Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sound Selection for Gesture Sonification and Manipulation of Virtual Objects

New sensors and technologies – such as microphones, touchscreens or infrared sensors – are currently making their appearance in the automotive sector, introducing new kinds of Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs). The interactions with such tools might be cognitively expensive, thus unsuitable for driving tasks. It could for instance be dangerous to use touchscreens with a visual feedback while driving, as it distracts the driver’s visual attention away from the road. Furthermore, new technologies in car cockpits modify the interactions of the users with the central system. In particular, touchscreens are preferred to arrays of buttons for space improvement and design purposes. However, the buttons’ tactile feedback is no more available to the driver, which makes such interfaces more difficult to manipulate while driving. Gestures combined with an auditory feedback might therefore constitute an interesting alternative to interact with the HMI. Indeed, gestures can be performed without vision, which means that the driver’s visual attention can be totally dedicated to the driving task. In fact, the auditory feedback can both inform the driver with respect to the task performed on the interface and on the performed gesture, which might constitute a possible solution to the lack of tactile information. As audition is a relatively unused sense in automotive contexts, gesture sonification can contribute to reducing the cognitive load thanks to the proposed multisensory exploitation. Our approach consists in using a virtual object (VO) to sonify the consequences of the gesture rather than the gesture itself. This approach is motivated by an ecological point of view: Gestures do not make sound, but their consequences do. In this experiment, the aim was to identify efficient sound strategies, to transmit dynamic information of VOs to users through sound. The swipe gesture was chosen for this purpose, as it is commonly used in current and new interfaces. We chose two VO parameters to sonify, the hand-VO distance and the VO velocity. Two kinds of sound parameters can be chosen to sonify the VO behavior: Spectral or temporal parameters. Pitch and brightness were tested as spectral parameters, and amplitude modulation as a temporal parameter. Performances showed a positive effect of sound compared to a no-sound situation, revealing the usefulness of sounds to accomplish the task. Keywords—Auditory feedback, gesture, sonification, sound perception, virtual object. Benjamin Bressolette, Mitsuko Aramaki, Sølvi Ystad and Richard Kronland-Martinet are with the LMA, CNRS, UPR 7051 Aix Marseille Université, Centrale Marseille, 4 impasse Nikola Tesla, CS 40006, F-13453, Marseille cedex 13, France (e-mail: bressolette@lma.cnrs-mrs.fr, aramaki@lma.cnrs-mrs.fr, ystad@lma.cnrs-mrs.fr, kronland@lma.cnrs-mrs.fr). Sébastien Denjean and Vincent Roussarie are with PSA Group (e-mail: sebastien.denjean@ext.mpsa.com, vincent.roussarie@mpsa.com).
Multipage Administrative Document Stream Segmentation

We propose in this paper a framework for the segmentation and classification of document streams. The framework is composed of two modules: segmentation and verification. The two modules use an incremental classifier which learns progressively along the stream. In the segmentation module a relationship between two consecutive pages is classified as either: continuity or rupture. Rupture is synonymous of a clear break, thus probably a complete document. If the classifier is uncertain on whether the relationship should be a continuity or a rupture, an over-segmentation is proposed and we consider that we have a fragment i.e. portion of a document. Both fragments and documents are sent to the verification module where additionally to the incremental classifier it includes a correction module. The classifier predicts the classes of fragments and documents. The predicted class represents a context which is used as a query to search for similar contexts in the correction module and correct the segmentation and verification results. Corrections are sent back to the segmentation and verification modules to learn the correct classes. Results on real world databases show the effectiveness and stability of our approach.
Distribution of photon absorption rates across the rat retina

1 An investigation into the distribution of light intensity across the rat retina was carried out on excised, intact rat eyes exposed to Ganzfeld illumination from a helium‐neon laser (543 nm). 2 Some of the light entering the eyes exits through the sclera where its intensity can be monitored with an optical ‘pick‐up’ that samples the intensity coming from a small region of external sclera and underlying retina. The spatial resolution of the pick‐up is such that it samples light that has passed through ca 2 % of the rods in the rat eye. 3 Some of the laser light is absorbed by the rod pigment, rhodopsin, which gradually bleaches. Bleaching in the retina, in turn, causes an exponential increase in intensity emanating from the sclera. By monitoring this intensity increase, we are able to measure two important parameters in a single bleaching run: the local rhodopsin concentration and the local intensity falling on the rods. 4 With an ocular transmission photometer, we have measured both the local intensity and the local rhodopsin concentration across wide regions of rat retina. Both pigmented and albino rats were studied. 5 The distributions of rhodopsin and intensity were both nearly uniform; consequently, the product, (rhodopsin concentration) × (intensity), was similarly nearly equal across the retina. This means that the initial rate of photon absorption is about the same at all retinal locations. 6 Interpreted in terms of photostasis (the regulation of daily photon catch), this means that the rate of photon absorption is about the same in each rod, viz. 14 400 photons absorbed per rod per second. Since this rate of absorption is sufficient to saturate the rod, one possible purpose of photostasis is to maintain the rod system in a saturated state during daylight hours.
Efficacy of an intrathecal multidrug infusion for pain control in older adults and in end-stage malignancies: A report of three cases

