Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding the Self in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): A Review of Literature

When the system of self is explored in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), it is important to measure it via both their own perceptions of the self and their understanding of others’ perceptions on themselves at a multidimensional level. This paper reviews existing research in this area using a three-dimension approach. Researchers have found that impairments in the self-system are usually correlated with these individuals’ social and cognitive functioning levels: high functioning individuals with ASD who have higher IQ are found to have better awareness of their limitations in social and communication domains than those with lower IQ. Many researchers believe that there are impairments in the psychological (but not physical) self in individuals with ASD, such as theory of mind deficits due to social and communicative impairments. On the other hand, some researchers argue that individuals with ASD have selective rather than global impairments in the self. In other words, the impairment usually lies in a specific aspect of functioning in individuals with ASD. Insights from the review of existing literature on this topic may be able to shed some lights on the development of effective intervention programs to improve social communication deficits in this population.
Comparing Parental Distress for Families with Children Who Have Cancer and Matched Comparison Families without Children with Cancer

We conducted two studies about parental perceptions of both distress and family functioning for parents of children with cancer and matched comparison parents without an ill child. Results from Study 1 showed no significant differences between mothers or fathers of children with cancer and comparison mothers or fathers on multiple dimensions of psychological distress or family functioning. For Study 2, we added a measure of social support. Findings pertinent to psychological dis
Effects of Coaching on the Validity of the SAT: A Simulation Study.

ABSTRACT The effects of student coaching in preparation for the College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) on the predictive validity of this test for freshman year performance were studied using data on 1985 freshman year students from four colleges. After the validity of the SAT was estimated for each school, a given proportion of students was picked, and a given magnitude of score gains was added to the observed SAT verbal and mathematics scores. The validity of the new SAT scores was then estimated and compared to the observed validity measures. Each simulation provides an estimate of the change in velidity resulting from a hypothetical coaching effect. Sample sizes from the 4 colleges were: (1) 996 students from a highly selective school; (2) 1,346 from a moderately selective school; (3) 386 from a small, less selective school; and (4) 203 from a small religiously affiliated college. Results indicated that the validity indicators of the SAT in highly selective colleges are more contaminated by coaching effects than in less selective colleges. Results also indicate that changes in the levels of coaching do not seem large enough to account for the observed decline in the validity of the SAT over the past 10 years. Appendix A provides a detailed discussion of the second college, and Appendix B describes decrements in multiple partial correlation coefficients. (Contains 5 figures, 14 tables, and 19 references.) (SLD)
Anti-cancer Effect and Underlying Mechanism(s) of Kaempferol, a Phytoestrogen, on the Regulation of Apoptosis in Diverse Cancer Cell Models

Phytoestrogens exist in edible compounds commonly found in fruits or plants. For long times, phytoestrogens have been used for therapeutic treatments against human diseases, and they can be promising ingredients for future pharmacological industries. Kaempferol is a yellow compound found in grapes, broccoli and yellow fruits, which is one of flavonoid as phytoestrogens. Kaempferol has been suggested to have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect. In past decades, many studies have been performed to examine anti-toxicological role(s) of kaempferol against human cancers. It has been shown that kaempferol may be involved in the regulations of cell cycle, metastasis, angiogenesis and apoptosis in various cancer cell types. Among them, there have been a few of the studies to examine a relationship between kaempferol and apoptosis. Thus, in this review, we highlight the effect(s) of kaempferol on the regulation of apoptosis in diverse cancer cell models. This could be a forecast in regard to use of kaempferol as promising treatment against human diseases.
Introduction to Special Section on A.N. Whitehead

ions For Goffey and Toscano in their respective articles ‘Abstract Experience’ and ‘The Culture of Abstraction’, as well as for Stengers, a crucial element of the critical aspect of Whitehead’s project is that in modern society ‘we accept the domination of abstractions . we consent to forget or neglect what we are aware of’ (Stengers, p. 107). Hence, the return to an investigation of the character and implications of our abstractions is no recourse Halewood – Introduction to Special Section on A.N. Whitehead 3 001-014 092079 Introduction (D) 24/6/08 13:01 Page 3
Influencia de la simetría facial en la elección de pareja

Many studies suggest that the facial symmetry, as indicator of stability in the development and individual´s health, influence the evaluation of the characteristics of the pair. To determine the importance of facial symmetry in mate choice, we have applied questionnaires in diverse public space of Santiago de Chile to 718 heterosexual people: 456 women and 262 men. They had to evaluate three images of faces of people of the opposite sex with different levels of facial symmetry. We concluded that the facial symmetry influences the evaluation of the pair´s characteristics but, in addition to the symmetry, other factors like the use of artificial beauty products can be more important phenotypic signals than facial symmetry.
Psychological responses of women after first-trimester abortion.

