Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cognitive orientation and curiosity.

The study focused on the role of cognitive contents as antecedents of curiosity. Following the theory of cognitive orientation and a previous factor-analytic study of curiosity behaviours, the hypothesis was that a measure of cognitive contents reflecting four belief types would predict curiosity behaviours. The subjects were 84 U.S. first-grade boys and girls. They were administered five tasks which yielded 20 measures of curiosity behaviours and a questionnaire of the cognitive orientation of curiosity which enabled assessment of the four belief types. The results showed that a measure reflecting all belief types predicted curiosity behaviours on 14 of the 20 original measures, the unpredicted measures being mostly unrelated to curiosity. Implications for the cognitive orientation theory and for curiosity training are discussed.
Information Integration and the Semantic Web

Information integration and interoperability among information sources are related problems that have received significant attention since early days of computer information processing. Initially, for a few decades, the focus was on integration/interoperability for a relatively small number of sources. This is the setting encountered in traditional business and service applications, for example when two companies merge or several services interoperate (which requires the integration of their information systems). Much of the work in this context of federated or multi-databases focused on integrating schemas by defining a global schema in an expressive data model and defining mappings from local schemas to the global one [19]. More recently, in the context of integration of data sources on the internet, the so-called global-as-view (GAV) and local-as-view (LAV) paradigms have emerged out of projects such as TSIMMIS [20] and Information Manifold (IM) [12]. Recently, the advent of XML as a standard for online data interchange holds much promise toward promoting interoperability and data integration. The focus has also shifted to one of providing integration and interoperability among a large number of independent and autonomous information sources. But XML, being a syntactic model, in itself cannot make interoperability happen automatically. Two main challenges to overcome are: (i) data sources may model XML data in heterogeneous ways, e.g., using different nestings or groupings or interchanging elements and attributes, and (ii) sources may employ different terminology, a classic problem even in multi-database interoperability. While earlier approaches to integration can be extended to handle XML, they suffer from the significant overhead of having to design a commonly agreed upon global schema. Can we interoperate without this overhead? Indeed, there are a few recent proposals that do overcome the need for a global schema – Halevy et al. [9] and Miller et al. [15]. In a nutshell, both of these approaches rely on source to source mappings. One problem here is that requiring such mappings for all pairs is too tedious and cumbersome since the mappings, even if generated semi-automatically, still require significant manual intervention to create. In order to mitigate this, one can merely insist, as [9] does, that the graph of pairs with available mappings be connected. A second problem is that when a source si is mapped to source sj , if sj does not have some of the concepts present in si, then they will be lost. E.g., si may include the ISBN for all its books while sj may not. Independently of all this, recently there has been much excitement around the Semantic Web [18] initiative, coming as it does with its own host of technologies such as resource description framework (RDF) [16] and ontology description languages such as DAML+OIL and OWL [5, 14]. The promise of the Semantic Web is to expose the semantics of the information content of web resources (including text, audio, video, etc.) thus taking the web to a higher semantic level, enabling easy exchange of data and applications.
Lack of cellular and humoral immunological responses to oats in adults with coeliac disease

OBJECTIVE Recent research suggests that oats do not harm intestinal villi in adults with coeliac disease. As the immunological effects of oats have not been examined in detail, it was decided to compare the immunological responses of a gluten free diet including oats with those of a conventional gluten free diet. DESIGN A randomised controlled intervention study over 6–12 months. SUBJECTS Forty adults with newly diagnosed coeliac disease and 52 with coeliac disease in remission were examined. INTERVENTION The effects of a gluten free diet including oats and a conventional gluten free diet were compared. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Serum levels of gliadin and reticulin antibodies as well as numbers of intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) in intestinal mucosa were examined before and after the intervention. RESULTS The rate of disappearance of gliadin and reticulin antibodies did not differ between the diet groups in patients with newly diagnosed coeliac disease. Oats also had no effect on gliadin or reticulin antibody levels in the patients with remission. The number of IELs decreased similarly regardless of the diet of newly diagnosed patients, and no increase in the number of IELs was found in the patients in remission with or without oats. CONCLUSIONS These results strengthen the view that adult patients with coeliac disease can consume moderate amounts of oats without adverse immunological effects.
A direct pancreatic cancer xenograft model as a platform for cancer stem cell therapeutic development

