Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sequencing of articulatory gestures using cost optimization

Within the framework of articulatory phonology (AP), gestures function as primitives, and their ordering in time is provided by a gestural score. Determining how they should be sequenced in time has been something of a challenge. We modify the task dynamic implementation of AP, by defining tasks to be the desired positions of physically embodied end effectors. This allows us to investigate the optimal sequencing of gestures based on a parametric cost function. Costs evaluated include precision of articulation, articulatory effort, and gesture duration. We find that a simple optimization using these costs results in stable gestural sequences that reproduce several known coarticulatory effects.
Generic Damping Functions for Propagating Importance in Link-Based Ranking

This paper introduces a family of link-based ranking algorithms that propagate page importance through links. The algorithms include a damping function that decreases with distance, thus a direct link implies greater endorsement than a link via a longer path. PageRank is the most widely known ranking function of this family. The main objective of this paper is to determine whether this family of ranking techniques is of some interest per se and how different choices for the damping function affect rank quality and convergence speed. Even though our results suggest that PageRank can be approximated with other, more simple forms of rankings that may be computed more efficiently, our focus is more speculative in nature, given that it aims at separating the kernel of PageRank, that is, link-based importance propagation, from the way propagation decays over paths. We focus on three damping functions that have, respectively, linear, exponential, and hyperbolic decay on the lengths of the paths. The exponential decay corresponds to PageRank, and the other functions are new. The work we carry includes algorithms, analysis, comparisons, and experiments that study their behavior under different parameters in real web graph data. Amongst other results, we show how to calculate a linear approximation that induces a page ordering that is almost identical to PageRank's using a fixed number of iterations. Comparisons were made using Kendall's ô on large domain datasets.
Research Paper: Comparing Response Time, Errors, and Satisfaction Between Text-based and Graphical User Interfaces During Nursing Order Tasks

Despite the general adoption of graphical users interfaces (GUIs) in health care, few empirical data document the impact of this move on system users. This study compares two distinctly different user interfaces, a legacy text-based interface and a prototype graphical interface, for differences in nurses' response time (RT), errors, and satisfaction when the interfaces are used in the performance of computerized nursing order tasks. In a medical center on the East Coast of the United States, 98 randomly selected male and female nurses completed 40 tasks using each interface. Nurses completed four different types of order tasks (create, activate, modify, and discontinue). Using a repeated-measures and Latin square design, the study was counterbalanced for tasks, interface types, and blocks of trials. Overall, nurses had significantly faster response times (P < 0.0001) and fewer errors (P < 0.0001) using the prototype GUI than the text-based interface. The GUI was also rated significantly higher for satisfaction than the text system, and the GUI was faster to leam (P < 0.0001). Therefore, the results indicated that the use of a prototype GUI for nursing orders significantly enhances user performance and satisfaction. Consideration should be given to redesigning older user interfaces to create more modern ones by using human factors principles and input from user-centered focus groups. Future work should examine prospective nursing interfaces for highly complex interactions in computer-based patient records, detail the severity of errors made on line, and explore designs to optimize interactions in life-critical systems.
Wireless Mesh Networks for In-Home IPTV Distribution

IPTV is considered to be the next killer application. A key, challenging issue is in-home IPTV distribution with affordable deployment cost and sufficient flexibility, scalability, and reliability. In this article, we first survey and compare the emerging wired and wireless communication technologies for broadband home networks, including transmission over power lines, phone lines, coaxial cables or Ethernet cables, and IEEE 802.1 In, ultra wideband and millimeter wave wireless technologies. Considering these promising candidates for future broadband home networks, we propose three wireless mesh network architectures. These enable consumers to enjoy anywhere, anytime IPTV services without rewiring their homes. We compare the cost, reliability, and scalability of the three architectures. We further study their admission regions for IPTV, that is, the number of IPTV connections that can be supported simultaneously with satisfactory QoS. Analytical and simulation results with H.264 HDTV sources over wired, single hop wireless, and multi-hop wireless paths are given. These results can provide important guidelines for future broadband home network design supporting IPTV services.
Sex Differences in Conformity: Status and Gender Role Interpretations