BACKGROUND Controversy exists over psychological risks associated with abortion. The objectives of this study were to examine women's emotions, evaluations, and mental health after an abortion, as well as changes over time in these responses and their predictors. METHODS Women arriving at 1 of 3 sites for an abortion of a first-trimester unintended pregnancy were randomly approached to participate in a longitudinal study with 4 assessments-1 hour before the abortion, and 1 hour, 1 month, and 2 years after the abortion. Eight hundred eighty-two (85%) of 1043 eligible women approached agreed; 442 (50%) of 882 were followed for 2 years. Preabortion and postabortion depression and self-esteem, postabortion emotions, decision satisfaction, perceived harm and benefit, and posttraumatic stress disorder were assessed. Demographic variables and prior mental health were examined as predictors of postabortion psychological responses. RESULTS Two years postabortion, 301 (72%) of 418 women were satisfied with their decision; 306 (69%) of 441 said they would have the abortion again; 315 (72%) of 440 reported more benefit than harm from their abortion; and 308 (80%) of 386 were not depressed. Six (1%) of 442 reported posttraumatic stress disorder. Depression decreased and self-esteem increased from preabortion to postabortion, but negative emotions increased and decision satisfaction decreased over time. Prepregnancy history of depression was a risk factor for depression, lower self-esteem, and more negative abortion-specific outcomes 2 years postabortion. Younger age and having more children preabortion also predicted more negative abortion evaluations. CONCLUSIONS Most women do not experience psychological problems or regret their abortion 2 years postabortion, but some do. Those who do tend to be women with a prior history of depression.
Map generation and localization for a LEGO NXT robot

This article presents the construction of a 2-dimensional map for a mobile robot built with a Lego Mindstorms system version NXT, and its location in the map. For the mapping process, the ultrasonic sensor of the robot and a camera with a full space view were used. The Montecarlo algorithm was used for localization. The application is controlled from a graphic interface developed using Java programming language.
Automatic Generation of Pencil Sketch for 2D Images

Non-Photo-Realistic Rendering (NPR) is becoming increasingly important research topic in computer graphics and image processing. This paper puts forward a novel method for automatically generating a pencil sketch from a real 2D color image in non-photo-realistic rendering. First of all, the edge of the color image is detected by Sobel operator. Secondly, the color image is sharpened by Unsharp Mask (USM), then color scaling is used to get an image with radial and edge details. Furthermore, the original image is divided into many meaningful regions using an efficient method of image segmentation, then the texture direction is determined by Fourier transform and shape feature. To render better effects of illumination and local texture of pencil sketch, the Line Integral Convolution (LIC) algorithm is applied and combined color scaling and white noise image. At last, the pencil sketch is created and the generation results from the superposition of the edge, the USM image and the texture. The experimental results prove that our approach could efficiently generate more obvious edge, more natural tone and more real texture than existed methods.
Sustained improvement of cardiac function in patients with congestive heart failure after short-term infusion of dobutamine.

Fifteen patients with congestive cardiomyopathy (six idiopathic and nine alcoholic) manifested by heart failure (New York Heart Association class III or IV) were randomly assigned to a protocol in which dobutamine (n = 8) or 5% dextrose in water (n = 7) was infused continuously for 72 hr. The dose of dobutamine was titrated to increase cardiac output to twice the baseline values. The patients were evaluated before infusion, shortly after infusion, and 1, 2, and 4 weeks thereafter. Functional class improved in six of eight dobutamine-treated patients but in only two of seven control patients during the 4 week observation period. Maximal exercise time and left ventricular ejection fraction increased significantly above baseline only in the dobutamine group. However, neither dobutamine nor placebo infusion produced significant changes shortly after infusion in heart rate, cardiac index, or total peripheral vascular resistance at rest or during exercise at similar workloads. The group receiving dobutamine did show a reduction in systemic systolic and pulmonary arterial mean and diastolic pressure at rest (123 +/- 5 to 108 +/- 6, 32 +/- 5, to 24 +/- 3, and 26 +/- 4 to 20 +/- 2 mm Hg, respectively). In addition, total body oxygen consumption during similar workloads was lower after dobutamine infusion than before. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Impact of Political Violence on Images of War and Peace in the Drawings of Primary School Children

Protestant primary school children (N = 181) from 3 schools representing areas in Northern Ireland with high and low political and sectarian violence, and 1 area in England with no political and sectarian violence, were asked to draw pictures of peace and war. Three hypotheses were explored: (a) Northern Irish children to a greater extent than English children would emphasise the concept of peace as the absence of war; (b) children from the high-violence area of Northern Ireland would be more likely to emphasise the concrete aspects of war such as weapons, soldiers, and war activities; and (c) boys would demonstrate greater knowledge of war than would girls. Hiloglinear analyses of the images in the drawings confirmed the first and third hypotheses.
Two Enzymes Which Phosphorylate Neomycin and Kanamycin in Escherichia coli Strains Carrying R Factors

