Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of a short biostatistics course on knowledge and performance of postgraduate scholars: Implications for training of African doctors and biomedical researchers.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This study was designed to evaluate the impact of a short biostatistics course on knowledge and performance of statistical analysis by biomedical researchers in Africa. It is recognized that knowledge of biostatistics is essential for understanding and interpretation of modern scientific literature and active participation in the global research enterprise. Unfortunately, it has been observed that basic education of African scholars may be deficient in applied mathematics including biostatistics. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty university affiliated biomedical researchers from South Africa volunteered for a 4-day short-course where participants were exposed to lectures on descriptive and inferential biostatistics and practical training on using a statistical software package for data analysis. A quantitative questionnaire was used to evaluate participants' statistical knowledge and performance pre- and post-course. Changes in knowledge and performance were measured using objective and subjective criteria. Data from completed questionnaires were captured and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Participants' pre- and post-course data were compared using nonparametric Wilcoxon signed ranks tests for nonnormally distributed variables. A P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS Baseline testing of statistical knowledge showed a median score of 0, with 75th percentile at 28.6%, and a maximum score of 71.4%. Postcourse evaluation revealed improvement in participants' core knowledge with the median score increasing to 28.5%; and the 75th percentile score to 85.7%; signifying improved understanding of statistical concepts and ability to carry out data analyses. CONCLUSIONS This study just showed poor baseline knowledge of biostatistics among postgraduate scholars and health science researchers in this cohort and highlights the potential benefits of short-courses in biostatistics to improve the knowledge and skills of biomedical researchers and scholars in Africa.
Considering personality type in adult learning: Using the Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator in instructor preparation at PricewaterhouseCoopers

This article explores the feasibility of using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as a framework for instructor development in a professional services training environment. It explores the consistency of MBTI with common adult learning theory, addresses questions on MBTI's reliability and validity, and explores the applicability of MBTI to the training environment at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a global accounting and consultancy firm.
'The Value of Civility?'

This essay argues for civility's vital place in contemporary urban life. Contrary to many critics who see civility as a conservative or nostalgic virtue deployed to repress difference and frustrate social change, it is argued that civility should be understood as democratic, pluralistic and premised on a sense of moral equality. Civility's most obvious contribution is functional-in easing social conflicts and facilitating social interactions in a complex and diverse market society. However, there is also and maybe more importantly an intrinsic moral value to civility. Observing the formal conditions of civility is one of the ways in which we communicate respect for others and generate habits of moral equality in the everyday life of a democracy.
Need for Cognition and Expectations as Determinants of Affective Experience

The Affective Expectation Model (AEM; Wilson, T. D., Lisle, D. J., Kraft, D., & Wetzel, C. G. (1989). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 519-530) proposes that expectations can generate both assimilation and contrast effects in affective experience. Specifically, when an experience is inconsistent with an affective expectation, and that discrepancy is noticed, the model predicts that affective reactions will be contrasted with the expectation. When the discrepancy is not noticed, it is anticipated that affective reactions will be assimilated toward the expectation. These studies examine the possibility that such assimilation and contrast effects in affective experience are moderated by individual differences in need for cognition. In two experiments, individuals varying in their level of need for cognition were asked to watch one of the two relatively unfunny film clips. We predicted that, when given a positive expectation for the film clip, individuals high in need for cognition would detect the discrepancy and contrast their affective reactions. Conversely, it was predicted that, in this same situation, individuals low in need for cognition would overlook the discrepancy and assimilate their affective reactions to the positive expectation. The results of both experiments supported these predictions and supplied further evidence for the AEM. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
MILEAGE: Multiple Instance LEArning with Global Embedding

Multiple Instance Learning (MIL) generally represents each example as a collection of instances such that the features for local objects can be better captured, whereas traditional methods typically extract a global feature vector for each example as an integral part. However, there is limited research work on investigating which of the two learning scenarios performs better. This paper proposes a novel framework - Multiple Instance LEArning with Global Embedding (MILEAGE), in which the global feature vectors for traditional learning methods are integrated into the MIL setting. Within the proposed framework, a large margin method is formulated to adaptively tune the weights on the two different kinds of feature representations (i.e., global and multiple instance) for each example and trains the classifier simultaneously. An extensive set of experiments are conducted to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method.
Left Anterior Prefrontal Activation Increases with Demands to Recall Specific Perceptual Information

