Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reclaiming the “D” in HRD

Despite being viewed as a major construct at the heart of human resource development (HRD), considerable complexity, confusion, and ambiguity exists regarding the conceptualization of development. The notion of development has attracted interest from a wide array of fields including HRD, adult education, psychology, management studies, and organization theory. As a result, there is little consistency in how development is understood, conceptualized, or tested. This article examines the current body of knowledge and understanding on development to develop a typology to focus future research and investigations. A typology of development is proposed, and four development types are identified. The article then articulates the underlying theories, primary antecedents, and outcomes associated with each of the four development types. Finally, recommendations and avenues for future research arising from the typology are specified.
The First Three Years and Beyond: Brain Development and Social Policy

This book explores and debates the extent to which children’s early experiences affect their cognitive and social development. It seeks to answer this question in relation to the role of parents, and whether it is possible to improve or reverse the effects of early developmental deficits. The debate takes place across four key themes: • The benefits of family leave, childcare and home visitation programmes; • The damage that child abuse inflicts; • The vital importance of nutrition (and breast feeding) for pregnant and breastfeeding women and for young children; • The adverse effects that occur in misguided efforts to disseminate research too early. Chapter One considers the ways in which policy makers in the United States have used advances in Neurological Imaging Techniques in the 20th century to argue and debate their particular stance with regard to child development and early intervention programmes. The authors criticize the misplaced importance attached to, for example, playing Mozart piano sonatas to babies in a bid to increase cognitive ability. More significant, suggest the authors, is the context of the child in relation to all aspects of his/her development (Chapter Seven). The authors make the point succinctly at the end of the first chapter, and demonstrate throughout the book: ‘Not only does brain research have profound implications for sustaining and continuing to promote sound social policies . no brain findings to date have diminished the impact of traditional observational and behavioural research in child development’ (p. 16). Chapter Tw o explores the history and roots of child development, considering in some
Image segmentation based on fast kernelized fuzzy clustering analysis

Based on kernelized fuzzy clustering analysis, this paper presents a fast image segmentation algorithm using a speeding-up scheme called reduced set representation. The proposed clustering algorithm has lower computational complexity and could be regarded as the generalized version of the traditional KFCM-I and KFCM-II algorithms. Moreover, an image intensity correction is employed during image segmentation process. With another speeding-up scheme called pre-classification, the proposed intensity correction could further acclerate image segmentation. Experiments of MRI image segmentation have shown the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, which outperforms in its rivals.
Predicting Difficult Intubation in Apparently Normal Patients: A Meta-analysis of Bedside Screening Test Performance

The objective of this study was to systematically determine the diagnostic accuracy of bedside tests for predicting difficult intubation in patients with no airway pathology. Thirty-five studies (50,760 patients) were selected from electronic databases. The overall incidence of difficult intubation was 5.8% (95% confidence interval, 4.5–7.5%). Screening tests included the Mallampati oropharyngeal classification, thyromental distance, sternomental distance, mouth opening, and Wilson risk score. Each test yielded poor to moderate sensitivity (20–62%) and moderate to fair specificity (82–97%). The most useful bedside test for prediction was found to be a combination of the Mallampati classification and thyromental distance (positive likelihood ratio, 9.9; 95% confidence interval, 3.1–31.9). Currently available screening tests for difficult intubation have only poor to moderate discriminative power when used alone. Combinations of tests add some incremental diagnostic value in comparison to the value of each test alone. The clinical value of bedside screening tests for predicting difficult intubation remains limited.
The NHF‐NRG In Balance‐project: the application of Intervention Mapping in the development, implementation and evaluation of weight gain prevention at the worksite

Very few examples of theory‐driven and systematically developed weight gain prevention interventions for adults have been described in the literature. The present paper systematically describes the development, implementation and evaluation framework of a weight gain prevention programme directed at young adults at the worksite, namely the NHF‐NRG In Balance‐project. It not only can be used as a guide to systematically develop weight gain prevention interventions, but also gives an overview of the current theoretical and empirical knowledge‐base in the field of obesity prevention. The outline of the paper follows the Intervention Mapping protocol, which includes a systematic inventory of important health issues, their risk behaviours and determinants of these risk behaviours, and specification of the proximal objectives of the programme directed at both energy intake and energy expenditure. The objectives are translated into behaviour change methods and strategies, which are combined in a stepwise intervention programme, and used for a detailed evaluation plan (process and effect evaluation). The NHF‐NRG In Balance‐project combines mass media and individually tailored communications with worksite environmental changes to raise awareness, to motivate and to enable energy balance behaviour changes. A quasi‐experimental pre‐test‐multiple post‐test control group design was applied in 12 worksites (>500 employees).
Stabilization of Parabolic Nonlinear Systems with Finite Dimensional Feedback or Dynamical Controllers: Application to the Navier-Stokes System

