Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictive Validity of Career Decision-Making Profiles Over Time Among Chinese College Students

Two studies were conducted to validate the Chinese version of the Career Decision-Making Profiles (CDMP) questionnaire, a multidimensional measure of the way individuals make career decisions. Results of Study 1 showed that after dropping 1 item from the original CDMP scale, the 11-factor structure was supported among Chinese college students (N = 334). Results of Study 2 (N =372) replicated this factor structure and revealed that the CDMP accounted for 25% and 32% of the variances in participants’ career decision-making efficacy and career decision-making difficulties, respectively, across a time lag of 2 months. Among the CDMP dimensions, comprehensive information gathering, analytic information processing, greater speed of making the final decision, internal locus of control, and less dependence on others were the most significant predictors of positive career-related outcomes. These findings carry implications for career decision-making research and counseling practices in different cultural groups.
Statistical Machine Translation : Robust parameter estimation from noisy corpus

In this report, we describe our study of effect of noise on parameter estimation for statistical machine translation. So far, no study has been done on this topic, even though the algorithm used for parameter estimation for statistical machine translation (the EM algorithm) is known to be highly sensitive to noise. We present in detail the experiments performed to observe the influence of noise on parameter estimation, and the various methods investigated to counter this effect.
Outage probability in the presence of correlated lognormal useful and interfering components

In many modern wireless communications systems (e.g., in OFDM based digital audio broadcasting/digital video broadcasting (DAB/DVB), CDMA) the received signal can be a superposition of multiple useful and interfering lognormal components, and correlation may exist between the components. We propose a simple method for estimating the correlation coefficient between the total useful and total interfering signals as the function of the correlation between the individual components. We show that, by taking into account this correlation factor in the derivation of the distribution of the signal-to-interference ratio, considerable accuracy improvement can be achieved in the outage probability estimation.
Conducting Research Among Older Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Adults

SUMMARY Gerontologists and developmental researchers have neglected the study of sexual orientation among older adults. The apparent assumptions are either that it does not exist or that it is not necessary to know; consequently, older lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults remain invisible groups with the exception of a relatively small number of studies using convenience samples. This article examines some conceptual, practical and ethical challenges involved in designing and conducting research among older LGB adults. The limitations and emphases of extant research and the challenges in conducting such research are examined. The design of two studies that focused on mental and physical health and on care-giving among older LGB adults are discussed to suggest ways of meeting the challenges.
3Dmol.js: molecular visualization with WebGL

Summary: 3Dmol.js is a modern, object-oriented JavaScript library that uses the latest web technologies to provide interactive, hardware-accelerated three-dimensional representations of molecular data without the need to install browser plugins or Java. 3Dmol.js provides a full featured API for developers as well as a straightforward declarative interface that lets users easily share and embed molecular data in websites. Availability and implementation: 3Dmol.js is distributed under the permissive BSD open source license. Source code and documentation can be found at http://3Dmol.csb. pitt.edu Contact: dkoes@pitt.edu
The experience of non-offending caregivers following the disclosure of child sexual abuse: understanding the aftermath

Non-offending caregivers play a critical role in mediating the child survivor’s recovery from child sexual abuse. Despite this, little has been documented about their experiences in the South African context. This exploratory qualitative study investigates the experiences of 10 caregivers following the disclosure of sexual abuse of a child under their care. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that caregivers experienced multiple forms of emotional, psychological, and situational difficulties following the disclosure of child sexual abuse. Five core themes were identified: distress, concern for the child, alienation, coping style, and grief. The findings suggest that not only do caregivers experience vicarious traumatisation but also that caregiver distress impacted their parenting abilities.
repgenHMM: a dynamic programming tool to infer the rules of immune receptor generation from sequence data

The diversity of the immune repertoire is initially generated by random rearrangements of the receptor gene during early T and B cell development. Rearrangement scenarios are composed of random events – choices of gene templates, base pair deletions and insertions – described by probability distributions. Not all scenarios are equally likely, and the same receptor sequence may be obtained in several different ways. Quantifying the distribution of these rearrangements is an essential baseline for studying the immune system diversity. Inferring the properties of the distributions from receptor sequences is a computationally hard problem, requiring enumerating every possible scenario for every sampled receptor sequence. We present a Hidden Markov model, which accounts for all plausible scenarios that can generate the receptor sequences. We developed and implemented a method based on the Baum-Welch algorithm that can efficiently infer the parameters for the different events of the rearrangement process. We tested our software tool on sequence data for both the alpha and beta chains of the T cell receptor. To test the validity of our algorithm, we also generated synthetic sequences produced by a known model, and confirmed that its parameters could be accurately inferred back from the sequences. The inferred model can be used to generate synthetic sequences, to calculate the probability of generation of any receptor sequence, as well as the theoretical diversity of the repertoire. We estimate this diversity to be ≈ 1023 for human T cells. The model gives a baseline to investigate the selection and dynamics of immune repertoires. Source code and sample sequence files are available at https://bitbucket.org/yuvalel/repgenhmm/downloads.
Gossip Coverage Control for Robotic Networks: Dynamical Systems on the Space of Partitions

