Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The comet assay as a rapid test in biomonitoring occupational exposure to DNA-damaging agents and effect of confounding factors.

Within the last decade, the comet assay has been used with increasing popularity to investigate the level of DNA damage in terms of strand breaks and alkaline labile sites in biomonitoring studies. The assay is easily performed on WBCs and has been included in a wide range of biomonitoring studies of occupational exposures encompassing styrene, vinyl chloride, 1,3-butadiene, pesticides, hair dyes, antineoplastic agents, organic solvents, sewage and waste materials, wood dust, and ionizing radiation. Eleven of the occupational studies were positive, whereas seven were negative. Notably, the negative studies appeared to have less power than the positive studies. Also, there were poor dose-response relationships in many of the biomonitoring studies. Many factors have been reported to produce effects by the comet assay, e.g., age, air pollution exposure, diet, exercise, gender, infection, residential radon exposure, smoking, and season. Until now, the use of the comet assay has been hampered by the uncertainty of the influence of confounding factors. We argue that none of the confounding factors are unequivocally positive in the majority of the studies. We recommend that age, gender, and smoking status be used as criteria for the selection of populations and that data on exercise, diet, and recent infections be registered before blood sampling. Samples from exposed and unexposed populations should be collected at the same time to avoid seasonal variation. In general, the comet assay is considered a suitable and fast test for DNA-damaging potential in biomonitoring studies.
RISM - Reputation Based Intrusion Detection System for Mobile Ad hoc Networks

This paper proposes a combination of an Intrusion Detection System with a routing protocol to strengthen the defense of a Mobile Ad hoc Network. Our system is Socially Inspired, since we use the new paradigm of Reputation inherited from human behavior. The proposed IDS also has a unique characteristic of being Semi-distributed, since it neither distributes its Observation results globally nor keeps them entirely locally; however, managing to communicate this vital information without accretion of the network traffic. This innovative approach also avoids void assumptions and complex calculations for calculating and maintaining trust values used to estimate the reliability of other nodes observations. A robust Path Manager and Monitor system and Redemption and Fading concepts are other salient features of this design. The design has shown to outperform normal DSR in terms of Packet Delivery Ratio and Routing Overhead even when up to half of nodes in the network behave as malicious.
Multilevel Modelling in School Effectiveness Research.

ABSTRACT Fifteen years ago, Burstein (1980) argued that the key to methodological progress in studies of classroom and school effects depended on the development of appropriate models and methods for the analysis of multilevel data. Considerable progress has been made in the intervening years such that anyone familiar with the growing school effectiveness research literature will have encountered the methodological imperative: ‘Pay attention to the multilevel organisational structure in which schooling occurs’ (i.e., students within classes within schools). Results are now available from a number of studies that have employed multilevel modelling to investigate school and teacher effectiveness. In the main, these results suggest that variation between classes is far more significant than variation between schools, although in detail the evidence often appears to be contradictory and open to a variety of interpretations. This article considers why different studies generate different findings, identifies s.
Quantum-like Tests for Contextual Querying

Tests are essential in Information Retrieval (IR), in order to evaluate the effectiveness of a query. Tests intended to exhibit the sense of words in con-text were undertaken and linked with Quantum Mechanics (QM). Poll tests were undertaken on heterogeneous media such as music and polysemy in foreign languages. Interference effects are shown in the results. Bell inequality was used leading to a significant spread in the results of the poll tests but without violating the classical limit. Then an automatic pertinence measure tool on texts has been developed using the HAL algorithm using an orthonormal vector decomposition model. In this case the spread in the values can lead to the violation of the Bell inequality even beyond Cirel'son bound.
: A Conceptualization Supporting System with Capability of

The copyright issue is very important in education industry all along. Especially while coming into contact with global sharing of educational resources, mutual well-understood of the copyright laws is worthy of attention. However, there is a lack of systemic knowledge management methodology for the issue; closely connected to this problem is that most of intelligent laws systems are undesirable and ineffective for international semantic mapping of laws knowledge. Hence, this research aims to design a conceptualization supporting system with the capability of “Intention” and ontology for searching and mapping laws from different nations based on senamtic component of law. We focus on the intention behind the different copyright laws because the semantic similarity among the laws can be well recognized based on the intention, and we propose a “ I ntention O riented ” M odel (“ IOM ”). The value of “intention-oriented” prespective is obviously not noly in formulating intention behind the law, but also in providing a uniform criterion for integrating laws component from different national laws. The capability of IOM makes this system to take on verifiable reasoning. Meanwhile, we adopt ontological engineering approach for appropriately representing among different national laws and international treaties. Ontology clarifies systematic semantics of the vocabulary with which queries and assertions are exchanged among agents. The capability of ontology is provide “subclass-link” to identify concept subsumption relationship, which facilitates this system flexible matching. Moreover, in this research the copyright law ontology provides well-organized concept to clarify the commonality and the difference among different national laws and internatioanal treaties.
Questioning the questionnaire: Expediency of reviewing and publication versus adequate description and methodological justification

