Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Technology leadership for the twenty‐first century principal

This paper examines current issues related to technology integration and provides a contextual framework with which school principals can undertake new leadership responsibilities in this area. Selected examples of successful technology integration are provided to inform current technology leadership practices. The leadership goals, competencies and responsibilities needed in order to achieve this preferred future are described. In the final section, the authors draw on professional experiences as researcher and teacher/leader to build and expand on a five‐part leadership model currently in use by a large urban school district to interpret multiple dimensions of technology leadership for principals. Ways in which this framework can serve as a guide for school leaders as they develop technology competencies, implement professional growth plans, work with their community, and provide daily technology leadership, mentorship and advocacy for teachers in an elementary school are discussed.
Exploring the gap between teachers' and learners' beliefs about ‘useful’ activities for EFL

Do learner beliefs match teacher beliefs concerning which activities are useful for EFL? Several studies in recent years have tried to answer this question: almost all have reported that learners favour ‘traditional’, and teachers ‘communicative’, activities. However, few studies have tried to answer the important questions of why the differences occur, whether they affect learning, and how they can be eliminated. The aim of the present study was to try to answer these questions. Data were collected by questionnaire and interview from 158 EFL students and 30 EFL teachers in a Hong Kong university. A considerable mismatch between learner and teacher beliefs was found – in particular, learners rated error correction and grammar exercises much higher, and pair work and group work much lower, than did the teachers. Conclusions were that this wide gap almost certainly had a negative effect on learners' linguistic progress, satisfaction with the class, and confidence in their teachers, and that similar differences probably occur in many other contexts and classrooms. It is proposed that teachers at least consider giving learners more autonomy in choosing activities, and also make clear to learners the rationale behind unpopular activities – particularly group work and pair work.
Nesfatin-1 Regulates the Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Ovarian Axis of Fish1

ABSTRACT Nesfatin-1 is an anorexigen in goldfish. In the present study, we provide novel data indicating the presence and regulatory effects of nesfatin-1 on the hypothalamo-pituitary-ovarian (HPO) axis of goldfish. Nucleobindin-2 (NUCB2)/nesfatin-1-like immunoreactive (ir) cells are present in the hypothalamus and in the pituitary, suggesting a hypophysiotropic role for nesfatin-1. NUCB2/nesfatin-1-like ir cells colocalize gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) in the nucleus lateralis tuberis posterioris and the nucleus anterior tuberis of the goldfish hypothalamus. The presence of nesfatin-1 with GnRH in these two nuclei implicated in pituitary hormone release suggests a role for nesfatin-1 on gonadotropin secretion. A single i.p. injection of synthetic goldfish nesfatin-1 (50 ng/g body wt) resulted in an acute decrease (∼75%) in the expression of hypothalamic chicken GnRH-II and salmon GnRH mRNAs at 15 min postinjection in goldfish. Meanwhile, pituitary luteinizing hormone (LH) beta and follicle-stimulating hormone beta mRNAs were also inhibited (∼80%), but only at 60 min postinjection. Nesfatin-1 administration also resulted in a significant reduction (∼60%) in serum LH levels at 60 min postadministration. Nesfatin-1-like immunoreactivity was also found in the follicle cells, but not the oocytes, in zebrafish and goldfish ovaries. Incubation of zebrafish follicles with nesfatin-1 resulted in a significant reduction in basal germinal vesicle breakdown (∼50%) during the oocyte maturation. In addition, nesfatin-1 also attenuated the stimulatory effects of maturation-inducing hormone on germinal vesicle breakdown. Together, the current results indicate that nesfatin-1 is a metabolic hormone with an inhibitory tone on fish reproduction. Nesfatin-1 appears to elicit this suppressive effect through actions on all three tissues in the fish HPO axis.
The ‘Girl Effect’ and martial arts: social entrepreneurship and sport, gender and development in Uganda

In recent years, three notable trends have emerged in the gender and development landscape: the increasing use of sport as a tool to achieve gender and development objectives (SGD); the expanding involvement of transnational corporations (TNCs) in creating, funding and implementing development programs; and the ‘girling’ of development. The last trend has largely been facilitated by the proliferation of the global ‘Girl Effect’ campaign, or ‘the unique potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world’ (Girl Effect 2011). This article reports on findings from a global ethnography – involving semi-structured interviews, participant observation and document analysis – that considered how sport-oriented Girl Effect interventions impact the lives of girls they target. Using a Girl Effect-focused partnership among a TNC (based in Western Europe), an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) (based in Western Europe) and a Southern NGO (based in Uganda) as a case study, this article examines how SGD programs for Ugandan girls encourage them to become ‘entrepreneurs of themselves’ (Rose 1999) equipped to survive in the current global neoliberal climate using social entrepreneurial tactics such as training to be martial arts instructors combined with activities such as cultivating nuts. Results show how Girl Effect-oriented SGD programs that focus on social entrepreneurship tend to overlook the broader structural inequalities and gender relations that marginalize girls in the first place. I conclude by suggesting that future studies must further explore the socio-economic, cultural and political implications and consequences that social entrepreneurship and ‘economic forms’ of SGD interventions hold for girls.
Notice of RetractionApplications of Intelligent Information Technology in food logistics

