Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Malleability, plasticity, and individuality: How children learn and develop in context1

ABSTRACT This article synthesizes foundational knowledge from multiple scientific disciplines regarding how humans develop in context. Major constructs that define human development are integrated into a developmental system framework, this includes—epigenetics, neural malleability and plasticity, integrated complex skill development and learning, human variability, relationships and attachment, self-regulation, science of learning, and dynamics of stress, adversity and resilience. Specific attention is given to relational patterns, attunement, cognitive flexibility, executive function, working memory, sociocultural context, constructive development, self-organization, dynamic skill development, neural integration, relational pattern making, and adverse childhood experiences. A companion article focuses on individual-context relations, including the role of human relationships as key drivers of development, how social and cultural contexts support and/or undermine individual development, and the dynamic, idiographic developmental pathways that result from mutually influential individual-context relations across the life span. An understanding of the holistic, self-constructive character of development and interconnectedness between individuals and their physical, social, and cultural contexts offers a transformational opportunity to study and influence the children’s trajectories. Woven throughout is the convergence of the science of learning – constructive developmental web, foundational skills, mindsets (sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and growth mindset), prior knowledge and experience, motivational systems (intrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, and the Belief-Control-Expectancy Framework), metacognition, conditions for learning , cultural responsiveness and competence, and instructional and curricular design- and its importance in supporting in integrative framework for children’s development. This scientific understanding of development opens pathways for new, creative approaches that have the potential to solve seemingly intractable learning and social problems.
Dimensions of national culture and corporate adoption of IT infrastructure

Corporate adoption of information technology (IT) infrastructure is a critical management issue that may be affected by national culture. Prior research has shown that dimensions of national culture affect development of national IT infrastructure as well as adoption and impact of IT applications. This study explores the impact of two dimensions of national culture (uncertainty avoidance and power distance) on the adoption of a type of IT infrastructure (frame relay). A multinational survey was carried out, and it yielded useable responses from 153 businesses from 24 countries. The results demonstrated that businesses from higher uncertainty avoidance countries were less likely to adopt frame relay. A one-point increase in Hofstede's uncertainty avoidance index for the country of incorporation was associated with a 3% lower likelihood of adopting frame relay. Power distance was not significantly correlated with adoption of frame relay. These results highlight the relevance of dimensions of national culture as factors affecting corporate adoption of IT infrastructure. Implications for practice and further research are presented.
Spam Detection using Clustering, Random Forests, and Active Learning

paper describes work in progress. Our research is focused on efficient construction of effective models for spam detection. Clustering messages allows for efficient labeling of a representative sample of messages for learning a spam detection model using a Random Forest for classification and active learning for refining the classification model. Results are illustrated for the 2007 TREC Public Spam Corpus. The area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve is competitive with other solutions while requiring much fewer labeled training examples.
Isoform-Specific Contributions of α-Actinin to Glioma Cell Mechanobiology

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is a malignant astrocytic tumor associated with low survival rates because of aggressive infiltration of tumor cells into the brain parenchyma. Expression of the actin binding protein α-actinin has been strongly correlated with the invasive phenotype of GBM in vivo. To probe the cellular basis of this correlation, we have suppressed expression of the nonmuscle isoforms α-actinin-1 and α-actinin-4 and examined the contribution of each isoform to the structure, mechanics, and motility of human glioma tumor cells in culture. While subcellular localization of each isoform is distinct, suppression of either isoform yields a phenotype that includes dramatically reduced motility, compensatory upregulation and redistribution of vinculin, reduced cortical elasticity, and reduced ability to adapt to changes in the elasticity of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Mechanistic studies reveal a relationship between α-actinin and non-muscle myosin II in which depletion of either α-actinin isoform reduces myosin expression and maximal cell-ECM tractional forces. Our results demonstrate that both α-actinin-1 and α-actinin-4 make critical and distinct contributions to cytoskeletal organization, rigidity-sensing, and motility of glioma cells, thereby yielding mechanistic insight into the observed correlation between α-actinin expression and GBM invasiveness in vivo.
Meanings of Fatherhood in Urban Tajikistan

