Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hierarchies and the Organization of Knowledge in Production

This paper studies how communication allows for the specialized acquisition of knowledge. It shows that a knowledge‐based hierarchy is a natural way to organize the acquisition of knowledge when matching problems with those who know how to solve them is costly. In such an organization, production workers acquire knowledge about the most common or easiest problems confronted, and specialized problem solvers deal with the more exceptional or harder problems. The paper shows that the model is consistent with stylized facts in the theory of organizations and uses it to analyze the impact of changes in production and information technology on organizational design.
Synaptic defects at meiosis I and non-obstructive azoospermia.

BACKGROUND Recent advances in immunofluorescence methodology have made it possible to directly monitor protein localization patterns in germ cells undergoing meiosis. We used this technology to examine the early stages of meiosis in testicular material obtained from men presenting for evaluation at infertility clinics. METHODS Specifically, we compared meiotic progression, synapsis and recombination in 34 individuals with obstructive azoospermia ('controls') to 26 individuals with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) ('cases'). RESULTS In 9 of the 26 cases, no germ cells were identified, but in the remaining 17, there was at least some progression through meiosis. Most of these individuals appeared to have normal levels of spermatogenic activity, with little evidence of meiotic impairment. However, in three individuals, we observed either complete or partial meiotic arrest associated with abnormalities in synapsis. CONCLUSIONS This suggests that >10% of cases of unexplained NOA may be attributable to severe meiotic defects. The characterization of these meiotic arrest phenotypes may guide further research into the molecular basis of unexplained infertility.
Data-Driven Output-Feedback Fault-Tolerant Compensation Control for Digital PID Control Systems With Unknown Dynamics

For digital proportional-integral-derivative control systems with unknown dynamics, the data-driven output-feedback fault-tolerant control (FTC) problem is studied in this paper. In a framework of active FTC, the issue of online recursive identification of the residual generator, the state observer, and the observability canonical form of the plant under consideration is addressed; the problem of reconfiguration of the data-driven fault-tolerant compensation controller with L2-gain properties is also dealt with by means of the above-obtained results, the prefilter and the Riccati equation related to H∞ control so as to accommodate faults and ensure tracking performance. The resulting fault-tolerant compensation control scheme is designed based on the closed-loop systems, and therefore has more practical significance than the existing FTC methodologies developed in terms of the open-loop systems. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed FTC approach is validated by the speed control experiment on a dc motor.
Towards a happier old age: Psychological perspectives on successful ageing

The Australian Psychological Society's position paper is reported by Gething et al. (2002) in “The Role of Psychologists in Fostering the Wellbeing of Older Australians”. An orientation towards “successful ageing” requires the authors to meet head-on the unfortunately dominant view of older people in the negative. They are successful in showing that the stereotype is contradicted by the evidence and may be costly in terms of life satisfaction for the older person. The need for a new paradigm of research is considered, one that takes into account both social changes and the nature of continuity and individual differences in ageing. The practitioner's role may be enhanced because the future generation of older persons has grown up with a greater acceptance of counselling services than the present occupants of this age group, and the families of older persons might be expected to seek greater assistance in helping their relatives through relocation transitions. Issues related to older persons from diverse cu.
Attentional Modulation of fMRI Responses in Human V1 Is Consistent with Distinct Spatial Maps for Chromatically Defined Orientation and Contrast

Attending to different stimulus features such as contrast or orientation can change the pattern of neural responses in human V1 measured with fMRI. We show that these pattern changes are much more distinct for colored stimuli than for achromatic stimuli. This is evidence for a classic model of V1 functional architecture in which chromatic contrast and orientation are coded in spatially distinct neural domains, while achromatic contrast and orientation are not.
Separating generalized anxiety disorder from major depression using clinical, hormonal, and structural MRI data: A multimodal machine learning study

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is difficult to recognize and hard to separate from major depression (MD) in clinical settings. Biomarkers might support diagnostic decisions. This study used machine learning on multimodal biobehavioral data from a sample of GAD, MD and healthy subjects to differentiate subjects with a disorder from healthy subjects (case‐classification) and to differentiate GAD from MD (disorder‐classification).
A Cross-Cultural Study of Explicit and Implicit Motivation for Long-Term Volunteering

