Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kinematic primitives for walking and trotting gaits of a quadruped robot with compliant legs

In this work we research the role of body dynamics in the complexity of kinematic patterns in a quadruped robot with compliant legs. Two gait patterns, lateral sequence walk and trot, along with leg length control patterns of different complexity were implemented in a modular, feed-forward locomotion controller. The controller was tested on a small, quadruped robot with compliant, segmented leg design, and led to self-stable and self-stabilizing robot locomotion. In-air stepping and on-ground locomotion leg kinematics were recorded, and the number and shapes of motion primitives accounting for 95% of the variance of kinematic leg data were extracted. This revealed that kinematic patterns resulting from feed-forward control had a lower complexity (in-air stepping, 2–3 primitives) than kinematic patterns from on-ground locomotion (νm4 primitives), although both experiments applied identical motor patterns. The complexity of on-ground kinematic patterns had increased, through ground contact and mechanical entrainment. The complexity of observed kinematic on-ground data matches those reported from level-ground locomotion data of legged animals. Results indicate that a very low complexity of modular, rhythmic, feed-forward motor control is sufficient for level-ground locomotion in combination with passive compliant legged hardware.
Decision Making in the Medical Domain : Comparing the Effectiveness of GP-Generated Fuzzy Intelligent Structures

In this work, we examine the effectiveness of two intelligent models in medical domains. Namely, we apply grammar-guided genetic programming to produce fuzzy intelligent structures, such as fuzzy rule-based systems and fuzzy Petri nets, in medical data mining tasks. First, we use two context-free grammars to describe fuzzy rule-based systems and fuzzy Petri nets with genetic programming. Then, we apply cellular encoding in order to express the fuzzy Petri nets with arbitrary size and topology. The models are examined thoroughly in four real-world medical data sets. Results are presented in detail and the competitive advantages and drawbacks of the selected methodologies are discussed, in respect to the nature of each application domain. Conclusions are drawn on the effectiveness and efficiency of the presented approach.
Pokémon GO: Entering the Ludic Society

Even while digital games are played by millions, game cultures have remained in the margins of public life, to a certain degree. Pokémon GO is part of a new wave of phenomena that are about to change that situation. As a location-based game, it encourages people to play digital games out in the open, visiting public places. The ludic mindset and playful practices first developed while interacting with Pokémon GO may provide a basis for more complex skill sets and cultural practices that will be needed in broader cultural ludification developments, and for the next steps of entering the Ludic Society. The phenomenal success of Pokémon GO also highlights the importance of the meaningfully implemented links between technology, gaming content, and culture.
Neuroprotective effect of nitric oxide donor isosorbide-dinitrate against oxidative stress induced by ethidium bromide in rat brain

This study investigated the effect of systemic administration of isosorbide-dinitrate (ISDN) on oxidative stress and brain monoamines in a toxic model of brain demyelination evoked by intracerebral injection (i.c.i) of ethidium bromide (10 µl of 0.1 %). Rats received saline (control) or ISDN at 5 or 10 mg/kg for 10 days prior to injection of ethidium bromide. Rats were euthanized one day later, and then the levels of reduced glutathione (GSH), lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde; MDA), nitric oxide (nitrite/nitrate), acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, paraoxonase activity as well as monoamine levels (serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline) were assessed in the brain cortex in different treatment groups. The i.c. i of ethidium bromide resulted in increased oxidative stress in the cortex one day after its injection; (i) MDA increased by 36.9 %; (ii) GSH decreased by 20.8 %, while (iii) nitric oxide increased by 60.3 %; (iv) AChE and paraoxonase activities in cortex decreased by 35.9 % and 29.4 %, respectively; (v) serotonin was significantly increased. In ethidium bromide-treated rats, pretreatment with ISDN at 10 mg/kg decreased cortical MDA by 23.9 %. Reduced glutathione was increased by 25.1 % ISDN at 10 mg/kg, while nitric oxide showed a 32.8 and 41.7 % decrease after 5 and 10 mg/kg of ISDN, respectively. Acetylcholinesterase activity increased by 24.3 % by 10 mg/kg of ISDN. Paraoxonase activity showed further decrease by 72.2 and 83.8 % after treatment with 5 and 10 mg/kg of ISDN, respectively. The administration of ISDN decreased the level of serotonin and noradrenaline compared with the ethidium bromide only treated group. Overall, the present ﬁndings suggest neuroprotective effect of ISDN against oxidative stress in this model of chemical demyelination.
Exploring the role of Social Work in supporting people affected by HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND)

ii Acknowledgements . iii List of Tables . viii List of Figures . ix List of Appendices . x Introduction . 1 Purpose . 1 Research Questions . 1 Objectives and Goals . 1 Rationale for the Study . 2 Organization of Thesis . 3 Review of the Literature . 4 HIV/AIDS and HAND . 4 Social Determinants of Health . 7 Social Work and HAND . 9 Theoretical Approaches . 10 Summary . 11 Methodology . 12 Overview . 12 Participatory Action Research (PAR) . 12
Antibiofilm Activity of Epoxy/Ag-TiO2 Polymer Nanocomposite Coatings against Staphylococcus Aureus and Escherichia Coli

