Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changing Competence Perceptions, Changing Values: Implications for Youth Sport

William James (1892/1961) definition of self-esteem, the ratio of success over pretensions, has been the focus of much research and theory (e.g., Epstein, 1973, Harter, 1998; Marsh, 1994). Unfortunately research findings in support of James ratio have been mixed, depending on the research methods applied. Two potential reasons for the mixed findings are submersion of the formulation under the rubric importance, and reliance by researchers on cross-sectional data analysis. While importance is one dimension of pretensions, the gist of James definition is the cognitive compensation resulting from decrease in success, for the purpose of self-esteem maintenance, a process occurring over time. In the present study, James ratio was assessed in the domain of sport, an area in which it has not often been assessed. The stability of childrens success (sport competence beliefs), pretensions (the perceived value of athletics), and self-esteem are assessed over a three-year period, with latent growth modeling. The results provide some support for James hypothesis. Implications for youth sport are discussed.
The Variational Gaussian Approximation Revisited

The variational approximation of posterior distributions by multivariate gaussians has been much less popular in the machine learning community compared to the corresponding approximation by factorizing distributions. This is for a good reason: the gaussian approximation is in general plagued by an number of variational parameters to be optimized, N being the number of random variables. In this letter, we discuss the relationship between the Laplace and the variational approximation, and we show that for models with gaussian priors and factorizing likelihoods, the number of variational parameters is actually . The approach is applied to gaussian process regression with nongaussian likelihoods.
An Exploration of Reflection: Expression of Learning Style in an International Experiential Learning Context.

conceptualization, and (d) active experimentation. According to Kolb (1984), learners can begin at any point in the cycle and complete the process effectively. The purpose of the learning cycle is to show how reflecting upon their experience allows learners to synthesize their cognitions into new ideas and concepts which are then tested in new situations to assist the learner in making decisions and judgments (Kolb, 1984). This study primarily focuses on the impact the observation and reflective portion of the model has on the entire learning process. Learning Styles In addition to the experiential learning cycle, Kolb (2007) developed a learning style inventory dividing learners into four categories: accommodators, assimilators, convergers and divergers. The inventory categorizes learners by examining the degree to which the individual naturally tends to use reflective observation (RO), abstract conceptualization (AC), active experimentation (AE), and concrete experience (CE) when engaged in the learning process. A higher score in one of these areas signifies a preference for that characteristic when learning. Typical characteristics are then associated with each of the four categories. Individuals preferring AC and AE when learning are categorized as accommodators; individuals who put practiced ideas into action and have an ability to find multiple uses for the information they learn. Learners preferring RO and AC are categorized as assimilators, who use learned information to create larger ideas developing models and theories. Those exhibiting AC and CE preferences are categorized as convergers and are able to see problem situations when learning and who view knowledge as a way to piece together solutions. Individuals who prefer CE and RO are categorized as divergers. These individuals examine situations from multiple perspectives, using new knowledge to create alternative solutions by diverging from traditional patterns. Concrete
[Evaluation of the Brazilian surveillance system for adverse events following vaccination].

OBJECTIVES To describe and evaluate the Brazilian system of passive surveillance of adverse events following immunization (PSAEFI). METHODS The description and evaluation of PSAEFI were undertaken using the reported cases of adverse events following immunization with DTwP-Hib vaccine (AEFI-T), during the period from 2002 to 2005, using the Centers for Disease Control methodology. RESULTS The PSAEFI system, which provides national coverage, is designed to standardize practices in cases of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) and to identify highly reactogenic lots of vaccine. The PSAEFI system proved its usefulness, simplicity and flexibility; despite low sensitivity, overestimate the proportion of sever events, but it consistently described AEFI-T, identifying fever, convulsions and hypotonic-hyporesponsive episodes as the most common events. It showed that 49.7% of AEFI-T occur after the first dose, and that 72.8% occur within the first six hours after vaccination. It facilitates public health decisions and epidemiological investigations. It is timely, 46.1% of all AEFI-T being reported within 10 days after vaccination and its completeness ranges from 70 to 90%, depending on the item evaluated. CONCLUSIONS The PSAEFI system proved useful for monitoring DTwP-Hib vaccine safety. We recommended the incorporation of new methodologies, such the use of sentinel cities/hospitals and computerized immunization registries in order to increase its sensitivity.
The potential of QuikSCAT and WindSat observations for the estimation of sea surface wind vector under severe weather conditions

