Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outcomes from Flexible Learning Options for disenfranchised youth: what counts?

ABSTRACT Flexible Learning Options (FLOs) are common across many countries to enable secondary school completion by young people for whom mainstream schooling has not worked well. Access to high-quality education through FLOs is a social justice issue. In the context of an inclination among governments for accountability and evidence-based policy, as well as of financial austerity, there is pressure on FLOs to demonstrate and publicise their outcomes. This work is not straightforward, due to debates about the purposes of education and to difficulties in measurement. This paper analyses Australian practical and evaluation reports, so-called grey literature, to examine the specific outcomes that are the focus of those publications, alongside the evidence that is provided to substantiate these claims. Our aim is to contribute to better understandings of what counts as success in these settings, and how that success may be demonstrated. Overall, the reports focus on five different sets of outcomes: traditional academic outcomes, post-programme destinations, student engagement, personal and social well-being, and broader community engagement and well-being. Across the reports, there was a strong emphasis on qualitative research methods, often supplemented with descriptive statistics and case studies. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of the analysis for determining ‘what counts’ as outcomes from FLOs.
Psychophysiological evidence of a role for emotion in the learning of trustworthiness from identity-contingent eye-gaze cues

There is an increasing recognition that emotion influences cognition. This is particularly clear in the domain of social cognition where the perception of social cues is most often a potent source of emotional arousal. One process likely to be influenced by emotion is the forming of face evaluations. Judgements of trustworthiness are particularly important due to the potential costs and benefits of the decision to rely upon another person. Face trustworthiness is modulated by one particular social cue, eye-gaze. In reaction time tasks, when faces gaze away from target objects, incongruently, responses are slower than when faces gaze towards target objects, congruently. Faces that consistently gaze incongruently are also judged less trustworthy than faces that consistently gaze congruently. In six experiments, we investigated the role of emotion in the learning of trustworthiness from identity-contingent gaze-cues using event-related potentials (ERP) and facial electromyography (EMG), which are sensitive electrophysiological measures of emotion. We found that the learning of trust was paralleled by an increase in the emotionrelated late positive potential (LPP) to incongruent faces across blocks. These findings were further supported by EMG measurements, which showed that corrugator muscle activity related to negative embodied emotional states, was greater to incongruent faces in those participants who showed expected changes in trust ratings. Although effects of gaze-cues on trust were consistent, they were not modulated by extremes in initial trust or priming of emotions elicited by social exclusion. Effects appeared to be due to a special relationship between faces, gaze, emotion and trust as the effects of validity on liking ratings were much weaker or non-existent compared to trust despite evidence of similar emotion-related LPP ERP and EMG activity. The effects also did not generalise to non-social arrow cues. In sum, we conclude that emotion mediates the learning of trust from identity-contingent gaze-cues.
Fixed-b asymptotics for blockwise empirical likelihood

In this paper, we describe an extension of the fixed-b approach introduced by Kiefer and Vogelsang (2005) to the empirical likelihood estimation framework. Under the fixed-b asymp- totics, the empirical likelihood ratio statistic evaluated at the true parameter converges to a non- standard yet pivotal limiting distribution which can be approximated numerically. The impact of the bandwidth parameter and kernel choice is reflected in the fixed-b limiting distribution. Com- pared to the � 2 -based inference procedure used by Kitamura (1997) and Smith ( 2011), the fixed-b approach provides a better approximation to the finite sample distribution of the empirical like- lihood ratio statistic; Correspondingly, as shown in our simulation studies, the confidence region
Aspergillus nidulans Conidiation Genes dewA, fluG, and stuA Are Differentially Regulated in Early Vegetative Growth

ABSTRACT Microarray analysis was used to identify transcriptional changes in early vegetative growth of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. The results suggest that the previously identified conidiation genes dewA, fluG, and stuA may function in isotropic expansion during early vegetative growth and asexual reproduction.
Intentions to Be an Athletic Director

The aim of this study was to evaluate senior athletic administrators’ expectations and intentions of becoming National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletic directors (ADs) and explore women and racial minority senior athletic administrators’ athletic workplace experience. To serve the purpose, two studies using social cognitive career theory (SCCT) were employed. First, demographic (i.e., gender and race) differences by SCCT variables were assessed through survey collection and multivariate analysis of variance. Second, content analysis of interviews was used to assess the experiences of athletic administrators. Results revealed women and racial minority senior athletic administrators’ had similar self-efficacy compared to White men, but they encountered more barriers, unfavorable outcome expectations, and lower choice goals associated with becoming an NCAA Division I AD. Further, findings show women and racial minority senior athletic administrators felt occupational segregation limited their access and opportunities for career advancement to a Division I AD position.
Bactericidal Activity of Mouse α-Defensin Cryptdin-4 Predominantly Affects Noncommensal Bacteria

