Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nicaraguan Sign Language and Theory of Mind: the issue of critical periods and abilities.

BACKGROUND Previous studies in the literature report that deaf individuals who experience late access to language perform poorly on false belief tests of Theory of Mind (ToM) compared with age-matched deaf and hearing controls exposed to language early. METHODS A group of 22 deaf Nicaraguans (aged 7 to 39 years) who learned Nicaraguan Sign Language (ISN) at different ages were tested on a false belief and a nonverbal cartoon retell task designed to elicit talk about the contents of character's mental states. RESULTS Access to sign language by 10 years of age with possible advantages in language fluency was a strong predictor of performance on both the false belief task and mental state narrative task. However, a comparison of performance on the two tests indicated that children and adults who learned sign after the age of 10 were still able to demonstrate a more general ability to use mental state expressions in narratives. Results are discussed in terms of late access to language and critical periods for the parallel development of Theory of Mind and language. CONCLUSIONS The findings point to age 10 years as a crucial period when lack of language exposure can lead to long-lasting deficits in false belief abilities. Late exposure to sign language does not, however, rule out all aspects of the ability to consider others' mental states. This paper also highlights the need to take into consideration a variety of communication responses when evaluating deaf children's ToM reasoning.
Human activities prediction by learning combinatorial sparse representations

Human activities prediction is to enable early recognition of unfinished activities from videos only containing the beginning parts, which is a challenge problem. Prediction of human activities is necessarily applied in particular scenes(e.g. surveillance systems, human-computer interfaces). To solve this problem, we propose a novel framework which classifies videos into activity classes by using combinatorial sparse representations (CSR). The major contributions of our work include: (1) dividing each video into multiple equal-length segments, where the local spatio-temporal features extracted; (2) concatenating combinatorial sparse activity dictionaries, formed by overcomplete dictionary of each segment; (3) computing combinatorial sparse coefficients of each segment, based on activity dictionaries above; (4) formulating probability of each activity to estimate the correct class. The results of our experiments show that the proposed method outperforms existing state-of-the-art comparison methods.
Towards grasping with a helicopter platform: landing accuracy and other challenges

This paper presents recent research efforts to extend the functionality of unmanned aerial vehicles beyond passive observation to active interaction with and manipulation of objects. The archetypical aerial manipulation task — grasping objects during flight — is difficult due to the unstable dynamics of flying vehicles and limited positional accuracy currently demonstrated by hovering vehicles. Conventional rigid robot grippers require centimetre-level accuracy positioning to successfully grasp objects. Instead, we utilise passive mechanical compliance and adaptive underactuation in a gripper to allow for large positional displacements between a vehicle and target. We show that our approach allows a helicopter to reliably grasp objects, robust to the inherent inaccuracy of the aircraft’s landing precision. This paper begins by describing key challenges of the aerial manipulation task, then presents our approach to overcoming these challenges, and finally demonstrates experimental results showing successful grasping of a range of objects as a function of landing accuracy.
Defining Software Ecosystems: A Survey of Software Platforms and Business Network Governance

Currently, there is little understanding about how dierent types of software ecosystems must be governed for the preservation and improvement of ecosystem health. This paper explores the denition of software ecosystems and provides a classication model for software ecosystems. The classication model is applied to 19 cases previously explored in software ecosystem literature, and governance tools are ob- served for the dierent types of ecosystems. The governance tools are summarized in a governance model that, when used correctly, serves ecosystem coordinators in determining strategies to maintain and ulti- mately improve software ecosystem health.
A Retrospective Study on How Psychopathic Traits Differentiate Recidivists From First-Time Female Youth Offenders in Juvenile Detention Centers

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to analyze the relation between recidivism and self-reported psychopathic traits, more specifically the callous-unemotional, impulsivity, and narcissism dimensions of the psychopathy construct among female juvenile delinquents. The Antisocial Process Screening Device–Self-Report (APSD-SR) and other self-report psychometric instruments (i.e., Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits [ICU], Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, version 11 [BIS-11], Narcissistic Personality Inventory-13 [NPI-13]) independently measuring the different dimensions of psychopathy were completed by a sample of incarcerated female juvenile offenders (N = 81) that were retrospectively classified as first-time offenders versus recidivists. The only statistically significant relation between recidivism and psychopathic traits found was with narcissism, namely with the Grandiose/Exhibitionism and the Entitlement/Exploitativeness dimensions of the NPI-13. Our results argue for some utility of self-reported psychopathic traits in retrospectively predicting recidivism among female juvenile delinquents.
Predicting attitudes towards seeking medical care among Nigerian immigrants in the UK

ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationships between acculturation, religion, and coping styles; as well as their predictive potentials in relation to socio-demographic factors, on access to medical help among Nigerians in the UK. This is a cross-sectional study using questionnaires for data collection (N = 297). Results revealed negative correlations between assimilative behaviours and religious behaviours and between religious behaviours, denial and religious coping. High levels of religiosity and coping through behavioural disengagement and self-blame predicted poor attitudes to medical help; but those who used instrumental support, emotional support, and active coping showed more positive attitudes to medical help-seeking. No gender differences in medical help-seeking were found, but older people sought medical help more than those who were younger; while affiliation to the Christian religion predicted positive attitudes towards medical help seeking. These findings have implications for policy development towards tailored interventions that can enhance healthcare utilisation among immigrants.
Perceiving and Responding to Gradual Landscape Change at the Community Level: Insights from a Case Study on Agricultural Abandonment in the Black Forest, Germany

How is gradual landscape change perceived and dealt with at the community level? Based on a case study approach, this question is investigated with regards to agricultural abandonment and the subsequent expansion of forests in the Black Forest, Germany. In the case presented, local residents' perception of incremental landscape change does not correspond with a survey on biophysical features of landscape change, but rather focuses on visible effects and exhibits considerable time lags. Facing the same problem, local responses to change in two similarly structured and almost adjacent communities contrast strongly in character and outcomes. I conclude that local perceptions of change as well as specific community identities need to be taken into account in landscape management and policy. The promotion of specific examples of well-performing community-based management strategies, preferably by those people directly involved, should be considered as a particularly valuable dissemination tool.
Construction interdisciplinaire d’une trajectoire socio-écologique de vulnérabilité à l’exemple du territoire des Quatre Montagnes (Isère, France) de 1950 à 2016

L’etude de socio-ecosystemes, de leur vulnerabilite, resilience et de leurs trajectoires passe souvent par la necessite de collaborations entre sciences humaines et sociales et sciences naturelles. Cet article propose de tester cette notion de « socio-ecosysteme » et une methodologie autour de la « frise chrono-systemique » comme outils intermediaires de connaissances interdisciplinaires. Il rend compte d’une experience interdisciplinaire, son contexte de recherche ainsi que son cadre conceptuel et methodologique, a partir d’un territoire d’exemple, les Quatre Montagnes dans le Vercors. Il propose un protocole applicable pour le suivi des trajectoires de vulnerabilite d’un territoire et de ses ressources environnementales dans une optique interdisciplinaire. La demarche se compose de quatre etapes : i) une etape exploratoire socio-historique et ecologique ii) la determination des dimensions a observer et de leurs indicateurs, iii) la construction de la frise, et iv) l’analyse de la trajectoire de vulnerabilite du territoire. L’article montre les potentiels, les difficultes methodologiques et les points de vigilance de cette analyse interdisciplinaire des trajectoires d’un territoire.
Fictitious-time wave-packet dynamics. II. Hydrogen atom in external fields

In the preceding paper [T. Fab\ifmmode \check{c}\else \v{c}\fi{}i\ifmmode \check{c}\else \v{c}\fi{}, J. Main, and G. Wunner, Phys. Rev. A 79, 043416 (2009)] ``restricted Gaussian wave packets'' were introduced for the regularized Coulomb problem in the four-dimensional Kustaanheimo-Stiefel coordinates, and their exact time propagation was derived analytically in a fictitious-time variable. We now establish the Gaussian wave-packet method for the hydrogen atom in static external fields. A superposition of restricted Gaussian wave packets is used as a trial function in the application of the time-dependent variational principle. The external fields introduce couplings between the basis states. The set of coupled wave packets is propagated numerically, and eigenvalues of the Schr\"odinger equation are obtained by the frequency analysis of the time autocorrelation function. The advantage of the wave-packet propagation in the fictitious-time variable is that the computations are exact for the field-free hydrogen atom and approximations from the time-dependent variational principle only stem from the external fields. Examples are presented for the hydrogen atom in a magnetic field and in crossed electric and magnetic fields.
Mesh smoothing via mean and median filtering applied to face normals

This paper presents frameworks to extend the mean and median filtering schemes in image processing to smoothing noisy 3D shapes given by triangle meshes. The frameworks consist of the application of the mean and median filters to face normals on triangle meshes and the editing of mesh vertex positions to make them fit the modified normals. We also give a quantitative evaluation of the proposed mesh filtering schemes and compare them with conventional mesh smoothing methods such as Laplacian smoothing flow and mean curvature flow. The quantitative evaluation is performed in error metrics on mesh vertices and normals. Experimental results demonstrate that our mesh mean and median filtering methods are more stable than conventional Laplacian and mean curvature flows. We propose thee new mesh smoothing methods as one possible solution of the oversmoothing problem.
Cyclophosphamide-associated enteritis: A rare association with severe enteritis

