Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lost Souls Searching for Answers? Belgian and Dutch Converts Joining the Islamic State

Since the start of the Syrian conflict much has been written about Western foreign fighters who travel to the country to join Islamic State. In much of the literature it is asserted that a fair percentage of these foreign fighters are converts to Islam. Yet, we know very little about who these people are. In this Research Note, the image of converts who have joined the Islamic State as portrayed in the media is first examined. Subsequently, based on ethnographic research, an attempt is made to provide deeper insight into the family background of seventeen Belgian and Dutch converts. While this is a small sample, it can nevertheless contribute to a better understanding what makes young converts join the armed struggle in Syria in the name of Allah.
Performance of Network Coding in Lossy Wireless Networks

We study network coding for multi-hop wireless networks. We focus the case of broadcasting, where one source transmits information to all the nodes in the network. Our goal is energy-efficient broadcasting, in other words, to minimize the number of transmissions for broadcasting to the entire network. In this report, we focus on lossy wireless networks, where the probability of successful transmission between two nodes, depends on the distance between the node. Our main result is that a proof of an asymptotic bound of the maximum broadcast rate between a source and the destinations. This result implies the asymptotic optimality of network coding with our hypothesis, with respect to energy-efficiency.
Brain Abscess Caused by Nocardia cyriacigeorgica in a Patient with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

ABSTRACT Nocardia cyriacigeorgica is a recently characterized species within the genus of Nocardia. We report a brain abscess, following a primary pulmonary colonization, due to this species in a human immunodeficiency virus-infected patient. This case confirms that isolation of Nocardia in sputum is associated with a high risk of disseminated infection in immunocompromised patients.
Intracellular Ca2+ levels in rat ventricle cells exposed to extremely low frequency magnetic field

Objective: Electromagnetic fields can affect intracellular Ca2+ levels. The aim of this study was to determine the changes intracellular Ca2+ concentration in cardiac ventricle cells of rats exposed to 0.25 mT (2.5 Gauss) magnetic field. Methods: Forty-five male rats were introduced to this study. The rats were divided into three groups: control, sham, and experiment. The experimental group was exposed to 0.25 mT extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic field for 14 days, 3 h/day. The sham group was treated like the experimental group, except for elf-magnetic field exposure. The control group was not subjected to anything and differed from the experimental group and sham group. In the end of experiment, rats were sacrificed, cardiac tissue was removed, and these were fixed in 10% neutral formalin. Then, ventricular cells were stained by Alizarin red staining method. Results: In the light microscopic examinations of control groups, in myofibril structures between groups, changes were not observed. In myofibril regions of the experimental group compared to other groups, increased heterogen Ca2+ accumulations were found. Conclusion: ELF magnetic fields are used in daily life. The results of this study show that intracellular Ca2+ accumulation in cardiac ventricles can increase in rats exposed to ELF magnetic field.
Frequency and Severity of Psychological Abuse in a Dating Population

The Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory was modified and used to assess the occurrence of psychological abuse in 1,625 college-age males and females. Six reliable factors were extracted from the scale reflecting the following concepts: positive behaviors, diminishment of self-esteem, verbal abuse, social and emotional control, jealousy, and withdrawal. Males currently involved in a relationship at the time the questionnaire was administered reported higher levels of psychological abuse and fewer positive behaviors than did females. However, the occurrence of psychologically abusive behaviors within a relationship were likely to result in a lower relationship satisfaction rating for both males and females. In addition, women in more formally committed relationships were most likely to report psychological abuse. Finally, the termination of a relationship was associated with an absence of positive behaviors, rather than a high frequency of negative behaviors. These findings are discussed with respect to physically abusive relationships.
Improving Learning Outcomes: The iPad and Preschool Children with Disabilities

The digital age has reached early childhood, and the use of touch screens by young children is common place. Research on the use of touch screen tablets with young children is becoming more prevalent; however, less information is available on the use of touch screen tablets to support young children with disabilities. Touch screen tablets may offer possibilities to preschool children with disabilities to participate in learning in a digital way. The iPad provides easy interaction on the touch screen and access to a multitude of engaging early learning applications. This paper summarizes a pilot study with 8 young children with disabilities included in a preschool classroom, who were given iPads to use in class and at home for a period of 21 weeks. Systematic observations, classroom assessments, and teacher and parent interviews documented the improvements in learning outcomes for each child in many areas including, but not limited to: shape and color recognition, letter recognition, and tracing letters throughout six research cycles.
Teachers' Beliefs about Mathematics and Multilingual Students

