Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
American Identity in Study Abroad Students: Contrasts, Changes, Correlates

People who encounter a foreign culture face many challenges in the process of adjusting and adapting to it. For those who remain in contact with that culture over time, such as study abroad students, the adjustment demands may occur on many different levels. Ward and her colleagues (Ward, 2001; Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001) postulate an ABC model of acculturation tapping the affective, behavioral, and cognitive levels. This article focuses on the cognitive level, particularly the students’ social identification as American. An important aspect of study abroad students’ social identification is rooted in how they define themselves with regard to their sense of belonging to and preference for the country from which they embark on their study abroad. National identity (in the case of this study, American identity) has implications both for student well-being and their potential ability to adjust to a foreign culture (Phinney & Ong, 2007). The place of American identity within the range of outcomes of or precursors to intercultural exposure has yet to be clarified. Employing a new measure of this concept, we contrast the level, configuration, and change of American identity in study abroad students compared to those students who remained at home to clarify how this specific form of social identification fits within the broader nomological net of concepts that impact both college student development and study abroad.
Environmental Literacy

Media literacy has become one of the key qualifications for taking an active part in contemporary society. As media technology becomes more intuitive and media and other social practices intertwine more and more across everyday living, this chapter draws on three contrasting but randomly-chosen popular media texts to tease out how they both situate and address various forms of environmental literacy.
The benefit of using whole‐body, low‐dose, nonenhanced, multidetector computed tomography for follow‐up and therapy response monitoring in patients with multiple myeloma

The objectives of this study were to assess the status and clinical course of patients with multiple myeloma based on the direct visualization of changes in medullary, extramedullary, and focal osteolytic myeloma involvement by using whole‐body, low‐dose, multidetector computed tomography (WBLD‐MDCT) and to compare those results with an assessment based on conventional hematologic parameters.
Physical and Functional Association of Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) with Skeletal Muscle Mitochondria*

Background: The notion of mitochondrial lactate oxidation in skeletal muscle is controversial. Results: Mitochondrial respiration increased in the presence of substrates and cofactors for the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) reaction. Respiration was inhibited when mitochondrial pyruvate transport was blocked. Conclusion: Extra-matrix LDH is associated with muscle mitochondria. Significance: LDH is strategically positioned within skeletal muscle fibers to functionally interact with mitochondria. The intracellular lactate shuttle hypothesis posits that lactate generated in the cytosol is oxidized by mitochondrial lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) of the same cell. To examine whether skeletal muscle mitochondria oxidize lactate, mitochondrial respiratory oxygen flux (JO2) was measured during the sequential addition of various substrates and cofactors onto permeabilized rat gastrocnemius muscle fibers, as well as isolated mitochondrial subpopulations. Addition of lactate did not alter JO2. However, subsequent addition of NAD+ significantly increased JO2, and was abolished by the inhibitor of mitochondrial pyruvate transport, α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamate. In experiments with isolated subsarcolemmal and intermyofibrillar mitochondrial subpopulations, only subsarcolemmal exhibited NAD+-dependent lactate oxidation. To further investigate the details of the physical association of LDH with mitochondria in muscle, immunofluorescence/confocal microscopy and immunoblotting approaches were used. LDH clearly colocalized with mitochondria in intact, as well as permeabilized fibers. LDH is likely localized inside the outer mitochondrial membrane, but not in the mitochondrial matrix. Collectively, these results suggest that extra-matrix LDH is strategically positioned within skeletal muscle fibers to functionally interact with mitochondria.
Personalizing Session-based Recommendations with Hierarchical Recurrent Neural Networks

Session-based recommendations are highly relevant in many modern on-line services (e.g. e-commerce, video streaming) and recommendation settings. Recently, Recurrent Neural Networks have been shown to perform very well in session-based settings. While in many session-based recommendation domains user identifiers are hard to come by, there are also domains in which user profiles are readily available. We propose a seamless way to personalize RNN models with cross-session information transfer and devise a Hierarchical RNN model that relays end evolves latent hidden states of the RNNs across user sessions. Results on two industry datasets show large improvements over the session-only RNNs.
Orally Active Multi-Functional Antioxidants Are Neuroprotective in a Rat Model of Light-Induced Retinal Damage