Two enzymes which phosphorylate neomycin and kanamycin have been detected in Escherichia coli strains carrying R factors. Neomycin-kanamycin phosphotransferase I can phosphorylate neomycin and kanamycin, but not butirosin. Neomycin-kanamycin phosphotransferase II can phosphorylate all three antibiotics. The enzymes also differ in their response to certain inhibitors of phosphorylation. Neomycin-kanamycin phosphotransferase II is found in certain strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
The Co-evolution of Individual Behaviors and Social Institutions

We jointly address two puzzles, namely what accounts for the evolutionary success of both: (a) individually costly and group-beneficial forms of human sociality towards non-kin; and (b) those group-level institutional structures such as food sharing and monogamy which have emerged and diffused repeatedly in a wide variety of ecologies during the course of human history. We show that the frequency and consequences of intergroup conflicts may provide an important part of the answer to both questions: in-group beneficial behaviors may evolve if they inflict sufficient costs on out-group individuals while group-level institutions limit the individual costs of these behaviors. We model a co-evolutionary process in which individual traits are transmitted either genetically or culturally and in which the evolutionary trajectories of individual traits and social institutions are mutually determining. Our simulations show that if group-level institutions implementing resource sharing or non-random pairing among group members may evolve, group-level selection processes support the co-evolution of group beneficial individual traits along with these institutions, even where the latter impose significant costs on the groups adopting them. In the absence of these group-level institutions, however, group selection pressures support the evolution of group beneficial traits only when intergroup conflicts are very frequent, groups are small, and migration rates are low. Thus under parameter values which may bear some resemblance to the relevant environments during the first 90,000 years of anatomically modern human existence, in-group-beneficial individual traits and group-level institutions of resource sharing and social segmentation could readily evolve, the sociality of humans thus being in part a consequence of human capacities in social institution building. Samuel Bowles Department of Economics University of Massachusetts at Amherst Astrid Hopfensitz Department of Mathematics University of Ulm
LQG control with minimum directed information

We consider a framework of LQG optimal control in which Massey's directed information from the state sequence to the control sequence is minimized. The use of directed information in this study is motivated by the data-rate minimization in quantized LQG control. We show that an optimal control policy in our framework can be realized by a simple three-stage architecture comprising (i) a linear sensor with additive Gaussian noise, (ii) a Kalman filter, and (iii) a certainty equivalence controller. This result can be viewed as an integration of two previously known separation theorems: the filter-controller separation theorem in the standard LQG control theory, and the sensor-filter separation theorem that arises in zero-delay rate-distortion theory for Gauss-Markov sources. A tractable computational algorithm based on semidefinite programming is proposed to synthesize an optimal policy.
Predictors of First-Year Retention in a Community College

Retention is a complex issue of great importance to community colleges. Several retention models have been developed to help explain this phenomenon. However, these models typically have used four-year college and university environments to build their foundations. Several researchers have attempted to identify predictor variables using statistical analysis. This study attempts to replicate some of these previous studies and build on them by including additional variables and cross-sectional techniques to study the potential of shifting trends.
Preventing perseveration in language production

This paper investigates the effect of the repetition of phonological elements on accuracy in spontaneous language production. Using a corpus of naturalistic speech errors, it is shown that repetition of a whole segment doubles the error rate on the second token (a perseveratory effect), for onset consonants, vowels, and coda consonants; the effect is present (at a reduced magnitude) in the speech of young children. Repetition also leads to an increased error rate on the first token (an anticipatory effect), but only for word-initial consonants and only for adults. Repetition of subsegmental features has an effect only for word-initial consonants and only perseveratorily. There are no effects of repetition of larger units (e.g., syllable onsets) or for general segmental similarity. It is argued that the effect is largely due to mechanisms designed to prevent perseveration (by e.g., shifting average activation values downward), and affects early-accessed information (whole segments; onset consonants) more than later-accessed information (subsegmental features; vowels and coda consonants).
Neuregulins and erbB Receptors at Neuromuscular Junctions and at Agrin-Induced Postsynaptic-like Apparatus in Skeletal Muscle

We demonstrate by immunohistochemistry that at least two isoforms of neuregulin (NRG) are concentrated at neuromuscular junctions in adult rat muscles. One is NRGbeta3, a secreted protein which is bound to basal lamina that occupies the synaptic cleft. The other(s), NRG-a, is in the muscle fibers' plasma membrane. We show further that muscle NRG, including NRG-a, is concentrated at postsynaptic-like apparatus induced to form in the extrajunctional region of the soleus muscle by exposure to neural agrin. The agrin-induced postsynaptic-like apparatus also includes aggregates of the NRG receptors erbB2 and erbB3 as does postsynaptic apparatus at neuromuscular junctions. These findings together with those of others suggest a mechanism by which neural agrin induces the expression of epsilon-AChR subunits in postsynaptic-like apparatus, and they support the hypothesis that agrin has a similar function at neuromuscular junctions.
The assessment of behavioural activation—the relationship between positive emotionality and the behavioural activation system

