Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incorporating syntactic information into a document retrieval strategy: an investigation

This paper deals with mechanisms for performing text retrieval which incorporate a degree of linguistic processing into the overall strategy. We have performed some experiments using parsing of text an a test collection of documents and queries to try and find out exactly if and how parsing could contribute to an overall improvement in retrieval effectiveness. Investigating this topic has led us to the definition of a retrieval strategy which incorporates parsing of query text and a more “shallow” parsing of document texts, whose retrieval effectiveness is investigated and described. Our results indicate that significant improvements in retrieval effectiveness can be obtained by incorporating such linguistic processing into an overall retrieval strategy.
The Largest Response Component in the Motor Cortex Reflects Movement Timing but Not Movement Type

Abstract Neural activity in monkey motor cortex (M1) and dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) can reflect a chosen movement well before that movement begins. The pattern of neural activity then changes profoundly just before movement onset. We considered the prediction, derived from formal considerations, that the transition from preparation to movement might be accompanied by a large overall change in the neural state that reflects when movement is made rather than which movement is made. Specifically, we examined “components” of the population response: time-varying patterns of activity from which each neuron’s response is approximately composed. Amid the response complexity of individual M1 and PMd neurons, we identified robust response components that were “condition-invariant”: their magnitude and time course were nearly identical regardless of reach direction or path. These condition-invariant response components occupied dimensions orthogonal to those occupied by the “tuned” response components. The largest condition-invariant component was much larger than any of the tuned components; i.e., it explained more of the structure in individual-neuron responses. This condition-invariant response component underwent a rapid change before movement onset. The timing of that change predicted most of the trial-by-trial variance in reaction time. Thus, although individual M1 and PMd neurons essentially always reflected which movement was made, the largest component of the population response reflected movement timing rather than movement type.
Heat stress, hydration and uric acid: a cross-sectional study in workers of three occupations in a hotspot of Mesoamerican nephropathy in Nicaragua

Objectives To study Mesoamerican nephropathy (MeN) and its risk factors in three hot occupations. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Chinandega and León municipalities, a MeN hotspot on the Nicaraguan Pacific coast, January–February 2013. Participants 194 male workers aged 17–39 years: 86 sugarcane cutters, 56 construction workers, 52 small-scale farmers. Outcome measures (1) Differences between the three occupational groups in prevalences/levels of socioeconomic, occupational, lifestyle and health risk factors for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and in biomarkers of kidney function and hydration; (2) differences in prevalences/levels of CKD risk factors between workers with reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFRCKD-EPI <80 mL/min/1.73 m2) and workers with normal kidney function (eGFRCKD-EPI ≥80 mL/min/1.73 m2). Results Sugarcane cutters were more exposed to heat and consumed more fluid on workdays and had less obesity, lower blood sugar, lower blood pressure and a better lipid profile. Reduced eGFR occurred in 16%, 9% and 2% of sugarcane cutters, construction workers and farmers, respectively (trend cane > construction > farming, p=0.003). Significant trends (cane > construction > farming) were also observed for high serum urea nitrogen (blood urea nitrogen (BUN) >20 mg/dL), high serum creatinine (SCr >1.2 mg/dL), low urinary pH (≤5.5) and high BUN/SCr ratio (>20) but not for high urinary specific gravity (≥1.030). Sugarcane cutters also more often had proteinuria and blood and leucocytes in the urine. Workers with eGFR <80 mL/min/1.73 m2 reported a higher intake of water and lower intake of sugary beverages. Serum uric acid levels related strongly and inversely to eGFR levels (adj β −10.4 mL/min/1.73 m2, 95% CI −12.2 to −8.5, p<0.001). No associations were observed for other metabolic risk factors, pesticides, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or alcohol. Among cane cutters, consumption of electrolyte hydration solution appeared preventive (adj β 8.1 mL/min/1.73 m2, p=0.09). Conclusions Heat stress, dehydration and kidney dysfunction were most common among sugarcane cutters. Kidney dysfunction also occurred to a lesser extent among construction workers, but hardly at all among small-scale farmers. High serum uric acid was associated with reduced kidney function.
Reviewing cognitive distortions in managerial decision making

