Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Typological Examination of Communication Competence and Mental Health in Stepchildren

Despite continued interest in communication and family functioning, researchers have been challenged to adequately describe the complicated dynamics and complex configurations of stepfamilies. This study extends previous stepfamily research by classifying stepchildren according to their beliefs and experiences with key dimensions of stepfamily life, and by examining differences in perceptions of communication competence and mental health among different stepfamily types. Participants included 586 stepchildren from four different states who completed a series of survey measures. Results of cluster and discriminant analyses revealed five discrete types of stepfamilies, including bonded, functional, ambivalent, evasive, and conflictual stepfamilies. Estimates of validity for the typology revealed significant differences in self-reported communication competence and mental health among the five stepfamily types, as well as significant differences in perceptions of mothers’ and stepparents’ communication competence.
Reconfigurable Modular Chain: A Reversible Material for Folding Three-Dimensional Lattice Structures

A wide range of engineering applications, ranging from civil to space structures, could benefit from the ability to construct material-efficient lattices that are easily reconfigurable. The challenge preventing modular robots from being applied at large scales is mainly the high level of complexity involved in duplicating a large number of highly integrated module units. We believe that reconfigurability can be more effectively achieved at larger scales by separating the structural design from the rest of the functional components. To this end, we propose a modular chainlike structure of links and connector nodes that can be used to fold a wide range of two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) structural lattices that can be easily disassembled and reconfigured when desired. The node geometry consists of a diamondlike shape that is one-twelfth of a rhombic dodecahedron, with magnets embedded on the faces to allow a forceful and selfaligning connection with neighboring links. After describing the concept and design, we demonstrate a prototype consisting of 350 links and experimentally show that objects with different shapes can be successfully approximated by our proposed chain design. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4035863]
Inflammatory cytokines in aqueous humor of patients with choroidal neovascularization

Objective To investigate the correlations between aqueous concentrations of interleukin 1β, 6, 8, 10, 12p (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p), and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and the parameters of macular edema acquired by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in patients with choroidal neovascularization. Methods IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p, and TNF-α in the aqueous humor samples of 17 patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD), ten patients with pathological myopia (PM), seven patients with idiopathic choroidal neovascularization (CNV), and 14 patients with cataract and idiopathic epiretinal membrane or macular hole in the control group were measured with cytometric bead array. The maximum macular thickness and macular volume within 1 mm, 3 mm, and 6 mm were measured with OCT. Results In the CNV groups, the aqueous levels of IL-6 and IL-8 were significantly associated with macular volume within 6 mm (p=0.011, p=0.008, respectively), while IL-1β, IL-10, IL-12p, and TNF-α showed no significant correlation with either the maximum macular thickness or the macular volume. By further selecting patients with CNV who had accepted their last intravitreal injection of bevacizumab within 3 months, the level of IL-6 still significantly correlated with the maximum macular thickness (p=0.019) and macular volume within 1 mm (p=0.018), 3 mm (p=0.018), and 6 mm (p=0.022). In patients with exudative AMD, the level of IL-6 was significantly associated with the maximum macular thickness (p=0.025) and macular volume within 1 mm (p=0.025), 3 mm (p=0.006), and 6 mm (p=0.002). The aqueous level of all cytokines did not vary significantly between the CNV patients who had accepted their last intravitreal injection of bevacizumab within 3 months and the other patients, nor was a difference found among patients with exudative AMD, PM, and idiopathic CNV, and the control group. Conclusions Intraocular concentrations of IL-6 and IL-8 (particularly IL-6) are significantly associated with the volume of macular edema in patients with CNV. However, intravitreal injection of antivascular endothelial growth factor drugs did not change the intraocular level of these inflammation cytokines.
RHMD: Evasion-Resilient Hardware Malware Detectors

Hardware Malware Detectors (HMDs) have recently been proposed as a defense against the proliferation of malware. These detectors use low-level features, that can be collected by the hardware performance monitoring units on modern CPUs to detect malware as a computational anomaly. Several aspects of the detector construction have been explored, leading to detectors with high accuracy. In this paper, we explore the question of how well evasive malware can avoid detection by HMDs. We show that existing HMDs can be effectively reverse-engineered and subsequently evaded, allowing malware to hide from detection without substantially slowing it down (which is important for certain types of malware). This result demonstrates that the current generation of HMDs can be easily defeated by evasive malware. Next, we explore how well a detector can evolve if it is exposed to this evasive malware during training. We show that simple detectors, such as logistic regression, cannot detect the evasive malware even with retraining. More sophisticated detectors can be retrained to detect evasive malware, but the retrained detectors can be reverse-engineered and evaded again. To address these limitations, we propose a new type of Resilient HMDs (RHMDs) that stochastically switch between different detectors. These detectors can be shown to be provably more difficult to reverse engineer based on resent results in probably approximately correct (PAC) learnability theory. We show that indeed such detectors are resilient to both reverse engineering and evasion, and that the resilience increases with the number and diversity of the individual detectors. Our results demonstrate that these HMDs offer effective defense against evasive malware at low additional complexity.CCS CONCEPTSSecurity and privacy $\rightarrow $ Hardware security implementation; Malware and its mitigation;
MRI in detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the commonest malignancy of the liver and is usually due to cirrhosis. Early detection of HCC and the premalignant dysplastic nodules has implications on the management options of tumor ablation, liver resection and transplantation. Magnetic resonance imaging is useful for the detection and characterization of lesions, in the identification of dysplastic nodules and their malignant transformation into HCC.
Towards a Model of Effective Use of Video for Teacher Professional Development

