Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Catch the wave! Time-window sequential analysis of alertness stimulation in individuals with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities.

BACKGROUND While optimally activities are provided at those moments when the individual with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) is 'focused on the environment' or 'alert', detailed information about the impact that the design and timing of the activity has on alertness is lacking. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to shed light on the sequential relationship between different stimuli and alertness levels in individuals with PIMD. METHOD Video observations were conducted for 24 participants during one-on-one interactions with a direct support person in multisensory environments. Time-window sequential analyses were conducted for the 120 s following four different stimuli. RESULTS For the different stimuli, different patterns in terms of alertness became apparent. Following visual stimuli, the alertness levels of the individuals with PIMD changed in waves of about 20 s from 'active alert' to 'passive alert'. While auditory and tactile stimuli led to 'alert' reactions shortly after the stimulation, alertness levels decreased between seconds 20 and 120. Reactions to vestibular stimuli were only visible after 60 s; these were 'active alert' or 'withdrawn'. CONCLUSIONS The results of the present study show that individuals with PIMD show their reactions to stimuli only slightly, so that 'waves' might reflect the optimal alertness pattern for learning and development. Consequently, it is especially important that direct support persons follow and stimulate these individual 'waves' in the activities they provide to their clients.
Behavior Analysis of Vehicle Starts under Countdown-Type Traffic Signal

1Student Member of JSCE, Dept. of Scientific and Engineering Simulation. , Nagoya Institute of Technology (Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 466-8555, Japan) E-mail: yuke419@yahoo.co.jp 2 Member of JSCE, Professor, Dept. of Scientific and Engineering Simulation. , Nagoya Institute of Technology (Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 466-8555, Japan) E-mail: fujita.motohiro@nitech.ac. jp 3Member of JSCE, Associate Professor, Dept. of Scientific and Engineering Simulation. , Nagoya Institute of Technology (Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 466-8555, Japan) E-mail: suzuki.koji@nitech.ac. jp
Designing a Workable Framework for Evaluating Distance Language Instruction

Teaching foreign languages at distance is now becoming widespread; so is the need for evaluating online language courses. This article discusses an example of a framework that was applied to evaluate an online English as a foreign language (EFL) course at a Middle Eastern university. The development of the framework investigated areas of interest specific to the given school context: level of student engagement, student perceptions, and learning outcomes. This case study followed a mixed method design. Accordingly, the data discussed are both qualitative and quantitative.
Application of neural fuzzy network to pyrometer correction and temperature control in rapid thermal processing

Temperature measurement and control are two difficult problems in the rapid thermal processing (RTP) system. For many applications such as rapid thermal processing chemical vapor deposition (RTCVD) and rapid thermal oxidation (RTO), large changes in wafer emissivity can occur during film growing, leading to erroneous temperature measurements with a single wavelength pyrometer. The error in the inferred temperature will affect the temperature control of the RTP system. In order to correct the temperature reading of the pyrometer, a neural fuzzy network is used to predict the emissivity changes for the compensation of measured temperature. As for the temperature control, to overcome ill performance of the temperature tracking system due to the inaccuracy of the identified model, another neural fuzzy network is used in the RTP system for learning inverse control simultaneously. The key advantage of neural fuzzy approach over traditional ones lies on that the approach does not require a mathematical description of the system while performing pyrometer correction and temperature control. Simulation results show that the adopted neural fuzzy networks can not only correct the pyrometer reading accurately, but also be able to track a temperature trajectory very well.
Speaker normalization of fricative noise: considerations on language-specific contrasts

Both frication noise and vowel formants cue the place of articulation of sibilant fricatives (e.g., /s/ and / �/ in English). However, only few studies have examined the effect of speaker-specific factors. This acoustic study of sibilant fricatives examines how speaker-specific formant information can improve the distinctness of two phonemic categories of sibilants: /s/ vs. /�/ in French and /s/ vs. /s j / in Japanese. The results show that the center of gravity of the frication noise, normalized with respect to the subject-specific coefficient of vowel onset or vowel center formants, provides an appreciable improvement in the sibilant distinctness in Japanese. While the distinctness score of the noise is generally higher in French than in Japanese, the F2 onset patterns (/s/</s j /) are throughout consistent only in Japanese, and strongly improved with a speaker normalization. These language-specific behaviors are discussed in relation with the respective phonological system.
The use of photo elicitation to explore the benefits of queer student advocacy groups in university

