Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Income and Cognitive Stimulation as Moderators of the Association Between Family Structure and Preschoolers’ Emerging Literacy and Math

This study examined household income and maternal cognitive stimulation as moderators of the association between family structure and 48-month-old child emerging literacy and math skills. The data set was the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth cohort (N = 7,300). Controlling for selection factors (race/ethnicity, child gender, maternal education, maternal depression, child attendance in preschool/day care, and 9-month child cognition), the study found support for the moderation hypothesis for household income and maternal cognitive stimulation. The main take-home message was that resources such as household income and mothers’ cognitive stimulation seem to be more strongly and positively associated with early literacy and math skills among children with married parents in comparison to children living in stable single-mother households, stable cohabiting households, or households in which mothers transition from married to single parent. Cognitive stimulation partially mediated the moderating effect of income on stable single-mother household. Implications for research and programs are discussed.
Ostrich: An optimistic distributed power control scheme for VANETs

VANETs inherit a conservative channel access control mechanism from IEEE 802.11 standard to mitigate the hidden terminal problem on the service channels, i.e., once a service channel is reserved by a node, all its neighbors in 2-hop range are prohibited from initiating the transmission simultaneously. To improve the channel utilization and increase the network capacity, we propose an optimistic distributed power control scheme, which relaxes the limitations on the 2-hop neighbor's data transmission and creates opportunities to start concurrent transmissions. The experimental results indicate that our scheme shows significant advantages over the fixed power scheme of IEEE 802.11p and Density-based Power Control (DBPC) [1] in terms of the average delay and throughput.
Research on Pattern Matching with Wildcards and Length Constraints: Methods and Completeness

© 2012 Wang et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Research on Pattern Matching with Wildcards and Length Constraints: Methods and Completeness
Effects of Electroacupuncture at St25 and Bl25 in a Sennae-induced rat model of diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome

Background Electroacupuncture (EA) may have a role in the treatment of diarrhoea symptoms. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is an important neurotransmitter and paracrine signalling molecule in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which initiates peristaltic, secretory, vasodilatory, vagal and nociceptive reflexes. In addition, according to the results of our previous report, EA stimulation mediates GI peristalsis by increasing expression of 5-HT and tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH). Aim To investigate the effect of EA at acupuncture points ST25 and BL25 in a rat model of diarrhoea. Methods A diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D) model was induced by Folium Sennae in 24 rats, which remained untreated (n=6) or received EA at ST25 (n=6), BL25 (n=6) or the combination of ST25 and BL25 (n=6). A control group of healthy rats was also included (n=6). After treatment, changes in loose stool and small intestine transit rates, enterochromaffin (EC) cell number, expression of TPH, and faecal/colonic 5-HT contents were measured. Results Loose stool and small intestine transit rates, EC cell numbers, colonic TPH expression and faecal/colonic 5-HT content of IBS-D rats were significantly increased relative to controls (p<0.05) and all these parameters were improved by EA at ST25, BL25, or ST25 and BL25 in combination (all p<0.05 vs untreated IBS-D rats). Conclusions EA at ST25 and/or BL25 had a positive effect on objective markers of diarrhoea in a IBS-D rat model and induced changes in EC cell number, colonic TPH and 5-HT contents. The effects of EA stimulation at ST25/BL25 on IBS-D rats may be mediated by excitation of sympathetic nerves.
Shame and psychopathology in adolescence.

Shame has been theorised to contribute to several areas of psychopathology that are particularly prominent in adolescence. However, it is an area that has received little attention in empirical research to date. In order to explore the role of shame in the development of adolescent psychological problems, a cross-sectional study was conducted which involved one hundred and sixty teenagers from an Inner London school. Data regarding psychological problems, current shame-proneness, and perception of parenting were collected via questionnaires. Adolescent psychological problems were shown to be associated with shame and no effect was found for age or gender. It was also found that shame, parental styles of overprotection and emotional unavailability, and psychological problems were all related in adolescence, similar to previous findings with adults, and that shame partially mediated the relationships of parenting styles and emotional problems. Furthermore, the independent effect of shame seemed to have a greater effect on psychological problems than did peer group difficulties, which may suggest that even through the 'rebellious' phase of adolescence, parenting style holds more importance psychologically, to the teenager, than peer relationships. The findings imply that feelings of shame may be a useful focus in therapy with teenagers and that preventative interventions aimed at altering parenting style could be implemented before the child reaches adolescence for a better effect.
Mental distress and stigma : exploring the significance of interactions in the context of support provision

