Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ATTITUDES TOWARDS INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION QUESTIONNAIRE (AISDPE): A TWO-COMPONENT SCALE IN SPANISH

In Physical Education (PE), acceptance by and interaction with peers without disabilities is one of the most important factors in determining whether a student with a disability has a successful experience, such as to be perceived as members of the class, to interact with peers, and to feel part of the group. This study establishes the construct validity of a questionnaire in the Spanish language on attitudes toward the inclusion of students with disability in PE, according a model where attitudes are considered to be comprised of three components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. Nine hundred and seventy-six PE students (491 girls and 485 boys) from eight public educational centers took part in this study. Using Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis procedures, a two-component model of attitude was confirmed. Therefore this questionnaire may be used for surveying attitudes and measuring attitudinal change of students within the Spanish school system.
A Case Study Implementing Features Using AspectJ

Software product lines aim to create highly configurable programs from a set of features. Common belief and recent studies suggest that aspects are well-suited for implementing features. We evaluate the suitability of AspectJ with respect to this task by a case study that refactors the embedded database system Berkeley DB into 38 features. Contrary to our initial expectations, the results were not encouraging. As the number of aspects in a feature grows, there is a noticeable decrease in code readability and maintainability. Most of the unique and powerful features of AspectJ were not needed. We document where AspectJ is unsuitable for implementing features of refactored legacy applications and explain why.
Revisiting redundancy and minimization in an XPath fragment

Redundancy and minimization of queries are investigated in a well known fragment of XPath that includes child and descendant edges, branches, wildcards, and multiple output nodes. Contrary to a published result, a proposed technique does not guarantee minimality or even non-redundancy, and it is unknown whether a non-redundant query is also minimal. It is shown that for two sub-fragments, non-redundancy and minimality are the same, and can be realized by means of simple (local) tests. The latter property is used to prove that testing non-redundancy is NP-complete.
Verifying Finite State Machines in Probabilistic Environments

Abstract: Finite state machines are considered in a probabilistic environment that is generated by a Markov chain. An expressive temporal logic is introduced for specifying complex requirements that the FSM should satisfy in the given environment. The corresponding model checking algorithm is described and its symbolic implementation is sketched. Throughout the paper, the method is illustrated by a simple running example.
Visual odometry using RGB-D camera on ceiling vision

In this paper, we present a novel algorithm for odometry computation based on ceiling vision. The main contribution in this algorithm is the introduction of principal direction detection that can greatly reduce error accumulation problem present in most visual odometry estimation approaches. The principal direction is defined based on the fact that our ceiling is filled with artificial vertical and horizontal lines and these lines can be used as reference for the current robot's heading direction. The proposed approach can be operated in realtime and it performs well even with camera's disturbance. A moving low-cost RGB-D camera (Kinect), mounted on a robot, is used to continuously acquire point clouds. Iterative Closest Point (ICP) is the common way to estimate current camera position by calculating the translation and rotation to the previous frame. However, its performance suffers from data association problem or it requires pre-alignment information. Unlike ICP, the performance of the proposed approach does not rely on data association knowledge. Using this method, two point clouds are pre-aligned. Hence, we can use ICP to fine-tune the transformation parameters and to minimize registration error. Experimental results demonstrate the performance and stability of the proposed system under disturbance in real-time.
Journal of Health Global

Assessment of the impact of quality improvement interventions on the quality of sick child care provided by Health Extension Workers in Ethiopia Background Ethiopia has scaled up integrated community case management of childhood illness (iCCM), including several interventions to improve the performance of Health Extension Workers (HEWs). We assessed associations between interventions to improve iCCM quality of care and the observed quality of care among HEWs.
EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIOUR PROBLEM AMONG CHILDREN AGE FOUR AND BELOW IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

This paper aims to examine the rates and distribution of externalizing behaviour problems and to identify associated children and parental characteristics that affect externalizing behaviour problems among preschool children in Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 174 (14.5%) out of 1198 children age four and below were conveniently selected for this study that consist of those who were in the borderline and clinical range of having externalizing behavioural problems as rated by parents using the Child Behavioural Checklist for Age 1 1⁄2-5 (CBCL/1 1⁄2 –5). Descriptive statistics such as mean, t-test, ANOVA and correlation tests were applied in data analysis. Findings indicate significant differences in externalizing problem by age until age 4 and maternal education background. Results reveal a negative but non-significant correlation between externalizing problems with household income and father’s age, whilst a positive with moderate significant relationship with child age. Findings in this study provide an increased knowledge in externalizing behaviour problems and adequate evidences that early intervention or preventive measure is needed to reduce the continuity of externalizing problems into adulthood and preschool age is the best time to identify early signs of problems before they become permanent.
Letter: High-precision oxygen isotope analysis of picogram samples reveals 2 μm gradients and slow diffusion in zircon

