Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consciousness raising in foreign language vocabulary learning and reading

This study on consciousness raising in foreign language vocabulary learning and reading took place in a reading comprehension course for university students in Finland. The aim was to find out what kind of changes in vocabulary and reading strategies and related matters the students underwent during the course and to investigate what support the course can give to the changes. The data were collected during a three-week course where I acted as a teacher and a researcher, and through interviews five months after the course. The course offered the students consciousness raising possibilities in the form of teacher-led sessions, group work and questionnaires. These activities form the main source of the data. Two mature students were selected under closer scrutiny. The transcribed data were analysed in four ways to 1) specify the perceived changes in vocabulary and reading strategies and in related matters, 2) to establish a link between the teacher-led consciousness raising and the changes, 3) to illuminate the importance of reflection in the change and 4) to investigate the support of group work to the changes in strategies of finding out word meanings. The findings of the study support the view that classroom learning does not take place in a vacuum. Both case study students showed changes in their perceptions about the reading process and about their ways of dealing with vocabulary. They also showed changes in their perceptions of themselves as learners. Both students, for example, articulated increasing confidence in themselves as language learners. It is likely that the teacher-led consciousness raising in the classroom and, in particular, the group work helped the learners reflect on their background and learning and, thus, change. The findings also indicate that the students' perceptions of the benefits of consciousness raising lasted at least until five months after the course. This study gave evidence that the two active learners subjectively perceived consciousness raising as beneficial. Future studies need to pay attention to the link between consciousness raising and the possible increase in proficiency. It is also important to study students whose participation in the course is not as active as that of the two case study students in this study.
Objectively measured age-related changes in the intensity distribution of daily physical activity in adults.

BACKGROUND The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the relationship between age and the intensity of the daily physical activity in men and women, aged 18 to 69 years. METHODS A total 507 volunteers continuously wore a pedometer with a uni-axial accelerometer (Lifecorder, Kenz, Japan) for 7 days, to determine the number of steps (steps/ day) as well as the time spent in physical activity (minutes/day) at light (below 3 METs), moderate (3 to 6 METs), and vigorous (above 6 METs) intensities, respectively. All procedures carried out in the present investigation were conducted from 1999 to 2000 in Japan. RESULTS The time spent in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity significantly decreased with aging (P < 0.01). In contrast, the middle- to older-aged individuals spent a longer time in light intensity physical activity in comparison with the younger individuals (P < 0.05). Furthermore, these age-associated differences of physical activity were also significant, even though the number of steps did not differ significantly. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that the intensity of daily physical activity decreases with increasing age regardless of the amount of daily physical activity.
Specific Nuclear Localizing Sequence Directs Two Myosin Isoforms to the Cell Nucleus in Calmodulin-Sensitive Manner

Background Nuclear myosin I (NM1) was the first molecular motor identified in the cell nucleus. Together with nuclear actin, they participate in crucial nuclear events such as transcription, chromatin movements, and chromatin remodeling. NM1 is an isoform of myosin 1c (Myo1c) that was identified earlier and is known to act in the cytoplasm. NM1 differs from the “cytoplasmic” myosin 1c only by additional 16 amino acids at the N-terminus of the molecule. This amino acid stretch was therefore suggested to direct NM1 into the nucleus. Methodology/Principal Findings We investigated the mechanism of nuclear import of NM1 in detail. Using over-expressed GFP chimeras encoding for truncated NM1 mutants, we identified a specific sequence that is necessary for its import to the nucleus. This novel nuclear localization sequence is placed within calmodulin-binding motif of NM1, thus it is present also in the Myo1c. We confirmed the presence of both isoforms in the nucleus by transfection of tagged NM1 and Myo1c constructs into cultured cells, and also by showing the presence of the endogenous Myo1c in purified nuclei of cells derived from knock-out mice lacking NM1. Using pull-down and co-immunoprecipitation assays we identified importin beta, importin 5 and importin 7 as nuclear transport receptors that bind NM1. Since the NLS sequence of NM1 lies within the region that also binds calmodulin we tested the influence of calmodulin on the localization of NM1. The presence of elevated levels of calmodulin interfered with nuclear localization of tagged NM1. Conclusions/Significance We have shown that the novel specific NLS brings to the cell nucleus not only the “nuclear” isoform of myosin I (NM1 protein) but also its “cytoplasmic” isoform (Myo1c protein). This opens a new field for exploring functions of this molecular motor in nuclear processes, and for exploring the signals between cytoplasm and the nucleus.
Bioimaging Probes for Reactive Oxygen Species and Reactive Nitrogen Species

