Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Tempo on Pitch Perception

The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions of music majors and nonmusic I majors concerning combined frequency and tempo changes in music across a range of musical tempi. The subjects, 200 music majors and 200 nonmusic majors, heard 10 consecutive presentations of an orchestral excerpt, each of which had been altered by changing the frequency or tempo (or both) of the original version in various combinations. The task was to compare each example to the preceding version and indicate perceived pitch and tempo changes. This comparison procedure was replicated using four different music excerpts, in which the speeds of the fastest moving voices were approximately 50, 100, 150, and 200 per minute. Each of the 400 subjects was randomly assigned to two of the four replications. Results indicated that (a) music majors and nonmusic majors responded similarly across conditions and replications; (b) changes in tempo were discriminated more accurately than frequency changes of the same magnitude; (c) tempo changes seemed to affect pitch perception to a greater extent than frequency changes affected the perception of tempo; and (d) the speed of subdivided beats apparently affected the perception of changes in frequency and tempo across replications.
Evaluating a Part-Time Degree Programme in Psychology

University records were examined for the 91 part-time students who entered Liverpool John Moores University between 1992 and 1994 to study psychology. The records showed 35 had achieved a BSc Hons Applied Psychology degree and 12 others had reached the level for intermediate awards although only two of these had so far claimed their awards. Despite the wide range of educational backgrounds, which included a number of students without formal qualifications, the mean and the standard deviations of the final examination marks of the part-time students were virtually indistinguishable from those of the full-time students. Withdrawal from the programme had occurred predominantly in the first year. Some implications of these findings are discussed.
Dynamic State Recovery for Cyber-Physical Systems Under Switching Location Attacks

Malicious data attacks have raised widespread concerns on data integrity and security of cyber-physical systems. This paper discusses a state recovery problem, where the underlying cyber-physical system is subject to switching location attacks. Compared with the fix location attack, the switching location attack changes the attack locations at a constant/variable frequency. This paper develops nonzero sub-row and nonzero entry sparsity models to characterize the switching location attacks. Moreover, state recovery constraints are deduced for different attack modes, which prove the higher efficient state recovery compared with the fix location and static decoders. According to the different sparsity models, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$l_{1}/l_{2}$</tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$l_{1}$</tex-math></inline-formula> decoders are designed, respectively, which can recover the initial state accurately within relaxation conditions. Numerical simulations in a randomly chosen system and a 14-bus electric power system show the proposed dynamic decoders can provide effective system resilience under switching location attacks.
Detection of Gap Mura in TFT LCDs by the Interference Pattern and Image Sensing Method

In this paper, we focus on pretesting to find the gap mura defects before the injection of liquid crystal into the cell of a thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display panel. An optical interference pattern sensing method for inspection of the gap mura defects is used. We propose automatic quantization of mura panel defects in terms of the crossing points of the interference pattern. By doing so, panels with unacceptable gap mura could be sorted out simply by a binary classification, which facilitates automated visual inspection. The advantages of using this method include that it allows for pretesting before the injection of liquid crystal, meaning that defective panels can be found before the next process step and the wastage of liquid crystal materials can be avoided. The yield rate and manufacturing process efficiency can be improved and the inspection time can be shortened from 20 s by human inspection to less than 2 s by automatic inspection. Experiment results show that the proposed method offers improved performance for gap mura detection.
The Conflict Within the Role: A Longitudinal Study of Preschool Student Teachers' Developing Competence In and Attitudes Towards Science Teaching in Relation to Developing a Professional Role

The aim of this exploratory, longitudinal study was to describe an overall picture of how perceptions of the teacher role and attitudes toward science and science teaching develop and interact during preschool teacher education, and how this in turn influences behavior when students are engaged in teaching science. Sixty-five students enrolled in a preschool teacher education program at a Swedish university were followed throughout their teacher education. The study used a phenomenographic approach within a theoretical framework of sociocultural and situated learning perspective. Questionnaires with open and closed questions were combined with interviews. The results show that in spite of growing competence and confidence, many of the students still found science activities to be awkward in preschool, mainly due to a wish to protect the children from school culture. The results have implications for teacher education and the preschool community, showing a need to problematize the purpose of teaching science in preschool and the meaning of pedagogical content knowledge in this context.
Impact of FokI (rs10735810) and BsmI (rs1544410) on Treatment of Chronic HCV Patients With Genotype 4

Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a huge problem both globally and at the level of the individual patient. Our aim is to detect the influence of vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms (BsmI and Fok1) and vitamin D level in HCV patients under treatment with interferon.
Developing a Local Least-Squares Support Vector Machines-Based Neuro-Fuzzy Model for Nonlinear and Chaotic Time Series Prediction

