Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social distance in terms of demographic features – Kosovo population study

Kosovo aims for development of a state over the Kosovo state identity, which includes all communities living in Kosovo. Integration of all communities in public institutions and life remains one of the challenges of Kosovo society. The social distance refers to the extent of understanding of another group, which characterizes parasocial and social relations. Another definition is the lack of availability and relations in being open to others. Bogardus states that social distance is an outcome of affective distance between members of two groups. Earlier studies have shown that the social distance or gap is related to the ethnic background, education level and earlier interaction with other ethnic groups. Also, studies have shown a link with social/political activism. Further, it has been proven that social distance is manifested at three different spatial dimensions, their own self in a reciprocal co-product: physical, symbolical and geometric. The study aims to explicate social distance in a relation with demographic records of respondents to a research undertaken in Kosovo in 2010, in which 1296 citizens (64.4% Albanians, 13.9% Serbs, 6.9% Turkish, 5% Roma/Ashkali/Egyptian (RAE), 6.9% Bosnian and 2.7% others). Social distance has been measured by asking the respondents about the groups or persons they would object in terms of neighborhood: they, who speak another language, have another religion, have homosexual orientation, etc. Comparisons of average social distance in relation with ethnic sub-groups, gender, level of education, experience in earlier trips to the countries of the European Union (EU), size of settlement and the region of origin of the respondent, show significant differences, at p < 0.05. Also, the research also reviewed the link between social activism and activism in civil society and social distance. In these terms, outcomes are less clearer, thereby suggesting that social activism or activism in civil society not necessarily influences the narrowing of the social gap. Outcomes are discussed in due account of permanent efforts to involve minorities in governance and public life in Kosovo.
Exploring inclusive pedagogical practices in Hong Kong primary EFL classrooms

ABSTRACT Social diversity is now commonplace in many communities in today’s globalised world. This diversity can be seen in any classroom of learners, and international studies have shown the complex ways in which disabilities, race, ethnicity, gender and social class can determine a child’s opportunity to succeed or fail in the education system. In Hong Kong, like in many educational contexts around the world, teachers are grappling with increasing diversity amongst their students, including teaching students with special educational needs (SEN) and non-Chinese speaking students (NCS) living in Hong Kong. This paper examines how three primary TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teachers are constructing identities as inclusive practitioners as they grapple with enacting the inclusive education policy recently introduced into Hong Kong schools. The data are drawn from a small-scale collaborative reflective inquiry for teacher professional development. Drawing upon a sociocultural and critical framing of identity theory, we trace the three teachers’ identity construction as EFL teachers and inclusive education practitioners. We view the role of discourse, self-positioning and social context as key processes in teacher identity formation. Implications for furthering the development of inclusive education in EFL classrooms are offered.
Joint radio resource management for LTE-UMTS coexistence scenarios

Constantly increasing demand for throughput and quality in wireless communication systems leads to continuous research of wise radio resource management, because of the scarce availability of frequency bands and the consequent capacity limitations. In addition, technology evolution is addressed towards spectral efficient techniques that can offer higher data rates. This is the case of OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access), introduced by 3GPP as the technology for future Long Term Evolution (LTE). However, given the current penetration of legacy technologies such as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), operators will have to deal with the coexistence of multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs), so that the exploitation of the complementarities between technologies through Joint Radio Resource Management (JRRM) mechanisms will be needed. In this paper we propose a novel dynamic JRRM algorithm for LTE-UMTS coexistence scenarios. The proposed mechanism is based on Reinforcement Learning (RL) which is considered to be a good candidate to achieve cognition in future reconfigurable networks. The proposed solution implements autonomous RL agents in each base station which decide on the allocation of the most suitable RAT to each user. We give a detailed description of the solution and analyze the behavior under various load conditions. We also demonstrate the capability of the algorithm to adjust in dynamic scenarios.
Experiments with Easy-first nonprojective constituent parsing

Less-configurational languages such as German often show not just morphological variation but also free word order and nonprojectivity. German is not exceptional in this regard, as other morphologically-rich languages such as Czech, Tamil or Greek, offer similar challenges that make context-free constituent parsing less attractive. Advocates of dependency parsing have long pointed out that the free(r) word order and nonprojective phenomena are handled in a more straightforward way by dependency parsing. However, certain other phenomena in language, such as gapping, ellipses or verbless sentences, are difficult to handle in a dependency formalism. In this paper, we show that parsing of discontinuous constituents can be achieved using easy-first parsing with online reordering, an approach that previously has only been used for dependencies, and that the approach yields very fast parsing with reasonably accurate results that are close to the state of the art, surpassing existing results that use treebank grammars. We also investigate the question whether phenomena where dependency representations may be problematic ‐ in particular, verbless clauses ‐ can be handled by this model.
Each Is in Different Circumstances Anyway

