Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Counseling/Coaching in Chronic Aphasia: Getting on With Life

Life coaching is a variant of counseling. Coaching is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, responsible practitioners are working toward developing practice standards and credentialing processes geared to increasing legitimacy of life coaching as an approach designed to help individuals with aphasia improve the quality of their lives. I became interested in coaching through reading (in the popular press, in professional journals, and on the Internet) the work of Goldsmith (see Creelman, 2001), one of the country’s most successful executive coaches. Trained as a behavioral psychologist, Goldsmith adopts an approach to helping executives that is rooted in the study of how change occurs and how it can be facilitated. Although Goldsmith works in the business community, many of his methods struck me as applicable to counseling individuals who have had strokes, and their families. Speech–language pathologists (SLPs) rely heavily on their clients’ abilities to learn new skills, to develop new problem-solving strategies, and to deploy their residual lan-
The myth of the ‘green student’: student involvement in Australian university sustainability programmes

The paper questions the prevalence of ‘green students’ and their impact on decision-making in sustainability programmes in Australian universities. While the universities studied provide numerous opportunities for student involvement in sustainability programmes, comparatively few students actually become involved, making student impact on decision-making in these programmes low. University employees are the primary drivers of university sustainability programmes, with the ‘green student’ not highly visible in these universities. The paper concludes by suggesting that all four universities in the sample could enhance their sustainability programmes by adopting a more evidence-based understanding of student attitudes towards sustainability.
Proteomics and the lung: Analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid

Our knowledge of the complex bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) proteome has increased significantly over the last decade; but still, there remain many aspects of the BALF proteome that need characterization. Current proteomic methodologies resolve proteins within limited dynamic ranges: thereby, being limited in their ability to examine important areas of the BALF proteome, such as low molecular weight, low abundance proteins. To ensure proper coverage of these proteins in the BALF proteome, a refined 2‐DE standard operation protocol is presented, highlighting important issues in sample collection, sample preparation, and 2‐D DIGE analysis. It is hoped that this will help advance the field of BALF proteomics, BALFomics, which has lagged behind similar biofluids such as plasma and serum.
BigSky - an on-line arithmetic design tool for FPGAs

We present a project to design, implement and use online arithmetic (M.D. Ercegovac and T. Lang, 1988) modules for reconfigurable hardware suitable for signal processing tasks. The project involves: (i) design, implementation and evaluation of a library of parameterized macros for primitive and composite/variable precision arithmetic (Underground); (ii) development of a high-level design environment for facilitating design of FPGA-oriented arithmetic-intensive structures (BigSky); and (iii) experiments with the system.
A hierarchical analysis of the green consciousness of the Egyptian consumer

This study investigates the influence of various cultural values and psychological factors on the green purchase behavior of Egyptian consumers. Using a large sample of 1093 consumers, a conceptual model has been developed. The survey results provide reasonable support for the validity of the proposed model. Specifically, the findings from the structural equation model confirm the influence of the consumers' natural environment orientation, ecological knowledge, and environmental concern on their attitudes towards green purchase. Consumers' attitudes toward green purchase, in turn, are also found to affect their actual green purchase behavior via the mediator role of green purchase intention. However, one of the other important findings suggests that the link between intention and actual purchase is weak. In other words, on a declarative level, more and more consumers in Egypt express their concern over the ecological situation and declare their willingness to contribute somehow to the protection of environment by buying green products. However, in reality this concern may not be manifested consistently. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Need for a Continuum of Care: The Rutgers Comprehensive Model

ABSTRACT College drinking has been a concern of college administrators, parents of college-age students and health care professionals for some time. Over the last few years an increasing number of institutions have begun to understand that the problem is complex enough that it warrants attention and that a variety of strategies are necessary to attempt to reduce dangerous drinking and the unwanted attendant consequences (for example, Berkowitz, 2005; Berkowitz & Perkins, 1986; Burns, Ballou & Lederman, 1991; Burns & Goodstadt, 1989; Knight et al., 2000; Lederman & Stewart, 2005; NIAAA, 2002; O'Malley& Johnston, 2002; Perkins, 1997; 2002; 2003; Weschler & Kuo, 2000.). While some institutions have looked for a silver bullet that would serve as a cure all, over time it has become clear that institutions of higher education need to have comprehensive plans designed to address drinking behaviors and provide a continuum of care. The purpose of this article is to describe the Rutgers Program, a comprehensive model addressing the continuum from prevention to recovery support that can meet the complex needs of a college community who are involved in a wide spectrum of alcohol and other drug use from nonuse, social/recreational use, dangerous use, abuse, addiction, and recovery. The paper begins with a description of the problem of college drinking, which is presented as the backdrop for the Rutgers Model. We have combined the experience of the second author as a research scholar and the first author as a practitioner to create the description of the continuum. The differences in the voices of the researcher and practitioner we believe reflect the collaborative approach that this continuum requires to embed itself into the campus culture (Lederman & Stewart, 2005).
Peer-mentoring undergraduate accounting students: The influence on approaches to learning and academic performance