There is an enormous gap between the antiproliferative and in vivo antitumor efficacy of gemcitabine in cell line-based models and its clinical efficacy. This may be due to insensitiveness of the precursor, cancer stem cell (CSC) compartment to cytotoxic agents. The hedgehog pathway is associated with CSC signaling and control. We used a direct xenograft model of pancreatic cancer and a two-stage approach was used to test the hypotheses that targeting CSC could increase the efficacy of gemcitabine. Tumors from a gemcitabine-sensitive xenograft were treated with gemcitabine first, and randomized, after tumor regression to continuing treatment with gemcitabine, a hedgehog inhibitor alone or in combination with gemcitabine. We tested markers described as associated with CSC such as CD24, CD44, ALDH, nestin, and the hedgehog pathway. After induction with gemcitabine, treated tumor showed an enrichment in CSC markers such as ALDH and CD24. Subsequently, a release from gemcitabine prompted a repopulation of proliferating cells and a decrease in such markers to equilibrate from pretreatment levels. Combined treatment with gemcitabine and cyclopamine induced tumor regression and decrease in CSC markers and hedgehog signaling. Cytoplasmic CD24 and ALDH were inversely and strongly associated with growth and were expressed in a minority of cells that we propose constitute the CSC compartment. Hedgehog inhibitors as part of a dual compartment therapeutic approach were able to further reduce tumor growth and decreased both static and dynamic markers of CSC. Direct tumor xenografts are a valid platform to test multicompartment therapeutic approaches in pancreatic cancer. [Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(2):310–4]
Decoding Complete Reach and Grasp Actions from Local Primary Motor Cortex Populations

How the activity of populations of cortical neurons generates coordinated multijoint actions of the arm, wrist, and hand is poorly understood. This study combined multielectrode recording techniques with full arm motion capture to relate neural activity in primary motor cortex (M1) of macaques (Macaca mulatta) to arm, wrist, and hand postures during movement. We find that the firing rate of individual M1 neurons is typically modulated by the kinematics of multiple joints and that small, local ensembles of M1 neurons contain sufficient information to reconstruct 25 measured joint angles (representing an estimated 10 functionally independent degrees of freedom). Beyond showing that the spiking patterns of local M1 ensembles represent a rich set of naturalistic movements involving the entire upper limb, the results also suggest that achieving high-dimensional reach and grasp actions with neuroprosthetic devices may be possible using small intracortical arrays like those already being tested in human pilot clinical trials.
New lucinid bivalves from shallow and deeper water of the Indian and West Pacific Oceans (Mollusca, Bivalvia, Lucinidae)

Abstract Four new species and a new genus of lucinid bivalves are described from shallow and deeper waters in the Indian and West Pacific Oceans. The new genus Scabrilucina (subfamily Lucininae) includes the little-known Scabrilucina victorialis (Melvill, 1899) from the Arabian Sea and Scabrilucina vitrea (Deshayes, 1844) from the Andaman Sea as well as a new species Scabrilucina melvilli from the Torres Strait off northeastern Australia. Ferrocina brunei new species (Lucininae) was recovered from 60 m near oil drilling activities off Borneo; its anatomy confirmed the presence of symbiotic bacteria. Two unusual deeper water species of Leucosphaerinae are described, both species included in on-going molecular analyses; Gonimyrtea ferruginea from 400–650 m in the southwest Pacific and Myrtina reflexa from 200–825 m off Zanzibar and Madagascar.
Effects of in vivo hyperthermia on natural killer cell activity, in vitro proliferative responses and blood mononuclear cell subpopulations

