Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postcards across borders

This research builds upon earlier studies by Sorin and Gordon (2010; 2013) and Sorin (2012; 2014) on how arts-based learning - the exchange of postcards - can enhance understanding of students' perceptions of local and global environments, as well as sustainability. Study groups from these earlier projects were early primary (5 – 8 years old) and kindergarten age (4 – 5 years old). This research sought to ascertain how applying the same art-based technique could engage and encourage older students to reconnect with environment and sustainability issues. Students aged 8-9 years old from two different countries (Australia and Scotland) were paired together to exchange postcards comprising drawings and stories about their environment. Data were gathered from the students' postcards, both the drawings and the text; and pre and post project interviews conducted with the students and their teachers. This paper examines data from the pre and post project interview and overviews some of the postcard image analysis. Initial data analysis of pre and post-project interviews revealed observable shifts in students' understanding, concerns and knowledge of the environment. Post-project interviews reflected an appreciation of the environmental issues of their immediate environment and the other environment, and indicated that students were intrinsically directing their attention to the natural environment and authentic issues; rather than just being led by explicit teaching.
Venture Capital Financing: The Role of Bargaining Power and the Evolution of Informational Asymmetry

We model a situation where the entrepreneur has an informational advantage during the early stages of an investment project while the venture capitalist has the informational advantage during the later stages. We examine how this evolution of informational asymmetry affects venture investment and the nature of financing contracts under two different scenarios with regard to the distribution of bargaining power between the venture capitalist and entrepreneur: when the venture capitalist has the bargaining advantage and when the entrepreneur has the bargaining advantage. Our results demonstrate that the distribution of bargaining power has a profound influence both on the terms of contracts and on investments in venture-backed projects. Changes in bargaining power can completely alter the payoff sensitivity of contracts offered to entrepreneurs, and, as witnessed in the recent past, when entrepreneurs hold the bargaining advantage, venture capitalists may acquiesce to excessive investments in early stages of projects and subsequently terminate a larger number of projects.
THE RESPONSE OF SINGLE OPTIC NERVE FIBERS OF THE VERTEBRATE EYE TO ILLUMINATION OF THE RETINA

In a series of three papers Adrian and Matthews (1927, 1928) presented a study of the discharge of impulses in the optic nerve of the eel’s eye, and so opened a new approach to problems of visual physiology. In those papers the simultaneous activity of large numbers of optic nerve fibers was recorded. The possibility of extending that work to an analysis of the activity in single optic nerve fibers was suggested by the subsequent investigation of Hartline and Graham (1932) on the optic nerve fibers of a primitive arthropod eye (Limulus). The present paper describes the discharge of impulses in single optic nerve fibers of the cold-blooded vertebrate eye, in response to illumination of the retina. METHOD. The usual methods for obtaining action potentials from only one fiber in a nerve trunk have not succeeded when applied to the vertebrate optic nerve. It is therefore necessary to utilize the intra-ocular portion of the optic nerve fibers, by exposing the fundus of the eye and dissecting small bundles of fibers from the anterior (vitreous) surface of the retina, where they converge to the head of the optic nerve. From a, freshly pithed animal (in most of these experiments large bullfrogs (Rima catesbiana) were used) an eye is excised, pinned fundus down in a moist chamber, and its anterior half (cornea, lens, choroid body) removed. A wide V-shaped cut extending almost to the nerve head gives access to the fundus and permits the vitreous humor to be drained away. It is then possible to dissect free small bundles of nerve fibers for a length of 1 to 2 mm. , and these may be further dissected until only one fiber remains active. A bundle is severed where it enters the nerve head and the cut end lifted up onto one of the electrode wicks; the second electrode is diffuse, touching the surface of the retina The action potentials from such bundles of nerve fibers are amplified and recorded by means of an oscillograph. The preparation is mounted in a light-tight, electrically shielded box, in the hollow walls of which water at constant temperature (ca. 20°C.) is circulated.
Secure and Privacy Enhanced Gait Authentication on Smart Phone