[1] The physics of remote sensing sea surface measurements is still poorly understood under severe weather conditions. Wind vector algorithms are usually developed for non-precipitating atmospheres and for wind speeds less than 20 m/s. In this study, we analyze observations from the QuikSCAT Ku-band scatterometer collocated with the WindSat full polarimetric microwave radiometer to estimate the potential of these two instruments for sea surface wind retrieval under severe weather conditions. The Jason altimeter provides independent measurements of wind speed and rain rate for comparison purposes. The sensitivity of the radar cross-sections and brightness temperatures to the wind speed and direction is directly studied from the observations and compared with semi empirical models. This study clearly demonstrates that wind vector retrieval under extreme condition is feasible. Comparisons between QuikSCAT and WindSat coincident observations evidence a better sensitivity of the active mode to low and moderate winds and more sensitivity to high wind speeds in the passive mode. Although the WindSat observations are affected by water vapor, cloud, and rain, especially at and above 18 GHz, the measurements are sensitive to wind speed even at high wind speeds. Contrarily to the active instrument, there is no saturation at high winds. The sensitivity clearly tends to increase for winds above 15 m/s. For the wind direction, the amplitude of the azimuthal modulation in the active mode decreases with increasing wind speed, while it increases for the passive measurements. The development of specific wind retrievals under severe weather conditions is encouraged and a simple illustration is provided.
Development of the participation and environment measure for children and youth: conceptual basis

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the conceptual foundation of a new parent-report measure of the participation and environment of children and youth: the Participation and Environment Measure − Children and Youth version (PEM-CY). Methods: The ICF-CY provided an initial conceptual framework. Results from a qualitative study to obtain parent perspectives and in-depth review of the literature were used to identify relevant dimensions, items and rating scales for measurement. Results: Life situations, defined as sets of activity categories, were identified for three settings: home, school and community. Participation was operationalized as a multidimensional construct with three measurement dimensions: frequency, extent of involvement and desire for change. Parallel sets of items examining environmental factors that are perceived to help or facilitate participation were defined in relation to the typical activities of each setting. Conclusions: The PEM-CY provides a new measure of participation and environment that reflects the perspectives of parents of children and youth. The instrument will facilitate research and professional practice to understand and support the participation of children and youth with and without disabilities. Implications for Rehabilitation As defined by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF), participation and environment are multidimensional constructs that have been challenging to measure. A new parent-report survey measure has been developed that is feasible for use in large-scale studies of children and youth with and without disabilities. The instrument examines participation and environment of children and youth aged 5 to 17 years across three major settings: home, school and community.
In Defense of Experimental Consumer Psychology

Critics of the experimental method claim that experiments rely too heavily on artificial settings, rely too heavily on college student participants, and do not provide practical solutions to applied problems. Contrary to these claims, I review evidence suggesting that natural research settings are often overrated, artificial research settings are often underrated, college student research participants provide remarkably useful data, and concrete thinking (i.e., focusing on superficial surface details rather than on underlying fundamental abstract principles) impedes learning and problem solving. Moreover, I suggest that much of the confusion concerning the experimental method stems from a preference for different types of information among different groups of individuals. A clearer understanding of this preference difference is needed to facilitate effective intercommunication between scientists and practitioners.
[Laparoscopic surgery in the treatment of adrenal pathology: experience with 200 cases].

OBJECTIVE We report our experience in laparoscopic adrenalectomy, after adopting the laparoscopic technique for 10 years as a primary option for suprarenal surgery. METHODS We included 200 laparoscopic adrenal surgeries performed consecutively in 183 patients with surgical adrenal pathology between November 1994 and November 2005. Sixty-seven (36.6%) patients were male and 116 (63.4%) were female, with an average age of 49.1 years (age range 8 months to 78 years). RESULTS The most frequents clinical diagnosis were hyperaldosteronism (17.5%), metastatic cancer (15.8%), pheochromocytoma (15.3%), Cushing syndrome (7.1%), adrenal cyst (4.9%) and myelolipoma (2.7%). A total of 164 total adrenalectomies, 29 partial adrenalectomies and 7 marsupializations of adrenal cysts were performed. Mean surgical time was 82.6 minutes (range 25 to 240 minutes) and mean hospitalization time was 2.5 days (range 1-10 days). The size of the suprarenal gland and/or tumor varied between 1 and 14 cm (average 5.6 cm). The rate of complication was 6%. In 8 of the patients, there was another laparoscopic procedure besides the adrenal surgery: cholecystectomies (2), marsupialization of a renal cyst (2), block nephrectomy (2), partial nephrectomy for a tumor (1) and pancreatic cystectomy (1). One patient underwent a right laparoscopic adrenalectomy and an ipsilateral percutaneous nephrolithotomy. CONCLUSION The accumulated experience with 200 laparoscopic adrenal procedures has allowed the management of endocrine pathologies, such as, aldosteroma, pheochromocytoma, Cushing syndrome and rare entities, such as, cysts, myelolipomas in a suitable manner. Additionally, it has permitted us to extend the benefits of a minimally invasive procedure for large adrenal masses and selected oncology cases.
Constant Modulus Blind Adaptive Beamforming Based on Unscented Kalman Filtering