Based on previous research, this paper proposes an emerging model to outline the learning outcomes that teacher education programmes using video should consider. Besides cognitive and psychomotor learning, the affective and social needs of teachers are also highlighted in the model to inform the development of video-mediated teacher professional activities. Three broad strategies are identified in the model for bringing forth the learning outcomes, namely, critical reflection, meaningful comparison and productive discussion. These interact to shape the landscape of teacher professional learning. The model also identifies the key role of facilitators and the importance of video selection in enhancing teacher learning via video-mediated activities. It is suggested that the emergent model can serve as a heuristic guide on effective use of video for teacher professional development.
Differing Perceptions: How Students of Color and White Students Perceive Campus Climate for Underrepresented Groups

Using a campus climate assessment instrument developed by Rankin (1998), we surveyed students (n = 7,347) from 10 campuses to explore whether students from different racial groups experienced their campus climates differently. Students of color experienced harassment at higher rates than Caucasian students, although female White students reported higher incidence of gender harassment. Further, students of color perceived the climate as more racist and less accepting than did White students, even though White students recognized racial harassment at similar rates as students of color. Implications are offered for understanding campus climates, providing appropriate interventions, and overcoming White privilegeand resistance.
Use Cases for Linked Data Visualization Model

There is a vast amount of Linked Data on the web spread across a large number of datasets. One of the visions behind Linked Data is that the published data is conveniently reusable by others. This, however, depends on many details such as conformance of the data with commonly used vocabularies and adherence to best practices for data modeling. Therefore, when an expert wants to reuse existing datasets, he still needs to analyze them to discover how the data is modeled and what it actually contains. This may include analysis of what entities are there, how are they linked to other entities, which properties from which vocabularies are used, etc. What is missing is a convenient and fast way of seeing what could be usable in the chosen unknown dataset without reading through its RDF serialization. In this paper we describe use cases based on this problem and their realization using our Linked Data Visualization Model (LDVM) and its new implementation. LDVM is a formal base that exploits the Linked Data principles to ensure interoperability and compatibility of compliant analytic and visualization components. We demonstrate the use cases on examples from the Czech Linked Open Data cloud.
Störungen des autobiographischen Gedächtnisses bei Alzheimer-Demenz

Zusammenfassung. Storungen der Gedachtnisfunktionen bilden das Achsensymptom demenzieller Erkrankungen, insbesondere der Alzheimer-Demenz (AD) als ihrer haufigsten Form. Gerade Defizite des autobiographischen Gedachtnisses entstehen schon in den Anfangsstadien der Erkrankung und betreffen primar Erinnerungen an selbst Erfahrenes einschlieslich pragender Lebensereignisse, wah- rend ausere Lebensdaten noch lange abrufbar bleiben. Autobiographische Gedachtnisdefizite wurden nur selten untersucht, vor allem da derartige Studien besondere methodische Anforderungen stellen, die sich aus der Individualitat des erinnerten Materials und dem Cha- rakter demenzieller Erkrankungen ergeben. Wir haben deshalb autobiographische Gedachtnisdefizite differenziert nach semantischen und episodischen Qualitaten mit dem «Bielefelder Autobiographischen Gedachtnisinventar» (BAGI) in einer modifizierten Version bei 230 Heimbewohnern (24 kognitiv Gesunde; 28 mit leichter kognitiver Beeintrachtigung; 178 mit manifester AD) untersucht. Eine nachhaltige Beeintrachtigung des autobiographischen Gedachtnisses zeigte sich dabei schon in fruhen Phasen der AD. Bereits Bewohner mit leichter kognitiver Beeintrachtigung wiesen ausgepragte Defizite des episodischen Gedachtnisses auf, die bei mittelgradiger oder schwerer AD fortbestanden. Demgegenuber gingen semantische autobiographische Gedachtnisinhalte graduell verloren, sodass weitreichende Defizite erst bei stark Eingeschrankten entstanden. Die Kenntnis dieser Zusammenhange vertieft nicht nur unser Verstandnis der Alzheimer- Demenz, sondern erweitert auch das verfugbare diagnostische Instrumentarium. Abstract. Memory decline in general and autobiographical memory deficits in particular are the core symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The respective deficits can be observed even in the early stages of the disease, and mainly involve personal experiences including important lifetime events, rather than semantic biographical data. To investigate this observation in a large clinical sample and to stan- dardize its examination, the respective deficits were documented on a modified version of the «Bielefeld Autobiographical Memory Inventory» (BAGI) in 230 nursing home residents (24 without cognitive deficits, 28 with mild cognitive impairment and 178 with AD). Even residents with mild cognitive impairment or early AD showed marked deficits of episodic autobiographic memory, which were even more pronounced in moderate and severe dementia. In contrast, semantic memory contents declined gradually with pronounced deficits only in severe dementia. These findings confirm and extend our understanding of autobiographical memory decline in AD and indicate that the respective deficits can be used as an early marker of the disease.
The MDRD formula does not reflect GFR in ESRD patients.

