Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minimally interactive segmentation with application to human placenta in fetal MR images

Placenta segmentation from fetal Magnetic Resonance (MR) images is important for fetal surgical planning. However, accurate segmentation results are difficult to achieve for automatic methods, due to sparse acquisition, inter-slice motion, and the widely varying position and shape of the placenta among pregnant women. Interactive methods have been widely used to get more accurate and robust results. A good interactive segmentation method should achieve high accuracy, minimize user interactions with low variability among users, and be computationally fast. Exploiting recent advances in machine learning, I explore a family of new interactive methods for placenta segmentation from fetal MR images. I investigate the combination of user interactions with learning from a single image or a large set of images. For learning from a single image, I propose novel Online Random Forests to efficiently leverage user interactions for the segmentation of 2D and 3D fetal MR images. I also investigate co-segmentation of multiple volumes of the same patient with 4D Graph Cuts. For learning from a large set of images, I first propose a deep learning-based framework that combines user interactions with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) based on geodesic distance transforms to achieve accurate segmentation and good interactivity. I then propose image-specific fine-tuning to make CNNs adaptive to different individual images and able to segment previously unseen objects. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms outperform traditional interactive segmentation methods in terms of accuracy and interactivity. Therefore, they might be suitable for segmentation of the placenta in planning systems for fetal and maternal surgery, and for rapid characterization of the placenta by MR images. I also demonstrate that they can be applied to the segmentation of other organs from 2D and 3D images.
What Makes Them Persist? Expectancy-Value Beliefs and the Math Participation, Performance, and Preparedness of Hispanic Youth

This study examined the longitudinal associations of Hispanic youths’ 9th-grade math expectancy-values and their subsequent participation (course taking and advanced course taking), performance, and preparedness (high school graduation and university eligibility) across 9th to 12th grades. Gender moderation associations of expectancy-value and participation, performance, and preparedness were evaluated. Students’ socio-demographic characteristics and previous math experiences (achievement and curricular track) were controlled. The study sample (n = 1,116) was 53% female, 46% English learner, and 84% low income. Males reported higher expectancy, interest, attainment, and cost values. Females completed more math courses and advanced courses, achieved stronger course grades, and were more likely to complete math preparation requirements for high school graduation and college. Associations of expectancy-value, and participation and performance were observed along with gender-moderated associations with preparedness. The odds of graduation preparedness were increased for females with high attainment value, whereas the odds of university preparedness were increased for males with high utility value.
The Value of an Incomplete Degree: Heterogeneity in the Labor Market Benefits of College Non-Completion

ABSTRACT Many undergraduates leave college without completing a degree or credential. Some researchers characterize this as a waste of the student’s time because (they assert) college short of a degree does not yield any advantage in the labor market. Using data for an entire cohort of students graduating high school in Texas in one year, we compare the employment and earnings years later of those who do not go beyond high school with those who enter college but do not complete a credential. Using techniques that address selection bias, we find that students with “some college” are considerably more likely to be employed fifteen years after high school graduation and tend to earn significantly more than their counterparts who do not go to college. These benefits are found across student subgroups, with low-income students, women, and students of color generally experiencing the greatest improvements in labor outcomes from college attendance. While college dropouts do not fare as well as college graduates, incomplete college nevertheless functions for many as a stepping-stone into a better labor market position.
Corporate social reporting in the Arab Spring region

Using two primary research methods (a) critical discourse analysis (CDA), and (b) semi-structured interviews, this study explores the corporate social reporting practice in the Arab Spring region. It examines how this practice is took place under the changing political, economic and political landscapes that have accompanied the event of the Arab Spring, and the role of culture in shaping this practice. Drawing on a novel theoretical framing to the accounting field the ‘Culture Toolkit’ helps the researcher to highlight the unarticulated social accounting’s nature of producing and organising lines of action in re-building an absent/ broken socio-cognitive scaffolding structure through navigating cultural patterns. Further, Culture Toolkit articulates the way in which growing community involvements in the social accounting practice shape and localise this scaffolding structure. Looking into the textual and media outcomes of this corporate social reporting practice via the lens of Wodak and Meyer (2015) CDA approach, I argue that corporate social reporting within a fluctuating context (the Arab Spring) is a philological spectrum in which Arab companies (re) produce their corporate images, representing stability and continuity. This practice deploys an intense set of linguistic strategies – argumentation, exemplification and magnification – to transform the corporate social reporting practice into a hybrid textual/ media space whereby the changes in political, economic and societal positions are justified. At a different linguistic level, the choice of words and grammar is crucial in constructing corporate social reporting topics and stakeholder engagements, and introducing new contents. Further, this study frames corporate social reporting as a practice that is operated under externalised cultural patterns, while it used to manage and shape the relations between the Arab companies and their stakeholders. Different forms of the corporate social reporting practice were motivated by the embedded cultural meanings in the region. However, exercising this practice under a socio-cognitive scaffolding that is empowered by political and economic ties strained these cultural meanings to produce and organise lines of action. Yet, a breakdown in the socio-cognitive scaffolding does not principally activate these cultural meanings but rather uncovers a reflexive practice that relies on the ideologies and vocabularies of this scaffolding. The activation of these cultural meanings comes as a result of realising the breakdown whereby the lines of action were no longer supported by this scaffolding. The study argues that Culture Toolkit theoretical framing helps the analysis to provide a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism that generates a demand for supporting cultural system to guide the social accounting practice as the old practice triggers a series of violations of expectation for the future.
The Process of Patient Engagement in Outpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation Programs

