Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Individual Differences in the Accuracy of Confidence Judgments

Abstract Generally, self-assessment of accuracy in the cognitive domain produces overconfidence, whereas self-assessment of visual perceptual judgments results in under-confidence. Despite contrary empirical evidence, in models attempting to explain those phenomena, individual differences have often been disregarded. The authors report on 2 studies in which that shortcoming was addressed. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 520) completed a large number of cognitive-ability tests. Results indicated that individual differences provide a meaningful source of overconfidence and that a metacognitive trait might mediate that effect. In further analysis, there was only a relatively small correlation between test accuracy and confidence bias. In Experiment 2 (N = 107 participants), both perceptual and cognitive ability tests were included, along with measures of personality. Results again indicated the presence of a confidence factor that transcended the nature of the testing vehicle. Furthermore, a small relationship was found between that factor and some self-reported personality measures. Thus, personality traits and cognitive ability appeared to play only a small role in determining the accuracy of self-assessment. Collectively, the present results suggest that there are multiple causes of miscalibration, which current models of over- and underconfidence fail to encompass.
Barefoot usability evaluations

Usability evaluations provide software development teams with insights on the degree to which a software application enables a user to achieve his/her goals, how fast these goals can be achieved, how easy it is to learn and how satisfactory it is in use. Although usability evaluations are crucial in the process of developing software systems with a high level of usability, their use is still limited in the context of small software development companies. Several approaches have been proposed to support software development practitioners (SWPs) in conducting usability evaluations and this paper presents two in-depth empirical studies of supporting SWPs by training them to become barefoot usability evaluators. Findings show that the SWPs after 30 hours of training obtained considerable abilities in identifying usability problems and that this approach revealed a high level of downstream utility. Results also show that the SWPs created relaxed conditions for the test users when acting as test monitors but experienced problems with making users think aloud. Considering the quality of problem descriptions, we found that the SWPs were better at providing clear and precise problem descriptions than at describing the impact, cause, user actions and providing data support for observations.
The H6D variant of NAG‐1/GDF15 inhibits prostate xenograft growth in vivo

Non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug‐activated gene (NAG‐1), a divergent member of the transforming growth factor‐beta superfamily, has been implicated in many cellular processes, including inflammation, early bone formation, apoptosis, and tumorigenesis. Recent clinical studies suggests that a C to G single nucleotide polymorphism at position 6 (histidine to aspartic acid substitution, or H6D) of the NAG‐1 protein is associated with lower human prostate cancer incidence. The objective of the current study is to investigate the activity of NAG‐1 H6D variant in prostate cancer tumorigenesis in vivo.
The effect of working hours on subjective well being

This thesis uses the subjective well being scores o f 53.000 Europeans as a proxy for their utility. It is an attempt to explain the lack of consensus of the role working hours play in the average individual utility function. It will be sho wn that the sample choice and the origin of the sample are important determinants for the relat ion between working hours and subjective well being (SWB), and for the influence working mor e or less than fulltime has on the likelihood of being very happy. The interaction eff ects of different demographic subgroups and 20 different European countries is explored for both the effect of marginal working hours on SWB and the effect of working more or less than full-time on the chance of being very happy. Master Thesis Candidate: Wieke Tonies (280439) Economics of Markets, Organisations and Policy Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rot terdam Supervisor: Prof. dr. Robert Dur August 2011 1 I use utility, subjective well being and overall h appiness interchangeable in this thesis. I’m fully aware of the different meaning of the concepts. I have also take n notice on the doubt many economists have on the u se of subjective well being as a proxy for utility. I do motivate in a separate chapter why this is defendab le, those who are not convinced are advised to just look at this the is as a study on subjective well being.
The Construction of English: Culture, Consumerism and Promotion in the ELT Global Coursebook

The Construction of English examines the representational practices adopted in the mapping of linguistic and cultural terrain in textbooks for the teaching of English as a foreign or international language. It is a research-based study which takes as its object of investigation the financially lucrative and widely disseminated 'global coursebook' which is produced as part of an incremental English course designed for global consumption. It identifies the 'representational repertoires' constructed in a sample of historically bestselling coursebooks and includes interviews in which ELT publishers and practising teachers discuss the nature of coursebook content. Drawing on insights from cultural studies and theoretical perspectives on visual communication and consumerism, the book argues that, in addition to being curriculum artefacts, coursebooks can also be seen as 'promotional commodities' which seek to make English mean in highly selective ways which are often considerend as deeply problematic by the teachers who use them
Stabilization of synchronous generators with the Hamiltonian function approach

