Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Academic Self Concept and Academic Achievement of Secondary School Students

At the level of secondary school, student’s self-concept about their academic capabilities plays an important role. The aims of the study were to examine the relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement of secondary students and to compare the academic self-concept of male and female secondary students. Sample of the study were 615 secondary school students of both genders (Male 317, Female 298, aged 14-17 years). The sample was drawn from 15 secondary schools affiliated with CBSE board, session 2016-17 of Varanasi city, India. Academic achievement was measured by self-reported Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of the previous year. Academic self-concept was measured using Kample and Naik (2013) Academic Self Concept Scale (ASCS), which was composed of 57 items, distributed in 8 subscales namely Academic Ability, Academic Interests, Study, Examination, Academic Interaction, Academic Efforts, Curriculum, and Academic Future. The result of the study revealed that there was a positive relationship between academic self-concept and academic achievement and this relationship was stronger for female students (r = .28) than that of male students (r = .17). Moreover, gender differences in the academic self-concept of the students were also found. Female students had significantly higher academic self-concept than male students.
A note on the group lasso and a sparse group lasso

We consider the group lasso penalty for the linear model. We note that the standard algorithm for solving the problem assumes that the model matrices in each group are orthonormal. Here we consider a more general penalty that blends the lasso (L1) with the group lasso (\two-norm"). This penalty yields solutions that are sparse at both the group and individual feature levels. We derive an ecien t algorithm for the resulting convex problem based on coordinate descent. This algorithm can also be used to solve the general form of the group lasso, with non-orthonormal model matrices.
Fostering innovation in functionally diverse teams: The two faces of transformational leadership

Empirical research on the effects of functional diversity on team innovation has yielded largely inconsistent results, showing positive, negative, as well as nonsignificant effects. For capitalizing on the positive potential inherent in functionally diverse teams, opening the black box between cross-functionality and team innovation by analysing mediating and moderating processes thus seems to be highly relevant. In this article, task and relationship conflicts are introduced as mediators of functional diversity and team innovation. Within this framework, transformational leadership is discussed as a moderator. It will become apparent that the role of transformational leadership in fostering the innovativeness of cross-functional teams is rather ambiguous. The discussed mediators and the moderator transformational leadership are integrated into a comprehensive framework and propositions for future research are derived.
Investigating an Incentive-Sensitization Model of Eating Behavior: Impact of a Simulated Fast-Food Laboratory

The incentive-sensitization (IS) theory proposes that “wanting” (strong motivation), more so than “liking” (hedonic pleasure), drives compulsive consumption in both substance use and overeating. Importantly, “wanting” and “liking” are only distinct in the presence of relevant cues. Cues may also contribute to overeating by increasing feelings of hunger. We employed a simulated fast-food laboratory to test IS theory by examining the effect of environmental cues on eating behavior. We tested the following hypotheses: In a cue-rich compared to neutral environment, (a) wanting would be greater whereas liking would remain the same, (b) feelings of hunger would be greater, and (c) food consumption would be greater, a relationship mediated by elevated wanting and hunger. These hypotheses were supported in the current study. Thus, contextual cues may contribute to overconsumption through increased wanting and hunger. These findings have public health implications for overeating and obesity.
Invented spelling: what is the best way to improve literacy skills in kindergarten?

Abstract We examined the progress made by 132 six-year-old French-speaking children in their preliteracy skills during four kinds of interventions. Three of these interventions concerned invented spelling, where the children tried to spell words. In the first condition, they were encouraged to reflect on conventional spellings. In the second condition, they reflected on spellings that were slightly more complex than theirs, while in the third condition, they reflected on increasingly complex spellings that eventually led to the conventional spellings. The fourth condition (control) consisted of phonological training. We assessed the children’s phonological awareness, letter knowledge, spelling, and decoding skills, controlling for vocabulary and nonverbal cognitive ability. Posttest results indicated progress in each condition. The greatest progress was observed in the second condition for decoding, spelling, letter-name knowledge and syllable awareness, and in the control condition for phoneme awareness. Overall, results showed that all kinds of interventions led to very similar levels of progress, but that improvements were greater for interventions that focused on the children’s initial invented spellings - in other words, when they adopted a Vygotskian perspective.
ChiTaRS-3.1—the enhanced chimeric transcripts and RNA-seq database matched with protein–protein interactions

