Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temporal-Difference Learning to Assist Human Decision Making during the Control of an Artificial Limb

In this work we explore the use of reinforcement learning (RL) to help with human decision making, combining stateof-the-art RL algorithms with an application to prosthetics. Managing human-machine interaction is a problem of considerable scope, and the simplification of human-robot interfaces is especially important in the domains of biomedical technology and rehabilitation medicine. For example, amputees who control artificial limbs are often required to quickly switch between a number of control actions or modes of operation in order to operate their devices. We suggest that by learning to anticipate (predict) a user’s behaviour, artificial limbs could take on an active role in a human’s control decisions so as to reduce the burden on their users. Recently, we showed that RL in the form of general value functions (GVFs) could be used to accurately detect a user’s control intent prior to their explicit control choices. In the present work, we explore the use of temporal-difference learning and GVFs to predict when users will switch their control influence between the different motor functions of a robot arm. Experiments were performed using a multi-function robot arm that was controlled by muscle signals from a user’s body (similar to conventional artificial limb control). Our approach was able to acquire and maintain forecasts about a user’s switching decisions in real time. It also provides an intuitive and reward-free way for users to correct or reinforce the decisions made by the machine learning system. We expect that when a system is certain enough about its predictions, it can begin to take over switching decisions from the user to streamline control and potentially decrease the time and effort needed to complete tasks. This preliminary study therefore suggests a way to naturally integrate human- and machine-based decision making systems.
The Predictive Utility of the Vertical Dyad Linkage Approach

Abstract In a constructive replication of past vertical dyad linkage (VDL) research, the leader-member exchange scores of 192 hospital employees in the United States were used to predict reports of felt equity and satisfaction, as well as employment status over a one-year period. Although the results failed to establish leader-member exchange as predictive of employee turnover, leader-member exchange was closely associated with satisfaction and felt equity. These results suggest that previous findings reported by Graen, Liden, and Hoel (1982) and Ferris (1985) should not be overgeneralized and that additional conceptual refinement of the VDL approach may be necessary.
Pediatric staff perspectives on organ donation after cardiac death in children*

Objectives: The aims of this project were to describe whether pediatric clinical staff members believe that a donation after cardiac death (DCD) program could be consistent with the mission and core values of a children's hospital and to identify what staff consider essential to the acceptability of such a program. Design: Qualitative study. Setting: Children's hospital. Subjects: Pediatric clinical staff. Interventions: Data were gathered from pediatric clinical staff during eight focus groups conducted in a children's hospital in March and April 2005. Measurements and Main Results: Eighty-eight staff members participated. Six major themes emerged from qualitative analysis of the data: a) identifying children who could be candidates for DCD; b) considering the best interests of the dying child; c) approaching parents about DCD; d) preparing parents for their child's DCD; e) doing DCD well; and f) maintaining program integrity. Themes were used to construct a conceptual framework describing a model pediatric DCD program. Pediatric staff voiced numerous concerns. However, they identified “making it happen for families” who voice a desire to participate in organ donation as the primary reason for program adoption. Conclusions: This study provides a framework for understanding pediatric staff perspectives on DCD programs in children. Results suggest several possible elements that may be helpful in framing interdisciplinary dialogue and informing institutional practices in the design of a pediatric DCD program.
The role of leader-member exchanges in mediating the relationship between locus of control and work reactions

The relationship between locus of control, the quality of exchanges between subordinates and leaders (LMX), and a variety of work-related reactions (intrinsic/extrinsic job satisfaction, work-related well-being, and organizational commitment) are examined. It was predicted that people with an internal locus of control develop better quality relations with their manager and this, in turn, results in more favourable work-related reactions. Results from two different samples (N=404, and N=51) supported this prediction, and also showed that LMX either fully, or partially, mediated the relationship between locus of control and all the work-related reactions.
Carbonic Anhydrase from Porphyromonas Gingivalis as a Drug Target

