Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How does Culture Impact on Educational Leadership in Samoa

The aim of this research was to explore the relationship between culture and the educational leadership of six secondary school principals in Samoa. Educational leadership is a bounded process and is subject to the cultural traditions and values of the society in which it is exercised. To date, no research has been undertaken on this topic in Samoa. This qualitative study used a semi-structured interview process to gather data from the secondary school principals who had been principals for more than three years in government schools. It also sought to explore how professional development of the principals might be undertaken. The principals in this study were interviewed both face-to-face and by telephone. The findings revealed that culture significantly impacted on their leadership. The matai culture was particularly influential. For example, respect, Christianity, role modelling and the importance of using the Samoan language to communicate within the school context were all influential. The findings also revealed the effective leadership styles applicable to Samoan school context in relation to indigenous cultural leadership. For example, inclusive/consensus/collaborative leadership style that is practiced in Samoan culture is effectively used by principals to lead schools. The organisational culture of the Ministry of Education Sports and Culture in Samoa (MESC) also considerably impacts on educational leadership. For example, the policies from the MESC sometimes contradict with the practice of the principals, such as the principal’s practice of corporal punishment is a crime in the MESC and United Nation policies. This research also revealed the gap between the western models of leadership and the Samoan indigenous cultural context and leadership practice by the principals. Therefore, all the principals involved in this study positively engaged with their Samoan cultural values and beliefs to lead schools effectively. However some Samoan indigenous cultural values and beliefs impact negatively on the education system. They need to be considered so as not to inhibit the development of educational leadership of Samoan principals. Today’s education has grown rapidly in terms of technology therefore educational leaders must adapt and change their leadership. Principals must be professionally trained so that they would lead effectively. According to Smith (1992, p. 9) “To change education is to change society”
Erlotinib and bevacizumab versus cisplatin, gemcitabine and bevacizumab in unselected nonsquamous nonsmall cell lung cancer

Erlotinib with bevacizumab showed promising activity in recurrent nonsquamous (NS) nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The INNOVATIONS study was designed to assess in first-line treatment of unselected cisplatin-eligible patients this combination compared to cisplatin, gemcitabine and bevacizumab. Stage IIIB/IV patients with NS-NSCLC were randomised on erlotinib (150 mg daily) and bevacizumab (15 mg·kg−1 on day 1, every 3 weeks) (EB) until progression, or cisplatin (80 mg·m−2 on day 1, every 3 weeks) and gemcitabine (1250 mg·m−2 on days 1 and 8, every 3 weeks) up to six cycles and bevacizumab (15 mg·kg−1 on day 1, every 3 weeks) (PGB) until progression. 224 patients were randomised (EB n=111, PGB n=113). The response rate (12% versus 36%; p<0.0001), progression-free survival (median 3.5 versus 6.9 months; hazard ratio (HR) 1.85, 95% CI 1.39–2.45; p<0.0001) and overall survival (median 12.6 versus 17.8 months; HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.01–1.97; p=0.04) clearly favoured PGB. In patients with epidermal growth factor receptor mutations (n=32), response rate, progression-free survival and overall survival were not superior with EB. Platinum-based combination chemotherapy remains the standard of care in first-line treatment of unselected NS-NSCLC. Molecular targeted approaches strongly mandate appropriate testing and patient selection. Platinum-based combination chemotherapy remains the standard of care in first-line treatment of unselected NS-NSCLC http://ow.ly/ITkNj
Histogram-offset-based color correction for multi-view video coding

In multi-view video system, variations of different camera setups (for example, camera positions, lighting conditions and camera characteristics) might cause discrepancies on the luminance and chrominance components of different views. From the viewpoint of source compression, this will lead to inaccurate inter-view prediction and lower coding efficiency. In this paper, a histogram-offset-based color correction method is developed for benefitting multi-view video coding. First, disparity estimation is conducted on the rank-transformed domain to identify the maximum matching regions between the reference view and the target view. Within the identified matching regions, the histograms of the reference view and the target view are then calculated, respectively. By using an iterative thresholding approach, a histogram offset is generated and exploited to correct the target view. Experimental results have shown that the proposed color correction method outperforms the histogram matching method on the improvement of coding efficiency.
Diversity of Bacterial Communities on Four Frequently Used Surfaces in a Large Brazilian Teaching Hospital

