Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding Conscientiousness and Its Role in Improved Student Achievement.

more than proficiency in basic academic subjects. Rather than merely master mathematics and English language arts, children must develop both the cognitive and non-cognitive competencies—the “21st century skills”—that allow for success in school and beyond. Prominent among these is conscientiousness, a personality trait directly correlated with academic and workplace success (Pellegrino & Hilton, 2012).
Synthesis, Characterization, and In Vitro Cytotoxic Activities of Benzaldehyde Thiosemicarbazone Derivatives and Their Palladium (II) and Platinum (II) Complexes against Various Human Tumor Cell Lines

The palladium (II) bis-chelate Pd (L1−3)2 and platinum (II) tetranuclear Pt4(L4)4 complexes of benzaldehyde thiosemicarbazone derivatives have been synthesized, and characterized by elemental analysis and IR, FAB(+)-mass and NMR (1H, 13C) spectroscopy. The complex Pd(L2)2 [HL2 = m-CN-benzaldehyde thiosemicarbazone] shows a square-planar geometry with two deprotonated ligands (L) coordinated to PdII through the nitrogen and sulphur atoms in a transarrangement, while the complex Pt4(L4)4 [HL4 = 4-phenyl-1-benzaldehyde thiosemicarbazone] has a tetranuclear geometry with four tridentate ligands coordinated to four PtII ions through the carbon (aromatic ring), nitrogen, and sulphur atoms where the ligands are deprotonated at the NH group. The in vitro antitumor activity of the ligands and their complexes was determined against different human tumor cell lines, which revealed that the palladium (II) and platinum (II) complexes are more cytotoxic than their ligands with IC50 values at the range of 0.07–3.67 μM. The tetranuclear complex Pt4(L4)4, with the phenyl group in the terminal amine of the ligand, showed higher antiproliferative activity (CI50 = 0.07–0.12 μM) than the other tested palladium (II) complexes.
Non-contact measurement of respiratory function and deduction of tidal volume

This paper further the investigation of Doppler radar feasibility in measuring the flow in and out due to inhalation and exhalation under different conditions of breathing activities. Three different experiment conditions were designed to investigate the feasibility and consistency of Doppler radar which includes the combination of the states of normal breathing, deep breathing and apnoea state were demonstrated. The obtained Doppler radar signals were correlated and compared with the gold standard medical device, spirometer, yielding a good correlations between both devices. We also demonstrated the calibration of the Doppler radar signal can be performed in a simple manner in order to have a good agreements with the spirometer readings. The measurement of the flow in and out during the breathing activities can be measured accurately under different dynamics of breathing as long as the calibration is performed correctly.
Biophysically Realistic Filament Bending Dynamics in Agent-Based Biological Simulation

An appealing tool for study of the complex biological behaviors that can emerge from networks of simple molecular interactions is an agent-based, computational simulation that explicitly tracks small-scale local interactions – following thousands to millions of states through time. For many critical cell processes (e.g. cytokinetic furrow specification, nuclear centration, cytokinesis), the flexible nature of cytoskeletal filaments is likely to be critical. Any computer model that hopes to explain the complex emergent behaviors in these processes therefore needs to encode filament flexibility in a realistic manner. Here I present a numerically convenient and biophysically realistic method for modeling cytoskeletal filament flexibility in silico. Each cytoskeletal filament is represented by a series of rigid segments linked end-to-end in series with a variable attachment point for the translational elastic element. This connection scheme allows an empirically tuning, for a wide range of segment sizes, viscosities, and time-steps, that endows any filament species with the experimentally observed (or theoretically expected) static force deflection, relaxation time-constant, and thermal writhing motions. I additionally employ a unique pair of elastic elements – one representing the axial and the other the bending rigidity– that formulate the restoring force in terms of single time-step constraint resolution. This method is highly local –adjacent rigid segments of a filament only interact with one another through constraint forces—and is thus well-suited to simulations in which arbitrary additional forces (e.g. those representing interactions of a filament with other bodies or cross-links / entanglements between filaments) may be present. Implementation in code is straightforward; Java source code is available at www.celldynamics. org.
Adult education in Scotland: past and present

