Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving Literacy Development in Foster Children : Best Practices for the K-6 Classroom

Foster children who have experienced abuse or neglect are far more likely to fail a grade than children who have not experienced this trauma (Statman-Weil 2015). This research study explored current teachers’ best practices for improving literacy development in foster children in the K-6 classroom. Themes emerged indicating the teachers’ perceptions of meeting the needs of foster children, especially as related to improving literacy skills and encouraging literacy development. These best practices can be implemented by K-6 teachers to assist in preventing school failure for foster children.
Dependence Structures and Systemic Risk of Government Securities Markets in Central and Eastern Europe: A CoVaR-Copula Approach

In this study, we proposed a new empirical method by combining generalized autoregressive score functions and a copula model with high-frequency data to model the conditional time-varying joint distribution of the government bond yields between Poland/Czech Republic/Hungary, and Germany. Capturing the conditional time-varying joint distribution of these bond yields allowed us to precisely measure the dependence of the government securities markets. In particular, we found a high dependence of these government securities markets in the long term, but a low dependence in the short term. In addition, we report that the Czech Republic showed the highest dependence with Germany, while Hungary showed the lowest. Moreover, we found that the systemic risk dynamics were consistent with the idea that the global financial crisis not only had spillover effects on countries with weak economic fundamentals (e.g., Hungary, which had the highest systemic risk), but also had contagion effects for both CEEC-3 countries and Germany. Finally, we confirm that three major market events, namely the EU accession, the global financial crisis, and the European debt crisis, caused structural changes to the dynamic correlation.
Does a cognitive stress test predict progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia equally well in clinical versus population-based settings?

ABSTRACT Background: Evidence suggests that semantic interference may be a sensitive indicator of early dementia. We examined the utility of the Semantic Interference Test (SIT), a cognitive stress memory paradigm which taps proactive and retroactive semantic interference, for predicting progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to dementia in both a clinical and a population-based sample. Methods: Participants with MCI in the clinical (n = 184) and population-based (n = 435) samples were followed for up to four years. We employed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methods to establish optimal thresholds for four different SIT indices. Threshold performance was compared in the two samples using logistic and Cox proportional hazard regression models. Results: Within four years, 42 (22.8%) MCI individuals in the clinical sample and 45 (10.3%) individuals in the population-based sample progressed to dementia. Overall classification accuracy of SIT thresholds ranged from 61.4% to 84.8%. Different subtests of the SIT had slightly different performance characteristics in the two samples. However, regression models showed that thresholds established in the clinical sample performed similarly in the population sample before and after adjusting for demographics and other baseline neuropsychological test scores. Conclusions: Despite differences in demographic composition and progression rates, baseline SIT scores predicted progression from MCI to dementia similarly in both samples. Thresholds that best predicted progression were slightly below thresholds established for distinguishing between amnestic MCI and cognitively normal subjects in clinical practice. This confirms the utility of the SIT in both clinical and population-based samples and establishes thresholds most predictive of progression of individuals with MCI.
Economic Costs of the Malaysian Brain Drain: Implications from an Endogenous Growth Model

This paper provides a first estimate of the economic costs and benefits of the Malaysian brain drain. To this end, a human capital augmented labour production function is specified, with endogenous skill and knowledge spill-over effects. From this model, the overall costs of the emigration of skilled Malaysians since 1980 are estimated as 0.7 per cent to 1.6 per cent of income per capita in 2010. Further endogenising the skilled emigration rate, skilled emigration flows are found to decline by 21,000 workers from 2010-2020 (or -29 per cent) if the New Economic Model growth targets can be achieved. These results suggest two policy implications. First, fundamental economic reforms will reduce skilled emigration flows, but will not reverse the continuous outflow of talent. Second, skilled immigration appears to be an economically more powerful lever than retention or reattraction of the Malaysian emigrant diaspora.
New alternatives for interference tolerant waveforms hosted on a software programmable multi-mission platform

We present a dynamically reconfigurable (~ seconds) combined FPGA/DSP-based system-on-chip platform to address the need for an agile multi-function/multi-mission capability in size and weight constrained applications. The highly integrated system-in-a-package (SiP) format occupies <; 2 cu inch and has been demonstrated as a key element in both MODEM and RADAR platforms. Dynamic reconfiguration is achieved via software, thus implementing a software defined payload (SDP). MODEM operation is illustrated with two novel interference resistant communication waveforms, one digital chaotic-based and the other an enhanced OFDM (eOFDM). In trials, chaotic spreading achieved interference resistance of ~ 2.5 dB over comparable direct-sequence spread spectrum approaches with an uncoded BER of 8.5 × 10-6 when received at -13 dB SNR (100 kbps). Results indicate that this waveform holds promise as a concurrent secondary user (SU) in cognitive radio or shared spectrum schemes. The eOFDM provides > 36 Mbps and > 30 dB of additional pilot tone interference margin over typical OFDM, so it is suitable as a primary user (PU) format tolerant to both interference and wireless channel distortions. Lastly, to show the mission diversity, the FPGA platform is extended to a stretch mode inverse synthetic aperture RADAR (ISAR) experimentally achieving 0.25 m slant range resolution and multiplicative noise ratio (MNR) of -23 dB using a 40 MHz/us chirp on an actual target.
X-Box Binding Protein 1 Contributes to Induction of the Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Lytic Cycle under Hypoxic Conditions

