Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ethnic Differences in Engagement in Parent Training: Patterns of Attendance, Attitudes, and Impact on Treatment Outcomes

The dissertation aimed to examine ethnic minority parents' attendance and session engagement in Parent Training (PT) and their impact on treatment outcome. In study one, we found that African American parent participants were less likely than Non-Hispanic White parents to not attend any session, even after controlling for other baseline variables known to impact attendance. Once ethnic minority parents attended a session, however, their subsequent attendance was not found to be different from Non-Hispanic White parents'. In study two, we found that once ethnic minority parents joined a PT session, their group leaders did not rate their participation differently from Non-Hispanic White participants. Also, leader-rated participation scores at the outset of PT were found to predict later session inattendance and dropouts. Lastly, study three examined how attendance and session engagement may predict treatment outcomes of parenting practices and child behavior problems. The results showed no significant difference between ethnic minority parents' and Non-Hispanic White parents' parenting practices and child behaviors at post-treatment. In addition, results revealed that leader-rated participation at the beginning of PT predicted some of the parenting practice outcomes at post-treatment. This suggests that group leaders may be able to identify parents who are less likely to respond to treatment very early in the course of PT by evaluating their in-session participation, and that session engagement may be a better predictor of treatment outcome than attendance. These findings suggest that the main barrier for ethnic minority parents to benefit from PT appear to be at the recruitment stage, and they participate in similar ways as Non-Hispanic White parents once they successfully attended at least one session. Nonetheless, there was some evidence that leaders can still benefit from increased cultural sensitivity to ethnic minority's disengagement in PT. Clinical implications and limitations are discussed.
Service users and carers’ involvement in social work education: lessons from an English case study

Within the larger context of the search to improve social work practice in Europe, this article presents a case study of a UK innovation in social work education with the potential to radically change social work practice. Following governmental requirements, Anglia Ruskin University has introduced systematic involvement of service users and carers in the training of a new undergraduate degree since September 2003. The conceptual and value base, the structure, staffing, and main activities are outlined; the main achievements and obstacles are highlighted. Mindful of the danger of slipping into tokenistic involvement, the project has included an action research evaluation component exploring the views of all the project's stakeholders thus establishing the project as an evidence-based educational innovation. The findings highlight the value of service users and carers’ involvement on the qualifying social work degree, of the action research design of the evaluation, and the steps needed for the cultural change required for such an involvement to become more comprehensive and embedded in the degree.
The first experiences of music students with Dalcroze-inspired activities: A phenomenological study:

This phenomenological study investigated the meaning of Dalcroze-inspired activities for first-year Baccalareus Musicae (BMus) students during a music education module and describes the essence of this experience for them. In the first semesters of 2011 and 2013, these movement activities were concurrently facilitated during workshops by a licensed Dalcroze teacher and during the semester by a senior lecturer in music education. In the first semester of 2012, a Dalcroze student in her final year presented workshops and another music education lecturer facilitated the activities. Data were collected by means of in-depth interviews, reflective essays and reflective descriptions until data saturation was reached. Data were organized using Atlas.ti 7 and analysed by means of coding, categorizing, and the identification of themes. The following main themes have been identified: social integration, joyful experience, bodily experience, easier understanding, and musical expression. This article will provide a de.
Impaired Speech Repetition and Left Parietal Lobe Damage

Patients with left hemisphere damage and concomitant aphasia usually have difficulty repeating others' speech. Although impaired speech repetition, the primary symptom of conduction aphasia, has been associated with involvement of the left arcuate fasciculus, its specific lesion correlate remains elusive. This research examined speech repetition among 45 stroke patients who underwent aphasia testing and MRI examination. Based on lesion–behavior mapping, the primary structural damage most closely associated with impaired speech repetition was found in the posterior portion of the left arcuate fasciculus. However, perfusion-weighted MRI revealed that tissue dysfunction, in the form of either frank damage or hypoperfusion, to the left inferior parietal lobe, rather than the underlying white matter, was associated with impaired speech repetition. This latter result suggests that integrity of the left inferior parietal lobe is important for speech repetition and, as importantly, highlights the importance of examining cerebral perfusion for the purpose of lesion–behavior mapping in acute stroke.
Validating TOEFL® iBT Speaking and Setting Score Requirements for ITA Screening