We propose a model of volunteering and test its validity across four cultural groups. We hypothesize that individuals’ explicit prosocial motivation relates positively to sustained volunteering, which is conceptualized as a latent factor comprising activity as a volunteer, service length, service frequency, and hours of volunteering. Moreover, we introduced implicit prosocial motivation and hypothesized that the relationship between explicit prosocial motivation and sustained volunteering would be amplified by implicit prosocial motivation. Data were collected from samples in China, Germany, Turkey, and the United States. Results confirmed our expectation that, across cultures, sustained volunteering was associated with explicit prosocial motivation and that the relationship between explicit prosocial motivation and sustained volunteering was strongest when implicit prosocial motivation was also high. By including implicit prosocial motivation, our study offers a novel approach to identifying sustained volunteer involvement, which can be of particular relevance for recruitment activities of voluntary organizations across various cultural contexts.
Training Counselors to Work With Complex Clients: Enhancing Emotional Responsiveness Through Experiential Methods

Training counselors to work effectively with complex client presentations requires a variety of methods. These methods not only need to be aimed at developing conceptual understanding but also must assist counselors in managing their own emotional reactivity when working with such clients. The author describes the curriculum and experiential training processes of a course in a transtheoretical program, which draws on psychodynamic concepts to help counselor trainees develop competencies with more disturbed clients. These competencies include alliance building and repair, understanding and working with transference and countertransference, and using an understanding of personality structure in case conceptualization.
Do Online Privacy Concerns Predict Selfie Behavior among Adolescents, Young Adults and Adults?

Selfies, or self-portraits, are often taken and shared on social media for online self-presentation reasons, which are considered essential for the psychosocial development and well-being of people in today’s culture. Despite the growing popularity and widespread sharing of selfies in the online space, little is known about how privacy concerns moderate selfie behavior. In addition to this, it is also not known whether privacy concerns across age and gender groups influence selfie behavior. To address this timely issue, a survey assessing common selfie behaviors, that is, frequency of taking (individual and group selfies), editing (cropping and filtering), and posting selfies online, and social media privacy concerns (over personal data being accessed and misused by third parties) was conducted. The web-survey was administered to 3,763 Norwegian social media users, ranging from 13 to 50 years, with a preponderance of women (n = 2,509, 66.7%). The present study investigated the impact of privacy concerns on selfie behaviors across gender and age groups (adolescent, young adult, and adult) by use of the structural equation modeling approach. The results suggest that young adults have greater privacy concerns compared to adolescents and adults. Females have greater privacy concerns than males. Greater privacy concerns among female social media users were linked to lower engagement in selfie behavior, but privacy concerns did not influence selfie behavior in the case of male adolescents and young adults. Overall, privacy concerns were more consistently and inversely related to selfie behavior (taking and posting) among females than males. The study results have theoretical as well as practical implications for both researchers and policy makers.
A reinforcement learning extension to the Almgren-Chriss framework for optimal trade execution

Reinforcement learning is explored as a candidate machine learning technique to enhance existing analytical solutions for optimal trade execution with elements from the market microstructure. Given a volume-to-trade, fixed time horizon and discrete trading periods, the aim is to adapt a given volume trajectory such that it is dynamic with respect to favourable/unfavourable conditions during realtime execution, thereby improving overall cost of trading. We consider the standard Almgren-Chriss model with linear price impact as a candidate base model. This model is popular amongst sell-side institutions as a basis for arrival price benchmark execution algorithms. By training a learning agent to modify a volume trajectory based on the market's prevailing spread and volume dynamics, we are able to improve post-trade implementation shortfall by up to 10.3% on average compared to the base model, based on a sample of stocks and trade sizes in the South African equity market.
Effect of Time on Perceived Gains from an Undergraduate Research Program

This study examines student perceived gains from an undergraduate research experience (URE) program, using data from pre-, mid-, and postparticipation surveys. Results suggest that students experienced different gains at developmentally different stages of their UREs and reported gains in fewer areas at the end of the Summer segment than at end of the yearlong experience.
Effects of Seeing and Hearing Vowels on Neonatal Facial Imitation

For several decades, many authors have claimed the existence, early in life, of a tight link between perceptual and productive systems in speech. However, the question whether this link is acquired or is already present at birth remains open. This study aimed at investigating this question by employing the paradigm of neonatal facial imitation. We compared imitative responses of newborn infants presented either visual-only, audiovisual congruent, or audiovisual incongruent models. Our results revealed that the newborns imitated significantly more quickly the movements of the model's mouth when this model was audiovisual congruent rather than visual-only. Moreover, when observing an audiovisual incongruent model, the newborns did not produce imitative behavior. These findings, by highlighting the influence of speech perception on newborns' imitative responses, suggest that the neural architecture for perception–production is already in place at birth. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of a link between language and neonatal imitation, which could represent a precursor of more mature forms of vocal imitation and speech development in general.
Sarcoidosis in Native and Transplanted Kidneys: Incidence, Pathologic Findings, and Clinical Course

