Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact on career direction of a tertiary management programme for mid‐career ICT professionals

The motivation of mid‐career students can be expected to be more considered and intense than students whose studies continue from undergraduate programmes. How students perceive their personal circumstances and their career when they first make the decision to enrol and what happens as a result of their studies can reveal how mid‐career management programmes can be structured to ensure greater alignment with student needs and therefore greater student satisfaction. It can also inform curriculum development and marketing strategy. This investigation indicates that the motivators that triggered the enrolment decision often evolve into intrinsic motivators as a result of the study experience and this can lead on to deeper learning and greater satisfaction with learning outcomes. Self‐determination theory posits the need for autonomy as an antecedent of intrinsic motivation. Providing autonomy support in course content and curriculum design as well as competence support and relatedness in assignments and assessment can be expected to result in greater intrinsic motivation and deeper learning.
A measurement scale for indecisiveness and its relationship to career indecision and other types of indecision

Summary: A scale for indecisiveness was constructed and then used to investigate distinctive features of indecisiveness. In the literature on decision making, the distinction between indecision and indecisiveness is an important issue, but evidence showing that these two constructs are different is lacking. We found clear evidence for such a distinction, from a joint exploratory factor analysis of the indecisiveness scale and a career indecision scale, and from the differential relation of both with self-esteem as a third variable. Furthermore, with confirmatory factor analysis, we found that the correlations between items on career indecision cannot be explained only by indecisiveness, and that also a factor specific to the situation of career decision is needed. These results corroborate the distinction between career indecision and indecisiveness. Although it must be differentiated from specific types of indecision, such as career indecision, indecisiveness turned out to be a correlate of the specific .
Variable selection in function‐on‐scalar regression

For regression models with functional responses and scalar predictors, it is common for the number of predictors to be large. Despite this, few methods for variable selection exist for function‐on‐scalar models, and none account for the inherent correlation of residual curves in such models. By expanding the coefficient functions using a B‐spline basis, we pose the function‐on‐scalar model as a multivariate regression problem. Spline coefficients are grouped within coefficient function, and group‐minimax concave penalty is used for variable selection. We adapt techniques from generalized least squares to account for residual covariance by “pre‐whitening” using an estimate of the covariance matrix and establish theoretical properties for the resulting estimator. We further develop an iterative algorithm that alternately updates the spline coefficients and covariance; simulation results indicate that this iterative algorithm often performs as well as pre‐whitening using the true covariance and substantially outperforms methods that neglect the covariance structure. We apply our method to two‐dimensional planar reaching motions in a study of the effects of stroke severity on motor control and find that our method provides lower prediction errors than competing methods. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Tubulocystic Carcinoma of the Kidney: Clinicopathologic and Molecular Characterization

The nature of tubulocystic carcinoma, a rare renal tumor composed of tubular and cystic structures, is poorly understood. It has been suggested that it may represent a low-grade collecting duct carcinoma of the kidney despite the lack of sufficient molecular and pathologic evidence. The aim of this study was to examine the clinical and pathologic features of 13 cases of tubulocystic carcinoma of the kidney. Furthermore, using gene expression microarray analysis, we defined the molecular signature of this tumor by comparing it with other renal tumors in our previously established molecular profile database. Histologically, all 13 tumors were composed of closely packed tubules and cysts of varying sizes separated by fibrovascular septa. The epithelial lining cells of the tubules and cysts in this tumor were characterized by abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm with prominent nucleoli often showing a hobnail appearance. Clinically, one of the 13 cases showed metastasis to the pelvic lymph nodes. Five of the 13 cases coexisted with papillary renal cell carcinoma (RCC) (n=3) or papillary adenoma (n=2). In addition, the molecular profile of tubulocystic carcinoma was similar but not identical to those of papillary RCC by clustering analysis. Through comparative genomic microarray analysis, tubulocystic carcinoma showed gains of chromosome 17, but not chromosome 7, whereas most papillary RCCs showed chromosomal gains in both 7 and 17 (trisomies). Therefore, based on its unique pathologic features and molecular signature as well as its biologic behavior to develop metastasis either by itself or in association with papillary RCC, tubulocystic carcinoma of the kidney should be recognized as a distinct subtype of RCC and be distinguished from other malignant and benign cystic lesions of the kidney.
A local adaptive image descriptor

The local binary pattern (LBP) is a robust but computationally simple approach in texture analysis. However, LBP performs poorly in the presence of noise and large illumination variation. Thus, a local adaptive image descriptor termed as LAID is introduced in this proposal. It is a ternary pattern and is able to generate persistent codes to represent microtextures in a given image, especially in noisy conditions. It can also generate stable texture codes if the pixel intensities change abruptly due to the illumination changes. Experimental results also show the superiority of the proposed method over other state-of-the-art methods.
Interleukin 1β Regulation of FoxO1 Protein Content and Localization