The roots of the respectable tradition can be traced back to the important influence of protestant Calvinism and Presbyterianism. The ideals of thrift, discipline and selfimprovement associated with these religious beliefs generated a culture that supported education as a means of acquiring both spiritual salvation and material advancement – along with a wider appreciation of culture and the arts. Education has always had a high value in Scottish culture which historically, for adults, took the form of autodidactic learning and mutual improvement (Cooke, 2006). A secular and institutionalised version of this self-help culture was evident in the growth of Mechanics Institutes in the late 18 th century, which were essentially aimed at improving the scientific understanding of skilled artisans, and their emergence in Scotland led to their growth across the UK in the 19 th century. The radical tradition was linked with the growth of socialist ideology in the 19 th and 20 th centuries. � The� movement� for� social� and� political� change� provided� a� ‘roug h and ready’� form� of� adult� learning� for� social� and� political� action� that� reached� a� broad� and� developing working-class constituency which was becoming conscious of itself as a class. It was not until the early 20 th century, with the growing strength of radical political parties, that educational organisations developed to support the struggles of the labour movement. (Crowther, 1999). The communist inspired Labour Colleges in the 1920s provided the first systematic attempt at radical education provision for working people based on a Marxist inspired curriculum. The aim was to intellectually equip organisers at the point of production to play their part in leading the anticipated political� revolution. � The� rival� organisation,� the� Workers’� Educational� Associatio n (WEA) which was founded in 1903, adopted a broader ideology and curriculum but it too was geared towards providing education for working people to become social and political leaders. In contrast, the respectable tradition in the first half of the 20 th century was linked with the slow growth of university outreach provision – a patchwork of liberal adult education classes, leisure and interest-based courses, provided mainly by the ancient Scottish universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Aberdeen – and local� authority� adult� education� classes� covering� a� similar� if� less� ‘high� brow’� range� of� subjects. The other important strand of educational provision (or, more accurately, training)� was� ‘night� classes’� which� offered� certificated� vocational� course s mainly in further education colleges. In statistical terms, more people were probably involved in vocational training than all other forms of adult education put together.
Religious Identity, Beliefs, and Views about Climate Change

People can take extraordinary measures to protect that which they view as sacred. They may refuse financial gain, engage in bloody, inter-generational conflicts, mount hunger strikes and even sacrifice their lives. These behaviors have led researchers to propose that religious values shape our identities and give purpose to our lives in a way that secular incentives cannot. However, despite the fact that many cultural and religious frameworks already emphasize sacred aspects of our natural world, applying all of that motivating power of “the sacred” to environmental protectionism seems to be less straightforward.
Anti-inflammatory, Anti-estrogenic, and Anti-implantation Activity of Bergia suffruticosa (Delile) Fenzl

Background: Bergia suffruticosa (Delile) Fenzl (Syn. Bergia odorata Edgew) (Elatinaceae family) is used traditionally to repair bones and is applied as a poultice on sores. It is also used for stomach troubles and as an antidote to scorpion stings. So far, very little scientific work has been reported to validate its ethnomedical uses in the alleviation of pain, bone repair, etc., Objective: This study was designed to explore the anti-inflammatory and anti-implantation potential of n-hexane extract of B. suffruticosa whole plant in mice along with identification of its chemical constituents. Materials and Methods: n-Hexane extract of B. suffruticosa whole plant was screened for acute and chronic anti-inflammatory activity followed by an anti-estrogenic activity. Eventually, n-hexane extract was tested for anti-implantation activity by exploiting markers of uterine receptivity, lipid peroxidation, and superoxide enzyme activity. The extract was administered orally at a dose of 100 mg/kg body weight in each study. Results: Thin layer chromatography fingerprint profile of n-hexane extract revealed the presence of lupeol and β-sitosterol. The n-hexane extract reduced the edema by 80% in acute inflammation, whereas it reduced edema to 75% on the 5th day in chronic inflammation. The n-hexane extract reduced elevated malonaldehyde level from 6 to 2.5 nmol/g × 10−5 and increased superoxide dismutase enzyme activity from 0 to 350 units/g in treated animals on the 5th day of pregnancy. Moreover, extract decreased uterine weight from 0.33 to 0.2 g in estradiol treated animals. Conclusion: These results indicate that n-hexane extract of B. suffruticosa is having potent anti-inflammatory, anti-estrogenic, and anti-implantation activity. This is the first report of all the pharmacological activities of B. suffruticosa mentioned above. SUMMARY TLC fingerprint profile of n-hexane extract of Bergia suffruticosa whole plant revealed the presence of lupeol and β-sitosterol n-Hexane extract showed in vivo anti-inflammatory activity in both acute and chronic model of inflammation in rats n-Hexane extract possess significant anti-estrogenic activity n-Hexane extract altered the levels superoxide anion radical and superoxide dismutase enzyme activity during the blastocyst implantation Anti-implantation activity of n-hexane extract is attributed to its anti-inflammatory and anti-estrogenic potential. Abbreviations used: TLC: Thin layer chromatography; LPO: Lipid peroxidation; SOD: Superoxide dismutase; B. suffruticosa: Bergia suffruticosa; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-α; NO: Nitric oxide; IL-1: Interleukin-1; LIF: Leukemia inhibitory factor; CSF-1: Colony-stimulating factor; COX: Cyclooxygenase; SDS: Sodium dodecyl sulfate; IAEC: Animal House Ethics Committee; CPCSEA: Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals; HBSS: Hank's balanced salt solution; MDA: Malonaldehyde; and TBA: Thiobarbituric acid.
Identifying criteria for measuring influence of social media

limited. This paper describes an attempt to investigate how the influence of social media can be measured. The main aim of the study is to identify measures on how to assess the influence of social media. Using literature analysis and brainstorming session with the experts, this study identified six main criteria that can be used to measure social media influence which are Likes, Subscribers, Comments, Posts, Shares, and Links. These criteria are grouped into three dimensions – recognition, activity generation, and novelty.
New hybrid genetic particle swarm optimization algorithm to design multi-zone binary filter.

