Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Family Functioning on Classroom Problem Behavior of Children With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Special Education

This study examined the relation between family functioning and classroom problem behavior of children with emotional and behavioral disorders receiving special educational support. To this end, the Teachers’ Report Form and the Family Questionnaire were completed for 84 children (M age of 9.8 years) 2 times with a time lag of 11 months. Cross-lagged path analyses showed that internalizing and externalizing problem behavior in the classroom were stable over time, just as poor family functioning. Continuity of (a) poor communication, (b) discordant partner relationship, and (c) lack of social support were strongly associated with future total problem behavior in the classroom. Furthermore, parental responsiveness to a child’s needs was associated with lower future total problem behavior. A direct association was also found between externalizing behavior in the classroom and future poor family functioning. Implications of these findings for future research and practice are discussed.
Adiponectin and Insulin Resistance in Childhood Obesity

Objectives: To measure adiponectin serum levels in Greek children and adolescents and correlate them with body fat and insulin resistance. Patients and Methods: Forty-six obese prepubertal children (19 M, 27 F) and 34 obese adolescents (17 M, 17 F) ages 9.33 ± 1.57 and 13.6 ± 1.42 years, respectively, and 43 matched control individuals were studied. Body mass index standard deviation score and percent body fat were measured by bioelectric impedance analysis. Fasting indices of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR and fasting glucose-to-insulin ratio) were calculated for all participants. Indices of insulin resistance derived from oral glucose tolerance tests were estimated in obese participants. Adiponectin was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: (Mean ± SD): Adiponectin serum levels were significantly lower in obese participants than in nonobese participants (8.11 ± 3.80 vs 11.81 ± 4.98 μg/mL, P < 0.001), in obese children than in nonobese children (8.86 ± 3.86 vs 13.08 ± 5.48 μg/mL, P < 0.001), in obese adolescents than in nonobese adolescents (7.04 ± 3.43 vs 10.47 ± 4.10 μg/mL, P = 0.002), and in obese adolescent boys than in obese adolescent girls (5.87 ± 3.52 vs 8.31 ± 3.16 μg/mL, P = 0.042). There were significant correlations between adiponectin and age, body mass index, body mass index standard deviation score, homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance, and fasting glucose-to-insulin ratio. Adiponectin correlated with percent body fat after adjustment for sex. Adiponectin correlated significantly with several indices of insulin resistance, such as the areas under the curves for glucose and insulin, whole-body insulin sensitivity index, glucose120′, and insulin30′, in obese participants. Conclusions: Adiponectin was significantly lower in obese participants than in nonobese participants in general, and it correlated significantly with fasting indices of insulin resistance and with indices derived from oral glucose tolerance tests. It is worthwhile to further investigate the option of applying a simple measurement of serum adiponectin as a screening tool before applying more time-consuming techniques in young obese individuals.
Serum Glycated Albumin Is Inversely Influenced by Fat Mass and Visceral Adipose Tissue in Chinese with Normal Glucose Tolerance

Background Recent studies have revealed that body mass index (BMI) inversely influenced serum glycated albumin (GA), which may cause an underestimation of GA-monitored short-term hyperglycemic control. Objective This study was to investigate the association between anthropometric variables (BMI and waist circumference (W)) and accurate adiposity variables (percentage of body fat (%fat), fat mass, free fat mass (FFM), subcutaneous fat area (SFA), and visceral fat area (VFA)) with serum GA. Design A total of 2563 subjects (1037 men, 593 premenopausal women, and 933 postmenopausal women) with normal glucose tolerance underwent bioelectrical impedance body fat content measurement and magnetic resonance imaging. Serum GA and absolute value of GA (aGA) were measured by enzymatic assay. Results Compared to the BMI <25.0 kg/m2 group, the BMI ≥25.0 kg/m2 group had significantly higher fasting plasma glucose, glycated hemoglobin A1c, and body fat parameters including W, %fat, fat mass, FFM, SFA, and VFA, but significantly lower aGA, and GA in all the three sex- and menopause-stratified groups (all P<0.05). GA decreased with the increment of fat mass for all three groups (all P for trend <0.001). In the same BMI category, men and postmenopausal women with elevated %fat (men, ≥25%; women, ≥35%) still had significantly lower GA than those with normal %fat (men, <25%; women, <35%) (all P<0.05). Multiple stepwise regression showed that %fat, fat mass, and VFA were independently associated with GA. Conclusions Serum GA was inversely influenced by fat mass and visceral adipose tissue in Chinese with normal glucose tolerance.
Modeling the effect of surface roughness on the performance of line tunnel FETs

