Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blink startle modulation during anticipation of pleasant and unpleasant stimuli

The present research investigated blink startle modulation during the anticipation of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral pictures. In Experiment 1 (N = 18), participants were presented with three different tone-picture pairings. Tones differed in pitch and were followed by pleasant, neutral or unpleasant pictures. Acoustic blink reflexes were elicited during some tones and during stimulus free intervals. Blink facilitation during tones that preceded pleasant and unpleasant pictures was larger than during the tone that preceded neutral pictures. Experiment 2 (N = 10) assessed whether this difference was due to a difference in the presentation frequency of the three conditions. No difference in blink facilitation between the conditions was found when pictures of flowers and mushrooms replaced the pleasant and unpleasant pictures, indicating that picture content was instrumental in causing the differential blink facilitation in Experiment 1. The results from Experiment 1 seem to indicate that startle modulation during the anticipation of pictorial material reflects the interest in or the arousal associated with the pictures rather than picture valence.
Academic stress and subjective well-being: The moderating effects of perceived social support

Using a sample of 226 graduate students from a university located in Northern China, this study empirically examined the effect of graduate students' academic stress on their subjective well-being, and tested the moderating effect of perceived social support on the relationship between academic stress and subjective well-being. The hierarchical regression analysis with SPSS 16.0 was employed to test the hypotheses. The results demonstrated that graduate students' academic stress was negatively correlated with their subjective well-being, and their perceptions of social support moderated the relationship between their academic stress and subjective well-being. Finally, limitations and practical applications were offered.
Exploiting Motor Modules in Modular Contexts

Recently there has been a growing interest in modeling motor control systems with modular structures. Such control structures have many interesting properties, which have been described in recent studies. This chapter focuses on some properties which are related to the fact that specific set of contexts can themselves be modular. Specifically, it shows that the adaptation of a modular control structure can be guided by the modularity of contexts, by means of interpreting the current unexperienced context as the combination of previously experienced contexts.
The Black-Litterman Asset Allocation Model : An Empirical Comparison to the Classical Mean-Variance Framework

Within the scope of this thesis, the Black-Litterman Asset Allocation Model (as presented in He & Litterman, 1999) is compared to the classical mean-variance framework by simulating past performance of portfolios constructed by both models using identical input data. A quantitative investment strategy which favours stocks with high dividend yield rates is used to generate private views about the expected excess returns for a fraction of the stocks included in the sample. By comparing the ex-post risk-return characteristics of the portfolios and performing ample sensitivity analysis with respect to the numerical values assigned to the input variables, we evaluate the two models’ suitability for different categories of portfolio managers. As a neutral benchmark towards which both portfolios can be measured, a third market-capitalization-weighted portfolio is constructed from the same investment universe. The empirical data used for the purpose of our simulations consists of total return indices for 23 of the 30 stocks included in the OMXS30 index as of the 21st of February 2014 and stretches between January of 2003 and December of 2013. The results of our simulations show that the Black-Litterman portfolio has delivered risk-adjusted return which is superior not only to that of its market-capitalization-weighted counterpart but also to that of the classical mean-variance portfolio. This result holds true for four out of five simulated strengths of the investment strategy under the assumption of zero transaction costs, a rebalancing frequency of 20 trading days, an estimated risk aversion parameter of 2.5 and a five per cent uncertainty associated with the CAPM prior. Sensitivity analysis performed by examining how the results are affected by variations in these input variables has also shown notable differences in the sensitivity of the results obtained from the two models. While the performance of the Black-Litterman portfolio does undergo material changes as the inputs are varied, these changes are nowhere near as profound as those exhibited by the classical mean-variance portfolio. In the light of our empirical results, we also conclude that there are mainly two aspects which the portfolio manager ought to consider before committing to one model rather than the other. Firstly, the nature behind the views generated by the investment strategy needs to be taken into account. For the implementation of views which are of an α-driven character, the dynamics of the Black-Litterman model may not be as appropriate as for views which are believed to also influence the expected return on other securities. Secondly, the soundness of using market-capitalization weights as a benchmark towards which the final solution will gravitate needs to be assessed. Managers who strive to achieve performance which is fundamentally uncorrelated to that of the market index may want to either reconsider the benchmark weights or opt for an alternative model.
Development and annotation of shotgun sequence libraries from New World monkeys

