Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards Computer-Assisted Regulation of Emotions

Emotions are an important part of all motivated human behaviour. They are intimately connected with our memory, thinking, mental and physical health, and they have an important role in coordinating our interactions with other people. Consequently, the level of competence in regulating the content and intensity of emotions can have effects far and wide, ranging from one’s daily well-being to general success in life. Similar to the deep-seated meaning of emotions for our daily functioning, technology has recently become a pervasive and unavoidable aspect of our modern lives. We interact daily with some kind of technology. These ubiquitous interactions could provide an opportunity to affect and regulate emotions virtually anywhere and at anytime. The aim of the present thesis was to create a theoretical and empirical basis for constructing systems for computer-assisted emotion regulation. First, a theoretical framework for studying and developing such systems was defined. This framework identified artificial perceptual and expressive intelligence as essential capabilities for technology that aims to support the regulation of emotions. Then, the practicality of developing and more widely applying perceptual and expressive technology was studied using constructive and empirical methods. For this purpose, an unobtrusive method for perceptual intelligence was developed and experimentally validated by using a special office chair to measure body movement responses to artificial social and emotional cues. Feasible tools for expressive intelligence were developed in experiments investigating the experiential and physiological effects of virtual bodily distance (i.e., proximity) and facial expressions of humanlike computer characters. Finally, a platform was constructed for studying the effectiveness of voluntary facial activations in regulating emotion related experiences and physiological processes during human-technology interaction. The empirical results suggest that perceptual and expressive intelligence can provide practical methods for regulating human emotional responding. The developed unobtrusive method for body movement
Ventral and Dorsal Stream Interactions during the Perception of the Müller-Lyer Illusion: Evidence Derived from fMRI and Dynamic Causal Modeling

The human visual system converts identically sized retinal stimuli into different-sized perceptions. For instance, the Müller-Lyer illusion alters the perceived length of a line via arrows attached to its end. The strength of this illusion can be expressed as the difference between physical and perceived line length. Accordingly, illusion strength reflects how strong a representation is transformed along its way from a retinal image up to a conscious percept. In this study, we investigated changes of effective connectivity between brain areas supporting these transformation processes to further elucidate the neural underpinnings of optical illusions. The strength of the Müller-Lyer illusion was parametrically modulated while participants performed either a spatial or a luminance task. Lateral occipital cortex and right superior parietal cortex were found to be associated with illusion strength. Dynamic causal modeling was employed to investigate putative interactions between ventral and dorsal visual streams. Bayesian model selection indicated that a model that involved bidirectional connections between dorsal and ventral stream areas most accurately accounted for the underlying network dynamics. Connections within this network were partially modulated by illusion strength. The data further suggest that the two areas subserve differential roles: Whereas lateral occipital cortex seems to be directly related to size transformation processes, activation in right superior parietal cortex may reflect subsequent levels of processing, including task-related supervisory functions. Furthermore, the data demonstrate that the observer's top–down settings modulate the interactions between lateral occipital and superior parietal regions and thereby influence the effect of illusion strength.
Plasmodium vivax malaria: challenges in diagnosis, treatment and elimination.

Plasmodium vivax (Pv) is the second major cause of malaria, after Plasmodium falciparum (Pf). there is an increasing recognition that Pv can be associated with severe disease in children and adults and serious complications in pregnancy and carries a major health, social and economic burden. Diagnosis and clinical management of Pv malaria can be difficult, and the control and elimination of Pv present special challenges. after inoculation by Anopheles mosquitoes, sporozoites migrate to the liver and infect hepatocytes. over 7–10 days, parasites develop and divide into merozoites that are released into the bloodstream where they invade reticulocytes and replicate inside them, commencing the (48 hours) blood-stage infection. Clinical illness develops during the blood-stage, and the great majority of drugs target this developmental stage. an important feature of Pv, which differs from Pf, is the occurrence of dormant hypnozoites in the liver that can reactivate weeks, months or years later to initiate new episodes of bloodstage infection, presenting a major challenge to treatment, control and elimination.
Does provision of Feedback increase Work Engagement and Reduce Cynicism Among Employees

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of providing feedback on employee’s engagement and cynicism. This study posits that the relationship between positive feedback and engagement is mutually reinforcing and leads to an upward spiral effect. That is positive / constructive feedback boost engagement at workplace while negative/ destructive feedback can lead to disengagement of employees which in turn may give rise to cynicism. The paper defines various types of feedbacks which are provided to employees in organizations in relation to their work and performance. Further a conceptual model is offered which identifies the relation of positive and negative feedback with engagement and cynicism. Lastly it highlights the aspects which if taken into consideration while providing feedback may drive employee engagement and reduce cynicism at workplace. It would be valuable to both practitioners and academic communities who are seeking to explore various antecedents of employee engagement and how it can used to control cynicism at workplace.
Translational Pausing Ensures Membrane Targeting and Cytoplasmic Splicing of XBP1u mRNA

