Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new robust oxygen‐temperature sensor for aquatic eddy covariance measurements

The fragility of thin Clark‐type glass microelectrodes used in aquatic eddy covariance measurements of benthic oxygen fluxes is a challenge when using this powerful technique. This study presents a new fast‐responding dual oxygen‐temperature sensor for eddy covariance measurements that is far more robust. Response time tests in the lab, where the sensor was inserted from air into water, revealed 90% response times of 0.51 s and 0.34 s for oxygen and temperature measurements, respectively. In wave tank tests, the new sensor showed no stirring sensitivity in contrast to Clark‐type microelectrodes. Other tests in a flume and in a particle‐free water tank revealed how close the sensor can be positioned to the measuring volume of the Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter without disturbing velocity recordings. In field tests at river sites, all > 24 h, the new sensor recorded high‐quality eddy covariance data for the entire deployment. Similar positive results were obtained in deployments at a marine site with unidirectional current flow overlaid with minor wave action. Concurrently deployed eddy covariance systems based on the new sensor and a traditional Clark‐type microelectrode revealed that they recorded statistically equivalent fluxes and similar velocity‐oxygen cospectra until the microelectrode broke after 2 h. The significant increase in robustness of the new sensor was achieved by relying on a larger sensor tip. This put some constrains on how the sensor should be deployed and fluxes extracted, but given the substantial gain in performance, it is a viable alternative for eddy covariance measurements in many aquatic environments.
Venture Capital and Sequential Investments

We present a dynamic model of venture capital financing, described as a sequential investment problem with uncertain outcome. Each venture has a critical, but unknown threshold beyond which it cannot progress. If the threshold is reached before the completion of the project, then the project fails, otherwise it succeeds. The investors decide sequentially about the speed of the investment and the optimal path of staged investments. We derive the dynamically optimal funding policy in response to the arrival of information during the development of the venture. We develop three types of predictions from our theoretical model and test these predictions in a large sample of venture capital investments in the U.S. for the period of 1987-2002. First, the investment flow starts low if the failure risk is high and accelerates as the projects mature. Second, the investment flow reacts positively to information that arrives while the project is developed. We find that the investment decisions are more sensitive to the information received during the development than to the information held prior to the project launch. Third, investors distribute their investments over more funding rounds if the failure risk is larger.
Implementing a Reuse Strategy: Architecture, Process and Organization Aspects of a Medical Imaging Product Family

Product family engineering is one form of strategic re-use that can be particularly effective. However, establishing a product family is not a simple matter. Technical and non-technical aspects have to be dealt with to reap the benefits of organization-wide software reuse. Especially if the scope surpasses that of a single product domain, this can be challenging. The family may then span several product groups, each of which might have its own product family installed. Product variability and the number of people involved will be larger, calling for appropriate measures. We present a strategy for software reuse in complex, software-intensive medical systems. We describe its implementation in a platform architecture, an organization and its processes, as well as its evolution in response to strategic changes. The case presented here is especially interesting because it deals with a hierarchical product family for a wide range of complex systems, in a large organization.
Chapter 5. Self-Care in Caregiving

SUMMARY This chapter discusses strategies to facilitate caregiver self-care from a social work perspective. The functional age model of intergenerational treatment (Greene, 1986, 1994, 2000) is used to explore the context of caregiving, including the developmental course, challenges, rewards, coping methods, and consequences of caregiving for a variety of clients, followed by an exploration of the process of assessing and intervening with the caregiver to foster healthy self-care practices.
Comprehensive study on iterative algorithms of multiple sequence alignment

Multiple sequence alignment is an important problem in the biosciences. To date, most multiple alignment systems have employed a tree-based algorithm, which combines the results of two-way dynamic programming in a tree-like order of sequence similarity. The alignment quality is not, however, high enough when the sequence similarity is low. Once an error occurs in the alignment process, that error can never be corrected. Recently, an effective new class of algorithms has been developed. These algorithms iteratively apply dynamic programming to partially aligned sequences to improve their alignment quality. The iteration corrects any errors that may have occurred in the alignment process. Such an iterative strategy requires heuristic search methods to solve practical alignment problems. Incorporating such methods yields various iterative algorithms. This paper reports our comprehensive comparison of iterative algorithms. We proved that performance improves remarkably when using a tree-based iterative method, which iteratively refines an alignment whenever two subalignments are merged in a tree-based way. We propose a tree-dependent, restricted partitioning technique to efficiently reduce the execution time of iterative algorithms.
2D shape recognition using biological sequence alignment tools

