Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and experiment of a 3 DOF parallel micro-mechanism utilizing flexure hinges

A planar 3 DOF parallel-type micro-positioning mechanism is designed with the intention of accurate flexure hinge modeling. For this, a preliminary kinematic analysis that includes inverse kinematics, internal kinematics, and analytic stiffness modeling referenced to the task coordinate is presented. First, the revolute type of a 1 DOF flexure hinge is considered. The simulation result based on FEM, however, is not coincident to the analytic result. This is due to the minor axial elongation along the link direction that keeps the mechanism from precise positioning. To cope with this problem, a 2 DOF flexure hinge model that includes this additional motion degree as a prismatic joint is employed in part. On the basis of this model, the positional accuracy is ensured. The effectiveness of this accurate model is shown through both simulation and experimentation This work emphasizes that the precise modeling of a flexure hinge is significant to guarantee the positional accuracy of parallel micro-mechanisms using flexure hinge.
Exploring the roles of social support & community belonging in relation to the severity and duration of depression in Canadian seniors

This study examined the effects of four types of social support and sense of community belonging on depression severity and duration in a sample of Canadian male and female seniors (age 65 – 80+ years of age). The present work builds on research conducted by Fowler et al. (2013) where the same variables were assessed in relation to Canadian men and women (ages 20-64). Data associated with 627 respondents were extracted from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS; Statistics Canada, 2002) and analyzed. Overall, tangible support was the only predictor of depression severity in both male and female seniors. Positive social support, tangible support, affection, age and sense of belonging predicted depression in both male and female senior depression duration. Separate gender analyses were also conducted and compared to the findings in the Fowler et al. (2013) study. Differences in depression severity and duration emerged for male and female seniors. These findings were conceptualized as representing facets of seniors’ social worlds.
The Untold Story of Welfare Fraud

The experiences of women who have been charged with welfare fraud in the years following the passage of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act cast a shadow over the claim that welfare reform has been an unequivocal success. This article addresses this under-explored issue by considering the face ofwelfare fraud in San Diego, California after the change to federal welfare law. After a brief discussion of the socio-historical context of welfare fraud prosecution and a summary of the scholarly findings related to welfare fraud post-PRWORA, the article details a new "poverty knowledge" about welfare fraud drawn from the experiences of women. This is followed by a discussion of how this knowledge has been used to help inspire the creation of a welfare fraud diversion program that serves as an alternative to felony prosecution for first-time, low-level welfare fraud defendants in San Diego County.
Dying cell clearance and its impact on the outcome of tumor radiotherapy

The induction of tumor cell death is one of the major goals of radiotherapy and has been considered to be the central determinant of its therapeutic outcome for a long time. However, accumulating evidence suggests that the success of radiotherapy does not only derive from direct cytotoxic effects on the tumor cells alone, but instead might also depend – at least in part – on innate as well as adaptive immune responses, which can particularly target tumor cells that survive local irradiation. The clearance of dying tumor cells by phagocytic cells of the innate immune system represents a crucial step in this scenario. Dendritic cells and macrophages, which engulf, process and present dying tumor cell material to adaptive immune cells, can trigger, skew, or inhibit adaptive immune responses, respectively. In this review we summarize the current knowledge of different forms of cell death induced by ionizing radiation, the multi-step process of dying cell clearance, and its immunological consequences with special regard toward the potential exploitation of these mechanisms for the improvement of tumor radiotherapy.
Technology or Upskilling? Trends in the Task Composition of Jobs in Central and Eastern Europe

