Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pathways to trust and caution among South African university students

This study sought to characterise lifestyle factors of trust and caution among South African university students (n = 196; females = 78.06%; median age = 21 years). The students completed an online survey on trustworthiness in cultural context. The data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to construct pathways among the trust and caution with social cynicism, and tolerance for ambiguity. Results indicate social cynicism to predict generalised caution, but not generalised trust. Tolerance for ambiguity was not a significant predictor of generalised trust, nor of generalised caution.
Steering timing prediction in a driving simulator task

In this paper we present the preliminary results of a pioneering attempt to predict the timing of steering actions in a driving task from non-invasive EEG measurements. The experiment took place with the subjects driving a car at a constant speed on a simulated highway in a driving simulator. The EEG activity was analyzed during periods of straight driving and during lane change actions. Classifiers were built on the signals recorded over the motor areas for straight and pre-steering periods. The onset of the steering actions was detected on average 811ms before the action with a 74.6% true positive rate.
Implementing high-powered contracts to motivate intertemporal effort supply

We characterize the optimal contract between a principal and a risk-neutral, wealth-constrained agent when an adverse selection problem follows a moral hazard problem. The optimal contract in this setting often is more steeply sloped for the largest output levels than is the optimal contract in either the standard moral hazard setting or the standard adverse selection setting. The large incremental rewards for exceptional performance motivate the agent to deliver substantial effort both before and after he acquires privileged information about the production environment. Copyright (c) 2009, RAND.
Healthcare Professional’s Burnout and Measures to Alleviate Occupational Stress and Depression

Recent studies have indicated that high levels of stress, emotional fatigue, and depression significantly affect the work competency of healthcare professionals; and that more than a third of healthcare professionals across the world report one or more symptoms of burnout. Yet being in a field that requires urgency and long hours, it becomes imperative to develop strategies to alleviate such issues while improving the healthcare services offered to patients. The purpose of this literature review and analysis is to highlight how healthcare professional burnout occurs, explore measures to remediate these issues, and how meditation, as a stress reliever, is an effective method to reduce stress and anxiety levels among healthcare providers. Keywords: Burnout, Stress, Depression, Meditation, Cortisol
Mild cognitive impairment: animal models

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an aspect of cognitive aging that is considered to be a transitional state between normal aging and the dementia into which it may convert. Appropriate animal models are necessary in order to understand the pathogenic mechanisms of MCI and develop drugs for its treatment. In this review, we identify the features that should characterize an animal model of MCI, namely old age, subtle memory impairment, mild neuropathological changes, and changes in the cholinergic system, and the age at which these features can be detected in laboratory animals. These features should occur in aging animals with normal motor activity and feeding behavior. The animal models may be middle-aged rats and mice, rats with brain ischemia, transgenic mice overexpressing amyloid precursor protein and presenilin 1 (tested at an early stage), or aging monkeys. Memory deficits can be detected by selecting appropriately difficult behavioral tasks, and the deficits can be associated with neuropathological alterations. The reviewed literature demonstrates that, under certain conditions, these animal species can be considered to be MCI models, and that cognitive impairment in these models responds to drug treatment.
Operações espaciais robustas à imprecisão nas coordenadas geográficas

Os Sistemas de Informacao Geografica revolucionaram a pesquisa geografica nas ultimas tres decadas. Esses sistemas comumente disponibilizam uma serie de funcionalidades para processar e analisar dados espaciais, como, por exemplo, a juncao espacial e a consulta skyline. Embora relevantes, a eficacia dessas funcionalidades e impactada pela imprecisao das coordenadas geograficas obtidas pelo metodo de georreferenciamento empregado. Alem disso, o erro contido nas coordenadas pode apresentar diversos padroes distribucionais, o que demanda o desenvolvimento de solucoes que sejam generalistas quanto ao padrao de erro que conseguem tratar adequadamente. Por fim, operacoes espaciais ja sao computacionalmente caras em sua versao deterministica, o que se agrava com a introducao do componente estocastico. O presente trabalho apresenta uma estrutura geral para o desenvolvimento de solucoes para operacoes espaciais robustas a coordenadas imprecisas. Alem disso, para lidar com os problemas mencionados, a estrutura proposta e projetada para contemplar os requisitos de generalidade, eficacia e eficiencia em patamares que viabilizem sua aplicacao pratica. A estrutura geral de solucao e composta pela combinacao de versoes probabilisticas de heuristicas das versoes deterministicas das operacoes espaciais e por simulacoes de Monte Carlo. A partir dela, sao desenvolvidas as solucoes especificas – como estudo de caso - para a skyline espacial e da juncao espacial. Resultados teoricos e experimentais demonstraram o potencial das solucoes desenvolvidas em atender aos tres requisitos estabelecidos nesse trabalho.
Perturbative dynamics of matrix string for the membrane

