Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High hemoglobin A1c levels within the non‐diabetic range are associated with the risk of all cancers

Previous studies have reported associations between diabetes and cancer risk. However, specific association of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels with cancer risk remains inconclusive. We followed 29,629 individuals (11,336 men; 18,293 women) aged 46–80 years who participated in the Japan Public Health Center‐based prospective study who had HbA1c measurements available and were cancer‐free at baseline. Cancer incidence was assessed by systemic surveys. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for cancer risk with adjustment for age sex, geographic area, body mass index, smoking status, physical activity, alcohol, coffee, vegetable and total energy consumption, and history of cardiovascular disease. After a median follow‐up of 8.5 years, 1,955 individuals had developed cancer. Higher HbA1c levels within both the non‐diabetic and diabetic ranges in individuals without known diabetes were associated with overall cancer risk. Compared with individuals without known diabetes and HbA1c levels of 5.0–5.4%, the HRs for all cancers were 1.27 (95% confidence interval, 1.07–1.52); 1.01 (0.90–1.14); 1.28 (1.09–1.49); and 1.43 (1.14–1.80) for individuals without known diabetes and HbA1c levels <5.0%, 5.5–5.9%, 6.0–6.4%, and ≥6.5%, respectively, and 1.23 (1.02–1.47) for individuals with known diabetes. The lowest HbA1c group had the highest risk of liver cancer, and HbA1c levels were linearly associated with the risk of all cancers after excluding liver cancer (P for linear trend, 0.004). In conclusion, our findings corroborate the notion that glycemic control in individuals with high HbA1c levels may be important not only to prevent diabetes but also to prevent cancer.
Motivation and Self-Regulated Learning Strategies: Theory, Measurement and Application

Na pocetku je definirana samoregulacija i pružen je povijesni pregled modela samoregulacije, nakon cega se izlaganje usmjerava na samoregulirano ucenje. Prikazano je kako su se razmisljanja o proaktivnosti i reaktivnosti ucenika odrazila na reforme i politike obrazovanja u SAD-u, cime je u ovoj knjizi model samoreguliranog ucenja dobio povijesni i razvojni kontekst. Posebna pozornost posvecena je modelima samoreguliranog ucenja iz socijalno-kognitivne perspektive ucenja. Opisane su strategije ucenja prema razlicitim modelima, a izlaganje je prosireno sa strategijama suocavanja sa skolskim neuspjehom te je dan osvrt na ove, do sada prilicno odvojene, istraživacke perspektive. Istraživanje obrambenog obrasca samoreguliranog ucenja bilo bi otežano izostavljanjem važnih konstrukata opisanih u ovim i narednim poglavljima. U nastavku su opisani neki opci modeli kognitivnih i motivacijskih odrednica samoreguliranog ucenja, da bi se izlaganje kasnije usmjerilo na dihotomne modele koji vise ili manje eksplicitno opisuju proaktivne i obrambene obrasce u ljudskom ponasanju i u ucenju. Na kraju teoretskog dijela izložen je kratki osvrt na novu sintezu i klasifikaciju komponenti te je prikazan hipotetski model njihovog međusobnog odnosa i utjecaja na ishode ucenja koji tek prolazi prve faze empirijske provjere. Predzadnji dio knjige usmjeren je na prikaz primjera primjene koncepta samoregulacije ucenja u prakticnom radu poucavatelja i u poticanju procesa samostalnog ucenja u razlicitim formalnim, informalnim i neformalnim oblicima obrazovanja. Ponovo je naglasen socio- kognitivni okvir za primjenu principa poticanja samoregulacije, a obrađeni su i suvremeni pristupi ukljucivanja informacijsko- komunikacijske tehnologije kao sredstva za poticanje samoregulacije u ucenju. Izneseni su temeljni principi poticanja samoregulacije ucenja, cjeloviti primjeri intervencijskih programa, kao i primjeri primjene u razlicitim nastavnim predmetima. U zadnjem dijelu knjige prikazan je razvoj baterije mjera pod nazivom Motivacijske i kognitivne komponente samoregulacije ucenja, pri cemu su komponente razvrstane na kognitivna i motivacijska uvjerenja te kognitivne i motivacijske strategije. Pri izradi mjera ponovo se posebna pozornost posvetila pokazateljima obrambene samoregulacije ucenja. U prilogu su prikazane i skale u formi spremnoj za primjenu, a naveden je i prvi prilog izradi normi za ucenike i ucenice visih razreda osnovne skole. Rezultati metrijskih karakteristika prikazanih skala ukazuju na zadovoljavajucu konstruktnu valjanost, pri cemu je opravdanost podjele komponenti na proaktivan i obrambeni obrazac i empirijski potvrđena.
A framework for architecture-driven service discovery