Frequently used hand-touch surfaces in hospital settings have been implicated as a vehicle of microbial transmission. In this study, we aimed to investigate the overall bacterial population on four frequently used surfaces using a culture-independent Illumina massively parallel sequencing approach of the 16S rRNA genes. Surface samples were collected from four sites, namely elevator buttons (EB), bank machine keyboard buttons (BMKB), restroom surfaces, and the employee biometric time clock system (EBTCS), in a large public and teaching hospital in São Paulo. Taxonomical composition revealed the abundance of Firmicutes phyla, followed by Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria, with a total of 926 bacterial families and 2832 bacterial genera. Moreover, our analysis revealed the presence of some potential pathogenic bacterial genera, including Salmonella enterica, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Staphylococcus aureus. The presence of these pathogens in frequently used surfaces enhances the risk of exposure to any susceptible individuals. Some of the factors that may contribute to the richness of bacterial diversity on these surfaces are poor personal hygiene and ineffective routine schedules of cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting. Strict standards of infection control in hospitals and increased public education about hand hygiene are recommended to decrease the risk of transmission in hospitals among patients.
Treatment Techniques to Reduce Cardiac Irradiation for Breast Cancer Patients Treated with Breast-Conserving Surgery and Radiation Therapy: A Review

Thousands of women diagnosed with breast cancer each year receive breast-conserving surgery followed by adjuvant radiation therapy. For women with left-sided breast cancer, there is risk of potential cardiotoxicity from the radiation therapy. As data have become available to quantify the risk of cardiotoxicity from radiation, strategies have also developed to reduce the dose of radiation to the heart without compromising radiation dose to the breast. Several broad categories of techniques to reduce cardiac radiation doses include breath hold techniques, prone positioning, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, and accelerated partial breast irradiation, as well as many small techniques to improve traditional three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy. This review summarizes the published scientific literature on the various techniques to decrease cardiac irradiation in women treated to the left breast for breast cancer after breast-conserving surgery.
Disorders of the Oral Cavity in Parkinson's Disease and Parkinsonian Syndromes

Awareness of nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease is growing during the last decade. Among these, oral cavity disorders are, although prevalent, often neglected by the patients, their caregivers, and physicians. Some of these disorders include increased prevalence of caries and periodontal disease, sialorrhea and drooling, xerostomia, orofacial pain, bruxism, and taste impairment. Though many of these disorders are not fully understood yet and relatively few controlled trials have been published regarding their treatment, physicians should be aware of the body of evidence that does exist on these topics. This paper reviews current knowledge regarding the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and treatment options of disorders of the oral cavity in Parkinson's disease patients.
Steroid naive eosinophilic asthma: anti-inflammatory effects of fluticasone and montelukast

Background: Inhaled corticosteroids and leukotriene receptor antagonists reduce airway eosinophilia and have been used as first line anti-inflammatory therapy for mild persistent asthma. Methods: A multicentre, randomised, placebo controlled, parallel group study was performed to compare the anti-inflammatory effects of fluticasone propionate and montelukast as measured by sputum eosinophils in 50 adults with symptomatic steroid naive asthma and sputum eosinophilia of ⩾3.5%. Results: Eighteen patients received low dose fluticasone (250 μg/day), 19 received montelukast (10 mg/day), and 13 were given placebo for 8 weeks. Fluticasone treatment resulted in a greater reduction in sputum eosinophils (geometric mean (SD) 11.9 (2.3)% to 1.7 (5.1)%) than montelukast (10.7 (2.3)% to 6.9 (3.8)%; p = 0.04) or placebo (15.4 (2.4)% to 7.8 (4.2)%; p = 0.002), and improvement in FEV1 (mean (SD) 2.6 (0.9) l to 3.0 (0.9) l) than montelukast (2.8 (0.7) l to 2.8 (0.9) l; p = 0.02) or placebo (2.4 (0.8) l to 2.4 (0.9) l; p = 0.01). Treatment with fluticasone suppressed sputum eosinophilia within a week while montelukast only attenuated it. The effect of montelukast was maximal at 1 week and was maintained over 4 weeks. The effect of fluticasone was maintained over 8 weeks while that of montelukast was not. Conclusions: Montelukast is not as effective as low dose fluticasone in reducing or maintaining an anti-inflammatory effect in steroid naïve eosinophilic asthma.
Gaze behaviour of expert and novice microneurosurgeons differs during observations of tumor removal recordings

Differences between visual attention strategies of experts and novices have been investigated in many fields, but little has been done in the field of microneurosurgery. In the hands of an experienced surgeon, microneurosurgery seems like an elegant, routine and clean procedure with minimal blood loss. However, microneurosurgery is a multifaceted task with clinical risks associated to surgeons' skills. In a preliminary study, eye movements of eight surgeons were recorded while observing four images representing four phases in a tumor removal surgery. A comparison of the eye movement strategies shows clear markers of expertise depending on the phase of the surgery.
Long non-coding RNA identification over mouse brain development by integrative modeling of chromatin and genomic features

