Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Algorand: Scaling Byzantine Agreements for Cryptocurrencies

Algorand is a new cryptocurrency that confirms transactions with latency on the order of a minute while scaling to many users. Algorand ensures that users never have divergent views of confirmed transactions, even if some of the users are malicious and the network is temporarily partitioned. In contrast, existing cryptocurrencies allow for temporary forks and therefore require a long time, on the order of an hour, to confirm transactions with high confidence. Algorand uses a new Byzantine Agreement (BA) protocol to reach consensus among users on the next set of transactions. To scale the consensus to many users, Algorand uses a novel mechanism based on Verifiable Random Functions that allows users to privately check whether they are selected to participate in the BA to agree on the next set of transactions, and to include a proof of their selection in their network messages. In Algorand's BA protocol, users do not keep any private state except for their private keys, which allows Algorand to replace participants immediately after they send a message. This mitigates targeted attacks on chosen participants after their identity is revealed. We implement Algorand and evaluate its performance on 1,000 EC2 virtual machines, simulating up to 500,000 users. Experimental results show that Algorand confirms transactions in under a minute, achieves 125x Bitcoin's throughput, and incurs almost no penalty for scaling to more users.
Absence epilepsy in rats: How nurture shapes nature. Genotypic and environmental influences on spike-wave discharges across the lifespan

Absence seizures are characterized by the spontaneous occurrence of 3 Hz generalized spike-wave discharges (SWD) in the electroencephalogram (EEG). Behaviorally seizures are accompanied by decreased consciousness and interruption of ongoing behavior. Although absence epilepsy has a genetic origin, evidence from an animal model (WAG/Rij rat) suggests that seizures are sensitive to environmental manipulations. In this thesis it is investigated in how far and in which way the genotype and the environment influence the phenotypic expression (SWD) of absence seizures. Four experiments are conducted in which various environmental manipulations (enriched/impoverished housing, neonatal handling/maternal deprivation) are applied across the life span in different rat strains (epileptic WAG/Rij, non-epileptic ACI). Measurements (EEG, behavior, neurophysiologic, and molecular biological analyses) are either performed around 3 or 6 months of age. The data reveal that the presence of SWD has a strong genetic component, but their various characteristics have different heritabilities. Next, all characteristics of SWD are sensitive to environmental influences throughout life, though they differ in their sensitivity. This possibly depends on the manipulation of the environment, its timing, or both, which suggests that environmental effects on SWD are rather complex and caused by a combination of factors. It is proposed that the environment influences SWD via various underlying seizure mediating mechanisms, for which a specific ion channel (Ih, HCN1) might be a possible candidate. Next to seizure related SWD, a second type of discharge (Type 2 SWD) is studied. The experiments show that both paroxysms are different phenomena, and that their phenotypic characteristics are controlled by distinct mechanisms. While the data suggest that the expression of Type 2 SWD, just like seizure related SWD, has an oligo- of polygenetic background, they seem to be mainly influenced by the environment, with the genotype playing a more indirect and mediating role.
Reading with one hemisphere.

The subjects of this study were 2 originally right-handed teen-aged girls who had undergone complete hemispherectomy (1 left, 1 right) for intractable epilepsy. Both subjects had developed normal language and reading capacities before the onset of their illness. The reading performance of H.P. (whose right hemisphere had been removed), while not as advanced in level as that of a normal 17-yr-old, showed no abnormality in any subcomponent of reading skill. The reading performance of N.I. (whose left hemisphere had been removed) was poor, but with a pattern of retained and impaired subskills strikingly similar to adult deep dyslexic patients and to split-brain patients given reading tasks lateralized to the left visual field (right hemisphere). The results are discussed with regard to implications for the reading capacity of the nondominant right hemisphere and also its putative contribution to normal reading.
Does Mindfulness Affect Subsystems of Attention