We present here a realist multilevel situational analysis of maternal depression. We use situational analysis to identify the interaction of mothers with social structures and the possible causal influence of those social structures on her well-being. The analysis moves from an emergent empirical approach toward the more reflexive and abductive approach of situational analysis, thus better informing our abductive reasoning and the generation of theory. Critical realism and symbolic interactionism provide the methodological underpinning for the study. The setting was South Western Sydney, Australia. Interviews of mothers and practitioners were analyzed using open coding to enable maximum emergence. Situational analysis was then undertaken using situational and social worlds/arena maps. Home and neighborhood situational analysis mapping and analysis of relations identified the following concepts: (a) expectations and dreams, (b) marginalization and being alone, (c) loss or absence of power and control, and (d) support and nurturing. The neighborhood and macro-arena situational analysis mapping and analysis of relations identified the following concepts: (a) social support networks, social cohesion and social capital; (b) services planning and delivery and social policy; and (c) global economy, business, and media. Emerging was the centrality of being alone and expectations lost as possible triggers of stress and depression within circumstances where media portrays expectations of motherhood that are shattered by reality and social marginalization. We further observe that powerful global economic and political forces are having an impact on the local situations. The challenge for policy and practice is to support families within this adverse regional and global economic context.
Perceptions Of Sexual, Emotional and Fantasy Infidelity: Predictions Based on Gender, Personality, and Mental Health

The study examines how perceptions of infidelity may be mitigated by other correlates such as gender-related traits, and mental health traits. The study utilizes a sample of 302 college students, 76% of which were female and 24% were male. In addition to the personality and mental health measures, participants completed a 19-item checklist that assessed their perceptions of specific items that could potentially be construed as infidelity. Several hypotheses were made in regards to perceived infidelity predictions based on gender, on personality, and on mental health and their mediating relationships. Results were mixed regarding support of the hypotheses. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Detection of transient synchronization in multivariate brain signals , application to event-related potentials

The present work introduces an analysis framework for the detection of transient synchronized states in multivariate time series. In case of linear data these states exhibit a dramatic increase and subsequent decrease of time scale in the signal, whereas the corresponding instantaneous phases show transient mutual phase synchronization. We propose a single segmentation algorithm for both data types, which considers the space-time structure of the data. Applications to linear and phasic simulated signals illustrate the method. Further applications to eventrelated brain potentials obtained from an auditory oddball experiment while real car-driving reveal the lack of the cognitive component P300 in an experimental condition. Further the obtained results indicate attention effects in the event-related component N100 and shows dramatic latency jitters between single datasets. A comparison of the proposed method to a conventional index of mutual phase synchronization demonstrates the superiority of considering space-time data structures.
Multisyllabic Word-Reading Instruction With and Without Motivational Beliefs Training for Struggling Readers in the Upper Elementary Grades: A Pilot Investigation

This randomized controlled trial focused on 59 struggling readers in the third and fourth grades (30 female, 29 male) and examined the efficacy of an intervention aimed at increasing students’ multisyllabic word reading (MWR). The study also explored the relative effects of an embedded motivational beliefs (MB) training component. Struggling readers were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: MWR only, MWR with an MB component (MWR + MB), or business-as-usual control. Students were tutored in small groups in 24 sessions, three 40-minute lessons each week. Students in both MWR groups outperformed the control group on measures of word-reading fluency. MWR + MB students outperformed MWR only on sentence-level comprehension and outperformed the control group in ratings of attributions for success in reading. Findings are discussed in terms of their relevance to MWR instruction for students with persistent reading difficulties and the potential for enhancing intervention through targeting motivation.
Prevalence and Associated Factors for Pterygium in Rural Agrarian Central India. The Central India Eye and Medical Study