Smart environments established by the development of mobile technology have brought vast benefits to human being. However, authentication mechanisms on portable smart devices, particularly conventional biometric based approaches, still remain security and privacy concerns. These traditional systems are mostly based on pattern recognition and machine learning algorithms, wherein original biometric templates or extracted features are stored under unconcealed form for performing matching with a new biometric sample in the authentication phase. In this paper, we propose a novel gait based authentication using biometric cryptosystem to enhance the system security and user privacy on the smart phone. Extracted gait features are merely used to biometrically encrypt a cryptographic key which is acted as the authentication factor. Gait signals are acquired by using an inertial sensor named accelerometer in the mobile device and error correcting codes are adopted to deal with the natural variation of gait measurements. We evaluate our proposed system on a dataset consisting of gait samples of 34 volunteers. We achieved the lowest false acceptance rate (FAR) and false rejection rate (FRR) of 3.92% and 11.76%, respectively, in terms of key length of 50 bits.
Implicit Stigma of Mental Illness: Attitudes in an Evidence-Based Practice

Stull, Laura Grace. Ph.D., Purdue University, August, 2011. Implicit Stigma of Mental Illness: Attitudes in an Evidence-Based Practice. Major Professor: John McGrew. Stigma is a barrier to recovery for people with mental illness. Problematically, stigma also has been documented among mental health practitioners. To date, however, most research has focused on explicit attitudes regarding mental illness. Little research has examined implicit attitudes, which has the potential to reveal evaluations residing outside of conscious control or awareness. Moreover, research has tended to use mixed sample of practitioners and programs. The extent to which both explicit and implicit stigma is endorsed by mental health practitioners utilizing evidence-based practices is unknown. The purposes of the current study were to 1) carefully examine implicit and explicit stigmatizing attitudes, or biases, among Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) staff and 2) explore the extent to which explicit and implicit biases predicted the use of treatment control mechanisms. Participants were 154 ACT staff from nine states. They completed implicit (Implicit Association Test) and explicit measures of stigma. Overall, participants exhibited positive explicit and implicit attitudes towards people with mental illness. When modeled using latent factors, implicit, but not explicit bias significantly predicted the endorsement of restrictive or controlling clinical interventions. Practitioners who perceived individuals with mental illness as relatively more dangerous and helpless (both explicit and implicit), as well as participants from Indiana and those with less education were more likely to endorse use of control mechanisms. Thus, despite overall positive attitudes toward those with mental illness for the sample as a whole, even low levels of stigma at the individual level were
Data mining of RNA expression and DNA genotype data: Presentation Group 5 contributions to Genetic Analysis Workshop 15

The complexity of data available in human genetics continues to grow at an explosive rate. With that growth, the challenges to understanding the meaning of the underlying information also grow. A currently popular approach to dissecting such information falls under the broad category of data mining. This can apply to any approach that tries to extract relevant information from large amounts of data, but often refers to methods that deal, in a non‐linear fashion, with very large numbers of variables that cannot be simultaneously handled by more conventional statistical methods. To explore the usefulness of some of these approaches, 13 groups applied a variety of strategies to the first dataset provided to GAW 15 participants. With the extensive microarray and SNP data provided for 14 CEPH families, these groups explored multistage analyses, machine learning methods, network construction, and other techniques to try to answer questions about gene‐gene interaction, functional similarities, co‐regulated gene expression and the mapping of gene expression determinants, among others. In general, the methods offered strategies to provide a better understanding of the complex pathways involved in gene expression and function. These are still “works in progress,” often exploratory in nature, but they provide insights into ways in which the data might be interpreted. Despite the still preliminary nature of some of these methods and the diversity of the approaches, some common themes emerged. The collection of papers and methods offer a starting point for further exploration of complex interactions in human genetic data now readily available. Genet. Epidemiol. 31 (Suppl. 1):S43–S50, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Design and Characterization of a Full-Duplex Multiantenna System for WiFi Networks