Reducing stigma and discrimination encountered by people who experience mental distress is a policy objective of the British government’s current mental health strategy. This strategy considers third sector organisations providing support to people who experience mental distress to have a responsibility for, and a role in, stigma and discrimination reduction. The study takes a case study approach involving two third sector organisations in the North East of England; participant observation over the course of 6 months, 30 semi-structured interviews with staff and members, and 6 focus groups also involving staff and members. It is this combination of methods and the location of the study which makes this contemporary empirical study on stigma and discrimination relating to mental distress and support, and its contribution to knowledge, original. The research explores, describes, and analyses members’ experiences of stigma and discrimination, and staff and members’ experience of providing, performing, and receiving support. The study not only explores experiences of stigma and discrimination but also focuses on interactions in the support environment. Particularly by considering how relationships fostered in the support context of the organisations contribute to support which members describe as relatively free from stigmatising interactions. Employing a predominantly interactionist analysis of the empirical material, the findings indicate that the notion of ‘proximity’ of actors in the support environment is integral to deepening our understanding of stigma and relationships deemed by members as ‘supportive’. Exploring the wider socio-political context in which support is performed highlights how aspects of the stigma discourse continue to be individualised via the paradoxical attribution of ‘self-stigma’ by some staff members- despite the ‘hidden labour’ of many members. However, and as identified by this study, the ways in which staff ‘work’ to reduce the distance that members are ‘set apart’ or ‘distanced’ seems to be a significant contributing factor to truncating the scope for stigmatising interactions in the context of the case study organisations.
Three phase tooth-concentrated multiple-layer fractional windings with low space harmonic content

The possibility of obtaining lower space harmonic content for the fractional-slot, tooth-concentrated windings by multiplying the number of coils, leading to bigger number of layers in the armature slots is presented. By using multiple layer windings it is possible to reduce or even to cancel some space sub-harmonics having as final result lower eddy current losses induced by the armature reaction in the iron structure of the rotor. The general method of doubling (or trebling) the winding and relatively shifting by one (or more) slots is presented in the paper. Two examples of three phase concentrated windings are presented and analyzed as primitive windings, 12 slots/10poles and 9 slots/8 poles. In the first case the only existing space sub-harmonic is reduced firstly from 35.9% (from fundamental wave) to 9.6% and finally it is canceled by using different number of turns per coils. In the second case the two existing sub-harmonics are reduced and balanced by using the developed method.
Truthful Topology Control inWireless Ad Hoc Networks with Selfish Nodes

In wireless mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), energy is a crucial resource. Topology control technology allows network nodes to reduce their transmission power while preserving the network connectivity. A MANET is a non-cooperative system so that only when a node earns its payment, which can cover its cost, the cooperation can be stimulated. We design a truthful topology control mechanism (TRUECON) for MANETs to induce the selfish, but rational, network nodes to collaborate. Truth-telling is a dominant strategy in TRUECON. A node needs to reveal its true value in order to obtain the maximum expected utility. We prove the overpayment of TRUECON has a bound depending on different radio propagation models
Cutting Edge: Unique T Cells That Recognize Citrullinated Peptides Are a Feature of Protein Immunization1

Abs against citrullinated proteins are present in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. In this study, we describe a unique cohort of T cells that selectively responded to citrullinated variants of two epitopes of hen egg-white lysozyme, a major and a minor one, bound to the MHC molecule, I-Ak. In addition, we show that when given an intact, unmodified lysozyme protein, dendritic cells and peritoneal macrophages presented citrullinated peptides and stimulated modification-specific T cells. Thus, presentation of citrullinated-peptide-MHC complex is a feature of immune responses to protein Ags.
Swarming Medium Access Control Protocol for Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper introduces a novel Medium Access Control (MAC) scheme for ad hoc Wireless Sensor Networks. It is based upon the emergent properties of complex systems, exploiting the concept of swarm intelligence. The benefits brought about by this approach are node simplicity and improved network scalability given very low implementation overheads. Through the co-operative operation of nodes, a network can exhibit emergent self-initialisation and organisation and is adaptive to environmental and structural changes. The protocol was developed using social concepts drawn from the field of particle swarm optimisation, alongside negative feedback concepts from control system engineering. It offers comparable or better performance (in throughput and delay) with lower complexity and less overheads for larger scale networks when compared to the widely used and simple but still very effective IEEE 802.11 CSMA/CA standard.
Diagnostic Yield of Electromagnetic Navigation Bronchoscopy Using a Curved-tip Catheter to Aid in the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Lesions