Cyclophosphamide is a potent cytotoxic agent used in many clinical settings. The main risks of cyclophosphamide therapy include hematological disorders, infertility, hemorrhagic cystitis and malignancies. Gastrointestinal side effects reported to date are often non-specific and not severe. We present the first case of a fatal small bowel enteritis and pan-colitis which appears to be associated with cyclophosphamide. We aim to raise the readers’ awareness of this significant adverse event to facilitate clinical suspicion and early recognition in potential future cases.
Efficient Exception Handling in Java Bytecode-to-c Ahead-of-time Compiler for Embedded Systems

One of the most promising approaches to Java acceleration in embedded systems is a bytecode-to-C ahead-of-time compiler (AOTC). It improves the performance of a Java virtual machine (JVM) by translating bytecode into C code, which is then compiled into machine code via an existing C compiler. One important design issue in AOTC is efficient exception handling. Since the excepting point and the exception handler may locate in different methods on a call stack, control transfer between them should be streamlined, while an exception would be an " exceptional " event, so it should not slow down normal execution paths. Previous AOTCs often employed stack cutting based on a setjmp()/longjmp(), which we found is involved with too much overheads. This paper proposes a simpler solution based on an exception check after each method call, merged with garbage collection check for reducing its overhead. Our evaluation results on SPECjvm98 on Sun's CVM indicate that our technique can improve the performance of stack cutting by more than 25 %.
Error compensation for a 2 DOF bendable endoscope mechanism

This work deals with error compensation for a 2 DOF bendable endoscope mechanism that employs a spring as a backbone. Due to the nature of the spring's flexibility, there exists uncertainty in the kinematic model. Using a magnetic type external sensor, the output error of the bendable mechanism is measured and it is compensated by using an error compensation algorithm. Through experimentation, we showed that the error was compensated up to 95 percent.
Transformational leadership and job satisfaction: the moderating effect of contingent reward

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanisms that link transformational leadership to employee job satisfaction by examining the moderating effect of contingent reward on the relationships. ,The study employed explanatory and cross-sectional survey design. Data were obtained from 315 bank employees and analyzed using correlational and multiple regression techniques. ,The results revealed that there are positive relationships between the dimensions of transformational leadership and job satisfaction which are augmented by contingent reward. However, the relationships of idealized influence and intellectual simulation to job satisfaction are moderated by contingent reward, implying that, in the banking sector, the positive influence of these transformational leadership traits on employee job satisfaction can be enhanced by contingent reward. ,The paper makes an important contribution to the existing organizational literature by establishing the utility of contingent reward as a moderator on the relationship between transformational leadership and employee job satisfaction in a banking sector.
Neutral evolution of model proteins: diffusion in sequence space and overdispersion.

We stimulate the evolution of model protein sequences subject to mutations. A mutation is considered neutral if it conserves (1) the structure of the ground state, (2) its thermodynamic stability and (3) its kinetic accessibility. All other mutations are considered lethal and are rejected. We adopt a lattice model, amenable to a reliable solution of the protein folding problem. We prove the existence of extended neutral networks in sequence space-sequences can evolve until their similarity with the starting point is almost the same as for random sequences. Furthermore, we find that the rate of neutral mutations has a broad distribution in sequence space. Due to this fact, the substitution process is overdispersed (the ratio between variance and mean is larger than 1). This result is in contrast with the simplest model of neutral evolution, which assumes a Poisson process for substitutions, and in qualitative agreement with the biological data.
Targeting FGFR4 Inhibits Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Preclinical Mouse Models

The fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-FGF receptor (FGFR) signaling system plays critical roles in a variety of normal developmental and physiological processes. It is also well documented that dysregulation of FGF-FGFR signaling may have important roles in tumor development and progression. The FGFR4–FGF19 signaling axis has been implicated in the development of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) in mice, and potentially in humans. In this study, we demonstrate that FGFR4 is required for hepatocarcinogenesis; the progeny of FGF19 transgenic mice, which have previously been shown to develop HCCs, bred with FGFR4 knockout mice fail to develop liver tumors. To further test the importance of FGFR4 in HCC, we developed a blocking anti-FGFR4 monoclonal antibody (LD1). LD1 inhibited: 1) FGF1 and FGF19 binding to FGFR4, 2) FGFR4–mediated signaling, colony formation, and proliferation in vitro, and 3) tumor growth in a preclinical model of liver cancer in vivo. Finally, we show that FGFR4 expression is elevated in several types of cancer, including liver cancer, as compared to normal tissues. These findings suggest a modulatory role for FGFR4 in the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma and that FGFR4 may be an important and novel therapeutic target in treating this disease.
Effects of Zearalenone on IL-2, IL-6, and IFN-γ mRNA Levels in the Splenic Lymphocytes of Chickens