Mouse Paneth cell α-defensins, termed cryptdins, are secreted into the intestinal lumen, have microbicidal activity, and contribute to intestinal innate immunity. Among them, cryptdin-4 (Crp4) has the most potent microbicidal activity. In the intestinal lumen, commensal bacteria colonize and elicit beneficial effects in the host. However, the effects of Crp4 against commensal bacteria are poorly understood. Thus, we investigated the bactericidal activities of Crp4 against commensal bacteria compared to noncommensal bacteria. Oxidized Crp4 showed only minimal or no bactericidal activity against 8 out of 12 commensal bacterial species, including Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobacillus casei. We further addressed a role of the conserved disulfide bonds of Crp4 by analyzing reduced Crp4 (r-Crp4). r-Crp4 demonstrated significantly greater bactericidal activities against 7 of 12 commensal bacteria than did oxidized Crp4. Oxidized Crp4 and r-Crp4 elicited equivalently potent bactericidal activities against 11 of the 11 noncommensal bacteria tested, such as Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium,and against 5 of 12 commensal bacteria. Furthermore, when r-Crp4 was exposed to a processing enzyme of cryptdins, i.e. MMP-7, r-Crp4 was degraded and the bactericidal activities disappeared. These findings suggest that Crp4 has selective bactericidal activities against intestinal microbiota and that the activities are dependent on the disulfide bonds.
Expression pattern of Vasohibin during chick development

Vasohibin is an angiogenesis inhibitor that is induced in endothelial cells in an autocrine manner. In this study, we cloned a 500‐bp fragment of chick Vasohibin cDNA and analyzed its expression pattern by in situ hybridization during chick development. From HH‐stage 3, expression of Vasohibin is observed in the area opaca and it is expressed throughout the primitive streak during later stages. At HH‐stage 11, Vasohibin is expressed in head paraxial mesoderm, in the vitelline vein, dorsal neural tube, intermediate and lateral plate mesoderm, Wolffian duct, and blood islands at the caudal part of the embryo. In epithelial somites, expression is seen in the region around the somitocoel, and after somite maturation, expression is observed in the myotome, which becomes stronger with development. Expression is detected in fore and hind brain, also in the retina and lens vesicle of the developing eye. In the early limb bud, expression is initiated in the mesenchyme and becomes stronger during later stages. Expression in the limb mesoderm remains strong at the margins but decreases in the central mesenchyme. At day 7, expression is seen in interdigital grooves of the digits and digit‐demarcating regions. During organogenesis, expression is seen in the anlagen of the esophagus, trachea, duodenum, lungs, liver, heart, and gut. Our analysis shows that Vasohibin is expressed in a wide range of tissues and organs suggesting that Vasohibin acts as a physiological regulator of vascular development during chick embryogenesis. Developmental Dynamics 236:1358–1362, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The development of quantitative methods using virtual models for the measurement of tooth wear

Tooth wear is an unavoidable process associated with aging. Currently, virtual three‐dimensional dental models are widely used and provide an advantage for studying tooth wear. However, there are no wear assessment parameters using virtual tooth models for the quantitative analysis of wear. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop and evaluate quantitative wear measurement parameters. Ninety maxillary and mandibular dental casts were prepared and rendered as virtual three‐dimensional models. For qualitative wear scoring, Hooper's new tooth wear index (NTWI) was used. For quantitative wear measurement, virtual vectors and occlusal planes were generated with reference points. Angles, height, and distance parameters were measured from reference points, vectors or planes. Intra‐ and interobserver reproducibility was determined for NTWI scoring and quantitative measurements. Quantitatively measurements for all parameters were subgrouped according to age groups and NTWI score groups. The mean and standard deviation were calculated for each group. One‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and the coefficients test were performed on the groups. Overall, intra‐ and interobserver reproducibility was good for both qualitative and quantitative measurement. In the ANOVA test, angle and height parameters showed significant differences between groups, whereas distance parameters did not. Similar results were observed in the coefficients test. However, plane heights and lingual side measurement parameters of the mandible are not recommended. In conclusion, this study indicates that all angle or height parameters of the maxilla and angle or vector height parameters of the buccal side of the mandible can be used as meaningful parameters in a quantitative wear study. Clin. Anat. 25:347–358, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Distance Spectrum Calculation of Symbol Punctured Trellis Coded Modulation