Periodontitis originates from a microbial synergy causing the development of a mouth microbial imbalance (dysbiosis), consisting of a microbial community composed of anaerobic bacteria. Most studies concerning the treatment of periodontitis have primarily take into account the Gram-negative bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis, because it is a prominent component of the oral microbiome and a successful colonizer of the oral epithelium. Here, we focus our attention on the study of the carbonic anhydrases (CAs, EC 4.2.1.1) encoded in the genome of this pathogen as a possible drug target. Carbonic anhydrases are a superfamily of metalloenzymes, which catalyze the simple but physiologically crucial reaction of carbon dioxide hydration to bicarbonate and protons. Bacterial CAs have attracted significant attention for affecting the survival, invasion, and pathogenicity of many microorganisms. The P. gingivalis genome encodes for two CAs belonging to β-CA (PgiCAβ) and γ-CA (PgiCAγ) families. These two enzymes were cloned, heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli, and purified to homogeneity. Moreover, they were subject to extensive inhibition studies using the classical CA inhibitors (sulfonamides and anions) with the aim of identifying selective inhibitors of PgiCAβ and PgiCAγ to be used as pharmacological tools for P. gingivalis eradication.
Estimating the Precursor Frequency of Naive Antigen-specific CD8 T Cells

The constraint of fitting a diverse repertoire of antigen specificities in a limited total population of lymphocytes results in the frequency of naive cells specific for any given antigen (defined as the precursor frequency) being below the limit of detection by direct measurement. We have estimated this precursor frequency by titrating a known quantity of antigen-specific cells into naive recipients. Adoptive transfer of naive antigen-specific T cell receptor transgenic cells into syngeneic nontransgenic recipients, followed by stimulation with specific antigen, results in activation and expansion of both donor and endogenous antigen-specific cells in a dose-dependent manner. The precursor frequency is equal to the number of transferred cells when the transgenic and endogenous responses are of equal magnitude. Using this method we have estimated the precursor frequency of naive CD8 T cells specific for the H-2Db–restricted GP33–41 epitope of LCMV to be 1 in 2 × 105. Thus, in an uninfected mouse containing ∼2-4 × 107 naive CD8 T cells we estimate there to be 100–200 epitope-specific cells. After LCMV infection these 100–200 GP33-specific naive CD8 T cells divide >14 times in 1 wk to reach a total of ∼107 cells. Approximately 5% of these activated GP33-specific effector CD8 T cells survive to generate a memory pool consisting of ∼5 × 105 cells. Thus, an acute LCMV infection results in a >1,000-fold increase in precursor frequency of DbGP33-specific CD8 T cells from 2 × 102 naive cells in uninfected mice to 5 × 105 memory cells in immunized mice.
Measuring the quality of life of people with severe and enduring mental health problems in different settings

Research has shown that quality of life (QOL) among people with severe and enduring mental health problems is better if they live in the community rather than in hospital. In the course of a study to replicate this result in one particular service, comparisons were made between different QOL measures in their suitability for routine clinical use. Forty-five hospital and community residents each took part in four out of six QOL assessments: the Life Experience Checklist (Ager, 1990) in user and keyworker report forms; the Quality of Life Questionnaire (Bigelow, McFarland & Olson, 1991); the Quality of Life Interview (Lehman, 1983); Values Satisfaction (Hartley, 1988) and Five Accomplishments (developed specifically for the study). Measures were also taken of adaptive behaviours and psychiatric symptomatology, as well as the practicalities of completion. The expected difference between hospital and community residents was found for three of the six measures (LEC-keyworker, Bigelow and Five Accomplishments), which were also strongly correlated with psychiatric symptomatology and adaptive behaviour scores. The measures differed considerably in the numbers of failures to complete, the percentage of missing data and the amount of face-to-face contact with service users required. The correlations between subscale scores on the different measures were generally low. The study raises questions about the robustness of the QOL construct, and its use as an outcome measure in mental health.
Mental Models, Decision Rules, and Performance Heterogeneity

This paper focuses on the role of managerial cognition as a source of heterogeneity in firm strategies and performance. We link differences in mental models to differences in decision rules and performance in a management simulation. Our results show more accurate mental models lead to better decision rules and higher performance. We also find that decision makers do not need accurate knowledge of the entire business environment; accurate mental models of the key principles are sufficient to achieve superior performance. A fundamental assumption in much of strategic management is that managers who have a richer understanding about organizational capabilities and the dynamics of industry structure can improve the performance of their firms. Our findings provide empirical evidence supporting this assumption and show that differences in mental models help explain ex ante why managers and firms adopt different strategies and achieve different levels of competitive success.
A model of saccadic landing positions in reading under the influence of sensory noise

During reading, saccadic eye movements are produced to move the high acuity foveal region of the eye to words of interest for efficient word processing. Distributions of saccadic landing positions peak close to a word's centre but are relatively broad compared to simple oculomotor tasks. Moreover, landing-position distributions are modulated both by distance of the launch site and by saccade type (e.g., one-step saccade, word skipping, refixation). Here we present a mathematical model for the computation of a saccade intended for a given target word. Two fundamental assumptions are related to (1) the sensory computation of the word centre from inter-word spaces and (2) the integration of sensory information and a priori knowledge using Bayesian estimation. Our model was developed for data from a large corpus of eye movements from normal reading. We demonstrate that the model is able simultaneously to account for a systematic shift of saccadic mean landing position with increasing launch-site distance and for qualitative differences between one-step saccades (i.e., from a given word to the next word) and word-skipping saccades.
Sometimes stories sell: When are narrative appeals most likely to work?

