Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cultural Identity Dynamics and Intersubjective Cultural Representations

Wagner, W. , Duveen, G. , Verma, J., & Themel, M. (2000). “I have some faith and at the same time I don’t believe”—Cognitive polyphasia and cultural change in India. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 10, 301-314. Wagner, W. , Hansen, K. , & Kronberger, N. (2014). Quantitative and qualitative research across cultures and languages: Cultural metrics and their application. Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science, 48, 418-434. doi:10.1007/s12124-014-9269-z Zafar, A. , Mirza, J., & Syed Qamar, B. (2013). Role of electronic media in changing value system in Pakistan. The International Asian Research Journal, 1(1), 59-65.
Selection of a mathematical model to describe the lactation curves of Jersey cattle

Abstract. The extent of the usefulness of a lactation model depends on how well it succeeds in imitating the biological lactation process and how well it adjust for environmental and other factors that could influence production. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compare five different lactation curve models (Wood, Cobby and Le Du, Wilmink, Exponential and Parabolic Exponential model), and to find the best model that provided a good description of the lactation curve of Jersey cattle herd. Data used in this study were the first to seventh lactation official milk yield records from monthly recording of 3 630 lactations between 1984 and 2008 in the farm. The results showed that Wood model which has minimum residual standard deviation (3.562), maximum adjusted R2 value (91.6 %) and maximum persistency value (93.3 %) performed the best fit to the data and allowed a suitable description of the lactation curve. It was concluded that the Wood model provided accurate estimates of milk yield for all lactation numbers because this model was found to be more superior to the other models. Consequently, the usage of Wood model would provide some useful information on genetic improvement of the Jersey breed under pasture-based dry seasonal production systems.
Cluster randomised controlled trial of an educational outreach visit to improve influenza and pneumococcal immunisation rates in primary care.

BACKGROUND Improvement in the delivery of influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations to high-risk groups is an important aspect of preventive care for primary healthcare teams. AIM To investigate the effect of an educational outreach visit to primary healthcare teams on influenza and pneumococcal vaccination uptake in high-risk patients. DESIGN Cluster randomised controlled trial. SETTING Thirty general practices in the Trent region, UK. METHODS Fifteen practices were randomised to intervention and 15 to the control group after stratifying for baseline vaccination rate. All intervention practices were offered and received an educational outreach visit to primary healthcare teams, in addition to audit and feedback directed at improving influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates in high-risk groups. Control practices received audit and feedback alone. All practices measured influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates in high-risk groups. Primary outcomes were improvements in vaccination rates in patients aged 65 years and over, and patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), diabetes and a history of splenectomy. RESULTS Improvements in pneumococcal vaccination rates in the intervention practices were significantly greater compared with controls in patients with CHD, 14.8% versus 6.5% (odds ratio [OR] = 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.13 to 1.34) and diabetes, 15.5% versus 6.8% (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.08 to 1.29) but not splenectomy, 6.5% versus 4.7% (OR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.65 to 1.42). Improvements for influenza vaccination were also usually greater in intervention practices but did not reach statistical significance. The increases for influenza vaccination in intervention versus control practices were for CHD, 18.1% versus 13.1% (OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 0.99 to 1.12); diabetes, 15.5% versus 12.0% (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 0.99 to 1.16), splenectomy 16.1% versus 2.9% (OR = 1.22, 95% CI = 0.78 to 1.93); and those over 65 years 20.7% versus 25.4% (OR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.96 to 1.02). CONCLUSION Practices where primary care teams received an educational outreach visit demonstrated a significantly greater improvement in uptake in high-risk groups for pneumococcal but not influenza vaccine.
Drive train configuration arrangement for gear coupled manipulators

This paper describes a methodology for the drive train configuration arrangement of gear coupled manipulators. The approach is based on the idea that the kinematic structure of a gear coupled manipulator can be described by an equivalent open-loop chain (EOLC) and mechanical power transmission lines that drive the EOLC. Conditions to select proper drive train configuration such that manipulators can possess kinematic isotropic property will be presented. Procedures to select gear ratio based on optimum dynamic performance will also be extended from two-degree of freedom (DOF) systems to three-DOF systems. From the determined drive train configuration and gear ratios, location of actuators and details of the mechanical power transmission lines can be decided accordingly. A two-DOF manipulator and a three-DOF wrist are used as illustrative examples. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Robust camera egomotion estimation from 3D straight line-based environment model

In this paper we present a new robust camera pose estimation approach based on 3D lines features. The proposed method is well adapted for mobile augmented reality applications We used an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to incrementally update the camera pose in real-time. The principal contributions of our method include first, the expansion of the RANSAC scheme in order to achieve a robust matching algorithm that associates 2D edges from the image with the 3D line segments from the input model. And second, a new powerful framework for camera pose estimation using only 2D-3D straight-lines within an EKF. Experimental results on real image sequences are presented to evaluate the performances and the feasibility of the proposed approach in indoor and outdoor environments
What Theory is Not

