Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A learner-centred approach to developing team skills through web-based learning and assessment

In traditional face-to-face classrooms, collaborative learning has been endorsed as an effective pedagogy that fosters skills of analysis, communication and higher order thinking. Increasingly, as online learning environments for tertiary learners make use of course support systems, there is greater recognition of the potential of communications technologies to foster dialogue, networking and team skills among learners. Such skills are now among the recognised core attributes that graduates are expected to develop. In face-toface classroom students learn the skills of collaboration and teamwork by engaging in tasks defined and supervised by a teacher. In online environments teacher presence is often limited to task definition, management and feedback functions. Team skills and collaboration therefore need to be supported though different pedagogies and processes such as establishing a climate of trust and openness, communication protocols, resolution of conflict and group processes that provide sanctions and support. In this paper we describe an innovative approach to building the skills of decision-making and conflict resolution, leadership and clarity in goal setting and communication. A case study of tertiary learners illustrates how the essential aspects of task definition, resources to support group learning and integrated online assessment foster team skills.
Key criteria in twenty‐first century management promotional decisions

Purpose – This paper aims to determine the key criteria used by managers in rapidly changing organizations to make promotion decisions.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted of 311 managers from over 100 different US service and manufacturing enterprises experiencing rapid organizational change. Managers were asked to identify no more than five factors that were most critical in their organization to actually getting promoted. Results were content analyzed.Findings – Top ten factors influencing promotion decisions included: getting desired results/strong performance track record; possessing strong business networks; interpersonal/communication skills; strong knowledge‐experience base; demonstrating a strong work ethic; ability to build teams and being a team player; personality, attitude, and ego factors; solving a major problem or getting a “big hit;” demonstrating character, integrity, and trustworthiness; and, preparation and being in the right place at the right time.Research limitations.
‘Yes, we can; but together’: social capital and refugee resettlement

Resettled refugees need a network of relationships to ensure they can live meaningful lives in New Zealand. These relationships are complex and exist between individuals and communities at local and national levels. Conceptualised as social capital, these relationships provide the invisible glue holding society together. Drawing on data from a research project on the Somali community in Auckland, this paper reflects on contemporary developments within the refugee sector and highlights the ways in which social capital provides further insight into the experiences of refugee integration at a local level in New Zealand.
Malaria in pregnancy: adverse effects on haemoglobin levels and birthweight in primigravidae and multigravidae

BACKGROUND In areas of endemic transmission, malaria in pregnancy is associated with severe maternal anaemia and low birthweight babies. The prevalence of infection is highest in primigravidae (PG), and hence control efforts are usually geared towards this high risk group. Using a sensitive measure of placental infection, we investigated the relationship between active‐acute, active‐chronic and past placental infection with maternal anaemia and low birthweight in women of all gravidities.
An Optimization Approach to Petri Net Monitor Design

This note addresses the problem of enforcing generalized mutual exclusion constraints on a Petri net plant. First, we replace the classical partition of the event set into controllable and uncontrollable events from supervisory control theory, by associating a control and observation cost to each event. This leads naturally to formulate the supervisory control problem as an optimal control problem. Monitor places which enforce the constraint are devised as a solution of an integer linear programming problem whose objective function is expressed in terms of the introduced costs. Second, we consider timed models for which the monitor choice may lead to performance optimization. If the plant net belongs to the class of mono-T-semiflow nets, we present an integer linear fractional programming approach to synthesize the optimal monitor so as to minimize the cycle time lower bound of the closed loop net. For strongly connected marked graphs the cycle time of the closed-loop net can be minimized
Uniqueness of the Fock quantization of scalar fields in spatially flat cosmological spacetimes

