Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Education and transition from cohabitation to marriage in Lithuania

This article examines the role of individual educational resources in the transition from cohabitation to marriage in Lithuania over the past four decades that cover the communist and the transitional periods with various developmental stages of cohabitation. Two competing hypotheses were formulated based on cultural and structural approaches. The first hypothesis anticipated a stable negative effect of higher education, the second a positive gradient of education for the transition from cohabitation to marriage after the 1990s. Pooled data from two waves of the before Generations and Gender Survey is used to apply the descriptive and parametric event history analysis. The research results prove that the role of education in the transition from cohabitation to marriage is dynamic over time and across gender groups. The educational resources were not significant for the entry into marriage during the communist period that coincided with the initial stage of the diffusion of cohabitation in the society and this holds true for men's and women's matrimonial behavior. The transitional period marks the shift towards the positive educational gradient that is especially stable for the men. We conclude that the ‘pattern of disadvantage’ is pronounced in the contemporary Lithuanian society and this indicates the return to the socio-economically differentiated marital behavior.
AN INITIAL FIELD TRIAL OF AN INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING LEARNING STRATEGIES OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Learning strategies have been increasingly recognized as a useful tool to promote effective learning. In response to the lack of available learning strategies measures for middle school students, this study designed an instrument for these students, assessing behavioral, cognitive, and metacognitive strategies. This instrument, the Middle School Learning Strategies (MSLS) scale, is examined in terms of factorial structure, reliability, and correlates. Three factors emerge from the analyses: effective strategies, help seeking, and bad habits. The subscales displayed a reasonable reliability, ranging from . 70 to . 87. Student grades in language arts, social studies, math, and science were collected as criterion variables. As expected, grades in these four subjects correlated positively with both effective strategies and help seeking, yet negatively with bad habits. As a pilot measure, this instrument has demonstrated promising features as a useful tool for students to evaluate and enhance their learning strategies.
Enhancing T3 and cAMP responsive gene participation in the thermogenic regulation of fuel oxidation pathways.

OBJECTIVE We sought to identify glycolysis, glycogenolysis, lipolysis, Krebs cycle, respiratory chain, and oxidative phosphorylation enzymes simultaneously regulated by T3 and cAMP. MATERIALS AND METHODS We performed in silico analysis of 56 promoters to search for cis-cAMP (CREB) and cis-thyroid (TRE) response elements, considering UCP1, SERCA2 and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase as reference. Only regulatory regions with prior in vitro validation were selected. RESULTS 29/56 enzymes presented potential TREs in their regulatory sequence, and some scored over 0.80 (better predictive value 1): citrate synthase, phosphoglucose isomerase, succinate dehydrogenases A/C, UCP3, UCP2, UCP4, UCP5, phosphoglycerate mutase, glyceraldehyde 3-P dehydrogenase, glucokinase, malate dehydrogenase, acyl-CoA transferase (thiolase), cytochrome a3, and lactate dehydrogenase. Moreover, some enzymes have not yet been described in the literature as genomically regulated by T3. CONCLUSION Our results point to other enzymes which may possibly be regulated by T3 and CREB, and speculate their joint roles in contributing to the optimal thermogenic acclimation.
Automatic feedback-directed object fusing

Object fusing is an optimization that embeds certain referenced objects into their referencing object. The order of objects on the heap is changed in such a way that objects that are accessed together are placed next to each other in memory. Their offset is then fixed, that is, the objects are colocated, allowing field loads to be replaced by address arithmetic. Array fusing specifically optimizes arrays, which are frequently used for the implementation of dynamic data structures. Therefore, the length of arrays often varies, and fields referencing such arrays have to be changed. An efficient code pattern detects these changes and allows the optimized access of such fields. We integrated these optimizations into Sun Microsystems' Java HotSpot#8482; VM. The analysis is performed automatically at runtime, requires no actions on the part of the programmer, and supports dynamic class loading. To safely eliminate a field load, the colocation of the object that holds the field and the object that is referenced by the field must be guaranteed. Two preconditions must be satisfied: The objects must be allocated at the same time, and the field must not be overwritten later. These preconditions are checked by the just-in-time compiler to avoid an interprocedural data flow analysis. The garbage collector ensures that groups of colocated objects are not split by copying groups as a whole. The evaluation shows that the dynamic approach successfully identifies and optimizes frequently accessed fields for several benchmarks with a low compilation and analysis overhead. It leads to a speedup of up to 76% for simple benchmarks and up to 6% for complex workloads.
Recommendations for designing and conducting veterinary clinical pathology biologic variation studies