Surface roughness causes random shifts in the lowest sub-band level around its ideal position. This gives rise to tail states of an otherwise step-like DOS of the 2D electron gas in the channel. These tail states cause a gradual onset of tunneling in a TFET with vertical tunnel paths and degrade the sub-threshold swing. The impact of roughness of the semiconductor/oxide interface on the transfer characteristics is analyzed in this paper. Quantum-mechanical calculations are performed on a (pseudo)-one-dimensional TFET to obtain the drain current in the presence of randomly shifted sub-band levels. It is found that, the larger the roughness amplitude, the stronger the degradation of the sub-threshold swing.
Bribes and Firm Value

I exploit the passage of the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 as a shock to U.K. firms’ cost of doing business. Around the Act’s passage, U.K. firms operating in high-corruption countries experience a drop in firm value, while their non-U.K. competitors in these countries encounter an increase. U.K. firms respond to the Act by reducing the expansion of their subsidiary network into perceptively corrupt countries. Moreover, their sales and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in such countries declines. In sum, bribes facilitate doing business in certain countries. Imposing unilateral antibribery regulations on some firms benefits their unregulated competitors.
Recovery in Multiversion Objectbase Systems

Objectbases are becoming more popular because they reflect the real world more accurately and realistically than Relational Databases. Multiversioning of object-oriented systems uses previous versions of the objects in order to enhance the performance of the transaction management. An optimistic algorithm to manage concurrent execution of the transactions in a centralized multiversion objectbase environment is presented by Hadaegh and Barker [3]. In that model each transaction obtains a copy (version) of all objects it needs to execute. If it is decided that a transaction can be committed, the associated versions become persistent objects and the transaction commits. We propose a recovery algorithm for the Hadaegh and Barker model.
Assessing psychosocial correlates of parental safety behaviour using Protection Motivation Theory: stair gate presence and use among parents of toddlers

Unintentional injury due to falls is one of the main reasons for hospitalization among children 0–4 years of age. The goal of this study was to assess the psychosocial correlates of parental safety behaviours to prevent falls from a staircase due to the lack of or the lack of adequate use of a stair gate. Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey using self-administered questionnaires mailed to a population sample of 2470 parents with toddlers. Associations between self-reported habits on the presence and use of stair gates and family and psychosocial factors were analysed, using descriptive statistics and multiple regression models, based on Protection Motivation Theory. The presence of stair gates was associated with family situation, perceived vulnerability, response efficacy, social norms and descriptive norms. The use of stair gates was associated with family situation, response efficacy, self-efficacy and perceived advantages of safe behaviour. The full model explained 32 and 24% of the variance in the presence of stair gates and the use of stair gates, respectively, indicating a large and medium effect size. Programmes promoting the presence and adequate use of stair gates should address the family situation, personal cognitive factors as well as social factors.
ROLE OF CHROMOSOMES IN CANCEROGENESIS, AS STUDIED IN SERIAL TISSUE CULTURE OF MAMMALIAN CELLS