BACKGROUND The Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equation is widely used for the estimation of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) from plasma creatinine. It has been well validated in patients with various degrees of impaired kidney function, but not in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Plasma creatinine is determined by GFR and muscle mass. Importance of the latter may increase at low GFR. Our aim was to firstly compare estimated GFR (eGFR by MDRD equation) with measured GFR (mGFR, mean of creatinine and urea clearance) just before the start of dialysis. Secondly, the relationship of eGFR and mGFR with mortality and muscle mass was analysed. METHODS ESRD patients with 24-h urine collections and a plasma sample available at the start of dialysis [n = 569, 61% male, mean (standard deviation) age 58 (15) years] were selected from the Netherlands Cooperative Study on the Adequacy of Dialysis. Incident dialysis patients were followed until death, transplantation or end of study. RESULTS mGFR was 6.0 (2.6) and eGFR was 6.8 (2.4) mL/min/1.73 m(2). Although eGFR overestimated mGFR with only 0.8 mL/min/1.73 m(2), limits of agreement ranged from - 4.1 to + 5.6 mL/min/1.73 m(2). The highest eGFR values were associated with the highest mortality rates [adjusted hazard ratio 1.4 (1.0, 1.9)]. eGFR but not mGFR was associated with muscle mass (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS These data imply that estimation of GFR by equations using plasma creatinine in the denominator cannot be used for this purpose in patients with ESRD because the effect of GFR on plasma creatinine is overruled by that of muscle mass.
Teacher Recruitment and Retention: A Review of the Recent Empirical Literature

This article critically reviews the recent empirical literature on teacher recruitment and retention published in the United States. It examines the characteristics of individuals who enter and remain in the teaching profession, the characteristics of schools and districts that successfully recruit and retain teachers, and the types of policies that show evidence of efficacy in recruiting and retaining teachers. The goal of the article is to provide researchers and policymakers with a review that is comprehensive, evaluative, and up to date. The review of the empirical studies selected for discussion is intended to serve not only as a compendium of available recent research on teacher recruitment and retention but also as a guide to the merit and importance of these studies.
Power provisioning for a warehouse-sized computer

Large-scale Internet services require a computing infrastructure that can beappropriately described as a warehouse-sized computing system. The cost ofbuilding datacenter facilities capable of delivering a given power capacity tosuch a computer can rival the recurring energy consumption costs themselves.Therefore, there are strong economic incentives to operate facilities as closeas possible to maximum capacity, so that the non-recurring facility costs canbe best amortized. That is difficult to achieve in practice because ofuncertainties in equipment power ratings and because power consumption tends tovary significantly with the actual computing activity. Effective powerprovisioning strategies are needed to determine how much computing equipmentcan be safely and efficiently hosted within a given power budget. In this paper we present the aggregate power usage characteristics of largecollections of servers (up to 15 thousand) for different classes ofapplications over a period of approximately six months. Those observationsallow us to evaluate opportunities for maximizing the use of the deployed powercapacity of datacenters, and assess the risks of over-subscribing it. We findthat even in well-tuned applications there is a noticeable gap (7 - 16%)between achieved and theoretical aggregate peak power usage at the clusterlevel (thousands of servers). The gap grows to almost 40% in wholedatacenters. This headroom can be used to deploy additional compute equipmentwithin the same power budget with minimal risk of exceeding it. We use ourmodeling framework to estimate the potential of power management schemes toreduce peak power and energy usage. We find that the opportunities for powerand energy savings are significant, but greater at the cluster-level (thousandsof servers) than at the rack-level (tens). Finally we argue that systems needto be power efficient across the activity range, and not only at peakperformance levels.
Proximity Structures for Geometric Graphs

