Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Same Old, Same Old? Students’ Experiences of Grade Retention under Chicago’s Ending Social Promotion Policy

Using interviews of students prior to and during their retained year and of their teachers, this study examined 22 students retained under Chicago’s Ending Social Promotion policy. It focused on the “intervention” of retention, including how teachers shaped the retained year for students and the nature and quality of instructional strategies utilized. Students were most often exposed to the same material used in the previous year. Although access to remedial supports varied, students reported little guidance from teachers and generally did not change their learning strategies. However, students with high levels of instructional support who altered their learning strategies during the retained year were relatively more academically successful.
Airborne Prism Experiment Calibration Information System

The calibration of remote sensing instruments is a crucial step in the generation of products tied to international reference standards. Calibrating imaging spectrometers is particularly demanding due to the high number of spatiospectral pixels and, consequently, the large amount of data acquired during calibration sequences. Storage of these data and associated meta-data in an organized manner, as well as the provision of efficient tools for the data analysis and fast and repeatable calibration coefficient generation with provenance information, is key to the provision of traceable measurements. The airborne prism experiment (APEX) calibration information system is a multilayered information technology solution comprising a database based on the entity-attribute-value (EAV) paradigm and software written in Java and Matlab, providing data access, visualization and processing, and handling the data volumes over the expected lifetime of the system. Although developed in the context of APEX, the system is rather generic and may be adapted to other pushbroom-based imagers with little effort.
Evaluation of an inference network-based retrieval model

Network representations have been used in information retrieval since at least the early 1960’s. Networks have been used to support diverse retrieval functions, including browsing [38], document clustering [7], spreading activation search [4], support for multiple search strategies [11], and representation of user knowledge [27] or document content [40]. Recent work suggests that significant improvements in retrieval performance will require techniques that, in some sense “understand” the content of documents and queries [9, 43] and can be used to infer probable relationships between documents and queries. In this view, information retrieval is an inference or evidential reasoning process in which we estimate the probability that a user’s information need, expressed as one or more queries, is met given a document as “evidence. ” Network representations show promise as mechanisms for inferring these kinds of relationships [4, 12].
A Multiobjective Optimization Approach for Optimal Link Adaptation of OFDM-Based Cognitive Radio Systems with Imperfect Spectrum Sensing

This paper adopts a multiobjective optimization (MOOP) approach to investigate the optimal link adaptation problem of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based cognitive radio (CR) systems, where secondary users (SUs) can opportunistically access the spectrum of primary users (PUs). For such a scenario, we solve the problem of jointly maximizing the CR system throughput and minimizing its transmit power, subject to constraints on both SU and PUs. The optimization problem imposes predefined interference thresholds for the PUs, guarantees the SU quality of service in terms of a maximum bit-error-rate (BER), and satisfies a transmit power budget and a maximum number of allocated bits per subcarrier. Unlike most of the work in the literature that considers perfect SU spectrum sensing capabilities, the problem formulation takes into account errors due to imperfect sensing of the PUs bands. Closed-form expressions are obtained for the optimal bit and power allocations per SU subcarrier. Simulation results illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm and demonstrate the superiority of the MOOP approach when compared to single optimization approaches presented in the literature, without additional complexity. Furthermore, results show that the interference thresholds at the PUs receivers can be severely exceeded due to the perfect spectrum sensing assumption or due to partial channel information on links between the SU and the PUs receivers. Additionally, the results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm approaches that of an exhaustive search for the discrete optimal allocations with a significantly reduced computational effort.
Concepts of culture in the sociology of punishment