Purpose To evaluate the prevalence of pterygia and associated factors in a rural population in a mostly undeveloped agrarian region. Methods The Central India Eye and Medical Study is a population-based study performed in a rural region of Central India. The study comprised 4711 subjects (aged 30+ years). A detailed ophthalmic and medical examination was performed. A pterygium was diagnosed during the slit lamp examination and confirmed on corneal photographs. It was defined as a fleshy fibrovascular growth, crossing the limbus and typically seen on the nasal, and sometimes temporal, conjunctiva. Results A pterygium was detected in 798 eyes (prevalence rate: 8.47±0.29%) of 608 (12.91±0.49%) subjects. Bilateral pterygia were present in 190 subjects (4.0% of study population). Pterygia prevalence increased from 6.7±0.8% in the age group 30-39 years, to 13.5±1.2% in the age group 50-59 years, to 25.3±2.1% in the age group 70-79 years. Prevalence of pterygia was associated with older age (P<0.001; regression coefficient B: 0.02; odds ratio (OR): 1.02; 95%CI: 1.01, 1.03), male gender (P<0.001;B:-0.73;OR: .48;95%CI:0.39,0.61), lower level of education (P<0.001;B:-0.30;OR:0.74;95%CI:0.69,0.80), lower body height (P=0.001;B:-0.02;OR:0.98;95%CI:0.97,0.99), and higher cylindrical refractive error (P<0.001;B:0.23;OR:1.26;95%CI:1.18,1.34). If the education level was dropped, the number of hours spent with vigorous activity outdoors (P=0.001;B:0.001;OR:1.001;95%CI:1.000,1.0001) was significantly associated with the prevalence of pterygia, in addition to older age (P<0.001;B:0.03;OR:1.03;95%CI:1.03,1.04), male gender (P<0.001;B:-0.49;OR:0.62;95%CI:0.49,0.77), lower body height (P=0.005;B:-0.02;OR:0.98;95%CI:0.97,0.99), and higher cylindrical refractive error (P<0.001;B:0.23;OR:1.25;95%CI:1.18,1.34). Conclusions Pterygium prevalence in rural Central India is about 13% among adult Indians aged 30+ years. Older age, male gender, lower educational level, lower body height and more time spent outdoors with vigorous work were associated factors. Since the living conditions in the study location were mostly untouched by modern developments, the results may show the prevalence and associations of pterygia without major medical or technologic influences.
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PEER-ASSISTED LEARNING STRATEGIES ON READING COMPREHENSION FOR STUDENTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate strengths in word recognition and decoding, but comprehension skills are not well developed. If reading problems are not quickly addressed, they will continue to affect academic progress. Unless an effective reading intervention is established early, the outcome for struggling readers is not positive. There is little research in the area of reading comprehension for students with ASD. However, one instructional approach that has benefited many beginning readers and has improved reading comprehension skills is Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS). The current study investigated the effects of PALS on reading fluency and reading comprehension for students with ASD. A single-subject multiple baseline design across participants was used for three students with ASD. Results from the current study demonstrated that students with ASD can improve reading comprehension and reading fluency when using PALS. More specifically, all three students increased their reading comprehension and two students increased their reading fluency. Directions for future research and implications follow a discussion of findings.
Bone Morphogenic Protein Is a Viable Adjunct for Fusion in Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion

Study Design Comparison of prospectively collected data of patients undergoing minimally invasive surgery transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF) with and without recombinant human bone morphogenic protein 2 (BMP). Purpose To compare the clinical, radiological outcome and complications of patients undergoing MIS-TLIF with and without BMP. Overview of Literature BMP is an effective fusion enhancer with potential complications. Direct comparison of MIS-TLIF with and without BMP is limited to retrospective studies with short follow-up. Methods From June 2005 to February 2011, consecutive cases of MIS-TLIF performed by a single surgeon were included. North American Spine Society (NASS) score, Oswestry disability index (ODI), Short Form-36 (SF-36), and visual analogue score (VAS) were assessed preoperatively and at 6 and 24 months postoperatively. Fusion rates and complications were noted. Results The 252 cases comprised 104 non-BMP and 148 BMP cases. The BMP group was significantly older (mean age, 60.2 vs. 53.9; p<0.01). Preoperative scores were similar. Immediate postoperative morphine usage was significantly lower in the BMP group (12.4 mg vs. 20.1 mg, p<0.01). At 6 months, the BMP group had lower VAS back and leg pain scores (p<0.01). At 2 years, the BMP group had better leg pain scores (p<0.01), ODI (15.4 vs. 20.3, p=0.04) and NASS scores (8.8 vs. 15.8, p<0.01). Both groups showed significant clinical improvement compared to their preoperative levels. The BMP group attained a significantly higher rate of fusion at 6 months follow-up (88.4% vs. 76.8%, p=0.016) with no difference at 2 years. The non-BMP and BMP group had 12 (11.5%) and 9 (6.1%) complications and 5 (4.8%) and 2 (1.4%) reoperations, respectively. Conclusions The use of BMP to augment fusion in MIS-TLIF is an acceptable alternative that has potential benefits of less pain in early and intermediate postoperative follow-up.
Team Size, Dispersion, and Social Loafing in Technology-Supported Teams: A Perspective on the Theory of Moral Disengagement

