Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effects of smoking on anti-saccades: A study in regular smokers

As a possible mechanism for the accelerating effect of cigarette smoking on saccadic latency time, the authors postulated in a previous study the hypothesis that nicotine could modulate the inhibitory system involved in saccadic initiation. To investigate this inhibitory system, they analyzed the latency time and the percentage of misdirected saccades in an anti-saccade test in the same group of regular smokers. They found no statistically significant effect of cigarette consumption on either anti-saccadic latency time or on the percentage of misdirected saccades.The authors conclude that, in regular smokers, the long term accelerating effect of cigarette smoking on visually guided saccadic latencies is mediated through the general arousal effects of nicotine to the diverse excitatory pathways involved in saccade generation or to circuits responsible for shifts in visual attention.
Person Tracking in Large Public Spaces Using 3-D Range Sensors

A method for tracking the position, orientation, and height of persons in large public environments is presented. Such a piece of information is known to be useful both for understanding their actions, as well as for applications such as human-robot interaction. We use multiple 3-D range sensors, which are mounted above human height to have less occlusion between persons. A computationally simple-tracking method is proposed that works on single sensor data and combines multiple sensors so that large areas can be covered with a minimum number of sensors. Moreover, it can work with different sensor types and is robust to the imperfect sensor measurements; therefore, it is possible to combine currently available 3-D range sensor solutions to achieve tracking in wide public spaces. The method was implemented in a shopping center environment, and it was shown that good tracking performance can be achieved.
Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the High School Chemistry Self-Efficacy Scale

The aim of this study was to develop a scale assessing high school students’ selfefficacy beliefs in chemistry-related tasks and to assess psychometric properties of scores on this scale. A pilot study with a sample of 150 high school students provided initial evidence for two-factor structure of 16-item scale, named High School Chemistry Self-Efficacy Scale (HCSS). The final form of the HCSS was administered to 362 high school students in Turkey. Confirmatory factor analysis fit indices and factor pattern coefficients supported the proposed structure, with the two factors directly corresponding to the hypothesized dimensions. These dimensions were chemistry self-efficacy for cognitive skills (10 items, a reliability = .90) and self-efficacy for chemistry laboratory (6 items, a reliability = .92). In addition, the two-factor model for the HCSS was invariant across school types. Analyses of latent mean structure indicated that private school students were statistically more efficacious than public school students in chemistry laboratory skills. The HCSS is a promising tool to identify chemistry self-efficacy beliefs in high school students.
Low back pain patients in primary care: Subgroups based on the multidimensional pain inventory

Classification of patients into homogeneous subgroups is an important objective in primary care management of low back pain patients. The purpose of this studyis to (a) identify and describe cluster profiles based on self-reported multidimensional pain inventory Scale (MPI) scores among subacute and chronic nonspecific low back pain patients; (b) describe characteristics of the clusters in relation to disability, life satisfaction, functional self-efficacy, and exercise self-efficacy; and (c) compare grouping by clusters based on self-reported MPI scores with grouping by symptom duration. Eighty-eight individuals participated. These had a median lower back pain duration of 7 months (range 1 to 144 months). Three clusters were identified; these were labeled interpersonally distressed, adaptive copers, and dysfunctional. The clusters differed significantly in disability and functional self-efficacy scores, but not in life satisfaction and exercise self-efficacy scores. The results of this study in a primary care setting are discussed in relation to previous results in pain clinic settings.
Worrier Nation: Quebec's Value Codes for Immigrants

This article analyses the political and policy discourses of Quebec's integration toolkit for immigrants. With a focus on value codes for immigrants, I argue first, that recent debate on accommodation of immigrants and religious minorities resuscitates the dominant historical narrative of Quebec's fragility as a conquered settler colonial nation but where the major threat is defined as the cultural otherness of racialized immigrants and religious minorities. Second, such value codes instantiate a form of governmental strategy that combines neo-liberal and communitarian rationalities and insist on cultural assimilation as the price of entry into Quebec citizenship. Finally, the paper examines how Quebec's current national imaginary of the ‘worrier nation’ maps spatially onto the urban-rural divide.
Social geography: new religions and ethnoburbs – contrasts with cultural geography