We are grateful to Steve Barley, Max Bazerman, Daniel Brass, Gary Alan Fine, Linda Pike, Robert Kahn, James March, Marshall Meyer, Keith Murnighan, Christine Oliver, and David Owens for their contributions to this essay. This essay was prepared while the first author was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. We appreciate the financial assistance provided by the Hewlett-Packard Corporation and the National Science Foundation (SBR-9022192). This essay describes differences between papers that contain some theory rather than no theory. The~re is little agreement about what constitutes strong versus weak theory in the social sciences, but there is more consensus that references, data, variables, diagrams, and hypotheses are not theory. Despite this consensus, however, authors routinely use these five elements in lieu of theory. We explain how each of these five elements can be confused with theory and how to avoid such confusion. By making this consensus explicit, we hope to help authors avoid some of the most common and easily averted problems that lead readers to view papers as having inadequate theory. We then discuss how journals might facilitate the publication of stronger theory. We suggest that if the field is serious about producing stronger theory, journals need to reconsider their empirical requirements. We argue that journals ought to be more receptive to papers that test part rather than all of a theory and use illustrative rather than definitive data.
A logic of file systems

Years of innovation in file systems have been highly successful in improving their performance and functionality, but at the cost of complicating their interaction with the disk. A variety of techniques exist to ensure consistency and integrity of file system data, but the precise set of correctness guarantees provided by each technique is often unclear, making them hard to compare and reason about. The absence of a formal framework has hampered detailed verification of file system correctness. We present a logical framework for modeling the interaction of a file system with the storage system, and show how to apply the logic to represent and prove correctness properties. We demonstrate that the logic provides three main benefits. First, it enables reasoning about existing file system mechanisms, allowing developers to employ aggressive performance optimizations without fear of compromising correctness. Second, the logic simplifies the introduction and adoption of new file system functionality by facilitating rigorous proof of their correctness. Finally, the logic helps reason about smart storage systems that track semantic information about the file system. A key aspect of the logic is that it enables incremental modeling, significantly reducing the barrier to entry in terms of its actual use by file system designers. In general, we believe that our framework transforms the hitherto esoteric and error-prone "art" of file system design into a readily understandable and formally verifiable process.
Eye drop delivery of nano‐polymeric micelle formulated genes with cornea‐specific promoters

This study evaluates the eye drop delivery of genes with cornea‐specific promoters, i.e., keratin 12 (K12) and keratocan (Kera3.2) promoters, by non‐ionic poly(ethylene oxide)‐poly(propylene oxide)‐poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO‐PPO‐PEO) polymeric micelles (PM) to mouse and rabbit eyes, and investigates the underlying mechanisms.
Raking echoes in the time domain

The geometry of room acoustics is such that the reverberant signal can be seen as the same waveform emitted from multiple locations. In analogy with the rake receiver from wireless communications, we propose several beamforming strategies that exploit, rather than suppress, this additional spatio-temporal diversity. Unlike earlier work in the frequency domain, time domain designs allow to shape the impulse response of the beamformer. In particular, we can control perceptually relevant parameters, such as the amount of early echoes or the length of the beamformer response. Relying on the knowledge of the image sources positions, we derive different optimal beamformers. Leveraging perceptual cues, we show how to improve interference and noise reduction without degrading the perceptual quality. The designs are validated through simulation. Using early echoes is shown to strictly improve the signal to interference and noise ratio. Code and speech samples are available online at http:// lcav.epfl. ch/Robin_Scheibler.
Security analysis of a fingerprint-protected USB drive

Fingerprint-protected Universal Serial Bus (USB) drives have seen increasing deployment recently to protect mobile data. Compared to regular USB drives, a fingerprint-protected USB drive has an integrated optical scanner and a private partition/drive (for example, drive G: on MS Windows), which is not accessible before a successful fingerprint authentication. This paper studies the security of a representative fingerprint-protected USB drive called AliceFDrive. Our results are twofold. First, through black-box reverse engineering and manipulation of binary code in a DLL, we bypassed AliceF-Drive's fingerprint authentication and accessed the private drive without actually presenting a valid fingerprint. This authentication bypass is a class attack in that the modified DLL can be distributed to any naive users to bypass AliceF-Drive's fingerprint authentication. Second, in our security analysis of AliceFDrive, we developed a program to automatically recover fingerprint reference templates from AliceFDrive, which may make AliceF-Drive worse than a regular USB drive: when Alice loses her fingerprint-protected USB drive, she does not only lose her data, she also loses her good-quality fingerprints, which are hard to recover as Alice's fingerprints do not change much over a long period of time.
Elevated vascular resistance and afterload reduce the cardiac output response to dobutamine in early growth-restricted rats in adulthood

