Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Personality Underpinnings of Explicit and Implicit Generalized Prejudice

The idea of prejudice as a tendency that can be generalized from one target to another and the personality–prejudice relationship have been widely examined using explicit measures. However, less is known about this tendency and its relation to personality for implicit prejudice measures, like the implicit association test (IAT). Three studies including explicit and corresponding implicit prejudice measures toward various target groups confirmed a generalized factor for both types of measures with a stronger common component for the explicit factor. Personality was significantly related to the explicit measures only. Also, the personality and prejudice measures were unrelated to explicit and implicit attitudes toward an irrelevant target which rules out potential method confound. These results indicate that explicit and implicit prejudice measures tap different psychological constructs relating differently to the individual’s self-reported personality. The findings have implications for the debate on whether IAT scores reflect personally endorsed attitudes.
Lived Experiences of Childless Couples: A Phenomenological Study From the Indian Rural Context

This study sought to create an in-depth understanding of the experiences of being an involuntary childless couple from the social and personal points of view through qualitative research. The study used an essentially phenomenological methodology. Fifteen participants were recruited through purposive and snowball method. Data were collected via an open-ended narrative inviting the informants to focus on the experiences of being childless and were analyzed thematically. The issue of personal context emerged as a key theme in understanding perceptions of the respondents. Another important theme was that from the social context. This study has tried to explore the emotional sufferings faced by childless couples in the Indian context. Findings of this study suggest that prevalence of the social culture largely influences the psychosocial state of childless couples and hence coping strategies adopted by them are largely influenced by the prevailing culture.
Real-time sentence processing in children with specific language impairment: The contribution of lexicosemantic, syntactic, and world-knowledge information

ABSTRACT The present study investigated how lexicosemantic information, syntactic information, and world knowledge are integrated in the course of oral sentence processing in children with specific language impairment (SLI) as compared to children with typical language development. A primed lexical-decision task was used where participants had to make a lexical decision on the last word of a sentence. Thirty-nine children were tested: 13 children with SLI, 13 younger children matched on receptive vocabulary, and 13 age-matched children. We manipulated (a) the semantic fit between the target and the prime sentence, (b) the syntactic structure of the prime (syntactic vs. asyntactic), and (c) the lexical association between the target word and the prime. Despite being slower overall, children with SLI showed a significant priming effect. Syntactic information had a similar impact on thematic integration in control children and children with SLI, although the latter were more sensitive to lexicosemantic association and world knowledge than control groups. In addition, children with SLI appeared to use semantic information even when the sentence was asyntactic. The results suggest thematic integration problems in SLI: syntactic and semantic information contribute independently to the thematic structure but are not integrated to generate the emerging higher order representation.
Causal Inference by Independent Component Analysis: Theory and Applications∗

Structural vector-autoregressive models are potentially very useful tools for guiding both macroand microeconomic policy. In this paper, we present a recently developed method for estimating such models, which uses nonnormality to recover the causal structure underlying the observations. We show how the method can be applied to both microeconomic data (to study the processes of firm growth and firm performance) and macroeconomic data (to analyze the effects of monetary policy).
The Aged Retinal Pigment Epithelium/Choroid: A Potential Substratum for the Pathogenesis of Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Background Although the statement that age is the greatest risk factor for Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is widely accepted, the cellular and molecular explanations for that clinical statement are not generally known. A major focus of AMD research is the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)/choroid. The purpose of this study was to characterize the changes in the RPE/choroid with age that may provide a background for the development of AMD. Methodology/Principal Findings We compared the transcriptional profiles, key protein levels and histology of the RPE/choroid from young and old mice. Using three statistical methods, microarray data demonstrated marked changes in the old mouse. There were 315 genes differentially expressed with age; most of these genes were related to immune responses and inflammatory activity. Canonical pathways having significant numbers of upregulated genes in aged RPE/choroid included leukocyte extravasation, complement cascades, natural killer cell signaling and IL-10 signaling. By contrast, the adjacent neural retina showed completely different age-related changes. The levels of proteins that participate in leukocyte extravasation and complement pathways were consistently increased in the normal, aged RPE/choroid. Furthermore, there was increased gene expression and protein levels of leukocyte attracting signal, chemokine ligand 2 (Ccl2) in aged RPE/choroid. In old animals, there was marked extravasation and accumulation of leukocytes from the choroidal circulation onto Bruch's membrane and into the RPE. Conclusions/Significance These phenotypic changes indicate that the RPE/choroid in the normal, old mouse has become an immunologically active tissue. There are signals from the normal, aged RPE/choroid which recruit leukocytes from the circulation and activate the complement cascade. These age-related changes that occur in the RPE/choroid with age, to the extent that they occur in the human retina, may provide the background for an error in regulation of immunological activity to cause AMD to appear in an elderly individual.
Artifact suppression from electroencephalography signals using stationary subspace analysis

