Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Investigation of Intervention Assistance Teams at a Preservice Level

The inclusion of special education students in the general education mainstream has created a need for consultation services to meet their educational needs. The intervention assistance team (IAT) provides assistance to students within the general education classroom through collaborative efforts among school personnel from various disciplines. The purpose of this article is to present a methodology for investigating the effectiveness of various aspects of multidisciplinary IATs that was developed as part of a larger interdisciplinary preservice training project. The application of this methodology provided information on the participation and influence across members of preservice intervention assistance teams. The benefits of this methodology are discussed.
Measuring the Adequacy of Cross-Lingual Paraphrases in a Machine Translation Setting

Following the growing trend in the semantics community towards models adapted to specific applications, the SemEval-2 Cross-Lingual Lexical Substitution and Word Sense Disambiguation tasks address the disambiguation needs of Machine Translation (MT). The experiments conducted in this study aim at assessing whether the proposed evaluation protocol and methodology provide a fair estimate of the adequacy of cross-lingual predictions in translations. For this purpose, the gold SemEval paraphrases are fed into a state-of-the-art MT system and the obtained translations are compared to paraphrase quality judgments based on the source context. The results show the strong dependence of cross-lingual paraphrase adequacy on the translation context and cast doubt on the contribution that systems performing well in existing evaluation schemes would have on MT. These empirical findings highlight the importance of complementing the current evaluation schemes with translation information to allow a more accurate estimation of the systems impact on end-to-end applications.
The relative contribution of consonants and vowels to word identification during reading

Abstract In two experiments, the relative contribution of consonants and vowels in word identification in English was assessed in a paradigm in which the onset of one or two letters was delayed at the beginning of a fixation in reading. In both experiments, delaying the onset of a consonant for 30 ms at the beginning of an eye fixation increased the gaze duration on the target word more than delaying the onset of a vowel did. With 60-ms delays, delaying letter onset was equally disruptive for consonants and vowels. The results suggest that there is a temporal distinction between the contribution of consonants and vowels during the reading of English: consonants play a more important role than vowels at the early stage of word identification.
Structural diversity of target-specific homopyrimidine peptide nucleic acid–dsDNA complexes

Sequence-selective recognition of double-stranded (ds) DNA by homopyrimidine peptide nucleic acid (PNA) oligomers can occur by major groove triplex binding or by helix invasion via triplex P-loop formation. We have compared the binding of a decamer, a dodecamer and a pentadecamer thymine–cytosine homopyrimidine PNA oligomer to a sequence complementary homopurine target in duplex DNA using gel-shift and chemical probing analyses. We find that all three PNAs form stable triplex invasion complexes, and also conventional triplexes with the dsDNA target. Triplexes form with much faster kinetics than invasion complexes and prevail at lower PNA concentrations and at shorter incubation times. Furthermore, increasing the ionic strength strongly favour triplex formation over invasion as the latter is severely inhibited by cations. Whereas a single triplex invasion complex is formed with the decameric PNA, two structurally different target-specific invasion complexes were characterized for the dodecameric PNA and more than five for the pentadecameric PNA. Finally, it is shown that isolated triplex complexes can be converted to specific invasion complexes without dissociation of the Hoogsteen base-paired triplex PNA. These result demonstrate a clear example of a ‘triplex first’ mechanism for PNA helix invasion.
Case study of filter design in embedded systems

The MATLAB M language provides constructs for the simple representation of functions, and has been used extensively for algorithm development and verification in embedded system design. The M language processes entire arrays simultaneously, and it is expected that design based on M can be implemented faster and with the same or higher quality as compared with design based on other languages. This paper presents a case study of a design of a filter for signal processing using M-based design flow. The results of the case study demonstrate the high efficiency of the M-based design flow as compared to traditional functional modeling and manual coding using a hardware description language.
Lacunar infarcts in patients aged 85 years and older

