Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
School motivation of boys and girls: Differences of degree, differences of kind, or both?

The present study sought to explore invariance in factor structure, cluster profiles, and perceptual mapping in student motivation as a function of gender. Among a sample of 2,927 Australian high school students, motivation differences were explored using the Student Motivation Scale (Martin, 2001, 2002a, 2002b). The data clearly show that there are differences in the degree to which boys and girls are motivated, although generally effect sizes are small. Girls are statistically significantly higher in learning focus, planning, study management, and persistence while boys are significantly higher in self-sabotage or self-handicapping. Interestingly, girls are also significantly higher in anxiety. However, across boys and girls there is invariance in factor structure, cluster profiles, and perceptual mapping suggesting that there are no fundamental motivational differences of kind. That is, in relation to key facets of motivation, there is a highly similar factor structure across boys and girls, boys and girls can be grouped into parallel motivation clusters, and boys and girls seem to perceptually locate key motivational dimensions in similar ways. It is concluded that although girls have higher levels of motivation than boys on a number of dimensions, the two groups' fundamental motivation orientations do not appear to be markedly qualitatively different. This holds implications not only for data analysis but also for programmatic intervention aimed at enhancing or sustaining boys' and girls' motivation.
Cancer diagnosis using proteomic patterns

The advent of proteomics has brought with it the hope of discovering novel biomarkers that can be used to diagnose diseases, predict susceptibility and monitor progression. Much of this effort has focused upon the mass spectral identification of the thousands of proteins that populate complex biosystems such as serum and tissues. A revolutionary approach in proteomic pattern analysis has emerged as an effective method for the early diagnosis of diseases such as ovarian cancer. Proteomic pattern analysis relies on the pattern of proteins observed and does not rely on the identification of a traceable biomarker. Hundreds of clinical samples per day can be analyzed utilizing this technology, which has the potential to be a novel, highly sensitive diagnostic tool for the early detection of cancer.
Left ventricular global longitudinal strain in acute myocardial infarction--with special reference to neurohormonal activation, in-hospital heart failure and prognosis.

BACKGROUND Systolic dysfunction, clinical heart failure and elevated levels of neurohormonal peptides are major predictors of adverse outcome after acute myocardial infarction (MI). In the present thesis we evaluated global longitudinal strain (GLS) in patients with acute MI in relation to neurohormonal activation, in-hospital heart failure and prognosis with specific attention to the group of patients with preserved LVEF that currently do not meet the criteria for anti remodeling therapies. RESULTS GLS was found to be significantly associated with neurohormonal activation as assessed by NT-proBNP levels and that this association was present also in patients with preserved LVEF. Patients with clinical HF during hospitalization for acute MI had significantly poorer GLS compared to controls and this relationship was robust when adjusting for known factors associated with elevated LV filling pressure such as left atrial volume and E/e' ratio. Furthermore, measurement of GLS attenuated the value of NT-proBNP in relation to in-hospital HF in patients with preserved LVEF. Finally, GLS was related to outcome in the largest ever echocardiographic deformation study of patients with acute MI and relatively preserved LVEF. We found that GLS predicted mortality and heart failure admissions and that the effect on mortality was driven by a significantly increased risk of cardiac death in patients with impaired GLS. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, the results of this thesis demonstrate that GLS as a measure of LV systolic function is significantly related to elevated neurohormonal activation, early hemodynamic deterioration and predict adverse outcome in a low risk population without indications for anti remodeling therapies. Early measurement of GLS in this population could be used as a risk stratification tool for added monitoring and clinical trials.
Predictors of Social Service Contact among Teenagers in England