Future applications in environmental monitoring, delivery of services, and transportation of goods motivate the study of deployment and partitioning tasks for groups of autonomous mobile agents. These tasks may be achieved by recent coverage algorithms, based upon the classic methods by Lloyd. These algorithms, however, rely upon critical requirements on the communication network: information is exchanged synchronously among all agents and long-range communication is sometimes required. This work proposes novel coverage algorithms that require only gossip communication, i.e., asynchronous, pairwise, and possibly unreliable communication. Which robot pair communicates at any given time may be selected deterministically or randomly. A key innovative idea is describing coverage algorithms for robot deployment and environment partitioning as dynamical systems on a space of partitions. In other words, we study the evolution of the regions assigned to each agent rather than the evolution of the agents' positions. The proposed gossip algorithms are shown to converge to centroidal Voronoi partitions under mild technical conditions. Our treatment features a broad variety of results in topology, analysis, and geometry. First, we establish the compactness of a suitable space of partitions with respect to the symmetric difference metric. Second, with respect to this metric, we establish the continuity of various geometric maps, including the Voronoi diagram as a function of its generators, the location of a centroid as a function of a set, and the widely known multicenter function studied in facility location problems. Third, we prove two convergence theorems for dynamical systems on metric spaces described by deterministic and stochastic switches.
Evaluation of an elastomer based gold microelectrode array for neural recording applications

We are reporting on the fabrication and electrical characterization of a novel elastomer based micro-cuff neural interface. Electrodes are gold (Au) tracks of sub-100nm thickness and are thermally evaporated on a 0.5 mm thick polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. We investigate how electrode area and immersion in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at 37°C influence electrode impedance. A microfluidic channel is bonded to the electrode array to form the cuff. In an acute, in-vivo, proof-of-principle recording, the device is capable of detecting light stroking and pinch of a hind leg of an anaesthetized rat.
The challenge of lipid rafts This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants RO1 GM064491 and R01 GM082824 to LJP. Published, JLR Papers in Press, October 27, 2008.

The Singer-Nicholson model of membranes postulated a uniform lipid bilayer randomly studded with floating proteins. However, it became clear almost immediately that membranes were not uniform and that clusters of lipids in a more ordered state existed within the generally disorder lipid milieu of the membrane. These clusters of ordered lipids are now referred to as lipid rafts. This review summarizes current thinking on the nature of lipid rafts focusing on the role of proteomics and lipidomics in understanding the structure of these domains. It also outlines the contribution of single-molecule methods in defining the forces that drive the formation and dynamics of these membrane domains.
Sherlock Dengue 8 : A Serious Game for Teaching about Dengue Fever Prevention with Collaboration and Competition

The Dengue fever is one of the most important diseases caused by arbovirus due to its global spread, high infectious rate and the expressive number of deaths. There is no dengue fever vaccine available yet thus raising people awareness about this problem seems to be the only solution at hand. As videogames are considered engaging and entertaining, especially for children and youngsters, this paper presents the development of a Serious Game about dengue fever prevention as a new free version of the Sherlock Dengue sequel, titled as: Sherlock Dengue 8: The Neighborhood. The gameplay includes a new game mode which is collaborative competition, i.e. players will team up in pairs to help each other and, at the same time compete against another pair. The paper discusses the design of such game that has to fulfill and balance collaborative, competitive and pedagogical requirements at the same time that keeps it as fun and playable a game as possible.
Nanocapsules for the co-delivery of selol and doxorubicin to breast adenocarcinoma 4T1 cells in vitro

Abstract Nanocapsules (NCS-DOX) with an oily core of selol and a shell of poly(methyl vinyl ether-co-maleic anhydride) covalently conjugated to doxorubicin were developed. These nanocapsules are spherical, with an average hydrodynamic diameter of about 170 nm, and with negative zeta potential. NCS-DOX effectively co-delivered the selol and the doxorubicin into 4T1 cells and changed the intracellular distribution of DOX from the nuclei to the mitochondria. Moreover, a significantly increased cytotoxicity against 4T1 cells was observed, which is suggestive of additive or synergic effect of selol and doxorubicin. In conclusion, PVM/MA nanocapsules are suitable platforms to co-deliver drugs into cancer cells.
Determining Extreme Parameter Correlation in Ground Water Models

