Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discounting of reward sequences: a test of competing formal models of hyperbolic discounting

Humans are known to discount future rewards hyperbolically in time. Nevertheless, a formal recursive model of hyperbolic discounting has been elusive until recently, with the introduction of the hyperbolically discounted temporal difference (HDTD) model. Prior to that, models of learning (especially reinforcement learning) have relied on exponential discounting, which generally provides poorer fits to behavioral data. Recently, it has been shown that hyperbolic discounting can also be approximated by a summed distribution of exponentially discounted values, instantiated in the μAgents model. The HDTD model and the μAgents model differ in one key respect, namely how they treat sequences of rewards. The μAgents model is a particular implementation of a Parallel discounting model, which values sequences based on the summed value of the individual rewards whereas the HDTD model contains a non-linear interaction. To discriminate among these models, we observed how subjects discounted a sequence of three rewards, and then we tested how well each candidate model fit the subject data. The results show that the Parallel model generally provides a better fit to the human data.
Oxaliplatin-induced neurotoxicity involves TRPM8 in the mechanism of acute hypersensitivity to cold sensation

Oxaliplatin‐induced peripheral neurotoxicity (OPN) is commonly associated with peripheral hypersensitivity to cold sensations (CS) but the mechanism is unknown. We hypothesized that the transient receptor potential melastatin 8 (TRPM8), a putative cold and menthol receptor, contributes to oxaliplatin cold hypersensitivity. To determine whether the TRPM8 is involved in acute OPN, varying concentrations of menthol were topically applied to the tongues of healthy subjects (n= 40) and colorectal cancer patients (n= 36) before and after oxaliplatin administration. The minimum concentration of menthol to evoke CS at the menthol application site was determined as the CS detection threshold (CDT). In healthy subjects, the mean CDT was 0.068. Sex and age differences were not found in the CDT. In advanced colorectal cancer patients, the mean CDT significantly decreased from 0.067% to 0.028% (P= 0.0039) after the first course of oxaliplatin infusions, and this marked CS occurred in patients who had grade 1 or less neurotoxicity, and grade 2 neurotoxicity, but not in those with grade 3 neurotoxicity. Further, the mean baseline CDT in oxaliplatin‐treated patients was significantly higher than that of chemotherapy‐naïve patients and healthy subjects (0.151% vs. 0.066%, P= 0.0225), suggesting that acute sensory changes may be concealed by progressive abnormalities in sensory axons in severe neurotoxicity, and that TRPM8 is subject to desensitization on repeat stimulation. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of undertaking CDT test in a clinical setting to facilitate the identification of early neurotoxicity. Moreover, our results indicate potential TRPM8 involvement in acute OPN.
Emotion Recognition of Finger Braille

Finger Braille is one of tactual communication media of deafblind people. Deafblind people who are skilled in Finger Braille can catch up with speech conversation and express various emotions. Because there are small non-disabled people who are skilled in Finger Braille, deafblind people communicate only with interpreters. Objective of this study is development of a Finger Braille supporting device which assists not only verbal communication but also non-verbal (emotional) communication between deafblind people and non-disabled people who are not skilled in Finger Braille. In this paper, to develop emotion recognition system, we analyzed features of emotional expression (Neutral, Joy, Sadness and Anger) and derived an algorithm of emotion recognition using accelerometers worn by receiver. According to the results of discriminant analysis, it was considered that emotion recognition using the discriminant functions by standardized data and the average of posterior probabilities in a sentence was possible and independent of sentences.
Asymptotic normality of wavelet estimators of the memory parameter for linear processes

Abstract. We consider linear processes, not necessarily Gaussian, with long, short or negative memory. The memory parameter is estimated semi‐parametrically using wavelets from a sample X1,…, Xn of the process. We treat both the log‐regression wavelet estimator and the wavelet Whittle estimator. We show that these estimators are asymptotically normal as the sample size n → ∞ and we obtain an explicit expression for the limit variance. These results are derived from a general result on the asymptotic normality of the scalogram for linear processes, conveniently centred and normalized. The scalogram is an array of quadratic forms of the observed sample, computed from the wavelet coefficients of this sample. In contrast to quadratic forms computed on the basis of Fourier coefficients such as the periodogram, the scalogram involves correlations which do not vanish as the sample size n → ∞.
Non-invasive phenotyping using exhaled volatile organic compounds in asthma