Does Mindfulness Affect Subsystems of Attention? by Caroline M. Cozza Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Clive J. Robins, Chair ___________________________ Jeffrey Brantley ___________________________ Mark R. Leary ___________________________ M. Zachary Rosenthal ___________________________ Timothy J. Strauman An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Philosophy in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 Copyright by Caroline M. Cozza 2010
Characterization of nerve growth factor precursor protein expression by human prostate stromal cells: A role in selective neurotrophin stimulation of prostate epithelial cell growth

Nerve growth factor (NGF) immunoreactive proteins derived from human prostatic stromal cells (hPS) have been implicated in the paracrine regulation of prostate epithelial cell growth. However, mature NGFβ does not appear to be expressed by these cells. In order to determine whether NGF precursors are expressed by these cells, we investigated the potential processing and expression of precursor forms of NGF by human prostatic stromal cells, and examined the effects of NGF precursor moieties along with the other members of the neurotrophin family of gene products on soft agar colony formation of prostate epithelial cells.
Going It Together: Persistence of Older Adults’ Accompaniment to Physician Visits by a Family Companion

Although older adults are often accompanied to routine physician visits and commonly receive disability‐related task assistance, the overlap and persistence of this help is not well understood. This study investigates whether older adults who are accompanied to routine physician visits (1) also receive task assistance and (2) continue to be accompanied at 12‐months by the same family companion.
Conceptual Imitation Learning Based on Perceptual and Functional Characteristics of Action

This paper presents a conceptual model for imitation learning to abstract spatio-temporal demonstrations based on their perceptual and functional characteristics. To this end, the concepts are represented by prototypes irregularly scattered in the perceptual space but sharing the same functionality. Functional similarity between demonstrations is understood by reinforcements of the teacher or recognizing the effects of actions. Abstraction, concept acquisition, and self-organization of prototypes are performed through incremental and gradual learning algorithms. In these algorithms, hidden Markov models are used to prototype perceptually similar demonstrations. In addition, a mechanism is introduced to integrate perceptions of different modalities for multimodal concept recognition. Performance of the proposed model is evaluated in two different tasks. The first one is imitation learning of some hand gestures through interaction with the teachers. In this task, the perceptions from different modalities, including vision, motor, and audition, are used in a variety of experiments. The second task is to learn a set of actions by recognizing their emotional effects. Results of the experiments on a humanoid robot show the efficacy of our model for conceptual imitation learning.
Relationships between adolescent prosocial problem-solving strategies, prosocial behaviour, and social acceptance

This study examined the relationship between adolescents’ prosocial problem-solving strategies and prosocial behaviour, and their associations with social acceptance among their peers. Age- and gender-related variance was also examined. The subjects were 777 14-year-old adolescents (381 girls and 396 boys) and 877 17-year-olds (464 girls and 413 boys). Prosocial problem-solving strategies were measured by means of a self-rating questionnaire, while prosocial behaviour and social acceptance were evaluated in terms of the dimensions of social popularity and rejection as well as the classification of adolescents into popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average status groups, on the basis of peer nominations. The results showed that prosocial problem-solving strategies and prosocial behaviour were only minimally related, but both predicted social acceptance among peers. The rejected adolescents had low levels and the controversial adolescents high levels of both prosocial strategies and behaviour, while the popular and neglected adolescents did not differ from the average ones in terms of strategies, but they did in their behaviour. The popular adolescents had a high level, and the neglected adolescents a low level of prosocial behaviour. As a dimension, social popularity correlated positively and rejection negatively with prosocial behaviour but not with strategies. Analysis of gender and age differences revealed that the girls and the 14-year-olds achieved higher scores on both prosocial strategies and behaviour than the boys or the 17-year-olds. The results extend our knowledge of adolescent social functioning.
Differences in leisure-time activities according to level of physical activity in adolescents.

