Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reconceptualizing anhedonia: novel perspectives on balancing the pleasure networks in the human brain

Anhedonia, the lack of pleasure, has been shown to be a critical feature of a range of psychiatric disorders. Yet, it is currently measured primarily through subjective self-reports and as such has been difficult to submit to rigorous scientific analysis. New insights from affective neuroscience hold considerable promise in improving our understanding of anhedonia and for providing useful objective behavioral measures to complement traditional self-report measures, potentially leading to better diagnoses and novel treatments. Here, we review the state-of-the-art of hedonia research and specifically the established mechanisms of wanting, liking, and learning. Based on this framework we propose to conceptualize anhedonia as impairments in some or all of these processes, thereby departing from the longstanding view of anhedonia as solely reduced subjective experience of pleasure. We discuss how deficits in each of the reward components can lead to different expressions, or subtypes, of anhedonia affording novel ways of measurement. Specifically, we review evidence suggesting that patients suffering from depression and schizophrenia show impairments in wanting and learning, while some aspects of conscious liking seem surprisingly intact. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that anhedonia is heterogeneous across psychiatric disorders, depending on which parts of the pleasure networks are most affected. This in turn has implications for diagnosis and treatment of anhedonia.
Absenteeism rates in students receiving services for CDs, LDs, and EDs: a macroscopic view of the consequences of disability.

PURPOSE Elevated levels of absenteeism have been reported for students receiving special education services, especially students with learning disabilities (LDs) and emotional disturbances (EDs). In contrast, little is known about absenteeism rates associated with students with communication disorders (CDs). METHOD Archival records of student attendance for the 1997-2001 academic years from a mid-sized urban school district in the Intermountain West were used to examine absenteeism rates in students receiving services for CDs, LDs, and EDs. Two cohort samples were generated (K-4th grade and 5th-9th grade). RESULTS Students with CDs displayed absenteeism rates that were comparable to those of students receiving general education. Significant group and group x grade effects were found. Students in the LD and ED groups displayed elevated levels of absenteeism, especially at Grade 9. CONCLUSION The outcomes of this study support the characterization of the socioemotional concomitants associated with CDs as being typologically different and exerting a weaker influence on student's health levels than those associated with either LDs or EDs.
PH-dependent Activities and Structural Stability of Loop-2-anchoring Helix of RadA Recombinase from Methanococcus voltae

RadA is an archaeal orthologue of human recombinase Rad51. This superfamily of recombinases, which also includes eukaryal meiosis-specific DMC1 and remotely related bacterial RecA, form filaments on single-stranded DNA in the presence of ATP and promote a strand exchange reaction between the single-stranded DNA and a homologous double-stranded DNA. Due to its feasibility of getting crystals and similarity (> 40% sequence identity) to eukaryal homologues, we have studied RadA from Methanococcus voltae (MvRadA) as a structural model for understanding the molecular mechanism of homologous strand exchange. Here we show this protein’s ATPase and strand exchange activities are minimal at pH 6.0. Interestingly, MvRadA’s pH dependence is similar to the properties of human Rad51 but dissimilar to that of the well-studied E. coli RecA. A structure subsequently determined at pH 6.0 reveals features indicative of an ATPase-inactive form with a disordered L2 loop. Comparison with a previously determined ATPase-active form at pH 7.5 implies that the stability of the ATPase-active conformation is reduced at the acidic pH. We interpret these results as further suggesting an ordered disposition of the DNA-binding L2 region, similar to what has been observed in the previously observed ATPase-active conformation, is required for promoting hydrolysis of ATP and strand exchange between single- and double-stranded DNA. His-276 in the mobile L2 region was observed to be partially responsible for the pH-dependent activities of MvRadA.
The effect of sleep duration and quality on academical success of the elementary school children in Kayseri Turkey.

