Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human Locomotion under Reduced Gravity Conditions: Biomechanical and Neurophysiological Considerations

Reduced gravity offers unique opportunities to study motor behavior. This paper aims at providing a review on current issues of the known tools and techniques used for hypogravity simulation and their effects on human locomotion. Walking and running rely on the limb oscillatory mechanics, and one way to change its dynamic properties is to modify the level of gravity. Gravity has a strong effect on the optimal rate of limb oscillations, optimal walking speed, and muscle activity patterns, and gait transitions occur smoothly and at slower speeds at lower gravity levels. Altered center of mass movements and interplay between stance and swing leg dynamics may challenge new forms of locomotion in a heterogravity environment. Furthermore, observations in the lack of gravity effects help to reveal the intrinsic properties of locomotor pattern generators and make evident facilitation of nonvoluntary limb stepping. In view of that, space neurosciences research has participated in the development of new technologies that can be used as an effective tool for gait rehabilitation.
Learning Timeline Difference for Text Categorization

This paper addresses text categorization problem that training data may derive from a different time period from the test data. We present a learning framework which extends a boosting technique to learn accurate model for timeline adaptation. The results showed that the method was comparable to the current state-of-theart biased-SVM method, especially the method is effective when the creation time period of the test data differs greatly from the training data.
On the characterization of agricultural soil roughness for radar remote sensing studies

The surface roughness parameters commonly used as inputs to electromagnetic surface scattering models (SPM, PO, GO, and IEM) are the root mean square (RMS) height s, and autocorrelation length l. However, soil moisture retrieval studies based on these models have yielded inconsistent results, not so much because of the failure of the models themselves, but because of the complexity of natural surfaces and the difficulty in estimating appropriate input roughness parameters. In this paper, the authors address the issue of soil roughness characterization in the case of agricultural fields having different tillage (roughness) states by making use of an extensive multisite database of surface profiles collected using a novel laser profiler capable of recording profiles up to 25 m long. Using this dataset, the range of RMS height and correlation values associated with each agricultural roughness state is estimated, and the dependence of these estimates on profile length is investigated. The results show that at spatial scales equivalent to those of the SAR resolution cell, agricultural surface roughness characteristics are well described by the superposition of a single scale process related to the tillage state with a multiscale random fractal process related to field topography.
Human Head Tracking Based on Inheritance and Evolution Concept

This paper presents a method for tracking human head in cluttered scenes to achieve robustness to occlusions and environment change by introducing inheritance and evolution concept into tracking system. Different from most works on tracking where detection and tracking are loosely coupled, we view the essence of object detection and tracking as a process of modeling object class classifier (in detection stage) and object instance classifier (in tracking stage), they are coordinated in the class/instance relationship. At first we trained a head generic class classifier in off-line learning, which is a hierarchical structure where selected features are arranged from rough to detail and from low to high level. Then we derived the tracker’s instance classifier from the base generic head classifier. The instance classifier is also a hierarchical structure. Its features in low and middle levels are initialized by inheriting low and rough features from generic base class classifier. Its high level features, the individual identification parts, are learned and evolved on-line with boosting method. By incorporating inheritance and evolution into tracking, the tracker not only adapts itself to the surrounding change, but also gains the ability naturally to distinguish it from other instances of the same class. The experiment shows its effectiveness.
Prompt Optical Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts

The Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) seeks to measure simultaneous and early afterglow optical emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). A search for optical counterparts to six GRBs with localization errors of 1 deg2 or better produced no detections. The earliest limiting sensitivity is mROTSE > 13.1 at 10.85 s (5 s exposure) after the gamma-ray rise, and the best limit is mROTSE > 16.0 at 62 minutes (897 s exposure). These are the most stringent limits obtained for the GRB optical counterpart brightness in the first hour after the burst. Consideration of the gamma-ray fluence and peak flux for these bursts and for GRB 990123 indicates that there is not a strong positive correlation between optical flux and gamma-ray emission.
Effect of Work Stressors Coping Strategies Program on Nurse Physician Collaboration

Background: Collaboration between nurses and physicians is linked to positive outcomes for patients, especially in psychiatric units. However, effective collaboration poses challenges as work stressors. So, effective work stressors coping strategies have the highly concern from organization management as a method for maintaining high level of collaboration. Aim: This study aimed to explore the effect of working stressors coping strategies program on nurse physician collaboration. Design: Quasi experimental design was used. Setting: This study was carried out at Benha psychiatric hospital. Sample: All convenient nurses and physicians worked at in-patient care units. Tools: Two tools were used, questionnaire to assess work stressors and collaborative practice scale (CPS) questionnaire. Result: There is a negative correlation between work stressors and nurse-physician collaboration (P<0.001) with a positive effect of coping strategies program on them. Conclusion: Work stressors coping strategies are essential for promoting nurse-physician collaboration which in turn promote organizational success. Recommendation: Maximizing nurse-physician collaboration holds promise for improving quality patient care and creating satisfying work environment for nurses and physicians.
On the Time Variations of US Monetary Policy: Who is right?

This paper investigates whether monetary policy accounts for the changes in the output and inflation process observed in the US over the last 25 years. It estimates a structural Bayesian TVCVAR with MCMC methods where sign restrictions are used to identify monetary policy shocks and analyzes the transmission of two types of disturbances: those to the non-systematic and those to the systematic component of monetary policy. Dynamic analysis is implemented using the difference between two conditional expectations of future realizations of the vector of time series differing for a shock in the conditioning sets. We find that there are structural variations in both the coefficients of the model and the variance of the structural shocks but that the transmission of monetary policy disturbances has hardly changed over the last 25 years. Changes in the systematic component of policy have also negligible changes in the dynamic of the system. Changes in inflation persistence have also little connection with the dynamics of monetary policy. Results are robust to a number of alterations to the model.
Effect of human faecal inoculum on in vitro fermentation variables

1. Homogenized and diluted faeces (66.6 g/l) collected from one human source on three different months was incubated with four standard substrates (oat bran, wheat bran, red kidney beans (Phuseolus vulgaris) and guar gum) for 4, 8, 12 and 24 h. 2. Neutral-detergent fibre and organic matter (OM) digestibility measurements and gas production (ml gas/g OM) were influenced by substrate and incubation period but not by day of collection. 3. Production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) (mmol/g OM) was a function of substrate and incubation period but not day of collection at 4, 8 and 12 h. Rapidly fermentable substrates such as red kidney beans and guar gum did not ferment beyond 12 h and SCFA values were not different at 24 h. 4. Substrates differed in amount, rate and type of SCFA produced. 5. The results indicate that human faeces collected on different occasions were sufficiently uniform to yield similar in vitro fermentation findings among collections. Therefore, it is concluded that human faecal material is a practical source of micro-organisms to evaluate the fermentation properties of substrates.
Knock-In Mice Lacking the PDZ-Ligand Motif of mGluR7a Show Impaired PKC-Dependent Autoinhibition of Glutamate Release, Spatial Working Memory Deficits, and Increased Susceptibility to Pentylenetetrazol

The metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (mGluR7) is widely expressed throughout the brain and primarily localized at presynaptic active zones, where it is thought to regulate neurotransmitter release. Protein interacting with C kinase 1 (PICK1), a postsynaptic density protein-95/disc-large tumor suppressor protein/zonula occludens-1 (PDZ)-domain protein, binds to the three C-terminal amino acids (-LVI) of the predominant mGluR7 splice variant, mGluR7a, and has been implicated in the synaptic clustering of this receptor. Here, we generated knock-in mice in which the C-terminal LVI coding sequence of exon 10 of the mGluR7 gene was replaced by three alanine codons (-AAA). Immunoprecipitation showed that the PICK1–mGluR7a interaction is disrupted in mGluR7aAAA/AAA mice. However, the synaptic localization of mGluR7a was not altered in cultured hippocampal neurons and brain sections prepared from the knock-in animals. In cerebellar granule cell cultures, the group III mGluR agonist l-AP-4 decreased the frequency of spontaneous excitatory currents in neurons derived from wild-type but not mGluR7aAAA/AAA mice, consistent with the interaction between mGluR7a and PICK1 being required for protein kinase C-mediated inhibition of glutamate release. At the behavioral level, the mGluR7aAAA/AAA mice showed no deficits in motor coordination, pain sensitivity, and anxiety but exhibited significant defects in hippocampus-dependent spatial working memory. In addition, they displayed a high susceptibility to the convulsant drug pentylenetetrazole. Together, these results indicate that PICK1 binding to the C-terminal region of mGluR7a is crucial for agonist-triggered presynaptic signaling in vivo.
Reading, contrast adaptation and accommodation in young adult myopes and emmetropes

Numerous reports associate prolonged periods of near-work and specifically reading with myopia development. The exact mechanisms that underpin this relationship are however, unclear. Reading may induce perceptual adaptations, specifically changes in contrast sensitivity and to the accuracy of the accommodation response. Reduced contrast sensitivity and accommodation may degrade retinal image quality which could result in a stimulus to ocular elongation and therefore myopia. The experimental work undertaken in this thesis investigated whether reading text on a screen influenced changes in contrast sensitivity (contrast adaptation) and accommodation differently in young adult emmetropic and myopic participants. Contrast adaptation was examined for spatial frequencies, including those created by text rows and character strokes, and accommodative accuracy was determined before and after reading. Furthermore, the influence of cognitive effort on such changes was explored by comparing adaptation to an incomprehensible phase randomised stimulus that otherwise shared the statistical properties of the text stimulus. Reading text on a screen induced contrast adaptation at the spatial frequency created by text rows and myopic participants incurred more than twice the adaptation of emmetropes. Contrast adaptation was not significant at the spatial frequency created by character strokes in either participant group. Myopic participants had significantly greater accommodative lag (reduced accuracy) than emmetropes after reading text. Myopes also showed a significant increase in accommodative lag after reading. There was no significant change in contrast sensitivity or accommodative accuracy after participants viewed the phased randomised stimulus. Text stimuli are inherently dominated by low, narrowband and orientation constrained spatial frequencies generated by row of letters and inter-row space. The results presented show myopes to be more susceptible to adaptation to these specific text characteristics as a consequence of active reading. However, there is extensive scope for further work to determine precisely why this is the case and how such changes may engender myopia development.
Power Allocation Schemes for Multicell Massive MIMO Systems

This paper investigates the sum-rate gains brought by power allocation strategies in multicell massive multiple-input- multiple-output systems, assuming time-division duplex transmission. For both uplink and downlink, we derive tractable expressions for the achievable rate with zero-forcing receivers and precoders, respectively. To avoid high-complexity joint optimization across the network, we propose a scheduling mechanism for power allocation, where, in a single time slot, only cells that do not interfere with each other adjust their transmit powers. Based on this, corresponding transmit power allocation strategies are derived, aimed at maximizing the sum rate per cell. These schemes are shown to bring considerable gains over equal power allocation for practical antenna configurations (e.g., up to a few hundred). However, with fixed number of users N, these gains diminish as M → ∞, and equal power allocation becomes optimal. A different conclusion is drawn for the case where both M and N grow large together, in which case improved rates are achieved as M grows with fixed M/N ratio, and the relative gains over the equal power allocation diminish as M/N grows. Moreover, we also provide applicable values of M/N under an acceptable power allocation gain threshold, which can be used to determine when the proposed power allocation schemes yield appreciable gains and when they do not. From the network point of view, the proposed scheduling approach can achieve almost the same performance as the joint power allocation after one scheduling round, with much reduced complexity.
Effectiveness of chronic care model-oriented interventions to improve quality of diabetes care: a systematic review

Background The chronic care model (CCM) has been widely used in a variety of health care settings to guide system improvement for chronic illness care, including diabetes care. However, the evidence base for the specific components of the model has not been systematically reviewed. This review aimed at examining the extent to which interventions featuring the CCM components improve diabetes care and determining the relative effectiveness of different CCM components. Methods We systematically searched MEDLINE (1966 to December 2004), the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register to identify interventions featuring one or more system components of the CCM for diabetes care. Outcome measures included HbA1c, blood pressure and blood lipid control. We used random-effects meta-analysis and meta-regression for quantitative synthesis of data. Results In all, 69 studies (43 randomized controlled trials and 26 controlled before–after studies) met inclusion criteria and were included in this review. Overall, included studies reported a mean reduction of 0.46% (95% CI 0.38, 0.54) in HbA1c, mean reduction of 2.2 (95% CI 0.9, 3.5) mmHg in systolic blood pressure, mean reduction of 1.3 (95% CI 0.6, 2.1) mmHg in diastolic blood pressure and mean reduction of 0.24 (95% CI 0.06, 0.41) mmol/L in total cholesterol. For specific CCM components, interventions that addressed delivery system design reported the largest improvements in patient outcomes, followed by those employing a self-management support component. Interventions involving decision support or clinical information systems reported relatively smaller effect sizes. Conclusions Interventions featuring CCM components for diabetes care produced small-to-moderate improvements in a range of patient intermediate outcomes. The findings support the concept of the CCM in which the state of development of various aspects of primary care service systems defined in this model appear to be important factors in the quality of care provided to people with diabetes.
South Asian parents' experiences of adjustment following a diagnosis of learning disability and/or an autism spectrum disorder for their child: a grounded theory approach

C H A PTER 1: IN T R O D U C T IO N . 8 1.1 Background to chapter.8 1.2 Ethnic com position of the U K . 8 1.3 Prevalence of learning disability and A SD s in child ren . 9 and young people 1.4 D efin itio n s . 10 1.4. 1 Definition o f learning d isability . 10 1.4. 2 Definition o f Autism Spectrum D isorders.11 1.4. 3 Disability as a social construct.12 1.5 Parents' experiences of receiving a diagnosis for their ch ild . 15 1.5.
Lay theories of willpower

Some people believe that willpower relies on a limited resource and that performing cognitive work (such as using self-control) results in mental fatigue. Others believe that willpower is nonlimited and that performing cognitive work instead prepares and energizes them for more. These differing lay theories of willpower determine whether or not one’s self-control performance actually does decrease or increase after use, with only limited-willpower theorists showing a decrease (the ego depletion effect). Due to the self-control requirements of everyday life, willpower theories also predict outcomes across domains of academics, health, goal-progress, interpersonal relationships, and well-being. Generally, limited-willpower theorists’ belief in their limited capacity results in poorer outcomes, particularly during times of high demand. By understanding how willpower theories form and function, interventions that encourage nonlimited willpower theories may be created to improve people’s performance and well-being.
Understanding the effect of carbon status on stem diameter variations.