Judy van Biljon University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa vbiljja@unisa.ac. za Abstract: The questionnaire is one of the fundamental research instruments in the field of Information Technology and Information Systems research. The survey as data capturing method with the questionnaire as data capturing tool is used in various research designs. The wide‐ranging application field of the questionnaire as research instrument has led to varied practices in conducting and reporting questionnaire driven research. Standards of quality vary along with the assumptions underlying different philosophical traditions. Considering the ontological and methodological differences between paradigms the transfer of methods and tools between paradigms can introduce deviations in accepted practices. This raises questions about the critical constraints on using the questionnaire as research tool. The present study investigates issues related to the rigor of survey based research reporting. Precisely, it evaluates questionnaire‐driven research reporting and then seeks to determine the reasons for deviating from accepted reporting practices such as providing access to the questionnaire. To fulfil this objective, the research design entails document analysis of papers presented at a leading South African Computer Science and Information Systems conference over a six‐year period (2008 to 2013). The analyses sought to identify trends in the reporting of the questionnaire design. The survey‐driven studies were identified from the proceedings and the reporting practice was analyzed. The specific conference was selected since it is a reputable annual conference in the South African IT/IS field. The analysis revealed that the questionnaire was made available in less than one third of the survey‐based articles on average. Having found a definite trend towards omitting the questionnaire, an short survey was conducted with 12 well‐published researchers to get their opinion on including the questionnaire and also to uncover the underlying reasons for the omission practice. Reporting practices impact the rigor of any research since rigorous research needs to be done and rigorous research needs to be seen to be done. The non‐ reporting practice affects the quality of the findings measured in terms of reliability and validity for quantitative research and in terms of trustworthiness, confirmability, and consistency for qualitative research; therefore it is important to question why this practice prevails. The contribution of the study is to highlight a practice of not providing the questionnaire as research instrument and provides some reasons why the practice prevails. This investigation is meant to open a larger debate on the governance of reporting practices. The paper should be of interest to researchers that use surveys and consume survey based findings as well as reviewers, editors and academic conference chairpersons.
A permission system for secure AOP

The integration of third-party aspects into applications creates security challenges. Due to the intrusive impact of aspects, one cannot guarantee that the dynamic composition of aspects does not lead to misbehavior. The newly composed aspect typically has many, if not unrestricted, rights to read and modify attributes of the base system. AspectJ, amongst other AOP systems, suffers from this limitation, which makes the composition of independently developed aspects riskful. We have defined and prototyped a run-time policy enforcement model based on execution history to protect programs from untrusted aspects. The dynamic nature of the approach has the advantage that up to date run-time information allows more accurate decision making. We have built a prototype for AspectJ and illustrate its use in a realistic example. Our evaluation shows that practical use of such a solution is feasible and that run-time overhead can be limited.
Safety culture: philosopher’s stone or man of straw?

Abstract This introductory paper to the special issue on Safety Culture considers some of the key issues relating to the nature, measurement and utility of this concept. It argues that there are many important questions still unanswered: what is safety culture and what is its theoretical basis (the question of definition), is it synonymous with safety climate, what are the essential characteristics of a ‘good’ safety culture and how might they be best measured, what are the reliability, validity and utility of existing measures of safety culture, and how does the concept contribute-if at all-to good safety systems and performance? Can an organization's safety culture be related to additional parameters (such as accident and incident performance) which are judged both within and outside the organization by the full range of stake-holders? Finally, the authors consider future issues and the future direction of work in this area.
“Circle of Friends”—An Exploration of Impact Over Time

This study investigated the impact of different aspects of the circle of friends (CoF) intervention. A naturalistic sample of 14 primary‐aged children with a range of special educational needs were involved, seven of whom were followed‐up a term later, to assess medium‐term impact. The whole‐class meeting was found to be effective in increasing the social inclusion of the focus children. However, with the exception of one child with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), the weekly CoF meetings produced no measurable further improvements. Possible explanations for the pattern of findings and implications for educational psychology practice are discussed.
Implementing reflective practice approaches with elite team athletes: parameters of success

