Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variability and predictability of elite competitive slalom canoe-kayak performance

Abstract Little is known about the race performance characteristics of elite-level slalom canoeists or the magnitude of improvement necessary to enhance medal-winning prospects. Final placing in this sport is determined by the aggregate of semi-final and final run times inclusive of penalty times. We therefore used mixed linear modelling to analyse these times for finalists ranked in the top and bottom half in the men's canoe, men's kayak, and women's kayak boat classes at World Cups, World Championships, and Olympic Games from 2000 to 2007. The run-to-run variability for top-ranked athletes at different courses ranged from 0.8% to 3.2% (90% confidence limits ×/÷1.11–1.31), reflecting differences in how challenging these courses were. The race-to-race variability of aggregate run time was 1.2–2.1% (×/÷~1.09); 0.3 of this variability yields the smallest worthwhile enhancement of 0.4–0.6%. The variabilities of bottom-ranked finalists were approximately double those of top-ranked finalists. The home advantage was small (0.3–0.8%), and incurring a penalty had a marginal effect on reducing actual run time (0.2–0.7%). Correlation coefficients for performance predictability within competitions (0.06–0.35), within years (0.12–0.47), and between years (0.12–0.43) were poor. In conclusion, the variability of performance and smallest worthwhile enhancements in slalom canoe-kayaking are larger than those of comparable sports, and race outcomes are largely unpredictable.
Gas lasers.

A review is given of the present status of gas discharge lasers, with particular attention to developments reported in 1965 and early 1966. Following a brief history, gas lasers are classified by types-neutral atom, ion, and molecular-and a comparison is given of the properties of the various types. A short discussion is given of noise and coherence properties. Detailed descriptions are given of three recent developments of particular interest-the CO(2) laser, the argon-ion laser, and pulsed self-terminating lasers. Finally, brief mention is made of the most important present applications of gas lasers.
Examining Form and Function of Dendritic Spines

The majority of fast excitatory synaptic transmission in the central nervous system takes place at protrusions along dendrites called spines. Dendritic spines are highly heterogeneous, both morphologically and functionally. Not surprisingly, there has been much speculation and debate on the relationship between spine structure and function. The advent of multi-photon laser-scanning microscopy has greatly improved our ability to investigate the dynamic interplay between spine form and function. Regulated structural changes occur at spines undergoing plasticity, offering a mechanism to account for the well-described correlation between spine size and synapse strength. In turn, spine structure can influence the degree of biochemical and perhaps electrical compartmentalization at individual synapses. Here, we review the relationship between dendritic spine morphology, features of spine compartmentalization and synaptic plasticity. We highlight emerging molecular mechanisms that link structural and functional changes in spines during plasticity, and also consider circumstances that underscore some divergence from a tight structure-function coupling. Because of the intricate influence of spine structure on biochemical and electrical signalling, activity-dependent changes in spine morphology alone may thus contribute to the metaplastic potential of synapses. This possibility asserts a role for structural dynamics in neuronal information storage and aligns well with current computational models.
Prognostic value of lymph node ratio in stage IIIC epithelial ovarian cancer with node-positive in a SEER population-based study

To assess the prognostic value of the lymph node ratio (LNR) in patients with stage IIIC epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) with node-positive in a Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) population-based study. Data of patients were obtained from the SEER database from 1990 to 2012, and analyzed using Kaplan-Meier survival methods and Cox regression proportional hazard model. The prognostic value of the LNR on cause-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) were calculated. A total of 5,926 patients were identified. Univariate analysis showed that the number of removed lymph nodes (RLNs), the number of positive lymph nodes, and the LNR were significantly associated with CSS and OS (P < 0.05 for all). Multivariate analysis indicated that a higher LNR was an independent prognostic factor for poorer CSS (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.896, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.709-2.104, P < 0.001) and OS (HR:1.679, 95% CI: 1.454-1.939, P < 0.001). Among patients with LNR ≤ 0.42 and those with LNR > 0.42, the 5-year CSS was 53.1% and 34.7%, respectively (P < 0.001), and the 5-year OS was 50.4% and 32.0%, respectively (P < 0.001). The prognostic value of the LNR persisted for patients after stratification by the numbers of RLNs, tumor histology, and tumor grade. LNR is a more accurate prognostic method for stage IIIC EOC patients. Patients with a higher LNR are associated with poorer survival in stage IIIC EOC.
Amylase production by solid-state fermentation of agro-industrial wastes using Bacillus sp.