This work was designed to test the hypothesis that elevations in body temperature of humans induce immunostimulalion. Eight healthy volunteers were immersed in a water bath (water temperature 39.5°C) for 2 h. during which their rectal temperature rose to 39.5°C. On a later day they served as their own controls, being immersed into thermoneutral water (34.5°C) for 2 h. Blood samples were collected before immersion, at body temperatures of 38°C, 39°C and 39.5° C, and 2 h after water immersion. The interleukin‐2 (IL‐2) enhanced natural killer (NK) cell activity (lysis per fixed number of mononuclear cells), as well as the proportion and total number of NK cells (CDI6+ cells), increased significantly during hyperthermia compared with control values. The lymphocyte proliferative responses did not differ significantly between hyperthermia and thermoneutral conditions. The proportion of pan‐T (CD3+) cells was maximally depressed 2 h after water immersion. The decreased proportion of CD3+ cells was mainly due to a decreased percentage of CD4+ cells (not significant). The proportion of B cells (CD19+ cells) did not fluctuate significantly, while a marked and significant increase in monocyte proportion (CD14+ cells) was found 2 h after hyperthermia. Two hours after hot water immersion the lymphocyte concentration declined while the neutrophil and monocyte concentrations were augmented. Induced hyperthermia causes signifi cantly increased serum cortisol. plasma norepinephrine and plasma epinephrine concentrations compared to controls. It is possible that the altered immune functions induced by elevated body temperature can be ascribed to altered composition and function of blood mononuclear cells induced by elevated levels of stress hormones.
Main clause syntax and the labeling problem in syntactic bootstrapping ⇤

In English, the distinction between belief verbs, such as think, and desire verbs, such as want, is tracked by the tense of those verbs’ subordinate clauses. This has led some authors within the syntactic bootstrapping literature to propose that subordinate clause tense is an integral part of the acquisition of belief and desire predicates. This proposal is problematic since the correlation between tense and the belief v. desire distinction is not crosslinguistically robust, yet the acquisition profile for these verbs appears to be identical crosslinguistically. Thus, a story on which a particular syntactic feature—such as tense—cues the learner to the appropriate label for a particular semantic distinction—belief v. desire—will not work unmodified. Our proposal in this chapter is that, rather than being cued to a semantic distinction, like belief v. desire, by a particular syntactic feature, like subordinate clause tense, learners may utilize more abstract syntactic cues, whose instantiation is constrained to a small set of possible syntactic feature configurations, but must ultimately be tuned to the syntactic distinctions present in a particular language.
Revisiting politicization: Political advisers and public servants in Westminster systems

In recent times much has been made of the threat some argue is posed by political advisers to the impartiality of the Westminster civil service. Drawing on survey of senior New Zealand civil servants, this article examines the degree to which political advisers are perceived as a threat to civil service neutrality and describes the form taken by that threat as variously perceived. On the evidence reported, it is suggested that traditional understandings of “politicization” need to be reconceptualized if they are to fully account for the nature of the relationship between political and civil service advisers. To existing conceptions of politicization, therefore, the article proposes adding another: “administrative politicization,” allowing for different gradations of politicization to be identified, and enabling a nuanced assessment of the nature and extent of a risk to civil service neutrality that, the data suggest, is not as great as is sometimes alleged.
Investigation of sacrificial layers for 3D LTCC structures and some preliminary results