Background Breath volatile organic compounds (VOCs) may be useful for asthma diagnosis and phenotyping, identifying patients who could benefit from personalised therapeutic strategies. The authors aimed to identify specific patterns of breath VOCs in patients with asthma and in clinically relevant disease phenotypes. Methods Breath samples were analysed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The Asthma Control Questionnaire was completed, together with lung function and induced sputum cell counts. Breath data were reduced to principal components, and these principal components were used in multiple logistic regression to identify discriminatory models for diagnosis, sputum inflammatory cell profile and asthma control. Results The authors recruited 35 patients with asthma and 23 matched controls. A model derived from 15 VOCs classified patients with asthma with an accuracy of 86%, and positive and negative predictive values of 0.85 and 0.89, respectively. Models also classified patients with asthma based on the following phenotypes: sputum (obtained in 18 patients with asthma) eosinophilia ≥2% area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) curve 0.98, neutrophilia ≥40% AUROC 0.90 and uncontrolled asthma (Asthma Control Questionnaire ≥1) AUROC 0.96. Conclusions Detection of characteristic breath VOC profiles could classify patients with asthma versus controls, and clinically relevant disease phenotypes based on sputum inflammatory profile and asthma control. Prospective validation of these models may lead to clinical application of non-invasive breath profiling in asthma.
Magnetic tension and gravitational collapse

The gravitational collapse of a magnetized medium is investigated by studying qualitatively the convergence of a timelike family of non-geodesic worldlines in the presence of a magnetic field. Focusing on the field's tension, we illustrate how the winding of the magnetic forcelines due to the fluid's rotation assists the collapse, while shear-like distortions in the distribution of the field's gradients resist contraction. We also show that the relativistic coupling between magnetism and geometry, together with the tension properties of the field, lead to a magneto-curvature stress that opposes the collapse. This tension stress grows stronger with increasing curvature distortion, which means that it could potentially dominate over the gravitational pull of the matter. If this happens, a converging family of non-geodesic worldlines can be prevented from focusing without violating the standard energy conditions.
Evidence of organizational commitment and work-life conflict

This study examined the impact of work-life conflict on organizational commitment among faculty members of different universities in Pakistan. Both variables were measured through questionnaires. Work life conflict was measured through work life conflict scale and organizational commitment was measured through organizational commitment scale. These questionnaires were distributed among 300 faculty members of different universities in Pakistan. Out of 300 questionnaires distributed 260 questionnaires were received back with response rate of 86.67%. The results of the study revealed that there is negative and significant impact of work-life conflict on organizational commitment. It is also exposed that facets of work-life conflict also have negative and significant influence on organizational commitment. This study provides an important tool for managers to enhance the organizational commitment by reducing the work-life conflict and introducing work-life balance in their organizations and also provides implications for researchers interested in exploring the organizational commitment with respect to work-life conflict in broader context.
Multimodular Architecture for Remote Sensing Operations.

This paper deals with an application of Neural Networks to satellite remote sensing observations. Because of the complexity of the application and the large amount of data, the problem cannot be solved by using a single method. The solution we propose is to build multimodules NN architectures where several NN cooperate together. Such system suffer from generic problem for whom we propose solutions. They allow to reach accurate performances for multi-valued function approximations and probability estimations. The results are compared with six other methods which have been used for this problem. We show that the methodology we have developed is general and can be used for a large variety of applications.
Effects of a Dance Program on Static Balance on a Platform in Young Adults With Down Syndrome

The purpose of the study was to compare postural control in static standing in young adults with and without Down syndrome (DS), with eyes closed and eyes open, before and after an 18-wk dance-based training program. The study included 11 young people with DS age 20.5 (1.3) yr and 11 without DS age 20.2 (2.0) yr. All parameters were recorded before and after the training program. Parameters related to center of pressure (COP; closed and open eyes) were recorded from a platform with the participant in bipedal standing position during 30 s. The results suggest that young people with DS have worse COP control in both visual conditions (closed and open eyes) and are affected by visual information in a different way than their peers without DS. In the group of young adults with DS, the dance-based training program improved some parameters related to the use of visual input in controlling COP.
River flood routing by nonlinear muskingum method

The linear form of the Muskingum model has been widely applied to river flood routing. However, a nonlinear relationship between storage and discharge exists in most actual river systems, making the use of the linear model inappropriate. In this paper, a nonlinear Muskingum model is solved using the state variable modeling technique. Various curve fitting techniques are employed for the calibration of model parameters, and their performances within the model are compared. Both linear and nonlinear models are applied to an example with pronounced nonlinearity between storage and discharge. The results show that the nonlinear Muskingum model is superior to the linear one.
Exposure to Bioaerosols in Poultry Houses at Different Stages of Fattening; Use of Real-time PCR for Airborne Bacterial Quantification

