Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DynaSpot: speed-dependent area cursor

We present DynaSpot, a new technique for acquiring targets based on the area cursor. DynaSpot couples the cursor's activation area with its speed, behaving like a point cursor at low speed or when motionless. This technique minimizes visual distraction and allows pointing anywhere in empty space without requiring an explicit mode switch, thus enabling users to perform common interactions such as region selections seamlessly. The results of our controlled experiments show that the performance of DynaSpot can be modeled by Fitts' law, and that DynaSpot significantly outperforms the point cursor and achieves, in most conditions, the same level of performance as one of the most promising techniques to date, the Bubble cursor.
Perceived Barriers To Mental Health Service Use Among Individuals With Mental Disorders in the Canadian General Population

Background:Eliminating barriers to care is important for improving health service use. However, the barriers to mental health care have not been well investigated. Objectives:This study was designed to provide information about the barriers to mental health service use and to identify clinical factors associated with perceived barriers among individuals with depressive-, anxiety-, and substance use-related disorders in the communities. Design:A cross-sectional analysis using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey–Mental Health and Well-being was instituted. Subjects:Participants with depressive-, anxiety-, and substance use-related disorders in the past 12 months, assessed by the World Mental Health–Composite International Diagnostic Interview, were included (n = 4094). Results:In participants with mental disorders, 19.5% reported barriers to mental health service use. The percentage of perceived barriers due to acceptability was higher than those for barriers due to accessibility and availability. Participants with comorbid mental disorders were more likely to have experienced barriers than those with one disorder in both mental health service users and in the nonusers. Role impairment was a significant factor predicting barriers to care, overall and in the service nonusers, in the groups having anxiety disorders only, having any depressive or anxiety disorders, and having any alcohol or drug dependence. Conclusions:Clinical characteristics play an important role in perceiving barriers to mental health care. Future efforts should pay particular attention to the needs of those with chronic and severe mental health problems and focus on improving the effectiveness of mental health services.
Joint estimation of time delays and directions of arrival of multiple reflections of a known signal

An efficient algorithm for estimating the time delays and the directions-of-arrival of multiple reflections of a known signal is presented. The algorithm is based on an iterative scheme that transforms the multidimensional maximum likelihood criterion into two sets of simple one dimensional maximisations. Simulation results illustrating the performance of the algorithm in comparison with the Cramer-Rao bound are included.
Music, Mind, And Education

Keith Swanwick explores the psychological and sociological dimensions of musical experience and the implications of these for children's development and music education in schools and colleges. Music is seen, with the other arts, as contributing to the growth of mind, with deep psychological roots in play. Swanwick examines the ways in which children make their own music, and confirms that there is an observable sequence of development. His insights into musical experience help to draw together and interpret fragmented psychological work that has been done in the field and make it possible to plan music education in schools, colleges and studios in a more purposeful way. His analysis of the nature of musical experience and music education has consequences both for curriculum development and the assessment of students' work, with special reference given to the National Curriculum and GCSE.
Hotel location in Africa’s world class city: The case of Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract Urban tourism is of rising importance for economic and tourism geographers. One of the most important elements for urban tourism is the hotel economy. Against a backdrop of international debates around the location of hotels in cities in both developed and developing countries this article unpacks the changing geography of hotels in South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg for the period 1990 to 2010. Johannesburg is one of the leading and growing destinations for urban tourism in South Africa. Its hotel scape has been radically transformed in the past two decades. It is shown that the shifting geography of hotel development in Johannesburg reveals a complex pattern of disinvestment in certain city spaces and subsequent reinvestment and re-vitalization of those spaces as well the changing patterns of hotel investment towards the new successful nodes of business and leisure tourism in the city.
Global–local Analysis in Hiv-1 Infection

One hundred twenty-one HIV-seropositive (HIV+) individuals and 85 seronegative controls performed a divided-attention task that engaged automatic and controlled attentional processing. Reaction times (RTs) to global and local targets that varied in probability were measured in 2 conditions. A neutral condition where global and local targets were equally probable was included as baseline. Participants showed expected tradeoffs in RTs as a function of target-level probability, with longer RTs to less probable targets and shorter RTs to more probable targets. However, the HIV+ group showed significantly greater costs compared with controls. Results are consistent with previous findings that HIV+ individuals are selectively impaired on tasks of controlled attentional processing, particularly under conditions of divided attention.
Beyond the benzodiazepines: The search for new anxiolytics. A summary of pre‐clinical approaches