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play key roles in many pathogenic processes, including carcinogenesis, inflammation, ischemia-reperfusion injury and signal transduction. Also, reactive nitrogen species (RNS) cause various biological events such as neurodegenerative disorders. Sensitive and specific detection methods for ROS and RNS in biological samples should be useful for elucidation of biological events both in vitro and in vivo. Fluorescent probes based on small organic molecules have become indispensable tools in modern biology because they provide dynamic information concerning the localization and quantity of biological molecules of interest, without the need of genetic engineering of the sample. In this review, we recount some recent achievements in the field of small molecular fluorescent probes. First, the probes for nitric oxide and peroxynitrite as RNS are introduced and the probes of hydroxyl radical, hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorous and singlet oxygen as ROS are discussed, based on the fluorescence off/on switching mechanisms including photoinduced electron transfer and spirocyclization processes, and with some applications for in vitro and in vivo systems.
Cooperative code-sharing for UMTS femtocells

Femtocells are low-cost, user deployed base-stations that can alleviate indoor coverage problems. However as femtocell deployment density increases, inter-femtocell interference can severely limit their effectiveness. In this paper, we present a protocol for coordinated auto-configuration of femtocells in a UMTS environment. We use an iterated heuristic search (GRASP) to assign orthogonal CDMA spreading codes in the downlink to avoid interference between overlapping signals. The protocol is compared against a baseline of current practice on a range of simulated problems and shown to consistently provide greatly improved performance for data users, providing up to 480% of the average data rate the baseline provides on certain problems.
Prevalence and Clinical Significance of Left Atrial Spontaneous Echo Contrast Detected by Transesophageal Echocardiography

The prevalence and clinical significance of left atrial spontaneous echo contrast (SEC) were studied in patients undergoing transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). The study group included 290 consecutive patients (186 male and 104 female, aged 17–86 years, mean age 56.1 ± 12.8 years). Left atrial SEC was found in 50 (17.2%) patients, and was significantly associated with atrial fibrillation, mitral stenosis, absence of mitral regurgitation, and left atrial dimension. Atrial fibrillation was recorded in 44 (88%) patients, mitral stenosis or mitral valve replacement in 21 (42%) patients, and left atrial thrombus or previous embolism in 23 (46%) patients with SEC. Univariate analysis showed a significant association between the presence of SEC and atrial fibrillation, mitral stenosis or mitral valve replacement, and left atrial size. Multivariate analysis showed the presence of left atrial SEC and atrial fibrillation to be independent factors for thrombus formation and/or thromboembolism. Since left atrial SEC associated with atrial fibrillation, left atrial enlargement, mitral stenosis, or mitral valve prosthesis was found in 17.2% of patients undergoing TEE, it might be considered a marker of left atrial thrombus or previous thromboembolism.
Early Goal-Directed Therapy in the Treatment of Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock

Background Goal-directed therapy has been used for severe sepsis and septic shock in the intensive care unit. This approach involves adjustments of cardiac preload, afterload, and contractility to balance oxygen delivery with oxygen demand. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of early goal-directed therapy before admission to the intensive care unit. Methods We randomly assigned patients who arrived at an urban emergency department with severe sepsis or septic shock to receive either six hours of early goal-directed therapy or standard therapy (as a control) before admission to the intensive care unit. Clinicians who subsequently assumed the care of the patients were blinded to the treatment assignment. In-hospital mortality (the primary efficacy outcome), end points with respect to resuscitation, and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II) scores were obtained serially for 72 hours and compared between the study groups. Results Of the 263 enrolled patients, 130 were .
Query Processing and Optimization of Parallel Database System in Multi Processor Environments

In present scenario parallel database systems are being applicable in a broad range of systems, right from database applications (OLTP) server to decision support systems (OLAP) server. These developments involve database processing and querying over parallel systems. A means to the success of parallel database systems, particularly in decision-support applications (Data warehousing), is parallel query optimization. Given a SQL query, parallel query optimization has the goal of finding a parallel plan that delivers the query result in minimal time. Various useful and competent, optimizing solutions to be implemented For the parallel databases. Parallel DBS attempt to develop recently in order to make highperformance and high-availability database servers at a much lower price for multiprocessor computer architectures than mainframe computers. The objective of this paper is define a novel approach on how to achieve parallelism for relational database multithreaded query execution use to maximum resource utilization of CPU and memory. This technique offer a solution to the problem of minimizing the response time of input queries against parallel databases.
Decision making : alternatives to rational choice models