Background: The FoxO1 transcription factor, which controls the hepatic metabolism, is regulated through Akt-mediated phosphorylation. Results: We show that stimulation of hepatocytes with the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1β leads to increased FoxO1 nuclear content through an Akt-independent mechanism involving neutral sphingomyelinase-2 and ceramide. Conclusion: IL-1β is a regulator of FoxO1. Significance: IL-1β may adversely affect hepatic metabolism by modulating FoxO1 regulation. FoxO1 transcription factor controls the glucose and lipid metabolism, as well as cell proliferation and stress response. Akt, activated by insulin and other growth factors, phosphorylates FoxO1 causing its nuclear export and activity suppression. In this manuscript, we show that IL-1β, a pro-inflammatory cytokine, has the opposite effects on FoxO1. IL-1β stimulation of primary rat hepatocytes and HEK293 cells overexpressing the IL-1β receptor (293-IL-1RI) results in increased nuclear and cytosolic FoxO1 protein but not mRNA levels. IL-1β stimulation also elevates the levels of a mutant FoxO1 that is resistant to Akt phosphorylation. This suggests that an Akt-independent mechanism is involved. Co-stimulation with insulin does not affect the IL-1β induction of FoxO1. The IL-1β effects on FoxO1 are counteracted, however, by the silencing or inhibition of neutral sphingomyelinase 2 (nSMase-2) using shRNAi, scyphostatin, or GW4869, as well as by the pharmacological inhibition of JNK and ERK. Reversely, the overexpression of nSMase-2 through adenovirus-mediated gene transfer potentiates, in a JNK- and ERK-dependent manner, the IL-1β effects. We also show that transcription of insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1 mRNA, which requires active FoxO1, is stimulated by IL-1β and is suppressed by the inhibition of nSMase-2 and JNK. In conclusion, we propose that IL-1β regulates FoxO1 activity through a novel nSMase-2-dependent pathway.
Validity of maximum performance tasks to diagnose motor speech disorders in children

In a previous study a diagnostic procedure was developed to assess motoric involvement in clear cases of developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) and spastic dysarthria, as well as normal-speaking children. The aim of the present study is to cross-validate this diagnostic procedure. To achieve this aim the maximum performance tasks of the protocol, consisting of maximum vowel and fricative prolongation, and maximum syllable repetition, were administered to less clear cases of DAS and spastic dysarthria, children with a speech disorder of unknown origin and newly selected normal-speaking children (total number of children in the study, 72; aged predominantly between 4 and 12 years). The results showed that spastic dysarthria can be diagnosed on the basis of the maximum rate of repetitive sequences ('papa .', 'tata .', 'kaka .') in combination with maximum vowel prolongation. DAS can be diagnosed on the basis of the maximum rate of alternating sequences ('pataka . . .') in combination with maximum fricative.
Dyadic ties among employees: Empirical analysis of creative performance and efficiency

Our article makes three contributions to the literature. First, while previous research on creativity and innovation has focused on individuals and teams, we investigate creative dyads. Second, we consider not only benefits that knowledge workers gain from resourceful partners but also tie-related costs that both partners incur. As a result we develop a research framework in which a dyad’s creative performance is explained by the amount of knowledge that the tie partners exchange, the level of responsiveness among them, and the efficiency of knowledge-related collaboration. We test empirically hypotheses drawn from this framework, collecting data on 1128 possible non-directed ties among employees directly involved in the new product development of a medium-sized German aerospace company and analyzing these data using the Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure (MRQAP). In the final sections we discuss managerial consequences, limitations of our study, and directions of future research.
There’s Still No Free Lunch

School-level performance on standardized reading comprehension was obtained for 259 public schools in a South Florida district with 270,000 children. Eleven percent of the students were English Language Learners (ELLs), and another 20% were English proficient (EP) and former ELLs, for a total of 31% or about 87,000 ELL students. Thirty-eight percent of all children, or about 100,000, qualified for free or reduced lunch (FRL) because of low family income. This study conducts a school-level analysis where SES markers are as available (and reliable) in both poor and relatively rich schools. Socioeconomic status included the percentage of children in the school with FRL, the average family income, and the average cost of the homes in the neighborhood of the school. Poverty is particularly important to define in a complex way in South Florida because bilingual status interacts with it to a substantial degree. Six unit-weighted composite variables including poverty, bilingualism, ethnicity, child risk behaviors, school resources, and teacher resources were created from 22 measured school-level variables. Schools identified as resilient are important because they have higher reading scores and higher poverty levels than other schools. Other notable characteristics of these resilient schools are that they obtain more state money per pupil, have less crime, and have a better student to teacher ratio.
Control and resistance in the psychology of lying