In silico prediction of genomic long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) is prerequisite to the construction and elucidation of non-coding regulatory network. Chromatin modifications marked by chromatin regulators are important epigenetic features, which can be captured by prevailing high-throughput approaches such as ChIP sequencing. We demonstrate that the accuracy of lncRNA predictions can be greatly improved when incorporating high-throughput chromatin modifications over mouse embryonic stem differentiation toward adult Cerebellum by logistic regression with LASSO regularization. The discriminating features include H3K9me3, H3K27ac, H3K4me1, open reading frames and several repeat elements. Importantly, chromatin information is suggested to be complementary to genomic sequence information, highlighting the importance of an integrated model. Applying integrated model, we obtain a list of putative lncRNAs based on uncharacterized fragments from transcriptome assembly. We demonstrate that the putative lncRNAs have regulatory roles in vicinity of known gene loci by expression and Gene Ontology enrichment analysis. We also show that the lncRNA expression specificity can be efficiently modeled by the chromatin data with same developmental stage. The study not only supports the biological hypothesis that chromatin can regulate expression of tissue-specific or developmental stage-specific lncRNAs but also reveals the discriminating features between lncRNA and coding genes, which would guide further lncRNA identifications and characterizations.
Formulation of Low Intensity Direct Current Effects on Wound Healing of Skin using Genetic Programming

This study has two main purposes: Firstly, the effect of electrical stimulation was studied on experimental wound healing of skin. It investigates whether a triggering was possible on collagen synthesis in wound healing before the 3rd day of wounding, via measurements of hydroxyproline, a measure of collagen concentration in the wound tissue. Wound tissue hydroxyproline contents were determined with the effects of two different electric current intensities of 200 muA and 400 muA at 48 and 72 hours after wounding by Woessner's Method. For both of the current intensities, statistically significant increases were found in hydroxyproline contents of current applied wounds with respect to their controls for 72 hours whereas decreased hydroxyproline content was found for 400 muA of current intensities at 48 hours. Secondly, it was aimed to model and formulate how electric current effects wound healing using Genetic Programming (GP) based on experimental results. The accuracy of the proposed GP formulation is defined quantiatively by standard deviation (SD=0.39) and correlation coefficient (R=0.85), which is found to be high.
A Variational Approach to Contracting under Imperfect Observations

We consider a continuous-time model of the project value process that can be observed only with noise, and we allow for the possibility that the manager in charge of the project can misrepresent the observed value. The manager is compensated by the shareholders, based on the filtering estimate of the project outcome. By means of a variational calculus methodology, novel for this kind of problem, we are able to compute in closed form the optimal pay-per-performance sensitivity of the compensation and the optimal misreporting action. We illustrate our theoretical predictions through a detailed comparative statics analysis, which indicates that the shareholders induce the manager to increase the amount of misreporting over time.
Experience-Dependent Development of Coordinated Hippocampal Spatial Activity Representing the Similarity of Related Locations

To learn we must identify and remember experiences uniquely but also generalize across experiences to extract common features. Hippocampal place cells can show similar firing patterns across locations, but the functional significance of this repetitive activity and the role of experience and learning in generating it are not understood. We therefore examined rat hippocampal place cell activity in the context of spatial tasks with multiple similar spatial trajectories. We found that, in environments with repeating elements, about half of the recorded place cells showed path-equivalent firing, where individual neurons are active in multiple similar locations. In contrast, place cells from animals performing a similar task in an environment with fewer similar elements were less likely to fire in a path-equivalent manner. Moreover, in the environment with multiple repeating elements, path equivalence developed with experience in the task, and increased path equivalence was associated with increased moment-by-moment correlations between pairs of path-equivalent neurons. As a result, correlated firing among path-equivalent neurons increased with experience. These findings suggest that coordinated hippocampal ensembles can encode generalizations across locations. Thus, path-equivalent ensembles are well suited to encode similarities among repeating elements, providing a framework for associating specific behaviors with multiple locations, while neurons without this repetitive structure maintain a distinct population code.
How much do Workers Search

In this paper, I consider four determinants of wages: productivity, workers' bargaining power, competition between employers due to on-the-job search, and search intensity by workers. Workers can increase their job offer arrival rate through costly search. Employers take into consideration the search intensity choices of their employees when the two parties jointly set wages. Using a Nash bargaining model with on-the-job search and wage renegotiation, I quantify the search intensity of workers, for both unemployed and employed. I estimate the structural model using the 2001 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) from the US, together with supplementary information from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). The empirical results show that search intensity weakly declines as the worker gets a wage rise from her current job. But direct job-to-job transition does not necessarily imply higher wage and lower search intensity on the new job. Indeed, simulation suggests that, there are cases where workers on high-productivity jobs are most inclined to search, but the social returns to job search is highest in workers on low-productivity jobs. In this sense, the labor market equilibrium may not be socially efficient.
A steganographic method based on self-organizing map and HVS