Background: Electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB) may aid in the diagnosis of solitary pulmonary lesions with a lower complication rate than conventional diagnostic modalities. A curved-tip catheter is now available for use with ENB; however, the diagnostic yield of this device has not been previously reported. Methods: A single-center, single-operator retrospective chart review was performed on patients who underwent ENB for the diagnosis of pulmonary lesions. A curved-tip catheter was used in all procedures; angle options were chosen depending on lesion location. After navigation to the target lesion, fine-needle aspiration, brushings, biopsies, and bronchoalveolar lavage were performed in all patients. Correct localization was confirmed with fluoroscopy. Results: Thirty-one consecutive patients underwent ENB between February and October 2014. The mean lesion size was 1.8 cm (range, 0.4 to 4.0 cm) and 35% were in the right upper lobe. The probe tip was navigated to the target lesion in all cases. A diagnosis was obtained in 30/31 patients (96.8%). Twenty-two (71%) had a definitive histologic diagnosis of malignancy. One case was nondiagnostic requiring a repeat fine-needle aspiration. The remaining 8 nonmalignant cases were followed radiologically and demonstrated no progression of lesion size through at least 1 year. Fiducials were placed in 48% of cases. There were 2 pneumothoraces (6.5%), one of which required chest tube placement (3.2%). Conclusions: This study suggests that the curved-tip catheter is a useful modality for diagnosing peripheral pulmonary lesions with ENB. The diagnostic yield of ENB using this catheter was superior to that reported in other studies utilizing straight catheters.
Music information retrieval using Query-by-humming based on the dynamic time warping

Query-by-humming (QBH) is a content-based music information retrieval system that use humming as its query. Naturally, human cannot hum or sing perfectly. They may sing in different pitch, key, or tempo thus can affect the retrieval performance of the system. It becomes a challenge to build an effective QBH system despite all of the query imperfection. Many approaches have been proposed to develop QBH systems, such as contour approach, hidden Markov model, and dynamic time warping. One of a simple yet promising method for building a QBH system is the Dynamic Time Warping. In this paper, we describe our works on building a QBH system using the Dynamic Time Warping to search for Indonesian songs stored in the MIDI format. To evaluate the system, we use accuracy rate for humming transcription evaluation and mean reciprocal rank for retrieval evaluation. Most of retrieval results are in the first rank thus shown that the Dynamic Time Warping is effective to be applied on this task.
Underlying Beliefs of Behavioral Intentions Regarding Tourism Enhancement in Georgia

Especially rural areas in Post-Soviet countries are struggling at the poverty line. Additional income sources are essential. In the case of two remote rural regions in the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, one such source is the tourism sector. A structural equation model is applied to assess which influential factors determine the intention of private households to enhance activities in the tourism sector. The Theory of Planned Behavior (AJZEN, 1991) serves as the framework for the analysis. The strongest influence is exerted by subjective norm, followed by perceived behavioral control while attitude fails to have a significant effect on intention. An analysis of the underlying beliefs that guide the formation of the constructs shows that the family has the strongest influence on subjective norm, suggesting the importance of interventions that target not only the individual, but also the social aggregate. Furthermore the model indicates that bank loans can foster the perceived ability of enhancing touristic activities while personal illness is perceived as a significant threat to the behavior.
A Discursive Grid Approach to Model Local Coherence in Multi-document Summaries

Multi-document summarization is a very important area of Natural Language Processing (NLP) nowadays because of the huge amount of data in the web. People want more and more information and this information must be coherently organized and summarized. The main focus of this paper is to deal with the coherence of multi-document summaries. Therefore, a model that uses discursive information to automatically evaluate local coherence in multi-document summaries has been developed. This model obtains 92.69% of accuracy in distinguishing coherent from incoherent summaries, outperforming the state of the art in the area.
A social program for adolescent and young adult survivors of pediatric brain tumors: The power of a shared medical experience

ABSTRACT Survivors of pediatric brain tumors experience several medical and psychosocial late effects including deficits in social competence. This mixed methods study investigated the experience of 19 adolescent and young adult survivors of pediatric brain tumors and 17 parents who participated in a social support program. Qualitative results demonstrated a significant social isolation that was compounded by medical late effects. Survivors perceived social support and acceptance from interactions with peers who have similar medical backgrounds as a key aspect of the group experience. Parents reported increased social confidence among survivors, although they did not report that social gains generalized beyond the group setting. Interventions to promote the transfer of specific social skills are needed.
Politecnico di Torino Porto Institutional Repository [ Proceeding ] Aging Effects of Leakage Optimizations for Caches