OBJECTIVE To assess the sleeping habits of primary school children and establish link between sleeping hours and academic achievement. METHODS The cross-sectional study was conducted between April and June 2007, involving 2422 students of 6-8th grades in 12 primary schools located in Kayseri, Turkey. A questionnaire was presented to the students on the basis of probability sampling method. Academic performance was evaluated with regard to their school grades. SPSS 20 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS Of the total 2422 questionnaires distributed, 1966 (81.2%) were used for further evaluation. The mean sleeping period of the students during school days was 8.86 +/- 1.10 hours. The number of students having difficulty in waking up in the morning was 940 (47.8%), while 910 (46.3%) were confused when they woke up during the night, and the 886 (45.1%) had nightmares, while 609 (31.0%) were sleepy all day long. As the sleeping period increased, the probability of a mediocre achievement in science lessons increased by 1.33 fold and poor achievement increased by 1.57 fold. Besides, the probability of a mediocre achievement in mathematics lessons increased by 1.36 fold, and poor achievement increased by 1.67 fold. For Turkish language lessons, these increases were found to be 1.40 and 1.60 respectively. Correlation analysis showed a significant negative relationship between sleeping time and successful scores in Turkish (r = -0.65, p < 0.025) and science (r = -0.061, p < 0.036) lessons. CONCLUSION As the sleeping period increased, the academic achievement of the students was negatively affected. The academic success was low in children who felt sleepy throughout the day.
Stakeholder Theory, Market Structure and the Firm's Capital Structure: An Empirical Evidence

A new literature linking capital structure and factor-product markets has been under focus in the last few years. This literature relates some elements of the modern financial theory to the stakeholder theory, market structure, and firm's strategic behavior. In this paper, we will examine the interactions between capital structure and factor-product markets through a system of simultaneous equations with panel data. Our data set contains a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms between 1993 and 1999. We specify a financial leverage equation that depends mainly on factor-product markets. Moreover, we specify a second equation to analyze how product market concentration is affected by financial leverage, among other things. Finally, capital structure was empirically showed to affect and be affected by factor-product markets.
CoopFlow: A Bottom-Up Approach to Workflow Cooperation for Short-Term Virtual Enterprises

In a context of short-term cooperation, enterprises with complementary skills are dynamically interconnected according to their needs. To deal with requirements in a such cooperation, we present in this paper CoopFlow that aims at providing a useful artifact for preservation of the privacy of workflows partners, pre-established workflows and pre-established workflow management systems. CoopFlow consists of three steps: workflow abstraction and advertisement, workflow matching and interconnection, and workflow cooperation. To preserve the privacy of partners, the first step of the approach includes an abstraction procedure allowing a partial visibility of the partners' workflows. The second step consists of interconnecting existing workflows of partners with complementary skills attributing to a matching procedure that allows checking both behaviors and business semantics of partners' workflows. Finally, the last step of CoopFlow consists of controlling the inter-enterprise workflows cooperation allowing cooperation partners to integrate the existing workflows and to check whenever they can cooperate and change their partners, which frequently leads to support spontaneous, dynamic and short-term cooperation. With this intention, we developed a platform that manages inter-operability by integrating pre-established workflow management systems. The proof of concept is provided by integrating three heterogeneous and open workflow management systems to the CoopFlow platform.
Comparative Population Genomics of Latitudinal Variation in D. Simulans and D. Melanogaster

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Abstract Examples of clinal variation in phenotypes and genotypes across latitudinal transects have served as important models for understanding how spatially varying selection and demographic forces shape variation within species. Here we examine the selective and demographic contributions to latitudinal variation through the largest comparative genomic study to date of Drosophila simulans and D. melanogaster, with genomic sequence data from 382 individual fruit flies, collected across a spatial transect of 19 degrees latitude and at multiple timepoints over two years. Consistent with phenotypic studies, we find less clinal variation in D. simulans than D. melanogaster, particularly for the autosomes. Moreover, we find that clinally varying loci in D. simulans are less stable over multiple years than comparable clines in D. melanogaster. D. simulans shows a significantly weaker pattern of isolation by distance than D. melanogaster and we find evidence for a strong contribution of annual re-migration to D. simulans population genetic structure. While population bottlenecks and migration can plausibly explain the differences in amount and stability of clinal variation between the two species, we also observe a significant enrichment of shared clinal genes, suggesting that the selective forces associated with climate are acting on the same genes and phenotypes in D. simulans and D. melanogaster.
An Ultra-Compact, Linearly-Controlled Variable Phase Shifter Designed With a Novel RC Poly-Phase Filter