Using the Hamiltonian function approach, this paper proposes an energy-based stabilizing method for a fifth-order model of synchronous generators to keep the terminal machine voltage (output) remaining at a given expected value. By constructing a Hamiltonian function as the total energy function for the fifth-order model and changing the system into a forced Hamiltonian system with dissipation, an energy-based Lyapunov function is obtained. As the result, a suitable stabilizing controller is constructed for the system. Simulation shows the effectiveness of the stabilizing method proposed in this paper.
Extracting nonlinear correlation for the classification of single-trial EEG in a finger movement task

The famous common spatial patterns (CSP) algorithm has shown to be useful for event-related desynchronization (ERD) feature extraction of multi-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Actually, CSP only extracts the linear correlation between each pair of channels. The performance of CSP severely depends on the preprocessing. Moreover, CSP and the subsequent classifier are not optimized by the same criteria. In this paper, we investigated the nonlinear correlation between channels with kernel technique, and proposed a unified prediction framework based on linear ridge regression model. This prediction framework integrates preprocessing, feature extraction and classification, can automatically select the time windows, frequency bands and regularization parameter by minimizing leave-one-out cross-validation error through gradient descent. Experimental results on the dataset IV, BCI competition II show the effectiveness of our approach.
Recognizing, defining, and representing problems.

What are the problems that you are currently trying to solve in your life? Most of us have problems that have been posed to us (e.g., assignments from our supervisors). But we also recognize problems on our own (e.g., you might have noticed the need for additional parking space in the city where you work). After identifying the existence of a problem, we must define its scope and goals. The problem of parking space is often seen as a need for more parking lots or parking garages. However, in order to solve this problem creatively, it may be useful to turn it around and redefine it as a problem of too many vehicles requiring a space in which to sit during the workday. In that case, you may be prompted to redefine the problem: You decide to organize a carpool among people who use downtown parking lots and institute a daytime local taxi service using these privately owned vehicles. Thus, you solve the problem not as you originally posed it but as you later reconceived it. Problem solving does not usually begin with a clear statement of the problem; rather, most problems must be identified in the environment; then they must be defined and represented mentally. The focus of this chapter is on these early stages of problem solving: problem recognition, problem definition, and problem representation. THE PROBLEM-SOLVING CYCLE Psychologists have described the problem-solving process in terms of a cycle (Bransford & Stein, 1993; Hayes, 1989; Sternberg, 1986).
Discovering Authentic Self through Healing Relationships: An Inquiry of Implementing Alcoholics Anonymous Theoretical Philosophies to Parenting in Sobriety

This qualitative research study investigated how recovering mothers implemented Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) theoretical philosophies when parenting their children and explored how healing relationships between sober mothers and their children cultivated authenticity, promoted inner healing and improved parent-child relationships. Sober mothers were asked what twelve step concepts they utilized with their children and reflected on how their own recovery experiences helped them to discover their ‘true’ selves. I conducted eight qualitative interviews with sober mothers who attended Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA) along with Crystal Meth Anonymous (CMA) and were parenting children, or had previous parenting experiences, to explore any holistic advantages of parenting in sobriety and gain knowledge of the AA theoretical philosophies these sober mothers implemented with their children. This research study primarily focused on how sober mothers integrated concepts and practices from their twelve step recovery experiences with their children to develop healing relationships and examined how these healing relationships impacted the inner healing and self-discovery process for sober mothers. I used content analysis, which generated conceptual themes, and compared these generated themes to understand the implications associated with an interpretative phenomenology approach to selftransformation while parenting in sobriety. This research study demonstrates how twelve step ideologies reflect a holistic philosophy. Additionally, this qualitative research study might help clinical professionals to better understand the needs of sober mothers and the potential utilization of concepts from twelve step recovery programs which, when applied with children, promoted adaptive parenting skills and fostered inner healing as well as
Cognitive deficits and emotional disorders in HIV‐1 infected individuals

The associations between cognitive functioning, depression questionnaire results, and diagnosed psychiatric disorders were examined among 85 HIV‐1 infected patients at different stages of systemic infection and 39 seronegative controls. An affective scale and a somatic scale of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were used to measure depression. Psychiatric disorders before or after the diagnosis of seropositivity were evaluated. The patients with symptomatic HIV‐1 infection (AIDS related complex, AIDS) reported more somatic symptoms of depression than the subjects with asymptomatic infection or the controls, whereas psychological depression and psychiatric disorders were unrelated to the severity of HIV‐1 disease. Psychiatric disorders diagnosed during HIV‐1 disease were slightly associated with poor verbal memory only among symptomatic patients. Impaired visual memory showed an association with depressive mood and with psychiatric disorders preceding the diagnosis of seropositivity which suggests that factors other than HIV‐1 may explain these subjects' poor visual memory.
Characteristics of middle-aged and elderly women with urinary incontinence

