Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effects of a parent implemented infant signing intervention on communication skills for young hearing children with diagnosed language delays

Being able to communicate one’s wants and needs is an essential step in typical language development. However, children with diagnosed language delays, which constitute approximately 5–10% of children under three years, may reach this step later than typically developing children. According to Rossetti (2001), communication skills are the most highly correlated to future school performance than any other. The use of infant signing, a form of intentional symbolic gesturing, has been shown to support children’s development in multiple domains for both typically developing children and children with disabilities (e.g., DiCarlo et al., 2001; Goodwyn et al., 2000; Thompson et al., 2007). However, there is limited research showing the effects of infant signs on young hearing children’s communication skills (Vallotton, 2011c; Wijkamp, Gerritsen, Bonder, Haisma, & van der Schans, 2010). The current study examined the potential effects of an infant signing intervention program on children’s communication skills, both verbal and sign usage. The researcher conducted a single subject, multiple probe research design across three children (ages 12 to 36 months) with diagnosed language delays to study their communication skills before and after the signing intervention. A pre- and post-study child language inventory supported with qualitative data collection methods was used as well. Results suggest an increase in communication attempts via both spoken and manually signed words after a primary caregiver-implemented infant signing intervention. Implications of these results are also discussed.
Cable-based Robot Manipulators with Translational Degrees of Freedom

Cable-based robots build upon mechanisms that not only use rigid links in their structures but also utilize unilateral force elements such as cables to deliver the desired motion. Cables may be either connected to active winches to provide a variable length and hence to actuate the mechanism or may be only to provide a kinematic constraint to eliminate an undesired motion of the endeffector. Manipulators in which the cables have variable lengths are usually called cable-driven or wire-driven manipulators. Cable-based manipulators posses several advantages over conventional serial/parallel link manipulators including: 1. Large workspace: An active winch can provide a large range of length change on the cables at a low cost. This facilitates building manipulators for very large working spaces which cannot be obtained by other robots. 2. Low inertia: Materials provide their highest strength-to-mass ratio when they are under tensile loading. Using cables, which can be only in tension, maximizes the use of material strength and therefore reduces the mass and inertia of the manipulator. Low inertia is desirable in many applications including high speed/acceleration robotics. 3. Simplicity in structure: Cables simplify the robot structure by utilizing bending flexibility as kinematic joints and reducing the fabrication cost by minimizing the machining process. 4. Reconfigurability and transportability: Winch assemblies can be simply relocated to reconfigure and adjust the workspace of a cable-driven manipulator. The ease of assembly/disassembly of these manipulators also facilitates their transportation and quick setup. 5. Fully remote actuation: Using a fully cable-driven manipulator, all the actuators and sensitive parts are located away from the end-effector and the actual working area. Such manipulators best suit harsh or hazardous environments.
An agent-based market platform for Smart Grids

The trend towards renewable, decentralized, and highly fluctuating energy suppliers (e.g. photovoltaic, wind power, CHP) introduces a tremendous burden on the stability of future power grids. By adding sophisticated ICT and intelligent devices, various Smart Grid initiatives work on concepts for intelligent power meters, peak load reductions, efficient balancing mechanisms, etc. As in the Smart Grid scenario data is inherently distributed over different, often non-cooperative parties, mechanisms for efficient coordination of the suppliers, consumers and intermediators is required in order to ensure global functioning of the power grid. In this paper, a highly flexible market platform is introduced for coordinating self-interested energy agents representing power suppliers, customers and prosumers. These energy agents implement a generic bidding strategy that can be governed by local policies. These policies declaratively represent user preferences or constraints of the devices controlled by the agent. Efficient coordination between the agents is realized through a market mechanism that incentivizes the agents to reveal their policies truthfully to the market. By knowing the agent's policies, an efficient solution for the overall system can be determined. As proof of concept implementation the market platform D'ACCORD is presented that supports various market structures ranging from a single local energy exchange to a hierarchical energy market structure (e.g. as proposed in [10]).
Stability of distributed congestion control with diverse communication delays

Based on the clockwise property of parameterized curves and the general Nyquist criterion of stability, a conjecture on the stability of the Internet distributed congestion control algorithm with diverse propagation delays is proved. A more general stability criterion is also provided. The new criterion preserves the elegancy of the conjecture being decentralized and locally implemented. Each end system needs knowledge of its own round-trip delay, but enlarges the stability region of control gains and admissible communication delays.
Using gprof to Tune the 4.2BSD Kernel