A special kind of symbol-wise puncturing is applied to the code symbols of a constituent trellis coded modulation (TCM) within two very bandwidth-efficient concatenated coding schemes namely staggered TCM and parallel concatenated TCM. There exist methods to determine the minimum squared Euclidean distance of TCM for this special puncturing but they are only applicable to a limited number of TCM encoders with certain restrictions in code design. In this work, we present a general approach to calculate the distance spectrum of arbitrary TCM with symbol-wise puncturing. Thus, a deeper analysis of the error correcting capability of the underlying code is possible.
Spatially explicit estimates of N2O emissions from croplands suggest climate mitigation opportunities from improved fertilizer management

With increasing nitrogen (N) application to croplands required to support growing food demand, mitigating N2O emissions from agricultural soils is a global challenge. National greenhouse gas emissions accounting typically estimates N2O emissions at the country scale by aggregating all crops, under the assumption that N2O emissions are linearly related to N application. However, field studies and meta‐analyses indicate a nonlinear relationship, in which N2O emissions are relatively greater at higher N application rates. Here, we apply a super‐linear emissions response model to crop‐specific, spatially explicit synthetic N fertilizer and manure N inputs to provide subnational accounting of global N2O emissions from croplands. We estimate 0.66 Tg of N2O‐N direct global emissions circa 2000, with 50% of emissions concentrated in 13% of harvested area. Compared to estimates from the IPCC Tier 1 linear model, our updated N2O emissions range from 20% to 40% lower throughout sub‐Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe, to >120% greater in some Western European countries. At low N application rates, the weak nonlinear response of N2O emissions suggests that relatively large increases in N fertilizer application would generate relatively small increases in N2O emissions. As aggregated fertilizer data generate underestimation bias in nonlinear models, high‐resolution N application data are critical to support accurate N2O emissions estimates.
Faculty Scholarship Has a Profound Positive Association With Student Evaluations of Teaching—Except When It Doesn’t

Conventional wisdom holds that research-productive faculty are also the finest instructors. But, is this commonly held belief correct? In the current study, the notion that faculty scholarship exhibits a positive association with teaching evaluations is investigated. Reflecting the data structure of faculty nested within university, the current study uses hierarchical linear modeling, and finds that scholarship displays a positive correspondence with teaching evaluations, but only for male faculty publishing in elite or top-tier marketing journals. Although this linkage is only found under specific conditions, it stands in contrast to much of the extant literature, which reports little to no correlation between research and teaching evaluations. In addition, significant control variables and interactions, at both the faculty level (i.e., gender, faculty title) and university level (i.e., tuition, entry GPA, flagship university), are identified. In total, the findings suggest that while there is an association between elite publications and student evaluations, the primacy of research in the academy may, nonetheless, not always be in the best interest of students.
Delayed Start Versus Conventional GnRH Antagonist Protocol in Poor Responders Pretreated With Estradiol in Luteal Phase

Objective: To compare the new delayed start protocol against the conventional gonadotropin (Gn)-releasing hormone antagonist protocol in poor responders (PORs). Study Design: A total of 160 women with poor response to previous in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle were randomized either to start Gn then Cetrotide 0.25 subcutaneously (sc) added when leading follicle (DF) reach >12 mm or Cetrotide 0.25 mg sc started first from day 2 to day 8 then Gn therapy was added and Cetrotide restarted when DF reach >12 mm. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between conventional and delayed start protocols regarding the needed dose of Gn for stimulation (4368 ± 643 and 3798 ± 515), level of estradiol (E2; 778 ± 371 and 1076 ± 453), and endometrial thickness at human chorionic gonadotropin triggering (8.6 ± 1.8 and 9.8 ± 1.9), the number of DF (3.4 ± 1.5 and 4.9 ± 2.1), the number of retrieved follicles (2.4 ± 2.1 and 4.3 ± 2.5), and successful embryo transfer (13 vs 16), respectively (P < .05). There was a highly statistically significant difference between the 2 study groups regarding the number of oocytes fertilized (1.2 ± 2.0 vs 3.3 ± 1.4), metaphase II oocytes (0.9 ± 1.0 vs 2.7 + 1.6), and grade I embryos (0.7 ± 0.9 vs 2.1 + 1.1; P < .001). The chemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, and abortion rate showed a statistically significant difference between the 2 study groups (P value .003 and .006, respectively). Conclusion: Delayed start protocol significantly improved clinical pregnancy rate and IVF cycle parameters in PORs.
The composition of alcohol products from markets in Lithuania and Hungary, and potential health consequences: a pilot study.

