Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ignoring a woman's dislike of sexual material: Sexually impositional behavior in the laboratory

The purpose of the current studies was to determine if participants would ignore a woman's dislike of sexual material in a laboratory setting. Two experiments (N = 130) were conducted in which participants were asked to show, under the guise of a distraction task, neutral, erotic, or nonerotic distracting slides to a female confederate who was depicted as strongly disliking erotic material. More men than women showed erotic slides to the female confederate who was described as disliking erotic material. Fewer men and more women showed autopsy slides when the female confederate was depicted as disliking erotic material than when she was depicted as feeling neutral about erotic material. These results provide preliminary support for this laboratory paradigm as an analogue of sexually impositional behavior.
Suppression of Coronavirus Replication by Inhibition of the MEK Signaling Pathway

ABSTRACT We previously demonstrated that infection of cultured cells with murine coronavirus mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) resulted in activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (Raf/MEK/ERK) signal transduction pathway (Y. Cai et al., Virology 355:152-163, 2006). Here we show that inhibition of the Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway by the MEK inhibitor UO126 significantly impaired MHV progeny production (a reduction of 95 to 99% in virus titer), which correlated with the phosphorylation status of ERK1/2. Moreover, knockdown of MEK1/2 and ERK1/2 by small interfering RNAs suppressed MHV replication. The inhibitory effect of UO126 on MHV production appeared to be a general phenomenon since the effect was consistently observed in all six different MHV strains and in three different cell types tested; it was likely exerted at the postentry steps of the virus life cycle because the virus titers were similarly inhibited from infected cells treated at 1 h prior to, during, or after infection. Furthermore, the treatment did not affect the virus entry, as revealed by the virus internalization assay. Metabolic labeling and reporter gene assays demonstrated that translation of cellular and viral mRNAs appeared unaffected by UO126 treatment. However, synthesis of viral genomic and subgenomic RNAs was severely suppressed by UO126 treatment, as demonstrated by a reduced incorporation of [3H]uridine and a decrease in chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) activity in a defective-interfering RNA-CAT reporter assay. These findings indicate that the Raf/MEK/ERK signaling pathway is involved in MHV RNA synthesis.
Ego-involvement, discrepancy, source credibility, and attitude change.

Social judgment theory and dissonance theory make different predictions about the effect on attitude change of discrepancies between a person's own position and a persuasive communication. Persuasive messages were given to 144 subjects in a three-factor design having three levels of discrepancy, two levels of source credibility, and two levels of ego-involvement. Dependent measures were attitude change, source credibility change, ego-involvement change, changes in latitudes of acceptance and rejection, and message evaluation. More attitude change occurred for low than for high ego-involvement. Attitude change was an increasing monotonic function of discrepancy for low ego-involvement, and a nonmonotonic function of discrepancy for high ego-involvement. After receipt of the persuasive message, low credible sources increased in authoritativeness and the importance of the low-ego-involvemcnt issue increased. A number of findings, significant beyond the . 01 or . 001 levels, were opposed to dissonance theory predictions. Most of the data arc consistent with social judgment theory.
Models for automatic generation of safety-critical real-time systems

Model-based development has become state of the art in software engineering. A number of tools, like Mat-lab/Simulink or SCADE, are available for the automatic generation of application code on basis of models. Unfortunately, system aspects like process management, communication or fault-tolerance mechanisms are not covered by these tools. One main reason is the non-existence of appropriate models with an explicit semantic to allow the automatic code generation. In addition, there is a great need to have the possibility to extend both the model and the code generation abilities to allow a high coverage of the used platforms, since such code is platform dependent. In this paper, we will present an approach applying meta code generators using template-based code generation to achieve this extensibility and will discuss the properties of models required for the use in model-based development of system aspects for safety-critical real-time systems
Drug abuse among the youth in Ghana

Drug abuse is becoming a serious problem. The course of the alarming rate of the abuse especially among the youth can be traced to the high unemployment among the youth, the frustration of highly qualified students not having access for further education and the general economic situation in the country. Marijuana has been identified as the major drug of abuse among the youth in Ghana. The age of incidence of abuse of marijuana is relatively low, 10 -12 years and experimentation has been found to be the main reason for the start of the abuse. African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences Vol. 1, 2001: 115-120
Exogenous and Endogenous Auditory Brain Events Occurring Between 50-200 ms: Past, Present and Future Applications