Renal involvement by sarcoidosis in native and transplanted kidneys classically presents as non caseating granulomatous interstitial nephritis. However, the incidence of sarcoidosis in native and transplant kidney biopsies, its frequency as a cause of end stage renal disease and its recurrence in renal allograft are not well defined, which prompted this study. The electronic medical records and the pathology findings in native and transplant kidney biopsies reviewed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1/1/2000 to 6/30/2011 were searched. A total of 51 patients with a diagnosis of sarcoidosis and renal abnormalities requiring a native kidney biopsy were identified. Granulomatous interstitial nephritis, consistent with renal sarcoidosis was identified in kidney biopsies from 19 of these subjects (37%). This is equivalent to a frequency of 0.18% of this diagnosis in a total of 10,023 biopsies from native kidney reviewed at our institution. Follow-up information was available in 10 patients with biopsy-proven renal sarcoidosis: 6 responded to treatment with prednisone, one progressed to end stage renal disease. Renal sarcoidosis was the primary cause of end stage renal disease in only 2 out of 2,331 transplants performed. Only one biopsy-proven recurrence of sarcoidosis granulomatous interstitial nephritis was identified. Conclusions Renal involvement by sarcoidosis in the form of granulomatous interstitial nephritis was a rare finding in biopsies from native kidneys reviewed at our center, and was found to be a rare cause of end stage renal disease. However, our observations indicate that recurrence of sarcoid granulomatous inflammation may occur in the transplanted kidney of patients with sarcoidosis as the original kidney disease.
Combining drama pedagogy with digital technologies to support the language learning needs of newly arrived refugee children: a classroom case study

Although significant research has been completed that examines the effectiveness of process drama as a pedagogical approach for developing additional languages and further work has focused on the affordances of digital technologies within drama work, scant attention has been paid to the possibilities which a combination of these approaches might offer. Within this paper we identify these possibilities within a drama-based research project aimed at developing the resilience of newly arrived refugee children. In this series of lessons, the work focused specifically on the role of language as a key aspect of resilience. Based upon a playful, fantasy-based narrative involving a robot who arrives in an English-speaking community but is unable to communicate effectively, the drama and language work intentionally avoided the kinds of responses to resettlement and resilience that apply a deficit model or focus on the challenges of such experiences. Analysis of the data collected across the project reveals that the technology served seven key functions within the process drama. These functions related to language development, information provision, narrative development, identification and the creation of mood. The use of technology also generated opportunities for the children to have agency over their own learning and to create shared experiences with classmates and teachers.
Choice Orientations,Discussions, and Prospects

An examination of the contemporary choice discussion yields four somewhat distinct choice orientations and cases: an education-driven argument for choice; an economics-driven argument; a governance-driven argument; and an argument from particular national policy concerns of the past several decades. Each of these cases is sketched. Some logical and other features of the choice discussion are noted, andfinally some predictions are offered about the likely course of the choice discussion over the next several years.
The cytoskeleton-associated protein SCHIP1 is involved in axon guidance, and is required for piriform cortex and anterior commissure development

ABSTRACT SCHIP1 is a cytoplasmic partner of cortical cytoskeleton ankyrins. The IQCJ-SCHIP1 isoform is a component of axon initial segments and nodes of Ranvier of mature axons in peripheral and central nervous systems, where it associates with membrane complexes comprising cell adhesion molecules. SCHIP1 is also expressed in the mouse developing central nervous system during embryonic stages of active axonogenesis. Here, we identify a new and early role for SCHIP1 during axon development and establishment of the anterior commissure (AC). The AC is composed of axons from the piriform cortex, the anterior olfactory nucleus and the amygdala. Schip1 mutant mice displayed early defects in AC development that might result from impaired axon growth and guidance. In addition, mutant mice presented a reduced thickness of the piriform cortex, which affected projection neurons in layers 2/3 and was likely to result from cell death rather than from impairment of neuron generation or migration. Piriform cortex neurons from E14.5 mutant embryos displayed axon initiation/outgrowth delay and guidance defects in vitro. The sensitivity of growth cones to semaphorin 3F and Eph receptor B2, two repulsive guidance cues crucial for AC development, was increased, providing a possible basis for certain fiber tract alterations. Thus, our results reveal new evidence for the involvement of cortical cytoskeleton-associated proteins in the regulation of axon development and their importance for the formation of neuronal circuits. Summary: SCHIP1, an ankyrin-associated protein, modulates axon outgrowth and the responses of growth cones to the repulsive guidance cues Sema3F and EphB2 in mouse piriform cortex neurons.
Cognitive psychology and medical diagnosis