An unscented Kalman filter-based constant modulus adaptation algorithm (UKF-CMA) is proposed for blind uniform linear beamforming. The proposed algorithm is obtained by first developing a model of the constant modulus (CM) criterion and then fitting that model into the Kalman filter-style state space model by using an auxiliary parameter. The proposed algorithm does not require a priori information about the process noise and measurement noise covariance matrices and hence it can be applied readily. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm offers improved performance compared to the recursive least square-based CM (RLS-CMA) and least-mean square-based CM (LMS-CMA) algorithms for adaptive blind beamforming.
The Scalar Perturbation Spectral Index ns: WMAP Sensitivity to Unresolved Point Sources

Precision measurement of the scalar perturbation spectral index, ns, from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) temperature angular power spectrum requires the subtraction of unresolved point-source power. Here we reconsider this issue, attempting to resolve inconsistencies found in the literature. First, we note a peculiarity in the WMAP temperature likelihood’s response to the source correction: cosmological parameters do not respond to increased source errors. An alternative and more direct method for treating this error term acts more sensibly, and also shifts ns by ~0.3 σ closer to unity. Second, we re-examine the source fit used to correct the power spectrum. This fit depends strongly on the Galactic cut and the weighting of the map, indicating that either the source population or masking procedure is not isotropic. Jackknife tests appear inconsistent, causing us to assign large uncertainties to account for possible systematics. Third, we note that the WMAP team’s spectrum was computed with two different weighting schemes: uniform weights transition to inverse noise variance weights at l = 500. The fit depends on such weighting schemes, so different corrections apply to each multipole range. For the Kp2 mask used in cosmological analysis, we prefer source corrections A = 0.012 ± 0.005 μK2 for uniform weighting and A = 0.015 ± 0.005 μK2 for Nobs weighting. Correcting WMAP’s spectrum correspondingly, we compute cosmological parameters with our alternative likelihood, finding ns = 0.970 ± 0.017 and σ8 = 0.778 ± 0.045. This ns is only 1.8 σ from unity, compared to the ~2.6 σ WMAP 3 year result. Finally, an anomalous feature in the source spectrum at l < 200 remains in the 3 year data, most strongly associated with the W band. We note the implications of these results for the 5 year data.
Black South African English: A New English? Observations from a Phonetic Viewpoint.

This study investigates the extent to which users of Black South African English (BSAE) command the vowel system of English. One mother-tongue speaker each of English, Southern Sotho and Zulu read a set of stimulus words representing various monophthong contrasts in standard South African English. Three groups of subjects participated as listeners in an experiment on English vowel perception. These include (1) 21 Southern Sotho speakers and 21 Zulu speakers, (2) 41 Arabic speakers, and (3) 20 Afrikaans speakers. The Arabic and Afrikaans speakers were used in the experiment for comparative purposes. Overall the results indicate a general lack of command of the vowel contrasts of Standard South African English by the speakers of Bantu languages. The same holds but to a lesser extent for the other two groups of listeners. Further analysis reveals that the Southern Sotho- and Zulu-speaking listeners process the long vowel/short vowel contrast differently from contrasts based on vowel quality differences. In the concluding section, the results are interpreted against the backdrop of current theories of second language acquisition. The evidence supports transfer-based explanations for phonological acquisition, since the vowels that the first language and target language of the speakers share are perceived more accurately than those that the languages do not share. In addition, the results are discussed in relation to the question whether BSAE is an interlanguage, or a fully-fledged new English. On the face of current evidence, it seems that the mesolectal form of BSAE could be viewed as an interlanguage rather than as a new English, but one that has as yet to develop into a more stable alternative to the standard variety of South African English.
Small Scale Peer-to-Peer Publish/Subscribe

The scalability of publish/subscribe (pub/sub) systems and distributed hash tables (DHTs) have been extensively studied in the literature. However, less well-known are properties of the pub/sub model and DHTs that make them suitable for small networks. This paper articulates these benefits, and evaluates the performance of a DHT-based pub/sub implementation in small-scale networks. We find that a fundamental assumption of DHT-based data management applications is violated in small networks, and this makes the pub/sub implementation exhibit poor load balance under certain workloads. This work illustrates that data management applications that scale in large networks may not scale in small networks.
Enhanced Cloud algorithm from collocated CALIPSO, CloudSat and MODIS global boundary layer lapse rate studies