Abstract Ion microprobe analysis with a sub-micrometer diameter spot reveals a sharp, 2 μm gradient in oxygen isotope ratio proving that oxygen diffusion in zircon is slow even under prolonged high-grade metamorphism. The data are consistent with an oxygen diffusion coefficient of 10-23.5±1 cm2/s. Furthermore, this gradient is found in a zircon that contains clear textural evidence of recrystallization in nearby regions. This finding shows that through careful textural and chemical analysis, primary information can be extracted from a zircon that has also undergone partial recrystallization. The oxygen isotope ratios found in zircon have been used to infer magmatic and pre-magmatic histories, including the presence of liquid water on the surface of earliest Earth. Recently, these interpretations have been questioned with the assertion that zircon may not retain its primary oxygen isotope signature through metamorphism. The slow diffusion confirmed by these results supports interpretations that assume preservation of magmatic compositions.
Release of proteins from the inner surface of squid axon membrane labeled with tritiated N-ethylmaleimide

Proteins in the inner surface of the squid axon membrane were labeled by intracellular perfusion of [3H]N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), which forms covalent bonds with free sulfhydryl groups. The excitability of the axon was unaffected by the [3H]NEM perfusion. After washout of the unbound label, the perfusate was monitored for the release of labeled proteins. Labeled proteins were released from the inner membrane surface by potassium depolarization of the axon only in the presence of external calcium ions. Replacement of the fluoride ion in the perfusion medium by various anions also caused labeled protein release. The order of effectiveness was SCN- greater than Br- greater than Cl- greater than F-. The extent of labeled protein release by the various anions was correlated with their effects on axonal excitability. The significance of these results is discussed.
Cooperative Simulated Annealing: How much cooperation is enough ?

This paper provides empirical evidence in support of the hypothesis, that a populational extension of simulated annealing with cooperative transitions leads to a significant increase of efficiency and solution quality for a given combinatorial optimization problem (and a neighborhood relation) if and only if the globally optimal solution is located "close" to the center of all locally optimal solution.
Learning Sparse Representations by Non-Negative Matrix Factorization and Sequential Cone Programming

We exploit the biconvex nature of the Euclidean non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) optimization problem to derive optimization schemes based on sequential quadratic and second order cone programming. We show that for ordinary NMF, our approach performs as well as existing state-of-the-art algorithms, while for sparsity-constrained NMF, as recently proposed by P. O. Hoyer in JMLR 5 (2004), it outperforms previous methods. In addition, we show how to extend NMF learning within the same optimization framework in order to make use of class membership information in supervised learning problems.
FDI & Growth: What Causes What?

The paper examines the causal relationship between FDI and economic growth by using an innovative econometric methodology to study the direction of causality between the two variables. We apply our methodology, based on the Toda-Yamamoto test for causality, to time-series data covering the period 19692000 for three developing countries, namely Chile, Malaysia and Thailand, all of them major recipients of FDI with a different history of macroeconomic episodes, policy regimes and growth patterns. Our empirical findings clearly suggest that it is GDP that causes FDI in the case of Chile and not vice versa, while for both Malaysia and Thailand, there is a strong evidence of a bi-directional causality between the two variables. The robustness of the above findings is confirmed by the use of a bootstrap test employed to test the validity of our results.
Structural Models and Endogeneity in Corporate Finance: The Link Between Managerial Ownership and Corporate Performance

This paper presents a parsimonious, structural model that isolates primary economic determinants of the level and dispersion of managerial ownership, firm scale, and performance and the empirical associations among them. In particular, variation across firms and through time of estimated productivity parameters for physical assets and managerial input and corresponding variation in optimal compensation contract and firm size combine to deliver the well-known hump-shaped relation between Tobin's Q and managerial ownership. To assess the effectiveness of standard econometric approaches to the endogeneity problem, we apply those remedies to panel data generated from the model. The unfortunate conclusion is that, at least in the ownership–performance context, proxy variables, fixed effects, and instrumental variables do not generally provide reliable solutions to simultaneity bias.
Food Composition Database Format and Structure: A User Focused Approach