In this, my third and final review of social geography, I want to return to the theme on which I started (Peach, 1999). There is a fundamental, but hopefully fruitful, tension between the ways in which social and cultural geography consider matters of common interest. One of the consequences of the fashion for postmodernism in human geography is that cultural geography, with its emphases on hybridity, in-betweenness and flexibility, has claimed the epithet of ‘new’ while social geography, with its engagement in the ‘real’ world, with numbers and census categories, seems to have become, by default, ‘the old’. Social geography is criticized for its empiricism, its use of received categories and supposed political incorrectness. New cultural geography teaches that everything is nuanced, plastic and fluid, so that the analysis of censusgiven ethnic or racialized categories may be represented as static and empiricist. However, what social geography does is crucial if we are not to be complacent in the face of injustices. Sue Smith has written eloquently on this dilemma in Ron Johnston’s The challenge for geography (Smith, 1993a: 54; Johnston, 1993).
Towards a logical reconstruction of a theory for locally closed databases

The Closed World Assumption (CWA) on databases expresses the assumption that an atom not in the database is false. This assumption is applicable only in cases where the database has complete knowledge about the domain of discourse. In this article, we investigate locally closed databases, that is: databases that are sound but partially incomplete about their domain. Such databases consist of a standard database instance, augmented with a collection of Local Closed World Assumptions (LCWAs). A LCWA is a “local” form of the CWA, expressing that a database relation is complete in a certain area, called a window of expertise. In this work, we study locally closed databases both from a knowledge representation and from a computational perspective. At the representation level, the approach taken in this article distinguishes between the data that is conveyed by a database and the metaknowledge about the area in which the data is complete. We study the semantics of the LCWA's and relate it to several knowledge representation formalisms. At the reasoning level, we study the complexity of, and algorithms for two basic reasoning tasks: computing certain and possible answers to queries and determining whether a database has complete knowledge on a query. As the complexity of these tasks is unacceptably high, we develop efficient approximate methods for query answering. We also prove that for useful classes of queries and locally closed databases, these methods are optimal, and thus they solve the original query in a tractable way. As a result, we obtain classes of queries and locally closed databases for which query answering is tractable.
Infant Word Learning From Commercially Available Video In The US

Based on the assumption that commercial screen media offers no advantages to children under 2, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends no exposure for them. However, few experimental tests of this assumption have been conducted. Utilizing a randomized controlled design, we examined vocabulary development in children ages 8 to 15 months. Experimental group infants were exposed to Baby Einstein's Baby Wordsworth DVD for 1 month, with vocabulary assessed at baseline, and at 1 and 3 months after viewing. Results indicated that the experimental group showed greater gains in receptive (understood) words on the CDI (β = .10, p < .01) and on DVD specific words (β = .11, p < .01), compared to controls, who were not exposed to the video. There were no differences between the groups in expressive (spoken) vocabulary. Results are discussed in the context of current and ongoing research on infant and toddler word learning from video.
Testing equality of stationary autocovariances

Abstract. This article studies tests for assessing whether two stationary and independent time series have the same dynamics – specifically, whether the autocovariances of both series coincide at all lags. Frequency domain statistics previously proposed for this purpose are reviewed. A time domain statistic is then developed and investigated. The performance of these statistics are compared. Multivariate versions of the results are constructed. The methods are applied in the analysis of temperatures and precipitations from Atlanta and Athens, Georgia. Our interest here is driven by the need to identify a good climatological reference series for a given station.
Consumers, crazies and killer whales: The environment on New Zealand television

This study is an analysis of environmental content on New Zealand-produced television. A quantitative and qualitative content analysis was undertaken of 140 hours of programming, across all genres, from four New Zealand television channels. Programmes were analysed for the prevalence of environmental content, which specific topics were mentioned and how the environment was positioned in relation to the programme’s narrative. The study found that television’s attention to the environment is relatively infrequent, with a diverse range of issues and perspectives. While these portrayals were almost always positive towards the environment, they were frequently linked to consumerist values, positioned as separate from everyday reality and were generally supportive of the social and political status quo. An exception to this was programming aimed at Māori audiences, where environmental issues were linked to traditional cultural knowledge and the natural world was of more relevance to everyday life.
Activation of the Cation Channel Long Transient Receptor Potential Channel 2 (LTRPC2) by Hydrogen Peroxide

LTRPC2 is a cation channel recently reported to be activated by adenosine diphosphate-ribose (ADP-ribose) and NAD. Since ADP-ribose can be formed from NAD and NAD is elevated during oxidative stress, we studied whole cell currents and increases in the intercellular free calcium concentration ([Ca2+] i ) in long transient receptor potential channel 2(LTRPC2)-transfected HEK 293 cells after stimulation with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Cation currents carried by monovalent cations and Ca2+ were induced by H2O2 (5 mm in the bath solution) as well as by intracellular ADP-ribose (0.3 mm in the pipette solution) but not by NAD (1 mm). H2O2-induced currents developed slowly after a characteristic delay of 3–6 min and receded after wash-out of H2O2. [Ca2+] i was rapidly increased by H2O2 inLTRPC2-transfected cells as well as in control cells; however, in LTRPC2-transfected cells, H2O2 evoked a second delayed rise in [Ca2+] i . A splice variant of LTRPC2 with a deletion in the C terminus (amino acids 1292–1325) was identified in neutrophil granulocytes. This variant was stimulated by H2O2 as the wild type. However, it did not respond to ADP-ribose. We conclude that activation of LTRPC2 by H2O2 is independent of ADP-ribose and that LTRPC2 may mediate the influx of Na+ and Ca2+during oxidative stress, such as the respiratory burst in granulocytes.
Effects of intelligibility and speaking rate on judgements of non-native speakers’ personalities

