Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Color Selection in Object Drawings of Young Children

Title of Document: COLOR SELECTION IN OBJECT DRAWINGS OF YOUNG CHILDREN Karen Jesuit Drosinos, Master of Arts, 2006 Directed By: Dr. Susan M. Hendricks, College of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction This action research study examined the selection of color used in six object drawings of young children. Study sample size consisted of eighteen Kindergarten students from a public elementary school in Prince George’s County Public School System, Maryland. This study was organized into three phases. Each phase asked student participants to draw six familiar objects (tree, house, boy, dog, girl, car) while limiting the amount of color selection in each phase. The use of logical color and expressive color was investigated and scores were given to each drawing in order to compare logical color usage. Color trends were also documented to show possible color associations in young children’s representation of everyday objects. The results found that there was an increase in the use of logical color as the selection of color in each phase was minimized. Strong color trends were shown in the representation of the tree and boy images. COLOR SELECTION IN OBJECT DRAWINGS OF YOUNG CHILDREN
Total Hip Arthroplasty: The Relationship between Posterolateral Reconstruction, Abductor Muscle Strength, and Femoral Offset

Purpose. To evaluate the relationship between posterolateral reconstruction, abductor muscle strength, and femoral offset following total hip arthroplasty. Methods. Of 28 patients (56 limbs) we assessed, 12 underwent posterolateral reconstruction (reconstruction group) and 16 did not (non-reconstruction group). Isometric abductor muscle strength was measured with a handheld dynamometer. Each patient's muscle strength was converted into a force to body weight ratio, and this ratio was used in the comparisons. Results. The reconstruction group showed a higher value in abductor muscle strength than the non-reconstruction group (p<0.05). Significant correlation between abductor muscle strength and femoral offset was found in the reconstruction group (p=0.016; r=0.674). Conclusion. Posterolateral reconstruction and appropriate reconstruction of femoral offset following total hip arthroplasty are important to improve the abductor muscle strength.
Patient satisfaction with tourniquet application and local anaesthesia infiltration in carpal tunnel decompression and the relationship with overall satisfaction

Abstract This was a prospective study designed to determine what effect poor tolerance to tourniquet application and local anaesthesia infiltration in open carpal tunnel decompression has on overall patient satisfaction with the surgical procedure. Fifty patients were recruited into the study. Visual analogue scores (VAS) were recorded postoperatively for pain related to tourniquet application, local anaesthesia infiltration and the surgical procedure overall. In terms of the procedure, poor tolerance to the tourniquet and local anaesthetic showed no significant relationship to the overall patient satisfaction (Student t-test). The factors, which are related to satisfaction with carpal tunnel decompression, are discussed.
The Role of Value Orientations and Experience on Attitudes Toward a Well-Liked Threatened Reptile

Eastern box turtles (Terrepene carolina carolina) are often negatively impacted by anthropogenic activities, such as mortality caused by vehicles or agricultural equipment. However, studies investigating human perceptions of a particular species are often directed toward charismatic megafauna or polarizing species, such as wolves. Given the worldwide decline of reptiles and box turtles’ high potential for human-caused mortality, there is a need to investigate the factors affecting public perception of this species. This article investigated respondents’ value orientations, attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intentions directed at box turtles. Mail surveys were distributed to 1,378 respondents of the Blue River Watershed in southern Indiana. Respondents had generally positive attitudes toward the species. However, both attitudes and behavioral intentions were significantly influenced by respondents’ wildlife value orientations, indicating that wildlife value orientations can serve as a predictor of attitudes even when directed at well-liked, but non-charismatic imperiled species.
Internal and External Sources of Organizational Change: Corporate Form and the Banking Industry

How do internal and external constraints impact the likelihood that organizations enact organizational change? Resource dependence theory argues that organizational change is a response to internal and external constraints. However, the interaction of these constraints remains theoretically and empirically underconsidered. Using longitudinal data from the U.S. banking industry, I examine this question from a resource dependence perspective and I also incorporate explanations from transaction cost economics, organizational ecology, and institutional theoretical perspectives. I find that external constraints limit the impact of internal constraints on organizational change. I explore how this finding fits within resource dependence theory.
Structural relations of late night snacking choice attributes and health promotion behaviors according to dietary style of industrial workers