This study aimed to investigate the needs of Australian food composition database user’s regarding database format and relate this to the format of databases available globally. Three semi structured synchronous online focus groups (M = 3, F = 11) and n = 6 female key informant interviews were recorded. Beliefs surrounding the use, training, understanding, benefits and limitations of food composition data and databases were explored. Verbatim transcriptions underwent preliminary coding followed by thematic analysis with NVivo qualitative analysis software to extract the final themes. Schematic analysis was applied to the final themes related to database format. Desktop analysis also examined the format of six key globally available databases. 24 dominant themes were established, of which five related to format; database use, food classification, framework, accessibility and availability, and data derivation. Desktop analysis revealed that food classification systems varied considerably between databases. Microsoft Excel was a common file format used in all databases, and available software varied between countries. User’s also recognised that food composition databases format should ideally be designed specifically for the intended use, have a user-friendly food classification system, incorporate accurate data with clear explanation of data derivation and feature user input. However, such databases are limited by data availability and resources. Further exploration of data sharing options should be considered. Furthermore, user’s understanding of food composition data and databases limitations is inherent to the correct application of non-specific databases. Therefore, further exploration of user FCDB training should also be considered.
Certifying Some Distributional Robustness with Principled Adversarial Training

Neural networks are vulnerable to adversarial examples and researchers have proposed many heuristic attack and defense mechanisms. We address this problem through the principled lens of distributionally robust optimization, which guarantees performance under adversarial input perturbations. By considering a Lagrangian penalty formulation of perturbing the underlying data distribution in a Wasserstein ball, we provide a training procedure that augments model parameter updates with worst-case perturbations of training data. For smooth losses, our procedure provably achieves moderate levels of robustness with little computational or statistical cost relative to empirical risk minimization. Furthermore, our statistical guarantees allow us to efficiently certify robustness for the population loss. For imperceptible perturbations, our method matches or outperforms heuristic approaches.
Performance evaluation of connection rerouting schemes for ATM-based wireless networks

Supporting mobility in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)-based broad-band networks with wireless access links poses many technical challenges. One of the most important of these challenges is the need to reroute ongoing connections to/from mobile users as these users move among base stations. Connection rerouting schemes must exhibit low handoff latency, maintain efficient routes, and limit disruption to continuous media traffic while minimizing reroute updates to the network switches. In this paper we propose, describe an implementation for, and experimentally evaluate the performance of five different connection rerouting schemes. We show that one of these schemes, which operates in two phases, executes very fast reroutes (with a measured latency of 6.5 ms) in a real-time phase and, if necessary, reroutes again in a nonreal-time phase to maintain efficient routing. The scheme also results in negligible disruption to both audio (e.g., a 1-in-100 chance of a single packet loss at CD-quality audio rates of 128 kb/s) and low-bit-rate video (e.g., a 2-in-100 chance of a single packet loss for 1-Mb/s video) traffic during connection rerouting. Based on these results, we conclude that simple handoff schemes coupled with a connection management architecture are sufficient for supporting low-bit-rate continuous media applications over ATM-based wireless networks.
Industry Concentration and Average Stock Returns

Firms in more concentrated industries earn lower returns, even after controlling for size, book-to-market, momentum, and other return determinants. Explanations based on chance, measurement error, capital structure, and persistent in-sample cash flow shocks do not explain this finding. Drawing on work in industrial organization, we posit that either barriers to entry in highly concentrated industries insulate firms from undiversifiable distress risk, or firms in highly concentrated industries are less risky because they engage in less innovation, and thereby command lower expected returns. Additional time-series tests support these risk-based interpretations. Copyright 2006 by The American Finance Association.
Genome-Wide Transcriptome Profiling of Mycobacterium smegmatis MC2 155 Cultivated in Minimal Media Supplemented with Cholesterol, Androstenedione or Glycerol

Mycobacterium smegmatis strain MC2 155 is an attractive model organism for the study of M. tuberculosis and other mycobacterial pathogens, as it can grow well using cholesterol as a carbon resource. However, its global transcriptomic response remains largely unrevealed. In this study, M. smegmatis MC2 155 cultivated in androstenedione, cholesterol and glycerol supplemented media were collected separately for a RNA-Sequencing study. The results showed that 6004, 6681 and 6348 genes were expressed in androstenedione, cholesterol and glycerol supplemented media, and 5891 genes were expressed in all three conditions, with 237 specially expressed in cholesterol added medium. A total of 1852 and 454 genes were significantly up-regulated by cholesterol compared with the other two supplements. Only occasional changes were observed in basic carbon and nitrogen metabolism, while almost all of the genes involved in cholesterol catabolism and mammalian cell entry (MCE) were up-regulated by cholesterol, but not by androstenedione. Eleven and 16 gene clusters were induced by cholesterol when compared with glycerol or androstenedione, respectively. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the cholesterol responsive transcriptome of M. smegmatis. Our results indicated that cholesterol induced many more genes and increased the expression of the majority of genes involved in cholesterol degradation and MCE in M. smegmatis, while androstenedione did not have the same effect.
Susceptibility of Nebraska Western Corn Rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Populations to Bt Corn Events

