Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neurofeedback is the Best Available First-Line Treatment for ADHD: What is the Evidence for this Claim?

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a chronic syndrome characterized by deficits in executive functions and attentional processes. Persons diagnosed with ADHD have significant deficits in self-regulation evidenced by difficulty staying focused, controlling impulsive behaviors, and for many, restraining hyperactive motor activity. These symptoms typically create problems in academic, social, and familial contexts as well as in the planning and organization skills needed for daily functioning. Additionally, comorbid syndromes that can mimic the symptoms of ADHD and confound differential diagnosis are commonly present (e.g., anxiety, depression, learning disorders). ADHD is the most frequently diagnosed pediatric disorder with 11% of American school-aged children (and nearly 20% of teenage boys) having been medically diagnosed with ADHD according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control (Schwarz & Cohen, 2013). Stimulant medication (SM) and behavior therapy (BT) are the two most widely accepted treatments for ADHD, with approximately 70% of those diagnosed prescribed medication (Schwarz, 2013). Although both interventions are considered to meet the highest standards for the evidence-based treatment of ADHD, and have been recognized as such by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), the leading ADHD advocacy group, the actual evidence is that these treatments fail to result in sustained benefit for the vast majority of children who receive them and, therefore, do not warrant being the first option for treating ADHD. The article reviews the evidence for making neurofeedback the first line treatment for ADHD. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:. 0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
Collecting Genetic Samples in Population Wide (Panel) Surveys: Feasibility, Nonresponse and Selectivity

Collecting biomarkers as part of general purpose surveys offers scientists - and social scientists in particular - the ability to study biosocial phenomena, e.g. the relation between genes and human behavior. We explore the feasibility of collecting buccal cells for genetic analyses with normal interviewers as part of a pretest for the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) using a probability sample. We introduce a new non-invasive technique for collecting cell material for genetic analyses and test its quality. We found no technical difficulties in collecting the genetic material and almost all samples collected could be analyzed. However, one third of interviewers reported it was hard to convince panel members to participate. The "biomarker wave" showed no reduction in response rate compared to the previous wave that included no biomarkers and the sample exhibited very little selectivity. We conclude that collecting cell material for genetic analyses with normal interviewers is feasible with no apparent same-wave attrition, though so far we cannot rule out attrition in subsequent waves.
HOTEL SERVICE QUALITY: PERCEPTIONS AND SATISFACTION AMONG DOMESTIC GUESTS IN KENYA

The Kenya tourism industry is a key contributor to its GDP. Hotel subsector benefits directly from growth of tourism but sustainable customer base would require polished customer service. Domestic hotel guests to play an important role in bridging the seasonality gap that is the core of the international tourism business model. The ability to harness this capacity is dependent on the extent to which they perceive the services provided as being worth their money value. This study therefore aimed at determining the guest actual experience and evaluation from the stay hence assess how the hotel performed against perceived quality and the effect on guest satisfaction operationalised as emotional satisfaction. Descriptive Survey design was adopted for the study. Cluster sampling was applied to select the hotels from which customers were derived. The study self-administered questionnaires to 182 guests. 26 items were used to measure perceived service quality on using a seven-point Likert-type scale for their responses. The study found out that tangibility as a service is rated highly. However confidence and communication dimensions of quality scored low means hence low rating. The path leading from “service quality” to “emotional satisfaction” had a coefficient of 0.701, with a p-value of 3.621. The path was significant; we therefore reject the null hypothesis and conclude that emotional satisfaction is dependent on service quality which supports that that emotional satisfaction is dependent on service quality. This study has revealed moderate influences of quality dimensions such as reliability, responsiveness and communication as given in their path coefficients on service quality. The study concludes that emotional satisfaction was derived from service-quality evaluation and agrees with Bagozzi’s (1992) conclusion that cognitive evaluations precede emotional responses. The study recommends that service delivery capacity of employees be improved in the said hotels so that for example the customer can feel that their needs are anticipated, better communication is achieved, employees become more responsive as well as reliable. The management of these hotels may also pursue other motivating strategies to improve service quality. Key word: Domestic guests, service quality; perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and emotional satisfaction
Title Efficient point-based trajectory search