Recently Sekino and Yoneya proposed a way to regularize the world volume theory of membranes wrapped around S1 by matrices and showed that one obtains matrix string theory as a regularization of such a theory. We show that this correspondence between matrix string theory and wrapped membranes can be obtained by using the usual M(atrix) theory techniques. Using this correspondence, we construct the super-Poincare generators of matrix string theory at the leading order in the perturbation theory. It is shown that these generators satisfy 10 dimensional super-Poincare algebra without any anomaly.
FROM SURFACE TO MEANINGFUL COLLABORATION : AN ACTIVITY-THEORY PERSPECTIVE

The present paper follows up earlier research about the implementation of case discussions online which has shown the need for more procedural guidance to avoid shallow case discussion. The limited success of case discussions in an online environment demanded a more comprehensive approach to modeling the online interaction space. In the first part we develop our model, following a sociocultural understanding of collaborative learning we depart from Vygotsky’s idea of mediated action and introduce the concept of Engeström’s activity system. Both constructs are the theoretical basis for our model presenting individual and collective activities horizontally and methodological and media-technological competencies vertically, reflecting the mediation of activities through social interaction and tools. The resulting 4 quadrants provide an analytical grid which is meant to support online instructors in detecting potential tensions within or among the multiple activities during online case discussions. In the second part we integrate a number of issues already known from the literature about collaborative learning, and use our model as an organizing principle to suggest instructional interventions which consider the interdependent nature of activities during online discussions.
Stem Cell Based Gene Therapy in Prostate Cancer

Current prostate cancer treatment, especially hormone refractory cancer, may create profound iatrogenic outcomes because of the adverse effects of cytotoxic agents. Suicide gene therapy has been investigated for the substitute modality for current chemotherapy because it enables the treatment targeting the cancer cells. However the classic suicide gene therapy has several profound side effects, including immune-compromised due to viral vector. Recently, stem cells have been regarded as a new upgraded cellular vehicle or vector because of its homing effects. Suicide gene therapy using genetically engineered mesenchymal stem cells or neural stem cells has the advantage of being safe, because prodrug administration not only eliminates tumor cells but consequently kills the more resistant therapeutic stem cells as well. The attractiveness of prodrug cancer gene therapy by stem cells targeted to tumors lies in activating the prodrug directly within the tumor mass, thus avoiding systemic toxicity. Therapeutic achievements using stem cells in prostate cancer include the cytosine deaminase/5-fluorocytosine prodrug system, herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase/ganciclovir, carboxyl esterase/CPT11, and interferon-beta. The aim of this study is to review the stem cell therapy in prostate cancer including its proven mechanisms and also limitations.
The anti-inflammatory effect of cyclooxygenase inhibitors in fibroblast-like synoviocytes from the human temporomandibular joint results from the suppression of PGE2 production

Background Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been widely used for the management of pain and inflammation. However, little remains known about the effects of NSAIDs on synovitis of the human temporomandibular joint (TMJ). The aims of this study were to investigate the potential anti-inflammatory effects of NSAIDs on synovitis of the TMJ and the inflammatory effects of PGE2 on fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) derived from the TMJ. Methods Human synovial tissue was obtained from patients with internal derangement who underwent arthroscopy of the TMJ. FLSs were prepared from the tissues using the outgrowth method. A COX inhibitor (indomethacin or celecoxib) was added to the IL-1β-stimulated cells in culture. The cells were also stimulated with PGE2 or an EP agonist. The PGE2 production and COX-2 and IL-6 expression levels were examined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, real-time PCR, and a microarray analysis. Results COX inhibitors decreased not only PGE2 production, but also the expression of COX-2 and IL-6 in FLS stimulated with IL-1β. EP2 and EP4 were both expressed in the FLS, and the treatment with EP2 and EP4 agonists induced IL-6 production in these cells. Conclusion The COX inhibitors indomethacin and celecoxib reduce the expression of inflammatory factors, such as COX-2 and IL-6, in FLS from the TMJ via suppression of PGE2 production. EP2 and EP4 were the main receptors for PGE2 present in the FLS. The approach used in this study may be useful for revealing how drugs such as NSAIDs affect the cellular functions of FLS from the TMJ.
The Relationship between Cell Phone Use, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Behavior in United States Adults above College-age