Research has demonstrated that narratives can be effective in eliciting attitude change, especially when recipients become transported into the narrative. In three studies, we addressed whether some people are predisposed to be influenced by narratives and whether narrative and rhetorical appeals are differentially effective for different people. In Study 1, participants read an experimental or a control narrative, and completed measures of attitudes, need for affect (NFA), need for cognition (NFC), transportation, and transportability. The results revealed that NFA and NFC were positively correlated with transportation and transportability. In Study 2, participants read either a narrative appeal or a rhetorical appeal about cervical cancer and completed a measure of attitudes and the individual difference constructs. Study 3 was a replication of Study 2 using a different topic (organ donation). In both studies, the results revealed a consistent pattern of correlations among the individual difference measures. Further, we found that although the narrative and rhetorical appeals were judged to be of equal efficacy, the persuasiveness of the narrative appeal differed as function of individual differences in NFA and NFC. The implications for narrative persuasion are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Compensation Strategies by Korean Students

This study aims to provide an empirical foundation of student strategies to compensate for missing knowledge or deficiencies in speaking and listening ability while undertaking an oral exam interview. Observable compensation strategies that were employed and not employed by students are reported. In addition, strategies are ranked in order of most utilized to least utilized by study participants. Further, correlation results of strategies to test scores and strategies to gender and age variables were examined. Relationships were observed between guessing strategies and female students, as well as guessing strategies and older students. Also, students who engaged in reduction strategies—such as giving-up and tuning out—were most likely to have lower test scores, suggesting the importance of teaching them alternatives to these
The Existence and Stability of Asymmetric Spike Patterns for the Schnakenberg Model

Asymmetric spike patterns are constructed for the two‐component Schnakenburg reaction–diffusion system in the singularly perturbed limit of a small diffusivity of one of the components. For a pattern with k spikes, the construction yields k1 spikes that have a common small amplitude and k2=k−k1 spikes that have a common large amplitude. A k‐spike asymmetric equilibrium solution is obtained from an arbitrary ordering of the small and large spikes on the domain. Explicit conditions for the existence and linear stability of these asymmetric spike patterns are determined using a combination of asymptotic techniques and spectral properties associated with a certain nonlocal eigenvalue problem. These asymmetric solutions are found to bifurcate from symmetric spike patterns at certain critical values of the parameters. Two interesting conclusions are that asymmetric patterns can exist for a reaction–diffusion system with spatially homogeneous coefficients under Neumann boundary conditions and that these solutions can be linearly stable on an O(1) time scale.
Appendix S 2 : Deterministic limit of the stochastic model when K →

We wish to reduce the number of parameters in the model and make it so that the model is more easily comparable to our previous work [1]. To do this we first look at the nonspatial single morph model which is given by: Ni(t+ 1) = (1 + b)Ni(t) exp(−mi −mi (1 + b)Nt) For the purpose of this model we want the carrying capacity K to be fixed by the equilibrium population density. We therefore calculate the equilibrium density N∗ i by setting Ni(t + 1) = N(t) which gives the equilibrium to be N∗ i = log(1+b)−m0i mi (1+b) and then set K = N∗ i . The nonspatial version of the continuous model in [1] is given by dNi dt = riNi(1 − Ni K ). To relate the population growth rate term to the parameters in the discrete model we assume that when Ni is small we get exponential growth in one time step. We can therefore assume that when Ni << K we have Nt = N0e rit where N0 is the initial population size and t is time. In the discrete model when Ni << K we have that Nt = RtN0 where R = (1 + b)e −m0i . We can therefore relate the continuous and discrete models by R = ei , which gives ri = log(1 + b)−mi . In the full spatial model the parameter Di is defined in the same way as in [1] and so parameter values used in the two models are directly comparable.
Using Radial Outflow to Provide Depth Information During Teleoperation