Intractable pain that does not respond to conventional analgesic treatments is a clinical challenge, and may occur to a greater extent among elderly individuals or those with end-stage malignancies. This article describes three cases in which such patients were treated with a multidrug infusion to relieve their pain. The successes and challenges encountered in each case are described, and the authors include a discussion regarding the choice of the pharmalogical agents used, as well as their mechanism of action.
Middle-class parents’ educational work in an academically selective public high school

This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent–school engagement at an academically selective public high school in New South Wales, Australia. Such research is pertinent given recent policies of ‘choice’ and decentralization, making a study of local stakeholders timely. The research comprised a set of interviews with parents and teachers (n = 15), through which parents – all members of the school’s Parents’ and Citizens’ group – theorized and explained their involvement with the school, and teachers spoke about their views on this involvement. Results are organized around three themes: ‘how parents worked to nurture their children’s schooling’, ‘reasons behind parents’ involvement with the school’, and ‘communication and use of parental resources by the school’. Overall it was found that while parents were making significant efforts to involve themselves in the education of their children and with the school more broadly, the reasons for their involvement were not always consistent, but instead revealed a range of motivations for and conceptions of parents’ roles within schools, which at times were at odds with the teachers’. Through this, the study contributes to our understanding of middle-class parent engagement at an unusual and particular type of school.
Modulation of docetaxel-induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest by all- trans retinoic acid in prostate cancer cells

We report that all- trans retinoic acid (ATRA) enhanced the toxicity of docetaxel against DU145 and LNCaP prostate cancer cells, and that the nature of the interaction between ATRA and docetaxel was highly synergistic. Docetaxel-induced apoptotic cell death was associated with phosphorylation and hence inactivation of Bcl-2. ATRA enhanced docetaxel-induced apoptosis and combined treatment with ATRA and docetaxel resulted in down-regulation of Bcl-2. Docetaxel caused phosphorylation and hence inactivation of cdc2 kinase result ing in G2/M arrest. ATRA inhibited docetaxel-induced phosphorylation of cdc2 resulting in activation of cdc2 kinase and partial reversal of the G2/M arrest. ATRA also inhibited docetaxel-induced activation of MAPK indicating that the effects of docetaxel and ATRA on cdc2 phosphorylation are dependent on MAPK. We conclude that ATRA synergistically enhances docetaxel toxicity by down-regulating Bcl-2 expression and partially reverses the docetaxel-induced G2/M arrest by inhibiting docetaxel-induced cdc2 phosphorylation in a pathway that is dependent on MAPK. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer. com
What Was That Sermon about? Predicting Memory for Religious Messages from Cognitive Psychology Theory

Drawing from cognitive psychology theory, it was predicted that memory for religious messages would increase as a function of several variables: verbal ability, interest in the message, religiosity, and the consistency of the message with the religious beliefs of the subject. Three hundred fiftythree college students listened to one of three religious messages structurally similar, but thematically different: High God Control-Low Personal Control, High God Control-High Personal Control, and Low God Control-High Personal Control. They then completed several memory measures and other scales. Only modest amounts of information were retained from the messages. The predictions of the study were generally confirmed for the messages more familiar and acceptable to the subjects. Subjects also distorted the content of the message to fit more closely with their religious beliefs. These results support the study of religious material from a cognitive psychology perspective.
Prognostic Value of FDG PET Imaging in Patients with Laryngeal Cancer

Background and Purpose To investigate the prognostic value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) in patients with laryngeal cancer. Materials and Methods The study included 51 patients of whom 30 underwent definitive radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy and 21 underwent radical surgery with or without adjuvant chemoradiation therapy. FDG uptake by both the primary lesion and the neck node was measured using the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax). The effects of clinicopathological factors including primary tumor SUVmax and nodal SUVmax on progression-free survival, local control, nodal progression-free survival, and distant metastasis-free survival were evaluated using the log-rank test and Cox method. Results The median duration of follow-up was 48.6 months (range 8 to 82.1 months). Univariate analysis showed that nodal SUVmax, N status, and tumor TNM stage were significantly associated with recurrence, whereas primary tumor SUVmax, age, treatment strategy and T status were not. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that only the nodal SUVmax was a significantly unfavorable factor for progression-free survival (p = 0.029, hazard ratio 0.54, 95% CI 0.38-0.87) and nodal progression-free survival (p = 0.023, hazard ratio 0.51, 95% CI 0.34-0.81). ROC curve analysis and log-rank test showed that patients with a high nodal SUVmax (≧4) had a significantly lower progression-free survival rate than those with a low SUVmax (<4; p<0.0001). Conclusions The pretreatment SUVmax of nodal disease in patients with laryngeal cancer is prognostic for recurrence.
Dynamic object sampling for pretenuring