Results from neuroimaging studies have led to competing theories regarding the contributions of prefrontal regions to memory formation and retrieval. To investigate this issue, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess prefrontal activation during encoding and retrieval of pictures of objects. Responses to studied and unstudied objects at retrieval were compared between two tests with differing demands for the specificity of information to be retrieved (source vs old-new recognition). Results showed that bilateral ventral [Brodmann's areas (BA) 44, 45, and 47] and right dorsal (BA 9) prefrontal regions were activated during both encoding and retrieval, but activity in these regions was not reliably modulated by the specificity of information to be retrieved. A region in left anterior prefrontal cortex (BA 10/46) was reliably activated during retrieval trials, and activation in this region increased with demands to retrieve perceptually detailed information about studied objects. Our results show that left anterior prefrontal cortex is engaged during the monitoring and evaluation of specific memory characteristics at retrieval-a process critical for accurate episodic remembering.
Vocational Interests and Career Efficacy Expectations in Relation to Occupational Sex-Typing Beliefs for Eighth Grade Students

Following the recommendations of Lent, Brown and Hackett's Social Cognitive Career Theory (2000), we measured eighth grade boys' and girls' perception of the proportion of men and women employed in occupations and their level of interest and self-efficacy for those occupations. Results indicated that eighth grade boys and girls expressed stronger career interest in and higher self-efficacy for those occupations that they rated as employing more of their own gender. The study highlights how career practitioners can work with adolescents to widen their perceived range of occupational choices.
Leak Detection, Size Estimation and Localization in Pipe Flows

We design a leak detection system consisting of an adaptive observer based on a set of two coupled one dimensional first order hyperbolic partial differential equations governing the flow dynamics. It is assumed that measurements are only available at the inlet and outlet of the pipe. Convergence properties are provided showing that the leak size estimation problem can be tackled independently from how the leak is distributed along the pipe. This is key to obtaining a simple estimation scheme for the leak location. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the ability of the system to detect, quantify and locate leaks.
The evolution of the Victorian art school

This article seeks to document the architectural history of the Victorian art school type, beginning with the search for a home for the Government School of Design following its expulsion from Somerset House, to the construction of purpose-built studios behind the new museum complex of ‘Albertopolis’ in South Kensington, and finally to its proliferation through the major industrial cities of Britain where the most significant examples of the type would be realised. Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow Schools of Art reveal an unprecedented concern for the design of an ideal internal environment in the context of the polluted industrial Victorian city. These buildings were symbols of the possibility for the diffusion of art culture in a rapidly transforming society. The art school embraced the architectural potential to be found in the synthesis of the functional requirement for the provision of plentiful light and air, with the desire for an appropriate formal expression for a new kind of public building (supported by local rates), properly fit for its place in the civic heart of the city.
Usenix Association 10th Usenix Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (nsdi '13) 473 Demystifying Page Load Performance with Wprof

Web page load time is a key performance metric that many techniques aim to reduce. Unfortunately, the complexity of modern Web pages makes it difficult to identify performance bottlenecks. We present WProf, a lightweight in-browser profiler that produces a detailed dependency graph of the activities that make up a page load. WProf is based on a model we developed to capture the constraints between network load, page parsing , JavaScript/CSS evaluation, and rendering activity in popular browsers. We combine WProf reports with critical path analysis to study the page load time of 350 Web pages under a variety of settings including the use of end-host caching, SPDY instead of HTTP, and the mod pagespeed server extension. We find that computation is a significant factor that makes up as much as 35% of the critical path, and that synchronous JavaScript plays a significant role in page load time by blocking HTML parsing. Caching reduces page load time, but the reduction is not proportional to the number of cached objects, because most object loads are not on the critical path. SPDY reduces page load time only for networks with high RTTs and mod pagespeed helps little on an average page.
College Choice In America

The most crucial choice a high school graduate makes is whether to attend college or to go to work. Here is the most sophisticated study of the complexities behind that decision. Based on a unique data set of nearly 23,000 seniors from more than 1,300 high schools who were tracked over several years, the book treats the following questions in detail: Who goes to college? Does low family income prevent some young people from enrolling, or does scholarship aid offset financial need? How important are scholastic aptitude scores, high school class rank, race, and socioeconomic background in determining college applications and admissions? Do test scores predict success in higher education? Using the data from the National Longitudinal Study of the Class of 1972, the authors present a set of interrelated analyses of student and institutional behavior, each focused on a particular aspect of the process of choosing and being chosen by a college. Among their interesting findings: most high school graduates would be admitted to some four-year college of average quality, were they to apply; applicants do not necessarily prefer the highest-quality school; high school class rank and SAT scores are equally important in college admissions; federal scholarship aid has had only a small effect on enrollments at four-year colleges but a much stronger effect on attendance at two-year colleges; the attention paid to SAT scores in admissions is commensurate with the power of the scores in predicting persistence to a degree. This clearly written book is an important source of information on a perpetually interesting topic.
Do Male Mice Prefer or Avoid Each Other's Company? Influence of Hierarchy, Kinship, and Familiarity