We study the Fock quantization of scalar fields in (generically) time dependent scenarios, focusing on the case in which the field propagation occurs in –either a background or effective– spacetime with spatial sections of flat compact topology. The discussion finds important applications in cosmology, like e.g. in the description of test Klein-Gordon fields and scalar perturbations in Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime in the observationally favored flat case. Two types of ambiguities in the quantization are analyzed. First, the infinite ambiguity existing in the choice of a Fock representation for the canonical commutation relations, understandable as the freedom in the choice of inequivalent vacua for a given field. Besides, in cosmological situations, it is customary to scale the fields by time dependent functions, which absorb part of the evolution arising from the spacetime, which is treated classically. This leads to an additional ambiguity, this time in the choice of a canonical pair of field variables. We show that both types of ambiguities are removed by the requirements of (a) invariance of the vacuum under the symmetries of the three-torus, and (b) unitary implementation of the dynamics in the quantum theory. In this way, one arrives at a unique class of unitarily equivalent Fock quantizations for the system. This result provides considerable robustness to the quantum predictions and renders meaningful the confrontation with observation.
Association between Glaucoma and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Background Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a common disease that increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. However, studies of an association between OSAS and glaucoma neuropathy have reported controversial findings. Objective The main purpose of this study was to evaluate whether a significant association exists between OSAS and glaucoma by performing a meta-analysis of previous studies. Methods A comprehensive literature search using the PubMed and Embase databases was performed to identify cross-sectional, case-control, and cohort studies related to the topic. We estimated a pooled odds ratio (OR) for the association between OSAS and glaucoma, by a fixed- or random-effects model. Results In total, 16 studies with 2,278,832 participants met the inclusion criteria: one retrospective cohort study reported an adjusted hazard ratio of glaucoma of 1.67 (95% CI = 1.30–2.17). Using a fixed-effects model, the pooled OR of six case-control studies was 1.96 (95% CI = 1.37 2.80). A significant association was also identified in a meta-analysis of nine cross-sectional studies using a random-effects model, which showed a pooled OR of 1.41 (95% CI = 1.11 1.79). However, the reported pooled estimates for case control studies and cross-sectional studies were based on unadjusted ORs. Conclusions Our results suggest that OSAS is associated with the prevalence of glaucoma. However, this result was based only on unadjusted estimates. Prospective cohort studies designed to take into consideration potential confounders, or examination of data from interventional trials to determine whether a reduction in OSAS status is associated with a reduced incidence of glaucoma, are needed to clarify whether OSAS is an independent risk factor for glaucoma.
Substantive and relational effectiveness of organizational conflict behavior

In this observation study the theory of conglomerated conflict behavior is tested. The impact of seven conflict behaviors on substantive and relational conflict outcomes is examined through multiple independent observations of 103 Dutch nurse managers handling a standardized conflict. Results show that process controlling is most important for achieving substantive outcomes, whereas problem solving, confronting, and forcing are most important for relational outcomes. In addition, substantive and relational outcomes are positively related. Implications for managerial practice and training are discussed.
Modelling, teachers' views on the nature of modelling, and implications for the education of modellers

In this paper, the role of modelling in the teaching and learning of science is reviewed. In order to represent what is entailed in modelling, a 'model of modelling' framework is proposed. Five phases in moving towards a full capability in modelling are established by a review of the literature: learning models; learning to use models; learning how to revise models; learning to reconstruct models; learning to construct models de novo . In order to identify the knowledge and skills that science teachers think are needed to produce a model successfully, a semi-structured interview study was conducted with 39 Brazilian serving science teachers: 10 teaching at the 'fundamental' level (6-14 years); 10 teaching at the 'medium'-level (15-17 years); 10 undergraduate pre-service 'medium'-level teachers; 9 university teachers of chemistry. Their responses are used to establish what is entailed in implementing the 'model of modelling' framework. The implications for students, teachers, and for teacher education, of moving through the five phases of capability, are discussed.
Recovery and analysis of social networks from discrete interactions DRAFT – please do not distribute

We thank the members of the Collective Dynamics Group at Columbia University for useful comments and Ben Beecher and Walter Bourne for assistance with data collection and anonymization. Discrete personal interactions, such as those recorded automatically in e-mail servers, provide a promising means to track and measure the evolution of social networks in real time. In this paper, we describe a method to recover network structure from communication event history using a sliding window filter. We test our method on a longitudinal dataset comprising roughly 14.5 million e-mail interactions within a large university community, finding that it is robust for reasonable choices of filter parameters; that averages and distributions of individual properties do not change dramatically over the span of our dataset; but that certain individual properties (degree, betweenness) are noticeably less stable. Our analysis implies that while average network measures derived from static snapshots may be accurate (with some caveats), the relation between individual-level network measures and individual outcomes requires careful consideration of the corresponding timescales. This finding is further supported by our observation that local bridges over time become similar to the total population of ties with respect to tie strength, range and embeddedness.
The Case for Animal Rights

There are, I know, people who profess to believe in animal rights but do not avow these goals. Factory farming, they say, is wrong—it violates animals’ rights—but traditional animal agriculture is all right. Toxicity tests of cosmetics on animals violates their rights, but important medical research—cancer research, for example—does not. The clubbing of baby seals is abhorrent, but not the harvesting of adult seals. I used to think I understood this reasoning. Not any more. You don’t change unjust institutions by tidying them up.
Construing the Past and Future