In ground water flow system models with hydraulic‐head observations but without significant imposed or observed flows, extreme parameter correlation generally exists. As a result, hydraulic conductivity and recharge parameters cannot be uniquely estimated. In complicated problems, such correlation can go undetected even by experienced modelers. Extreme parameter correlation can be detected using parameter correlation coefficients, but their utility depends on the presence of sufficient, but not excessive, numerical imprecision of the sensitivities, such as round‐off error. This work investigates the information that can be obtained from parameter correlation coefficients in the presence of different levels of numerical imprecision, and compares it to the information provided by an alternative method called the singular value decomposition (SVD). Results suggest that (1) calculated correlation coefficients with absolute values that round to 1.00 were good indicators of extreme parameter correlation, but smaller values were not necessarily good indicators of lack of correlation and resulting unique parameter estimates; (2) the SVD may be more difficult to interpret than parameter correlation coefficients, but it required sensitivities that were one to two significant digits less accurate than those that required using parameter correlation coefficients; and (3) both the SVD and parameter correlation coefficients identified extremely correlated parameters better when the parameters were more equally sensitive. When the statistical measures fail, parameter correlation can be identified only by the tedious process of executing regression using different sets of starting values, or, in some circumstances, through graphs of the objective function.
The malleable brain: plasticity of neural circuits and behavior – a review from students to students

One of the most intriguing features of the brain is its ability to be malleable, allowing it to adapt continually to changes in the environment. Specific neuronal activity patterns drive long‐lasting increases or decreases in the strength of synaptic connections, referred to as long‐term potentiation and long‐term depression, respectively. Such phenomena have been described in a variety of model organisms, which are used to study molecular, structural, and functional aspects of synaptic plasticity. This review originated from the first International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) and Journal of Neurochemistry (JNC) Flagship School held in Alpbach, Austria (Sep 2016), and will use its curriculum and discussions as a framework to review some of the current knowledge in the field of synaptic plasticity. First, we describe the role of plasticity during development and the persistent changes of neural circuitry occurring when sensory input is altered during critical developmental stages. We then outline the signaling cascades resulting in the synthesis of new plasticity‐related proteins, which ultimately enable sustained changes in synaptic strength. Going beyond the traditional understanding of synaptic plasticity conceptualized by long‐term potentiation and long‐term depression, we discuss system‐wide modifications and recently unveiled homeostatic mechanisms, such as synaptic scaling. Finally, we describe the neural circuits and synaptic plasticity mechanisms driving associative memory and motor learning. Evidence summarized in this review provides a current view of synaptic plasticity in its various forms, offers new insights into the underlying mechanisms and behavioral relevance, and provides directions for future research in the field of synaptic plasticity.
COMPUTERPHOBIA: TRAINING MANAGERS TO REDUCE THE FEARS AND LOVE THE MACHINES

The information revolution and proliferation of computers in the workplace has led to a new fear of target‐users, “computerphobia”. Fears confronting those who are not computer literate are examined and a comprehensive model for management development is suggested to encourage the computer‐anxious to use personal computers. The challenge confronting managers lies in overcoming these fears and protecting the organisation′s investments in its hardware and human resources. The model developed is composed of four steps, and by considering these steps, management may be able to create situations in which managers welcome technological changes as opportunities and not problems.
Organizational and Personal Dimensions in Diversity Climate

This article reports results from an organizational evaluation examining gender and racial/ethnic differences in the diversity perceptions of 2,686 employees of an electronics company located in a multicultural community. Based on social identity and intergroup theories, the authors explore employees' views of the organizational dimension as well as the personal dimension. A factor analysis of the 16-item diversity perceptions scale uncovered four factors along the two hypothesized dimensions: Fairness and Inclusion factors comprising the organizational dimension and Diversity Value and Personal Comfort factors comprising the personal dimension. The analysis revealed that Caucasian men perceived the organization as more fair and inclusive than did Caucasian women or racial/ethnic minority men and women; Caucasian women and racial/ethnic minority men and women saw more value in, and felt more comfortable with, diversity than did Caucasian men. The article discusses implications for practice and future research.
Contempt: a hot feeling hidden under a cold jacket