In this paper, we present an experiment- and simulation-based study to evaluate the use of full duplex (FD) as a potential mode in practical IEEE 802.11 networks. To enable the study, we designed a 20-MHz multiantenna orthogonal frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) FD physical layer and an FD media access control (MAC) protocol, which is backward compatible with current 802.11. Our extensive over-the-air experiments, simulations, and analysis demonstrate the following two results. First, the use of multiple antennas at the physical layer leads to a higher ergodic throughput than its hardware-equivalent multiantenna half-duplex (HD) counterparts for SNRs above the median SNR encountered in practical WiFi deployments. Second, the proposed MAC translates the physical layer rate gain into near doubling of throughput for multinode single-AP networks. The two results allow us to conclude that there are potentially significant benefits gained from including an FD mode in future WiFi standards.
On Praising Convergent Thinking: Creativity as Blind Variation and Selective Retention

Arthur Cropley (2006) emphasized the critical place that convergent thinking has in creativity. Although he briefly refers to the blind variation and selective retention (BVSR) theory of creativity, his discussion could not reflect the most recent theoretical and empirical developments in BVSR, especially the resulting combinatorial models. Therefore, in this article I first provide an overview of contemporary BVSR theory, including both a general combinatorial model and its specific manifestations (internal vs. external selection, simultaneous vs. sequential selection, exploration vs. elimination, and open vs. closed preselection). This overview then permits theoretical treatment of the connections between convergent thinking and BVSR. These connections entail the direct involvement of convergent thinking in BVSR, as well as the occasions in which sequential BVSR operates in a manner resembling convergent thinking. The article closes with a discussion of some misunderstandings regarding the function of domain-specific knowledge in BVSR creativity. This discussion includes the argument that hindsight bias often makes creativity appear far more knowledge based than it was at the time the creative ideas first emerged. This bias can make researchers overlook how BVSR mediates between expertise and creativity. Hence, care must be taken not to bypass BVSR in granting all due credit to convergent thinking.
Measurement and operationalization of outcome measures at a national accounting firm: integrating survey, interview and archival data

This article presents a framework for the measurement of computerized information systems (CIS) at several levels of objectives (management, work group, individual). It then operationalizes these measures for the implementation of an automated working paper product at a national accounting firm. The comprehensive measurement process described in this article examined both the organizational effects and the effects upon the people using the technology: how it changed their work life, the productivity of the office, or provided other benefits or drawbacks. A detailed illustration is provided that can be used as a framework for the assessment of other system implementations. An unusual aspect of this illustration is the combination of survey data, interview results, and archival data to reach conclusions. Difficulties encountered when combining multiple measures are highlighted. Further development needed, questions and approaches for the use of such multiple measures are raised.
Role of Morphology Injection in SMT

Phrase-based Statistical Machine Translation (PBSMT) is commonly used for automatic translation. However, PBSMT runs into difficulty when either or both of the source and target languages are morphologically rich. Factored models are found to be useful for such cases, as they consider word as a vector of factors. These factors can contain any information about the surface word and use it while translating. The objective of the current work is to handle morphological inflections in Hindi, Marathi, and Malayalam using Factored translation models when translating from English. Statistical MT approaches face the problem of data sparsity when translating to a morphologically rich language. It is very unlikely for a parallel corpus to contain all morphological forms of words. We propose a solution to generate these unseen morphological forms and inject them into the original training corpus. We propose a simple and effective solution based on enriching the input with various morphological forms of words. We observe that morphology injection improves the quality of translation in terms of both adequacy and fluency. We verify this with experiments on three morphologically rich languages when translating from English. From the detailed evaluations, we observed an order of magnitude improvement in translation quality.
Dirty Work: Concepts and Identities

