Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Raising awareness about climate change in Pacific communities

Community-based climate change projects in the Pacific typically seek to raise the awareness of locals about the consequences of climate change and changing weather patterns. A key concern is that such activities might be done in an ad hoc manner, with little consideration of local relevance, audience and the integration of local experiences and knowledge. Drawing on the results gleaned from an interactive focus group with 10 climate change practitioners working in the region, this exploratory study investigates why raising awareness about climate change remains crucial, and importantly, how such activities might be done in a more relevant, meaningful and empowering way at the community level in the Pacific. This commentary argues that it is essential for communities to make local sense of climate change, particularly in an ever-changing world where knowledge is continuously expanding and changing. Initial findings suggest that making local sense of and raising awareness about climate change readily comes about with due consideration of approach, audience and context.
Primary low‐grade B‐cell lymphoma of the endometrium

meningeal extraosseus Ewing’s sarcoma: case report. Neurosurgery 1994; 35; 143–147. 4. Papotti M, Abbona G, Pagani A, Monga G, Bussolati G. Primitive neuroectodermal tumor of the meninges: an histologic, immunohistochemical, ultrastructural and cytogenetic study. Endocr. Pathol. 1998; 3; 275–280. 5. Antunes NL, Lellouch-Tubiana A, Kalifa C, Pierre-Kahn A, Rosenblum MK. Intracranial Ewing sarcoma ⁄ ‘peripheral’ primitive neuroectodermal tumor of dural origin with molecular genetic confirmation. J. Neurooncol. 2001; 51; 51–56. 6. Dedeurwaerdere F, Giannini C, Sciot R et al. Primary peripheral PNET ⁄ Ewing’ sarcoma of the dura: a clinicopathologic entity distinct from central PNET. Mod. Pathol. 2002; 15; 673–678. 7. de Alava E, Gerald WL. Molecular biology of the Ewing’s sarcoma ⁄ primitive neuroectodermal tumor family. J. Clin. Oncol. 2000; 18; 204–213. 8. Jay V, Peinkowska M, Becker L, Zielenska M. Primitive neuroectodermal tumors of the cerebrum and cerebellum: absence of t(11;22) translocation by RT-PCR analysis. Mod. Pathol. 1995; 8; 488–491.
Alignment between standardized assessments and academic standards: The case of the Saber Mathematics Test in Colombia

In this study the concept of alignment is analyzed by presenting the results of a study that examines the degree of alignment between a standardized mathematics assessment and a set of academic standards. The alignment was examined using the Webb model and the results suggest that the degree of alignment between standardized assessments and academic content standards is not the most appropriate and therefore the results should be interpreted with great caution and stakeholders must be very careful with the type of decisions that are made based on the results of these types of assessments. Resumen En este estudio se analiza el concepto de alineación presentando los resultados de un estudio que examina el grado de alineación entre una evaluación estandarizada de matemáticas y unos estándares académicos. La alineación se examinó usando el modelo de Webb y los resultados sugieren que el grado de alineación entre las evaluaciones estandarizadas y los estándares académicos no es el más adecuado y por lo tanto los resultados se deben interpretar con mucha cautela y se debe poner mucho cuidado con el tipo de decisiones que se toman con base en los resultados.
Age , geochemical and Sr – Nd – Pb isotopic constraints for mantle source characteristics and petrogenesis of Teru Volcanics , Northern Kohistan Terrane , Pakistan

This paper presents new geochemical and geochronology data for the Teru Volcanic Formation (previously known as the Shamran Volcanics) exposed west of Gilgit in the Kohistan terrane of the Pakistani Himalayas. The Teru Volcanic Formation ranges from basalt through andesite to rhyolite and has subalkaline and midalkaline affinities. Trace-element compositions and isotopic characteristics suggest these magmas were formed in a subduction zone setting; isotopic studies also support this conclusion. It is suggested that these lavas originated from a depleted mantle source, which experienced contamination by variable subduction components. Model mixing calculations using Sr/Sr and Nd/Nd data suggest that addition of 0.2–0.6% of Indus margin sediments and/or 2–4% of fluids derived from Indus margin sediment can generate the compositional variation of the Teru Volcanic Formation. Two samples from the Teru Volcanic Formation yielded Ar/Ar ages of 43.8+0.5 and 32.5+0.4 Ma. These ages make the volcanic rocks of the Teru Volcanic Formation the youngest reported in the Kohistan terrane. These volcanic rocks unconformably overly the Shunji Pluton, which has a 65 Ma Rb–Sr whole-rock isochron age. The results of this research suggest that subduction-related volcanism was active until 33 Ma in the India–Asia collision zone. D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
THE FRAMING OF THE DARFUR CONFLICT IN THE NEW YORK TIMES: 2003–2006