This paper proposes a new vector-sum type variable-phase shifter (VPS) topology for predistorting the phase of a modulated signal for an analog-predistortion power amplifier system. It has a continuous linear-in-degree control curve over a 90° phase-control range and has the smallest size among all those proposed CMOS works. The phase shifter utilizes an improved RC poly-phase filter to generate in-phase and quadrature-phase vectors. It uses fewer RC components but has a wider phase-splitting bandwidth than traditional RC filters, reducing the loss and size of the overall VPS. Specially-designed control circuits give the shifter a linear phase-control capability, minimizing the gain variation over the phase-control range. The phase shifter, optimized for WCDMA applications, has been fabricated in a standard 0.18-μm CMOS process. The area of the phase shifter core is 0.063 mm2. The measured operation frequency is from 1 to 2.1 GHz, which is an overlap of its 3-dB cutoff frequency and bandwidth of a 90° phase-control range. Within the bandwidth, this phase shifter displays a linear control curve with phase errors of less than ±1° over a 70° tuning range, making it suitable for accurate AM-PM error compensation.
XMM–Newton observations of the ultraluminous nuclear X-ray source in M 33

We present observations with XMM-Newton of M 33 X-8, the ultraluminous X-ray source (L0.5−10 keV ≈ 2×10 39 erg/s) closest to the centre of the galaxy. The best-fit model is similar to the typical model of Galactic black holes in very high state. Comparison with previous observations indicates that the source is still in a very high state after about 20 years of observations. No state transition has been observed even during the present set of XMM-Newton observations. We estimate the lower limit of the mass of the black hole >6 M� , but with proper parameters taking into account different effects, the best estimate becomes 12 M� . Our analysis favours the hypothesis that M 33 X-8 is a stellar mass black hole candidate, in agreement with the findings of other authors. In addition, we propose a different model where the high luminosity of the source is likely to be due to orientation effects of the accretion disc and anisotropies in the Comptonized emission.
Stock Market Forecasting Using Machine Learning Algorithms

—Prediction of stock market is a long-time attractive topic to researchers from different fields. In particular, numerous studies have been conducted to predict the movement of stock market using machine learning algorithms such as support vector machine (SVM) and reinforcement learning. In this project, we propose a new prediction algorithm that exploits the temporal correlation among global stock markets and various financial products to predict the next-day stock trend with the aid of SVM. Numerical results indicate a prediction accuracy of 74.4% in NASDAQ, 76% in S&P500 and 77.6% in DJIA. The same algorithm is also applied with different regression algorithms to trace the actual increment in the markets. Finally, a simple trading model is established to study the performance of the proposed prediction algorithm against other benchmarks.
Geometric separation of superimposed images with varying fields-of-view

Using an imaging system with a wide field of view increases situational awareness (peripheral vision) at the expense of reduced image resolution. Ideally, an imager should provide high-resolution imagery around a specific region (or regions) of interest and a wide field of view. This paper proposes a particular approach to address these competing requirements: an image where a narrow field of view and a wide field of view are superposed on a single image frame and then subsequently separated in post-processing. The work introduces a recursive algorithm that can be used for the blind separation of two images from a single superposition image, using only prior knowledge of the geometry of the superposition.
Let them learn English: Reader response to media discourse about dual language education

Despite the multilingual reality and the effectiveness of dual language education (DLE) being adequately documented by language and literacy researchers, the US is progressing at a slower rate in embracing and implementing DLE compared with other countries. The purpose of this study is to understand why progress in this area has been so slow by examining the public discourse that frequently shapes policy decisions about DL programs. To do this, the authors analyzed reader comments of 16 online news articles that centered on DLE. Findings revealed the intersection of language, national identity, race, and power relationships, which could be categorized under four different discourse frames similar to those found in Valdez, Delavan and Freire (2014): a multilingual or monolingual global human capital frame, and a multilingual equity/heritage or monolingual vs. equity heritage frame. The significance of this study lies in the careful analysis of how monolingual/multilingual discourses play out in daily online dialogs, and suggestions for how DL stakeholders can counter monolingual and racist discourse aimed at these programs, in the hopes of gaining more public support for them.
A Decomposed Model of IT Artifact-related Beliefs as Antecedents of IT Acceptance and Use

Past research on IT acceptance and use has largely focused on relationships between constructs in models that are based on a small number of overlapping theoretical frameworks, and has neglected to integratively examine the IT artifact-related antecedents of these models’ constructs. The present paper addresses this issue by incorporating into the Theory of Planned Behavior the IT artifact-related belief antecedents that were identified in a review of IT acceptance and use literature published since 1990.
Blended Learning in Teacher Education: An Investigation of Classroom Community Across Media