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES This research was conducted to develop a construct model regarding the dietary style, late night snacking choice attributes and health promotion behaviors of industrial workers. SUBJECTS/METHODS The surveys were collected during the period between January and February 2013. A statistical analysis of 888 industrial workers was conducted using SPSS 12.0 for Windows and SEM (Structural Equation Model) using AMOS (Analysis of Moment Structure) 5.0 statistics package. RESULTS The results of the correlations between all variables showed significant positive correlations (P < 0.05). Results of factors analysis on dietary styles were categorized into five factors and health promotion behaviors were categorized into four. The reliability of these findings was supported by a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.6 and higher for all other factors. After obtaining the factors from processing an exploratory factor analysis and the end results supported the validity. In an attempt to study the late night snacking choice attributes in accordance to dietary styles and the health promotion behaviors of industrial workers, a structural equation model was constructed and analyzed. CONCLUSIONS All tests proved the model satisfied the recommended levels of the goodness on fit index, and thus, the overall research model was proved to be appropriate.
African American women principals: heeding the call to serve as conduits for transforming urban school communities

African American women leaders are often found in urban schools that have been exhausted of resources and lack support. However, due to their disproportionate representation in urban schools, African American women principals have become adept at uniting and engaging stakeholders in marginalized school settings into action. The intent for this research project was to illuminate commonalities of African American women leaders of urban school environments and understand how they make sense of their leadership roles. We conducted a focus group interview with three African American women principals of urban schools. Themes that emerged include: Heeding the Call and Staying the Spiritual Course; Understanding Individual Students, Families, and Communities for Change; and Caring for the Human Condition. Findings have implications for leadership preparation and practice.
Evaluating joint effects of induction–salvage treatment regimes on overall survival in acute leukaemia

Summary. Typical oncology practice often includes not only an initial front‐line treatment but also subsequent treatments given if the initial treatment fails. The physician chooses a treatment at each stage based on the patient's baseline covariates and history of previous treatments and outcomes. Such sequentially adaptive medical decision‐making processes are known as dynamic treatment regimes, treatment policies or multistage adaptive treatment strategies. Conventional analyses in terms of front‐line treatments that ignore subsequent treatments may be misleading, because they actually are an evaluation of more than front‐line treatment effects on outcome. We are motivated by data from a randomized trial of four combination chemotherapies given as front‐line treatments to patients with acute leukaemia. Most patients in the trial also received a second‐line treatment, which was chosen adaptively and subjectively rather than by randomization, either because the initial treatment was ineffective or the patient's cancer later recurred. We evaluate effects on overall survival time of the 16 two‐stage strategies that actually were used. Our methods include a likelihood‐based regression approach in which the transition times of all possible multistage outcome paths are modelled, and estimating equations with inverse probability of treatment weighting to correct for bias. Although the two approaches give different numerical estimates of mean survival time, they lead to the same substantive conclusions when comparing the two‐stage regimes.
Evaluation of PCR Systems for Field Screening of Bacillus anthracis

There is little published data on the performance of hand-portable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) systems that can be used by first responders to determine if a suspicious powder contains a potential biothreat agent. We evaluated 5 commercially available hand-portable PCR instruments for detection of Bacillus anthracis. We used a cost-effective, statistically based test plan to evaluate systems at performance levels ranging from 0.85-0.95 lower confidence bound (LCB) of the probability of detection (POD) at confidence levels of 80% to 95%. We assessed specificity using purified genomic DNA from 13 B. anthracis strains and 18 Bacillus near neighbors, potential interference with 22 suspicious powders that are commonly encountered in the field by first responders during suspected biothreat incidents, and the potential for PCR inhibition when B. anthracis spores were spiked into these powders. Our results indicate that 3 of the 5 systems achieved 0.95 LCB of the probability of detection with 95% confidence levels at test concentrations of 2,000 genome equivalents/mL (GE/mL), which is comparable to 2,000 spores/mL. This is more than sufficient sensitivity for screening visible suspicious powders. These systems exhibited no false-positive results or PCR inhibition with common suspicious powders and reliably detected B. anthracis spores spiked into these powders, though some issues with assay controls were observed. Our testing approach enables efficient performance testing using a statistically rigorous and cost-effective test plan to generate performance data that allow users to make informed decisions regarding the purchase and use of field biodetection equipment.
Early prediction of a benign course of multiple sclerosis on clinical grounds: a systematic review