Purpose Why and how do cognitive distortions in managerial decision making occur? All organizations are imperfect systems (Katz and Kahn, 1966), with wrong decisions often just round the corner. As a consequence, addressing these important questions continues to be particularly lively in the management development area, especially in terms of its intended contribution to the de-biasing activity. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to provide the current scientific dialogue on the topic with updated lenses, which can also be innovative from some aspects. Design/methodology/approach The review framework is based on the recent, impactful article on biases in managerial decision making by Kahneman et al. (2011), and on Bazerman and Moore’s (2013) perspective on emanating heuristics, considered as the causes of biases. Accordingly, the authors derive four intertwined thematic clusters of heuristics, through which the authors systematically group and critically analyze the management literature mostly published on the topic since 2011. Findings From the analyzed clusters the authors propose an integrative framework of emanating heuristics, which focuses on the co-evolving relationships and potentially self-reinforcing processes in and between them. Originality/value The value of the contribution is threefold: from a methodological perspective, to the authors’ knowledge, the studies adopted as the basis of the analysis have not yet been simultaneously used as a comprehensive ground for updated reviews on this topic; from a conceptual perspective, the emerging integrative co-evolutionary framework can help explain the dangerous connections among cognitive traps and emanating heuristics; and from a practical perspective, the resulting framework can also be helpful for future de-biasing attempts in the business arena.
Context dependent management of field diffusion: an experimental framework

♣ The work presented in this paper has been partially supported by FIRB project MAIS: Multichannel Adaptive Information Systems Abstract Agents in the Multilayered Multi Agent Situated System (MMASS) model can perform at-a-distance distance communication by field diffusion over the structure of the environment that hosts the agents. This paper discusses a distributed mechanism to support selective diffusion on the basis of contextual information. The proposed mechanism has been implemented to deliver an experimental framework based on peer-to-peer approach.
A Comparative Reliability Study of Three Fundamental Multilevel Inverters Using Two Different Approaches

The reliability of power electronic devices and components is very important to manufacturers. In recent years, many researchers have conducted reliability assessments of power electronic devices, yet the reliability of numerous circuits used widely has not been evaluated. This paper presents a comprehensive reliability evaluation of fundamental multilevel inverters. The reliability of the multilevel inverters is analyzed by calculating the mean time to failure for each component. The calculation was performed by two methods (approximate and exact) to achieve better comparisons. The approximate method is similar to the parts count method used in MIL-HDBK-217 reliability standard, and the exact method exhibits the parts stress method. In the exact method, due to the direct relationship between component failure and temperature, we used Matlab Simulink to determine power losses in diodes and switches taking into account the temperature factor. The results determined by the approximate method showed that the three-level cascade H-bridge was the most reliable of the inverters considered. Although the exact method validates those results, and shows that cascade H-bridge (CHB) had a longer lifespan, but the calculated values are different. Therefore, using different approaches for evaluating reliability results in different outcomes.
Facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia: intensity effects and error pattern.

OBJECTIVE The authors used color photographs of emotional and neutral expressions to investigate recognition patterns of five universal emotions in schizophrenia. METHOD Twenty-eight stable outpatients with schizophrenia (19 men and nine women) and 61 healthy subjects (29 men and 32 women) completed an emotion discrimination test that presented mild and extreme intensities of happy, sad, angry, fearful, disgusted, and neutral faces, balanced for gender and ethnicity. Analyses evaluated accuracy of identifying emotions as a function of intensity, diagnosis, and gender of poser and rater. RESULTS Patients performed worse than comparison subjects on recognition of all emotions and neutral faces combined, including mild and extreme expressions. For specific emotions, patients performed worse on recognition of fearful, disgusted, and neutral expressions. For all emotions except disgust, recognition of extreme intensity was better than recognition of mild intensity. However, patients showed less benefit from increased intensity for all emotions combined, and the difference was most pronounced for fear. Thus, patients were more impaired than healthy comparison subjects in identifying high-intensity expressions, even though this was an easier task than identifying low-intensity expressions. In the comparison of patterns of errors, patients and healthy subjects differed only in misattributions of neutral expressions; patients overattributed disgusted expressions and underattributed happy expressions. CONCLUSIONS Patients with schizophrenia were impaired in overall emotion recognition, particularly fear and disgust, and did not benefit from increased emotional intensity. Error patterns indicate that patients misidentified neutral cues as negatively valenced.
Comparative Ultrasonographic Imaging of Spleen and Liver in Healthy Crossbred Cows

