Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Instrumental Technique, Expressivity, and Communication. A Qualitative Study on Learning Music in Individual and Collective Settings

In this paper, we present a qualitative study comparing individual and collective music pedagogies from the point of view of the learner. In doing so, we discuss how the theoretical tools of embodied cognitive science (ECS) can provide adequate resources to capture the main properties of both contexts. We begin by outlining the core principles of ECS, describing how it emerged in response to the information-processing approach to mind, which dominated the cognitive sciences for the latter half of the 20th century. We then consider the orientation offered by ECS and its relevance for music education. We do this by identifying overlapping principles between three tenets of ECS, and three aspects of pedagogical practice. This results in the categories of “instrumental technique,” “expressivity,” and “communication,” which we adopted to examine and categorize the data emerging from our study. In conclusion, we consider the results of our study in light of ECS, discussing what implications can emerge for concrete pedagogical practices in both individual and collective settings.
Evidence of Aquaporin 4 Regulation by Thyroid Hormone During Mouse Brain Development and in Cultured Human Glioblastoma Multiforme Cells

Accumulating evidence indicates that thyroid function and the thyroid hormones L-thyroxine (T4) and L-triiodothyronine (T3) are important factors contributing to the improvement of various pathologies of the central nervous system, including stroke, and various types of cancer, including glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Low levels of T3 are correlated with the poorest outcome of post-stroke brain function, as well as an increased migration and proliferation of GBM tumor cells. Thyroid hormones are known to stimulate maturation and brain development. Aquaporin 4 (AQP4) is a key factor mediating the cell swelling and edema that occurs during ischemic stroke, and plays a potential role in the migration and proliferation of GBM tumor cells. In this study, as a possible therapeutic target for GBM, we investigated the potential role of T3 in the expression of AQP4 during different stages of mouse brain development. Pregnant mice at gestational day 18, or young animals at postnatal days 27 and 57, received injection of T3 (1 μg/g) or NaOH (0.02 N vehicle). The brains of mice sacrificed on postnatal days 0, 30, and 60 were perfused with 4% paraformaldehyde and sections were prepared for immunohistochemistry of AQP4. AQP4 immunofluorescence was measured in the mouse brains and human GBM cell lines. We found that distribution of AQP4 was localized in astrocytes of the periventricular, subpial, and cerebral parenchyma. Newborn mice treated with T3 showed a significant decrease in AQP4 immunoreactivity followed by an increased expression at P30 and a subsequent stabilization of aquaporin levels in adulthood. All GBM cell lines examined exhibited significantly lower AQP4 expression than cultured astrocytes. T3 treatment significantly downregulated AQP4 in GBM-95 cells but did not influence the rate of GBM cell migration measured 24 h after treatment initiation. Collectively, our results showed that AQP4 expression is developmentally regulated by T3 in astrocytes of the cerebral cortex of newborn and young mice, and is discretely downregulated in GBM cells. These findings indicate that higher concentrations of T3 thyroid hormone would be more suitable for reducing AQP4 in GBM tumorigenic cells, thereby resulting in better outcomes regarding the reduction of brain tumor cell migration and proliferation.
Exploiting Linguistic Knowledge in Lexical and Compositional Semantic Models

Exploiting Linguistic Knowledge in Lexical and Compositional Semantic Models Tong Wang Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Computer Science University of Toronto 2016 A fundamental principle in distributional semantic models is to use similarity in linguistic environment as a proxy for similarity in meaning. Known as the distributional hypothesis, the principle has been successfully applied to many areas in natural language processing. As a proxy, however, it also suffers from critical limitations and exceptions, many of which are the result of the overly simplistic definitions of the linguistic environment. In this thesis, I hypothesize that the quality of distributional models can be improved by carefully incorporating linguistic knowledge into the definition of linguistic environment. The hypothesis is validated in the context of three closely related semantic relations, namely near-synonymy, lexical similarity, and polysemy. On the lexical level, the definition of linguistic environment is examined under three different distributional frameworks including lexical co-occurrence, syntactic and lexicographic dependency, and taxonomic structures. Firstly, combining kernel methods and lexical level co-occurrence with matrix factorization is shown to be highly effective in capturing the fine-grained nuances among near-synonyms. Secondly, syntactic and lexicographic information is shown to result in notable improvement in lexical embedding learning when evaluated in lexical similarity benchmarks. Thirdly, for taxonomybased measures of lexical similarity, the intuitions for using structural features such as depth and density are examined and challenged, and the refined definitions are shown to improve correlation between the features and human judgements of similarity as well as performances of similarity measures using these features.
Seasonal dynamics of macronutrients in aboveground biomass of two herb-layer species in a beech forest

