Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Students' recording accuracy in the reciprocal and the self-check teaching styles in physical education

The aim of the study was to record students’ recording accuracy when they practised with the reciprocal and the self-check styles in physical education and examine whether recording accuracy contributed to students’ performance. Participants were 48 fifth- and sixth-grade students who were randomly assigned to 3 experimental groups (reciprocal style, self-check style, sequential use of the reciprocal and the self-check styles). The results showed that students were moderately accurate in peer- and self-recording with a tendency to overestimate their performance. No difference among the 3 experimental groups in recording accuracy was found. Students who received more accurate feedback outperformed in the chest pass test those who received less accurate feedback. The results are discussed with reference to the use of the reciprocal and the self-check styles and the development of self-regulated learning in physical education.
The U-Constructs and Mobile Usage Behavior: Development and Validation of the U-Feat Scale

Information systems researchers have suggested that the world would move to Uber Commerce (U-Commerce) with a high degree of personalization. However, research in measuring U-Commerce constructs (ubiquity, universality, uniqueness, and unison) is sparse, and out of the 4 U-constructs, only perceived ubiquity has a measurement scale. In the present study, we construct reliable and valid measures for the three other (excluding Perceived Ubiquity) U-constructs. To this end, the study uses a stepwise approach starting from theoretical and qualitative exploration (using focus groups) and follows up with survey research (sampling 250 students and 326, 311, and 511 nonstudents in four consecutive surveys, respectively). Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the study develops reliable and valid multidimensional scales for the three U-constructs. Subsequently, the three U-construct scales are integrated with perceived ubiquity to form a comprehensive higher order scale named U-Feat, and it is validated in a nomological network of antecedents and consequences. U-Feat was found to have a significant effect on U-Commerce adoption.
Exploiting Correlation between Body Gestures and Spoken Sentences for Real-time Emotion Recognition

Humans communicate their affective states through different media, both verbal and non-verbal, often used at the same time. The knowledge of the emotional state plays a key role to provide personalized and context-related information and services. This is the main reason why several algorithms have been proposed in the last few years for the automatic emotion recognition. In this work we exploit the correlation between one's affective state and the simultaneous body expressions in terms of speech and gestures. Here we propose a system for real-time emotion recognition from gestures. In a first step, the system builds a trusted dataset of association pairs (motion data → emotion pattern), also based on textual information. Such dataset is the ground truth for a further step, where emotion patterns can be extracted from new unclassified gestures. Experimental results demonstrate a good recognition accuracy and real-time capabilities of the proposed system.
Lower bounds on the communication complexity of two-party (quantum) processes

The process of state preparation, its transmission and subsequent measurement can be classically simulated through the communication of some amount of classical information. Recently, we proved that the minimal communication cost is the minimum of a convex functional over a space of suitable probability distributions. It is now proved that this optimization problem is the dual of a geometric programming problem, which displays some appealing properties. First, the number of variables grows linearly with the input size. Second, the objective function is linear in the input parameters and the variables. Finally, the constraints do not depend on the input parameters. These properties imply that, once a feasible point is found, the computation of a lower bound on the communication cost in any two-party process is linearly complex. The studied scenario goes beyond quantum processes. We illustrate the method by analytically deriving some non-trivial lower bounds. Finally, we conjecture the lower bound n2n for a noiseless quantum channel with capacity n qubits.
Personality and Emotional Correlates of Self-Reported Antigay Behaviors

This study examined the relationship between the emotional response of homophobia and selected personality and self-report behavioral variables. Scales 4, 5, and 9 of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory were related to the affective components of homophobia as measured by the Index of Attitudes Towards Homosexuals (IAH; formerly Index of Homophobia-Modified) and self-report of past aggressive behavior toward homosexuals as measured by a Self-Report of Behavior Scale (SBS), specifically developed for this study. Data from 80 male subjects were subjected to a canonical correlation analysis. The first cannonical correlation showed that high SBS and high IAH are correlated with adherence to traditional masculine values, not faking good, impulsivity, and social maladjustment. The second canonical correlation indicates that a combination of high scores on Scales 9 and 5 is associated with elevated SBS scores, but decreased IAH scores. These data suggest that among young men certain personality characteristics (Scales 9 and 5) compound homonegative affect and behavior.
Choosing a Variable to Clamp: Approximate Inference Using Conditioned Belief Propagation

In this paper we propose an algorithm for approximate inference on graphical models based on belief propagation (BP). Our algorithm is an approximate version of Cutset Conditioning, in which a subset of variables is instantiated to make the rest of the graph singly connected. We relax the constraint of single-connectedness, and select variables one at a time for conditioning, running belief propagation after each selection. We consider the problem of determining the best variable to clamp at each level of recursion, and propose a fast heuristic which applies backpropagation to the BP updates. We demonstrate that the heuristic performs better than selecting variables at random, and give experimental results which show that it performs competitively with existing approximate inference algorithms.
Non-Parametric Change-Point Method for Differential Gene Expression Detection