AIMS The rates of alcohol-attributable mortality in Lithuania and Hungary have been shown to be higher than those in most other European countries. Quality of alcohol products is investigated as a possible explanation. METHODS In a descriptive pilot study, a convenience sample of alcohol products was collected from local city markets in both countries (Lithuania n = 10, Hungary n = 15) and chemical analyses, including some that have not been done in prior studies, were conducted. The parameters studied were alcoholic strength, volatiles (methanol, acetaldehyde, higher alcohols), ethyl carbamate, anions (including nitrate) and inorganic elements (including lead). Additionally, a multi-target screening analysis for toxicologically relevant substances was conducted. RESULTS The majority of samples (64%) had an alcohol content between 35% vol. and 40% vol., being in accordance with the typical strength of legal spirits in Europe. Three samples containing significantly higher concentrations of alcohol above 60% vol. were found to be unrecorded alcohol products, defined as any alcohol that is outside of legal and taxed production. Screening analysis showed that those samples contained various flavourings, including the hepatotoxic substance coumarin, at concentrations above the legal limit for foods. All other substance classes under study were found to be at levels of no toxicological concern. CONCLUSIONS Although some problems with the quality of the alcohol samples were found, there is insufficient evidence from this pilot study to conclude that alcohol quality has an influence on health as reflected in alcohol-attributable mortality rates. Given the extent of alcohol-attributable disease burden in central and eastern European countries, future research should focus on collection of large, representative samples, particularly of unrecorded sources, which was the most problematic product group in our study.
Matching the Neural Adaptation in the Rat Ventral Cochlear Nucleus Produced by Artificial (Electric) and Acoustic Stimulation of the Cochlea

To investigate neural adaptive properties, near-field evoked potentials were recorded from a chronically implanted electrode in the ventral cochlear nucleus in awake Long-Evans rats exposed to acoustic stimuli or receiving intracochlear electric stimulation. Stimuli were 250-ms trains of repetitive acoustic clicks (10, 30 and 50 dB SPL) or biphasic electric pulses (30, 50 and 70 µA) with intratrain pulse rates ranging from 100 to 1000 pulses per second (pps). The amplitude of the first negative (N1) to positive (P1) component of the average evoked potentials was measured for each consecutive individual pulse in the train. While a progressive exponential decrease in N1–P1 amplitude was observed as a function of the position of the pulse within the train for both types of stimulation, the decrement of electric responses (adaptive pattern) was substantially less prominent than that observed for acoustic stimuli. Based on this difference, the present work was extended by modifying electric stimuli in order to try to restore normal adaptation phenomena. The results suggest the feasibility of mimicking acoustic adaptation by stimulation with exponentially decreasing electric pulse trains, which may be clinically applicable in the auditory implant field.
Multivariate Analysis of War Crime Behaviour: Implications for the International Criminal Court

To prosecute perpetrators of war crimes the International Criminal Court (ICC) must connect the physical actions of the offence and ‘most responsible’ offenders charged with planning, instigating and intent on carrying out crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. To date there has been no empirical study of the types of physical actions that make up this offence. There is no baseline knowledge to contextualize the offence and enable the ICC to make links between the actions on the ground and a perpetrator’s culpability. The purpose of this study was to produce the first multivariate model of war crime ground action using cases of war crime offences in Cambodia and Rwanda. The aim was to first identify a representative range offence behaviours, and secondly determine if ground actions could be differentiated into distinct forms of offending that indicate culpability, that is, knowledge and intent in carrying out the crime. Lastly, offence behaviours assessed to determine if external factors could account for variances in offender behaviour, and help the ICC account for variances in behaviour when making inferences from the models. This was achieved through content analysis, cluster analysis, smallest space analysis and multivariate analysis of variance. It was found that as many as 44 different killing and disposal methods are used over the course of war crimes in Cambodia and Rwanda and that these offence actions can be classified into four distinct themes of behaviour. The indentified conservative, expressive, integrative and adaptive theme demonstrates that offenders were committing war crime offences in different ways. Using the underlying theories attached to each mode the ICC can infer the culpability of an offender based on which theme their actions fall into. In this case offenders subscribing to the conservative theme are likely to reflect the planning and instigation components of a war crime and offenders whose actions fall within the expressive theme are likely to be using war crimes as a cover for personal gratification and gain. Finally it was found that variances of behaviour can be attributed to the geographical location and timing of the event, and helps the ICC target their investigations to locations and periods linked to conservative behaviour, the offender who performs it and thus their culpability. This study shows that multivariate analysis can contextualize ground actions in manner that allows the ICC to make informed decisions of perpetrator culpability during war crimes.