Practical experience has shown that teleoperators have difficulty perceiving aspects of remotely operated robots and their environments (e.g., Casper & Murphy, 2003; Smets, 1995; Tittle, Roesler, & Woods, 2002). Previous research has shown that head motions can provide effective information about depth (Bingham, & Pagano, 1998; Pagano & Bingham, 1998). In three experiments, a method for improving depth perception was investigated, where participants viewed remote targets with a moving camera. The camera was mounted on a teleoperated robotic arm that oscillated toward and away from white squares against black space, producing expansion and contraction of targets on a video monitor. Participants viewed this expansion and contraction and then reported the distance between the remote camera and the targets. Under different experimental conditions, motions of the remote camera arm were coupled with the participants' head movements, were controlled by a joystick, or followed a set of preprogrammed oscillatory motions. Under each of these conditions, participants' distance judgments varied semantically with actual target distances. In addition, the third experiment demonstrated that using familiar objects and providing feedback could be a successful method of training. This was also the case when applied to a condition where distance feedback was not provided and unfamiliar targets were used. The results indicate that the use of radial outflow produced by active or passive front-to-back camera motions and training with familiar objects may be effective strategies for improving depth perception in teleoperation.
Are poor households credit-constrained or myopic? Evidence from a South African panel

Credit constraints are an almost ubiquitous assumption in development economics. Yet direct evidence for credit constraints is limited, and many observations consistent with credit constraints are equally compatible with precautionary saving or myopic (non-forward-looking) consumption. Using household panel data and a source of widely anticipated income in South Africa, this paper first tests and rejects the standard consumption model with perfect capital markets. The standard model enriched with credit constraints is then contrasted with precautionary saving and myopic consumption as alternative explanations for the observed expenditure pattern. The standard model with credit constraints cannot be rejected in favour of precautionary saving or myopic consumption. ∗I am grateful for comments and insights from my thesis supervisors Tim Besley and Maitreesh Ghatak and from my examiners Greg Fischer and Stefan Dercon, as well as from Martin Browning, Daniel Clarke and participants at the CSAE seminar series and the CSAE Conference 2010. I also thank the Research Council of Norway and the British Academy for financial support.
Postchemotherapy Hyperammonemic Encephalopathy Emulating Ornithine Transcarbamoylase (OTC) Deficiency

A young patient with hepatocellular carcinoma receiving chemotherapy presented with encephalopathy. Evaluation of the patient revealed a metabolic profile consistent with ornithine transcarbamoylase (OTC) deficiency, an inherited disorder of the urea cycle. The evaluation yielded a plasma amino acid analysis consistent with OTC deficiency. However, genetic analysis did not reveal a somatic mutation of the OTC gene in this patient. The hyperammonemic encephalopathy was reversed by the infusion of arginine, a common treatment for hereditary OTC deficiency. This case may represent a distinct syndrome of reversible hyperammonemia in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
Experiencing Gossip: The Foundations for a Theory of Embedded Organizational Gossip

This article presents findings on the nature and operation of gossip that emerged from an empirical study of organizational communication during a chief executive officer (CEO) succession process. By studying gossip within the context of a broader study of change-related communication, new insights were gained that extend, and in some respects challenge, commonly accepted views of the nature of gossip. The findings suggest gossip is experienced as coupled to or embedded in the other forms of change communication employees encountered across the CEO succession process. Gossip appears to be experienced as an integral part of sensemaking and social exchange and not as a phenomenon that can be fully understood in isolation to the formal and other types of informal communication that contribute to these processes. These findings provide the foundations for a theory of embedded organizational gossip that is offered here as a framework for further empirical study.
Finite state approximation for verification of partially observable stochastic hybrid systems

We consider the problem of verification of safety specifications for stochastic hybrid systems with a controller that has access to partial observations of the state. We address this problem through a finite state approximation of the stochastic hybrid system, which enables the use of existing solution techniques for partially observable Markov decision processes. First, we review a dynamic programming formulation of the safety (viability) problem over an equivalent information state. We then solve a dynamic program over the finite state approximation to generate a lower bound to the viability probability, using a point-based method that generates samples of the information state. Our approach produces approximate probabilistic viable sets and synthesizes a controller to satisfy safety specifications. We provide error bounds and convergence results, assuming additive Gaussian noise in the continuous state dynamics and observations. Finally, we demonstrate performance of the approximation on a simple temperature regulation problem.