The content of six macronutrients (N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg) in the aboveground biomass of two forest plants representing different life forms (Carex pilosa, a hemicryptophyte, and Dentaria bulbifera, a geophyte) was analysed in relation to selected phenological phases. The ability of the plants to accumulate nutrients from the soil into the biomass was studied using transfer coefficients (TCs). Additionally, we examined the temporal changes in nutrient ratios for both species. The study was performed in a beech ecosystem in central Slovakia (Kremnické vrchy Mountains). The content of available nutrients in the soil (Eutric Cambisol) decreased as follows: N > Ca > S > Mg > K > P. A higher ability to accumulate all elements into the biomass was found for Dentaria bulbifera in comparison to Carex pilosa. We found different patterns of nutrient accumulation between Dentaria bulbifera (N > K > S > Ca > Mg > P) and Carex pilosa (K > N > Ca > S > Mg > P). Temporal changes in the content of nutrients were more noticeable in Dentaria bulbifera, especially for N, S and P – the content of these nutrients diminished. On the other hand, the content of K and Ca in Carex pilosa rose over time. For both species, the highest TC was detected in the case of P and K. Clear temporal variability was also revealed in some nutrient ratios, e.g., [N:K] and [Ca:P]. We confirmed that the nutrient content, nutrient ratio and transfer of macronutrients from the soil to plant biomass vary throughout the growing season in relation to the phenological phases of the plants. Similarly, the dynamics of both nutrient content and the accumulation of macronutrients in the biomass are related to the life form of the plant.
Genomic and physiological analyses reveal that extremely thermophilic Caldicellulosiruptor changbaiensis deploys unique cellulose attachment mechanisms

The genus Caldicellulosiruptor are extremely thermophilic, heterotrophic anaerobes that degrade plant biomass using modular, multifunctional enzymes. Prior pangenome analyses determined that this genus is genetically diverse, with the current pangenome remaining open, meaning that new genes are expected with each additional genome sequence added. Given the high biodiversity observed among the genus Caldicellulosiruptor, we have sequenced and added a 14th species, Caldicellulosiruptor changbaiensis, to the pangenome. The pangenome now includes 3,791 ortholog clusters, 120 of which are unique to C. changbaiensis and may be involved in plant biomass degradation. Comparisons between C. changbaiensis and Caldicellulosiruptor bescii on the basis of growth kinetics, cellulose solubilization and cell attachment to polysaccharides highlighted physiological differences between the two species which are supported by their respective gene inventories. Most significantly, these comparisons indicated that C. changbaiensis possesses unique cellulose attachment mechanisms not observed among the other strongly cellulolytic members of the genus Caldicellulosiruptor.
Visual urban sensing : understanding cities through computer vision

This thesis introduces computer vision algorithms that harness street-level imagery to conduct automated surveys of the built environment and populations at an unprecedented resolution and scale. We introduce new tools for computing quantitative measures of urban appearance and urban change. First, we describe Streetscore, an algorithm that quantifies how safe a street block looks to a human observer, using computer vision and crowdsourcing. We extend this work with an efficient convolutional neural network-based method that is capable of computing several perceptual attributes of the built environment from thousands of cities from all six inhabited continents. Second, we introduce a computer vision algorithm to compute Streetchange-a metric for change in the built environment-from time-series street-level imagery. A positive Streetchange is indicative of urban growth; while negative Streetchange is indicative of decay. We use these tools to introduce new datasets. We use the Streetscore algorithm to generate the largest dataset of urban appearance to date, which covers more than 1 million street blocks from 21 American cities. We use the Streetchange algorithm to also generate a dataset for urban change containing more than 1.5 million street blocks from five large American cities. These datasets have enabled research studies across fields such as economics, sociology, architecture, urban planning, and public health. We utilize these datasets to provide new insights on important research questions. With the dataset on urban appearance, we show that criminal activity has a robust positive correlation with the spatial variation in architecture within neighborhoods. With the dataset on urban change, we show that positive urban change occurs in geographically and physically attractive areas with dense, highly-educated populations. Taken together, the tools, datasets, and insights described in this thesis demonstrate that computer vision-driven surveys of people and places have the potential to massively scale up studies in social science, to change the way cities are built, and to improve the design, execution, and evaluation of policy and aid interventions.
Adaptive Rate Control based on Collision and Frame Aggregation Awareness