Besides static power consumption, sub-90nm devices have to account for NBTI effects, which are one of the major concerns about system reliability. Some of the factors that regulate power consumption also impact NBTI-induced aging effects; however, to which extent traditional low-power techniques can mitigate NBTI issues has not been investigated thoroughly. This is especially true for cache memories, which are the target of this work. We show how leakage optimization techniques can also be leveraged to extend the lifetime a cache. Experimental analysis points out that, while achieving a total energy reduction up to 80%, managing static power can also provide a 5x factor on lifetime extension.
Energy Efficient Power Control in the Low Rate Regime

In this paper, we derive an optimal power control policy that maximizes the average energy efficiency with a long-term rate constraint in the low rate regime over fading channels. An interesting result is observed that both the (long-term) spectral and energy efficiencies can be improved simultaneously in the low rate regime if the optimal power control policy is employed.
Chinese Named Entity and Relation Identification System

In this interactive presentation, a Chinese named entity and relation identification system is demonstrated. The domain-specific system has a three-stage pipeline architecture which includes word segmentation and part-of-speech (POS) tagging, named entity recognition, and named entity relation identitfication. The experimental results have shown that the average F-measure for word segmentation and POS tagging after correcting errors achieves 92.86 and 90.01 separately. Moreover, the overall average F-measure for 6 kinds of name entities and 14 kinds of named entity relations is 83.08% and 70.46% respectively.
Application of a fuzzy service level constraint for solving a multi-objective location-routing problem for the industrial hazardous wastes

In this paper, a multi objective location-routing model is developed and solved for a real case related to Petrochemical Special Economic Zone (PETZONE) located in Khuzestan (Iran). Decision makers can decide on optimum locations of suitable treatment, recycling and disposal centers, and also the routes for transporting of different types of industrial wastes between these centers by the help of the model. There are considered three criteria in the mathematical model which minimizing total costs of transportation and establishment of the centers and total transportation and site risks related to the population exposure along transportation routes and around treatment and disposal centers. During the optimization process, waste collection system is improved by considering fuzzy customer satisfaction level. Finally, the model is computed and solved by Lingo software to find efficient solutions.
Unlocking the Door: Is Parents' Reading to Children the Key to Early Literacy Development?

Reading to children can have a positive and lasting impact on emergent literacy development. The specific nature of that impact and the conditions required for its occurrence are, however, less well known. In this article, we will review some key studies showing that children do not learn print concepts simply by having a parent or other adult read to them (a commonly promoted version of family literacy called "shared reading"), but that there are shared-reading practises that can enhance children's emergent literacy development. We shall focus specifically on parent-child shared reading in this article and address three questions: (a) What happens during parent-child shared reading? (b) What are the reading skill outcomes of parent-child shared reading? and (c) How can parent-child shared reading be enriched? We close with some remarks on children's emergent literacy development. What Happens During Parent-Child Shared Reading?
Cytological approach for diagnosis of non-healing oroantral fistula associated with candidiasis

Oroantral fistula (OAF) and oral candidiasis are common to come across as separate individual lesions. However when candida organisms infect maxillary sinus through OAF then diagnosis should not be limited to clinical diagnosis only. In such situation role of cytological examination can prove to be fruitful. A female with chronic long standing OAF, not responding to conventional treatment approach is reported. On incisional biopsy, the case was diagnosed as chronic maxillary sinusitis with OAF. However patient did not respond to any treatment approach and later presented with a more progressive lesion involving maxillary sinus. A cytosmear stained with periodic acid Schiff stain, revealed the presence of numerous candidal hyphae. Finally, case was diagnosed as OAF with a superadded candidal infection. Patient responded well to antifungal treatment followed by reclosure of OAF. We should not neglect a simple cytological examination which may prevent wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment.
Association of depression and SSRIs with mortality after stroke

In both early and late stages of stroke course, depression remains a common comorbid condition lacking well-defined clinical, social, or demographic predictors.1 According to a recent meta-analysis, the prevalence of depression among people who had a stroke was 29% (from 25% to 32%), remaining stable up to 10 years after stroke.2 Despite a large body of literature published in this field, uncertainties on outcome and health consequences linger. Although a systematic review and meta-analysis involving 59,598 individuals from 13 studies reported an association between depression after stroke and mortality,3 the high level of heterogeneity across the included studies in terms of study design, follow-up duration, source of recruitment, and time or methods of depression assessment limits interpretability of these findings. On the other hand, another meta-analysis found prestroke depression was associated with a pooled higher risk (hazard ratio 1.55; 95% confidence interval 1.25–1.93) of fatal stroke.4 However, routine use of antidepressants after stroke remains controversial, due to the heterogeneity and methodologic limitations of pharmacologic trials published in this field.5