Different types of artifacts contaminate the electroencephalography (EEG) signals in brain computer interface (BCI) application. Electrocardiography (ECG) is such potential artifact which negatively affects the BCI performance. This paper presents a novel method for ECG artifact elimination from EEG using stationary subspace analysis (SSA). It is based on the consideration that the ECG components are relatively non-stationary than that of the EEG signals. Applying SSA, the total channels of raw EEG are partitioned into two groups — stationary and non-stationary. The non-stationary channels contain the ECG artifacts. A statistical test is used to measure the degree of non-stationarity. The channel with highest non-stationarity is selected as the source of ECG artifact. The normalized ECG source is used to segregate the target artifact from the measured EEG. The result of the proposed method is compared with that of the well-known statistical method independent component analysis (ICA). The experimental evaluation illustrates that the proposed method is superior to the ICA based approach in terms of ECG artifact suppression from raw EEG.
Energy efficient incentive resource allocation in D2D cooperative communications

Device-to-device (D2D) cooperation can improve both the system performance and Quality of Services (QoS) of users with bad channel qualities. However, cooperation consumes valuable power of a terminal to help others and thus is not preferred by the terminal. So it is important to design schemes to stimulate selfish terminals to cooperate. Defining energy efficiency as incentive parameters, this paper proposes a novel resource allocation scheme to encourage users to relay data for others with the reward of transmitting resource including time and power. Since the optimal algorithm is highly complicated, the proposed energy efficient incentive resource allocation scheme is a suboptimal solution which is composed of three steps. Firstly, D2D relay users are selected for others in bad channel condition. Secondly, the two-user case resource allocation problem is formulated to simplify the original problem in cellular networks. Finally, a two-dimensional search method is designed to solve the two-user case problem based on monotonicity analysis. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can stimulate users to implement D2D relay to achieve better performance in energy efficiency and throughput. It is also shown that the performance of the proposed scheme is close to that of the optimal one.
A maximum entropy approach for integrating semantic information in statistical language models

In this paper, we propose an adaptive statistical language model, which successfully incorporates the semantic information into an n-gram model. Traditional n-gram models exploit only the immediate context of history. We first introduce the semantic topic as a new source to extract the long distance information for language modeling, and then adopt the maximum entropy (ME) approach instead of the conventional linear interpolation method to integrate the semantic information with the n-gram model. Using the ME approach, each information source gives rise to a set of constraints, which should be satisfied to achieve the hybrid model. In the experiments, the ME language models, trained using the China Times newswire corpus, achieved 40% perplexity reduction over the baseline bigram model.
Modeling of the Parathyroid Hormone Response after Calcium Intake in Healthy Subjects

Plasma ionized calcium (Ca2+) concentrations are tightly regulated in the body and maintained within a narrow range; thus it is challenging to quantify calcium absorption under normal physiologic conditions. This study aimed to develop a mechanistic model for the parathyroid hormone (PTH) response after calcium intake and indirectly compare the difference in oral calcium absorption from PTH responses. PTH and Ca2+ concentrations were collected from 24 subjects from a clinical trial performed to evaluate the safety and calcium absorption of Geumjin Thermal Water in comparison with calcium carbonate tablets in healthy subjects. Indirect response models (NONMEM Ver. 7.2.0) were fitted to observed Ca2+ and PTH data, respectively, in a manner that absorbed but unobserved Ca2+ inhibits the secretion of PTH. Without notable changes in Ca2+ levels, PTH responses were modeled and used as a marker for the extent of calcium absorption.
Investigation of the Downwelling LW Differences Between the Niamey AMF Main and Supplementary Sites