This article considers the impact of a student peer-mentoring programme (the Mentor Accountant Project, MAP) on first-year undergraduates’ academic performance. The development of MAP was informed by reference to extant literature; it relies on the voluntary services of third-year students who then act as mentors to first-year student mentees in an undergraduate degree programme. The impact of MAP in two Scottish universities is measured by reference to the changes in the approaches to learning and the academic achievement of two groups of students: those who participated in MAP and those who did not. The findings indicate that those first-year students who participated in MAP did not experience the significant decline in their deep and strategic approaches to learning that their non-MAP peers did. Likewise, those first-year students who participated in MAP demonstrated a stronger academic performance in comparison to their non-MAP equivalents. In addition, the MAP scheme appeared to have little impact on the approaches to learning of the third-year participants; and the academic performance of the third-year MAP participants was indistinguishable from that of their non-MAP counterparts. The evidence suggests that participation in MAP is beneficial for first-year students.
School collaborations within the contemporary English education system: possibilities and constraints

This paper’s focus is on an alliance of schools in England that came together as part of the National Teaching Schools initiative. Drawing on interviews from Head Teachers within the alliance, the paper explores issues of school collaboration from a premise that such collaboration is paramount to school improvement within the current climate of increased school autonomy and increasingly rigid accountabilities. The Head Teachers highlight key factors that supported effective school-to-school collaborations associated with sharing their expertise and fostering active and cooperative connections. They also, however, highlight factors that undermined genuine collaboration associated with a prioritising of the performative demands and economic imperatives of the audit culture. The impact of this prioritising should, it is argued, be considered in any analysis of school collectives within the current English education system – particularly given their proliferation and the responsibility placed on them in terms of school improvement.
LA TÉCNICA DEL ANÁLISIS CRITERIAL: ALGUNAS CONSIDERACIONES Y DESARROLLO DE UN PROGRAMA INFORMÁTICO

The criterion analysis technique: some considerations and development of a computer program. This paper describes in some detail both the substantive and the methodological foundations of Criterion Analysis. Some methodological problems are discussed and new procedures, which allow us to extend the use of the technique, are introduced. A program which permits us to carry out the described procedures is presented. An illustrative example based on real data is also included.
Formal logics as models for building reasoning skills in upper secondary school

We describe the main features of an in-service teac h r training proposal aimed at helping the teachers to use logic as a means of enc ouraging students to develop valuable models of thinking, taking into account t he evolution of common sense reasoning and the reasoning capabilities required b y the complexity of global rationality. Referring to the situation in Italian schools, we firstly discuss the levels of competence to be achieved by teachers, in relation to the formal reasoning objectives of education. Then, we introduce our proposal, giving particular emphasis to its epistemological design. We conclude with some remar ks bout the results of our experimentation with the model. We propose innovations in teacher training in logic , in accordance with the current view of rationality. Our work is partly supported b y the project ‘Education to rationality’ of IRRE Liguria (Ligurian Regional Ins titute of Educational Research), a project aimed at improving reasoning education n upper secondary schools.
Interference channel with intermittent feedback

We investigate how to exploit intermittent feedback for interference management. Focusing on the two-user linear deterministic interference channel, we completely characterize the capacity region. We find that the characterization only depends on the forward channel parameters and the marginal probability distribution of each feedback link. The scheme we propose makes use of block Markov encoding and quantize-map-and-forward at the transmitters, and backward decoding at the receivers. Matching outer bounds are derived based on novel genie-aided techniques. As a consequence, the perfect-feedback capacity can be achieved once the two feedback links are active with large enough probabilities.
Organizational justice, age, and performance connection in Malaysia

Purpose – The paper aims to examine the links between organizational justice (distributive justice and procedural justice) and job performance (task performance and contextual performance). The moderating role of age in the above‐mentioned relationship was also investigated.Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered using self‐administered questionnaires from a sample of 136 customer‐contact employees within the telecommunications industry of Malaysia.Findings – The results demonstrated that distributive justice had a significant and positive relationship with task performance. In a similar vein, procedural justice was found to be significantly and positively related to contextual performance. Age, however, did not moderate the justice‐performance relationships.Research limitations/implications – The participants in this study were customer‐contact workers employed by one established telecommunication company in Malaysia. Thus, generalization of the results may be limited. Besides, other variables r.
HIV-1 Infection and First Line ART Induced Differential Responses in Mitochondria from Blood Lymphocytes and Monocytes: The ANRS EP45 “Aging” Study

