Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Looking behind bezels: french windows for wall displays

Using tiled monitors to build wall-sized displays has multiple advantages: higher pixel density, simpler setup and easier calibration. However, the resulting display walls suffer from the visual discontinuity caused by the bezels that frame each monitor. To avoid introducing distortion, the image has to be rendered as if some pixels were drawn behind the bezels. In turn, this raises the issue that a non-negligible part of the rendered image, that might contain important information, is visually occluded. We propose to draw upon the analogy to french windows that is often used to describe this approach, and make the display really behave as if the visualization were observed through a french window. We present and evaluate two interaction techniques that let users reveal content hidden behind bezels. ePan enables users to offset the entire image through explicit touch gestures. GridScape adopts a more implicit approach: it makes the grid formed by bezels act like a true french window using head tracking to simulate motion parallax, adapting to users' physical movements in front of the display. The two techniques work for both single- and multiple-user contexts.
Preliminary Evaluation of the SMAP Radiometer Soil Moisture Product over China Using In Situ Data

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite makes coincident global measurements of soil moisture using an L-band radar instrument and an L-band radiometer. It is crucial to evaluate the errors in the newest L-band SMAP satellite-derived soil moisture products, before they are routinely used in scientific research and applications. This study represents the first evaluation of the SMAP radiometer soil moisture product over China. In this paper, a preliminary evaluation was performed using sparse in situ measurements from 655 China Meteorological Administration (CMA) monitoring stations between 1 April 2015 and 31 August 2016. The SMAP radiometer-derived soil moisture product was evaluated against two schemes of original soil moisture and the soil moisture anomaly in different geographical zones and land cover types. Four performance metrics, i.e., bias, root mean square error (RMSE), unbiased root mean square error (ubRMSE), and the correlation coefficient (R), were used in the accuracy evaluation. The results indicated that the SMAP radiometer-derived soil moisture product agreed relatively well with the in situ measurements, with ubRMSE values of 0.058 cm3·cm−3 and 0.039 cm3·cm−3 based on original data and anomaly data, respectively. The values of the SMAP radiometer-based soil moisture product were overestimated in wet areas, especially in the Southwest China, South China, Southeast China, East China, and Central China zones. The accuracies over croplands and in Northeast China were the worst. Soil moisture, surface roughness, and vegetation are crucial factors contributing to the error in the soil moisture product. Moreover, radio frequency interference contributes to the overestimation over the northern portion of the East China zone. This study provides guidelines for the application of the SMAP-derived soil moisture product in China and acts as a reference for improving the retrieval algorithm.
Possible ways to enhance renin-angiotensin prescribing efficiency: Republic of Serbia as a case history?

BACKGROUND Multiple reforms have been instigated across Europe to enhance prescribing efficiency. Supply-side reforms in the Republic of Serbia include measures to lower the price of generics and originators, with demand-side measures including patient copayments and prescribing restrictions. Specific measures for renin-angiotensin inhibitor drugs include a 50% copayment for angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) versus approximately 50 cents per prescription for established angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), as there is no perceived difference in effectiveness between the two classes. OBJECTIVES To assess the influence of these measures on ARB utilization, as well as reimbursed prices of ACEIs and ARBs over time. METHOD Observational retrospective case study of all ambulatory care patients in the Republic of Serbia's Health Insurance Fund database who were dispensed at least one ACEI or ARB alone or in combination (fixed dose combination [FDC]) between 2005 and 2011. Utilization measured in defined daily doses (DDDs) and only reimbursed expenditure (overall and expenditure/DDD) as Health Insurance perspective. RESULTS There was a 1.8-fold increase in renin-angiotensin inhibitor drug utilization, rising to 207.4 DDDs/1000 inhabitants per day in 2011. This is driven principally by a 19.6-fold increase in ACEI FDCs. There was only limited utilization of ARBs at just 2% of total renin-angiotensin inhibitor drugs in 2011. Reimbursed expenditure increased 2.54-fold due to an appreciable increase in ACEI FDC utilization at approximately twice the cost of ACEIs in recent years. Alongside this, we noted considerable differences in expenditure/DDD for different ACEIs. CONCLUSION & FUTURE PERSPECTIVE: High patient copayments for ARBs appreciably limited their utilization in Serbia, which mirrors the findings from other studies. Potential future measures to enhance prescribing efficiency include reference pricing for ACEIs based on the lowest price of an established ACEI. In addition, reference pricing for FDCs should be based on the reference price of the individual components combined. This builds on recent reforms restricting the reimbursement of FDCs until 3 months after individual components have been prescribed separately.
Legal protection against gender discrimination in the workplace in China