I used a sociocultural perspective (Vygotsky, 1978) to examine teachers’ epistemological and efficacy beliefs about the teaching and learning of mathematics with multilingual students. Specifically, I use the work of Negueruela-Azarola (2011) who suggests that teachers’ beliefs are conceptualizing tools for thinking about activity. Beliefs, which are social and dynamic, arise from teachers’ lived experiences. What teachers believe is relevant because beliefs inform pedagogical practices and once established are hard to change (Brownlee, Boulton-Lewis & Purdie, 2002; Cross, 2009; Pajares, 1992). Established beliefs with regards to mathematics hold that it is the easiest subject for multilingual students since there is little language involved. On the other hand, established beliefs are that increased English vocabulary is mainly what students need to be successful in mathematics. Barwell (2009) and Moschkovich (2002), using sociocultural perspectives, argue that language is important in mathematics and that multilingual students can participate in mathematical discussions when using resources such as their own mathematical knowledge, objects, and codeswitching. I interviewed five teachers who had experience teaching mathematics to students whose first language was other than English. I found that some teachers had beliefs which contrasted with the philosophies of their training institutions and with their schools. Teachers were found to hold contradictory beliefs. The study showed the importance of terminology in that how teachers referred to their multilingual students reflected their beliefs. Multilingual students were welcomed in the classroom for their contribution to cultural diversity but teachers acknowledged increased workload, and periods of frustration when supporting their multilingual students in mathematics.
School and Parental Influences on Sociopolitical Development Among Poor Adolescents of Color

Sociopolitical development represents a motivation to reduce sociopolitical inequity, a healthy sense of the self, and perceived agency in the context of structural oppression. Sociopolitical development has been associated with progress in career development, school engagement, and healthier sexual behavior among oppressed and marginalized adolescents. However, knowledge of outcomes that sociopolitical development may facilitate has outpaced knowledge of what may facilitate sociopolitical development. This paper examines key aspects of adolescents' context—the school and parents—and their potential influence on the sociopolitical development of poor adolescents of color. This research question is examined with 2,078 National Educational Longitudinal Survey participants. The obtained structural equation model suggests that parental support and student racial relations are predictive of sociopolitical development. These results provide empirical support for extant sociopolitical development models and illuminate our understanding of a critical social justice issue. These results inform sociopolitical development interventions, counseling practice, and scholarly understanding of how oppressed adolescents cope with sociopolitical inequity.
Teacher Quality and Student Performance in New York City's Low-Performing Schools

In 1989, the New York State Education Department initiated the Schools Under Registration Review (SURR) process. Despite a line of research from Coleman et al. (1966) to Hanushek (1989) suggesting that schools have little power over student outcomes compared to the much greater influence of family background, New York State’s process has assumed that responsibility for student achievement lies with the school, and that schools serving low-income students need not be low performing. Over the past decade, the state has identified schools for low performance and categorized them as SURR based on their thirdand sixth-grade scores on state-mandated standardized tests. Schools identified as SURR are then offered a variety of supports over a 3-year period, and the state assumes the power to revoke school registration for continued low performance. As of Fall 1998, 151 schools had been identified as SURR during the previous 9 years, of which 57 had either improved sufficiently enough to be removed from SURR or were reorganized and closed. Throughout this period, all but 10 of the state’s 151 schools identified as SURR were located in New York City. The city school system serves disproportionate numbers of students of color and immigrant JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS PLACED AT RISK, 6(3), 199–214 Copyright © 2001, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Long‐term facilitation of ventilation following acute continuous hypoxia in awake humans during sustained hypercapnia

• In awake humans, when CO2 is maintained above normal levels, exposure to acute intermittent hypoxia causes a sustained elevation in ventilation that persists when normoxic breathing is resumed. • In this study we have demonstrated that when CO2 is maintained above normal levels, exposure to acute continuous hypoxia also causes a sustained elevation in ventilation when normoxic breathing is resumed. • This sustained elevation in ventilation following both acute intermittent hypoxia and acute continuous hypoxia is maintained by mechanisms other than increased activity of the carotid body. • These results help develop our understanding of respiratory control in humans and may aid future development of treatments for respiratory control disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnoea.
Knowing What You Don't Know? Discourses and Contradictions in Knowledge Management Research

Even though knowledge management scholars generally advocate explicit management of knowledge, there is research that cautions against the unintended consequences of such efforts. Some researchers go as far as arguing that knowledge and management are contradictory concepts (Alvesson and Karreman, 2001). This paper explores the apparent double-edged nature of knowledge management by developing a theory-based framework that highlights different fundamental assumptions about knowledge and its management. This framework, which is an adaptation of Burrell and Morgan's four paradigms of social and organizational inquiry, distinguishes among a neo-functionalist, a constructivist, a critical and a dialogic discourse. We use the contradiction of managing tacit knowledge, which has been highlighted in the knowledge management literature, as an analytical device to explore the four discourses in more detail. We show how notions of knowledge, and what it means to manage knowledge, vary across the four discourses. We conclude that all four discourses need to be appreciated, understood and represented in knowledge management research for this area of inquiry to deal with the rich and problematic nature of managing knowledge in practice.
An analysis of two models of reflection and their implications for educational development