BACKGROUND The main goals of this study were: (1) to examine the relationship between physical activity (PA) involvement and other leisure activities in a sample of Portuguese youth and (2) to analyze gender differences in PA and leisure-time activity structure. METHODS The sample comprised 1123 adolescents that were classified according to PA levels as active (n = 589) and nonactive (n = 534). A questionnaire assessing leisure-time activities was used. RESULTS Girls were significantly more engaged in social leisure, dutiful, and individual artistic activities during leisure time, whereas boys were more involved in sports and computer and TV viewing activities. Significant associations between PA and social leisure were found in girls (r = .18, P < or = .001) and boys (r = .13, P < or = .01) after adjustment for age. The same was found between level of PA and sports engagement during leisure (girls: r = .56, P < or = .001; boys: r = .51, P < or = .001). In girls (r = .10, P < or = .05), but not in boys, a statistically significant association was found between PA and individual artistic activities. CONCLUSIONS This study has certain implications for health-related PA promotion efforts. Our data give additional reinforcement to the importance of organized and nonorganized sports/PA during leisure time for overall levels of PA in adolescents.
A new narrative of young people's health and well-being

Young people's health is continuing to improve in line with historic trends. Death rates are low and falling, and most young people say they are healthy, happy and enjoying life. For most, social conditions and opportunities have got better. Health efforts need to focus on the minorities whose well-being is lagging behind, especially the disadvantaged and marginalised. This is the widely accepted story of young people's health. There is another very different story. It suggests young people's health may be declining – in contrast to historic trends. Mortality rates understate the importance of non-fatal, chronic ill-health, and self-reported health and happiness do not give an accurate picture of well-being. Mental illness and obesity-related health problems and risks have increased. The trends are not confined to the disadvantaged. The causes stem from fundamental social and cultural changes of the past several decades. Which story is the more accurate matters. Stories inform and define how governments and society as a whole address youth health issues. The usual narrative says interventions should target the minorities at risk. The new narrative argues that broader efforts to improve social conditions are also needed.
Educational Attainment of Haitian Immigrants

Educational attainment is often linked to upward mobility in the United States. As a result, current research has focused on the educational attainment of various racial groups, including Black Americans. However, few studies have examined the various ethnic and immigrant groups that comprise the Black population. To address this gap, the current article focuses on the educational attainment of Haitian immigrants (n = 150) living in the United States. Results indicate that socioeconomic status (SES) is a predictor of educational attainment but, contrary to previous research, gender and aspirations are unrelated. Implications for educators and policy makers are discussed.
Effect of knowledge of exercise duration on predicted, actual, and session leg muscle pain responses during cycle ergometry

PURPOSE: The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effect of knowledge of exercise duration on predicted, actual, and session ratings of leg muscle pain (RMP-Legs) during cycle ergometry. METHODS: Subjects were 36 females and 36 males, ages 18-30 yrs. Each subject performed one baseline graded exercise test to exhaustion and one isotime (20 minute) cycle trial at 70% VO2peak. Based on random assignment, the subject was told they would exercise for one of the following durations: a 20 minute trial (Accurate Duration; ACC-20), a 30 minute trial (Long Duration; LONG-30), or a 10 minute trial (Short Duration; SHORT-10). A predicted RMP-Legs was reported immediately prior to exercise. Actual RMP-Legs were reported at two min intervals during exercise. Session RMP-Legs was reported 10 min post-exercise. RESULTS: For the female sample, no differences were found in predicted RMP-Legs between knowledge of duration conditions. The interaction effect was significant. Actual RMP-Legs were higher in the SHORT-10 than LONG-30 condition at minutes 2, 4 and 6. Actual RMP-Legs were lower in the SHORT-10 than ACC-20 condition at minutes 14, 16, 18, and 20. Actual RMP-Legs were lower in the LONG-30 than the ACC-20 condition at minutes 4 and 20. Compared to the predicted RMP-Legs, actual RMP-Legs for the ACC-20 condition were lower at minutes 2, 4, and 6. Actual RMP-Legs for the LONG-30 condition were lower at minutes 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 compared to the predicted rating. Actual RMP-Legs for the SHORT-10 condition were lower at minutes 2, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20 compared to the predicted rating. Session RMP-Legs did not differ. For the male sample, actual RMP-Legs were lower at minutes 2 and 4 compared to the predicted rating. There was no significant difference in RMP-Legs between conditions. Session RMP-Legs did not differ between knowledge of duration conditions. CONCLUSIONS: In general, pre-participation knowledge of exercise duration did not have an effect on predicted, actual, and session RMP-Legs for young recreationally active females and males. Future research should examine knowledge of exercise intensity as a possible teleoanticipatory factor that influences leg muscle pain responses during prolonged exercise.
DIFERENÇAS ENTRE GÊNERO E PERFIL SÓCIO-ECONÔMICO NO EXAME NACIONAL DE DESEMPENHO DO ESTUDANTE

