Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Series-parallel PV arrays: A comparison between the performances of two algorithms for strings with an equal or with a different number of PV modules

In this paper the comparison between the Fast Dynamical Reconfiguration (FDR) algorithm and the Exhaustive Search Reconfiguration (ESR) algorithm is presented and discussed. Both algorithms are designed with specific reference to the Series-Parallel (SP) architecture. Moreover, in order to identify the optimal configuration, both algorithms need the knowledge of the I-V characteristics of the N PV modules of the SP array. The main difference between such algorithms is represented by the fact that, while the FDR algorithm analyzes both symmetric configurations (equal numbers of PV modules in the strings) and asymmetric configurations (different numbers of PV modules in the strings), instead the ESR algorithm considers symmetric strings only. The results of the numerical analysis puts in evidence the superior performances (at least in terms of execution times) which are exhibited by the FDR algorithm with respect to the ESR algorithm.
Making Connections in Mathematics

In this study, the authors examined the effects of two supplemental interventions on the mathematics achievement of low-performing intermediate-grade students. A conceptually based intervention designed to reteach fundamental mathematics was evaluated along with an intervention designed to provide extended time in the context of the core curriculum and aligned with the general education classroom's daily instruction. After a 16-week intervention with 51 low-performing fifth-grade students, the authors found that the students in both intervention groups outperformed students in the control group on a measure of mathematics achievement. On a state accountability measure in mathematics, students in the extended core group performed better than other students. Implications for instructional decision making and supplemental interventions are discussed.
Does Growth in Working Memory Span or Executive Processes Predict Growth in Reading and Math in Children With Reading Disabilities?

The present study investigated whether (a) growth patterns related to cognitive processing (working memory, updating, inhibition) differed in subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD) and (b) growth in working memory (executive processing) predicted growth in other cognitive areas, such as reading and math. Seventy-three children (ages 7–17) categorized as poor decoders, poor comprehenders, or average readers were administered a battery of achievement and cognitive measures for three consecutive years. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that growth in executive processing (inhibition) in children with RD constrained growth in reading and math. The results support the notion that development in the executive system underlies performance on reading and math measures.
Muscular factors which determine the cardiovascular responses to sustained and rhythmic exercise.

~T|URING muscular contractions, active muscles -"-^ require a greater quantity of blood than they do when they are at rest. Torthis end, the muscle blood vessels dilate, the cardiac output and the ventilation increase, and the blood flow to other regions such as the splanchnic vascular bed is restricted by a compensatory vasoconstriction, while the cutaneous circulation may later have to increase for the purposes of thermoregulation. The harder a muscle works, the more blood it needs; the changes in the cardiovascu¬ lar system are graded according to the severity of the muscular activity and the volume of muscle involved. Although a good deal of de¬ scriptive information is available on the cardio¬ vascular responses to exercise, we still do not know for certain what the mechanisms are that evoke them. The simplest hypothesis is that the stimuli originate in the muscles themselves.
Prediction of Job Satisfactoriness and Job Satisfaction of Secondary School Teachers

A five-variable regression equation was developed to predict the job satisfactoriness of 146 secondary teachers as perceived by their principals; the model was then cross-validated on a calibration sample of 146 teachers. The screening sample gave a multiple R of . 476, which held on cross-validation to . 38. Best predictor was job satisfaction, followed by certification status, time of decision to teach, marital status, and GPA. A similar procedure attempted to build a model to predict job satisfaction but was not successful with these six variables.
A New Sensitivity-Based Feature Selection Technique for Feed-Forward Neural Networks That Improves Generalization

Multi-layer neural networks of the back-propagation type became already a well-established tool used successfully in various application areas. Efficient solutions to complex tasks currently dealt with obviously require sufficient generalization capabilities of the formed networks and an easy interpretation of their function. For this reason, we will introduce here a new feature selection technique called SCGSIR inspired by the fast method of scaled conjugate gradients (SCG) and sensitivity analysis. Enforced internal knowledge representation supports an easy interpretation of the formed network structure. Network sensitivity inhibited during training impacts successful pruning of input neurons and optimization of network structure, too. Experiments performed so far on the problem of binary addition and on real data obtained from the World Bank yield promising results outperforming reference techniques when considering both their ability to find networks with and optimum architectures and generalization capabilities of the trained networks. 1
Demonstration of an oligosaccharide-diphosphodolichol diphosphatase activity whose subcellular localization is different than those of dolichyl-phosphate-dependent enzymes of the dolichol cycle