Auditory scientists first became interested in long latency, auditory-evoked potentials, not for neurodiagnostic applications, but as a method of deriving the "objective audiogram. " It became apparent that these responses were quite volatile to subject state and age and fell out of favor. The advent of faster and more sophisticated computers made it possible to record shorter epochs, and the "fast" responses (auditory middle latency responses between 15-60 ms) were identified. These responses often were found to be contaminated by sonomotor activity (Cody et al., 1964). Although they were much smaller and harder to interpret than the longer latency responses, they were less affected by subject state and became the modality of choice for audiometric assessment just prior to the discovery of the auditory brainstem response. These prolific responses have achieved common acceptance as the modality of choice for infant hearing screening and neurodiagnostics. However, the auditory brainstem response (ABR) reflects the fidelity of transmission of the auditory code through a very limited portion of the neuraxis (i.e., from the distal VIII N to the rostral pontine auditory pathway). The ABR does not reflect auditory perception. Interestingly there has been a renaissance of interest in longer latency responses (i.e., components with latencies >50 ms)— not for assessment of auditory sensitivity, but for their power to reveal potentially critical information about how the brain processes sound once it reaches the auditory cortex (e.g., decoding, reception, and elaboration of the afferent signal). A small number of electrical events that occur (or continue for) longer than 50 ms will be described in this article. A complete listing of these events would include the following: Nl , P2, the sustained potential (SP), negative difference wave (Nd), mismatch negativity-MMN (N2a), the gamma band response (GBR) P3a, N2b, P300 (or P3b), the contingent negative variation-CNV and the semantic incongruity potential (N400). But a thorough discussion of these responses falls outside the scope of this chapter. Therefore, the potential usefulness of only
Fixed-order ℌ∞ filtering for discrete-time Markovian jump linear systems with unobservable jump modes

In practical applications, it is often encountered that the jump modes of a Markovian jump linear system may not be fully accessible to the filter, and thus designing a filter which partially or totally independent of the jump modes becomes significant. In this paper, by virtue of a new stability and ℌ∞ performance characterization, a novel necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of mode-independent ℌ∞ filters is established in terms of a set of nonlinear matrix inequalities that possess special properties for computation. Then, two computational approaches are developed to solve the condition. One is based on the solution of a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), and the other is based on the sequential LMI optimization with more computational effort but less conservatism. In addition, a specific property of the feasible solutions enables one to further improve the solvability of these two computational approaches.
Projection-like Retractions on Matrix Manifolds

This paper deals with constructing retractions, a key step when applying optimization algorithms on matrix manifolds. For submanifolds of Euclidean spaces, we show that the operation consisting of taking a tangent step in the embedding Euclidean space followed by a projection onto the submanifold is a retraction. We also show that the operation remains a retraction if the projection is generalized to a projection-like procedure that consists of coming back to the submanifold along “admissible” directions, and we give a sufficient condition on the admissible directions for the generated retraction to be second order. This theory offers a framework in which previously proposed retractions can be analyzed, as well as a toolbox for constructing new ones. Illustrations are given for projection-like procedures on some specific manifolds for which we have an explicit, easy-to-compute expression.
Development of an Expressive Language Sampling Procedure in Fragile X Syndrome: A Pilot Study

Objective: There is a great need for valid outcome measures of functional improvement for impending clinical trials of targeted interventions for fragile X syndrome (FXS). Families often report conversational language improvement during clinical treatment, but no validated measures exist to quantify this outcome. This small-scale study sought to determine the feasibility, reproducibility, and clinical validity of highly structured expressive language sampling as an outcome measure reflecting language ability. Methods: Narrative and conversation tasks were administered to 36 verbal participants (25 males and 11 females) with FXS (aged 5–36 years, mean, 18 ± 7 years). Alternate versions were used with randomized task order at 2- to 3-week intervals (mean, 19.6 ± 6.4 days). Audio recordings of sessions were transcribed and analyzed. Dependent measures reflected talkativeness (total number of utterances), utterance planning (proportion of communication [C] units with mazes), articulation (proportion of unintelligible/partly unintelligible C-units), vocabulary (number of different word roots), and syntactic ability (mean length of utterance [MLU] in words). Reproducibility of measures was evaluated with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Results: All participants could complete the tasks. Coded data were highly reproducible with Pearson's correlations at p < . 01 for all measures and ICC values of . 911 to . 966 (conversation) and . 728 to . 940 (narration). Some measures including MLU and different word roots were correlated with expressive language subscale scores from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale. Conclusions: These expressive language sampling tasks appear to be feasible, reproducible, and clinically valid and should be further validated in a larger cohort, as a promising means of assessing functional expressive language outcomes during clinical trials in FXS.
Sustained performance under overload: personality and individual differences in stress and coping