Objective. To describe the prevalence of urinary incontinence and to find characteristics useful in general practice for identifying middle-aged and elderly women with the problem. Design. Cross-sectional interview study. Setting. Population-based samples of Danes. Subjects. A total of 5795 women older than 45 years (46+ years). Main outcome measures. Prevalence of incontinence and clinical characteristics assessed by standardized interview questions. Results. The overall prevalence of urinary incontinence was 20% among women less than 60 years of age and 44% among those older than 80 years. Increasing age was highly associated with both forms of incontinence (stress and urge). High body mass index (BMI), chronic lung disease, and stroke were also associated with both forms, while number of children was associated with stress incontinence only. Predictive models show that 56% of women characterized by high age (older than 80 years) and overweight (BMI higher than 30) will suffer from urinary incontinence. The low-risk group defined by these two parameters (aged 46–60 years and not overweight) still had a 19% prevalence in the last month. Conclusion. The prevalence of urinary incontinence increased with age. Even in the low-risk groups the problem was very common in old age. Questions about incontinence should, therefore, be asked in relevant consultations with all elderly female patients.
On the Diameter of Random Planar Graphs

We show that the diameter diam(Gn ) of a random labelled connected planar graph with n vertices is equal to n1/4+o(1) , in probability. More precisely, there exists a constant c > 0 such that $$ P(\D(G_n)\in(n^{1/4-\e},n^{1/4+\e}))\geq 1-\exp(-n^{c\e}) $$ for ε small enough and n ≥ n0(ε). We prove similar statements for 2-connected and 3-connected planar graphs and maps.
Sterilization regret among women in metropolitan Montreal.

This study represents the final stage in a series of research projects begun 10 years ago that deals with the phenomenon of female sterilization among women in Quebec. In 1982 45% of ever-married Quebec women aged 20-49 were protected from pregnancy by surgical sterilization; 28% had undergone tubal ligation 8% had had a hysterectomy and 10% had a vasectomized husband. Among 40-44 year-olds 69% of ever-married women were protected by surgical sterilization. This article measures the frequency and intensity of regret and explores some of the reasons women give for regretting their decision to undergo sterilization. The connection between regret and womens background characteristics is also examined. The study is based on a randomly selected representative sample of women who underwent tubal sterilization. In the winter of 1985 interviewers at the University of Montreal Centre de Sondage conducted telephone interviews with 497 women aged 25-44 who had had a tubal ligation and were living in the greater Montreal area. To reach a probability sample of about 500 women 9681 telephone numbers within metropolitan Montreal were generated at random by computer. Respondents were asked a number of questions covering a broad range of attitudes and behaviors. The study shows that for the vast majority of women who undergo tubal ligation sterilization is probably the most satisfactory contraceptive method available. For the most part women who are sterilized have given birth to all the children they want to have. However results indicate that the permanence of sterilization can become a serious drawback for a substantial proportion of women who undergo the procedure prematurely. Results clearly show that the length of exposure to the risk of sterilization regret is a key factor in dissatisfaction. Women who undergo sterilization at too young an age have to face many years without the possibility of having another child. It is quite possible that premature recourse to sterilization results from early age at marriage and 1st birth. 97% of women surveyed who were sterilized before age 30 had married before age 25. They may have felt pressured to end their childbearing years early. This profile corresponds to the profile of less-educated women and women who are less interested in working outside the home. Regret occurs far more frequently than most physicians observe. Such a radical procedure should not be recommended to young women who do not have problems with other effective contraceptive methods. At the least young women requesting sterilization should be advised of the possible consequences of making a premature decision. (authors)
Achievable rate regions for the dirty multiple access channel with partial side information at the transmitters

In this paper, we establish achievable rate regions for the multiple access channel (MAC) with side information partially known (estimated or sensed version) at the transmitters. Actually, we extend the lattice strategies used by Philosof-Zamir for the MAC with full side information at the transmitters to the partially known case. We show that the sensed or estimated side information reduces the rate regions, the same as that occurs for Costa Gaussian channel.
Regulating ARM TrustZone Devices in Restricted Spaces