Oligosaccharyl phosphates (OSPs) are hydrolyzed from oligosaccharide-diphosphodolichol (DLO) during protein N-glycosylation by an uncharacterized process. An OSP-generating activity has been reported in vitro, and here we asked if its biochemical characteristics are compatible with a role in endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-situated DLO regulation. We demonstrate a Co2+-dependent DLO diphosphatase (DLODP) activity that splits DLO into dolichyl phosphate and OSP. DLODP has a pH optimum of 5.5 and is inhibited by vanadate but not by NaF. Polyprenyl diphosphates inhibit [3H]OSP release from [3H]DLO, the length of their alkyl chains correlating positively with inhibition potency. The diphosphodiester GlcNAc2-PP-solanesol is hydrolyzed to yield GlcNAc2-P and inhibits [3H]OSP release from [3H]DLO more effectively than the diphosphomonoester solanesyl diphosphate. During subcellular fractionation of liver homogenates, DLODP codistributes with microsomal markers, and density gradient centrifugation revealed that the distribution of DLODP is closer to that of Golgi apparatus-situated UDP-galactose glycoprotein galactosyltransferase than those of dolichyl-P-dependent glycosyltransferases required for DLO biosynthesis in the ER. Therefore, a DLODP activity showing selectivity toward lipophilic diphosphodiesters such as DLO, and possessing properties distinct from other lipid phosphatases, is identified. Separate subcellular locations for DLODP action and DLO biosynthesis may be required to prevent uncontrolled DLO destruction.
Bayesian Aspects of Treatment Choice Bayesian Aspects of Treatment Choice

This paper considers an individual making a treatment choice. The individual has access to data on other individuals, with values for a list of characteristics, treatment assignments, and outcomes. The individual knows his value for the list of characteristics. The goal is to use this data set to guide his treatment choice. The role of treatment assignment is developed, and how it affects the specification of prior distributions. The likelihood function is the same for random assignment and for selection on observables, but the prior distributions differ. A question here is whether there is a value in knowing the propensity score. The propensity score does not appear in the likelihood, but it does appear in the prior distribution. So there is a value to knowing the propensity score if the prior is not dominated by the data. In particular, the list of measured characteristics may be of high dimension, and the paper considers prior distributions that may be effective in this case. The paper also considers selection on unobservables and the use of instrumental variables. The prior distribution is not dominated by the data. We make a particular suggestion, in which the undominated part of the prior shows up in the choice of a functional form, which is then combined with a maximum-likelihood approximation to obtain a decision rule. We discuss the role of extrapolation in this decision rule by making a connection with compliers, always-takers, and never-takers in the local average treatment effect developed by Imbens and Angrist (1994). May 2009 Revised October 8, 2009 BAYESIAN ASPECTS OF TREATMENT CHOICE
The Social Work Profession and Subjective Well-Being: The Impact of a Profession on Overall Subjective Well-Being

This research analyses social work practitioners’ workplace experiences of their subjective well-being (SWB), the social scientific concept of happiness. From an initial survey of 700 Canadian social workers, thirteen respondents with the highest SWB scores were interviewed. Respondents reported that their high SWB scores were partially a result of available practice opportunities associated with the profession, their ability to recognise professional boundaries and limitations, the role of specific practices that are associated with the profession of social work, social work principles and respondents’ perception of their professional self. The conclusion considers implications for workplace practices, social work education and further research.
Making a difference: Linking research and action in practice, pedagogy, and policy for social justice: Introduction

The origins and chronology of linking research and action are complex and cannot be attributed to any single discipline or any part of the world. People within and outside academe have linked research and action. In this introductory article, we begin by briefly tracing the methodological background to linking research and action, focusing particularly on action research, participatory research, and feminist research in order to situate the research presented in this monograph issue of Current Sociology. We then provide an outline of the articles that showcase through specific case studies how sociologists link research and practice in diverse contexts including health, culture, education, labor, migration, violence against women, and polling. We end by commenting that linking research and action has important implications for knowledge creation, distribution, shifting power relations for achieving social change, and, ultimately, challenging social structures for social justice.
Factors Influencing Students’ Intention to Use Internet for Academic Purposes

This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing students’ intention to use the Internet for academic purposes amongst 204 final year business students in public universities in Malaysia. This study integrated theory of planned behavior (TPB) and theory of acceptance model (TAM) as the base model toward that purpose. The research model employs the variables from both theories namely attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, intention, and behavior. A multiple regression analysis provides empirical support for the applicability of integration of TPB and TAM in predicting students’ intention to use the Internet for academic purposes. Results of the study show that attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and perceived usefulness are statistically significant in influencing intention to use the Internet for academic purposes. Based on the results, it can be concluded that students’ intention to use the Internet for academic purposes could be predicted from their attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and perceived usefulness at 49% level. In view of the results, several implications and recommendations are discussed.
SPECTRO-NEBULA GRAPH: A TRIDIMENSIONAL SPECTROSCOPIC SYSTEM BASED ON A LOCAL AREA NETWORK OF PERSONAL COMPUTERS