In order to provide large capacity of hidden secret data and imperceptibility of stego-image, in this paper, a novel image steganographic method based on self-organizing map and HVS was presented. According to contrast and texture sensitivity, self-organizing map based on competitive learning is trained. So NNs trained is the key of the embedded and extracted secret data. The method exploits neighboring pixels(upper, left, right, bottom) to estimate the degree of sensitivity of pixels with NNs trained so that pixels in less sensitive areas can potentially carry more hidden data. From the experimental results, compared with SOC, the proposed method can hide a much larger information and maintains a better visual quality of stego-image.
Neural network prediction of peptide separation in strong anion exchange chromatography

MOTIVATION The still emerging combination of technologies that enable description and characterization of all expressed proteins in a biological system is known as proteomics. Although many separation and analysis technologies have been employed in proteomics, it remains a challenge to predict peptide behavior during separation processes. New informatics tools are needed to model the experimental analysis method that will allow scientists to predict peptide separation and assist with required data mining steps, such as protein identification. RESULTS We developed a software package to predict the separation of peptides in strong anion exchange (SAX) chromatography using artificial neural network based pattern classification techniques. A multi-layer perceptron is used as a pattern classifier and it is designed with feature vectors extracted from the peptides so that the classification error is minimized. A genetic algorithm is employed to train the neural network. The developed system was tested using 14 protein digests, and the sensitivity analysis was carried out to investigate the significance of each feature. AVAILABILITY The software and testing results can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.bbc. purdue.edu.
European Sovereign CDS Premia during the Crisis – A Cointegration Analysis

In this paper, I use multivariate time series models in order to analyze the evolution of European Sovereign CDS spreads during the recent crisis. I ﬁnd evidence that sovereigns’ credit risk premia are non-stationary but cointegrated with simple measures of the countries’ indebtedness and the overall default risk in the economy. Vector error correction models are estimated on the individual country and aggregated European level, using monthly averages of sovereign and iTraxx CDS as well as debt-over-GDP ratios. Rising public debt levels are found to explain about half of the structural CDS level increases since the outbreak of the ﬁnancial crisis. Yet, the largest part of sovereign CDS variance cannot be attributed to macroeconomic fundamentals and originates from the interaction with the overall CDS markets. A structural break analysis suggests two diﬀerent regimes with a signiﬁcant repricing of sovereign risk. With the onset of the European debt crisis there is evidence for an increased interaction with the ﬁnancial sector as measured by the iTraxx Fin.
3D Hand Pose Tracking and Estimation Using Stereo Matching

3D hand pose tracking/estimation will be very important in the next generation of human-computer interaction. Most of the currently available algorithms rely on low-cost active depth sensors. However, these sensors can be easily interfered by other active sources and require relatively high power consumption. As a result, they are currently not suitable for outdoor environments and mobile devices. This paper aims at tracking/estimating hand poses using passive stereo which avoids these limitations. A benchmark with 18,000 stereo image pairs and 18,000 depth images captured from different scenarios and the ground-truth 3D positions of palm and finger joints (obtained from the manual label) is thus proposed. This paper demonstrates that the performance of the state-of-the art tracking/estimation algorithms can be maintained with most stereo matching algorithms on the proposed benchmark, as long as the hand segmentation is correct. As a result, a novel stereo-based hand segmentation algorithm specially designed for hand tracking/estimation is proposed. The quantitative evaluation demonstrates that the proposed algorithm is suitable for the state-of-the-art hand pose tracking/estimation algorithms and the tracking quality is comparable to the use of active depth sensors under different challenging scenarios.
Dependence of GAMA galaxy halo masses on the cosmic web environment from 100 deg2 of KiDS weak lensing data

Galaxies and their dark matter haloes are part of a complex network of mass structures, collectively called the cosmic web. Using the tidal tensor prescription these structures can be classified into four cosmic environments: voids, sheets, filaments and knots. As the cosmic web may influence the formation and evolution of dark matter haloes and the galaxies they host, we aim to study the effect of these cosmic environments on the average mass of galactic haloes. To this end we measure the galaxy-galaxy lensing profile of 91 195 galaxies, within 0.039 <z <0.263, from the spectroscopic Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey, using {˜ }100 ° ^2 of overlapping data from the Kilo-Degree Survey. In each of the four cosmic environments we model the contributions from group centrals, satellites and neighbouring groups to the stacked galaxy-galaxy lensing profiles. After correcting the lens samples for differences in the stellar mass distribution, we find no dependence of the average halo mass of central galaxies on their cosmic environment. We do find a significant increase in the average contribution of neighbouring groups to the lensing profile in increasingly dense cosmic environments. We show, however, that the observed effect can be entirely attributed to the galaxy density at much smaller scales (within 4 h-1 Mpc), which is correlated with the density of the cosmic environments. Within our current uncertainties we find no direct dependence of galaxy halo mass on their cosmic environment.