A peptide-mediated translational pause facilitates the unconventional splicing of a messenger RNA on the endoplasmic reticulum. Upon endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, an endoribonuclease, inositol-requiring enzyme-1α, splices the precursor unspliced form of X-box–binding protein 1 messenger RNA (XBP1u mRNA) on the ER membrane to yield an active transcription factor (XBP1s), leading to the alleviation of the stress. The nascent peptide encoded by XBP1u mRNA drags the mRNA–ribosome–nascent chain (R-RNC) complex to the membrane for efficient cytoplasmic splicing. We found that translation of the XBP1u mRNA was briefly paused to stabilize the R-RNC complex. Mutational analysis of XBP1u revealed an evolutionarily conserved peptide module at the carboxyl terminus that was responsible for the translational pausing and was required for the efficient targeting and splicing of the XBP1u mRNA. Thus, translational pausing may be used for unexpectedly diverse cellular processes in mammalian cells.
A Novel Anti-Collision Algorithm with Optimal Frame Size for RFID System

In this paper, we propose a novel anti-collision algorithm for generation 2 RFID system to estimate the number of tags and to use the optimal frame size. Depending on the number of tags, there exists the optimal frame size in the sense that the system efficiency is maximized. The number of tags can be estimated from the collision ratio in terms of collided slots per frame. In addition, we compare our proposed algorithm with other existing schemes by simulation. The proposed scheme is easy to implement, and the simulation results show that its performance improves significantly compared to other schemes in terms of the identification time and the number of consumed slots.
Retinoblastoma tumor vessel maturation impacts efficacy of vessel targeting in the LH(BETA)T(AG) mouse model.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to quantify tumor cell proliferation and growth, analyze tumor blood vessel development, and determine the efficacy of antiangiogenic and angiostatic therapy in targeting mature vessels in retinal tumors of the LH(BETA)T(AG) mouse model for retinoblastoma. METHODS LH(BETA)T(AG) mouse retinas were analyzed at 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks of age. Tumor burden was analyzed by histology; cell proliferation, vessel density, angiogenesis, and vessel maturation were detected by immunofluorescence. To assess the efficacy of mature vessel targeting, 16-week-old mice were treated with single subconjunctival injections of the selective vascular-targeting drug combretastatin A4 prodrug (CA4P) or anecortave acetate, and eyes were analyzed 1 day and 1 week after injection to determine microvessel density and the number of angiogenic and mature vessels. RESULTS Increased cell proliferation and angiogenesis were detected in the retinal inner nuclear layer (INL) before morphologic neoplastic changes were evident. As tumor size increased, angiogenesis diminished concomitantly with the appearance of mature vessels. Treatment with CA4P and anecortave acetate resulted in significant reductions in total vessel density. However, neither drug reduced the amount of alpha-smooth muscle actin (SMA)-positive, mature vessels. CONCLUSIONS Results of this study provide new insight into the relationship between tumor growth and blood vessel development in the LH(BETA)T(AG) mouse and establish the framework for defining the selective action of two vessel-targeting drugs against new blood vessels compared with mature blood vessels. These findings suggest a high potential value in targeting the process of angiogenesis in the treatment of children with retinoblastoma.
Innovative Techniques