Modern advanced 3D microelectronic packages are in many cases made as multilayer ceramic modules with integrated electronic components and sub-circuits. The Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramics (LTCC) technology is considered as one of more advanced technologies for fabrication of these structures. The increasing versatility of LTCC technology applications is a consequence of such attractive features of this technology as possibility of creation of three-dimensional structures as many of applications demand possibility of structuring of channels, cavities and reaction chambers, membranes and free-standing beams within LTCC ceramics. To obtain these buried structures without delamination and/or sagging during lamination processes (compressing of green LTCC foils at around 70°C) so called sacrificial layers are often used. During lamination sacrificial layers (screen printed thick film pastes or tapes) support buried cavities. During firing layers must burn out before LTCC tapes are densely sintered to enable the diffusion of air into structures. Six different carbon based materials (four pastes and two tapes) were evaluated. The thermo gravimetrical analysis (TGA) was used to determine the optimised burn-out temperatures and times. LTCC test structures were designed to evaluate the “quality” of buried cavities with different sacrificial materials and with different processing parameters.
Towards a uniform self-configuring virtual private network for workstations and clusters in grid computing

The rising popularity of grid computing makes the issues of growth, security, and access critical in deploying and maintaining well-functioning grid systems. Overlay networks (ON)provide a framework to deal with these issues, but current techniques impose limitations and administrative burdens such as manual configuration for each new system in the grid, installation and configuration of software. Additionally, current approaches lack methods of effectively merging clusters with individual workstations, usually focusing on either the grouping of distributed clusters or a desktop/workstation Grid. The main difference between the two scenarios is that in a cluster environment all machines share a common ON router, whereas in a workstation environment each machine has ON software. This paper presents a novel approach of self-configuring IP-based Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)1 overlays that support dynamic, seamless addition of new resources to the grid for both cluster and workstation platforms. The approach allows for bridging physical and virtual networking in clusters, in a manner that allows dynamic configuration of IP addresses while avoiding overlay routing among nodes within the same layer 2 network. To enable these features, the ON runs on top of a Peer-To-Peer (P2P) network that provides supports a distributed data store. IP addresses are dynamically allocated by a virtual DHCP server controlled by the ON router through atomic operations on the distributed data store. This atomic operation creates a mapping of an IP address to a P2P address that can later be used by the VPN and router to determine the host of an IP address. We have prototyped this approach, demonstrating the ability to seamlessly mix both workstation and cluster based approaches into a wide-area Condor pool.
Die Kodierungsabhängigkeit orthogonaler Reiz-Reaktions-Kompatibilität

Zusammenfassung. Weeks und Proctor (1990) zufolge basieren Reiz-Reaktions-Kompatibilitatseffekte bei vertikal variierenden Reizen und horizontal angeordneten Reaktionen darauf, das Reize und Reaktionen im Hinblick auf ihre salienten Merkmale kodiert werden. Dabei wird angenommen, das die entsprechenden Salienzrelationen bei verbaler und raumlicher Kodierung einander entsprechen. Umilta (1991) argumentiert dagegen, das diese Effekte nur bei verbaler Kodierung auftreten. In Experiment 1 wurde diese Annahme einer Kodierungsspezifitat gepruft, indem die Reiz-Reaktions-Zuordnung entweder verbal oder raumlich-analog instruiert wurde. Dabei wechselte die Zuordnung unvorhersagbar zwischen den einzelnen Versuchsdurchgangen. In Experiment 2 wurden die Sequenzen gleichbleibender bzw. alternierender Zuordnungen weitergehend kontrolliert. In Experiment 3 wurde die Reiz-Reaktions-Zuordnung unvollstandig instruiert, d. h. jeweils nur fur einen Reiz. Die Ergebnisse der ersten beiden Experimente stimmen mit der Annahme ei.
Cross-border insolvencies as a global economic problem