The author analyses the different ways in which the concept of ‘culture’ is currently deployed in the sociology of punishment. Using a distinction first developed by W.H. Sewell Jr, he distinguishes two usages of the concept—culture as an analytical dimension of social relations (‘the cultural’) and culture as a collective entity (‘a culture’). The theoretical issues and problems entailed in these two usages are discussed and several pragmatic solutions proposed. The author argues that analytical accounts of ‘the cultural’ should be regarded as artificial (though necessary) abstractions. Descriptive ethnography, discourse analysis and textual explication ought to be viewed as components of historical or sociological explanation, not as substitutes for explanatory analysis. The author argues for the integration of cultural analysis into the explanatory project of a multi-dimensional sociology of punishment.
Differential Impact of Cysteine Cathepsins on Genetic Mouse Models of De novo Carcinogenesis: Cathepsin B as Emerging Therapeutic Target

Lysosomal cysteine cathepsins belong to a family of 11 human proteolytic enzymes. Some of them correlate with progression in a variety of cancers and therefore are considered as potential therapeutic targets. Until recently, the contribution of individual cathepsins to tumorigenesis and tumor progression remained unknown. By crossing various types of mouse cancer models with mice where specific cathepsins have been ablated, we contributed to this gap of knowledge and will summarize the results in this report. The employed models are the Rip1-Tag2 model for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, the K14-HPV16 model for squamous skin and cervical cancers, and the MMTV-PyMT model for metastasizing breast cancer, the KPC model for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and the APCmin mice developing early stages of intestinal neoplasia. All models harbor mutations in relevant tumor suppressors and/or cell-type specific expression of potent oncogenes, which initiate de novo carcinogenesis in the targeted tissues. In all these models deletion of cathepsin B led to suppression of the aggressiveness of the respective cancer phenotype. Cathepsin B is networking with other proteases as it was shown for cathepsin X/Z. In contrast, deletion of cathepsin L was beneficial in the RiP1-Tag2 model, but enhanced tumorigenesis in the APCmin, and the K14-HPV16 mice. A logical consequence of these results would be to further pursue selective inhibition of cathepsin B. Moreover, it became clear that cathepsins B and S derived from cells of the tumor microenvironment support cancer growth. Strikingly, delivery of broad spectrum cysteine cathepsin inhibitors in the tumor microenvironment disrupts the permissive ecosystem of the cancer and results in impaired growth or even in regression of the tumor. In addition, combination of cysteine cathepsin inhibition and standard chemotherapy improves the therapeutic response of the latter. Taken together, the next preclinical challenges for developing cathepsin inhibition as cancer therapy might be the improvement of inhibitor selectivity and targeted delivery to the tumor microenvironment and investigation of the biological context of the individual factors within the complex proteolytic network.
A Methodology for Reader's Emotional State Extraction to Augment Expressions in Speech Synthesis

This paper presents a methodology for the real-time extraction of readers' emotional state from documents as well as the representation of emotionally annotated documents into acoustic modality. Using the Self Assessment Manikin Test we performed preliminary experiments on the extraction of Pleasure - Arousal - Dominance (P.A.D.) annotation rules that the documents evoke to the readers. The rules are used in an automated procedure that assigns text's formatting and structure of documents (meta-data) to emotional state values. During the vocalization of documents, these values, and consequently the documents' meta-data, are carried by different expressions of speech using text-to-speech synthesis. The proposed system architecture is language independent and content-free.
Entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions among Nigerian undergraduates

Economic development is largely driven by the business activities of entrepreneurs- those individuals who create private enterprises. For this development to occur, however, a nation must possess a significant mass of business people. The psychological literature suggests that attitude and intention precede corresponding behaviours; and in terms of entrepreneurship, research evidence suggests that university education promotes positive entrepreneurial attitude and intention, and ultimately entrepreneurial behaviour in individuals. Graduates are therefore regarded as potential entrepreneurs: the higher the number of undergraduates who hold positive entrepreneurial attitude and intention, the higher the number likely to create their own businesses after their graduation. This study therefore was designed to examine the prevalence of entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions among Nigerian undergraduates; and to investigate the roles of gender, Locus of Control, parents’ occupation and social support as possible predictor variables. Male students were found to be more internal on the LOC trait than the females. This internality, as well as the entrepreneurial occupations and approval of respondents’ mothers significantly predicted a positive attitude toward entrepreneurship. The paper concluded by recommending measures that can strengthen positive entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions in Nigerian undergraduates, and ultimately enhance business orientation rates among the nation’s graduates. KEY DESCRIPTORS: Entrepreneurial attitude, Entrepreneurial intention, Undergraduate Students, Locus of Control, Parental Support
A Theoretical Framework and Approach for Fostering Metacognitive Development