Epidemiological studies have linked intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR) with an increased risk of CVD later in life. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of maternal protein restriction on cardiac function in adulthood during dobutamine (DOB) stimulation. IUGR was induced in Wistar Kyoto dams through administration of a low-protein diet (LPD; 8·7 % casein) during pregnancy and lactation; the control group received a normal-protein diet (NPD; 20 % casein). At 14 weeks of age, cardiac function was assessed in male and female NPD (eight females and eight males) and LPD offspring (ten females and ten males) by pressure volumetry using an anaesthetised closed-chest approach. We determined mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate and left ventricular pressure–volume indices under baseline conditions and DOB stimulation (2 and 4 μg/kg per min). During β-adrenergic activation in LPD offspring, increases in cardiac output (CO, P < 0·018) and stroke volume (SV, P < 0·005) were attenuated in comparison with NPD offspring, while increases in ejection fraction and the maximal rate of ventricular pressure development were not affected. LPD females maintained a smaller end-diastolic volume (P < 0·017). MAP did not differ between the groups and did not change significantly during DOB infusion. Arterial elastance and total peripheral resistance decreased in all rats but remained significantly elevated in LPD offspring (P < 0·015 and < 0·01). Early growth restriction did not affect ventricular contractility but led to an increased afterload and impaired the ability to increase SV and CO during β-adrenergic stimulation.
The association between an ultrabrief cognitive screening in older adults and hospital outcomes.

BACKGROUND Though often recommended, hospital cognitive assessment is infrequently completed due to clinical and time constraints. OBJECTIVE This analysis aimed to evaluate the relationship between performance on ultrabrief cognitive screening instruments and hospital outcomes. DESIGN This is a secondary data analysis of a quality improvement project. SETTING Tertiary Veterans Administration hospital in New England. PATIENTS Patients, ≥ 60 years old, admitted to the hospital. INTERVENTION None. MEASUREMENTS Upon admission, patients were administered 2 cognitive screening tools. The modified Richmond Agitation and Sedation Scale (mRASS) is a measure of arousal that can be completed in 15 seconds. The months of the year backward (MOYB) is a measure of attention that can be administered in ≤1 minute. In-hospital outcomes included restraints and mortality, whereas discharge outcomes included length of stay, discharge not home, and variable direct costs. Risk ratios were calculated for dichotomous outcomes and unadjusted Poisson regression for continuous outcomes. RESULTS Patients (n = 3232) were screened. Altered arousal occurred in 15% of patients (n = 495); incorrect MOYB was recorded in 45% (n = 1457). Relative to those with normal arousal and attention, those with abnormal mRASS and incorrect MOYB had increased length of stay (incident rate ratio [IRR]: 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17-1.30); restraint use (risk ratio [RR]: 5.05, 95% CI: 3.29-7.75), in-hospital mortality (RR: 3.46, 95% CI: 1.24-9.63), and decreased discharge home (RR: 2.97, 95% CI: 2.42-3.64). Hospital variable direct costs were slightly, but not significantly, higher (IRR: 1.02, 95% CI: 0.88-1.17). CONCLUSION Impaired performance on ultrabrief cognitive assessments of arousal and attention provide valuable insights regarding hospital outcomes.
Predictive Fault Diagnosis System for Intelligent and Robust Health Monitoring

This paper describes work related to the Predictive Fault Diagnosis System for Intelligent and Robust Health Monitoring, which exists as a solution to complete failure detection, identification, and prognostics (FDI&P) in health monitoring applications. Several advanced FDI analytical redundancy techniques have been applied for such a purpose, with the most notable being a compound method comprised of optimal filtering, statistical analysis, and neuro-fuzzy algorithms that is able to detect and diagnose both known and unknown failures. Although this scheme has been proven to be quite successful for systems that can be well described in a state space representation, current research has shown the viability in extending the process to highly complex systems with considerable nonlinearities while still maintaining the FDI capabilities. This paper highlights the utility of these algorithms for determining failures in (1) a known reusable liquid rocket engine model and (2) an unknown input-output relation in a fluid flow testbed. Other research has focused on prognostic capabilities provided by a neural architecture enhanced with fuzzy logic using rule-based knowledge. An example of using data to construct fuzzy rules for determining the remaining useful life of components is provided to give insight into the process.
Exosomes as Intercellular Signaling Organelles Involved in Health and Disease: Basic Science and Clinical Applications

