Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mental Health of Coloured Female Teachers Working in Historically Disadvantaged Special Schools in the Cape Metropole

The World Health Organisation defines mental health as "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes her or his own abilities, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community" (WHO, 2001, p. 1). There is a paucity of academic research about the mental health status of minority groups, especially women of colour (Moultrie & Kleintjes, 2006). In South Africa too, this gap in research is evident when focussing on the mental health of women, especially Coloured women in South Africa. Women's health and their mental health in particular are often affected by the way society treats and regards them; often they suffer from emotional, mental and physical exhaustions. This study investigated the mental health status of Coloured female teachers working in historically disadvantaged Special Schools in the Cape Metropole of the Western Cape Education Department. This group designation is the designation that was formally used during South Africa's Apartheid past policies of segregation in categorising groups according to pre-determined race categories. Coloureds where then considered to be a minority grouping in South Africa. Reference is still currently made in democratic South Africa to the Apartheid race categorisations in contemporary formal policies that seek to redress the inequities of the past, both in terms of race as well as gender categories (Conway-Smith, 2011; Stromquist, 1998). Given the intimate association between race and identity, especially within a socio-historical context such as that of South Africa, it is reasonable to consider the impact of this association on an individual's mental health status.
Counting blessings and sharing gratitude in a Chinese prisoner sample: Effects of gratitude-based interventions on subjective well-being and aggression

Abstract Gratitude-based interventions are effective for increasing individuals’ subjective well-being (SWB); however, they have not been validated among prisoners, especially for negative states (i.e. aggression). Furthermore, as a social emotion, gratitude might be nurtured via practice within a social group. Therefore, we developed a weekly group-based sharing gratitude exercise, and examined its effect along with that of daily blessing-counting among prisoners in China. Ninety-six male violent prisoners were assigned randomly to three conditions (gratitude-sharing, blessing-counting, and control). Interventions took place over five weeks. Both interventions improved SWB and decreased aggression compared to controls. Additionally, the improvement in gratitude mediated the relationship between the two forms of intervention and SWB. These findings indicate that gratitude-based interventions can be implemented among male prisoners to help further the psychological corrective function of prisons in China.
Abstract— Recent Fifteen Years Witnessed Fast Improvements In

the field of humanoid robotics. The human-like robot structure is more suitable to human environment with its supreme obstacle avoidance properties when compared with wheeled service robots. However, the walking control for bipedal robots is a challenging task due to their complex dynamics. Stable reference generation plays a very important role in control. Linear Inverted Pendulum Model (LIPM) and the Zero Moment Point (ZMP) criterion are applied in a number of studies for stable walking reference generation of biped walking robots. This paper follows this main approach too. We propose a natural and continuous ZMP reference trajectory for a stable and human-like walk. The ZMP reference trajectories move forward under the sole of the support foot when the robot body is supported by a single leg. Robot center of mass trajectory is obtained from predefined ZMP reference trajectories by a Fourier series approximation method. The Gibbs phenomenon problem common with Fourier approximations of discontinuous functions is avoided by employing continuous ZMP references. Also, these ZMP reference trajectories possess pre-assigned single and double support phases, which are very useful in experimental tuning work. The ZMP based reference generation strategy is tested via three-dimensional full-dynamics simulations of a 12-degrees-of-freedom biped robot model. Simulation results indicate that the proposed reference trajectory generation technique is successful.
Scaling measurements of the effect of surface slant on perceived lightness

The light reflected from an object depends on its reflectance, the illumination, and the pose of the object within the scene. An observer is called lightness constant if the perceived reflectance (lightness) of achromatic objects stays the same despite variation in object-extrinsic factors such as illumination and pose. Here, we used a dissimilarity scaling task to measure lightness constancy as the intensity of the illuminant and the slant of test surfaces were varied. Across two experiments, we had observers rate the dissimilarity of flat grayscale test stimulus pairs. The test stimuli were real illuminated surfaces, not computer simulations. Each test stimulus was seen in its own illuminated chamber, with the two chambers viewed side by side. We varied test surface reflectance, chamber illumination intensity, and the slant of the test in relation to the single light source in each chamber. Data were analyzed using nonmetric multidimensional scaling. The data were well-described by a one-dimensional perceptual representation. This representation was consistent across observers, revealed partial lightness constancy with respect to a change in illumination intensity, and no lightness constancy with respect to changes in surface slant. An additional experiment using a matching procedure and the same stimulus set, however, revealed moderate constancy with respect to changes in surface slant. The difference in results between the two methods is interesting, but not understood.
Turnover Intentions and Job Hopping among Millennials in Serbia

