Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computational thinking in pre-university education

Several countries have usually adopted several priorities for developing ICT competences from kindergarten to secondary education. Most of them are focused on the development of key competences and/or coding skills. Although coding may be very attractive for young students and a very good practice or experience, it could be more interesting to develop students' logical thinking skills and problem-solving skills throughout programming approaches or computational thinking. This is a very exciting challenge with lots of possibilities regarding coding, robots, mobiles devices, Arduino-based application, game-based learning and so on. Thus it is very important discuss the experiences that are being developed worldwide in specialized for a with researchers that are working on this field, such as for example European Union TACCLE 3 - Coding project. This track is devoted to identify, share and valorize best practices and experiences (including technological and methodological issues) that focused on the development of computational thinking and related skills in any level of pre-university education.
Novel Robust BPE-IWLMS Blind Equalizer for Phase Shift-Keying Signals

Blind equalization for high-order modulated signals is difficult to combat since the corresponding probability density functions are very complex. The conventional constant modulus algorithm (CMA) is simple but not robust when the modulation order is high. In this paper, we design a novel preprocessor involving signal selection and blind pose estimation such that our previously proposed iterative weighted least-mean-square (IWLMS) blind equalization algorithm only for BPSK and QPSK signals can be adopted for any arbitrary PSK signal constellation. The simulation results show that our proposed new BPE-IWLMS method greatly outperforms the CMA.
Dictionary-driven analysis of Japanese verbal alternations

We present a method for extracting verbal (diathesis) alternations from a valency dictionary, based on comparison of selectional restrictions. The quality of match between selectional restrictions is evaluated according to an entropy-based measure with backing-oﬀ facility. We use the proposed method to derive a provisional listing of the range and distribution of verbal alternations in Japanese.
Thirty Years of Experience with Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm of the Pancreas: From Discovery to International Consensus

Background: Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) of the pancreas is characterized by intraductal papillary proliferation of mucin-producing epithelial cells that exhibit various degrees of dysplasia. IPMN is classified as the main duct type (MD-IPMN) and the branch duct type (BD-IPMN) according to the location of involvement, and into four histological subtypes (gastric, intestinal, pancreatobiliary, and oncocytic) according to the histomorphological and immunohistochemical characteristics. Mucin core protein expression correlates with the biological behavior and prognosis of the tumor. DNA analysis has shown that IPMN is associated with a number of gene mutations, but the roles of many of these mutations require further investigation. Most patients with MD-IPMN undergo tumor resection. Patients with BD-IPMN who do not undergo resection may develop malignant change, and concomitant separate pancreatic cancer occurs in 2-10% of patients with IPMN. Patients with a strong family history may develop multiple BD-IPMNs as well as concomitant pancreatic cancer. Malignant changes are relatively easy to detect, especially by endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS), but the optimal surveillance protocol is currently unclear. Key Messages: The 2012 guidelines for the management of IPMN recommend that patients with ‘high-risk stigmata' (obstructive jaundice, enhanced solid component, and main pancreatic duct size ≥10 mm) should undergo resection. Patients with ‘worrisome features' (cyst size ≥3 cm, thickened enhanced cyst walls, non-enhanced mural nodules, main pancreatic duct size 5-9 mm, abrupt change in main pancreatic duct caliber with distal pancreatic atrophy, lymphadenopathy, and clinical acute pancreatitis) should be evaluated by EUS. EUS is a more sensitive test than computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging for the early detection of malignancy. Conclusions: Most patients with MD-IPMN should undergo tumor resection. Patients with BD-IPMN who do not undergo resection should undergo careful surveillance including EUS for the early detection of malignant change and separate pancreatic cancer.
The Effect of Animality in the Consumption Experience—A Potential for Disgust

ABSTRACT This paper presents an experimental study to measure the effect of animality on consumers' disgust. In this study we have demonstrated how the negative emotion of disgust may be formed within meat consumption. While in the current literature animality is used as a broad and vaguely defined explanatory concept, we conceptualise and operationalise three components of animality; Meat Typicality, Vividness, and Personification. We show for each component that the more the meat stimuli can be animalised the more disgust they would provoke. Empirically, this study provides evidence for disgust with meat as being a phenomenon particularly concerning females and young consumers. The results also show a relatively good performance of personality measures as disgust sensitivity in the prediction of disgust with meat.
Personal and professional development programmes for women: Paradigm and paradox

