Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Psychophysiology of the Sexuality of Women with Lifelong Vaginismus: A Matched Controlled Thermography and Survey Investigation of Sexual Function, Behaviour, and Physiological Arousal

Relatively little is known about the subjective reactions of women with lifelong vaginismus in response to erotic stimuli, and physiological sexual arousal has never been investigated. Reports of maladaptive cognitions and fears regarding sexuality and intercourse suggest that anxiety may interfere with sexual response. The aims of this study are to examine the physiological and subjective responses to sexually explicit film stimuli of women with lifelong vaginismus, compared to women with lifelong dyspareunia and women with no pain. Forty-five women (15 vaginismus, 15 dyspareunia, 15 no-pain) viewed two neutral and two erotic film sets, one depicting sexual activity without vaginal penetration, and the other depicting intercourse. Subjective responses to sexual activities in general and to the erotic films specifically were evaluated using questionnaire measures. Vulvar temperature was recorded using an infrared camera. Women completed a measure of sexual anxiety and arousability. After viewing the films, participants completed a measure of subjective responses. All groups experienced increased vulvar temperature during the erotic films regardless of activity depicted. The vaginismus group reported less sexual arousability and more sexual anxiety, in general. In response to the films, the vaginismus group reported less mental sexual arousal than the no-pain group and more negative subjective responses compared to the other groups. The no-pain group showed concordance between their subjective and physiological responses, whereas the symptomatic groups did not. Despite negative subjective responses and lower self-reported sexual arousability, women with vaginismus responded with increased physiological sexual arousal to erotic films. The resilience of physiological response may have resulted from moderate levels of anxiety experienced in the laboratory setting facilitating sexual response regardless of subjective
How life history and demography promote or inhibit the evolution of helping behaviours

In natural populations, dispersal tends to be limited so that individuals are in local competition with their neighbours. As a consequence, most behaviours tend to have a social component, e.g. they can be selfish, spiteful, cooperative or altruistic as usually considered in social evolutionary theory. How social behaviours translate into fitness costs and benefits depends considerably on life-history features, as well as on local demographic and ecological conditions. Over the last four decades, evolutionists have been able to explore many of the consequences of these factors for the evolution of social behaviours. In this paper, we first recall the main theoretical concepts required to understand social evolution. We then discuss how life history, demography and ecology promote or inhibit the evolution of helping behaviours, but the arguments developed for helping can be extended to essentially any social trait. The analysis suggests that, on a theoretical level, it is possible to contrast three critical benefit-to-cost ratios beyond which costly helping is selected for (three quantitative rules for the evolution of altruism). But comparison between theoretical results and empirical data has always been difficult in the literature, partly because of the perennial question of the scale at which relatedness should be measured under localized dispersal. We then provide three answers to this question.
Themed Issue Article: Stress in Vertebrates Effects of natural environmental conditions on faecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations in jaguars (Panthera onca) in Belize

In situ studies that rely on non-invasive faecal hormone monitoring are subject to problems due to potential changes in hormone concentrations in samples exposed to field conditions. In this study, we conducted an environmental validation for measurement of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGMs) in jaguars (Panthera onca). We collected fresh faeces (e.g. no older than 8 h) from jaguars (six males and four females), housed at the Belize Zoo, and exposed them randomly to two environmental conditions: shade and sun. A control (first sub-sample) was immediately frozen, after which sub-samples were frozen daily over a 5 day period in both the dry and wet seasons. We quantified FGMs using a cortisol enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and a corticosterone radioimmunoassay (RIA), both capable of identifying relevant metabolites. Results indicated that FGMs assessed with the cortisol EIA were stable for 5 days during the dry season but for <1 day during the wet season, while FGMs assessed with the corticosterone RIA were stable for 5 days during both the dry and wet seasons. Exposure of jaguar faeces to sun or shade had no effect on FGM concentrations, despite significant differences in weather parameters. Analysis of faecal morphology proved unreliable in identifying faecal age. We conclude that the corticosterone RIA is suitable for assessing FGMs in free-ranging Belizean jaguars by surveying the same transects every 3–4 days in both seasons. The cortisol EIA can be used during the dry season, but there are possible shifts in metabolite immunoactivity in wet conditions. Assessment of adrenal activity in jaguars ranging areas of varying human disturbance is a timely application of this methodology in Belize.
Akt and SHIP Modulate Francisella Escape from the Phagosome and Induction of the Fas-Mediated Death Pathway