The development of community in educational settings is now recognized as a social and collaborative process that is an integral part of learning. As classrooms and communities extend beyond the traditional four walls, research related to online community development across media is of vital importance to teachers. The study reported in this paper furthers the research on the development of community by investigating how graduate student foreign language teachers develop and perceive community and how these perceptions or developments differ according to medium (chat, discussion board, or face-to-face class discussions). Additionally, it extends the research by bringing the cross-institutional element to the blended learning courses. The goal of the study is to explore and analyze the incorporation of technological tools into blended learning in order to assist other teachers in the creation of collaborative cross-institutional situations. Experience in these situations will assist instructors in modeling such communities for their students so that they will potentially benefit from a well-developed and well-understood sense of community, both with onsite peers and with peers at a distance.
Testing an empathy model of guest-directed citizenship and counterproductive behaviours in the hospitality industry: Findings from three hotels

This research proposes and tests an empathy model of guest-directed discretionary behaviours (i.e., citizenship and counterproductive behaviours) using two studies conducted in three hotels. Building on the two-stage model of empathic mediation, we examined the mediating role of empathic concern in the relationship between perspective taking and both forms of discretionary behaviours in Study 1. Support for this mediated model was found in relation to citizenship behaviours but not for counterproductive behaviours. Study 2 was conducted to extend these findings using peer reports of discretionary behaviours, and to apply an interactional psychology perspective to predict guest-directed counterproductive behaviours. We drew upon trait activation theory to highlight the importance of situational triggers, in the form of interpersonal injustice from guests, in moderating the relationship between perspective taking and counterproductive behaviours, mediated through empathic concern. We found support for the hypothesized moderated mediation effect, such that perspective taking inhibited counterproductive behaviours through empathic concern only when interpersonal injustice was high, but not when injustice was low. Replicating the results in Study 1, perspective taking also positively predicted peer-reported citizenship behaviours, but this was not mediated by empathic concern. Research and practical implications from these findings are discussed. Practitioner Points • Highlights to organizations in the hospitality industry the importance of perspective taking in generating customer goodwill, through promoting employees' citizenship behaviours towards guests, and in reducing their counterproductive behaviours in instances of guest injustice. • Suggests ways in which organizations can develop employees' perspective taking, such as appointing mentors or role models, providing training programmes to help employees improve their interpersonal skills, and assessing job applicants' trait empathy as part of the selection process.
The effect of learner autonomy on English proficiency of non-English major students

Learner autonomy (LA) has been considered to be one of the important goals in education. This article investigates the effect of LA on English proficiency (EP) of non-English major students. 635 Vietnamese students from five member universities of the University of Danang completed the questionnaire on LA. The collected data was compared with the scores of their English language course. The results show that there are overall positive and significant correlations between LA and their EP. However, while there are significant correlations between LA and EP among high proficiency learners, such correlations do not exist among low proficiency learners. The results also indicate that LA can predict students’ EP. The study suggests that students should be aware of the importance of LA and empowered to take charge of their own learning process to enhance their language proficiency. Also, LA may be used by university administrators to predict learners’ academic potential.
Automatic Detection of Trustworthiness of the Face: A Visual Mismatch Negativity Study

Recognizing intentions of strangers from facial cues is crucial in everyday social interactions. Recent studies demonstrated enhanced event-related potential (ERP) responses to untrustworthy compared to trustworthy faces. The aim of the present study was to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of automatic processing of trustworthiness cues in a visual oddball paradigm in two consecutive experimental blocks. In one block, frequent trustworthy (p = 0.9) and rare untrustworthy face stimuli (p = 0.1) were briefly presented on a computer screen with each stimulus consisting of four peripherally positioned faces. In the other block stimuli were presented with reversed probabilities enabling the comparison of ERPs evoked by physically identical deviant and standard stimuli. To avoid attentional effects participants engaged in a central detection task. Analyses of deviant minus standard difference waveforms revealed that deviant untrustworthy but not trustworthy faces elicited the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) component. The present results indicate that adaptation occurred to repeated unattended trustworthy (but not untrustworthy) faces, i.e., an automatic expectation was elicited towards trustworthiness signals, which was violated by deviant untrustworthy faces. As an evolutionary adaptive mechanism, the observed fast detection of trustworthiness-related social facial cues may serve as the basis of conscious recognition of reliable partners.