Previous studies have demonstrated that poultry house workers are exposed to very high levels of organic dust and consequently have an increased prevalence of adverse respiratory symptoms. However, the influence of the age of broilers on bioaerosol concentrations has not been investigated. To evaluate the evolution of bioaerosol concentration during the fattening period, bioaerosol parameters (inhalable dust, endotoxin and bacteria) were measured in 12 poultry confinement buildings in Switzerland, at three different stages of the birds’ growth; samples of air taken from within the breathing zones of individual poultry house employees as they caught the chickens ready to be transported for slaughter were also analysed. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) was used to assess the quantity of total airborne bacteria and total airborne Staphylococcus species. Bioaerosol levels increased significantly during the fattening period of the chickens. During the task of catching mature birds, the mean inhalable dust concentration for a worker was 26 ± 1.9 mg m−3 and endotoxin concentration was 6198 ± 2.3 EU m−3 air, >6-fold higher than the Swiss occupational recommended value (1000 EU m−3). The mean exposure level of bird catchers to total bacteria and Staphylococcus species measured by Q-PCR is also very high, respectively, reaching values of 53 (±2.6) × 107 cells m−3 air and 62 (±1.9) × 106 m−3 air. It was concluded that in the absence of wearing protective breathing apparatus, chicken catchers in Switzerland risk exposure beyond recommended limits for all measured bioaerosol parameters. Moreover, the use of Q-PCR to estimate total and specific numbers of airborne bacteria is a promising tool for evaluating any modifications intended to improve the safety of current working practices.
Send Orders of Reprints at Reprints@benthamscience.net Disc Height and Sagittal Alignment in Operated and Non-operated Levels in the Lumbar Spine at Long-term Follow-up: a Case-control Study

Purpose: To compare lumbar disc degeneration at 9-year follow-up in patients with chronic low back pain who had instrumented lumbar fusion or no fusion. Material and methodology: The main outcomes were disc height and sagittal alignment measured by Distortion Compensated Roentgen Analysis (DCRA). Secondary outcome included the Oswestry Disability Index and VAS back pain. Results: Forty-eight patients with baseline and 9-year radiographs from L2-S1 were included. Twenty-three had lumbar fusion and 25 had no fusion. Disc height was reduced at all levels independent of fusion. No difference in disc height and sagittal alignment was observed between patients fused and not fused. There were weak correlations, ranging from 0.04 to 0.36, between clinical and radiological parameters. Conclusion: Lumbar disc degeneration increased at all measured levels independent of fusion and correlated poorly with clinical outcome.
A Contingency Approach To Data Governance

Enterprises need data quality management (DQM) to respond to strategic and operational challenges demanding high-quality corporate data. Hitherto, companies have assigned accountabilities for DQM mostly to IT departments. They have thereby ignored the organizationalissues that are critical to the success of DQM. With data governance, however, companies implement corporate-wide accountabilities for DQM that encompass professionals from business and IT. This paper outlines a data governance model comprised of three components that build a matrix comparable to an RACI chart: data quality roles, decision areas, and responsibilities. The data governance model documents the data quality roles and their type of interaction with DQM activities. In addition, the paper identifies contingency factors that impact the model configuration. Companies can structure their company-specific data governance model based on these findings.
Governing migration through death in Europe and the US: Identification, burial and the crisis of modern humanism

Border deaths have become an established feature of contemporary migratory politics in both Europe and the US. This article examines the similarities and differences in practices of ‘governing migration through death’ across the US–Mexico (Sonoran) and in the EU–North African (Mediterranean) contexts. Instead of taking a conventional comparative analysis of two distinct sites, the article draws on critical scholarship in the field of border studies in order to examine biopolitical, thanatopolitical and necropolitical dynamics of bordering that cross contexts. It argues that these operations of power converge in both European and US bordering practices, specifically through a form of biophysical violence that operates directly on the biological functions of migrating bodies. The article suggests that the establishment of this violence represents a crisis of modern humanism, which becomes implicated in the toleration of such violence through processes of denial, displacement, rejection and compensation. By focusing, in particular, on the ways that the treatment of the dead functions as a means of compensating for (yet not redressing) biophysical violence, the article highlights the deficiencies of contemporary practices of identification and burial, and raises questions about the limitations of contestations that emphasise dignity only to perpetuate a hierarchy of ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy’ lives. In so doing, the article concludes by suggesting that contemporary ‘migration crises’ are better understood in terms of the crisis of modern humanism, grounded in Graeco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian traditions, which can no longer deny its implication in practices of governing migration through death.
Computer Games and Multichannel Audio Quality - The Effect of Division of Attention between Auditory and Visual Modalities