Discovery of chimeric RNAs, which are produced by chromosomal translocations as well as the joining of exons from different genes by trans-splicing, has added a new level of complexity to our study and understanding of the transcriptome. The enhanced ChiTaRS-3.1 database (http://chitars.md.biu.ac.il) is designed to make widely accessible a wealth of mined data on chimeric RNAs, with easy-to-use analytical tools built-in. The database comprises 34 922 chimeric transcripts along with 11 714 cancer breakpoints. In this latest version, we have included multiple cross-references to GeneCards, iHop, PubMed, NCBI, Ensembl, OMIM, RefSeq and the Mitelman collection for every entry in the ‘Full Collection’. In addition, for every chimera, we have added a predicted chimeric protein–protein interaction (ChiPPI) network, which allows for easy visualization of protein partners of both parental and fusion proteins for all human chimeras. The database contains a comprehensive annotation for 34 922 chimeric transcripts from eight organisms, and includes the manual annotation of 200 sense-antiSense (SaS) chimeras. The current improvements in the content and functionality to the ChiTaRS database make it a central resource for the study of chimeric transcripts and fusion proteins.
The roles of need-supportive social environments in university physical education courses

It is well documented that the physical activity levels of young adults have declined below the recommended guidelines on health. Since positive experiences in physical education (PE) could influence individuals to adopt physically active lifestyles, studying different motivation types (motivational regulations) in university PE is warranted. Guided by the self-determination theory (SDT), the main purpose of the present study was to investigate the differential relationships among social environments (i.e. autonomy support, self-reference, and cooperative learning), basic psychological needs (i.e. autonomy, competence, and relatedness), and motivational regulations in university PE courses. Hong Kong university students (N = 219) aged 18–26 completed questionnaires that assessed the SDT variables in PE and exercise behaviours. Multiple mediation analyses showed that all three social environments had positive indirect effects on intrinsic motivation and identified regulation through all three psychological needs, except for indirect effects of autonomy support through autonomy. Moreover, autonomy support had a positive indirect effect on introjected regulation through relatedness, and cooperative learning had a negative indirect effect on amotivation through autonomy. Overall, relatedness was the strongest mediator. Finally, intrinsic motivation and identified regulation were positively associated with enjoyment and intention for future participation in the PE activity. The results are consistent with SDT assumptions and expand the literature on the differential effects of social environments on motivational regulations in university PE. Implications on teaching strategies and future studies are discussed.
Executive Compensation and the Corporate Spin-Off Decision

We investigate the effect of CEO equity incentives on corporate spin-off decisions and find that CEOs with stronger equity incentives are, ceteris paribus, more likely to engage in corporate spin-offs (after correcting for potential endogeneity concerns). In addition to confirming previous findings that spin-offs are followed by positive announcement and long-run abnormal stock returns, we show that the level of the CEO's incentives matters. In particular, we find that while low incentive firms have a stronger announcement effect, high incentive firms experience better long run stock performance following spin-offs. This is consistent with the disciplining effect of spin-offs since low incentive firms are also found to have more independent boards. While a stronger board may be more influential on key corporate decisions (e.g., spin-offs), better incentive alignment leads to superior long run performance. Our results thus suggest that while stronger corporate governance may serve as a substitute mechanism for managerial equity incentives in the short run, they are in fact complementary in the long run.
Asymptotic Critical Total Power for $k$ -Connectivity of Wireless Networks

An important issue in wireless ad hoc networks is to reduce the transmission power subject to certain connectivity requirement. In this paper, we study the fundamental scaling law of the minimum total power (termed as critical total power) required to ensure k -connectivity in wireless networks. Contrary to several previous results that assume all nodes use a (minimum) common power, we allow nodes to choose different levels of transmission power. We show that under the assumption that wireless nodes form a homogeneous Poisson point process with density lambda in a unit square region [0, 1]2, the critical total power required to maintain k-connectivity is Theta((Gamma(c/2 + k)/(k - 1)! ) lambda1-c/2) with probability approaching one as lambda goes to infinity, where c is the path loss exponent. If k also goes to infinity, the expected critical total power is of the order of kc/2 lambda1-c/2. Compared with the results that all nodes use a common critical transmission power for maintaining k-connectivity, we show that the critical total power can be reduced by an order of (log lambda)c/2 by allowing nodes to optimally choose different levels of transmission power. This result is not subject to any specific power/topology control algorithm, but rather a fundamental property of wireless networks.
In Vitro Characterization of Circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells Isolated from Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome

Background The current understanding of the functional characteristics of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) is limited, especially in patients affected by cardiovascular diseases. In this study, we have analyzed the in vitro clonogenic capacity of circulating EPC, also known as endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFC), in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), in comparison to the colony forming unit-endothelial-like cells (CFU-EC) of hematopoietic/monocytic origin. Methodology/Principal Findings By culturing peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of patients with ACS (n = 70), CFU-EC were frequently isolated (from 77% of ACS patients), while EPC/ECFC were obtained only in a small subset (13%) of PBMC samples, all harvested between 7–14 days after the acute cardiovascular event. Notably, ex-vivo generation of EPC/ECFC was correlated to a higher in vitro release of PDGF-AA by the corresponding ACS patient PBMC. By using specific endothelial culture media, EPC/ECFC displayed in vitro expansion capacity, allowing the phenotypic and functional characterization of the cells. Indeed, after expansion, EPC/ECFC exhibited a normal diploid chromosomal setting by FISH analysis and an immunophenotype characterized by: i) uniform positivity for the expression of CD105, CD31, CD146 and Factor VIII, i) variable expression of the CD34, CD106 and CD184 markers, and iii) negativity for CD45, CD90, CD117 and CD133. Of interest, in single-cell replanting assays EPC/ECFC exhibited clonogenic expansion capacity, forming secondary colonies characterized by variable proliferation capacities. Conclusion/Significance Our data indicate that a careful characterization of true EPC is needed in order to design future studies in the clinical autologous setting of patients with ACS.
Chronic Disease Risk Prediction Models and their Impacts on Behavioural and Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Risk prediction models are tools that predict an individual’s risk of developing a health outcome. They were developed to influence patient management by guiding preventive interventions, with the goal of reducing the incidence of new diseases. Studies examining their impacts are uncommon, and no consensus regarding their effects has been reached. This systematic review sought to determine the impact of risk prediction models for chronic diseases on physician behaviour, patient behaviour, and patient health outcomes. Twenty-two studies were found to be eligible for review. The results demonstrated that: 1) physician behaviour may be positively influenced, though a statistically significant result was not found; 2) alterations in patient behaviour were inconclusive; and 3) some aspects of patient health outcomes were significantly improved, such as changes in blood pressure, but these results may be clinically insignificant. The evidence indicates some effects may exist, though future studies are required to confirm this effect.
Odor identification: influences of age, gender, cognition, and personality.

The aim of this study was to examine the influences of age, gender, cognitive abilities, and personality styles on odor identification. Participants (N = 532) aged 45-87 years from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging were assessed with a Swedish version of the National Geographic Smell Survey. Both detection and identification of olfactory information were impaired with age. Gender had no effect on detection or identification. Hierarchical regressions revealed that proficiency in semantic memory, intensity perception, and personality style (i.e., neuroticism, impulsivity, and lack of assertiveness) were potent predictors for successful odor identification, even when individual variations in chronological age, sex, education, and global cognitive functioning were taken into account.
Social perception of facial cues of adiposity

Previous research suggests that facial characteristics associated with body mass index (BMI) play an important role in health and attractiveness judgments of faces. However, very little work has investigated the factors that predict individual differences in preferences for facial cues of adiposity or how these individual differences are related to social outcomes. In light of the above, the first two empirical chapters of this thesis investigated the relationships between individual differences in preferences for facial cues of adiposity and (1) the BMI of men’s and women’s actual romantic partners and (2) disgust sensitivity. Analyses suggested that people with particularly strong preferences for slim-looking faces were more likely to have partners with low BMI and that men, but not women, who scored higher on pathogen disgust showed stronger aversions to faces displaying cues associated with high BMI. The third chapter investigated how people integrate information from shape cues of adiposity and information from skin color when judging the health and attractiveness of faces. Analyses showed that preferences for cues of low BMI were particularly strong when assessing faces displaying skin color cues associated with the absence of illness. These results suggest that integrating information from shape cues of adiposity and information from skin color could allow people to distinguish between individuals with low BMI because they are healthy and those with low BMI due to illness. Most research investigating the role of facial cues of adiposity in social perception has focused on the possible role of facial adiposity as a health cue. However, it is also possible that facial cues of adiposity contain other types of information, such as information about a person’s reported sociosexual orientation (openness to short-term, uncommitted sexual relationships). To explore this issue, the fourth empirical chapter of my thesis investigated the relationship between facial correlates of BMI and women’s sociosexual orientation. Although analyses suggested that slimmer women reported greater openness to short-term, uncommitted sexual relationships, the observed relationships were weak and, thus, unlikely to play an important role in social interactions. Together these studies support the claim that responses to facial cues of adiposity are related to romantic partner choice and function to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy individuals.
Characterization of Children's Decision Making: Sensitivity to Punishment Frequency, Not Task Complexity