Objectives – To compare the occurrence of lacunar infarcts in the very elderly (≥85 years of age) and in patients below 85. Material and methods– Data of 374 consecutive patients with lacunar infarcts were collected from a prospective hospital‐based stroke registry in which 2000 patients are included. Distinctive clinical features of lacunar infarct in the very elderly were assessed by multiple logistic regression analysis. Results – Lacunar infarcts were diagnosed in 39 (15%) of the 262 very elderly patients of our stroke registry. Lacunar infarcts in the very elderly accounted for 10.5% of all lacunes. There was no statistical difference in the occurrence of different lacunar syndromes between the very elderly patients and patients below 85. However, the very old group with lacunar infarct showed a significantly higher proportion of the female sex (56.4% vs 37.3%) and history of atrial fibrillation (28.2% vs 8.7%), chronic renal disease and pathologic condition and a significantly lower proportion of hypertension (61.5% vs 77.3%), diabetes (7.7% vs 28.4%), ischemia heart disease, hypercholesterolemia, and absence of neurologic deficit at discharge from the hospital than patients below 85. After multivariate analysis only atrial fibrillation (OR=3.77), female gender (OR=2.52), hypertension (OR=0.35), and diabetes (OR=0.16) were independent clinical factors for developing lacunar infarction in the very elderly. Conclusion – In the very elderly the higher occurrence of atrial fibrillation, the lower prevalence of hypertension and diabetes, and the greater focal neurological impairment suggest that the cardioembolic pathogenetic mechanisms may be more frequent than generally established for lacunar infarcts in stroke patients.
Robust Stability and Performance of Stochastic Uncertain Systems on an Infinite Time Interval 1

In this paper, we consider a robust stability problem for continuous time stochastic uncertain systems. The uncertainty in the system is characterized in terms of an uncertain probability distribution on the noise input. This uncertainty is assumed to satisfy a certain relative entropy constraint. The solution to a specially parametrized risk-sensitive performance analysis problem is used to estimate the level of guaranteed performance for the stochastic uncertain system under consideration. This solution is obtained by solving an algebraic Riccati equation. The corresponding performance bound holds for all admissible uncertainties and is nonconservative.
The Persuasive Effects of Audiovisual PSAs to Promote Organ Donation: The Mediating Role of Psychological Reactance

The content and effects of organ donation public service announcements (PSAs) were analyzed in 2 studies. Study 1 identified 17 30-second PSAs in the public domain and coded them for content using Marwell and Schmitt's (1967) persuasive message typology. Common codes identified included liking, positive self-feeling, altruism, and moral appeal. Study 2 measured undergraduate students' evaluations of persuasive strategies, psychological reactance, and message reactions. Results indicated that PSAs were not perceived differently on the basis of donor status or message condition. However, students' perceptions of persuasive strategies were influential based on donor status. For non-donors, psychological reactance fully mediated the relationship between perceptions of impersonal commitments strategies and message reactions, such that increased psychological reactance was associated with reduced message reactions. For donors, psychological reactance and perceptions of persuasive strategies had no effect on message reactions. Results are discussed in the context of campaign development.
Local Manifolds and Closed Orbits of the Conjugate Lorenz-Type System

The present work is devoted to investigating the dynamical entities of conjugate Lorenz-type system. The local manifold character are all analyzed when the parameters are varied. Moreover, the existence of singularly degenerate heteroclinic cycles for a suitable choice of the parameters is investigated. And all the closed orbits of the system are also proven rigorously to be non-planar but only to be curves in space.
Optimal social choice functions: a utilitarian view

We adopt a utilitarian perspective on social choice, assuming that agents have (possibly latent) utility functions over some space of alternatives. For many reasons one might consider mechanisms, or social choice functions, that only have access to the ordinal rankings of alternatives by the individual agents rather than their utility functions. In this context, one possible objective for a social choice function is the maximization of (expected) social welfare relative to the information contained in these rankings. We study such optimal social choice functions under three different models, and underscore the important role played by scoring functions. In our worst-case model, no assumptions are made about the underlying distribution and we analyze the worst-case distortion---or degree to which the selected alternative does not maximize social welfare---of optimal social choice functions. In our average-case model, we derive optimal functions under neutral (or impartial culture) distributional models. Finally, a very general learning-theoretic model allows for the computation of optimal social choice functions (i.e., that maximize expected social welfare) under arbitrary, sampleable distributions. In the latter case, we provide both algorithms and sample complexity results for the class of scoring functions, and further validate the approach empirically.
Locally Most Powerful Invariant Tests for Correlation and Sphericity of Gaussian Vectors

In this paper, we study the existence of locally most powerful invariant tests (LMPIT) for the problem of testing the covariance structure of a set of Gaussian random vectors. The LMPIT is the optimal test for the case of close hypotheses, among those satisfying the invariances of the problem, and in practical scenarios can provide better performance than the typically used generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT). The derivation of the LMPIT usually requires one to find the maximal invariant statistic for the detection problem and then derive its distribution under both hypotheses, which in general is a rather involved procedure. As an alternative, Wijsman's theorem provides the ratio of the maximal invariant densities without even finding an explicit expression for the maximal invariant. We first consider the problem of testing whether a set of N-dimensional Gaussian random vectors are uncorrelated or not, and show that the LMPIT is given by the Frobenius norm of the sample coherence matrix. Second, we study the case in which the vectors under the null hypothesis are uncorrelated and identically distributed, that is, the sphericity test for Gaussian vectors, for which we show that the LMPIT is given by the Frobenius norm of a normalized version of the sample covariance matrix. Finally, some numerical examples illustrate the performance of the proposed tests, which provide better results than their GLRT counterparts.
Escolhas metodológicas em estudos organizacionais