A single-breath technique with variable flow rate to characterize nitric oxide exchange dynamics in the lungs A single-breath technique with variable flow rate to characterize nitric oxide exchange dynamics in the lungs. J Appl Physiol 91: 477–487, 2001. —Current techniques to estimate nitric oxide (NO) production and elimination in the lungs are inherently nonspe-cific or are cumbersome to perform (multiple-breathing maneuvers). We present a new technique capable of estimating key flow-independent parameters characteristic of NO exchange in the lungs: 1) the steady-state alveolar concentration (C alv,ss), 2) the maximum flux of NO from the airways (J NO,max), and 3) the diffusing capacity of NO in the airways (DNO,air). Importantly, the parameters were estimated from a single experimental single-exhalation maneuver that consisted of a preexpiratory breath hold, followed by an exhala-tion in which the flow rate progressively decreased. The mean values for JNO,max, DNO,air, and Calv,ss do not depend on breath-hold time and range from 280–600 pl/s, 3.7–7.1 pl ⅐ s Ϫ1 ⅐ parts per billion (ppb) Ϫ1 , and 0.73–2.2 ppb, respectively , in two healthy human subjects. A priori estimates of the parameter confidence intervals demonstrate that a breath hold no longer than 20 s may be adequate and that JNO,max can be estimated with the smallest uncertainty and DNO,air with the largest, which is consistent with theoretical predictions. We conclude that our new technique can be used to characterize flow-independent NO exchange parameters from a single experimental single-exhalation breathing maneuver. THE CONCENTRATION OF NITRIC oxide (NO) that appears in the exhaled breath depends strongly on several factors, including the presence of inflammation (1, 9). The fact that inflammatory diseases, such as bronchial asthma, elevate exhaled NO has generated great interest in using exhaled NO as a noninvasive index of pulmonary inflammation (2). Unfortunately, many early reports collected NO levels under different experimental conditions , and the absolute concentrations, as well as the conclusions, were not consistent. Subsequent work demonstrated that the exhaled NO level also depends on many additional factors, including the exhalation flow rate and the position of the soft palate (which affects nasal cavity contribution) (10, 15). These findings generated formal recommendations by both the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) on the conditions under which exhaled NO should be collected (8, 17). Both reports recommend a constant exhalation flow rate during the maneuver (ERS recommends 250 ml/s, the ATS recommends 50 ml/s). …
Close Your Eyes and Throw Away the Key: Mental Health of Female Prisoners

A review on the certain issues within the prison system of Australia pertaining to mental health of females, specially the use of suicide observation cells for management of 'at risk' prisoners is presented. The Queensland Women's Prisoners Health Survey 2002 have shown that the mental health needs of the prisoner population is high compared with those of the general community and that a large unmet need exists.
“Perpetually Self-Reflective”

Twelve lesbians from various locales throughout the United States were interviewed regarding their experiences as sexual minorities and daughters of mothers with severe mental illness (SMI). Using resiliency and intersectionality as theoretical frameworks, and consensual qualitative research as methodology, we identified six domains: (a) childhood responses to mother’s SMI, (b) childhood/adolescent coping with mother’s SMI, (c) responses of others, (d) managing in adulthood, (e) coming out to self and others, and (f) relating sexual orientation to mother’s SMI. Results show that all participants navigated adulthood by being “perpetually self-reflective. ” For many, dealing with their mothers’ SMI gave them coping skills that made coming out much less challenging. For some, their mothers’ SMI made it more difficult to come out to others. Participants discussed the complexly interwoven relation between these sources of marginalization, consistent with intersectionality theory.
Smart Sensor for Online Detection of Multiple-Combined Faults in VSD-Fed Induction Motors

Induction motors fed through variable speed drives (VSD) are widely used in different industrial processes. Nowadays, the industry demands the integration of smart sensors to improve the fault detection in order to reduce cost, maintenance and power consumption. Induction motors can develop one or more faults at the same time that can be produce severe damages. The combined fault identification in induction motors is a demanding task, but it has been rarely considered in spite of being a common situation, because it is difficult to identify two or more faults simultaneously. This work presents a smart sensor for online detection of simple and multiple-combined faults in induction motors fed through a VSD in a wide frequency range covering low frequencies from 3 Hz and high frequencies up to 60 Hz based on a primary sensor being a commercially available current clamp or a hall-effect sensor. The proposed smart sensor implements a methodology based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT), RMS calculation and artificial neural networks (ANN), which are processed online using digital hardware signal processing based on field programmable gate array (FPGA).
The Reframing of Methodology: Revisiting a PhD Study

The paper draws on a PhD study to explore some methodological dilemmas associated with the execution of qualitative research when framed within positivist study design. The PhD was linked to an externally funded research project which evaluated the implementation of a custody-based intervention in the secure estate. While the PhD was conceived as a qualitative study, informed by interpretivist methodology and associated epistemology, the wider funded study was informed by positivist tradition and used a quantitative method. This led to dilemmas of both practical and methodological nature. The author revisits her study's methodological position to review issues raised by the research design and suggests an alternative proposal informed methodologically by critical realism which may better serve the study's interests. In doing so, the paper suggests how revisiting previous research may assist us in gaining methodological understanding and allow us to reframe our future endeavours to more useful end.
Self-Esteem Between Black and White Adolescent Girls Understanding the Different Realities, Experience, and Use of