Dispersion of functional inorganic nano-fillers like TiO2 within polymer matrix is known to impart excellent photobactericidal activity to the composite. Epoxy resin systems with Ag+ ion doped TiO2 can have combination of excellent biocidal characteristics of silver and the photocatalytic properties of TiO2. The inorganic antimicrobial incorporation into an epoxy polymeric matrix was achieved by sonicating laboratory-made nano-scale anatase TiO2 and Ag-TiO2 into the industrial grade epoxy resin. The resulting epoxy composite had ratios of 0.5–2.0 wt% of nano-filler content. The process of dispersion of Ag-TiO2 in the epoxy resin resulted in concomitant in situ synthesis of silver nanoparticles due to photoreduction of Ag+ ion. The composite materials were characterized by DSC and SEM. The glass transition temperature (Tg) increased with the incorporation of the nanofillers over the neat polymer. The materials synthesized were coated on glass petri dish. Anti-biofilm property of coated material due to combined release of biocide, and photocatalytic activity under static conditions in petri dish was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC6538 and Escherichia coli K-12 under UV irradiation using a crystal violet binding assay. Prepared composite showed significant inhibition of biofilm development in both the organisms. Our studies indicate that the effective dispersion and optimal release of biocidal agents was responsible for anti-biofilm activity of the surface. The reported thermoset coating materials can be used as bactericidal surfaces either in industrial or healthcare settings to reduce the microbial loads.
Distributed Modeling of Direct Solar Radiation of Rugged Terrain Based on GIS

Direct Solar Radiation (DSR) is one of the most crucial weights of Solar Radiation, and its quantity calculation is very complex due to the influences of local topographical factors and terrain inter-shielding. DEM data as a representation of the complex terrain and multiplicity condition produces a series of topographic factors such as slope and aspect, etc. Based on DEM data and meteorological observations, a distributed model for calculating DSR over rugged terrains is developed for Yangtze Rive Basin. Using the distributed model, this paper comes true fix quantify simulation of space distributing and space visualization, and deeply analyzes variation disciplinarian of DSR due to locality and terrain. The results suggest that the direct solar radiation quantity over mountainous area for Yangtze Rive Basin influenced by local topographic factors has a clear spatial difference and annual DSR quantity of sunny slope (or southern slope) of mountains is obviously larger than shady slope (or northern slope).
Consumer judgment and forecasting using online word-of-mouth

To Mom, Dad, and Wen, for their love and support iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Samuel Bond for his guidance, support, and advice throughout my doctoral program. He not only taught me the craft of how to conduct and write experimental research, but also gave me the freedom to explore the problem from new perspectives. The research projects documented here would not have been possible without the invaluable contribution of his time and effort. This dissertation also owes a great deal to other members in my committee, Koert who provided great encouragement and much constructive advice in the development of ideas, study designs, and theory building. I am also grateful to the marketing faculty and doctoral students who showed interest in my work and helped me along the way. Special thanks goes to Ajay Kohli, Jun Kim, Xiaoqin Jing, and Goutam Challagalla, who offered great feedbacks when these ideas were in their infancy, as well as and Mike Hair, who helped out my data collection process considerably.
The influence of antecedent factors of IS/IT utilization towards organizational performance: A case study of IAIN Raden Fatah Palembang

Information Technology is one thing that is important in supporting the operational success of an organization. In an uncertain environment, information is needed primarily to support the performance of organization in decision-making. Information Systems is an orderly combination of human, hardware, software and communication network of data resources, which collect, modify, and distribute information within an organization to support organizational decision-making and control. Before the IS/IT is implemented, it is worth considering the antecedent factors that may be used as reference to see the history before the IS/IT is implemented, whether antecedent factors of Information Systems/Information Technology (IS/IT) implementation has correlation and influence on organizational performance. Antecedent factors consist of six aspects, which are social factors, attitudes, support conditions, system complexity, long-term consequences and habits. This study aims to find empirical evidence that there is correlation and influence between antecedent factors of IS/IT implementation and organizational performance. Using Pearson correlation analysis and Regression analysis for the testing, the results obtained showed that attitude, facilitating conditions and system complexity have correlation with organizational performance. Among these, only attitude and facilitating condition that influence organizational performance.
Applying Feed-Forward Neural Networks to Collaborative Filtering ?

Neural networks have been applied to an entire plethora of learning tasks, such as text recognition, credit rating analysis and predic- tion, and so forth. Surprisingly, there have never been proposals suggest- ing their usage for collaborative filtering (CF) scenarios. The objective of this diploma/master's thesis is to close that gap by virtue of (i) conceiv- ing and applying neural network models to suit CF problems and (ii) evaluating their fitness with respect to benchmark approaches, taking into the eect of diverse tuning parameters.
From Inter-agent to Intra-agent Representations - Mapping Social Scenarios to Agent-role Descriptions

The paper introduces elements of a methodology for the acquisition of descriptions of social scenarios (e.g. cases) and for their synthesis to agent-based models. It proceeds along three steps. First, the case is analyzed at signal layer, i.e. the messages exchanged between actors. Second, the signal layer is enriched with intentions, internal actions, and necessary conditions for the story to occur. This elicitation is based on elements provided with the story, common-sense and expert knowledge, direct interaction with the narrator. Third, the resulting scenario representation is synthesized as agent programs. These scripts correspond to descriptions of agent-roles observed in that social setting.
Accurate Protein Docking by Shape Complementarity Alone

Elucidating the molecular details of protein-protein interactions is essential to understanding cellular processes. Given the recent increase in protein structural information, mostly of monomeric proteins, we now have the data necessary to address protein-protein interactions by computational approaches. Previous attempts at in silico protein docking generate a multitude of answers that have similarly high scores for both correctly and incorrectly docked proteins. We have developed the first algorithm that successfully predicts the re-docking of known protein-protein complexes without any false positives. Because our algorithm is based on complementarity alone, this implies that shape matching suffices for recognizing correct docking configurations. The essential features needed to achieve accurate protein docking are a fine covering of the space of rigid motions and a score function that counts the number of atoms at close distance. Our results provide a proof-of-principle for the development of faster docking methods based on shape complementarity alone that incorporate protein flexibility.
The Firm Size Effect on Trading Volume Reactions to Earnings Announcements : A Re-examination and Extension

We argue that technological advances, changes in financial regulation, and changes in investor composition over the past 30 years have increased the available financial information of small firms and the investor diversity of large firms. This leads us to hypothesize and test for a positive shift in the relation between trading volume reactions to earnings announcements and firm size. Consistent with our hypothesis, we document a positive shift in the trading volume reaction/firm size relation between the time of Bamber’s (1986, 1987) seminal research (1977-1980) and a modern time period (2003-2006). Surprisingly, this positive shift has caused the trading volume reaction/firm size relation to turn positive, thereby reversing Bamber’s previously documented negative relation. We also provide evidence that this positive shift is driven by relative increases in differential precision of pre-announcement information in large firms.
Doing time in the sociology of education

Abstract This article is both an editorial introduction for this special issue and a distinctive contribution in its own right. The article seeks to extend a dynamic and multiple conception of time to the sociology of education to think beyond the clock time associated with modernity and industrialisation. This need is illustrated through an account and critique of E.P. Thompson’s canonical account of clock time. The article argues that this construction of clock time implicitly frames most work in the sociology of education. The concept of ‘timespace’ offers a way to go beyond both clock time and the current ‘spatial turn’ in the sociology of education that prioritises space over time. It is shown how computerisation also ushers in a new temporality, which works simultaneously with clock time and perhaps presages the move from a disciplinary to control society. The article accepts that there are multiple and dynamic temporalities and correlatively supports a working together of historical and sociological imaginations towards a sociology of education that acknowledges and works with multiple temporalities, empirically, methodologically, theoretically and in research writing.
Decrease of RA-related orthopaedic surgery of the upper limbs between 1998 and 2004: data from 54,579 Swedish RA inpatients.

OBJECTIVES To describe the overall use and temporal trends in orthopaedic upper limb surgery associated with RA on a nation wide basis in Sweden between 1998 and 2004. METHODS Data for all inpatient visits during 1998-2004 for patients older than 18 yrs with RA-related diagnoses were extracted from the Swedish National Hospital Discharge Registry (SNHDR). The SNHDR prospectively collects data on all hospital admissions in Sweden according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Data were analysed with respect to orthopaedic surgery of the hand, elbow and shoulder. RESULTS During the study period, 54,579 individual RA patients were admitted to a Swedish hospital and 9% of these underwent RA-related surgery of the upper limbs. The RA patient cohort underwent a total of 8251 RA-related upper limb surgical procedures. The hand (77%) was most frequently operated on, followed by the shoulder (13%) and the elbow (10%). There was a statistically significant decrease of 31% for all admissions associated with RA-related upper limb surgery during 1998-2004 (P = 0.001). Some 10% of all RA-related upper limb surgery was due to total joint arthroplasties (TJAs), mostly for the elbow (59%). During 1998-2004, all TJAs, elbow-TJAs and shoulder-TJAs had a stable occurrence. In contrast, the overall numbers of hand-TJAs significantly increased (P = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS Rates of RA-related upper limb surgery decreased and TJAs had a stable occurrence in Sweden during 1998-2004. The findings of this study may reflect trends in disease management and health outcomes of RA patients in Sweden.
Method for embedded application prototyping based on SoC platform and architecture model

Real time embedded system design needs collaboration between architectures model, platforms and application specification in order to prototype a real time system from high level specification. In many case, one solution of prototype is not so good to answer the environment changes around embedded system. For this reason, when we want to run an application on embedded system, we need to have several prototypes with different performance levels in order to address the environment evolution. This paper gives an approach for rapid embedded system prototyping using a general architectural mode named PACM and existing prototyping platforms. Several prototypes are proposed to get a first space solution, thus the exploration process is accelerated and an efficient solution can be selected
Representing Pattern Matching Algorithms by Polynomial-Size Automata

Pattern matching algorithms to find exact occurrences of a pattern $S\in\Sigma^m$ in a text $T\in\Sigma^n$ have been analyzed extensively with respect to asymptotic best, worst, and average case runtime. For more detailed analyses, the number of text character accesses $X^{\mathcal{A},S}_n$ performed by an algorithm $\mathcal{A}$ when searching a random text of length $n$ for a fixed pattern $S$ has been considered. Constructing a state space and corresponding transition rules (e.g. in a Markov chain) that reflect the behavior of a pattern matching algorithm is a key step in existing analyses of $X^{\mathcal{A},S}_n$ in both the asymptotic ($n\to\infty$) and the non-asymptotic regime. The size of this state space is hence a crucial parameter for such analyses. In this paper, we introduce a general methodology to construct corresponding state spaces and demonstrate that it applies to a wide range of algorithms, including Boyer-Moore (BM), Boyer-Moore-Horspool (BMH), Backward Oracle Matching (BOM), and Backward (Non-Deterministic) DAWG Matching (B(N)DM). In all cases except BOM, our method leads to state spaces of size $O(m^3)$ for pattern length $m$, a result that has previously only been obtained for BMH. In all other cases, only state spaces with size exponential in $m$ had been reported. Our results immediately imply an algorithm to compute the distribution of $X^{\mathcal{A},S}_n$ for fixed $S$, fixed $n$, and $\mathcal{A}\in\{\text{BM},\text{BMH},\text{B(N)DM}\}$ in polynomial time for a very general class of random text models.
Social Anxiety and Emotion Regulation in Daily Life: Spillover Effects on Positive and Negative Social Events

To minimize the possibility of scrutiny, people with social anxiety difficulties exert great effort to manage their emotions, particularly during social interactions. We examined how the use of two emotion regulation strategies, emotion suppression and cognitive reappraisal, predict the generation of emotions and social events in daily life. Over 14 consecutive days, 89 participants completed daily diary entries on emotions, positive and negative social events, and their regulation of emotions. Using multilevel modeling, we found that when people high in social anxiety relied more on positive emotion suppression, they reported fewer positive social events and less positive emotion on the subsequent day. In contrast, people low in social anxiety reported fewer negative social events on days subsequent to using cognitive reappraisal to reduce distress; the use of cognitive reappraisal did not influence the daily lives of people high in social anxiety. Our findings support theories of emotion regulation difficulties associated with social anxiety. In particular, for people high in social anxiety, maladaptive strategy use contributed to diminished reward responsiveness.
Active properties of motoneurone dendrites: diffuse descending neuromodulation, focused local inhibition

The dendrites of spinal motoneurones are highly active, generating a strong persistent inward current (PIC) that has an enormous impact on processing of synaptic input. The PIC is subject to regulation by descending neuromodulatory systems releasing the monoamines serotonin and noradrenaline. At high monoaminergic drive levels, the PIC dominates synaptic integration, generating an intrinsic dendritic current that is as much as 5‐fold larger than the current entering via synapses. Without the PIC, motoneurone excitability is very low. Presumably, this descending control of the synaptic integration via the PIC is used to adjust the excitability (gain) of motoneurones for different motor tasks. A problem with this gain control is that monoaminergic input to the cord is very diffuse, affecting many motor pools simultaneously, probably including both agonists and antagonists. The PIC is, however, exquisitely sensitive to the reciprocal inhibition mediated by length sensitive muscle spindle Ia afferents and Ia interneurones. Reciprocal inhibition is tightly focused, shared only between strict mechanical antagonists, and thus can act to ‘sculpt’ specific movement patterns out of a background of diffuse neuromodulation. Thus it is likely that motoneurone gain is set by the interaction between diffuse descending neuromodulation and specific and focused local synaptic inhibitory circuits.
Effects of Discrete Positive Emotions on Attitude Change

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact ecommons@luc.edu. ABSTRACT This study examines the influence of discrete incidental positive emotions (joy and contentment) on participants' attitudes and cognitive responses. Prior persuasion research