Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Teachers’ Beliefs and Perceptions of Bullying and Bullying Prevention Initiatives

ii Acknowledgements . iii List of Tables . v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY . 1 Background to the Problem . 2 Purpose of the Study . 9 Theoretical Framework . 11 Scope and Limitations of the Study . 12 Outline of the Remainder of the Document . 14 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . 15 Bullying . 15 Teacher Beliefs About Bullying . 19 Bullying Prevention Initiatives . 20 Teachers’ Self-Beliefs . 25 Summary . 30 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES . 31 Research Design . 31 Methodological Assumptions . 33 Site and Participant Selection . 34 Data Collection . 36 Data Analysis . 42 Ethical Considerations . 48 Summary . 48 CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF RESULTS . 50 Chapter Overview . 50 Teacher Demographics . 51 Quantitative Analyses . 52 Qualitative Analyses . 65 Summary . 71 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS . 73 Discussion. 73 Limitations . 90 Implications for Practice and Future Research . 91 Summary . 94 Personal Reflections Summary . 96 References . 99 Appendix A: Attitudes and Beliefs About Bullying and Antibullying Initiatives Survey . 118
Power Transformer Differential Protection Based On Optimal Probabilistic Neural Network

In this paper, the optimal probabilistic neural network (PNN) is proposed as the core classifier to discriminate between the magnetizing inrush and the internal fault of a power transformer. The particle swarm optimization is used to obtain an optimal smoothing factor of PNN which is a crucial parameter for PNN. An algorithm has been developed around the theme of the conventional differential protection of the transformer. It makes use of the ratio of voltage-to-frequency and amplitude of differential current for the determination of operating condition of the transformer. The performance of the proposed heteroscedastic-type PNN is investigated with the conventional homoscedastic-type PNN, feedforward back propagation (FFBP) neural network, and the conventional harmonic restraint method. To evaluate the developed algorithm, relaying signals for various operating condition of the transformer, including internal and external faults, are obtained by modeling the transformer in PSCAD/EMTDC. The protection algorithm is implemented by using MATLAB.
Volume Visualization and Exploration Based on Semi-automatic Multidimensional Transfer Function Design

Exploration and analysis of scalar and multivariate volume data play an important role in different domains from physical simulations to medical treatments. In visual analytics of volumetric data sets we need to define a multidimenional transfer functions. This is a challenging task because of the difficulty in understanding multiple attribute spaces and displaying in physical three dimension space. Frequently, the transfer function is designed based on mapping one or two dimensional space to color properties (RGB) and opacity (A). We propose visualization and interaction methods for analyzing individual clusters as well as cluster distribution within and across levels in the cluster hierarchy. We also provide a clustering method that operates on density rather than individual records. We compute density in the given multidimensional multivariate space. Clusters are formed by areas of high density. We present an approach that automatically computes a hierarchical tree of high density clusters. To visually represent the cluster hierarchy, we present a 2D radial layout that supports an intuitive understanding of the distribution structure of the multidimensional multivariate data set. We apply a semi-automatic coloring scheme based on the 2D radial layout of the hierarchical cluster tree encoding hue, saturation, and value of the HSV color space. The system support an easily method to define the multidimensional transfer function over entire multidimensional attributes space. Finally, the surface extract by applying marching cube methods.
Feedback of Downlink Channel State Information Based on Superimposed Coding

In closed-loop FDD MIMO system, downlink channel state information (DL-CSI) is usually feedback to base station in forms of codebook or CQI, both of which aim at lowering the feedback quantity at the cost of limited feedback precision and heavy processing complexity at mobile side. Meanwhile, the recently proposed direct channel feedback method incurs great system overhead due to its exclusive occupation of uplink bandwidth resources. We propose a low-cost feedback method for DL-CSI, which spreads unquantized and uncoded DL-CSI and superimposes it onto uplink user data sequences (UL-US). Exclusive occupation of system resources by DL-CSI can thus be avoided. Due to spreading, DL-CSI can be estimated accurately with little power allocation at the cost of some UL-US's SER performance
Are moving average trading rules profitable? Evidence from the European stock markets

This article examines the profitability of several simple technical trading rules for 16 European stock markets over the 1990 to 2006 period. Our results indicate that increasing moving average rules indeed have predictive power being able to discern recurring price patterns for profitable trading, even after accounting for the effects of data snooping bias. To assess the profitability of different technical trading rules and strategies, we adopt the White's (2000) Reality Check (RC) test that quantifies the data snooping bias and adjusts for its effects. Our empirical results also support the hypothesis that technical trading rules can outperform the buy and hold strategy after accounting for transaction costs.
Lack of TIM-3 Immunoregulation in Multiple Sclerosis1

