic indicators on value stability along the first dimension contrasting personal versus social value orientations. The second dimension differentiating materialistic versus humanitarian values is less stable. Implications for value theory and research, in particular for cross- and intra-cultural research, are discussed.
Psychopathy and predatory violence in homicide, violent, and sexual offences: Factor and facet relations

Purpose. Evidence has been found pointing to a relationship between psychopathy and predatory violence. The present study investigated the violence mode and its relationship with psychopathy on factor as well as on facet levels. It was hypothesized that predatory violence would be related to the affective and/or interpersonal facets of psychopathy.Asubsidiaryhypothesiswasthatsexualoffencescouldalsobedifferentiated by means of violence mode. Methods. Participants were 82 male inmates convicted of a violent crime, a sexual crime, or a homicide. Psychopathy was assessed with the Hare PCL-R2 and the violence mode was assessed by means of Cornell’s Aggressive Incident Coding Sheet, based on interviews with the offenders and a review of the official record. Results. On the psychopathy subcomponent level, only the interpersonal facet was positively related with predatory violence. This association makes sense considering that psychopaths’ interactions with others are defined by gradients of power and control and narcissistic gratification, rather than by attachment patterns. By contrast, the antisocial facet was associated negatively with predatory violence. Our subsidiary hypothesis concerning the possibility of differentiating sexual violence on the basis of the two violence modes was not confirmed. Conclusions. The present results add to the growing evidence that predatory violence is related to the personality traits of psychopathy rather than to its life-style and antisocial characteristics. Therefore, a risk analysis of future predatory violent behaviour might benefit from the inclusion of the assessment of the personality facets of psychopathy instead of focusing solely on the antisocial behaviour.
How does job insecurity relate to self-reported job performance? Analysing curvilinear associations in a longitudinal sample

The study focuses on the relationship between job insecurity and self-reported job performance. Based on theoretical, empirical, and statistical arguments, we propose that this relationship is U-shaped and mediated by vigour at work. This assumption was tested cross-sectionally and across two measurement points, and against two alternative explanations, namely that the U-shaped relationship might be due to the influence of the moderators optimism and supervisory support. The findings of a study among a large group of job-insecure employees of two Finish universities ( n = 2,095) confirm the U-shaped effect of job insecurity on self-reported job performance. This effect was shown to be robust against the moderating influence of optimism and supervisory support and was partially explained by decreased vigour. The inclusion of a second data wave indicated that job insecurity predicted job performance 1 year later also in a U-shaped form ( n = 1,289). Overall, the results suggest that taking quadratic effects into account adds to the understanding of the relationship between job insecurity and self-reported job performance. Practitioner points The study reveals that the relationship between job insecurity, vigour, and self-reported performance is slightly U-shaped. , At lower to moderate degrees of intensity, job insecurity is negatively related to self-reported job performance, whereas at higher degrees, the effect is less negative. , The U-shaped effect can partly be explained by vigour: at low and high degrees of job insecurity, vigour is slightly less impaired than at moderate degrees. The study does not indicate that job insecurity is a motivator in the workplace
Search Algorithms for Unstructured Peer-to-Peer Networks

We study the performance of several search algorithms on unstructured peer-to-peer networks, both using classic search algorithms such as flooding and random walk, as well as a new hybrid algorithm proposed in this paper. This hybrid algorithm first uses flooding to find sufficient number of nodes and then starts random walks from these nodes. We compare the performance of the search algorithms on several graphs corresponding to common topologies proposed for peer- to-peer networks. In particular, we consider binomial random graphs, regular random graphs, power-law graphs, and clustered topologies. Our experiments show that for binomial random graphs and regular random graphs all algorithms have similar performance. For power-law graphs, flooding is effective for small number of messages, but for large number of messages our hybrid algorithm outperforms it. Flooding is ineffective for clustered topologies in which random walk is the best algorithm. For these topologies, our hybrid algorithm provides a compromise between flooding and random walk. We also compare the proposed hybrid algorithm with the fc-walker algorithm on power-law and clustered topologies. Our experiments show that while they have close performance on clustered topologies, the hybrid algorithm has much better performance on power-law graphs. We theoretically prove that flooding is effective for regular random graphs which is consistent with our experimental results.
Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition on myocardial fibrosis and function in hypertrophied and failing myocardium from the spontaneously hypertensive rat.

BACKGROUND After a period of stable hypertrophy, male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) develop heart failure between 18 to 24 months of age, with depression of active myocardial function and increased passive stiffness. We tested the hypothesis that chronic ACE inhibition by captopril would prevent and possibly reverse impairment of myocardial function. METHODS AND RESULTS Male SHR and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) were assigned to no treatment or captopril treatment (2 g/L in drinking water) begun at ages 12, 18, and 21 months; animals were studied at 24 months of age, or earlier when evidence of heart failure was found in SHR (mean age, 19+/-2 months). In an additional group, captopril treatment was begun when SHR developed heart failure; surviving animals were studied at 24 months of age. In untreated SHR, relative to WKY, isometric stress development at Lmax, maximum rate of stress development, and shortening velocity were depressed, whereas passive stiffness was increased, in association with the development of myocardial fibrosis. In the SHR treated before cardiac dysfunction, captopril administration attenuated hypertrophy and prevented contractile dysfunction, fibrosis, and increased passive stiffness. Captopril treatment begun after cardiac function was impaired reduced left ventricular hypertrophy but did not restore intrinsic contractile function or reduce fibrosis or passive stiffness. CONCLUSIONS In the male SHR, early treatment with captopril was associated with the most marked attenuation of dysfunction relative to the untreated SHR. Treatment initiated after the onset of heart failure improved clinical signs of heart failure and decreased left ventricular hypertrophy in surviving animals but did not reverse the fibrosis and contractile dysfunction associated with heart failure.
Internet Haze: Why New Artifacts Can Enhance Situation Ambiguity

Social and psychological research on the Internet has been biased for a decade by the deterministic assumption that technology per secan have an ‘impact’ on individuals, groups and organizations. This presumption is challenged by a different perspective, which conceives of technology as a social production and relies on ‘ethnographic’ methodologies to investigate the specific ways in which social actors interact with technological tools. Adoption of new artifacts tends to disrupt existing task–artifact cycles and at the same time create new skills in social actors and new features in environments. For this reason new artifacts can enhance, rather than reduce, the ambiguity of everyday situations. The changes in the environment stimulated by the introduction of new artifacts may remain undetected for a while because social actors cannot rely on previous experiences to make sense of the new situation. The wide diffusion of the Internet can render more problematic the selection of information, its control by ordinary actors, interpersonal communication and self-presentation (which in cyberspace is exposed to special forms of deception), and the sense of presence in an environment. The ambiguity of the situations emerging on the Web can be reduced by awareness of the characteristics of cyberspace as an artifact under construction and by the development of shared cultural norms to regulate the exchanges taking place on the Web.