Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring Aesthetics for Information Visualization

Aesthetics is an unsolved problem of information visualization, because there is no satisfactory understanding of what constitutes aesthetic effect. This survey paper gives an overview of approaches to model aesthetics, starting with Birkhoff’s aesthetic measure and continuing to recent ones based on mathematical and information theoretical concepts. Common concepts in the different models are highlighted, such as the effects of order and complexity. Further, practical techniques for generating aesthetic visualizations are shown together with examples of recent work in this field. Finally, the paper discusses some of the key issues regarding aesthetics and the human factor in the visualization process. Empirical studies have shown a correlation between perceived aesthetics and usability, meaning that a better understanding of aesthetics could improve the usability of visualizations.
Combining Mastery Learning with Project-Based Learning in a First Programming Course: An Experience Report

One of the challenges in teaching a first programming course is that in the same course, the students must learn basic programming techniques and high level abstraction abilities, and the application of those techniques and concepts in problem solving and (engineering) design. To confront this challenge, in previous years, we have included a project-based learning phase at the end of our course to encourage the acquisition of high level design and creativity. To address some of the shortcomings of our previous editions, we have recently included a mastery phase to the course. While project-based learning is suitable for teaching high-level skills that require design and creativity and prepare the students for the study of software engineering, mastery-based learning is suitable for concrete skills such as basic programming tasks. Our particular innovation is to allow students into the project phase only if they have demonstrated a minimum predefined competency level in programming. The combination of the two approaches seems to address most of the requirements of a first programming course. We present our motivation for combining the two pedagogical techniques and our experience with the course.
Pregnancy-specific distress: the role of maternal sense of coherence and antenatal mothering orientations

Abstract Background: Maternal mental health during pregnancy has been identified as a key factor in the future physiological, emotional and social development of both the mother and her baby. Yet little is known about the factors that contribute to increased levels of pregnancy-specific distress. The present study investigated the role of two psychosocial and personality-based constructs, namely women’s sense of coherence (SoC) and their mothering orientations, on their pregnancy-specific distress. Design: During their second trimester of pregnancy, 293 Australian and New Zealand women participated in an online study. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to determine the unique contribution of women’s SoC (Sense of Coherence Scale, SoC 13) and their antenatal mothering orientation (Antenatal Mothering Orientation Measure-Revised, AMOM-R) to pregnancy-specific distress (Revised Prenatal Distress Questionnaire, NuPDQ). Results: Low SoC was the best determinant of women’s pregnancy-specific distress, accounting for over 45% of the variance (β = −0.33, p < 0.001, 95% CI [−0.43, −0.23]). A Regulator mothering orientation was correlated with distress but did not have a unique contribution in the final model. Conclusions: This study further highlights the importance of better understanding women’s perceptions of emotional health and their mothering role while taking into consideration their wider social context.
Seizures and Seizure Care in an Emergency Department

Summary: We evaluated the nature and significance of seizure problems in an emergency department (ED) by studying seizures in an urban community hospital. In 6 months, there were 29,131 ED visits; of these, 200 (0.7%) were for diagnosed seizures. Among these 200 seizure visits, were 69 (34.5%) new‐onset seizures, 30 (15%) febrile seizures, and 92 (46%) seizures in epilepsy patients with prescribed antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). These seizures were often serious and complicated by medical and psychosocial problems; e.g., 37 patients (18.5%) had multiple seizures, 14 (7%) had status epilepticus, and 63 (31.5%) required hospitalization. Associated psychosocial problems included 61 patients (31%) who had no medical insurance, 62 others (31%) who were judged indigent, and 60 (30%) who abused alcohol. Of 92 epilepsy patients receiving AEDs, 52 (56.5%) had subtherapeutic blood levels and were noncompliant with AED prescription patients. Problems with continuity of care were demonstrated by the failure of the ED to communicate with primary care providers about drug levels, noncompliance, and changes in therapy in 85% of patients. A hospital ED is a major source for epilepsy and seizure care, but this care is not always optimum. EDs need to be prepared to manage common acute seizure problems. However, EDs must also place greater emphasis on significant nonemergency aspects of seizure care such as AED compliance, associated psychosocial problems, and effective communication with primary care providers.
Multimodal function optimisation with cuckoo search algorithm

Modern engineering and scientific optimisation problems are becoming complicated. In order to cope with the increasing level of difficulty of these problems, optimisation methods are required to find more than one solution to these problems. The aim of this paper is to gain an insight into the ability of cuckoo search to locate more than one solution for multimodal problems. We also study the performance of this algorithm in the additive white Gaussian noise. Numerical results are presented to show that the cuckoo search algorithm can successfully locate multiple solutions in both non-noise and additive white Gaussian noise with relatively high degree of accuracy.
Social behavior recognition using body posture and head pose for human-robot interaction