The recent creation of a veterinary clinical pathology biologic variation website has highlighted the need to provide recommendations for future studies of biologic variation in animals in order to help standardize and improve the quality of published information and to facilitate review and selection of publications as standard references. The following recommendations are provided in the format and order commonly found in veterinary publications. A checklist is provided to aid in planning, implementing, and evaluating veterinary studies on biologic variation (Appendix S1). These recommendations provide a valuable resource for clinicians, laboratorians, and researchers interested in conducting studies of biologic variation and in determining the quality of studies of biologic variation in veterinary laboratory testing.
Approximate Constraint Satisfaction Requires Large LP Relaxations

We prove super-polynomial lower bounds on the size of linear programming relaxations for approximation versions of constraint satisfaction problems. We show that for these problems, polynomial-sized linear programs are exactly as powerful as programs arising from a constant number of rounds of the Sherali-Adams hierarchy. In particular, any polynomial-sized linear program for MAX CUT has an integrality gap of 1/2 and any such linear program for MAX 3-SAT has an integrality gap of 7/8.
Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) antenna gain and factor

A method for calculating and measuring antenna gain and factor over perfect ground is presented. The EMC antenna factor is used to determine the spurious electric field of device under evaluation. The radio link employed to calibrate the receiving antenna gain and factor will produce completely different values for the transmitting and receiving antennas, and the principle of reciprocity does not hold true, in this particular case, even if both antennas are identical.
Reduced Reliance on Optimal Facial Information for Identity Recognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Previous research into face processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has revealed atypical biases toward particular facial information during identity recognition. Specifically, a focus on features (or high spatial frequencies [HSFs]) has been reported for both face and nonface processing in ASD. The current study investigated the development of spatial frequency biases in face recognition in children and adolescents with and without ASD, using nonverbal mental age to assess changes in biases over developmental time. Using this measure, the control group showed a gradual specialization over time toward middle spatial frequencies (MSFs), which are thought to provide the optimal information for face recognition in adults. By contrast, individuals with ASD did not show a bias to one spatial frequency band at any stage of development. These data suggest that the “midband bias” emerges through increasing face-specific experience and that atypical face recognition performance may be related to reduced specialization toward optimal spatial frequencies in ASD.
Automated analysis of high-throughput B-cell sequencing data reveals a high frequency of novel immunoglobulin V gene segment alleles

Significance High-throughput sequencing of B-cell immunoglobulin receptors is providing unprecedented insight into adaptive immunity. A key step in analyzing these data involves assignment of the germline variable (V), diversity (D), and joining (J) gene-segment alleles that comprise each immunoglobulin sequence by matching them against a database of known V(D)J alleles. However, this process will fail for sequences that use previously undetected alleles, whose frequency in the population is unclear. Here we describe TIgGER, a computational method that significantly improves V(D)J allele assignments by first determining the complete set of gene segments carried by a subject, including novel alleles. The application of TIgGER identifies a surprisingly high frequency of novel alleles, highlighting the critical need for this approach. Individual variation in germline and expressed B-cell immunoglobulin (Ig) repertoires has been associated with aging, disease susceptibility, and differential response to infection and vaccination. Repertoire properties can now be studied at large-scale through next-generation sequencing of rearranged Ig genes. Accurate analysis of these repertoire-sequencing (Rep-Seq) data requires identifying the germline variable (V), diversity (D), and joining (J) gene segments used by each Ig sequence. Current V(D)J assignment methods work by aligning sequences to a database of known germline V(D)J segment alleles. However, existing databases are likely to be incomplete and novel polymorphisms are hard to differentiate from the frequent occurrence of somatic hypermutations in Ig sequences. Here we develop a Tool for Ig Genotype Elucidation via Rep-Seq (TIgGER). TIgGER analyzes mutation patterns in Rep-Seq data to identify novel V segment alleles, and also constructs a personalized germline database containing the specific set of alleles carried by a subject. This information is then used to improve the initial V segment assignments from existing tools, like IMGT/HighV-QUEST. The application of TIgGER to Rep-Seq data from seven subjects identified 11 novel V segment alleles, including at least one in every subject examined. These novel alleles constituted 13% of the total number of unique alleles in these subjects, and impacted 3% of V(D)J segment assignments. These results reinforce the highly polymorphic nature of human Ig V genes, and suggest that many novel alleles remain to be discovered. The integration of TIgGER into Rep-Seq processing pipelines will increase the accuracy of V segment assignments, thus improving B-cell repertoire analyses.
A more cost effective and rapid high percentage germ‐line transmitting chimeric mouse generation procedure via microinjection of 2‐cell, 4‐cell, and 8‐cell embryos with ES and iPS cells

