Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Environmental Dispositions among School-Age Children

The Children's Environmental Response Inventory (CERI) is introduced as a means of measuring environmental disposition, or what has been termed "environmental personality. " This test is shown to have sound psychometric properties. It has been administered to a large sample of school-age children in the age range 9 to 16 years. Differences are found among responses to the eight domains: Pastoralism, Urbanism, Environmental Adaptation, Stimulus Seeking, Environmental Trust, Antiquarianism, Need Privacy, and Mechanical Orientation. Associations are found between individual dispositions and extracurricular activities. Differences related to personal status characteristics-age, sex, and geographic place of residence-suggest that there are important variations in the acquisition of environmental disposition.
Schema coping styles There were described 3 schema coping styles : schema surrender , schema avoidance , and schema

Although treatment of BPD is complicated, CBT therapists can learn schema therapy (ST) principles and strategies used as an additional tool in the therapy. ST originally began as an extension of Beck’s cognitive therapy model and has developed into an unique integrative treatment for the personality disorders. According to the ST principles, schemas provide in-depth understanding of personality disorders. People perceive their own self, others and world in the lenses of their schemas. A schema is an extremely stable, constant pattern which developed during childhood or adolescence and now is elaborated in individual ́s life. ST also devotes considerable attention to modes, the predominant emotions, schemas, and coping reactions used by an individual at a particular time. The aim of the therapy is to engage in schema healing processes. These methods are intended to reduce the early maladaptive schemas and coping styles, and build up more adaptive and healthy approaches. A conceptualization is usually created early in the treatment. The history of the schemas, modes and coping strategies are systematically discussed, their origins explored and linked to current problems, and the opportunity of modifying is explored. In treatment phase, the therapist flexibly uses cognitive, emotional/experiential, behavioral, and relational/ interpersonal strategies to change schemas and maladaptive coping styles. The therapeutic relationship is also an important part of the healing process The relationship is an area in which behaviors modes and schemas can be noticed, assessed and modified. It is also used as mediator for a “corrective emotional experience”. The therapist behaves in ways that supply the unmet early needs of the patient. This connection to the childhood is mirrored in the label of this particular stance called “limited reparenting”. The change of the schemas is impossible without the well-established therapeutic relationship.
Evaluation of software quality in the TopCoder crowdsourcing environment

Many practitioners use rules of thumb to take participate in tasks from online labor markets. TopCoder is such a crowdsourcing platform in which users select among and compete in a collection of contests offering various rewards. Most research efforts on crowdsourcing focus on competitive behaviors of programmers and performance of contests without discussion on the quality of a complete software project that often involves several phases in a group software production process. The main objective of our research is to capture the essential features of TopCoder projects and introduce a new approach to evaluate the quality for each TopCoder project. This paper makes two major contributions: First, we model the effort level using intrinsic properties of contest and validate the definition. We evaluate quality of each contest following the definition of effort level. Subsequently we extend the quality definition to each phase of a TopCoder project and finally obtain the whole project quality. We also perform necessary validation on our model using empirical data and show some important discovery.
1.3-$mu$m Four-Channel$,times,$10-Gb/s Parallel Optical Transceiver With Polymer PLC Platforms for Very-Short-Reach Applications

A four-channel times10-Gb/s parallel optical transceiver for high-capacity very-short-reach applications was developed. The transceiver module was fabricated with low-cost components such as polymer planar lightwave circuit (PLC) platforms and 1.3-mum Fabry-Perot laser diodes (FPLDs). The polymer PLC platform enables the FPLDs or waveguide photodiodes (WGPDs) to be butt-coupled to the polymer waveguide by low-cost passive alignment. Using 1.3-mum FPLDs and single-mode fibers (SMFs) achieves reliable transmission over 600 m. Widening the spacing between the waveguides up to 1 mm suppressed the interchannel crosstalk to below -39 dB. The fabricated transceiver was operated at 10 Gb/s per channel and it successfully demonstrated 600-m error-free transmission. The sensitivity of each channel was better than -14 dBm with an interchannel-crosstalk penalty of less than 0.7 dB
Comparison of spike encoding schemes in asynchronous vision sensors: Modeling and design