Although the primary use of the speaking section of the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-based test (TOEFL® iBT Speaking) is to inform admissions decisions at English medium universities, it may also be useful as an initial screening measure for international teaching assistants (ITAs). This study provides criterion-related validity evidence for the TOEFL iBT Speaking as an instrument for ITA screening and evaluates the effectiveness of using the scores for teaching assistantship (TA) assignments. Three universities participated in this study. Local ITA screening tests were used as the criterion measures. Relationships between the TOEFL iBT Speaking and local ITA tests were explored. These relationships were moderately strong, supporting the use of the TOEFL iBT Speaking for ITA screenings. However, the strengths of the relationship between the TOEFL iBT Speaking and the local ITA tests were somewhat different across schools depending on the extent to which the local test engages and evaluates nonlanguage abilities. Binary and ordinal logistic regression were used to investigate how effective the TOEFL iBT Speaking scores were in separating students into distinct TA assignment categories. At all three schools, the TOEFL iBT Speaking scores were significant predictors of students' TA assignments and were fairly accurate in classifying students for TA assignments. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to determine the TOEFL iBT Speaking cut scores for TA assignments at each school that would minimize false positives (i.e., nonpasses classified as passes). The results have considerable potential value in providing guidance on using the TOEFL iBT Speaking scores for ITA screening.
Joint Conference on Neural Networks , Orlando , Florida , USA , August 12-17 , 2007 Random Feature Subset Selection for Analysis of Data with Missing Features

We discuss an ensemble-of-classifiers based algorithm for the missing feature problem. The proposed approach is inspired in part by the random subspace method, and in part by the incremental learning algorithm, Learn++. The premise is to generate an adequately large number of classifiers, each trained on a different and random combination of features, drawn from an iteratively updated distribution. To classify an instance with missing features, only those classifiers whose training data did not include the currently missing feature are used. These classifiers are combined by using a majority voting combination rule to obtain the final classification of the given instance. We had previously presented preliminary results on a similar approach, which could handle up to 10% missing data. In this study, we expand our work to include different types of rules to update the distribution, and also examine the effect of the algorithm's primary free parameter (the number of features used to train the ensemble of classifiers) on the overall classification performance. We show that this algorithm can now accommodate up to 30% of features missing without a significant drop in performance.
A time course analysis of interlingual homograph processing: Evidence from eye movements*

We recorded eye movements during natural reading to explore the influence of sentence context on bilingual word recognition. English monolinguals and Spanish–English bilinguals read sentences in English that biased either the English or the Spanish meaning of interlingual homographs. Shortly after encountering the homograph, the groups showed equivalent implausibility effects when its English meaning was incongruent with the preceding sentence context. No evidence for immediate homograph interference emerged during this period in the bilingual group. Only in later processing measures did group and congruency interact. Bilinguals may have initially accessed and selected the language appropriate meaning of the homograph to integrate into the sentence. Later, bilinguals accessed their first language lexicon and integrated the Spanish meaning into the sentence when semantically appropriate. Rather than always experiencing cross-language competition, proficient bilinguals may dynamically adapt to contextual cues and selectively access information associated with the contextually cued language under certain conditions.
A Graph Based Framework for Malicious Insider Threat Detection

While most security projects have focused on fending off attacks coming from outside the organizational boundaries, a real threat has arisen from the people who are inside those perimeter protections. Insider threats have shown their power by hugely affecting national security, financial stability, and the privacy of many thousands of people. What is in the news is the tip of the iceberg, with much more going on under the radar, and some threats never being detected. We propose a hybrid framework based on graphical analysis and anomaly detection approaches, to combat this severe cybersecurity threat. Our framework analyzes heterogeneous data in isolating possible malicious users hiding behind others. Empirical results reveal this framework to be effective in distinguishing the majority of users who demonstrate typical behavior from the minority of users who show suspicious behavior.
First time description of dismantling phenomenon

Dismantling is a complex psychic phenomenon, which is not easy to define, and little interest has been shown in the subject. The authors of this paper want to demonstrate that dismantling is the main defense mechanism in autism, bringing about de-consensus of senses. The effects perceived in a child with autistic disorder are passivity and lack of thought. The authors’ purpose here is to define the dismantled state and reveal its underlying process. This paper will therefore describe for the first time in literature, the dismantling phenomenon and will submit a metapsychological approach of this defense mechanism.
Principal elements for visualizing event sequence data applied to 3D cascading diagrams