This paper describes how the gprof profiler accounts for the running time of called routines in the running time of the routines that call them. It then explains how to configure a profiling kernel on the 4.2 Berkeley Software Distribution of UNIX® for the VAX‡ and discusses tradeoffs in techniques for collecting profile data. Gprof identifies problems that severely affects the overall performance of the kernel. Once a potential problem areas is identified benchmark programs are devised to highlight the bottleneck. These benchmarks verify that the problem exist and provide a metric against which to validate proposed solutions. Tw o caches are added to the kernel to alleviate the bottleneck and gprof is used to validates their effectiveness. ‡ VAX is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. 4.2BSD Performance -i
Parametric Resonance May Explain Virologic Failure to HIV Treatment Interruptions

Pilot studies of structured treatment interruptions (STI) in HIV therapy have shown that patients can maintain low viral loads whilst benefiting from reduced treatment toxicity. However, a recent STI clinical trial reported a high degree of virologic failure. Here we present a novel hypothesis that could explain virologic failure to STI and provides new insights of great clinical relevance. We analyze a classic mathematical model of HIV within-host viral dynamics and find that nonlinear parametric resonance occurs when STI are added to the model; resonance is observed as virologic failure. We use the model to simulate clinical trial data and to calculate patient-specific resonant spectra. We gain two important insights. Firstly, within an STI trial, we determine that patients who begin with similar viral loads can be expected to show extremely different virologic responses as a result of resonance. Thus, high heterogeneity of patient response within a STI clinical trial is to be expected. Secondly and more importantly, we determine that virologic failure is not simply due to STI or patient characteristics; rather it is the result of a complex dynamic interaction between STI and patient viral dynamics. Hence, our analyses demonstrate that no universal regimen with periodic interruptions will be effective for all patients. On the basis of our results, we suggest that immunologic and virologic parameters should be used to design patient-specific STI regimens.
Semantic web based services for intelligent mobile construction collaboration

Construction project delivery is highly dependent on the effectiveness of the team put together to execute the project. To provide real time, on-demand intelligent mobile collaboration support for their workers, construction enterprises increasingly need to use powerful wireless devices coupled with the availability of improved bandwidth, to tap into different inter and intra-enterprise data resources. This paper focuses on the synergy between the Semantic Web, Web Services and agent technologies in the provision of such mobile collaboration support infrastructure. A multi-tier architecture is presented, which brings together the necessary technology threads, including the Semantic Web (to provide a framework for shared definitions of terms, resources and relationships) , Web Services (to provide dynamic discovery and integration) and multi-agent technologies (to help mobile worker accomplish a particular task) to support intelligent mobile collaboration. Future deployment scenarios are presented to illustrate the potential benefits for the construction industry.
Document semantic distance based on the time series model

Information retrieval systems typically use the vector space model in order to represent both the queries and the set of documents. Afterwards they use the cosine distance for ordering the documents that best match the search query. The same cosine distance is used in order to compute the distance between two documents represented in the vector space. This article proposes a new approach, in which both the documents and the search query are represented as a time series of words. As a consequence, the document is no longer seen as a `bag of words' but as a sequence of words in which the order is essential. On top of this model we will use a well known algorithm in time series, dynamic time warping (DTW), in order to compute the distance between a search query and a document or between two documents. In order to improve the model, we enhance the algorithm to take into consideration the semantic context by using WordNet when computing the distance between words. This semantic enablement integrates smoothly into the time series model that we propose and it permits us to go beyond the `bag of words' model into the semantic search area.
How Pressure Impacts Performance and Can Confound Preference Inference ∗

By disrupting the mapping from intended choice to realized outcome, psychological pressure can confound revealed preference-based inference. Seemingly loss averse behavior may not reflect such preferences over outcomes. We analyze NBA free-throw shooting and exploit differential levels of pressure induced by game location. Home players suffer an accuracy decline when a shot’s chance of impacting the game outcome increases, while road players show no change. In an effort-driven task, rebounding, the reverse holds. This pattern implicates pressure as an important driver of performance at the margin. Interpreting action profiles as supporting particular preference functions is difficult with this confound present. JEL Codes: D03, D84, C9
Increased fructose concentrations in blood and urine in patients with diabetes.