Smart personal devices equipped with a wide range of sensors and peripherals can potentially be misused in various environments. They can be used to exfiltrate sensitive information from enterprises and federal offices or be used to smuggle unauthorized information into classrooms and examination halls. One way to prevent these situations is to regulate how smart devices are used in such restricted spaces. In this paper, we present an approach that robustly achieves this goal for ARM TrustZone-based personal devices. In our approach, restricted space hosts use remote memory operations to analyze and regulate guest devices within the restricted space. We show that the ARM TrustZone allows our approach to obtain strong security guarantees while only requiring a small trusted computing base to execute on guest devices.
Thickness reduction of single layer Circuit Analog Absorber

The thickness of a single-layer broadband circuit analog absorber (CAA) is reduced by adding a frequency selective surface (FSS) of capacitive circuit absorber (CCA) on the top of its unit cell. The proposed idea is established by numerical results simulated in CST MWS, and validated by equivalent circuit analysis. The 10 dB reflection reduction bandwidth remains unchanged (79%), while the thickness at the lowest cut off frequency is reduced from λL/15.16 to λL/15.17.
Mutations in the dihydrofolate reductase gene of trimethoprim-resistant isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates resistant to several antimicrobial agent classes including trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole have been reported with increasing frequency throughout the world. The MICs of trimethoprim, sulfamethoxazole, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (1:19) for 259 clinical isolates from South Africa were determined, and 166 of these 259 (64%) isolates were resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (MICs > or =20 mg/liter). Trimethoprim resistance was found to be more strongly correlated with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole resistance (correlation coefficient, 0.744) than was sulfamethoxazole resistance (correlation coefficient, 0.441). The dihydrofolate reductase genes from 11 trimethoprim-resistant (MICs, 64 to 512 microg/ml) clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae were amplified by PCR, and the nucleotide sequences were determined. Two main groups of mutations to the dihydrofolate reductase gene were found. Both groups shared six amino acid changes (Glu20-Asp, Pro70-Ser, Gln81-His, Asp92-Ala, Ile100-Leu, and Leu135-Phe). The first group included two extra changes (Lys60-Gln and Pro111-Ser), and the second group was characterized by six additional amino acid changes (Glu14-Asp, Ile74-Leu, Gln91-His, Glu94-Asp, Phe147-Ser, and Ala149-Thr). Chromosomal DNA from resistant isolates and cloned PCR products of the genes encoding resistant dihydrofolate reductases were capable of transforming a susceptible strain of S. pneumoniae to trimethoprim resistance. The inhibitor profiles of recombinant dihydrofolate reductase from resistant and susceptible isolates revealed that the dihydrofolate reductase from trimethoprim-resistant isolates was 50-fold more resistant (50% inhibitory doses [ID50s], 3.9 to 7.3 microM) than that from susceptible strains (ID50s, 0.15 microM). Site-directed mutagenesis experiments revealed that one mutation, Ile100-Leu, resulted in a 50-fold increase in the ID50 of trimethoprim. The resistant dihydrofolate reductases were characterized by highly conserved redundant changes in the nucleotide sequence, suggesting that the genes encoding resistant dihydrofolate reductases may have evolved as a result of inter- or intraspecies recombination by transformation.
MICROSTRUCTURE DEGRADATION OF NICKEL BASED SINGLE CRYSTAL SUPERALLOY DURING CREEP

The effect of uniaxial and multiaxial stress conditions on microstructure degradation of single crystal nickel based superalloy CMSX-4 was studied during creep. Cylindrical specimens with multi gauge sections for tensile creep at uniaxial stress conditions and “U type” of notch for creep at multiaxial stress conditions were designed by elastic finite element method (FEM) calculations. The width of the γ’ (Ni3(Al,Ti)) rafts decreases and length of the γ’ rafts and width of the γ channels increase with increasing applied stress and creep time. The multiaxial stress conditions affect the degradation process of the γ/γ’ microstructure when compared to that observed at uniaxial stress conditions. The observed degraded microstructure of creep specimens tested at laboratory conditions is related to that of ex-service turbine blades. External stress of about 50 MPa resulting from centrifugal forces during blade service is determined to be critical, beyond which the role of the internal stresses in formation of the rafted microstructure can be neglected. This stress is in an agreement with the creep experiments at a constant nominal stress of 60 MPa which showed classically rafted microstructure with minor fraction of spontaneous rafts. The width of the γ’ and γ phases increases with increasing temperature and decreasing stress. Increased width of the γ’ phase in regions with lower stresses is in agreement with the previous laboratory experiments, wherein the widest γ’ rafts were measured in specimens exposed to the lowest experimental stresses in later stages of creep.