The binary phase filters have been used to achieve an optical needle with small lateral size. Designing a binary phase filter is still a scientific challenge in such fields. In this paper, a hybrid genetic particle swarm optimization (HGPSO) algorithm is proposed to design the binary phase filter. The HGPSO algorithm includes self-adaptive parameters, recombination and mutation operations that originated from the genetic algorithm. Based on the benchmark test, the HGPSO algorithm has achieved global optimization and fast convergence. In an easy-to-perform optimizing procedure, the iteration number of HGPSO is decreased to about a quarter of the original particle swarm optimization process. A multi-zone binary phase filter is designed by using the HGPSO. The long depth of focus and high resolution are achieved simultaneously, where the depth of focus and focal spot transverse size are 6. 05λ and 0. 41λ, respectively. Therefore, the proposed HGPSO can be applied to the optimization of filter with multiple parameters.
Examining the Relationship between Organizational Justice, Job Security, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Jordanian Banks: A Structural Equation Modeling Perspective

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between distributive justice, procedural justice, interactional justice, job security, and organizational citizenship behavior. Data was collected from 382 employees from the largest six Jordanian banks listed in Amman Stock Exchange, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed, using Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) Version16, to assess measures and test the relationships of the hypothesized model. The goodness of fit results of the hypothesized model indicated that the model achieved acceptable fit for the criteria. The findings of the study revealed that all path coefficients from distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice to job security, and from job security to organizational citizenship behavior were significant and in the expected positive direction. The study provided evidence linking the three dimensions of organizational justice to job security and to organizational citizenship behavior. Such insights can help bank management better formulate their strategies and develop programs to improve the organizational citizenship level and enhance the employees feeling of job security.
A Tag-Based Statistical English Math Word Problem Solver with Understanding, Reasoning and Explanation

This demonstration presents a tag-based statistical English math word problem (MWP) solver with understanding, reasoning, and explanation. It analyzes the text and transforms both body and question parts into their tag-based logic forms, and then performs inference on them. The proposed tag (e.g., Agent, Verb, etc.) provides the flexibility for annotating an extracted math quantity with its associated syntactic and semantic information, which can be used to identify the desired operand and filter out irrelevant quantities (so that the answer can be obtained precisely). Since the physical meaning of each quantity is explicitly represented with those tags and used in the inference process, the proposed approach could explain how the answer is obtained in a human comprehensible way.
Api hyperlinking via structural overlap

This paper presents a tool Altair that automatically generates API function cross-references, which emphasizes reliable structural measures and does not depend on specific client code. Altair ranks related API functions for a given query according to pair-wise overlap, i.e., how they share state, and clusters tightly related ones into meaningful modules. Experiments against several popular C software packages show that Altair recommends related API functions for a given query with remarkably more precise and complete results than previous tools, that it can extract modules from moderate-sized software (e.g., Apache with 1000+ functions) at high precision and recall rates (e.g., both exceeding 70% for two modules in Apache), and that the computation can finish within a few seconds.
Polysaccharides extraction from Opuntia stricta and their protective effect against HepG2 cell death and hypolipidaemic effects on hyperlipidaemia rats induced by high-fat diet

Abstract The aim of this study was to analyse cytoprotective effect of polysaccharides compound from Opuntia stricta (O. stricta) cladode (POS) in vitro including its radical scavenging activities and protective effects against hypercholesterolaemia. Our results showed that glucose was the dominant monosaccharides (30.35%). Arabinose, pyranose, fructose, galactose, glucose, sorbitol, S-inositol, M-inositol, trehalose and saccharose found in this species. O. stricta polysaccharides did not cause any cytotoxic effect on HepG2 cells within the range of concentrations tested (0–400 μgml−1). Pre-treatment of HepG2 cells with POS (100 μgml−1) significantly (p < .05) protected against cytotoxicity induced by DPPH and ABTS radicals. The POS showed strong antioxidant potential in vitro. The results indicated also that POS significantly prevented hypercholesterolaemia-induced elevation of serum biomarkers and induced increase in serum lipid profile. Moreover, the hypercholesterolaemia characterised by elevated lipid peroxidation (MDA) and reduced antioxidant enzyme defences (SOD, CAT and GPx) was restored by POS treatment.
Karst Sinkhole Detecting and Mapping Using Airborne LiDAR - A Conceptual Framework