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the CNS white matter associated with T cell infiltrates and alterations of immune functions that can be measured in the peripheral immune system. TIM-3 has been identified as a central regulator of IFN-γ-secreting type 1 Th (Th1) cells and immune tolerance. In this study, using a newly generated mAb against human TIM-3, we examined TIM-3 function on ex vivo CD4+ T cells isolated from the circulation of healthy subjects and patients with MS. Blocking TIM-3 during T cell stimulation significantly enhanced IFN-γ secretion in control subjects but had no effect in untreated patients with MS, demonstrating a defect in TIM-3 immunoregulation. Treatment with glatiramer acetate or IFN-β reversed this functional defect. Reduced levels and altered kinetics of T cell TIM-3 expression, which was restored in treated patients, is one mechanism that can explain the loss of TIM-3 regulation of T cell function in untreated patients with MS. These data provide functional, mechanistic data for dysregulated TIM-3 immunoregulation in a human autoimmune disease and suggest that approved therapies for the treatment of MS may function in part by restoring TIM-3 immunoregulation of T cell function.
A First Step Toward Cognitive Remediation of Voices: a Case Study

Several studies have shown that source‐monitoring errors are related to verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia. An exploratory pilot study has been carried out to investigate the possibility of training patients in how to avoid errors in source‐monitoring. One patient with paranoid schizophrenia and persistent thought insertions was trained for 6 hours to use mnemonic techniques to compensate specific deficits in source‐monitoring. Results show that the patient was able to improve his performance and maintain the acquired progress at a 1‐month follow‐up assessment. These preliminary results are interesting for developing a larger controlled study of cognitive remediation of source‐monitoring deficits.
Neuroprotection and thrombolysis: combination therapy in acute ischaemic stroke

The administration of oral aspirin within 48 h and tissue plasminogen activator within 3 h of ischaemic stroke onset remain the only treatments that have been shown to have clinical benefit. There has been much excitement about neuroprotection over the last two decades, as it may minimise the harmful effects of ischaemic neuronal damage. Although each step along the ischaemic cascade offers a potential target for therapeutic intervention, and neuroprotection has shown benefit in animal studies, this has been difficult to translate to humans. Some hope has been offered by the recent finding that the free radical scavenger NXY-059 may improve outcomes in patients presenting within 6 h of onset of ischaemic stroke. There is logic to the idea that neuroprotection may be most effective when reperfusion has occurred with thrombolysis, as the neuroprotectant will have greater access to ischaemic tissue and the opportunity is presented to minimise free radical-mediated reperfusion injury. Numerous studies in animal models support this view, but the concept has not, as yet, been rigorously tested in humans.
Global Ductility of Dual Steel Frames with Replaceable Dissipative Shear Walls

Abstract The paper presents the results of a numerical program that was used to investigate the seismic performance of dual steel frames with dissipative shear walls. Nonlinear static and dynamic analyses were employed in order to evaluate the global ductility and the q factor for a twelve story building. The influence of the q factor on the estimated level of damage and post-earthquake intervention strategy was investigated. The dynamic analyses were conducted using two groups of accelerograms, selected to match the response spectra of two types of grounds. The numerical models were validated against experimental tests. The results show that q factor values adopted in design influence the level of damage. If re-centering capacity is properly controlled by design, the replacement of damaged walls can minimize the time and cost of intervention, thus supporting disaster resilience of buildings
"HOW IS THE STOCK MARKET DOING?" USING ABSENCE OF ARBITRAGE TO MEASURE STOCK MARKET PERFORMANCE

This paper provides a methodology for measuring stock market performance based on the restrictions provided by absence of arbitrage in security prices. Under the null hypothesis that the aggregate cumulative dividend-price process follows a geometric Brownian motion, a closed form related to the inter-temporal marginal rate of substitution is derived and empirically evaluated. The stock market performance measure is based on the level of risk adjustment required to compare the value of the stock index at the starting point with the cumulative interest rate deflated value at any given point in the time series. The paper concludes with empirical tests for the martingale property of the performance measure.
Preferences for tourist information centres in the ubiquitous information environment