There is an increasing demand for the transparency and traceability in food supply chain. From the raw material to the sale of goods, more and more information needs to be gathered and made available. Supplementary information may also be collected at any step, in order to provide data for analysis and optimization of production practices. Intelligent Information Technology such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology and Electronic Ordering System (EOS) has had tremendous impact on manufacturing, transportation, retailing, customer services and so on. This paper will begin with a presentation of the status of China's food logistics, thereby, providing a general overview on the applications and development prospects of intelligent information technology in food logistics.
Temporal representation and reasoning in OWL 2

The representation of temporal information has been in the center of intensive research activities over the years in the areas of knowledge representation, databases and more recently, the Semantic Web. The proposed approach extends the existing framework of representing temporal information in ontologies by allowing for representation of concepts evolving in time (referred to as “dynamic” information) and of their properties in terms of qualitative descriptions in addition to quantitative ones (i.e., dates, time instants and intervals). For this purpose, we advocate the use of natural language expressions, such as “before” or “after”, for temporal entities whose exact durations or starting and ending points in time are unknown. Reasoning over all types of temporal information (such as the above) is also an important research problem. The current work addresses all these issues as follows: The representation of dynamic concepts is achieved using the “4D-fluents” or, alternatively, the “N-ary relations” mechanism. Both mechanisms are thoroughly explored and are expanded for representing qualitative and quantitative temporal information in OWL. In turn, temporal information is expressed using either intervals or time instants. Qualitative temporal information representation in particular, is realized using sets of SWRL rules and OWL axioms leading to a sound, complete and tractable reasoning procedure based on path consistency applied on the existing relation sets. Building upon existing Semantic Web standards (OWL), tools and member submissions (SWRL), as well as integrating temporal reasoning support into the proposed representation, are important design features of our approach.
General Education versus Vocational Training: Evidence from an Economy in Transition

This paper examines the relative benefits of general education and vocational training during Romania's transition to a market economy. We examine a 1973 educational reform that shifted a large proportion of students from vocational training to general education. Using census and household survey data, we analyze the effect of this policy with a regression discontinuity design. We find that men affected by the policy are significantly less likely to work in manual or craft-related occupations but have similar levels of labor market participation and earnings compared to their counterparts unaffected by the policy. We conclude that differences in labor market returns between graduates of vocational and general schools are largely driven by selection.
Growth and volatility regime switching models for New Zealand GDP data

This paper fits hidden Markov switching models to New Zealand GDP data. A primary objective is to better understand the utility of these methods for modelling growth and volatility regimes present in the New Zealand data and their interaction. Properties of the models are developed together with a description of the estimation methods, including use of the Expectation Maximisation (EM) algorithm. The models are fitted to New Zealand GDP and production sector growth rates to analyse changes in their mean and volatility over time. The paper discusses applications of the methodology to identifying changes in growth performances, and examines the timing of growth and volatility regime switching between production sectors. Conclusions to emerge are that, in contrast to the 1980s, New Zealand GDP growth experienced an unusually long period of time in high growth and low volatility regimes during the 1990s. The paper evaluates sector contributions to this 1990s experience and discusses directions for further development.
Information theoretic study of the signaling problem in decentralized stabilization of noisy linear systems

We study the problem of distributed stabilization of linear systems over communication channels. Building on our earlier work, we adopt an information theoretic look at the signaling problem when the system and observations are noisy. We provide a lower bound on the average sum-rate, which is tight when the system noise is absent. We further show that when the system and observations are noisy, the signaling process involves coding over an unknown channel with unequal side information between the stations, and as such its construction is fairly complicated. This leads to new insights on designing distributed controllers connected over channels.
CBT-Based Early Intervention to Prevent Panic Disorder: A Pilot Study

Panic disorder remains a major health problem associated with high levels of disability and medical care, compounded by difficulties accessing appropriate treatment. Despite significant advances in understanding and effective treatment with CBT, the scope for better recognition and early intervention to prevent panic disorder has been relatively neglected in the CBT literature. This pilot study utilized the prevalence of panic attacks presenting in emergency medical care to test deployment of CBT as a practical early intervention strategy for panic disorder in routine NHS conditions. Twenty-seven people attending two typical UK Accident & Emergency (A&E) Departments with recent onset panic attacks were given a single session of CBT-based intervention or assessment only, and followed-up over 3 months. Basic measures of panic symptoms showed an improving trend across the whole sample. The very limited experimental control did not permit firm conclusions about the role of the intervention but at follow-up nearly one-third reported persisting difficulties typical of panic disorder, which then improved with brief additional CBT. Implications are discussed in relation to the existing literature and regarding further research on panic disorder prevention.
Application of artificial neural networks for short term wind speed forecasting in Mardin, Turkey