The experiment examines status and gender role explanations of the tendency for women to conform more than men in group pressure settings. Subjects believed they were assigned to groups containing two males and two females in addition to themselves and received these other group members' opinions, which were represented as deviating from the opinions that subjects had given earlier. Subjects then gave their opinions with the other group members either having or not having surveillance over these opinions. In addition, subjects were required to form impressions of each other's likability or expertise. The findings indicate that subjects' sex and age affected the extent of their conformity. Among older (19 years and older) subjects, females conformed more with surveillance than without it, whereas surveillance did not affect males' conformity. Among younger (under 19 years) subjects, surveillance had no effects. Analysis of sex differences revealed that older females were significantly more conforming than older males when under surveillance as well as when subjects formed impressions of one another's likability. Among younger subjects, there were no sex differences. These findings are discussed in terms of the theories that (a) both sex and age function as status characteristics and (b) gender roles determine conformity.
Development of Package-on-Package Using Embedded Wafer-Level Package Approach

The ever-increasing demands of higher performance, multiple functions, higher density, and lower cost mandate the reduction of the I/O pitch on the die as well as on the package. Pitch specifications of current substrate technologies do not match the stringent fine-pitch I/O requirements. Combining embedded wafer-level package (EMWLP) and package-on-package (PoP) technologies yields a preferred solution providing fan-out area to route the fine-pitch I/Os of the chip to large-pitch I/Os on to the extra area of fan-out EMWLP packages and allows the use of conventional substrate technology. However, there are many challenges to realizing the PoP of EMWLP packages. They include the die shift during the reconstruction process, double-sided reroute distribution line (RDL), and through-mold via (TMV) connections on a thin bottom package. The assembly of EMWLP and PoP, thermal management of PoP packages, and their reliability are also major concerns. This paper describes the development of an EMWLP PoP of 12 mm × 12 mm footprint with 432 I/Os and the adoption of TMV to enable PoP connections. The top package circuitry is accessed through TMVs in the bottom package with double-sided RDL. Solid TMV and side-wall-plated TMV are demonstrated in the EMWLP. Mechanical modeling of the PoP is conducted to optimize the structures of the packages for good reliability performance of the PoP. Thermal dissipation of the PoP is another area of concern, because the thermal path of the top package is limited in mobile applications. The thermal performance of the developed PoP was analyzed by thermal modeling and was successfully validated by thermal characterization of the PoP module. The developed PoP successfully passed the JEDEC standard reliability tests such as moisture sensitivity level 3 test; the unbiased highly accelerated stress test for 96 h, 500 air-to-air thermal cycling ( -40°C to 125°C), and 30 drop tests.
Reinventing High School: Outcomes of the Coalition Campus Schools Project

Long-standing critiques of large “factory model” high schools and growing evidence for the benefits of small schools, especially for the achievement of low-income and minority students, have stimulated initiatives in many cities to redesign secondary education. This seven-year study of the Coalition Campus Schools Project in New York City documented a unique “birthing” process for new, small schools that were created as part of a network of reform-oriented schools in a context of systemwide reform. The study found that five new schools that were created to replace a failing comprehensive high school produced, as a group, substantially better attendance, lower incident rates, better performance on reading and writing assessments, higher graduation rates, and higher college-going rates than the previous school, despite serving a more educationally disadvantaged population of students. The schools shared a number of design features, detailed in this study, that appeared to contribute to these outcomes. The study also describes successful system-level efforts to leverage these innovations and continuing policy dilemmas influencing the long-term fate of reforms.
Supplementation of iron alone and combined with vitamins improves haematological status, erythrocyte membrane fluidity and oxidative stress in anaemic pregnant women

Pregnancy is a condition exhibiting increased susceptibility to oxidative stress, and Fe plays a central role in generating harmful oxygen species. The objective of the present study is to investigate the changes in haematological status, oxidative stress and erythrocyte membrane fluidity in anaemic pregnant women after Fe supplementation with and without combined vitamins. The study was a 2 months double-blind, randomised trial. Pregnant women (n 164) were allocated to four groups: group C was the placebo control group; group I was supplemented daily with 60 mg Fe (ferrous sulphate) daily; group IF was supplemented daily with Fe plus 400 μg folic acid; group IM was supplemented daily with Fe plus 2 mg retinol and 1 mg riboflavin, respectively. After the 2-month trial, Hb significantly increased by 15·8, 17·3 and 21·8 g/l, and ferritin by 2·8, 3·6 and 11·0 μg/l, in the I, IF and IM groups compared with placebo. Polarisation (ρ) and microviscosity (η) decreased significantly in other groups compared with placebo, indicating an increase in membrane fluidity. Significant decreases of ρ and η values compared with group C were 0·033 and 0·959 for group I, 0·037 and 1·074 for group IF and 0·064 and 1·865 for group IM, respectively. In addition, significant increases of glutathione peroxidase activities and decreases of malondialdehyde were shown in all treated groups, as well as increases of plasma retinol and urine riboflavin in group IM. The findings show that supplementation with Fe and particularly in combination with vitamins could improve the haematological status as well as oxidative stress and erythrocyte membrane fluidity.
Generating sociability to drive science: Patient advocacy organizations and genetics research