Two in-pixel encoding mechanisms to convert analog input to spike output for vision sensors are modeled and compared with the consideration of feedback delay: one is feedback and reset (FAR), and the other is feedback and subtract (FAS). MATLAB simulations of linear signal reconstruction from spike trains generated by the two encoders show that FAR in general has a lower signal-to-distortion ratio (SDR) compared to FAS due to signal loss during the reset phase and hold period, and the SDR merit of FAS increases as the quantization bit number and input signal frequency increases. A 500 μm2 in-pixel circuit implementation of FAS using asynchronous switched capacitors in a UMC 0. 18μm 1P6M process is described, and the post-layout simulation results are given to verify the FAS encoding mechanism.
Auxotypes, serovars, and trends of antimicrobial resistance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Kigali, Rwanda (1985-93).

OBJECTIVE To investigate the in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility and the auxotype/serovar distribution of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Kigali, Rwanda, during 1985-93. METHODS As part of a monitoring programme the in vitro susceptibility of 1604 isolates of N gonorrhoeae was determined by agar dilution. Auxo- and serotyping was performed on 1350 and 1313 isolates respectively. RESULTS The prevalence of penicillinase producing N gonorrhoeae (PPNG) remained stable at a rate of 39% during 1985-91 and increased to 61% in 1992-3. Chromosomal resistance to penicillin was common among non-PPNG and resistance to thiamphenicol and tetracycline was common among both PPNG and non-PPNG. High level, plasmid mediated resistance to tetracycline (TRNG) was observed for the first time at the end of 1989 and increased from 2% of the isolates in 1990 to 50% by 1993. A trend for increasing resistance to norfloxacin and ofloxacin was observed during 1985-90 but disappeared in 1991-93. Five isolates with high level resistance to norfloxacin (MIC 2 mg/l) were observed in 1990. Resistance to trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole (TMP-SMZ) emerged at the end of 1990 and was observed among 10% of the isolates during 1991-3. All strains remained susceptible to ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, spectinomycin, and ceftriaxone. Overall, 75% of the isolates were prototrophic or required proline for their growth and 62% belonged to serovars IA-6 and IB-1. The prevalence of serovar IB-4 increased strongly during the last 3 years of the study. CONCLUSION Resistance to penicillin, thiamphenicol, and tetracycline was common in N gonorrhoeae during 1985-1993. The rapid spread of TRNG after 1989 and the steep increase of PPNG during 1992-3 were the most striking facts of the study period. The auxotype and serovar distribution was comparable with findings from other African countries.
Critical thinking skills and information literacy skills: Discerning online information among high school students

This study examined the impact of discerning information accessed on the Internet that is authentic, reliable, and valid as facilitated by a 1:1 iPad program on students’ critical thinking skills and information literacy skills. Students enrolled in a Career Magnet School where each student has an iPad to receive and deliver assignments were measured on their critical thinking skills in solving real-world problems using the Test of Everyday Reasoning (TER). Their information literacy skills were measured using iSkills which is based on real-world problem solving through digital means. Students enrolled in a traditional high school with limited exposure to the Internet were tested with the same instruments. The review of literature stated that students show a gap in discerning useful information on the Internet in comparison to valid information. This study explored students’ critical thinking and information literacy skills and their ability to discern the information as valid, reliable, and authentic as accessed from the Internet. Failure to reject the null hypothesis was applied to each null hypothesis. One of the factors may have been due to the small sample size.
Soil organic matter quantity and quality shape microbial community compositions of subtropical broadleaved forests