This multi-method study examines how the New York Times reported the Darfur conflict in the Sudan, which has led to an estimated 300,000 deaths and over 2.3 million people displaced by the fighting. Drawing on normative media theories and prior studies of Africa's representation, the role of sources in the frame-building process was analyzed, together with the impact of news-making processes on journalists' reporting about Darfur. The textual analysis largely supports results of prior studies on news framing of Africa. However, interviews with four New York Times journalists reveal that the individual biases and motives of the journalists and their sources significantly influenced the coverage. While the journalists participated in news-making processes distinguishable by journalist goal, source availability, and source credibility, their sources also provided information that reinforced certain media frames.
Recruitment procedures in the construction of labour market relations the ethnic divide in sweden

Abstract In seeking to better understand the processes involved in the structuring of regional labour markets, an interview study has been conducted which focuses on recruitment procedures in private firms and public sector organizations in the Stockholm region, Sweden. The analysis discusses some of the effects of recruitment procedures used by the investigated firms and organizations, especially in terms of how new employees are selected and how these procedures may in turn act to hinder the entrance of ‘others’ into employment. The conclusions are discussed in relation to the situation in Sweden with particular consideration of the ethnic structure of the workforce and the high unemployment rates among groups of the immigrant population. Further, it is argued that such recruitment procedures as evidenced in the interview study are related to wider socio‐economic change, the particular characteristics of workplaces and their spatial context.
Understanding and promoting micro-finance activities in Kiva.org

Non-profit Micro-finance organizations provide loaning opportunities to eradicate poverty by financially equipping impoverished, yet skilled entrepreneurs who are in desperate need of an institution that lends to those who have little. Kiva.org, a widely-used crowd-funded micro-financial service, provides researchers with an extensive amount of publicly available data containing a rich set of heterogeneous information regarding micro-financial transactions. Our objective in this paper is to identify the key factors that encourage people to make micro-financing donations, and ultimately, to keep them actively involved. In our contribution to further promote a healthy micro-finance ecosystem, we detail our personalized loan recommendation system which we formulate as a supervised learning problem where we try to predict how likely a given lender will fund a new loan. We construct the features for each data item by utilizing the available connectivity relationships in order to integrate all the available Kiva data sources. For those lenders with no such relationships, e.g., first-time lenders, we propose a novel method of feature construction by computing joint nonnegative matrix factorizations. Utilizing gradient boosting tree methods, a state-of-the-art prediction model, we are able to achieve up to 0.92 AUC (area under the curve) value, which shows the potential of our methods for practical deployment. Finally, we point out several interesting phenomena on lenders' social behaviors in micro-finance activities.
Multi-attributed Dictionary Learning for Sparse Coding

We present a multi-attributed dictionary learning algorithm for sparse coding. Considering training samples with multiple attributes, a new distance matrix is proposed by jointly incorporating data and attribute similarities. Then, an objective function is presented to learn category-dependent dictionaries that are compact (closeness of dictionary atoms based on data distance and attribute similarity), reconstructive (low reconstruction error with correct dictionary) and label-consistent (encouraging the labels of dictionary atoms to be similar). We have demonstrated our algorithm on action classification and face recognition tasks on several publicly available datasets. Experimental results with improved performance over previous dictionary learning methods are shown to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Stability and Fairness of AP Selection Games in IEEE 802.11 Access Networks

Wireless stations (WSs) in an IEEE 802.11 access network compete with each other for collective bandwidth offered by access points (APs). The competition involves selecting an AP with the consideration of potential link rate and workload status. From the perspective of system, a good AP selection policy should be stable, increase overall system throughput, and maintain bandwidth fairness among WSs. This paper models AP selections under the framework of game theory, where each WS's sole goal is to maximize its achievable throughput. The achievable throughput depends on not only the number of WSs that associate with the same AP but the set of link rates these WSs use as well. It is not a monotonically decreasing function of WS population when considering the effect of performance anomaly. We have proven the stability of this game (Nash equilibrium) and shown that selfish behavior of individual WSs in fact improves overall bandwidth fairness among WSs. Thorough simulations were conducted to demonstrate the validity of the analytical results and compare the performance of the proposed game with that of counterparts.
On the causal effects of perceived competence on intrinsic motivation: A test of cognitive evaluation theory.