Foreword - Amitai Etzioni PART ONE: CRITIQUES OF RATIONAL CHOICE MODELS Criticisms of Rational Choice Models - Mary Zey Decision Making and Problem Solving - Herbert A Simon and Associates What Might Rationality Fail To Do? - Geoffrey Brennan Rationality of Self and Others in an Economic System - Kenneth J Arrow PART TWO: ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES: MICROEMPHASIS ON THE INDIVIDUAL Normative-Affective Factors - Amitai Etzioni Toward a New Decision-Making Model On the Relation of Altruism and Self-Interest - Jane J Mansbridge Emotional 'Man' - Helena Flam Corporate Actors as Emotion-Motivated Emotion Managers Seductions and Repulsions of Crime - Jack Katz A Theory of Moral Sentiments - Robert H Frank The Matter of Habit - Charles Camic Money Symbolism and Economic Rationality - Robert E Lane PART THREE: ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES: MACRO-EMPHASIS ON ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS Introducing Social Structure into Economic Analysis - James S Coleman Behavioral Decision Theory and Organizational Decision Theory - James G March and Zur Shapira Economic Action and Social Structure - Mark Granovetter The Problem of Embeddedness Getting Into Print - Walter W Powell The Social Construction of Efficiency - Neil Fligstein Reform of RICO - Mary Zey Legal Versus Political Embeddedness Explanations The Origins of Federal Securities Regulation - James Burk A Case Study in the Social Control of Finance
Complex questions : Let me Google it for you

Many questions submitted to community question answering (CQA) sites such as Yahoo! Answers can be reasonably answered by a simple query to a standard Web search engine. However, the user may not know how to reduce their question, which may be several paragraphs in length, down to the 2-4 terms that will return an answer. The work in this short paper is directed towards the creation of a system that can do this reduction for them. More specifically, in this paper we focus on automatically generating training data for this purpose. Given existing question-answer pairs, we determine the combination of terms appearing in the question that best returns the answer. Given the large collection of question-answer pairs that already exist on CQA sites, we hope to generate large numbers of training examples. Using this training data, we hope to learn to extract short queries from long questions that have no existing answers. Although the results in this workshop paper are preliminary in nature, they demonstrate the potential of this approach.
Sex Differences in Fiber Connection between the Striatum and Subcortical and Cortical Regions

The striatum is an important subcortical structure with extensive connections to other regions of the brain. These connections are believed to play important roles in behaviors such as reward-related processes and impulse control, which show significant sex differences. However, little is known about sex differences in the striatum-projected fiber connectivity. The current study examined sex differences between 50 Chinese males and 79 Chinese females in their fiber connections between the striatum and nine selected cortical and subcortical regions. Despite overall similarities, males showed stronger fiber connections between the left caudate and rostral cingulate cortex, between the right putamen and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, between the bilateral putamen and the ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex, and between the right caudate and the ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex, whereas females showed stronger fiber connections between the right putamen and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, between bilateral caudate and hippocampus, and between the left putamen and hippocampus. These findings help us to understand sex differences in the striatum-projected fiber connections and their implications for sex differences in behaviors.
NUDT's Participation in ImageCLEF Robot Vision Challenge 2014

This working note describes the method of the NUDT team for scene classiﬁcation and object recognition in the ImageCLEF 2014 Robot Vision Challenge. The method is composed of two steps: 1. spatial pyramid match (SPM) and a Pyramid of HOG (Histograms of Oriented Gradient) are incorporated to represent an indoor place image. 2. a multi-class SVM (Support Vector Machine) is utilized to classify an image by one-versus-all binary SVMs. Based on the method, our system wins the championship this year.
Increase in focal concentration of deoxyhaemoglobin during neuronal activity in cerebral ischaemic patients

Background and Purpose: Blood oxygenation level dependent contrast functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) has been applied to functional mapping in brain disorders, based on the assumption that normal adults and patients with brain disorders exhibit similar evoked cerebral blood oxygenation (CBO) changes. This study compared evoked CBO changes measured by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) with the activation mapping obtained by BOLD-fMRI in patients with cerebral ischaemia. Methods: The study involved six normal adults and six patients with cerebral ischaemia. Hand grasping was performed as a motor task. All patients could perform the task similarly to the controls at the time of examination, but single photon emission computed tomography demonstrated low baseline cerebral blood flow and a decreased haemodynamic reserve in the primary sensorimotor cortex on the lesion side. Using NIRS, concentration changes of deoxyhaemoglobin (Deoxy-Hb), oxyhaemoglobin (Oxy-Hb), and total haemoglobin (Total-Hb) were measured in the primary sensorimotor cortex contralateral to the task. BOLD-fMRI signals were measured by 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging using an echo-planar technique. Activation maps were calculated by statistical parametric mapping. Results: In the controls, Deoxy-Hb decreased in association with increases of Oxy-Hb and Total-Hb in the primary sensorimotor cortex during the task. However, in the patients, Deoxy-Hb increased significantly from baseline, while Oxy-Hb and Total-Hb also increased, indicating the presence of rCBF increases in response to neuronal activation. BOLD-fMRI demonstrated only limited activation areas in the primary sensorimotor cortex on the lesion side. Conclusion: The CBO changes in patients with cerebral ischaemia differed from those of normal adults; Deoxy-Hb was increased in activation areas of the patients. This implies that BOLD-fMRI may overlook activation areas in the patients unless both increases and decreases of signal are taken into consideration.
STUDIES ON THE BIOCHEMISTRY AND FINE STRUCTURE OF SILICA SHELL FORMATION IN DIATOMS