Different researchers have been studied issues related to organizational studies like author’s nationality, Brazilian way of publishing, predominant topics and insights, and research methods. This study aims contributing to this set of issues, investigating: What type of methodology has been privileged in Brazilian and foreign authors’ organizational studies? Would they present any differences? 194 articles published in wellknown journals, like Organization Studies, Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Revista de Administracao de Empresas, Revista de Administracao da USP e Revista de Administracao Publica, within the 2000-2001 period, were analyzed. The results show that traditional methods of positivistic orientation continue to predominate in organizational studies, although differences exist within the journals and based on their origins. The results instigated reflections related to their possible causes, as well as the presentation of different methodologies founded in the researched articles.
Family Politicization and Adolescents' Citizenship Orientations'

The study examines the effect of the degree offamily politicization on several citizenship orientations of Israeli adolescents. The research population consisted of 734 respondents, ages 14-18, who were students in both academic and vocational schools in the greater Tel-Aviv area. The degree of family politicization was assessed using three subscales: parents' own involvement, discussion of politics with parents, and parental encouragement of adolescents to play an active public role in school and youth organizations. Citizenship orientations included the perception of the citizen role as active vs passive, and as restricted to the political sphere vs as a broader commitment to one's community and society. Also included were political efficacy, support of freedom of speech, and political involvement. A path model measuring the effects of social and personal background variables and offamily politicization was tested. The major findings indicate that respondents' age and socioeconomic status (SES) were related to their perception of family politicization. The older the respondents and the lower their SES the greater the tendency to report of low family politicization. Family politicization had a mixed effect upon citizenship orientations. While strengthening the respondents' sense of political efficacy and involvement, it negatively affected their support of freedom of speech. Family politicization was not significantly related to any of the dimensions of good citizenship.
Self-Monitoring and the Regulation of Social Experience: A Control-Process Model

An application of Carver and Scheier's (1981; Scheier & Carver, 1988) control-process model of behavior is proposed that portrays the social-psychological construct of self-monitoring as a set of self-referent cognitive processes that contribute to the regulation of human social experience. The model posits that high- and low-self-monitoring persons differ according to the nature of their self-referent analysis of social situations, the standards that guide their self-evaluation, and the manner by which they maintain self-control. According to the model, high-self-monitoring persons routinely reference the public self when analyzing social situations, evaluate the situated self against social standards, and enact behaviors aimed at bringing the self into line with the environment
A structural model of fashion‐oriented impulse buying behavior

Purpose – This study aims to examine the causal relationships among fashion involvement, positive emotion, hedonic consumption tendency, and fashion‐oriented impulse buying in the context of shopping.Design/methodology/approach – A self‐administered questionnaire developed from the literature was administered to 217 college students during a scheduled class. They were enrolled at one metropolitan university in a southwestern state in the USA. A structural equation model using a correlation matrix with maximum likelihood was estimated by LISREL 8.53. Findings – Fashion involvement and positive emotion had positive effects on consumers' fashion‐oriented impulse buying behavior with fashion involvement having the greatest effect. Hedonic consumption tendency was an important mediator in determining fashion‐oriented impulse buying.Research limitations/implications – This study was limited to college students at one metropolitan university in a southwestern state in the USA and to general fashion products.Pract.
Approach for efficient computation of disturbance rejection measures for feedback control q

This paper presents practical methods for computation of disturbance rejection measures, which are useful for assessing the dynamic operability of the process. Using L1 optimal control theory, we consider the cases of steady-state, frequency-wise and dynamic systems. In comparison to the available methods, the proposed approach ensures that a linear, causal, feedback-based controller exists that achieves the computed bounds and the method also scales well with problem dimensions. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Involvement of SecB, a chaperone, in the export of ribose-binding protein

Ribose-binding protein (RBP) is an exported protein of Escherichia coli that functions in the periplasm. The export of RBP involves the secretion machinery of the cell, consisting of a cytoplasmic protein, SecA, and the integral membrane translocation complex, including SecE and SecY. SecB protein, a chaperone known to mediate the export of some periplasmic and outer membrane proteins, was previously reported not to be involved in RBP translocation even though small amounts of in vitro complexes between SecB and RBP have been detected. In our investigation, it was shown that a dependence on SecB could be demonstrated under conditions in which export was compromised. Species of RBP which carry two mutations, one in the leader that blocks export and a second in the mature protein which partially suppresses the export defect, were shown to be affected by SecB for efficient translocation. Five different changes which suppress the effect of the signal sequence mutation -17LP are all located in the N domain of the tertiary structure of RBP. All species of RBP show similar interaction with SecB. Furthermore, a leaky mutation, -14AE, generated by site-specific mutagenesis causes reduced export in the absence of SecB. These results indicate that SecB can interact with RBP during secretion, although it is not absolutely required under normal circumstances.
Developmental disorders and cognitive architecture