Research is limited on the ways in which men from post-Soviet countries, especially Asian Muslim men, define their paternal responsibilities and the factors that shape their fatherhood experiences. From February through August 2014, the first author conducted qualitative interviews with 30 fathers with children ages 0 to 19 years old who lived in urban areas of Tajikistan. Interviews explored fathers’ perspectives about their childcare responsibilities, rewards, constraints, and difficulties of fatherhood. We clustered responses regarding respondents’ childcare responsibilities into 4 interrelated themes: (a) teaching, (b) providing, (c) caregiving, and (d) nurturing. Fathers identified several constraints that affect their fatherhood experiences, including work and education responsibilities as well as the age and gender of their children. Overall, fathers indicated that the most difficult dimensions of fatherhood included responsibilities of fatherhood, finding effective disciplinarian approaches, and their inability to meet children’s expectations. Most respondents commented on the joy, happiness, prosperity, inspiration, and support fatherhood brought to them. Results of this research may be useful for service providers and public health experts to define programs for increasing involvement of fathers in childcare. In addition, results may be useful to guide future fatherhood research, especially in post-Soviet societies.
Examining the Relationship Between Received Remittances and Education in Malawi

This thesis examines the relationship between received remittances and education using random samples from panel survey data from households in rural Malawi collected between 2008 and 2010. Past research as well as that conducted in this paper point to the fact that remittances and education share an important correlation. The results of this study indicate that on a microeconomic level, remittances have a highly significant and positive impact on household education. Other remittance-related factors such as the distance from agent, the remittance amount, and the type of account held by an individual also have a significant impact on the highest level of education attained by an individual, whereas the account type, age, gender, and marital status are important determinants in the probability of an individual ever having attended school. The results from this study raise questions as to whether the “brain drain” can actually have a positive impact on developing nations. The study also discusses policy implications for money transfer operators in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Assessment of Divorce on Child Development in Tanzania: A Case Study of Kinondoni Municipality.

The study investigated the impact of divorce on child development in Kinondoni Municipal Council. The study was guided by the three objectives; to identify the impact of divorce on child development, asses the relationship between identified impacts of divorce and child development in Kinondoni and suggest the model of dealing with child development on divorce situation in Kinondoni Municipal Council. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used together information in this study. Data collection methods included; interviews, questionnaires and documentary analysis. This study involved a sample of 60 respondents. Data was analyzed through SPSS, Excel and presented in form of narrative. Findings revealed that, the impacts faced by children from divorced parents are many and interdependent to one another. Therefore the impacts revealed are financial hardship, lack of parental care, lack of supervision and monitoring, lack of guidance and counseling and socialization. It discovered that, these have big impact to children since are engaged in bad behavior, school truancy, and poor performance and traumatic psychologically hence affect their level of development. It recommended that, provision of education to divorced parents and community in general on marriage issues; religious leaders should play a big role on it. Provision of counseling and guidance in community for victims of divorce. Laws and policies with regard to marriage and child issues should be well understood, implemented and updated. Furthermore, the government should provide loans and entrepreneurship knowledge which will help to reduce economic burden for divorced parents. The findings indicate that, women suffer the most on the upbringing of the children when they are divorced.
REINVESTIGATION OF OPTIMAL DURATION OF VO2MAX TESTING

REINVESTIGATION OF OPTIMAL DURATION OF VO2MAX TESTING. Astorino TA, Rietschel JC, Tam PA, Taylor K, Johnson SM, Freedman TP, Sakarya CE. JEPonline. 2004;7(6):1-8. The traditional 8-12 min criterion followed as the optimal duration of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) testing was developed on only five older men during treadmill walking. However, it is unknown if this criterion is applicable to a larger, younger, and more diverse group of subjects completing incremental treadmill running. The primary aim of the study was to test the validity of this criterion in a large, young, and heterogeneous population. After a familiarization trial, subjects (16 men and 10 women) completed incremental treadmill VO2max tests of approximately 6 (short=S), 10 (medium=M), and 14 (long=L) min duration on separate days. Treadmill speed was self-selected and remained constant during all trials, but grade increment was manipulated to induce fatigue in the desired duration. During exercise, breath-by- breath gas exchange data and heart rate (HR) were continuously obtained. Blood samples were obtained post-exercise to measure blood lactate concentration ((La)). VO2max was significantly lower in L (3.4±0.8 L/min) versus M (3.6±0.8 L/min). Compared to M, VCO2max and RERmax were significantly lower in L. Maximal (La) and HR were significantly lower in L. These data confirm that incremental treadmill protocols of approximately 7-10 min duration optimize VO2max, and longer protocols (>13 min) significantly reduce VO2max, VCO2max, and HRmax. This duration of incremental exercise may be applicable for testing young people including women, recreational athletes, and the endurance-trained.
Good research practices for comparative effectiveness research: approaches to mitigate bias and confounding in the design of nonrandomized studies of treatment effects using secondary data sources: the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research Good Research Practices for Retr