In this paper we analyse the changes in the task content of jobs in Central and Eastern European countries between 1998 and 2013. We link the O*NET data on occupational characteristics with EU-LFS, following the approach of Autor, Levy and Murnane (2003), and Acemoglu and Autor (2011). We find that the CEE countries witnessed similar trends of rising intensity of non-routine cognitive tasks, and a decreasing intensity of manual tasks, although they differed with regards to changes in the routine cognitive task content. We assess the relative role played by education and technology in the development of task contents. We also decompose the observed changes into the contributions of sectoral, educational and occupational changes as well as the interaction between them. Our results show that workforce upskilling was the major factor behind the evolution of non-routine cognitive and manual tasks in CEE, whereas structural changes and shifts towards work with lower speed of de-routinisation have shaped routine cognitive tasks.
Adult Onset Vitiligo: Multivariate Analysis Suggests the Need for a Thyroid Screening

Background. There are limited epidemiological studies evaluating the effect of age at onset on disease features in vitiligo. Objectives. To identify factors associated with adult onset vitiligo in comparison with childhood onset vitiligo. Patients and Methods. We retrospectively collected medical records of 191 patients. Such records included clinical examination, personal and familial medical history, laboratory evaluations, concomitant vitiligo treatment and drug assumption. Results. 123 patients with a disease onset after the age of 40 (adult onset vitiligo) were compared with 68 patients who developed vitiligo before the age of 12 (childhood onset vitiligo). Multivariate analysis revealed that personal history of thyroid diseases (P = 0.04; OR 0.4), stress at onset (P = 0.002; OR = 0.34), personal history of autoimmune thyroid disease (ATD) (P = 0.003; OR = 0.23), and thyroid nodules (P = 0.001; OR 0.90) were independently associated with adult onset vitiligo, whereas family history of dermatological diseases (P = 0.003; OR = 2.87) and Koebner phenomenon (P < 0.001; OR = 4.73) with childhood onset vitiligo. Moreover, in the adult onset group, concomitant thyroid disease preceded vitiligo in a statistically significant number of patients (P = 0.014). Conclusions. Childhood onset and adult onset vitiligo have different clinical features. In particular, ATD and thyroid nodules were significantly associated with adult onset vitiligo, suggesting that a thyroid screening should be recommended in this group of patients.
Retrieving tropospheric nitrogen dioxide from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument: effects of aerosols, surface reflectance anisotropy, and vertical profile of nitrogen dioxide

Retrievals of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) are subject to errors in the treatments of aerosols, surface reflectance anisotropy, and vertical profile of NO 2. Here we quantify the influences over China via an improved retrieval pro- cess. We explicitly account for aerosol optical effects (simu- lated by nested GEOS-Chem at 0.667 long. ◊ 0.5 lat. and constrained by aerosol measurements), surface reflectance anisotropy, and high-resolution vertical profiles of NO 2 (sim- ulated by GEOS-Chem). Prior to the NO2 retrieval, we derive the cloud information using consistent ancillary assumptions. We compare our retrieval to the widely used DOMINO v2 product, using MAX-DOAS measurements at three ur- ban/suburban sites in East China as reference and focusing the analysis on the 127 OMI pixels (in 30 days) closest to the MAX-DOAS sites. We find that our retrieval reduces the interference of aerosols on the retrieved cloud properties, thus enhancing the number of valid OMI pixels by about 25 %. Compared to DOMINO v2, our retrieval better cap- tures the day-to-day variability in MAX-DOAS NO2 data (R 2 = 0.96 versus 0.72), due to pixel-specific radiative trans- fer calculations rather than the use of a look-up table, ex- plicit inclusion of aerosols, and consideration of surface re- flectance anisotropy. Our retrieved NO 2 columns are 54 % of the MAX-DOAS data on average, reflecting the inevitable spatial inconsistency between the two types of measurement, errors in MAX-DOAS data, and uncertainties in our OMI re- trieval related to aerosols and vertical profile of NO 2. Sensitivity tests show that excluding aerosol optical effects can either increase or decrease the retrieved NO2 for individ- ual OMI pixels with an average increase by 14 %. Excluding aerosols also complexly affects the retrievals of cloud frac- tion and particularly cloud pressure. Employing various sur- face albedo data sets slightly affects the retrieved NO 2 on average (within 10 %). The retrieved NO2 columns increase when the NO2 profiles are taken from MAX-DOAS retrievals (by 19 % on average) or TM4 simulations (by 13 %) in- stead of GEOS-Chem simulations. Our findings are also rel- evant to retrievals of other pollutants (e.g., sulfur dioxide,
A 24-variable low-order coupled ocean–atmosphere model: OA-QG-WS v2