In this paper a novel 2D shape recognition approach is proposed. The main idea is to exploit in this context the huge amount of work carried out by bioinformati-cians in the biological sequence analysis research field. In the proposed approach, we encode shapes as biological sequences, employing standard and well established sequence alignment tools to devise a similarity score, finally used in a nearest neighbour scenario. Despite its simplicity, obtained results on standard datasets are really encouraging.
Basque Militant Youths in France: New Experiences of Ethnonational Identity in the European Context

The “ethnonational identity” of young French Basques in France is analyzed in the context of European integration, and compared with the situation in the Spanish Basque Country. Due to the French state's refusal to recognize regional languages, transmission of the Basque language in France is characterized by ethnonationalist values. But these values have shifted recently, from an emphasis on consolidating a Basque nation to practical concerns with grassroots and sustainable development.
The Evolution of Vertebrate Fibrinogen

The fibrinogens of all vertebrates studied to date are comprised of three pairs of non-identical polypeptide chains.Moreover, in all of these cases--whether the molecule is isolated from a primitive fish or an advanced mammal--polymerization is induced by the thrombin-cata-lyzed removal of polar peptide material from the ami no-terminal segments of two of the three chains. Amino acid sequence studies on mammalian fibrinogen molecules have provided convincing support, however, for the notion that the three non-identical polypeptide chains have evolved from a common ancestor and also that the present chains have been elongated by a series of internal duplications.Thus, we are now in a position to speculate on the structure of the primordial fibrinogen molecule and how it could be gelled by a proteolytic event. The molecule must have been comprised of (two) bundles of three identical polypeptide chains, all of which must have been sensitive to the action of thrombin.Furthermore, symmetry arguments suggest that the way the three identical chains would have been bundled together is best approximated by a (disulfide-linked) three stranded rod. Given the multiple restraints on such a molecule, a reasonable scheme can be advanced for polymerization based on the removal of polar material from one end of the rod. The differences in amino acid sequences for the three chains comprising the present day fibrinogen molecules are such that the duplicative events leading to their divergence must have occurred more than 600 million years ago, or long before the origin of vertebrates. It will be of great interest if a primitive molecule can be found in some extant creature which approximates the prototype structure.
Dialogical Selves between Security and Insecurity

This article is concerned with the linkages between events occurring at the macro-level and psychological phenomena. In particular it seeks to elaborate on the possible effects of globalization, migration, and multiculturalism on groups' and individuals' subjective experiences of security. Special attention is given to the concept of dialogicality in the light of the challenges posed by an increasingly globalized world in which individuals have to relate to an increasing number of others. How migration and multiculturalism are affecting the securitization of dialogical selves is discussed, and the concepts of dialogicality, positioning, and interpretation are explicated in theory as well as in practice. As a result we introduce the concepts of reciprocity and relatedness in dialogical conceptions of self and use these concepts to link the three main sections of the article. In searching for viable solutions to conflict and tension between majority and minority populations, the notions of deliberation and cosmopolitics are introduced and explicated to encompass both structural and psychological solutions to such conflicts. Ontological, epistemological, and methodological as well as practical consequences of such inquiries are considered.
Edge-Based Dynamic Scheduling for Belief-Propagation Decoding of LDPC and RS Codes

This paper presents two low-complexity edge-based scheduling schemes, referred to as the e-Flooding and e-Shuffled schedules, for the belief-propagation (BP) decoding of low-density parity-check and Reed–Solomon codes. The proposed schedules selectively update the edges of the code graph based on the run-time reliability of variable and check nodes. Specifically, new message update is propagated exclusively along the unreliable edges of the code graph. This reduces the decoding complexity of BP algorithm as only a partial set of message updates is computed per decoding iteration. Besides, restricting the flow of message updates may also precludes the occurrence of some short graph cycles, which helps to preserve the BP message independence at certain variable and check nodes. Using numerical simulations, it is shown that the proposed edge-based schedules reduce the BP decoding complexity by more than 90% compared with the prior-art BP schedules, while simultaneously improving the error-rate performance, at medium-to-high signal-to-noise ratio over additive white Gaussian noise channel.
The validation of an informant screening test for irreversible cognitive decline in the elderly: performance characteristics within a general population sample

The performance characteristics of an informant screening test for senile dementia were evaluated within a community‐dwelling sample of 583 elderly persons in the Bordeaux region of France. Receiver operating characteristics analysis indicated that although the test performs less well within this context than within a previous case‐control study, it nonetheless retains high discriminability. A specificity of 90% and a sensitivity of 79% for the detection of diagnosed senile dementia were obtained with a cutoff point of 24/25. The discriminability of the test was not affected by level of education. The study demonstrates the necessity of adjusting the cutoff point of dementia screening instruments according to the estimated prevalence rate of dementia in the target population. The potential utility of the instrument as a method of detecting dementia by postal survey and in cross‐cultural research is discussed.
Temporal Discourse Markers and the Flow of Events