No contexto atual da educacao, o estudo de variaveis relacionadas as diferencas de genero em estudantes do ensino superior contribui para a compreensao de variaveis associadas ao desempenho academico bem sucedido. Assim, esta pesquisa objetivou verificar em que medida o desempenho dos estudantes no Exame Nacional de Desempenho dos Estudantes – ENADE, do Brasil, variou segundo genero, e variaveis socioeconomicas. Foram utilizados dados de 147.600 ingressantes e 129.876 concluintes de diversos cursos de graduacao que fizeram o ENADE em 2005, selecionados por amostragem aleatoria estratificada. Os estudantes responderam a 110 questoes sobre o seu perfil socioeconomico e cultural. Os homens obtiveram desempenho medio significativamente maior que as mulheres, nos dois componentes, formacao geral e conhecimentos especificos, nos cursos de Matematica, Letras, Biologia, Historia, Geografia e Filosofia. Observou-se certa tendencia de modificacao ou ate inversao de papeis em areas reconhecidas tradicionalmente como estereotipadas, o que pode estar refletindo no processo de ensino e relacoes sociais estabelecidas entre colegas e professores.
Cytomegalovirus-Induced Expression of CD244 after Liver Transplantation Is Associated with CD8+ T Cell Hyporesponsiveness to Alloantigen

The chronic presence of viral Ags can induce T cell exhaustion, which is characterized by upregulation of coinhibitory receptors and loss of T cell function. We studied whether a similar phenomenon occurs after liver transplantation (LTx), when there is continuous exposure to alloantigen. Expression of coinhibitory receptors on circulating CD4+ and CD8+ T cells was analyzed longitudinally in 19 patients until 6 mo after LTx and cross-sectionally in 38 patients late (1–12 y) after LTx. Expression of the coinhibitory receptors CD160 and CD244 on circulating CD8+ T cells was already higher 6 mo after LTx compared with pre-LTx, and the elevated expression was sustained late after LTx, with CD244 showing the more prominent increase. The strongest upregulation of CD244 on circulating CD8+ T cells was observed in patients who experienced CMV infection after LTx. CMV infection also was associated with reduced CD8+ T cell proliferation and cytotoxic degranulation in response to alloantigen late after LTx. Purified CD244+CD8+ T cells from LTx patients showed lower proliferative responses to alloantigen, as well as to polyclonal stimulation, than did their CD244− counterparts. In addition, the CD244+CD8+ T cell population contained the majority of CMV peptide–loaded MHC class I tetramer-binding cells. In conclusion, CMV infection after LTx, rather than persistence of alloantigen, induces the accumulation of dysfunctional CD244+CD8+ T cells in the circulation that persist long-term, resulting in reduced frequencies of circulating alloreactive CD8+ T cells. These results suggest that CMV infection restrains CD8+ T cell alloresponses after LTx.
Does Watching a Play about the Teenage Brain Affect Attitudes toward Young Offenders?