Service discovery has been recognised as an important aspect in the development of service centric systems, i.e. software systems that are constructed based on the composition of web services. In order to develop service centric systems it is necessary to identify web services that can be combined to fulfil the functionality and quality criteria of the system being developed. In this paper we present a framework to support architecture-driven service discovery - that is the discovery of services that can provide the functionalities and satisfy properties and constraints of systems as specified during the design phase of the development lifecycle. Our framework assumes an iterative design process and allows for the (re-)formulation of the design models of service-centric systems based on the discovered services. A prototype tool has been developed and includes two main components: a UML 2.0 integration module, which derives queries from behavioural and structural UML design models and integrates the results of the queries; and a query execution engine, which performs the queries against service registries. The execution of the query is a two-stage process based on a similarity analysis algorithm.
Innovative Behavior of Employees: A model of Antecedents and Consequences, A Deeper Look at Psychological and Organizational Factors

Despite increasing importance of fostering innovation among employees, and the growing interest in Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) constructs, little empirical research has been conducted on the topic of innovation with POB. Moreover, though research proved significant relationship between positive psychological capital (PsyCap) and creative performance, no studies examined PsyCap with innovative behavior along with other antecedents. In addition, potential differential antecedents of innovative behavior have received insufficient attention. The present study integrated a number of streams of research on the antecedents of innovation and creativity to develop and test a model of innovative behavior. Regression analyses reveal that PsyCap, work characteristics, personal initiative, supportive climate, strategic attention and creative behavior predict innovative behavior which in turn affects satisfaction and engagement.
The Cardy-Verlinde formula and charged topological AdS black holes

We consider the brane universe in the bulk background of the charged topological AdS black holes. The evolution of the brane universe is described by the Friedmann equations for a flat or an open FRW-universe containing radiation and stiff matter. We find that the temperature and entropy of the dual CFT are simply expressed in terms of the Hubble parameter and its time derivative, and the Friedmann equations coincide with thermodynamic formulas of the dual CFT at the moment when the brane crosses the black hole horizon. We obtain the generalized Cardy–Verlinde formula for the CFT with an R-charge, for any values of the curvature parameter k in the Friedmann equations.
Fast RANSAC Hypothesis Generation for Essential Matrix Estimation

The RANSAC framework is often used to estimate the relative pose of two cameras from outlier-contaminated point correspondences, via the essential matrix, however this is computationally expensive due the cost of computing essential matrices from many sets of five to seven correspondences. The leading contemporary 5-point solver (Nister, 2004) is slow because of the expensive linear algebra decompositions and polynomial solve which are required. To avoid these costs we propose to use Levenberg-Marquardt optimisation on a manifold to find a subset of the compatible essential matrices. The proposed algorithm finds essential matrices at a higher rate than closed-form approaches, and reduces the time needed to find relative poses using RANSAC by 25%. The second contribution of this paper is to apply the optimisations used in 5-point solvers to the classic 7-point algorithm. RANSAC using the optimised 7-point algorithm is considerably faster than 5-point RANSAC (unless planar point configurations are common), despite the increased number of iterations necessary.
On the connection between level of education and the neural circuitry of emotion perception

