Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The importance of multiple leadership roles in fostering participation

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the direct and indirect effect of high and low‐level local union leaders on various forms of member participation.Design/methodology/approach – Interviews and surveys of the leaders and members of an Educators Association operating in the USA were used to explore these complex relationships. Multiple regression, hierarchical regression, and path analyses were used to test direct and indirect relationship and the amount of variance explained by participatory leadership.Findings – Survey results indicate that a member's perception of the participatory style of the local union president positively related to, and explained a significant amount of additional variance in, union activities that require moderate and high levels of effort. No support was found for the workplace representative's direct relationship with various measures of member participation. The indirect effects of the union president's and the workplace representatives’ participatory style on u.
Research in applied linguistics and language teaching and learning in New Zealand (2006–2010)

This survey gives an overview of research into language teaching and learning in New Zealand over a five-year period, including the context of that research. The majority of New Zealanders are monolingual English speakers, yet the country faces complex linguistic challenges arising from its bicultural foundations and the multicultural society it has become. The survey encompasses the teaching and learning of indigenous and community languages, including te reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, both official languages; the teaching and learning of foreign languages and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL); psychological factors in language learning; and language teacher education. Certain themes recur: the daunting task of maintaining minority languages against a tide of language shift, the lag between language trends and language policy, and the struggle to create space within the education system for cultural and linguistic diversity. Research into language teaching and learning in New Zealand is vibrant, but there is a need for greater collaboration, generalisability and more effective dissemination of research findings. Future research should focus on the effectiveness of methodologies and programmes in international comparison, and helping teachers and course designers to refine the use of digital technology.
OXIDATION AND REDUCTION OF GLYCOLIC AND GLYOXYLIC ACIDS IN PLANTS

As mentioned in the preceding paper (1) a new enzyme, glyoxylic acid reductase, has been discovered in spinach leaves. The enzyme catalyzes the reduction of glyoxylic to glycolic acid by reduced pyridine nucleotides and, together with glycolic acid oxidase, can act as a hydrogen carrier system from reduced pyridine nucleotides to molecular oxygen. E$ect of Glyoxylic Acid on Oxygen Uptake of Spinach HomogenatesWashed particulate preparations of spinach leaves exhibit a relatively low oxygen uptake which is markedly stimulated by addition of glyoxylic acid. The increased oxygen consumption is not due to oxidation of the glyoxylate, for its concentration remains unchanged at the end of the experiment. Furthermore, the increase in the oxygen uptake of spinach homogenates caused by the addition of small amounts of glyoxylate is larger than could be accounted for by its complete oxidation to CO, and water. Glyoxylic acid was prepared as already described (1). The homogenate was prepared as follows: 60 gm. of fresh spinach leaves were ground in a mortar with 20 gm. of sand and 80 ml. of water, and the mixture was pressed through one layer of cheese-cloth. The supernatant fluid was decanted from the sand and centrifuged in the cold room at 15,000 r.p.m. in a Servall angle centrifuge. The particles were washed four times on the centrifuge, each with 100 ml. of ice-cold water, and finally suspended in 10 ml. of 0.1 M potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.5. Fig. 1 illustrates typical results obtained with this preparation. It will be noted that, in spite of the large stimulation of oxygen uptake caused by 23 PM of glyoxylate (cf. Curves 1 and 4), there was no disappearance of glyoxylate. This was established by determination of the glyox.ylate present in the samples
Time post-onset does not affect response to treatment in patients with chronic aphasia ≥1 year after stroke

Time post-onset does not affect response to treatment in patients with chronic aphasia ̧1 year after stroke Oliver Wendt, Rajinder Koul, & Johanna M. Hassink(Commentary authors), Department of Educational Studies, and Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, and Department of Communication Disorders, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA .
A DOUBLE‐BLIND CROSS‐OVER STUDY OF PIPERAZINE OESTRONE SULPHATE AND PLACEBO WITH COAGULATION STUDIES

A double‐blind trial of piperazine oestrone sulphate was performed over a period of 14 months on 55 menopausal women complaining of depression and hot flushes. Depression was not affected but the hot flushes were significantly lessened by the oestrogen treatment. After three months of piperazine oestrone sulphate there were no significant accelerations of prothrombin time or increases in factors VII or X but, after six months, there was an acceleration in the prothrombin time. After 14 months those who received piperazine oestrone sulphate for the first six months showed a significant increase in α1‐antitrypsin and factor VIIR:AG. Oestrone piperazine sulphate appears to produce less marked changes in coagulation than oestrogen‐containing oral contraceptives or conjugated equine oestrogens.
Broad-band transmitted intensity noise induced by Stokes and anti-Stokes Brillouin scattering in single-mode fibers

