Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Proposal and numerical analysis of ultra-fast optical logic devices with integrated InAs QD-SOA and ring resonators

We analytically investigate the dynamic behaviors of the proposed optical XNOR and AND logic gate devices, with an monolithically integrated highly stacked InAs quantum dots structure SOA fabricated with the strain compensation technique and ring resonators. The calculated results indicate that the optical logic device can operate the logic gate functions at 160Gb/s RZ signals with large eye opening, the value of which is estimated to be 90.3%, as compared to the bulk-type SOA. And we show the potential of this device for routing signal processing in ultra-fast photonic network system.
Implementation of HMM-Based Human Activity Recognition Using Single Triaxial Accelerometer

In this letter, we propose a novel approach to human activity recognition. We present a class of features that are robust to the tilt of the attached sensor module and a state transition model suitable for HMM-based activity recognition. In addition, postprocessing techniques are applied to stabilize the recognition results. The proposed approach shows significant improvements in recognition experiments over a variety of human activity DB.
The Impact of Assessment Method on Foreign Language Proficiency Growth

Alternative assessment procedures have made consistent inroads into second and foreign language assessment practices over the last decade. The original impetus for alternative assessment methods has been predicated more on the ideological appeal this approach offers than on firm empirical evidence that alternative assessment approaches actually yield value-added outcomes for foreign and second language learners. The present study addresses the issue of differential language learning growth accruing from the use of formative assessment in direct comparison with more conventional summative assessment procedures in a longitudinal design. Eight cohorts of foreign language learners (N=2215) participated in this eight-year longitudinal study. Four early cohorts in a 320-hour, four-semester EFL program were assessed with mainly conventional end-of-term summative assessments and tests. A sequence of sixteen EAP courses for these learners produced four time-varying grade point averages indexing stability and changes in achievement over the course of the program. Contrasted with these four cohorts were four latter cohorts of learners who engaged in considerably more formative assessment practices. The products of these formative assessments were also converted into manifest variables in the form of four time-varying grade point averages directly comparable to those generated by the four earlier cohorts. In addition to the series of grade point averages indicating achievement, the participants completed three time-varying EAP proficiency measures. Four research questions are addressed in the study: the comparative reliability of summative and formative assessment products; evidence of parallel changes in achievement differentially influencing proficiency growth; an examination of differential rates of growth in the two contrasted cohorts of learners; direct multivariate tests of differential growth in proficiency controlling for pre-instruction covariates. Analyses of growth
Dual concentric-sectored HIFU transducer with phase-shifted ultrasound excitation for expanded necrotic region: a simulation study

In high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) surgery, it is desirable to produce a large necrotic area per sonication for reduced treatment time. It has been well known that the conventional split-focus scheme capable of generating multiple foci can increase a necrotic region in the lateral or elevational direction. To treat a deep-seated target, it is necessary to generate an expanded necrotic region in the axial direction. In this paper, a novel sonication scheme capable of producing an expanded coagulated region in the both lateral and axial directions is presented. The proposed method can generate multi-focal spots in the lateral and axial directions by using a dual concentric-sectored (DCS) HIFU transducer based on phase-shifted ultrasound excitation. A sound field simulation was employed for this investigation. Four electrical signals with identical center frequencies and different phases activated the DCS transducer, composed of a disc and an annular element with a confocal point. Four 4-MHz ultrasound signals with different phases were transmitted to the target simultaneously, resulting in generation of dual-focal spots in the lateral and axial directions. The sound field simulation results showed that the ¿6-dB lateral and axial beamwidths of the DCS transducer were maximally 79% and 91% broader than the single-element transducer. Subsequently, bio-heat transfer and thermal dose simulation results were matched to the sound field simulation. Hence, the DCS HIFU transducer combined with phase-shifted excitation may be a promising approach to treat a deep-seated target and to reduce treatment time for HIFU surgery.
Curb cuts in the virtual community: telework and persons with disabilities

Curb cuts are the ramps set into sidewalks to make buildings more accessible to persons in wheelchairs. With forethought they are easy to install, they provide access for persons with physical impairments, and at the same time they may be used by able-bodied persons for pushing strollers, shopping carts, and the like. Just like curb cuts in the physical community, telework in the virtual community may be used to break down barriers of access for persons with disabilities. This paper addresses how and why telework may be used as a work-place accommodation. It takes as a point of illustration a program initiated by the U.S. Department of Defense to extend telecommuting arrangements to its employees with short- and long-term disabilities. Recommendations are given for how to represent the needs of persons with disabilities in the design of telework enabling technologies. <<ETX>>
Individual Meaning and Increasing Complexity: Contributions of Sigmund Freud and Rene Spitz to Developmental Psychology.