The draft genome sequences of several primates are available, providing insights into evolutionary and anthropological research. However, genomic resources from New World monkeys are conspicuously lacking. To date, the genomes of only two platyrrhine species, the common marmoset and the Bolivian squirrel monkey, have been fully sequenced. This is especially limiting for comparative genomics research, considering that New World monkeys are the most speciose primate group, and platyrrhine genetic diversity is comparable to that of the catarrhines (i.e. apes and Old World monkeys). Here, we present the generation and annotation of numerous sequence reads from the genomes of Spider monkey (Ateles belzebuth), Owl monkey (Aotus lemurinus) and Uakari (Cacajao calvus), representing the three platyrrhine families, Atelidae, Cebidae and Pitheciidae, respectively. These sequencing reads were developed from gDNA shotgun libraries containing over 3000 individual sequences with an average length of 726 bps. Of these sequences, 1220 contain <20% repeats, and thus are potentially highly useful phylogenetic markers for other platyrrhine species. Among them, a large number of sequencing reads were found to match unique regions within the human (2462 sequences) and the marmoset (2829 sequences) genomes. In particular, the majority of these sequencing reads are from putatively neutrally evolving intergenic regions. Thus, they are likely to be highly informative for inferring neutral evolutionary patterns and genomic evolution for other New World monkeys.
The attribution of blame and type of crime committed: Data for northern ireland

Abstract This study examines the relationship between type of offence and the attributions offenders make about their criminal act. The subjects were 80 prisoners serving prison sentences in Northern Ireland. All subjects had completed the Gudjonsson Blame Attribution Inventory (Gudjonsson and Singh, 1990). Significant differences in attribution were found between offender groups. Sex offenders and those who had committed acts of interpersonal violence reported most guilt about their offence and they attributed the cause of their offence more to mental factors (e.g. loss of self-control) than other types of offenders. Violent offenders had the highest external attribution and sex offenders the lowest. The mean attribution scores were compared with those of English prisoners and it was found that Irish violent prisoners had significantly lower mental element attribution and higher external attribution than English prisoners.
Comparative Chronic Liver Toxicity of Benzo[a]pyrene in Two Populations of the Atlantic Killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) with Different Exposure Histories

Background The Atlantic Wood Industries Superfund site on the Elizabeth River (ER) in Portsmouth, Virginia, is contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) derived from creosote. Embryos and larvae of ER killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) are refractory to the induction of enzymes regulated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor including cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) and are resistant to PAH-induced lethality and teratogenicity. However, adult ER killifish show a greater prevalence of hepatic and pancreatic tumors compared with those from reference sites. Objectives We used controlled laboratory studies to determine if ER killifish are more or less sensitive to PAH-induced chronic hepatic toxicity than killifish from an uncontaminated site. Methods Larvae from the ER and a reference site on King’s Creek (KC) were subjected to two 24-hr aqueous exposures of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP; 0–400 μg/L). At various time points, larvae were analyzed for CYP1A activity, BaP concentrations, nuclear and mitochondrial DNA damage, and liver pathology. Results CYP1A activity was induced by BaP in KC but not ER larvae, and KC larvae demonstrated a greater reduction in whole-body concentrations of BaP over time. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA lesion frequency increased significantly in BaP-exposed KC larvae, but not in ER larvae. Nine months postexposure, KC juveniles exhibited significantly more hepatic foci of cellular alteration and only KC juveniles developed hepatocellular carcinomas. Conclusions In addition to acquiring the heritable resistance to the acute teratogenic effects of PAHs, ER fish appear to have concomitantly developed resistance to chronic effects, including cancer.
Bulimia as a manifestation of the stress process: A LISREL causal modeling analysis

Two studies conducted to develop and cross validate a causal model of bulimia are reported. It was hypothesized that a stress process, comprised of three components, the sources of stress, the mediators of stress, and the manifestations of stress would provide the basis of a causal model of bulimia, using linear structural relations analysis (LISREL). In Study 1, 144 female introductory psychology students were assessed for bulimia as well as 10 other variables representative of the stress process. The proposed model was comprised of two sources of stress: Environmental stressors (life events and daily hassles), and Depression (depression and risk for depression). The model indicated that coping skills are an important mediator of stress, and that having a high frequency of environmental stressors and/or the presence of depression or risk for depression, may lead an individual to resort to ineffective coping mechanisms, which, in turn, results in the expression of bulimic behavior. The model was cross-validated in Study 2, in which 150 female introductory psychology students were assessed on the same variables. Treatment implications are discussed.
SparkRDF: Elastic Discreted RDF Graph Processing Engine With Distributed Memory