Social loafing is the tendency of individuals to withhold contributions to a task in a team setting. Team size and dispersion are two primary drivers of social loafing in technology-supported team settings. However, the mechanisms through which these drivers affect social loafing are not well understood. Consequently, the objective of this study is to identify the cognitive mechanisms that mediate the effect of team size and dispersion on social loafing in technology-supported teams. Drawing on the theory of moral disengagement, we posit that three primary cognitive mechanisms—diffusion of responsibility, attribution of blame, and dehumanization—will mediate the effect of team size and dispersion on social loafing. We conducted a laboratory study involving 140 students randomly assigned to 32 teams performing a brainstorming task using group systems software. The results show that diffusion of responsibility, attribution of blame, and dehumanization all mediate (partially) the effects of team size on social loafing. Meanwhile, only dehumanization mediates (fully) the effect of dispersion on social loafing.
17β-Estradiol Stimulates Resistin Gene Expression in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes via the Estrogen Receptor, Extracellularly Regulated Kinase, and CCAAT/Enhancer Binding Protein-α Pathways

Resistin is known as an adipocyte-specific secretory hormone that can cause insulin resistance and decrease adipocyte differentiation. It can be regulated by sexual hormones, but the mechanism of estrogen’s actions is still not clear. Using 3T3-L1 adipocytes, we found that 17β-estradiol (E2) up-regulated resistin mRNA expression in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The concentration of E2 that increased resistin mRNA levels by 100–250% was approximately 1 nm for a range of 1–24 h of treatment. Treatment with either actinomycin D or cycloheximide prevented E2-stimulated resistin mRNA expression, suggesting that the effect of E2 requires new mRNA and protein synthesis. Although E2 was shown to increase activities of the estrogen receptor (ER) and MAPK kinase 1 and the association of nuclear ERα and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-α with the resistin gene promoter, signaling was demonstrated to be blocked by pretreatment with either ICI182780 or PD98059. Neither SB203580 nor LY294002 changed the E2-increased.
Introducing DRAIL – a Step Towards Declarative Deep Relational Learning

We introduce DR AI L, a new declarative framework for specifying Deep Relational Models. Our framework separates structural considerations, which express domain knowledge, from the learning architecture to simplify the process of building complex structural models. We show the DR AI L formulation of two NLP tasks, Twitter Part-of-Speech tagging and Entity-Relation extraction. We compare the performance of different deep learning architectures for these structural learning tasks.
Evolutionary analysis of HIV‐1 protease inhibitors: Methods for design of inhibitors that evade resistance

Drug‐resistant strains are rapidly selected during AIDS therapy because of the high rate of mutation in HIV. In this report, we present an evolutionary simulation method for analysis of viral mutation and its use for optimization of HIV‐1 protease drugs to improve their robustness in the face of resistance mutation. We first present an analysis of the range of resistant mutants that produce viable viruses by using a volume‐based viral fitness model. Then, we analyze how this range of mutant proteases allows development of resistance to an optimal inhibitor previously designed by computational coevolution techniques. Finally, we evaluate the resistance patterns of commercially available drugs, and we discuss how resistance might be overcome by optimizing the size of specific side‐chains of these inhibitors. Proteins 2002;48:63–74. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
African Americans and Racial Profiling by U.S. Law Enforcement: An Analysis of Police Traffic Stops and Searches of Motorists in Nebraska, 2002 - 2007

The purposes of this paper are to discuss the history of racial profiling; analyze the courts’ positions on the topic; define racial profiling; review related literature on the theme; analyze Nebraska’s law enforcement data between 2002 and 2007; draw appropriate conclusion and in the end make policy recommendations. It tests the hypothesis that race is a predictor or determinant of who (which motorist) and passengers the police in Nebraska would stop, search, arrest, detain or prosecute. Empirical data available is expected to show that there exists strong evidence that there is disparity in police stops, searches, arrests and detentions, and prosecutorial decisions and actions based on race. Put succinctly, more black (African American) motorists will be stopped, searched, arrested, detained and prosecuted because of their race than their white counterparts. The paper concludes that high incidents of arrest of minorities (black/African American, Hispanic and Native Americans) in comparison to their white counterparts in Nebraska was driven by targeted racial profiling (biased law enforcement) initiated by the Drug Enforcement Agency in its “operation pipeline” which had nothing to do with the propensity of members of minority groups to commit crime at a higher rate than whites in similarly situated positions. This disparate and stereotypical method of law enforcement or crime fighting was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme in the famous landmark case, Whren V. U.S.A (1996) thereby expanding much further, police latitude, pretext, and discretionary power of law enforcement. The study, recommends serious reform of the law enforcement establishment to include, public education, community policing, sensitivity training, race-based diversity recruitment and information gathering to improve law enforcement as well as enhance community-police relations in the state of Nebraska and beyond.