On a gambling task that models real-life decision making, children between ages 7 and 12 perform like patients with bilateral lesions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), opting for choices that yield high immediate gains in spite of higher future losses (Crone & Van der Molen, 2004). The current study set out to characterize developmental changes in decision making by varying task complexity and punishment frequency. Three age groups (7–9 years, 10–12 years, 13–15 years) performed two versions of a computerized variant of the original Iowa gambling task. Task complexity was manipulated by varying the number of choices participants could make. Punishment frequency was manipulated by varying the frequency of delayed punishment. Results showed a developmental increase in the sensitivity to future consequences, which was present only when the punishment was presented infrequently. These results could not be explained by differential sensitivity to task complexity, hypersensitivity to reward, or failure to switch response set after receiving punishment. There was a general pattern of boys outperforming girls by making more advantageous choices over the course of the task. In conclusion, 7–12-year-old children—like VMPFC patients—appear myopic about the future except when the potential for future punishment is high.
Context-Enhanced Citation Sentiment Detection

Sentiment analysis of citations in scientific papers and articles is a new and interesting problem which can open up many exciting new applications in bibliographic search and bibliometrics. Current work on citation sentiment detection focuses on only the citation sentence. In this paper, we address the problem of context-enhanced citation sentiment detection. We present a new citation sentiment corpus which has been annotated to take the dominant sentiment in the entire citation context into account. We believe that this gold standard is closer to the truth than annotation that looks only at the citation sentence itself. We then explore the effect of context windows of different lengths on the performance of a state-of-the-art citation sentiment detection system when using this context-enhanced gold standard definition.
Evaluation of a Context-Aware Voice Interface for Ambient Assisted Living

This article presents an experiment with seniors and people with visual impairment in a voice-controlled smart home using the Sweet-Home system. The experiment shows some weaknesses in automatic speech recognition that must be addressed, as well as the need for better adaptation to the user and the environment. Users were disturbed by the rigid structure of the grammar and were eager to adapt it to their own preferences. Surprisingly, while no humanoid aspect was introduced in the system, the senior participants were inclined to embody the system. Despite these aspects to improve, the system has been favorably assessed as diminishing most participant fears related to the loss of autonomy.
Anthrax toxins suppress T lymphocyte activation by disrupting antigen receptor signaling

Anthrax is an infection caused by pathogenic strains of Bacillus anthracis, which secretes a three-component toxic complex consisting of protective antigen (PA), edema factor (EF), and lethal factor (LF). PA forms binary complexes with either LF or EF and mediates their entry into host cells. Although the initial phases of bacterial growth occur in the lymph node, the host fails to mount an effective immune response. Here, we show that LT and ET are potent suppressors of human T cell activation and proliferation triggered through the antigen receptor. Both LT and ET inhibit the mitogen-activated protein and stress kinase pathways, and both toxins inhibit activation of NFAT and AP-1, two transcription factors essential for cytokine gene expression. These data identify a novel strategy of immune evasion by B. anthracis, based on both effector subunits of the toxic complex, and targeted to a key cellular component of adaptive immunity.
How learners use awareness cues about their peer's knowledge?: insights from synchronized eye-tracking data

In an empirical study, eye-gaze patterns of pairs of students were recorded and analyzed in a remote situation where they had to build a concept map collaboratively. They were provided (or not), with a knowledge awareness tool that provided learner A with learner B's level of knowledge measured through a pre-test. Previous results showed that the awareness tool positively affected learning gain by enhancing the production of elaborative talk and knowledge negotiation. In the present paper, we describe the actual use of a knowledge awareness tool during the course of interaction by analyzing the gaze paths recorded during the experiment and how they relate to learning performance and verbal interactions. The results showed that learners refer to the knowledge awareness tool episodically during the course of collaboration, mainly to assess the epistemic value of the information provided by the peer, especially when the peer seems uncertain about his understanding. The potential of the synchronized eye-tracking method for research in computer supported collaborative learning is discussed.