Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organizational effectiveness of Finnish sports clubs.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the organizational effectiveness of Finnish sports clubs (n = 835) from an open systems perspective. Five dimensions of effectiveness were examined, including the ability to obtain resources, internal atmosphere, efficiency of the throughput process, realization of aims, and general level of activity. All dimensions except internal atmosphere were intercorrelated. The findings indicated that many features of effectiveness were largely linked to the size of the membership, ideological orientation, and organizational environment. Success orientation was found to be incompatible with a relaxed atmosphere.
Reduced Inhospital Mortality in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction after Practice of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention at a Remote Hospital in Taiwan

Background: As of July 2004, our hospital in Taitung, a remote area of Taiwan, has offered a 24-hour primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) service. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of data from 310 patients who suffered an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) from the period 2003 and 2007 according to patient age and survival status. Results: The mean age for the non-survivors was significantly higher compared to the survivors. Non-survivors weresignificantlylowerinBMI,higheruricacidlevelsandwereconsideredtobehyperuricemic.Themortalityrate among the 148 older patients ( 70 years of age) was significantly higher than that among the 162 younger patients (< 70 years of age) group (18.37% vs. 3.09%, p < 0.0001). The older patients exhibited higher levels of serum creatine and lower levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL (p < 0.05 for all). A greater fraction of the older patients were in Killip class III-IV compared to the younger patients (p < 0.0001) and were more likely to be in shock status on arrival (p = .0085). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age 70 years (OR 8.49, 95% CI 1.04-68.84, p = 0.04) and Killip classes III-IV (OR 7.41, 95% CI 1.54-35.55, p = 0.01) independently predicted in-hospital mortality. The primary PCI service significantly reduced the mortality of younger AMI patients (p = 0.002). The mortality before and after primary PCI in the older age group, by contrast, was not significantly different. Conclusion: Our data suggest that greater age (along with Killip class III-IV) appears to predict in-hospital mortality for patients with AMI. Younger patients can benefit from the availability of a primary PCI service.
Pneumolysin Activates the NLRP3 Inflammasome and Promotes Proinflammatory Cytokines Independently of TLR4

Pneumolysin (PLY) is a key Streptococcus pneumoniae virulence factor and potential candidate for inclusion in pneumococcal subunit vaccines. Dendritic cells (DC) play a key role in the initiation and instruction of adaptive immunity, but the effects of PLY on DC have not been widely investigated. Endotoxin-free PLY enhanced costimulatory molecule expression on DC but did not induce cytokine secretion. These effects have functional significance as adoptive transfer of DC exposed to PLY and antigen resulted in stronger antigen-specific T cell proliferation than transfer of DC exposed to antigen alone. PLY synergized with TLR agonists to enhance secretion of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-12, IL-23, IL-6, IL-1β, IL-1α and TNF-α by DC and enhanced cytokines including IL-17A and IFN-γ by splenocytes. PLY-induced DC maturation and cytokine secretion by DC and splenocytes was TLR4-independent. Both IL-17A and IFN-γ are required for protective immunity to pneumococcal infection and intranasal infection of mice with PLY-deficient pneumococci induced significantly less IFN-γ and IL-17A in the lungs compared to infection with wild-type bacteria. IL-1β plays a key role in promoting IL-17A and was previously shown to mediate protection against pneumococcal infection. The enhancement of IL-1β secretion by whole live S. pneumoniae and by PLY in DC required NLRP3, identifying PLY as a novel NLRP3 inflammasome activator. Furthermore, NLRP3 was required for protective immunity against respiratory infection with S. pneumoniae. These results add significantly to our understanding of the interactions between PLY and the immune system.
Privacy Leakage through Innocent Content Sharing in Online Social Networks

The increased popularity and ubiquitous availability of online social networks and globalised Internet access have affected the way in which people share content. The information that users willingly disclose on these platforms can be used for various purposes, from building consumer models for advertising, to inferring personal, potentially invasive, information. In this work, we use Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare data to convey the idea that the content shared by users, especially when aggregated across platforms, can potentially disclose more information than was originally intended. We perform two case studies: First, we perform user de-anonymization by mimicking the scenario of finding the identity of a user making anonymous posts within a group of users. Empirical evaluation on a sample of real-world social network profiles suggests that cross-platform aggregation introduces significant performance gains in user identification. In the second task, we show that it is possible to infer physical location visits of a user on the basis of shared Twitter and Instagram content. We present an informativeness scoring function which estimates the relevance and novelty of a shared piece of information with respect to an inference task. This measure is validated using an active learning framework which chooses the most informative content at each given point in time. Based on a large-scale data sample, we show that by doing this, we can attain an improved inference performance. In some cases this performance exceeds even the use of the user's full timeline.
Implications of Analyticity to Mass Gap, Color Confinement and Infrared Fixed Point in Yang--Mills theory