Much personality research suggests that the variance in personality can be accounted for by a few dimensions, often hypothesized to be connected to neurological circuits. Gray's (1982) behavioural activation system (BAS) and behavioural inhibition system (BIS) in particular propose to explain for a variety of behaviour. This investigation sought to determine whether Positive Emotionality is an appropriate measure of the BAS, and how Tellegen's (1985) constructs are related to BAS activity. Measures of BAS and Positive Emotionality were administered to undergraduates. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that, while Positive Emotionality can be used as an indicator of BAS activity, it is better conceived of as a distinct, correlated construct. In addition, not all components of Positive Emotionality were related to BAS activity, and BAS was further related to components of Negative Emotionality and Constraint. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Seasonal-, tidal-cycle- and microhabitat-related variation in membrane order of phospholipid vesicles from gills of the intertidal mussel Mytilus californianus

Alterations in the order, or fluidity, of cellular membranes in response to variations in environmental temperature are well known. The mussel Mytilus californianus, a common inhabitant of mid-intertidal regions along the Pacific coast of North America, can experience large (20 °C or more) and cyclic (every 6 h) changes in body temperature (Tb ) during tidal cycles. In the present study, we explore membrane order during seasonal and tidal temperature cycles and find that vesicles prepared from gill phospholipids exhibit significant seasonal differences in order that are consistent with homeoviscous adaptation and suggest winter-acclimatization to mean Tb values and summer-acclimatization to upper extreme Tb values or to large cyclic thermal fluctuations, despite repeated resubmergence in sea water at 10 °C during both seasons. Phospholipid vesicles prepared from the gills of mussels acclimated for 6 weeks to constant high or low temperatures in the laboratory fail to exhibit temperature-compensatory differences in order. In addition, during the summer, mussels inhabiting high intertidal sites, but not those from low sites, possess the ability to alter membrane order rapidly (within hours). This alteration of order appears to represent a mechanism designed to offset the thermal variations encountered during the tidal cycle. Thus, M. californianus have the ability to adjust membrane order on seasonal as well as hourly time scales and do so on the basis of their height in the intertidal region.
The Capabilities Approach and Gendered Education

This article examines Amartya Sen's writings on the capabilities approach and education. Sen sometimes suggests a loose association between education and schooling. Elsewhere he concludes that one can read off the outputs of schooling as an indication of capabilities and an enhancement of freedom. While the capability approach provides a valuable way beyond human capital theorizing about education, Sen's writing fails to take account of the complex settings in which schooling takes place. Sometimes schooling does not entail an enhancement of capabilities and substantive freedom. South African policy responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic highlight how using the capability approach to evaluation without paying attention to conditions of gender and race inequality yield only half the picture.
Of Oxen and Birds: Is Yik Yak a useful new data source in the geosocial zoo or just another Twitter?

The landscape of social media applications is littered with novel approaches to using location information. The latest platform to emerge in this geosocial media realm is Yik Yak, an application that allows users to share geo-tagged, (currently) text-based, and most importantly, anonymous content. The fast adoption of this platform by college students as well as the recent availability of data offers a unique research opportunity. This work takes a first step in exploring this novel type of data through a range of textual, topical, and spatial data exploration methods. We are particularly interested in the question of whether Yik Yak differs from other geosocial data sources such as Twitter. Is it just another location-based social network or does it differ from existing social networks, establishing itself as a valuable resource for feature extraction?
Design and Evaluation of a Prosthesis Control System Based on the Concept of Extended Physiological Pioprioception

JAMES A. DOUBLER, Ph. D. a Abstract-This paper describes the design and evaluation of an DUDLEY S. CHILDRESS, Ph. D. experimental prosthesis-control system based on the concept of Prosthetics Research Laboratory extended physiological proprioception (EPP). It was originally Northwestern University hypothesized that EPP control effected by residual shoulder 345 East Superior Street motion could be effectively applied in multifunctional prosChicago, Illinois 6061 1 theses for shoulder disart i~ulation amputees. The experimental system developed for this study u"rlized a force-driven control scheme and a shoulder motion transduction system in which direct cable linkages to the prosthesis components were used to implement EPP position-servo relationships between shoulder elevation-depression and prosthesis elbow flexion, and between shoulder protraction-retraction and prosthesis wrist rotation. The results of experiments performed with this prosthesis (and with an experimental velocity-controlled prosthesis implemented for comparison purposes) clearly demonstrated the superior performance provided by EPP control of prosthesis function.