In its 2005 White Paper on Gender Equality, China announced that its legal system offers women workers complete protection of their rights and interests. However, this strong political declaration has to face an uncomfortable ‘reality check’. New forms of gender discrimination at the workplace have emerged in more subtle ways, and usually under the disguise of protecting women, as authorities have outlawed traditional types of prejudice based on gender. This article draws on a survey of opinions in 25 cities about women in the workplace, to demonstrate how pervasive attitudes to men and women in China have systemically worked against women at work in the new reform era. The article goes on to examine the effectiveness of existing gender equality laws, and identifies their weaknesses. In China promoting gender equality is a course of promoting long-lasting changes in society. In the final part of the article, the authors make concrete suggestions to legislators, judiciary, and international donors on remedying workplace inequalities in China.
Cornea Prehematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Tear Cytokines as Potential Susceptibility Biomarkers for Ocular Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease

Lidia Cocho, Itziar Fernández, Margarita Calonge, Maite Sainz de la Maza, Montserrat Rovira, Michael E. Stern, Carmen Garcia-Vazquez, and Amalia Enŕıquez-de-Salamanca Institute of Applied OphthalmoBiology (IOBA), University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Carlos III National Institute of Health, Spain Clinical Institute of Ophthalmology (ICOF), Barcelona Clinic Hospital, Barcelona, Spain Clinical Institute of Hematologic and Oncological Diseases (ICMHO), Barcelona Clinic Hospital, Barcelona, Spain Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Houston, Texas, United States ImmunEyez, LLC, Mission Viejo, California, United States
Distinguishing Chordoid Meningiomas From Their Histologic Mimics: An Immunohistochemical Evaluation

Chordoid meningioma, World Health Organization grade II, is an uncommon variant of meningioma with a propensity for aggressive behavior and increased likelihood of recurrence. As such, recognition of this entity is important in cases that show similar morphologic overlap with other chondroid/myxoid neoplasms that can arise within or near the central nervous system. A formal comparison of the immunohistochemical features of chordoid meningioma versus tumors with significant histologic overlap has not been previously reported. In this study, immunohistochemical staining was performed with antibodies against D2-40, S100, pankeratin, epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), brachyury, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in 4 cases of chordoid glioma, 6 skeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas, 10 chordoid meningiomas, 16 extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, 18 chordomas, 22 low-grade chondrosarcomas, and 27 enchondromas. Staining extent and intensity were evaluated semiquantitatively and mean values for each parameter were calculated. Immunostaining with D2-40 showed positivity in 100% of skeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas, 96% of enchondromas, 95% of low-grade chondrosarcomas, 80% of chordoid meningiomas, and 75% of chordoid gliomas. Staining with S100 demonstrated diffuse, strong positivity in all (100%) chordoid gliomas, skeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas, low-grade chondrosarcomas, and enchondromas, 94% of chordomas, and 81% of extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas, with focal, moderate staining in 40% of chordoid meningiomas. Pankeratin highlighted 100% of chordoid gliomas and chordomas, 38% of extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas, and 20% of chordoid meningiomas. EMA staining was positive in 100% of chordoid gliomas, 94% of chordomas, 90% of chordoid meningiomas, and 25% of extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcomas. Brachyury was positive only in the chordomas (100%), whereas GFAP was positive only in the chordoid gliomas (100%). EMA was the most effective antibody for differentiating chordoid meningioma from skeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, low-grade chondrosarcoma, and enchondroma, whereas D2-40 was the most effective antibody for differentiating chordoid meningioma from extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma and chordoma. Our findings demonstrate that in conjunction with clinical and radiographic findings, immunohistochemical evaluation with a panel of D2-40, EMA, brachyury, and GFAP is most useful in distinguishing chordoid meningioma from chordoid glioma, skeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, chordoma, low-grade chondrosarcoma, and enchondroma. A lack of strong, diffuse S100 reactivity may also be useful in excluding chordoid meningioma. Among the neoplasms evaluated, brachyury and GFAP proved to be both sensitive and specific markers for chordoma and chordoid glioma, respectively. Of note, this study is the first to characterize the D2-40 immunoprofile in extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, results that could be of utility in differential diagnostic assessment.
Merging What's Cracked, Cracking What's Merged: Adaptive Indexing in Main-Memory Column-Stores