ABSTRACT Transgenic plants have been widely adopted by growers to manage the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, in field corn. Because of reduced efficacy in some Nebraska fields after repeated use of Cry3Bb1-expressing hybrids, single plant bioassays were conducted in 2012 and 2013 to characterize the susceptibility of western corn rootworm populations to the rootwormactive proteins Cry3Bb1, mCry3A, and Cry34/35Ab1. Results demonstrate that there are heritable differences in susceptibility of Nebraska western corn rootworm populations to rootworm-active Bt traits. Proportional survival and corrected survival data coupled with field histories collectively support the conclusion that a level of field resistance to Cry3Bb1 has evolved in some Nebraska populations in response to selection pressure and that cross-resistance exists between Cry3Bb1 and mCry3A. There was no apparent cross-resistance between Cry34/35Ab1 and either Cry3Bb1 or mCry3A. The potential implications of these results on current and future corn rootworm management strategies are discussed.
Corporate Failure and Equity Valuation

An important problem for portfolio managers is how to adjust the valuation of equity for the risk that the company may fail. Traditional adjustments seem ad hoc, and previous research on the topic has ignored the irreversible nature of failure. Here, a standard equity valuation model is extended to include a parsimonious but rigorous correction for a stationary annual probability of failure. Although the correction is nonlinear, it can be reduced to an equivalent function that enters the valuation equation in the traditional additive way. Empirical benchmarking suggests that, even without assuming risk-averse investors, this approach comes closer to predicting observed equity premiums than the traditional approach. An important problem for portfolio managers is how to adjust the valuation of a company's equity for the risk that the company may fail. Traditional approaches incorporatead hoc adjustments to risk premiums in the discount rate or to the assumed average growth rate of cash flows, which are convenient in practice but possibly inaccurate. Theoretical research on the topic has typically ignored the irreversible nature of corporate failure and focused on second-moment effects (which matter only for risk-averse investors) rather than on first-moment effects (which matter even for risk-neutral investors). Furthermore, standard models typically generate predictions that are inconsistent with the historical comparison of returns between stocks and bonds. This article incorporates a stationary annual probability of corporate failure into a standard equity valuation model to provide a parsimonious but rigorous correction for failure risk. Although the correction is nonlinear, it can be reduced to an equivalent function that enters the valuation equation in the traditional additive way. Empirical benchmarking suggests that, even without assuming risk-averse investors, this approach comes closer to predicting observed equity premiums than the traditional approach. Extensions of the model provide valuation under two growth regimes with stochastic transition times. The results presented in the article can be applied either as an alternative correction for risk or as a complementary correction for risk. The model improves the results obtained by using conventional risk premiums and subjective adjustments to assumed growth rates in several ways. The model's key parameter for measuring failure risk can be calibrated in practice by using either historical business failure rates or company-specific probabilities of failure predicted by statistical models. Another use of the model would be to infer, based on the risk premium observed for a company's stock, the market's anticipated risk of failure for a given company.
Central Agonism of GPR120 Acutely Inhibits Food Intake and Food Reward and Chronically Suppresses Anxiety-Like Behavior in Mice

Background: GPR120 (FFAR4) is a G-protein coupled receptor implicated in the development of obesity and the antiinflammatory and insulin-sensitizing effects of omega-3 (ω-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids. Increasing central ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid levels has been shown to have both anorectic and anxiolytic actions. Despite the strong clinical interest in GPR120, its role in the brain is largely unknown, and thus we sought to determine the impact of central GPR120 pharmacological activation on energy balance, food reward, and anxiety-like behavior. Methods: Male C57Bl/6 mice with intracerebroventricular cannulae received a single injection (0.1 or 1 µM) or continuous 2-week infusion (1 µM/d; mini-pump) of a GPR120 agonist or vehicle. Free-feeding intake, operant lever-pressing for palatable food, energy expenditure (indirect calorimetry), and body weight were measured. GPR120 mRNA expression was measured in pertinent brain areas. Anxiety-like behavior was assessed in the elevated-plus maze and open field test. Results: GPR120 agonist injections substantially reduced chow intake during 4 hours postinjection, suppressed the rewarding effects of high-fat/-sugar food, and blunted approach-avoidance behavior in the open field. Conversely, prolonged central GPR120 agonist infusions reduced anxiety-like behavior in the elevated-plus maze and open field, yet failed to affect free-feeding intake, energy expenditure, and body weight on a high-fat diet. Conclusion: Acute reductions in food intake and food reward suggest that GPR120 could mediate the effects of central ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids to inhibit appetite. The anxiolytic effect elicited by GPR120 agonist infusions favors the testing of compounds that can enter the brain to activate GPR120 for the mitigation of anxiety.