Abstract The primary aim of this study was to test the causal structure of the model of therapeutic engagement (MTE) for the first time, to examine whether the model assists in understanding the process of patient engagement in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs. This study used a prospective design, following up patients from the Gold Coast University Hospital Cardiology ward who attended Robina Cardiac Rehabilitation Clinic. A structural equation model of the interactions among the proposed variables within the three stages of the MTE (intention to engage in CR programs, CR initiation, and sustained engagement) revealed significant relationships among these variables in a dataset of 101 patients who attended a CR program. However, no relationship was discerned between outcome expectancies and patient intention to engage in CR. Patients’ willingness to consider the treatment also mediated the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and patient intention to engage in CR. These findings help clarify the process proposed by Lequerica and Kortte (2010) in the context of patient engagement in CR programs. The findings also reveal information on how patients engage in CR programs. Importantly, this provides new information for healthcare providers, enabling them to more effectively engage patients according to their stage of engagement.
Teachers’ Pedagogical Role as Mediators in Leading and Guiding Students’ Learning in Digital Storytelling (DST)

The aim of this study is to find out how the teachers lead and guide students’ learning in digital storytelling (DST). The main research question is: What is teachers’ pedagogical role in leading and guiding the students’ learning in DST? The research framework is based on Vygotsky’s mediation theory. The research project was carried out in the 2016-2017 school year. Four classes from China and two classes from Finland at the Grade 4 and Grade 5 levels participated in the study. We mainly focus on qualitative data from semi structured interviews of teachers, researchers’ classroom observations, group discussions, and teachers’ course-planning documents. The main findings are that in DST, the main activities in teachers’ pedagogical role as mediators are facilitating, coaching, and scaffolding with the pedagogical decision-making. This study illustrates what teachers did in a DST project and how they have led and guided students’ learning when using the DST pedagogical method.
Dynamic Social Interactions and Health Risk Behavior

We study risky behavior of adolescents. Concentrating on smoking and alcohol use, we structurally estimate a dynamic social interaction model in the context of students' school networks included in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The model allows for forward-looking behavior of agents, addiction effects, and social interactions in the form of preferences for conformity in the social network. We find strong evidence for forward looking dynamics and addiction effects. We also find that social interactions in the estimated dynamic model are quantitatively large. A misspecified static model would fit data substantially worse, while producing a much smaller estimate of the social interaction effect. With the estimated dynamic model, a temporary shock to students' preferences in the 10th grade has effects on their behavior in grades 10, 11, 12, with estimated social multipliers 1.53, 1.03, and 0.76, respectively. The multiplier effect of a permanent shock is much larger, up to 3.7 in grade 12. Moreover, (semi-) elasticities of a permanent change in the availability of alcohol or cigarettes at home on child risky behavior implied by the dynamic equilibrium are 25%, 63%, and 79%, in grades 10, 11, 12, respectively.
Assessing Visual Statistical Learning in Early-School-Aged Children: The Usefulness of an Online Reaction Time Measure