Trajectory data capture the traveling history of moving objects such as people or vehicles. With the proliferation of GPS and tracking technology, huge volumes of trajectories are rapidly generated and collected. Under this, applications such as route recommendation and traveling behavior mining call for efficient trajectory retrieval. In this paper, we first focus on distance-based trajectory search; given a collection of trajectories and a set query points, the goal is to retrieve the top-k trajectories that pass as close as possible to all query points. We advance the state-of-the-art by combining existing approaches to a hybrid method and also proposing an alternative, more efficient range-based approach. Second, we propose and study the practical variant of bounded distancebased search, which takes into account the temporal characteristics of the searched trajectories. Through an extensive experimental analysis with real trajectory data, we show that our range-based approach outperforms previous methods by at least one order of magnitude.
Merced Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Title

We examine people’s preferences about whether to engage in discretionary spending vs. save their money and find that reduced spending in the present requires the combination of both being motivated to provide for one’s future self (valuing the future) and actively considering long-term implications of one’s choices (awareness of the future). Feeling more connected to the future self—thinking that the important psychological properties that define your current self are preserved in the person you will be in the future—provides the motivation for people to make far-sighted choices by changing the valuation of future outcomes. However, this change only reduces spending when opportunity costs are highlighted.
Self-efficacy and School Leaders' Feedback: A Study of Iranian EFL Teachers

Many studies have described aspects of gender which might affect teachers’ beliefs and attitudes toward their job and the quality of teachers’ performance within the classroom seems to be highly influenced by different factors in and out of the classroom. This study sets out to investigate the effect of received feedback from school leaders on sense of efficacy of male and female EFL teachers. DeNisi and Kluger (2000) stated that feedback to ones’ performance is an important element of having high job satisfaction and motivation. Considering the impression that teachers could not teach at advance levels, unless school leaders find them qualified enough for teaching at these levels, this study examines the effect of teachers’ position in a language institute, regarding the levels they teach, on their perceived efficacy after receiving feedback. For this purpose, 30 male and female teachers who all teach at the same language school in Mashhad, a city in Iran, were selected. The participants were divided according to the level they taught, 15 at elementary levels and 15 at advance. The obtained data were analyzed through SPSS software (version 16). The numerical results proved teachers’ sense of efficacy was influenced significantly by school leader’s feedback and the change was positive. Also, sense of efficacy of teacher who taught at both elementary and advance levels increased but not significantly.
A correlation between the spectral and timing properties of AGN

Context. We present the results from a combined study of the average X-ray spectral and timing properties of 14 nearby AGN. Aims. We investigate whether a "spectral-timing" AGN correlation exists, similar to the one observed in Cyg X-1, compare the two correlations, and constrain possible physical mechanisms responsible for the X-ray emission in compact, accreting objects. Methods. For 11 of the sources in the sample, we used all the available data from the RXTE archive, which were taken until the end of 2006. There are 7795 RXTE observations in total for these AGN, obtained over a period of ∼7-11 years. We extracted their 3-20 keV spectra and fitted them with a simple power-law model, modified by the presence of a Gaussian line (at 6.4 keV) and cold absorption, when necessary. We used the best-fit slopes to construct their sample distribution function, and we used the median of the distribution, and the mean of the best-fit slopes, which are above the 80th percentile of the distributions, to estimate the mean spectral slope of the objects. The latter estimate is more appropriate in the case when the energy spectra of the sources are significantly affected by absorption and/or reflection effects. We also used results from the literature to estimate the average spectral slope of the three remaining objects. Results. The AGN average spectral slopes are not correlated either with the black hole mass or the characteristic frequencies that were detected in the power spectra. They are positively correlated, though, with the characteristic frequency when normalised to the sources black hole mass. This correlation is similar to the spectral-timing correlation that has been observed in Cyg X-1, but not the same. Conclusions. The AGN spectral-timing correlation can be explained if we assume that the accretion rate determines both the average spectral slope and the characteristic time scales in these systems. The spectrum should steepen and the characteristic frequency should increase, proportionally, with increasing accretion rate. We also provide a quantitative expression between spectral slope and accretion rate. Thermal Comptonisation models are broadly consistent with our result, and can also explain the difference between the spectral-timing correlations in Cyg X-1 and AGN, but only if the ratio of the soft photons' luminosity to the power injected to the hot corona is proportionally related to the accretion rate.
A segmentation approach for the reproducible extraction and quantification of knickpoints from river long profiles