DISCLAIMER This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by the U.S. Government. Neither the United States nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. Executive Summary The overall average downwelling longwave (LW) measured at the Niamey supplementary facility (S1) is 6-8 Wm-2 less than that measured by the two instruments located at the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) main (N1) site. Examination of all other data available at both sites does not reveal any overarching differences that suggest this should be the case. However, examination of the pyrgeometer case and dome temperatures do suggest that the S1 values are also anomalously low, which in turn would explain the downwelling LW anomaly since the LW is calculated using these temperatures. Our recommendation then is to normalize the S1 data to the average N1 value by applying an adjustment factor to the S1 downwelling pyrgeometer case and dome temperatures (in Kelvin), then recalculating the downwelling LW values. The adjustment factor (0.00305) has been determined as that factor that brings the overall average S1 LWdn to agree with the overall average of the two N1 LWdn data series. We note that there is no reason to expect that the two site averages would actually be exactly equal to one another, and thus our recommendation is viewed as likely moving the S1 data in the right direction and by normalizing to the N1 average will help facilitate more meaningful temporal variability studies at least. It is also strongly recommended that for all future AMF deployments where supplementary sites will also be deployed, that the supplementary instrument systems (complete) be assembled as they will be operated in the field and run for at least a few days beside the corresponding AMF main site instruments, both at the beginning and end of the AMF field campaign. …
Optimal succinct representations of planar maps

This paper addresses the problem of representing the connectivity information of geometric objects using as little memory as possible. As opposed to raw compression issues, the focus is here on designing data structures that preserve the possibility of answering incidence queries in constant time. We propose in particular the first optimal representations for 3-connected planar graphs and triangulations, which are the most standard classes of graphs underlying meshes with spherical topology. Optimal means that these representations asymptotically match the respective entropy of the two classes, namely 2 bits per edge for 3-connected planar graphs, and 1.62 bits per triangle or equivalently 3.24 bits per vertex for triangulations.
An Integrated Patch-Clamp Amplifier in Silicon-on-Sapphire CMOS

We designed and tested an integrated patch-clamp amplifier capable of recording from pico to tens of microamperes of current. The high-dynamic range of seven decades and the picoampere sensitivity of the instrument was targeted to whole-cell patch-clamp recordings. The prototype was fabricated on a 0.5-mum silicon-on-sapphire process. The device employs an integrating headstage with a pulse frequency modulated output, ranging from 3 Hz to 10 MHz. A digital interface produces a 16-bit output conversion of the input currents. We report on electronic characterization of the fabricated device, dynamic performance, and examples of measurements on biological cells for patch-clamp applications. The device will be used in an advanced planar high-throughput patch-clamp screening system for testing medicines
Comparative analysis of Corazonin‐encoding genes (Crz's) in Drosophila species and functional insights into Crz‐expressing neurons

To gain insight into regulatory mechanisms of tissue‐specific Corazonin (Crz) gene expression and its functions in Drosophila, we cloned the Crz genes from four Drosophila species (D. melanogaster, D. simulans, D. erecta, and D. virilis) and performed comparative analyses of Crz gene sequences and expression patterns using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Although Crz gene sequences showed a great deal of diversity, its expression patterns in the CNS were highly conserved in the Drosophila species examined here. In D. melanogaster larva, Crz expression was found in four pairs of neurons per cerebral lobe and in eight pairs of bilateral neurons in the ventral nerve cord; in adult, the number of Crz‐producing neurons increased to 6–8 in the pars lateralis of each brain lobe, whereas neurons in the ventral nerve cord were no longer detectable. Crz transcripts were also found in the optic lobes; however, these mRNAs do not seem to be translated. Such adult‐like Crz expression patterns were established within 48 hours after pupation. Somata of Crz‐neurons in the pars lateralis are located in the vicinity of terminals emanating from PDF‐containing pacemaking neurons, indicating a functional connection between the two peptidergic nervous systems. A subset of Crz neurons coexpressed the period clock gene; however, normal Crz transcription was unaffected by central clockworks. Two pairs of ectopic Crz cells were detected in the adult brains of behaviorally arrhythmic ClockJrk or cycle02 mutants, suggesting that CLOCK and CYCLE proteins negatively regulate Crz transcription in a cell‐specific manner. J. Comp. Neurol. 482:372–385, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Perceptions of well-being by metropolitan and nonmetropolitan populations in the United States