Notes on Contributors Introducing Dirty Work , Concepts and Identities R.Simpson , N.Slutskaya , P.Lewis & H.Hopfl Dirty Work and Acts of Contamination H.Hopfl Stains, Staining and the Ethics of Dirty Work S.Vachhani Reconceptualising Dirty Work: Investment Banking and the Financial Crisis L.Stanley 'Glamour Girls, Macho Men and Everything in Between': Un/doing Gender and Dirty Work in Soho's Sex Shops M.Tyler Doing Gender in Dirty Work: Exotic Dancers' Construction of Self-Enhancing Identities G.Grandy & S.Mavin Dirty Talks and Gender Cleanliness: An Account of Identity Management Practices in Phone Sex Work G.Selmi Embracing Dirt in Nursing Matters R.McMurray Dispersing of Dirt: Inscribing Bodies and Polluting Organisation P.White & A.Pullen Gendering and Embodying Dirty Work: Men Managing Taint in the Context of Nursing Care R.Simpson , N.Slutskaya & J.Hughes Cleaning Up: Transnational Corporate Femininity and Dirty Work in Magazine Culture E.Swan Managing 'Dirty' Migrant Identities: Migrant Labour and the Neutralisation of Dirty Work Through 'Moral' Group Identity G.Lee-Treweek Post-feminism and Entrepreneurship: Interpreting Disgust in a Female Entrepreneurial Narrative P.Lewis Bibliography Index
The General Aptitude Test Battery.

ABSTRACT The development and use of the GATB in the United States is presented by a Canadian author. The history of establishing the norms for the GATB is also discussed. The use of the GATB as a counseling and selection tool is outlined while another section of the article points out the advantages and disadvantages of the test battery. There are also nine charts and graphs in the appendix suitable to be used with a presentation. (MPJ)
Key Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Motivators for Research Participation Among Individuals Who Are Incarcerated

Understanding motivations of research participants is crucial for developing ethical research protocols, especially for research with vulnerable populations. Through interviews with 92 institutional review board members, prison administrators, research ethicists, and researchers, we explored key stakeholders’ perceptions of what motivates incarcerated individuals to participate in research. Primary motivators identified were a desire to contribute to society, gaining knowledge and health care, acquiring incentives, and obtaining social support. The potential for undue influence or coercion were also identified as motivators. These results highlight the need for careful analysis of what motivates incarcerated individuals to participate in research as part of developing or reviewing ethically permissible and responsible research protocols. Future research should expand this line of inquiry to directly include perspectives of incarcerated individuals.
Influence of tart cherry juice on indices of recovery following marathon running

This investigation determined the efficacy of a tart cherry juice in aiding recovery and reducing muscle damage, inflammation and oxidative stress. Twenty recreational Marathon runners assigned to either consumed cherry juice or placebo for 5 days before, the day of and for 48 h following a Marathon run. Markers of muscle damage (creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, muscle soreness and isometric strength), inflammation [interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), C‐reactive protein (CRP) and uric acid], total antioxidant status (TAS) and oxidative stress [thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) and protein carbonyls] were examined before and following the race. Isometric strength recovered significantly faster (P=0.024) in the cherry juice group. No other damage indices were significantly different. Inflammation was reduced in the cherry juice group (IL‐6, P<0.001; CRP, P<0.01; uric acid, P<0.05). TAS was ∼10% greater in the cherry juice than the placebo group for all post‐supplementation measures (P<0.05). Protein carbonyls was not different; however, TBARS was lower in the cherry juice than the placebo at 48 h (P<0.05). The cherry juice appears to provide a viable means to aid recovery following strenuous exercise by increasing total antioxidative capacity, reducing inflammation, lipid peroxidation and so aiding in the recovery of muscle function.
Constructing Grounded Theory