Contempt is the feeling when one judges another person as an inferior human being, and is typically expressed through social exclusion. Feeling contempt thus implies rejecting others, considering others as unworthy of one’s attention. Contempt is often mixed with other emotions, such as anger, hatred, or socio-moral disgust. Often therefore, the expression of contempt can coincide with feelings of revenge or even attempts to attack the other person. I think contempt is a moral emotion, in that it is often elicited in response to transgressions that are considered as amoral. These include behaviors such as betrayal, theft, (sexual) violence, which go against our moral standards and therefore deserve only contempt. These types of transgressions are too awful to criticize, and therefore can only lead to rejection or exclusion. Although we may feel contempt towards people we hardly know, contempt often develops out of anger, especially when we have been confronted with others or other groups who have not changed their behavior in reaction to our anger. Anger therefore does not seem functional, and contempt emerges as a way of coping with the lack of influence or control we have over the other.
Cognitive and motor development in HIV infected children : a systematic review

The global epidemic of HIV continues with an estimated 2.2 million children under 15 years of age worldwide living with HIV and 640 000 newly infected in 2004 (WHO, 2009). HIV crosses the blood–brain barrier which may lead to neuronal damage and death. There is controversial evidence within available research on effects of HIV on cognitive and motor development in children because of the limitations imposed by study designs, study populations and study methodological quality. The aims of the review were:  To conduct a systematic review of published research to establish the effects and the prevalence of HIV infection on cognitive and motor development in children.  To critically appraise the methodological quality of published research regarding cognitive and motor development of HIV infected children. The objectives of the review were:  To assess evidence on the cognitive and motor development of HIV-1 infected children  To describe anthropometric outcomes including: weight for age, weight for height, height for age and head circumference in children with a HIV infection.  To assess the methodological quality of studies on the cognitive and motor development of HIV infected children. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Fish-oil supplementation induces antiinflammatory gene expression profiles in human blood mononuclear cells.

BACKGROUND Polyunsaturated fatty acids can have beneficial effects on human immune cells, such as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). However, the mechanisms of action of polyunsaturated fatty acids on immune cells are still largely unknown. OBJECTIVE The objective was to examine the effects of supplementation with the polyunsaturated fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on whole-genome PBMC gene expression profiles, in healthy Dutch elderly subjects participating in a double-blind trial, by using whole-genome transcriptomics analysis. DESIGN The subjects were randomly allocated to 1 of 3 groups: 1) consumption of 1.8 g EPA+DHA/d (n = 36), 2) consumption of 0.4 g EPA+DHA/d (n = 37), or 3) consumption of 4.0 g high-oleic acid sunflower oil (HOSF)/d (n = 38). All supplements were given in capsules. Before and after 26 wk of intervention, blood samples were collected. Microarray analysis was performed on PBMC RNA from 23 subjects who received 1.8 g EPA+DHA/d and 25 subjects who received HOSF capsules. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed in all 111 subjects. RESULTS A high EPA+DHA intake changed the expression of 1040 genes, whereas HOSF intake changed the expression of only 298 genes. EPA+DHA intake resulted in a decreased expression of genes involved in inflammatory- and atherogenic-related pathways, such as nuclear transcription factor kappaB signaling, eicosanoid synthesis, scavenger receptor activity, adipogenesis, and hypoxia signaling. CONCLUSION These results are the first to show that intake of EPA+DHA for 26 wk can alter the gene expression profiles of PBMCs to a more antiinflammatory and antiatherogenic status. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00124852.
Phylogenomic resolution of scorpions reveals multilevel discordance with morphological phylogenetic signal

Scorpions represent an iconic lineage of arthropods, historically renowned for their unique bauplan, ancient fossil record and venom potency. Yet, higher level relationships of scorpions, based exclusively on morphology, remain virtually untested, and no multilocus molecular phylogeny has been deployed heretofore towards assessing the basal tree topology. We applied a phylogenomic assessment to resolve scorpion phylogeny, for the first time, to our knowledge, sampling extensive molecular sequence data from all superfamilies and examining basal relationships with up to 5025 genes. Analyses of supermatrices as well as species tree approaches converged upon a robust basal topology of scorpions that is entirely at odds with traditional systematics and controverts previous understanding of scorpion evolutionary history. All analyses unanimously support a single origin of katoikogenic development, a form of parental investment wherein embryos are nurtured by direct connections to the parent's digestive system. Based on the phylogeny obtained herein, we propose the following systematic emendations: Caraboctonidae is transferred to Chactoidea new superfamilial assignment; superfamily Bothriuroidea revalidated is resurrected and Bothriuridae transferred therein; and Chaerilida and Pseudochactida are synonymized with Buthida new parvordinal synonymies.