Contributions of Sigmund Freud and Rene Spitz to developmental psychology are presented in terms of today's research. The work of each of these pioneers draws our attention to the need for increasing our knowledge about the meaning of individual experience and increasing complexity in the course of development. Freud's contribution to today's developmental thinking is reviewed in terms of his observations of play, his schematic perspectives on developmental processes, and his innovative theoretical approaches involving nonconscious mental activity in the context of constructivism. Spitz's contribution to today's thinking is reviewed according to a similar array of topics
Gender difference and phenomenology of unipolar depression from Indian perspective

Gender differences are diverse between studies of unipolar and bipolar depressive disorders. Thus gender difference reported so far in depression studies might have confounded from their level of intrinsic bipolarity. The objectives of this study were to test whether there were any gender differences in the phenomenology of unipolar Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and whether any phenomenology reliably predicted the gender of Indian patients. Patients with the diagnosis of unipolar MDD, between 18 and 60 years of age were included. A total of 32 males and 36 females were assessed with the diagnostic criteria of DSM-IV-TR, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory-II and the Global Assessment of Functioning. Females in our study were significantly more likely to be married (p = 0.008), unemployed (p = 0.000), with lower educational qualification (p = 0.009) and belong to a lower-socioeconomical class (p = 0.003). Males had a younger age at the onset of MDD (p = 0.004) and more recurrence (p = 0.030), loss of pleasure (melancholic feature) (p = 0.030) and perceived functional impairment (p = 0.041). In females, significant greater frequency of recurrent thoughts of death (p = 0.000), perceived sense of failure (p = 0.014) and social withdrawal (p = 0.041) were found. Recurrent thoughts of death was the only phenomenon that reliably predicted gender. The uniqueness of our findings could be attributed to relatively purer unipolarity of participants and recent changes in social and individual perspectives in rapidly developing world.
Gene expression profile of spinal motor neurons in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

The causative pathomechanism of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is not clearly understood. Using microarray technology combined with laser‐captured microdissection, gene expression profiles of degenerating spinal motor neurons isolated from autopsied patients with sporadic ALS were examined. Gene expression was quantitatively assessed by real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization. Spinal motor neurons showed a distinct gene expression profile from the whole spinal ventral horn. Three percent of genes examined were downregulated, and 1% were upregulated in motor neurons. Downregulated genes included those associated with cytoskeleton/axonal transport, transcription, and cell surface antigens/receptors, such as dynactin, microtubule‐associated proteins, and early growth response 3 (EGR3). In contrast, cell death–associated genes were mostly upregulated. Promoters for cell death pathway, death receptor 5, cyclins A1 and C, and caspases‐1, ‐3, and ‐9, were upregulated, whereas cell death inhibitors, acetyl‐CoA transporter, and NF‐κB were also upregulated. Moreover, neuroprotective neurotrophic factors such as ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor were upregulated. Inflammation‐related genes, such as those belonging to the cytokine family, were not, however, significantly upregulated in either motor neurons or ventral horns. The motor neuron–specific gene expression profile in sporadic ALS can provide direct information on the genes leading to neurodegeneration and neuronal death and are helpful for developing new therapeutic strategies. Ann Neurol 2005;57:236–251
GAINSHARING AND HONESTY IN BUDGET REPORTING

This study uses two experiments to investigate the honesty of managers' budget reports under a gainsharing incentive scheme (i.e., budgetary slack is shared by the manager and another non-reporting employee). Based on social psychological theory, we predict that such a common interest in budgetary slack would make misreporting more self-justifiable and, therefore, lead to lower honesty. The results of our first experiment show that managers report less honestly when the slack is shared than when it is not shared, regardless of whether others are aware of the misreporting. Further, we predict that managers' honesty will be improved when others (i.e., the beneficiary of the slack) have a known, higher-order preference for truthful reporting. Consistent with our expectation, the results of our second experiment show that managers report more honestly when other employees have a known preference for honesty than when other employees have a known preference for wealth-maximization or when other employees' preference is unknown. The implications of our findings for management accounting research and practice are discussed.
Fear of Persecution

Why would people abandon their homes in favor of an uncertain life elsewhere? The short answer, of course, is violence. More specifically, the authors contend that people monitor the violent behavior of both the government and dissidents and assess the threat such behavior poses to their lives, physical person, and liberty. The greater the threat posed by the behavior of the government and dissidents, the larger the number of forced migrants a country will produce. To test hypotheses drawn from this argument the authors use a global sample of countries over more than forty years. Their findings are held to be consistent with their argument, showing that violent behavior has a substantially larger impact on forced migration than variables such as the type of political institution or the average size of the economy.
Reconfiguration time overhead on field programmable gate arrays: reduction and cost model