Robots that interact with humans in everyday situations, need to be able to interpret the nonverbal social cues of their human interaction partners. We show that humans use body posture and head pose as social signals to initiate and terminate interaction when ordering drinks at a bar. For that, we record and analyze 108 interactions of humans interacting with a human bartender. Based on these findings, we train a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) using automatic body posture and head pose estimation. With this model, the bartender robot of the project JAMES can recognize typical social behaviors of human customers. Evaluation shows a recognition rate of 82.9 % for all implemented social behaviors and in particular a recognition rate of 91.2 % for bartender attention requests, which will allow the robot to interact with multiple humans in a robust and socially appropriate way.
Control of towing kites under uncertainty using robust economic nonlinear model predictive control

In the last years, the development of kites as a new approach to use the wind energy to produce electricity or to pull boats in order to save fuel has received attention from both the industry and academia. In this study, we propose a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) approach to control a towing kite based on an economic objective function in contrast to the tracking of a predefined trajectory, as it is usually done. We use a simple model of a kite that has been recently developed. The use of a simple model usually comes at a price of higher model inaccuracy. To cope with the uncertainties in the model as well as with external disturbances we propose the use of multi-stage nonlinear model predictive control. Simulation results show that the use of the multi-stage NMPC approach avoids the violation of constraints and achieves a better performance than standard NMPC under the presence of strong uncertainties.
Exhaled breath condensate pH and exhaled nitric oxide in allergic asthma and in cystic fibrosis

Background: It has been proposed that the pH of airway lining fluid may regulate the fractional exhaled concentration of nitric oxide (FeNO) in respiratory disease. Methods: FeNO, exhaled breath condensate (EBC) pH, and EBC concentrations of nitrite plus nitrate (NO2/NO3) were compared in 12 subjects with stable asthma, 18 with stable cystic fibrosis (CF), and 15 healthy control subjects. Eight of the CF patients were studied on a separate occasion at the start of a pulmonary exacerbation. Results: FeNO was significantly greater in asthmatic subjects than in control subjects (mean 35 v 9 ppb, p<0.001). EBC pH, however, was similar in the asthmatic and control groups (median 5.82 v 6.08, p = 0.23). Levels of NO2/NO3 were on average higher in EBC samples from asthmatic subjects, but the difference was not significant. In patients with stable CF both the FeNO (mean 4 ppb, p<0.001) and EBC pH (median 5.77, p = 0.003) were lower than in the control group. Levels of EBC NO2/NO3 (median 29.9 μM; p = 0.002) in patients with stable CF, in contrast, were significantly higher than in control subjects. During CF exacerbations, EBC pH was further reduced (median 5.30, p = 0.017) but FeNO and NO2/NO3 were unchanged. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate a dissociation between EBC pH and FeNO in inflammatory airways disease.
Sonic hedgehog signaling regulates mode of cell division of early cerebral cortex progenitors and increases astrogliogenesis

The morphogen Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) plays a critical role in the development of different tissues. In the central nervous system, SHH is well known to contribute to the patterning of the spinal cord and separation of the brain hemispheres. In addition, it has recently been shown that SHH signaling also contributes to the patterning of the telencephalon and establishment of adult neurogenic niches. In this work, we investigated whether SHH signaling influences the behavior of neural progenitors isolated from the dorsal telencephalon, which generate excitatory neurons and macroglial cells in vitro. We observed that SHH increases proliferation of cortical progenitors and generation of astrocytes, whereas blocking SHH signaling with cyclopamine has opposite effects. In both cases, generation of neurons did not seem to be affected. However, cell survival was broadly affected by blockade of SHH signaling. SHH effects were related to three different cell phenomena: mode of cell division, cell cycle length and cell growth. Together, our data in vitro demonstrate that SHH signaling controls cell behaviors that are important for proliferation of cerebral cortex progenitors, as well as differentiation and survival of neurons and astroglial cells.
Relationship between oral health status and oral health related quality of life in adults attending H.P Government Dental College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh--India.

