Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Action and Gait Recognition From Recovered 3-D Human Joints

A common viewpoint-free framework that fuses pose recovery and classification for action and gait recognition is presented in this paper. First, a markerless pose recovery method is adopted to automatically capture the 3-D human joint and pose parameter sequences from volume data. Second, multiple configuration features (combination of joints) and movement features (position, orientation, and height of the body) are extracted from the recovered 3-D human joint and pose parameter sequences. A hidden Markov model (HMM) and an exemplar-based HMM are then used to model the movement features and configuration features, respectively. Finally, actions are classified by a hierarchical classifier that fuses the movement features and the configuration features, and persons are recognized from their gait sequences with the configuration features. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated with experiments on the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique Xmas Motion Acquisition Sequences data set.
Disability and Employee Benefits Receipt: Evidence From the U.S. Vocational Rehabilitation Services Program

Studies indicate positive effects of the U.S. Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS) in assisting people with disabilities to find independent employment. Underemployment continues to impact access to adequate health care and other benefits. Workers with disabilities receive fewer benefits, overall. With data from the Longitudinal Study of Vocational Rehabilitation Services Program (LSVRSP), the authors compare the rates of receipt of 6 types of benefits for people with physical, mental, and sensory impairments. Although those with physical disabilities are most likely to receive benefits, all groups lack adequate access to health care, sick leave, and vacation. The authors discuss implications for services provision in the current job market.
Effect of pharmacist-led patient education on adherence to tuberculosis treatment.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of a clinical pharmacist-directed patient education program on the therapy adherence of first-time tuberculosis (TB) patients and to identify the major pharmaceutical care needs and issues of first-time TB and multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB patients. METHODS In the first part of the study, first-time TB patients were randomized either to the No EDU group (n = 58) where patients received routine medical and nursing care or to the EDU group (n = 56) where patients were also provided with clinical pharmacist-directed patient education. The patient's adherence to treatment was evaluated by attendance at scheduled visits, medication counting, and urine analysis for the presence of isoniazid metabolites. In the second part of the study, the pharmaceutical care needs and issues were determined for first-time TB patients and for MDR-TB patients (n = 40). RESULTS The adherence of patients who received pharmacist-directed patient education was greater than that of patients who did not. The attendance at scheduled visits and urine analysis for the presence of isoniazid metabolites yielded better results in respect to adherence for the EDU group (p < 0.05), while medication counting did not differ between the two groups. The major pharmaceutical care needs of first-time TB patients were for pain control, nutrient replacement, appropriate prescribing, respiratory control, and diabetic control. Similar findings were recorded for MDR-TB patients. CONCLUSION Patients' adherence to TB treatment improved when a pharmacist provided patient education on medication use and addressed patients' pharmaceutical care issues.
Factors associated with the use of complementary medicine and non-pharmacological interventions in symptomatic menopausal women

Background Hormone replacement therapy is now thought to have serious adverse effects; consequently, many menopausal women are seeking to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including non-pharmacological interventions (NPI), to alleviate symptoms. The prevalence and perceived effectiveness of CAM and NPI for ameliorating menopausal symptoms are not widely known and factors likely to predict CAM and NPI utilization for menopausal symptom management have not been comprehensively documented. Objectives The objectives of this study were to (1) determine the prevalence of using CAM and NPI for menopausal symptoms; (2) describe the perceived effectiveness of CAM and NPI for symptom management; and (3) investigate lifestyle and demographic factors associated with CAM/NPI use among menopausal women with vasomotor symptoms. Methods Women aged 46–55 years were recruited via six socioeconomically diverse general practices. Participants completed a postal questionnaire that contained items relating to demographics, lifestyle factors, weight, height, exercise behavior, menopausal status, vasomotor symptoms and utilization and perceived effectiveness of a range of CAM/NPI for symptom management. Results Of 1206 women who responded, 563 (47%) were symptomatic. The most commonly used CAM/NPI for symptom management were diet/nutrition (44.3%), exercise/yoga (41.5%), relaxation/stress management (27.4%) and homeopathic/naturopathic remedies (25.4%). Of women who used these interventions, large proportions reported them to be helpful. The characteristics that were independently associated with use of CAM/NPI were White ethnicity, being physically active, and not smoking. Conclusions Many menopausal symptomatic women are using a wide range of CAM/NPI and report these to be effective, particularly those who are white, physically active and do not smoke.
The deliberate relationship : a frame for talking about faculty-student relationships