Partial reconfiguration suffers from low performance and thus its use is limited when the reconfiguration overhead is too high compared to the task execution time. To overcome this issue, the authors present a fast internal configuration access port (ICAP) controller, FaRM, providing high-speed configuration and easy-to-use readback capabilities, reducing configuration overhead as much as possible. In order to enhance performance, FaRM uses techniques such as master accesses, ICAP overclocking, bitstream pre-load into a controller and bitstream compression technique, Offset-run length encoding (RLE), which is an improvement of the RLE algorithm. Combining these approaches allows us to achieve an ICAP theoretical throughput of 800 MB/S at 200 MHz. In order to complete our approach, we provide a cost model for the reconfiguration overhead for the system level that can be used during the early stages of development. The authors tested their approach on an Advanced Encryption Standard AES encryption/decryption architecture.
Model-based footstep planning for tripod gait on 3D field

In this paper, we propose a model-based method of footstep planning for the tripod gait. A footstep model of tripod gait is expressed by triangle shapes that its apexes correspond to the foot position, and is formulated based on the horizontal translation and the vertical movement to contact the field. The planning problem can be formulated as an inverse kinematics problem, and it can be solved as an optimization problem with constraints by using an iterative calculation method. Constraints that impose a limitation of the horizontal and vertical translation individually are formulated based on the foot workspace of the tripod gait using the field surface model. By numerical simulation on sloped fields, we confirmed that the proposed algorithm can carry out the optimized footstep plan that strictly satisfies the mechanistic constraints and adapts to the three-dimensional field in real time.
The Transacting Factor CBF-A/Hnrnpab Binds to the A2RE/RTS Element of Protamine 2 mRNA and Contributes to Its Translational Regulation during Mouse Spermatogenesis

During spermatogenesis, mRNA localization and translation are believed to be regulated in a stage-specific manner. We report here that the Protamine2 (Prm2) mRNA transits through chromatoid bodies of round spermatids and localizes to cytosol of elongating spermatids for translation. The transacting factor CBF-A, also termed Hnrnpab, contributes to temporal regulation of Prm2 translation. We found that CBF-A co-localizes with the Prm2 mRNA during spermatogenesis, directly binding to the A2RE/RTS element in the 3′ UTR. Although both p37 and p42 CBF-A isoforms interacted with RTS, they associated with translationally repressed and de-repressed Prm2 mRNA, respectively. Only p42 was found to interact with the 5′cap complex, and to co-sediment with the Prm2 mRNA in polysomes. In CBF-A knockout mice, expression of protamine 2 (PRM2) was reduced and the Prm2 mRNA was prematurely translated in a subset of elongating spermatids. Moreover, a high percentage of sperm from the CBF-A knockout mouse showed abnormal DNA morphology. We suggest that CBF-A plays an important role in spermatogenesis by regulating stage-specific translation of testicular mRNAs.
Monitoring Conceptual Development: Design Considerations of a Formative Feedback tool

Berlanga, A. J., Smithies, A. , Braidman, I. , & Wild, F. (2010). Monitoring Conceptual Development: Design Considerations of a Formative Feedback tool. In M. Auer, & J. Schreurs (Ed.), Proceedings of the Interactive Computer Aided Learning (ICL 2010), Track on Computer-based Knowledge & Skill Assessment and Feedback in Learning Settings (CAF 2010) (pp. 1150-1157). Hasselt, Belgium. September, 15-17, 2010. LTfLL-project.
A Conceptual Framework for Emotional Response of Product with ACT-R Cognitive Architecture

This article proposes a conceptual framework that describes emotional decision making of a product considering the existing structure of Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R). The main proposition of this framework is to explore how emotions are evoked by a product and how emotional words and purchase intention are activated. The process starts when a customer perceives the design features of a product. After the perception of design features, associated emotions are implicitly determined by the appraisal elements such as the Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD). To describe this implicit appraisal process, an appraisal module which generates PAD values of the current emotional states is required to be added to ACT-R. The above two stages are replicated until all design features which a consumer is interested in are evaluated and the average PAD values are turned over to the next stage. Subsequently, the emotional word which has the highest activation value based on similarity with PAD values is retrieved from a declarative memory. Finally, as a comprehensive result of the emotions evoked by all design features, purchase intention is activated in a goal module.
Quantitation of Human Left Ventricular Mass and Volume by Two‐dimensional Echocardiography: In Vitro Anatomic Validation