ABSTRACT University can be a critical time for queer identifying youth as they attempt to navigate new relationships and heteronormative and, sometimes, hostile environments. Involvement in queer student groups is one strategy to develop protective mechanisms for these students. This research examines the effect of participation in a queer advocacy group at a local university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, using a qualitative photo elicitation method. Four themes—learning, safe environments, shared emotional connection, and personal fulfillment and growth—emerged concerning the effects of their involvement in the group. As a research method, photo elicitation was determined to be an effective tool for queer identifying youth, allowing for in-depth exploration of the data and self-reflection. Recommendations for queer student advocacy groups are given.
Stochastic regular grammar-based learning for basic dance motion recognition

This paper presents a simple and computationally efficient framework for 3D dance basic motion recognition based on syntactic pattern recognition. In this research, a class of basic dance motions is modeled by a stochastic regular grammar (SRG), inferred from training dataset, in which key body poses that are learned from training dataset are selected as gesture primitives. To represent a dance motion, body pose of a dancer is represented by angular coordinate of 15 skeleton joints. This feature is later compacted into one-dimensional string of labels for grammar inference which makes the recognition process is considerably fast compared to statistical pattern classifier such as k-nearest neighbor (kNN). A single test using the learned grammar in average takes only about 5 ms compared to around 20s using kNN whilst the overhead time to build all grammars takes only about 3.4s. This compacting process, however, leads to information loss which is observed in slightly degraded recognition performance for low articulated motions but quite large degradation for high articulated dance motions. To overcome this, we investigate several reliable feature selection methods such as Sequential Feature Selection (SFS), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Heuristic Sequential Feature Selection (HSFS) compared to the use of whole features. Based on our experiment, the HSFS is the most suitable feature selection to overcome this problem.
Soft-sensor Modeling of Cement Raw Material Blending Process Based on Fuzzy Neural Networks with Particle Swarm Optimization

By combining particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) with fuzzy neural networks (FNN), a PSO fuzzy neural networks (PSO-FNN) was proposed, which takes full advantage of the global search ability of particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and the local search ability of conjugate gradient algorithm with constraints. The new method assumed that FNN was used to construct the model of cement raw material blending process, while PSO was employed to optimize parameters of FNN. Experiment results show that the model based on PSO-FNN has higher precision and better performance than the model based on BPNN.
Non-LTE modelling of the He I 10830 Å line in early-type main sequence stars

The near-IR He  10 830 A transition is a highly sensitive diagnostic for non-LTE effects in astrophysical plasmas. So far, non-LTE lineformation computations have failed to quantitatively reproduce observations of this line in the entire range of early-A to late-O main sequence stars. It is shown that the non-LTE modelling was insufficient, for the most part, either because of inaccurate photoionization cross-sections for the 2s 3 S state or because of neglecting line blocking. New calculations based on state-of-the-art atomic data give excellent agreement with observation for the He  10 830 A feature, while profiles of the He  lines in the visual are retained.
Use of long sequence alignments to study the evolution and regulation of mammalian globin gene clusters.

The determination of long segments of DNA sequences encompassing the beta- and alpha-globin gene clusters has provided an unprecedented data base for analysis of genome evolution and regulation of gene clusters. A newly developed computer tool kit generates local alignments between such long sequences in a space-efficient manner, helps the user analyze the alignments effectively, and finds consistently aligning blocks of sequences in multiple pairwise comparisons. Such sequence analyses among the beta-like globin gene clusters of human, galago, rabbit, and mouse have revealed the general patterns of evolution of this gene cluster. Alignments in the flanking regions are very useful in assigning orthologous relationships. Investigation of such matches between the mouse and human beta-like globin gene clusters has led to a reassessment of some orthologous assignments in mouse and to a revision of the proposed pathway for evolution of this gene cluster. In general, the interspersed repetitive elements have inserted independently, presumably via a retrotransposition mechanism, in the different mammalian lineages. However, some examples of ancient L1 repeats are found, including one between the epsilon- and gamma-globin genes that appears to have been in the ancestral eutherian gene cluster. Prominent matching sequences are found in a long region 5' to the epsilon-globin gene, the locus control region (LCR) that is a positive regulator of the entire gene cluster. Three-way alignments among the human, goat, and rabbit sequences can extend for > or = 3 kb in part of the LCR (DNase hypersensitive site 3), indicating that the cis-acting components of this complex regulatory region cover a long segment of DNA. In contrast to the beta-like globin gene clusters, the alpha-like globin gene clusters of many mammals occur in very G+C-rich isochores and contain prominent CpG islands. The regions between the alpha-like globin genes are evolving faster than the intergenic regions of the beta-like globin gene clusters. The contrasts between the two gene clusters can be attributed to differences in DNA metabolism in the isochore. The proximal control elements of the rabbit alpha-globin gene are located both 5' to and within the gene. All of this region is part of a prominent CpG island that may be acting as an extended, enhancer-independent promoter. One can hypothesize that the analogue to the LCR in the alpha-globin gene cluster may interface with the distinctive alpha-globin promoter in ways different from the interaction between the beta LCR and the promoters of beta-like globin genes. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
A grid-based fitness strategy for evolutionary many-objective optimization