This paper examines how patient advocacy organizations (PAOs) representing those with rare genetic disorders drive research to their concerns. The rarity of the diseases produces a basic condition of marginalization: small numbers of widely distributed disease sufferers. The lack of promise of an eventual market makes it difficult to attract the economic and biological resources necessary for sustained research. My analysis relies mainly on 21 interviews with leaders from nine PAOs and scientists involved with them, and seeks to understand how PAOs try to attract and influence scientific research. Using a comparative framework, I find that the five main mechanisms emphasized in the literature — economic resources, social movement-style mobilization, moving early, lay expertise, and organizational controls — cannot fully explain the differences in strategies and relationships among members of my PAO sample. I propose instead to show how ‘sociability’ — forging close relationships with scientists and orchestrating relationships among them — enables PAOs to drive research to their concerns. I show how the strategic manipulation of sociability can give PAOs substantial influence over the research process. However, the forms of sociability that yield the greatest effects are difficult to achieve, and most forms of relationship-building offer PAOs much less influence on research.
Hepatocyte Growth Factor Promotes Long‐Term Survival and Axonal Regeneration of Retinal Ganglion Cells after Optic Nerve Injury: Comparison with CNTF and BDNF

Different trophic factors are known to promote retinal ganglion cell survival and regeneration, but each had their own limitations. We report that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) confers distinct advantages in supporting ganglion cell survival and axonal regeneration, when compared to two well‐established trophic factors ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
DNA methylation in porcine preimplantation embryos developed in vivo and produced by in vitro fertilization, parthenogenetic activation and somatic cell nuclear transfer

DNA demethylation and remethylation are crucial for reprogramming of the differentiated parental/somatic genome in the recipient ooplasm upon somatic cell nuclear transfer. Here, we analyzed the DNA methylation dynamics during porcine preimplantation development. Porcine in vivo developed (IV), in vitro fertilized (IVF), somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and parthenogenetically activated (PA) embryos were evaluated for DNA methylation quantification at different developmental stages. Fertilized (IV and IVF) one-cell stages lacked a substantial active demethylation of the paternal genome. Embryos produced under in vitro conditions had higher levels of DNA methylation than IV. A lineage-specific DNA methylation (hypermethylation of the inner cell mass and hypomethylation of the trophectoderm) was observed in porcine IV late blastocysts, but was absent in PA- and SCNT-derived blastocysts despite the occurrence of de novo methylation in early blastocysts. Comparable levels of DNA methylation were found in IV embryos and in 50% and 14% of SCNT early and late blastocysts, respectively. In conclusion, DNA methylation patterns were adversely affected by in vitro embryo production.
Performing identity within a multicultural framework

The role of music in community festivals is often to assist in constructing a particular identity of place, and music functions in such instances as a means to provide a sense of belonging for participants. However, multicultural festivals complicate any simple relationship between place and identity, because such festivals demonstrate the heterogeneous state of both identity and place. Anxieties that arise around issues of cultural authenticity within such festivals point to concerns of hybrid identities that may challenge and threaten the maintenance of clearly demarcated identities in the face of transnational relations. Drawing on ethnographic material and theoretical conceptualizations of the self, this paper explores the dynamic and fluid constructions of identity at two Australian community music festivals, and raises questions on the sorts of practices that seek to regulate the ways in which these identities are constituted and performed.
CO 2 dialysis in nucleus tractus solitarius region of rat increases ventilation in sleep and wakefulness

Nattie, Eugene E. , and Aihua Li. CO2 dialysis in nucleus tractus solitarius region of rat increases ventilation in sleep and wakefulness. J Appl Physiol 92: 2119–2130, 2002. First published January 4, 2002; 10.1152/japplphysiol.01128. 2001. —To evaluate the function of widely distributed central chemoreceptors during sleep and wakefulness in the rat, we focally stimulate single chemoreceptor sites during naturally occurring sleep-wake cycles by microdialysis of artificial cerebrospinal fluid equilibrated with 25% CO2. In retrotrapezoid nucleus, this increased ventilation (tidal volume) by 24% only in wakefulness (Li A, Randall M, and Nattie E. J Appl Physiol 87: 910–919, 1999). In caudal medullary raphé, it increased ventilation (frequency) by 15–20% only in sleep (Nattie EE and Li A. J Appl Physiol 90: 1247–1257, 2001). Here, in nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), focal acidification significantly increased ventilation by 11% in sleep and 7% in wakefulness rostrally (n 5) and by 16% in sleep and 28% in wakefulness caudally (n 5). The sleep-wake cycle was unaltered. Dialysis with 5% CO2 had no effect. Dialysis with 50% CO2 caudally did not further stimulate ventilation but did disrupt sleep. Central chemoreceptors in the NTS affect breathing in both sleep and wakefulness. The threshold for arousal in caudal NTS is greater than that for the stimulation of breathing.
Loss Averse Preferences, Performance, and Career Success of Institutional Investors