Francisella tularensis infects macrophages and escapes phago-lysosomal fusion to replicate within the host cytosol, resulting in host cell apoptosis. Here we show that the Fas-mediated death pathway is activated in infected cells and correlates with escape of the bacterium from the phagosome and the bacterial burden. Our studies also demonstrate that constitutive activation of Akt, or deletion of SHIP, promotes phago-lysosomal fusion and limits bacterial burden in the host cytosol, and the subsequent induction of Fas expression and cell death. Finally, we show that phagosomal escape/intracellular bacterial burden regulate activation of the transcription factors sp1/sp3, leading to Fas expression and cell death. These data identify for the first time host cell signaling pathways that regulate the phagosomal escape of Francisella, leading to the induction of Fas and subsequent host cell death.
Audit of practice in sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) post mortems and neuropathological findings

Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is one of the leading causes of death in people with epilepsy. For classification of definite SUDEP, a post mortem (PM), including anatomical and toxicological examination, is mandatory to exclude other causes of death. We audited PM practice as well as the value of brain examination in SUDEP.
The Polarizing Impact of News Coverage on Populist Attitudes in the Public: Evidence from a Panel Study in four European Democracies

The study explores how news messages carrying parts of the populist ideology contribute to a polarization of public opinion about populism. It combines a content analysis of news coverage on two policy areas (N = 7,119 stories) with a two-wave panel survey (N = 2,338) in four European metropolitan regions (Berlin, Paris, London, Zurich). In three regions, unopposed media messages with a populist stance have a conditional effect on populist attitudes that depends on prior convictions. A higher dose of exposure to populist news coverage enhances both prior agreement and disagreement with populism. While the observed interaction patterns vary between regions, the general picture suggests that populist messages in the news foster polarization between public support and disapproval of populism.
The Gaia-ESO Survey: processing FLAMES-UVES spectra

The Gaia-ESO Survey is a large public spectroscopic survey that aims to derive radial velocities and fundamental parameters of about 10(5) Milky Way stars in the field and in clusters. Observations are carried out with the multi-object optical spectrograph FLAMES, using simultaneously the medium-resolution (R similar to 20 000) GIRAFFE spectrograph and the high-resolution (R similar to 47 000) UVES spectrograph. In this paper we describe the methods and the software used for the data reduction, the derivation of the radial velocities, and the quality control of the FLAMES-UVES spectra. Data reduction has been performed using a workflow specifically developed for this project. This workflow runs the ESO public pipeline optimizing the data reduction for the Gaia-ESO Survey, automatically performs sky subtraction, barycentric correction and normalisation, and calculates radial velocities and a first guess of the rotational velocities. The quality control is performed using the output parameters from the ESO pipeline, by a visual inspection of the spectra and by the analysis of the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectra. Using the observations of the first 18 months, specifically targets observed multiple times at different epochs, stars observed with both GIRAFFE and UVES, and observations of radial velocity standards, we estimated the precision and the accuracy of the radial velocities. The statistical error on the radial velocities is sigma similar to 0.4 km s(-1) and is mainly due to uncertainties in the zero point of the wavelength calibration. However, we found a systematic bias with respect to the GIRAFFE spectra (similar to 0.9 km s(-1)) and to the radial velocities of the standard stars (similar to 0.5 km s(-1)) retrieved from the literature. This bias will be corrected in the future data releases, when a common zero point for all the set-ups and instruments used for the survey is be established.
Critical factors that influence e-procurement implementation and success in the public sector

This paper presents the results of a literature survey developed to support a proposed model of the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) likely to impact the success of e-Procurement initiatives in the public sector. It identifies a number of relevant variables for each CSF and presents a model for future research. It also analyses the relative importance of different CSFs and observes that organization and management factors are the most important category for success of e-Procurement initiatives. If e-Procurement initiatives in the public sector are to assist the development of e-Procurement across the information economy, there should be wider discussion and agreement on what constitutes the relevant CSFs and how the achievement of success can be assessed.
Factors Associated with Jealousy Over Real and Imagined Infidelity: An Examination of the Social-Cognitive and Evolutionary Psychology Perspectives

Three hundred fifty-eight undergraduates completed anonymous questionnaires regarding jealousy over a mate's infidelity. More men than women predicted that sexual infidelity would be worse than emotional infidelity when given the forced-choice hypothetical measures used in previous work. When some of the implications of hypothetical infidelity were controlled, the gender difference disappeared. One hundred twenty-seven participants reported having actual experience with a mate's infidelity. The two genders did not differ in degree of focus on the sexual versus emotional aspects of a mate's real betrayal. Sexual jealousy was correlated with having a greater number of sexual relationships and, for men but not women, with placing higher importance on sex in dating relationships. The results are discussed from a social-cognitive perspective.
Dynamic resource adaptation in a heterogeneous peer-to-peer environment