As two major forest types in the subtropics, broadleaved evergreen and broadleaved deciduous forests have long interested ecologists. However, little is known about their belowground ecosystems despite their ecological importance in driving biogeochemical cycling. Here, we used Illumina MiSeq sequencing targeting 16S rRNA gene and a microarray named GeoChip targeting functional genes to analyse microbial communities in broadleaved evergreen and deciduous forest soils of Shennongjia Mountain of Central China, a region known as ‘The Oriental Botanic Garden’ for its extraordinarily rich biodiversity. We observed higher plant diversity and relatively richer nutrients in the broadleaved evergreen forest than the deciduous forest. In odds to our expectation that plant communities shaped soil microbial communities, we found that soil organic matter quantity and quality, but not plant community parameters, were the best predictors of microbial communities. Actinobacteria, a copiotrophic phylum, was more abundant in the broadleaved evergreen forest, while Verrucomicrobia, an oligotrophic phylum, was more abundant in the broadleaved deciduous forest. The density of the correlation network of microbial OTUs was higher in the broadleaved deciduous forest but its modularity was smaller, reflecting lower resistance to environment changes. In addition, keystone OTUs of the broadleaved deciduous forest were mainly oligotrophic. Microbial functional genes associated with recalcitrant carbon degradation were also more abundant in the broadleaved deciduous forests, resulting in low accumulation of organic matters. Collectively, these findings revealed the important role of soil organic matter in shaping microbial taxonomic and functional traits.
Discriminating species using hyperspectral indices at leaf and canopy scales. The International Arch

Developments in hyperspectral remote sensing have provided new indices or indicators of biochemical and biophysical properties. Most of the studies involving the novel spectral indices have been conducted at the leaf scale and have been rarely investigated for species discrimination. The objectives of the study were to determine hyperspectral indices that (i) are likely to be influenced by change in spectral measurement from the leaf to the canopy scale and (ii) can discriminate species at both scales. Leaf and canopy reflectance measurements were made from six species (3 shrubs, 3 trees) using an ASD spectroradiometer. The two-sample t test was used to evaluate whether significant differences exist between leaf and canopy indices, while differences between species pairs (15 pairs) were evaluated with ANOVA and pair-wise Bonferroni adjusted t tests. The hyperspectral indices evaluated in this study were, in general, sensitive to the change in spectral measurement scale from the leaf to the canopy. However, among the indices studied, red-edge positions (REP) extracted by the linear extrapolation I method were least sensitive to the change in measurement scale as three out of the six species showed no significant differences between the leaf and canopy indices. With respect to species discrimination, the canopy indices were better discriminators than the leaf indices. This is essential for airor spaceborne remote sensing of species assemblages. The photochemical reflectance index (PRI) showed the highest potential to discriminate species at the canopy scale (all 15 pairs), while the linear extrapolation REPs showed the highest potential to discriminate the same species pairs (10 pairs) at both scales. Hyperspectral indices might provide new possibilities of differentiating plant species.
Interaction and notation of tone, stress and intonation in Ika Igbo

This paper investigates the existence of tone, stress and intonation in an otherwise tone language, Ika Igbo. It shows that stress and intonation actually exist in the dialect, as evidenced by the significant prominence of certain syllables in the utterances used for the study. This prominence has been proved by both acoustic and perceptual analyses. Hence in Ika, every intonation group (or tonal intonation group) has a nucleus (a stressed syllable) and it is this nucleus that bears the intonation. This is how stress interacts with intonation in Ika. Tone, on its part, is also affected by this interaction as there tend to be tonal changes, losses and masking particularly at the nuclear syllables. These are shown in the illustrative utterances. However, there appears to be a problem as to how these features – tone, stress and intonation – can be indicated without confusion. Therefore, a system where only tones and intonation are indicated, with the knowledge that the nucleus bears the stress as well as the intonation, is proposed in this paper. Other degrees of stress are subsumed under tone since every syllable bears a tone.
Hermite – Sobolev orthogonal polynomials