For the last 30 years, cognitive scientists have attempted to describe the cognitive architecture of typical human beings using, among other sources of evidence, the dissociations that result from developmental psychopathologies, such as autism spectrum disorders, Williams syndrome, and Down syndrome. Thus, in his recent defense of the massive modularity hypothesis, Steven Pinker insists on the importance of such dissociations to identify the components of the typical cognitive architecture:
Foci of Discrimination in the Employment of Nonwhites

Discrimination in employment of a minority group is defined operationally as the inequality which remains after deficiency in qualification for employment is removed statistically. Educational attainment is used as an index of qualification and the "expected cases" method is applied in an attempt to measure the relative incidence of discrimination at different focal points in the securing of employment. For nonwhite males, discrimination is principally on the basis of type of occupation available rather than on attainment of educational qualification, and excessive unemployment is principally a by-product of the occupational distribution. In the South, for both men and women, discrimination is more on the basis of educational qualification and less on employment per se. For nonwhite women, the principal focus of discrimination is on employment rather than on qualification.
New active capacitance multiplier for low cutoff frequency filter design

This paper presents a new topology for an active capacitance multiplier. This circuit affords a technique to implement a high capacitance value using a small on-chip capacitor. The proposed capacitance multiplier is build up by cascading current multiplier cells (CMC). The circuit is preferred for low power low voltage applications since it is based on CMOS inverters and op-amps only. The capacitance multiplier is employed in the design of a second-order LPF with a programmable cutoff frequency. The cutoff frequency can be as low as 65 Hz using an on-chip capacitor of 1pF only. The static power dissipation is equal to 3 mW. Some practical considerations are discussed. The circuit is simulated using CMOS 0.13 mum process. Simulation results show good agreement with the analytical calculations.
Organizational Effects on First-Year Students' Academic Outcomes at a New Public Research University

The relationship between organizational behavior and student outcomes has been understudied, especially in less selective public research universities and among students from underrepresented populations. This study draws on Berger and Milem's (2000) framework to examine the relationship between student entry characteristics, organizational behavior, student experiences, and two early academic outcomes (GPA and academic development) for first-year students enrolled in a new public research university. Student entry characteristics were most strongly associated with GPA, while organizational characteristics and student experiences were most strongly associated with academic development, a measure of students' perceptions of the extent to which the institution contributed to gains in their academic skills. Institutional emphases on academic and social engagement were found to be positively associated with academic development.
The Alyssa System at TAC QA 2008

We present the Alyssa QA system which participated in the TAC 2008 Question Answering Track. The system consists of two parallel streams: the blogger stream which is used in order to deal with questions which ask for lists of blog authors, and the main stream which processes other opinion questions. We also use a named entity detection component specialized to the entertainment domain. Evaluation results show that our system exhibits systematically better performance on blogger questions than on other rigid questions.
Salivary interleukin-1beta concentration and the presence of multiple pathogens in periodontitis.

AIM This study aimed to find salivary enzymes and/or cytokines that would reflect periodontitis, alone or in combination with salivary microbial markers. MATERIAL AND METHODS The salivary concentrations of elastase, lactate dehydrogenase, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), interleukin-6, and tumour necrosis factor-alpha, and the presence of five periodontal pathogens, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Tannerella forsythia, and Treponema denticola, were analysed from salivary specimens of 165 subjects, a subpopulation of Health 2000 Health Examination Survey in Finland; 84 of the subjects had probing pocket depth (PPD) of > or =4 mm at 14 or more teeth (the advanced periodontitis group), while 81 subjects had no teeth with PPD of > or =4 mm (the control group). All subjects had at least 20 teeth and no systemic diseases. RESULTS Among the salivary cytokines and enzymes tested, IL-1beta was the only biomarker associated with periodontitis. An association was also found with the presence of multiple periodontal pathogens. Salivary IL-1beta and the presence of multiple periodontal pathogens were associated with periodontitis at the same magnitude, when they were in the logistic regression model individually or together. CONCLUSION We suggest that salivary IL-1beta and the presence of multiple periodontal pathogens in saliva should be studied more thoroughly as markers of periodontitis.