Analyticity of gluon and Faddeev--Popov ghost propagators and their form factors on the complex momentum-squared plane is exploited to continue analytically the ultraviolet asymptotic form calculable by perturbation theory into the infrared non-perturbative solution. We require the non-perturbative multiplicative renormalizability to write down the renormalization group equation. These requirements enable one to settle the value of the exponent characterizing the infrared asymptotic solution with power behavior which was originally predicted by Gribov and has recently been found as approximate solutions of the coupled truncated Schwinger--Dyson equations. For this purpose, we have obtained all the possible superconvergence relations for the propagators and form factors in both the generalized Lorentz gauge and the modified Maximal Abelian gauge. We show that the transverse gluon propagators are suppressed in the infrared region to be of the massive type irrespective of the gauge parameter, in agreement with the recent result of numerical simulations on a lattice. However, this method alone is not sufficient to specify some of the ghost propagators which play the crucial role in color confinement. Combining the above result with the renormalization group equation again, we find an infrared enhanced asymptotic solution for the ghost propagator. The coupled solutions fulfill the color confinement criterion due to Kugo and Ojima and also Nishijima, at least, in the Lorentz--Landau gauge. We also point out that the solution in compatible with color confinement leads to the existence of the infrared fixed point in pure Yang--Mills theory without dynamical quarks. Finally, the Maximal Abelian gauge is also examined in connection with quark confinement.
Power Requirements of Swimming: Do New Methods Resolve Old Questions?1

Abstract A recurring question in the study of fish biomechanics and energetics is the mechanical power required for tail-swimming at the high speeds seen among aquatic vertebrates. The quest for answers has been driven by conceptual advances in fluid dynamics, starting with ideas on the boundary layer and drag initiated by Prandtl, and in measurement techniques starting with force balances focussing on drag and thrust. Drag (=thrust) from measurements on physical models, carcasses, kinematics as inputs to hydromechanical models, and physiological power sources vary from less than that expected for an equivalent rigid reference to over an order of magnitude greater. Estimates of drag and thrust using recent advances largely made possible by increased computing power have not resolved the discrepancy. Sources of drag and thrust are not separable in axial undulatory self propulsion, are open to interpretation and Froude efficiency is zero. Wakes are not easily interpreted, especially for thrust evaluation. We suggest the best measures of swimming performance are velocity and power consumption for which 2D inviscid simulations can give realistic predictions. Steady swimming power is several times that required for towing an equivalent flat plate at the same speed.
THE INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COPING STYLES, COGNITIVE APPRAISAL, POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER SYMPTOMS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTIONS IN INDIVIDUALS WITH HAND INJURIES

The interrelationship between coping styles, cognitive appraisal, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and psychological reactions in individuals with hand injuries Lynne Hopkinson The following study examined the psychological reactions following hand injuries and the interrelationship of coping styles (in particular, emotionversus problem-focused coping), post-traumatic stress disorder reactions and psychological distress in this client group, compared to a comparison group of individuals with non-traumatically induced hand deformities (primarily Dupuytren's contractures) . The hypothesized positive impact of problemfocused coping and negative impact of emotion-focused coping on psychological outcome was also investigated. A total of 25 individuals with hand injuries and 20 individuals with a hand deformity were interviewed. This involved completion of a semi-structured interview plus a range of standardized assessment scales including the COPE (coping inventory), the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Inventory, the Impact of Event Scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD). The majority of hand injury sufferers were seen six days to four weeks after their injury and three participants were seen at a longer duration of injury between 10 months to three years. Individuals were followed up at an average of approximately four months. The results showed significantly higher levels of PTSD symptomatology, anxiety and negative affect (at time 1) and emotional distress (at time 2) in the hand injury group compared to the comparison group. Increased use of emotion-focused coping in the hand injury group at time 2 coincided with differences in appraisal. The hand injury group appraised their injury as more threatening than the comparison group and loss appraisals were their predominant form of appraisal at time 2, whereas challenge appraisals were predominant in the comparison group. Positive associations emerged between both problemand emotion-focused coping, PTSD symptoms and HAD anxiety and depression scores, although the correlations with emotion-focused coping tended to account for more common variance compared to those with problem-focused coping. Cross-lagged panel correlations indicated a possible causal influence of emotion-focused coping on total PTSD-I scores, intrusion on the Impact of Event Scale and anxiety (providing some support for the negative impact of emotion-focused coping). Analysis also suggested a possible role of problemfocused coping in the onset of anxiety symptoms, in addition to a bi-directional relationship between problem-focused coping and total PTSD-I scores. However, the failure of these results to reach statistical significance cannot provide conclusive evidence for these effects. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research and suggestions are made for future studies.
Task-dependent spatial sensitivity in area A1, DZ, and PAF of cat auditory cortex