Through education, a social group transmits accumulated knowledge, skills, customs, and values to its members. So far, to the best of our knowledge, the association between educational attainment and neural correlates of emotion processing has been left unexplored. In a retrospective analysis of The Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we compared two groups of fourteen healthy volunteers with intermediate and high educational attainment, matched for age and gender. The data concerned event-related fMRI of brain activation during perception of facial emotional expressions. The region of interest (ROI) analysis showed stronger right amygdala activation to facial expressions in participants with lower relative to higher educational attainment (HE). The psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed that participants with HE exhibited stronger right amygdala—right insula connectivity during perception of emotional and neutral facial expressions. This exploratory study suggests the relevance of educational attainment on the neural mechanism of facial expressions processing.
EVIDENCE-BASED ANSWERS TO 15 QUESTIONS ABOUT LEVERAGING 360-DEGREE FEEDBACK

Despite the popularity of 360-degree feedback, meta-analytic findings suggest that these interventions can lead to a significant change in behavior but the effect sizes are typically modest and when done poorly may lead to both disengagement and a decline in performance. The research evidence addressing practical issues for coaches to successfully implement 360-degree feedback interventions is updated since previous review studies (e.g., Craig & Hannum, 2006; Fleenor, Taylor, & Craig, 2008). This article reviews 15 specific questions that are common to most 360-degree feedback interventions (purpose and goals, methodology and psychometric properties, and process and implementation) designed to facilitate enhanced awareness and successful behavior change in individuals and teams.
Recognition of Emotions in Mexican Spanish Speech: An Approach Based on Acoustic Modelling of Emotion-Specific Vowels

An approach for the recognition of emotions in speech is presented. The target language is Mexican Spanish, and for this purpose a speech database was created. The approach consists in the phoneme acoustic modelling of emotion-specific vowels. For this, a standard phoneme-based Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system was built with Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), where different phoneme HMMs were built for the consonants and emotion-specific vowels associated with four emotional states (anger, happiness, neutral, sadness). Then, estimation of the emotional state from a spoken sentence is performed by counting the number of emotion-specific vowels found in the ASR's output for the sentence. With this approach, accuracy of 87–100% was achieved for the recognition of emotional state of Mexican Spanish speech.
Efficient Estimation of Copula Mixture Model: An Application to the Rating of Crop Revenue Insurance

The association between prices and yields are of paramount importance to the crop insurance programs. Proper estimation of the association is highly desirable. Copulas are one such method to measure the dependence structure. Five single parametric copulas, a non- parametric copula and their fifteen different combinations taking a mixture of two different copulas at a time have been used in the crop insurance rating analysis. Using data of corn from 1973-2009 for 602 counties in the Mid-West area two different efficient methods have been proposed to generate the optimal mixtures using the cross validation approach. A resampling technique is used to check for the significance of the expected indemnities.
Relaxing Gaze Aversion of Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder in Consecutive Conversations With Human and Android Robot—A Preliminary Study

Establishing a treatment method for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) not only to increase their frequency or duration of eye contact but also to maintain it after ceasing the intervention, and furthermore generalize it across communication partners, is a formidable challenge. Android robots, which are a type of humanoid robot with appearances quite similar to that of humans, are expected to adapt to the role of training partners of face-to-face communication for individuals with ASD and to create easier experiences transferrable to humans. To evaluate this possibility, four male adolescents with ASD and six without ASD were asked to participate a pilot experiment in which there were consecutive sessions of semistructured conversation where they alternately faced either a human female or a female-type android robot interlocutor five times in total. Although it is limited by the small sample size, the preliminary results of analysis of their fixation pattern during the conversations indicated positive signs; the subjects tended to look more at the face of the android robot than that of the human interlocutor regardless of whether they had ASD. However, the individuals with ASD looked more at the area around the eyes of the android robot than at the human, and also looked less at that of the human than the individuals without ASD did. An increasing tendency of looking at the area around the human eyes, which could be a positive sign of the transferability of the experiences with an android robot to a human interlocutor, was only weakly observed as the sessions progressed.
Bread or Circuses? Parsing Representative and Representational Democratic Discourse on U.S. Political Blogs

