Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Language comprehension: Archival memory or preparation for situated action?

Current paradigms study language comprehension as if archival memory were its primary function. Participants only receive linguistic material and are later tested on memory for its contents. In contrast, the 2 target articles in this issue—Glenberg and Robertson, and Roth—examine comprehension as if preparing for situated action were its primary function. Besides receiving linguistic materials as input, participants study objects, actions, and interactions among agents. Rather than simply being tested on memory for linguistic materials, participants also produce actions and enter into group interactions. Although these researchers focus their attention on specific genres—the comprehension of verbal instructions and the comprehension of scientific theories—their methods and findings have wider implications. In particular, the primary function of comprehension is not to archive information but is instead to prepare agents for situated action. Arguments from the evolution of cognition and language are brough.
Our Homes: An inclusive study about what moving house is like for people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland

Background: Supporting people with intellectual disabilities to live well in communities they choose is deinstitutionalisation’s central aim and endorsed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (UN, 2006). This study focused on the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland when moving home using an inclusive research approach. Method: This inclusive research project employed a qualitative approach. Participants included 19 men and 16 women (total n = 35) with ages ranging from 22 to 77 years. Structured interviews attended to the experience of moving home and the supports accessed during and after the transition to community living. Results: Thematic analysis yielded four themes: “expressing choice” in the moving process; “feeling connected or isolated when moving”; “accessing supports during and after the move”; and finally, participants’ reflections on “experiencing vulnerability and feeling safe” while resettling. Conclusions: This is the first study about people with intellectual disabilities moving home to be collaboratively designed and completed by an inclusive research team. Although much is understood about the long‐term benefits of engaging in meaningful choices about housing and supports, concerns remain about the extent to which the will and preferences of people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland are respected when moving home.
Supersymmetry as a cosmic censor.

Here we investigate (U(1)j charged dilaton black holes in this context. The extreme solutions are shown to saturate the supersymmetry bound of N = 4, d = 4 supergravity, or dimensionally reduced superstring theory. Specifically, we have shown that extreme dilaton black holes, with electric and magnetic charges, admit supercovariantly constant spinors. The supersymmetric positivity bound for dilaton black holes is given by M & ~ (~Q~+ ~P~). This condition for dilaton black holes coincides with the cosmic censorship requirement that the singularities be hidden, as was the case for other asymptotically Bat static black-hole solutions. We conjecture that the bounds from supersymmetry and cosmic censorship will coincide for more general solutions as well. The temperature, entropy, and singularity of the stringy black hole are discussed in connection with the extreme limit and restoration of supersymmetry. The Euclidean action (entropy) of the extreme black hole is given by 2+~PQ~. We argue that this result is not altered by higher-order corrections in the supersymmetric theory. In the Lorentzian signature, quantum corrections to the effective on-shell action in the extreme black-hole background are also absent. When a black hole reaches its extreme limit, the thermal description breaks down. It cannot continue to evaporate by emitting (uncharged) elementary particles, since this would violate the supersymmetric positivity bound. We speculate on the possibility that an extreme black hole may "evaporate" by emitting smaller extreme black holes.
Recall and Reconsolidation of Contextual Fear Memory: Differential Control by ERK and Zif268 Expression Dosage

Compelling evidence points to the existence of independent cellular processes involved in the consolidation and reconsolidation of memory. For instance, a double dissociation has been reported between hippocampal Extracellular-Regulated Kinase-1/2 (ERK1/2) activity being necessary for contextual fear conditioning (CFC) consolidation but not reconsolidation. Conversely, hippocampal expression of the immediate early gene Zif268 is necessary for CFC reconsolidation but not consolidation. Since we previously reported that ERK1/2 controls the transcription of Zif268 in the hippocampus, we examined the precise role of ERK1/2 activity and Zif268 gene expression dosage in CFC memory processing. For this, we first assessed performance of Zif268 homozygous and heterozygous mutant mice in a CFC paradigm. Whereas Zif268−/− mice displayed a deficit of both consolidation and reconsolidation, Zif268+/− mice displayed a selective deficit of reconsolidation only, therefore pointing to the relationship between Zif268 gene expression dosage and CFC memory processing. Zif268 gene expression dosage interfered with the reconsolidation process if and only if CFC memory was relatively recently encoded and directly reactivated. Furthermore, CFC memory strengthening previously reported to involve Zif268 expression in the hippocampus was spared in Zif268+/− mice. Finally, blocking ERK1/2 activity prior to CFC retrieval prevented the deficit of reconsolidation observed in Zif268+/− mice. Collectively, these results highlight a tight relationship between Zif268 gene expression dosage and CFC memory processing. They also suggest that ERK1/2 activity upon CFC memory recall is necessary for its retrieval, a prerequisite for its reactivation and subsequent reconsolidation.
Improved delay-range-dependent stability analysis of a T-S Fuzzy system with time varying delay

