Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Therapeutic Effects of Qualitative Research: Reconstructing the Experience of Treatment as a By‐Product of Qualitative Evaluation

This article argues that therapeutic effects can emerge from qualitative evaluation interviews in which the client reconstructs the experience of treatment. The effects stem from the context of the evaluation interview, the interviewer‐interviewee relationship, and the content of the interview. Therapeutic effects should be taken into consideration in the process of data collection and data analysis, both for research and ethical reasons.
Time to Read: Advancing Reading Achievement After School

Out-of-school programs provide a context for enriching academic experiences. This study describes a 12-week after-school reading program, Project Expanding Horizons, which is based on the Schoolwide Enrichment Model-Reading (SEM-R) framework. SEM-R has three phases: exposure, supported independent reading, and choice. The exposure phase is designed to broaden students’ literature experiences through short read-alouds. During the next phase, supported independent reading, teachers circulate and hold conferences with students as they read independently from self-selected books. Teachers give guidance to students in selecting books of appropriate challenge during this phase and promote thinking about reading through questioning and discussion. Finally, during the last stage, teachers give students a choice of a variety of activities related to their reading. The program provided wide exposure to books and emphasized individually challenging reading, including a specific focus on meeting the needs of advanced readers. In this study, the participants included 155 students in grades 3–6 from 3 demographically diverse districts. Average weekly gain scores in reading fluency were compared to grade-level national norms. Third and fifth graders showed statistically significantly higher gain scores than the national sample; fourth and sixth graders did not. These results suggest that participation in the after-school program may have contributed additional support to students’ growth in reading achievement over the course of 12 weeks. Further analyses indicated similar gain scores across subgroups by gender, district, and entry reading level. Thus, this program shows potential benefits for both low-ability and high-ability readers.
Contribution of K+ Channels to Relaxation Induced by 17&bgr;-Estradiol but Not by Progesterone in Isolated Rat Mesenteric Artery Rings

17&bgr;-Estradiol and progesterone were found to relax various vascular beds through multiple mechanisms. However, the exact ionic mechanisms underlying the acute relaxant responses to both hormones are incompletely understood. This study was aimed to examine the possible role of K+ channel activation in the relaxation induced by both hormones in isolated rat mesenteric artery rings. Isometric tension of each ring was measured with Grass force displacement transducers. In rat endothelium–denuded rings preconstricted by 9,11-dideoxy-11&agr;,9&agr;-epoxy-methanoprostaglandin F2&agr; (U46619), the relaxation induced by 17&bgr;-estradiol was partially inhibited by tetrapentylammonium, 4-aminopyridine, iberiotoxin, BaCl2, and tertiapin-Q but not by tetraethylammonium, charybdotoxin, apamin, or glibenclamide. In contrast, these putative K+ channel blockers, except for glibenclamide, did not affect the relaxant response to progesterone. In 4 × 10−2M K+-preconstricted rings, the K+ channel blockers lost their inhibitory effects on 17&bgr;-estradiol–induced relaxation. Endothelium did not seem to be involved in the effects of K+ channel blockers on 17&bgr;-estradiol–mediated relaxation. Nifedipine-induced relaxation was not inhibited but was instead enhanced by tetrapentylammonium, iberiotoxin, 4-aminopyridine, and BaCl2. The above results indicate that in rat mesenteric artery rings, nonselective activation of K+ channels contributes partially to the relaxation induced by 17&bgr;-estradiol. These K+ channels involved in the estrogen response appeared to be sensitive to inhibition by KCa, KV, and KIR channel blockers. Lack of effect of K+ channel blockers on progesterone-induced relaxation suggests that these K+ channels play little or no role. The present findings provide pharmacological evidence for an additional mechanism contributing to acute vasorelaxation induced by 17&bgr;-estradiol.
Coping with Distrust in a Study of Intergenerational Puerto Rican Families in New York City

This paper discusses the way in which a research team coped with the problem of respondents' distrust during a field study of intergenerationally linked Puerto Rican families in New York City. Distrust was mitigated by the presence of bilingual and bicultural interviewers who had a genuine interest in the Hispanic community, the opportunities given to skeptical interviewees to test the veracity of the research team's statements, the efforts to make the interviews enjoyable to the interviewee, the interviewers' adaptation to generational differences, and compliance with cultural amenities. The presentation of the field team's experiences in coping with distrust is intended as a contribution to an understanding of how to solve certain problems specific to data collection in urban-based field studies and as a means of stimulating informed discussion of the topic. Este artículo presenta los medios utilizados por un equipo de investigatión para reducir la desconfianza por parte de los entrevistados en el curso de un estudio de dos generaciones de familias puertorriqueñas en la Ciudad de Nueva York. Se pudo reducir la desconfianza con la presencia de entrevistadores bilingues y biculturales caracterizados por un interes auténtico en la comunidad Hispana; por las oportunidades brindadas a los entrevistados sospechosos para que verificaran las declaraciones de los entrevistadores; por los esfuerzos de hacer agradables las entrevistas para los entrevistados; por la adaptación por parte de los entrevistadores a las diferencias entre las distintas generaciones de la misma familia; y por el cumplimiento con los patrones culturales. Estas experiencias de un equipo de investigation en reducir la desconfianza se presentan como un esfuerzo para entender cómo se pueden superar ciertos problemas relacionados con la recolección de datos en estudios urbanos y como un medio de promover una discusión informada sobre el tema.
Challenges in education management information system in develpoing countries