Abstract. Changes in the steepness of river profiles or abrupt vertical steps (i.e. waterfalls) are thought to be indicative of changes in erosion rates, lithology or other factors that affect landscape evolution. These changes are referred to as knickpoints or knickzones and are pervasive in bedrock river systems. Such features are thought to reveal information about landscape evolution and patterns of erosion, and therefore their locations are often reported in the geomorphic literature. It is imperative that studies reporting knickpoints and knickzones use a reproducible method of quantifying their locations, as their number and spatial distribution play an important role in interpreting tectonically active landscapes. In this contribution we introduce a reproducible knickpoint and knickzone extraction algorithm that uses river profiles transformed by integrating drainage area along channel length (the so-called integral or χ method). The profile is then statistically segmented and the differing slopes and step changes in the elevations of these segments are used to identify knickpoints, knickzones and their relative magnitudes. The output locations of identified knickpoints and knickzones compare favourably with human mapping: we test the method on Santa Cruz Island, CA, using previously reported knickzones and also test the method against a new dataset from the Quadrilátero Ferrífero in Brazil. The algorithm allows for the extraction of varying knickpoint morphologies, including stepped, positive slope-break (concave upward) and negative slope-break knickpoints. We identify parameters that most affect the resulting knickpoint and knickzone locations and provide guidance for both usage and outputs of the method to produce reproducible knickpoint datasets.
Determination of Mercury and Methylmercury in Aqueous Samples by Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrometry after Pre-Concentration with Bis (2-Mercaptobenzothlazole) Immobilized on Microcrystalline Naphthalene

A method based on cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry was used for the determination of trace mercury (Hg+2) and methylmercury (MeHg+) in aqueous samples. The mercury in the sample was concentrated in a column packed with bis (2-mercaptobenzothiazole), immobilized on microcrystalline naphthalene. The method was optimized for di erent parameters a ecting the pre-concentration process, in order to obtain better sensitivity. The recovery test showed that the method is quite reliable for use in the determination of trace amounts of mercury in aqueous samples. The method was applied to the speciation of mercury in river water and in the euents of wastewater treatment plants.
Body Mass Index (nutritional status) and concentrations of Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Zn, K, Na in the hair of young men from Tanzania

Background: Excess body weight has become a problem of a medical, social and cultural nature that affects a large share of the populations in nearly all countries worldwide. Little is known about the relationship between the concentrations of mineral levels in hair vs. body weight in Africans. The aim of this study was to examine the correlations between the concentrations of Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Zn, K, and Na in hair vs. body weight in young men from Tanzania. Methods: The participants were young men (aged 16.60 ± 1.92) from Tanzania (n = 91). Concentrations of Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Zn, K and Na in hair were measured and assessed for correlations between the levels of these trace elements and in underweight and normal weight. Results: A statistically significant relationship of moderate intensity was found between Cu vs. body weight, BMI, Ca, Zn, Fe. Backward stepwise regression analysis for the whole group indicates that the variables included account for 27% (adjusted R2 = 0.27) of the variation in BMI. All the variables included in the equation account for 22% of BMI variation in participants with normal body weight, and for 26% in underweight participants. Conclusions: Analysis of mineral concentrations in hair can help uncover nutritional deficiencies. It can be particularly useful in studying isolated or remote communities. Expanding the body of knowledge on the influence of mineral concentrations on body weight may contribute to halting global weight gain, which is a multi-faceted and seemingly unstoppable phenomenon at the moment. Body Mass Index (status odżywienia) a zawartość pierwiastków Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Zn, K, Na we włosach u młodych mężczyzn z Tanzanii Słowa kluczowe pierwiastki śladowe, Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Zn, K, Na, BMI, odżywianie Streszczenie Nadmierna masa ciała jest obecnie problemem medycznym, społecznym, kulturowym, dużej części mieszkańców niemal wszystkich krajów. Mało jest badań o zależności pomiędzy zawartością pierwiastków w organizmie człowieka a masą ciała (stanem odżywienia) wśród ludności afrykańskiej. Celem prezentowanych badań było zbadanie współzależności między zawartością pierwiastków: Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Zn, K i Na we włosach a masą ciała u młodych mężczyzn z Tanzanii. Badani to młodzi mężczyźni (16.60 ±1.92 lat) z Tanzanii. Oznaczono zawartość Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Zn, K i Na we włosach i zbadano stopień korelacji pomiędzy zawartością analizowanych pierwiastków a kategorią BMI. Istotną statystycznie zależność,
Utility of User Roles in Comparing Network Flow Behaviors

We compared the practice of grouping users based on roles to define normal network behaviors with grouping users based on behavioral similarities. For this comparison we utilized Netflow-derived features to characterize the network traffic of users on a small campus, and labeled the feature vectors based on user roles. Using the same flow-feature sets we also grouped users based on shared network behaviors, using K-means++ to cluster user data sets. Intra-group similarities under the grouping strategies were tested in two ways. First, by using a linear (Nearest Centroid) classifier to measure how separable group data sets were. Second, by averaging each user's feature vector values by week of activity, and measuring pairwise distances between the centroid vectors to determine intra-group and intergroup distance distributions. Our tests showed that creating user groups via clustering user data sets created tighter ranges of user behavior as compared to grouping based on user roles.
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ISLAMIC BANKING AND FINANCE: A PROLOGUE