Spectro-nebula graph (SNG), a tridimensional-spectroscopic system, has been developed as a versatile observation system attached to the Cassegrain focus of the 1.88 m telescope at the Okayama Astrophysical Observatory. Tridimensional spectra, i.e., so-called data cubes, are obtained by sweeping the telescope in the direction perpendicular to the slit of a spectrograph step by step. From the data cube, various monochromatic images can be extracted by data processing. SNG consists of four devices, i.e., the telescope control system, the autoguider, the spectrograph, and the CCD camera, which are distributed on a personal computer network. The control software for SNG performs cooperative control of four devices in an automated fashion according to a programmed sequence of procedures. Some observational results taken with SNG are shown for 3C 120, NGC 4449, and NGC 3646.
On The Modern Cult Of The Factish Gods

A c c o r d i n g t o C a r l Schmitt, one mark of the romantic imagination is to set up conceptual dualisms and seek to overcome them by resort to a higher third term. A prominent exponent of this technique was Hegel, a Protestant constantly overcoming the diremptions for which his own confession was responsible. Hegel though at least left open the possibility that synthesis was an endless task, that after him it might be negative dialectics all the way; not so the German romantics who yearned more directly for the Middle Ages and a Catholic past. In contrast to Hegel and the romantics, real Catholics like Schmitt saw the analytic attitude less as a wrong turning than as an impossible move. What if, they asked, an original unity, and the authority that goes with it, still holds? What if legitimacy, and not mere legality, were still possible? What if, in political life, medieval notions of sovereignty and representation remained living principles? What if we had never been modern? These questions have defined the work of a number of 20 century thinkers, usually Jewish or Catholic or both: Schmitt, Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin, Aurel Kolnai, Hannah Arendt, Philip Rieff, Alasdair MacIntyre and others all trade on this sort of move. Against them are ranged those for whom modernity’s achievements mostly outweigh its shortcomings: Durkheim, Popper, Michael Polanyi, Gellner, Habermas, Blumenberg. One of the things that these latter writers share is a belief that the most distinctive of those achievements is science and the rationality that guides it. The difficulty is that they do not always agree on what that rationality amounts to: the triumph of the enlightenment, or the perpetual trial of scientific curiosity, Promethean ambition, a desire to subordinate nature or twist it to human ends, or an abandonment of any belief in absolutes? It is partly against this background that the work and the figure of Bruno Latour now stand in sharp relief. Once seen as a specialist sociologist of science, he has recently ‘‘come out’’ as a philosopher of science and pretty much everything else. For some a relativist who places scientific cognition on a level with other modes, he protests that his studies of laboratories are a hymn of praise to people who stand far higher in his estimation than social scientists. A witty and ironic companion when writing about laboratories, law courts or field study trips in all their
Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Management Accounting Research: A Critical Realist Approach

Empirical management accounting research increasingly mix qualitative and quantitative methods and combine theories generally associated with entrenched and arguably incommensurable paradigms. However, the methodological debate in the management accounting literature has been characterized by considerable polarization and a general lack of communication between paradigms, especially the functionalist and interpretive paradigms. Mixed methods research straddling these paradigms may provide a more comprehensive understanding of management accounting practice and constitutes a potentially powerful means of validating research findings. However, this type of research has also received considerable criticism in the wider social sciences for failing to present a coherent philosophical foundation for producing valid knowledge claims. This is especially the case where the notion of triangulation is invoked as a means of validation. This paper addresses such criticisms by developing a framework for validating mixed methods research based on critical realism and advances a modified notion of triangulation. The applicability of this framework is illustrated through a review of two empirical studies straddling the functionalist and interpretive paradigms. In contrast to contemporary pragmatist thought, implicitly or explicitly guiding much mixed methods research in management accounting, critical realism provides a unified and consistent philosophical foundation for combining methods and theories traditionally associated with these paradigms. More explicit reliance on this perspective may strengthen the position of mixed methods research in management accounting and stimulate cross-paradigmatic communication and learning. Directions for future research are discussed.
Adaptive control of a class of nonlinear discrete-time systems using neural networks