Education Management Information System not only means to gather statistics from the schools by following people, models, methods, procedures, processes, rules and regulations but it actually also relates with the emerging computer technology to get all mentioned functions work together to provide comprehensive, integrated, relevant, reliable, unambiguous and timely data to education leaders, decisions makers, planners and managers to perform their responsibilities efficiently to achieve the set goals. Computer technology provides technical support to the education management information systems by providing right people with right information at the right time to make best decisions, planning and monitoring in the best interest of organization. In this paper challenges to EMIS in NWFP are discussed by a study of the existing system
Efficiency in auctions with Private and Common Values

This discussion has resulted in a publication in the American Economic Review , 2002, 92(3), 625-43. Auctions are generally not efficient when the object's expected value depends on private and common value information. We report a series of first-price auction experiments to measure the degree of inefficiency that occurs with financially motivated bidders. While some subjects fall prey to the winner's curse, they weigh their private and common value information in roughly the same manner as rational bidders, with observed efficiencies close to predicted levels. Increased competition and reduced uncertainty about the common value positively affect revenues and efficiency. The public release of information about the common value also raises efficiency, although less than predicted.
Validation of Transient Elastography and Comparison with Spleen Length Measurement for Staging of Fibrosis and Clinical Prognosis in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis

Background Patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) develop progressive liver fibrosis and end-stage liver disease. Non-invasive and widely available parameters are urgently needed to assess disease stage and the risk of clinical progression. Transient elastography (TE) has been reported to predict fibrosis stage and disease progression. However, these results have not been confirmed in an independent cohort and comparison of TE measurement to other non-invasive means is missing. Methods In a retrospective study we collected data from consecutive PSC patients receiving TE measurements from 2006 to 2014 (n = 139). Data from 62 patients who also underwent a liver biopsy were used to assess the performance of TE and spleen length (SL) measurement for the staging of liver fibrosis. Follow-up data from this cohort (n = 130, Hamburg) and another independent cohort (n = 80, Paris) was used to compare TE and SL as predictors of clinical outcome applying Harrel’s C calculations. Results TE measurement had a very good performance for the diagnosis and exclusion of higher fibrosis stages (≥F3: AUROC 0.95) and an excellent performance for the diagnosis and exclusion of cirrhosis (F4 vs. < F4: AUROC 0.98). Single-point TE measurement had very similar predictive power for patient outcome as previously published. In a combined cohort of PSC patients (n = 210), SL measurements had a similar performance as TE for the prediction of patient outcome (5 x cross-validated Harrel’s C 0.76 and 0.72 for SL and TE, respectively). Conclusions Baseline TE measurement has an excellent performance to diagnose higher fibrosis stages in PSC. Baseline measurements of SL and TE have similar usefulness as predictive markers for disease progression in patients with PSC.
Molecular Markers for Sensitive Detection of Plasmodium falciparum Asexual Stage Parasites and their Application in a Malaria Clinical Trial

Abstract. Plasmodium falciparum parasite life stages respond differently to antimalarial drugs. Sensitive stage-specific molecular assays may help to examine parasite dynamics at microscopically detectable and submicroscopic parasite densities in epidemiological and clinical studies. In this study, we compared the performance of skeleton-binding protein 1 (SBP1), ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen, Hyp8, ring-exported protein 1 (REX1), and PHISTb mRNA for detecting ring-stage trophozoite-specific transcripts using quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Markers were tested on tightly synchronized in vitro parasites and clinical trial samples alongside established markers of parasite density (18S DNA and rRNA) and gametocyte density (Pfs25 mRNA). SBP1 was the most sensitive marker but showed low-level expression in mature gametocytes. Novel markers REX1 and PHISTb showed lower sensitivity but higher specificity for ring-stage trophozoites. Using in vivo clinical trial samples from gametocyte-negative patients, we observed evidence of persisting trophozoite transcripts for at least 14 days postinitiation of treatment. It is currently not clear if these transcripts represent viable parasites that may have implications for clinical treatment outcome or transmission potential.
A study of deadlock models for a multiservice medium access protocol employing a Slotted Aloha signalling channel