Research Question: The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the number of jobs the Millennial generation intend to change during their career is larger than that of previous generations; to compare the Millennials’ intention to leave their current job to the previous generations’, and also to examine the relation between the Millennials’ turnover intention and their job satisfaction. Motivation: Millennials keep their resumes updated and have a reputation to be job hoppers (Shaw & Fairhurst, 2008; Meier& Crocker, 2010). Moreover, their job hopping has been an unprecedented problem for the employers (Tulgan 2015) and they are reported to have higher turnover intention rate than other generations (Kowske, Rasch & Wiley 2013; Deloitte, 2011; Twenge, 2010; Sujansky & Ferri-Reed, 2009). Additionally, it is generally accepted that job satisfaction and employee turnover intention are negatively related (Mobley 1977; Susskind et al. 2000; Schwepker 2001). Having in mind a lack of relevant literature as well as research in Eastern European countries, our goal was to explore if the same can be concluded for the Millennials in Serbia. Idea: The core idea of this paper was to empirically evaluate the relationship between the stated variables. Data: The analysis was conducted during 2017 in Serbia using a questionnaire which was made in the form of an online survey and distributed by email and posted on social networking websites. A total of 802 valid responses were received. Tools: Statistical analyses of all collected data were used to draw conclusions. Findings: The results of the study confirmed that the intention of the respondents to change a larger number of jobs in their career increases as we move towards the youngest generation in the workplace. Generation Y was found to be the only generation that has a higher percentage of those who think that they will quit the current job in the next two years than those who expect the opposite. The analysis confirmed that turnover intention increases with job dissatisfaction - the greater their job satisfaction is, the less Millennials will want to change their current employer in the next two years. Contribution: This paper expands existing research related to the turnover intentions and job hopping of Millennials and provides recommendations for organizations for retaining the members of Generation Y.
Identification of Ne VIII lines in H-deficient (pre-) white dwarfs: a new tool to constrain the temperature of the hottest stars ,

For the first time, we have identified Ne viii absorption lines in far-UV spectra of the hottest known (Teff > 150 000 K) hydrogendeficient (pre-) white dwarfs of spectral type PG1159. They are of photospheric origin and can be matched by synthetic non-LTE line profiles. We also show that a number of UV and optical emission lines in these stars can be explained as being photospheric Ne viii features and not, as hitherto suspected, as ultrahigh ionised O viii lines created along shock-zones in the stellar wind. Consequently, we argue that the long-standing identification of the same emission lines in hot [WR]-type central stars as being due to ultrahigh-ionised species (O vii-viii ,C v-vi) must be revised. These lines can be entirely attributed to thermally excited species (Ne vii-viii ,N v ,O vi). Photospheric Ne viii lines are also identified in the hottest known He-rich white dwarf (KPD 0005+5106), some of which were also attributed to O viii previously. This is a surprise because it must be concluded that KPD 0005+5106 is much hotter (Teff ≈ 200 000 K) than hitherto assumed (Teff ≈ 120 000 K). This is confirmed by a re-assessment of the He ii line spectrum. We speculate that the temperature is high enough to explain the mysterious, hard X-ray emission (1 keV) as being of photospheric origin.
A multi-Bernoulli approach to simultaneous segmentation of multiple motions

Most of parametric motion segmentation methods, formulated based on RANSAC technique, are designed to estimate and segment multiple motions in a sequential manner. This paper introduces a new random set theoretical approach to simultaneously estimate the parameters of, and segment multiple motions in a single run. In this approach, the parameters of multiple motions are modelled as a random finite set with multi-Bernoulli distribution. Simulation results involving segmentation of numerous motions show that our method outperforms state-of-art methods in terms of estimation error and correct estimation rate. In addition, it is highly parallelizable and well-suited for implementation by parallel processors. The fast convergence and highly parallelizable nature of the proposed approach make it an excellent choice for real-time estimation and segmentation of multiple motions in computer vision and robotic applications.
Smoking and disease progression in multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND Although cigarette smokers are at increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), the effect of smoking on the progression of MS remains uncertain. OBJECTIVE To establish the relationship between cigarette smoking and progression of MS using clinical and magnetic resonance imaging outcomes DESIGN Cross-sectional survey and longitudinal follow-up for a mean of 3.29 years, ending January 15, 2008. SETTING Partners MS Center (Boston, Massachusetts), a referral center for patients with MS. PATIENTS Study participants included 1465 patients with clinically definite MS (25.1% men), with mean (range) age at baseline of 42.0 (16-75) years and disease duration of 9.4 (0-50.4) years. Seven hundred eighty patients (53.2%) were never-smokers, 428 (29.2%) were ex-smokers, and 257 (17.5%) were current smokers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Smoking groups were compared for baseline clinical and magnetic resonance imaging characteristics as well as progression and sustained progression on the Expanded Disability Status Scale at 2 and 5 years and time to disease conversion to secondary progressive MS. In addition, the rate of on-study change in the brain parenchymal fraction and T2 hyperintense lesion volume were compared. RESULTS Current smokers had significantly worse disease at baseline than never-smokers in terms of Expanded Disability Status Scale score (adjusted P < .001), Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score (adjusted P < .001), and brain parenchymal fraction (adjusted P = .004). In addition, current smokers were significantly more likely to have primary progressive MS (adjusted odds ratio, 2.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-5.34). At longitudinal analyses, MS in smokers progressed from relapsing-remitting to secondary progressive disease faster than in never-smokers (hazard ratio for current smokers vs never-smokers, 2.50; 95% confidence interval, 1.42-4.41). In addition, in smokers, the T2-weighted lesion volume increased faster (P = .02), and brain parenchymal fraction decreased faster (P = .02). CONCLUSION Our data suggest that cigarette smoke has an adverse influence on the progression of MS and accelerates conversion from a relapsing-remitting to a progressive course.
Investigation of sequential properties of snoring episodes for obstructive sleep apnoea identification