Local modeling approaches, owing to their ability to model different operating regimes of nonlinear systems and processes by independent local models, seem appealing for modeling, identification, and prediction applications. In this paper, we propose a local neuro-fuzzy (LNF) approach based on the least-squares support vector machines (LSSVMs). The proposed LNF approach employs LSSVMs, which are powerful in modeling and predicting time series, as local models and uses hierarchical binary tree (HBT) learning algorithm for fast and efficient estimation of its parameters. The HBT algorithm heuristically partitions the input space into smaller subdomains by axis-orthogonal splits. In each partitioning, the validity functions automatically form a unity partition and therefore normalization side effects, e.g., reactivation, are prevented. Integration of LSSVMs into the LNF network as local models, along with the HBT learning algorithm, yield a high-performance approach for modeling and prediction of complex nonlinear time series. The proposed approach is applied to modeling and predictions of different nonlinear and chaotic real-world and hand-designed systems and time series. Analysis of the prediction results and comparisons with recent and old studies demonstrate the promising performance of the proposed LNF approach with the HBT learning algorithm for modeling and prediction of nonlinear and chaotic systems and time series.
Dynamical Response of Particles in Asymmetric Ratchet Potential

The dynamics and response of particles in an asymmetric potential of the ratchet type is considered. An approximate asymmetric ratchet potential, which allows us to apply an analytical approach to investigate the systems’ response, is proposed based on the power series interpolation scheme. The method of multiple scales (MMS) is then employed to obtain an approximate solution at the principal resonance. Comparison between results obtained from the approximated and exact potentials show excellent agreement. The frequency response curves (FRCs) for different forcing are presented. The numerically computed FRCs were compared with the theoretical result to show the extent of agreement. Furthermore, by using perturbation methods, the stable and unstable domains of the solution were obtained.
Bulgarian preverbs: aspect in phrase structure

This paper argues for a syntactic approach to aspectuality, where semantic information about subevent structure is incorporated into the phrase marker. Such an approach would be justified only if aspectual properties present syntactic as well as semantic effects. It is the aim of the paper to present evidence of such syntactic effects. Slavic preverbs have standardly been regarded as perfectivizing (or telicity-marking) morphemes. It will be argued that preverbs are also causative morphemes. As such, they are situated in the upper part of a VP-layer structure, a light verb widely accepted to be reserved for CAUSE. In English, the aspectual interpretation of a terminative or durative event depends on the specified or unspecified cardinality of the object (Verkuyl 1993) and aspect is calculated in a functional projection AspP between the two VP layers (Travis 1991). In Slavic, on the other hand, it is the presence or absence of a preverb in the upper verbal head that encodes a terminative or a durative interpretation. This contrast is explained with the relatively higher structural position of Slavic preverbs with respect to the functional projection AspP in English. Similar scope effects are demonstrated with articles in Russian, with interpretations of Polish and English imperfective sentences, and with manner adverbs in Bulgarian
An Investigation of the Use of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Stroke Patients in Taiwan

Background. The use of complementary and alternative medicine in critical illness is increasing worldwide. This study investigates how traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is used in stroke patients. Methods. Using Taiwan National Health Insurance reimbursement claims, we compared the annual use of TCM between stroke patients and general population, identifying 15,330 patients with a new onset of stroke in 2000–2009. The sociodemographic status and medical comorbidities between stroke patients receiving TCM services and those without using the service were compared. Results. The use of TCM was higher in stroke patients than in the general population, 27.9% versus 25.4% in 2000 and 32.7% versus 27.8% in 2009, respectively, and grew consistently from 2000 to 2009. Among stroke patients, women, younger patients, white-collar employees, higher-income residents, and those living in areas with more TCM physicians were more likely to use TCM. Stroke patients using rehabilitation services were more likely to have more TCM visits (OR = 2.28, 95% CI = 1.96–2.66) and higher expenditure on TCM (OR = 2.67, 95% CI = 2.29–3.12) compared with stroke patients without rehabilitation. Conclusion. TCM is popular and well accepted in Taiwan. Patients with stroke have a higher TCM utilization rate than people without stroke.
Everyday Surveillance: Personal data and social classifications

Surveillance is no longer merely a matter of deliberate, individual scrutiny and consequent fears for personal privacy. It is an everyday experience, run by myriad agencies for multiple purposes and exempting no one. Surveillance is also an ambiguous process, the two faces of which must yet be seen in relation to each other. Numerous data - now including biometric, genetic and video data - are abstracted from embodied persons and manipulated to create profiles and risk categories in a networked, rhizomic system. The resulting classifications are intended to influence and to manage populations and persons. The choices and the chances of data-subjects are thus both directly and indirectly affected, but socio-technical surveillance systems are also affected by people complying with, negotiating or resisting surveillance.
Zum Stellenwert von Dialekt und Standard im österreichischen und Schweizer Alltag - Ergebnisse einer Umfrage