Background: There is growing consensus that neurologists should consider disease-modifying therapies early in multiple sclerosis (MS). However, there is a subgroup with a natural benign course, in which treatment could be postponed. We sought to determine the frequency of benign MS and early clinical factors that may predict a benign course. Methods: We performed a systematic review of the existing literature on benign MS, which was defined as minimal or no disability equivalent to a score on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 43.0 at least 10 years after disease onset. Results: Only a small number of studies of adequate quality was available. In total there were nine published studies representing 2204 patients. The estimated frequency of benign MS was 26.7%. Onset with optic neuritis, onset before the age of 40 years, absence of pyramidal signs at presentation, duration of first remission more than 1 year, and only one exacerbation in the first 5 years after onset of MS, were associated with a benign course. Conclusions: From the existing literature a set of unrelated clinical characteristics emerged that was associated with a benign course of MS. However, there is a need for prospective studies to define more precisely clinical and paraclinical predictors of benign MS.
Explaining ethnic minority representation: Contemporary trends in the shadow of the past

Minority concerns are often very much a minority concern. Discussions of 'race and politics' appear to register only intermittently on the agenda of political science while also seeming to have been more heavily influenced by sociology and cultural studies (Favell, 2001). This picture is beginning to change. The salience of immigration as a political issue across Europe has prompted country-based and comparative studies that utilize political science's toolkit to analyse immigration's after-effects on the conceptual and organizational parameters of British political life (for example, LaytonHenry, 1992; Favell, 1998; Joppke, 1999; Hansen, 2000; Saggar, 2000). This article aims to further this discussion by analysing trends and patterns in ethnic minority' political representation in formal elected institutions, particularly the House of Commons. In the first section the key elements of the argument are outlined through a consideration of three possible explanations for levels of ethnic minority representation. The second section sketches patterns of ethnic minority representation at local and national level. The third section specifies constraints on future increases in representation arising from a form of 'race-related' politics that, it is argued, consigns ethnic minority representation to those parts of the country where 'race' and ethnicity are deemed to matter and, by implication, away from those areas where it is deemed not to matter. In the conclusion it is argued that this has led to the development of a 'colour-coded' representational idiom that limits the possibilities for future increases in ethnic minority representation and thus goes to the heart of discussion of the nature, type and quality of British representative politics.
Optimal Contrast Correction for ICA-Based Fusion of Multimodal Images

In this paper, the authors revisit the previously proposed Image Fusion framework, based on self-trained independent component analysis (ICA) bases. In the original framework, equal importance was given to all input images in the reconstruction of the ldquofusedrdquo image's intensity. Even though this assumption is valid for all applications involving sensors of the same modality, it might not be optimal in the case of multiple modality inputs of different intensity range. The authors propose a method for estimating the optimal intensity range (contrast) of the fused image via optimization of an image fusion index. The proposed approach can be employed in a general fusion scenario including multiple sensors.
Why some school subjects have a higher status than others: The epistemology of the traditional curriculum hierarchy

Inherent in most school curricula is some sort of curriculum hierarchy—that is, an assumption that some school subjects are more valuable than others. This paper examines the epistemological assumptions that underpin one such curriculum hierarchy, which I refer to as ‘the traditional curriculum hierarchy’. It is a pervasive and problematic idea which maintains that supposedly abstract school subjects, like mathematics and physics, are more valuable than subjects associated with concrete experience, practicality and the body, such as physical education and vocational subjects. Drawing on Dewey, an alternative, non-hierarchical theory of curriculum will be proposed. Contrary to common misinterpretations of his ideas, it is argued that Dewey did not prioritise student interests over disciplinary content. Dewey proposed a curriculum grounded in authentic social problems that required students to draw simultaneously on knowledge and methods from multiple disciplines in an interconnected manner in order to work through such problems. Current policies and initiatives, especially the Australian national curriculum and the English Baccalaureate, are discussed.
Religious Commitment and Mental Health: A Review of the Empirical Literature

Research on the relationship between religious commitment and psychopamology has produced mixed findings. In a recent meta-analysis, Bergin (1983) found mat 23% of the studies reported a negative relationship, 47% reported a positive relationship, and 30% reported no relationship at all between religion and mental health. Based on our review of more than 200 studies, we have discovered four additional trends: (a) Most studies linking religious commitment to psychopathology have employed mental health measures that we have called “soft variables,” that is, paper-and-pencil personality tests which attempt to measure theoretical constructs. In contrast, most of the research linking religion to positive mental health is on “hard variables,” that is, “real life” behavioral events which can be reliably ob-served and measured and which are unambiguous in their significance. (b) Low levels of religiosity are most often associated with disorders related to undercontrol of impulses, whereas high levels of religiosity are most often associated with disorders of overcontrol. (c) Behavioral measures of religious participation are more powerfully associated with mental health than are attitudinal measures. (d) Distinctions such as that between intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity explain some inconsistent findings.
Can We Improve Indicator Design for Complex Sustainable Development Goals? A Comparison of a Values-Based and Conventional Approach