BACKGROUND Carbon assimilation and leaf-to-fruit sugar transport are, along with plant water status, the driving mechanisms for fruit growth. An integrated comprehension of the plant water and carbon relationships is therefore essential to better understand water and dry matter accumulation. Variations in stem diameter result from an integrated response to plant water and carbon status and are as such a valuable source of information. METHODS A mechanistic water flow and storage model was used to relate variations in stem diameter to phloem sugar loading and sugar concentration dynamics in tomato. The simulation results were compared with an independent model, simulating phloem sucrose loading at the leaf level based on photosynthesis and sugar metabolism kinetics and enabled a mechanistic interpretation of the 'one common assimilate pool' concept for tomato. KEY RESULTS Combining stem diameter variation measurements and mechanistic modelling allowed us to distinguish instantaneous dynamics in the plant water relations and gradual variations in plant carbon status. Additionally, the model combined with stem diameter measurements enabled prediction of dynamic variables which are difficult to measure in a continuous and non-destructive way, such as xylem water potential and phloem hydrostatic potential. Finally, dynamics in phloem sugar loading and sugar concentration were distilled from stem diameter variations. CONCLUSIONS Stem diameter variations, when used in mechanistic models, have great potential to continuously monitor and interpret plant water and carbon relations under natural growing conditions.
Two-dimensional distributions and column densities of gaseous molecules in protoplanetary disks II. Deuterated species and UV shielding by ambient clouds

We have investigated the two-dimensional ($R,Z$) distribution of deuterated molecular species in circumstellar disks around young stellar objects. The abundance ratios between singly deuterated and normal molecules ("D/H ratios") in disks evolve in a similar way as in molecular clouds. Fractionation is caused by rapid exchange reactions that are exothermic because of energy differences between deuterated and normal species. In the midplane region, where molecules are heavily depleted onto grain surfaces, the D/H ratios of gaseous molecules are higher than at larger heights. The D/H ratios for the vertical column densities of NH 3 , H 2 O, and HCO + are sensitive to the temperature, and decrease significantly with decreasing radial distance for $R\lesssim 300$ AU. The analogous D/H ratios for CH 4 and H 2 CO, on the other hand, are not very sensitive to the temperature in the range ($T=10{-}50$ K) we are concerned with, and do not decrease with decreasing R at $R\ge 50$ AU. The D/H column-density ratios also depend on disk mass. In a disk with a larger mass, the ratios of deuterated species to normal species are higher, because of heavier depletion of molecules onto grains. In the second part of the paper, we report molecular column densities for disks embedded in ambient cloud gas. Our results suggest that CN and HCO + can be tracers of gaseous disks, especially if the central object is a strong X-ray source. Our results also suggest that the radial distributions of CN, C 2 H, HCN, and H 2 CO may vary among disks depending on the X-ray luminosity of the central star.
Designing Anthropomorphic Robot Hand With Active Dual-Mode Twisted String Actuation Mechanism and Tiny Tension Sensors

In this letter, using the active dual-mode twisted string actuation (TSA) mechanism and tiny tension sensors on the tendon strings, an anthropomorphic robot hand is newly designed in a compact manner. Thanks to the active dual-mode TSA mechanism, which is a miniaturized transmission, the proposed robot hand dose has a wide range of operation in terms of the grasping force and speed. It experimentally produces maximally the fingertip force 31.3 N and minimally the closing time of 0.5 s in average. Also, tiny tension sensor with the dimension of 4.7 (width) × 4.0 (height) × 10.75 (length) mm is newly presented and embedded at the fingertips in order to measure the tension on the tendon strings, which would allow the grasping force control. The kinetic and kinematic analyses are performed and the performance is verified by experiments.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization Guilt Aversion Revisited: an Experimental Test of a New Model

In this paper, we experimentally investigate the guilt aversion hypothesis by using a trust game with pre-play communication. For this purpose, we first develop a new version of guilt aversion called personal guilt aversion. It is shown that the new version is consistent with extant experimental results in the literature and thus cannot be rejected by any of them. Given this observation, we then design an experiment that can test the new as well as original versions of the guilt aversion hypothesis. In contrast to the prediction of both versions of the hypothesis, we find that the correlation between elicited beliefs and (trustful or trustworthy) behavior is almost zero even in an environment with pre-play communication. Thus, our experimental result provides a case against the guilt aversion hypothesis.