Background The ANRS EP45 “Aging” study investigates the cellular mechanisms involved in the accelerated aging of HIV-1 infected and treated patients. The data reported focus on mitochondria, organelles known to be involved in cell senescence. Methods 49 HIV-1 infected patients untreated with antiretroviral therapy, together with 49 seronegative age- and sex-matched control subjects and 81 HIV-1 infected and treated patients, were recruited by 3 AIDS centres (Marseille, Montpellier, Nice; France; http://clinicaltrials.gov/, NCT01038999). In more than 88% of treated patients, the viral load was <40 copies/ml and the CD4+ cell count was >500/mm3. ROS (reactive oxygen species) production and ΔΨm (inner membrane potential) were measured by flow cytometry in blood lymphocytes and monocytes (functional parameters). Three mitochondrial network quantitative morphological parameters were computed using confocal microscopy and image analysis. Three PBMC mitochondrial proteins (porin and subunits 2 and 4 of cytochrome C oxidase encoded by mtDNA or nuclear DNA, respectively) were analysed by western blotting. Results Quantitative changes in PBMC mitochondrial proteins were not induced by either HIV-1 infection or ART. Discriminant analysis integrating functional (ROS production and ΔΨm) or morphological (network volume density, fragmentation and branching) parameters revealed HIV-1 infection and ART differential effects according to cell type. First line ART tended to rescue lymphocyte mitochondrial parameters altered by viral infection, but induced slight changes in monocytes. No statistical difference was found between the effects of three ART regimens on mitochondrial parameters. Correlations between functional parameters and viral load confirmed the damaging effects of HIV-1 in lymphocyte mitochondria. Conclusions In patients considered to be clinically stable, mitochondria exhibited functional and morphological modifications in PBMCs resulting from either direct or indirect effects of HIV-1 infection (lymphocytes), or from first line ART (monocytes). Together with other tissue impairments, these changes may contribute to global aging. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01038999 NCT01038999
Noise analysis and equalization of a multi-photodiode optical wireless receiver

A technique is presented which improves the performance of an optical receiver for optical wireless communication with a moderate additional complexity. The well-known high-impedance front-end design of an optical receiver is extended by combining multiple PIN photodiode-FET circuits with optimized equalizers in order to achieve a better SNR at the output of the receiver. The receiver is optimum in a sense that it reduces the effective equivalent input referred noise current spectral density by a factor propertional to the number of PIN-FET combinations.
Practical investigation of end effect losses in a Motor Integrated Permanent Magnet Gear

This paper presents a practical investigation of the eddy current losses caused by 3D effects in a Motor Integrated Permanent Magnet Gear (MIPMG). Two prototypes of a MIPMG have been designed and build to be used as traction units for an electric vehicle. The measured efficiency of the prototype MIPMGs is superior in urban traffic when compared to state of the art direct drives, even though the measured rotational losses are more than two times higher than estimated with calculations based on 2D Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Based on 3D Magnetostatic FEA, the prototype has been modified to reduce 3D eddy currents in the machine. Material is removed and new parts are made in a non-conducting material. After the modifications of the prototype, the rotational losses have been measured and compared to the earlier measurements and the 2D based calculated losses. The rotational losses have been reduced, thus, making the gap between the measured and calculated losses smaller and increased the efficiency. Assumption regarding unaccounted losses is elaborated, and the presented work makes it possible to make the design of the next generation of MIPMG even better, with lower losses and higher efficiency.
The Effect of Phylogeny, Environment and Morphology on Communities of a Lianescent Clade (Bignonieae-Bignoniaceae) in Neotropical Biomes

The influence of ecological traits to the distribution and abundance of species is a prevalent issue in biodiversity science. Most studies of plant community assembly have focused on traits related to abiotic aspects or direct interactions among plants, with less attention paid to ignore indirect interactions, as those mediated by pollinators. Here, we assessed the influence of phylogeny, habitat, and floral morphology on ecological community structure in a clade of Neotropical lianas (tribe Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae). Our investigation was guided by the long-standing hypothesis that habitat specialization has promoted speciation in Bignonieae, while competition for shared pollinators influences species co-occurrence within communities. We analyzed a geo-referenced database for 94 local communities occurring across the Neotropics. The effect of floral morphological traits and abiotic variables on species co-occurrence was investigated, taking into account phylogenetic relationships. Habitat filtering seems to be the main process driving community assembly in Bignonieae, with environmental conditions limiting species distributions. Differing specialization to abiotic conditions might have evolved recently, in contrast to the general pattern of phylogenetic clustering found in communities of other diverse regions. We find no evidence that competition for pollinators affects species co-occurrence; instead, pollinator occurrence seems to have acted as an “environmental filter” in some habitats.
Amphetamine increases tyrosine kinase-B receptor expression in the dorsal striatum