Abstract. A new low-order coupled ocean–atmosphere model for midlatitudes is derived. It is based on quasi-geostrophic equations for both the ocean and the atmosphere, coupled through momentum transfer at the interface. The systematic reduction of the number of modes describing the dynamics leads to an atmospheric low-order component of 20 ordinary differential equations, already discussed in Reinhold and Pierrehumbert (1982), and an oceanic low-order component of four ordinary differential equations, as proposed by Pierini (2011). The coupling terms for both components are derived and all the coefficients of the ocean model are provided. Its dynamics is then briefly explored, through the analysis of its mean field, its variability and its instability properties. The wind-driven ocean displays a decadal variability induced by the atmospheric chaotic wind forcing. The chaotic behavior of the coupled system is highly sensitive to the ocean–atmosphere coupling for low values of the thermal forcing affecting the atmosphere (corresponding to a weakly chaotic coupled system). But it is less sensitive for large values of the thermal forcing (corresponding to a highly chaotic coupled system). In all the cases explored, the number of positive exponents is increasing with the coupling. Two codes in Fortran and Lua of the model integration are provided as Supplement.
Who participates? Predicting student self-selection into a developmental year in secondary education

Abstract This study identifies student characteristics that predict participation in Transition Year, an optional developmental year (Grade 10) offered midway through secondary education in Ireland. One thousand eighty five students (51% female; mean age = 15.4 years) completed a questionnaire in Grade 9, providing information on demographic, attitudinal and socio-emotional characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify characteristics that predicted students’ choice to take part in Transition Year for the following school year or to skip it. The results point to a number of invisible barriers to participation, which indicate that some students, many of whom expressed some interest in Transition Year, could miss out on potentially positive elements of the extra developmental year. The findings raise issues for teachers and policy-makers regarding the promotion of programmes such as Transition Year and its targeting towards particular groups of students.
Do Depression and Anxiety Mediate the Link Between Educational Attainment and CHD?

Objective: Depression and anxiety are frequently hypothesized yet rarely examined pathways linking low socioeconomic status (SES) to coronary heart disease (CHD). This study evaluates depression and anxiety as mediators of the association between educational attainment and incident CHD. Methods: Subjects (n = 6265, age 25–74) were participants in NHANES I and follow-up studies, a longitudinal, nationally representative study of the US population. Measures of educational attainment and depressive and anxious symptoms (General Well-Being Schedule) were derived from the baseline interview and incident CHD from hospital records and death certificates. Analyses included logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models. Results: In fully adjusted models, less than high school (relative risk [RR] = 1.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15–1.86) and some college (RR = 1.40; 95% CI, 1.05–1.88) education were associated with increased CHD risk relative to a college education. High depressive (RR = 1.31; 95% CI, 1.06–1.61) or anxious (RR = 1.35; 95% CI, 1.13–1.62) symptoms were associated with significantly increased CHD risk relative to low symptoms. Low educational levels were associated with increased risk for high depressive (OR = 3.43; 95% CI, 2.34–5.03) and anxious (OR = 1.71; 95% CI, 1.32–2.22) symptoms. However, depressive and anxious symptoms accounted for little of the association between education and CHD. Conclusion: Education and depressive and anxious symptoms are associated with each other and risk of incident CHD. Although depressive and anxious symptoms are highest among those with lowest levels of education, they do not appear to mediate the relation between educational attainment and incident CHD. Findings suggest the importance of interventions to reduce socioeconomic disadvantage and negative affect in preventing CHD. SES = socioeconomic status; CHD = coronary heart disease; NHANES I = First National Health and Nutrition Survey; NHEF = First National Health and Nutrition Epidemiologic Follow-up Surveys; GWB = General Well-Being Schedule; GWB-A = General Well-Being Schedule Anxiety subscale; GWB-D = General Well-Being Schedule Depression subscale; BMI = body mass index; SBP = systolic blood pressure; DBP = diastolic blood pressure; RR = relative risk; CI = confidence interval; MI = myocardial infarction.
Augmenting pre-silicon simulation by embedding a scripting language in a SystemC environment

Advancements in manufacturing technologies allow to integrate an ever increasing amount of functionality into single System on Chip devices (SoCs). This not only causes the well-known productivity gap, it also challenges the proper verification of these designs. While the efficiency of pre-silicon verification of purely digital designs is continuously increased, either by the use of sophisticated Hardware Verification Languages (HVLs) or with powerful software suites, there is a lack of applicable concepts for mixed-signal designs. Furthermore, pre- and post-silicon verification activities are still often treated separately preventing to exploit possible synergies. For these reasons there is a great need for new innovative mixed-signal verification methods and flows that are able to cope with a soaring amount of functionality further aggravated by a shrinking time-to-market. This paper presents an approach to use abstract test descriptions written in Perl (1) to increase the efficiency of the verification process of complex mixed-signal SoCs designs in a SystemC simulation environment and (2) to enable information exchange between pre- and post-silicon activities. Since Perl and SystemC are distinct languages several approaches to link them together were elaborated and are presented in this paper. Their suitability with respect to several key aspects is compared and their effectiveness for pre-silicon verification is evaluated on the basis of an example test case.
On the concept of "stability" in asynchronous distributed decision-making systems

Asynchronous distributed, decision-making (ADDM) systems constitute a special class of distributed problems and are characterized as large, complex, real-world systems wherein the principal elements are the geographically-dispersed entities that communicate among themselves, asynchronously, through message passing and are permitted autonomy in local decision-making. Such systems generally offer significant advantages over the traditional, centralized algorithms in the form of concurrency, scalability, high throughput, efficiency, low vulnerability to catastrophic failures, and robustness. A fundamental property of ADDM systems is stability that refers to their behavior under representative perturbations to their operating environments, given that such systems are intended to be real, complex, and to some extent, mission critical systems, and are subject to unexpected changes in their operating conditions. This paper introduces the concept of stability in ADDM systems and proposes, for the first time, an intuitive definition that reflects those used in Control Systems and Physics. A comprehensive stability analysis on an accurate simulation model will provide the necessary assurance, with a high level of confidence, that the system will perform adequately. An ADDM system is defined as a stable system if it returns to a steady-state in finite time, following perturbation, provided that it is initiated in a steady-state. Equilibrium or steady-state is defined through placing bounds on the measured error in the system. Where the final steady-state is equivalent to the initial one, the system is referred to as strongly stable. If the final steady-state is potentially worse then the initial one, the system is deemed marginally stable. When the system fails to return to steady-state following the perturbation, it is unstable. The perturbations are classified as either changes in the input pattern or changes in one or more environmental characteristics of the system such as hardware failures. To facilitate the understanding of stability in representative real-world systems, this paper reports the in-depth analysis of a basic manifestation of ADDM systems-a decentralized military command and control problem, MFAD. The entities in MFAD lack temporal external inputs and their interactions are subject to their initial conditions. Stability analysis of MFAD accurately highlights key stable and unstable conditions. Performance analysis reveals that MFAD is strongly stable to perturbations of short durations, it is inherently marginally stable, the sensor degradation bears a greater impact on sensor error than movement error, and the impact of communication failure is higher on movement error as opposed to sensor error.
Comorbidity of internalising disorders in children and adolescents with low IQ : an item response theory approach

The main purpose of the present study was to employ 2-parameter logistic item response theory modelling (2-PLM) to examine the internalising dimension, comprising diagnoses of common mood and anxiety disorders, within a low IQ (<80) child and adolescent population. This was done to investigate the validity of a dimensional approach to mood and anxiety comorbidity, as well as investigate the patterns of mood and anxiety comorbidity among a low-IQ population. Diagnoses were derived from interviews of 310 clinic-referred low IQ children and adolescents. The results of the present study suggested that all disorders were not only strong discriminators of the internalising dimension, but measured the dimension with more precision in the upper half of the trait continuum. The study also found support for the concurrent validity of the internalising dimension, referring to medium to large effect size associations with depression and anxiety scores of other measures. The implications for the study of comorbidity in this type of population, and the taxonomy of the mood and anxiety disorders in diagnostic manuals and conceptualisations are discussed.
Recent advances in T-cell engineering for use in immunotherapy

Adoptive T-cell therapies have shown exceptional promise in the treatment of cancer, especially B-cell malignancies. Two distinct strategies have been used to redirect the activity of ex vivo engineered T cells. In one case, the well-known ability of the T-cell receptor (TCR) to recognize a specific peptide bound to a major histocompatibility complex molecule has been exploited by introducing a TCR against a cancer-associated peptide/human leukocyte antigen complex. In the other strategy, synthetic constructs called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) that contain antibody variable domains (single-chain fragments variable) and signaling domains have been introduced into T cells. Whereas many reviews have described these two approaches, this review focuses on a few recent advances of significant interest. The early success of CARs has been followed by questions about optimal configurations of these synthetic constructs, especially for efficacy against solid tumors. Among the many features that are important, the dimensions and stoichiometries of CAR/antigen complexes at the synapse have recently begun to be appreciated. In TCR-mediated approaches, recent evidence that mutated peptides (neoantigens) serve as targets for endogenous T-cell responses suggests that these neoantigens may also provide new opportunities for adoptive T-cell therapies with TCRs.
Neural Evidence That Vivid Imagining Can Lead to False Remembering

The imperfect nature of memory is highlighted by the regularity with which people fail to remember, or worse, remember something that never happened. We investigated the formation of a particular type of erroneous memory by monitoring brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging during the presentation of words and photos. Participants generated a visual image of a common object in response to each word. Subsequently, they sometimes claimed to have seen photos of specific objects they had imagined but not actually seen. In precuneus and inferior parietal regions of the cerebral cortex, activations in response to words were greater when participants subsequently claimed to have seen the corresponding object than when a false memory for that object was not subsequently produced. These findings indicate that brain activity reflecting the engagement of visual imagery can lead to falsely remembering something that was only imagined.
Multiple expert system design by combined feature selection and probability level fusion

We propose a novel design philosophy for expert fusion by taking the view that the design of individual experts and fusion cannot be solved in isolation. Each expert is constructed as part of the global design of a final m multiple expert system. The design process involves jointly adding new experts to the multiple expert architecture and adding new features to each of the experts in the architecture. We evaluate the performance of different fusion strategies ranging from linear untrainable strategies like Sum and Modified Product to linear and nonlinear trainable strategies like logistic regression, single layer perceptron and radial basis function classifier. We investigate two distinct design strategies which we refer to as parallel and serial. In both cases we show that the proposed integrated design approach leads to improved performance.
Contra Classical Causality Violating Temporal Bell Inequalities in Mental Systems

Temporally non-local measurements – single measurements yielding information about the state of a system at different instances – may provide a way to observe non-classical behavior in mental systems. The signature for such behavior is a violation of temporal Bell inequalities. We present such inequalities applicable to scenarios with two alternating mental states, such as in the perception of ambiguous figures. We indicate empirical options for testing temporal Bell inequalities, and speculate about possible explanations in case these inequalities are indeed violated.