ii Dedicated to My Parents for their love and support iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation work would not have been possible without the guidance of my mentors, support of my friends, and love of my family. I am deeply appreciative for all the talented people around me that helped educate me to be an open-minded scientist and mature man after this incredible journey. I especially want to express my gratitude to my mentor, John Middlebrooks. He is a wonderful teacher who always guided me into the right direction with encouragement and support. He is a great scientist full of knowledge and insightful ideas. He is also a good friend that is always understanding and patient with me. It has been a great honor to work with him. I thank him for being the charioteer of the progress of this work and at the same time, allowing me to explore freely in the field and figure things out on my own. I would also like to thank members of my dissertation committee, for their consistent guidance and helpful feedback. It has been a great pleasure to work in the Middlebrooks' lab. The unwavering encouragement and the support from the past and current members of the lab have made my time as a Ph.D. student into a rewarding life experience. Alana Kirby and Zekiye Onsan have traveled across the continent from Michigan to California with me. They made invaluable contributions to my manuscripts and my research. My gratitude for their unselfish support and sharing was beyond words. We have become a small family with iv much of love and care inside and outside of the lab. All those moments that we shared together is one of the greatest memory I have. I would also like to thank Ewan Macpherson, who was the best tutor and the best friend and who helped me with a lot of data analysis and experiments. It is important to note that this work would not have begun without Ian Harrington and Chris Stecker. All the insightful discussions and the inspiring ideas had tremendous influences on the development of this project. Also, have assisted me to overcome many difficulties in research with their expertise and friendship. I would like to acknowledge the help and support of the expert veterinary staffs in Unit for Laboratory Rogers to ULAM for their efforts and dedications for animal health and wellness, which made …
Automated Acceptance Testing: A Literature Review and an Industrial Case Study

Automated acceptance testing is a quite recent addition to testing in agile software development holding great promise of improving communication and collaboration. This paper summarizes existing literature and also presents a case study from industry on the use of automated acceptance testing. The aim of this paper is to establish an up to date overview of existing knowledge to benefit practice and future research. We show that some of the proposed benefits are realistic but that further research and improvements are needed to get the full potential value.
Teaching in the Line of Fire: Faculty of Color in the Academy.

Despite these gains for faculty of color,there is another reality,supported byanemergingbodyofliterature,whichsuggeststheseincreasesmaycomeatacost.Forsomefacultyofcolor,anunwelcomingandpotentiallyhostileclassroomenvi-ronment awaits those who choose to teach in predominantly White institutions(PWIs). According to Cathy A. Trower, a research associate at the HarvardGraduate School of Education,faculty of color:• experience overt and/or covert racism including being stereotyped andpigeon-holed;• aremarginalizedandfindthattheirresearchisdiscredited,especiallyifitconcernsminorityissues;• bear a tremendous burden of tokenism,including feelinglike they must be
The influence of indirect and direct emotional processing on memory for facial expressions

We used the Remember–Know procedure (Tulving, 1985) to test the behavioural expression of memory following indirect and direct forms of emotional processing at encoding. Participants (N=32) viewed a series of facial expressions (happy, fearful, angry, and neutral) while performing tasks involving either indirect (gender discrimination) or direct (emotion discrimination) emotion processing. After a delay, participants completed a surprise recognition memory test. Our results revealed that indirect encoding of emotion produced enhanced memory for fearful faces whereas direct encoding of emotion produced enhanced memory for angry faces. In contrast, happy faces were better remembered than neutral faces after both indirect and direct encoding tasks. These findings suggest that fearful and angry faces benefit from a recollective advantage when they are encoded in a way that is consistent with the predictive nature of their threat. We propose that the broad memory advantage for happy faces may reflect a form of cognitive flexibility that is specific to positive emotions.
Design of an Intense Muon Source with a Carbon and Mercury Target

In high-intensity sources, muons are produced by firing high energy protons onto a target to produce pions. The pions decay to muons which are captured and accelerated. In the present study, we examine the performance of the channel for two dierent target scenarios: one based on liquid mercury and another one based on a solid carbon target. We produce distributions with the two dierent target materials and discuss dierences in particle spectrum near the sources. We then propagate the distributions through our capture system and compare the full system performance for the two target types.
Uncertainty Estimation in Simultaneous Measurements of Levels and Permittivities of Liquids Using TDR Technique