Background Progression of age-related macular degeneration has been linked to iron dysregulation and oxidative stress that induce apoptosis of neural retinal cells. Since both antioxidants and chelating agents have been reported to reduce the progression of retinal lesions associated with AMD in experimental animals, the present study evaluates the ability of multi-functional antioxidants containing functional groups that can independently chelate redox metals and quench free radicals to protect the retina against light-induced retinal degeneration, a rat model of dry atrophic AMD. Methods/Results Proof of concept studies were conducted to evaluate the ability of 4-(5-hydroxypyrimidin-2-yl)-N,N-dimethyl-3,5-dioxopiperazine-1-sulfonamide (compound 4) and 4-(5-hydroxy-4,6-dimethoxypyrimidin-2-yl)-N,N-dimethyl-3,5-dioxopiperazine-1-sulfonamide (compound 8) to reduce retinal damage in 2-week dark adapted Wistar rats exposed to 1000 lx of light for 3 hours. Assessment of the oxidative stress markers 4- hydroxynonenal and nitrotyrosine modified proteins and Thioredoxin by ELISA and Western blots indicated that these compounds reduced the oxidative insult caused by light exposure. The beneficial antioxidant effects of these compounds in providing significant functional and structural protection were confirmed by electroretinography and quantitative histology of the retina. Conclusions/Significance The present study suggests that multi-functional compounds may be effective candidates for preventive therapy of AMD.
Effect of Random Circuit Fabrication Errors on Small-Signal Gain and Phase in Traveling-Wave Tubes

Motivated by current interest in submillimeter and terahertz (THz) slow-wave vacuum electronic amplifiers, which employ miniature, difficult-to-manufacture slow-wave circuits, we evaluate the effects of small random fabrication errors on the small-signal characteristics of a traveling wave tube. The classical 1-D small-signal theory of Pierce, generalized to allow axially varying circuit characteristics, is applied. Random, axially varying perturbations are introduced in the circuit phase velocity mismatch , the gain parameter , and the cold-tube circuit loss , in Pierce notation. Results from a first-order perturbation analysis of the small-signal equations, which are confirmed by numerical analysis, show that the standard deviations in the output phase and in the small-signal gain are linearly proportional to the standard deviations of the individual perturbations in , , and . Our study confirms that the effects of perturbations in the circuit phase velocity dominate the effects of perturbations in and .
Sequential Persuasion Strategies: Testing Explanations for and the Generality of the Legitimization of Paltry Favors Effect

The legitimization of paltry favors effect (LPF) is a sequential persuasion tactic whereby small contributions toward some overall compliance-gaining goal are linguistically minimized. An experiment was conducted to test whether self-presentation concerns or barrier removal better explains the LPF. Participants (N = 145) were approached and asked to volunteer for international student programs. Message strategy (LPF/no LPF) and beneficiary party (first-person/third-person) were varied. The data revealed neither main effects for message strategy or beneficiary party, nor any interaction between these variables. Results question the generality of the LPF, as well as the appropriateness of utilizing the LPF in volunteer solicitation efforts. Limitations and implications are discussed.
Human resource development in Gulf countries: an analysis of the trends and challenges facing Saudi Arabia

The objective of this study is to highlight the challenges of human capital development in the Gulf Arab countries in general and in Saudi Arabia in particular. A literature review and an analysis of the Saudi government's formal documents show that Saudi Arabia is facing several challenges in its economy system and human resource development (HRD) programmes. The main challenges are: high dependence on oil and the petrochemical industry; high dependence on foreign labour; a low rate of female participation in employment; and a weak link between educational system output and the needs of the economic sectors, especially those of the private sector, which requires skilled and professional labour. Recent studies related to HRD programmes in the private sector especially in small and medium size companies (SMEs) show that these programmes are not developed structurally or functionally. However, the case is different in large government and private companies. As illustration of human capital development in these large companies, two cases are presented in this study.
Paradigm Peace and the Implications for Quality

In this article it is shown that the paradigm wars that raged concerning the incompatibility of quantitative and qualitative research have largely subsided. In the process, discussions of epistemological and ontological issues have become less prominent. The peace that has broken out has proved to be more favourable to research combining quantitative and qualitative research than was the case during the paradigm wars. Drawing on interviews with social researchers who employ a mixed‐methods approach and on the literature, it is shown that a spirit of pragmatism with regard to combining quantitative and qualitative research prevails which encourages researchers to consider using mixed‐methods research when the research question is suited to it. However, the issue of which quality criteria should be employed in investigations combining quantitative and qualitative research has not been given a great deal of consideration. The author argues for a contingency approach, in which issues to do with quality are decided in relation to the nature of the study.
Volunteer Service by Young People from High School through Early Adulthood. Statistics in Brief.