Psychology’s obsession with control, with manipulating the experimental situation and the behavior of participants, has often been criticized. Mainstream, experimental psychology, it is said, abuses its power in the laboratory to artificially create docile participants who fit its experimental regime. I argue that this criticism accords too much control to the experimenter. Using the psychology of lying and lie detection as an example, I show that the psychologist does not exert full control in the laboratory, but meets resistance. In the psychological laboratory, lying and lie detection are constructed on a technological model in which both the psychologist and the liar are operators of devices, locked in battle. The critical focus, I conclude, should be on the technologies and counter-technologies at work on the laboratory, and on the limitations of this model.
Assessment of Anticholinesterase Activity of Gelidiella acerosa: Implications for Its Therapeutic Potential against Alzheimer's Disease

The effect of various solvent extracts of Gelidiella acerosa on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) activities was investigated. AChE and BuChE inhibitory activities were analyzed by spectrophotometric method. Phytochemical screening of the compounds present in the solvent extracts was done qualitatively. Characterization of the compounds present in the benzene extract of G. acerosa was done by GC-MS analysis. The results showed that, at 487.80 μg/mL, benzene extract showed significant (P < 0.05) inhibitory activity against both AChE and BuChE with the percentage of inhibition 54.18 ± 5.65 % (IC50 = 434.61 ± 26.53 μg/mL) and 78.43 ± 0% (IC50 = 163.01 ± 85.35 μg/mL), respectively. The mode of inhibition exhibited by benzene extract against the AChE and BuChE was found to be competitive and uncompetitive type of inhibition, respectively. Preliminary phytochemical analysis coupled with GC-MS illustrates that the benzene extract possesses high amount of terpenoids, which could be the reason for potential cholinesterase inhibitory activity.
Record of Nile seasonality in Nubian neonates

ABSTRACT The oxygen isotope compositions of bones (n = 11) and teeth (n = 20) from 12 Sudanese individuals buried on Sai Island (Nubia) were analysed to investigate the registration of the evolution of the Nile environment from 3700 to 500 years BP and the potential effects of ontogeny on the oxygen isotope ratios. The isotopic compositions were converted into the composition of drinking water, ultimately originating from the Nile. δ18O values decrease during ontogeny; this is mainly related to breastfeeding and physiology. Those of neonates present very large variations. Neonates have a very high bone turnover and are thus able to record seasonal δ18O variations of the Nile waters. These variations followed a pattern very similar to the present one. Nile δ18O values increased from 1.4 to 4.4 ‰ (Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water) from the Classic Kerma (∼3500 BP) through the Christian period (∼1000 BP), traducing a progressive drying of Northeast Africa.
Extracting Gamers' Opinions from Reviews

Opinion mining and sentiment analysis are a trending research domain in Natural Language Processing focused on automatically extracting subjective information, feelings, opinions, ideas or emotions from texts. Our study is centered on identifying sentiments and opinions, as well as other latent linguistic dimensions expressed in on-line game reviews. Over 9500 entertainment game reviews from Amazon were examined using a Principal Component Analysis applied to word-count indices derived from linguistic resources. Eight affective components were identified as being the most representative semantic and sentiment-oriented dimensions for our dataset. These components explained 51.2% of the variance of all reviews. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance showed that five of the eight components demonstrated significant differences between positive, negative and neutral game reviews. These five components used as predictors in a Discriminant Function Analysis, were able to classify game reviews into positive, negative and neutral ratings with a 55% accuracy.
The Fact of Fiction in Organizational Ethnography.

Ethnographic research is of course more than a single method and can be distinguished from participant observation on several grounds one of which is that of its broader aim, the analytic description of a culture. This paper conveniently glosses over many of the fine points of methodological nuance and regards any social study at least partially ethnographic if it allows a researcher to become immersed in the everyday life of the observed. In essence, the use of such techniques in organizational studies literally forces the researcher to come to grips with the essential ethnographic question of what it is to be rather than to see a member of the organization.
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo: A Cautionary Tale Starring White Working-Class People

