Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maternal effects and epidemiological traits in a planktonic host-parasite system

Questions: Do maternal effects influence offspring susceptibility to parasites? Specifically: (1) Does maternal age influence offspring disease resistance? (2) Does maternal disease exposure alter resistance of offspring to disease? (3) Does a mother’s age (controlling for age at infection) and/or exposure to parasites alter epidemiologically important life-history traits (e.g. time until death, fecundity) in offspring that are either exposed or not exposed to parasites? Organisms: The planktonic grazer Daphnia dentifera, and its virulent fungal parasite Metschnikowia bicuspidata. Methods: Laboratory-based infection assays and life tables. Results: A mother’s age did not influence her daughter’s ability to resist infection. Furthermore, daughters raised from infected mothers showed no difference in parasite resistance relative to mothers that were not exposed to parasite infection. However, some maternal characteristics did affect epidemiologically relevant life-history traits. In one assay, increasing maternal age increased lifespan of the infected offspring. Individuals born to infected mothers had reduced fecundity. Fecundity influences population dynamics, and body size influences both susceptibility to disease and the parasite’s fitness (i.e. yields of spores from infected hosts). Conclusions: Despite the differences found in some life-history traits, overall our results reveal that maternal effects and immunological priming are likely not key drivers of disease dynamics in this system. As a result, it would appear that inclusion of trans-generational effects in epidemiological models is unlikely to improve our ability to describe and predict population dynamics in this system.
Market “choices” or structured pathways? How specialized arts education contributes to the reproduction of inequality

Located in one of the most diverse cities in the world, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) offers several programs catering to a variety of student interests. Specialty Arts Programs (SAPs) have gained particular attention in part because of their reputation as excellent schools providing a unique opportunity for training in the arts. However, recently such programs have also raised concerns about who can access and who ultimately benefits from specialized programming in the arts. While the TDSB is committed to equal access for all families, the student populations at these programs do not mirror the broader school population, serving mostly affluent families and students with access to high levels of social and cultural capital. Employing data from the TDSB’s Parent and Student Census and the School Information Systems, the article first demonstrates the demographic homogeneity of specialized arts programs and then examines whether this homogeneity is a particular outcome of specialized arts programs or a manifestation of a de facto streaming mechanism that begins earlier in the schooling process. To do this, the authors explore the relationship between feeder schools and programs that guide students towards SAPs. Results demonstrate that the bulk of SAP students are drawn from a select few elementary schools across the board. Largely, the demographics of elementary feeder schools reflect similar characteristics of the SAP population and this relationship is amplified as the number of students drawn from feeder schools increases. In addition, students in SAPs experience a high level of belonging in school as compared to students across the system. While this outcome is often attributed to the immersion in arts-based curriculum, the authors query how the role of creating homogenous spaces through selective programming contributes to students’ experience of belonging while at the same time reproducing structural inequality.
Equity Returns and Business Cycles in Small Open Economies

This is the first paper in the literature to match key business cycle moments and long-run equity returns in a small open economy with production. These results are achieved by introducing three modications to a standard real business cycle model: (1) borrowing and lending costs are imposed to increase the volatility of the intertemporal marginal rate of substitution; (2) investment adjustment costs are assumed to make equity returns more volatile; and (3) GHH preferences are employed to smooth consumption. We also decompose the contributions of productivity, the world interest rate, and government expenditure shocks to the equity premium. Our results are based on data from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
Challenges in Estimating Population Impacts of Alcohol's Harm to others

Background There is a renewed interest in alcohol's harm to others (AHTO), and survey studies in the general population are often used to estimate the extent of harm, to address the severity and variety of harms, and to identify the victims of such harm. While cross-sectional survey studies are attractive in several respects, they also entail several methodological challenges. Aim We discuss some of these issues, paying particular attention to the problems of causal attribution, transferability, survey data collection and range of harms. Conclusions We offer some suggestions for study design to enhance causal inferences from studies examining alcohol's harm to others.
Guarding Against the Erosion of Competitive Advantage: A Knowledge Leakage Mitigation Model