Using survey-based measures of mutual fund manager loss aversion, we study the effects of institutional investor preferences on their investment decisions, performance, and career outcomes. We find that managers with higher aversion to losses choose portfolios with lower downside risk, increase their risk-taking more in response to poor past performance, and display a stronger disposition effect. Further, we provide evidence that managers who are more loss-averse have lower performance and are more likely to have their contracts terminated.Received December 3, 2014; editorial decision May 25, 2016 by Editor Andrew Karolyi.
Common Methods Bias: Does Common Methods Variance Really Bias Results?

Methods variance and its effects are at the center of a debate in organizational science. Most of the debate, however, is focused on the prevalence of common methods variance and ignores common methods bias, or the divergence between observed and true relationships among constructs. This article assesses the level of common methods bias in all multitrait-multimethod correlation matrices published over a 12-year period in a set of six social science journals using a combination of structural equation modeling and meta-analysis. The results indicate that only 46% of the variation in measures is attributable to the constructs, that 32% of the observed variation in measures is attributable to common methods variance, and that common methods variance results in a 26% bias in the observed relationships among constructs. This level of bias is cause for concern but does not invalidate many research findings.
Measuring Semantic Relatedness using Mined Semantic Analysis

Mined Semantic Analysis (MSA) is a novel distributional semantics approach which employs data mining techniques. MSA embraces knowledge-driven analysis of natural languages. It uncovers implicit relations between concepts by mining for their associations in target encyclopedic corpora. MSA exploits not only target corpus content but also its knowledge graph (e.g., "See also" link graph of Wikipedia). Empirical results show competitive performance of MSA compared to prior state-of-the-art methods for measuring semantic relatedness on benchmark data sets. Additionally, we introduce the first analytical study to examine statistical significance of results reported by different semantic relatedness methods. Our study shows that, top performing results could be statistically equivalent though mathematically different. The study positions MSA as one of state-of-the-art methods for measuring semantic relatedness.
PLL less shunt active filter with direct current control for power quality conditioning

In this paper, a novel neural network based phase locked loop (PLL) less reference current computation method for active power filter (APF) control under non-ideal mains voltage conditions with different load condition is proposed. The neural network controller comprises two similar adaptive linear neurons (ADALINE), and it has been designed to extract fundamental frequency components from non-sinusoidal and unbalanced currents. The compensation process is based on sensing source currents only, without sensing source voltage and load currents, which gives more simplicity in control with less number of sensors. The APF realized by a current controlled IGBT based PWM-VSI bridges with a common dc bus capacitor. The proposed neural network compensation approach has been evaluated in simulations. The results show excellent performance, as well as robustness and usefulness under steady state and transient loading conditions.
School Choice and Quality

The 1993 Survey of Household Income and Wealth, a large cross-section of the Italian population covering 24,000 individuals, reports detailed information on children’s attendance of public and private schools and parents’ assessments of the quality of public schools in the city of residence. The survey also provides detailed information on the household’s demographic structure, income and parents’ education. The empirical analysis indicates that the quality of schools is one of the driving factors in the choice between private and public schools. The results are robust with respect to the particular quality indicator used and the presence of fixed provincial effects.
A Gastric Tube Monitoring System for Clinical Applications

To correctly insert a gastric tube into the stomach, the position of an attached permanent magnet is estimated by solving the inverse problem using measurement data obtained from magneto-impedance (MI) sensors placed outside the patient’s body. The ubiquity and power of tablet computers make them promising tools to easily confirm the position of the tip of the gastric tube. However, a single mobile device may be insufficient for actually solving the inverse problem. Therefore, we propose a distributed cooperative local access network system for the estimation of the position of a permanent magnet attached to the tip of a gastric tube. In addition, we evaluate whether ferromagnetic materials near a sensor affect the performance of the system. Experimental results show that the position estimation error is less than 10 mm, even when the tip is 150 mm from a MI sensor, and that the tip position can be displayed on a tablet computer every 0.25 s. These results suggest that the proposed method holds promise for hospital applications.