Medium access protocols for HFC and wireless ATM networks often use a collision based capacity request signalling channel which may rely on the slotted Aloha multiaccess principle. This paper studies the performance of a p-persistence slotted Aloha contention resolution algorithm (CRA), subject to extreme interstation correlation, by means of a discrete-time Markov chain analysis. We examine in detail the conditions leading to a deadlock-a situation where the time to collision resolution becomes unacceptably high and the system is practically unstable. We analyze two disaster scenario deadlock models, and study the effect of channel error probability, signalling traffic load, and the contention resolution algorithm used. We show that the key factor of the CRA is the collision rate and not channel errors. We propose and test three signalling channel capacity allocation schemes. We identify the best-performing of these three schemes as the cyclic contention mini-slot (CMS) sharing employing multiple CMSs per data slot. Finally, we demonstrate the need for implementation of an added scheme, which dynamically adjusts the p-persistence parameter.
Reducing shading on GPUs using quad-fragment merging

Current GPUs perform a significant amount of redundant shading when surfaces are tessellated into small triangles. We address this inefficiency by augmenting the GPU pipeline to gather and merge rasterized fragments from adjacent triangles in a mesh. This approach has minimal impact on output image quality, is amenable to implementation in fixed-function hardware, and, when rendering pixel-sized triangles, requires only a small amount of buffering to reduce overall pipeline shading work by a factor of eight. We find that a fragment-shading pipeline with this optimization is competitive with the REYES pipeline approach of shading at micropolygon vertices and, in cases of complex occlusion, can perform up to two times less shading work.
When Rules Turn Loose: An Analysis of the Concept of Rules and Exceptions

This paper seeks to clarify the notion of rules and exceptions and how they influence human behavior. Human beings, as Aristotle claims, are socio-political animals, and their existence is generally defined by how they associate with each other in society. The values one develops are related to the regulation of societal action. It is possible, however, that there are multifaceted valuations within the same society and that different rules may be created to account for them. These rules may fail to account for all the values that exist in society. More so, these rules may either be modified or changed over time to address society’s evolution. Given the dynamism, individuals may bargain for the creation of exceptions to rules that define their existence as importantly as rules do. Keywords: Rules, exceptions, deliberation, equality, meritorious/special case, equity, justice
Undominated VCG redistribution mechanisms

Many important problems in multiagent systems can be seen as resource allocation problems. For such problems, the well-known Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism is efficient, incentive compatible, individually rational, and does not incur a deficit. However, the VCG mechanism is not (strongly) budget balanced: generally, the agents' payments will sum to more than 0. Very recently, several mechanisms have been proposed that redistribute a significant percentage of the VCG payments back to the agents while maintaining the other properties. This increases the agents' utilities. One redistribution mechanism dominates another if it always redistributes at least as much to each agent (and sometimes more). In this paper, we provide a characterization of undominated redistribution mechanisms. We also propose several techniques that take a dominated redistribution mechanism as input, and produce as output another redistribution mechanism that dominates the original. One technique immediately produces an undominated redistribution mechanism that is not necessarily anonymous. Another technique preserves anonymity, and repeated application results in an undominated redistribution mechanism in the limit. We show experimentally that these techniques improve the known redistribution mechanisms.
Newsroom moves and the newspaper crisis evaluated: space, place, and cultural meaning

Across the United States, newspapers are physically relocating their headquarters to smaller spaces, often away from the centers of downtown. This is the latest manifestation of the newspaper crisis manifest through a tangible and visible public manner. This article investigates these newsroom moves through a discussion of space, looking at why these moves matter by examining their impact on how journalists do their work and journalists’ sense of cultural meaning. The article relies on a two-part field study of The Miami Herald for data. The article finds that physical newsroom moves are perceived to impact coverage, that objects inside the newsroom can also be symbols of newsroom decline and invigoration, and that saying goodbye to a building gives journalists the sense they may perhaps be losing their institutional relevance.
Pregnancy through the Lens of Iranian Women with HIV

To explore the experience of pregnancy among Iranian women with HIV, 12 HIV-infected pregnant women who referred to counseling center for behavioral diseases in Imam Khomeini Hospital were recruited through purposive sampling. Data were collected by face-to-face, semi-structured interview and were analyzed using conventional content analysis method. Four main themes emerged from the data: fear and hope, stigma and discrimination, marital life stability, and trust in God. Despite concerns about mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and uncertain life span, HIV-infected women tended to continue their pregnancy, and having children was viewed as a window of hope for them.
Prolonged use of tissue plasminogen activator for bilateral lower limb arterial occlusion in a neonate.