We consider a Sobolev inner product such as (f, g)S = ∫ f(x)g(x) dμ0(x) + λ ∫ f (x)g(x) dμ1(x) , λ > 0 , (1) with (μ0, μ1) being a symmetrically coherent pair of measures with unbounded support. Denote by Qn the orthogonal polynomials with respect to (1) and they are so–called Hermite–Sobolev orthogonal polynomials. We give a Mehler–Heine type formula for Qn when μ1 is the measure corresponding to Hermite weight on R, that is, dμ1 = e−x 2 dx and as a consequence an asymptotic property of both the zeros and critical points of Qn is obtained, illustrated by numerical examples. Some remarks and numerical experiments are carried out for dμ0 = e −x2dx. An upper bound for |Qn| on R is also provided in both cases. MSC Subject Classification 2000: Primary 42C05 Secondary 33C25
B cells expressing IFN‐γ suppress Treg‐cell differentiation and promote autoimmune experimental arthritis

Clinical efficacy in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with anti‐CD20 (Rituximab)‐mediated B‐cell depletion has garnered interest in the mechanisms by which B cells contribute to autoimmunity. We have reported that B‐cell depletion in a murine model of proteoglycan‐induced arthritis (PGIA) leads to an increase in Treg cells that correlate with decreased autoreactivity. Here, we demonstrate that the increase in Treg cells after B‐cell depletion is due to an increase in the differentiation of naïve CD4+ T cells into Treg cells. Since the development of PGIA is dependent on IFN‐γ and B cells are reported to produce IFN‐γ, we hypothesized that B‐cell‐specific IFN‐γ plays a role in the development of PGIA. Accordingly, mice with B‐cell‐specific IFN‐γ deficiency were as resistant to the induction of PGIA as mice that were completely IFN‐γ deficient. Importantly, despite a normal frequency of IFN‐γ‐producing CD4+ T cells, B‐cell‐specific IFN‐γ‐deficient mice exhibited a higher percentage of Treg cells compared with that in WT mice. These data indicate that B‐cell IFN‐γ production inhibits Treg‐cell differentiation and exacerbates arthritis. Thus, we have established that IFN‐γ, specifically derived from B cells, uniquely contributes to the pathogenesis of autoimmunity through prevention of immunoregulatory mechanisms.
Gender differences in foot shape: a study of Chinese young adults

One important extrinsic factor that causes foot deformity and pain in women is footwear. Women's sports shoes are designed as smaller versions of men's shoes. Based on this, the current study aims to identify foot shape in 1,236 Chinese young adult men and 1,085 Chinese young adult women. Three-dimensional foot shape data were collected through video filming. Nineteen foot shape variables were measured, including girth (4 variables), length (4 variables), width (3 variables), height (7 variables), and angle (1 variable). A comparison of foot measures within the range of the common foot length (FL) categories indicates that women showed significantly smaller values of foot measures in width, height, and girth than men. Three foot types were classified, and distributions of different foot shapes within the same FL were found between women and men. Foot width, medial ball length, ball angle, and instep height showed significant differences among foot types in the same FL for both genders. There were differences in the foot shape between Chinese young women and men, which should be considered in the design of Chinese young adults’ sports shoes.
Common Randomness and Key Generation with Limited Interaction

The basic two-terminal common randomness (CR) and key generation models are considered, where the communication between the terminals may be limited, and in particular may not be enough to achieve the maximum CR/key rate. We introduce general notions of $XY$-absolutely continuity and $XY$-concave function, and characterize the first order CR/key-communication tradeoff in terms of the evaluation of the $XY$-concave envelope of a functional defined on a set of distributions, which is simpler than the multi-letter characterization. Two extreme cases are given special attention. First, in the regime of very small communication rates, the CR bits per interaction bit (CRBIB) and key bits per interaction bit (KBIB) are expressed with a new "symmetrical strong data processing constant", defined as the minimum of a parameter such that a certain information-theoretic functional touches its $XY$-concave envelope at a given source distribution. We also provide a computationally friendly strong converse bound for CRBIB and a similar (but not necessarily strong) one for KBIB in terms of the supremum of the maximal correlation coefficient over a set of distributions. The proof uses hypercontractivity and properties of the R\'enyi divergence. A criterion the tightness of the bound is given with applications to binary symmetric sources. Second, a new characterization of the minimum interaction rate needed for achieving the maximum key rate (MIMK) is given, and we resolve a conjecture by Tyagi and Narayan \cite{tyagi2013common} regarding the MIMK for binary sources. We also propose a new conjecture for binary symmetric sources.
How effective are one-to-one tutoring programs in reading for elementary students at risk for reading failure? A meta-analysis of the intervention research