Reflection has become a buzzword in the education literature. Differences in the conceptualizations of reflection underlying different studies and lack of theorizing over how these frameworks relate to one another, however, can diminish the contributions such studies can make to our understanding of educational development in higher education. This article considers two models of reflection, Mezirow's (1990, 1991) theory of transformative learning and Zimmerman and Schunk's (1998) notion of self‐regulated learning, and explores how each can enhance our understanding of educational development in tertiary settings. The assumptions each theory makes about the validity of the outcomes of the reflective process are addressed. Two recent qualitative studies, each informed by one of two theories of reflection, are discussed with the goal of making a first attempt at addressing the lack of theorizing over the meaning of findings from different studies. The article concludes with concrete suggestions for future r.
Hearing in the Mind's Ear: A PET Investigation of Musical Imagery and Perception

Neuropsychological studies have suggested that imagery processes may be mediated by neuronal mechanisms similar to those used in perception. To test this hypothesis, and to explore the neural basis for song imagery, 12 normal subjects were scanned using the water bolus method to measure cerebral blood flow (CBF) during the performance of three tasks. In the control condition subjects saw pairs of words on each trial and judged which word was longer. In the perceptual condition subjects also viewed pairs of words, this time drawn from a familiar song; simultaneously they heard the corresponding song, and their task was to judge the change in pitch of the two cued words within the song. In the imagery condition, subjects performed precisely the same judgment as in the perceptual condition, but with no auditory input. Thus, to perform the imagery task correctly an internal auditory representation must be accessed. Paired-image subtraction of the resulting pattern of CBF, together with matched MRI for anatomical localization, revealed that both perceptual and imagery. tasks produced similar patterns of CBF changes, as compared to the control condition, in keeping with the hypothesis. More specifically, both perceiving and imagining songs are associated with bilateral neuronal activity in the secondary auditory cortices, suggesting that processes within these regions underlie the phenomenological impression of imagined sounds. Other CBF foci elicited in both tasks include areas in the left and right frontal lobes and in the left parietal lobe, as well as the supplementary motor area. This latter region implicates covert vocalization as one component of musical imagery. Direct comparison of imagery and perceptual tasks revealed CBF increases in the inferior frontal polar cortex and right thalamus. We speculate that this network of regions may be specifically associated with retrieval and/or generation of auditory information from memory.
Women and Male Partner-dating Violence in Nigeria

In this article we address experiences, understandings of and responses to dating violence among a small sample of abused Nigerian female university students. Dating violence broadly manifested in forms such as physical hurt, sexual harassment and emotional abuse in public and private spaces appears to be a male strategy for sustaining women's place within certain culturally defined boundaries. Women's views regarding their abuse reinforce the cultural belief that men are naturally violent and that women are sometimes to be blamed. Women's understandings of their abuse and responses to it refract the patriarchal ideologies that organise gender relations in Nigeria. Social and cultural institutions need to be repositioned to meet the challenges posed by the abuse of women by their intimate male partners.
Posterior Decompression and Fusion in Patients with Multilevel Lumbar Foraminal Stenosis: A Comparison of Segmental Decompression and Wide Decompression

STUDY DESIGN This is a prospective study. PURPOSE We compared the outcomes of segmental decompression and wide decompression in patients who had multilevel lumbar foraminal stenosis with back pain. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE Wide decompression and fusion in patients with multilevel lumbar foraminal stenosis may increase the risk of perioperative complications. METHODS From March 2005 to December 2007, this study prospectively examined 87 patients with multilevel lumbar foraminal stenosis and who were treated by segmental or wide decompression along with posterior fusion using pedicle screw fixation, and these patients could be followed-up for a minimum of 2 years. Of the 87 patients, 45 and 42 patients were assigned to the segmental decompression group (group 1) and the wide decompression group (group 2), respectively. We compared the clinical and radiological outcomes of the patients in these two groups. RESULTS There were no significant differences between groups 1 and 2 in terms of the levels of postoperative pain based on the visual analogue scale, the Oswestry Disability Score, the clinical results based on the Kirkaldy-Willis Criteria, the complication rate or the posterior fusion rate. On the other hand, the mean operating times in groups 1 and 2 were 153 ± 32 minutes and 187 ± 36 minutes, respectively (p < 0.05). The amount of blood loss during surgery and on the first postoperative day was 840 ± 236 ml and 1,040 ± 301 ml in groups 1 and 2, respectively (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that segmental decompression offers promising and reproducible clinical and radiological results for patients suffering from multilevel lumbar foraminal stenosis.
A generic resampling particle filter joint parameter estimation for electricity prices with jump diffusion