Visual statistical learning (VSL) was traditionally tested through offline two-alternative forced choice (2-AFC) questions. More recently, online reaction time (RT) measures and alternative offline question types have been developed to further investigate learning during exposure and more adequately assess individual differences in adults (Siegelman et al., 2017b, 2018). We assessed the usefulness of these measures for investigating VSL in early-school-aged children. Secondarily, we examined the effect of introducing a cover task, potentially affecting attention, on children’s VSL performance. Fifty-three children (aged 5–8 years) performed a self-paced VSL task containing triplets, in which participants determine the presentation speed and RTs to each stimulus are recorded. Half of the participants performed a cover task, while the other half did not. Online sensitivity to the statistical structure was measured by contrasting RTs to unpredictable versus predictable elements. Subsequently, participants completed 2-AFC (choose correct triplet) and 3-AFC (fill blank to complete triplet) offline questions. RTs were significantly longer for unpredictable than predictable elements, so we conclude that early-school-aged children are sensitive to the statistical structure during exposure, and that the RT task can measure that. We found no evidence as to whether children can perform above chance on offline 2-AFC or 3-AFC questions, or whether the cover task affects children’s VSL performance. These results show the feasibility of using an online RT task when assessing VSL in early-school-aged children. This task therefore seems suitable for future studies that aim to investigate VSL across development or in clinical populations, perhaps together with behavioral tasks.
The influence of demographic indicators on corruption perception in Slovenia

The attitude to corruption and the perception of it (as well as the acceptance or rejection of corruption) depends largely on the customs and traditions in a particular country, with the causes of corruption deriving from the political, economic, social conditions of a particular country and from the historical development, customs and culture. However, the demographic indicators must not be ignored. The existing researches thus show that the perception of corruption, at least to some extent, depends on gender (women are supposedly less corrupt and perceive corruption more; age and education). For the purpose of this article, the influence of demographic indicators (gender, age) on the perception of corruption in Slovenia was researched. The results were compared with the already known researches and it was determined that there are no statistically significant differences in the perception of corruption with regard to gender and age, which shows that Slovenia, in view of the specifics of the corruption perception (although the corruption perception is high in Slovenia), differs from other countries in which researches took place.
A SURVEY OF MEDICAL ETHICS EDUCATION IN IRAN MEDICAL FACULTIES

Despite the progresses and attentions made to ethics education in Iran, little is known about the situation of undergraduate ethics education. Therefore, we undertook a study to assess the status of medical ethics education in medical faculties of Iran. Three questionnaires were sent to 32 state medical faculties. A reminding letter was sent to the cases with no response one month later. Finally, the questionnaires were collected and the data were analyzed by SPSS. A total of twenty two out of thirty two medical schools completed the questionnaire (68%). All of the medical universities offered formal ethics education as a two-unit course. A structured (separate and distinct) ethics department, especially devoted to learning and teaching ethics existed already in six universities (27.3%), the number of teachers was five and fewer in 18 universities. Four respondents described the existence of one or two full time ethics teachers; one full-time teacher in three universities and two in one university. The majority of medical ethics teachers tended to hold MDs, there were structured and distinct curriculum for teaching ethics in eleven medical faculties. The whole findings showed good resources of ethics teaching in undergraduate ethics course in recent years, yet it is still major shortages. Efforts have to be done to establish specific departments for ethics to train qualified teachers and especially allocate enough funds for development of ethics education.
Talking about Past Experiences in Two Cultural Contexts: Children’s Narrative Structure and Maternal Elaboration in Dyads from Costa Rica and the United States

ABSTRACT Research findings: This study examined cross-cultural differences in the structure of preschoolers’ narratives, cross-cultural differences in maternal elaboration during reminiscing and the links between the two. We report evidence from middle-class, monolingual samples from Costa Rica and the United States. Results revealed that U.S. children provided more coherently sequenced narratives than Costa Rican children. We also found that Costa Rican and U.S. mothers emphasized different aspects of elaboration while reminiscing with their children. Costa Rican mothers produced significantly more open-ended questions; whereas U.S. mothers provided more pieces of new information. No relationship was found between maternal elaboration style and children’s ability to provide coherently sequenced narratives across samples. Practice or policy: Findings are discussed in light of their implications for distinct cultural models of narrative development. They highlight cross-cultural differences in narrative sequencing development that are important for educators to understand in order to provide appropriate scaffolds as children accomplish milestones toward later literacy acquisition.
Climbing Fibers Provide Graded Error Signals in Cerebellar Learning