The rapid development of information communication technology has encouraged tourism authorities to carefully consider the typical duties of tourist information centres (TICs), wherein visitors acquire various kinds of travel information about a particular destination. This study aims to provide useful management implications to help tourism organisations develop feasible TIC operational strategies and implement alternative services in the ubiquitous information environment. To provide a richer understanding of tourists' heterogeneous preferences for TICs, this study makes use of the stated preference choice method with a sample of South Korean domestic tourists. Despite the widespread use of personal mobile devices, our study results suggest that South Korean domestic tourists still prefer to visit various types of TICs to acquire travel information. Results indicate that the TIC visitor group is less sensitive than the non-visitor group to advanced information communication technology and more satisfied with the availability of WIFI signals to facilitate the use of personal mobile devices or laptops. Our respondents also demonstrate their preferences for some TICs constructed with container structures, whereas they showed a strong aversion to visiting booth-styled TICs inside larger buildings. Based on these findings, this study provides several management strategies to fulfil tourists' ever-changing needs.
Information Asymmetry Determinants of Sarbanes-Oxley Wealth Effects

"We investigate the roles of information asymmetry and governance in the wealth effects associated with passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) for a sample of 1,158 firms. For events suggesting adoption of stringent reform legislation, we find more (less) favorable abnormal returns (ARs) for firms with high (low) information asymmetry and for firms with weak (strong) governance. More favorable effects could result from expected improvements for firms with high information asymmetry or weak governance. Firms with positive ARs experience information asymmetry reductions post-SOX, indicating the market was able to discern the firms that would most benefit from the legislation's passage. " Copyright (c) 2010 Financial Management Association International.
Automatic distinguishing between ischemic and heart-rate related transient ST segment episodes in ambulatory ECG records

In ambulatory ECG records, ischemia is manifested by transient ST segment episodes which may or may not be accompanied by increase in heart rate. There are also transient heart-rate related non-ischemic ST segment episodes present which are caused by change in heart rate. The goal of this work was to classify between these two types of ST episodes. The selected features to classify the ST episodes were changes of heart rate, changes of time domain morphologic parameters of the ST segment and changes of the Legendre orthonormal polynomial coefficients of the ST segment, all obtained on 20-second intervals at the beginning and at the extrema of each ST episode. The obtained sensitivity in classifying ischemic versus heart-rate related ST episodes using the LTST DB was 77.9%, while specificity was 73.9%.
Experimental evaluation of selectivity estimation on big spatial data

With the tremendous volume of spatial datasets, there is an increasing need to process and analyze spatial data. One of the fundamental spatial queries is the selectivity estimation problem where users want to quickly estimate the total number of records in a given query range. While there have been several approaches to solve this problem for big data, there is no systematic evaluation and comparison for these techniques. In this work, we experimentally examine three of the most widely used techniques for selectivity estimation, namely, sampling, uniform binning, and non-uniform binning. This evaluation will be a basis for deciding when to use each of these techniques based on the application requirements. Furthermore, we study the trade-off between memory usage, preprocessing overhead, online query time and the accuracy of the results. With extensive experiments on large datasets, we provide an evaluation of these techniques and we reveal their benefits and their weaknesses.
Prevalence of children whose parents have a substance use disorder: Findings from a Swedish general population survey

Aims: The present study examined the prevalence of Swedish children living with at least one parent whom has a substance use disorder (SUD), i.e. either an alcohol use disorder (AUD) or a drug use disorder (DUD). Methods: A 2013 cross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample (n = 15,576) of the Swedish adult population 17–84 years of age was used. The response rate was 59.3%. SUDs were measured using selected parts of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), derived from the 4th edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-IV). In total, 3778 parents with 7448 children under the age of 18 years participated. Results: The proportion of children whose parent had a SUD was 4.6%, implying that around 90,000 children in Sweden experience this situation. Having a parent with an AUD was most common (3.7%), while 0.7% and 0.2% had a parent with a DUD and both (AUD plus DUD), respectively. Conclusions: Our results showed that a substantial number of children in Sweden have parents with a SUD and that it is important to consider both alcohol and drugs, when estimating the size of this group. Our findings call for further strategies to support these children and their families.
Electronic Computing Circuits Of The ENIAC

The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first electronic computing machine to be built, is a very large device (containing 18,000 vacuum tubes) compounded out of a few basic types of computing circuits. The design principles that were followed in order to insure reliable operation of the electronic computer are presented, and the basic types of computing circuits are analyzed. Most of the design work on component circuits was devoted to constructing reliable memory circuits (flip-flops) and adding circuits (counters). These are treated in detail. The ENIAC performs the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square-rooting, and the looking up of function values automatically. The units which perform these operations, the units which take numerical data into and out of the machine, and those which control the over-all operation are described. The technique of combining the basic electronic circuits to perform these functions is illustrated by three typical computing circuits: the addition circuit, a programming circuit, and the multiplication circuit.
Economic impact of ethanol production on U.S. livestock sector : a spatial analysis of corn and distillers grain shipment