This paper presents a new & improved stability analysis for Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) Fuzzy system subjected to interval time-varying delay. The stability analysis provides a sufficient stability condition in an Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) frame work that can estimate less conservative delay upper bound for a given lower bound of delay. The analysis is carried out by proposing new and modified Lyapunov-Krasovskii (L-K) functional along with the judicious use of Jensen's integral for eliminating the integral terms arising out from the time derivative of L-K functional, these modifications in turn leads to convex combination of the LMIs. Few numerical examples are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained stability condition compared to some recently published stability conditions for different delay nature while delay is varying in intervals.
Two-year follow-up study of elderly residents in S. Paulo, Brazil: methodology and preliminary results.

INTRODUCTION Previous cross-sectional studies have shown a high prevalence of chronic disease and disability among the elderly. Given Brazil's rapid aging process and the obvious consequences of the growing number of old people with chronic diseases and associated disabilities for the provision of health services, a need was felt for a study that would overcome the limitations of cross-sectional data and shed some light on the main factors determining whether a person will live longer and free of disabling diseases, the so-called successful aging. The methodology of the first follow-up study of elderly residents in Brazil is presented. METHOD The profile of the initial cohort is compared with previous cross-sectional data and an in-depth analysis of nonresponse is carried out in order to assess the validity of future longitudinal analysis. The EPIDOSO ('Epidemiologia do Idoso') Study conducted a two-year follow-up of 1,667 elderly people (65+), living in S. Paulo. The study consisted of two waves, each consisting of household, clinical, and biochemical surveys. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS In general, the initial cohort showed a similar profile to previous cross-sectional samples in S. Paulo. There was a majority of women, mostly widows, living in multigenerational households, and a high prevalence of chronic illnesses, psychiatric disturbances, and physical disabilities. Despite all the difficulties inherent in follow-up studies, there was a fairly low rate of nonresponse to the household survey after two years, which did not actually affect the representation of the cohort at the final household assessment, making unbiased longitudinal analysis possible. Concerning the clinical and blood sampling surveys, the respondents tended to be younger and less disabled than the nonrespondents, limiting the use of the clinical and laboratory data to longitudinal analysis aimed at a healthier cohort. It is worth mentioning that gender, education, family support, and socioeconomic status were not important determinants of nonresponse, as is often the case.
Tinnitus Intensity Dependent Gamma Oscillations of the Contralateral Auditory Cortex

Background Non-pulsatile tinnitus is considered a subjective auditory phantom phenomenon present in 10 to 15% of the population. Tinnitus as a phantom phenomenon is related to hyperactivity and reorganization of the auditory cortex. Magnetoencephalography studies demonstrate a correlation between gamma band activity in the contralateral auditory cortex and the presence of tinnitus. The present study aims to investigate the relation between objective gamma-band activity in the contralateral auditory cortex and subjective tinnitus loudness scores. Methods and Findings In unilateral tinnitus patients (N = 15; 10 right, 5 left) source analysis of resting state electroencephalographic gamma band oscillations shows a strong positive correlation with Visual Analogue Scale loudness scores in the contralateral auditory cortex (max r = 0.73, p<0.05). Conclusion Auditory phantom percepts thus show similar sound level dependent activation of the contralateral auditory cortex as observed in normal audition. In view of recent consciousness models and tinnitus network models these results suggest tinnitus loudness is coded by gamma band activity in the contralateral auditory cortex but might not, by itself, be responsible for tinnitus perception.
A Retrospective Review from 2006 to 2011 of Lower Extremity Injuries in Badminton in New Zealand

Aim: To describe lower extremity injuries for badminton in New Zealand. Methods: Lower limb badminton injuries that resulted in claims accepted by the national insurance company Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) in New Zealand between 2006 and 2011 were reviewed. Results: The estimated national injury incidence for badminton injuries in New Zealand from 2006 to 2011 was 0.66%. There were 1909 lower limb badminton injury claims which cost NZ$2,014,337 (NZ$ value over 2006 to 2011). The age-bands frequently injured were 10–19 (22%), 40–49 (22%), 30–39 (14%) and 50–59 (13%) years. Sixty five percent of lower limb injuries were knee ligament sprains/tears. Males sustained more cruciate ligament sprains than females (75 vs. 39). Movements involving turning, changing direction, shifting weight, pivoting or twisting were responsible for 34% of lower extremity injuries. Conclusion: The knee was most frequently injured which could be due to multi-planar loading. Turning or cutting movements typically involve motion in the frontal and transverse planes that may place the knee at greater risk of injury than movement in the sagittal plane alone. Further research on badminton specific movements is warranted to better understand the mechanisms of lower extremity injuries in the sport. Sports medicine and support personnel should take into account the susceptibility of the knee to injury when designing training and injury prevention programmes given the large number of change of direction movements during badminton.
MPC-based control of engine deceleration with open torque converter