A meta-analysis of supplemental, adult-instructed one-to-one reading interventions for elementary students at risk for reading failure was conducted. Reading outcomes for 42 samples of students (N = 1,539) investigated in 29 studies reported between 1975 and 1998 had a mean weighted effect size of 0.41 when compared with controls. Interventions that used trained volunteers or college students were highly effective. For Reading Recovery interventions, effects for students identified as discontinued were substantial, whereas effects for students identified as not discontinued were not significantly different from zero. Two studies comparing one-to-one with small-group supplemental instruction showed no advantage for the one-to-one programs.
AULA: An ecological virtual reality test with distractors for evaluating attention in children and adolescents

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic mental health disorder with distinct behavioral manifestations in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Neuropsychological evaluation has increasingly become part of the protocol to the understanding and appropriate diagnosis of this pathology, but lack of ecological validity of ordinary psycho-educational batteries has open the door to other type of tools, such as computerized and Virtual Reality tests. With the aim to overcome the absence of ecological validity of many computerized tests of attention, AULA test (a VR environment which simulates a real classroom environment and demands the patient to complete different tasks presented on both a visual and auditory basis) was developed. The current study describes the main features of the AULA test, and analyzes the performance of the Spanish normative sample of 1272 children from 6 to 16 years old from the perspective of the influence of ecological distractors present in the test. Results show influence of distractors in both increasing reaction time for providing both correct answers and commission errors, and increasing the time the patients deviate their attention focus. Some of the anecdotes happened in different evaluation settings with relation to children’s reactions to distractors appearing in AULA are also presented. Keywords: ADHD, attention, ecological assessment, virtual reality, distractors
A Systematic Study on Document Representation and Dimensionality Reduction for Text Clustering

Increasingly large text datasets and the high dimensionality associated with natural language is a great challenge of text mining. In this research, a systematic study is conducted of application of three Dimension Reduction Techniques (DRT) on three different document representation methods in the context of the text clustering problem using several standard benchmark datasets. The dimensionality reduction methods considered include Independent Component Analysis (ICA), Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and one technique based on Document Frequency (DF). These three methods are applied on three Document representation methods based on the idea of Vector Space Model, namely word, term and N-Gram representations. Experiments with the k-means clustering algorithm show that ICA and LSI are clearly better than DF on all datasets. For word and N-Gram representation, ICA gives better results compared to LSI. Experiments also show that the word representation gives better clustering results compared to term and N-Gram representation. Finally, for N-Gram representation, it is shown that profile length equal to 2000 is
Evaluation of xeroderma pigmentosum XPA, XPC, XPD, XPF, XPB, XPG and DDB2 genes in familial early‐onset lung cancer predisposition

Epidemiological data has implicated heterozygosity for xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) as a risk factor for lung cancer. XP has 8 known complementation groups, 7 of which are caused by mutations in genes encoding components of the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway. To formally investigate the role of XP‐related NER genes in lung cancer susceptibility, we screened germline DNA from 92 familial early‐onset lung cancer patients for mutations in all coding regions and intron–exon boundaries of XPA, XPC, XPD, XPF, XPB, XPG and DDB2. Forty‐one exonic variants were identified. Twenty‐four were nonsynonymous, of which 14 were previously documented polymorphisms. Ten missense variants had not been previously described; none of which were detected in germline DNA from 278 cancer‐free controls. Two of the novel missense changes are predicted to be functionally deleterious. Our findings are compatible with XP heterozygosity being a risk factor for lung cancer susceptibility. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.