Sinkholes cause subsidence and collapse problems for many transportation infrastructure assets. Subsequently, transportation infrastructure management agencies dedicate a considerable amount of time and money to detect and map sinkholes as part of their asset management programs. Traditionally, sinkholes are detected through area reconnaissance, which includes visual inspection of a site to locate existing sinkholes or device inspection of a site to locate potential sinkholes or previously filled sinkholes. Another method for sinkhole detection is through a review of maps such as geological maps. These methods are expensive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. Recent advances in remote sensing, especially airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR), allows for the examination of the change in the Earth's surface elevation accurately and rapidly. The focus of this study is to develop a conceptual framework for sinkhole detection and mapping with airborne LiDAR. This conceptual framework lays the foundation for the future application of airborne LiDAR for sinkhole detection and mapping.
Genetic analysis of the mating system of the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) in New Zealand farmland

We examined male reproductive success in a common brushtail possum population in New Zealand farmland. Paternity was assigned to 66 of 91 pouch young (maternity known), using a likelihood approach applied to genotypes at six microsatellite loci having an overall average exclusion probability of around 99%. The distribution of number of offspring per male was L‐shaped with a standardized variance of 1.52. At least 46% of the 76 sampled reproductively mature males, bred, siring between one and four offspring each. Although breeding males were on average older and larger than nonbreeding males, the small differences did not result in a significant overall difference between the two groups in a multivariate permutation test analagous to a t‐test. Paternity analysis of 22 sibling pairs (resulting from experimental removal of pouch young early in the breeding season, inducing a second oestrous) suggested that sequential mating of females with the same male was uncommon (≈ 16–27%). Whilst there was a tendency for female possums to mate with nearby males, consistent with previous observations of territorial mating behaviour in Australian populations, some interhabitat matings were also inferred. The study population displayed only a low degree of polygyny, which may in part reflect population and habitat characteristics of the study site. A comprehensive understanding of the mating system of Trichosurus vulpecula awaits genetic paternity analysis in additional populations from both Australia and New Zealand, using quantitative approaches undertaken in this study.
Conducting sparse feature selection on arbitrarily long phrases in text corpora with a focus on interpretability

We propose a general framework for topic‐specific summarization of large text corpora, and illustrate how it can be used for analysis in two quite different contexts: an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) database of fatality and catastrophe reports (to facilitate surveillance for patterns in circumstances leading to injury or death), and legal decisions on workers' compensation claims (to explore relevant case law). Our summarization framework, built on sparse classification methods, is a compromise between simple word frequency‐based methods currently in wide use, and more heavyweight, model‐intensive methods such as latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). For a particular topic of interest (e.g., mental health disability, or carbon monoxide exposure), we regress a labeling of documents onto the high‐dimensional counts of all the other words and phrases in the documents. The resulting small set of phrases found as predictive are then harvested as the summary. Using a branch‐and‐bound approach, this method can incorporate phrases of arbitrary length, which allows for potentially rich summarization. We discuss how focus on the purpose of the summaries can inform choices of tuning parameters and model constraints. We evaluate this tool by comparing the computational time and summary statistics of the resulting word lists to three other methods in the literature. We also present a new R package, textreg. Overall, we argue that sparse methods have much to offer in text analysis and is a branch of research that should be considered further in this context. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining: The ASA Data Science Journal, 2016
Population genetic structure of Arctic Charr, Salvelinus alpinus from northwest Europe on large and small spatial scales

To examine the population genetic structure of lake‐resident Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus from northwest Europe on multiple spatial scales, 2367 individuals from 43 lakes located in three geographical regions (Iceland, the British Isles and Scandinavia) were genotyped at six microsatellite loci. On a large scale, data provided little evidence to support clustering of populations according to geographical region. Hierarchical analysis of molecular variance indicated that, although statistically significant, only 2.17% of the variance in allelic frequencies was partitioned at the among‐region level. Within regions, high levels of genetic differentiation were typically found between lakes regardless of the geographical distance separating them. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of rapid postglacial recolonization of all of northwest Europe from a single charr lineage, with subsequent restriction of gene flow. On a smaller scale, there was evidence for close genetic relationships among lakes from within common drainage basins in Scotland. Thus, interlake genetic structure reflects localized patterns of recent (or contemporary) gene flow superimposed onto a larger scale structure that is largely a result of historical processes. There was also evidence for widespread genetic structuring at the within‐lake level, with sympatric populations detected in 10 lakes, and multilocus heterozygote deficits found in 23 lakes. This evidence of the Wahlund effect was found in all lakes known to contain discrete phenotypic morphs, as well as many others, suggesting that morphs may often represent separate breeding populations, and also that the phenomenon of polymorphism in this species may be more widespread than is currently realized.