In the laboratory, individual housing of male mice who otherwise show aggression is common practice. Because mice are a social species, the question arises whether this procedure is right from the animals' point of view. This study tested the preference of subordinate animals for their dominant cagemate, and vice versa, and the preference of subordinate animals for an unknown subordinate partner. Experiments that allowed male mice with different histories to choose either an inhabited or an empty cage have shown that the mice preferred the proximity of another male over individual housing. No differences in this respect were found between dominant and subordinate males, or between littermates and nonlittermates. The preference was most obvious when mice who were previously housed together were tested. The study concludes that separation and single housing for mice are not attractive solutions for overcoming aggression in group-housed male mice and that alternative approaches, such as improving the housing conditions, should be explored as a way of tempering intermale aggression.
The Value of Increased Heterozygosity in Dairy Cattle

Today mating decisions are mostly based on pedigree information. However, genomic information could be used to minimize inbreeding or increase heterozygosity in mating decisions, because it contributes with more information on the expected heterozygosity (He) than pedigree information. The underlying hypothesis is that the more heterozygous the offspring of a mating is, the larger the dominance effect and less inbreeding depression in purebred offspring. The purpose of this study was to estimate the size of He using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker information and further the effect of increased heterozygosity on milk, fat and protein yield in Holstein (HOL), Red Dairy Cattle (RDC) and Jersey (JER) cows. He was calculated SNP by SNP for all couples of genotyped parents. Genome-wide He was calculated as the mean heterozygosity over all the SNPs. Data from 5,423 HOL, 2,245 RDC and 5,975 JER genotyped cows born between 2015 and 2017, which all had parents with GEBV were analyzed. The mean He levels were 0.328 for HOL, 0.336 for RDC and 0.308 for JER with standard deviations between 0.007 and 0.008. Results showed a significant effect of He on milk, fat and protein for all breeds. For HOL, a 1%-point increase in He corresponds to an increase in 305 days yield of 122 kg milk, 3.7 kg fat and 3.7 kg protein. For RDC the effect was 99 kg milk, 2.9 kg fat and 2.9 kg protein per heterozygosity percentage point. For JER the effect was 42 kg milk, 3.2 kg fat and 1.8 kg protein per heterozygosity percentage point. This indicates that it could be beneficial to include He in the mating plan decisions.
The education of hydrologists (Report of an IAHS/UNESCO Panel on hydrological education)

The education of hydrologists (Report of an IAHS/ UNESCO Panel on hydrological education) J. E. NASH , P. S. EAGLESON , J. R. PHILIP , W. H. VAN DER MOLEN & V. Klemeš To cite this article: J. E. NASH , P. S. EAGLESON , J. R. PHILIP , W. H. VAN DER MOLEN & V. Klemeš (1990) The education of hydrologists (Report of an IAHS/UNESCO Panel on hydrological education), Hydrological Sciences Journal, 35:6, 597-607, DOI: 10.1080/02626669009492466 To link to this article: http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/02626669009492466
The importance of ‘strategic chat time’ for people who are blind or low vision

This article discusses the importance of ‘strategic chat time’ for the integration of blind and low vision (B/LV) employees. Strategic chat time refers to social time not related to workplace business such as lunch, breaks, and informal social activities, where employees build relationships and assimilate into the company’s culture. This study examined barriers B/LV employees experienced and strategies used in getting to know colleagues, developing friendships, and networking for career advancement. This qualitative research study was based on data gathered for a dissertation at the University of Toronto. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 B/LV employees in Canada. Valuable insights were discovered regarding coping strategies used by B/LV employees to access the social arena. Strategies ranged from avoidance to active intervention. Thematic analysis was used to identify four categories for the reported strategies, namely, passive, resourceful, receptive, and proactive. These strategies reveal strong motivation to engage in the social arena and achieve social acceptance. Further research is warranted on the benefits of ‘strategic chat time’.
Renal Kallikrein and Hemodynamic Abnormalities of Diabetic Kidney