Background We proposed a non-parametric method, named Non-Parametric Change Point Statistic (NPCPS for short), by using a single equation for detecting differential gene expression (DGE) in microarray data. NPCPS is based on the change point theory to provide effective DGE detecting ability. Methodology NPCPS used the data distribution of the normal samples as input, and detects DGE in the cancer samples by locating the change point of gene expression profile. An estimate of the change point position generated by NPCPS enables the identification of the samples containing DGE. Monte Carlo simulation and ROC study were applied to examine the detecting accuracy of NPCPS, and the experiment on real microarray data of breast cancer was carried out to compare NPCPS with other methods. Conclusions Simulation study indicated that NPCPS was more effective for detecting DGE in cancer subset compared with five parametric methods and one non-parametric method. When there were more than 8 cancer samples containing DGE, the type I error of NPCPS was below 0.01. Experiment results showed both good accuracy and reliability of NPCPS. Out of the 30 top genes ranked by using NPCPS, 16 genes were reported as relevant to cancer. Correlations between the detecting result of NPCPS and the compared methods were less than 0.05, while between the other methods the values were from 0.20 to 0.84. This indicates that NPCPS is working on different features and thus provides DGE identification from a distinct perspective comparing with the other mean or median based methods.
Is Hypoperfusion an Important Cause of Strokes? If So, How?

Traditionally hypoperfusion and embolism are considered separate important causes of stroke in patients with arterial occlusive disease. However, although hypoperfusion and embolism differ in mechanisms and location, they generally coincide in severe obstructive lesions and cause washout disturbances of embolism in low perfusion territories distal to stenosis. Unless the collateral blood supply is sufficient to prevent ischemia, multiple remote spot-like infarctions occur within the hypoperfused brain territory. In border-zone distributed infarction – long suspected to result from hemodynamic compromise alone – complementary interaction of embolisation and hypoperfusion territories has to be considered. Thus hypoperfusion with embolism or embolism alone are the most common explanations for stroke, the former often associated with less severe clinical deficits than the latter.
Determinants of cognitive deficits in alcoholics: The search continues

Abstract There is consistent evidence for mild to moderate impairment in cognitive neuropsychological functions in male and female postwithdrawal alcoholics. There are, however, wide differences in the manifestation of such impairment. In any given study, typically 20% to 40% of the alcoholics do not show performance deficits when compared to peer controls. What are the determinants of such individual differences? Over the last several decades we have addressed this question in a series of studies. Although many interesting results have been obtained, the search continues.
A Formal Approach for RDF/S Ontology Evolution

In this paper, we consider the problem of ontology evolution in the face of a change operation. We devise a general-purpose algorithm for determining the effects and side-effects of a requested elementary or complex change operation. Our work is inspired by belief revision principles (i.e., validity, success and minimal change) and allows us to handle any change operation in a provably rational and consistent manner. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first approach overcoming the limitations of existing solutions, which deal with each change operation on a per-case basis. Additionally, we rely on our general change handling algorithm to implement specialized versions of it, one per desired change operation, in order to compute the equivalent set of effects and side-effects. This work was partially supported by the EU projects CASPAR (FP6-2005-IST-033572) and KP-LAB (FP6-2004-IST-27490).
Metamorphosis of 3D polyhedral models using progressive connectivity transformations

Three-dimensional (3D) metamorphosis is a powerful technique to produce a 3D shape transformation between two or more existing models. We propose a novel 3D morphing technique that avoids creating a merged embedding that contains the faces, edges, and vertices of two given embeddings. This novel 3D morphing technique dynamically adds or removes vertices to gradually transform the connectivity of 3D polyhedrons from a source model into a target model and simultaneously creates the intermediate shapes. In addition, a priority control function provides the animators with control of arising or dissolving of input models' features in a morphing sequence. This is a useful tool to control a morphing sequence more easily and flexibly. Several examples of aesthetically pleasing morphs are demonstrated using the proposed method.
Delirium as a predictor of mortality in mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit.