Cell to cell communication is essential for the coordination and proper organization of different cell types in multicellular systems. Cells exchange information through a multitude of mechanisms such as secreted growth factors and chemokines, small molecules (peptides, ions, bioactive lipids and nucleotides), cell-cell contact and the secretion of extracellular matrix components. Over the last few years, however, a considerable amount of experimental evidence has demonstrated the occurrence of a sophisticated method of cell communication based on the release of specialized membranous nano-sized vesicles termed exosomes. Exosome biogenesis involves the endosomal compartment, the multivesicular bodies (MVB), which contain internal vesicles packed with an extraordinary set of molecules including enzymes, cytokines, nucleic acids and different bioactive compounds. In response to stimuli, MVB fuse with the plasma membrane and vesicles are released in the extracellular space where they can interact with neighboring cells and directly induce a signaling pathway or affect the cellular phenotype through the transfer of new receptors or even genetic material. This review will focus on exosomes as intercellular signaling organelles involved in a number of physiological as well as pathological processes and their potential use in clinical diagnostics and therapeutics.
Floral vasculature and its variation for carpellary supply in Anthurium (Araceae, Alismatales)

Introduction and Aims Anthurium is the largest genus of Araceae, with 950 species distributed in the neotropics. Despite the great diversity of the genus, the knowledge of its floral vasculature is based on observations in only two species, viz. A. denudatum and A. lhotzkyanum, with remarkable variation in vascular carpellary supply: carpels are either vascularized by ventral bundles alone or by reduced dorsal bundles in addition to the ventral ones. Our main objective is to test this peculiar variation through a detailed anatomical study of the floral vasculature in taxa belonging to some sections of Anthurium designated as monophyletic groups in recent phylogenies. Methods We compare the floral vasculature of 20 neotropical species belonging to distinct sections of Anthurium, using both light and confocal laser scanning microscopies. Results The number and position of vascular bundles are constant within the tepals and stamens, regardless of the species and sections studied. However, the gynoecium vasculature exhibits variation between species belonging to the same or different sections. Our results reveal two patterns of vasculature: carpels vascularized by synlateral bundles alone (Pattern A) and carpels vascularized by both dorsal and synlateral bundles (Pattern B). Pattern A is shared by the majority of species studied here and corroborates the previous data in the literature. Pattern B occurs in three species: A. affine (Anthurium sect. Pachyneurium series Pachyneurium), A. obtusum and A. scandens (Anthurium sect. Tetraspermium), described here for the first time for the genus. Conclusions The variation in the supply to the carpels in Anthurium is corroborated here. However, our results in addition to those from the available literature suggest the existence of three patterns (A, B and C) of carpellary vasculature. Based on the recent phylogeny of Anthurium it is possible to notice that the three patterns of carpellary vasculature occur in representatives of Clade B and deserve to be investigated in a larger number of species. Pattern A could be a plesiomorphy for the genus and the occurrence of dorsal bundles could be a derived character. Our data contributes to the taxonomy and to the understanding of the floral evolution of the largest neotropical genus of Araceae.
High-speed Clock Tree Simulation Method Based on Moment Matching

A fast and accurate simulation method for high-speed clock trees with buffer insertions is proposed in this paper, where transmission line model is used in all branches of clock trees rather than only in main path. The proposed method is based on two-moment matching technique and can approximate all damping responses, with analytical formulas for time domain responses given. It is shown that this method is significantly more accurate than the Elmore delay model, especially for under damped responses.
An Abstract Interface to Higher Spin Gauge Field Theory

A comprehensive approach to the theory of higher spin gauge fields is proposed. By explicitly separating out details of implementation from general principles, it becomes possible to focus on the bare minimum of requirements that such a theory must satisfy. The abstraction is based on a survey of the progress that has been achieved since relativistic wave equations for higher spin fields were first considered in the 1930s. As a byproduct, a formalism is obtained that is abstract enough to describe a wide class of classical field theories. The formalism, viewed as syntax, can then be semantically mapped to a category of strongly homotopy Lie algebras, thus showing that the theory in some sense exists, at least as an abstract mathematical structure. Still, a concrete physicslike, implementation remains to be constructed. Lacking deep physical insight into the problem, an implementation in terms of generalized vertex operators is set up within which a brute force iterative determination of the first few orde.
Similarities and differences between CLASP, SDL, and Touchpoints: the activity-matrix

Development processes for software construction are common knowledge and mainstream practice in most development organizations. Unfortunately, these processes offer little support in order to meet security requirements. Over the years, research efforts have been invested in specific methodologies and techniques for secure software engineering, yet dedicated processes have been proposed only recently. This report presents the results of a comparative study of three high-profile processes for the development of secure software, namely OWASP’s CLASP, Microsoft’s SDL andMcGraw’s Touchpoints. The key contribution of the report is a comprehensive model for comparison, the activity-matrix, which lists and relates all activities of the different processes and facilitates the identification of similarities and differences between the processes. Similarities and di erences between CLASP, SDL, and Touchpoints: