Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computer design of super-orthogonal space-time trellis codes

Super-orthogonal space-time trellis codes (SOSTTC) designed by hand can significantly improve the performance of space-time trellis codes. This paper introduces a new representation of SOSTTC based on a generator matrix that allows a systematic and exhaustive search of all possible codes. This verifies that some of the known codes are optimal, and provides a means to easily implement encoders and decoders with a large number of states without relying on a graphic representation.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Resilience and growth in the aftermath of postdisaster intimate partner violence

ABSTRACT Given the multifaceted disruptions caused by disaster, and how disaster intersects with intimate partner violence (IPV), this study identifies the resilience and self-mastery characteristics of IPV survivors in the aftermath of disaster. The study is guided by the conservation of resources theory (COR-theory), utilizing a resource loss and resource protection analytical model to determine predictors of resilience and self-mastery. A cross-sectional design was used that included secondary data generated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gulf State Population Survey. Analysis involved employing a series of multiple regression models, comparing resilience outcomes of non-IPV and IPV populations who experienced the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill event. Results indicated that those respondents who reported experiencing IPV had stronger reactions to resource loss and resource protection, relative to the non-IPV sample. The study identifies implications for social service workers including the importance of cultivating basic resources when working with individuals and families affected by postdisaster IPV. Applying the resilience prediction model immediately postdisaster will allow first responders to make informed, evidence-based decisions about where and with whom to deploy their resources.
‘Practice architectures’, ‘scholarship’ and ‘middle leaders’ within an established community of HE practitioners in FE

Abstract This research draws on the concepts of practice architecture, middle leader and scholarship and uses narrative analysis drawn from a ‘community of practice’ of HE in FE practitioners. Whilst being an existing ‘community of practice’, the university concerned changed the collaborative framework of support and this provided a platform for the research, particularly in terms of their scholarship. Tutors at local colleges were interviewed regarding their journey into HE in FE and HE Managers were interviewed to present an alternative perspective of the management of HE in FE. Data indicate that the tutors are firstly early years practitioners but with very different journeys into FE and hence HE in FE teachers. Scholarship was defined as an ‘intellectual gym’ and all noted the ‘lack of understanding of HE’ by their FE managers. HE Managers reinforced this notion and made comments that related to the longevity of provision. Conclusions are that the arrangement set up by the university is useful in allowing the HE in FE staff time and space to reflect on their work and to ‘scholarship’ within a professional learning space that is vital to their development as HE in FE practitioners.
Incomplete preferences under uncertainty: Indecisiveness in beliefs versus tastes

We investigate the classical Anscombe–Aumann model of decision-making under uncertainty without the completeness axiom. We distinguish between the dual traits of “indecisiveness in beliefs” and “indecisiveness in tastes. ” The former is captured by the Knightian uncertainty model, the latter by the single-prior expected multi-utility model. We characterize axiomatically the latter model. Then we show that, under independence and continuity, these two models can be jointly characterized by means of a partial completeness property.
Conceptual Metaphors for Designing Multi-cultural Applications

This paper proposes a set of conceptual metaphors for the design of multi-cultural systems. The work is part of a long-term study to adapt the International Children's Digital Library for use in a Brazilian context. Results from previous studies along with Semiotic Engineering concepts have led us to propose five multi-cultural design metaphors to guide different communicative strategies that affect both designer-to-user communication and user-system communication.
Functional connectivity outperforms scale-free brain dynamics as fMRI predictive feature of perceptual learning underwent in MEG

Perceptual learning sculpts ongoing brain activity [1]. This finding has been observed by statistically comparing the functional connectivity (FC) patterns computed from resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data recorded before and after intensive training to a visual attention task. Hence, functional connectivity serves a dynamic role in brain function, supporting the consolidation of previous experience. Following this line of research, we trained three groups of individuals to a visual discrimination task during a magneto-encephalography (MEG) experiment [2]. The same individuals were then scanned in rs-fMRI. Here, in a supervised classification framework, we demonstrate that FC metrics computed on rs-fMRI data are able to predict the type of training the participants received. On top of that, we show that the prediction accuracies based on tangent embedding FC measure outperform those based on our recently developed multivariate wavelet-based Hurst exponent estimator [3], which captures low frequency fluctuations in ongoing brain activity too.
The Uyghur population and genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes: potential role for variants in CAPN10,APM1 and FUT6 genes