A critical objective of knowledge-intensive organizations is to prevent erosion of their competitive knowledge base through leakage. Our review of the literature highlights the need for a more refined conceptualization of perceived leakage risk. We propose a Knowledge Leakage Mitigation (KLM) model to explain the incongruity between perceived high-risk of leakage and lack of protective actions. We argue that an organization's perceived risk of leakage increases if competitors can benefit from leakage incidents. Further, perceived leakage risk decreases if the organization is shielded from impact due to their diversity of knowledge assets and their ability to reconfigure knowledge resources to refresh their competitive knowledge base. We describe our approach to the design of a large-scale survey instrument that has been tested and refined in two stakeholder communities: 1) knowledge managers responsible for organizational strategy, and 2) Information security management consultants.
An integrative framework to understand the influence of morality on green is adoption: a theoretical perspective

The prevailing gap in the Green information systems (IS) research literature is the absence of a theoretical framework to understand the influence of environmental beliefs and attitudes on the adoption of Green IS initiatives. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by developing an integrated framework by identifying and examining the factors that influence the proenvironmental behaviors (PEBs) of managers to adopt Green IS initiatives. The framework is firmly grounded using three theoretical frameworks: (1) upper echelon theory, (2) refined theory of basic individual values, and (3) norm activation model. The theoretical lenses of these three frameworks are utilized to assess the influence of moral behavior on practicing of Green IS initiatives by the managers of organizations. Theoretical and practical implications of the study for the benefit of IS researchers and managers are discussed. Furthermore, the empirical evaluation and assessment plan of propositions, together with the future extensions of the study are presented.
Assessing the impact of user-centered research on a clinical trial eHealth tool via counterbalanced research design

OBJECTIVE Informatics applications have the potential to improve participation in clinical trials, but their design must be based on user-centered research. This research used a fully counterbalanced experimental design to investigate the effect of changes made to the original version of a website, http://BreastCancerTrials.org/, and confirm that the revised version addressed and reinforced patients' needs and expectations. DESIGN Participants included women who had received a breast cancer diagnosis within the last 5 years (N=77). They were randomized into two groups: one group used and reviewed the original version first followed by the redesigned version, and the other group used and reviewed them in reverse order. MEASUREMENTS The study used both quantitative and qualitative measures. During use, participants' click paths and general reactions were observed. After use, participants were asked to answer survey items and open-ended questions to indicate their reactions and which version they preferred and met their needs and expectations better. RESULTS Overall, the revised version of the site was preferred and perceived to be clearer, easier to navigate, more trustworthy and credible, and more private and safe overall. However, users who viewed the original version last had similar attitudes toward both versions. CONCLUSION By applying research findings to the redesign of a website for clinical trial searching, it was possible to re-engineer the interface to better support patients' decisions to participate in clinical trials. The mechanisms of action in this case appeared to revolve around creating an environment that supported a sense of personal control and decisional autonomy.
Analysis of Character Education Aspects in Narrative Texts of the Electronic Textbook “Developing English Competencies”

The issue of character education has mushroomed recently as many as social problems in Indonesia. Thus, character education should be taken into consideration in teaching and learning activity. The aim of this study is to identify the character education aspects in narrative texts found in the electronic textbook used for senior high school students grade XI entitled Developing English Competencies based on the eighteen character education aspects mandated by the Ministry of National Education. This research applies descriptive qualitative method. In collecting the data, the writer used documentary method. The research instrument used in this study was documentation protocol and check list. The result of this research shows that there are 301 sentences from 605 sentences found in all the narrative texts which contain the character education aspects. So the percentage is 49,75 %. The sentences in the 17 narrative texts are relevant to the eighteen character education aspects.
AN ALGORITH FOR TIME SERIES PREDICTION USING PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION (PSO)

Although Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used in variety of applications; it has limitations in the training phase. In this work, a new enhancement for PSO is proposed to overcome such limitations. The proposed PSO optimization consists of two stages. In the first stage, a Gaussian Maximum Likelihood (GML) is added to PSO to update the last 25% of swarm particles, while in the second stage, a Genetic Algorithm is applied whenever there is lethargy or no change in the fitness evaluation for two consecutive iterations. Finally, the proposed PSO is applied in time series predictions using Local Linear Wavelet Neural Network (LLWNN). The work is evaluated with three different data sets. Implementation of the proposed PSO shows better results than conventional PSO and many other hybrid PSOs proposed by others.
Structural covariance of superficial white matter in mild Alzheimer's disease compared to normal aging