CONTEXT In the intensive care unit (ICU), delirium is a common yet underdiagnosed form of organ dysfunction, and its contribution to patient outcomes is unclear. OBJECTIVE To determine if delirium is an independent predictor of clinical outcomes, including 6-month mortality and length of stay among ICU patients receiving mechanical ventilation. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Prospective cohort study enrolling 275 consecutive mechanically ventilated patients admitted to adult medical and coronary ICUs of a US university-based medical center between February 2000 and May 2001. Patients were followed up for development of delirium over 2158 ICU days using the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU and the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Primary outcomes included 6-month mortality, overall hospital length of stay, and length of stay in the post-ICU period. Secondary outcomes were ventilator-free days and cognitive impairment at hospital discharge. RESULTS Of 275 patients, 51 (18.5%) had persistent coma and died in the hospital. Among the remaining 224 patients, 183 (81.7%) developed delirium at some point during the ICU stay. Baseline demographics including age, comorbidity scores, dementia scores, activities of daily living, severity of illness, and admission diagnoses were similar between those with and without delirium (P>.05 for all). Patients who developed delirium had higher 6-month mortality rates (34% vs 15%, P =.03) and spent 10 days longer in the hospital than those who never developed delirium (P<.001). After adjusting for covariates (including age, severity of illness, comorbid conditions, coma, and use of sedatives or analgesic medications), delirium was independently associated with higher 6-month mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 3.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4-7.7; P =.008), and longer hospital stay (adjusted HR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.4-3.0; P<.001). Delirium in the ICU was also independently associated with a longer post-ICU stay (adjusted HR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2-2.3; P =.009), fewer median days alive and without mechanical ventilation (19 [interquartile range, 4-23] vs 24 [19-26]; adjusted P =.03), and a higher incidence of cognitive impairment at hospital discharge (adjusted HR, 9.1; 95% CI, 2.3-35.3; P =.002). CONCLUSION Delirium was an independent predictor of higher 6-month mortality and longer hospital stay even after adjusting for relevant covariates including coma, sedatives, and analgesics in patients receiving mechanical ventilation.
Nitrogen and Carbon Mineralization Dynamics of Manures and Composts

Nitrogen and carbon mineralization rates of 19 manure and compost samples were determined in 1996, with an additional 12 samples evaluated in 1997. These organic amendments were mixed with a soil: sand blend at 2% by dry weight and the amended blends were incubated at constant moisture for 12 (1996) or 24 weeks (1997) at 25 °C. Net N mineralization was measured at 4- (1996) or 8-week (1997) intervals, C mineralization at 4-week intervals in 1997. Pots of the amended blends were also seeded with fescue (Festuca arundinacea Shreb.) and watered, but not fertilized, for 17 (1996) or 18 weeks (1997); N phytoavailability was estimated from fescue biomass N and mineral N in pot leachate. An average of 16%, 7%, and 1 % of organic N was mineralized in 12 weeks of incubation in 1996, and an average of 15%, 6%, and 2% in 24 weeks of incubation in 1997, in manure, manure compost, and plant residue compost, respectively. Overall, N recovery in the fescue assay averaged 11%, 6%, and 2 % of total amendment N for manure, manure compost, and plant residue compost, respectively. Mineralization of manure C averaged 35% of initial C content in 24 weeks, while compost C mineralization averaged only 14%. Within 4 (compost) or 16 weeks (manure), the rate of mineralization of amendment C had declined to a level similar to that of the soil organic C.
Identifying key messages to encourage minimal impact on the cape split trail

Abstract Natural resource managers are increasingly turning to indirect environmental management strategies to encourage appropriate wilderness recreation behaviour because of reluctance to regulate and scarce resources for enforcement. This study identified priority topics for on‐trail messages designed to influence minimal impact wilderness recreation behaviour. Specifically assessed were minimal impact knowledge, environmental ethics, and self‐reported behaviour of users and potential users of the Cape Split Trail, Nova Scotia. A questionnaire based on a minimal impact training curriculum developed by the Leave No Trace organization was administered to Cape Split trail users, representatives of a naturalist society, and students enrolled in three university classes (potential users). The results revealed generalized strengths and weaknesses of respondents, suggesting that some minimal impact topics should be emphasized, while other topics can reasonably be deemphasized in on‐trail messaging. Curriculum designers may also find these results useful in fine‐tuning minimal impact training experiences.
Request Squeezer: Mitigating Tail Latency through Pruned Request Replication

Modern Internet services are computing over large scale dataset and responding to user requests instantly. To deliver satisfactory user experience, the tail latency of the services ought to be man-aged within the service level agreement (SLA). Existing techniques for mitigating tail latency launch multi replicas of each request to different machines and use the result of the one that finishes first. However, depending on the system utilization, a portion of replicas violates SLA even before running and thus wastes resource unnecessarily when executed. These unnecessary replicas further delays more subsequent replicas, dragging the tail latency below SLA target, especially under high system utilization. We present Request Squeezer, a methodology for mitigating tail latency through pruned request replication. For each replica, Request Squeezer leverages the queuing and service time to predict the latency and terminates the replica missing the SLA target. In case that all replicas are pruned, certain replicas are marked as survivor, which are immune to pruning technique. Evaluation with Google Web Search workload shows that our approach saves 11.6% of resource and improves 25.9% of the maximum throughput while meeting the same SLA compared with the state-of-the-art request replication techniques.
Reform of Teacher Education and Robert D. Barr the Problem of Quality Assurance