During the 1990s a number of positive/affirmative action initiatives were taken in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, to support the career development of women working in higher education, and as part of the attempt to address the gender imbalance that exists among academic staff and professional administrators, particularly at senior levels. A model for a management development programme for women at different stages of the career life cycle is presented as one such initiative. Evaluation and feedback from delegates has been consistently positive, immediately following courses and over the longer term. However, although there has been a small increase in the number of women being promoted, the overall percentage of women at senior levels remains low, both in the institutions that have participated in the programmes and in higher education generally. The rationale for such initiatives is examined in the context of factors that have been found to affect women's progress, and questions are raised about the implications for human resource development professionals in higher education.
Cited: Derrida on Anthropological Prejudice in Austin and Husserl

Abstract I read Derrida’s “Signature Event Context” as an extension of his programmatic anti-anthropologism as expressed, for example, in “The Ends of Man. ” I argue that Derrida’s deconstruction of the serious-non-serious opposition in SEC and of the failure-success opposition, and his attempt to save “green is or” from Husserl’s dismissal, is problematic, and that this throws into focus the limits of Derrida’s extreme anti-anthropologism. While Derrida’s criticism of Austin’s exclusion holds, Dethda identifies citationality and failure too closely. He does not consider other ways (than through intention) to defend the serious-non-serious opposition. I show that a defence of this opposition is available, which does not run afoul of the citational theory of language offered in SEC, but that does require more anthropologism than Derrida is willing to endorse. Derrida’s emphasis on citationality would therefore not require an anti-anthropologism as radical as Derrida’s in order to hold on to this criticism of Austin. The anti-anthropologism of SEC attempts, I argue, to judge the context of the anthropological from within the context of the “grammatological,” while the latter is premised on a break with the former. This provides a general characterisation of what makes the aforementioned deconstructions problematic.
DEVELOPING A SYSTEM OF SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS FOR THE LAKE BALATON REGION

s: Studied area is the Lake Balaton region, where we had to go back to re-clarify issues as we were trying to find suitable indicators. This initiative showed that developing an indicator system is a fairly demanding process. However, indentifying local trends and linking them to policy-making are crucial, because lack of comprehensive information accessible in a timely manner can severely constrain successful adaptation efforts. Although our work represents only an initial step, the indicator system developed in the project will hopefully inspire concerned citizens and organizations in the region to take interest in this issue and continue working on indicators beyond this project.
Vertical posture and head stability in patients with chronic neck pain.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate postural performance and head stabilization of patients with chronic neck pain. DESIGN A single-blind comparative group study. SUBJECTS Patients with work-related chronic neck pain (n = 9), with chronic whiplash associated disorders (n = 9) and healthy subjects (n = 16). METHODS During quiet standing in different conditions (e.g. 1 and 2 feet standing, tandem standing, and open and closed eyes) the sway areas and the ability to maintain the postures were measured. The maximal peak-to-peak displacement of the centre of pressure and the head translation were analysed during predictable and unpredictable postural perturbations. RESULTS Patients with chronic neck pain, in particular those with whiplash-associated disorders, showed larger sway areas and reduced ability to successfully execute more challenging balance tasks. They also displayed larger sway areas and reduced head stability during perturbations. CONCLUSION The results show that disturbances of postural control in chronic neck pain are dependent on the aetiology, and that it is possible to quantify characteristic postural disturbances in different neck pain conditions. It is suggested that the dissimilarities in postural performance are a reflection of different degrees of disturbances of the proprioceptive input to the central nervous system and/or of the central processing of such input.
Worth Knowing

What classifications contribute to the inferential process in science is that they allow us to locate the mass of data points observed without Theory in a broader pattern, and they guide Theory-building. Classification is not, in and of itself, Theory-building; nor is it free of Theory when Theory is available. However, if we have no Theory, or the Theory is contested, then we should recognize that a classification scheme is a statement of what we do know, and rest easy in our ignorance of what we do not.
Development of Explanations and Repeated Judgments in An Audit

Prior research suggests that repeated exposure to a statement or the development of an explanation supporting it increases individuals' belief in the plausibility of that statement. This study extended this research by examining how repetition and development of an explanation jointly affect judgments of a statement's plausibility. In this study, subjects (33 men and 16 women) examined financial information about a company and evaluated the plausibility of a statement regarding the company's financial performance that had been made by the management of that company. Prior to evaluating the statement's plausibility, one-half of the subjects also developed an explanation supporting the statement. Fifteen days later, all subjects reevaluated the plausibility of the statement. 24 subjects who had developed a supporting explanation judged the statement to be more plausible than 25 subjects who had not developed an explanation. However, repeated exposure to the statement did not significantly affect subjects' judgments of plausibility.
Fish larvae exploit edge vortices along their dorsal and ventral fin folds to propel themselves