The innovative advances in mobile technologies have facilitated remarkable growth in the use of mobile devices such as smart phones, e-book readers, and tablet PCs. Since a significant amount of wireless traffic is generated from these devices, the shared channel medium may suffer from serious mutual interference. In addition, various kinds of fading weaken the stability of channel quality. Though IEEE 802.11 standards specify an available set of transmission rates as one of the approaches to accommodate channel dynamics, they do not discuss in detail when and how to use them. Rate Adaptation (RA) algorithms try to solve this decision problem by determining the most appropriate data rate for the instantaneous wireless channel condition. The primary focus of Rate Adaptation studies for legacy standards such as IEEE 802.11 a/b/g has been on when to increase/decrease transmission rates or how to differentiate between collision-induced loss and channel disorder-induced error. However, with the advent of novel Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), Channel Bonding, and Frame Aggregation/Block Acknowledgement technologies, it has become possible to enable Gigabit connectivity in wireless communication. At the same time, these new technologies add a new dimension of problems with rate adaptation. Even though much research has attempted to address the non-monotonic relationship [1] between data rate and throughput via exploring MIMO technology or by identifying the usability of another channel space for bonding [2], little research has analyzed the impact of Frame Aggregation. This paper begins by surveying existing research on Rate Adaptation (RA) algorithms. A wide range of RAs are introduced and classified based on various design factors. Secondly, a new RA scheme called RACD (Rate Adaptation with Collision Differentiation) is presented. RACD is capable of differentiating the reasons for packet errors by using
How Therapists Change : What motivates therapists towards integration ?

Many therapists embrace an integrative perspective in their practice. The aim of this study is to explore what motivates therapists’ development towards integration. To answer this question, 15 integrative therapists’ autobiographic narratives published in Goldfried (2005) were analyzed using grounded theory analytic procedures. The analysis resulted in the description of six motivational categories: Empiricism, Scientific Attitude, Therapeutic Humility, Perceived Inefficacy, Need to Comprehend, and Striving for Congruence. These categories are discussed in relation to previous studies on therapist development and theoretical orientation choice. Generally, the results support the idea that therapists develop their own personal therapeutic approaches which not only reflect recent research findings and demands of the therapeutic situation, but also their own personal needs and desires.
The Impact of FDI on Poverty Reduction : A Review of the Theoretical Literature

This paper provides a detailed survey of the literature on the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on poverty reduction, outlining the theoretical and empirical relationship between these variables. Although a number of studies have been done on the impact of FDI on poverty reduction, the majority of these studies have focused on the indirect impact of FDI on poverty reduction. The bulk of the literature reviewed supports the positive effects of foreign direct investment on poverty reduction, although a few studies have also found foreign direct investment to have an adverse or insignificant effect on poverty reduction. This study differs fundamentally from previous studies in that it focuses on the direct impact of FDI on poverty reduction, giving a detailed review of the nature of this relationship.
University of Dundee Trial-by-trial covariation of pre-stimulus EEG alpha power and visuospatial bias reflects a mixture of stochastic and deterministic effects

Human perception of perithreshold stimuli critically depends on oscillatory EEG activity prior to stimulus onset. However, it remains unclear exactly which aspects of perception are shaped by this pre-stimulus activity and what role stochastic (trial-bytrial) variability plays in driving these relationships. We employed a novel jackknife approach to link single-trial variability in oscillatory activity to psychometric measures from a task that requires judgement of the relative length of two line segments (the landmark task). The results provide evidence that pre-stimulus alpha fluctuations influence perceptual bias. Importantly, a mediation analysis showed that this relationship is partially driven by long-term (deterministic) alpha changes over time, highlighting the need to account for sources of trial-by-trial variability when interpreting EEG predictors of perception. These results provide fundamental insight into the nature of the effects of ongoing oscillatory activity on perception. The jackknife approach we implemented may serve to identify and investigate neural signatures of perceptual relevance in more detail.
Homothallism, morphology and phylogenetic position of a new species of Sellaphora (Bacillariophyta), S. pausariae