Artificial neural network models were used for short term wind speed forecasting in the Mardin area, located in the Southeast Anatolia region of Turkey. Using data that was obtained from the State Meteorological Service and that encompassed a ten year period, short term wind speed forecasting for the Mardin area was performed. A number of different ANN models were developed in this study. The model with 60 neurons is the most successful model for short term wind speed forecasting. The mean squared error and approximation values for training of this model were 0.378088 and 0.970490, respectively. The ANN models developed in the study have produced satisfactory results. The most successful among those models constitutes a model that can be used by the Mardin Electric Utility Control Centre.
Spectral Diversity and Regulation of Coral Fluorescence in a Mesophotic Reef Habitat in the Red Sea

The phenomenon of coral fluorescence in mesophotic reefs, although well described for shallow waters, remains largely unstudied. We found that representatives of many scleractinian species are brightly fluorescent at depths of 50–60 m at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences (IUI) reef in Eilat, Israel. Some of these fluorescent species have distribution maxima at mesophotic depths (40–100 m). Several individuals from these depths displayed yellow or orange-red fluorescence, the latter being essentially absent in corals from the shallowest parts of this reef. We demonstrate experimentally that in some cases the production of fluorescent pigments is independent of the exposure to light; while in others, the fluorescence signature is altered or lost when the animals are kept in darkness. Furthermore, we show that green-to-red photoconversion of fluorescent pigments mediated by short-wavelength light can occur also at depths where ultraviolet wavelengths are absent from the underwater light field. Intraspecific colour polymorphisms regarding the colour of the tissue fluorescence, common among shallow water corals, were also observed for mesophotic species. Our results suggest that fluorescent pigments in mesophotic reefs fulfil a distinct biological function and offer promising application potential for coral-reef monitoring and biomedical imaging.
Factorizing Probabilistic Graphical Models Using Cooccurrence Rate

Factorization is of fundamental importance in the area of Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGMs). In this paper, we theoretically develop a novel mathematical concept, \textbf{C}o-occurrence \textbf{R}ate (CR), for factorizing PGMs. CR has three obvious advantages: (1) CR provides a unified mathematical foundation for factorizing different types of PGMs. We show that Bayesian Network Factorization (BN-F), Conditional Random Field Factorization (CRF-F), Markov Random Field Factorization (MRF-F) and Refined Markov Random Field Factorization (RMRF-F) are all special cases of CR Factorization (CR-F); (2) CR has simple probability definition and clear intuitive interpretation. CR-F tells not only the scopes of the factors, but also the exact probability functions of these factors; (3) CR connects probability factorization and graph operations perfectly. The factorization process of CR-F can be visualized as applying a sequence of graph operations including partition, merge, duplicate and condition to a PGM graph. We further obtain an important result: by CR-F, on TCG graphs the scopes of factors can be exactly over maximal cliques without any default configuration. This improves the results of (R)MRF-F which need default configurations, and also indicates that (R)MRF-F, as special cases of CR-F, can not always achieve the optimal results of CR-F.
Information-centric networking for connected vehicles: a survey and future perspectives

In the connected vehicle ecosystem, a high volume of information-rich and safety-critical data will be exchanged by roadside units and onboard transceivers to improve the driving and traveling experience. However, poor-quality wireless links and the mobility of vehicles highly challenge data delivery. The IP address-centric model of the current Internet barely works in such extremely dynamic environments and poorly matches the localized nature of the majority of vehicular communications, which typically target specific road areas (e.g., in the proximity of a hazard or a point of interest) regardless of the identity/address of a single vehicle passing by. Therefore, a paradigm shift is advocated from traditional IP-based networking toward the groundbreaking information- centric networking. In this article, we scrutinize the applicability of this paradigm in vehicular environments by reviewing its core functionalities and the related work. The analysis shows that, thanks to features like named content retrieval, innate multicast support, and in-network data caching, information-centric networking is positioned to meet the challenging demands of vehicular networks and their evolution. Interoperability with the standard architectures for vehicular applications along with synergies with emerging computing and networking paradigms are debated as future research perspectives.
A 10-Gb/s, 1.24 pJ/bit, Burst-Mode Clock and Data Recovery With Jitter Suppression