We here examine the nature of the pasts and futures that people construct and the role that implicit theories and motivation play in such creations. People's views of their pasts and futures are qualitatively different. They give their pasts mixed reviews, whereas they view their futures as unequivocally positive. We examine conditions that lead individuals and social groups to bias history in either an aggrandizing or effacing direction. We then discuss the nature of people's forecasts in a variety of domains—ranging from the general (e.g., “What does my future hold? ”) to the specific (e.g., predicting completion times of tasks). Finally, we examine factors that affect whether predictions are accurate and influence behavior.
Comparison of the Effects of Quetiapine XR and Lithium Monotherapy on Actigraphy-Measured Circadian Parameters in Patients With Bipolar II Depression

Purpose/Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of quetiapine XR and lithium on actigraphy-measured circadian parameters in patients with bipolar II depression. Methods/Procedures This was an 8-week, open-label, prospective, randomized comparative study. The assessments included the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score and actigraphic measures concerning the previous 7 days, collected at each visit (weeks 0 [baseline], 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8); the actigraphic data were analyzed with a cosinor analysis. Findings/Results Medication, time, and the interaction between medication and time were significantly associated with acrophase for the entire group (Ps = 0.003, 0.020, and 0.042, respectively). More specifically, acrophase was significantly delayed at weeks 1 and 6 (Ps = 0.004 and 0.039, respectively) in the quetiapine XR group. The F statistics significantly increased over time for the entire group (P < 0.001), and there was a significant increase in F statistics on weeks 4 and 6 in the quetiapine XR group (Ps = 0.016 and 0.020, respectively) and on weeks 4 and 8 in the lithium group (Ps = 0.001 and 0.016, respectively). In addition, scores on the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale were significantly associated with the F statistics during 8 weeks for the entire group (P = 0.008). Implications/Conclusions Both quetiapine XR and lithium affected several circadian parameters, including peak activity time and robustness of circadian rhythm, but exerted different effects on acrophase in patients with bipolar II depression. In particular, clinical depressive symptoms were associated with robustness of circadian rhythm during the course of the 8-week treatment.
Reciprocal Association of C-Reactive Protein With Adiponectin in Blood Stream and Adipose Tissue

Background—High-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a well-known risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). Recently, we have demonstrated that adiponectin served as an antiatherogenic plasma protein which was secreted specifically from adipocytes. The present study investigated the association between adiponectin and CRP in the blood stream and adipose tissue. Methods and Results—We studied a total of 101 male patients, 71 of whom had angiographically documented coronary atherosclerosis. As a control group, 30 patients with normal coronary angiogram were included. The plasma hs-CRP levels were negatively correlated with the plasma adiponectin levels (r =−0.29, P <0.01). The plasma adiponectin concentrations were significantly lower and the hs-CRP levels were significantly higher in the CAD patients compared with control subjects. The mRNA levels of CRP and adiponectin were analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction method. We found that the CRP mRNA was expressed in human adipose tissue. A significant inverse correlation was observed between the CRP and adiponectin mRNA levels in human adipose tissue (r =−0.89, P <0.01). In addition, the CRP mRNA level of white adipose tissue in adiponectin deficient mice was higher than that of wild-type mice. Conclusions—The reciprocal association of adiponectin and CRP levels in both human plasma and adipose tissue might participate in the development of atherosclerosis.
Electrical Stimulation and Electrode Properties. Part 1: Clinical Electrodes

ABSTRACT. Few studies have addressed the changes that can occur in clinical electrodes during high amplitude electrical stimulation. In this study, the response of some common clinical electrodes to various types of electrical stimulation was investigated. This included studies of the effect of pulse and direct currents, design and material of electrode, and the effects of voltage and current levels. There were significant changes to the weight and shape of a stainless steel anode during stimulation that were more dramatic as the duration of the stimulus pulse increased and were most severe with direct current (DC) stimuli. Pulse stimulus currents below 5 mA did not result in any stimulation related changes and pulse durations less than 1 msec did not produce any changes in the electrode. Not all effects of stimulation were on the electrode itself. Stimulation did also have a significant effect on the electrode lead-wire connection as well, depending on the details of the manufacture of the electrode.
Energy Dissipation Versus Delay Tradeoffs in a Buffer-Aided Two-Hop Link

Our motivation is to characterize the hitherto unexplored tradeoff between energy dissipation and delay in a buffer-aided two-hop link. First, the optimality of 2-D Transmission Activation Probability Space (TAPS) partitioning is formally shown both in the presence and absence of an outage region. Then, the relationship between packet energy dissipation and block delay is found, which is established with the aid of a buffer-state transition matrix. Moreover, the concept of “artificial outage” is introduced and applied for striking a flexible tradeoff between energy dissipation and block delay. Then, an algorithm is provided for finding the matching block delay and energy dissipation pairs. Our analysis and performance results demonstrate that the proposed methods provide a significantly wider and more flexible tradeoff range than all other methods, while reducing the average packet delay and/or the energy dissipation.
High-Resolution Optical/Near-Infrared Imaging of Cool Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies

We present high spatial resolution (FWHM ≈ 0.″3-0.″8) BIHK′-band imaging of a sample of ultraluminous infrared galaxies (Lir > 1012 L☉; ULIGs) with "cool" mid-infrared colors (f25 μm/f60 μm < 0.2), which select against active galactic nucleus-like (AGN-like) systems, a complementary sample to the "warm" ULIGs of Surace and coworkers. We find that all of the cool ULIGs are either advanced mergers or are premergers with evidence for still-separate nuclei with separations greater than 600 pc. Extended tidal features such as tails and loops as well as clustered star formation are observed in most systems. This extended tidal structure suggests a common progenitor geometry for most of the ULIGs: a plunging disk collision where the disks are highly inclined with respect to each other. The underlying host galaxies have H-band luminosities of 1-2.5L*, very similar to that found in the warm ULIGs. The nuclear regions of these galaxies have morphologies and colors characteristic of a recent burst of star formation mixed with hot dust and mildly extinguished by AV = 2-5 mag; only in one case (IRAS 22491-1808) is there evidence for a compact emission region with colors similar to those ofan extinguished QSO. Most of the observed star-forming knots appear to have very young (10 Myr) ages based on their optical/near-infrared colors. These star-forming knots are insufficiently luminous to typically provide more than 10% of the high bolometric luminosity of the systems.
Ion channels as targets for insecticides.

Ion channels are the primary target sites for several classes of natural and synthetic insecticidal compounds. The voltage-sensitive sodium channel is the major target site for DDT and pyrethroids, the veratrum alkaloids, and N-alkylamides. Recently, neurotoxic proteins from arthropod venoms, some of which specifically attack insect sodium channels, have been engineered into baculoviruses to act as biopesticides. The synthetic pyrazolines also primarily affect the sodium channel, although some members of this group target neuronal calcium channels as well. The ryanoids have also found use as insecticides, and these materials induce muscle contracture by irreversible activation of the calcium-release channel of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. The arylheterocycles (e.g. endosulfan and fipronil) are potent convulsants and insecticides that block the GABA-gated chloride channel. In contrast, the avermectins activate both ligand- and voltage-gated chloride channels, which leads to paralysis. At field-use rates, a neurotoxic effect of the ecdysteroid agonist RH-5849 is observed that involves blockage of both muscle and neuronal potassium channels. The future use of ion channels as targets for chemical and genetically engineered insecticides is also discussed.
Motivation for offending and personality

Purpose. The main aim of the study was to examine the relationship between motivation for offending and personality. Method. A specially constructed Offending Motivation Questionnaire (OMQ) was developed along the lines of Farrington's (1986, 1993) theoretical framework. The OMQ, the Mak Self-Reported Delinquency Scale, the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale (GCS), the Gough Socialisation Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Gudjonsson Blame Attribution Inventory (BAI-R) were administered to two groups of students: college students and university students. Results. Factor analysis of the OMQ revealed four motivational factors for offending (Compliance, Provocation, Financial, Excitement) and one further factor associated with the failure to appreciate the consequences of the criminal act. As predicted, the GCS correlated significantly with a compliance motive (i.e. being coerced, manipulated, or tricked into crime by a peer, or eagerness to please a peer), whereas the remaining four factors were associated with a low score on the Gough Socialisation Scale. External and Mental Element attributions were mainly found to be associated with provocation and consequences factors. Conclusions. The findings support the view that there is a relationship between the motivation for offending, failure to appreciate the consequences of one's actions and personality. Further research should focus on studying this relationship among criminal populations.
Rethinking SSL development in an appified world

The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is widely used to secure data transfers on the Internet. Previous studies have shown that the state of non-browser SSL code is catastrophic across a large variety of desktop applications and libraries as well as a large selection of Android apps, leaving users vulnerable to Man-in-the-Middle attacks (MITMAs). To determine possible causes of SSL problems on all major appified platforms, we extended the analysis to the walled-garden ecosystem of iOS, analyzed software developer forums and conducted interviews with developers of vulnerable apps. Our results show that the root causes are not simply careless developers, but also limitations and issues of the current SSL development paradigm. Based on our findings, we derive a proposal to rethink the handling of SSL in the appified world and present a set of countermeasures to improve the handling of SSL using Android as a blueprint for other platforms. Our countermeasures prevent developers from willfully or accidentally breaking SSL certificate validation, offer support for extended features such as SSL Pinning and different SSL validation infrastructures, and protect users. We evaluated our solution against 13,500 popular Android apps and conducted developer interviews to judge the acceptance of our approach and found that our solution works well for all investigated apps and developers.