ABSTRACT Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), like other herpesviruses, has two stages to its life cycle: latency and lytic replication. KSHV is required for development of Kaposi's sarcoma, a tumor of endothelial origin, and is associated with the B-cell tumor primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) and the plasmablastic variant of multicentric Castleman's disease, all of which are characterized by predominantly latent KSHV infection. Recently, we and others have shown that the activated form of transcription factor X-box binding protein 1 (XBP-1) is a physiological trigger of KSHV lytic reactivation in PEL. Here, we show that XBP-1s transactivates the ORF50/RTA promoter though an ACGT core containing the XBP-1 response element, an element previously identified as a weakly active hypoxia response element (HRE). Hypoxia induces the KSHV lytic cycle, and active HREs that respond to hypoxia-inducible factor 1α are present in the ORF50/RTA promoter. Hypoxia also induces active XBP-1s, and here, we show that both transcription factors contribute to the induction of RTA expression, leading to the production of infectious KSHV under hypoxic conditions.
Skin involvement in children with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

This study was performed to present our clinical experience with patients with cutaneous malignant lymphoma. Eight of 856 (1%) patients admitted to Hacettepe University Pediatric Oncology Department were diagnosed with skin involvement of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma between November 1971 and December 1992. At the time of diagnosis, the mean patient age was 9.5 years (range 4-15). The male-to-female ratio was 1.7:1. Three of the eight cases had primary cutaneous lymphoma, four had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) with skin involvement and one case cutaneous lymphoma as a part of advanced stage NHL. According to Murphy's clinical classification, three cases with primary cutaneous lymphoma were in stage I E, two of the remaining five patients were in stage III and three patients with organ involvement were in stage IV. All eight patients' skin lesions were 6 to 10 cm in diameter, hyperemic, firm and nodular. The skin of the head and neck region, especially the right cheek, was the most involved area. In primary cutaneous lymphomas, the duration between involvement and diagnosis was two to six months. All but two patients received the LSA2 L2 protocol. The other two were treated with the COP protocol and a modified COMP protocol. Three patients in stage I E are now living disease-free. One of the two patients in stage III is disease-free, and the other is in the fifth month of therapy with very advanced disease and is lost to follow-up. Among the three patients in stage IV, one was living disease-free for 38 months after diagnosis, while the other two patients are still under therapy without disease. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Occupational transformation: Parental influence and social cognition of young adults with autism.

BACKGROUND The Social Cognition and Interaction Training-Autism (SCIT-A) is a social cognition curriculum for young adults with autism developed at the University of North Carolina. This study seeks to further the use of SCIT-A as a tool for family centered practice. OBJECTIVE This study explored the value of a complementary parent/caretaker support group on occupational performance of young adult children participating in the SCIT-A program. An interprofessional SCIT-A program for young adults with high functioning autism (HFA) was examined for its effect on transition. PARTICIPANTS The program included five parents/caregivers and three young adult males with HFA. Final data collection was performed on three parents/caregivers and one young adult with HFA. METHODS A mixed methods approach utilized two focus groups for caregivers and young adults. Quantitative results were obtained from the young adult. RESULTS This paper describes themes among caregivers which included: (1) swapping family stories; (2) experiencing an epiphany; (3) place-making; and (4) transformation. Results for the young adult are also presented. CONCLUSIONS This pilot study suggests a positive impact and possible future trajectories of research and programming of social cognition during transition to adult occupations. The importance of support and participation of caretakers to facilitate transition is elucidated.
Temporal patterns of gene expression during calyx of held development