We consider the speed control of a spark ignition engine with an open torque converter during vehicle deceleration. In these conditions, the torque transmitted from the engine to the wheels through the torque converter, and the corresponding torque load on the engine, is related to the torque converter speed ratio, the ratio between the turbine speed and the engine/impeller speed. The engine speed controller needs to effectively coordinate airflow and spark timing and to enforce constraints including engine stall avoidance, misfire avoidance, and desired actuator operating ranges. We formulate a model of the relevant powertrain dynamics, and propose a parametrization that removes a multiplicative nonlinearity, hence enabling the application of linear quadratic model predictive control (MPC). The MPC controller is synthesized as a piecewise affine state feedback and evaluated in simulations and in an experimental vehicle showing good performance in reference tracking and settling time, which translates in smooth and more consistent deceleration profiles and potential for fuel economy improvements.
Shipping Costs, Manufactured Exports, and Economic Growth

In the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith put great stress on the relationship between geographic location and international trade. Smith observed that a more extensive division of labor was likely to develop first along sea coasts and navigable rivers, where transport costs were especially low: As by means of water-carriage a more extensive market is opened to every sort of industry than what land-carriage alone can afford it, so it is upon the sea-coast, and along the banks of navigable rivers, that industry of every kind naturally begins to sub-divide and improve itself, and it is frequently not till a long time after that those improvements extend themselves to the inland part of the country. In this paper authors examine some empirical evidence on differences in shipping costs across developing countries, and its impact on manufactured exports and economic growth. The authors find that geographical considerations, specifically access to the sea and distance to major markets, have a strong impact on shipping costs, which in turn influence success in manufactured exports and long-run economic growth. Countries with lower shipping costs have had faster manufactured export growth and overall economic growth during the past thirty years than country’s with higher shipping costs. The evidence suggests that high-shipping cost countries will find it more difficult to promote export-led development, even if they reduce tariff rates, remove quantitative restrictions, and follow prudent macroeconomic policies. At a minimum, firms in such countries will be forced to pay lower wages to compensate for higher transport costs in order to be able to compete on world markets for manufactures. The required offset in wages might be quite substantial in the usual case for developing countries in which imported inputs constitute a high proportion of the value of exports. In such sectors, high transport costs can easily wipe out export profitability even if wage levels were to fall to zero. As a result, geographically remote countries such as Mongolia, Rwanda, Burundi, Bolivia may not realistically be able to replicate the East Asian model of rapid growth based on the export of labor-intensive manufactes.
Division of Effort, Productivity, Quality, and Relationships in FLOSS Virtual Teams: Evidence from the FreeBSD Project

Research in virtual teams and distributed work argues that the lack of collocation places an overhead on the performance potential of large, globally distributed teams. In this paper, we revisit this tenet through a case study of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development to demonstrate how globally dispersed FLOSS communities manage to overcome the problem of geographic separation of their members. Our results show that successful FLOSS teams demonstrate a truly global distribution of members, who perform different types of work so as to achieve consistent round-the-clock development, without any apparent ill effects on team productivity and the quality of the resulting outcomes. Cooperation between team members is abundant, especially at more complex work items, and does not seem to be affected by distance; only mentoring relationships appear in some cases to be easier to cultivate between individuals living closer together. These findings challenge the conventional wisdom of research in distributed work, in cases where virtual teams consist of highly skilled and motivated individuals, who leverage the power of communication technologies to overcome problems associated with physical distance.
The prevalence of hepatitis C among healthcare workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of viral hepatitis C (HCV) infection among healthcare workers (HCWs) compared to the general population. A systematic search for the years 1989–2014 was conducted in the Medline, Embase and Cochrane databases. Studies on hepatitis C in HCWs were included if they incorporated either a control group or reference data for the general population. The study quality was classified as high, moderate or low. Pooled effect estimates were calculated to determine the odds of occupational infection. Heterogeneity between studies was analysed using the χ2 test (p<0.10) and quantified using the I2 test. 57 studies met our criteria for inclusion and 44 were included in the meta-analysis. Analysis of high and moderate quality studies showed a significantly increased OR for HCV infection in HCWs relative to control populations, with a value of 1.6 (95% CI 1.03 to 2.42). Stratification by study region gave an OR of 2.1 in low prevalence countries; while stratification by occupational groups gave an increased prevalence for medical (OR 2.2) and for laboratory staff (OR 2.2). The OR for professionals at high risk of blood contact was 2.7. The pooled analysis indicates that the prevalence of infection is significantly higher in HCWs than in the general population. The highest prevalence was observed among medical and laboratory staff. Prospective studies that focus on HCW-specific activity and personal risk factors for HCV infection are needed.
A Single Chain Variant of Factor VIII Fc Fusion Protein Retains Normal In Vivo Efficacy but Exhibits Altered In Vitro Activity