In this paper, ‘snore regularity’ is studied in terms of the variations of snoring sound episode durations, separations and average powers in simple snorers and in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients. The goal was to explore the possibility of distinguishing among simple snorers and OSA patients using only sleep sound recordings of individuals and to ultimately eliminate the need for spending a whole night in the clinic for polysomnographic recording. Sequences that contain snoring episode durations (SED), snoring episode separations (SES) and average snoring episode powers (SEP) were constructed from snoring sound recordings of 30 individuals (18 simple snorers and 12 OSA patients) who were also under polysomnographic recording in Gülhane Military Medical Academy Sleep Studies Laboratory (GMMA-SSL), Ankara, Turkey. Snore regularity is quantified in terms of mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation values for the SED, SES and SEP sequences. In all three of these sequences, OSA patients' data displayed a higher variation than those of simple snorers. To exclude the effects of slow variations in the base-line of these sequences, new sequences that contain the coefficient of variation of the sample values in a ‘short’ signal frame, i.e., short time coefficient of variation (STCV) sequences, were defined. The mean, the standard deviation and the coefficient of variation values calculated from the STCV sequences displayed a stronger potential to distinguish among simple snorers and OSA patients than those obtained from the SED, SES and SEP sequences themselves. Spider charts were used to jointly visualize the three parameters, i.e., the mean, the standard deviation and the coefficient of variation values of the SED, SES and SEP sequences, and the corresponding STCV sequences as two-dimensional plots. Our observations showed that the statistical parameters obtained from the SED and SES sequences, and the corresponding STCV sequences, possessed a strong potential to distinguish among simple snorers and OSA patients, both marginally, i.e., when the parameters are examined individually, and jointly. The parameters obtained from the SEP sequences and the corresponding STCV sequences, on the other hand, did not have a strong discrimination capability. However, the joint behaviour of these parameters showed some potential to distinguish among simple snorers and OSA patients.
SUCCESS FACTORS IN SMALL AND MICRO BUSINESSES – A STUDY OF THREE BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY IN NORTH KARELIA

The purpose of this study was to identify those factors that are supposed to be the most important in terms of success in the three investigated branches of industry (tourism, ICT, plastics and metal), especially from the SME point of view. The measures used in the questionnaire were based on and adapted from Pasanen’s (1999, 2004) and Valos and Baker’s (1996) work. Privately owned independent SMEs were chosen as the study population. Questions about growth, growth intentions and internationalisation were also included. The respondents were asked to evaluate the importance of the given factors for the firm’s success in the field of industry (s)he represents and how highly the respondent evaluated the company’s expertise in each factor in their operations. Two groups were made based on whether the companies wished to expand their operations slowly or fast. Success factors were then examined separately in each group. The results indicate that there are no statistically significant differences in the views held by slowly or fast growing enterprises regarding the importance of the success factors. The respondents emphasise the importance of customer orientation, good skills in leadership, internal marketing and a good reputation of the firm and the product. Because these are also the key elements of market orientation, it could be surmised that market orientation seems to play a key role in the performance of small and micro firms. Customer orientation is also well mastered according to the enterprises. In all branches of industry, expansion to export markets would need most development, but this factor, on the other hand, has been evaluated as a less important success factor than most other factors in all three lines of industry. The impact of external advice (incubators, consultants, research organisations) was evaluated as the least important factor of success. 1 Professor (acting), University of Joensuu, Department of Business and Economics, Marketing. P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland, Tel. +358 500 885629, raija.komppula@joensuu.fi
Target assistance for subtly balancing competitive play