Purpose: There is evidence of a positive relationship between cellular telephone use and sedentary behavior but not physical activity in college-aged individuals (18-29 years). These relationships have not been tested in individuals older than college age (≥ 30 years old). Testing these relationships in older individuals is warranted as cell phone use is inversely associated with age. Methods: A sample of adults aged 30-63 years (N = 69, 50.5 ± 8.2 years old) wore a physical activity monitor (accelerometer) for seven days and completed validated surveys assessing daily cell phone use, physical activity, and sedentary behavior. Results: Cell phone use ( = 125.2 ± 146.8 minutes per day) was inversely associated with age (r = - 0.3, p = 0.005). Cell use was not associated with objectively- or subjectively-measured physical activity or sedentary behavior (r ≤ 0.1, p ≥ 0.3). Tertile splits were performed to establish groups of low, moderate, and high cell phone users. There were no significant (F ≤ 2.0, p ≥ 0.12 for all) differences in physical activity or sedentary behavior between groups. Conclusion: Unlike what has been reported in college-aged individuals, cell use was not associated with sedentary behavior in adults older than college age.
Assessing Plant Genetic Diversity by Molecular Tools

This paper is an overview of the diverse, predominantly molecular techniques, used in assessing plant genetic diversity. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the application of molecular genetic methods for assessing the conservation and use of plant genetic resources. Molecular techniques have been applied in the analysis of specific genes, as well as to increase understanding of gene action, generate genetic maps and assist in the development of gene transfer technologies. Molecular techniques have also had critical roles in studies of phylogeny and species evolution, and have been applied to increase our understanding of the distribution and extent of genetic variation within and between species. These techniques are well established and their advantages as well as limitations have been realized and described in this work. Recently, a new class of advanced techniques has emerged, primarily derived from a combination of earlier, more basic techniques. Advanced marker techniques tend to amalgamate advantageous features of several basic techniques, in order to increase the sensitivity and resolution to detect genetic discontinuity and distinctiveness. Some of the advanced marker techniques utilize newer classes of DNA elements, such as retrotransposons, mitochondrial and chloroplast based microsatellites, thereby revealing genetic variation through increased genome coverage. Techniques such as RAPD and AFLP are also being applied to cDNA-based templates to study patterns of gene expression and uncover the genetic basis of biological responses. The most important and recent advances made in molecular marker techniques are discussed in this review, along with their applications, advantages and limitations applied to plant sciences.
Shadow Guarding * : Run-time Checking You Can Afford

AbstractShared memory multiprocessors are becoming increasingly common. We presenta technique that uses shared memory multiprocessors to efﬁciently implementrun-time checking. The user program pays a very small premium on each run. Inreturn there is an assurance of reliability. A second “shadow” process looks forerrors in the background. For the error-free runs, the user process hardly noticesthe shadow process; for erroneous runs, the shadow process provides useful errorinformation automatically. 1 Introduction Run-time checks can detect errors that cannot be detected at compile-time, including array boundviolations, invalid pointer accesses, and use of uninitialized variables. Extensive run-time check-ing provided by diagnostic compilers incurs signiﬁcant run-time costs. In [Ste92], run-time checkswere added to a C compiler. The code generated ran 10 times slower than the original code. Simi-lar slowdowns are reported for commercially available run-time error checking systems such asPurify [HJ92]. The high cost of run-time checks restricts their use to the program development phase. Whenprograms are fully developed and tested, they are assumed to be correct and run-time checks aredisabled. This is dangerous because errors in heavily-used programs can be extremely destructive.They may not always manifest themselves as a program crash but may instead produce a subtlywrong answer. Even if an erroneous program crashes, it may be difﬁcult to repeat the error inside adebugger. Further, debugging long running programs can be very time consuming. Undiscoverederrors in heavily-used programs may not be rare; a study [MLS90] has shown that as many as aquarter of the most commonly used Unix utilities crash or hang when presented with unexpectedinputs. Thus there is a strong case for running programs with checks routinely enabled. Naturally,these checks should be as inexpensive as possible.The goal of this work is to provide run-time checking at a very low overhead so that heavily-used programs can be run with checking enabled all the time. Run-time checking does not involvemodiﬁcation of program variables and it does not change the result of valid computations. Hence
An fMRI pilot study to evaluate brain activation associated with locomotion adaptation

The goal of robotic therapy is to provoke motor plasticity via the application of robotic training strategies. Although robotic haptic guidance is the commonly used motor-training strategy to reduce performance errors while training, research on motor learning has emphasized that errors are a fundamental neural signal that drives motor adaptation. Thus, researchers have proposed robotic therapy algorithms that amplify movement errors rather than decrease them. Studying the particular brain regions involved in learning under different training strategies might help tailoring motor training conditions to the anatomical location of a focal brain insult. In this paper, we evaluate the brain regions involved in locomotion adaptation when training with three different conditions: without robotic guidance, with a random-varying force disturbance, and with repulsive forces proportional to errors. We performed an fMRI pilot study with four healthy subjects who stepped in an fMRI compatible walking robotic device. Subjects were instructed to actively synchronize their left leg with respect to their right leg (passively guided by the robot) while their left leg was affected by any of the three conditions. We observed activation in areas known to be involved in error processing. Although we found that all conditions required the similar cortical network to fulfill the task, we observed a tendency towards more activity in the motor/sensory network as more “challenged” the subjects were.
A generalized Osgood condition for viscosity solutions to fully nonlinear parabolic degenerate equations