Grid has been widely used in the field of evolutionary multi-objective optimization (EMO) due to its property combining convergence and diversity naturally. Most EMO algorithms of grid-based fitness perform well on problems with two or three objectives, but encounter difficulties in their scalability to many-objective optimization. This paper develops the potential of using grid technique to balance convergence and diversity in fitness for many-objective optimization problems. To strengthen selection pressure and refine comparison level, three hierarchical grid-based criterions are incorporated into fitness to establish a completer order among individuals. Moreover, an adaptive fitness penalty mechanism in environmental selection is employed to guarantee the diversity of archive memory. Based on an extensive comparative study with three other EMO algorithms, the proposed algorithm is found to be remarkably successful in finding well-converged and well-distributed solution set.
Tracking Stem Cell Differentiation in the Setting of Automated Optogenetic Stimulation

Membrane depolarization has been shown to play an important role in the neural differentiation of stem cells and in the survival and function of mature neurons. Here, we introduce a microbial opsin into ESCs and develop optogenetic technology for stem cell engineering applications, with an automated system for noninvasive modulation of ESC differentiation employing fast optogenetic control of ion flux. Mouse ESCs were stably transduced with channelrhodopsin‐2 (ChR2)‐yellow fluorescent protein and purified by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS). Illumination of resulting ChR2‐ESCs with pulses of blue light triggered inward currents. These labeled ESCs retained the capability to differentiate into functional mature neurons, assessed by the presence of voltage‐gated sodium currents, action potentials, fast excitatory synaptic transmission, and expression of mature neuronal proteins and neuronal morphology. We designed and tested an apparatus for optically stimulating ChR2‐ESCs during chronic neuronal differentiation, with high‐speed optical switching on a custom robotic stage with environmental chamber for automated stimulation and imaging over days, with tracking for increased expression of neural and neuronal markers. These data point to potential uses of ChR2 technology for chronic and temporally precise noninvasive optical control of ESCs both in vitro and in vivo, ranging from noninvasive control of stem cell differentiation to causal assessment of the specific contribution of transplanted cells to tissue and network function. STEM CELLS 2011;29:78–88
Is it the human resource policy to blame

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the multi-dimensionality of women managers’ turnover in the United Arab Emirates. The study argues that several factors besides public policy influence turnover. Design/methodology/approach A special survey was developed and administered to a convenience sample of 298 local women managers in both sectors. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson and multiple regression analyses were used. Findings The empirical analyses provided support to the multidimensionality of turnover. In addition, turnover was predicted by a model of eight factors (adjusted R2 = 0.456), namely, economic needs, quality of work life, leadership type and practices, social needs, marital status, organisational satisfaction, organisational commitment and public policy. Research limitations/implications The study was rich, empirical data were gathered and analysed along with qualitative literature. Gender remains salient in organisations as human resource policies alone are incapable of retaining women in leadership. Limited sample size and convenience sampling method may limit the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications Workplace conditions complement human resource policies; hence, the success of the latter relies on the success of the former. Economic incentives remain significant to motivating managers and retaining women in leadership jobs. Social implications Human resource management policies, such as Emiratisation, cannot be successful without empowering women. Originality/value The originality of this paper is drawn from using first-hand data to examine the multi-dimensionality argument of turnover in addition to the advancement of gender studies in leadership and management. The study also provided evidence that rationality (i.e. economic means) remains important to retain women managers.
An Interval Matrix Based Generalized Newton Method for Linear Complementarity Problems

The penalty equation of LCP is transformed into the absolute value equation, and then the existence of solutions for the penalty equation is proved by the regularity of the interval matrix. We propose a generalized Newton method for solving the linear complementarity problem with the regular interval matrix based on the nonlinear penalized equation. Further, we prove that this method is convergent. Numerical experiments are presented to show that the generalized Newton method is effective.
Comparison of the enzymatic stability and intraocular pressure effects of 2-arachidonylglycerol and noladin ether, a novel putative endocannabinoid.