Recombinant factor VIII Fc (rFVIIIFc) is a fusion protein consisting of a single B-domain-deleted (BDD) FVIII linked recombinantly to the Fc domain of human IgG1 to extend half-life. To determine if rFVIIIFc could be further improved by maintaining the heavy and light chains within a contiguous single chain (SC), we evaluated the activity and function of SC rFVIIIFc, an isoform that is not processed at residue R1648. SC rFVIIIFc showed equivalent activity in a chromogenic assay compared to rFVIIIFc, but approximately 40% activity by the one-stage clotting assay in the presence of von Willebrand Factor (VWF), with full activity in the absence of VWF. Moreover, SC rFVIIIFc demonstrated markedly delayed thrombin-mediated release from VWF, but an activity similar to that of rFVIIIFc upon activation in FXa generation assays. Therefore, the apparent reduction in specific activity in the aPTT assay appears to be primarily due to delayed release of FVIII from VWF. To assess whether stability and activity of SC rFVIIIFc were affected in vivo, a tail vein transection model in Hemophilia A mice was utilized. The results demonstrated similar pharmacokinetic profiles and comparable efficacy for SC rFVIIIFc and rFVIIIFc. Thus, while the single chain configuration did not promote enhanced half-life, it reduced the rate of release of FVIII from VWF required for activation. This impaired release may underlie the observed reduction in the one-stage clotting assay, but does not appear to affect the physiological activity of SC rFVIIIFc.
The Power Spectrum of Galaxy Clustering in the Las Campanas Redshift Survey

The Las Campanas Redshift Survey (LCRS) contains 23, 697 galaxies, with an average redshift z = 0.1, distributed over six 1. °5 × 80° slices in the north and south galactic caps. We have computed the power spectrum P(k) for magnitude-limited samples of LCRS galaxies over wavelengths λ = 2π/k = 5–400 h−1 Mpc. The LCRS P(k) may be approximated as ∝ k−1.8±0.1 for small scales λ = 5–30 h−1 Mpc, changing to ∝k1 ± 1 for large scales λ ≈ 200-400 h−1 Mpc. The overall amplitude corresponds to σ8 = 1.0 ± 0.1 in redshift space. Comparisons to the power spectra of other redshift surveys will be presented; the LCRS results agree best with those from the combined Center for Astrophysics (CfA2) and Southern Sky redshift surveys (SSRS2). For λ ≳ 100 h−1 Mpc, the LCRS results are consistent with those of other surveys, given the large errors among all the surveys on these scales. For λ ≲ 100 h−1 Mpc, the LCRS P(k) is well determined and similar in shape to the P(k) of other surveys, but with an amplitude differing from some of the other samples, possibly because of inherent clustering differences among different types of galaxies. In particular, power spectrum measurements for volume-limited LCRS samples show that galaxies brighter than about M* − 1 appear about 50% more strongly clustered than those fainter. Also, a sample of LCRS emission galaxies shows 30% weaker clustering than the full LCRS sample. Comparisons to N-body models show that the LCRS power spectrum lies intermediate between that of a standard flat Ω0h = 0.5 cold dark matter (CDM) model and an open Ω0h = 0.2 model, both normalized to σ8 = 1 for galaxies. On large scales λ ≳ 40 h−1 Mpc, we have fit the LCRS results to various linear CDM models, and find that a number of them could meet the constraints set by the LCRS power spectrum, the Hubble constant range 0.5 ≲ h ≲ 0.8, the abundance of galaxy clusters, and the reasonable assumption that LCRS galaxies are roughly unbiased tracers of the mass, relative to the normalization provided by the 4 year COBE DMR data. The possibilities include open CDM or flat nonzero cosmological-constant CDM models with Ω0 ≈ 0.4–0.6 and shape parameter Γ ≈ Ω0h ≈ 0.2–0.3, as well as flat Ω0 = 1 models with massive neutrino density Ωv ≈ 0.2–0.3 or a spectral tilt n ≈ 0.7–0.8.
A Constraint Programming Approach for Enumerating Motifs in a Sequence

In this paper we propose a constraint programming approach for enumerating all frequent patterns with wildcards in a given sequence. To reduce the search space, we show that the anti-monotonicity property of frequent patterns can be dynamically encoded using no good recording based approach. Finally, the constraints network is encoded as a Boolean formula. This last step allows us to exploit the efficiency of modern SAT solvers and particularly their clauses learning component. Preliminary experiments on real world data show the feasibility of our approach in practice.