Zearalenone (ZEN) is an estrogenic mycotoxin produced by several Fusarium species, which can contaminate food and feed. These compounds elicit a wide spectrum of toxic effects, including the capacity to alter normal immune function. In this study, the in vitro effects of the treatment of ConA-stimulated splenic lymphocytes with ZEN (0–25 μg/mL) were examined. ZEN modulates the expression of IL-2, IL-6, and IFN-γ. The IL-2 levels were up to fourfold higher (P < 0.05) compared with the levels in the control at toxin concentrations of 25 μg/mL after 48 h of treatment. The IL-6 levels were critically suppressed at this concentration; these changes were very statistically significant (P < 0.05). At lower ZEN concentrations (0.1, 0.4 and 1.6 μg/mL), the IFN-γ levels changed slightly; however at 6.25 and 25 μg/mL, the IFN-γ results reached statistical significance compared with the control levels (P < 0.05). These data suggest that ZEN has potent effects on the expression of chicken splenic lymphocytes cytokines at the mRNA level.
Estimation of Bayes Factors in a Class of Hierarchical Random Effects Models Using a Geometrically Ergodic MCMC Algorithm

We consider a Ba yesian random effects model that is commonly used in meta-analysis, in which the random effects have a t distribution, with degrees of freedom parameter to be estimated. We develop a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for estimating the posterior distribution in this model, and establish geometric convergence of the algorithm. The geometric convergence rate has important theoretical and practical ramifications. Indeed, it implies that, under standard moment conditions, the ergodic averages used to estimate posterior quantities of interest satisfy central limit theorems. Moreover, it guarantees the consistency of a batch means estimate of the asymptotic variance in the CLT, which in turn allows for the construction of asymptotically valid standard errors. We show how our Markov chain can be used, in conjunction with an importance sampling method, to carry out an empirical Bayes approach for estimating the degrees of freedom parameter. To illustrate our methodology we consider a meta-analysis of studies that link intake of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to a reduction in colon cancer risk, in which some of the studies are outliers. To model the distribution of the study effects we consider the family of t distributions, as well as a family of mixtures of Dirichlet process priors centered at the t distributions, and show how our methodology can be used to make a choice of model. Supplemental materials are available online.
Scheme for Atherosclerotic Lesions Lessons From Sudden Coronary Death : A Comprehensive Morphological Classification

Scheme for Atherosclerotic Lesions Lessons From Sudden Coronary Death : A Comprehensive Morphological Classification Print ISSN: 1079-5642. Online ISSN: 1524-4636 Copyright © 2000 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231 is published by the American Heart Association, 7272 Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology doi: 10.1161/01.ATV. 20.5. 1262 2000;20:1262-1275 Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. http://atvb.ahajournals. org/content/20/5/1262 World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is located on the
The Aesthetics of Graph Visualization

The discipline of graph visualization produces pictorial representations of node–link structures. Much effort has been directed toward making such diagrams visually pleasing. A variety of aesthetic heuristics have been proposed, with the assumption that these will improve readability and understanding. We look at a perceptual basis for these heuristics, including Gestalt principles and Norman's emotional design framework. Next, we review the work to date on aesthetic heuristics and examine what has been done to evaluate these heuristics. We summarize this in a framework that outlines graph drawing heuristics, their perceptual basis, and evaluation status.
The Anti-hepatitis B Virus Activity of Boehmeria nivea Extract in HBV-viremia SCID Mice

Boehmeria nivea extract (BNE) is widely used in southern Taiwan as a folk medicine for hepato-protection and hepatitis treatment. In previous studies, we demonstrated that BNE could reduce the supernatant hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in HBV-producing HepG2 2.2. 15 cells. In the present study, we established an animal model of HBV viremia and used it to validate the efficacy of BNE in vivo. In this animal model, serum HBV DNA and HBsAg were elevated in accordance with tumor growth. To evaluate the anti-HBV activity of BNE, HBV-viremia mice were built up after one subcutaneous inoculation of HepG2 2.2. 15 tumor cells in severe combined immunodeficiency mice over 13 days. The levels of serum HBV DNA were elevated around 105–106 copies per milliliter. Both oral and intraperitoneal administration of BNE were effective at inhibiting the production of HBsAg and HBV DNA, whereas tumor growth was not affected by all test articles. Intraperitoneal administration of BNE appeared to have greater potential to inhibit serum HBV DNA levels compared with oral administration under the same dosage. Notably, reduced natural killer cell activity was also observed after high dosage of BNE administration, and this correlated with reduced serum HBV DNA. In conclusion, BNE exhibited potential anti-HBV activity in an animal model of HBV viremia.