In this paper, a particle filter for parameter estimation of jump diffusion models employed for modeling electricity prices [1], [2], [3] is implemented. A jump-diffusion model [4] is investigated. The jumps have the possibility to give a better explanation of the behavior of electricity prices [5]. Introduction of the jump components however complicates parameter estimation problem by the inclusion of several new parameters [4]. These parameters will describe the jump frequency and distribution. The jump models are non-Gaussian and this increases the complexity of the models further, [4], [5]. A known filtering technique for these models is particle filter [1], [2], [3]. The performance of generic particle filter to model the jump frequency and distribution parameters has been investigated. In this paper, a preliminary study is conducted. The performance of augmented generic particle filter to model the jump frequency and distribution parameters has been analyzed for a benchmark example employed in the maximum likelihood state estimator solution of [4] and favorable results were obtained. The results are compared with bench-marking closed form solution of [4] in order to once again to highlight the contribution of the paper.
Macro-finance interactions in the US: A global perspective

The paper aims at understanding the main channels of macro-finance interaction that have featured in the US recent 'Great Recession' episode. Domestic interactions of macro and financial shocks are investigated within a global framework, allowing for spillover effects of the US crisis to other OECD countries, as well as to major emerging economies, and controlling for further feedback effects on the US economy. A total of 50 countries is investigated by means of a large-scale open economy macroeconometric model, set in the factor vector autoregressive (F-VAR) framework, over the period 1980:1-2009:1. The overall picture appears to be consistent with a boom-bust credit cycle mechanism, whereby financial factors are the triggering force of the downturn in real activity and worsened economic conditions feed back to asset prices, starting a cumulative process.
Brane cube realization of three-dimensional nonabelian orbifolds

We study D-branes on three-dimensional orbifolds 3/Γ where Γ are finite subgroups of SU(3). The quiver diagram of × SU(3) can be expressed in three-dimensional form. According to the correspondence between quiver diagrams and brane configurations, we construct a brane configuration for 3/ × which has essentially three-dimensional structrue. Brane configurations for nonabelian orbifolds 3/Δ(3n2) and 3/Δ(6n2) are obtained from that for 3/ × by certain quotienting procedure.
RAF Kinase Inhibitory Protein Expression and Phosphorylation Profiles in Oral Cancers

Raf Kinase Inhibitory Protein (RKIP) expression has been profiled for a number of unique tissue cancers. However, certain tissues have not been explored, and oral and oropharyngeal cancers stand out as high priority targets, given their relatively high incidence, high morbidity rate, and in many cases, preventable nature. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in RKIP expression and phosphorylation in tissues resected from oral cancer patients, and compare to results generated from immortalized cell lines raised from primary oral cancer tissues, including oral squamous cell carcinoma line 4 (SCC4) and human squamous cell carcinoma line 3 (HSC3). Out of 4 human samples collected from male and female patients across various ages with variable risk factors, we observed an across the board reduction in RKIP expression. Two human samples demonstrated a significant increase in phosphorylated RKIP when normalized to total RKIP, however all 4 were increased when normalized to total cellular protein. The immortalized oral cancer cell culture HSC3 revealed significant increases in phosphorylated RKIP with no change in total RKIP expression, while line SCC4 demonstrated an increase in both total and phosphorylated RKIP. Results presented here indicate that oral cancers behave similarly to other cancers in terms of changes in RKIP expression and phosphorylation, although immortalized cell line expression profiles significantly differ from human tissue biopsies.
From Cognitive Modeling to Self-Regulation: A Social Cognitive Career Path

My career path to understanding the source and nature of human learning started with an interest in social processes, especially cognitive modeling, and has led to the exploration of self-regulatory processes. My investigation of these processes has prompted the development of several social cognitive models: a triadic model that synthesized covert, behavioral, and environmental sources of personal feedback, a multilevel model of training that begins with observational learning and proceeds sequentially to self-regulation, and a cyclical phase model that depicts the interaction of metacognitive and motivational processes during efforts to learn. Empirical support for each of these models is discussed, including its implications for formal and informal forms of instruction. This self-regulation research has revealed that students who set superior goals proactively, monitor their learning intentionally, use strategies effectively, and respond to personal feedback adaptively not only attain mastery more quickly, but also are more motivated to sustain their efforts to learn. Recommendations for future research are made.