A conceptual framework was constructed for United Nations’ complex Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 4.7 focusing on education for sustainable development (ESD), and used to analyse the usefulness and character of indicators produced from a values-based approach called ESDinds, compared to a UN process. The analysis shows that the latter generated very few indicators concerning the wider aspects of knowledge such as ‘critical thinking’ or ‘learning to learn’. The values-based approach, created for a different purpose, produced complementary if not better coverage of Target 4.7, including finely-developed concepts for competencies and less tangible aspects. It is suggested that the UN process would benefit from ESDinds design elements such as intersubjective and slightly disruptive elements, purposeful contextualisation at group level, and a holistic and inductive consideration of values. The use of a reference ‘fuzzy framework’ of slightly generalised proto-indicators suited for deep contextualisation locally is recommended, rather than any rigid global-level indicator with unclear local value. It is recommended that ESD practitioners immediately develop localised interpretations of valid measures for whatever final Target 4.7 indicator is selected by the UN, as this localisation process will itself cause important learning towards local ESD achievements.
A Structured Approach to Need for Structure at Work

Het werkende leven verandert. In veel moderne organisaties bepaalt niet langer de leidinggevende waar of wanneer medewerkers werken, maar doen zij dit zelf. Deze verandering wordt ook wel aangeduid als “Het Nieuwe Werken” (HNW) en kan het best begrepen worden vanuit ontwikkelingen in de IT. De grote vrijheid die gepaard gaat met HNW kan ambiguiteit en onzekerheid met zich meebrengen. Dit zal vooral lastig zijn voor mensen die het moeilijk vinden om te gaan met ambiguiteit en onzekerheid, zoals mensen met hoge behoefte aan structuur. De resultaten van dit proefschrift lieten allereerst zien dat voor werknemers met een hoge structuurbehoefte geen (positieve) relatie bestaat tussen autonomie en motivatie, terwijl deze relatie er wel was voor mensen met een lage structuurbehoefte. Ook toonden we aan dat de motivatie en creatieve prestaties van mensen met een hoge structuurbehoefte niet beinvloed wordt door feedback die de autonomie aantast of juist intact laat. Verder vonden we voor medewerkers met een hoge structuurbehoefte een positieve samenhang tussen werkmotivatie en de controlerende praktijken van hun leidinggevende. Ten slotte lieten we zien dat mensen met een hoge structuurbehoefte geneigd zijn om taken volgens strikte regels en procedures aan te pakken. Daarentegen vonden we dat mensen met een lage structuurbehoefte juist gedemotiveerd raken van een controlerende leidinggevende. Bovendien geven deze mensen een meer heuristische (ofwel niet stapsgewijze) taakaanpak. Kortom, deze resultaten suggereren dat mensen met een hoge structuurbehoefte geen profijt hebben van de hoge autonomie, vrijheid en flexibiliteit die HNW met zich meebrengt, terwijl mensen met een lage structuurbehoefte juist floreren in organisaties die HNW toepassen.
Text segmentation and topic tracking on broadcast news via a hidden Markov model approach

Continuing progress in the automatic transcription of broadcast speech via speech recognition has raised the possibility of applying information retrieval techniques to the resulting (errorful) text. In this paper we describe a general methodology based on Hidden Markov Models and classical language modeling techniques for automatically inferring story boundaries ( segmentation ) and for retrieving stories relating to a speciﬁc topic ( tracking ). We will present in detail the features and performance of the Segmentation and Tracking systems submitted by Dragon Systems for the 1998 Topic Detection and Tracking evaluation.
Efficient top-k query answering using cached views

Top-k query processing has recently received a significant amount of attention due to its wide application in information retrieval, multimedia search and recommendation generation. In this work, we consider the problem of how to efficiently answer a top-k query by using previously cached query results. While there has been some previous work on this problem, existing algorithms suffer from either limited scope or lack of scalability. In this paper, we propose two novel algorithms for handling this problem. The first algorithm LPTA+ provides significantly improved efficiency compared to the state-of-the-art LPTA algorithm [26] by reducing the number of expensive linear programming problems that need to be solved. The second algorithm we propose leverages a standard space partition-based index structure in order to avoid many of the drawbacks of LPTA-based algorithms, thereby further improving the efficiency of query processing. Through extensive experiments on various datasets, we demonstrate that our algorithms significantly outperform the state of the art.