Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self‐report data in cross‐cultural research: issues of construct validity in questionnaires for quantitative research in educational leadership

This paper examines issues arising from the use of self‐report questionnaires in cross‐cultural contexts. The research draws from the extensive literature on cross‐cultural leadership in business organizational culture as well as from educational cross‐cultural contexts. It examines claims, drawn from business and educational contexts, that many questionnaires are poorly conceptualized and constructed leading to misleading data and conclusions. Specifically it looks at how questionnaires are constructed, how the roles of researcher and researched are conceptualized and the extent to which research can be seen as ethnocentric or emic. Throughout, it applies the findings to the Gulf‐Arab context. Findings raise questions as to the validity of some cross‐cultural research and implications for the field as a whole. It calls for greater transparency in the research papers of how concepts are derived and matched, samples selected and scales derived and tested. The implications apply not only to the Gulf region but also to wider cross‐cultural research.
E‐cadherin is involved in the intrahepatic metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma

In human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the liver is the major target organ of metastasis, which is known as intrahepatic metastasis. To analyze the mechanism of this metastasis, we established two sublines from the human HCC cell line Li7. Subline Li7HM produced multiple liver metastasis, whereas subline Li7NM never did so after intrasplenic injection into nude mice. Two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis and immunoblot analysis showed that only Li7NM expressed vimentin and lacked E‐cadherin expression, indicating that this clone had undergone epithelial‐mesenchymal transition. We then transfected mouse E‐cadherin complementary DNA into Li7NM cells and found that the transfectant cells (EM16.21B.3) formed liver metastasis (8/16 mice) after intrasplenic injection and liver tumors (11/13 mice) after intrahepatic injection, whereas the control cell line formed no tumors. These results suggest that E‐cadherin plays an important role in the process of intrahepatic metastasis of HCC.
The human KLK8 (neuropsin/ovasin) gene: identification of two novel splice variants and its prognostic value in ovarian cancer.

UNLABELLED KLK8 (neuropsin/ovasin) is a new member of the human kallikrein gene family, which consists of enzymes with serine protease enzymatic activity. Recent reports have implicated KLK8 in ovarian cancer. KLK8 may have potential clinical value for disease diagnosis or prognosis and it may also be a useful therapeutic target. PURPOSE We undertook this study to evaluate the prognostic value of KLK8 in ovarian carcinoma by examining its expression in ovarian tumors. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The KLK8 gene was analyzed by reverse transcription-PCR and direct sequencing in several human normal tissues. Subsequently, its expression was studied in a set of ovarian tumors, and statistical analysis was performed. RESULTS We have identified two novel mRNA splice variants of the KLK8 gene, which are abundantly expressed in many tissues. These new variants were named KLK8 type 3 and type 4. Study of the expression of the KLK8 gene and its spliced variants in ovarian tumors indicated that the new variants were expressed very frequently and that full-length KLK8 expression is an independent and favorable prognostic marker for ovarian cancer. Patients with higher KLK8 expression in the tumor have lower grade disease, lower residual tumor left after surgery, live longer, and relapse less frequently. In multivariate analysis, higher KLK8 expression was significantly associated with longer disease-free survival. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that KLK8 is a novel, favorable prognostic marker in ovarian cancer. Because KLK8 encodes for a predicted secreted protein, its detection in serum may aid in ovarian cancer diagnosis.
A New Programming Scheme for the Improvement of Program Disturb Characteristics in Scaled nand Flash Memory

This paper investigates the new programming scheme to reduce the program disturb in the NAND Flash memory. Program disturb characteristics are determined by the unwilling electron injections in the floating gate of the unselected cells during programming. Thus, the key point to improve the program disturb characteristics is how to suppress the electron injection in the unselected cells. This requirement can be implemented by reducing the number of electrons in the unselected NAND strings prior to programming. By applying negative bias to all the word lines in the selected block, excess electrons can be removed from the channel and source/drain regions into the bit line or the source line using drift and diffusion mechanisms, and also electrons in the surface states can be recombined with accumulated holes before programming. After the pretreatment of electron reduction in the NAND string, a normal NAND program sequence follows. The advantage of the pretreatment before programming has been verified by measuring the 8-Gb NAND Flash memory with a 50-nm technology node. Significant reduction of the threshold voltage shift was observed even after the severe program disturb stress, which corresponds to around 30 times of the programming of the 2 bit/cell operation.
Whole‐Patient Measure of Safety: Using Administrative Data to Assess the Probability of Highly Undesirable Events During Hospitalization