The effect of division of attention between the evaluation of multichannel audio quality and involvement in a visual task (playing a computer game) was investigated. It was observed that involvement in a visual task may significantly change the results obtained during evaluation of audio quality for some listeners and for some experimental conditions. It was also found that this effect is listener-specific and the global effect observed after averaging the results across all listeners is small but significant.
Link Resource Adaptation for Multiantenna Bit-Interleaved Coded Multicarrier Systems

The availability of flexible radio interfaces capable of adapting their configuration to the time-varying operating environment is the key response to the demand encountered in modern wireless networks for high data rates under strict quality of service (QoS) constraints. To this end, this paper develops a novel link resource adaptation (LRA) scheme for soft-decoded multiantenna (MIMO) bit interleaved coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (BIC-OFDM) transmissions employing automatic repeat request (ARQ) mechanisms. As the first step, a simple link performance evaluation model based on the effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) mapping concept is derived in a closed-form expression that it is shown to yield better accuracy than previous techniques. Then, an effective LRA strategy is formulated taking advantage of that framework. The aim is maximizing the goodput (GP) metric, that is to say, the number of information bits delivered without error to the user by unit of time, over the available radio resources, such as the power distribution on the subchannels, coding rate, modulation order and the MIMO configuration. The numerical results demonstrate considerable performance gains compared with nonadaptive transmissions, while keeping the computational complexity at affordable levels in view of the specific structure of the GP objective function.
CONVENTIONAL CHRISTIAN BELIEFS AND EXPERIMENTATION WITH THE PARANORMAL

We know from previous research that some individuals with strong, conventional Christian beliefs may also profess beliefs in paranormal phenomena incongruent with Christian beliefs (extrasensory perception, psychic abilities, communicating with the dead, etc.). What we don't have a full grasp on is to what extent people with conventional Christian beliefs will also experiment with these paranormal activities. It is one thing to believe in psychic abilities, but quite another to consult a psychic. We draw upon different perspectives in sociology of religion and present competing hypotheses about the relationship between conventional Christian beliefs and paranormal experimentation. We use the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey and count regressions to model the number of reported paranormal experiences. In general, conventional Christian beliefs have no direct effect on the reported number of paranormal experiences, but, these effects are conditioned by the level of church attendance. Among those who attend church often, conventional Christian beliefs significantly decrease the reported number of paranormal experiences. Among those who do not attend church, holding conventional Christian beliefs increases the number of reported paranormal experiences. Implications for theory and research are discussed.
The role of contextual frequency in the articulation of initial /f/ in Modern Spanish: The same effect as in the reduction of Latin /f/?

Abstract The acoustic energy of 996 tokens of word-initial /f/ in the speech of 38 speakers of Mexican Spanish was analyzed. The results suggest that the frequency with which words occur in phonological contexts favorable to reduction (Frequency in a Reducing Context or FRC) conditions the reduction of /f/, even after taking into account the immediate phonological context. Despite this, it is also found that the conditioning effect of FRC is less robust than the influence of the immediate phonological context, thus confirming the preeminence in these data of the online articulatory factors in comparison to the usage-based frequency factors.
Quality appraisal of clinical practice guidelines on the use of physiotherapy in rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE To assess the quality of guidelines published in peer-reviewed literature concerning the role of physiotherapy in the management of patients with RA. METHODS A systematic literature search for clinical practice guidelines that included physiotherapy interventions was performed in four electronic databases. We assessed the quality of the selected guidelines using the appraisal of guidelines for research and evaluation (AGREE) instrument. In addition, the recommendations of guidelines with the highest quality scores were summarized. RESULTS Eight clinical practice guidelines fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Scope/purpose was the most often adequately addressed AGREE domain (in seven of the eight guidelines) and applicability the least (in two of the eight guidelines). Based on the AGREE domain scores, six guidelines could be recommended or strongly recommended for clinical use. Five out of these six (strongly) recommended guidelines included a recommendation on exercise therapy and/or patient education, with these interventions being recommended in every case. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and thermotherapy were recommended in four of these six guidelines. US, thermotherapy, low-level laser therapy, massage, passive mobilization and balneotherapy were addressed in one or two of these six guidelines. CONCLUSION Six of eight clinical practice guidelines addressing physiotherapy interventions were recommended or strongly recommended according to the AGREE instrument. In general, guideline recommendations on physiotherapy intervention, from both the recommended guidelines as well as from the not recommended guidelines, lacked detail concerning mode of delivery, intensity, frequency and duration.