Relating changes in gene expression to discrete developmental events remains an elusive challenge in neuroscience, in part because most neural territories are comprised of multiple cell types that mature over extended periods of time. The medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB) is an attractive vertebrate model system that contains a nearly homogeneous population of neurons, which are innervated by large glutamatergic nerve terminals called calyces of Held (CH). Key steps in maturation of CHs and MNTB neurons, including CH growth and competition, occur very quickly for most cells between postnatal days (P)2 and P6. Therefore, we characterized genome‐wide changes in this system, with dense temporal sampling during the first postnatal week. We identified 541 genes whose expression changed significantly between P0‐6 and clustered them into eight groups based on temporal expression profiles. Candidate genes from each of the eight profile groups were validated in separate samples by qPCR. Our tissue sample permitted comparison of known glial and neuronal transcripts and revealed that monotonically increasing or decreasing expression profiles tended to be associated with glia and neurons, respectively. Gene ontology revealed enrichment of genes involved in axon pathfinding, cell differentiation, cell adhesion and extracellular matrix. The latter category included elements of perineuronal nets, a prominent feature of MNTB neurons that is morphologically distinct by P6, when CH growth and competition are resolved onto nearly all MNTB neurons. These results provide a genetic framework for investigation of general mechanisms responsible for nerve terminal growth and maturation. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 76: 166–189, 2016
Fully reversible procedure for silver staining improves densitometry of complex mixtures of biopolymers resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

Due to its high sensitivity, silver staining is a widely popular method for the revelation of biopolymers separated by both native and denaturing electrophoresis. A step‐by‐step method for the destaining and restaining of overdeveloped/overloaded silver‐stained bands is described that is applicable to both proteins and nucleic acids. The procedure significantly improves densitometric analysis of gels that have been silver stained with either commercial kits or solutions made in‐house. The method permits reproducible densitometry of silver‐stained gels and allows quantification of both main and minor components in complex mixture of molecules resolved on the same gel slab. All steps may be interrupted and are readily reversible, allowing for facile densitometric analyses and photographic recording under optimized conditions. Furthermore, common artifacts such as differential staining of the two gel surfaces, localized uneven yellow‐ochre background, and the presence of fold marks and fingerprints can be easily removed.
Human Pancreatic Islets Express the Purinergic P2Y11 and P2Y12 Receptors

P2Y 12 receptors as future antidiabetic targets in human pancreatic islets and to determine their cellular localization: 1. An increase in cAMP is responsible for the glucose-dependant insulinotropic effect of GLP-1, the most promising antidiabetic drug presently in development; 2. P2Y agonists induce a glucose-dependent increase in insulin secretion in human pancreatic islets [11] ; and 3. The cAMP / PKA pathway intervenes in ATP S insulin secretory effect in rat islets [12] .
OCCURRENCE OF CLOSTRIDIUM DIFFICILE IN INFECTIONS OF MAN

Smith, Louis DS. (Montana State College, Bozeman) and Elizabeth O. King. Occurrence of Clostridium difficile in infections of man. J. Bacteriol. 84:65–67. 1962—Eight strains of Clostridium difficile were isolated from cases of infection in man in seven different bacteriological laboratories. One of these was isolated from a case of gas gangrene, one from an abscess following a fractured femur, one from a blood culture from an infant, two from pleural fluid, two from peritoneal fluid, and one from an abscess in the vaginal vault. There was no evidence, in these cases, that C. difficile is pathogenic for man. All strains were typical morphologically and culturally and were lethal when inoculated intramuscularly into guinea pigs.
Antecedents and optimal industrial customers on cloud services adoption

ABSTRACT The rapid flourishing of the cloud service market necessitates investigating the underlying determinants of cloud services adoption and identifying optimal industrial customers for business-to-business (B2B) service encounters. Many studies have addressed technical and operational concerns related to cloud services. However, only a few studies have addressed the adoption of cloud computing from an organizational perspective, and none of them have considered the practical application of cloud computing in society. Therefore, in this paper, a research model is constructed to understand an industrial organization’s acceptance of cloud services and apply the results in order to explore optimal industrial customers. A questionnaire-based survey was used to collect data from the population, 227 firms in the manufacturing and services industries in Taiwan. Causal relationships were tested through structural equation modeling and the ordering of optimal industrial customers was evaluated by using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution method.
Nanoscale devices for online dielectric spectroscopy of biological cells

Nanoscale probes have been developed for the online characterization of the electrical properties of biological cells by dielectric spectroscopy. Two types of sensors have been designed and fabricated. The first one is devoted to low (<10 MHz) frequency range analysis and consists of gold nanoelectrodes. The second one works for high (>40 Hz) frequency range analysis and consists of a gold nanowire. The patterning of the sensors is performed by electron beam lithography. These devices are integrated in a microfluidic channel network for the manipulation of the cells and for the improvement of the performances of the sensors. These devices are used for the analysis of a well-characterized biological model in the area of the ligand–receptor interaction. The purpose is to monitor the interaction between the lactoferrin (the ligand) and the nucleolin and sulfated proteoglycans (the receptors) present or not on a set of mutant Chinese hamster ovary cell lines and their following internalization into the cytoplasm. Initial measurements have been performed with this microsystem and they demonstrate its capability for label-free, real-time, analysis of a dynamic mechanism involving biological cells.
The evolution of intelligence: adaptive specializations versus general process