L'attention croissante envers l'harcelement sexuel a permis une prise de conscience plus aigue des autres problemes d'abus dus au desequilibre de pouvoir entre le corps professoral universitaire et les etudiants. Les reponses ces inegalites de pouvoir sont caracterisees en terme de distance ou de reniement; aucune de ces positions n'adresse de facon satisfaisante les demandes de la creation d'une relation dynamique, respectueuse, et mutuellement enrichissante. En s'inspirant des experiences en recherche, en maternage, en enseignement, et en litterature de l'ethnographie et de la psychologie feministe, cet article propose la relation deliberee comme cadre qui aiderait les membres de la faculte a se comporter intentionellement selon certains roles. L'A. presente six elements de la relation deliberee, soit: la reconnaissance et la recompense inerte a l'enseignement; d'etre conscient(e) du pouvoir; de maintenir les limites; de reconnaitre la nature dynamique des relations ou figurent le pouvoir, la pratique transparente, et la presence personelle
Quantifier Alternation in Two-Variable First-Order Logic with Successor Is Decidable

We consider the quantifier alternation hierarchy within two-variable first-order logic FO^2[<,suc] over finite words with linear order and binary successor predicate. We give a single identity of omega-terms for each level of this hierarchy. This shows that it is decidable for a given regular language and a non-negative integer m, whether the language is definable by a formula in FO^2[<,suc] which has at most m quantifier alternations. We also consider the alternation hierarchy of unary temporal logic TL[X,F,Y,P] defined by the maximal number of nested negations. This hierarchy coincides with the FO^2[<,suc] alternation hierarchy.
Afferents to the Ventrolateral Preoptic Nucleus

Sleep is influenced by diverse factors such as circadian time, affective states, ambient temperature, pain, etc., but pathways mediating these influences are unknown. To identify pathways that may influence sleep, we examined afferents to the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO), an area critically implicated in promoting sleep. Injections of the retrograde tracer cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) into the VLPO produced modest numbers of CTB-labeled monoaminergic neurons in the tuberomammillary nucleus, raphe nuclei, and ventrolateral medulla, as well as a few neurons in the locus coeruleus. Immunohistochemistry for monoaminergic markers showed dense innervation of the VLPO by histaminergic, noradrenergic, and serotonergic fibers. Along with previous findings, these results suggest that the VLPO and monoaminergic nuclei may be reciprocally connected. Retrograde and anterograde tracing showed moderate or heavy inputs to the VLPO from hypothalamic regions including the median preoptic nucleus, lateral hypothalamic area, and dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus (DMH), autonomic regions including the infralimbic cortex and parabrachial nucleus, and limbic regions including the lateral septal nucleus and ventral subiculum. Light to moderate inputs arose from orexin and melanin concentrating hormone neurons, but cholinergic or dopaminergic inputs were extremely sparse. Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) projections to the VLPO were sparse, but the heavy input to the VLPO from the DMH, which receives direct and indirect SCN inputs, could provide an alternate pathway regulating the circadian timing of sleep. These robust pathways suggest candidate mechanisms by which sleep may be influenced by brain systems regulating arousal, autonomic, limbic, and circadian functions.
A Decentralized Bayesian Algorithm For Distributed Compressive Sensing in Networked Sensing Systems

Compressive sensing (CS), as a new sensing/sampling paradigm, facilitates signal acquisition by reducing the number of samples required for reconstruction of the original signal, and thus appears to be a promising technique for applications where the sampling cost is high, e.g., the Nyquist rate exceeds the current capabilities of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). Conventional CS, although effective for dealing with one signal, only leverages the intrasignal correlation for reconstruction. This paper develops a decentralized Bayesian reconstruction algorithm for networked sensing systems to jointly reconstruct multiple signals based on the distributed compressive sensing (DCS) model that exploits both intra- and intersignal correlations. The proposed approach is able to address-networked sensing system applications with privacy concerns and/or for a fusion-center-free scenario, where centralized approaches fail. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed decentralized approaches have good recovery performance and converge reasonably quickly.
Ethics of prevention: An interactive computer-tailored program

Aim: This article describes the contents of an interactive computer-tailored program. The program is based on previous studies of the practice of care for persons with Prader-Willi syndrome. This genetic condition is associated with a constant overeating behaviour with the risk of obesity. The aim of the program is to start a process of awareness, reflection, and discussion by caregivers who are confronted with the moral dilemma of respect for autonomy versus restricting overeating behaviour. The program focuses on values (such as health and well-being) that are relevant to caregivers in daily practice. Furthermore, the focus is on various ways of interaction with the client. Caregivers were expected to focus mainly on health, and on both paternalistic and interpretive/deliberative forms of interaction. Methods: Sixteen professionals and 12 parents pilot-tested the program contents. With a pre-test, responses on one central case were collected for tailored feedback; with a post-test, the effects of the program were measured. Results: Significant correlations were found between the values of autonomy and consultation and between autonomy and well-being. In contrast to our expectations respondents valued all categories (autonomy, consultation, health, well-being, and liveability for others) as equally important in the pre-test. No significant changes in scores were found between pre- and post-test. The open answers and remarks of participants support the program contents. Conclusions: Participants' responses support previous research findings, advocating a concept of autonomy in terms of positive freedom, through support by others. The promotion of the client's self-understanding and self-development is central in this concept.
Lattice study of the kink soliton and the zero-mode problem for Ø 4 in two dimensions.