This paper focuses on metadata-based, multimedia resource representation and retrieval in a P2P environment as a means of universal multimedia access (UMA). The primary focus of the work is a P2P architecture, which uses MPEG-21 as standards based technique to dynamically adapt resources to various usage environments. In the architecture, a super peer based approach is used to cluster peers, store peer information, perform searches and instruct peers to adapt/send resources. Also a two-stages based adaptation method is introduced to adapt search results and resources in an intelligent manner based on the usage environment attributes. The concept is demonstrated using a test-bed built based on the JXTA peer-to-peer framework. In addition, simulation results show that the proposed architecture reduces download time while increasing resource availabilities and download speed in the network when compared to traditional P2P systems.
Workshop Track -iclr 2016 Generating Sentences from a Continuous Space

The standard unsupervised recurrent neural network language model (RNNLM) generates sentences one word at a time and does not work from an explicit global distributed sentence representation. In this work, we present an RNN-based variational autoencoder language model that incorporates distributed latent representations of entire sentences. This factorization allows it to explicitly model holistic properties of sentences such as style, topic, and high-level syntactic features. Samples from the prior over these sentence representations remarkably produce diverse and well-formed sentences through simple deterministic decoding. By examining paths through this latent space, we are able to generate coherent novel sentences that interpolate between known sentences. We present techniques for solving the difficult learning problem presented by this model, demonstrate strong performance in the imputation of missing tokens, and explore many interesting properties of the latent sentence space.
Development of AlN and TiB2 Composites with Nb2O5, Y2O3 and ZrO2 as Sintering Aids

The synthesis of AlN and TiB2 by spark plasma sintering (SPS) and the effect of Nb2O5, Y2O3 and ZrO2 additions on the mechanical properties and densification of the produced composites is reported and discussed. After the SPS process, dense AlN and TiB2 composites with Nb2O5, Y2O3 and ZrO2 were successfully prepared. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that in the AlN composites, the addition of Nb2O5 gives rise to Nb4N3 during sintering. The compound Y3Al5O12 (YAG) was observed as precipitate in the sample with Y2O3. X-ray diffraction analysis of the TiB2 composites showed TiB2 as a single phase in these materials. The maximum Vickers and toughness values were 14.19 ± 1.43 GPa and 27.52 ± 1.75 GPa for the AlN and TiB2 composites, respectively.
Dynamic Managerial Compensation: A Mechanism Design Approach

We characterize the optimal incentive scheme for a manager who faces costly effort decisions and whose ability to generate profits for the firm varies stochastically over time. The optimal contract is obtained as the solution to a dynamic mechanism design problem with hidden actions and persistent shocks to the agent's productivity. When the agent is risk-neutral, the optimal contract can often be implemented with a simple pay package that is linear in the firm's profits. Furthermore, the power of the incentive scheme typically increases over time, thus providing a possible justification for the frequent practice of putting more stocks and options in the package of managers with a longer tenure in the firm. In contrast to other explanations proposed in the literature (e.g., declining disutility of effort or career concerns), the optimality of seniority-based reward schemes is not driven by variations in the agent's preferences or in his outside option. It results from an optimal allocation of the manager's informational rents over time. Building on the insights from the risk-neutral case, we then explore the properties of optimal incentive schemes for risk-averse managers. We find that, other things equal, risk-aversion reduces the benefit of inducing higher effort over time. Whether (risk-averse) managers with a longer tenure receive more or less high-powered incentives than younger ones then depends on the interaction between the degree of risk aversion and the dynamics of the impulse responses for the shocks to the manager's type.
Identifying computer science self-regulated learning strategies

Computer Science students struggle to develop fundamental programming skills and software development processes. Crucial to successful mastery is the development of discipline specific cognitive and metacognitive skills, including self-regulation. We can assist our students in the process of reflection and self-regulation by identifying and articulating successful self-regulated learning strategies for specific discipline contexts. However, in order to do so, we must develop an understanding of those discipline-specific strategies that are successful and can be readily adopted by students. In this paper, we analyse student reflections from an introductory software development course, identifying the usage of self-regulated learning strategies that are either specific to the software development domain, or articulated in that context. This study assists in the understanding of how Computer Science students develop learning skill within the discipline, and provides examples to guide the development of scaffolding activities to assist learning development.
Fusion of WorldView-2 and LiDAR Data to Map Fuel Types in the Canary Islands

