Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of Performance In A Professional Counselor Masters Program

The prediction of success in graduate education is of growing interest in the field of professional psychology. Notably there is debate as to the most effective variables to build predictive models and how to define success. This study analyzed whether the prediction of performance in a professional counseling masters program (PCMP) using undergraduate grade point average and Pre-Admissions Workshop rating scores could be incremented by adding personality traits, as measured by the MMPI-2. Graduate grade point average (GGPA) and internship evaluation ratings (IER) were both used as success criteria in order to investigate whether a stronger predictive model could be built using a traditional outcome variable or a criterion more in line with the training objective of a professional program. The two hierarchical regression analyses produced a number of key findings. Across both analyses, the MMPI-2 independently accounted for the most variance in performance outcome, after controlling for the traditional admissions variables. The final model accounted for 24.4% (p<.05) of the variance in GGPA and of that; the MMPI-2 uniquely explained 17.7% of the variance. When IER was used as the criterion, the final model accounted for 15.6% (p<.10) of the variance, and 14.5% of that variance was uniquely explained by the MMPI-2. Overall, these findings provided empirical support for the inclusion of an objective, valid personality instrument in PCMP admissions procedures and suggest that personality characteristics are veritably relevant to academic performance.
Treatment of Depressed In-Patients

Thirty in-patients received one of three treatments – medication (nortriptyline) alone (MA), relaxation therapy plus medication (RT&M), or cognitive therapy plus medication (CT&M) (each n = 10) – along with ward milieu. The relaxation and cognitive therapy groups participated in 12 therapy sessions. Symptoms of depression and related cognitive variables were assessed at sessions 1, 6 and 12, and at discharge. All groups improved over the course of the study. CT&M and RT&M groups reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms and negative cognitions at discharge than the MA group. The number of subjects judged depressed at discharge was lower in the CT&M group than in the MA and RT&M groups. It is proposed that a consistent rationale for treatment is a significant facilitating factor in achieving behavioural and cognitive changes in depression.
A well-balanced numerical scheme for a one dimensional quasilinear hyperbolic model of chemotaxis

We introduce a numerical scheme to approximate a quasi-linear hyperbolic system which models the movement of cells under the influence of chemotaxis. Since we expect to find solutions which contain vacuum parts, we propose an upwinding scheme which handles properly the presence of vacuum and, besides, which gives a good approximation of the time asymptotic states of the system. For this scheme we prove some basic analytical properties and study its stability near some of the steady states of the system. Finally, we present some numerical simulations which show the dependence of the asymptotic behavior of the solutions upon the parameters of the system.
Classification of chaotic signals using HMM classifiers:EEG-based mental task classification

Mental task classification using brain signals, mostly electroencephalogram (EEG), is an approach to understand human brain functions. As EEG seems to be chaotic, it is important to verify the capability of probabilistic and statistical processing tools (such as HMM-based classifiers) in working with chaotic signals. At first, we study the performance of HMM's in classification of different classes of synthetically generated chaotic signals. Then performance of such classifiers in EEG-based mental task classification is studied. Results show good performance in both cases.
Modeling and identification of an electrohydraulic articulated forestry machine

This paper focuses on modeling and parameter estimation for the electrohydraulic actuation system of an articulated forestry machine. The linear graph method is implemented in deriving mathematical models of the swing, boom and stick subsystems. Actuation dynamics are subsequently integrated with manipulator dynamics to result in a complete machine model. Identification procedures employed in estimating physical parameters are discussed. Model validation studies show good agreement between model predictions and experiments. The derived models will be used for designing a controller for coordinated endpoint motion, for prediction, and for a real-time graphical training simulator.
Characterizing errors in digital elevation models and estimating the financial costs of accuracy

Digital topographic models are the foundation of more advanced modeling applications and ultimately inform planning and decision making in many fields. Despite this, the error associated with these models and derived attributes is commonly overlooked. Little attention has been given in the scientific literature to the benefits gained from having less error in a model or to the corresponding cost associated with reducing model error by choosing one product over another. To address these gaps in knowledge we evaluated the error associated with five digital elevation models (DEMs) and derived attributes of slope and aspect relative to the same attributes derived from LiDAR data. We also estimated the acquisition and processing costs per square kilometer of the five test models and the LiDAR models. We used three measures to characterize model error: (1) root mean square error, (2) mean error (and standard deviation), and (3) area of significant elevation error. We applied these measures to DEM products that are used extensively across a range of applications for planning and managing natural resources. We depicted the relationship between model accuracy (the inverse of error) and cost in two ways. One was accuracy/cost ratio for each model. The other used separate data on accuracy and cost to better guide potential users in choosing between models or deciding on necessary expenditure on models. The main conclusion of our work was that accounting for error in DEMs can inform choice of models and the need for financial outlays.
The relationship between emotional competence, classroom climate and school achievement in high school students / La relación entre competencia emocional, clima de aula y rendimiento académico en estudiantes de secundaria