Genome‐wide association studies have successfully identified over 70 loci associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in multiple populations of European ancestry. However, the risk attributable to an individual variant is modest and does not yet provide convincing evidence for clinical utility. Association between these established genetic variants and T2DM in general populations is hitherto understudied in the isolated populations, such as the Uyghurs, resident in Hetian, far southern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. In this case–control study, we genotyped 13 single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at 10 genes associated with diabetes in 130 cases with T2DM and 135 healthy controls of Uyghur, a Chinese minority ethnic group. Three of the 13 SNPs demonstrated significant association with T2DM in the Uyghur population. There were significant differences between the T2DM patients and controls in the risk allele distributions of rs3792267 (CAPN10) (P = 0.002), rs1501299 (APM1) (P = 0.017), and rs3760776 (FUT6) (P = 0.031). Allelic carriers of rs3792267‐A, rs1501299‐T, and rs3760776‐T had a 2.24‐fold [OR (95% CI): 1.35–3.71], 0.59‐fold [OR (95% CI): 0.39–0.91], 0.57‐fold [OR (95% CI): 0.34–0.95] increased risk for T2DM respectively. We further confirmed that the cumulative risk allelic scores calculated from the 13 susceptibility loci for T2DM differed significantly between the T2DM patients and controls (P = 0.001), and the effect of obesity/overweight on T2DM was only observed in the subjects with a combined risk allelic score under a value of 17. This study observed that the SNPs rs3792267 in CAPN10, rs1501299 in APM1, and rs3760776 in FUT6 might serve as potential susceptible biomarkers for T2DM in Uyghurs. The cumulative risk allelic scores of multiple loci with modest individual effects are also significant risk factors in Uyghurs for T2DM, particularly among non‐obese individuals. This is the first investigation having observed/found genetic variations on genetic loci functionally linked with glycosylation associated with the risk of T2DM in a Uyghur population.
Non-cooperative power control for wireless ad hoc networks with repeated games

One of the distinctive features in a wireless ad hoc network is lack of any central controller or single point of authority, in which each node/link then makes its own decisions independently. Therefore, fully cooperative behaviors, such as cooperation for increasing system capacity, mitigating interference for each other, or honestly revealing private information, might not be directly applied. It has been shown that power control is an efficient approach to achieve quality of service (QoS) requirement in ad hoc networks. However, the existing work has largely relied on cooperation among different nodes/links or a pricing mechanism that often needs a third-party involvement. In this paper, we aim to design a non-cooperative power control algorithm without pricing mechanism for ad hoc networks. We view the interaction among the users' decision for power level as a repeated game. With the theory of stochastic fictitious play (SFP), we propose a reinforcement learning algorithm to schedule each user's power level. There are three distinctive features in our proposed scheme. First, the user's decision at each stage is self-incentive with myopic best response correspondence. Second, the dynamics arising from our proposed algorithm eventually converges to pure Nash equilibrium (NE). Third, our scheme does not need any information exchange or to observe the opponents' private information. Therefore, this proposed algorithm can safely run in a fully selfish environment without any additional pricing and secure mechanism. Simulation study demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed scheme.
Confidence limits of evolutionary synthesis models - III. On time-integrated quantities

Evolutionary synthesis models are a fundamental tool to interpret the properties of observed stellar systems. In order to achieve a meaningful comparison between models and real data, it is necessary to calibrate the models themselves, i.e. to evaluate the dispersion due to the discreteness of star formation as well as the possible model errors. In this paper we show that linear interpolations in the $\log M - \log t_{k}$ plane, that are customary in the evaluation of isochrones in evolutionary synthesis codes, produce unphysical results. We also show that some of the methods used in the calculation of time-integrated quantities (kinetic energy, and total ejected masses of different elements) may produce unrealistic results. We propose alternative solutions to solve both problems. Moreover, we have quantified the expected dispersion of these quantities due to stochastic effects in stellar populations. As a particular result, we show that the dispersion in the $^{14}\mathrm{N}/^{12}\mathrm{C}$ ratio increases with time.
Start with Higher-Order Thinking.

In this article, I share three of the many strategies available for infusing higher-order thinking skills into your lesson plans. Try one or more of these, and experience the magic of students thinking together. With support and scaffolding (students who are used to memorization and drill may need to be convinced you really want them to think), both learning and motivation should improve. And that may inspire you to find other ways to infuse higher-order thinking into your classroom lessons.
DISCOVERING LANGUAGE STRATEGIES THROUGH SELF-ASSESSMENT: STUDENTS BECOMING INDEPENDENT LEARNERS