OBJECTIVE To investigate fructose metabolic changes in patients with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Serum and urinary fructose concentrations were determined in healthy subjects (n = 23) and in nondiabetic (n = 23) and diabetic patients (n = 26). Fructose was measured using our newly developed method, and (13)C(6)-fructose was used as the internal standard. After adding sample to a fixed amount of internal standard, ion-exchange resins and high-performance liquid chromatography pretreatments were performed. Then, the amount of fructose in the sample was measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. RESULTS Serum fructose concentrations in patients with diabetes (12.0 +/- 3.8 micromol/l) were significantly higher than those in healthy subjects (8.1 +/- 1.0 micromol/l, P < 0.001) and nondiabetic patients (7.7 +/- 1.6 micromol/l, P < 0.001), and daily urinary fructose excretion was significantly greater in patients with diabetes (127.8 +/- 106.7 micromol/day) than in nondiabetic patients (37.7 +/- 23.0 micromol/day, P < 0.001). In patients with diabetes (n = 20), serum fructose concentrations (8.6 +/- 1.8 micromol/l, P < 0.001) and daily urinary fructose excretion (63.4 +/- 63.8 micromol/day, P < 0.01) significantly decreased by week 2 after admission. CONCLUSIONS The present results differed from those of previous studies in that we found that the serum and urinary fructose concentrations decreased rapidly, concomitant with an improvement in glycemia. Therefore, hyperglycemia was associated with increased serum and urinary fructose concentrations in patients with diabetes.
Cyber-Attack Modeling Analysis Techniques: An Overview

Cyber attack is a sensitive issue in the world of Internet security. Governments and business organisations around the world are providing enormous effort to secure their data. They are using various types of tools and techniques to keep the business running, while adversaries are trying to breach security and send malicious software such as botnets, viruses, trojans etc., to access valuable data. Everyday the situation is getting worse because of new types of malware emerging to attack networks. It is important to understand those attacks both before and after they happen in order to provide better security to our systems. Understanding attack models provide more insight into network vulnerability, which in turn can be used to protect the network from future attacks. In the cyber security world, it is difficult to predict a potential attack without understanding the vulnerability of the network. So, it is important to analyse the network to identify top possible vulnerability list, which will give an intuitive idea to protect the network. Also, handling an ongoing attack poses significant risk on the network and valuable data, where prompt action is necessary. Proper utilisation of attack modelling techniques provide advance planning, which can be implemented rapidly during an ongoing attack event. This paper aims to analyse various types of existing attack modelling techniques to understand the vulnerability of the network, and the behaviour and goals of the adversary. The ultimate goal is to handle cyber attack in efficient manner using attack modelling techniques.
Applying User Interest on Item-based Recommender System

With the development of electronic commerce, there is a growing emphasis on recommender systems. As one of the most mature recommend technology, the collaborative filtering method has been used in personalized recommender system. But the technology is based on rating, which doesn't take the user interest into account. This article gives the improved algorithm which based on ratings and user interest. By the improved algorithm, we can improve the effectiveness of the recommender systems.
EFFICIENT POLYPHASE DECOMPOSITION OF COMB DECIMATION FILTERS

H. Aboushady, Y. Dumonteix, M. M. Louërat and H. Mehrez Université Paris VI, Laboratoire LIP6/ASIM 4, Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France Email: Hassan.Aboushady@lip6.fr , Yannick.Dumonteix@lip6.fr —A power efficient multi-rate multi-stage Comb decimation filter for mono-bit and multi-bit A/D converters is presented. Polyphase decomposition in all stages, with high decimation factor in the first stage, is used to significantly reduce the sampling frequency of the Comb filter. Several implementations indicate that proper choice of the first stage decimation factor can considerably improve power consumption, area and maximum sampling frequency. In multibit A/Ds, this optimum first stage decimation factor is function of the input wordlength.
Evidence for an apartheid-like social structure in early Anglo-Saxon England

The role of migration in the Anglo-Saxon transition in England remains controversial. Archaeological and historical evidence is inconclusive, but current estimates of the contribution of migrants to the English population range from less than 10 000 to as many as 200 000. In contrast, recent studies based on Y-chromosome variation posit a considerably higher contribution to the modern English gene pool (50–100%). Historical evidence suggests that following the Anglo-Saxon transition, people of indigenous ethnicity were at an economic and legal disadvantage compared to those having Anglo-Saxon ethnicity. It is likely that such a disadvantage would lead to differential reproductive success. We examine the effect of differential reproductive success, coupled with limited intermarriage between distinct ethnic groups, on the spread of genetic variants. Computer simulations indicate that a social structure limiting intermarriage between indigenous Britons and an initially small Anglo-Saxon immigrant population provide a plausible explanation of the high degree of Continental male-line ancestry in England.
Survival Motor Neuron Affects Plastin 3 Protein Levels Leading to Motor Defects