African American adolescent females possess higher self-esteem than any other racial or ethnic adolescent female group. This article tests two popular empirically supported explanations for Black high self-esteem: contingency of self-esteem theory and the locus of control model. This article builds on past research to illustrate the specific mechanisms of self-esteem for Black and White adolescent girls. To facilitate an investigation of these theories, selfesteem was explored as a bidimensional construct consisting of self-worth and self-deprecation. The sample consisted of 453 Black and 1,902 White adolescent females. Multivariate regression analyses produced the following outcomes: The contingency of self-esteem theory and the locus of control model were not supported. A significant race by social support interaction found that even in low support situations Black adolescent females reported less self-deprecation than White females. 1University of North Carolina, Wilmington, USA Corresponding Author: Portia E. Adams, Department of Social Work, Leutze Hall, Room 211, University of North Carolina, 601 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA Email: adamsp@uncw.edu by Pamela Harrison-small on October 10, 2010 jbp.sagepub. com Downloaded from 256 Journal of Black Psychology 36(3)
Patients with heart failure and concomitant chronic obstructive pulmonary disease participating in the Heart Failure Pilot Survey (ESC-HF Pilot) – Polish population

Introduction There is an increasing interest in comorbidities in heart failure patients. Data about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the Polish population of heart failure (HF) patients are scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment differences and outcome according to COPD occurrence in the Polish population of patients participating in the ESC-HF Pilot Survey Registry. Material and methods We analyzed the data of 891 patients with HF recruited in 2009–2011 in Poland: 648 (72.7%) hospitalized patients and 243 (27.3%) patients included as outpatients. Results The COPD was documented in 110 (12.3%) patients with HF in the analyzed population. Patients with – compared to those without COPD were older, more often smokers, had higher NYHA class, and higher prevalence of hypertension. Ejection fraction (EF) was higher in hospitalized patients with COPD compared to patients without COPD (40.5 ±14.6% vs. 37.2 ±13.7%, p < 0.04), without a significant difference in the outpatient group. There was a significant difference in β-blocker use between patients with and without COPD (81.8% vs. 94.7%, p < 0.0001). Most patients received them below target doses. At the end of the 12-month follow-up, there was no significant difference in mortality between COPD and no-COPD patients (10.9% vs. 11.1%, p = 0.66). Conclusions The findings from the Polish part of the ESC-HF registry indicate that COPD in patients with HF is associated with older age, smoker status, hypertension and higher NYHA class. The use of β-blockers was significantly lower in patients with than without COPD. There were no significant differences in mortality between groups.
An efficient authentication scheme for contactless smartcards using elliptic curve cryptography

Nowadays the protection of information against unauthorized disclosure, transfer, modification, or destruction, whether accidental or intentional, is a very important issue that concerns the information society. The scope of this paper is to develop a Contactless Smartcard protocol, which will be able operate securely and effectively, under a variety of attack methods. The system implements a novel mutual authentication procedure between a Contactless Reader and a Smartcard, calculates securely the corresponding parameters, and protects the system against malicious attacks. The system can be used in a wide spectrum of applications that require simplicity, ease of use, long life, low cost and portability. Suitable applications could be, Electronic Payments, Public Transport Electronic Fare, Highway toll payments, Medical Applications, and Access Control.
Robust Tracking via Spatio-Temporally Weighted Multiple Instance Learning

Due to the superiority in handling label ambiguity, multiple instance learning (MIL) has been introduced into adaptive tracking-by-detection methods to alleviate drift and yields promising tracking performance. However, the MIL tracker assumes that all samples in a positive bag contribute equally to the bag probability, which ignores sample importance. To address this issue, in this paper we propose a spatio- temporally weighted MIL (STWMIL) tracker which integrates temporal weight into the update scheme for Haar-like features and spatial weight into the bag probability function. Spatial weight for the positive sample near the target location is larger than that far from the target location, which means the former contributes more to the positive bag probability. Based on spatial weight, a novel bag probability function is proposed using the weighted Noisy-OR model. Temporal weight for the recently-acquired images is larger than that for the earlier observations, which means less modeling power is expended on old observations. Based on temporal weight, a novel update scheme with changing but convergent learning rate is derived with strict mathematic proof. Extensive experiments performed on the OTB-2013 tracking benchmark demonstrate that our proposed tracker achieves superior performance both qualitatively and quantitatively over several state-of- the-art trackers.
Approaching Programmable Self-Assembly from Nanoparticle-Based Devices to Integrated Circuits

This paper reports on two methods to enable the manufacturing of hybrid nano and micrometer sized systems: (i) electrostatically directed self-assembly of nanoparticles and nanowires to form nanoparticle and nanowire based devices, and (ii) surface tension driven self-assembly of micrometer sized components to form multi-component hybrid microsystems. Both self-assembly techniques are programmable and reconfigurable by applying external voltages to surface electrodes. We demonstrate that directed self-assembly can be used to position 5-100 nm sized nanoparticles with 50 nm resolution, fabricate electrically functional microsystems, integrate III/V semiconductors on silicon, fabricate cylindrical displays, and program the hybrid integration of optoelectronic components in three dimensions.