Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic configuration of semantic-based service provisioning to portable devices

Context-awareness is starting to emerge as a key driving principle for the design and provisioning of pervasive services in pervasive computing environments. Semantic languages seem to provide effective means to express, process and reason about context information and to facilitate knowledge sharing and interoperability among previously unknown entities. However, the exploitation of semantic languages for the design and deployment of context-aware applications requires to address several issues. In particular, semantic languages require complex and heavyweight support facilities, e.g., reasoning engines, ontology repositories and knowledge management tools, that may not fit the capabilities of portable devices, especially of resource-limited ones. Novel middleware-level solutions are required to transparently and dynamically adapt semantic-based service provisioning to the properties of different access devices. The paper proposes a novel middleware that exploits the visibility of two kinds of metadata, user/device/service profiles and policies, to tailor the configuration of the semantic support functionalities needed to access semantic-based services, and that offers a wide set of mechanisms for making viable semantic-based service provisioning to resource-constrained portable devices
Modelling use continuance in virtual worlds: The case of second life

There are now many virtual worlds in existence, a number of which have built considerable user bases. However, there is little empirical evidence to suggest what factors underpin their continued usage and success. This study set about determining why users continue to use virtual worlds, using the example of the popular virtual world of Second Life. The study adopts continuance theory and extensions to the basic model to examine the effects of enjoyment, habit and absorption. The results (n=339) suggest that continuance intention is driven by perceived usefulness, habit, absorption and enjoyment, which together provide a comprehensive explanation for virtual world behaviour (R 2 =0.565). Interestingly, satisfaction did not appear to play a direct strong role in determining intentions. The paper rounds off with conclusions and implications for future research and practice in this very new area of inquiry.
The Bioecological Model of Human Development

In this chapter, we undertake to present the ecological model of human development that has been introduced in a prior edition of this Handbook. The bioecological model is an evolving theoretical system for the scientific study of human development over time. The model presented in this chapter represents major theoretical innovations from the 1983 chapter in both form and content. The new model is not a paradigm shift, but rather represents a transition from a focus on the environment to a focus on proximal processes as engines of development. We begin with the defining properties of the model, which involves four principal components (process, person, context, and time), and the dynamic, interactive relationships among them. We then turn to the research designs required for testing the model. In doing so, we not only present the next stage in the evolution of an ecological theory of human development, but we also document the requirements for conducting developmental research in the discovery mode. We conclude with a look to the future—and what the bioecological model means for the future development of our species. Keywords: bioecological; context; macrosystem; microsystem; person; proximal processes; time
Specific Xenophobia? Japanese Acceptance Attitudes toward Chinese Immigrants

This study aims to examine the attitudes Japanese citizens have toward accepting Chinese immigrants, and discuss the predictors of those attitudes. It mainly addresses whether the Japanese people are likely to accept immigrants from mainland China, and identifies the factors that shape their attitudes. Using Japanese General Social Surveys (JGSS) 2008, this paper analyzes the level of acceptance among Japanese toward immigrants in Japan by comparing their attitudes toward immigrants from China with those from South Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America. The results show that Japanese people are more likely to accept Chinese immigrants as colleagues or neighbors rather than close relatives. Japanese females tend to have more negative attitudes toward Chinese immigrants than males, while older Japanese express strong anti-immigrant attitudes toward the Chinese. Moreover, positive correlation between education and acceptance attitudes are found. However, neither the population size of immigrant minority nor the household income bears significant effects on Japanese attitudes toward Chinese migrants. The implications of these findings are used to discuss Chinese immigrant incorporation and ongoing multiculturalism in contemporary Japan.
Visuo-spatial processing in ageing : neuropsychological and neuroimaging correlates