This study analyses the responses given by 28 American undergraduate students at an American university to a passage read by 10 ESL speakers of 5 different L1 backgrounds (Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Hindi) on intelligibility, proficiency, social evaluational traits, speaking rate, and irritation. The results show that proficiency and intelligibility in L2 most highly correlate with competence-related traits, such as 'intelligent', 'well-educated', 'leadership ability', and 'hard-working'. Speaking rate only appears to affect intelligibility above a critical number of syllables per second. Irritation is affected by assumptions about a speaker's L1 background, rather than real L1 one.
Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus does not increase the striatal dopamine concentration in parkinsonian humans

Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN‐DBS) has become an effective treatment option in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). Recent animal studies showed an increase of neuronal firing in dopaminergic neurons under effective STN‐DBS. Increased striatal dopamine levels may also contribute to the stimulation's mechanism of action in humans. We investigated the striatal dopamine release in 6 patients with advanced PD under effective bilateral STN‐DBS with positron emission tomography (PET) of the reversible dopamine‐D2/3‐receptor ligand [11C]raclopride (RACLO). Although STN‐DBS proved to be a highly effective treatment in these subjects, we found no significant difference of the striatal RACLO binding between the STN‐DBS–on and –off condition. The changes of radioligand binding did not correlate with the patients' improvement in clinical rating scales or with the stimulation amplitudes. Therefore, our PET data in living parkinsonian humans do not provide evidence for an increased striatal dopamine concentration under effective STN‐DBS. We conclude that the modulation of dopaminergic activity does not seem to play a crucial role for the stimulation's mechanisms of action in parkinsonian humans. © 2002 Movement Disorder Society
Supported access to modern foreign language lessons

Teaching assistants (TAs) have become increasingly common in modern foreign language (MFL) classrooms. For some more experienced teachers of MFL, having the support of a TA may be a relatively new experience. For some TAs, supporting pupils and teachers in an MFL lesson may be an experience which poses challenges which they do not face in English or maths or geography, for example. The use of the target language by the teacher and pupils, and the TA's perceived level of competence in the target language are issues which do not arise in the same way in other subjects. This article reports on a small-scale research project, based in West Yorkshire, which examined issues relating to good, collaborative practice between the MFL teacher and the TA. Lessons were observed and video-recorded, questionnaires were issued to teachers and TAs, and group interviews were conducted with pupils to provide as full a picture as was feasible. It was found that collaborative practices between the teacher and TA had not been consciously developed but had evolved over the years in an ad hoc manner. Little or no time was available for joint and separate training, for joint pre-lesson preparation, discussion of the topic for today or agreement on an appropriate modus operandi. Is not this collaboration too important to be left to chance?
modeling in physiology Statistical properties of breath-to-breath variations in ventilation at constant PETCO 2 and PETO 2 in humans

Liang, Pei-Ji, JaideepJ.Pandit, andPeterA.Robbins. Statistical properties of breath-to-breath variations in ventilation at constant PETCO2 and PETO2 in humans. J. Appl. Physiol. 81(5): 2274–2286, 1996. —The purpose of this study was to provide a statistical description of the breath-to-breath variations in ventilation during steady breathing in both rest and during light exercise, with the end-tidal gases controlled by using an end-tidal forcing system. Sixty data sets were studied, only one of which was white (i.e., did not show autocorrelation). Three simple autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models, i.e., AR1, AR2, and AR1MA1, and one simple state-space model were fitted to the data and resulted in white residuals in 15, 31, 46, and 48 out of 60 occasions, respectively. Evolutionary spectral analysis revealed that only 13 data sets had a constant power spectrum, although 50 were uniformly modulated. An autoregressive estimate of variance could be used to ‘‘demodulate’’ the data in most cases, but the results were not significantly affected by fitting the model to the demodulated data. The results indicate that 1) both simple ARMAmodels and a simple state-space model can describe the autocorrelation present; 2) variations in spectral power were present in the data that cannot be described by these models; and 3) these variations were often due to a uniform modulation and did not significantly affect the coefficients for the models. For these kinds of data, a heteroscedastic form of state-space model provides an attractive theoretical structure for the noise processes.
Leadership competencies across organizational levels: a test of the pipeline model