The authors report the case of a 29-week-gestation twin with very severe vascular compromise of both lower limbs secondary to premature twin-twin transfusion. A tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) infusion was used locally for 13 days with complete recovery of perfusion to both legs, demonstrated by serial angiograms, thereby avoiding bilateral amputation. There were no side effects as a result of the continuous administration of tPA. The authors therefore suggest that the benefits of thrombolysis from a local infusion of tPA in neonates may outweigh the potential risks. This case report thus supports the view that under certain circumstances infusion of tPA in neonates may offer significant benefits. J Pediatr Surg 36:654-656.
Adaptive Sampling and Duty Cycling for Smartphone Accelerometer

Mobile device based sensing provides a vast variety of user contextual information. To continuously acquire, classify and reason any context through built-in sensors cause mobile device batteries to deplete rapidly. Therefore, an urgent need has arisen to apply power saving approaches at the low level sensor operations while inferring user relevant context. In this paper, an adaptive sensing strategy is proposed to fill the mentioned deficiency within the realm of Human Activity Recognition (HAR). The strategy aims at inferring any user relevant postural activities through smartphone accelerometer by providing two intuitive power saving methods, which assign adaptive pairs of sampling frequencies and duty cycles during sensor operations. The proposed methods show from 20% up to 50% efficiency enhancement in power consumption caused by the accelerometer with respect to overall 15% accuracy decrease in context inference depending on the degree of user activity dynamics.
Molecular identification and immunolocalization of the water channel protein aquaporin 1 in CBCECs.

PURPOSE Water channel proteins are important pathways for water movements across cell membranes, including those in the corneal endothelium that contribute to the fluid transport mechanism essential in maintaining corneal transparency. This study was conducted to identify and locate the water channel protein(s) in cultured bovine corneal endothelial cells (CBCECs). METHODS Poly(A)+ RNA was isolated from CBCECs, and MMLV reverse transcriptase and random hexamer primers were used to generate a cDNA pool by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Two specific degenerate primers were synthesized based on consensus sequences from the major intrinsic lens protein superfamily; a "touchdown" PCR protocol accommodated the degeneracy. Immunolocalization was performed by incubating sections of CBCECs with an antibody against human aquaporin 1 (AQP1). Cryosections (0.85 microm) of CBCECs were used for light microscopy, and 800-A ultrathin cryosections were used for electron microscopy (EM). RESULTS A 372-bp fragment was isolated. Its encoded amino acid sequence was 100% identical with that of bovine AQP1 (AQP2_bovin). CBCECs reacted strongly with the anti-AQP1 antibody, and the labeling was selectively localized to the plasma membrane by light microscopy. Subcellular localization by EM revealed immunoreactivity with the inner leaflets of the plasma membrane. CONCLUSIONS The identity of the aquaporin, its abundance, and its membrane location suggest that it is a major pathway for fluid flow across endothelial cell membranes. This is consistent with transcellular endothelial fluid transport.
Computationally efficient sphere decoding for long-horizon direct model predictive control

In this paper we present a computationally efficient implementation of the sphere decoder, which is employed to solve the integer least-squares (ILS) problem underlying direct model predictive control (MPC) for power electronic applications. The introduced modifications take advantage of the structure of the problem and, as a result, the required real-time operations can be reduced to a minimum. The efficacy of the developed algorithm is demonstrated with a variable speed drive system with a three-level voltage source inverter.
Enhanced Visual Object Tracking and Segmentation in Military Environments: Overcoming Camouflage and Deformation Challenges

Visual object tracking is a critical component of border surveillance technology, complementing object detection in its importance. Despite significant advancements enhancing tracking performance, challenges such as object drifting and discrimination among similar objects persist. This is particularly problematic in military settings where distinguishing between soldiers with matching attire is arduous. This paper introduces an innovative model capable of executing visual object tracking and segmentation in tandem. The model's update mechanism allows for sustained tracking, adeptly handling significant variances in the initial bounding box. Enhanced tracking of camouflaged soldiers was achieved through the incorporation of specialized learning datasets focused on camouflage patterns. Testing our model on both standard benchmarks and tailored military datasets yielded impressive results, affirming the model's efficacy.
Practical compress-and-forward cooperation for the classical relay network

This paper proposes a practical compress-and-forward cooperation scheme with vector coding at the relay node for a three-terminal classical relay network. We discuss the framework of the relay receiver and analyse two practical vector coding algorithms for the cooperation, nearest neighbour quantization and lattice vector quantization. The error rate performance of the compress-and-forward cooperation and some other protocols under different SNRs is investigated. The impact of the quantization rate at the relay node is also characterised. It is shown that for a quantization rate larger than 2 bits/sample, the vector coding whether employing nearest neighbour quantization or lattice vector quantization, outerforms both the decode-and-forward protocol and scalar coding.