Using a generalized assumption of Osgood type, we prove a comparison result between viscosity sub and supersolutions of fully nonlinear, possibly strongly degenerate, parabolic equations under rather generale assumtpions. The principle allows to consider dependence on the gradient witha quadratic growth and also on complex zeroth-order terms. The result it applies in particular to a differential model for pricing Mortgage-Backed Securities.
F eb 2 00 7 phase transitions in social sciences : two-populations mean field theory

A mean field statistical mechanics model of two interacting groups of spins is introduced and the phase transition studied in terms of their relative size. A jump of the average magnetization is found for large values of the mutual interaction when the relative percentage of the two populations crosses a critical threshold. It is shown how the critical percentage depends on internal interactions and on the initial magnetizations. The model is interpreted as a prototype of resident-immigrant cultural interaction and conclusions from the social sciences perspectives are drawn.
Toward an Integrative and Fine-Grained Insight in Motivating and Demotivating Teaching Styles: The Merits of a Circumplex Approach

Guided by Self-Determination Theory, we offer an integrative and fine-grained analysis of teachers’ classroom motivating style (i.e., autonomy support, structure, control, and chaos) to resolve existing controversies in the literature, such as how these dimensions relate to each other and to educationally important student and teacher outcomes. Six independent samples of secondary school teachers (N = 1332; Mage = 40.9 years) and their students (N = 1735, Mage = 14.6 years) read 12 ecologically valid vignettes to rate four dimensions of teachers’ motivating styles, using the Situations-in-School (SIS) questionnaire. Multidimensional scaling analyses of both the teacher and the student data indicated that motivating and demotivating teaching could best be graphically represented by a two-dimensional configuration that differed in terms of need support and directiveness. In addition, eight subareas (two subareas per motivating style) were identified along a circumplex model: participative and attuning, guiding and clarifying, demanding and domineering, and abandoning and awaiting. Correlations between these eight subareas and a variety of construct validation and outcome variables (e.g., student motivation, teacher burnout) followed an ordered sinusoid pattern. The discussion focuses on the conceptual implications and practical advantages of adopting a circumplex approach and sketches a number of important future research directions.
A simple fast fourier transformation algorithm to microcontrollers and mini computers

The fast Fourier transformation (FFT) is one of the most important algorithm in the world. The FFT efficiently calculates the frequency components of time-varying signals. In most cases, the digital signal processor and other applications use the FFT algorithm periodically. Consequently, even a small acceleration of the FFT algorithm greatly speeds up the whole application. This article presents an algorithm to the FFT which contains a reduced number of logical and elementary (addition, subtraction, multiplication) operations. Therefore, it is optimized to the low level programming and hardware description languages and it is well applicable in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), microcontrollers, digital signal processors and any type of computers.
Theoretical and Computational Studies on Targets for Inertial Fusion Ig- Nition Demonstration at the Hiper Facility *

Recently, a European collaboration has proposed the High Power Laser Energy Research (HiPER) facility, with the primary goal of demonstrating laser driven inertial fusion fast ignition. HiPER is expected to provide 250 kJ in multiple, 3ω (wavelength λ = 0.35 µm), nanosecond beams for compression and 70 kJ in 10-20 ps, 2ω beams for ignition. The baseline approach is fast ignition by laser-accelerated fast electrons; cones are considered as a means to maximize ignition laser-fuel coupling. Earlier studies led to identify an all-DT shell, with a total mass of about 0.6 mg as a reference target concept. The HiPER main pulse can compress the fuel to a peak density above 500 g/cm 3 and an areal density ρR of about 1.5 g/cm 2. Ignition of the compressed fuel requires that relativistic electrons deposit about 20 kJ in a volume of radius of about 15 µm and depth of less than 1.2 g/cm 2. The ignited target releases about 13 MJ. In this paper, additional analyses of this target are reported. An optimal irradiation pattern has been identified. The effects on fuel compression of the low-mode irradiation non-uniformities have been studied by 2D simulations and an analytical model. The scaling of the electron beam energy required for ignition (vs electron kinetic energy) has been determined by 2D fluid simulations including a 3D Monte-Carlo treatment of relativistic electrons, and agrees with a simple model. Hybrid (fluid and PIC) simulations show that beam-induced magnetic fields can reduce beam divergence. As an alternative scheme, shock ignition is studied. 2D simulations have addressed optimization of shock timing and absorbed power, means to increase laser absorption efficiency, and the interaction of the igniting shocks with a deformed fuel shell.