This thesis finds empirical support for Jodi Dean's theory of declining symbolic efficiency through a qualitative content analysis of discourse concerning the 2013 U.S. government shutdown on political blogs. Themes of this thesis explore reflexivity, decontextualization, and an erosion of meaning brought about by changing media technologies and practices. Humanistic analyses of media and politics by scholars such as Benkler (2006) and McChesney (1999) are contrasted with works by Gitlin (1980), Postman (1985), and Dean (2010), who see media systems operating outside human control. This study's methodology relies upon Knight and Johnson's (2011) pragmatic justification for democratic institutions. The analysis uses a system of categories to describe statements about political strategy along four dimensions: operant; method of action; operand; and the consequence of the strategy. This study identifies important distinctions between textual descriptions of nominal and instrumental strategy; it is argued that nominal discourse represents the influence of symbolic inefficiency.
Understanding Predictability

We propose a general equilibrium model with multiple securities in which investors’ risk preferences and expectations of dividend growth are time‐varying. While time‐varying risk preferences induce the standard positive relation between the dividend yield and expected returns, time‐varying expected dividend growth induces a negative relation between them. These offsetting effects reduce the ability of the dividend yield to forecast returns and eliminate its ability to forecast dividend growth, as observed in the data. The model links the predictability of returns to that of dividend growth, suggesting specific changes to standard linear predictive regressions for both. The model’s predictions are confirmed empirically.
Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Satisfaction, and Market Value

Although prior research has addressed the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on perceived customer responses, it is not clear whether CSR affects market value of the firm. This study develops and tests a conceptual framework, which predicts that (1) customer satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between CSR and firm market value (i.e., Tobin's q and stock return), (2) corporate abilities (innovativeness capability and product quality) moderate the financial returns to CSR, and (3) these moderated relationships are mediated by customer satisfaction. Based on a large-scale secondary data set, the results show support for this framework. Notably, the authors find that in firms with low innovativeness capability, CSR actually reduces customer satisfaction levels and, through the lowered satisfaction, harms market value. The uncovered mediated and asymmetrically moderated results offer important implications for marketing theory and practice.
PILE DRIVING UNDERWATER NOISE ASSESSMENT , PROPOSED BELL BAY PULP MILL WHARF DEVELOPMENT Prepared for : Gunns Limited

U Un nd de er rw wa at te er r N No oi is se e I Im mp pa ac ct ts s B BB BP PM MP P R Re ep po or rt t 2 20 00 08 8 2 Executive summary Gunns Limited propose to carry out wharf construction approximately 18 km up the Tamar River in northern Tasmania. Around 190-236 piles are expected to be driven, with the final number dependant on the bedrock depth found at each pile location. Piles will be driven initially by vibratory piling where the pile is vibrated by a relatively low impact, high frequency 'hammer' to the maximum depth achievable. Impact piling using a hydraulic or diesel driven hammer will then be carried out to drive the pile the remaining distance required. Vibratory pile driving may produce high noise levels but these are known to be some 25 dB below those of impact piling and do not produce the high impulse signatures of impact pile driving which have been associated with serious physiological impacts on fish in other regions. Hence the review of environmental implications of underwater noise produced by wharf construction prepared has focused on impact pile driving only. Where the wharf is to be constructed the river is approximately 600 m wide although deeper parts of the river at 15-20 m depth extend only 540 m across the river from the wharf edge. The seabed across the river is of a layer of almost equal parts fine sand and clay/silt of thickness up to 40 m. The water column across the river for this study was considered to be uniformly mixed with constant 1507 ms-1 vertical sound speed profile. Using these environmental parameters and assuming: a constant water depth of 18 m; pile noise source at the seabed; and a uniform 20 m thick fine-sand/clay-silt layer over bedrock; the underwater sound transmission model Scooter was run at frequencies from 10 Hz to 1 kHz in 1 Hz steps at range a resolution of 0.5 m over 5-500 m in the horizontal plane and 0.5-18 m in the vertical plane. The resulting output of amplitude and phase corrections was applied as a transform function at each spatial point to a representative source pile driving signal to give predicted received pile driving signals. These received signals were then characterized for received sound exposure level, peak-peak level and mean …
Modelling Optimal Control of Cholera in Communities Linked by Migration