Solid state fermentation was carried out using various agro- industrial wastes with the best amylase producing strain isolated from soil. Different physicochemical conditions were varied for maximum enzyme production. The strain produced about 5400 units/g of amylase at 1:3 moisture content, 20% inoculum, after 72 h of incubation with Mustard Oil seed cake as the substrate. The optimum temperature and pH of the enzyme activity were found to be 50°C and 6 respectively. The enzyme was found to be thermostable at 70°C for about 2 h without any salt. It showed stability at pH range 5–7. The metal ions as Na+, Ca++, Mg++ and Co++ enhanced the enzyme activity.
The Effects of Kicking Leg Preference on Balance Ability in Elite Soccer Players

The Effects of Kicking Leg Preference on Balance Ability in Elite Soccer Players with leg asymmetry linked to this injury occurrence. Screening for balance deficits is used as a predictor of potential injury; therefore the aim of this study was to determine whether static and dynamic balance differs in elite soccer players preferred kicking and nonpreferred kicking legs. Fifteen male professional soccer players were tested for static balance; standing on one leg, and dynamic balance, a hop and hold task and a kicking task. Balance ability was assessed by measuring centre of pressure deviation. Results indicated that static balance and hop and hold tests were not significantly different (p>0.05) when dominant and non-dominant kicking legs were compared. The kicking balance task indicated a significant increase (p≤0.05) in balance ability for the player’s nondominant limbs. Further, left sided players had significantly better (p≤0.05) dominant leg balance when compared to right sided players. These findings suggest that the static and dynamic balance tasks employed in this study were not specific enough to establish possible balance asymmetries in professional elite soccer players, while the passing dynamic balance test seems to be sensitive enough to show dominant and non-dominant leg discrepancies. It is therefore suggested that balance tasks, used to screen players, need to mimic the actions linked to injuries within soccer in order to explore dominant and non-dominant asymmetry.
Severity of alcoholism in Indian males: Correlation with age of onset and family history of alcoholism

Background: Family History of Alcoholism and earlier Age of Onset are found to predict Severity of alcoholism. Previous Indian studies in this regard have methodological issues related to the definition of alcoholism and reliability of information obtained. Aims: To study the relationship between the Age of onset/Family History and Severity of alcoholism. Settings and Design: Consecutively admitted, 20 to 50 year old men, with alcohol-related problems at an urban teaching hospital, were recruited. Materials and Methods: After detoxification, alcohol use detection inventory test, severity of alcohol dependence questionnaire, schedule for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry, and family interview for genetic studies were administered. Family history density was computed. Statistics: Pearson’s correlations, linear regression, and ANOVA tests were used. Results: Family history density and severity of alcoholism were positively correlated. Age of onset of initiation had a significant negative correlation with severity. The effect of family history on the rapidity of development of Problem-drinking did not reach statistical significance among those with early age of onset. The variance explained by the ‘family history status’ and ‘age of onset’ for the severity of alcoholism was similar to that reported in earlier western studies. Conclusion: This study, with enhanced methodology, using a general hospital sample of problem drinkers concludes that the age of onset of initiation is a better predictor of severity of alcoholism, than family history of alcoholism alone. Postponing the use of alcohol till the age of 25 years could be explored as a primary prevention strategy in genetically vulnerable adolescents.
Validity of Social, Moral and Emotional Facets of Self-Description Questionnaire II

Studies adopting a construct validity approach can be categorized into within- and between-network studies. Few studies have applied between-network approach and tested the correlations of the social (same-sex relations, opposite-sex relations, parent relations), moral (honesty-trustworthiness), and emotional (emotional stability) facets of the Self-Description Questionnaire II with external criteria. Using a sample of high school students (n = 628), the authors examined the relations of these 5 nonacademic self-concept facets with nonacademic external criteria (between-network studies) besides examining the factor structure of these five facets of self-concept (within-network studies). Results provided strong support for the convergent validity in that each predicted correlation was statistically significant. Also, the discriminant validity of the 5 nonacademic subscales was clearly demonstrated by showing that each external criterion was more highly correlated with the predicted (matching) Self-Description Questionnaire II subscale than any of the Self-Description Questionnaire II subscales. Hence, these facets of self-concept are 5 distinct factors.
Altered retrieval of melodic information in congenital amusia: insights from dynamic causal modeling of MEG data

Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder that primarily manifests as a difficulty in the perception and memory of pitch-based materials, including music. Recent findings have shown that the amusic brain exhibits altered functioning of a fronto-temporal network during pitch perception and short-term memory. Within this network, during the encoding of melodies, a decreased right backward frontal-to-temporal connectivity was reported in amusia, along with an abnormal connectivity within and between auditory cortices. The present study investigated whether connectivity patterns between these regions were affected during the short-term memory retrieval of melodies. Amusics and controls had to indicate whether sequences of six tones that were presented in pairs were the same or different. When melodies were different only one tone changed in the second melody. Brain responses to the changed tone in “Different” trials and to its equivalent (original) tone in “Same” trials were compared between groups using Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM). DCM results confirmed that congenital amusia is characterized by an altered effective connectivity within and between the two auditory cortices during sound processing. Furthermore, right temporal-to-frontal message passing was altered in comparison to controls, with notably an increase in “Same” trials. An additional analysis in control participants emphasized that the detection of an unexpected event in the typically functioning brain is supported by right fronto-temporal connections. The results can be interpreted in a predictive coding framework as reflecting an abnormal prediction error sent by temporal auditory regions towards frontal areas in the amusic brain.
Simultaneous and successive synthesis: An alternative model for cognitive abilities.

Current theories of the structure of cognitive abilities are critically examined and found to lack adequate description of the processes underlying the abilities. An alternative model, Luria's theory of simultaneous and successive syntheses, is presented and discussed. This model of information processing is supported by a number of factor analytic studies of cognitive abilities and then related to data from studies of memory, imagery, and language. Finally, a model of abilities in terms of a structure-process distinction is proposed. Ever since intelligence tests were devised, the concept of ability has been advanced as something underlying behavior. Often interchangeable with capacity, intellectual ability has been described as a general factor akin to mental energy (Spearman, 1927), the complexity and flexibility of a person's schemata (Vernon, 1960), a hierachy of reasoning and memory (Burt, 1972; Jensen, 1970), or the ability to meet new situations with old responses. Recently, there seems to be a shift from the postulation and study of abilities to an inquiry into processes (Messick, 1973). One of the apparent advantages of considering processes is their proximity to behavior or performance, describing modes of an individual's functioning in a test situation; it is easier and more meaningful to integrate the interplay between genetic endowments and the historical nature of an individual's experience with the characteristics of the task itself, as determinants of the processes used by an individual, rather than invoke the notion of abilities. Encouragement in viewing cognitive functions in terms of processes also comes from those who oppose faculty psychology. As based on factor analytic work, abilities often emerge as mental faculties, permanent and immutable, and dissociated from behavior. Humphreys (1962a, 1962b), for instance, reacts unfavorably to such a view by listing
BitTorrent in a dynamic resource adapting peer-to-peer network

Our previous work proposed a MPEG-21 based P2P network architecture supporting resource adaptation on the basis of usage environment and user preferences. In this paper, we investigate the deployment of a BitTorrent (BT) - like approach in the previous super-peer P2P resource adaptation architecture. In addition, the architecture's peer selection strategy is adopted and evaluated as a way to enhance the peer selection process in BT. The strategy uses super peers as trackers to intelligently select peers according to their capabilities and shared resource segments. Simulation results show that the proposed selection strategy reduces average access time and increases download speed when compared with the existing BT peer selection process with randomly selected peers. The results also show that the deployment of BT in the P2P adaptation architecture greatly reduces the congested download problem previously reported.
Can feedback improve teaching? A review of the social science literature with a view to identifying the conditions under which giving feedback to teachers will result in improved performance

Abstract In view of the increasingly prominent use in schools and colleges of performance indicators, inspection, appraisal and other forms of performance feedback, it seems important to know what evidence there is that such feedback will produce any improvement in standards, and under what conditions this may be expected to occur. The plausible view that people who receive feedback on a task perform better than those who do not is found to be not universally supported by the empirical evidence. Theories which try to account for the effects of feedback on performance are limited in scope, too vague to be readily operationalized or to enable predictions to be made, and/or supported by only some of the available evidence. An attempt is made to identify the significant variables which mediate the effects of feedback on performance. Important characteristics of the task include its complexity, the balance between the demands of effort and ability, and the availability of other information or instruction. Sign.
The experiences of family caregivers of people with advanced dementia living in nursing homes, with a specific focus on spouses: A narrative literature review