Let $A:\mathcal{D}(A)\to\mathcal{X}$ be the generator of an analytic semigroup and $B:\mathcal{V}\to[\mathcal{D}(A^*)]'$ a relatively bounded control operator. In this paper, we consider the stabilization of the system $y'=Ay+Bu$, where $u$ is the linear combination of a family $(v_1,\ldots,v_K)$. Our main result shows that if $(A^*,B^*)$ satisfies a unique continuation property and if $K$ is greater than or equal to the maximum of the geometric multiplicities of the unstable modes of $A$, then the system is generically stabilizable with respect to the family $(v_1,\ldots,v_K)$. With the same functional framework, we also prove the stabilizability of a class of nonlinear systems when using feedback or dynamical controllers. We apply these results to stabilize the Navier-Stokes equations in two and three dimensions by using boundary controls.
Pseudo Handoff Call Elimination Capable Call Admission Control Scheme for Soft Handoff in CDMA Networks

We propose a call admission control scheme for soft handoff of CDMA networks based on mobility estimation and mobility history of mobile stations. This work is further improvement of the Eliminating Pseudo Handoff Call (EPHC) proposed by Xiaomin Ma et.al. Therefore we named our proposed scheme as Improved EPHC (IEPHC). The proposed scheme not only improves network throughput but also reduces handoff and new call blocking probability. We derive here the handoff blocking probability. In addition, we present the decision procedures for the call admission control agent, which assigns a channel for handover requester mobile station. Numerical results show that the IEPHC scheme minimizes handover call blocking probability and increases throughput of CDMA cellular networks.
Comparative genomics of Physcomitrella patens gametophytic transcriptome and Arabidopsis thaliana: Implication for land plant evolution

The mosses and flowering plants diverged >400 million years ago. The mosses have haploid-dominant life cycles, whereas the flowering plants are diploid-dominant. The common ancestors of land plants have been inferred to be haploid-dominant, suggesting that genes used in the diploid body of flowering plants were recruited from the genes used in the haploid body of the ancestors during the evolution of land plants. To assess this evolutionary hypothesis, we constructed an EST library of the moss Physcomitrella patens, and compared the moss transcriptome to the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana. We constructed full-length enriched cDNA libraries from auxin-treated, cytokinin-treated, and untreated gametophytes of P. patens, and sequenced both ends of >40,000 clones. These data, together with the mRNA sequences in the public databases, were assembled into 15,883 putative transcripts. Sequence comparisons of A. thaliana and P. patens showed that at least 66% of the A. thaliana genes had homologues in P. patens. Comparison of the P. patens putative transcripts with all known proteins, revealed 9,907 putative transcripts with high levels of similarity to vascular plant genes, and 850 putative transcripts with high levels of similarity to other organisms. The haploid transcriptome of P. patens appears to be quite similar to the A. thaliana genome, supporting the evolutionary hypothesis. Our study also revealed that a number of genes are moss specific and were lost in the flowering plant lineage.
Effect of High-Intensity Interval Training on Cardiovascular Function, &OV0312;o2max, and Muscular Force

Astorino, TA, Allen, RP, Roberson, DW, and Jurancich, M. Effect of high-intensity interval training on cardiovascular function, &OV0312;o2max, and muscular force. J Strength Cond Res 26(1): 138–145, 2012—The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of short-term high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on cardiovascular function, cardiorespiratory fitness, and muscular force. Active, young (age and body fat = 25.3 ± 4.5 years and 14.3 ± 6.4%) men and women (N = 20) of a similar age, physical activity, and maximal oxygen uptake (&OV0312;o2max) completed 6 sessions of HIIT consisting of repeated Wingate tests over a 2- to 3-week period. Subjects completed 4 Wingate tests on days 1 and 2, 5 on days 3 and 4, and 6 on days 5 and 6. A control group of 9 men and women (age and body fat = 22.8 ± 2.8 years and 15.2 ± 6.9%) completed all testing but did not perform HIIT. Changes in resting blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), &OV0312;o2max, body composition, oxygen (O2) pulse, peak, mean, and minimum power output, fatigue index, and voluntary force production of the knee flexors and extensors were examined pretraining and posttraining. Results showed significant (p < 0.05) improvements in &OV0312;o2max, O2 pulse, and Wingate-derived power output with HIIT. The magnitude of improvement in &OV0312;o2max was related to baseline &OV0312;o2max (r = −0.44, p = 0.05) and fatigue index (r = 0.50, p < 0.05). No change (p > 0.05) in resting BP, HR, or force production was revealed. Data show that HIIT significantly enhanced &OV0312;o2max and O2 pulse and power output in active men and women.
CARDHOLDERS' ATTITUDE AND BANK CREDIT CARD USAGE IN MALAYSIA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