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify the integration of reflective practice principles into coaching strategies as a means to facilitate performers engaging with their own development. Accordingly, the paper describes a two‐part reflective practice intervention used with elite hockey players. Engagement and empowerment were promoted through a structured system of one‐to one, player‐to‐coach communications. Common principles of play were evolved through team reflection accomplished through structured interaction at group and sub‐group level. In tandem, these approaches enabled a shared understanding of the situation together with an individual clarity on what each player needed to do. As a result, team identity was strengthened specifically in the performance context, enabling players to respond quickly to the high‐pressure but varied challenges inherent within international play. The paper concludes with some brief recommendations to coaches working with elite selective teams.
Social Factors in Vocational Development

As the guidance movement developed in its first three or four decades, its progress was marked by refinement of tests and other measuring devices. From the development of intelligence tests, it proceeded to interest inventories, dexterity tests, and a variety of devices purporting to measure various aptitudes and personality traits. While the counseling and guidance profession was emphasizing tests, sociologists and social psychologists had begun to discover the importance of social factors relevant to vocational development, such as the relationship between social class membership and attending college [8,14,15]. Some results of sociological studies are reflected in the theories of vocational choice or vocational development outlined by Ginzberg [7], Super [13], and Beilin [1]. The trend from “vocational guidance” to “counseling psychology” may also represent some implicit leaning toward a broader frame of reference which would give more consideration to social factors. It is the purpose of this paper to (1) bring together some of the published sociological information most relevant for counseling psychology, (2) suggest additional inferences from social factors, and (3) outline specific kinds of social information which counseling psychologists would need in order to incorporate sociological knowledge and theory into their professional practice.
Getting your hands dirty: critical action research in a state agency

How can critical social scientists pursue critically engaged research? This question is addressed by examining how an action research intervention, informed by critical realism, was used to assist a business support agency (SUPPAG) to provide support to new migrant business owners. The article responds to calls for more engaged approaches to research, and more engagement with new migrants in different forms of employment. Key critical realist ideas (layered ontology, mechanisms, morphogenetic loops) shaped: the theoretical perspective; the approach to action research; the findings; and practice at SUPPAG. A key conclusion is that ‘engaged’ research is possible without compromising a commitment to critical scholarship.
Model-Based Friction COIllpensation in Hydraulic Servo Sy-steIlls

In the general framework of tracking control of hydraulic servo systems, this paper presents a comparison between two main possibilities to include friction information in the picture: experimental identification and estimation. Experiments were first conducted in order to find a suitable representation for friction in the system. We then looked at two observers reported in the literature (known as FriedlandMentzelopoulou and Tafazoli) for simultaneous on-line estimation of friction and velocity. Additionally, we developed a new variablestructure observer for the same purpose. In order to compare results, a model-based friction compensator using acceleration feedback control has been used. The best tracking performance has been achieved using the identified friction model, at the expense of considerable time spent with the experimental identification. Friction estimation using nonlinear observers are a viable alternative as far as model-based friction compensation is concerned, but a loss of accuracy occurs.
CCR: A Complete Algorithm for Contact-Sensor Based Coverage of Rectilinear Environments

Sensor-based coverage is a powerful tool for robots to use to discover their environment, especially in cases when complete knowledge of the environment is required. Current methods have demonstrated the ability to cover virtually arbitrary planar areas but require a remote sensor of nite range, such as sonar. The work presented here handles the case of robots that use only contact sensing to determine the boundaries of their environment. An algorithm CCR is presented that works in a wide range of rectilinear geometries. A proof of completeness is presented for CCR which shows that it always causes the robot executing it to cover its environment. Also, possible extensions of CCR to incorporate a wider variety of environments are discussed.
Movement Primitives, Principal Component Analysis, and the Efficient Generation of Natural Motions

We propose a framework for robot movement coordination and learning that combines elements of movement storage, dynamic models, and optimization, with the ultimate objective of efficiently generating natural, human-like motions. One of the novel features of our approach is that each movement primitive is represented and stored as a set of joint trajectory basis functions; these basis functions are extracted via a principal component analysis of human motion capture data. By representing arbitrary movements as a linear combination of these basis functions, and by taking advantage of recently developed geometric optimization algorithms for multibody systems, dynamics-based optimization can be more efficiently performed. Case studies with a diverse set of arm movements demonstrate the feasibility of our approach.
Familial influences on the clinical characteristics of major depression: a twin study