The present study was undertaken to conduct a comparative ultrasonographic study of the normal bovine spleen and liver. This study was carried out in two phases using 3.5 MHz curvilinear transducer. In first phase of water bath study, bovine spleens and livers were obtained from 3 healthy cadavers and subjected to repeated ultrasonography to study the echotexture. The splenic parenchyma was isoechogenic with greater echogenicity as compared to the liver. Water bath study provided a good learning experience for the comparative analysis of echotexture of the spleen and liver. In second phase, 10 healthy Jersey/Red Sindhi adult nonpregnant cows were subjected to detailed abdominal ultrasonography a number of times to develop the baseline topographical data of the spleen and liver. The dorsal end of the spleen in the cranial intercostal spaces could be clearly seen at the peak of inspiration when the lungs retracted to uncover the parietal surface of the spleen. The ventral end of the spleen, portion of the left lung, and the reticular wall could be scanned in the left 7th to 6th ICS in all the cows, and in the left 5th ICS in 5 cows. The liver was imaged from just behind the 12th to 6th ICS in all the cows easily. The gallbladder was imaged as a tear drop or pear shaped anechogenic structure with a hyperechogenic wall. The location of the gallbladder varied from the 12th to 9th ICS. It was most consistently observed in the 11th ICS (in 7 cows) at a mean distance of 46.3 cm from the dorsal midline. In 3 cows, the gallbladder was also seen ventral to the costal arch. The caudal vena cava was imaged as a triangular anechogenic structure on the dorsal border of the liver in the last 2 intercostal spaces in all the cows. The portal vein was imaged characteristically as a star shaped anechogenic structure with a hyperechogenic wall, ventral to the caudal vena cava, in the last 2 intercostal spaces in all the cows and in the 10th ICS in only 8 cows. It was concluded that a systematic ultrasonography formed a basis for a reliable noninvasive determination of positions and sizes of the normal spleen and liver and their vessels in the bovines.
Performance Involvement, Identity, and Emotion Among Cisgender Male Drag Queens

ABSTRACT Quantitative research on levels of depression and gender dysphoria in drag populations is lacking. It is possible that this lack occurs because researchers tend to include drag queens within transgender samples. Such sampling practices may result in inaccurate assumptions about drag queen populations. This study established rates of depression and gender dysphoria in a sample of self-identified cisgender drag queens. Participants reported low levels of gender dysphoria and significantly lower levels of depression than have been found among trans women, however, these participants presented with higher rates of depression than have been found among gay men who do not perform drag. Higher rates of involvement in drag performance were positively correlated with depression and negatively correlated with gender dysphoria. Results indicate that self-identified cisgender drag queens are unlikely to experience gender dysphoria and are less depressed than samples of trans women. The researchers discuss implications and future directions for mental health practitioners.
Comparing ethnographies of teaching when comparison seems impossible

ABSTRACT This essay examines comparison in a double sense. Focusing on ethnographies of teachers’ work in the published literature, I ask whether it is possible to compare ethnographic studies across national borders without losing the particularities of local context, and also without losing the distinctive theoretical perspective of ethnographers operating within different national traditions. Building on the volume Comparing ethnographies, I explore as a tool an expansion of Noblit and Hare’s ‘meta-ethnographic’ approach. Because meta-ethnography aims to remain faithful to local contexts, it works for cross-national comparison; because it is meant as an interpretation of the ethnographers’ interpretations, it can allow for national differences in scholarly traditions. I illustrate with a comparison of ethnographies of practices in Danish and in Japanese preschools, identifying ‘reciprocal’ translations, ‘refutational synthesis’ and ‘line-of-argument synthesis’. The essay demonstrates that meta-ethnography’s interpretive approach does permit comparison across national contexts and scholarly traditions, and that it actually encourages ‘theoretical generalisation’, the ability to expand our understanding, without obscuring local context.
MONTE CARLO EXPLORATIONS OF POLYGONAL KNOT SPACES

Polygonal knots are embeddings of polygons in three space. For each n, the collection of embedded n-gons determines a subset of Euclidean space whose structure is the subject of this paper. Which knots can be constructed with a specified number of edges? What is the likelihood that a randomly chosen polygon of n-edges will be a knot of a specific topological type? At what point is a given topological type most likely as a function of the number of edges? Are the various orderings of knot types by means of “physical properties” comparable? These and related questions are discussed and supporting evidence, in many cases derived from Monte Carlo explorations, is provided.
Are Course Grades and Faculty Intuition Predictors of Success on Professional Accounting Exams

This research investigates whether faculty intuition is better than a student's grade point average (GPA) at predicting success on professional accounting exams. This study also investigates the predictive ability of: training office size, professional exam preparation, co-op experience, and case competition participation. A novel dataset is hand-collected based on Lakehead University students who pursued the Chartered Accountant designation in Ontario, Canada. The results reveal GPA as the best predictor, although faculty intuition also has predictive value. Additional analysis reveals that the GPA from courses in financial and management accounting, auditing, and taxation are all predictive of student success. In regards to the other factors, participation in case competitions is the only other factor shown to have some predictive ability. However, case competition participation may be predictive only as an extension of the students with high grades electing, or being encouraged by professors, to participate in case competitions. Overall, this study Acknowledgments: This paper has benefitted from the insights and feedback from many individuals. The authors are indebted to the journal’s editor and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments and insights. The authors would also like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of Merridee Bujaki, Brian Leader, Kin Lo, Fred Phillip and the participants of the 2014 Canadian Accounting Academic Association Annual Conference.
Synthesis, characterization and antimicrobial activities of some metal(II) amino acids’ complexes