Neuroscience is increasingly used to infer the cognitive capacities of offenders from the activity and volume of different brain regions, with the resultant findings receiving great interest in the public eye. This field experiment tested the effects of public engagement in neuroscience on attitudes toward offenders. Brainstorm is a play about teenage brain development. Either before or after watching this play, 728 participants responded to four questions about the age of criminal responsibility, and the moral responsibility and dangerousness of a hypothetical young or adult offender. After watching the play, participants perceived the young offender as less likely to reoffend than the adult offender and the young, but not adult, offender as less morally responsible for his actions, especially on the first offense. Therefore, public engagement in the newest arrival to the criminological scene – neuroscience – may shift support for different youth justice responses.
Fame, Fortune, Fantasi: Indonesian Idol and the New Celebrity

A new celebrity identity has been created in and by the media in Indonesia in the twenty-first century: the Idola who have come to fame on reality television shows, particularly talent quests such as Indonesian Idol, AFI, and KDI. Of these, Indonesian Idol is often regarded by fans and viewers as ‘the original and the best’, and has been identified by producers and advertisers as one of the most popular reality show imports in Indonesia to date. This article examines different frameworks for approaching the fame, fortune, and fantasi of Indonesian Idol, and considers issues of cultural imperialism, globalization, audience interactivity, and ‘glocalization’. The programme is a rich source for exploring issues of celebrity production and consumption in Indonesia today, and for examining the notion of the ‘active, interactive audience’ within a context of globalization and increasing commercialisation of cultural products and practices. What emerges from this study is that not only is there a new celebrity in Indonesia, but also a new fan, forcing us to reconsider traditional notions of the celebrity-fan relationship in Indonesia and beyond.
Have We Already Met the Millennium Development Goal for Poverty ?

In a new book, Surjit Bhalla purports to overturn prevailing views on how much progress the developing world has been making against absolute poverty. Indeed, Bhalla claims that by 2000 we had already met the Millennium Development Goal of halving the 1990 incidence of extreme poverty — 15 years ahead of time. This would be good news, if it was right. The article offers a critical assessment of Bhalla’s arguments and evidence.
Exploring temperamental differences in infants from the USA and the Netherlands

This longitudinal study employed the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire-Revised in assessing temperamental differences between infants at 6 months (n = 114 US, 184 Dutch) and 12 months (n = 92 US, 172 Dutch) from the USA and the Netherlands. Main effects indicated that Dutch infants were rated higher on the Orienting/Regulatory Capacity (ORC) factor and fine-grained dimensions of smiling and laughter, falling reactivity, cuddliness, low-intensity pleasure, and soothability, whereas US infants received higher ratings on the Negative Affectivity factor and on dimensions of activity level, vocal reactivity, fear, frustration, and sadness. Cultural differences for ORC were more pronounced in early infancy, cultural differences for Fear were stronger in late infancy, and US infants demonstrated higher duration of orienting at 12 months only. Culture also appeared to impact the pace of consolidation of temperamental characteristics, with greater stability exhibited by US than Dutch infants in smiling and laughter and vocal reactivity.
Mentoring the gifted: a conceptual analysis

Mentoring is considered among the most effective pedagogical measures, yet it is rarely used in gifted education. One of the main reasons for this neglect seems to be the lack of a thorough analysis of its conceptual foundations from the point of view of giftedness research. This contribution starts with a discussion of conceptual and definitional issues pertinent to mentoring gifted individuals. An ideal definition is proposed, followed by a review of the effectiveness of mentoring programs. Existing mentoring programs rarely take full advantage of the educational potential inherent in mentoring. Next, the conditions and characteristics of effective mentoring are analyzed. From a general pedagogical point of view, mentoring should allow full use of the “Learning Triad” of modeling, instruction, and provision of learning opportunities and satisfy the “Big Four” effective learning processes (improvement‐oriented learning, individualization, feedback, practice). Mentoring can promote excellent development of the whole actiotope of a gifted individual.