Adaptive indexing is characterized by the partial creation and refinement of the index as side effects of query execution. Dynamic or shifting workloads may benefit from preliminary index structures focused on the columns and specific key ranges actually queried --- without incurring the cost of full index construction. The costs and benefits of adaptive indexing techniques should therefore be compared in terms of initialization costs, the overhead imposed upon queries, and the rate at which the index converges to a state that is fully-refined for a particular workload component.Based on an examination of database cracking and adaptive merging, which are two techniques for adaptive indexing, we seek a hybrid technique that has a low initialization cost and also converges rapidly. We find the strengths and weaknesses of database cracking and adaptive merging complementary. One has a relatively high initialization cost but converges rapidly. The other has a low initialization cost but converges relatively slowly. We analyze the sources of their respective strengths and explore the space of hybrid techniques. We have designed and implemented a family of hybrid algorithms in the context of a column-store database system. Our experiments compare their behavior against database cracking and adaptive merging, as well as against both traditional full index lookup and scan of unordered data. We show that the new hybrids significantly improve over past methods while at least two of the hybrids come very close to the "ideal performance" in terms of both overhead per query and convergence to a final state.
Observing Social Exclusion Leads to Dehumanizing the Victim

We hypothesized that observing social exclusion would influence observers’ judgments of the humanness of its victims and perpetrators. Specifically, we speculated that people would attribute victims and perpetrators to lower and higher mental capacities, respectively. Participants observed a simulated computer-based ball tossing game in which one of the players was either ostracized or not. They then rated the game players on traits associated with two dimensions of humanness, namely Human Nature (HN) and Human Uniqueness (HU). Overall, participants who witnessed an exclusion game judged the victim as less human on both domains compared to one of the perpetrators as well as to a player in the control condition. The perpetrator was attributed higher HN, but not significantly higher HU, compared to the control player. In addition, the less HN attributes a target was assigned, the more she was expected to be vulnerable to exploitation. On most of the other measures of target impression, however, the victim was rated more favorably than the perpetrator. The findings imply that social exclusion victims are often subtly derogated compared to the perpetrators, even while they are also more positively evaluated otherwise.
An Empirical Comparison of HillClimbing and Exhaustive Search in Inductive Rule Learning

Most commonly used inductive rule learning algorithms employ a hill-climbing search, whereas local pattern discovery algorithms employ exhaustive search. In this paper, we evaluate the spectrum of different search strategies to see whether separate-and-conquer rule learning algorithms are able to gain performance in terms of predictive accuracy or theory size by using more powerful search strategies like beam search or exhaustive search. Unlike previous results that demonstrated that rule learning algorithm suffer from oversearching, our work pays particular attention to the connection between the search heuristic and the search strategy, and we show that for some rule evaluation functions, complex search algorithms will consistently improve results without suffering from the over-searching phenomenon. In particular, we will see that this is typically the case for heuristics which perform bad in a hill-climbing search. We interpret this as evidence that commonly used rule learning heuristics mix two different aspects: a rule evaluation metric that measures the predictive quality of a rule, and a search heuristic that captures the potential of a candidate rule to be refined into highly predictive rule. For effective exhaustive search, these two aspects need to be clearly separated.
School Psychology in Nova Scotia

School psychologists working in Nova Scotia (NS) were surveyed to determine their current practices and preferred future roles. The goals of the study were to: (a) provide insight into the practice of school psychology in NS, (b) compile a valuable resource for potential students entering into the field, (c) provide information for educational programs preparing school psychology students, and (d) encourage interprovincial communication across the Canadian provinces. Results of the surveys indicate that there have been dramatic changes in the practice of school psychology in NS over the past two decades. Along with increasing numbers of positions and more specific training, there has been an increase in time spent in psychoeducational assessment as well as further diversification of roles (intervention, prevention, consultation). There is a strong desire to decrease time spent in the psychoeducational role and increase time in the area of preventative services. Implications for practicing and upcoming school psychologists are discussed.
Isolating endogenous visuo-spatial attentional effects using the novel visual-evoked spread spectrum analysis (VESPA) technique

In natural visual environments, we use attention to select between relevant and irrelevant stimuli that are presented simultaneously. Our attention to objects in our visual field is largely controlled endogenously, but is also affected exogenously through the influence of novel stimuli and events. The study of endogenous and exogenous attention as separate mechanisms has been possible in behavioral and functional imaging studies, where multiple stimuli can be presented continuously and simultaneously. It has also been possible in electroencephalogram studies using the steady‐state visual‐evoked potential (SSVEP); however, it has not been possible in conventional event‐related potential (ERP) studies, which are hampered by the need to present suddenly onsetting stimuli in isolation. This is unfortunate as the ERP technique allows for the analysis of human physiology with much greater temporal resolution than functional magnetic resonance imaging or the SSVEP. While ERP studies of endogenous attention have been widely reported, these experiments have a serious limitation in that the suddenly onsetting stimuli, used to elicit the ERP, inevitably have an exogenous, attention‐grabbing effect. Recently we have shown that it is possible to derive separate event‐related responses to concurrent, continuously presented stimuli using the VESPA (visual‐evoked spread spectrum analysis) technique. In this study we employed an experimental paradigm based on this method, in which two pairs of diagonally opposite, non‐contiguous disc‐segment stimuli were presented, one pair to be ignored and the other to be attended. VESPA responses derived for each pair showed a strong modulation at 90–100 ms (during the visual P1 component), demonstrating the utility of the method for isolating endogenous visuo‐spatial attention effects.
Valorising the voice of the marginalised : exploring the value of African music in education