Larvae of bony fish swim in the intermediate Reynolds number (Re) regime, using body- and caudal-fin undulation to propel themselves. They share a median fin fold that transforms into separate median fins as they grow into juveniles. The fin fold was suggested to be an adaption for locomotion in the intermediate Reynolds regime, but its fluid-dynamic role is still enigmatic. Using three-dimensional fluid-dynamic computations, we quantified the swimming trajectory from body-shape changes during cyclic swimming of larval fish. We predicted unsteady vortices around the upper and lower edges of the fin fold, and identified similar vortices around real larvae with particle image velocimetry. We show that thrust contributions on the body peak adjacent to the upper and lower edges of the fin fold where large left–right pressure differences occur in concert with the periodical generation and shedding of edge vortices. The fin fold enhances effective flow separation and drag-based thrust. Along the body, net thrust is generated in multiple zones posterior to the centre of mass. Counterfactual simulations exploring the effect of having a fin fold across a range of Reynolds numbers show that the fin fold helps larvae achieve high swimming speeds, yet requires high power. We conclude that propulsion in larval fish partly relies on unsteady high-intensity vortices along the upper and lower edges of the fin fold, providing a functional explanation for the omnipresence of the fin fold in bony-fish larvae.
An experimental method for diversified evaluation and risk assessment with conflicting objectives

An experimental method is presented for treating diversity of evaluation for alternative regional policies with conflicting multiple objectives. A measure to assess the risk that an implementation of alternative regional policies are constructed under an efficiency criterion based on sensitivity analysis of multiattribute utility functions. Then an entropy problem is solved to evaluate dispersion of selection for policy attributes; the diversity of evaluation is considered under an equity criterion. The default index is constructed from the probability assessment by the entropy model for measuring quantitatively the diversity of evaluation, and is used to compare the acceptability of alternative policies to various groups in society. The method is applied to an empirical case study of a regional problem in the southern part of Osaka Prefecture in Japan.
Where Guanxi Matters

This article explores the indigenous concept of guanxi and its applications in the Chinese context. Guanxi is defined as the existence of direct particularistic ties between two or more individuals. We relate this concept to the idea of relational demography, which has been used by U.S. scholars in recent years to explain and predict a variety of individual-, group-, and organizational-level outcomes in U.S. employment settings. By comparing and contrasting the idea of guanxi to relational demography, we aim to develop an integrative framework that will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics underlying demographic and background similarities between people in the Chinese context than by using either concept alone. We offer several illustrative hypotheses on how and when relational demography and guanxi will matter most in influencing work outcomes in Chinese organizations.
Nucleotide Excision Repair Pathway Genes and Oral Premalignant Lesions

Purpose: Oral premalignant lesions (OPL) are associated with tobacco exposure and an increase in risk of oral cancer. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is one of the major DNA repair pathways involved in the removal of tobacco carcinogen adducts. Polymorphisms in NER genes may cause variations in DNA repair capacity and increase susceptibility to both premalignant lesions and cancer. Experimental Design: In this case-control study of 144 OPL patients and 288 controls, we genotyped 11 polymorphisms in 8 major NER genes, including XPA [A23G at 5′ untranslated region (UTR)], XPD (Asp312Asn, Lys751Gln), XPC (Ala499Val, Lys939Gln), XPG (His1104Asp), XPF (Pro662Ser), ERCC6 (Met1097Val, Arg1230Pro) Rad23B (Ala249Val), and CCNH (Val270Ala). Results: We found significant or borderline-significant associations between OPL risk and the polymorphisms XPA (A23G), XPD (Lys751Gln), XPC (Ala499Val), Rad23B (Ala249Val), and XPD (Asp312Asn), with adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of 1.97 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.27-3.06], 1.60 (95% CI, 1.02-2.51), 0.63 (95% CI, 0.40-1.00), 0.67 (95% CI, 0.41-1.07), and 1.42 (95% CI, 0.90-2.23), respectively. When further stratified analyses were done, the decreased risk conferred by the XPC (Ala499Val) variant allele was more evident in older individuals (OR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.24-1.03), in women (OR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.21-1.01), in ever smokers (OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.33-1.05), and in never drinkers (OR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.18-1.00). Finally, we found joint effects between these NER gene variants and smoking status. For example, when never smokers with the XPA 23A genotypes were used as the reference group, the ORs for never smokers with the XPA 23G genotype, smokers with the 23A genotype, and smokers with 23G genotypes were 2.19 (1.07-4.46), 2.64 (1.42-4.89), and 5.04 (2.62-9.69), respectively. Gene-gene and gene-smoking interaction for OPLs risk were also confirmed by multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) analysis in our study. MDR analysis revealed that a model containing ever smoking, XPA (A23G), XPC (Ala499Val), and XPD (Asp312Asn) was the best model to predict OPL risk with maximum average cross-validation consistency and minimum prediction error (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Our results suggest that polymorphisms in NER genes may contribute to genetic susceptibility to OPLs and may therefore contribute to the development of oral cancer.
Efficient GPU Asynchronous Implementation of a Watershed Algorithm Based on Cellular Automata