We experimentally investigate the optical noise induced by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in single-mode fibers. The noise, which is caused by the random nature of spontaneous Brillouin scattering, is induced in the transmitted wave as well as in the backward Brillouin wave. In fibers where the Brillouin gain spectra consist of several resonances, the induced intensity noise of the transmitted wave has a wide spectrum and it may be the dominant noise in the receiver for a broad radio frequency band (0-1 GHz). This unexpected result is explained by a multiple scattering process which is caused by stimulated and by thermally excited phonons. The SBS induced noise may cause a performance degradation in analog optical systems which require high optical powers and low noise. Using fibers with a single Brillouin resonance may limit the noise to lower frequencies.
Profile of psychiatric disorders and life events in medically ill elderly: experiences from geriatric clinic in Northern India

Morbidity among elderly people has an important influence on their psychological well‐being. Evaluation of the morbidity profile and its determinants, which have implications for management of medical problems of elderly people, are scarce in developing countries. Even the physicians' detection rate of mental distress in elderly populations is low in medical outpatient clinics. This could be due to the large caseloads and also, importantly, underestimation of psychological concerns of the elderly. The objective of this study was to study the psychiatric co‐morbidity and life events among elderly medical outpatients.
Unsupervised, dynamic identification of physiological and activity context in wearable computing

Context-aware computing describes the situationwhere a wearable / mobile computer is aware of itsuser's state and surroundings and modifies its behaviorbased on this information. We designed, implemented andevaluated a wearable system which can determine typicaluser context and context transition probabilities onlineand without external supervision. The system relies ontechniques from machine learning, statistical analysisand graph algorithms. It can be used for onlineclassification and prediction. Our results indicate thepower of our method to determine a meaningful usercontext model while only requiring data from acomfortable physiological sensor device.
Landscapes, land covers and linear features in a river catchment in Northern England

Abstract A national land classification developed by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) was used to stratify a sample‐based survey of land cover and linear boundary features within the catchment of the River Tyne, Northern England. A total of 115 1‐km grid‐squares from four land classes representative of Lowland Pastoral, Lowland Arable, Marginal Upland and Upland landscapes were surveyed in the field. The land classes are described with an emphasis on the variability of land cover types and linear features. Considerable variation between squares of the same land class was observed, but statistically significant differences between the land classes were identified. Variation in the lengths of linear features was related to the land cover compositions of sample squares. The origins of the intra‐land class variation and the application of the ITE land classification in large‐scale surveys are discussed.
Peer Assessment of Contributions to a Group Project: Student attitudes to holistic and category-based approaches

This article complements two previous papers which presented quantitative data about methods of peer assessment within a group project. The previous quantitative papers indicated that holistic peer assessment supports the purposes of summative group assessment better than category-based peer assessment. The qualitative findings presented here support this notion. Student attitudes towards the two methods of peer assessment were more supportive of the holistic approach than the category-based approach. This article raises the question as to whether the method of peer assessment has some influence on the extent to which students work cooperatively in a group setting.
Relationship between antibiotic concentration in bone and efficacy of treatment of staphylococcal osteomyelitis in rats: azithromycin compared with clindamycin and rifampin

We examined the effect of azithromycin (CP-62,993), a new oral macrolide-like antibiotic, alone and in combination with rifampin, as treatment for experimental staphylococcal osteomyelitis. Clindamycin was used as a comparison drug. Rats (n = 10 to 15 per group) were infected by direct instillation of Staphylococcus aureus into the tibial medullary cavity. After 10 days, 21-day treatments with azithromycin (50 mg/kg of body weight, once daily, by the oral route), rifampin (20 mg/kg, once daily, subcutaneously), or clindamycin (90 mg/kg, three times daily, by the oral route) were started. The drugs were used singly or in combination (azithromycin plus rifampin or clindamycin plus rifampin). Peak azithromycin concentrations in bone were > 30 times higher than levels in serum, but the drug had little effect on final bacterial titers (5.13 +/- 0.46 log10 CFU/g of bone; for controls, 6.54 +/- 0.28 log10 CFU/g). Clindamycin was more active than azithromycin (3.26 +/- 2.14 log10 CFU/g of bone; 20% of sterilized bones), but rifampin was the most active single drug (1.5 +/- 1.92 log10 CFU/g; 53% of sterilized bones). Therapy with rifampin or clindamycin alone was associated with the emergence of resistance. Rifampin plus azithromycin (0.51 +/- 1.08 log10 CFU/g of bone; 80% of sterilized bones) and rifampin plus clindamycin (0.87 +/- 1.34 log10 CFU/g of bone; 66% of sterilized bones) were the most active regimens. Thus, azithromycin is ineffective as a single drug for the treatment of experimental staphylococcal osteomyelitis, despite high levels in bone that markedly exceeded the MIC, but it may be an attractive partner drug for rifampin.
MODELING THE GENETIC BASIS OF HETEROSIS: TESTS OF ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESES

Houle (1994) showed that marker‐associated heterosis due to general inbreeding depression could not be distinguished from direct overdominance at the marker locus by examining mean genotypic fitnesses, in the one‐locus case. Indeed, both hypotheses equally fit the same regression model, referred to as the “adaptive distance model” (Smouse 1986). I here extend the analysis to several loci and to the relationship between marker genotype and variance in fitness. Several predictions differ between the overdominance and inbreeding hypotheses: (1) all locus‐specific effects are equal under inbreeding, whereas they are not under overdominance; (2) the adaptive distance model has an increasingly low fit when the number of loci increases, under inbreeding, whereas it always explains the whole variance in fitness under overdominance; (3) a negative relationship is predicted between mean fitness and the variance in fitness, under inbreeding, which is not predicted under overdominance. Some statistical tests are derived from these predictions, that help to identify the genetic basis of heterosis. Simulations show that the power of these tests allows their application to real datasets.
Making Sense of Intractable Multiparty Conflict: A Study of Framing in Four Environmental Disputes

Intractable multiparty conflict is omnipresent in social life, but how do individuals in this type of dispute make sense of their situation and therefore enact it in a particular way? The current study investigated this question by examining how disputants from different stakeholder groups framed conflict situations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Texas that revolved around environmental issues. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of interview transcripts and archival data suggested that, based on their framing similarities, disputants could be grouped together in four clusters, each implying a different framing repertoire. In turn, the analyses indicated that the repertoire differences between these clusters fueled the intractability of each dispute.
Absolute location by landmark extraction

To limit cumulative errors due to the odometer, we propose an absolute location method based on the extraction and the use of geometrical landmarks. This method also avoids the need of prior knowledge of the robot environment (no training steps) and its specified fitting (no beacons). If different measurements of the environment around the robot taken by an ultrasonic telemeter are merged, geometrical primitives appear. They are then discriminated and rebuilt. Those primitives are the landmarks used by the locating system. Hence a set of definitions and laws have been established to conjointly use few landmarks, in order to obtain the mobile robot absolute location by triangulation.
Generalization of Linear Cyclic Pursuit With Application to Rendezvous of Multiple Autonomous Agents

Cyclic pursuit is a simple distributed control law in which agent i pursues agent i+1 modulo n. We generalize existing results and show that by selecting the gains of the agents, the point of convergence of these agents can be controlled. The condition for convergence, the range of controller gains and the reachable set where convergence can occur are studied. It is also shown that the sequence in which an agent pursues another does not affect the point of convergence
Outage probability constrained robust downlink collaborative beamforming

We consider a downlink collaborative relay network where communication between the base station and the terminal node is assisted by a cluster of relay nodes with imperfect channel state information (CSI). The equivalent condition for the probability constraint on the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) is derived, by modeling the CSI uncertainties as Gaussian. Though the original problem is quite intractable, it could be effectively solved by working out an semidefinite programming (SDP) iteratively. Subsequently, computer simulations are carried out to validate our approach compared with the non-robust design techniques. Simulation results show that, the quality-of-service (QoS) can be guaranteed in statistical sense for the proposed approach while violated by the non-robust solution.
Polymorphism of Apoprotein E (APOE), Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) and Paraoxonase (PON1) Genes in Patients with Cerebrovascular Disease

Abstract Although controversial, data on the genetic polymorphism of apoprotein E (APOE), methylenetetrahydrofolate (MTHFR) and paraoxonase (PON1) genes implicate their role in the development of cerebrovascular disease. The aim of this study was to assess the association of polymorphism of APOE, MTHFR and PON1 genes in 56 stroke and 36 carotid stenosis patients, and in 124 control subjects by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. In the stroke group a significantly different MTHFR genotype distribution (p=0.004, odds ratio for T/T of 17.571), but no significant difference in APOE and PON1 allele and genotype distribution compared to the control was found. The carotid stenosis group exhibited a significantly different APOE allele and genotype distribution (p=0.023, odds ratio APOE∊3∊4 of 4.24), but no significant difference in the MTHFR and PON1 allele and genotype distribution from the control group. The preliminary results obtained in this study revealed an association of the MTHFR and APOE gene polymorphism with cerebrovascular disease, suggesting a significant risk for stroke in subjects who are homozygous for the T allele and for carotid stenosis in subjects having APOE∊3∊4 genotype. Additional studies in larger patient groups are needed to confirm these observations.
A hybrid clustering algorithm based on ART2 and its application in anomaly detection

Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) and k-means have been widely used for clustering, but those two algorithms have their own limitations. In this paper a hybrid clustering algorithm is proposed which is based on ART2 and k-means. Firstly ATR2 is executed to find the initial cluster numbers and initial cluster centers, k-means uses these values to initialize its parameters and find new cluster centers, then these new cluster centers are sent back to ART2, ART2 use them to initialize connection weights between F1 layer and F2 layer, and get the final improved clusters. To prove its effectiveness it was applied in intrusion detection. The KDDpsila99 data sets are used as experimental data. Experiments show that clustering results are improved.
Men's experiences of vasectomy: a grounded theory study

This paper presents a theoretical model derived from a grounded theory analysis of interviews with 19 men who had had a vasectomy three years previously. The aim was to track men's experience of vasectomy through decision making, surgery and adjustment and to develop a model to shed light on the process. Early studies of vasectomy had suggested that men adopt more stereotypically masculine behaviours after vasectomy and their authors had conjectured that these were compensatory for a diminished sense of masculinity. Interesting findings from the present study suggest that, for these participants at least, vasectomy often enhanced their sense of masculinity. Surgery was sometimes construed as a “bloodbath” heroically endured and part of the construction of a valued identity of a “family man”. Peer pressure, particularly in the workplace, appeared to be a powerful motivator when making the decision to be sterilized and the authors suggest that vasectomy can be a passport to membership of a socially valued group.
Discourse Models for Collaboratively Edited Corpora

This thesis focuses on computational discourse models for collaboratively edited corpora. Due to the exponential growth rate and significant stylistic and content variations of collaboratively edited corpora, models based on professionally edited texts are incapable of processing the new data effectively. For these methods to succeed, one challenge is to preserve the local coherence as well as global consistence. We explore two corpus-based methods for processing collaboratively edited corpora, which effectively model and optimize the consistence of user generated text. The first method addresses the task of inserting new information into existing texts. In particular, we wish to determine the best location in a text for a given piece of new information. We present an online ranking model which exploits this hierarchical structure – representationally in its features and algorithmically in its learning procedure. When tested on a corpus of Wikipedia articles, our hierarchically informed model predicts the correct insertion paragraph more accurately than baseline methods. The second method concerns inducing a common structure across multiple articles in similar domains to aid cross document collaborative editing. A graphical model is designed to induce section topics and to learn topic clusters. Some preliminary experiments showed that the proposed method is comparable to baseline methods. Thesis Supervisor: Regina Barzilay Title: Associate Professor
Software Rejuvenation in Eucalyptus Cloud Computing Infrastructure: A Method Based on Time Series Forecasting and Multiple Thresholds

The need for reliability and availability has increased in modern applications, in order to handle rapidly growing demands while providing uninterrupted service. Cloud computing systems fundamentally provide access to large pools of data and computational resources through a variety of interfaces similarly to existing grid and HPC resource management and programming systems. This work proposes an approach that uses time series to schedule rejuvenation, so as to reduce the downtime by predicting the proper moment to perform the rejuvenation.We show the results of our approach through experiments using the Eucalyptus cloud computing framework.
The Influence of Religious Attendance on Smoking

Generalized linear models were used to assess the relationship between religious attendance and lifetime smoking status among middle-aged adults (n = 666) sampled from waves three (1993 to 1996) and four (2004 to 2005) of the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) study. Religious attendance once per week or greater as compared to never was inversely associated with smoking status. Future research should explore potential mediating factors of the association between religious attendance and smoking among middle-aged adults in order to gain a greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Funding: NIMH grant DA026652; NIDA grant T32DA007292.
“Get High on Yourself”: The Effectiveness of a Television Campaign on Self-Esteem, Drug Use, and Drug Attitudes

The effectiveness of a week long television campaign — Get High on Yourself — was assessed at three urban high schools, through measures of self-esteem, drug use, and drug attitudes administered ten days prior to the campaign and four weeks later. The results indicate no significant changes that could be attributed to the campaign. A significant relationship was obtained between level of self-esteem, drug use, and drug attitudes.