Purpose – This paper aims to test the pipeline model of leadership development by investigating how the competency profile change across position levels.Design/methodology/approach – The skill and importance ratings in leadership competencies were compared between four position levels. The data were from an archive 360 degree feedback (n=770). Six SMEs were also employed to rate the importance of the competencies.Findings – The study found that the difference between two positions in terms of the relative importance of the competencies increases as the organizational hierarchical distance between the two positions increases. Comparing the skill ratings yielded similar results. Further, the correlation between the skill and importance ratings for the same position level was higher than correlations of the two types of ratings for different position levels.Research limitations/implications – The study discusses the implications of the research findings in the context of leadership development and succession.
The effect of first-level cache improvements on the RAMpage memory hierarchy

The RAMpage memory hierarchy is an alternative memory organization which addresses the growing CPU-DRAM speed gap, by replacing the lowest-level cache by an SRAM main memory. This paper presents some modifications to the RAMpage hierarchy. More aggressive first level cache implementations are shown to improve performance of the RAMpage model, when context switches were taken on misses to DRAM.
Efficacy of recombinant human deoxyribonuclease I in the hospital management of respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of recombinant human deoxyribonuclease I (rhDNase) in shortening the length of the hospitalization and improving the chest radiographs (CXRs) in hospitalized infants with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection as a result of its mucolytic properties. METHODS Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled investigation of 75 patients with RSV bronchiolitis. The study was conducted at the University of Michigan Medical Center and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, both in Ann Arbor, MI. RESULTS The respiratory rate, wheezing, and retraction difference scores, obtained by subtracting the hospital discharge score from the corresponding hospital admission score, show no difference between the two groups, but the CXR difference scores show that the rhDNase group improved by 0.46 while the placebo group worsened by 0.60 (p < 0.001). Analysis of covariance for the hospital discharge CXR score after adjusting for the hospital admission score for both groups was done. There was a difference in scores between the two groups, with adjusted mean for the study group of 2.03, and 2.76 for the placebo group (p < 0.001). Paired t test statistics in each of the two groups were computed. For the placebo group, the mean increase of 0.60 was significant (p = 0.02), and the mean decrease of 0.46 for the rhDNase group was also significant (p = 0.02). A one-way analysis of covariance with the hospital discharge CXR scores as the dependent variable and the hospital admission score as the covariate showed that there was a significant difference between the groups (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION In patients with RSV bronchiolitis, there was significant improvement in the CXRs with the use of rhDNase compared to significant worsening in the placebo group. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the use of rhDNase to treat RSV bronchiolitis.
Development of proximal formative assessment skills in video-based teacher professional development

Developing skills for proximal formative assessment is a primary goal of the academic-year professional development course offered by the Energy Project at SPU. We have adapted a video club model (Sherin & Han, 2004) in which groups of teachers watch and discuss video of classroom interactions. In this paper, we use a framework developed by Sherin & Han to analyze teacher reasoning about student understanding in an episode of video from our course. Teachers in the video use evidence from student interactions to propose general models of student thinking about energy. Our analysis suggests that the video-based professional development supports teachers in developing their professional vision for teaching: practicing the selective attention to and reasoning about evidence of student understanding that is required for proximal formative assessment.
NEW STRING AMPLITUDES FROM OLD FERMAT (HYPER)SURFACES

The bosonic string theory evolved as an attempt to find a multidimensional analogue of Euler's beta function to describe the multiparticle Veneziano amplitudes. Such an analogue had in fact been known in mathematics at least in 1922. Its mathematical meaning was studied subsequently from different angles by mathematicians such as Selberg, Weil and Deligne among others. The mathematical interpretation of multidimensional beta function that was developed subsequently is markedly different from that described in physics literature. This paper aims to bridge the gap between the mathematical and physical treatments of such beta functions thus providing new topological, algebro-geometric, number-theoretic and combinatorial treatments of the multiparticle Veneziano and Veneziano-like amplitudes. As a result, the entirely new physical meaning of these amplitudes is emerging: they are periods connected with differential forms living on Fermat (hyper)surfaces. Such surfaces are considered as complex projective varieties of Hodge type. Obtained results allow to interpret the particle mass spectrum in terms of the Hodge spectrum of underlying Fermat (hyper)surface. The computational formalism although resembles that used in mirror symmetry calculations employs many additional results from topology, number theory, theory of singularities, etc. It allows to obtain the correlation functions in particle physics and conformal field theories using the same type of the Picard–Fuchs equations.