The clinical efficacy of the benzodiazepines in reducing anxiety is widely accepted. However, the search for novel anxiolytics continues, motivated by the hope of finding a non‐sedative anxiolytic. This article reviews the pre‐clinical evidence for new compounds as it relates both to their anxiolytic actions in animal tests and to their sedative potential. Drugs acting at sites on the GABA‐benzodiazepine receptor complex are discussed, as well as the potential importance of aminergic and peptidergic pathways.
A multiple-groups analysis of predictors of higher level career aspirations among women in mathematics, science, and engineering majors

This study investigated a model of predictors of higher level career aspirations among 2 groups of women: students in mathematics, physical science, and engineering majors and students in biological science majors. On the basis of social-cognitive theory, it was hypothesized that ability, self-efficacy, positivity of role model influence, and role conflict would influence the higher level career aspirations of these women. Data obtained from a mail survey of 546 students revealed that the hypothesized model provided a good overall fit to the data. In contrast to the women in math, physical science, and engineering majors, the relationships between ability and self-efficacy and between positivity of role-model influence and self-efficacy were significantly lower in magnitude for women in the biological sciences group. These findings suggest ideas for interventions designed to increase the number of women aspiring to top positions within nontraditional careers.
Use of Sliding-Mode Modulation in Switch-Mode Power Amplification

This paper presents a recently developed feedback modulation scheme called sliding-mode modulation. Sliding-mode modulation, operating in sliding mode, simultaneously minimizes the accumulated quantization error and in-band modulation error while converting a continuous input signal into a coarsely quantized signal. With these minimization mechanisms, the modulator exhibits simple tractable behavior in the sliding mode and high in-band linearity in signal conversion. These two distinct properties make sliding-mode modulation an attractive substitute for other modulation schemes such as pulsewidth modulation and sigma-delta modulation. A simple method is presented for designing sliding-mode modulators. Moreover, a class-D audio power amplifier with three-level sliding-mode modulation is designed to demonstrate the practicality and superiority of this modulation technique.
The cultural turn: fashion or progress in human geography?

The cultural turn marks a reorientation of human geography's interdisciplinary concerns toward the wide field of cultural studies. It is argued that this reorientation has been mediated by distinctive forms of commercial academic book publishing. These have been the medium for the internationalisation of cultural studies upon which human geography's serious engagement with the field has depended. It is argued that the combination of a greater reliance upon work drawn from the humanities and the imperatives of publishing have led to the contemporary proliferation of cultural theory being associated with new forms of academic celebrity. The critical questioning of the cultural turn is therefore located in relation to the formsof authority and evaluation that it has the potential to promote.
Efficacy of Dexamethasone Intravitreal Implant for the Treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema

Purpose To assess the efficacy of a single dexamethasone intravitreal implant (Dex-I) injection for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME). Methods This was a retrospective chart review of 39 eyes (34 consecutive patients). Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central macular thickness (CMT), and increase in intraocular pressure (IOP) (>24 mm Hg) were analyzed before treatment and 2 and 4 months after injection. Results Preoperative mean CMT was 559 ± 111 μm and decreased to 338 ± 84 and 477 ± 140 μm 2 and 4 months after injection, respectively. Although all eyes showed a significant decrease in CMT 2 months after injection (p<0.0001), a recurrence of the macular edema was observed 4 months after injection in 79% of eyes. Mean BCVA improvement (logMAR) was 0.13 ± 0.18 (p<0.0001) and 0.07 ± 0.21 (p = 0.049) 2 and 4 months after injection, respectively, without significant difference between vitrectomized and nonvitrectomized eyes. Eight eyes (21%) developed reversible increase in IOP 2 months after injection. Conclusions Thirty percent of DME eyes had gained more than 2 logMAR lines 2 months after Dex-I injection and safety was good. Visual acuity gain was maintained 4 months after injection despite a recurrence of edema in most cases.
The experience of positive emotion is associated with the automatic processing of positive emotional words

The current study examines the relationship between attention bias for positive emotional words and self-reported emotional experience. Previous research suggests that the experience of positive emotion momentarily broadens cognitive processes, potentially allowing individuals to build an array of enduring personal resources. However, it is unknown whether the experience of positive emotion also broadens emotional information processing. Participants included 60 healthy undergraduate students who completed measures of psychopathology, self-reported emotional experience, and an emotional Stroop task designed to measure attentional bias to positive and negative emotional information. Results indicate significant associations between reaction times for high-intensity happiness words and self-reported high levels of positive emotion and low levels of negative emotions. These associations were not present for low intensity happiness words. Findings suggest that individuals who experience high levels of positive emotion and low levels of negative emotion demonstrate an attention bias for positive information and, from an information processing perspective, provide insight into the manner in which positive emotions broaden cognitive processes.
rG-CSF reduces endotoxemia and improves survival during E. coli pneumonia.