The cerebellum plays a critical role in coordinating and learning complex movements. Although its importance has been well recognized, the mechanisms of learning remain hotly debated. According to the classical cerebellar learning theory, depression of parallel fiber synapses instructed by error signals from climbing fibers, drives cerebellar learning. The uniqueness of long-term depression (LTD) in cerebellar learning has been challenged by evidence showing multi-site synaptic plasticity. In Purkinje cells, long-term potentiation (LTP) of parallel fiber synapses is now well established and it can be achieved with or without climbing fiber signals, making the role of climbing fiber input more puzzling. The central question is how individual Purkinje cells extract global errors based on climbing fiber input. Previous data seemed to demonstrate that climbing fibers are inefficient instructors, because they were thought to carry “binary” error signals to individual Purkinje cells, which significantly constrains the efficiency of cerebellar learning in several regards. In recent years, new evidence has challenged the traditional view of “binary” climbing fiber responses, suggesting that climbing fibers can provide graded information to efficiently instruct individual Purkinje cells to learn. Here we review recent experimental and theoretical progress regarding modulated climbing fiber responses in Purkinje cells. Analog error signals are generated by the interaction of varying climbing fibers inputs with simultaneous other synaptic input and with firing states of targeted Purkinje cells. Accordingly, the calcium signals which trigger synaptic plasticity can be graded in both amplitude and spatial range to affect the learning rate and even learning direction. We briefly discuss how these new findings complement the learning theory and help to further our understanding of how the cerebellum works.
The Impact of Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences International Programs on Student Motivation for Continuing College and Student Engagement in the Classroom

Colleges aim to increase student achievement, which has been linked to motivation and engagement, as well as increase global partnerships. There is also an increasing demand from students for international programs (IPs) that prepare them to be global citizens. This study aimed to compare student motivation for continuing college and student engagement in the classroom before and after an IP. Students who participated in a Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences IP between January 2018 and August 2018 were surveyed prior to, and two weeks and three months post-program participation (n = 24). The instrument had 51 Likert-scale questions and nine demographic questions. The majority of respondents were female (83.3%, n = 20) and all grade classifications were represented. There was a decrease in intrinsic motivation from before-IP to three-months post-IP and two-weeks post-IP to threemonths post-IP. There was also a decrease in emotional engagement from pre-IP to three-month post-IP and a decrease in skills engagement from two-weeks post IP. No significant differences were detected for the other six motivation constructs or two engagement constructs. These data provide insight into the impacts of IPs on student motivation and engagement. Additional quantitative studies regarding student motivation and engagement, specifically intrinsic motivation, skills engagement, and emotional engagement are, warranted in regard to IPs. Furthermore, it would be possible to follow this study with qualitative research to determine if students identified specific classroom techniques or post-IP practices that could be implemented to combat the decreases in intrinsic motivation, skills engagement, and emotional engagement
Beyond Two Minds: Cognitive, Embodied, and Evaluative Processes in Creativity

Scholars in sociology and social psychology typically represent creativity as an imaginative and deliberate mental activity. Such a perspective has led to a view of creativity as disconnected from the body and the senses as well as from nonanalytic cognition. In this article, we demonstrate that creativity is more grounded in bodily and sensory experience and more reliant on a combination of cognitive processes than has been typically recognized. We use literature on social cognition and embodiment to build our arguments, specifically, the embodied simulation perspective and tripartite process models. We draw from data on elite chefs to show how actors rely on embodied simulations, continually switch between heuristic and analytical thinking, and monitor and control their cognitive processing during the creative process. We outline the implications of this study for the understanding of creativity and extant models of cognition and action more generally.
How to Motivate Employees’ Environmental Citizenship Behavior through Perceived Interpersonal Circle Power? A New Perspective from Chinese Circle Culture

Employees’ spontaneous environmental citizenship behavior (ECB) is a key factor in facilitating the low-carbon transition of enterprises. However, little research has focused on the impact of interpersonal interactions on ECB. To explore how ECB is affected by special interpersonal circles in Chinese organizations, we propose a new concept: perceived interpersonal circle power (PICP). From the two dimensions of PICP, leader-oriented perceived interpersonal circle power (PICP-L) and colleague-oriented perceived interpersonal circle power (PICP-C), we establish a mechanism model to explore the effect of PICP on ECB. A structural equation model was used to test our hypotheses through 332 questionnaires, and the results show that PICP-L and PICP-C differ significantly in the directions and strengths of their effects on ECB. PICP-C has a direct positive driving effect on environmental engagement behavior (EEB) and environmental helping behavior (EHB). High PICP-C can also encourage EEB via affective organizational commitment (AOC). Conversely, PICP-L has no significant effect on EEB. More unexpectedly, PICP-L has a significant negative influence on EHB. This study provides a new direction for future theoretical research on ECB, as well as a new opportunity for policy-making and enterprise management practices to promote employees’ ECB.