OBJECTIVES To describe Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) in adults attending the Outpatient Department (OPD) of Public health Dentistry, H.P Government Dental College, Shimla, and to assess the relationship between clinical measures of oral health status and oral health related quality of life. METHODS A cross sectional study was carried out for a period of three months on 351 subjects reporting to the OPD of Public health Dentistry, H.P Government Dental College, Shimla. Subjects were examined systemically for dental caries, periodontal disease using DMFT index and CPI index. OHRQoL was measured using the 14 - item Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaire (OHIP-14). Also the data on education, socio economic status and reasons for seeking dental care was collected. RESULTS There were 158 males and 193 females participating in the study. The mean age of study population was 35.7 ± 9.33. The mean total OHP-14 score was 9.5 ± 9.4; 35.6% of the subjects reported one or more OHIP problems 'fairly often or very often'. When the prevalence of impacts fairly /very often was modeled using logistic regression, presence of decayed teeth, presence of periodontal disease (CPI score >2) and number of missing teeth remained significantly associated with OHRQoL after adjusting for gender and episodic dental care. CONCLUSION OHIP-14 scores were significantly associated with the clinical oral health status indicators, independently of gender and socio economic inequalities in oral health.
A Survey of Literacy Practices in Black and Coloured Communities in South Africa: Towards a Pedagogy of Multiliteracies

The initial motivation for the study was the view of multilingualism as a resource, in which all languages and literacies at the disposal of a learner are used for his/her benefit. In turn, interest was motivated by the notion of literacy practices as social practices linked to broader cultural and socioeconomic conditions (Street, 2001). Interest was also motivated by recent studies which stress the value of understanding the literacy practices that groups and communities are already engaged in before embarking on literacy programmes and pedagogical interventions (Prinsloo & Breier, 1996; Street, 2001). Drawing on a questionnaire designed to profile literacy practices in black and coloured communities and schools in South Africa, the study concludes that literacy practices are linked to demographic, geographical, attitudinal, linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic factors, all of which intersect in multiple ways with the legacy of apartheid. As a way of bridging the gulf between community literacies and schooled literacies, the study suggests a multiliteracy approach in which local literacies become vehicles for accessing educational discourses.
Vertical transmission of HIV in Ghanaian women diagnosed in cord blood and post‐natal samples

HIV RNA detection in the newborn is the main diagnostic tool for vertical transmission. Most infections are thought to occur peri‐ or post‐natally, hence preventive antiviral therapy administered days before and during delivery. This study used cord blood for molecular diagnosis, examined viral load and HIV‐1 subtypes as determinants of transmission, and compared molecular variability of maternal, cord blood, and post‐natal quasispecies. Ninety‐seven seropositive mother‐cord blood paired plasmas from Ghana were tested for HIV RNA. Viral load was quantified and a subgroup of 45 random women samples was typed and subtyped. HIV‐1 from infected pairs was cloned, sequenced, and analyzed phylogenetically. The prevalence of HIV infection in pregnant women was 3.3%. 13/97 cord blood samples (13.5%) contained HIV RNA. No correlation between either viral load at labor (range 103–107) or HIV‐1 subtype and in utero transmission was found. In both transmitting and non‐transmitting mothers, 56% of HIV‐1 strains were CRF02_AG. In three pairs, maternal and cord blood quasispecies were closely related, suggesting late pregnancy or perinatal transmission, while in four pairs, genetic distances suggested transmission earlier during gestation. Maternal viral load and genotype did not correlate with HIV‐1 pre‐natal transmission. HIV infection during gestation appears relatively frequent. J. Med. Virol. 77:351–359, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Empirical Study of Unused Design Decisions in Open Source Java Software

A recent study on how inheritance is used in open source Java software revealed a surprising number of interfaces that were neither implemented nor extended. While innocent explanations for this exist (the interfaces are part of frameworks that only clients of the frameworks implement), it does raise the question of how much "dead code'' exists in applications. Dead code usually refers to code within a function that cannot be executed, but unused interfaces, and more generally unused public methods, represent dead code at the "design'' level, and so can potentially have a significant impact on future maintenance costs. This paper presents a large empirical study on existence of design decisions that are unused. This study examined 100 open source Java applications. The results show a significant level of unused design decisions.
Undeserving mothers? Practitioners experiences working with young mothers in/from care.

Although teen pregnancy is on the rise in Canada, and while adolescent mothering in general has received considerable recent attention from researchers, there is a paucity of information about the particular experiences of young women who become mothers while in government care. Emerging out of a study guided by a grounded theory methodology to address this knowledge gap, this paper examines the experiences and perspectives of government-based social workers who work with young mothers in/from care. Our findings indicated that social workers reflect prevailing middle class values, including norms about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ parenting, and centred around the belief that adolescent pregnancy is, in and of itself, bad. One of the most significant ramifications of workers’ values was their belief about the inevitability of ‘the cycle’: of children in care begetting children who ultimately came into care. Ironically, though workers and young mothers were both preoccupied by the concept of ‘the cycle’, and each were determined to break it, the two groups had very different ideas about what the cycle was all about and what perpetuated it. Unfortunately, this disjunction in perspectives, along with major recent shifts in the direction of child welfare policy and practice and related constraints in the resources at workers’ disposal, conjoined to create significant barriers to what workers and young women both recognized as supportive practice with youth in care.
ÖRGÜTSEL BAĞLILIK DÜZEYİNİN DEMOGRAFİK ÖZELLİKLER AÇISINDAN GÖSTERDİĞİ FARKLILIKLARIN İSTATİSTİKSEL YÖNTEMLERLE İNCELENMESİ