The long‐standing traditional method of delivering embryonic stem (ES) cells adjacent to the inner cell mass (ICM) of blastocysts to generate chimeras improved with the advent of laser‐ or Piezo assisted 8‐cell embryo microinjection. Building on this technology but omitting either the laser or the Piezo to penetrate the zona pellucida and making use of earlier embryonic stages (2‐cell and 4‐cell), we were able to significantly speed up and economize our ES cell microinjection and chimera production throughput. We demonstrate here that embryonic (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can stay fully pluripotent when delivered into 2‐cell‐ and 4‐cell‐stage embryos, long before they would naturally be incorporated into the ICM of a blastocyst (E3.5) and give rise to high percentage and germline transmitting chimeras. genesis 48:394–399, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Evaluation of the Antioxidant Potential of Bioactive Compounds in Methanolic Extracts of Aerial Parts of Fagonia glutonosa

Fagonia glutonosa (L.) (Zygophyllaceae) is a medicinal plant traditionally used as an mainly as a popular remedy for the treatment of various skin lesions and for the treatment of various other digestive diseases. Preliminary phytochemical screening of the plant showed the presence of large amounts of phenolics and flavonoids, anthraquinones, terpenes, saponins, alkaloids, coumarins and tannins. Subsequent quantification showed the presence of 0.74% (m/m) phenolics (calculated as gallic acid) and 0.13% (m/m) flavonoids calculated as catechin equivalents per 100 g of fresh mass. The presence of phenolic compounds prompted us to evaluate its antioxidant activity. In the present study, methanolic extract of aerial parts of Fagonia glutonosa was screened to evaluate its free - radical scavenging effect. The highest antioxidant and free radical scavenging ability of the extract was observed at a concentration of 2500 μ g mL –1 .
The Muscle Activation Method: An Approach to Impedance Control of Brain-Machine Interfaces Through a Musculoskeletal Model of the Arm

Current demonstrations of brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) have shown the potential for controlling neuroprostheses under pure motion control. For interaction with objects, however, pure motion control lacks the information required for versatile manipulation. This paper investigates the idea of applying impedance control in a BMI system. An extraction algorithm incorporating a musculoskeletal arm model was developed for this purpose. The new algorithm, called the muscle activation method (MAM), was tested on cortical recordings from a behaving monkey. The MAM was found to predict motion parameters with as much accuracy as a linear filter. Furthermore, it successfully predicted limb interactions with novel force fields, which is a new and significant capability lacking in other algorithms.
Research Evaluating the systemic right ventricle by CMR : the importance of consistent and reproducible delineation of the cavity

Background: The method used to delineate the boundary of the right ventricle (RV), relative to the trabeculations and papillary muscles in cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) ventricular volume analysis, may matter more when these structures are hypertrophied than in individuals with normal cardiovascular anatomy. This study aimed to compare two methods of cavity delineation in patients with systemic RV. Methods: Twenty-nine patients (mean age 34.7 ± 12.4 years) with a systemic RV (12 with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (ccTGA) and 17 with atrially switched (TGA) underwent CMR. We compared measurements of systemic RV volumes and function using two analysis protocols. The RV trabeculations and papillary muscles were either included in the calculated blood volume, the boundary drawn immediately within the apparently compacted myocardial layer, or they were manually outlined and excluded. RV stroke volume (SV) calculated using each method was compared with corresponding left ventricular (LV) SV. Additionally, we compared the differences in analysis time, and in intraand inter-observer variability between the two methods. Paired samples t-test was used to test for differences in volumes, function and analysis time between the two methods. Differences in intraand inter-observer reproducibility were tested using an extension of the Bland-Altman method. Results: The inclusion of trabeculations and papillary muscles in the ventricular volume resulted in higher values for systemic RV end diastolic volume (mean difference 28.7 ± 10.6 ml, p < 0.001) and for end systolic volume (mean difference 31.0 ± 11.5 ml, p < 0.001). Values for ejection fraction were significantly lower (mean difference -7.4 ± 3.9%, p < 0.001) if structures were included. LV SV did not differ significantly from RV SV for both analysis methods (p = NS). Including structures resulted in shorter analysis time (p < 0.001), and showed better inter-observer reproducibility for ejection fraction (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The choice of method for systemic RV cavity delineation significantly affected volume measurements, given the CMR acquisition and analysis systems used. We recommend delineation outside the trabeculations for routine clinical measurements of systemic RV volumes as this approach took less time and gave more reproducible measurements. Published: 19 August 2008 Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 2008, 10:40 doi:10.1186/1532-429X-10-40 Received: 13 June 2008 Accepted: 19 August 2008 This article is available from: http://www.jcmr-online.com/content/10/1/40 © 2008 Winter et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 2008, 10:40 http://www.jcmr-online.com/content/10/1/40
“The New Generation”: Mental Hygiene and the Portrayals of Children by the National Film Board of Canada, 1946–1967