This article provides an overview of our work on the nature of metacognitive knowledge, its relationship to learning through inquiry, and technologies that can be used to foster and assess its development in classrooms as students engage in collaborative inquiry. To illustrate our theoretical ideas, we present examples from our Inquiry Island software. It provides learners with advisors, who contain knowledge, advice, and tools aimed at supporting students' metacognitive development in the context of doing inquiry projects. Our pedagogical approach includes having young learners take on the roles of various cognitive, social, and metacognitive advisors as a way of enacting and internalizing the forms of expertise they represent. We describe a sequence of learning activities and indicate how students respond to them, using examples and findings from a 5th-grade class. Our work shows how such learning tools and activities can foster the development of metacognitive knowledge and skills needed for collaborative inquiry and reflective learning.
Limited value of the homeostasis model assessment to predict insulin resistance in older men with impaired glucose tolerance.

OBJECTIVE Insulin resistance (IR) in older individuals is associated with risk factors for coronary artery disease. The glucose clamp measures IR directly, but the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) of IR, referred to here as HOMA-IR, is based on fasting glucose and insulin and is less invasive and labor intensive. This method requires validation in the elderly. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We assessed the validity of HOMA-IR as an index of IR by comparing it to glucose infusion rates (GIRs) measured by a glucose clamp (600 pmol x m(-2) x min(-1)) in 45 obese men (61 +/- 8 years of age, mean +/- SD) with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) (n = 21) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (n = 24). We also evaluated relationships between body composition, exercise capacity, and IR. RESULTS Subjects with NGT had lower BMI (28 +/- 3 vs. 31 +/- 3 kg/m2), waist circumference (97 +/- 9 vs. 105 +/- 9 cm), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) (0.93 +/- 0.06 vs. 0.97 +/- 0.05), and percent body fat (25 +/- 6 vs. 30 +/- 6) than subjects with IGT. Subjects with NGT also had lower areas above basal during the 2-h oral glucose tolerance test for glucose (274 +/- 95 vs. 419 +/- 124 mmol x min/l) and insulin (38,142 +/- 18,206 vs. 58,383 +/- 34,408 pmol x min/l) and lower HOMA-IR values (2.2 +/- 0.8 vs. 4.2 +/- 2.6) than subjects with IGT. GIR (micromol x kg(-1) FFM x min(-1)) was higher in subjects with NGT than in subjects with IGT (53 +/- 11 vs. 43 +/- 14). HOMA-IR correlated with GIR in subjects with NGT (r = -0.59), but not in subjects with IGT (r = -0.13). GIR correlated with VO2max in subjects with NGT (r = 0.58) and IGT (r = 0.42), but with WHR only in subjects with NGT (r = -0.53). HOMA-IR correlated with VO2max (r = -0.57) and waist circumference (r = 0.54) in subjects with NGT, but with percent body fat in subjects with IGT (r = 0.54). CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that HOMA-IR should not be used as an index of IR in older individuals who may be at risk for IGT, and suggest that lifestyle changes that increase VO2max and decrease body fat may reduce IR in older people.
ProQM-resample: improved model quality assessment for membrane proteins by limited conformational sampling