Interindividual variations in regional structural properties covary across the brain, thus forming networks that change as a result of aging and accompanying neurological conditions. The alterations of superficial white matter (SWM) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are of special interest, since they follow the AD‐specific pattern characterized by the strongest neurodegeneration of the medial temporal lobe and association cortices.
Wide-area TCSC controller design in consideration of feedback signals' time delays

The recent advances in wide-area measurement system (WMAS) is driving power systems to the trend of wide-area monitoring and control. In this trend, the impact of time delays introduced by remote signal transmission and processing in WAMS has to be considered. This paper investigates the wide-area controller design problem of power system in the presence of output feedback delays in WAMS. Firstly, a simple example demonstrates the negative effects of feedback signals' time delays of WAMS on the dynamic performances of thyristor controlled series compensator (TCSC). In order to eliminate the negative effects of time delays, a novel approach based on linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique and Hankel model order-reduced algorithms is proposed to design an effective TCSC controller. Two cases, a single-machine-infinite-bus power system and New England test power system (NETPS), verify that the derived TCSC controllers can stabilize the systems for various time delays.
Footpad dermatitis and pain assessment in turkey poults using analgesia and objective gait analysis

Abstract The relationships between litter moisture, footpad dermatitis (FPD) and pain in medium-heavy turkey strains was studied by gait analysis in two medium-heavy with and without analgesia (betamethasone or bupivacaine). The relationship between FPD and litter moisture was linear above a breakpoint of 49% litter moisture, and there were no differences between the two breeds in susceptibility to FPD. Gait analysis showed higher impulse, single support time, stride time and stance time in breed A compared to breed B. Significant interactions between breed, litter and analgesic for impulse, single support time and stride time were associated with higher means for breed A given saline injection on wet litter. Data from betamethasone analgesia in Experiments 1 and 3 were combined for analysis. Peak vertical force was higher in saline- compared to betamethasone-treated birds. Compared to the wet (high FPD) litter treatments, birds on dry (low FPD) litter had greater speed and lower double support time and longer stride length. Turkeys kept on wet litter had a longer stride length compared to dry litter when given saline, whereas in betamethasone-treated birds the means were similar. There were no differences between birds with or without bupivacaine analgesia. Peak vertical force was higher in breed A than B and in birds with a low FPD compared to a high FPD score. It was concluded that breeds A and B did not differ in susceptibility to develop FPD when housed on wet litter but may have natural gait differences. Significant changes in gait parameters were associated with wet litter and with analgesic treatments. The results showed that FPD affected the gait of the turkeys and, combined with evidence of behavioural changes when given analgesia, suggest that footpad lesions are painful.
Exploring Human Error Handling Strategies : Implications for Spoken Dialogue Systems

In this study, the user experience and the consequences of different error handling strategies for spoken dialogue are examined. A modification of the Wizard of Oz method is used, where a speech recogniser is included in the setting. This makes it possible to study how humans handle speech recognition errors before a dialogue system is actually built. The results show that wizards tend not to signal non-understanding when they face speech recognition problems, but instead ask task-related questions to confirm the wizard’s hypothesis about the situation, rather than what has been said. This strategy leads to better understanding of subsequent utterances, whereas signalling non-understanding leads to decreased user experience of task success.
Mitigating Future Avian Malaria Threats to Hawaiian Forest Birds from Climate Change

Avian malaria, transmitted by Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes in the Hawaiian Islands, has been a primary contributor to population range limitations, declines, and extinctions for many endemic Hawaiian honeycreepers. Avian malaria is strongly influenced by climate; therefore, predicted future changes are expected to expand transmission into higher elevations and intensify and lengthen existing transmission periods at lower elevations, leading to further population declines and potential extinction of highly susceptible honeycreepers in mid- and high-elevation forests. Based on future climate changes and resulting malaria risk, we evaluated the viability of alternative conservation strategies to preserve endemic Hawaiian birds at mid and high elevations through the 21st century. We linked an epidemiological model with three alternative climatic projections from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project to predict future malaria risk and bird population dynamics for the coming century. Based on climate change predictions, proposed strategies included mosquito population suppression using modified males, release of genetically modified refractory mosquitoes, competition from other introduced mosquitoes that are not competent vectors, evolved malaria-tolerance in native honeycreepers, feral pig control to reduce mosquito larval habitats, and predator control to improve bird demographics. Transmission rates of malaria are predicted to be higher than currently observed and are likely to have larger impacts in high-elevation forests where current low rates of transmission create a refuge for highly-susceptible birds. As a result, several current and proposed conservation strategies will be insufficient to maintain existing forest bird populations. We concluded that mitigating malaria transmission at high elevations should be a primary conservation goal. Conservation strategies that maintain highly susceptible species like Iiwi (Drepanis coccinea) will likely benefit other threatened and endangered Hawai’i species, especially in high-elevation forests. Our results showed that mosquito control strategies offer potential long-term benefits to high elevation Hawaiian honeycreepers. However, combined strategies will likely be needed to preserve endemic birds at mid elevations. Given the delay required to research, develop, evaluate, and improve several of these currently untested conservation strategies we suggest that planning should begin expeditiously.
Nonexpansive iterations in uniformly convex $W$-hyperbolic spaces

We propose the class of uniformly convex $W$-hyperbolic spaces with monotone modulus of uniform convexity ($UCW$-hyperbolic spaces for short) as an appropriate setting for the study of nonexpansive iterations. $UCW$-hyperbolic spaces are a natural generalization both of uniformly convex normed spaces and CAT(0)-spaces. Furthermore, we apply proof mining techniques to get effective rates of asymptotic regularity for Ishikawa iterations of nonexpansive self-mappings of closed convex subsets in $UCW$-hyperbolic spaces. These effective results are new even for uniformly convex Banach spaces.
HiMap: Adaptive visualization of large-scale online social networks

Visualizing large-scale online social network is a challenging yet essential task. This paper presents HiMap, a system that visualizes it by clustered graph via hierarchical grouping and summarization. HiMap employs a novel adaptive data loading technique to accurately control the visual density of each graph view, and along with the optimized layout algorithm and the two kinds of edge bundling methods, to effectively avoid the visual clutter commonly found in previous social network visualization tools. HiMap also provides an integrated suite of interactions to allow the users to easily navigate the social map with smooth and coherent view transitions to keep their momentum. Finally, we confirm the effectiveness of HiMap algorithms through graph-travesal based evaluations.
The Roles of Parents in Enhancing Student's Reading Motivation: A Study in Kaliaman IV Elementary School Jepara

This study aims to find out what parents roles to encourage their children to read and because of their education, economic backgrounds, parents’ perceptions, parents behavior, and reading habit influence their participation in their children reading activity. The participants of this study were one hundred and twenty seven parents from a State Elementary school in Jepara. There were seventeen question of questionnaire. They were asked to fill in 17 questionnaire items related to their backgrounds, their beliefs about reading, their behaviors, and the availability of books in their area. Through descriptive analysis, it is signified that parents from any backgrounds perceived that they need to help their children to read. However, parents from low education level and low socio-economic status seemed to be less involved in motivating their children to read books. The findings implied that parents from different backgrounds have different contribution in introducing reading to their children and parent from early grade were more involved in enhancing their children’s reading activity than parents from older grade.
The hippocampus, space, and viewpoints in episodic memory

A computational model of how single neurons in and around the rat hippocampus support spatial navigation is reviewed. The extension of this model, to include the retrieval from human long-term memory of spatial scenes and the spatial context of events is discussed. The model explores the link between spatial and mnemonic functions by supposing that retrieval of spatial information from long-term storage requires the imposition of a particular viewpoint. It is consistent with data relating to representational hemispatial neglect and the involvement of the mammillary bodies, anterior thalamus, and hippocampal formation in supporting both episodic recall and the representation of head direction. Some recent behavioural, neuropsychological, and functional neuroimaging experiments are reviewed, in which virtual reality is used to allow controlled study of navigation and memory for events set within a rich large-scale spatial context. These studies provide convergent evidence that the human hippocampus is involved in both tasks, with some lateralization of function (navigation on the right and episodic memory on the left). A further experiment indicates hippocampal involvement in retrieval of spatial information from a shifted viewpoint. I speculate that the hippocampal role in episodic recollection relates to its ability to represent a viewpoint moving within a spatial framework.