Depictions of white working-class people are steadily on the rise in reality television. To understand this phenomenon, and the ways in which it articulates white working-class people in the United States today, I analyze Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, a popular reality series on TLC featuring a self-described “redneck” family. I argue that this series highlights the family's inability—because of their working-class status—to conform to “ideal whiteness,” a whiteness that displays dominant cultural standards bolstered by neoliberalism, such as wealth, rationality, personal responsibility, and self-control. The family members consequently become exemplars of “inappropriate whiteness,” a marginal identity presented as humorous and, through the use of surveillance and spectacle, authentic.
Task-based second language learning: the uses of the first language

The present article focuses on the uses of the first language (L1) made by 22 pairs of grade 8 French immersion students as they complete one of two different tasks: a dictogloss and a jigsaw. The outcome of each task is a story written by each student pair. We propose a coding scheme for the uses made of the L1, exemplify them, and report on exploratory analyses intended to describe differences between and within the tasks in terms of the amount of English (L1) used. We also address the relationship between the amount of L1 use and the quality of students’ writing, and the variability in task performance across student pairs.
Prototypes of Intimacy and Distance in Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Relationships

Differences between men's and women's conceptions of intimacy and distance may be a source of misunderstanding and conflict in close relationships. Although there is already an extensive literature on sex differences in intimacy, the meaning of the findings is somewhat unclear because each set of authors adopts a unique operational definition of intimacy. Often, this definition has been affected by the tendency to equate intimacy with self-disclosure. Distance (the opposite of intimacy, if intimacy is conceptualized as closeness) has been left largely unexplored in previous research and its relation to intimacy is unclear. In the present study, the components of intimacy and distance were delineated by asking men and women to describe an intimate and a distant experience with a member of the opposite sex and a member of the same sex. Prototypes were constructed by submitting the features mentioned in each kind of experience to hierarchical cluster analysis. The results revealed more similarities than differences between men's and women's conceptions of intimacy and distance. A conceptualization of intimacy emerged with a focus on appreciation and affection rather than self-disclosure. Distance appeared to revolve around dissatisfaction with and disapproval of the partner. Analyses of variance on specific features revealed sex differences and relationship differences that were consistent with previous research. Sex differences in the description of distance reflected the status or power differential between men and women.
Unsupervised energy disaggregation with factorial hidden Markov models based on generalized backfitting algorithm

This paper proposes an approximate inference and parameter estimation in factorial hidden Markov models (FHMMs), a generalization of hidden Markov models (HMMs) in which the state is factored into multiple Markov chains. Earlier research has proved exact inference and parameter estimation can be computationally intractable. The proposed method in this paper considers FHMMs to be an alternative generalization of generalized additive models (GAMs). We use backfitting algorithm to estimate the parameters in FHMMs instead of exact but complex derivation and make the approximate inference more efficient. This method is motivated by the problem of energy disaggregation which is the process of decomposing a whole household's electricity consumption into individual appliances in order to improve energy utility efficiency both in load terminal and electricity supplier. Numerical simulations indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method for energy disaggregation.
mHealth for Maternal Mental Health: Everyday Wisdom in Ethical Design

Health and wellbeing applications increasingly raise ethical issues for design. User-centred and participatory design approaches, while grounded in everyday wisdom, cannot be expected to address ethical reflection consistently, as multiple value systems come into play. We explore the potential of phronesis, a concept from Aristotelian virtue ethics, for mHealth design. Phronesis describes wisdom and judgment garnered from practical experience of specific situations in context. Applied phronesis contributes everyday wisdom to challenging issues for vulnerable target users. Drawing on research into mHealth technologies for psychological wellbeing, we explore how phronesis can inform ethical design. Using a case study on an app for self-reporting symptoms of depression during pregnancy, we present a framework for incorporating a phronetic approach into design, involving: (a) a wide feedback net to capture phronetic input early in design; (b) observing the order of feedback, which directly affects value priorities in design; (c) ethical pluralism recognising different coexisting value systems; (d) acknowledging subjectivity in the disclosure and recognition of individual researcher and participant values. We offer insights into how a phronetic approach can contribute everyday wisdom to designing mHealth technologies to help designers foster the values that promote human flourishing.
Marital Satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates

Marital satisfaction is a culturally bound construct influenced by many traditional family values and processes. Research on marital satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates is very limited perhaps due to unavailability of a culturally relevant scale. In this study, the Emirati Marital Satisfaction Scale (EMSS) was constructed and validated based on a community sample of 407 Emirati married men and women. The 30-item unidimensional EMSS was found to have high construct validity and internal consistency reliability estimates. The validity of the EMSS was supported by the positive correlations between marital satisfaction and life satisfaction and self-esteem. Men reported higher level of marital satisfaction than women. Demographic variables such as religious commitment and living location affect marital satisfaction in the Emirates. Implications for research and practice were provided.