This action research study investigated the effect learner-centered assessment had on young adults learning Modern Greek as a foreign language in a post-secondary setting. Specifically, it investigated how self-assessment affected their perception of their language abilities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The study grew out of a need to create a more learner-centered classroom at the university level and to promote independent learning. For a six-week period, students in a second-semester Modern Greek language class were asked to self-assess their writing, reading, listening, and speaking abilities given open-ended questions and rubrics for each language skill. At the end of the six week period, all the participants were given a survey about their self-assessment experiences and asked to reflect how it affected them. The quantified answers of the Likert-type questions as well as a discourse analysis of the open-ended question on the survey show that the majority of students had become more aware of their learning strategies and that they would continue to use self-assessment in their future coursework, particularly Modern Greek. As a result of implementing self-assessment in the curriculum, learner activities in the class also changed by becoming more communicative and more learner-centered thus fitting under the social constructivist paradigm of learning.
Efficient selective rendering of participating media

Realistic image synthesis is the process of computing photorealistic images which are perceptually and measurably indistinguishable from real-world images. In order to obtain high fidelity rendered images it is required that the physical processes of materials and the behavior of light are accurately modelled and simulated. Most computer graphics algorithms assume that light passes freely between surfaces within an environment. However, in many applications, ranging from evaluation of exit signs in smoke filled rooms to design of efficient headlamps for foggy driving, realistic modelling of light propagation and scattering is required. The computational requirements for calculating the interaction of light with such participating media are substantial. This process can take many minutes or even hours. Many times rendering efforts are spent on computing parts of the scene that will not be perceived by the viewer. In this paper we present a novel perceptual strategy for physically-based rendering of participating media. By using a combination of a saliency map with our new extinction map (X-map) we can significantly reduce rendering times for inhomogenous media. We also validate the visual quality of the resulting images using two objective difference metrics and a subjective psychophysical experiment. Although the average pixel errors of these metric are all less than 1%, the experiment using human observers indicate that these degradation in quality is still noticeable in certain scenes, unlike previous work has suggested.
Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Offenders Detained by TBS-Hospital Order

markdownabstractSexual offending is a widespread international problem. Deviant sexual interests and antisocial orientation/lifestyle instability are identified as the primary criminogenic needs of sexual offenders. As a consequence, a proper understanding of these constructs is required for the supervision, (risk) assessment, and treatment of sexual offenders. The general aim of this dissertation was to explore to what extent various risk factors of (sexual) (re)offending are relevant for the (risk) assessment and treatment of sexual offenders detained by TBS-hospital order.
Personality compensates for impaired quality of life and social functioning in patients with psychotic disorders who experienced traumatic events.

BACKGROUND Patients with psychotic disorders who experienced childhood trauma show more social dysfunction than patients without traumatic experiences. However, this may not hold for all patients with traumatic experiences. Little is known about the potential compensating role of Five-Factor Model personality traits within this group, despite their strong predictive value for social functioning and well-being in the general population. METHODS Our sample consisted of 195 patients with psychotic disorders (74% diagnosed with schizophrenia) and 132 controls. Cluster analyses were conducted to identify and validate distinct personality profiles. General linear model analyses were conducted to examine whether patients with different profiles differed in social functioning and quality of life (QoL), while controlling for possible confounders. Mediation models were tested to assess potential causal links. RESULTS In general, patients with higher levels of self-reported traumatic experiences (PT+) showed lower QoL and more social withdrawal compared with patients with lower traumatic experiences (PT-). Two clusters reflecting personality profiles were identified. PT+ with the first profile (lower neuroticism and higher extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) presented higher levels of QoL and better social functioning in several areas, including less withdrawal, compared with both PT+ and PT- with the second profile. PT+ and PT- with the first personality profile did not differ in QoL and social functioning. Mediation analyses suggested that personality traits mediate the relation between traumatic experiences and QoL and social withdrawal. CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate that personality may "buffer" the impact of childhood traumatic experiences on functional outcome in patients with psychotic disorders.
Realistic Modeling of Simple and Complex Cell Tuning in the HMAX Model, and Implications for Invariant Object Recognition in Cortex

Abstract : Riesenhuber & Poggio recently proposed a model of object recognition in cortex which, beyond integrating general beliefs about the visual system in a quantitative framework, made testable predictions about visual processing. In particular, they showed that invariant object representation could be obtained with a selective pooling mechanism over properly chosen afferents through a MAX operation: For instance, at the complex cells level, pooling over a group of simple cells at the same preferred orientation and position in space but at slightly different spatial frequency would provide scale tolerance, while pooling over a group of simple cells at the same preferred orientation and spatial frequency but at slightly different position in space would provide position tolerance. Indirect support for such mechanisms in the visual system comes from the ability of the architecture at the top level to replicate shape tuning as well as shift and size invariance properties of "view-tuned cells" (VTUs) found in inferotemporal cortex (IT), the highest area in the ventral visual stream, thought to be crucial in mediating object recognition in cortex. There is also now good physiological evidence that a MAX operation is performed at various levels along the ventral stream. However, in the original paper by Riesenhuber & Poggio, tuning and pooling parameters of model units in early and intermediate areas were only qualitatively inspired by physiological data. Many studies have investigated the tuning properties of simple and complex cells in primary visual cortex, V1. We show that units in the early levels of HMAX can be tuned to produce realistic simple and complex cell-like tuning, and that the earlier findings on the invariance properties of model VTUs still hold in this more realistic version of the model.
A Dynamic Compressive Gammachirp Auditory Filterbank