Summary: Model Quality Assessment Programs (MQAPs) are used to predict the quality of modeled protein structures. These usually use two approaches: methods using consensus of many alternative models and methods requiring only a single model to do its prediction. The consensus methods are useful to improve overall accuracy; however, they frequently fail to pick out the best possible model and cannot be used to generate and score new structures. Single-model methods, on the other hand, do not have these inherent shortcomings and can be used to both sample new structures and improve existing consensus methods. Here, we present ProQM-resample, a membrane protein-specific single-model MQAP, that couples side-chain resampling with MQAP rescoring by ProQM to improve model selection. The side-chain resampling is able to improve side-chain packing for 96% of all models, and improve model selection by 24% as measured by the sum of the Z-score for the first-ranked model (from 25.0 to 31.1), even better than the state-of-the-art consensus method Pcons. The improved model selection can be attributed to the improved side-chain quality, which enables the MQAP to rescue good backbone models with poor side-chain packing. Availability and implementation: http://proqm.wallnerlab. org/download/. Contact: bjornw@ifm.liu. se Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
BER Estimation for DS-Spread Spectrum Systems in Densely Foliaged Suburban Areas

This work proposes the use of a hybrid propagation model to prediction of the bit error rate (BER) of DS-spread spectrum systems in densely foliaged suburban areas, which are very common in the Amazon region. The hybrid model uses the method of minimum mean square error to adapt a conventional propagation model, whose errors are estimated and corrected by an artificial neural network. The BER estimation is accomplished by using the hybrid model to evaluate the power received by the base station of a mobile communication system that covers the considered suburban area. The performance of the proposed model was evaluated by measurements taken in the suburban area of the city of Marituba, Para-Brazil
Phase estimation in single-channel speech enhancement using phase invariance constraints

Phase-aware signal processing has received increasing interest in many speech applications. The success of phase-aware processing depends strongly on the robustness of the clean spectral phase estimates to be obtained from a noisy observation. In this paper, we propose a novel harmonic phase estimator relying on the phase invariance property exploiting relations between harmonics using the phase structure. We present speech quality results achieved in speech enhancement to justify the effectiveness of the proposed phase estimator compared to noisy phase and other phase estimation benchmarks.
Global economies of fear: affect, politics and pedagogical implications

This article seeks to explore the importance of the affective politics of fear in education and to discuss the implications for educational policy, theory and practice. The aim is to explore how discourses of fear work in some educational contexts and draw significant boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ through the structuring of curriculum and pedagogy. This analysis is done through argumentation and research evidence from the author's ethnographic work in the United States and Cyprus. Based on this analysis, the author draws out pedagogical openings that emerge from such efforts, and extends the space in which pedagogues might move to induce a critical interrogation of the affective politics of fear. It is argued that if educators are committed to inspire individual and social change – a change that would eventually problematise the symbolic violence exerted by the affective politics of fear – then much work needs to be done at the affective level.
Broadband circularly polarized microstrip antenna for airborne x band cp-sar

This paper presents a novel design of broadband circularly polarized microstrip antenna as an element of airborne X-band circularly polarized synthetic aperture radar (CP-SAR) sensor. The antenna is designed in low weight, low cost, low profile of configuration, and will transmit and receive left-handed circular polarization (LHCP) or right handed circular polarization (RHCP). The proposed antenna is an element of airborne CP-SAR that will be implemented into arrays that consist eight array submodule. For broaden the bandwidth, prototype constructed by double-layers substrate that has low dielectric constant and dissipation factor. Proximity-coupled feed stripline feeding adopted to avoid complexity in feeding network configuration. Basic characteristics of antenna parameters such as return loss, axial-ratio, and radiation pattern investigated and presented.
Growth inhibition of murine neuroblastoma cells by C-Myc with cell cycle arrest in G2/M