Individuals differ considerably in their vulnerability to task-induced stress, in part because of individual differences in cognitions of task demands. This study investigated the personality and cognitive factors that may control stress vulnerability, using a ‘rapid information processing’ task that was configured to overload attention. Stress response was assessed using the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire (Matthews, G. et al., 2002. Fundamental dimensions of subjective state in performance settings: task engagement, distress and worry. Emotion, 2, 315–340), as well as instruments assessing workload, appraisal and coping. Time pressure was manipulated as a between-subjects stress factor. Higher time pressure tended to elicit decreased effort and task engagement and avoidance coping. However, much of the variance in state response was attributable to individual differences in appraisal and coping. The personality trait of neuroticism related to some of these cognitive processes. Subjective state, appraisal and coping were also predictive of objective performance indices. Consistent with the transactional theory of stress, subjective states appear to correspond to configurations of cognitive processes that signal the participant's mode of adaptation to task demands. The findings underscore the importance of accommodating individual differences in selecting operators for handling overload, for designing interfaces and for training operators to manage overload successfully.
Isolation of Vindoline from Catharanthus roseus by Supercritical Fluid Extraction

Vindoline was extracted from the leaves of Catharanthus roseus over the ranges of 35–70 °C and 100–300 bar using supercritical carbon dioxide with and without the addition of 3 wt % ethanol as a cosolvent. The vindoline contents in the extracts were determined by HPLC and identified by LC/MS. The remarkable highest vindoline concentration, 58 wt %, was obtained at the lowest temperature, 35 °C, and the highest pressure, 300 bar, of this study. The use of a cosolvent only slightly improved the extraction yields or selectivities at some experimental conditions.
Impact of Rotor Material on the Optimal Geometry of High-Speed Drag-Cup Induction Motor

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of material properties on performance and optimal geometry of high-speed drag-cup induction motor (IM). Preliminary analytical considerations are performed in order to envisage and demonstrate the effects of changes of material specific conductivity on the motor performance. Based on these conclusions, 2-D finite element method (FEM) motor model is used to obtain performance prediction, and to perform the optimization of rotor geometry and air gaps for three different rotor materials in order to find a solution with the best possible efficiency in defined operation region. Simulation results are then verified and corrected through 3-D FEM simulations. After this, thermal and mechanical properties of all the three optimal solutions are investigated using some analytical formulas and 3-D FEM simulations. Based on the performed analysis and the evaluation of electromagnetic, thermal, and mechanical properties, the best solution is selected. Finally, the prototype of machine which is electromagnetically similar to drag-cup IM is built and tested. Results are compared with the FEM simulations in order to verify the given optimization procedure.
Road Friction Coefficient Estimation For Vehicle Path Prediction

This paper is part of an on-going research toward the development of a lane-departure warning system. The basic concept of the lane- departure warning system is to project vehicle trajectory, and compare with the perceived road geometry to calculate a performance metric termed "time to lane crossing (TLC). When the calculated TLC is less than a threshold value, the control system will either issue warning signals or take intervention actions. An on-line estimation of road/tire characteristics is crucial for the TLC calculation and the overall lane-departure warning system. Accurate road/tire friction estimation can also improve the performance of many other vehicle control/safety systems such as ABS, traction control, and 4WS systems.
Challenges for Distributional Compositional Semantics

This paper summarises the current state-of-the art in the study of compositionality in distributional semantics, and major challenges for this area. We single out generalised quantifiers and intensional semantics as areas on which to focus attention for the development of the theory. Once suitable theories have been developed, algorithms will be needed to apply the theory to tasks. Evaluation is a major problem; we single out application to recognising textual entailment and machine translation for this purpose.
Improvements to Inference Compilation for Probabilistic Programming in Large-Scale Scientific Simulators

We consider the problem of Bayesian inference in the family of probabilistic models implicitly defined by stochastic generative models of data. In scientific fields ranging from population biology to cosmology, low-level mechanistic components are composed to create complex generative models. These models lead to intractable likelihoods and are typically non-differentiable, which poses challenges for traditional approaches to inference. We extend previous work in "inference compilation", which combines universal probabilistic programming and deep learning methods, to large-scale scientific simulators, and introduce a C++ based probabilistic programming library called CPProb. We successfully use CPProb to interface with SHERPA, a large code-base used in particle physics. Here we describe the technical innovations realized and planned for this library.
Dynamic Task Scheduling Using Online Optimization

Algorithms for scheduling independent tasks on to the processors of a multiprocessor system must trade-off processor load balance, memory locality, and scheduling overhead. Most existing algorithms, however, do not adequately balance these conflicting factors. This paper introduces the self-adjusting dynamic scheduling (SADS) class of algorithms that use a unified cost model to explicitly account for these factors at runtime. A dedicated processor performs scheduling in phases by maintaining a tree of partial schedules and incrementally assigning tasks to the least-cost schedule. A scheduling phase terminates whenever any processor becomes idle, at which time partial schedules are distributed to the processors. An extension of the basic SADS algorithm, called DBSADS, controls the scheduling overhead by giving higher priority to partial schedules with more task-to-processor assignments. These algorithms are compared to two distributed scheduling algorithms within a database application on an Intel Paragon distributed memory multiprocessor system.
Evaluating the pronunciation component of text-to-speech systems for English: a performance comparison of different approaches