An Invitation to Grounded Theory Gathering Rich Data Crafting and Conducting Intensive Interviews Interviewing in Grounded Theory Studies The Logic of Grounded Theory Coding Practices and Initial Coding Focused Coding and beyond Memo-Writing Theoretical Sampling, Saturation and Sorting Reconstructing Theory in Grounded Theory Studies Symbolic Interactionism and Grounded Theory Writing the Draft Reflecting on the Research Process
Evidence that natural murine soluble interleukin 4 receptors may act as transport proteins

The present studies were undertaken to determine whether the interleukin 4 binding proteins (IL-4BPs) previously identified in the biological fluids of mice are soluble forms of IL-4Rs. We also studied the binding properties of IL-4BPs in order to gain insight into their physiological role in vivo. Affinity-purified IL-4BPs and recombinant soluble IL-4Rs generated similar one-dimensional (Cleveland) peptide maps after digestion with either Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease or trypsin, indicating structural similarities. Furthermore, a rat mAb directed against the murine IL-4Rs immunoprecipitated the IL-4BPs and completely inhibited binding of 125I-IL-4 to a purified preparation of IL-4BPs. Taken together these data indicate that the IL-4BPs are soluble IL-4Rs. At 4 degrees C the IL-4BPs competitively inhibited the binding of IL-4 to membrane IL-4Rs but their ability to prevent binding of IL-4 to cells at 37 degrees C, at the same concentrations, was significantly reduced. Kinetic binding studies of soluble IL-4BPs vs. membrane IL-4Rs disclosed important differences in their rates of dissociation from IL-4. Whereas dissociation at 4 degrees C was slow for both, dissociation of IL-4 from IL-BPs at 37 degrees C was considerably faster (t 1/2 of 2 min) than dissociation of IL-4 from membrane IL-4Rs (t 1/2 of approximately 69 min). Temperature-dependent changes in dissociation kinetics were reversible, and could not be accounted for by either inactivation of the IL-4BPs at 37 degrees C or receptor internalization. Additional experiments also demonstrated that when IL-4BPs bind to IL-4 at 37 degrees C, the IL-4/IL-4BPs complex can rapidly dissociate, allowing IL-4 to bind to membrane IL-4Rs. In addition, binding of IL-4 by the IL-4BPs protects IL-4 from proteolytic degradation. Taken together, these results suggest that the IL-4BPs are naturally occurring forms of soluble IL-4Rs and that some of their properties (fast dissociation kinetics and protection of IL-4 from proteolysis) are consistent with a potential role as carrier proteins for IL-4 in the circulation.
Vehicle Authentication from Digital Image Measurements

­ In this work, it is demonstrated that relatively simple image processing functions based on symmetry measurements can be used to obtain high performance vehicle authentication, creating an “image signature” for every vehicle. On that basis, distinctive parts of the vehicle frontal view such as the headlights and the logo area can be segmented. A novel neural network application, properly trained, provides adequate vehicle manufacturer recognition when used in conjunction with a previously developed license plate recognition module. It is also shown that image processing functions based on Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) measurements can be used to obtain high performance object features location, creating a keypoint fingerprint for every feature. A grid of SIFT keypoints was drawn and a neural network was used also for vehicle model recognition.
Nitrogen-enriched carbon sheets derived from egg white by using expanded perlite template and its high-performance supercapacitors

Nitrogen-enriched carbon sheets were synthesized using egg white as a unique carbon source and expanded perlite as a novel template. The as-prepared material was further used as an electrode material for supercapacitor applications, demonstrating excellent supercapacitance with a maximum gravimetric specific capacitance of 302 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 in a 3-electrode setup for a sample carbonized at 850 °C and activated for 6 h. Moreover, the carbon sheet-based capacitor with 2-symmetric electrodes showed an excellent cycle life (2% loss at 0.1 A g−1 after 10 000 cycles). The excellent performance may be attributed to the combination of the 3D carbon structure and the highly concentrated doped nitrogen component from the natural egg source for superior pseudocapacitance.