Many state-of-the-art garbage collectors are generational, collecting the young nursery objects more frequently than old objects. These collectors perform well because young objects tend to die at a higher rate than old ones. However, these collectors do not examine object lifetimes with respect to any particular program or allocation site. This paper introduces low-cost object sampling to dynamically determine lifetimes. The sampler marks an object and records its allocation site every n bytes of allocation. The collector then computes per-site nursery survival rates. Sampling degrades total performance by only 3 on average for sample rates of 256 bytes in jikes, a rate at which overall lifetime accuracy compares well with sampling every object. An adaptive collector can use this information to tune itself. For example, pretenuring decreases nursery collection work by allocating new, but long-lived, objects directly into the mature space. We introduce a dynamic pretenuring mechanism that detects long lived allocation sites and pretenures them, given sufficient samples. To react to phase changes, it occasionally backsamples. As with previous online pretenuring, consistent performance improvements on SPECjvm98 benchmarks are difficult to attain since only two combine sufficient allocation load with high nursery survival. Our pretenuring system consistently improves one of these, javac, by 2% to 9% of total time by decreasing collection time by over a factor of two. Sampling and pretenuring overheads slow down all the others. This paper thus provides an efficient sampling mechanism that accurately predicts lifetimes, but leaves open optimization policies that can exploit this information.
Thymidine Analogues Suppress Autophagy and Adipogenesis in Cultured Adipocytes

ABSTRACT Lipoatrophy in HIV patients can result from prolonged exposure to thymidine analogues. Mitochondrial toxicity leading to dysregulated adipogenesis and increased cell death has been proposed as a leading factor in the etiology of peripheral fat loss. We hypothesized that thymidine analogues interfere with autophagy, a lysosomal degradation pathway, which is important for mitochondrial quality control, cellular survival, and adipogenesis. We assessed the effects of zidovudine (AZT), stavudine (d4T), and lamivudine (3TC) on autophagy in eukaryotic cells and adipocytes (3T3-F442A) by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. The effects were compared to interventions with established genetic and pharmacological inhibitors of autophagy and correlated to assessments of cell viability, proliferation, and differentiation. AZT and d4T, but not 3TC, inhibited both constitutive and induced autophagic activity in adipocytes. This inhibition was associated with accumulation of dysfunctional mitochondria, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, increased apoptosis, decreased proliferation, and impaired adipogenic conversion. Autophagy inhibition was dose and time dependent and detectable at therapeutic drug concentrations. Similar phenotypic changes were obtained when genetic or pharmacological inhibition of autophagy was employed. Our data suggest that thymidine analogues disturb adipocyte function through inhibition of autophagy. This novel mechanism potentially contributes to peripheral fat loss in HIV-infected patients.
Smaller socioeconomic inequalities in health among women: the role of employment status.

BACKGROUND Socioeconomic inequalities in health are smaller among women than among men. In this paper, it is hypothesized that this is due to a gender difference in employment status. METHODS We used data from the baseline of a Dutch longitudinal study. The socioeconomic indicators were educational level of the respondent and occupational level of the main breadwinner. Logistic regression was used to assess the size of socioeconomic inequalities in the prevalence of chronic conditions and less than 'good' perceived general health. RESULTS The smaller socioeconomic inequalities in health among women were partly due to a less pronounced concentration among women than among men of relatively unhealthy employment status categories (unemployed, long-term work-disabled) in lower socioeconomic groups. The smaller inequalities in perceived general health among women could also partly be explained by the smaller overall size of the group of unemployed/long-term disabled/early retired among women than among men, a group which is characterized by relatively large inequalities in health. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that in the Netherlands the low proportion of women in paid employment, and thereby the low proportion of the unemployed/long-term disabled/early retired, explains part of the smaller socioeconomic inequalities in health among women. The more pronounced concentration of those with a long-term work disability in lower socioeconomic groups among men, also points at the importance of working conditions for the gender difference in the size of socioeconomic inequalities in health.
Systemic Chlamydia trachomatis infection in mice: a comparison of lymphogranuloma venereum and trachoma biovars

We developed a murine model of systemic infection with Chlamydia trachomatis biovar lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV). The pathological features of this infection resemble those of human LGV infection since both are characterized by granuloma formation. Mice developed resistance to reinfection with LGV, and this resistance was based on cellular immune mechanisms since it was transferable with immune spleen cells but not with immune serum. Resistance required viable organisms for induction. We compared LGV biovar infection with trachoma biovar infection. Trachoma biovar produced similar but less marked microbiological and pathological features. Cross-immunity was less apparent between serovars from trachoma and LGV biovars than it was between serovars within the same biovar. This model of systemic C. trachomatis infection will be useful in exploring virulence features of LGV.
The hyperkinetic child and stimulant drugs.