Authors: Mike Planty Michael Regnier Education Statistics Services Institute This Statistics in Brief examines the patterns and characteristics of individual involvement in community service activities from high school through early adulthood. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), this Brief describes the characteristics of young adults who volunteered, when they volunteered, why they volunteered, and for which types of organizations they volunteered. Based on data from the NELS:88 1992 sample of 12th-grade studentswho were asked about their high school volunteer service for the period 199092 and then re-interviewed in 1994 and again in 2000this Brief also examines whether high school volunteer service was related to volunteering 2 years and 8 years after their scheduled high school graduation.
Dynamics of Mutations during Development of Resistance by Pseudomonas aeruginosa against Five Antibiotics

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes considerable morbidity and mortality, specifically during intensive care. Antibiotic-resistant variants of this organism are more difficult to treat and cause substantial extra costs compared to susceptible strains. In the laboratory, P. aeruginosa rapidly developed resistance to five medically relevant antibiotics upon exposure to stepwise increasing concentrations. At several time points during the acquisition of resistance, samples were taken for whole-genome sequencing. The increase in the MIC of ciprofloxacin was linked to specific mutations in gyrA, parC, and gyrB, appearing sequentially. In the case of tobramycin, mutations in fusA, HP02880, rplB, and capD were induced. The MICs of the beta-lactam compounds meropenem and ceftazidime and the combination of piperacillin and tazobactam correlated linearly with beta-lactamase activity but not always with individual mutations. The genes that were mutated during the development of beta-lactam resistance differed for each antibiotic. A quantitative relationship between the frequency of mutations and the increase in resistance could not be established for any of the antibiotics. When the adapted strains are grown in the absence of the antibiotic, some mutations remained and others were reversed, but this reversal did not necessarily lower the MIC. The increased MIC came at the cost of moderately reduced cellular functions or a somewhat lower growth rate. In all cases except ciprofloxacin, the increase in resistance seems to be the result of complex interactions among several cellular systems rather than individual mutations.
Investigating students' beliefs about their preferred role as learners

Secondary school students were asked to state their preference for an objectivist or a constructivist learning environment and consider the consequent implications for their role as a learner. They did this by identifying with the dialogue depicted in two concept cartoons. Results indicate an overwhelming preference among students for a constructivist learning environment. This suggests not only that students would be receptive to moves by teachers towards more constructivist principles in the classroom, but also that a failure to promote such a transition may contribute to an epistemological gap between teaching and learning styles that will be an impediment to meaningful learning. Students anticipated constructivist learning environments would be more interesting, more effective at developing students' understanding and would permit them to take greater ownership of their learning. Some limitations of the study are described.
Walking pattern generation of a biped walking robot using convolution sum

This paper describes a novel walking pattern generation method for a biped humanoid robot using convolution sum in discrete domain. For a biped walking model, single mass inverted pendulum model is generally used and the ZMP equation is described by decoupled linear differential equation. In the viewpoint of linear system response, walking pattern generation can be regarded as a convolution of an arbitrary reference ZMP and the walking pattern for an impulse ZMP. For the calculation of convolution, the walking pattern for an impulse ZMP is derived from the analytic walking pattern for a step ZMP. Then the convolution sum is derived in two recursive forms which can be applied in online and offline respectively. The proposed algorithm requires low computation power since the walking pattern equation is composed of a recursive form. Because the algorithm is expressed in analytic form, it is not required to solve optimization problem or calculate FFT as other researchers. Computer simulation of walking also shows excellent accuracy of the proposed algorithm compared to preview control method that have been regarded as an excellent one.
MODELING THE GRB HOST GALAXY MASS DISTRIBUTION: ARE GRBs UNBIASED TRACERS OF STAR FORMATION?

We model the mass distribution of long gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies given recent results suggesting that GRBs occur in low-metallicity environments. By utilizing measurements of the redshift evolution of the mass–metallicity relationship for galaxies, along with a sharp host metallicity cutoff suggested by Modjaz and collaborators, we estimate an upper limit on the stellar mass of a galaxy that can efficiently produce a GRB as a function of redshift. By employing consistent abundance indicators, we find that subsolar metallicity cutoffs effectively limit GRBs to low-stellar mass spirals and dwarf galaxies at low redshift. At higher redshifts, as the average metallicity of galaxies in the Universe falls, the mass range of galaxies capable of hosting a GRB broadens, with an upper bound approaching the mass of even the largest spiral galaxies. We compare these predicted limits to the growing number of published GRB host masses and find that extremely low-metallicity cutoffs of 0.1 to 0.5 Z☉ are effectively ruled out by a large number of intermediate mass galaxies at low redshift. A mass function that includes a smooth decrease in the efficiency of producing GRBs in galaxies of metallicity above 12+log(O/H)KK04 = 8.7 can, however, accommodate a majority of the measured host galaxy masses. We find that at z ∼ 1, the peak in the observed GRB host mass distribution is inconsistent with the expected peak in the mass of galaxies harboring most of the star formation. This suggests that GRBs are metallicity-biased tracers of star formation at low and intermediate redshifts, although our model predicts that this bias should disappear at higher redshifts due to the evolving metallicity content of the universe.
Three-Valued Abstraction for Stochastic Systems