We investigated the effects of recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rG-CSF) during canine bacterial pneumonia. Beagles with chronic tracheostomies received daily subcutaneous rG-CSF (5 micrograms/kg body wt) or placebo for 14 days, beginning 9 days before intrabronchial inoculation with E. coli. Animals received antibiotics and fluid support; a subset received humidified oxygen (fractional inspired O2 0.40). Compared with controls, rG-CSF increased circulating neutrophil counts (57.4 vs. 11.0 x 10(3)/mm3, day 1 after infection; P = 0.0001), decreased plasma endotoxin (7.5 vs. 1.1 EU/ml at 8 h; P < 0.01) and serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha (3,402 vs. 729 pg/ml at 2 h; P = 0.01) levels, and prolonged survival (relative risk of death = 0.45, 95% confidence interval 0.21-0.97; P = 0.038). Also, rG-CSF attenuated sepsis-associated myocardial dysfunction (P < 0.001). rG-CSF had no effect on pulmonary function or on blood and lung bacteria counts (all P = not significant). Other animals challenged with endotoxin (4 mg/kg i.v.) after similar treatment with rG-CSF had lower serum endotoxin levels (7.62 vs. 5.81 log EU/ml at 6 h; P < 0.01) and less cardiovascular dysfunction (P < 0.05 to < 0.002) but similar tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels (P = not significant) compared with controls. Thus prophylactic rG-CSF sufficient to increase circulating neutrophils during bacterial pneumonia may improve cardiovascular function and survival by mechanisms that in part enhance the clearance of bacterial toxins but do not improve lung function.
Edge Meshless Method Applied to Vector Electromagnetic Problems

A challenge in meshless methods dealing with vector electromagnetic problems is to produce numerical solutions that are free of spurious modes given that the generated vector field does not satisfy the condition of zero divergence. The edge meshless method (EMM) constructs its approximations using special shape functions based on edges to produce vector fields that are divergence free and to guarantee the continuity of the tangential field components. This paper presents the application of the EMM to solve vector electromagnetic problems. The 2-D Maxwell eigenvalue problem with anisotropic medium is tested to demonstrate that the technique produces correct numerical solution without spurious modes.
Anchors Weigh More Than Power

The current research shows that having no power can be better than having a little power. Negotiators prefer having some power (weak negotiation alternatives) to having no power (no alternatives). We challenge this belief that having any alternative is beneficial by demonstrating that weak alternatives create low anchors that reduce the value of first offers. In contrast, having no alternatives is liberating because there is no anchor to weigh down first offers. In our experiments, negotiators with no alternatives felt less powerful but made higher first offers and secured superior outcomes compared with negotiators who had weak alternatives. We established the role of anchoring through mediation by first offers and through moderation by showing that weak alternatives no longer led to worse outcomes when negotiators focused on a countervailing anchor or when negotiators faced an opponent with a strong alternative. These results demonstrate that anchors can have larger effects than feelings of power. Absolute powerlessness can be psychologically liberating.
The functional field of view becomes narrower while viewing negative emotional stimuli

We investigated how viewing positive and negative emotional stimuli influences the functional field of view. Two types of emotional pictures were used, representing either a negative emotion such as disgust or fear, or a positive emotion such vigour or excitement. The participants' task was to detect and identify a digit presented in any of the four corners of a picture on the display, while discriminating a letter in the centre of the display. We used two stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), of 500 and 3000 ms, between the picture and the digit. Performance was poorer in the negative condition than in the positive and non-emotional conditions. Performance in the 500 ms SOA condition was poorer than in the 3000 ms SOA condition. These results suggest that the functional field of view (FFOV) becomes narrower when people view negative emotional stimuli, whereas it does not change when viewing positive or neutral emotional stimuli.
Learning from the Americanists (Again): Theory and Method in the Study of Delegation