With the explosive growth of semantic data on the Web over the past years, many large-scale RDF knowledge bases with billions of facts are generating. This poses significant challenges for the storage and query of big RDF graphs. Current systems still have many limitations in processing big RDF graphs including scalability and real-time. In this paper, we introduce the SparkRDF, an elastic discreted RDF graph processing engine with distributed memory. To reduce the high I/O and communication cost in distributed processing platforms, SparkRDF implements SPARQL query based on Spark, a novel in-memory distributed computing framework for big data processing. All the intermediate results are modeled as Resilient Discreted SubGraph, which are cached in the distributed memory to support fast iterative join operations. To cut down the search space and avoid the overhead of memory, we split the RDF graph into the small Multi-layer Elastic SubGraph based on the relations and classes. For SPARQL query optimization, SparkRDF deploys a serials of optimization strategies, leading to effective reduction on the size of intermediate results, the number of joins and the cost of communication. Our extensive evaluation demonstrates that SparkRDF can efficiently implement non-selective joins faster than both current state-of-the-art distributed and centralized stores, while being able to process other queries in real time, scaling linearly to the amount of data.
Learners as information processors: Legacies and limitations of educational psychology's second..

This essay examines the role of information-processing theories in the historical search for a guiding metaphor of educational psychology. First, I show how information processing can be viewed as the second in a series of three metaphors that developed during this century and, more specifically, as a bridge from associationist to constructivist visions of learning. Second, I provide a definition of information processing based on the premise that humans are processors of information. Third, I distinguish between literal and constructivist interpretations of two key elements in information-processing; theory, namely, the nature of information and the nature of processing. Then, I summarize the contributions and limitations of the information-processing approach. Finally, I examine possible future directions for the search for educational psychology's guiding metaphor.
An Extreme, Blueshifted Iron-Line Profile in the Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 PG 1402+261: An Edge-on Accretion Disk or Highly Ionized Absorption?

We report on a short XMM-Newton observation of the radio-quiet narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy PG 1402+261. The EPIC X-ray spectrum of PG 1402+261 shows a strong excess of counts between 6 and 9 keV in the rest frame. This feature can be modeled by an unusually strong (equivalent width 2 keV) and very broad (FWHM velocity of 110,000 km s-1) iron K-shell emission line. The line centroid energy at 7.3 keV appears blueshifted with respect to the iron Kα emission band between 6.4 and 6.97 keV, while the blue wing of the line extends to 9 keV in the quasar rest frame. The line profile can be fitted by reflection from the inner accretion disk, but an inclination angle of >60° is required to model the extreme blue wing of the line. Furthermore, the extreme strength of the line requires a geometry whereby the hard X-ray emission from PG 1402+261 above 2 keV is dominated by the pure-reflection component from the disk, while little or none of the direct hard power law is observed. Alternatively, the spectrum above 2 keV may be explained by an ionized absorber, if the column density is sufficiently high (NH > 3 × 1023 cm-2) and if the matter is ionized enough to produce a deep (τ ~ 1) iron K-shell absorption edge at 9 keV. This absorber could originate in a large column density, high-velocity outflow, perhaps similar to those that appear to be observed in several other high accretion rate active galactic nuclei. Further observations, especially at higher spectral resolution, are required to distinguish between the accretion disk reflection and outflow scenarios.
Physical Punishment Is a Problem, Whether Conduct Disorder Is Endogenous or Not

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Internet-based Grammar Instruction in the ESL Classroom