The relationship between cognitive decline in ageing and changes in associated brain areas is attracting research interest. Growing evidence suggests that in some individuals, recruitment of resources from additional brain areas can act as a buffer against declining cognitive function. However, most research has focused on language while evidence from the visuo-spatial domain is lacking. Categorical and coordinate visuo-spatial relations are known to elicit a marked hemispheric specialisation effect and were therefore utilised to investigate cognitive scaffolding in visuo-spatial processing in healthy ageing. Two visuo-spatial short-term memory (VSSTM) tasks, the CATCOORD task and the dot-cross task, were first administered to young adults (n=164) to observe categorical and coordinate performance. Hemispheric lateralisation effects were found in the dot-cross task but not the CATCOORD task. Neuroimaging results revealed similar bilateral activation when processing categorical or coordinate spatial judgments. Stronger frontal activation was observed when processing difficult coordinate, but not categorical, change trials in the dot-cross task. Seventy-one middle-aged (age between 45-59) and older adults (age above 60) undertook a battery of neuropsychological tests. Some of the older participants (n=38) were recruited to the neuroimaging component of the study. Participants were separated into higherand lower-performance groups. Neuropsychological results showed widespread correlations between different neuropsychological tests in the lowerrather than the higherperformance group. The young group involved fewer brain regions than the old groups. Within the older participants, the higher performance group activated regions stronger than the lower performance group. In addition, the old-higher performance group showed stronger frontal activations than the young and old-lower groups when processing difficult trials. Older people showed slower behavioural performance than young people however, no significant difference was observed between the old-higher and old-lower group. A number of interesting findings have been identified to further our understanding of cognitive ageing and scaffolding mechanisms.
The prevalence of erectile dysfunction in the primary care setting: importance of risk factors for diabetes and vascular disease.

BACKGROUND The prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) and associated risk factors has been described in many clinical settings, but there is little information regarding men seen by primary care physicians. We sought to identify independent factors associated with ED in a primary care setting. METHODS We surveyed a cross-sectional sample of 3921 Canadian men, aged 40 to 88 years, seen by primary care physicians. Participants completed a full medical history, physical examination, and measurement of fasting blood glucose and lipid levels. We used the International Index of Erectile Function to define ED as a score of less than 26 on the erectile function domain. RESULTS The overall prevalence of ED was 49.4%. The presence of cardiovascular disease (odds ratio [OR], 1.45; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.16-1.81; P<.01) or diabetes (OR, 3.13; 95% CI, 2.35-4.16; P<.001) increased the probability of ED after adjustment for other confounders. Among those individuals without cardiovascular disease or diabetes, the calculated 10-year Framingham coronary risk (OR, 1.03 per 1% increase; 95% CI, 1.02-1.05; P<.001) and fasting blood glucose levels (OR, 1.14 per 18-mg/dL [1-mmol/L] increase; 95% CI, 1.04-1.24; P<.01) were independently associated with ED. Erectile dysfunction was also independently associated with undiagnosed hyperglycemia (OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.02-2.10; P = .04), impaired fasting glucose (OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.08-1.46; P = .004), and the metabolic syndrome (OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.24-1.69; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, future coronary risk, and increasing fasting glucose levels are independently associated with ED. It remains to be determined if ED precedes the development of these conditions.
Subjective and objective evaluation of image inpainting quality

Image inpainting algorithms aim to cut out parts of the image without leaving holes. Various algorithms exist, but no wider comparison has been made, yet. This work fills the gap by comparing state-of-the-art algorithms in a user study. We create and publish a database consisting of multiple base images and inpaint them using different inpainting concepts. Afterwards, 21 participants are asked to rate the quality of these inpainted images. The subjective feedback indicates that different image inpainting algorithms are favorable depending on the characteristics of the base image and target region. Furthermore, the results show that general image quality measures such as the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) or the structural similarity (SSIM) index are not suited for judging inpainting quality.
Modeling and evaluating user behavior in exploratory visual analysis

Empirical evaluation methods for visualizations have traditionally focused on assessing the outcome of the visual analytic process as opposed to characterizing how that process unfolds. There are only a handful of methods that can be used to systematically study how people use visualizations, making it difficult for researchers to capture and characterize the subtlety of cognitive and interaction behaviors users exhibit during visual analysis. To validate and improve visualization design, it is important for researchers to be able to assess and understand how users interact with visualization systems under realistic scenarios. This article presents a methodology for modeling and evaluating the behavior of users in exploratory visual analysis. We model visual exploration using a Markov chain process comprising transitions between mental, interaction, and computational states. These states and the transitions between them can be deduced from a variety of sources, including verbal transcripts, videos and audio recordings, and log files. This model enables the evaluator to characterize the cognitive and computational processes that are essential to insight acquisition in exploratory visual analysis and reconstruct the dynamics of interaction between the user and the visualization system. We illustrate this model with two exemplar user studies, and demonstrate the qualitative and quantitative analytical tools it affords.
In vitro assembly and GTP hydrolysis by bacterial tubulins BtubA and BtubB