Abstract: Hospitals often have limited ability to obtain primary clinical data from electronic health records to use in assessing quality and safety. We outline a new model that uses administrative data to gauge the safety of care at the hospital level. The model is based on a set of highly undesirable events (HUEs) defined using administrative data and can be customized to address the priorities and needs of different users. Patients with HUEs were identified using discharge abstracts from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2010. Diagnoses were classified as HUEs based on the associated present‐on‐admission status. The 2‐year study population comprised more than 6.5 million discharges from 161 hospitals. The proportion of hospitalizations including at least one HUE during the 24‐month study period varied greatly among hospitals, with a mean of 7.74% (SD 2.3%) and a range of 13.32% (max, 15.31%; min, 1.99%). The whole‐patient measure of safety provides a global measure to use in assessing hospitals with the patient's entire care experience in mind. As administrative and clinical datasets become more consistent, it becomes possible to use administrative data to compare the rates of HUEs across organizations and to identify opportunities for improvement.
Adolescent Peer Tutoring and Special Friend Experiences

Fifteen high school peer tutors and 15 “special friends” interacted daily for a semester with a class of 9 students with severe disabilities. Two measurement systems were employed: an attitude survey and social behavior probes. Social behavior probes were conducted with a familiar student with autism (i.e., a student from the special education class), an unfamiliar student with autism, and an unfamiliar nonhandicapped student. A pretest-posttest experimental design with control group was employed. In general, statistical comparisons of the groups indicated that serving as a peer tutor was equivalent to serving as a special friend across the two measures. However, on one measure (social interaction with an unfamiliar peer with autism) the special friends showed significantly higher levels of social interaction. Both groups interacted more frequently with the familiar student with autism than the unfamiliar student with autism or the unfamiliar nonhandicapped peer. The experimental groups produced substantially longer interactions than the control group.
Depression and marital adjustment during pregnancy and after delivery

Abstract Depressive symptomatology and marital satisfaction during pregnancy and after delivery were studied in 51 couples. Measures of these constructs were obtained during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy and 6 weeks postpartum for all couples. In addition, women also reported on their depressive symptomatology and marital satisfaction at 3 and 9 weeks postpartum and participated in an interview assessment of their depressive symptomatology during the second trimester of pregnancy and 9 weeks postpartum. Depression symptom severity decreased over pregnancy and the postpartum period for both men and women. Significant correlations were obtained between husbands' and wives' depressive symptomatology and between husbands' and wives marital satisfaction at each of the three common assessment points. It was also found that husbands' marital satisfaction at 6 weeks postpartum was significantly correlated with their wives' satisfaction with the social support provided by them. The implications of t.
The role of the family in heritage language use and learning: impact on heritage language policies

We analyze the way children and youngsters perceive the role of family in the use and acquisition of the heritage language (HL), through two complementary means: drawings produced by children and students participating in a discussion forum. Our study reveals: (1) the convergence of perceptions that children and adolescents have about family involvement and its roles in the maintenance of the HL, in terms of affective, cognitive, and interactional support; and (2) the affective, cognitive, and interactional scaffolding family provides for HL development. The analysis guides the proposition of several means of fostering the family's engagement in HL education, going beyond traditional roles and encouraging participative and deliberative actions within the curriculum, the programs, and the classroom.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Health Status: The Veterans Health Study

This article examines the association between self-reported prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and health status in a sample of 2425 male Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ambulatory care patients who participated in the Veterans Health Study. Participants were recruited at 1 of 4 VA outpatient clinics in the Boston area. They completed self-report measures of PTSD (using the PTSD Checklist and measures of exposure to traumatic events), depression (using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies—Depression scale), and health status (using the Short-Form-36) and a medical history interview assessing 22 conditions and a history of psychiatric treatment. The screening prevalence of PTSD was 20.2% among all patients (24.3% among those exposed to traumatic events); another 15.5% met the criteria for depression but not PTSD. The health status of patients with either PTSD or depression was significantly worse than that of patients with neither disorder, even after controlling for age, education, and number of comorbid medical conditions. Patients with PTSD reported more medical conditions than did other patients. Patients with PTSD currently in mental health treatment had worse health status than did those who reported no treatment; the health status of patients who reported past mental health treatment was generally comparable to that of those with no treatment. The prevalence and comorbidity of PTSD among this sample of VA ambulatory care patients were higher than previously reported among samples of community-residing adults. The association of PTSD with health status was substantial, suggesting that the burden of PTSD is at least comparable to, and may be worse than, that of depression. Mental health treatment alleviated some of this burden. The potential impact of PTSD on health status should be more widely recognized.
First-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters

WMAP precision data enable accurate testing of cosmological models. We find that the emerging standard model of cosmology, a flat Λ-dominated universe seeded by a nearly scale-invariant adiabatic Gaussian fluctuations, fits the WMAP data. For the WMAP data only, the best-fit parameters are h = 0.72 ± 0.05, Ωbh2 = 0.024 ± 0.001, Ωmh2 = 0.14 ± 0.02, τ = 0.166, ns = 0.99 ± 0.04, and σ8 = 0.9 ± 0.1. With parameters fixed only by WMAP data, we can fit finer scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements and measurements of large-scale structure (galaxy surveys and the Lyα forest). This simple model is also consistent with a host of other astronomical measurements: its inferred age of the universe is consistent with stellar ages, the baryon/photon ratio is consistent with measurements of the [D/H] ratio, and the inferred Hubble constant is consistent with local observations of the expansion rate. We then fit the model parameters to a combination of WMAP data with other finer scale CMB experiments (ACBAR and CBI), 2dFGRS measurements, and Lyα forest data to find the model's best-fit cosmological parameters: h = 0.71, Ωbh2 = 0.0224 ± 0.0009, Ωmh2 = 0.135, τ = 0.17 ± 0.06, ns(0.05 Mpc-1) = 0.93 ± 0.03, and σ8 = 0.84 ± 0.04. WMAP's best determination of τ = 0.17 ± 0.04 arises directly from the temperature-polarization (TE) data and not from this model fit, but they are consistent. These parameters imply that the age of the universe is 13.7 ± 0.2 Gyr. With the Lyα forest data, the model favors but does not require a slowly varying spectral index. The significance of this running index is sensitive to the uncertainties in the Lyα forest. By combining WMAP data with other astronomical data, we constrain the geometry of the universe, Ωtot = 1.02 ± 0.02, and the equation of state of the dark energy, w < -0.78 (95% confidence limit assuming w ≥ -1). The combination of WMAP and 2dFGRS data constrains the energy density in stable neutrinos: Ωνh2 < 0.0072 (95% confidence limit). For three degenerate neutrino species, this limit implies that their mass is less than 0.23 eV (95% confidence limit). The WMAP detection of early reionization rules out warm dark matter.
Self-Reported Poor Work Ability—An Indicator of Need for Rehabilitation? A Cross-Sectional Study of a Sample of German Employees

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to assess associations of self-reported work ability as measured by the Work Ability Index (WAI) with modifiable behavioral and occupational health risks, health service utilization, and intended rehabilitation and pension requests. DesignThis is a cross-sectional study of a random sample of German employees aged 40–54 yrs on sickness benefits in 2012 (trial registration: DRKS00004824). ResultsIn total, 1312 male and 1502 female employees were included in the analyses. Low WAI scores (i.e., <37 points) were associated with a higher prevalence of occupational and behavioral health risks; a higher likelihood of frequent visits to general, somatic, and psychologic specialists as well as hospital stays; and four to six times higher risks of intended rehabilitation and pension requests. A two-item version of the WAI was as strongly associated with intended rehabilitation and pension requests as the total score. ConclusionsThis study indicates that the WAI is a sensitive screening tool to identify workers on sick leave with a probable need for rehabilitation. The WAI could support the assessment of need for rehabilitation by occupational health services in return-to-work strategies, which include the opportunity to access multiprofessional rehabilitation.
Environmental paradigms and organisations with an environmental mission

Over the past 20 years scholars have argued that key to achieving sustainability are the paradigms of organisational leaders, with these needing to move away from anthropocentric toward sustaincentric and or ecocentric perspectives. This paper reports on an empirical study that explored the views of leaders of a series of environmentally focused organisations, linking their views to the paradigm scheme of Gladwin et al. (1995) in an attempt to understand how their rhetoric is aligned to different paradigms. Findings suggest that interviewees lean towards sustaincentrism and/or ecocentrism in their rhetoric but that they also support some anthropocentric assumptions particularly with regard to economic assumptions. In support, some simple practises brought forward by the sample as helpful in embedding sustainability awareness within their organisations are also highlighted. The paper concludes that the organisations suffer with fiscal drag but also demonstrate a new 'future normal'.
Novel fixed z-direction (FiZD) kidney primordia and an organoid culture system for time-lapse confocal imaging

ABSTRACT Tissue, organ and organoid cultures provide suitable models for developmental studies, but our understanding of how the organs are assembled at the single-cell level still remains unclear. We describe here a novel fixed z-direction (FiZD) culture setup that permits high-resolution confocal imaging of organoids and embryonic tissues. In a FiZD culture a permeable membrane compresses the tissues onto a glass coverslip and the spacers adjust the thickness, enabling the tissue to grow for up to 12 days. Thus, the kidney rudiment and the organoids can adjust to the limited z-directional space and yet advance the process of kidney morphogenesis, enabling long-term time-lapse and high-resolution confocal imaging. As the data quality achieved was sufficient for computer-assisted cell segmentation and analysis, the method can be used for studying morphogenesis ex vivo at the level of the single constituent cells of a complex mammalian organogenesis model system. Summary: Time-lapse confocal imaging of organoids and embryonic tissues through fixed z-direction culture allows long-term single-cell resolution live imaging of tissue growth and morphogenesis.
Conditions for viral influence spreading through multiplex correlated social networks