Time-domain reflectometry (TDR) based on instruments are commonly used for several monitoring methods, particularly in soil moisture and volumetric water-content evaluation. Furthermore, significant advantages of TDR methodology, mostly related to the possible determination in real-time and to a nondestructive approach of the spatial location and nature of various objects, make this technique an appealing candidate for a variety of environmental and industrial applications. In this paper, we show that the suitable combination of TDR-detecting functionalities can lead to a joint quantitative and qualitative monitoring method for liquid-control purposes, so that, in one shot, the analysis of TDR data allow the measurement of liquid levels, the determination of multiple interfaces in layered media, as well as the evaluation of dielectric properties, thus opening challenging perspectives for several monitoring applications, particularly in fluid-processing-related industry. For such purposes, a detailed analysis of the uncertainty of the proposed measurement method is mandatory; hence, a metrological characterization of the method is carried out, demonstrating that the presented technique is definitely valid for simultaneously measuring levels and dielectric constants of liquids, with uncertainties under 2%. Results obtained for different liquid samples validate the approach on a wide range of dielectric materials and demonstrate the robustness and reliability of the proposed TDR technique.
The Neural Basis of Object-Context Relationships on Aesthetic Judgment

The relationship between contextual information and object perception has received considerable attention in neuroimaging studies. In the work reported here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the relationship between aesthetic judgment and images of objects in their normal contextual setting versus images of objects in abnormal contextual settings and the underlying brain activity. When object-context relationships are violated changes in visual perception and aesthetic judgment emerges that exposes the contribution of vision to interpretations shaped by previous experience. We found that effects of context on aesthetic judgment modulates different memory sub-systems, while aesthetic judgment regardless of context recruit medial and lateral aspects of the orbitofrontal cortex, consistent with previous findings. Visual cortical areas traditionally associated with the processing of visual features are recruited in normal contexts, irrespective of aesthetic ratings, while prefrontal areas are significantly more engaged when objects are viewed in unaccustomed settings.
Torque and power outputs on skilled and unskilled users during manual wheelchair propulsion

Manual wheelchair users are at a high risk of pain and injuries to the upper extremities due to mechanical inefficiency of wheelchair propulsion motion. The kinetic analysis of the upper extremities during manual wheelchair propulsion in various conditions needed to be investigated. We developed and calibrated a wheelchair dynamometer for measuring kinetic parameters during propulsion. We utilized the dynamometer to investigate and compare the propulsion torque and power values of skilled and unskilled users under four different conditions. Skilled manual wheelchair users generated lower torques with more power than unskilled users and reacted alertly and sensitively to changing conditions. We expect that these basic methods and results may help to quantitatively evaluate the mechanical efficiency of manual wheelchair propulsion.
Design and Control of a Four Steered Wheeled Mobile Robot

This paper presents the kinematical analysis of AZIMUT-2, a four steered wheeled mobile robot. The utilization of a new wheel concept called the AZIMUT wheel allowed us to create an innovative omnidirectional non-holonomic robot. Novelty of this wheel concept resides in the non-conventional positioning of the steering axis and the wheel axis. We propose a kinematical model based on the geometrical constraints of these wheels. The degree of mobility, steerability and maneuverability are studied. Additionally, we describe a special design implementation of the wheel mechanism to overcome a hyper-motorization issue inherent to the wheel's geometrical properties. Finally, we describe AZIMUT-2's two operational and seven locomotion modes, along with a control algorithm based on the kinematical model of the robot
Adrenomedullin, periodontitis, diabetes-unraveling the equivocal relationship: A clinicobiochemical cross-sectional study

Context: Antimicrobial proteins and peptides constitute a diverse class of host-defense molecules that act early to combat invasion and infection with bacteria and other microorganisms. Among the various antimicrobial peptides in the oral cavity, adrenomedullin (ADM), a cationic peptide, is found in gingival crevicular fluids (GCFs) in amounts twice as high in periodontal disease sites as healthy sites. Studies have also shown that plasma levels of ADM increased in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus as compared with controls. Aims: This clinico-biochemical study was undertaken to try to decipher the probable link between ADM, diabetes and periodontitis. Materials and Methods: The study comprised of 90 patients who were divided into three groups based on community periodontal index scores and diabetes status. Probing pocket depth and clinical attachment level were measured in all subjects. GCF was collected from all the participants using micropipettes and blood samples were collected from subjects in Groups III, for analysis of glycated hemoglobin. ADM levels were measured in GCF samples by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Statistical Analysis Used: The data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance, Bonferroni test and Pearson's correlation. Results: An increase in GCF levels of ADM from periodontal health to disease and in periodontitis patients with type 2 diabetes was noted. Conclusions: Increase in GCF levels of ADM from periodontal health to disease and in periodontitis patients with type 2 diabetes reinforces the perio-systemic interlink concept.