We sought in this study to clarify the role that familial factors play in influencing the clinical presentation of major depression (MD). We examined the similarity of the historical and symptomatic features of MD in 176 pairs of female‐female monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins from a population‐based registry, where both members reported a history of MD defined by DSM‐III‐R criteria. The age at onset and treatment‐seeking were significantly correlated in all twin pairs and the correlation in concordant DZ pairs was actually somewhat higher than in concordant MZ twins. The degree of impairment was modestly correlated in all twin pairs with substantially higher correlations in MZ vs DZ twins. No twin resemblance was observed for number of episodes or longest duration of an episode. Twin resemblance for the clinical features of MD was modest, but so was their consistency for the same individual over successive 1‐year periods. However, in 5 of the 6 neurovegetative symptoms involving changes in appetite, weight and sleep, MZ twins were significantly correlated and correlations were significantly greater in concordant MZ vs DZ twins. Although the familial factors that cause twin resemblance for the age at onset and treatment seeking appear to be largely environmental, twin resemblance for the degree of impairment and neurovegetative symptoms are probably due largely to genetic factors. Our results suggest that familial factors influence the predisposition to some clinical features of MD.
Unilateral Auditory Cortex Lesions Impair or Improve Discrimination Learning of Amplitude Modulated Sounds, Depending on Lesion Side

A fundamental principle of brain organization is bilateral symmetry of structures and functions. For spatial sensory and motor information processing, this organization is generally plausible subserving orientation and coordination of a bilaterally symmetric body. However, breaking of the symmetry principle is often seen for functions that depend on convergent information processing and lateralized output control, e.g. left hemispheric dominance for the linguistic speech system. Conversely, a subtle splitting of functions into hemispheres may occur if peripheral information from symmetric sense organs is partly redundant, e.g. auditory pattern recognition, and therefore allows central conceptualizations of complex stimuli from different feature viewpoints, as demonstrated e.g. for hemispheric analysis of frequency modulations in auditory cortex (AC) of mammals including humans. Here we demonstrate that discrimination learning of rapidly but not of slowly amplitude modulated tones is non-uniformly distributed across both hemispheres: While unilateral ablation of left AC in gerbils leads to impairment of normal discrimination learning of rapid amplitude modulations, right side ablations lead to improvement over normal learning. These results point to a rivalry interaction between both ACs in the intact brain where the right side competes with and weakens learning capability maximally attainable by the dominant left side alone.
ECOLOGICAL ADAPTATION AND SPECIES RECOGNITION DRIVES VOCAL EVOLUTION IN NEOTROPICAL SUBOSCINE BIRDS

Abstract Given that evolutionary divergence in mating signals leads to reproductive isolation in numerous animal taxa, understanding what drives signal divergence is fundamental to our understanding of speciation. Mating signals are thought to diverge via several processes, including (1) as a by-product of morphological adaptation, (2) through direct adaptation to the signaling environment, or (3) to facilitate species recognition. According to the first two hypotheses, birdsongs diversify in different foraging niches and habitats as a product of selection for optimal morphology and efficient sound transmission, respectively. According to the third hypothesis, they diversify as a result of selection against maladaptive hybridization. In this study I test all three hypotheses by examining the influence of morphology, acoustic environment, and the presence of closely related congeners on song structure in 163 species of antbird (Thamnophilidae). Unlike oscine passerines, these Neotropical suboscines make ideal subjects because they develop their songs without learning. In other words, patterns of vocal divergence are not complicated by cultural evolution. In support of the morphological adaptation hypothesis, body mass correlates with the acoustic frequency of songs, and bill size with temporal patterning. These relationships were robust, even when controlling for phylogenetic inertia using independent contrasts, suggesting that there has been correlated evolution between morphological and acoustic traits. The results also support the acoustic adaptation hypothesis: birds which habitually sing in the understory and canopy produce higher-pitched songs than those that sing in the midstory, suggesting that song structure is related to the sound transmission properties of different habitat strata. Finally, the songs of sympatric pairs of closely related species are more divergent than those of allopatric pairs, as predicted by the species recognition hypothesis. To my knowledge, these data provide the first direct evidence that species recognition and ecological adaptation operate in tandem, and that the interplay between these factors drives the evolution of mating signals in suboscine birds.