It is now common to use knowledge about human auditory processing in the development of audio signal processors. Until recently, however, such systems were limited by their linearity. The auditory filter system is known to be level-dependent as evidenced by psychophysical data on masking, compression, and two-tone suppression. However, there were no analysis/synthesis schemes with nonlinear filterbanks. This paper describe 18300060s such a scheme based on the compressive gammachirp (cGC) auditory filter. It was developed to extend the gammatone filter concept to accommodate the changes in psychophysical filter shape that are observed to occur with changes in stimulus level in simultaneous, tone-in-noise masking. In models of simultaneous noise masking, the temporal dynamics of the filtering can be ignored. Analysis/synthesis systems, however, are intended for use with speech sounds where the glottal cycle can be long with respect to auditory time constants, and so they require specification of the temporal dynamics of auditory filter. In this paper, we describe a fast-acting level control circuit for the cGC filter and show how psychophysical data involving two-tone suppression and compression can be used to estimate the parameter values for this dynamic version of the cGC filter (referred to as the "dcGC" filter). One important advantage of analysis/synthesis systems with a dcGC filterbank is that they can inherit previously refined signal processing algorithms developed with conventional short-time Fourier transforms (STFTs) and linear filterbanks
What ails China

Since 1994, China has experienced a prolonged period of sluggish growth and declining inflation. Prices have actually declined over much of the last three and a half years. These problems are often attributed to conditions of weak aggregate demand. Not unexpectedly, the Chinese government has cut interest rates and pursued expansionary Keynesian policies, but these measures have largely failed. We argue that the key to the sluggish growth resides in the financial sector, specifically, its inability to efficiently intermediate funds to China’s non-state sector. This has adversely affected investment in the non-state sector, which has been the source of much of the dynamism in the Chinese economy since reform. Our analysis suggests that the current reform strategy for China’s financial sector, while important, will not solve this fundamental problem. Rather, the solution lies in the introduction of new, privately owned, locally based financial intermediaries that can provide efficient financial intermediation for the small and medium sized enterprises in the non-state sector. Published in East Asia in Transition: Economic and Security Challenges edited by A.E. Safarian and Wendy Dobson, University of Toronto Press, 2002.
Cajal Body Proteins Differentially Affect the Processing of Box C/D scaRNPs

Small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), which are required for pre-mRNA splicing, contain extensively modified snRNA. Small Cajal body-specific ribonucleoproteins (scaRNPs) mediate these modifications. It is unknown how the box C/D class of scaRNPs localizes to Cajal Bodies (CBs). The processing of box C/D scaRNA is also unclear. Here, we explore the processing of box C/D scaRNA 2 and 9 by coilin. We also broaden our investigation to include WRAP53 and SMN, which accumulate in CBs, play a role in RNP biogenesis and associate with coilin. These studies demonstrate that the processing of an ectopically expressed scaRNA2 is altered upon the reduction of coilin, WRAP53 or SMN, but the extent and direction of this change varies depending on the protein reduced. We also show that box C/D scaRNP activity is reduced in a cell line derived from coilin knockout mice. Collectively, the findings presented here further implicate coilin as being a direct participant in the formation of box C/D scaRNPs, and demonstrate that WRAP53 and SMN may also play a role, but the activity of these proteins is divergent to coilin.
Ieee Transactions on Affective Computing 1 Automatic Personality Perception: Prediction of Trait Attribution Based on Prosodic Features

—Whenever we listen to a voice for the first time, we attribute personality traits to the speaker. The process takes place in a few seconds and it is spontaneous and unaware. While the process is not necessarily accurate (attributed traits do not necessarily correspond to the actual traits of the speaker), still it influences significantly our behavior towards others, especially when it comes to social interaction. This article proposes an approach for the automatic prediction of the traits the listeners attribute to a speaker they never heard before. The experiments are performed over a corpus of 640 speech clips (322 identities in total) annotated in terms of personality traits by 11 assessors. The results show that it is possible to predict with high accuracy (more than 70% depending on the particular trait) whether a person is perceived to be in the upper or lower part of the scales corresponding to each of the Big-Five, the personality dimensions known to capture most of the individual differences.