OBJECTIVES The goal of comparative effectiveness analysis is to examine the relationship between two variables, treatment, or exposure and effectiveness or outcome. Unlike data obtained through randomized controlled trials, researchers face greater challenges with causal inference with observational studies. Recognizing these challenges, a task force was formed to develop a guidance document on methodological approaches to addresses these biases. METHODS The task force was commissioned and a Chair was selected by the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research Board of Directors in October 2007. This report, the second of three reported in this issue of the Journal, discusses the inherent biases when using secondary data sources for comparative effectiveness analysis and provides methodological recommendations to help mitigate these biases. RESULTS The task force report provides recommendations and tools for researchers to mitigate threats to validity from bias and confounding in measurement of exposure and outcome. Recommendations on design of study included: the need for data analysis plan with causal diagrams; detailed attention to classification bias in definition of exposure and clinical outcome; careful and appropriate use of restriction; extreme care to identify and control for confounding factors, including time-dependent confounding. CONCLUSIONS Design of nonrandomized studies of comparative effectiveness face several daunting issues, including measurement of exposure and outcome challenged by misclassification and confounding. Use of causal diagrams and restriction are two techniques that can improve the theoretical basis for analyzing treatment effects in study populations of more homogeneity, with reduced loss of generalizability.
An Adaptive Kernel Smoothing Method for Classifying Austrosimulium tillyardianum (Diptera: Simuliidae) Larval Instars

In insects, the frequency distribution of the measurements of sclerotized body parts is generally used to classify larval instars and is characterized by a multimodal overlap between instar stages. Nonparametric methods with fixed bandwidths, such as histograms, have significant limitations when used to fit this type of distribution, making it difficult to identify divisions between instars. Fixed bandwidths have also been chosen somewhat subjectively in the past, which is another problem. In this study, we describe an adaptive kernel smoothing method to differentiate instars based on discontinuities in the growth rates of sclerotized insect body parts. From Brooks’ rule, we derived a new standard for assessing the quality of instar classification and a bandwidth selector that more accurately reflects the distributed character of specific variables. We used this method to classify the larvae of Austrosimulium tillyardianum (Diptera: Simuliidae) based on five different measurements. Based on head capsule width and head capsule length, the larvae were separated into nine instars. Based on head capsule postoccipital width and mandible length, the larvae were separated into 8 instars and 10 instars, respectively. No reasonable solution was found for antennal segment 3 length. Separation of the larvae into nine instars using head capsule width or head capsule length was most robust and agreed with Crosby’s growth rule. By strengthening the distributed character of the separation variable through the use of variable bandwidths, the adaptive kernel smoothing method could identify divisions between instars more effectively and accurately than previous methods.
F‐spondin, a neuroregulatory protein, is up‐regulated in osteoarthritis and regulates cartilage metabolism via TGF‐β activation

In osteoarthritis (OA) articular chondrocytes undergo phenotypic changes culminating in the progressive loss of cartilage from the joint surface. The molecular mechanisms underlying these changes are poorly understood. Here we report enhanced (‐7‐fold) expression of F‐spondin, a neuronal extracellular ma‐trix glycoprotein, in human OA cartilage (P<0.005). OA‐specific up‐regulation of F‐spondin was also dem‐onstrated in rat knee cartilage following surgical meni‐sectomy. F‐spondin treatment of OA cartilage explants caused a 2‐fold increase in levels of the active form of TGF‐β1(P<0.01) and a 10‐fold induction of PGE2 (P< 0.005) in culture supernatants. PGE2 induction was found to be dependent on TGF‐β and the throm‐bospondin domain of the F‐spondin molecule. F‐spondin addition to cartilage explant cultures also caused a 4‐fold increase in collagen degradation (P< 0.05) and a modest reduction in proteoglycan synthesis (~20%;P<0.05), which were both TGF‐β and PGE2 dependent. F‐spondin treatment also led to increased secretion and activation of MMP‐13 (P<0.05). Together these studies identify F‐spondin as a novel protein in OAcartilage, where it may act in situ at lesional areas to activate latent TGF‐β and induce cartilage degradation via pathways that involve production of PGE2. —Attur, M. G. , Palmer, G. D. , Al‐Mussawir, H. E. , Dave, M. , Teixeira, C. C. , Rifkin, D. B. , Appleton, C. T. G. , Beier, F. , Abramson, S. B. F‐spondin, a neuroregulatory protein, is up‐regulated in osteoarthritis and regulates cartilage metabolism via TGF‐β activation. FASEB J. 23, 79‐89 (2009)
Usefulness of Endoscopic Imaging to Visualize Regional Alterations in Acid Secretion of Noncancerous Gastric Mucosa after Helicobacter pylori Eradication