Abstract With the advent of the Internet, language teachers now have at their disposal various learning Websites with interactive contents that can be argued to offer certain advantages over conventional teaching methods. To investigate the validity of this claim, a study was carried out to compare two grammar teaching methods: Internet-based grammar instruction (IBGI) and conventional pen and board instruction (CPBI). The study involved 50 college-level students in Malaysia. The results showed that the students who went through IBGI performed better than those who received CPBI in the learning of certain grammatical items. The findings also indicated that students who experienced IBGI made fewer errors in their essays when compared to their CPBI counterparts. This study provides empirical support for the claim that the Internet is a useful tool in the teaching of grammar.
Perceptions of learning-support teachers and resource teachers of each other's role in Irish primary schools

This article reports findings from an exploratory study of how learning support and resource teachers perceive each other's role. The study was conducted during the debate on the proposed changes to allocation and deployment of support teachers, following the publication of Circular 24/03 by the Department of Education and Science. It sought to test the hypothesis that learning-support and resource teachers perceive each other's roles differently in terms of their distinctiveness, type of children they support, working arrangements and training. The findings confirmed this and the implications of this for more whole-school collaborative models of support are discussed.
Defense against Intrusion in a Live Streaming Multicast System

Application-level multicast systems are vulnerable to attacks that impede nodes from receiving desired data. Live streaming protocols are especially susceptible to packet loss induced by malicious behavior. We describe SecureStream, an application-level live streaming system built using a pull-based architecture that results in improved tolerance of malicious behavior. SecureStream is implemented as a layer running over Fireflies, an intrusion-tolerant membership protocol. Our paper describes the SecureStream system and offers simulation and experimental results confirming its resilience to attack
From Income Inequality to Economic Inequality

I begin by recounting a true story-a rather trivial and innocuous story, as it happens, but one with something of a lesson. Some years ago, when I went to give a lecture at another campus, I chose "Economic Inequality" as the title of my talk. On arrival, I found the campus covered with posters announcing that I was speaking on "Income Inequality. " When I grumbled about it slightly, I encountered gentle, but genuine, amazement that I wanted to fuss about such "an insignificant difference. " Indeed, the identification of economic inequality with income inequality is fairly standard, and the two are often seen as effectively synonymous in the economic literature. If you tell someone that you are working on economic inequality, it is quite commonly assumed that you are studying income distribution. This implicit identification can be found in the philosophical literature as well. For example, in his interesting and important paper "Equality as a Moral Ideal," Harry Frankfurt (1987), the distinguished philosopher, provides a closely reasoned critique of what he calls economic egalitarianism, defining it as "the doctrine that there should be no inequalities in the distribution of money" (p. 21). The distinction, however, is important. Many of the criticisms of economic egalitarianism as a value or a goal applies much more readily to the narrow concept of income inequality than it does to the broader notions of economic inequality. For example, giving a larger share of income to a person with more needs, say due to a disability, can be seen as militating against the principle of equalizing incomes, but it does not go against the broader precepts of economic equality since the greater need for economic resources due to the disability must be taken into account in judging the requirements of economic equality. Well, the subject of this paper is precisely the difference between economic inequality and income inequality. It will be argued that we ought to pay much more attention than we conventionally do to economic inequality in an appropriately broad sense, taking note of the fact that income inequality, on which economic analysis of inequality so often concentrates, gives
A random loop generator for planning the motions of closed kinematic chains using PRM methods

Closed kinematic chains in mechanical systems represent a challenge for their motion analysis, and therefore, for path planning. Closed mechanisms appear in different areas where path planning algorithms are applied. We propose a method to handle them within probabilistic roadmap (PRM) techniques. This method is an extension of the approach proposed by Han et al. (2000). Our main contribution concerns the generation of random configurations. The structure of the mechanism is analyzed in a preprocessing step. Then, in the roadmap construction phase, an algorithm called the random loop generator uses data from this analysis. This algorithm increases the probability of randomly generating valid configurations of the closed mechanism. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the approach.
Quality Assessment for Requirements based on Natural Language Processing

Recently, many approaches for automatic information extraction from technical specifications in the area of electronic design automation have been proposed. For this purpose, techniques from natural language processing are used. In order to lower the bars for designers and customers, some approaches do not intend to restrict the natural language that is used to describe the specifications. However, ambiguity and vagueness in the language often cause wrong or bad results obtained from the algorithms. This work describes preliminary ideas for automatic approaches that assist in writing the specification and aim at increasing the quality of the text. Besides improved comprehensibility, better written specifications will also enhance the quality of the automatic extraction approaches in subsequent steps of the design flow.