The study is aimed at validating attributes that influence the differences in attitudes among active and inactive cardholders. By focusing on relevant attributes that have been identified, it is believed that credit card issuing banks can position themselves effectively via their marketing strategies to activate their existing cardholders' usage rate as well as to attract new active cardholders. Thirteen important attributes were used to measure credit cardholders' attitude. These attributes include acceptance level, credit limit, interest-free repayment period, annual fee, application approval period, ancillary functions, handling of cardholders' complaints, issuing bank image, gift/bonus to new applicants, card design, leaflet to describe the card,and advertising by the issuing bank. Acceptance level, credit limit, interest free repayment period, ancillary functions, handling of cardholders' complaints, bank image, and bank advertising were found to be the most important attributes that influenced cardholders' attitudes in distinguishing active from inactive cardholders. Based on the results of the study, several suggestions are forwarded to credit card issuing banks as a step to stimulate credit cardholders' usage level. Among these are to work closer with various retailers to promote the credit card payment mode, to provide adequate credit limit to cardholders, to extend interest free repayment period from 20 days to 30 days, to implement strategic alliances with firms involved in travelling, entertainment, insurance, and telecommunications and, to advertise more so as to create a brand name for the issuing bank.
A Clinical Introduction to Smoking Cessation Treatment: How to Help Your Clients Save Their Lives.

Those who deliver mental health care often pride themselves on treating the whole patient, on “seeing the big picture” and on not being bound by financial irrationality or by the biases of their culture; yet many fail to treat nicotine dependence. They forget that when their patient dies of a smoking-related disease, their patient has died of a psychiatric illness they failed to treat. (Zarin, Pincus, & Hughes, 1997)
Constraints on Language Mixing: Intrasentential Code-Switching and Borrowing in Spanish/English

Mixture of Spanish and English, whether in isolated loan words or in codeswitching of clauses and sentences, while socially motivated, is subject to clear linguistic constraints. Quantitative analysis of mixing in conversations of MexicanAmericans suggests specific functional constraints to express tense/aspect/mood and subject/object relationships, as well as structural constraints which permit only surface structures which are grammatical in both languages. Resolution of structural conflict plays a key role, so that lexical cores trigger longer phrasal switches if they govern rules which create non-shared surface structures. The relative frequency of mixes without structural conflict is constrained by discourse function. *
Primed and prejudiced: the Kurantha-Bothata study

The peer review system is a core tenet of scientific publishing, as it intends to select the studies that advance knowledge. However, there have been questions concerning biases in peer review. One example amongst many is given by the essay "Lost science in the third world" (GIBBS, 1995), which argues that there is serious bias concerning an author's address. Though there is some empirical evidence to back this statement, our knowledge of such biases, however, is limited, as few controlled studies have been provided in the literature. In this work, we have conducted an experiment, in which subjects were assigned the task of reviewing a manuscript lacking any author identification, except for a small footnote acknowledging financial support from an agency that does not exist. Under one condition, the funding agency's name is associated with the African continent, while on another condition, the agency's name is associated with the European continent. Our experiments do provide some support for the author's-bias-hypothesis. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank God for absolutely everything – without Him, nothing of this would be possible. Also, I would like to thank my family: My parents, Luiz and Lucia, for all the support throughout the years and all the effort invested in me. My sister Livia, who fights in the academic battlefield as I do, for the example of energy and hard-work. My grandmothers Lea and Marilia, for trying to spoil me and making such a good job. Thanks to my wife Sarah for letting me build my world of dreams around her I'm so glad that I have found you. All my family, old and new, thanks for trusting and supporting me. I hope I can make you as proud of me as I am of you. I would like to thank Professor Alexandre Linhares for believing in my potential on my admission interview. That day changed my life. I also have learned googols of things during our meetings and this changed my life as well. I would like to thank my friends, whom in the words of Shakespeare, are “the family we choose for ourselves”. Finally, I would like to thank my friends from FGV: our journey was ardorous, treacherous and sometimes frightenly lonely, but we stood together and together we have succeeded. For you, I dedicate this quote from The Lord of The Rings, by J.R. R. Tolkien: “The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say”.
Green governors: A framework for Continuously Adaptive DVFS