The purpose of this study was to test the validity of the psychological processes proposed by cognitive evaluation theory (Deci & Ryan, 1980) when the informational aspect of the situation is salient. More specifically, it was the purpose of this study to determine whether the effects of verbal feedback on intrinsic motivation are mediated by perceived competence. Male undergraduate students (N = 115) participated in a first phase wherein their intrinsic motivation and perceived competence toward an interesting motor task, the stabilometer, was assessed. Subjects (N = 84) who reported at least a moderate level of intrinsic motivation toward the task returned for the second phase of the study in which they were subjected to conditions of either positive, negative, or no verbal feedback of performance. Intrinsic motivation and perceived competence were again assessed. One-way analyses of variance with dependent variables, intrinsic motivation and perceived competence change scores from the first to the seco.
Exogenous supply of pantoyl lactone to excised leaves increases their pantothenate levels.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS All plants synthesize pantothenate but its synthesis and regulation are not well understood. The aim of this work is to study the effect of exogenous supply of precursor compounds on pantothenate levels in leaves. METHODS Precursor compounds were supplied in solution to excised leaves and the pantothenate content was measured using a microbial method. KEY RESULTS Pantothenate levels in excised leaves of Limonium latifolium, tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and grapefruit (Citrus x paradisi) were examined following an exogenous supply of the precursor compounds pantoyl lactone or beta-alanine. Significantly higher levels of extractable pantothenate were found when pantoyl lactone was supplied, but not when beta-alanine was supplied despite a measurable uptake of beta-alanine into the leaf. CONCLUSIONS The results suggested that the pantoate supply may be rate-limiting or regulating pantothenate synthesis in leaves.
Variation of atmospheric CO2 by ventilation of the ocean's deepest water

A new box model for glacial-interglacial changes in atmospheric CO2 produces lower levels of atmospheric CO 2 without changes in biological production or nutrient chemistry. The model treats the boundary between middepth water and deep water as a chemical divide that separates low-CO 2 water above from high-CO 2 water below. Atmospheric CO 2 is reduced 21 ppm by reduced ventilation of the deep water below the divide. A further reduction of 36 ppm is due to CaCO 3 compensation in response to lower CO3 = below the divide. Colder surface temperatures account for an additional 23 ppm of CO 2 reduction. The new mechanism leaves the glacial atmosphere lighter in õ13C than in preindustrial time, as seen in ice cores and fossil plant material. Bottom water below the divide becomes strongly depleted in õ13C without a change in nutrient concentrations.
The classification of flaring states of blazars

Aims. The time evolution of the electromagnetic emission from blazars, in particular high-frequency peaked sources (HBLs), displays irregular activity that has not yet been understood. In this work we report a methodology capable of characterizing the time behavior of these variable objects. Methods. The maximum likelihood blocks (MLBs) is a model-independent estimator that subdivides the light curve into time blocks, whose length and amplitude are compatible with states of constant emission rate of the observed source. The MLBs yield the statistical significance in the rate variations and strongly suppresses the noise fluctuations in the light curves. We applied the MLBs for the first time on the long term X-ray light curves (RXTE/ASM) of Mkn 421, Mkn 501, 1ES 1959+650, and 1ES 2155-304, more than 10 years of observational data (1996-2007). Using the MLBs interpretation of RXTE/ASM data, the integrated time flux distribution is determined for each single source considered. We identify in these distributions the characteristic level, as well as the flaring states of the blazars. Results. All the distributions show a significant component at negative flux values, most probably caused by an uncertainty in the background subtraction and by intrinsic fluctuations of RXTE/ASM. This effect concerns in particular short time observations. To quantify the probability that the intrinsic fluctuations give rise to a false identification of a flare, we study a population of very faint sources and their integrated time-flux distribution. We determine duty cycle or fraction of time a source spent in the flaring state of the source Mkn 421, Mkn 501, 1ES 1959+650 and 1ES 2155-304. Moreover, we study the random coincidences between flares and generic sporadic events such as high-energy neutrinos or flares in other wavelengths.
PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Hassebrauck, Aron / PROTOTYPE MATCHING Prototype Matching in Close Relationships