As a result of the continuing expansion of international trade and investment, there has been an increase in the occurrence of cross-border insolvencies. National insolvency laws have not kept pace with the trend, and there is a need to develop an efficient and fair system for the administration of cross-border insolvencies. The lack of predictability in the handling of cross-border insolvency cases impedes capital flow and constitutes a disincentive to cross-border investment. The object of the Cross-Border Insolvency Act is to create provisions for a fair framework to address instances of cross-border insolvency effectively. It is based on UNCITRAL's Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency. The practitioner-inspired solutions that the South African legislation offers are satisfactory and definitely an improvement on the common law position. The only contradiction is that the South African approach towards solving the complicated problems of cross-border insolvencies improves the position of foreign creditors, foreign representatives and foreign courts, while it is still doubtful how foreign courts will treat South African creditors. From this point of view the lack of predictability in the handling of cross-border insolvencies is still subject to criticism as a disincentive to cross-border investment. Insolvensies oor landsgrense as 'n probleem vir 'n gesonder wereldekonomie Insolvensies oor landsgrense skep 'n probleem vir 'n gesonde wereldekonomie. As gevolg van die toenemende uitbreiding van internasionale handel en belegging is daar 'n onmiskenbare toename van insolvensies oor landsgrense. Dit is 'n feit dat nasionale insolvensieregstelsels nie tred gehou het met hierdie internasionalisering nie met die gevolg dat daar 'n intense behoefte bestaan vir die ontwikkeling van 'n effektiewe en billike stelsel vir die administrasie van insolvensies oor landsgrense. Die afwesigheid van voorspelbaarheid in die hantering van insolvensies oor landsgrense belemmer kapitaalvloei en is 'n hindernis vir transnasionale belegging. Die Wet op Insolvensie oor Landsgrense 42 van 2000 se oogmerk is om bepalings daar te stel vir 'n beter hantering van insolvensies oor landsgrense. Dit is gebaseer op UNCITRAL se Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency en is praktyksgeorienteerd. Hierdie wetgewing is 'n voorbeeld van die wyse waarop insolvensies oor landsgrense, as 'n probleem in wereldekonomie, opgelos kan word. Die enigste teenstrydigheid is dat die Suid-Afrikaanse benadering om die ingewikkelde aspekte van transnasionale insolvensies op te los, die posisie van buitelandse skuldeisers, buitelandse verteenwoordigers en buitelandse howe verbeter het, terwyl dit steeds onseker is hoe buitelandse howe Suid-Afrikaanse skuldeisers, Suid-Afrikaanse verteenwoordigers en Suid-Afrikaanse howe sal behandel. Uit hierdie oogpunt is die afwesigheid van voorspelbaarheid in die hantering van insolvensies oor landsgrense steeds aan kritiek onderworpe en steeds 'n belemmering vir transnasionale belegging. (Journal for Juridical Science: 2002 27(2): 72-87)
Computational design of stable planar-rod structures

We present a computational method for designing wire sculptures consisting of interlocking wires. Our method allows the computation of aesthetically pleasing structures that are structurally stable, efficiently fabricatable with a 2D wire bending machine, and assemblable without the need of additional connectors. Starting from a set of planar contours provided by the user, our method automatically tests for the feasibility of a design, determines a discrete ordering of wires at intersection points, and optimizes for the rest shape of the individual wires to maximize structural stability under frictional contact. In addition to their application to art, wire sculptures present an extremely efficient and fast alternative for low-fidelity rapid prototyping because manufacturing time and required material linearly scales with the physical size of objects. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on a varied set of examples, all of which we fabricated.
Maternal causal beliefs for abused and handicapped children

Abstract There are good theoretical grounds for supposing that the beliefs that abusive parents hold about their children are an important factor in determining whether, and in what ways, a child will be abused. A knowledge of the causal attributions held by abusive parents, both in general and with respect to their children, should be a powerful and relevant route into parents' perceptions. However, existing evidence about the attributions of abusive parents is shown to be deficient in both quantity and quality. Interviews were conducted with 3 groups of 8 mothers: mothers of physically abused preschool children; a control group; and mothers of handicapped children (to provide a stressed but coping control). Each child was filmed interacting with a ‘contingency house’ devised to assess their reactions to contingent events. Attributions made during the interviews were analysed using the recently developed Leeds Attributional Coding System, and significant group differences were found, with abuse mothers a.