Very few UK studies make use of longitudinal general population data to explore social service contact for children and young people. Those that do only look at specific interventions such as care placements. This paper seeks to address this gap by asking to what extent do structural, neighbourhood, familial and individual characteristics predict social service contact. We provide an empirical answer by analysing the Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England, which includes data on social service contact in connection with young people's behaviour. Our findings indicate that social class, gender, ethnicity, stepfamily status and special education needs are all significant predictors of social service contact. Difficult parent–child relationships, frequent arguments and parents' lack of engagement with school meetings also matter, as does young people's own risk-taking behaviour. We conclude with a discussion of the limitation of the data for social work research and the implications of the findings.
An invasive Mimosa in India does not adopt the symbionts of its native relatives.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The large monophyletic genus Mimosa comprises approx. 500 species, most of which are native to the New World, with Central Brazil being the main centre of radiation. All Brazilian Mimosa spp. so far examined are nodulated by rhizobia in the betaproteobacterial genus Burkholderia. Approximately 10 Mya, transoceanic dispersal resulted in the Indian subcontinent hosting up to six endemic Mimosa spp. The nodulation ability and rhizobial symbionts of two of these, M. hamata and M. himalayana, both from north-west India, are here examined, and compared with those of M. pudica, an invasive species. METHODS Nodules were collected from several locations, and examined by light and electron microscopy. Rhizobia isolated from them were characterized in terms of their abilities to nodulate the three Mimosa hosts. The molecular phylogenetic relationships of the rhizobia were determined by analysis of 16S rRNA, nifH and nodA gene sequences. KEY RESULTS Both native Indian Mimosa spp. nodulated effectively in their respective rhizosphere soils. Based on 16S rRNA, nifH and nodA sequences, their symbionts were identified as belonging to the alphaproteobacterial genus Ensifer, and were closest to the 'Old World' Ensifer saheli, E. kostiensis and E. arboris. In contrast, the invasive M. pudica was predominantly nodulated by Betaproteobacteria in the genera Cupriavidus and Burkholderia. All rhizobial strains tested effectively nodulated their original hosts, but the symbionts of the native species could not nodulate M. pudica. CONCLUSIONS The native Mimosa spp. in India are not nodulated by the Burkholderia symbionts of their South American relatives, but by a unique group of alpha-rhizobial microsymbionts that are closely related to the 'local' Old World Ensifer symbionts of other mimosoid legumes in north-west India. They appear not to share symbionts with the invasive M. pudica, symbionts of which are mostly beta-rhizobial.
Ultrasound applicators for interstitial thermal coagulation

Direct-coupled (DC) and catheter-cooled (CC) ultrasound applicator configurations were evaluated for high-temperature ultrasound interstitial thermal therapy (USITT) using computer simulations, acoustic beam measurements, and in vivo temperature measurements. The DC devices consist of 2.2-mm diameter tubular ultrasound transducers encapsulated within a thin biocompatible plastic coating, which can be inserted directly into the tissue. The CC devices incorporate 1.5-mm diameter tubular transducers, which are inserted within 2.2to 2.4-mm diameter plastic implant catheters and require an integrated water-cooling scheme. Simulated transient temperature profiles and cumulative thermal dose distributions indicate that each of these applicator configurations can produce target temperatures greater than 50/spl deg/C and corresponding thermal doses greater than 300 to 600 equivalent minutes at 43/spl deg/C (EM/sub 43/spl deg/C/) within 5 min at a radial depth of 1 to 1.5 cm in moderately perfused tissues. Theoretical investigations of air-cooling implemented within DC applicators demonstrated a significant enhancement of thermal penetration compared with non-cooled DC applicators, thus approaching performance attainable with CC devices. Temperature distributions achieved with DC and CC applicators in vivo were in agreement with theoretical calculations and further demonstrate that the devices are practical, sufficient power output levels can be obtained, and the angular heating profiles can be shaped or directed to protect non-targeted critical normal tissues. This preliminary study demonstrates that these interstitial ultrasound applicators have potential to provide controlled thermal coagulation and necrosis of small target regions and deserve further investigation and development for possible implementation in the treatment of benign and cancerous lesions in sites such as prostate, liver, and brain.
Letramentos escolares: coletâneas de textos nos livros didáticos de língua portuguesa

O presente artigo discute os letramentos caracteristicos da contemporaneidade, para, em seguida, voltar-se para os letramentos escolares, com base no perfil das coletâneas de textos do livro didatico de Lingua Portuguesa (LDP)1 que circulou nas redes publicas brasileiras de Ensino Fundamental (1a a 4a serie), de 2004 a 2009. A analise dessas coletâneas, em termos de generos representados e de suas esferas de circulacao, discute os letramentos escolares possiveis a partir desses textos. Os resultados mostram que o LDP ainda esta longe de incorporar os letramentos requeridos na contemporaneidade.
Blocking of Petit‐mal Attacks by Sensory Arousal and Inhibition of Attacks by an Active Change in Attention during the Epileptic Aura *

The blocking effect of sensory arousal and of active attention on epileptic seizures is studied in 200 cases of petit‐mal and 20 cases of grand mal with focal onset. The mechanisms of the seizure block may be similar to desynchronization and reciprocal inhibition of neuronal activity in the cortex during arousal. They may arise from the non‐specific thalamo‐reticular system which is activated by sensory afferents or attention.
Alternative splicing and nonsense-mediated decay modulate expression of important regulatory genes in Arabidopsis