Formal methods are a mathematical tool for modeling and verifying qualitative and quantitative aspects of systems of a wide variety of types. A most acknowledged technique in this context is the model checking approach that allows for an automated verification of system models with respect to sets of formal requirements. The underlying analysis techniques systematically and exhaustively explore all configurations of a system, resulting in a high memory consumption. To deal with this bottleneck, several solutions have been proposed, ranging from the use of efficient data structures to a number of reduction techniques. This thesis is concerned with abstraction, that is, with the reduction of available information in the system’s model, and the question of what properties are preserved when applying abstraction. We are focusing on the more intricate quantitative properties of probabilistic timed systems that can be expressed in PCTL and CSL, probabilistic variants of the computation tree logic (CTL). The models under consideration are discrete-time and continuous-time Markov chains (DTMCs, CTMCs) as well as interactive Markov chains (IMCs) that extend CTMCs with functional behavior and provide facilities for compositional modeling. Markov chains are the underlying low-level models for many modeling formalisms that are used, amongst others, in the area of reliability, dependability and performance analysis as well as in systems biology. In this thesis, abstraction is implemented by merging states of a system’s model; when states with different behavior are to be merged, nondeterminism is added to the corresponding abstract state to capture the uncertainty on what concrete state is occupied when looking at the abstract picture. Due to this newly introduced nondeterminism, we obtain abstractions that may contain more (but no less) possible behavior compared to the given concrete system; hence, when analyzing the abstraction, we obtain safe overand
Sequential Change of Wound Calculated by Image Analysis Using a Color Patch Method during a Secondary Intention Healing

Background Photographs of skin wounds have the most important information during the secondary intention healing (SIH). However, there is no standard method for handling those images and analyzing them efficiently and conveniently. Objective To investigate the sequential changes of SIH depending on the body sites using a color patch method Methods We performed retrospective reviews of 30 patients (11 facial and 19 non-facial areas) who underwent SIH for the restoration of skin defects and captured sequential photographs with a color patch which is specially designed for automatically calculating defect and scar sizes. Results Using a novel image analysis method with a color patch, skin defects were calculated more accurately (range of error rate: -3.39% ~ + 3.05%). All patients had smaller scar size than the original defect size after SIH treatment (rates of decrease: 18.8% ~ 86.1%), and facial area showed significantly higher decrease rate compared with the non-facial area such as scalp and extremities (67.05 ± 12.48 vs. 53.29 ± 18.11, P < 0.05). From the result of estimating the date corresponding to the half of the final decrement, all of the facial area showed improvements within two weeks (8.45 ± 3.91), and non-facial area needed 14.33 ± 9.78 days. Conclusion From the results of sequential changes of skin defects, SIH can be recommended as an alternative treatment method for restoration with more careful dressing for initial two weeks.
Distance Relay Application Testing Using a Digital Simulator

This paper reports on power transmission distance relay application testing using simulated transient waveforms. Power system modeling and test procedures using modern digital simulators are presented. An extensive study of five commercial relays, comparing their application for a 345 kV transmission line, is carried out by performing thousands of one-terminal and synchronized two-terminal transient tests. The digital simulation approach has proved to be an efficient technique. This paper presents a methodology for evaluating distance relay transient performance based on extensive laboratory testing. Important issues regarding application testing are also addressed and investigated in this paper.
The Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Clinical, Pathological, and Biomechanical Study

✓ Because a history of shaking is often lacking in the so-called “shaken baby syndrome,” diagnosis is usually based on a constellation of clinical and radiographic findings. Forty-eight cases of infants and young children with this diagnosis seen between 1978 and 1985 at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia were reviewed. All patients had a presenting history thought to be suspicious for child abuse, and either retinal hemorrhages with subdural or subarachnoid hemorrhages or a computerized tomography scan showing subdural or subarachnoid hemorrhages with interhemispheric blood. The physical examination and presence of associated trauma were analyzed; autopsy findings for the 13 fatalities were reviewed. All fatal cases had signs of blunt impact to the head, although in more than half of them these findings were noted only at autopsy. All deaths were associated with uncontrollably increased intracranial pressure. Models of 1-month-old infants with various neck and skull parameters were instrumented with.
Divorcing Parents: Guidelines for Promoting Children's Adjustment.

ABSTRACT Research findings show that many children who experience parental divorce manifest a variety of short-and long-term adjustment problems. Additionally, the literature identifies factors such as parental conflict and disruption of daily routines that can exacerbate these problems. However, there are measures parents can take to help their children through the often distressing process of parental divorce. In the present paper, the empirical literature regarding issues/factors relevant to children's adjustment to divorce is described. Based on the reviewed literature, practical guidelines and suggestions, likely to help parents enhance their children's adjustment are provided.