A mathematical model for the dynamics of cholera transmission with permissible controls between two connected communities is developed and analysed. The dynamics of the disease in the adjacent communities are assumed to be similar, with the main differences only reflected in the transmission and disease related parameters. This assumption is based on the fact that adjacent communities often have different living conditions and movement is inclined toward the community with better living conditions. Community specific reproduction numbers are given assuming movement of those susceptible, infected, and recovered, between communities. We carry out sensitivity analysis of the model parameters using the Latin Hypercube Sampling scheme to ascertain the degree of effect the parameters and controls have on progression of the infection. Using principles from optimal control theory, a temporal relationship between the distribution of controls and severity of the infection is ascertained. Our results indicate that implementation of controls such as proper hygiene, sanitation, and vaccination across both affected communities is likely to annihilate the infection within half the time it would take through self-limitation. In addition, although an infection may still break out in the presence of controls, it may be up to 8 times less devastating when compared with the case when no controls are in place.
Cell-mediated lympholysis of trinitrophenyl-modified autologous lymphocytes. Confirmation of genetic control of response to trinitrophenyl-modified H-2 antigens by the use of anti-H-2 and anti-Ia antibodies

Splenic lymphocytes from B10.A and B10.D2 mice were sensitized in vitro to trinitrophenyl (TNP)-modified autologous spleen cells. The effector cells generated were assayed in a 51Cr-release assay on TNP-modified syngeneic or congenic spleen target cells. Effector cells from B10.A donors lysed TNP-modified H-2Kk- but not H-2Dd-region products, whereas B10.D2 effectors reacted with modified products of both the H-2Kd and H- 2Dd regions. As an independent confirmation that this selective K-end lysis by B10.A effector cells is due to an H-2-linked responder cell defect (4), anti-H-2Kk but not anti-H-2Dd sera were shown to inhibit the lysis of B10.A-TNP targets by B10.A effectors. In contrast, anti-H- 2Dd sera inhibited the lysis of B10.A-TNP targets by B10.D2 effectors. Anti-Ia antibodies had no detectable effect on lysis. Anti-TNP-keyhole limpet hemocyanin sera blocked the lysis of TNP-modified targets, irrespective of whether the effector cells were directed against TNP- modified autologous H-2 products or H-2 alloantigens. These results independently verify that B10. A responding lymphocytes do not generate effector cells to TNP-modified H-2Dd products, whereas B10.D2 lymphocytes do (4), and suggest that some TNP groups are sterically close to (or part of) the serologically defined H-2K- and H-2D-region antigens.
Revisiting willingness to communicate in English as a foreign language: the Serbian perspective

ABSTRACT The paper investigates the concept of willingness to communicate (WTC) in the context of tertiary education in Serbia with a twofold aim: (a) to assess the level of students’ WTC, both generally and in relation to each of the four language skills, both inside the classroom and outside of it; (b) to explore the extent to which orientation towards learning L2 and self-perceived competence affect the students’ WTC. To this end, we conducted a survey with 171 B1–B2 level students at the University of Novi Sad. The measuring instrument was a three-part questionnaire, used to gather background information on the participants and their self-perceived English language competence based on a 3-point self-assessment Likert scale, as well as a list of 20 statements to examine the students’ orientation towards learning English in relation to five types of orientation. The results of the analysis, performed using the SPSS Statistics 20 software package (paired-samples t-tests, bivariate correlations and a multiple linear regression), confirm the importance of the affective dimension in learning and point to the predominance of self-perceived competence as a crucial factor for L2 WTC.