Alternative splicing (AS) coupled to nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) is a post-transcriptional mechanism for regulating gene expression. We have used a high-resolution AS RT–PCR panel to identify endogenous AS isoforms which increase in abundance when NMD is impaired in the Arabidopsis NMD factor mutants, upf1-5 and upf3-1. Of 270 AS genes (950 transcripts) on the panel, 102 transcripts from 97 genes (32%) were identified as NMD targets. Extrapolating from these data around 13% of intron-containing genes in the Arabidopsis genome are potentially regulated by AS/NMD. This cohort of naturally occurring NMD-sensitive AS transcripts also allowed the analysis of the signals for NMD in plants. We show the importance of AS in introns in 5′ or 3′UTRs in modulating NMD-sensitivity of mRNA transcripts. In particular, we identified upstream open reading frames overlapping the main start codon as a new trigger for NMD in plants and determined that NMD is induced if 3′-UTRs were >350 nt. Unexpectedly, although many intron retention transcripts possess NMD features, they are not sensitive to NMD. Finally, we have shown that AS/NMD regulates the abundance of transcripts of many genes important for plant development and adaptation including transcription factors, RNA processing factors and stress response genes.
Mechanisms Underlying the Rules for Associative Plasticity at Adult Human Neocortical Synapses

The neocortex in our brain stores long-term memories by changing the strength of connections between neurons. To date, the rules and mechanisms that govern activity-induced synaptic changes at human cortical synapses are poorly understood and have not been studied directly at a cellular level. Here, we made whole-cell recordings of human pyramidal neurons in slices of brain tissue resected during neurosurgery to investigate spike timing-dependent synaptic plasticity in the adult human neocortex. We find that human cortical synapses can undergo bidirectional modifications in strength throughout adulthood. Both long-term potentiation and long-term depression of synapses was dependent on postsynaptic NMDA receptors. Interestingly, we find that human cortical synapses can associate presynaptic and postsynaptic events in a wide temporal window, and that rules for synaptic plasticity in human neocortex are reversed compared with what is generally found in the rodent brain. We show this is caused by dendritic L-type voltage-gated Ca2+ channels that are prominently activated during action potential firing. Activation of these channels determines whether human synapses strengthen or weaken. These findings provide a synaptic basis for the timing rules observed in human sensory and motor plasticity in vivo, and offer insights into the physiological role of L-type voltage-gated Ca2+ channels in the human brain.
Ikarus: large-scale participatory sensing at high altitudes

Sensor networks proved to be a useful research tool in the field of environmental monitoring. While first sensor deployments consisted of a relatively small number of static nodes, mobile sensor devices have attracted growing interest for large-scale sensing applications in recent years. In this paper, we present Ikarus, a novel participatory sensing application having orders of magnitude more users than existing approaches. The Ikarus system exploits sensor data collected during cross-country flights by paraglider pilots to study thermal effects in the atmosphere. Based on first experiences gained from this approach, we identify three key aspects that are crucial for the success of participatory sensing applications: incentives for participation, the ability to deal with faulty data, and concise data representation.
3D printed bionic prosthetic hands

This article deals with upper limb prosthetic made by 3D printing technology. For tests and analysis the number of open-source bionic hands (eNable and exiii's HACKberry projects) were chosen. These hands represent low cost solution of conventional or myolectric prosthesis. Our investigation was focused on three main parts: 3D printing using different 3D printers, technologies and materials; assembly with the use of commonly gettable fasteners and devices on Czech market; functionality testing under laboratory condition. In conclusion our results of these fields are summarized and possible improvements are outlined.
Remembering reconsidered: The maintenance of marginal knowledge

The view that memory research should relate directly to real-life problems has received much support during the past decade. The new ecological emphasis is evident in the titles of recent books (Harris & Morris, 1984; Poon, in press), including this volume, and in the materials, situations, and procedures selected for study by many investigators. However, the new ecological emphasis has yielded uneven benefits because it has focused on autobiographical event memory and on short time periods. In contrast, long-term retention of semantic-memory content continues to be neglected. The failure to investigate lifetime retention of semantic content leaves memory research largely irrelevant to education. A primary goal of education is to establish and preserve knowledge, and relevant memory research must explore retention of knowledge systems over long periods of time. Findings based on event memory or limited to short intervals are comparatively trivial. This problem has been discussed by Neisser (1982), who has sharply criticized psychologists for neglecting research concerned with the long-term retention of academic content. Psychologists recognized long ago that the scientific study of learning ought to produce benefits to education. The relation of psychology to education can be viewed as comparable to the relation of biological science to medicine, or the relation of genetics and botany to agriculture. To be sure, societies grew crops, treated the ill, and educated their youth long before scientists began to investigate the principles involved in these essential enterprises, but the advances in biological and agricultural sciences during the last 200 years have led to dramatic improvements in the way medicine and farming are practiced.
Hormone replacement therapy and the prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis

Fracture prevention is one of the public health priorities worldwide. Estrogen deficiency is the major factor in the pathogenesis of postmenopausal osteoporosis, the most common metabolic bone disease. Different effective treatments for osteoporosis are available. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at different doses rapidly normalizes turnover, preserves bone mineral density (BMD) at all skeletal sites, leading to a significant, reduction in vertebral and non-vertebral fractures. Tibolone, a selective tissue estrogenic activity regulator (STEAR), is effective in the treatment of vasomotor symptoms, vaginal atrophy and prevention/treatment of osteoporosis with a clinical efficacy similar to that of conventional HRT. Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) such as raloxifene and bazedoxifene reduce turnover and maintain or increase vertebral and femoral BMD and reduce the risk of osteoporotic fractures. The combination of bazedoxifene and conjugated estrogens, defined as tissue selective estrogen complex (TSEC), is able to reduce climacteric symptoms, reduce bone turnover and preserve BMD. In conclusion, osteoporosis prevention can actually be considered as a major additional benefit in climacteric women who use HRT for treatment of climacteric symptoms. The use of a standard dose of HRT for osteoporosis prevention is based on biology, epidemiology, animal and preclinical data, observational studies and randomized, clinical trials. The antifracture effect of a lower dose HRT or TSEC is supported by the data on BMD and turnover, with compelling scientific evidence.
Declarative Database Management in SQLServer

This paper describes the principles and practice of Declarative Management --- a new approach to the management of database systems. The standard approach to database systems management involves a brittle coupling of interactive operations and procedural scripts. Such ad hoc approach results in incorrect administration, which leads to increased management costs. In the Declarative Management paradigm, a user specifies "what" the desired state is, and the system figures out "how" to get there and stay there. Declarative Management represents a fundamental step towards the goal of a self-managing database system. It also has the potential to significantly lower both administrative error and cost. An initial implementation of Declarative Management has been released with the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database product, and the paper covers the implementation design as well.
Nonlinear block multi-diagonalization precoding for high SHF wide-band massive MIMO in 5G

In the paper, we propose a novel transmit precoding named “nonlinear block multi-diagonalization (NL-BMD) precoding,” composed of block multi-diagonalization and adjacent inter-user interference pre-cancellation, for multiuser MIMO downlink toward 5G. It is revealed through computer simulations that, the proposed NL-BMD precoding yields up to 77% performance improvement in average sum-rate throughput and enables large-capacity transmission regardless of the user configuration, compared with the conventional block diagonalization precoding.
Colors and Trust: The Influence of User Interface Design on Trust and Reciprocity

Interpersonal trust and reciprocation are crucial factors in peer-to-peer online interactions. In order to shed more light on the association of user interface (UI) design and trusting as well as reciprocating behavior, we consider a computerized trust game with different interface background colors, red and blue, namely. We locate our work within recent NeuroIS theory, linking UI background color to user behavior via perceived warmth of UIs and color appeal. The results of a laboratory experiment indicate an enhancing effect of red interfaces on reciprocation behavior, fully mediated by perceived warmth. We suggest to further investigate this phenomenon by applying NeuroIS methodology.
Cmpres: To Save Your Cloud World Compressed

With the success of cloud, more and more services provide cloud space for users. For the accessibility, convenience and free cost, users start to backup their data on to the cloud so that the data can be accessed at any place and any time. However, compared to the increasing user data size, the capacity of the free cloud services are always limited. In this paper, we propose Compress, an user space file system, to transparently compress the data before it is stored onto the cloud services to enlarge the capability of storing data without incurring any extra fee. Compress temporarily caches the data in local and pushes the compressed data to the remote cloud service via its client. The evaluation result shows that Compress makes the capability of storing file of the cloud service larger while keeping the latency low.
The effect of air movement on the hatchability of chicken eggs during artificial incubation.

Synopsis In order to obtain more knowledge about the relationship between the velocity of air movement and the percentage hatch, a number of experiments were performed in two cabinet‐type incubators equipped with a device enabling the air movement to be measured. Air velocities in the incubators varied from 0.08 to 3 m/s, depending on the location of the anemometer between the eggs, the turning position of the drum and the speed of the air stirrer. The air velocities were not affected by opening or closing the ventilation ports. A direct effect of the air velocity on the hatchability could not be shown. When stirrer speeds of 60 and 120 rev/min (experiment A) and 120 and 180 rev/min (experiment B) were employed, the best hatching results were always obtained in the incubator with the highest stirrer speed. These differences were explained by the results of a number of temperature measurements which showed more accumulation of heat between the eggs when a lower stirrer speed was employed. At 60 rev/min a s.