Arecent study identified genuine tubulin proteins, BtubA and BtubB, in the bacterial genus Prosthecobacter. We have expressed BtubA and BtubB in Escherichia coli and studied their in vitro assembly. BtubB by itself formed rings with an outer diameter of 35–36 nm in the presence of GTP or GDP. Mixtures of BtubB and BtubA formed long protofilament bundles, 4–7 protofilaments wide (20–30 protofilaments in the three-dimensional bundle). Regardless of the starting stoichiometry, the polymers always contained equal concentrations of BtubA and BtubB, suggesting that BtubA and B alternate along the protofilament. BtubA showed negligible GTP hydrolysis, whereas BtubB hydrolyzed 0.40 mol GTP per min per mol BtubB. This GTPase activity increased to 1.37 per min when mixed 1:1 with BtubA. A critical concentration of 0.4–1.0 μM was indicated by light scattering experiments and extrapolation of GTPase versus concentration, thus suggesting a cooperative assembly mechanism.
From the bottom-up: New York City teacher evaluation and the narration of mediated institutional assault

ABSTRACT Following the trend of consequential accountability in US public education, New York City introduced a teacher evaluation program during the 2013–2014 school year that linked teachers’ individual performance ratings with their students’ exam scores. As this program systemically alters the nature of teacher–student relationships by transforming students into the means to an end (teachers’ professional viability), this study investigated the implementation of this accountability program from the point of view of the teachers – those who were the subject of this new policy. This study of 15 teachers’ narratives from 3 distinct schools illuminates a social-organizational process that I refer to as mediated institutional assault – a perceived attack on the teachers’ sense of personhood and moral agency perpetrated by mediating figures whose actions were facilitated by bureaucratic policies and institutionally coordinated tools of control. Thus, this study reveals that the consequence of this new mode of accountability is not merely the threat of losing one’s job, but also an insidious form of psychological assault, which in its masked delivery violates teachers’ sense of relational morality and challenges deeply engrained beliefs about their role as educators.
Inter-laminar microcircuits across neocortex: repair and augmentation

Repair and brain augmentationapproaches, such as brain-machine inter-faces, neural stimulation and other neuralprostheses,haveexperiencedarapiddevel-opment during the last decade (Nicoleliset al., 2003; Lebedev and Nicolelis, 2006). Still, only few of these methods target theﬁne microcircuitry of the brain (Jones andRakic, 2010; Opris et al., 2012a). Here, itis highlighted the potential employing ofinter-laminar recording and microstim-ulation of cortical microcircuits to buildneural prostheses for repair and augmen-tationofcognitivefunction.Inthefuture,such microcircuit-based prostheses willprovide efﬁcient therapies for patientswith neurological and psychiatric disor-ders. Moreover, it is implied that neuralenhancement approaches can be appliedto inter-laminar microcircuits across theentire cortex.
PERFORMANCE OF THE FINITE-ORDER DIRICHLET AND SPECIAL ADDITIVE UPDATE UNIVERSAL PORTFOLIOS CHU SIN YEN MASTER OF SCIENCE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITI

Universal portfolios of order 1, 2, and 3 generated by probability distributions require very much lesser computer memory and time to implement than the Cover-Ordentlich (1996) portfolio because we only use a fixed number of past data to implement the portfolios. In our study, we focus on the performance of the Dirichlet universal portfolios of order 1, 2 and 3 by running the portfolios on some selected data sets. The performance of the finite-order Dirichlet universal portfolios is shown to be better than that of the moving-order Cover-Ordentlich universal portfolios when it is run on the selected stock-price data sets. An additive-update universal portfolio generated by the Mahalanobis squared divergence was proposed by Tan and Lim in 2011. We extend their research on the Mahalanobis universal portfolios by studying the universal portfolios generated by a matrix and its inverse which are called a complementary pair with regard to the wealth achieved by the portfolios. The wealth achieved by universal portfolios generated by special symmetric positive definite matrices are studied in our research. In particular the performance of universal portfolios generated by three-band and nine-band symmetric Toeplitz matrices is discussed. Pseudo Mahalanobis Toeplitz universal portfolios are introduced with a promising increase of investment returns.
Bayesian Methods for Adaptive Models

The Bayesian framework for model comparison and regularisation is demonstrated by studying interpolation and classification problems modelled with both linear and non–linear models. This framework quantitatively embodies ‘Occam’s razor’. Over–complex and under– regularised models are automatically inferred to be less probable, even though their flexibility allows them to fit the data better. When applied to ‘neural networks’, the Bayesian framework makes possible (1) objective comparison of solutions using alternative network architectures; (2) objective stopping rules for network pruning or growing procedures; (3) objective choice of type of weight decay terms (or regularisers); (4) on–line techniques for optimising weight decay (or regularisation constant) magnitude; (5) a measure of the effective number of well–determined parameters in a model; (6) quantified estimates of the error bars on network parameters and on network output. In the case of classification models, it is shown that the careful incorporation of error bar information into a classifier’s predictions yields improved performance. Comparisons of the inferences of the Bayesian framework with more traditional cross– validation methods help detect poor underlying assumptions in learning models. The relationship of the Bayesian learning framework to ‘active learning’ is examined. Objective functions are discussed which measure the expected informativeness of candidate data measurements, in the context of both interpolation and classification problems. The concepts and methods described in this thesis are quite general and will be applicable to other data modelling problems whether they involve regression, classification or density estimation.
Supernova 1994aj: a probe for pre-supernova evolution and mass-loss from the progenitor