Basing our views on observations of chromosomal behavior in cancers and following the classical views of Boveri, Winge, and others, we tend to regard the development of malignancy as a process of selection on the cellular level that favors cells with the acquired capacity of escaping the control of the host organism. The regular appearance of new karyotypes in cancer stemlines supports this view. In our opinion the significant feature in some kinds of cancerogenesis is the induction of genotypic variability. Any random genotype variation within a tissue may in time produce cells capable of neoplastic growth. Many facts indicate that the genotypic changes leading to this end are highly complex. Therefore, considerable experimentation with various genotypes will be necessary, and the transition from normal cells over precancerous to malignant cells will be floating. Natural selection within the cell population should automatically lead to cells with ever-greater independence of the host control. Because gross chromosomal disturbances and somatic segregation for chromatid and subchromatid changes will take place a t mitosis, i t is evident that any chromosomal instability will have an especially strong effect in tissues with high mitotic activity. According to this view any mutagenic agent could be carcinogenic, provided the mutagenic action is extended over many mitotic cycles. Even one single exposure to X radiation would thus have a chance to bring about this effect if a specific type of mutation is induced in either the nucleus or the cytoplasm, that is, a mutation giving a permanent increase in mutability in all cells carrying this gene. This view is compatible with the chemical induction of cancer and perhaps will turn out to be so with the viral induction and transfer of the disease. The change in environment connected with the explantation of mammalian cells from their normal position in the body into culture i l z vitro is indeed a drastic one. The fact that a high percentage of cells may survive such a change and may even start reproduction under the new conditions is good evidence of the considerable adaptability of mammalian cells. In many Cornell University Medical College, New I.ork, N . Y .
Agency-Related Barriers Experienced by Families Seeking to Adopt From Foster Care

ABSTRACT Although about 100,000 children in foster care await adoption, families approved to adopt encounter obstacles in the adoption process. This nationwide longitudinal study identified agency-related barriers faced by prospective adoptive parents. A pur-posively recruited sample of 300 families seeking to adopt from foster care completed an in-depth, semi-structured telephone interview and quarterly follow-up surveys until they either finalized a foster care adoption (n = 98) or discontinued (n = 102) the process, followed by an exit interview by telephone. Findings revealed the top barriers encountered were adoption process logistics (n = 185, 92.5%), agency communication and responsiveness (n = 159, 79.5%), agency emotional support (n = 130, 65%), availability of services (n = 65, 32.5%), and juris-dictional and interjurisdictional issues (n = 52, 26%). Policy and practice implications are provided with recommendations for improving procedures, services, support, and communication to better retain prospective adoptive parents and improve adop-tion outcomes.
Is your commute driving you crazy?: a study of misbehavior in vehicular platoons

Traffic is not only a source of frustration but also a leading cause of death for people under 35 years of age. Recent research has focused on how driver assistance technologies can be used to mitigate traffic fatalities and create more enjoyable commutes. In this work, we consider cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) or platooning, a driver assistance technology that controls the speed of vehicles and inter-vehicle spacing. CACC equipped cars use radar to fine tune inter-vehicle spacing and dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) to collaboratively accelerate and decelerate. Platooning can reduce fuel consumption by over 5% and increases the density of cars on a highway. Previous work on platooning has focused on proving string stability, which guarantees that the error between cars does not grow with the length of a platoon, but little work has considered the impact an attacker can have on a platoon. To design safe distributed controllers and networks it is essential to understand the possible attacks that could be mounted against platoons. In this work, we design a set of insider attacks and abnormal behaviors that occur in a platoon of cars. For example, we introduce the collision induction attack where an attacker exploits the platoon controller to cause a high-speed accident with the car following it. To mitigate these insider attacks we design a model-based detection scheme that leverages the broadcast nature of DSRC. Each car uses DSRC messages from other cars in the platoon to model the expected behavior of the car directly preceding it. If the expected behavior and actual behavior differ the monitoring vehicle switches to non-cooperative ACC, relying solely on radar, to mitigate the impact of the attack. We show that our detection scheme is able to detect many of our proposed insider attacks and when combined with a well designed ACC controller can avoid collisions. We propose combining our detection scheme with a global reputation scheme to detect when a car is malicious or needs maintenance.
In search of speculative thread-level parallelism

The paper focuses in the problem of how to find and effectively exploit speculative thread-level parallelism. Our studies show that speculating only on loops does not yield sufficient parallelism. We propose the use of speculative procedure execution as a means to increase the available parallelism. An additional technique, data value prediction, has the potential to greatly improve the performance of speculative execution. In particular, return value prediction improves the success of procedural speculation, and stride value prediction improves the success of loop speculation.
How Informative are SOX 404 Reports?