The nature and acquisition of complex cognitive skills have been intensively investigated over the past 20 years. From such studies in non-medical domains it appears that experts (a) generally remember new information in their field better than do the less expert; (b) work forward to solutions; (c) form superior representations of problems; (d) are superior in knowledge, not in basic processing abilities; and (e) require extensive practice over a period of years to achieve expert status. Studies of expertise in medical diagnosis have found two major departures from the typical findings in other areas of expertise, viz. that memory for new information seems best at intermediate levels of skill rather than at high levels, and that a mixture of forward and backward reasoning (hypothetico-deductive inference) is common at all levels of skill in medical diagnosis. These departures from findings in other domains are explained by the special characteristics of both medical knowledge and the diagnostic task. Language: en
Measuring the Unmeasurable by Ticking Boxes and Opening Pandora's Box? Mixed Methods Research as a Useful Tool for Investigating Exceptional and Spiritual Experiences *

A monomethod bias still prevails in the psychology of religion, with the developing field studying the relationship between religiosity, spirituality and health being almost completely dominated by questionnaire research. This comes as a surprise, because the experiential side of religion, spirituality, can by definition be regarded as inner and private experiences of transcendence that have frequently been described as being of utmost importance. At first glance, from this perspective, standardized questionnaire scales appear to be inappropriate for “measuring the unmeasurable”. Until now, no questionnaire instrument developed for the purpose of assessing spiritual and religious experiences has been qualitatively double-checked for intermethod validity. In order to throw light on whether questionnaire instruments are appropriate for measuring domains of spiritual and transcendental experiences, we tested a newly developed questionnaire instrument, the Exceptional Experience Questionnaire (EEQ), for intermethod validity by conducting post-questionnaire interviews (N = 35). This revealed that the EEQ was able to grasp these experiences within reasonable limits. However, two thirds of our interview sample said that the study had changed how they viewed these experiences. These findings suggest that the reactivity of quantitative instruments in grasping spiritual and transcendental domains should be taken into account, especially when devising longitudinal designs and further research is clearly needed. As a consequence, introducing a reflective circle of results stemming from both quantitative and qualitative approaches is recommended as the most useful and appropriate research tool for studying spiritual or mystical experiences, if not all constructs.
Analysis of the Performance of Iterative Estimation and Cancellation of Clipping Non-linear Distortion in OFDM

Clipping is usually applied to decrease the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) caused by orthogonal- frequency-division-multiplex (OFDM) with interference. To resolve this problem, an iterative estimation and cancellation of clipping non-linear distortion scheme is proposed. This paper presents that the performance of iterative estimation and cancellation of clipping non-linear distortion is better than that of clipping noise. The method of iterative estimation and cancellation of clipping non-linear distortion can recover the signal before clipping perfectly with the ideal feedback data. However, if receiver only estimate and cancel the clipping noise the signal will still be influenced by the attenuation caused by clipping. Analysis and simulation results prove the conclusion. And it is shown by numerical simulation results that system performance can be improved evidently. When the clipping threshold is 1.2, the performance is improved about 2 dB with only one iterative estimation and cancellation.
Fifty Years of Family Demography: A Record of Social Change.

Written in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Marriage and the Family this essay tells how family demography developed in the United States and then summarizes findings from selected research projects on the subject since 1940. Early studies examined the family life cycle historical family trends religious and racial intermarriage socioeconomic status and family stability and the marriage squeeze. Later analyses dealt with international trends in marriage health of the married and unmarried cohabitation outside marriage one-parent families and living alone. Still more recent investigations included gender preferences in children marital stability and sex of children no-fault divorce divorce among children of divorce projections of marital status remarriage marital homogamy stepfamilies and some consequences of recent changes in American family demographics. (EXCERPT)
Turnover and Retention in Nonprofit Employment

Korea’s nonprofit sector has undergone a sudden expansion in the last decade and its nonprofits experienced high employee turnover. This study is the first in Korean literature to examine workforce shifts in nonprofit organizations and explore influential factors that explain job changes from the nonprofit sector to other sectors. Using a three-wave panel data set of community college/university graduates, the Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey, we conducted a discrete-time survival analysis with the dependent variable of actual turnover. Our findings indicate that over half of employees left nonprofits within a year, and the majority found a new job in for-profit organizations. Different factors predicted turnover to for-profits, government agencies, and educational or research institutes. Age, wage level, employment type, and the size of nonprofit organizations explained employee shifts. Satisfaction with one’s overall job, job content, social reputation, and opportunities for career development were significant predictors. Implications for nonprofit organizations are discussed.