Using lattice field theory techniques, we perform an exploratory study of the quantisation of the simplest extended object, the Λ o 41+1 kink soliton, and the associated zero-mode contribution to the kink soliton mass in regions in and beyond the semiclassical regime. The calculations are done in the non-trivial scaling region so that our lattice results can be meaningfully compared with the classical and semiclassical continuum results. We show how to extract the kink from this full quantum field theory treatment and show, as a function of parameter space, where the zero-mode contributions become significant.
Evidence for a second function of the MA sequence in the Rous sarcoma virus Gag protein

During retrovirus assembly, Gag proteins bind to the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane to initiate the budding process. The molecular basis of this protein-lipid interaction is poorly understood. For the human, immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag protein, we recently reported that the membrane-binding domain resides within the N-terminal 31 amino acids and consists of two components: myristate and a cluster of basic residues, which together promote membrane binding in vitro and budding in vivo (W. Zhou, L. J. Parent, J. W. Wills, and M. D. Resh, J. Virol. 68:2556-2569, 1994). The positively charged residues associate electrostatically with acidic phospholipids to stabilize membrane binding, while myristate provides membrane-binding energy via hydrophobic interactions. Here we demonstrate that the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag membrane-binding domain can fully replace the membrane-targeting function of the N-terminal 100 residues of the non-myristylated Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) Gag protein. To further explore the importance of myristate and basic residues in membrane binding, we developed a gain-of-function assay whereby budding was restored to defective mutants of RSV Gag. Detailed mutational analysis revealed that the position, number, and context of charged residues are crucial to budding. Myristate provides additional membrane-binding energy, which is critical when a Gag protein is near the threshold of stable membrane association. Finally, viruses with altered matrix (MA) proteins that are noninfectious, even though they produce particles with high efficiency, were identified. Thus, we present the first evidence that the RSV MA sequence plays two distinct roles, membrane binding during particle assembly and a second, as yet undefined function required for viral infectivity.
The reliability and validity of the Goal Orientation and Learning Strategies Survey (GOALS-S): A Filipino investigation

The Goal Orientation and Learning Strategies Survey (GOALS-S; Dowson & McInerney, 2004) is an instrument designed to assess four sets of constructs: (1) academic goals, (2) social goals, (3) cognitive strategies, and (4) metacognitive strategies of high school students. This instrument was initially developed and validated among students in Australia. The applicability of this instrument to the Philippine setting was tested in a study involving 1,147 Filipino students from Metro Manila. Responses to this questionnaire are shown to have good internal consistency reliability. Support is provided for its within-network construct validity in terms of its factorial structure and evidence of its between-network construct validity is shown through its correlations with other valued educational outcomes. Different multigroup confirmatory factor analysis likewise indicated that the instrument is invariant across genders, across year levels, and across type of school. Suggestions for further research using the GOALS-S are provided.
Comparison of Symptom Score and Bronchoscopy-Based Assessment With Conventional Computed Tomography–Based Assessment of Response to Chemotherapy in Lung Cancer

Purpose There is a paucity of literature on symptom score (SS) plus fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) –based response evaluation (RE) to chemotherapy for lung cancer. This study aimed to compare the reliability of RE by SS, chest radiograph (CXR), and FOB with computed tomography (CT) –based assessment (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) and WHO criteria) for lung cancer chemotherapy. Methods This was a prospective observational study involving treatment-naïve patients with lung cancer planned for chemotherapy, with one or more lesions on FOB and CT. Patients underwent assessment twice by SS, CXR, FOB, and CT (at baseline and after chemotherapy). Six symptoms (dyspnea, cough, chest pain, hemoptysis, anorexia, and weight loss) were noted on visual analog scale. Respiratory symptom burden (RSB) and total symptom burden (TSB) were calculated from the first four and all six symptoms, respectively, as the mean of individual SS. Bronchoscopic findings were recorded as per European Respiratory Society classification for tracheobronchial stenosis. Responses were classified as complete response (CR), partial response (PR), stable disease (SD), or progressive disease (PD) by each method. For FOB and SS, improvement or worsening by ≥ 20% was taken as PR or PD, respectively, whereas < 20% change was considered SD. Agreements were tested using Cohen’s κ statistic. Results All individual SS, RSB, and TSB scores, and the number and distribution of FOB lesions improved significantly after chemotherapy. Individually, CXR and SS had no or minimal agreement with FOB-based and CT-based responses. RECIST and WHO criteria had strong agreement overall (Cohen’s κ = 0.872) and perfect agreement for PD (Cohen’s κ = 1.000). Cohen’s κvalues for FOB-based assessment with RECIST and WHO were 0.324 and 0.349, respectively for overall RE, and 0.462 and 0.501 for differentiating responders (CR and PR) from nonresponders (SD and PD), respectively. Cohen’s κvalues for PD were 0.629 (FOB alone), 0.672 (FOB and RSB), 0.739 (FOB and TSB), and 0.764 (FOB and CXR). Conclusion CT-based assessment should remain the reference for objective RE of chemotherapy in lung cancer. A combination of FOB and CXR may be used as a surrogate to diagnose PD if CT is not feasible.
Distributed Adaptive Integrated-Sliding-Mode Controller Synthesis for String Stability of Vehicle Platoons