This study experimentally examines a random sample of 50 SOX 404 reports issued between 2004 and 2009 to determine their informativeness, as represented by their readability measured by the Fog index and understandability measured by coding errors. We hypothesize that there has been no change in informativeness over time, more experienced auditors will better comprehend SOX 404 reports, and that significant readers’ expertise is required to overcome lack of clarity in SOX 404 reports. The results indicate that the informativeness of longer reports decreased over time, which was mitigated by a decreased in their frequency. Interestingly, shorter reports are found to be more informative. Further, auditors’ understanding is affected by SOX 404 reports’ lack of readability and novices’ understanding is affected more than experts’ understanding. This finding implies that the investing public would be even more adversely affected, although we do not test this conjecture directly.
Developing Singing in Third-Grade Music Classrooms

The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of concurrent visual feedback on pitch-matching skill development in third-grade students. Participants played a computer game, SingingCoach, which scored the accuracy of their singing of the song “America. ” They followed the contour of the melody on the screen as the computer displayed a line representing their real-time vocal response. Participants could adjust their singing based on the feedback and improve their score. Music teachers (n = 30) tested their students (N = 2,021) in the fall and spring semesters and reported their scores. A correlated samples t-test showed a significant difference between students’ pretest and posttest scores, with a mean increase of more than 10 percentage points. Computer programs that offer immediate, concurrent singing feedback may help young students experience musical growth over a relatively short period of time even, perhaps, when formal musical instruction time is limited.
ERP57 Membrane Translocation Dictates the Immunogenicity of Tumor Cell Death by Controlling the Membrane Translocation of Calreticulin1

Several pieces of experimental evidence indicate the following: 1) the most efficient antitumor treatments (this principle applies on both chemotherapy and radiotherapy) are those that induce immunogenic cell death and are able to trigger a specific antitumor immune response; and 2) the immunogenicity of cell death depends very closely on the plasma membrane quantity of calreticulin (CRT), an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress protein exposed to the cell membrane after immunogenic treatment. Nevertheless, the mechanisms implicated in CRT translocation are unknown. CRT is known to interact in the ER with ERP57, another ER stress protein. I sought to determine whether ERP57 would have any role in tumor immunogenicity. In this article I report that CRT exposure is controlled by ERP57 exposure. CRT and ERP57 are translocated together in the same molecular complex. ERP57 knockdown suppressed CRT exposure as well as phagocytosis by dendritic cells and abolished the immunogenicity in vivo. Knockdown or the absence of CRT abolishes ERP57 exposure. Administration of recombinant ERP57, unlike the administration of recombinant CRT, did not restore the immunogenicity of CRT or ERP57 small interfering RNA-transfected tumor cells. Together, these studies identify ERP57 as a key protein that controls immunogenicity by controlling CRT exposure and illustrate the ability of ERP57 to serve as a new molecular marker of immunogenicity.
Guanine nucleotide binding proteins in cultured renal epithelia : studies with pertussis toxin and aldosterone