Wildland fires are one of the factors causing the deepest disturbances on the natural environment and severely threatening many ecosystems, as well as economic welfare and public health. Having accurate and up-to-date fuel type maps is essential to properly manage wildland fire risk areas. This research aims to assess the viability of combining Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) and the fusion of a WorldView-2 (WV2) image and low density Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data in order to produce fuel type maps within an area of complex orography and vegetation distribution located in the island of Tenerife (Spain). Independent GEOBIAs were applied to four datasets to create four fuel type maps according to the Prometheus classification. The following fusion methods were compared: Image Stack (IS), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Minimum Noise Fraction (MNF), as well as the WV2 image alone. Accuracy assessment of the maps was conducted by comparison against the fuel types assessed in the field. Besides global agreement, disagreement measures due to allocation and quantity were estimated, both globally and by fuel type. This made it possible to better understand the nature of disagreements linked to each map. The global agreement of the obtained maps varied from 76.23% to 85.43%. Maps obtained through data fusion reached a significantly higher global agreement than the map derived from the WV2 image alone. By integrating LiDAR information with the GEOBIAs, global agreement improvements by over 10% were attained in all cases. No significant differences in global agreement were found among the three classifications performed on WV2 and LiDAR fusion data (IS, PCA, MNF). These study’s findings show the validity of the combined use of GEOBIA, high-spatial resolution multispectral data and low density LiDAR data in order to generate fuel type maps in the Canary Islands.
LSP weighting functions based on spectral sensitivity and mel-frequency warping for speech recognition in digital communication

In digital communication networks, a speech recognition system extracts feature parameters after reconstructing speech signals. In this paper, we consider a useful approach of incorporating speech coding parameters into a speech recognizer. Most speech coders employ line spectrum pairs (LSPs) to represent spectral parameters. We introduce weighted distance measures to improve the recognition performance of an LSP-based speech recognizer. Experiments on speaker-independent connected-digit recognition showed that weighted distance measures provide better recognition accuracy than unweighted distance measures do. Compared with a conventional method employing mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, the proposed method achieved higher performance in terms of a recognition accuracy.
Blastocyst transfer in frozen-thawed cycles

Objective It is well known that fresh blastocyst transfer results in better pregnancy outcomes with a smaller number of transferred embryos compared with cleavage stage embryo transfer. However, in terms of frozen-thawed blastocyst transfer, only a few studies are available. We aimed to evaluate clinical outcomes of frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) with blastocysts. Methods Retrospective analysis of FET cycles with blastocysts (B-FET) between Jan 2007 and June 2009 was performed. Age-matched FET cycles with cleavage stage embryos (C-FET) during the same period were collected as controls. A total of 58 B-FET cycles were compared with 172 C-FET cycles and also compared with those of post-thaw extended culture blastocysts from frozen pronuclear stage embryos (22 cycles). Results There was no difference in the patient characteristics of each group. The embryos' survival rates after thawing were comparable (>90%) and there was no difference in the implantation rate or clinical and ongoing pregnancy rate among the three groups. Conclusion In FET, blastocyst transfers may not present better pregnancy outcomes than cleavage stage embryo transfers. A further large-scale prospective study is needed.
MENIGKATKAN HASIL BELAJAR PENDIDIKAN PANCASILA DAN KEWARGANEGARAAN MELALUI METODE ROLE PLAYING DI KELAS IV SEKOLAH DASAR

Abstrac:This study aims to improve the learning outcomes of Pancasila and Citizenship Education through the method of role playing in the fourth class of Primary School 1 Ciamis amounted to 36 people, Research Methods used is Action Reseach, using Kemmis and Mc Taggart model. which begins with a learning plan and proceeds with the action in the classroom and reflects on the initial action and planning after the learning, the result of the research obtained the increase of students' understanding of the subject matter shown from the students learning outcomes from pre cycle to cycle II. In the Pre Cycle, the average score of students is only 62 with a classical completeness of 25%. In Cycle I, the average score of students is 64 with a classical completeness of 27%. Cycle II student average score of 75 with classical completeness reached 78%. Keywords : Role Playing Method, Learning Outcome, Pancasila and Civic Education Abstrak: Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan hasil SDN 1 Ciamis berjumlah 36 orang, Metode Penelitian yang digunakan yaitu Action Reseach, menggunakan model Kemmis dan Mc Taggart. yang diawali dengan suatu perencanaan pembelajaran dan dilanjutkan dengan tindakan di kelas serta refleksi terhadap tindakan dan perencanaan awal setelah pembelajaran, hasil penelitian diperoleh kenaikan pemahaman siswa terhadap materi pelajaran yang ditunjukkan dari hasil belajar siswa dari pra siklus sampai dengan siklus II. Pada Pra Siklus, nilai rata-rata siswa hanya 62 dengan ketuntasan klasikal sebesar 25%. Pada Siklus I, nilai rata-rata siswa sebesar 64 dengan ketuntasan klasikal sebesar 27%. Siklus II nilai rata-rata siswa sebesar 75 dengan ketuntasan klasikal mencapai 78%. Kata Kunci : Metode Bermain Peran (Role Playing), Hasil Belajar,Pendidikan Pancasila dan Kewarganeagraan