Coincident profile information from CALIPSO's lidar and CloudSat's radar offers a unique opportunity to map the vertical structure of clouds over the globe with accuracies never before realized. At Langley NASA, both CALIPSO and CloudSat are collocated with each MODIS 1-km pixel to create a new data set named C3M (Figure 1). A year (July 2006 – June 2007) of C3M data is used to derive global lapse rate maps, as an enhancement to NASA Langley's CERES Cloud Property Retrieval System (CCPRS) [1]. The lapse rates are derived for boundary layer clouds using the the cloud-top temperature from Aqua MODIS level 1 data, skin temperature over ocean and surface temperature over land from the GMAO GEOS-4, and cloud-top height from CALIPSO. The derived global lapse rate maps are used to process a month of CERES-MODIS data to calculate cloud top heights, which are compared with CALIPSO cloud top height. The comparisons shows good agreement between CERES-MODIS and CALIPSO.
Smoking and quit attempts during pregnancy and postpartum: a longitudinal UK cohort

Objectives Pregnancy motivates women to try stopping smoking, but little is known about timing of their quit attempts and how quitting intentions change during pregnancy and postpartum. Using longitudinal data, this study aimed to document women’s smoking and quitting behaviour throughout pregnancy and after delivery. Design Longitudinal cohort survey with questionnaires at baseline (8–26 weeks’ gestation), late pregnancy (34–36 weeks) and 3 months after delivery. Setting Two maternity hospitals in one National Health Service hospital trust, Nottingham, England. Participants 850 pregnant women, aged 16 years or over, who were current smokers or had smoked in the 3 months before pregnancy, were recruited between August 2011 and August 2012. Outcome measures Self-reported smoking behaviour, quit attempts and quitting intentions. Results Smoking rates, adjusting for non-response at follow-up, were 57.4% (95% CI 54.1 to 60.7) at baseline, 59.1% (95% CI 54.9 to 63.4) in late pregnancy and 67.1% (95% CI 62.7 to 71.5) 3 months postpartum. At baseline, 272 of 488 current smokers had tried to quit since becoming pregnant (55.7%, 95% CI 51.3 to 60.1); 51.3% (95% CI 44.7 to 58.0) tried quitting between baseline and late pregnancy and 27.4% (95% CI 21.7 to 33.2) after childbirth. The percentage who intended to quit within the next month fell as pregnancy progressed, from 40.4% (95% CI 36.1 to 44.8) at baseline to 29.7% (95% CI 23.8 to 35.6) in late pregnancy and 14.2% (95% CI 10.0 to 18.3) postpartum. Postpartum relapse was lower among women who quit in the 3 months before pregnancy (17.8%, 95% CI 6.1 to 29.4) than those who stopped between baseline and late pregnancy (42.9%, 95% CI 24.6 to 61.3). Conclusions Many pregnant smokers make quit attempts throughout pregnancy and postpartum, but intention to quit decreases over time; there is no evidence that smoking rates fall during gestation.
Effects of propofol as an anaesthetic agent in adult lions (Panthera leo): a comparison with two established protocols.

The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of a ketamine/propofol anaesthetic protocol in lions (Panthera leo), and to compare it to two commonly used anaesthetic protocols. Seventeen adult lions were anaesthetised using three different protocols. Group XK (n=6) was anaesthetised with intramuscular (i.m.) injections of xylazine and ketamine. Group KD (n=5) was anaesthetised with an i.m. injection of ketamine, followed by an intravenous (i.v.) injection of ketamine and diazepam. Group KP (n=6) was anaesthetised with an i.m. injection of ketamine followed by an i.v. injection of propofol. There was a significant difference in heart rate (P<0.0002), which was lowest in group XK and highest in KD. Jaw tone was significantly lower in Group XK (P<0.05). No undesirable effects were noted following injection of the propofol. Propofol was a suitable and safe drug for maintenance of anaesthesia in adult lions.
Survival of athymic (nu/nu) mice after Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus infection by passive administration of neutralizing monoclonal antibody

Little or no antiviral immune response is mounted in athymic nude mice infected with the Daniels strain of Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus. In these athymic mice, increasing levels of infectious virus could be detected in the central nervous system. Seventy-five percent (9 of 12) of the nude mice were moribund or dead by 4 weeks postinfection. In contrast, treatment of Theiler's virus-infected nude mice with a neutralizing monoclonal antibody (H7-2) against the viral protein VP-1 resulted in a dramatic reduction of infectious virus within the central nervous system. All antibody-treated nude animals survived beyond 4 weeks postinfection. Monoclonal antibody titers could be maintained by passive transfer in treated nude mice at levels comparable to those of polyclonal antibody titers found in heterozygous infected nu/+ littermates. Areas of demyelination were detected in the untreated animals as early as 7 days after infection with little or no remyelination present. In approximately one-half of the antibody-treated nude animals, no demyelinating lesions were found. However, the rest of these treated mice were found to have areas of both demyelination and remyelination. Thus, anti-Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus antibody against VP-1 can play a dramatic role in the survival of mice, clearance of virus, limiting viral spread, and altering the pattern of disease in the absence of a functional T-cell response.