Darwin argued that between‐species differences in intelligence were differences of degree, not of kind. The contemporary ecological approach to animal cognition argues that animals have evolved species‐specific and problem‐specific processes to solve problems associated with their particular ecological niches: thus different species use different processes, and within a species, different processes are used to tackle problems involving different inputs. This approach contrasts both with Darwin's view and with the general process view, according to which the same central processes of learning and memory are used across an extensive range of problems involving very different inputs. We review evidence relevant to the claim that the learning and memory performance of non‐human animals varies according to the nature of the stimuli involved. We first discuss the resource distribution hypothesis, olfactory learning‐set formation, and the ‘biological constraints’ literature, but find no convincing support from these topics for the ecological account of cognition. We then discuss the claim that the performance of birds in spatial tasks of learning and memory is superior in species that depend heavily upon stored food compared to species that either show less dependence upon stored food or do not store food. If it could be shown that storing species enjoy a superiority specifically in spatial (and not non‐spatial) tasks, this would argue that spatial tasks are indeed solved using different processes from those used in non‐spatial tasks. Our review of this literature does not find a consistent superiority of storing over non‐storing birds in spatial tasks, and, in particular, no evidence of enhanced superiority of storing species when the task demands are increased, by, for example, increasing the number of items to be recalled or the duration of the retention period. We discuss also the observation that the hippocampus of storing birds is larger than that of non‐storing birds, and find evidence contrary to the view that hippocampal enlargement is associated with enhanced spatial memory; we are, however, unable to suggest a convincing alternative explanation for hippocampal enlargement. The failure to find solid support for the ecological view supports the view that there are no qualitative differences in cognition between animal species in the processes of learning and memory. We also argue that our review supports our contention that speculation about the phylogenetic development and function of behavioural processes does not provide a solid basis for gaining insight into the nature of those processes. We end by confessing to a belief in one major qualitative difference in cognition in animals: we believe that humans alone are capable of acquiring language, and that it is this capacity that divides our intelligence so sharply from non‐human intelligence.
Enabling service-centric networks for cloudlets using SDN

The current developments in smart devices, wearable gadgets and IoT (Internet-of-Things) are triggering a variety of novel use cases and services. Once the technology matures, a wide range of services is expected to be provided at the edge of the network in coordination with the cloud computing infrastructure. These services will be highly dynamic meaning that they can be served from edge computing facilities and from central cloud servers being transferred back and forth. Also, considering the mobility of the users and the varying demand, those services might need to be live migrated between nearby edge servers on-the-fly. This setup creates an environment that needs to be transparent to the end users. The current legacy networking paradigm, however, allow services to be reached by IP and port addresses, not by their content. Alternatively, in the service-centric approach the services themselves are handled independent of their location and the focus shifts to “what ” instead of “where ”. Due to the complexities involved, it is not a straightforward task to establish service-centricity at the edge scenarios. As a remedy, this paper proposes a service-centric approach at the edge servers using orchestration capabilities offered by the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology. To demonstrate how SDN can help to alleviate the problem, an emulation environment is used in which northbound applications are implemented in order to setup the service-centric structure. The effect of service-centric approach is shown with the load balancing experiments where the performance of the proposed system is evaluated for various use cases.
Automatic Generation of Traffic Signal Based on Traffic Volume

Now day's computer vision techniques are used for analysis of traffic surveillance videos which is gaining more importance. This analysis of videos can be useful for public safety and for traffic management. In recent time, there has been an increased scope for analysis of traffic activity automatically. Computer based surveillance algorithms and systems are used to extract information from the videos which is also called as Video analytics. Detection of traffic violations such as illegal turns and identification of pedestrians, vehicles from traffic videos can be done by using computer vision and pattern recognition techniques. Object detection is the process of identifying instances of real world objects which include persons, faces and vehicles in images or videos. Object detection is becoming an increasingly important challenge now days as it has so many applications. Vehicle detection helps in core detection of multiple functions such as Adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning. Automatic Generation of Traffic Signal based on Traffic Volume system can be used for traffic control. Traffic Surveillance videos of vehicles are taken as input from MIT Traffic dataset. These videos are further processed frame by frame where the background subtraction is done with the help of Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). From the background subtracted result some amount of noise is removed with the help of Morphological opening operation and Blob analysis is done in order to the detect the vehicles. Later the vehicles are counted by incrementing the counter whenever a bounding box is appeared for the detected vehicle. Finally a signal is generated depending on the count in each frame.