As we live in the knowledge information society where various kinds of data are explosively produced, importance of data type-specific visualization technique is being emphasized. The subject of this study is about the event sequence data which is to explain certain phenomena by occurrence of events and a sequence of events. While event sequence data are collected in many domains, there are no clear guidelines for which aspects should be taken as visual. We address that one of the critical elements for visualizing the event sequence data is to choosing a factor for aggregating the data. Then the frequency becomes an important information as well as the event paths to understand causality, and the final outcome of the events. In this paper, we describe main visual elements for better understanding of such data. Among seven factors identified, we highlight ‘outer factor’ for aggregating data, and arrange the data accordingly in 3D space. The visualization model is constructed as multi-layered cascading form. Taking advantage of 3D space, users can choose the viewing direction to reveal different aspects of information. We also present the results applied to real-world datasets to examine the effectiveness of the proposed visualization model.
The Inheritance of Left Ventricular Structure and Function Assessed by Imaging and Doppler Echocardiography

The heritability of left ventricular structure and function was studied in 53 pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, aged 18 to 31 years, by means of M-mode and Doppler echocardiography. A significant fraction of the phenotypic variances of left ventricular wall thickness was explained by genetic variance. For the left ventricular internal dimension, however, no genetic effect was found after correction for body weight. After appropriate adjustment a genetic component of 32% was found for aortic peak flow velocity, 55% for stroke distance, and 47% for minute distance. The early and late diastolic peak flow velocities at the mitral valve showed a genetic component estimated at 43% and 26%, respectively. The inheritance of the late/early diastolic peak flow velocity ratio was estimated at 53%. In conclusion, these data suggest a significant genetic component for left ventricular structural features but not for cavity dimension. A significant influence of heredity was detected for left ventricular inflow and outflow characteristics.
De Novo Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of C6″-Substituted C4″-Amide Analogues of SL0101

In an effort to improve upon the in vivo half-life of the known ribosomal s6 kinase (RSK) inhibitor SL0101, C4″-amide/C6″-alkyl substituted analogues of SL0101 were synthesized and evaluated in cell-based assays. The analogues were prepared using a de novo asymmetric synthetic approach, which featured Pd-π-allylic catalyzed glycosylation for the introduction of a C4″-azido group. Surprisingly replacement of the C4″-acetate with a C4″-amide resulted in analogues that were no longer specific for RSK in cell-based assays.
Multiple Description Multiwavelet Based Image Coding

In this paper, we propose a multiple description image coding scenario based on balanced multiwavelets. Two simple but effective methods to reconstruct the original image from partial descriptions are suggested. Furthermore, optimization criterion corresponding to this multiwavelet based system is provided. Experimental results of the optimized multifilter banks in a simulated transform coding environment show an excellent erformance. According to the optimization criterion, we can choose appropriate multiwavelets to satisfy different demands.
Characterization of Fibrosurfin, an Interfibrillar Component of Sea Urchin Catch Connective Tissues*

The Sea URchin Fibrillar (SURF) domain is a four-cysteine module present in the amino-propeptide of the sea urchin 2α fibrillar collagen chain. Despite numerous international genome and expressed sequence tag projects, computer searches have so far failed to identify similar domains in other species. Here, we have characterized a new sea urchin protein of 2656 amino acids made up of a series of epidermal growth factor-like and SURF modules. From its striking similarity to the modular organization of fibropellins, we called this new protein fibrosurfin. This protein is acidic with a calculated pI of 4.12. Eleven of the 17 epidermal growth factor-like domains correspond to the consensus sequence of calcium-binding type. By Western blot and immunofluorescence analyses, this protein is not detectable during embryogenesis. In adult tissues, fibrosurfin is co-localized with the amino-propeptide of the 2α fibrillar collagen chain in several collagenous ligaments, i.e., test sutures, spine ligaments, peristomial membrane, and to a lesser extent, tube feet. Finally, immunogold labeling indicates that fibrosurfin is an interfibrillar component of collagenous tissues. Taken together, the data suggest that proteins possessing SURF modules are localized in the vicinity of mineralized tissues and could be responsible for the unique properties of sea urchin mutable collagenous tissues.
The Interplay of Genes, Environments, and Psychoanalysis