Four studies tested the prototype-matching model that people use the prototype of a good relationship to evaluate the quality of concrete relationships. In Study 1, distance from the consensual prototype of participants’ descriptions of the features of their relationship strongly predicted relationship quality, and this prediction was significantly stronger for distance from central (vs. peripheral) features. Study 2 replicated these results and also found no significant advantage for predicting relationship quality using a relationship’s distance from idiosyncratically weighted (vs. consensually weighted) centrality of prototype features. Study 3 experimentally manipulated a described relationship’s distance from the prototype and found that distance from central features affected relationship evaluations more than distance from peripheral or intermediate features. Study 4 experimentally manipulated the prototype of relationship quality itself and found that correlations of relationship quality with matches with the prototype were more strongly influenced by those features that were increased in their importance.
Invitation to Consumer Behavior Analysis

This article presents an introduction to consumer behavior analysis by describing the Behavioral Perspective Model of consumer choice and showing how research has, first, confirmed this framework and, second, opened up behavior analysis and behavioral economics to the study of consumer behavior in natural settings. It concludes with a discussion of current investigations in consumer research and theory. Hopefully, it will serve as an invitation to other researchers to work within this exciting and relevant context.
Carbon cycling in soil

As yet, nobody knows what effects climate change will have on soil carbon reserves, or how those changes will affect the global carbon cycle. Soils are the primary terrestrial repository for carbon, so minor changes in the balance between belowground carbon storage and release could have major impacts on greenhouse gases. Soil fauna, roots, fungi, and microbes interact with mineral and organic matter to process soil carbon. Studies have been hampered by the difficulty of observing processes beneath the earth's surface, but advances in science and technology are improving our ability to understand belowground ecosystems.
Outcomes of the Acute Palliative Care Unit in an Academic Medical Center

Background: The acute palliative care units (APCU) where the palliative medicine specialists are primarily in charge with medical management are being established in few academic medical centers. The purpose of this study is to review the demographics and outcomes of the APCU admissions and the economical implications to the Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York. Methods: We retrospectively examined the demographics, diagnosis related groups (DRGs), length of hospital stay (LOS), discharge status and hospital charge data using data from intcernal cost accounting databases for consecutive admissions to the palliative care unit between February 2007and February 2010. Results: A total of 1837 patients were admitted. Six hundred eighty patients transferred from other medical-surgical units. Twenty two percent of the patients were admitted under other specialties but co-managed with the palliative medicine specialists. The top three DRGs were sepsis without or with mechanical ventilation and heart failure with major co-morbidities. The average length of stay was comparable to other medical surgical units. Seventy-two percent of the patients were discharged alive, 27% died in the hospital. The median charges were lower in the palliative care unit than in medical-surgical units (p<.0001). These benefits were more likely to occur if patients were managed directly by the specialists. Conclusion: Our data suggests that the APCU may provide cost effective, acute care for the patients with advanced chronic illness as well as the imminently dying in need of intensive symptom management.
Journeys outside the classroom

There is growing support for education that is cross-curricular, locally-relevant and involves a high degree of student responsibility. This investigation examines the perspectives of students who have participated in an outdoor learning programme that is theoretically underpinned by the above themes. Outdoor Journeys involves learning about the socio-cultural and geo-physical story of students' local landscape. The programme is hallmarked by students planning and undertaking journeys in their neighbourboods. Students generate questions, do research in order to find answers, and then share their findings with their classmates. A case study employing focus group interviews was used to explore the views of 33 participants between the ages of 8–11 years, who came from three schools in the Edinburgh area. Findings indicate that Outdoor Journeys offered a means of learning across the curriculum in a manner that was inter-disciplinary, involved a high degree of student initiative, and was heavily rooted in local history and ecology. However, issues were raised that require further attention. There appeared to be insufficient emphasis on students sharing their findings with their classmates. There are also uncertainties about how the ‘place consciousness’ of the pedagogy relates to the dominant epistemology of the official curriculum areas that were explored.
Challenges in genetic counseling because of intra‐familial phenotypic variation of oral‐facial‐digital syndrome type 1

Oral‐facial‐digital syndrome type 1 (OFD1; MIM 311200) is characterized by multiple anomalies of the oral cavity, face and digits. We report a family with OFD1, where two female siblings and their mother shared the same mutation of the responsible gene (OFD1) c. 1193_1196delAATC. Phenotypic variability was observed among them; the mother showed minimal features of OFD1, whereas her two daughters showed partial features and the full spectrum of OFD1, respectively. Thus, OFD1 was suspected only after a health check‐up during pregnancy of the second patient showing fetal brain anomaly and maternal polycystic kidney. For these reasons, there was a delay in the recognition of OFD1 in this family. Patients with OFD1 show phenotypic variability, which poses challenges for genetic counseling.