The possibility that stimulant drugs used in the treatment of the hyperkinetic syndrome suppress growth adds another strident warning to a growing literature that emphasizes medical responsibility for meticulous long-term care and follow-up study of children with this disorder. The data presented by Safer and his co-workers in this issue of the Journal challenge conventional belief that tolerance to anorectic effects develops with relative rapidity. Clinicians have long been familiar with initial weight loss followed by resumption of weight gain, but few have reported measures of long-term effects. Dr. Kenneth Zike, of Harbor General Hospital, in an unpublished study generously .
Association of Poultry Processing Industry Exposures With Reports of Occupational Finger Amputations: Results of an Analysis of OSHA Severe Injury Report (SIR) Data

Objective: This analysis was conducted to identify industry exposures strongly associated with reports of finger amputation. Methods: Reports of severe occupational injuries in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Severe Injury Report (SIR) database were analyzed in relation to U.S. Census Bureau industry employment data. Industries with significantly elevated reporting odds ratios (RORs) and relative reporting risks (RRRs) were identified. Multiple population association measures including population attributable fraction (PAF) were calculated by industry. Results: Among industries with statistically significant RRR and ROR, the poultry processing industry (RRR = 12.60, ROR = 3.37) accounted for the highest PAF by RRR (2.34%) and ROR (1.65%) Conclusion: The results of this analysis identify the poultry processing industry as a leading source of reports of occupational finger amputations and substantiate the need for further collaboration with this industry.
How Does Context Affect the Distribution of Software Maintainability Metrics?

Software metrics have many uses, e.g., defect prediction, effort estimation, and benchmarking an organization against peers and industry standards. In all these cases, metrics may depend on the context, such as the programming language. Here we aim to investigate if the distributions of commonly used metrics do, in fact, vary with six context factors: application domain, programming language, age, lifespan, the number of changes, and the number of downloads. For this preliminary study we select 320 nontrivial software systems from Source Forge. These software systems are randomly sampled from nine popular application domains of Source Forge. We calculate 39 metrics commonly used to assess software maintainability for each software system and use Kruskal Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test to determine if there are significant differences among the distributions with respect to each of the six context factors. We use Cliff's delta to measure the magnitude of the differences and find that all six context factors affect the distribution of 20 metrics and the programming language factor affects 35 metrics. We also briefly discuss how each context factor may affect the distribution of metric values. We expect our results to help software benchmarking and other software engineering methods that rely on these commonly used metrics to be tailored to a particular context.
Highly Reproducible Label Free Quantitative Proteomic Analysis of RNA Polymerase Complexes*

The use of quantitative proteomics methods to study protein complexes has the potential to provide in-depth information on the abundance of different protein components as well as their modification state in various cellular conditions. To interrogate protein complex quantitation using shotgun proteomic methods, we have focused on the analysis of protein complexes using label-free multidimensional protein identification technology and studied the reproducibility of biological replicates. For these studies, we focused on three highly related and essential multi-protein enzymes, RNA polymerase I, II, and III from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We found that label-free quantitation using spectral counting is highly reproducible at the protein and peptide level when analyzing RNA polymerase I, II, and III. In addition, we show that peptide sampling does not follow a random sampling model, and we show the need for advanced computational models to predict peptide detection probabilities. In order to address these issues, we used the APEX protocol to model the expected peptide detectability based on whole cell lysate acquired using the same multidimensional protein identification technology analysis used for the protein complexes. Neither method was able to predict the peptide sampling levels that we observed using replicate multidimensional protein identification technology analyses. In addition to the analysis of the RNA polymerase complexes, our analysis provides quantitative information about several RNAP associated proteins including the RNAPII elongation factor complexes DSIF and TFIIF. Our data shows that DSIF and TFIIF are the most highly enriched RNAP accessory factors in Rpb3-TAP purifications and demonstrate our ability to measure low level associated protein abundance across biological replicates. In addition, our quantitative data supports a model in which DSIF and TFIIF interact with RNAPII in a dynamic fashion in agreement with previously published reports.