An electron microscope study on the cell wall of the diatom Cylindrotheca fusiformis was carried out using stereoscopic and sectioning techniques. Material prepared by an enzyme treatment or by a mechanical method showed that the wall consists of two major components: a silica shell and organic material. Vapor of hydrofluoric acid was employed to remove the silica and thereby reveal the arrangement of the organic material. An attempt was made to increase the contrast of the organic component by "staining. " Uranylacetate not only increased the electron opacity of the organic material but also apparently decreased the electron opacity of the silica shell. In ultrathin sections of complete cells, the structure as revealed by stereoscopy could be confirmed and extended. Every part of the silica shell is tightly enclosed by organic material. In the valve region the silica enclosed in this way is located between other layers of organic material. The whole cell wall is surrounded by a mucilaginous substance which stains with ruthenium red.
Magnus Blomström y Björn Hettne, development theory in transition. The dependency debate & beyond: third world responses

Causa sorpresa descubrir esta vez la segunda edicion en ingles(1985 y 1987) de uno de los pocos libros que han intendo una reconsideracion de los aportes a la teoria economica originados en los paises subdesarrollados, sin que aun haya sido publicado en espanol o por menos considerado en los paises a los que se refiere. En particular sorprendente resulta si tomamos en cuenta que esta principalmente referido a los aportes a la teoria del desarrollo economico provenientes de la America Latina. Inicialmente este libro fue publicado en sueco(traduccion del titulo original: "Subdesarrollo y dependencia. La contribucion latinoamericana a la teoria del desarrollo"), y se referia exclusivamente al debate sobre la teoria del desarrollo en la America Latina. En esta edicion se ha extendido incorporando el debate sobre la dependencia en otras partes del Tercer Mundo: Asia, Africa y el Caribe. Este libro pretende segun los autores dar una vision de la teoria del desarrollo desde una perspectiva tercermundista. Se concentrara para ello en el analisis de la teoria del desarrollo desde 1945, haciendo particular hincapie en el aporte que significo el debate desarrollado en la America Latina.
Hypnotic Induction: Enhancing Trance or Mostly Myth?

Hypnosis has often, and primarily, been portrayed as a mystical means that controls and exploits vulnerable and defenseless people. Sources accused of perpetuating hypnosis myths and misconceptions have included numerous media productions and stage demonstrations at state fairs and festivals. Ironically, one largely unexamined potential culprit disseminating misinformation about hypnosis is the field of clinical hypnosis itself. This article not only questions the legitimacy of the term “hypnotic induction” and its derivatives but also explores the potential impact these terms have on the perpetuation of hypnosis myths and misconceptions. Through an examination of a selective history of hypnotic induction, the customary language of hypnosis, and information promoted by professional hypnosis societies, some of the contributing terminology is identified. Alternative terms that more appropriately embody the manifestation of trance are offered and discussed.
Inferred call path profiling

Prior work has found call path profiles to be useful for optimizers and programmer-productivity tools. Unfortunately, previous approaches for collecting path profiles are expensive: they need to either execute additional instructions (to track calls and returns) or they need to walk the stack. The state-of-the-art techniques for call path profiling slow down the program by 7% (for C programs) and 20% (for Java programs). This paper describes an innovative technique that collects minimal information from the running program and later (offline) infers the full call paths from this information. The key insight behind our approach is that readily available information during program execution - the height of the call stack and the identity of the current executing function - are good indicators of calling context. We call this pair a context identifier. Because more than one call path may have the same context identifier, we show how to disambiguate context identifiers by changing the sizes of function activation records. This disambiguation has no overhead in terms of executed instructions. We evaluate our approach on the SPEC CPU 2006 C++ and C benchmarks. We show that collecting context identifiers slows down programs by 0.17% (geometric mean). We can map these context identifiers to the correct unique call path 80% of the time for C++ programs and 95% of the time for C programs.
Using incomplete online metric maps for topological exploration with the Gap Navigation Tree

This paper presents a general, global approach to the problem of robot exploration, utilizing a topological data structure to guide an underlying Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) process. A Gap Navigation Tree (GNT) is used to motivate global target selection and occluded regions of the environment (called "gaps") are tracked probabilistically. The process of map construction and the motion of the vehicle alters both the shape and location of these regions. The use of online mapping is shown to reduce the difficulties in implementing the GNT.