This paper presents a distributed finite-time adaptive integral-sliding-mode (ISM) control approach for a platoon of vehicles consisting of a leader and multiple followers subjected to bounded unknown disturbances. In order to avoid collisions among the vehicles, control protocols have to be designed to ensure string stability of the whole vehicle platoon. First, the constant time headway (CTH) policy known to improve string stability is applied to the case of zero initial spacing errors. Contrary to requiring zero initial spacing and zero initial velocity errors simultaneously in existing methods based on constant spacing (CS) policy, initial velocity errors here are not required to be zero. Then, since string stability condition can fail at the initial conditions, a modified CTH policy is constructed to overcome string instability caused by nonzero initial spacing errors. Moreover, the proposed adaptive ISM control schemes can be implemented without the requirement that the bounds of the disturbances be known in advance. In addition, one effective method is proposed to reduce the chattering phenomenon caused by the indicator function. Finally, simulation results are included to demonstrate its effectiveness and advantages over existing methods.
Using Decomposition-Parameters for QBF: Mind the Prefix!

Similar to the satisfiability (SAT) problem, which can be seen to be the archetypical problem for NP, the quantified Boolean formula problem (QBF) is the archetypical problem for PSPACE. Recently, Atserias and Oliva (2014) showed that, unlike for SAT, many of the well-known decompositional parameters (such as treewidth and pathwidth) do not allow efficient algorithms for QBF. The main reason for this seems to be the lack of awareness of these parameters towards the dependencies between variables of a QBF formula. In this paper we extend the ordinary pathwidth to the QBF-setting by introducing prefix pathwidth, which takes into account the dependencies between variables in a QBF, and show that it leads to an efficient algorithm for QBF. We hope that our approach will help to initiate the study of novel tailor-made decompositional parameters for QBF and thereby help to lift the success of these decompositional parameters from SAT to QBF.
Dielectric Properties of Bound Water: Application to Porous Media Surface Area and Grain Moisture Determination

The dielectric properties of molecular layers of water bound to solid surfaces or to macromolecules are substantially different than those of free water. Consequently, determination of moisture content from dielectric properties of porous mixtures, such as soils and rocks having moderate to substantial surface area and cereal grains, is affected by the amount and energy state of bound water. We use earth materials and seed or grain products as specific examples having high economic and environmental relevance. A physical model that considers modified properties of water near solid surfaces is presented. The thermo-dielectric sensitivity of TDR-measured bulk dielectric permittivity (eb) to bound water reflects interactions with the porous medium surface area, and permits model inversion to infer specific surface area (As) from measured response to thermal perturbation. Measured eb(T) using TDR along with independently measured mass water contents and bulk densities are used in the model to calculate As for soils and sand-clay mixtures having a range in As and wetness. Results are in agreement with As of the mixtures measured using ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (EGME) monolayer adsorption. Estimation of bound water within grains or legumes is a critical component towards predicting water content from dielectric permittivity measurements. Application of the physical model to this problem is also discussed and compared to permittivity measurements in starch and grain samples. INTRODUCTION Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is commonly used to infer liquid water content and bulk electrical conductivity of soils and other porous media. Estimation of soil water content (? ) from measured eb using TDR travel time analysis is based on the dominance of the high dielectric permittivity of liquid water relative to that of other common soil constituents. Bound water, water that is closely adjacent to solid surfaces, is subject to a number of forces that hinder its response to an imposed electromagnetic field resulting in lower eb than free liquid water. Water closest to solid surfaces is held most tightly, and has lowest measured eb. Successive molecular layers of water have increasingly higher eb until that of free water is reached at about 3 molecular layers from the solid (Bockris et al. 1966, Sposito and Prost 1982). Water incorporated into starches may also be considered as bound in the sense that it is rotationally constrained in response to an alternating electromagnetic field imposed by TDR. In this paper we discuss development and preliminary applications of a physical model to describe the relationships between bound and free water contents of porous media and food grains, the measured responses in eb using TDR under ambient or imposed temperature (T) changes, and specific surface areas and grain moisture contents. t (x,T) ' 4 p r 3 ? 0 (T)exp a x T