The reliability of two-dimensional echocardiographic (2-DE) quantitation of left ventricular (LV) section area, volume and myocardial mass was assessed in Vitro in 13 postmortem human hearts (LV weight 115–454 g). The pathologic diagnoses included: two normal, five coronary artery disease with infarction and/or aneurysm, three valvular heart disease, two cardiomyopathy and one left ventricular hypertrophy. Hearts were divided into six to 24 short-axis slices (n = 123), imaged in a tank filled with mineral oil and the images planimetered. Calibrated photographs-and actual LV weight served as reference standards. Estimates of section LV cavity volume and myocardial volume were derived by multiplying the appropriate area by section thickness. Section LV mass was obtained by multiplying the myocardial volume by myocardial density. Total LV cavity volume and myocardial mass were derived using Simpson's rule and a short axis area-apical length method. In absolute terms, 2-DE underestimated LV cavity area but accurately estimated LV myocardial area. Excellent correlations were obtained between 2-DE and photographic standards for section cavity area (r = 0.95) and volume (r = 0.90). Simpson's rule (r = 0.97) and area-length (r =− 0.82, r = 0.90, excluding one heart with a bizarrely shaped LV cavity secondary to extensive mural thrombus) estimates of total LV cavity volume also correlated well with reference standards. Similarly, section LV myocardial area correlated well with photographic myocardial area (r = 0.89) and 2-DE and photographic estimates of section LV mass correlated well with actual LV weight (r = 0.92 and 0.96). Consequently, total LV mass obtained with Simpson's rule or the area-length method was highly reliable (r = 0.93 and 0.92, respectively). We conclude that 2-DE can provide reliable estimates of LV volume and mass using the short-axis Simpson's rule or area-length methods and appropriate regression corrections. The area-length method is simple enough to permit clinical application.
How Personal Control Mediates Suffering: Elderly Husbands' Narratives of Caregiving

This article is based on ethnographic research that explored experiences of suffering in late life. From a group of 60 oldest-old (age 80 and above) male participants, four were primary, at-home caregivers for wives with dementia. Men's narratives showed the inter-relation between masculinities, a sense of personal control, and experiences of suffering within caregiving. Three thematic “tools” of control emerged as strategies men used to mediate their suffering: 1) the power of the little; 2) preserving self-identity and marriage-identity and, 3) finding purpose in the role of caregiver. We offer insight into the world of the oldest-old male caregiver through men's accounts of suffering, their daily tasks, thoughts about themselves as caregivers, and the manner in which they embody their masculinity in caregiving.
Automatic digital video production concepts

Video production involves conceiving a story, shooting raw video footage, and editing the final piece. Editing involves manually cutting frames and frame sequences from the raw video and composing the sequences with special effects to render the production sequence of the original story concept. The introduction of digital video technology now greatly expedites this process and allows for novel automatic manipulation of recorded video segments without human intervention. One example is the automatic manipulation or com- position of news video segments for personalized delivery to individuals. A digital video production system (DVPS) encompasses the acquisition, storage, se- lection/editing, composition, and customization of video data. A DVPS cannot operate completely automatically as a human needs to participate in the creation of the video data; however, we believe that it is possible to automate the subsequent steps with suitable re- strictions and assumptions on the process. In this chapter, we describe the video production process and the implications for the process due to digital technology. We also describe the requirements of an automatic digital video production system to achieve editing, composi- tion, and customization.
Dynamic word clouds

Using word clouds to visualize dynamic time-varying data is a field still under-explored. The goal of our approach is to provide a novel way of generating smoothly animated word clouds to show changes in word frequency via font size. Unlike existing methods, a compact layout, inspired by the popular word cloud generation tool Wordle, is preserved during animation and implemented using web technologies. Word size changes in time are also illustrated via color and word rotation.
In search of authenticity in historic cities in transformation: the case of Pingyao, China

In a historic city, physical setting determines the uniqueness of a place, and the social and cultural activities in the physical setting enrich its cultural value. Along with the demands of modernization, the development of heritage tourism facilitates urban conservation, but it also challenges the meaning of the ‘authenticity’ of a historic city. The case study of the Ancient City of Pingyao, China, illustrates the city was transformed via political changes, and the functions of the traditional anchor elements in its city centre shifted; yet, the sense of place, in the form of collective memory, remained in its anchor elements across generations. However, memorable events, either personal or collective, are eclipsed by the over-emphasis on authenticity in the tourist setting. If the priority objective of preserving a historic city is to continue the local way of life, it is important to approach the discourses of authenticity of a historic city from the settlement's integrity, including the authenticity in physical setting, tourist setting and sense of place.