c-myc and N-myc belong to the myc family of proteins that plays an important role in cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. The N-myc gene is amplified in aggressive neuroblastoma and c-myc is overexpressed in many lymphomas and cancers. However, c-myc has not been implied in tumorigenesis or progression of neuroblastoma. We therefore investigated the so far unknown effects of c-myc overexpression on the aggressiveness of neuroblastoma cells with single copy N-myc. c-myc overexpression in serum-deprived murine NXS2 neuroblastoma cells led to cell cycle progression and massive apoptosis, causing a net decrease of viable cells. In serum-replete medium c-myc caused NXS2 cells to arrest in G2/M. Furthermore, c-myc decreased clonogenic growth of neuroblastoma cells. Taken together, these data suggest that c-myc attenuates the malignant phenotype of NXS2 neuroblastoma cells. Thus, although c-myc increased NXS2 tumor mass in vivo, c-myc appears to have decreased malignant potency in neuroblastoma cells compared to N-myc. This may be one reason why c-myc does not play a role in neuroblastomagenesis.
Escala de atitudes altruístas : Estudo de validação e fiabilidade

Neste estudo apresenta-se uma escala de atitudes altruistas, a qual pretende avaliar as atitudes altruistas nas suas componentes cognitiva, afectiva e comportamental. A escala foi aplicada a 213 individuos, com o objectivo de obter resultados sobre a sua validade e fiabilidade. A escala e composta por 12 itens organizados em 3 sub-escalas (cognitiva, afectiva e comportamental). Para avaliar a validade da escala, procedeu-se a uma analise factorial confirmatoria com modelos de equacoes estruturais. Os resultados suportam uma visao tri-partida das atitudes altruistas. A validade da escala foi ainda testada com a aplicacao da escala a uma amostra de individuos voluntarios de uma ONG. Os resultados mostram que a escala discrimina adequadamente individuos voluntarios de nao voluntarios. No seu conjunto, os resultados revelam que a escala possui qualidades psicometricas aceitaveis.
Classification of hand and wrist tasks of unknown force levels using muscle synergies

Muscle synergies have been proposed as a way for the central nervous system (CNS) to simplify the generation of motor commands and they have been shown to explain a large portion of the variation in the muscle patterns across a variety of conditions. However, whether human subjects are able to control prostheses proportionally with a small set of synergies has not been tested directly. Here we investigated if muscle synergies can be used to identify different wrist and hand motions. We recorded electromyographic (EMG) activity from eight arm muscles while the subjects exerted seven different intensity levels during the motions when performing seven classes of hand and wrist motion. From these data we extracted the muscle synergies and classified the tasks associated to each contraction intensity profile by linear discriminant analysis (LDA). We compared the performance obtained using muscle synergies with the performance of using the mean absolute values (MAV) as a feature. Also, the consistency of extracted muscle synergies was studied across intensity variations. While the synergies showed relative consistency particularly across closer intensity levels, average classification results generated with the synergies were less accurate than MAVs. These results indicate that although the performance of muscle synergies was very close to MAVs, they do not provide additional information for task identification across different exerted intensity levels.
the nimh community support program: pilot approach to a needed social reform*

This year, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) launched a modest but potentially significant pilot program titled the Community Support Program (CSP). CSP is designed to improve services for one particularly vulnerable population—adult psychiatric patients whose disabilities are severe and persistent but for whom long-term skilled or semiskilled nursing care is inappropriate. Specifically, CSP involves contracts (not grants) between NIMH and State mental health agencies, many of whom will subcontract with local agencies for demonstration projects. To date, 19 States have been awarded CSP contracts amounting to a total of approximately $3.5 million for the first year's activities. Although the program is so new that little has been published about it, interpretations are beginning to appear in the press and the professional literature. The New York Times (February 7, 1978), for example, while emphasizing the need for Federal leadership to improve services to chronic patients, referred to the CSP initiative in an editorial as "belatedly pulled together" and "meager. " Professional literature has viewed it more positively. A recent article in the Scientific American (Bassuk and Gerson 1978, p. 53), for example, highlighted the importance of the program in "the acknowledgment of the specific needs of the chronic severely disabled person," and "the willingness of the Federal government to accept more responsibility for the mentally ill. " The APA Monitor (Herbert 1977, p. 4)