The watershed transform is a widely used method for non-supervised image segmentation, especially suitable for low-contrast images. In this paper we show that an algorithm calculating the watershed transform based on a cellular automaton is a good choice for the most recent GPU architectures, especially when the synchronization rules are relaxed. In particular we compare a synchronous and an asynchronous implementation of the algorithm. The results show high speedups for both implementations, especially for the asynchronous one, indicating the potential of this kind of algorithms for new architectures based on hundreds of cores.
Measuring the impact of child protection through Activation States

Child protection (CP) has risen to the top of the UK sports policy agenda in the past four years and the Football Association has invested in this major strategy as part of its commitment to ‘use the power of football to build a better future’ (Football Association, 2000a). Evidencing the impact of child protection is, however, a complex task, exacerbated by the dearth of measurement tools that exist for this purpose in sport. This article presents a new model of ‘Activation States’ that has been designed and used to measure shifts in football culture as child protection has begun to impact upon the sport. The model is used to map changes over time related to the knowledge, feelings, actions and discourses of key stakeholders in football. The research for which the model was designed is a longitudinal study, commissioned by the English Football (soccer) Association, on the impact of the organisation's child protection strategy on the culture of soccer. Sample data from the project are used to illustrate the model and to examine its potential and limitations as a tool for measuring impacts in child protection and other social inclusion themes.
Efficient camera path planning algorithm for human motion overview

Camera path planning for character motions is a fundamental and important research topic, benefiting many animation applications. Existing optimal‐based approaches are generally computationally expensive and infeasible for interactive applications. In this paper, we propose an efficient approach that can take many constraints of finding the camera path into account and can potentially enable interactive camera control. Instead of solving a highly complicated camera optimization problem in a spatiotemporal four‐dimensional space, we heuristically determine the camera path based on an efficient greedy‐based tree traversal approach. The experimental results show that the proposed approach can efficiently generate a smooth, informative, and aesthetic camera path that can reveal the significant features of character motions. Moreover, the conducted user study also shows that the generated camera paths are comparable to those of a state‐of‐the‐art approach and those made by professional animators. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Organizational Learning: A Radical Perspective

This paper reviews the organizational learning literature. For many years, organizational learning theory has been based on a functionalistic paradigm, but an interpretive paradigm now seems to be attaining dominance. However, neither of these perspectives of organizational learning is truly radical in the sense of challenging conditions of power and control in organizations. There are some critical texts on organizational learning (and the learning organization), but they go no further than criticism. Therefore, this paper tries to illustrate what we can call a radical perspective of organizational learning, based on themes in the critical works. The radical perspective of organizational learning implies an organization where the individuals learn as free actors. However, there are norms or rules to guarantee freedom. The learning space in the organization guarantees the occurrence of different opinions, and allows everyone to reflect upon their actions and learning. Working time and employee commitment are restricted so that work does not interfere too much with other undertakings. All employees are guaranteed permanent appointments. Finally, in the radical perspective of organizational learning, organizations die to make place for others when their missions are accomplished. After presenting the radical perspective of organizational learning, I outline some questions for future research and indicate the necessity of further development of such a perspective.
Empirical Evidence : Arbitrage with Exchange-traded Funds ( ETFs ) on the Brazilian Market *

According to risk management literature, diversification helps mitigate risk. Index funds, known as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which were recently introduced into the Brazilian market, make diversification straightforward to accomplish. This paper investigates the efficiency of the valuation process of the Ibovespa iShares with respect to the fair value of the shares. For this purpose, a high-frequency time series analysis of ETFs and Ibovespa was used, followed by strategy simulations that included goodwill and negative goodwill between asset sets with and without transaction costs. To avoid data-snooping effects on the transaction outcomes, a time series bootstrap was applied. The results initially indicated share-pricing inefficiency because the inclusion of goodwill and negative goodwill in the strategy resulted in returns of 172.5% above the fund’s index. Additionally, it became apparent that even with the introduction of operating costs, the gains continued to exhibit inefficiency. However, after applying the bootstrap technique, the results did not suggest excess returns, which could be attributed to data snooping. Therefore, the results demonstrate the impossibility of agents earning abnormal returns from the differences between the values of the ETF share and its corresponding index, thereby indicating that the Ibovespa iShare fund pricing is efficient.