Abstract The present study compared what are considered salient sociological variables associated with the general public's perception of well-being with various aspects of life in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas in the United States. Data were collected from the national probability sample of the General Social Surveys of 1978 and 1988 of the National Opinion Research Center. Demographic variables such as gender, age, race, marital status, education, financial status, and location of residence were considered independent variables. A composite score of subjective well-being was treated as the dependent variable. The regression analysis results formed the basis for discussion of any observed differences in the perception of well-being as related to its predictors. Although no significant differences were noted among metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan living, financial status, marital status, and education appeared to be the important factors in an individual's perception of well-being. Race and ag.
The Importance of the Self-Concept and Coping Responses in Explaining Physical Health Status and Depression among Older Women

This study examined a model specifying the links among the physical, functional, and subjective components of physical health status and depression among older women, and assessed the effects of the self-concept (i.e., health confidence and self-esteem) and coping responses (i.e., direct action, positive cognitive, and passive cognitive coping) at each point in the model. Based on cross-sectional interview data with 274 older women, a series of regression analyses indicated that the self-concept and coping responses were significantly involved at each step of the health process but that the specific effects of the self-concept were different earlier than later in the model. Earlier in the model, self-esteem and physical health status indirectly influenced subsequent health status through their effects on health confidence and the cognitive coping responses. At the final point in the model, physical health status continued to operate indirectly through health confidence and the cognitive coping responses, however, health confidence and positive cognitive coping responses then directly affected self-esteem which, together with health confidence, subsequently had direct negative effects on depression. These results were interpreted within a social psychological framework that incorporated self-concept theory with cognitive theories of depression.
Using the LOTCA to Measure Cultural and Sociodemographic Effects on Cognitive Skills in Two Groups of Children

OBJECTIVES. Our objectives were (1) to compare the differential effects of cultural and sociodemographic variables on the cognitive performance of Israeli and Palestinian children, (2) to examine validity of the Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment (LOTCA) for kindergarten children, and (3) to determine the feasibility of using the LOTCA as a screening tool for assessing Palestinian children�s cognitive abilities. METHOD. Participants were 101 Jewish Israeli and 125 Muslim Palestinian children, ranging in grade from kindergarten to second grade. RESULTS. Israeli children achieved significantly higher scores than the Palestinian children on most LOTCA domains. We obtained significant Grade × Cultural Group interaction effects (F[10, 364] = 1.73, p < .001, effect size [ES] - ? 2 = .045) and also found a significant Cultural Group × Mother's Education interaction (F[5, 184] = 2.49, p < .05, ES - ? 2 = .064). CONCLUSION. Cultural and sociodemographic variables appear to affect cognitive performance. The LOTCA revealed cognitive differences between the cultural groups and school grades and may thus constitute an appropriate evaluation tool focusing on children�s school grade promotion.
In (Re)Search of Evidence-Based School Practices: Possibilities for Integrating Nationally Representative Surveys and Randomized Field Trials to Inform Educational Policy

Two types of inquiry have been at the heart of recent discussions of systematic evidence in educational policy and practice: randomized field trials (RFTs) and nationally representative surveys. We argue that integrating these 2 modes of inquiry has the potential to strengthen the evidence base for school reform. In particular, national surveys can help determine the focus of RFTs, by identifying factors that place schools at risk of poor achievement or buffer schools from risk. In addition, surveys can provide data on the prevalence of interventions identified as effective in RFTs and the conditions under which the interventions are being implemented. Finally, RFTs and surveys, taken together, can provide information on ways of improving the coherence of the set of interventions used at the school level.
Re-familisation of the Czech Family Policy and its Causes

In this paper we analyse the shift of family related policies (benefits, daycare services and labour market policies) from the state-socialist model toward re-familisation in the Czech Republic after 1989. We demonstrate that the policies negatively influence the possibilities for parents—and especially mothers—to balance work and family life. We concentrate on the question of why the government implemented such policies, despite their negative consequences. Our analysis indicates that the communist ideological legacy (disadvantageous conditions for ideology of feminism, poor experiences with the quality of daycare) and the communist economic legacy (pressures on the public budget) have played a major role in shaping post-communist family policies. Our analysis also indicates that this legacy may be beginning to break down as the policies of re-familisation are coming into conflict with the needs and aspirations of the population and policy makers become more and more forced to confront the fertility problem.