I explore the role and value of African music in education, by drawing from a study of Grade 5 learners at a school in the Eastern Cape, which was designed to answer the question: Could Xhosa children in South Africa sing Xhosa indigenous songs significantly better than European folk songs? The experimental group received instruction in Xhosa indigenous songs accompanied by indigenous instruments. Instruction included traditional dancing, antiphonal singing technique and improvisation. The control group received instruction in European folk song singing accompanied by Orff instruments. The results of the study suggest that the Xhosa children sang the Xhosa repertoire expressively and significantly better than the European songs. Based on the findings, I argue for the inclusion of African music in education. The purpose of the research was to determine whether there is any significant development in the cognitive, psychomotor and affective skills of learners when taught African music as opposed to western European music. The aim was also to assist educators with meaningful pedagogical approaches and alternative methodologies to enhance an inclusive learning and cultural experience in music education. Keywords: culture; education; eurocentrism; ethnocentrism; indigenous African music
Narrativizing Oppression and Suffering: Theorizing Slavery

This article analyses the particular process by which memories of the slave experience of Pulayas, Parayas and similar castes are kept alive in contemporary Kerala by followers of the Prathyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha, a social and religious movement of Dalits started in 1909–10 by Poyikayil Yohannan in central Travancore. The article shows how, over time, the Christian orientation of the movement was modified by its Dalit leaders, making intricate use of re-memorizing the slave experience. The outcome is that new myths and concepts were developed, evolving into new practices and discourses, including prominently the narrativization of oppression and suffering and rememory of slavery as part of initiation rituals into the movement.
The effect of trait anxiety and mood manipulation on the breadth of attention

Eysenck (1992) predicts that among trait‐anxious individuals high levels of state anxiety broaden the attentional beam in order to facilitate the detection of threat. An experiment was therefore conducted to investigate the interactive role of trait anxiety and mood manipulation on attentional broadening. Target material varying in threat‐relatedness and concern‐relevance was presented to participants' central (parafoveal) and peripheral visual field. Whilst a mood manipulation was associated with a broadening of the attentional beam, it occurred irrespective of trait anxiety. However, differences in the processing of target material were determined by an interaction between trait anxiety and the mood manipulation. Specifically, when placed in an anxiety‐provoking mood manipulation, those high in anxiety increased in their vigilance for concern‐relevant threatening material. These results are discussed in light of Eysenck's hypervigilance theory of anxiety and attention. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Reverse nearest neighbor heat maps: A tool for influence exploration

We study the problem of constructing a reverse nearest neighbor (RNN) heat map by finding the RNN set of every point in a two-dimensional space. Based on the RNN set of a point, we obtain a quantitative influence (i.e., heat) for the point. The heat map provides a global view on the influence distribution in the space, and hence supports exploratory analyses in many applications such as marketing and resource management. To construct such a heat map, we first reduce it to a problem called Region Coloring (RC), which divides the space into disjoint regions within which all the points have the same RNN set. We then propose a novel algorithm named CREST that efficiently solves the RC problem by labeling each region with the heat value of its containing points. In CREST, we propose innovative techniques to avoid processing expensive RNN queries and greatly reduce the number of region labeling operations. We perform detailed analyses on the complexity of CREST and lower bounds of the RC problem, and prove that CREST is asymptotically optimal in the worst case. Extensive experiments with both real and synthetic data sets demonstrate that CREST outperforms alternative algorithms by several orders of magnitude.
Project management: a case study of a successful ERP implementation

Purpose – The success rate of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations is not high in view of the sums invested by organisations in these applications. It has often been indicated that a combination of inadequate preparedness and inappropriate project management have been responsible for the low‐success rate of ERP implementations. The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of a successful ERP implementation.Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors use a case study of a very successful roll out of an ERP application in the Irish subsidiary of a UK multinational to investigate the validity of one of the most commonly cited project management frameworks, the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK), to ERP projects. Discussing each category of the framework in turn, the case data to illustrate where the PMBOK framework is a good fit or needs refining for ERP projects is used.Findings – It is found that, by and large, PMBOK, because it is a very broad framework, can sh.