That is the achievement of the psychologists. In our own society they are very kind, and do everything for our own good. The tales of what they do elsewhere are rather terrifying. —Hilda Neatby So Little for the Mind (1953) Documenting the impact of the mental hygiene movement has been problematical for historians. The hygienists operated in the realm of mass psychology and social relations, within the “mentalities” of children—particularly of the postwar generation—who have left little observable evidence of changing social attitudes and relationships resulting from changes to mass child-rearing and schooling practices. The influence of the movement upon parenting literature and curricular documents may be readily observed in postwar baby books, magazines, newspapers, radio scripts, and films, as well as in the changing language of educational theorists and practitioners. But as to seeing the actual effects of this material upon any society, documentary evidence has remained elusive.
The forgotten children of Africa : voicing HIV and Aids orphans' stories of bereavement : a narrative approach

This article looks at the bereavement of children left orphaned by the HIV and Aids pandemic that is crippling the continent of Africa. Their bereavement is examined by means of the narrative approach and by integrating this approach with the traditional African art of storytelling. By listening to the stories of three Zulu children, the article gives them the opportunity to express their own unique stories of bereavement: stories that would otherwise have been silenced by the wave of bereavement in the wake of countless deaths worldwide as a result of HIV and Aids infection. It looks at the losses these children have suffered, their greatest fears and how their Zulu culture and customs influence their emotional experience of losing their parents. The article shows how they can – by means of storytelling – reformulate the story of their lives and find the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Heavy-tailed on/off source behavior and self-similar traffic

Traffic measurement studies suggest that the self-similarity observed in packet traffic arises from aggregating individual sources which behave in an on/off manner with heavy-tailed sojourn times in one or both of the states. We investigate the connection between general on/off behavior, self-similarity and queueing performance. We use chaotic maps to model general on/off behavior with combinations of heavy tailed and light tailed sojourn time behavior. We present results which show that chaotic maps which capture the heavy-tailed sojourn time behavior in the off and/or on states generate traffic that is asymptotically self-similar. However, the resulting queue length distribution decays as a power law with the heavy on source, and as an exponential with the light on source, even though both processes exhibit identical l/f noise behavior. To resolve this apparent paradox, we consider aggregates of on and off sources, and show that the nature of the on period is less consequential, and in both instances the aggregate appears to converge to fractional Brownian motion (FBM). The queueing behavior is heavy in both cases, corresponding to the "stretched exponential" form predicted by FBM models. This indicates that differences in the single source case arise due to the impacts of higher order statistics, which become less significant as sources are aggregated. Convergence to FBM is observed to be slower with light on sources. Our results indicate that in assessing the impact of long range dependence on performance, the potential impacts of other factors, such as higher-order statistics, must also be considered. Our analysis indicates conditions under which long-range dependence can dominate queueing performance in fast packet and SS7 networks, and with variable bit rate (VBR) video applications.
MAPPING THE SIMILARITIES OF SPECTRA: GLOBAL AND LOCALLY-BIASED APPROACHES TO SDSS GALAXIES

We present a novel approach to studying the diversity of galaxies. It is based on a novel spectral graph technique, that of locally-biased semi-supervised eigenvectors. Our method introduces new coordinates that summarize an entire spectrum, similar to but going well beyond the widely used Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Unlike PCA, however, this technique does not assume that the Euclidean distance between galaxy spectra is a good global measure of similarity. Instead, we relax that condition to only the most similar spectra, and we show that doing so yields more reliable results for many astronomical questions of interest. The global variant of our approach can identify very finely numerous astronomical phenomena of interest. The locally-biased variants of our basic approach enable us to explore subtle trends around a set of chosen objects. The power of the method is demonstrated in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Main Galaxy Sample, by illustrating that the derived spectral coordinates carry an unprecedented amount of information.
Natural interaction enhanced remote camera control for teleoperation

In teleoperation, operators usually have to control multiple devices simultaneously, which requires frequent hand switches between different controllers. We designed and implemented two prototypes, one by applying head motion and the other by integrating eye gaze as intrinsic elements of teleoperation for remote camera control in a multi-control setting. We report a user study of a modeled multi-control experiment that compares the performance of head tracking control, eye tracking control and traditional joystick control. The results provide clear evidence that eye tracking control significantly outperforms joystick and head tracking control in both objective measures and subjective measures.