• Temporal discourse markers such as after, before or while are commonly described as triggers for discourse relations expressing a temporal relation (Mann and Thompson, 1987; Knott, 1996). However, only little research has been done regarding the interaction of such discourse markers with the context within a multi-sentence discourse. Lascarides & Oberlander (1993), for instance, note that sentences containing temporal connectives expressing the same temporal structure may not describe a coherent discourse in certain contexts. Along these lines a similar theory was developed by de Swart (1994) wrt. temporal adverbials and also applied to temporal clauses. She points out that the topic/focus structure has to be taken into account, especially when apreposed syntactic structure as in (1) is read:
Distinct cis-Regulatory Elements from the Dlx1/Dlx2 Locus Mark Different Progenitor Cell Populations in the Ganglionic Eminences and Different Subtypes of Adult Cortical Interneurons

Distinct subtypes of cortical GABAergic interneurons provide inhibitory signals that are indispensable for neural network function. The Dlx homeobox genes have a central role in regulating their development and function. We have characterized the activity of three cis-regulatory sequences involved in forebrain expression of vertebrate Dlx genes: upstream regulatory element 2 (URE2), I12b, and I56i. The three regulatory elements display regional and temporal differences in their activities within the lateral ganglionic eminence (LGE), medial ganglionic eminence (MGE), and caudal ganglionic eminence (CGE) and label distinct populations of tangentially migrating neurons at embryonic day 12.5 (E12.5) and E13.5. We provide evidence that the dorsomedial and ventral MGE are distinct sources of tangentially migrating neurons during midgestation. In the adult cortex, URE2 and I12b/I56i are differentially expressed in parvalbumin-, calretinin-, neuropeptide Y-, and neuronal nitric oxide synthase-positive interneurons; I12b and I56i were specifically active in somatostatin-, vasoactive intestinal peptide-, and calbindin-positive interneurons. These data suggest that interneuron subtypes use distinct combinations of Dlx1/Dlx2 enhancers from the time they are specified through adulthood.
Fatigue and its relationships with cognitive functioning and depression in paediatric multiple sclerosis

Background: There is limited information on fatigue and its clinical and psychosocial correlates in children and adolescents with multiple sclerosis (MS). Objective: To assess the relationships between fatigue, cognitive functioning and depression in paediatric MS. Methods: The study cohort consisted of patients with MS recruited for an Italian collaborative study on cognitive and psychosocial functioning in paediatric MS. The present assessment included evaluation of fatigue on the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory-Multidimensional Fatigue Scale, cognitive functioning on an extensive neuropsychological battery and depression on the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). A psychiatric interview through the Kiddie-SADS-Present and Lifetime Version was also administered. Results: In total, 57 patients with relapsing–remitting MS were compared with 70 healthy controls. Percentages of fatigued patients ranged from 9% to 14% according to self-reports, and from 23% to 39% according to parent reports. Fatigue was significantly related with higher scores on the CDI (p < 0.03). Higher levels of self-reported cognitive fatigue were associated with impaired performance on a problem-solving test, whereas higher levels of parent-reported cognitive fatigue were associated with impairment on tests of verbal learning, processing speed, complex attention and verbal comprehension. Conclusions: Our data show that fatigue can affect a sizeable proportion of paediatric MS patients, and confirm the association between fatigue and depressive symptoms in MS. They also highlight the difficulties of fatigue assessment in the paediatric population and provide a few clues to further research in the field.
The instructional leadership behaviour of Papua New Guinea high school principals ‐ A provincial case study

The purpose of the study was to investigate to what extent Papua New Guinea (PNG) high school principals engage in tasks which constitute instructional leadership. The major finding of the study was that the principals did engage in tasks which constitute instructional leadership, but the results indicated that their involvement in performing the five major functions were to a lesser degree than was deemed desirable and expected by the principals and teachers surveyed. This paper calls on the education authorities in PNG to re‐examine the selection, promotion, training and staff development opportunities for principals in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of principals in their jobs. With the challenges and demands of the changing educational environment in PNG now, more effective principals equipped with leadership and organizational knowledge and skills are required to lead schools.
Articulatory Feature-based Methods for Acoustic and Audio-Visual Speech Recognition : 2006 JHU Summer Workshop Final Report 1