Abstract The aim of this study is, on the one hand, to find out if differences exist in emotional competence and secondary school students’ perceptions of classroom climate according to gender and educational level and, on the other hand, to analyse the relationship between emotional competence, classroom climate and school achievement in secondary school students. The study advances the hypothesis that emotional competences and classroom climate are mediators in school achievement. For this purpose, 420 students from secondary and further education were selected with an average age of 14.29 ± 1.52. In emotional competence, the results showed differences according to gender and educational level, while in classroom climate, differences were only found according to educational level. The mediational analysis showed that classroom climate is an influential variable in the predictive value of emotional competence in relation to school achievement. Likewise, emotional competence acts as a mediating influence on classroom climate and school achievement. This study thus highlights the need to implement training processes to help teachers to promote positive socio-emotional contexts and programmes to develop students’ emotional competence, which will improve their school achievement.
Comparison of cross-platform mobile development tools

Mobiles are an integral part of daily life. With time, customers are expecting good and very versatile applications in less time. It is a big challenge to develop high performance mobile applications in this competitive market that would meet the expectation of customers. Mobile operating systems vendors are giving their best available resources for making applications in more convenient ways, although the development of new applications for each mobile operating system in short time is fairly a problem. Cross-platform mobile application development tools contribute in solving this problem largely. This paper presents a pragmatic comparison among four very popular cross platform tools, which are Rhodes, PhoneGap, DragonRad and MoSync. One of the main focuses of the comparison is to provide an overview on the availability of application programming interfaces, programming languages, supported mobile operating systems, licences, and integrated development environments. Furthermore, it also presents some critical points such as the factor of extensibility in tools and the effects that they may bring on market share. The comparison is aimed at supporting developers to make the right choice with respect to their needs/constraints.
Advances in spintronics devices for microelectronics — From spin-transfer torque to spin-orbit torque

Recent advances in spintronics devices make it possible to open a new era of microelectronics. In this paper, we review the spintronics devices utilizing spin-transfer torques (STTs) and spin-orbit torques (SOTs) developed in recent years. The progresses of two-terminal STT device with CoFeB-MgO based magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), three-terminal magnetic domain wall (DW) motion device with Co/Ni multilayer, and three-terminal SOT device with Cu-based channel are described. Integrated circuits with the developed spintronics devices are also reviewed.
Arterial Spin Labeling Magnetic Resonance Imaging Estimation of Antegrade and Collateral Flow in Unilateral Middle Cerebral Artery Stenosis

Background and Purpose— Three-dimensional pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling with multiple postlabeling delays has been used to assess cerebral blood flow (CBF). We used this modality to estimate antegrade and collateral flow in patients with unilateral middle cerebral artery stenosis. Methods— Consecutive patients with unilateral middle cerebral artery 50% to 99% stenosis at 2 centers underwent pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling with a postlabeling delays of 1.5 and 2.5 s. Mean CBF of bilateral middle cerebral artery territory at the postlabeling delays 1.5 and 2.5 s was measured. Early-arriving flow proportion was defined as (CBF 1.5 s at lesion side/CBF 2.5 s at normal side)×100%. Late-arriving retrograde flow proportion was defined as ([CBF 2.5 s−CBF 1.5 s] at lesion side−[CBF 2.5 s−CBF 1.5 s] at normal side)/CBF 2.5 s at normal side×100%. Antegrade and collateral scales were evaluated in patients with conventional angiography. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated between early-arriving flow and late-arriving retrograde flow proportions on arterial spin labeling and antegrade and collateral scales on conventional angiography, respectively. Results— Forty-one patients (46.0±12.0 years) were enrolled. The mean early-arriving flow proportion was 78.3±14.9%. The mean late-arriving retrograde flow proportion was 16.1±10.2%. In 21 patients with conventional angiography, Spearman correlation coefficient was 0.53 (95% confidence interval, 0.11–0.79) between antegrade grade and early-arriving flow proportion (P=0.01) and 0.81 (95% confidence interval, 0.56–0.92) between collateral grade and late-arriving retrograde flow proportion (P<0.0001). Conclusions— Three-dimensional pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling with 2 postlabeling delays may provide an empirical approach for estimating antegrade and collateral flow in patients with unilateral middle cerebral artery stenosis. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT02479243.
Solitonic transmission of Bose-Einstein matter waves