Neurotrophic signaling is thought to be important for neuroplasticity in certain forebrain regions following psychostimulant exposure. In this study, we found that repeated administration of amphetamine (5 mg/kg, once daily, 5 days) to rats significantly increased tyrosine kinase-B receptor mRNA levels in the striatum, ventral bed nucleus, and piriform cortex. The most robust increase in tyrosine kinase-B expression occurred in dorsal aspects of the striatum, which also showed elevated levels after a single amphetamine injection. These findings indicate that changes in striatal tyrosine kinase-B signaling could play a role in neuroadaptations and behavioral changes induced by amphetamine treatment.
MapTask Scheduling in MapReduce With Data Locality: Throughput and Heavy-Traffic Optimality

MapReduce/Hadoop framework has been widely used to process large-scale datasets on computing clusters. Scheduling map tasks with data locality consideration is crucial to the performance of MapReduce. Many works have been devoted to increasing data locality for better efficiency. However, to the best of our knowledge, fundamental limits of MapReduce computing clusters with data locality, including the capacity region and theoretical bounds on the delay performance, have not been well studied. In this paper, we address these problems from a stochastic network perspective. Our focus is to strike the right balance between data locality and load balancing to simultaneously maximize throughput and minimize delay. We present a new queueing architecture and propose a map task scheduling algorithm constituted by the Join the Shortest Queue policy together with the MaxWeight policy. We identify an outer bound on the capacity region, and then prove that the proposed algorithm can stabilize any arrival rate vector strictly within this outer bound. It shows that the outer bound coincides with the actual capacity region, and the proposed algorithm is throughput-optimal. Furthermore, we study the number of backlogged tasks under the proposed algorithm, which is directly related to the delay performance based on Little's law. We prove that the proposed algorithm is heavy-traffic optimal, i.e., it asymptotically minimizes the number of backlogged tasks as the arrival rate vector approaches the boundary of the capacity region. Therefore, the proposed algorithm is also delay-optimal in the heavy-traffic regime. The proofs in this paper deal with random processing times with heterogeneous parameters and nonpreemptive task execution, which differentiate our work from many existing works on MaxWeight-type algorithms, so the proof techniques themselves for the stability analysis and the heavy-traffic analysis are also novel contributions.
Discovering Social Events through Online Attention

Twitter is a major social media platform in which users send and read messages (“tweets”) of up to 140 characters. In recent years this communication medium has been used by those affected by crises to organize demonstrations or find relief. Because traffic on this media platform is extremely heavy, with hundreds of millions of tweets sent every day, it is difficult to differentiate between times of turmoil and times of typical discussion. In this work we present a new approach to addressing this problem. We first assess several possible “thermostats” of activity on social media for their effectiveness in finding important time periods. We compare methods commonly found in the literature with a method from economics. By combining methods from computational social science with methods from economics, we introduce an approach that can effectively locate crisis events in the mountains of data generated on Twitter. We demonstrate the strength of this method by using it to locate the social events relating to the Occupy Wall Street movement protests at the end of 2011.
Short-term effect of PM2.5 on daily hospital admissions in Madrid (2003–2005)

The aim of this paper was to analyse the effect of particulate matter PM2.5, a recent air quality guideline value for the protection of health, on hospital admissions in Madrid, Spain. This dependent variable was used as a measure against the daily number of emergency hospital admissions from 2003–2005. The causes analysed were: all causes, respiratory and circulatory. The independent variables were daily records of PM2.5, PM10, NO2, NOx, SO2 and O3. Seasonalities, trend, flu epidemics, noise and pollen were used as control variables. Poisson Regression Models were performed to calculate the Relative Risk (RR) and the Attributable Risk (AR). The function relationship with hospital admissions was linear and without threshold. The RR for an increase of 25 μg/m3 in PM2.5 concentrations was 1.07 IC 95% (1.05 1.09) for all causes; for circulatory was 1.08 IC 95%: (1.03 1.13) and for respiratory was 1.07 IC 95% (1.02 1.11). PM2.5 concentrations were the only primary pollutant that showed a statistical association with hospital admissions in Madrid.