The relationship between renal hemodynamic abnormalities and renal kallikrein activity was studied in streptozocin-induced diabetic rats. Diabetic rats were either not treated with insulin and had plasma glucose levels >400 mg/dl (severely hyperglycemic diabetic [MD]) or were treated with 1.5–1.75 U/day protamine zinc insulin and had glucose levels of 200–300 mg/dl (moderately hyperglycemic diabetic [MD]). In SD rats, kidney tissue level and excretion of active kallikrein were reduced after 3 wk compared with age-matched nondiabetic control rats (tissue, 11.7 ± 1.9 vs. 20.5 ± 1.8 ng/mg protein, P <0.005; urine, 126 ± 12vs. 179 ± 10 μg/24 h, P <0.05). Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was not significantly lower (2.77 ± 0.60vs. 3.02 ± 0.56 ml/min). In MD rats, kidney tissue level and excretion of active kallikrein were increased after 5 wk compared with age-matched nondiabetic control rats (tissue, 28.4 ± 1.3 vs. 23.3 ± 1.7 ng/mg protein, P < 0.05; urine, 289 ± 16 vs. 196 ± 13μg/24 h, P < 0.001). In MD rats, GFR and RPF were increased (3.80 ± 0.11 and 8.04 ± 0.17 ml/min, respectively) compared with control rats (3.22 ± 0.05 and 7.28 ± 0.09 ml/min, P < 0.001). Treatment of MD rats with a kallikrein inhibitor reduced GFR and RPF to levels similar to those of nondiabetic control rats. With recent evidence that kallikrein and kinins have a renal paracrine role in regulating vascular resistance, our findings suggest that altered kallikrein activity may contribute to the renal hemodynamic and filtration abnormalities in diabetes.
An Analysis of Relationship between Remittances and In fl ation in Pakistan

Remittances play a signifi cant role in the economic development of recipient economy through different micro and macroeconomic channels. However, the adverse impact of remittances in the form of Dutch disease and infl ation cannot be overlooked. This study aims to examine the impact of remittance on infl ation and its different categories, namely, food infl ation, footwear and textile infl ation, housing and construction infl ation. Accordingly, four vectors have been formulized to capture the determinants of overall infl ation and its different categories with particular focus on remittances. The study employed Johansen (1990) and Johansen & Juselius (1990) cointegration technique to check the existence of long run relationship between remittances and infl ation. Vector Error Correction technique is further applied to examine the extent and direction of relationship between variables and to check the stability of models. The results indicated the existence of one cointegrated vector for all equations. Moreover, remittances, money supply and real per capita income are found to have positive impact on infl ation and its different categories. The results revealed that among different infl ation categories food infl ation is most effected and housing & construction infl ation is least effected by remittances. Budget defi cit is signifi cant in reducing foot wear and textile infl ation only. On the other hand trade openness is effective in reducing all types of infl ation by same magnitude and strength. Given the infl ationary nature of remittances it becomes necessary for government o channelize the remitted funds into productive investment to avoid surge in demand pull infl ation.
Choroidal neovascularisation in children

Choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) is a rare but important cause of visual impairment in children. There have been considerable recent advances in our understanding of both the pathogenesis and the management of this sight-threatening complication. New treatment modalities for these neovascular lesions make early recognition very important for timely management and preservation of vision. This review highlights the causes and current management options available for this condition in children.
An Investigation into English as a Foreign Language Listening Anxiety among Taiwanese Senior High School Students

This study aimed to explore the differences between genders as well as the proficiency differences of students who experienced English writing anxiety at a senior high school in Taiwan. The participants were 108 randomly selected students at a senior high school in Taiwan. An English writing anxiety questionnaire was adopted for data collection. The results have shown that students attributed the causes of anxiety of the fear of writing as time constraint, the fear of evaluation, a lack of writing motivation and interest, as well as peer pressure. The results showed there was no significant difference between male and female students in terms of their English writing anxieties in this study. On the contrary, the results showed there was a significant difference between two different proficiency groups in terms of their English writing anxieties. On the average, lower level writing proficiency group students had higher English writing anxieties than higher level writing proficiency group students.
Random mutagenesis screen for dominant behavioral mutations in mice.

Large-scale mutagenesis and screening for altered phenotypes have been used effectively in many (lower) model organisms to identify mutations in genes that control biological processes. In the mouse, the cost of maintaining the large breeding colonies necessary to screen for recessive mutations makes it important to consider alternate approaches such as region-specific saturation mutagenesis or screening for mutations with a dominant mode of inheritance. In this article, a pilot screen for (semi)dominant visible and behavioral mutations in the mouse induced by a potent chemical mutagen, N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU), is described. An efficient protocol for ENU mutagenesis and strain-specific differences in the effect of mutagen on the sterility period and long-term survival are reported. In addition to a description of the screen for abnormal circadian wheel running activity that was used previously, the suitability of a high-throughput screen of mutagenized progeny in the Porsolt swim test, used to test the efficacy of antidepressant agents, and in the prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response, used to detect anomalies in sensorimotor gating, is tested. By demonstrating strain specific differences and prescreening 100 G1 progeny of mutagenized males, the feasibility of using these behavioral assays for a large-scale screen is illustrated. In this review, details of a mutagenesis screen for behavioral abnormalities are described and issues important in the initial characterization of novel ENU-induced mutations are considered.