We report on investigations, conducted at the 2006 JHU Summer Workshop, of the use of articulatory features in automatic speech recognition. We explore the use of articulatory features for both observation and pronunciation modeling, and for both audio-only and audio-visual speech recognition. In the area of observation modeling, we use the outputs of a set of multilayer perceptron articulatory feature classifiers (1) directly, in an extension of hybrid HMM/ANN models, and (2) as part of the observation vector in a standard Gaussian mixture-based model, an extension of the now popular “tandem” approach. In the area of pronunciation modeling, we explore models consisting of multiple hidden streams of states, each corresponding to a different articulatory feature and having soft synchrony constraints, for both audio-only and audio-visual speech recognition. Our models are implemented as dynamic Bayesian networks, and our experiments have been performed on two types of tasks: For audio-only recognition, we use tasks from the Small-Vocabulary Switchboard (SVitchboard) database; and for audio-visual recognition, we use a subset of the CUAVE read digits database. Finally, we have collected a small set of manual transcriptions at the articulatory feature level. We describe the data collection effort and analyze articulatory feature classification and alignment performance using the manual labels as reference.
Intra-class covariance adaptation in PLDA back-ends for speaker verification

Multi-session training conditions are becoming increasingly common in recent benchmark datasets for both text-independent and text-dependent speaker verification. In the state-of-the-art i-vector framework for speaker verification, such conditions are addressed by simple techniques such as averaging the individual i-vectors, averaging scores, or modifying the Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLDA) scoring hypothesis for multi-session enrollment. The aforementioned techniques fail to exploit the speaker variabilities observed in the enrollment data for target speakers. In this paper, we propose to exploit the multi-session training data by estimating a speaker-dependent covariance matrix and updating the intra-speaker covariance during PLDA scoring for each target speaker. The proposed method is further extended by combining covariance adaptation and score averaging. In this method, the individual examples of the target speaker are compared against the test data as opposed to an averaged ivector, and the scores obtained are then averaged. The proposed methods are evaluated on the NIST SRE 2012 dataset. Relative improvements of up to 29% in equal error rate are obtained.
Probabilistic Bisimulations for PCTL Model Checking of Interval MDPs (extended version)

Verification of PCTL properties of MDPs with convex uncertainties has been investigated recently by Puggelli et al. However, model checking algorithms typically suffer from state space explosion. In this paper, we address probabilistic bisimulation to reduce the size of such an MDPs while preserving PCTL properties it satisfies. We discuss different interpretations of uncertainty in the models which are studied in the literature and that result in two different definitions of bisimulations. We give algorithms to compute the quotients of these bisimulations in time polynomial in the size of the model and exponential in the uncertain branching. Finally, we show by a case study that large models in practice can have small branching and that a substantial state space reduction can be achieved by our approach.
FAMILY EMPLOYMENT STATUS AND GENDER ROLE ATTITUDES

Data from 590 college graduates are used to assess the relationship between family employment status and gender role attitudes for a predominately European American sample. The women in this study are employed full time, part time, or are full-time homemakers, and all report being married to men employed full time. The men in the study are all employed full time and report having wives who are employed full time, part time, or are full-time homemakers. Controlling for the effects of selected background factors, full-time employed women are the most supportive of nontraditional family gender roles, followed by part-time employed women. The attitudes of homemakers are more similar to those of the men. Few significant differences exist when comparing the men with full-time employed wives, those with part-time employed wives, and men married to homemakers. The findings suggest an important link between work experiences, lifestyle choices, and gender role attitudes, particularly for women.
A behavioral simulation tool for continuous-time ΔΣ modulators

Circuit--level simulation of ΔΣ modulators is a time--consuming task (taking one or more days for meaningful results). While there are a great variety of techniques and tools that speed up the simulations for discrete--time (DT) ΔΣ modulators, there is no rigorous methodology implemented in a tool to efficiently simulate and design the continuous--time (CT) counterpart. Yet, in todays low--power, high--accuracy and/or very high--speed demands for A--to--D converters, designers are often forced to resort to the use of CT ΔΣ topologies. In this paper, we present a method for the high--level simulation of continuous--time ΔΣ modulators that is based on behavioral models and which exhibits the best trade--off between accuracy, speed and extensibility compared to other possible techniques that are reviewed briefly in this work. A user--friendly tool, implementing this methodology, is then presented. Nonidealities such as finite gain, finite GBW, output impedance and also nonlinearities such as clipping, harmonic distortion and the important effect of jitter are modeled. Finally, experiments were carried out using the tool, exploring important design trade--offs.