W begin the 2008 JAPA Research Sections with a window onto a realm of contemporary research that holds great, but as yet almost completely untapped, value for psychoanalysis. In our featured paper, Suzanne Haddad and her colleagues serve as welcome guides to the rapidly expanding world of gene and environment research (“naturenurture interplay”)—an interdisciplinary domain currently being pursued with stunning innovation, vigor, and energy (see Kendler and Prescott 2006; Rutter 2007; Torgeson 2006). The great promise—in both findings and methods—of the new genetics studies has been recognized, often with well-deserved fanfare, by our colleagues in psychiatry, neuroscience, and the behavioral sciences (e.g., Caspi et al. 2002, 2003; Rutter 2006). Haddad and colleagues now cogently argue for yet another new bridge— from the insights of behavior genetics studies to psychoanalytic perspectives and interventions. In recent years, papers addressing neuroscience interfaces with psychoanalysis and other disciplines—social cognition, developmental psychology—have appeared in JAPA and elsewhere (see, e.g., Gerber and Peterson 2006, in press; Mayes 2003; Peterson et al. 2007; Roffman and Gerber 2008). With rare exceptions (e.g., Mayes 2003), contemporary research addressing genetics and human development, personality, psychopathology, and environmental experience has received scant attention in psychoanalytic quarters. This benign neglect is not surprising, in light of genetics studies’ inherently complex constructs and methods, and their vocabulary, so unfamiliar to most psychoanalysts and mental health researchers. These dissemination and translation difficulties are compounded, as Hadddad correctly notes, by the fact that most genetics studies involve abstract constructs applying to classes of variables, use large samples, and address but a few key dimensions. These features of genetics studies stand ja P a
The Impact of Death-Risk Experiences and Religiosity on the Fear of Personal Death: The Case of Israeli Soldiers in Lebanon

The current study attempts to investigate the impact of death-risk experience (life-threatening experiences of Israeli soldiers who served in Lebanon after the 1982 Lebanon War) and religiosity on the diverse aspects of the fear of personal death. One-hundred-thirty-four Israeli Jewish male participants were divided into religious and nonreligious groups, and were subdivided into three groups according to the encounter with a death-risk experience in the last three months. One group served in Lebanon and was involved in threatening activities; a second group served in Lebanon, but was not exposed to life-threatening experiences; and a third did not serve in Lebanon in this period. All the participants completed the Fear of Personal Death Scale. Results indicated that religious participants reported lower levels of fear of death than nonreligious participants. In addition, the exposure to death-risk experience produced elevated levels of fear of death only among nonreligious persons. The role of religiosity and the complex nature of the link between personal experiences and fear of death are discussed.
Neuropsychological Correlates of Major Depression: A Short-term Follow-up

The present study investigated neuropsychological correlates of major depression and their course following treatment. We investigated 41 patients with major depression according to DSM-III-R criteria, who do not fulfil criteria of Alzheimer's disease, with a standardised clinical interview, different self- and observer-rating depression scales, and a comprehensive neuropsychological examination, and 27 subjects were reinvestigated 4.5 weeks after the first assessment. We found deficits in all cognitive domains with a predominant decline in tasks of cognitive flexibility and fluency. Patients who respond to antidepressive treatment showed a significant improvement in executive functions at the followup examination. Our data support the hypothesis that cognitive disorders in major depression may be associated with a frontostriatal dysfunction.
Understanding child bilingual acquisition using parent and teacher reports

There is limited research regarding what levels of proficiency in each language should characterize the language behavior of bilingual children and the impact of language exposure or language use variables on bilingual performance. This study was designed to examine the extent to which years of exposure to a language(s), amount of language input at home and at school, and amount of exposure to reading and other literacy activities in a language(s) relate to observed bilingual performance in young children, as obtained from parent and teacher reports. A secondary goal was to determine the extent to which parents or teachers could assist in determining language status by examining relationships between their ratings of the child's use and proficiency in the two languages and the child's grammatical performance. Fifty-seven children and their families were sampled from second grade classes of a large school district serving primarily low-income families in southern California. Multiple regression analyses for each language indicated that amount of Spanish input at home was a significant predictor of grammatical performance in that language. These input effects did not hold for English. Although there were some crosslinguistic differences, parent and teacher ratings of use and proficiency correlated with the child's grammatical performance in the target language. The findings suggest that parent and teacher estimates may be useful to determine bilingual status.
Social Competence and Oral Language Development for Young Children of Latino Immigrants

Research Findings: In this study we analyze how parent and teacher ratings of young Latino children’s social competencies in rural California are associated with children’s oral language development. We find (a) that there is considerable incongruence between parent and teacher ratings of child social competence, (b) that both parent and teacher ratings account for meaningful variation in children’s oral language development, and (c) that incongruence between parent and teacher ratings is associated with oral language above and beyond the effects of parent and teacher ratings alone. Practice or Policy: Young Latino children’s social competencies contribute to their oral language development. These competencies represent an important, though to date underutilized, asset for building stronger academic/language functioning. Part of the paradoxical development of Latino children (i.e., strong social though weak academic/language competence) could be attributable to cultural differences that underlie teacher and parent perceptions of social competence. Teachers of young Latino children should (a) be aware of the cultural nature of social competence and (b) explore culturally responsive ways of interacting in classrooms to build stronger oral language functioning.