The raison d'etre of this article is to supply basic insights on the origin and characteristics of the Islamic Banking system, its distinguishing features, and related contentious issues that have remained the subject of on-going debates among Sharia' scholars and members of the academia. These were analysed by referring to the principles of Muammalat (Islamic economic transaction), which are derived from the Holy Quran, Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.), and Ijma’ (consensus) of prominent Sharia' scholars. Contrary to the conventional banks, Islamic banks are required to operate according to the principles of Muammalat , which are identified as the avoidance of Riba’ , Gharar , Maysir , Hilah , and the promotion of ethical business practices such as justice, fairness and transparency. The 2008 global financial meltdown has created a unique awareness among banking consumers on the need of an alternative to complement the conventional banking system, which was viewed by financial scholars as suffering from a crisis of failed morality as a result of greed, exploitation, and corruption. Likewise, many may viewed that the Islamic Banking system is merely another attempt to capitalise on the pulling power of religion towards people, yet there are a number of interestingly unique features that accentuate it from the other banking alternatives. In essence, it is aspired that this article may assist fellow readers, especially those who are still new to this alternative financial system, in understanding and appreciating its unique features, and further stimulate future research in this field. Insha’Allah (God’s willing).
Metadata Similarity Calculation in Cross-Language Record Linkage based on Cross-lingual Embedding Models

In many data mining applications, there is a need to compare or combine information from different data sources. One of the main processes is to find identical records that refer to the same real-world entity across databases, which is known as record linkage or record matching. In this paper, we focus on the task of cross-language record linkage, in which records are from the databases in different languages. The descriptive metadata of an entity (e.g. the title of a book, the title of an image) summarize the content and distinguish it from other entities. Thus, we propose a method of measuring descriptive metadata similarities in different languages for record linkage. Our method utilizes cross-lingual embedding models, in which words and metadata in different languages can be represented in a shared embedding space. In this work, we learn the shared embedding space using sentence-level bilingual parallel data. We evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed method on the real-world databases in Japanese and English. Keyword Cross-language record linkage, title matching, semantic similarities
Stochastic growth and monetary policy: the impacts on the term structure of interest rates

This paper builds a simple, empirically-verifiable rational expectations model for term structure of nominal interest rates analysis. It solves an stochastic growth model with investment costs and sticky inflation, susceptible to the intervention of the monetary authority following a policy rule. The model predicts several patterns of the term structure which are in accordance to observed empirical facts: (i) pro-cyclical pattern of the level of nominal interest rates; (ii) countercyclical pattern of the term spread; (iii) pro-cyclical pattern of the curvature of the yield curve; (iv) lower predictability of the slope of the middle of the term structure; and (v) negative correlation of changes in real rates and expected inflation at short horizons.
A Model for Vague Association Rule Mining in Temporal Databases

There are different university offering different types of courses over several years, and the biggest issue with that is how to get information to make course more effective. In real life these types of database usually contain temporal coherences, which cannot be captured by means of standard association rule mining. Here temporal Association rule mining can be used to evaluate the course effectiveness and helps to look for in regards to changes in performance of the course from time to time. For Example there is a course offering different topics. We can say that the topics having full attendance are totally effective and carry no hesitation information. While there are some topics which are almost fully attendant carry some hesitation information. This hesitation information is valuable and can be used to make the course more effective and interesting. Thus there is need for developing temporal vague association rule algorithms that reveal such hesitation information and temporal coherences within this data.
L G ] 3 A pr 2 01 8 1 A Survey on MultiView Clustering

With advances in information acquisition technologies, multi-view data become ubiquitous. Multi-view learning has thus become more and more popular in machine learning and data mining fields. Multi-view unsupervised or semi-supervised learning, such as co-training, co-regularization has gained considerable attention. Although recently, multi-view clustering (MVC) methods have been developed rapidly, there has not been a survey to summarize and analyze the current progress. Therefore, this paper reviews the common strategies for combining multiple views of data and based on this summary we propose a novel taxonomy of the MVC approaches. We further discuss the relationships between MVC and multi-view representation, ensemble clustering, multi-task clustering, multi-view supervised and semi-supervised learning. Several representative real-world applications are elaborated. To promote future development of MVC, we envision several open problems that may require further investigation and thorough examination.