Extensive photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 1994aj until 540d after maximum light have been obtained. The photometry around maximum suggests that the SN belongs to the Type II Linear class, with a peak absolute magnitude of MV � 17.8 (assuming H0 = 75km s −1 Mpc −1 ). The spectra of SN 1994aj were unusual with the presence of a narrow line with a P-Cygni profile on the top of the broad Balmer line emission. This narrow feature is attributed to the presence of a dense superwind surrounding the SN. At 100-120 days after maximum light the SN ejecta starts to interact with this CSM. The SN luminosity decline rates slowed down (R = 0.46 mag (100d) −1 ), becoming less steep than the average late luminosity decline of normal SNII (� 1 mag (100d) −1 ). This dense ( u
Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy and Parenchymal Amyloid Deposition in Transgenic Mice Expressing the Danish Mutant Form of Human BRI2

Familial Danish dementia (FDD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease clinically characterized by the presence of cataracts, hearing impairment, cerebellar ataxia and dementia. Neuropathologically, FDD is characterized by the presence of widespread cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), parenchymal amyloid deposition and neurofibrillary tangles. FDD is caused by a 10‐nucleotide duplication‐insertion in the BRI2 gene that generates a larger‐than‐normal precursor protein, of which the Danish amyloid subunit (ADan) comprises the last 34 amino acids. Here, we describe a transgenic mouse model for FDD (Tg‐FDD) in which the mouse Prnp (prion protein) promoter drives the expression of the Danish mutant form of human BRI2 . The main neuropathological findings in Tg‐FDD mice are the presence of widespread CAA and parenchymal deposition of ADan. In addition, we observe the presence of amyloid‐associated gliosis, an inflammatory response and deposition of oligomeric ADan. As the animals aged, they showed abnormal grooming behavior, an arched back, and walked with a wide‐based gait and shorter steps. This mouse model may give insights on the pathogenesis of FDD and will prove useful for the development of therapeutics. Moreover, the study of Tg‐FDD mice may offer new insights into the role of amyloid in neurodegeneration in other disorders, including Alzheimer disease.
Unintentional preparation of motor impulses after incidental perception of need-rewarding objects

Using a new method, we examined whether incidental perception of need-rewarding (positive) objects unintentionally prepares motor action. Participants who varied in their level of need for water were presented with glasses of water (and control objects) that were accompanied by go and no-go cues that required a response (key-press) or withholding a response. Importantly, if need-rewarding objects unintentionally prepare action, presentation of no-go cues should lead to motor inhibition of these prepared motor impulses. Consistent with this hypothesis, results showed that participants relatively high in need for water (and hence, who perceive water as a rewarding, positive object) were slower to react to a successive action probe after withholding a response during perception of water than during perception of the control object, suggesting motor inhibition of unintentionally prepared motor impulses. We propose that incidental perception of need-rewarding objects unintentionally potentiates preparation of motor action to these objects.
Accuracy Assessment of Sea Surface Temperature from NOAA/AVHRR Data in the Seas around Korea and Error Characteristics

Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) using the equations of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) / NESDIS (National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service) were validated over the seas around Korea with satellite-tracked drifter data. A total 1,070 of matchups between satellite data and drifter data were acquired for the period of 2009. The mean rms errors of Multi- Channel SSTs (MCSSTs) and Non-Linear SSTs (NLSSTs) were evaluated to, in most of the cases, less than 1 C. However, the errors revealed dependencies on atmospheric and oceanic conditions. For the most part, SSTs were underestimated in winter and spring, whereas overestimated in summer. In addition to the seasonal characteristics, the errors also presented the effect of atmospheric moist that satellite SSTs were estimated considerably low (�1.8 C) under extremely dry condition (T11mmT12mm<0.3 C), whereas the tendency was reversed under moist condition. Wind forcings induced that SSTs tended to be higher for daytime data than in-situ measurements but lower for nighttime data, particularly in the range of low wind speeds. These characteristics imply that the validation of satellite SSTs should be continuously conducted for diverse regional applications.