In games where skills such as targeting are critical to winning, it is difficult for players with different skill levels to have a competitive and engaging experience. Although several mechanisms for accommodating different skill levels have been proposed, traditional approaches can be too obvious and can change the nature of the game. For games involving aiming, we propose the use of target assistance techniques (such as area cursors, target gravity, and sticky targets) to accommodate skill imbalances. We compared three techniques in a study, and found that area cursors and target gravity significantly reduced score differential in a shooting-gallery game. Further, less skilled players reported having more fun when the techniques helped them be more competitive, and even after they learned assistance was given, felt that this form of balancing was good for group gameplay. Our results show that target assistance techniques can make target-based games more competitive for shared play.
PPAR agonists as therapeutics for CNS trauma and neurological diseases

Traumatic injury or disease of the spinal cord and brain elicits multiple cellular and biochemical reactions that together cause or are associated with neuropathology. Specifically, injury or disease elicits acute infiltration and activation of immune cells, death of neurons and glia, mitochondrial dysfunction, and the secretion of substrates that inhibit axon regeneration. In some diseases, inflammation is chronic or non-resolving. Ligands that target PPARs (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors), a group of ligand-activated transcription factors, are promising therapeutics for neurologic disease and CNS injury because their activation affects many, if not all, of these interrelated pathologic mechanisms. PPAR activation can simultaneously weaken or reprogram the immune response, stimulate metabolic and mitochondrial function, promote axon growth and induce progenitor cells to differentiate into myelinating oligodendrocytes. PPAR activation has beneficial effects in many pre-clinical models of neurodegenerative diseases and CNS injury; however, the mechanisms through which PPARs exert these effects have yet to be fully elucidated. In this review we discuss current literature supporting the role of PPAR activation as a therapeutic target for treating traumatic injury and degenerative diseases of the CNS.
Bleomycin-Treated Chimeric Thy1-Deficient Mice with Thy1-Deficient Myofibroblasts and Thy-Positive Lymphocytes Resolve Inflammation without Affecting the Fibrotic Response

Lung fibrosis is characterized by abnormal accumulation of fibroblasts in the interstitium of the alveolar space. Two populations of myofibroblasts, distinguished by Thy1 expression, are detected in human and murine lungs. Accumulation of Thy1-negative (Thy1−) myofibroblasts was shown in the lungs of humans with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and of bleomycin-treated mice. We aimed to identify genetic changes in lung myofibroblasts following Thy1 crosslinking and assess the impact of specific lung myofibroblast Thy1-deficiency, in vivo, in bleomycin-injured mouse lungs. Thy1 increased in mouse lung lymphocytes following bleomycin injury but decreased in myofibroblasts when fibrosis was at the highest point (14 days), as assessed by immunohistochemistry. Using gene chip analysis, we detected that myofibroblast Thy1 crosslinking mediates downregulation of genes promoting cell proliferation, survival, and differentiation, and reduces production of extracellular matrix (ECM) components, while concurrently mediating the upregulation of genes known to foster inflammation and immunological functions. Chimeric Thy1-deficient mice with Thy1+ lymphocytes and Thy1− myofibroblasts showed fibrosis similar to wild-type mice and an increased number of CD4/CD25 regulatory T cells, with a concomitant decrease in inflammation. Lung myofibroblasts downregulate Thy1 expression to increase their proliferation but to diminish the in vivo inflammatory milieu. Inflammation is not essential for evolution of fibrosis as was previously stated.
Epstein–Barr Virus Lytic Reactivation Activates B Cells Polyclonally and Induces Activation-Induced Cytidine Deaminase Expression: A Mechanism Underlying Autoimmunity and Its Contribution to Graves' Disease

Abstract Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease that results in and is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism, and the reactivation of persisting Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) in B lymphocytes induces the differentiation of host B cells into plasma cells. We previously reported that some EBV-infected B cells had thyrotropin receptor antibodies (TRAbs) as surface immunoglobulins (Igs), and EBV reactivation induced these TRAb+EBV+ cells to produce TRAbs. EBV reactivation induces Ig production from host B cells. The purpose of the present study was to examine total Ig productions from B cell culture fluids and to detect activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), and EBV latent membrane protein (LMP) 1 in culture B cells during EBV reactivation induction and then we discussed the mechanisms of EBV reactivation-induced Ig production in relation to autoimmunity. We showed that the EBV reactivation induces the production of every isotype of Ig and suggested that the Ig production was catalyzed by AID through LMP1 and NF-κB. The results that the amount of IgM was significantly larger compared with IgG suggested the polyclonal B cell activation due to LMP1. We proposed the pathway of EBV reactivation induced Ig production; B cells newly infected with EBV are activated by polyclonal B cell activation and produce Igs through plasma cell differentiation induced by EBV reactivation. LMP1-induced AID enabled B cells to undergo class-switch recombination to produce every isotype of Ig. According to this mechanism, EBV rescues autoreactive B cells to produce autoantibodies, which contribute to the development and exacerbation of autoimmune diseases.