Dementia affects individuals, families and their relationships. While there is increasing evidence about the experiences of family caregivers of people with dementia, relatively little is known of their experiences when their relatives are living in nursing homes with dementia. This narrative literature review aimed to synthesise current knowledge about family caregivers’ experience of having relatives living in nursing homes with advanced dementia, particularly focussing on community-dwelling spouses. Using a systematic approach, textual narrative synthesis was undertaken. Four themes were identified: changing relationships, the need for companionship, adjusting to new roles and relationships and anticipating death/looking towards the future. Two additional themes were present only for spouses: changing identity – feeling married, being married; and alone but… The review demonstrates that some aspects of spouses’ experiences are different from those of other family caregivers. Longitudinal studies are required to better understand spouses’ motivations to continue caring in this context and to find ways of supporting them.
A Theory of Individual Differences in Task and Contextual Performance

This article describes a theory of job performance that assumes that job performance is behavioral, episodic, evaluative, and multidimensional. It defines job performance as the aggregated value to the organization of the discrete behavioral episodes that an individual performs over a standard interval of time. It uses the distinction between task and contextual performance to begin to identify and define underlying dimen- sions of the behavioral episodes that make up the performance domain. The theory predicts that individual differences in personality and cognitive ability variables, in combination with learning experiences, lead to variability in knowledge, skills, and work habits that mediate effects of personality and cognitive ability on job perform- ance. An especially important aspect of this theory is that it predicts that the kinds of knowledge, skills, work habits, and traits that are associated with task performance are different from the kinds that are associated with contextual performance.
To be or not to be: shifting motivations in Chinese secondary school English teachers’ career narratives

As English is now promoted as an academic subject in primary and secondary schools in China, creating an enormous demand for qualified English teachers, there is a need to understand English teachers’ motivation and commitment to the teaching career. In this paper, the author reports on a biographical study of 12 teachers who taught in schools in Chinese hinterland areas so as to understand why they first joined and then left the teaching profession for postgraduate studies. Through interpreting their professional experiences, the author came to understand their ambiguous attitudes towards the teaching profession and their fascination with the English language. Initially, many of them were unwilling to become teachers but were attracted by the teacher education programmes to learn more English. Many of them became more committed to teaching after they had positive professional experiences. However, their sense of satisfaction and achievement were undermined by the challenges that they had to cope with as well as an awareness that they were unable to sustain their professional competence. In order to retain such teachers in the profession, there is a need for teacher educators and educational administrators to work out strategies to support teachers’ demand for linguistic and professional improvement in remote rural areas on the Chinese mainland.
Conservative Traders, Natural Selection and Market Efficiency

This paper examines the impact of conservative traders on market efficiency in an evolutionary model of a commodity futures market. This paper shows that the long-run market outcome is informationally efficient, as long as in every period there is a positive probability that entering traders are more conservative than their predecessors. Conservative traders are those who correctly predict the spot price with a positive probability, and more importantly, who in their mistakes err on the side of caution, and rarely overpredict the spot price as buyers, and underpredict the spot price as sellers. This result does not require entry of traders with better information than their predecessors.
Do corticosteroids improve outcome for any critical illness?

Purpose of review Corticosteroids have been widely administered in critically ill patients for various indications. Their clinical benefit is broadly investigated but remains controversial. The purpose of this review is to explore the use of corticosteroids in intensive care, their impact on patient outcome and to provide practical guidance for the use of corticosteroids in the ICU. Recent findings Critical illness is the result of significant tissue damage, due to cellular ischemia, trauma or infection, inducing a systemic inflammatory syndrome. Recent advances in the understanding of the immunologic and molecular mechanisms of inflammation support, in part, the conceptual use of corticosteroids as an adjunct immunomodulatory therapy. But use of corticosteroids carries the risk of severe adverse effects, partly because of their anti-infammatory effects. Recently, clinical research has focused on critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency and several trials investigated the role of corticosteroids therapy in septic and critically ill patients with severe systemic inflammation such as acute respiratory distress syndrome, severe community-acquired pneumonia and meningitis. Improved morbidity has been demonstrated in some studies but a clear benefit in term of mortality was not observed. Summary Critical illnesses stem from a group of heterogeneous medical conditions. Failure to target subgroups more likely to benefit from the use of corticosteroids may be one explanation for the largely disappointing results in clinical trials, thus, far.