Purpose Endoscopic diagnosis of gastric cancer (GC) that emerges after eradication of Helicobacter pylori may be affected by unique morphological changes. Using comprehensive endoscopic imaging, which can reveal biological alterations in gastric mucosa after eradication, previous studies demonstrated that Congo red chromoendoscopy (CRE) might clearly show an acid non-secretory area (ANA) with malignant potential, while autofluorescence imaging (AFI) without drug injection or dyeing may achieve early detection or prediction of GC. We aimed to determine whether AFI might be an alternative to CRE for identification of high-risk areas of gastric carcinogenesis after eradication. Materials and Methods We included 27 sequential patients with metachronous GC detected during endoscopic surveillance for a mean of 82.8 months after curative endoscopic resection for primary GC and eradication. After their H. pylori infection status was evaluated by clinical interviews and 13C-urea breath tests, the consistency in the extension of corpus atrophy (e.g., open-type or closed-type atrophy) between AFI and CRE was investigated as a primary endpoint. Results Inconsistencies in atrophic extension between AFI and CRE were observed in 6 of 27 patients, although CRE revealed all GC cases in the ANA. Interobserver and intraobserver agreements in the evaluation of atrophic extension by AFI were significantly less than those for CRE. Conclusions We demonstrated that AFI findings might be less reliable for the evaluation of gastric mucosa with malignant potential after eradication than CRE findings. Therefore, special attention should be paid when we clinically evaluate AFI findings of background gastric mucosa after eradication (University Hospital Medical Information Network Center registration number: UMIN000020849).
Civil Society and the Economy: Greek Civil Society During the Economic Crisis

ABSTRACT Academic literature has extensively analysed the impact of political and cultural factors on civil society. However, the influence of economic change on the infrastructure and features of civil society has remained relatively understudied. This article analyses the impact of the economic crisis on Greek civil society and links the findings to the broader academic debate on civil society. On the basis of the Greek case, the article argues that: (1) the density of civil society may be a misleading indicator of its strength if abstracted from the broader economic context and (2) the economy is not merely an external force, enabling or hindering the development of associational activity. It also shapes the nature and patterns of civic engagement and participation.
Nonlinear image labeling for multivalued segmentation

We describe a framework for multivalued segmentation and demonstrate that some of the problems affecting common region-based algorithms can be overcome by integrating statistical and topological methods in a nonlinear fashion. We address the sensitivity to parameter setting, the difficulty with handling global contextual information, and the dependence of results on analysis order and on initial conditions. We develop our method within a theoretical framework and resort to the definition of image segmentation as an estimation problem. We show that, thanks to an adaptive image scanning mechanism, there is no need of iterations to propagate a global context efficiently. The keyword multivalued refers to a result property, which spans over a set of solutions. The advantage is twofold: first, there is no necessity for setting a priori input thresholds; secondly, we are able to cope successfully with the problem of uncertainties in the signal model. To this end, we adopt a modified version of fuzzy connectedness, which proves particularly useful to account for densitometric and topological information simultaneously. The algorithm was tested on several synthetic and real images. The peculiarities of the method are assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Equid Herpesvirus Type 1 Activates Platelets

Equid herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) causes outbreaks of abortion and neurological disease in horses. One of the main causes of these clinical syndromes is thrombosis in placental and spinal cord vessels, however the mechanism for thrombus formation is unknown. Platelets form part of the thrombus and amplify and propagate thrombin generation. Here, we tested the hypothesis that EHV-1 activates platelets. We found that two EHV-1 strains, RacL11 and Ab4 at 0.5 or higher plaque forming unit/cell, activate platelets within 10 minutes, causing α-granule secretion (surface P-selectin expression) and platelet microvesiculation (increased small events double positive for CD41 and Annexin V). Microvesiculation was more pronounced with the RacL11 strain. Virus-induced P-selectin expression required plasma and 1.0 mM exogenous calcium. P-selectin expression was abolished and microvesiculation was significantly reduced in factor VII- or X-deficient human plasma. Both P-selectin expression and microvesiculation were re-established in factor VII-deficient human plasma with added purified human factor VIIa (1 nM). A glycoprotein C-deficient mutant of the Ab4 strain activated platelets as effectively as non-mutated Ab4. P-selectin expression was abolished and microvesiculation was significantly reduced by preincubation of virus with a goat polyclonal anti-rabbit tissue factor antibody. Infectious virus could be retrieved from washed EHV-1-exposed platelets, suggesting a direct platelet-virus interaction. Our results indicate that EHV-1 activates equine platelets and that α-granule secretion is a consequence of virus-associated tissue factor triggering factor X activation and thrombin generation. Microvesiculation was only partly tissue factor and thrombin-dependent, suggesting the virus causes microvesiculation through other mechanisms, potentially through direct binding. These findings suggest that EHV-1-induced platelet activation could contribute to the thrombosis that occurs in clinically infected horses and provides a new mechanism by which viruses activate hemostasis.