Layered neural networks are used in a nonlinear self-tuning adaptive control problem. The plant is an unknown feedback-linearizable discrete-time system, represented by an input-output model. To derive the linearizing-stabilizing feedback control, a (possibly nonminimal) state-space model of the plant is obtained. This model is used to define the zero dynamics, which are assumed to be stable, i.e., the system is assumed to be minimum phase. A linearizing feedback control is derived in terms of some unknown nonlinear functions. A layered neural network is used to model the unknown system and generate the feedback control. Based on the error between the plant output and the model output, the weights of the neural network are updated. A local convergence result is given. The result says that, for any bounded initial conditions of the plant, if the neural network model contains enough number of nonlinear hidden neurons and if the initial guess of the network weights is sufficiently close to the correct weights, then the tracking error between the plant output and the reference command will converge to a bounded ball, whose size is determined by a dead-zone nonlinearity. Computer simulations verify the theoretical result. >
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FATHERS' PRE-NATAL INVOLVEMENT WITH THE MOTHER AND POST-NATAL INVOLVEMENT WITH THE CHILD(REN)

The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of whether fathers are likely to be involved with their children during post-natal stages (0-6 months) if they are involved with the mother during the pre-natal stages. This correlation research design explored the associations of pre-natal and post-natal involvement ages 0-6 months. The collected data addressed the types and frequency of interactions that fathers have with mothers and the types and frequency of involvement that fathers have with their child(ren). The research reported on the outcome of the collected data, described the correlation between pre-natal and post-natal involvement, and highlighted strengths and limitations of the study. Recommendations were made to service providers to assist in the efforts to increase paternal involvement. The study offered insight into the growing phenomenon of paternal involvement.
Physical Activity, High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein, and Total and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE Physical activity reduces high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and total mortality in type 2 diabetic patients. However, it is not known whether the effects of physical activity on mortality depend on the levels of hs-CRP in patients with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We prospectively followed-up on 569 type 2 diabetic patients, aged 45–64 years, who were free of CVD at baseline. Participants were stratified according to the level of hs-CRP (<1.0, 1.0–3.0, or >3.0 mg/L) and the degree of physical activity (0–4 metabolic equivalent tasks [METs] or >4 METs). The Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the joint association between physical activity and hs-CRP levels and the risk of mortality. RESULTS During an 18-year follow-up, 356 patients died, 217 of whom died of CVD. Those who were physically more active had significantly reduced total, CVD and coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality among patients with elevated hs-CRP levels (>3 mg/L). These findings persisted in multivariable analyses. However, in patients with an hs-CRP level <1 mg/L or between 1 and 3 mg/L, there was no statistically significant relationship between physical activity and CVD or CHD mortality. CONCLUSIONS Physical activity reduces total, CVD, and CHD mortality in type 2 diabetic patients with elevated hs-CRP levels. This suggests that the anti-inflammatory effect of physical activity may counteract increased CVD and CHD morbidity and mortality associated with high CRP levels.
The Two Functional Enoyl-Acyl Carrier Protein Reductases of Enterococcus faecalis Do Not Mediate Triclosan Resistance

ABSTRACT Enoyl-acyl carrier protein (enoyl-ACP) reductase catalyzes the last step of the elongation cycle in the synthesis of bacterial fatty acids. The Enterococcus faecalis genome contains two genes annotated as enoyl-ACP reductases, a FabI-type enoyl-ACP reductase and a FabK-type enoyl-ACP reductase. We report that expression of either of the two proteins restores growth of an Escherichia coli fabI temperature-sensitive mutant strain under nonpermissive conditions. In vitro assays demonstrated that both proteins support fatty acid synthesis and are active with substrates of all fatty acid chain lengths. Although expression of E. faecalis fabK confers to E. coli high levels of resistance to the antimicrobial triclosan, deletion of fabK from the E. faecalis genome showed that FabK does not play a detectable role in the inherent triclosan resistance of E. faecalis. Indeed, FabK seems to play only a minor role in modulating fatty acid composition. Strains carrying a deletion of fabK grow normally without fatty acid supplementation, whereas fabI deletion mutants make only traces of fatty acids and are unsaturated fatty acid auxotrophs. IMPORTANCE The finding that exogenous fatty acids support growth of E. faecalis strains defective in fatty acid synthesis indicates that inhibitors of fatty acid synthesis are ineffective in countering E. faecalis infections because host serum fatty acids support growth of the bacterium. The finding that exogenous fatty acids support growth of E. faecalis strains defective in fatty acid synthesis indicates that inhibitors of fatty acid synthesis are ineffective in countering E. faecalis infections because host serum fatty acids support growth of the bacterium.