European(ist) scholars have largely followed their American(ist) colleagues in the formulation of theories about delegation of powers to non-majoritarian institutions, most notably through the application of principal-agent models of relations between legislative principals and their executive and judicial agents. This article suggests that Europeanists can once again learn from recent developments in both theory and method in the study of delegation in American politics. The first section discusses the methodological challenges of testing hypotheses about the conditions under which agents might enjoy some degree of autonomy from their legislative principals, and draws lessons from the recent Americanist literature. The section examines the development in American politics of a second wave of principal-agent analysis which aims to formulate and test hypotheses about the conditions under which legislative principals might delegate authority and discretion to bureaucratic agents. The third and final section of the article examines some preliminary applications of the principal-agent approach to the European Union and to the comparative study of European parliamentary democracies, and proposes a research agenda for the comparative study of national-level delegation in the parliamentary systems of Western Europe.
The Committee Charge, Framing Interpersonal Agreement, and Consensus Models of Group Quantitative Judgment

Abstract Procedural mechanisms, ostensibly serving to facilitate the consensus process in group decision making, have also been observed to influence process and outcome, frequently in unexpected and undesirable ways. Procedural influence in this study was attributable to the initial enabling charge that focused the group consensus process on task performance, interpersonal relations, or nothing. Both task- and interpersonally oriented groups allocated less money on average to an AIDS awareness educational program than did un-charged groups, and groups generally allocated less money than independent individuals who worked alone. Explanation focused on discussion as norm enhancing and committee charge as further intensifying norm salience, albeit in a somewhat unexpected direction. A “social judgment scheme” model based on the pattern of member preferences, and member positions in that pattern, accurately predicted group quantitative judgments within each experimental condition, whereas plausible alternative models and baselines did not. Among other findings, post-group member confidence in the decision was higher than that of parallel individuals, and highest among those from “task-oriented” groups; the latter also were more willing than ex-members of “interpersonally oriented” groups to discriminate among fellow members in retrospectively evaluating the relative contributions of each other.
Changing our minds, changing our bodies: Power as embodied in research relations

In this paper I offer a reflection on my role in a collaborative research experience as a way of illustrating how attempts to establish rapport and work collaboratively in teaching and research can result in struggles over authority, power, and goals. In particular, I argue that we need to look closely at how embodied relations shape and are shaped in collaborative research relations. When discussing power relations among university researchers and classroom teachers - or in any relationship in which we are "studying down" (Harding, 1987) - researchers tend to focus on affiliatory or institutional power positions. I use artifactual data from a research relationship to raise questions about the other processes of power at work in such relationships. Specifically, I ask what our discursive and embodied relations with one another meant in terms of power. How did we enact power in and through the ways we positioned our bodies or the bodies of others? How are these material, embodied experiences situated in and productive of larger social, cultural, and historical discourses? Finally, what implications do these discursive and embodied relations have for all types of collaborative and even non-collaborative research relations?
Scrutinizing Exotic Cosmological Models Using ESSENCE Supernova Data Combined with Other Cosmological Probes

The first cosmological results from the ESSENCE supernova survey (Wood-Vasey and coworkers) are extended to a wider range of cosmological models including dynamical dark energy and nonstandard cosmological models. We fold in a greater number of external data sets such as the recent Higher-z release of high-redshift supernovae (Riess and coworkers), as well as several complementary cosmological probes. Model comparison statistics such as the Bayesian and Akaike information criteria are applied to gauge the worth of models. These statistics favor models that give a good fit with fewer parameters. Based on this analysis, the preferred cosmological model is the flat cosmological constant model, where the expansion history of the universe can be adequately described with only one free parameter describing the energy content of the universe. Among the more exotic models that provide good fits to the data, we note a preference for models whose best-fit parameters reduce them to the cosmological constant model.
Herscovitch and Meyer’s Three-Component model of commitment to change: Meta-analytic findings

Commitment to change has been subject to several qualitative reviews in recent years. As a response to an associated lack of consensus in construct definition, Herscovitch and Meyer introduced a three-component model demonstrating affective commitment to change (i.e., ACC), normative commitment to change (i.e., NCC) and continuance commitment to change (i.e., CCC). Given the growing literature on organizational change, the aim of this paper is to take stock of a decade of research that uses Herscovitch and Meyer’s instrument to measure these three components. To determine the tool’s discriminant validity we conducted meta-analyses evaluating the strength of relations among ACC, NCC and CCC; the relations among the three components and behavioural support for change; and the moderating role of North American context versus non-North American context in shaping these relationships. Findings based on data collected from 17 studies indicate notable differences in the strength of relationships among ACC–NCC, ACC–CCC and NCC–CCC. Also the pattern of the correlations among the three components and behavioural support reveals interesting extensions and insights for further research into the robustness of this model, and on hitherto under-acknowledged discrepancies in behavioural support for commitment to change research.