Sociolinguistic variation in Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland has tradi- tionally been described in very different terms. In Austria, the linguistic range between the standard language and the local dialects has been referred to as a 'standard-dialect- continuum', whereas the German-speaking part of Switzerland has often been cited as the typical example of a 'diglossic' language community. The sociolinguistic situation in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, which is part of a primarily Bavarian-speaking country but also of the Alemannic dialect region, has not been thoroughly examined in any studies up to date. In this paper, we present results from an online-survey in Austria and Switzerland on the everyday use of dialect and the standard language. According to our informants' esti- mates, the sociolinguistic situation in both Austria and German-speaking Switzerland is characterised by a significant percentage of dialect use. Still, the standard language is re- garded quite differently in the two countries. A considerable proportion of the Swiss in- formants perceive the standard language as a 'foreign language'. However, this does not seem to be a common attitude among the Austrian informants. The main difference be- tween the two countries lies in the observation that Austrians feel they use an intermediate form between dialect and the standard language, a so-called 'Umgangssprache', in many situations, whereas the Swiss indicate that they speak their local dialect or the standard language under specific communicative circumstances. However, the German-speaking Swiss population, as well as the informants from Vorarlberg, do not seem to use an inter- mediate form. The situation in Vorarlberg is particularly interesting. On the one hand, as far as the status of dialect and the dichotomy of dialect and standard are concerned, Vorarlberg patterns similarly to the German-speaking part of Switzerland. On the other hand, people from Vorarlberg have to adapt to their Bavarian-speaking fellow countrymen and women and switch to standard German in intra-national communication (e.g. at the workplace or on national help lines).
Regularized common spatial patterns with generic learning for EEG signal classification

The common spatial patterns (CSP) algorithm is commonly used to extract discriminative spatial filters for the classification of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals in the context of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). However, CSP is based on a sample-based covariance matrix estimation. Therefore, its performance is limited when the number of available training samples is small. In this paper, the CSP method is considered in such a small-sample setting. We propose a regularized common spatial patterns (R-CSP) algorithm by incorporating the principle of generic learning. The covariance matrix estimation in R-CSP is regularized through two regularization parameters to increase the estimation stability while reducing the estimation bias due to limited number of training samples. The proposed method is tested on data set IVa of the third BCI competition and the results show that R-CSP can outperform the classical CSP algorithm by 8.5% on average. Moreover, the regularization introduced is particularly effective in the small-sample setting.
Ritual, strategy, and deep culture in the Chechen national movement

This paper probes the dichotomy between strategic performance of cultural text and a strong approach to culture that sees fundamental texts as encompassing and determining social action. The central question posed is whether the paradigmatic emphasis on strategy in cultural analysis of protest and social movements misses the compelling influences that cultural texts may exert under certain conditions. Regarding protest movements and political contention, I am especially interested in the ‘deep textual grammar’ of the conflict, which can strongly constrain and guide social action. By identifying and analysing the deep cultural text of the Chechen nationalist movement for the period 1989–1999, this study shows that, in addition to strategic decisions, movement trajectories are sometimes strongly – almost ritualistically – culturally determined. As a first step towards reconceptualising the role of culture in social movements and to spur further investigation, this paper offers several propositions derived from the Chechen case about the relationship of deep culture and mobilisation.
A comprehensive analysis of filamentous phage display vectors for cytoplasmic proteins: an analysis with different fluorescent proteins

Filamentous phage display has been extensively used to select proteins with binding properties of specific interest. Although many different display platforms using filamentous phage have been described, no comprehensive comparison of their abilities to display similar proteins has been conducted. This is particularly important for the display of cytoplasmic proteins, which are often poorly displayed with standard filamentous phage vectors. In this article, we have analyzed the ability of filamentous phage to display a stable form of green fluorescent protein and modified variants in nine different display vectors, a number of which have been previously proposed as being suitable for cytoplasmic protein display. Correct folding and display were assessed by phagemid particle fluorescence, and with anti-GFP antibodies. The poor correlation between phagemid particle fluorescence and recognition of GFP by antibodies, indicates that proteins may fold correctly without being accessible for display. The best vector used a twin arginine transporter leader to transport the displayed protein to the periplasm, and a coil-coil arrangement to link the displayed protein to g3p. This vector was able to display less robust forms of GFP, including ones with inserted epitopes, as well as fluorescent proteins of the Azami green series. It was also functional in mock selection experiments.
Psychometric properties of the Burnout Inventory for Referees

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Burnout Inventory for Referees (BIR) in Portuguese in a sample of professional soccer referees and to explore the nomological validity of the inventory through concurrent validation. The analysis showed a factorial structure of burnout for the referees with one second order factor and three first order factors; physical and emotional exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment and sport devaluation. A cross-validation procedure showed that the factor structure was replicable, and the inventory demonstrated internal reliability as well as convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, the study assessed the concurrent validity of the inventory by examining the correlation between the scores of the Burnout Inventory for Referees and the scores of the Profile of Mood States (POMS). The subscales of burnout and total burnout were positively correlated with tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion and negatively with vigor, as expected. In conclusion, the Portuguese version of BIR presents good evidence of validity and reliability in the assessment of referees who may be at risk of suffering from burnout.
Changing their minds: the social dynamics of school leaders' learning

This paper questions whether a focus on individual development is appropriate when it comes to attempting to change professional practice. Based on a study of the conceptual development of candidates on the Scottish Qualification for Headship Programme (SQH), the paper examines evidence from detailed case studies of the learning of some of the students. These were constructed using the reflective commentaries written by the candidates at the end of each year and the outcomes of semi‐structured interviews to explore their experiences of the course and what they felt they had learned as a result. The evidence indicated that there was a complex dynamic involved in learning to change practice where the conceptual development of individuals was closely related to their experience of enacting new behaviours in the social setting of the workplace. The sense that candidates made of school leadership and management was shaped and embedded in their social experience. Change and development on their part was closely bound to the capacity and willingness to change on the part of others.
Tolerability of HIV postexposure prophylaxis with tenofovir/emtricitabine and lopinavir/ritonavir tablet formulation

Objective:To evaluate the tolerability of HIV postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) with tenofovir/emtricitabine and lopinavir/ritonavir tablet formulation (TDF/FTC+LPV/r). Design:Multicentric observational prospective study. Method:Adults with an HIV transmission risk in the past 48 h were eligible. Baseline sociodemographic characteristics, description of exposure event, and HIV serostatus of the source patient were collected. Laboratory monitoring for toxicity and a clinical evaluation were performed; adherence and side effects were recorded using a standardized form on day 0, 15, and 28. Results:Between November 2006 and June 2008, 249 participants were included in 10 French hospitals. Mean age was 31.5 ± 10 years. Sex ratio male/female was 1.96. Exposure events are as follows: occupational exposure, 40 (16%); sexual intercourse, 204 (82%); and other, 5 (2%). Tolerability could be evaluated in 188 cases. In 22 cases, PEP was discontinued for adverse effects before day 28, including two cases of skin rash related to TDF/FTC prescription, one renal lithiasis related to LPV/r prescription, and one rhabdomyolysis. One hundred and sixty-six persons completed the 28 days of PEP with tolerability judged as good in 96 (58%) individuals. Among everyone who experienced at least one side effect, 78% reported diarrhea, 78% asthenia, and 59% nausea and/or vomiting. Conclusion:Considering data of previous studies performed using similar methodology, the dropout rate due to adverse events appeared significantly lower in TDF/FTC+LPV/r tablet formulation than those in zidovudine/lamivudine (ZDV/3TC)+nelfinavir (P < 0.0001), ZDV/3TC+lopinavir/ritonavir soft gel capsules (P < 0.01), and 3TC+TDF+atazanavir boosted by ritonavir (P < 0.05) and should be considered as standard of care concerning HIV PEP.
Solar Light Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction: General Considerations and Selected Bench-Mark Photocatalysts

The reduction of carbon dioxide to useful chemicals has received a great deal of attention as an alternative to the depletion of fossil resources without altering the atmospheric CO2 balance. As the chemical reduction of CO2 is energetically uphill due to its remarkable thermodynamic stability, this process requires a significant transfer of energy. Achievements in the fields of photocatalysis during the last decade sparked increased interest in the possibility of using sunlight to reduce CO2. In this review we discuss some general features associated with the photocatalytic reduction of CO2 for the production of solar fuels, with considerations to be taken into account of the photocatalyst design, of the limitations arising from the lack of visible light response of titania, of the use of co-catalysts to overcome this shortcoming, together with several strategies that have been applied to enhance the photocatalytic efficiency of CO2 reduction. The aim is not to provide an exhaustive review of the area, but to present general aspects to be considered, and then to outline which are currently the most efficient photocatalytic systems.