was carried out a survey on 144 person which have worked in Sugar Refinery in Kars, using Questionnaire of Organizational Commitment Scale which developed by Allen and Meyer. Data that obtained from the survey was analyzed and evaluated by Independent Samples T Test, Tamhane’s T2 Test, Tukey ve Anova Tests, with the help of SPSS 20 programme. According to findings obtained from the sample, there was defined that individual’s organizational commitment attitude has no a meaninful difference for age, marital status, education and status, but it shows a meaningful difference for monthly income which is the lowest income group
An exploratory study of the effects of diversity dimensions and intervening variables on attitudes to diversity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the increasingly important area of diversity management in multicultural settings. This paper examines several private organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as illustrative examples of the challenges facing global organizations seeking to utilise a hugely diverse labour force. The objective of the investigation is to shed more light on the intervening variables that connect diversity dimensions to personal attitudes on diversity.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 406 employees from ten organizations operating in the UAE were selected based on their length of service and contract type. These participants completed questionnaires as a means of determining their attitudes towards diversity in the workplace. The data were subjected to principal component analysis from which a regression model was derived that associates intervening variables identified from the study with personal attitudes to diversity.Findings – Three intervening variables (c.
Mechanics of Weak Layer Snow Under Cyclic Loading Studied By FEM

The mechanical behavior of snow weak layers is a crucial element in dry snow slab avalanche forecasting. Here, we use Finite Element Method (FEM) modeling to investigate the mechanics of layered snow under cyclic loading at a high acceleration rate with gradually increasing amplitudes of stresses leading to fracture. The provided 2-D model is based on the 'Cast3M' code. It treats the weak layer as an interface with variable constitutive behavior parameters (an approach which was initially developed for rock joints). The applicability of the proposed model is evaluated against the previous cold laboratory snow fracture experiments of Podolskiy et al. (2010) (shaking table tests studying the dynamic response of weak layer snow samples). Results: (i) show that joints with no tensional strength (as used in some previous studies) are not capable of reproducing the experiments; (ii) suggest that the Mohr- Coulomb failure criterion (controlled by tension strength and angle of friction) is sufficient to describe experiments; and (iii) highlight the complexity of strain and stress evolution within snow samples, and especially the significance of tension at the edges of the weak layer. Our simulations demonstrate that the analytical solution, based on Newton's second law (Nakamura et al., 2010; Podolskiy et al., 2010), may underestimate real shear stresses due to inertial effects. Hence, modeling allows refining the experimental data and provides reliable estimates of weak layer mechanical properties.
Exposure to Cigarette Smoke Inhibits the Pulmonary T-Cell Response to Influenza Virus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis

ABSTRACT Smoking is associated with increased susceptibility to tuberculosis and influenza. However, little information is available on the mechanisms underlying this increased susceptibility. Mice were left unexposed or were exposed to cigarette smoke and then infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis by aerosol or influenza A by intranasal infection. Some mice were given a DNA vaccine encoding an immunogenic M. tuberculosis protein. Gamma interferon (IFN-γ) production by T cells from the lungs and spleens was measured. Cigarette smoke exposure inhibited the lung T-cell production of IFN-γ during stimulation in vitro with anti-CD3, after vaccination with a construct expressing an immunogenic mycobacterial protein, and during infection with M. tuberculosis and influenza A virus in vivo. Reduced IFN-γ production was mediated through the decreased phosphorylation of transcription factors that positively regulate IFN-γ expression. Cigarette smoke exposure increased the bacterial burden in mice infected with M. tuberculosis and increased weight loss and mortality in mice infected with influenza virus. This study provides the first demonstration that cigarette smoke exposure directly inhibits the pulmonary T-cell response to M. tuberculosis and influenza virus in a physiologically relevant animal model, increasing susceptibility to both pathogens.
Adversarial Hierarchical-Task Network Planning for Complex Real-Time Games

Real-time strategy (RTS) games are hard from an AI point of view because they have enormous state spaces, combinatorial branching factors, allow simultaneous and durative actions, and players have very little time to choose actions. For these reasons, standard game tree search methods such as alphabeta search or Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) are not sufficient by themselves to handle these games. This paper presents an alternative approach called Adversarial Hierarchical Task Network (AHTN) planning that combines ideas from game tree search with HTN planning. We present the basic algorithm, relate it to existing adversarial hierarchical planning methods, and present new extensions for simultaneous and durative actions to handle RTS games. We also present empirical results for the µRTS game, comparing it to other state of the art search algorithms for RTS games.