Metal(II) coordination compounds of glycine and ph-enylalanine were synthesized and characterized using infrared and electronic spectroscopic, and magnetic susceptibility measurements. The complexes were tested for antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Methicillin Resistant Staphy-lococcus aureus (MRSA), Escherichia coli, Pseudo-monas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris and Candida albicans. The stoichiometric reaction between the metal (II) ions and ligands in molar ratio M:L (1:3) [where M = Mn, Co, Ni, Cu and Cd; L= glycine; phenylalanine] resulted in the formation of five-coordinate square pyramidal dinuclear geometry for both copper complexes and six-coordinate octa-hedral geometry for the other complexes. The spectroscopic and magnetic moment data suggested that the ligands coordinated via both their amino and carboxylate ion moieties. The complexes demonstrated better activities against one or more of the tested microbes than acriflavine, the standard drug used.
MMSE-based iterative equalization with soft feedback for QAM transmission over sparse channels

An equalization algorithm, based on soft-decision feedback and designed for transmission with square QAM constellations, is introduced. The algorithm employs a minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) filter in each iteration in order to refine the data estimates. The rule for generating soft decisions is adapted continuously to the current state of the algorithm. It is shown that the algorithm is especially well suited for transmission over certain sparse frequency-selective fading channels where optimum schemes are far too complex. A minimum mean-squared error decision-feedback equalizer (MMSE-DFE) is clearly outperformed for this application.
Exclusive test and its applications to fault diagnosis

We introduce a new type of test, called exclusive test, and discuss its application to fault diagnosis in combinational circuits. A test that detects exactly one fault from a given pair of faults is called an exclusive test. In general, generation of an exclusive test by a conventional automatic test generator requires a model of the circuit with multiple-faults. We describe an ATPG model that transforms the exclusive test problem into a single-fault test generation problem. We present a generalized diagnostic method and illustrate the use of exclusive tests in improving the diagnostic resolution of a test set. Results of diagnosis with exclusive tests for ISCAS85 benchmark circuits are included.
Developing a Holistic Model for Quality in Higher Education

There is a considerable pressure on higher education for a substantial improvement in its performance. Efforts in this direction are hindered by the lack of an agreed model for quality management. Attempts to apply the quality management models from industry have not been successful. In applying any model, there is a case for separately addressing the service and academic functions in higher education with their own appropriate sets of criteria. To the service functions in a university, the general features of an industrially applied total quality management model are quite appropriate. For the academic functions, a number of models for quality in education proposed in the recent educational literature are reviewed and it is concluded that it is possible to develop an appropriate generic model. The effectiveness of the features of the combined model in addressing the multifarious elements of higher education is dependent on the level of integration between the two functions. Organisational culture plays a crucial role in the successful implementation of any quality strategy. The typical current culture in higher education is bureaucratic in nature, more prone to conflict than collaboration. It is argued that to enhance quality, ideal organisation behaviour is one that embodies the 'learning communities' concept. The proposed holistic model for quality management in higher education can serve as the ideal to address the service, education and implementation aspects synergistically.
The multiplex structure of the mental lexicon influences picture naming in people with aphasia

An emerging area of research in cognitive science is the utilization of networks to model the structure and processes of the mental lexicon in healthy and clinical populations, like aphasia. Previous research has focused on only one type of word similarity at a time (e.g., semantic relationships), even though words are multi-faceted. Here, we investigate lexical retrieval in a picture naming task from people with Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia and healthy controls by utilizing a multiplex network structure that accounts for the interplay between multiple semantic and phonological relationships among words in the mental lexicon. Extending upon previous work, we focused on the global network measure of closeness centrality which is known to capture spreading activation, an important process supporting lexical retrieval. We conducted a series of logistic regression models predicting the probability of correct picture naming. We tested whether multiplex closeness centrality was a better predictor of picture naming performance than single-layer closeness centralities, other network measures assessing local and meso-scale structure, psycholinguistic variables and group differences. We also examined production gaps, or the difference between the likelihood of producing a word with the lowest and highest closeness centralities. Our results indicated that multiplex closeness centrality was a significant predictor of picture naming performance, where words with high closeness centrality were more likely to be produced than words with low closeness centrality. Additionally, multiplex closeness centrality outperformed single-layer closeness centralities and other multiplex network measures, and remained a significant predictor after controlling for psycholinguistic variables and group differences. Furthermore, we found that the facilitative effect of closeness centrality was similar for both types of aphasia. Our results underline the importance of integrating multiple measures of word similarities in cognitive language networks for better understanding lexical retrieval in aphasia, with an eye towards future clinical applications.