Sariban-Sohraby, Sarah, Michal Svoboda, and Frédérique Mies. Guanine nucleotide binding proteins in cultured renal epithelia: studies with pertussis toxin and aldosterone. Am. J. Physiol. 276 (Renal Physiol. 45): F10–F17, 1999. —The GTP-binding proteins from cultured A6 epithelia were examined in isolated membrane preparations. Binding of [35S]GTPgS revealed a class of binding sites with an apparent Kd value of 100 nM and a Bmax of 220 pmol/mg protein. Short-term aldosterone treatment of the cells did not modify the binding kinetics, whereas pertussis toxin (PTX) decreased Bmax by 50%. The mRNA levels for Gai-3, Ga0, Gas, and Gaq were not increased after aldosterone. The patterns of small Mr G proteins and of PTX-ribosylated proteins were identical in membranes of both control and aldosteronetreated cells. Cross-linking of [a-32P]GTP, in control membranes, showed either no labeling or a faint band of Mr 59.5 kDa. This protein became prominent after aldosterone, and its labeling decreased with spironolactone. Thus short-term aldosterone does not promote increased expression of known heterotrimeric G proteins in epithelial membranes but activates resident PTX-sensitive Gi proteins and stimulates the expression of a specific GTP-binding protein of Mr 59.5 kDa.
Canonical Wnt/β-Catenin Regulation of Liver Receptor Homolog-1 Mediates Pluripotency Gene Expression

Delineating the signaling pathways that underlie ESC pluripotency is paramount for development of ESC applications in both the research and clinical settings. In culture pluripotency is maintained by leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) stimulation of two separate signaling axes: Stat3/Klf4/Sox2 and PI3K/Tbx3/Nanog, which converge in the regulation of Oct4 expression. However, LIF signaling is not required in vivo for self‐renewal, thus alternate signaling axes likely mediate these pathways. Additional factors that promote pluripotency gene expression have been identified, including the direct regulation of Oct4 by liver receptor homolog‐1 (Lrh‐1) and β‐catenin regulation of Nanog. Here, we present genetic, molecular, and pharmacological studies identifying a signaling axis in which β‐catenin promotes pluripotency gene expression in an Lrh‐1‐dependent manner. Furthermore, Lrh‐1 was identified as a novel β‐catenin target gene, and Lrh‐1 regulation is required for maintaining proper levels of Oct4, Nanog, and Tbx3. Elucidation of this pathway provides an alternate mechanism by which the primary pluripotency axis may be regulated in vivo and may pave the way for small molecule applications to manipulate pluripotency or improve the efficiency of somatic cell reprogramming. STEM CELLS 2010;28:1794–1804
Two Heteromeric Kv1 Potassium Channels Differentially Regulate Action Potential Firing

Low-threshold voltage-gated potassium currents (ILT) activating close to resting membrane potentials play an important role in shaping action potential (AP) firing patterns. In the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB), ILT ensures generation of single APs during each EPSP, so that the timing and pattern of AP firing is preserved on transmission across this relay synapse (calyx of Held). This temporal information is critical for computation of sound location using interaural timing and level differences.ILT currents are generated by dendrotoxin-I-sensitive, Shaker-related K+ channels; our immunohistochemistry confirms that MNTB neurons express Kv1.1, Kv1.2, and Kv1.6 subunits. We used subunit-specific toxins to separate ILT into two components, each contributing approximately one-half of the total low-threshold current: (1) ILTS, a tityustoxin-Kα-sensitive current (TsTX) (known to block Kv1.2 containing channels), and (2) ILTR, an TsTX-resistant current. Both components were sensitive to the Kv1.1-specific toxin dendrotoxin-K and were insensitive to tetraethylammonium (1 mm). This pharmacological profile excludes homomeric Kv1.1 or Kv1.2 channels and is consistent withILTS channels being Kv1.1/Kv1.2 heteromers, whereas ILTR channels are probably Kv1.1/Kv1.6 heteromers. Although they have similar kinetic properties,ILTS is critical for generating the phenotypic single AP response of MNTB neurons. Immunohistochemistry confirms that Kv1.1 and Kv1.2 (ILTSchannels), but not Kv1.6, are concentrated in the first 20 μm of MNTB axons. Our results show that heteromeric channels containing Kv1.2 subunits govern AP firing and suggest that their localization at the initial segment of MNTB axons can explain their dominance of AP firing behavior.