In this paper we study proximity structures like Delauney triangulations based on geometric graphs, i.e. graphs which are subgraphs of the complete geometric graph. Given an arbitrary geometric graph G, we define several restricted Voronoi diagrams, restricted Delaunay triangulations, relative neighborhood graphs, Gabriel graphs and then study their complexities when G is a general geometric graph or G is some special graph derived from the application area of wireless networks. Besides being of fundamental interest these structures have applications in topology control for wireless networks.
Energy-based adaptation in simulations of survivability of ad hoc communication

Mobile wireless handheld devices can support ad hoc communication when infrastructure systems are overloaded or not available. Unfortunately, the constrained capacity of their batteries and the energy inefficiency inherent to the ad hoc communication poses a challenge causing a short lifetime. Protocols and application layer services, such as security, can be designed (offline) to do an efficient use of the resources. Realtime adaptation can further minimise their impact on the energy consumption, increasing the network lifetime thus extending the availability of network communication. In this paper, we propose an energy-aware adaption component for an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET). The component is in charge of adjusting the parameters of the IDS based on the current energy level, using the trade-off between the node's response to attacks and the energy consumption induced by the IDS. The approach is based on a model for accounting CPU energy consumption in network simulation, which has been implemented in an existing IDS in ns-3. Simulations demonstrate that the adaption has a positive impact on the battery life time, increasing it by 14%, without deteriorating the network-wide performance of the IDS.
Human oocytes express ATP-sensitive K(+) channels.

BACKGROUND ATP-sensitive K(+) (K(ATP)) channels link intracellular metabolism with membrane excitability and play crucial roles in cellular physiology and protection. The K(ATP) channel protein complex is composed of pore forming, Kir6.x (Kir6.1 or Kir6.2) and regulatory, SURx (SUR2A, SUR2B or SUR1), subunits that associate in different combinations. The objective of this study was to determine whether mammalian oocytes (human, bovine, porcine) express K(ATP) channels. METHODS Supernumerary human oocytes at different stages of maturation were obtained from patients undergoing assisted conception treatments. Bovine and porcine oocytes in the germinal vesicle (GV) stage were obtained by aspirating antral follicles from abattoir-derived ovaries. The presence of mRNA for K(ATP) channel subunits was determined using real-time RT-PCR with primers specific for Kir6.2, Kir6.1, SUR1, SUR2A and SUR2B. To assess whether functional K(ATP) channels are present in human oocytes, traditional and perforated patch whole cell electrophysiology and immunoprecipitation/western blotting were used. RESULTS Real-time PCR revealed that mRNA for Kir6.1, Kir6.2, SUR2A and SUR2B, but not SUR1, were present in human oocytes of different stages. Only SUR2B and Kir6.2 mRNAs were detected in GV stage bovine and porcine oocytes. Immunoprecipitation with SUR2 antibody and western blotting with Kir6.1 antibody identified bands corresponding to these subunits in human oocytes. In human oocytes, 2,4-dinitrophenol (400 µM), a metabolic inhibitor known to decrease intracellular ATP and activate K(ATP) channels, increased whole cell K(+) current. On the other hand, K(+) current induced by low intracellular ATP was inhibited by extracellular glibenclamide (30 µM), an oral antidiabetic known to block the opening of K(ATP) channels. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, mammalian oocytes express K(ATP) channels. This opens a new avenue of research into the complex relationship between metabolism and membrane excitability in oocytes under different conditions, including conception.
NTPDase1 governs P2X7‐dependent functions in murine macrophages

P2X7 receptor is an adenosine triphosphate (ATP)‐gated ion channel within the multiprotein inflammasome complex. Until now, little is known about regulation of P2X7 effector functions in macrophages. In this study, we show that nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase 1 (NTPDase1)/CD39 is the dominant ectonucleotidase expressed by murine peritoneal macrophages and that it regulates P2X7‐dependent responses in these cells. Macrophages isolated from NTPDase1‐null mice (Entpd1−/−) were devoid of all ADPase and most ATPase activities when compared with WT macrophages (Entpd1+/+). Entpd1−/− macrophages exposed to millimolar concentrations of ATP were more susceptible to cell death, released more IL‐1β and IL‐18 after TLR2 or TLR4 priming, and incorporated the fluorescent dye Yo‐Pro‐1 more efficiently (suggestive of increased pore formation) than Entpd1+/+ cells. Consistent with these observations, NTPDase1 regulated P2X7‐associated IL‐1β release after synthesis, and this process occurred independently of, and prior to, cytokine maturation by caspase‐1. NTPDase1 also inhibited IL‐1β release in vivo in the air pouch inflammatory model. Exudates of LPS‐injected Entpd1−/− mice had significantly higher IL‐1β levels when compared with Entpd1+/+ mice. Altogether, our studies suggest that NTPDase1/CD39 plays a key role in the control of P2X7‐dependent macrophage responses.