We consider a continuous atom laser propagating through a waveguide with a constriction. Two different types of transmitted stationary flow are possible. The first one coincides, at low incident current, with the noninteracting flow. As the incident flux increases, the repulsive interactions decrease the corresponding transmission coefficient. The second type of flow only occurs for sufficiently large incident currents and has a solitonic structure. Remarkably, for any chemical potential there always exists a value of the incident flux at which the solitonic flow is perfectly transmitted.
Effect of activin on production and secretion of prolactin and growth hormone in cultured rat GH3 cells.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of the growth factor activin A on the secretion of prolactin (PRL) and GH in cultured GH3 cells. METHODS The concentrations of PRL and GH secreted from GH3 cells cultured in media with and without activin A were measured by RIA, and the expression of PRL mRNA and GH mRNA were analyzed using the Northern blot method. RESULTS Activin A significantly inhibited PRL release from GH3 cells cultured for 48h in a dose-dependent manner (activin: 0.3-3nM). The inhibitory effects of 3nM activin A were observed in the culture from 12h to 48h (53.2% of control). Activin A (3nM) also significantly inhibited the expression of PRL mRNA at 24h (33.8% of control). In contrast, activin A significantly stimulated GH release from GH3 cells cultured for 48h in a dose-dependent manner (activin: 0.3-3nM). The stimulatory effect of 3nM activin A was observed in the culture for 48h (157.6% of control). Activin A (3nM) also significantly stimulated the expression of GH mRNA at 24h (183.6% of control). In spite of these significant changes in PRL and GH secretion, pit-1 mRNA levels were not significantly changed by activin A. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicated that activin A modulates PRL and GH secretion through the regulation of PRL and GH gene transcription in GH3 cells, but that these effects are unrelated to pit-1 gene expression.
Asymptotic results for bifurcations in pure bending of rubber blocks

The bifurcation of an incompressible neo-Hookean thick block with a ratio of thickness to length η, subject to pure bending, is considered. The two incremental equilibrium equations corresponding to a nonlinear pre-buckling state of strain are reduced to a fourth-order linear eigenproblem that displays a multiple turning point. It is found that for 0 < η < ∞, the block experiences an Euler-type buckling instability which in the limit η → ∞ degenerates into a surface instability. Singular perturbation methods enable us to capture this transition, while direct numerical simulations corroborate the analytical results.
Type I: families, planning and errors

Scientists frequently want to answer the question ‘has this treatment had an effect? ’ Most are unaware that the tests they usually use do not directly address this question. These tests usually pose a different question, based on the possibility that nothing has happened. The question becomes: ‘how probable are these data, if there were NO difference between the original populations from which the data have been randomly drawn? ’ (In fact for most laboratory experiments, this supposition is patently false – the experiment has been conducted using a pre-ordained sample, possibly randomly divided into treatment and control groups, but certainly not randomly sampled.) However, if we continue to consider the usual analysis that is used, we have to assume that we have random samples, from the same population. Such samples will always differ to some extent. Occasionally, the difference might be substantial, large enough to suspect that they might not have come from the same source population. The usual context in which we use this test is that the data are already ‘under suspicion’: we usually don’t want to believe the null hypothesis at all, and we are testing to see if the data are unlikely to be consistent with this hypothesis. To assess how ‘suspicious’ our results can be, we estimate how frequently we might obtain results like ours: ● if the ‘null hypothesis’ were true, ● if we were to repeatedly sample the population, and ● if the results are workings of chance.
The Dynamics of Incomplete Lineage Sorting across the Ancient Adaptive Radiation of Neoavian Birds

The diversification of neoavian birds is one of the most rapid adaptive radiations of extant organisms. Recent whole-genome sequence analyses have much improved the resolution of the neoavian radiation and suggest concurrence with the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, yet the causes of the remaining genome-level irresolvabilities appear unclear. Here we show that genome-level analyses of 2,118 retrotransposon presence/absence markers converge at a largely consistent Neoaves phylogeny and detect a highly differential temporal prevalence of incomplete lineage sorting (ILS), i.e., the persistence of ancestral genetic variation as polymorphisms during speciation events. We found that ILS-derived incongruences are spread over the genome and involve 35% and 34% of the analyzed loci on the autosomes and the Z chromosome, respectively. Surprisingly, Neoaves diversification comprises three adaptive radiations, an initial near-K-Pg super-radiation with highly discordant phylogenetic signals from near-simultaneous speciation events, followed by two post-K-Pg radiations of core landbirds and core waterbirds with much less pronounced ILS. We provide evidence that, given the extreme level of up to 100% ILS per branch in super-radiations, particularly rapid speciation events may neither resemble a fully bifurcating tree nor are they resolvable as such. As a consequence, their complex demographic history is more accurately represented as local networks within a species tree.
The information seeking and use behaviors of retired investors

This exploratory study examines the information seeking and use behaviors of a group of US retired or near-retirement investors from everyday life information seeking and serious leisure perspectives. Although primarily qualitative, it also collects and analyzes quanitative data to describe retired investors’ information preferences and use. Semi-structured interviews and journaling are used to examine the information seeking behaviors of a diverse group of investors and to assess the impact that personal characteristics, such as sex, socio-economic status, and educational attainment have on their behaviors. Findings suggest that the female investors studied were less likely to create information intensive fields and that this tendency is exacerbated by low educational attainment. Furthermore, the male investors studied were more likely to adopt Internet technology for their investing information seeking regardless of their educational attainment. Recommendations are made for improving information services to this important segment of the population.
Updated Meta-analysis of Probiotics for Preventing Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Preterm Neonates

OBJECTIVE: Systematic reviews of randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) indicate lower mortality and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and shorter time to full feeds after probiotic supplementation in preterm (<34 weeks' gestation) very low birth weight (VLBW; birth weight <1500 g) neonates. The objective of this study was to update our 2007 systematic review of RCTs of probiotic supplementation for preventing NEC in preterm VLBW neonates. METHODS: We searched in March 2009 the Cochrane Central register; Medline, Embase, and Cinahl databases; and proceedings of the Pediatric Academic Society meetings and gastroenterology conferences. Cochrane Neonatal Review Group search strategy was followed. Selection criteria were RCTs of any enteral probiotic supplementation that started within first 10 days and continued for ≥7 days in preterm VLBW neonates and reported on stage 2 NEC or higher (Modified Bell Staging). RESULTS: A total of 11 (N = 2176), including 4 new (n = 783), trials were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis by using a fixed-effects model. The risk for NEC and death was significantly lower. Risk for sepsis did not differ significantly. No significant adverse effects were reported. Trial sequential analysis) showed 30% reduction in the incidence of NEC (α = .05 and .01; power: 80%). CONCLUSIONS: The results confirm the significant benefits of probiotic supplements in reducing death and disease in preterm neonates. The dramatic effect sizes, tight confidence intervals, extremely low P values, and overall evidence indicate that additional placebo-controlled trials are unnecessary if a suitable probiotic product is available.
A study of various tests to detect asymptomatic urinary tract infections in an obstetric population.

OBJECTIVE To compare rapid screening techniques for detecting asymptomatic urinary tract infections (AUTIs) in pregnant women. DESIGN Comparison of results of the screening tests of urinalysis, urine dipstick, and Gram's staining with the results of standard urine culture at an initial prenatal visit. In follow-up visits, urine dipstick testing was compared with urinalysis. SETTING Departments of Family Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. PATIENTS Pregnant women (1047) from the local community were screened for AUTI on initial and follow-up visits. METHODS Initial prenatal urine was tested by using urine dipstick testing, urinalysis, Gram's staining, and urine culture. At each follow-up visit, urine specimens were tested by using urine dipstick and urinalysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Sensitivity and specificity, incremental patient costs, and clinical outcomes were used to assess the effectiveness of the techniques. RESULTS On initial visits, rapid screening tests for AUTI in pregnant women revealed the following: Gram's staining identified 22 of 24 patients with AUTI (sensitivity, 91.7%; specificity, 89.2%); urine dipstick, 12 of 24 (sensitivity, 50.0%; specificity, 96.9%); and urinalysis with presence of leukocytes, six of 24 (sensitivity, 25.0%; specificity, 99.0%). In follow-up visits, urine dipstick tests detected 19 infections and urinalysis, three (positive predictive value, 5% compared with 3%). CONCLUSIONS Urine dipstick testing for nitrites identified half of all patients with urinary tract infections and was superior to urinalysis on follow-up visits. Although Gram's staining is more expensive, it was more accurate for AUTI than urinalysis or urine dipstick test for nitrites. Urinalysis was never the test of choice because it was more expensive and detected fewer positive cultures. Leukocyte measurement correlated poorly with AUTI.
Introduction: Post-Conflict Spaces and Approaches to Statebuilding

Abstract Post-conflict spaces are no transitory phenomena during the transition from war to peace but have to be understood as fields of power where sovereignty is constantly contested and negotiated among global, elite and local actors. Understanding these spaces necessitates breaking out of the ‘single sovereign’ framework and problematizing the assumptions behind the ‘post-conflict’ label. We propose that in this way it becomes possible to discern some of the logics that govern how power and space shape each other in post-conflict settings.
Ryanodine Receptors Are Regulated by the Circadian Clock and Implicated in Gating Photic Entrainment

In mammals, 24 h rhythms are orchestrated by the primary circadian pacemaker in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. Circadian clock function has three components: the mechanism (the “gears”), output (the “hands”), and input (the “set” switch). Rhythmicity is maintained