PURPOSE The endogenous cannabinoids N-arachidonylethanolamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonylglycerol (2-AG) are known to decrease intraocular pressure (IOP). Recently, a novel putative endogenous cannabinoid, noladin ether, was isolated in porcine and rat brains. In the present study, both the degradation of endogenous cannabinoids in ocular tissues and the effect on IOP of 2-AG and noladin ether were compared. METHODS The rates of enzymatic degradation for AEA, 2-AG, and noladin ether were determined in bovine cornea and iris-ciliary body homogenates. 2-AG and noladin ether were dissolved in either hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-beta-CD) or propylene glycol and administered unilaterally to the rabbit eye. IOPs were measured in the treated and untreated eyes. The CB1 receptor antagonist AM251 was administered topically 15 minutes before the cannabinoids to investigate whether CB1 receptors mediate the effect on IOP produced by 2-AG and noladin ether. RESULTS Noladin ether degraded more slowly than either 2-AG or AEA in the iris-ciliary body and cornea homogenates. The effect on IOP of 2-AG was biphasic (i.e., an initial increase in IOP followed by a reduction in the treated eye). Noladin ether decreased IOP immediately after topical administration, and no initial IOP increase was observed in the treated eye. The CB1 receptor antagonist AM251 (25 micro g) blocked the effect on IOP of noladin ether but did not affect the action of 2-AG. CONCLUSIONS Topical administration of the novel putative endogenous cannabinoid noladin ether decreased IOP in rabbits. This IOP reduction was most probably mediated through the CB1 receptor. The effect on IOP of noladin ether differed from those of the known endogenous cannabinoids AEA and 2-AG, probably because of its more stable chemical structure.
In vitro and in vivo characterization of pigment epithelial cells differentiated from primate embryonic stem cells.

PURPOSE To determine whether primate embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived pigment epithelial cells (ESPEs) have the properties and functions of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells in vitro and in vivo. METHODS Cynomolgus monkey ES cells were induced to differentiate into pigment epithelial cells by coculturing them with PA6 stromal cells in a differentiating medium. The expanded, single-layer ESPEs were examined by light and electron microscopy. The expression of standard RPE markers by the ESPEs was determined by RT-PCR, Western blot, and immunocytochemical analyses. The ESPEs were transplanted into the subretinal space of 4-week-old Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rats, and the eyes were analyzed immunohistochemically at 8 weeks after grafting. The effect of the ESPE graft on the visual function of RCS rats was estimated by optokinetic reflex. RESULTS The expanded ESPEs were hexagonal and contained significant amounts of pigment. The ESPEs expressed typical RPE markers: ZO-1, RPE65, CRALBP, and Mertk. They had extensive microvilli and were able to phagocytose latex beads. When transplanted into the subretinal space of RCS rats, the grafted ESPEs enhanced the survival of the host photoreceptors. The effects of the transplanted ESPEs were confirmed by histologic analyses and behavioral tests. CONCLUSIONS The ESPEs had morphologic and physiological properties of normal RPE cells, and these findings suggest that these cells may provide an unlimited source of primate cells to be used for the study of pathogenesis, drug development, and cell-replacement therapy in eyes with retinal degenerative diseases due to primary RPE dysfunction.
Spectral Networks and Locally Connected Networks on Graphs

Convolutional Neural Networks are extremely efficient architectures in image and audio recognition tasks, thanks to their ability to exploit the local translational invariance of signal classes over their domain. In this paper we consider possible generalizations of CNNs to signals defined on more general domains without the action of a translation group. In particular, we propose two constructions, one based upon a hierarchical clustering of the domain, and another based on the spectrum of the graph Laplacian. We show through experiments that for low-dimensional graphs it is possible to learn convolutional layers with a number of parameters independent of the input size, resulting in efficient deep architectures.
CoAA, a Nuclear Receptor Coactivator Protein at the Interface of Transcriptional Coactivation and RNA Splicing

ABSTRACT We have shown that steroid hormones coordinately control gene transcriptional activity and splicing decisions in a promoter-dependent manner. Our hypothesis is that a subset of hormonally recruited coregulators involved in regulation of promoter transcriptional activity also directly participate in alternative RNA splicing decisions. To gain insight into the molecular mechanisms by which transcriptional coregulators could control splicing decisions, we focused our attention on a recently identified coactivator, CoAA. This heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP)-like protein interacts with the transcriptional coregulator TRBP, a protein recruited to target promoters through interactions with activated nuclear receptors. Using transcriptional and splicing reporter genes driven by different promoters, we observed that CoAA mediates transcriptional and splicing effects in a promoter-preferential manner. We compared the activity of CoAA to the activity of other hnRNP-related proteins that, like CoAA, contain two N-terminal RNA recognition motifs (RRMs) followed by a C-terminal auxiliary domain and either have or have not been implicated in transcriptional control. By swapping either CoAA RRMs or the CoAA auxiliary domain with the corresponding domains of the proteins selected, we showed that depending on the promoter, the RRMs and the auxiliary domain of CoAA are differentially engaged in transcription. This contributes to the promoter-preferential effects mediated by CoAA on RNA splicing during the course of steroid hormone action.