Background and aims – The eutrophic Blackford Pond in Edinburgh has already provided the holotypes of six other Sellaphora species. A further undescribed species is present and requires description and characterization. Methods – Clones of the new species are characterized by light (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and molecular phylogenetics (from a concatenated five-gene alignment of 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, 23S rDNA, cox1 and rbcL, and a two-gene alignment of cox1 and rbcL). Key results – Sellaphora pausariae sp. nov. is named in honour of Dr Eileen Cox (‘pausaria’ = a lady coxswain). In molecular phylogenies, small-celled Sellaphora species (‘minima’ and ‘seminulum’ morphologies) branch off at the base of Sellaphora, though nodes are not well supported. Species and demes previously classified in either “Navicula pupula” or “Navicula bacillum” group into three very well supported clades (numbered 1–3). Although appearing in LM and SEM like a smaller, more delicate version of S. obesa, S. pausariae (clade 1) is not closely related to S. obesa (clade 2). Features of Sellaphora pausariae not confirmed previously in any Sellaphora but possibly widespread are: (a) hymenes with pores arranged in a regular scatter; (b) a stepped mantle near the poles; and (c) a ‘primodominant’ girdle comprising a wide band 1, a segmental band 2, and two extremely thin bands at the abvalvar end of the girdle. Sellaphora pausariae is homothallic; a deficiency of interclonal pairings in two-clone mixtures is interpreted as reflecting the tendency of cells to mate with their immediate neighbours. Conclusions – Morphologically, the new species can be differentiated from existing described species, though only problematically from some informally named demes. Molecularly, it is clearly characterized by the five genes sequenced. Girdle terminology needs expansion (e.g. to distinguish primodominant girdles from ‘graded’ ones, in which the bands gradually decrease in width and structural complexity from the valve outwards).
Corporate Diversification , TMT Experience , and Performance Evidence from German SMEs

0 We investigate the effect of product diversity and geographic diversity on the performance of sMes, using an integration of the upper echelons literature with the product and geographic diversification literature. 0 We propose an inverted U shaped relationship between product (geographic) diversification (PD/GD) and the performance of SMEs. We also propose that effect of PD and GD is contingent on one another and the TMT experience. 0 We find that both PD and GD have an inverted U shaped relationship with the SME performance. Further, PD and GD interact positively to enhance each other’s value in affecting firm performance. TMT experience also enhances the value of PD and GD for firm performance.
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition may be involved in the immune evasion of circulating gastric tumor cells via downregulation of NKG 2 D ligands

Increasing numbers of studies have demonstrated that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) undergo a phenotypic change termed epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and researchers have proposed that EMT might provide CTCs with increased potential to survive in the different microenvironments encountered during metastasis through various ways, such as by enhancing metastatic competence, and increasing cell survival and early colonization. However, the exact role of EMT in CTCs remains unclear. In this study, we identified CTCs in the peripheral blood of 41 patients with gastric cancer using Cyttel-CTC and im-FISH (immune-fluorescence in situ hybridization) methods, and tested the expression of EMT markers and NK-cell receptor D (NKG2D) ligands on CTCs. Moreover, we investigated the relationship between the expression of EMT markers and NKG2D ligands on CTCs and gastric cancer cell lines. The results showed that the CTCs in the peripheral blood of gastric cancer patients exhibited three EMT marker subtypes, and that the expression of NKG2D ligands was significantly lower on mesenchymal phenotypic CTCs (M+CTCs) than on epithelial phenotypic CTCs (E+CTCs). EMT induced by TGF-β in vitro produced a similar phenomenon, and we therefore proposed that EMT might be involved in the immune evasion of CTCs from NK cells by altering the expression of NKG2D ligands. In conclusion, our study indicated that EMT might play a key role in the immune invasion of gastric CTCs by regulating the expression of NKG2D ligands on the tumor cells. These findings could provide potential strategies for targeting the immune evasion capacity of CTCs.
Fisheries extension in Bangladesh and local extension agent for fisheries: A micro level assessment of farmers’ Attitude

The present study was aimed to review the fisheries extension services in Bangladesh as well to assess fish farmers’ attitude towards extension services provided by the Local Extension Agent for Fisheries (from hereafter LEAF). Thus, both primary and secondary data were used to furnish this study. Primary data were obtained from 72 randomly selected fish farmers from Akua and Dapunia unions of Mymensingh Sadar Sub-district of Mymensingh district by using structured interview schedule. Findings of the study shows that the fisheries extension services is still weaker in the country compared to crop and livestock extension services. It is also evident that 61.1 percent of the fish farmers had moderately favorable attitude towards extension services provided by LEAF, while 26.39 percent had slightly favorable attitude. Conversely, 12.5 percent had highly favorable attitude towards extension services provided by LEAF. Correlation analysis indicates that the pond size and fish farming experience had significant and negative relationships. While extension media contact, training exposure on fish farming and innovativeness had significant positive relationships with their attitude towards extension services provided by LEAF. The study explored that there are still few strong problems like “LEAF has shallow knowledge on subject matter”, “Poor motivational capacity” and “Cannot provide solutions of all problems”. Finally, it could be concluded that if it is possible to employ more numbers of LEAF with an initiative to remove their deficiencies through intensive training they might contribute efficiently and play the key role in fisheries extension of Bangladesh.