Barr summarizes the growing consen sus for educational reform in America that is shaping the future of teacher edu cation. The author contrasts the reform developments that focus so heavily on academic issues such as degrees, majors, length of programs, grade point aver ages, and test scores, with a number of other developments that focus on teacher performance. These develop ments include "fast-track" programs, school-based teacher education, and the interest in deregulating teacher educa tion by substituting performance out comes for approved programs. More im portant, Barr considers the concept of Quality Assurance in Teacher Education and raises the question of evaluating teacher effectiveness on the basis of stu dent learning.
Virus profile in children with acute respiratory infections with various severities in Beijing, China

Background Acute respiratory infection (ARI) is one of the most common infectious diseases in infants and young children globally. This study aimed to determine the virus profile in children with ARI presenting with different severities. Methods Clinical specimens collected from children with ARI in Beijing from September 2010 to March 2011 were investigated for 18 respiratory viruses using an xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel Fast (RVP Fast) assay. The Pearson chi‐square analysis was used to identify statistical significance. Results Of 270 cases from three groups of ARI patients, including Out‐patients, In‐patients and patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), viruses were detected in 176 (65.2%) specimens with the RVP Fast assay. The viral detection rate from the Out‐patients group (50.0%) was significantly lower than that from the In‐patients (71.1%) and ICU‐patients (74.4%) groups. The virus distribution was different between the Out‐patients group and the other hospitalized groups, while the virus detection rate and distribution characteristics were similar between the In‐patients and ICU‐patients groups. The co‐infection rates of the Out‐patients group, the In‐patients group, and the ICU‐patients group were 15.6%, 50.0% and 35.8%, respectively. In addition to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and adenovirus (ADV), human rhinovirus (HRV) was frequently detected from children with serious illnesses, followed by human metapneumovirus (hMPV), human bocavirus (HBoV) and coronaviruses. Parainfluenza virus 3 (PIV3) was detected in children with lower respiratory illness, but rarely from those with serious illnesses in the ICU‐patient group. Conclusion In addition to so‐called common respiratory viruses, virus detection in children with ARI should include those thought to be uncommon respiratory viruses, especially when there are severe ARI‐related clinical illnesses.
On Being the Right Size: The Impor tance of Size in Life History, Ecology, and Evolution

Living things vary enormously in body size. Across the spectrum of life, the size of animals spans more than twenty-one orders of magnitude, from the smallest (mycoplasm) at ∼10–13 g to the largest (blue whale) at 108 g (fi g. I.1, table I.1). We now know that much of this range was achieved in two “jumps” corresponding to the evolution of eukaryotes and metazoans, at 2.1 Ga and 640 Ma, respectively (Payne et al. 2009). Yet the drivers behind these jumps, the factors underlying similarities and differences in body size distributions, and the factors selecting for the “characteristic” or “optimum” size of organisms remain unresolved (Smith et al. 2004; Storch and Gaston 2004). The study of body size has a long history in scientifi c discourse. Some of our earliest scientifi c treatises speculate on the factors underlying the body mass of organisms (e.g., Aristotle 347–334 B.C.). Many other eminent scientists and philosophers, including Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, J. B. S. Haldane, George Gaylord Simpson, and D’Arcy Thompson, have also considered why organisms are the size they are and the consequences of larger or smaller size. As Galileo stated, “Nature cannot produce a horse as large as twenty ordinary horses or a giant ten times taller than an ordinary man unless by miracle or by greatly altering the proportions of his limbs and especially of his bones” (Galileo 1638). The
Effectiveness of Risperidone in Comorbid Bipolar Disorder and Substance Abuse: An Observational Study

ABSTRACT This report will describe clinical experience using risperidone in substance-dependent patients with bipolar disorder. Method. Thirty-six male patients with SUD and bipolar disorder (DSMIII-R), who were admitted to a voluntary, post-detoxification, intermediatecare inpatient substance abuse program, were assessed weekly using the Clinical Global Impressions scale to assess overall functioning. All patients were treated with risperidone (mean dose 2.3 mg/day) in an open-label, naturalistic trial. 20 Results. Of the 36 patients, 11 dropped out before a follow-up appointment. Twenty patients (56%) reported improved or much improved on the CGI scale, and 5 (%) were rated unchanged. Conclusion. The results of this observational trial suggest that risperidone is moderately effective and well tolerated in bipolar patients with substance use disorders and comorbid psychiatric illnesses. In the short-term, risperidone treatment may also contribute to the likelihood of completing substance abuse treatment.