A fundamental problem in network science is to predict how certain individuals are able to initiate new networks to spring up "new ideas". Frequently, these changes in trends are triggered by a few innovators who rapidly impose their ideas through "viral" influence spreading producing cascades of followers fragmenting an old network to create a new one. Typical examples include the raise of scientific ideas or abrupt changes in social media, like the raise of Facebook.com to the detriment of Myspace.com. How this process arises in practice has not been conclusively demonstrated. Here, we show that a condition for sustaining a viral spreading process is the existence of a multiplex correlated graph with hidden "influence links". Analytical solutions predict percolation phase transitions, either abrupt or continuous, where networks are disintegrated through viral cascades of followers as in empirical data. Our modeling predicts the strict conditions to sustain a large viral spreading via a scaling form of the local correlation function between multilayers, which we also confirm empirically. Ultimately, the theory predicts the conditions for viral cascading in a large class of multiplex networks ranging from social to financial systems and markets.
Preparation for Transition to Mainstreamed Post-Preschool Environments: Development of a Survival Skills Curriculum

Children with handicaps need preparation to successfully negotiate the transition from preschool to kindergarten or elementary school. Different classroom demands are placed on preschoolers and kindergartners. Without specific instruction during preschool, children with handicaps may not acquire the survival skills necessary to learn in kindergarten or first grade. However, reports of curricula to teach survival skills are rare or nonexistent. This paper describes the development of such a curriculum. After conducting extensive observations of kindergarten and first-grade classrooms, the authors identified nine commonly occurring mainstreamed activities, analyzed the skills necessary to participate in these activities, and developed a curriculum to teach them. To teach children to respond independently to their environment rather than to engage in set routines, the curriculum used planned variations for directions following and locating materials as well as fading of teacher assistance. Most children mastered the survival skills. Limited follow-up information suggested that they used them in subsequent placements.
The relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction

Purpose – This study aims to examine whether the relationship between employee satisfaction (ES) and customer satisfaction (CS) is bilateral or unilateral based on dyadic data. In addition, it seeks to examine the role of moderating variables which have incremental impacts on this link.Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted an empirical test on this relationship in an educational service context. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypotheses.Findings – Results indicate that employee satisfaction leads to CS but CS did not affect ES, which suggests that the relationship between ES and CS is unilateral rather than bilateral. The findings also demonstrate that the dispositional variables (i.e. self efficacy, cooperative orientation) moderate the impact of ES on CS.Research limitations/implications – This study provided theoretical implications for the ES‐CS relationship.Practical implications – This finding suggests that top level management in the service industry must take a.
Internet sexual activity: A comparison between contact and non-contact child pornography offenders

Abstract By exploring the internet sexual activity of two groups of adult male child pornography offenders (n = 110), this study sought to identify potential risk factors associated with those offenders who also sexually abused minors. In this endeavour, six areas of internet sexual activity were explored: (1) the level of involvement with child pornography; (2) the level of involvement with non-pornographic material depicting minors; (3) the online seduction of minors; (4) the level of communication with individuals who also have a sexual interest in minors; (5) the level of involvement with adult pornography; and (6) the level of involvement in internet chatrooms related to adults. Results indicated that child pornography offenders are a heterogeneous group. Additionally, dispositional factors related to substance abuse, antisocial orientation and deviant sexual interest and situational factors related to internet sexual activity discriminated child pornography offenders who sexually abused minors from those who did not.
Recent progresses in deep learning based acoustic models

In this paper, we summarize recent progresses made in deep learning based acoustic models and the motivation and insights behind the surveyed techniques. We first discuss models such as recurrent neural networks U+0028 RNNs U+0029 and convolutional neural networks U+0028 CNNs U+0029 that can effectively exploit variablelength contextual information, and their various combination with other models. We then describe models that are optimized end-to-end and emphasize on feature representations learned jointly with the rest of the system, the connectionist temporal classification U+0028 CTC U+0029 criterion, and the attention-based sequenceto-sequence translation model. We further illustrate robustness issues in speech recognition systems, and discuss acoustic model adaptation, speech enhancement and separation, and robust training strategies. We also cover modeling techniques that lead to more efficient decoding and discuss possible future directions in acoustic model research.