We present Continuously Adaptive Dynamic Voltage/Frequency scaling in Linux systems running on Intel i7 and AMD Phenom II processors. By exploiting slack, inherent in memory-bound programs, our approach aims to improve power efficiency even when the processor does not sit idle. Our underlying methodology is based on a simple first-order processor performance model in which frequency scaling is expressed as a change (in cycles) of the main memory latency. Utilizing available monitoring hardware we show that our model is powerful enough to i) predict with reasonable accuracy the effect of frequency scaling (in terms of performance loss) and ii) predict the core energy under different V/f combinations. To validate our approach we perform highly accurate, fine-grained power measurements directly on the off-chip voltage regulators. We use our model to implement various DVFS policies as Linux “green” governors to continuously optimize for various power-efficiency metrics such as EDP or ED2P, or achieve energy savings with a user-specified limit on performance loss. Our evaluation shows that, for SPEC2006 workloads, our governors achieve dynamically the same optimal EDP or ED2P (within 2% on avg.) as an exhaustive search of all possible frequencies. Energy savings can reach up to 56% in memory-bound workloads with corresponding improvements of about 55% for EDP or ED2P.
Incident lacunes influence cognitive decline

Background: In cerebral small vessel disease, the core MRI findings include white matter lesions (WML) and lacunar infarcts. While the clinical significance of WML is better understood, the contribution of lacunes to the rate of cognitive decline has not been established. This study investigated whether incident lacunes on MRI determine longitudinal cognitive change in elderly subjects with WML. Methods: Within the Leukoaraiosis and Disability Study (LADIS), 387 subjects were evaluated with repeated MRI and neuropsychological assessment at baseline and after 3 years. Predictors of change in global cognitive function and specific cognitive domains over time were analyzed with multivariate linear regression. Results: After controlling for demographic factors, baseline cognitive performance, baseline lacunar and WML lesion load, and WML progression, the number of new lacunes was related to subtle decrease in compound scores for executive functions (p = 0.021) and speed and motor control (p = 0.045), but not for memory or global cognitive function. Irrespective of lacunes, WML progression was associated with decrease in executive functions score (p = 0.016). Conclusion: Incident lacunes on MRI parallel a steeper rate of decline in executive functions and psychomotor speed. Accordingly, in addition to WML, lacunes determine longitudinal cognitive impairment in small vessel disease. Although the individual contribution of lacunes on cognition was modest, they cannot be considered benign findings, but indicate a risk of progressive cognitive impairment.
Multiplier Ideals, B-function, and Spectrum of a Hypersurface Singularity

We prove that certain roots of the Bernstein-Sato polynomial (i.e. b-function) are jumping coefficients up to a sign, showing a partial converse of a theorem of L. Ein, R. Lazarsfeld, K.E. Smith, and D. Varolin. We also prove that certain roots are determined by a filtration on the Milnor cohomology, generalizing a theorem of B. Malgrange in the isolated singularity case. This implies a certain relation with the spectrum which is determined by the Hodge filtration, because the above filtration is related to the pole order filtration. For multiplier ideals we prove an explicit formula in the case of locally conical divisors along a stratification, generalizing a formula of Mustaţǎ in the case of hyperplane arrangements. We also give another proof of a formula of U. Walther on the bfunction of a generic hyperplane arrangement, including the multiplicity of −1. To Joseph Steenbrink
GrammR: graphical representation and modeling of count data with application in metagenomics

MOTIVATION Microbiota compositions have great implications in human health, such as obesity and other conditions. As such, it is of great importance to cluster samples or taxa to visualize and discover community substructures. Graphical representation of metagenomic count data relies on two aspects, measure of dissimilarity between samples/taxa and algorithm used to estimate coordinates to study microbiota communities. UniFrac is a dissimilarity measure commonly used in metagenomic research, but it requires a phylogenetic tree. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) is a popular algorithm for estimating two-dimensional (2D) coordinates for graphical representation, although alternative and higher-dimensional representations may reveal underlying community substructures invisible in 2D representations. RESULTS We adapt a new measure of dissimilarity, penalized Kendall's τ-distance, which does not depend on a phylogenetic tree, and hence more readily applicable to a wider class of problems. Further, we propose to use metric multidimensional scaling (MDS) as an alternative to PCoA for graphical representation. We then devise a novel procedure for determining the number of clusters in conjunction with PAM (mPAM). We show superior performances with higher-dimensional representations. We further demonstrate the utility of mPAM for accurate clustering analysis, especially with higher-dimensional MDS models. Applications to two human microbiota datasets illustrate greater insights into the subcommunity structure with a higher-dimensional analysis.