The automatic derivation of word pronunciations from input text is a central task for any text-to-speech system. For general English text at least, this is often thought to be a solved problem, with manually-derived linguistic rules assumed capable of handling “novel” words missing from the system dictionary. Data-driven methods, based on machine learning of the regularities implicit in a large pronouncing dictionary, have received considerable attention recently but are generally thought to perform less well. However, these tentative beliefs are at best uncertain without powerful methods for comparing text-to-phoneme subsystems. This paper contributes to the development of such methods by comparing the performance of four representative approaches to automatic phonemization on the same test dictionary. As well as rule-based approaches, three data-driven techniques are evaluated: pronunciation by analogy (PbA), NETspeak and IB1-IG (a modified k-nearest neighbour method). Issues involved in comparative evaluation are detailed and elucidated. The data-driven techniques outperform rules in accuracy of letter-to-phoneme translation by a very significant margin but require aligned text-phoneme training data and are slower. Best translation results are obtained with PbA at approximately 72% words correct on a resonably large pronouncing dictionary, compared with something like 26% words correct for the rules, indicating that automatic pronunciation of text is not a solved problem. c 1999 Academic Press
Well-being and ill-being: shared environments, shared genes?

The nature of the associations between life satisfaction, anxiety, and depression remains elusive. Using questionnaire data from a large population-based sample (N = 6326) of young adult Norwegian twins (aged 18–31 years) we explored the extent to which latent genetic and environmental factors are (1) common or distinct, and (2) sex-specific. Phenotypic correlations ranged between 0.44 and 0.70 in females, and between 0.41 and 0.69 in males. Environmental influences accounted for 75% of these correlations in females, and less than 50% in males. Genetic and environmental sources of life satisfaction, symptoms of anxiety, and symptoms of depression were shared mostly, but the magnitude of the effects was different in males and females. In both sexes, however, aetiological factors enhancing life satisfaction were simultaneously protecting against feelings of sadness and displeasure, but contributed less to countervailing anxiety and tension.
THE IMPACT OF TREATMENT MODALITY ON INFECTION-RELATED HOSPITALIZATION RATES IN PERITONEAL DIALYSIS AND HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS

♦ Background and Objectives: Infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the dialysis population. This study compares the rates of infection-related hospitalization (IRH) in incident chronic dialysis patients initiating outpatient peritoneal dialysis (PD) and hemodialysis (HD). ♦ Methods and Patients: This was a retrospective cohort study at the dialysis program of a tertiary-care center in Toronto, Canada. Incident chronic dialysis patients that were eligible for both PD and HD and started outpatient dialysis between 1 January 2004 and 31 August 2008 were included. Dialysis modality was assigned at the start of outpatient dialysis treatment. All hospital admissions were reviewed and incidence of IRH was compared between PD and HD using Poisson regression. ♦ Results: Of 264 incident chronic dialysis patients, 168 (64%) were eligible for both treatment modalities: 71 (42%) started outpatient PD and 97 (58%) started outpatient HD. The unadjusted and adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRR) of IRH did not differ significantly between PD and HD: 1.23 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65 – 2.32, p = 0.37] and 1.14 (95% CI 0.58 – 2.23, p = 0.71) respectively. There was no difference between PD and HD in the risk of access loss (28% vs 35%, p = 0.73), modality change (22% vs 0%, p = 0.10), or death (17% vs 6%, p = 0.60) following hospitalization for infection. Patients starting outpatient treatment on PD versus HD were more likely to be hospitalized for peritonitis (IRR 3.20, 95% CI 1.16 – 9.09; p = 0.029) and there was a trend for fewer hospitalizations for bacteremia (IRR 0.19, 95% CI 0.028 – 1.30; p = 0.091). The risk of IRH did not differ between PD and HD in the subgroup of patients that received adequate predialysis care (IRR 1.16, 95% CI 0.59 – 2.27; p = 0.67) or when patients starting outpatient HD with a central venous catheter were excluded (IRR 1.52, 95% CI 0.53 – 4.37; p = 0.44). ♦ Conclusions: Patients that initiate outpatient peritoneal dialysis do not have a significantly increased risk of infection-related hospitalization compared to those that initiate outpatient hemodialysis.
A PROCESS EVALUATION OF A PROGRAMME FOR STREET PEOPLE

The plight of the homeless in South Africa has been graphically described by Cross and Seager (2010a:18) as “the proverbial skeletons at the feast, the excluded poorest who enter unobserved and stand by gaunt and starved, terrifying to the invited guests but deprived of any capacity to join the party. ”