The production of corn-based ethanol in the U.S. has increased from 1,630 million gallons in 2000 to 4,855 million gallons in 2006, representing a 198% growth over the period considered. This growth is favored by the availability of more efficient technologies in the production process of ethanol and is sustained by the high prices of ethanol in the market. The industry is also supported by a favorable public policy, expressed in the form of laws, mandating an increase in the use of ethanol, and also in the form of tax incentives. The tremendous increase in the use of corn for the ethanol industry is made at the expense of the livestock industry that was the traditional destination for much of the U.S. corn grain. As the ethanol industry continues to expand, concerns are raised in regard to its impact as more and more corn is diverted from the livestock sector. This study investigates the economic impact of the ethanol industry on the U.S. livestock sector. Specifically, a shipping cost model is developed to simulate the impact of the ethanol industry on the shipping cost of corn at the national and individual state levels. The dynamics for major livestock producing states are also analyzed at the crop reporting district level. Different scenarios based on assumptions on the availability of corn and the production capacities of the ethanol industry are displayed. Results from the model indicate that nationwide there is a 5 to 22% increase in the shipping cost of corn for the livestock industry due to the ethanol industry, depending on the scenario involved. At the state level, there is an increase in the transportation cost for most of the states, with shipping cost doubling in some cases. Nevertheless, some states benefit from the dynamics created by the development of ethanol plants and are experiencing a reduction in their livestock industry corn transportation cost.
Fourth Generation Ebooks

Starting in the early 1990s, three generations of ebooks have quietly paved the way for a fourth generation, one that emphasizes the social side of reading. The first generation of ebooks focused on multimedia and the direct advantages of reading on a computer. The second generation explored the mobile form-factor of reading hardware. The third generation—the first to gain widespread adoption—emphasized three concurrent technology advances: light, relatively inexpensive mobile computers; better battery technology; and higher resolution, lower power displays, as well as the availability of far more content. Now we are ready for a fourth generation, one that acknowledges the social aspects of reading. In particular, a fourth generation of ebooks will highlight two new perspectives: (1) reading together (i.e. using ebooks as a focal point of synchronous activities) and (2) reading as a productive activity (i.e. using the collective social data that results from reading as the basis for beyond-paper functionality). This talk will explore how we got to where we are today, and where we’re going next.
Rampant drift in artificially fragmented populations of the endangered tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi)

Habitat fragmentation and its genetic consequences are a critically important issue in evaluating the evolutionary penalties of human habitat modification. Here, we examine the genetic structure and diversity in naturally subdivided and artificially fragmented populations of the endangered tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi), a small fish restricted to discrete coastal lagoons and estuaries in California, USA. We use five naturally fragmented coastal populations from a 300‐ km spatial scale as a standard to assess migration and drift relative to eight artificially fragmented bay populations from a 30‐ km spatial scale. Using nine microsatellite loci in 621 individuals, and a 522‐base fragment of mitochondrial DNA control region from 103 individuals, we found striking differences in the relative influences of migration and drift on genetic variation at these two scales. Overall, the artificially fragmented populations exhibited a consistent pattern of higher genetic differentiation and significantly lower genetic diversity relative to the naturally fragmented populations. Thus, even in a species characterized by habitat isolation and subdivision, further artificial fragmentation appears to result in substantial population genetic consequences and may not be sustainable.
The emotional costs of employment-related mobility

The relationship between migration, labour market access, and emotions has not been widely analysed despite ample evidence suggesting that difficulties with labour market entry evoke diverse feelings among migrants. The article analyses migrants' narratives of their feelings toward mobility and subsequent labour market participation based on research material relating to skilled migrants entering Norway. The author examines how understanding migrants' emotions associated with place-specific labour market entry, namely low self-esteem, shame, loss of individuality, and infantilisation, but also pleasure and content, can contribute to studies of the relationship between emotion and migration. Work-related and family-related mobility are often considered the least controversial forms of mobility. However, the article shows how they may have gendered emotional costs for the individuals involved. The author concludes that studies of migration and emotion should include these issues in order to tie migration, place, labour market participation, and gender together.