A burst mode clock and data recovery (BMCDR) circuit for 10 Gbps passive optical network (10G-PON) is presented. The proposed BMCDR is reconfigurable between data gating mode and phase tracking mode to achieve instantaneously phase-locked with jitter suppression capability. Incorporating selectively gating VCO (SGVCO), the BMCDR operates at 1/5-rate and accomplishes 1:5 demultiplexing with a high energy efficiency of 1.24 pJ/bit. With a 4 MHz, 0.22UIpp jitter stressed input data at 10 Gbps, the recovered clock jitter at 2 GHz is 2.94 psrms. The prototype is fabricated using 55 nm CMOS technology. The core area is 0.03 mm2 only. It dissipates 12.4 mW from 1 V supply.
Maternal style at the early one-word stage: re-evaluating the stereotype of the directive mother

Since Nelson's original (1973) study there has been a tendency in the literature to view maternal directiveness in an essentially negative way, equating it with maternal intrusiveness or insensitivity (e.g. Nelson 1973, McDonald & Pien 1982). The present study attempts to re-evaluate this negative characterization of maternal directiveness by examining the interactive behaviour of 8 mothers at the early one-word stage of development. The results show that, in contrast to McDonald & Pien's behaviour-oriented/conversation-eliciting dimension, based on the relative proportion of directives and real questions in mothers' speech, the major dimension of variation in the present sample was the relative proportion of behavioural directives and tutorial prompts or test questions. Furthermore this dimension was unrelated either to maternal sensitivity, defined in terms of responsiveness to the child's utterances, or to mothers' use of attentional directives. These findings raise doubts, not only about the tendency to equate directiveness with maternal intrusiveness or insensitivity, but also about the assumption that directiveness reflects a single unitary dimension of mother's interactional behaviour. This suggests that current views of maternal directiveness are based on a negative stereotype of the directive mother and implies the need to analyse maternal speech effects much more carefully than has been done hitherto if we are to understand the mechanisms by which they are actually mediated.
Neuronal architecture in the rat central nucleus of the amygdala: A cytological, hodological, and immunocytochemical study

The organization of neurons in the rat central nucleus of the amygdala (CNA) has been examined by using Nissl stain and immunocytochemical and retrograde tracing techniques. Four main subdivisions were identified on the basis of quantitative analyses of Nissl‐stained material: medial (CM), lateral (CL), lateral capsular (CLC), and ventral (CV). An intermediate subdivision (CI), previously described by McDonald ('82), was apparent only in animals that had HRP‐WGA injected into the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. Large populations of neurotensin‐, corticotropin‐releasing factor (CRF)‐, and enkephalin‐immunoreactive neurons were present within the lateral divisions (mainly CL), although they were also seen within CM. Somatostatin‐immunoreactive neurons were distributed mainly within CL and CM. Within CL, neurotensin and enkephalin‐immunoreactive neurons were more numerous laterally whereas CRF and somatostatin‐immunoreactive neurons were more numerous medially. Substance P‐immunoreactive neurons were almost exclusively confined to CM. Only a few cholecystokin‐and vasoactive‐polypeptide‐immunoreactive neurons were seen in the CNA, and they were observed within CL, CV, and CM. The majority of neurons projecting to the dorsal medulla, hypothalamus, and ventral tegmental area were located within CM, although a significant number of cells were also seen within CL. Efferent projections to the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis were found to arise from neurons located within all subdivisions of the CNA. Thus, the distributional patterns of peptidergic and efferent neurons were not confined to individual cytoarchitectonically defined subdivisions of the CNA. Rather, the results suggest overlapping medial to the lateral trends. Comparisons with the results of previous studies indicate that peptidergic and afferent terminal distribution patterns are more restricted to individual cytoarchitectonically defined subregions of the CNA. These observations suggest that the detailed cytoarchitecture of the CNA more likely reflects the functional integration of afferents rather than the organization of the CNA output neurons.
The Role of External Professionals in Education about Sexual Orientation−towards good practice

Throughout England, young people in schools are entitled to a comprehensive programme of sex education as part of Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE). Current debate about the content of such a programme is informed by new government guidance on sex and relationship education as well as pre-existing concerns about homophobic bullying, sexual health and mental health. In an English local authority, an externally funded Young Gay and Bisexual Men's Development Worker provided educational activities to address sexual orientation and identity issues to four schools. An evaluation sought to identify whether successes had been achieved and why. A further aim was to identify useful learning about the role of external professionals in carrying out effective education about sexual orientation with young people in schools. The evaluation was developed within the context of a number of 'real-world' limitations. Nevertheless, a significant number of project successes (and areas for development) were documented. Successes included raising awareness of key issues among pupils and supporting teachers engaged in PSHE. Key factors contributing to success included: adequate preparation of teachers and pupils in schools; an appropriately skilled and experienced project worker; and a considered approach to building partnerships with schools and working with young people.