The actin-binding protein plastin 3 (PLS3) has been identified as a modifier of the human motoneuron disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). SMA is caused by decreased levels of the survival motor neuron protein (SMN) and in its most severe form causes death in infants and young children. To understand the mechanism of PLS3 in SMA, we have analyzed pls3 RNA and protein in zebrafish smn mutants. We show that Pls3 protein levels are severely decreased in smn−/− mutants without a reduction in pls3 mRNA levels. Moreover, we show that both pls3 mRNA and protein stability are unaffected when Smn is reduced. This indicates that SMN affects PLS3 protein production. We had previously shown that, in smn mutants, the presynaptic protein SV2 is decreased at neuromuscular junctions. Transgenically driving human PLS3 in motoneurons rescues the decrease in SV2 expression. To determine whether PLS3 could also rescue function, we performed behavioral analysis on smn mutants and found that they had a significant decrease in spontaneous swimming and turning. Driving PLS3 transgenically in motoneurons rescued both of these defects. These data show that PLS3 protein levels are dependent on SMN and that PLS3 is able to rescue the neuromuscular defects and corresponding movement phenotypes caused by low levels of Smn suggesting that decreased PLS3 contributes to SMA motor phenotypes.
On Optimal Replication Group Splits in P2P Data Stores Based on the Hypercube

P2P data stores excel if availability of inserted data items must be guaranteed. Their inherent mechanisms to counter peer pop- ulation dynamics make them suitable for a wide range of application domains. This paper presents and analyzes the split maintenance opera- tion of our P2P data store. The operation aims at reorganizing replication groups in case operation of them becomes sub-optimal. To this end, we present a formal cost model that peers use to compute optimal points when to run performance optimizing maintenance. Finally, we present experimental results that validate our cost model by simulating various network conditions.
Differential anti-ischaemic effects of muscarinic receptor blockade in patients with obstructive coronary artery disease; impaired vs normal left ventricular function.

AIMS In patients with coronary artery disease acetylcholine (a muscarinic agonist) causes vasoconstriction. The effect of atropine (a muscarinic antagonist) on coronary vasotone in patients with normal or impaired left ventricular function is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-four patients who required atropine infusion (to supplement heart rate response) during atrial pacing (pacing was conducted to assess ischaemia as part of an experimental protocol) were studied; 17 patients had normal and seven impaired left ventricular function (ejection fraction < or =0.40). Two control groups were selected from a large database (from patients in whom atrial pacing was carried out but to whom atropine was not administered) to match the normal (n=20) and dysfunction (n=10) groups. In the normal left ventricular function group atropine increased rate pressure product by 12 +/- 4%, as compared to those without atropine (P < 0.05). Left ventricular end diastolic pressure increased less in the atropine group (+40 +/- 8% vs +78 +/- 6%;P < 0.05). Arterial norepinephrine increased similarly in both groups, but coronary flow (as assessed by using a thermodiluting method in the coronary sinus) increased 23 +/ -4% more in the atropine group (P < 0.05). Further, there were lower levels of myocardial lactate production and ST-segment depression in the atropine group [lactate extraction +13 +/- 6% (atropine) vs -19 +/- 4% (controls), ST-segment depression 1. 3 +/- 0.6 (atropine) vs 1.8 +/- 0.2 mm (control), both P < 0.05 between groups]. In contrast, in the dysfunction group the overall effect of atropine was less pronounced. CONCLUSION In patients with normal left ventricular function atropine improves coronary flow and reduces myocardial lactate production and ST-segment depression during atrial pacing, suggesting a reduction in myocardial ischaemia.
Predictors of incarcerated women’s postrelease PTSD, depression, and substance-use problems

ABSTRACT This longitudinal project assessed predictors of women’s mental health postrelease from prison. Women (59) completed mental health and trauma exposure assessments while incarcerated and then postrelease. Women’s mental health did not change postrelease. Lifetime exposure to interpersonal violence and maladaptive coping were significantly associated with increased postrelease PTSD. In addition, adaptive and maladaptive coping were significantly associated with postrelease depression. Ethnicity, prior substance dependence, postrelease PTSD and depression, interpersonal violence since release, and coping were all significantly associated with postrelease substance use and problems. The findings of this study contribute to identification of potential points of intervention for women postrelease.
Childhood obesity: a societal problem to solve

In contrast to other threats to American children's health, the treatment and prevention of childhood obesity are considered the responsibility of individual children and their parents. This pressure exists in the context of the societal stigmatization of overweight children and the powerful environmental inducements aimed directly at children to eat nutritionally poor foods. Parents of overweight children are left in the difficult position of fearing the social and health consequences of their child's obesity, and fighting a losing battle against the omnipotent presence of the media and constant exposure to unhealthy foods. This paper brings together several literatures to provide a comprehensive examination of the major challenges facing obese children and their families. In particular, this paper documents the extent of stigmatization towards overweight children and reviews evidence of the conflicting advice given to parents about how to help children develop healthful eating in the face of biological and learned food preferences. We conclude with a call for a shift in thinking about the role of our society in the aetiology, treatment and prevention of childhood obesity.