Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maintaining Equilibrium: Socialization and Gendered Identities of Iranian Male Nurses

The aim of this study was to explore the process of Iranian male nurses’ professional socialization and how they negotiate a gendered identity. A purposive sample of 22 male nurses was recruited from six public hospitals affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. Study data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews. Data collection was continued until reaching data saturation. Totally, 25 interviews were conducted. Data analysis was carried out using Corbin and Strauss’s techniques for qualitative data analysis. The core category of the study, that is, the socialization process of male nurses who participated in the study, was “maintaining equilibrium. ” Our participants’ strategies for socialization included informing, conforming, and self-establishing. The study findings can be used for developing effective strategies for male staff recruitment and retention.
Schematic Querying of Large Tracking Databases

Abstract In dealing with long-term tracking databases withwide-area coverage, an important problem is in formulating anintuitive and fast query system for analysis. In such a querysystem, a user who is not a computer vision research should beable to readily specify a novel query to the system and obtainthe desired results. Furthermore, these queries should be able tonot only search out individual actors ( e.g. nd all white cars)but also nd interactions amongst multiple actors ( e.g. nd alldrag racing activities in the city). Informally, we have foundthat people often use sketches when describing activities andinteractions. In this paper, we demonstrate a preliminary systemthat automatically interprets schematic drawings of activities.The system transforms the schematics into executable code thatsearches a tracking database. Through our query optimization,these queries tend to take orders of magnitude less time to executethan equivalent queries running on a partially-optimized SQLdatabase.
TOWARDS MULTIMODAL OMNIDIRECTIONAL OBSTACLE DETECTION FOR AUTONOMOUS UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

Abstract. Limiting factors for increasing autonomy and complexity of truly autonomous systems (without external sensing and control) are onboard sensing and onboard processing power. In this paper, we propose a hardware setup and processing pipeline that allows a fully autonomous UAV to perceive obstacles in (almost) all directions in its surroundings. Different sensor modalities are applied in order take into account the different characteristics of obstacles that can commonly be found in typical UAV applications. We provide a complete overview on the implemented system and present experimental results as a proof of concept.
Impact Evaluation of Imperfect Channel State Information on the Performance of Downlink CoMP Systems

Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) systems promise very high performance in terms of spectral efficiency and coverage benefits when perfect Channel State Information (C SI) is available at the transmitter. However, perfect CSI is difficult to obtain in CoMP systems due to an increased number of channel parameters to estimate at the receiver and to be fed back to the transmitter. So, the performance of such systems is compromised when the CSI is not perfectly known during CoMP processing such that it is an important problem to be address ed. This paper provides system-level analyses for strategies o f Radio Resource Allocation (RRA) in CoMP systems, which consider dynamic Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) grouping and joint precoding and power allocation for Signal to Interferenceplus-Noise Ratio (SINR) balancing, and assumes imperfect C SI in order to achieve more accuracy with regard to the realworld implementations. Our results show a critical degradation on performance of the CoMP systems due to imperfect CSI. Keywords— CoMP, SDMA grouping, SINR balancing, imperfect CSI.
LIN6: A new approach to mobility support in IPv

This paper describes a new network architecture called LINA (Location Independent Network Architecture) that supports node mobility. It also describes a new protocol called LIN6 that is based on LINA. LIN6 is fully compatible with IPv6 and free from the problems of Mobile IPv6. Our prototype implementation of LIN6 has a much lower processing overhead in comparison with conventional IPv6.
Enriching personal growth and communicative competence through self-organised interaction between native and non-native speakers

While studying abroad is one of the suitable opportunities for foreign language (L2) learners to develop their proficiency in the target language, the mere experience of living in a foreign environment does not necessarily help students to become proficient L2 speakers. It has been argued that interaction with other people can enhance study abroad students' personal growth and their proficiency with language skills and communicative competence. The present case study reports on attempts by a self-organised group of international postgraduate students (IPSs) at an Australian university to improve their communicative competence through informal interaction with native speakers. The IPSs formed a weekly peer circle with native speakers to discuss language difficulties and cultural issues they experienced in using the target language (i.e. English). Over time the peer circle grew to include social occasions. For this study, members of the peer circle participated in an interview exploring impacts of the peer circle on their grammatical, sociocultural, and strategic competence. Results from this small-scale study indicated that the participants had positive attitudes toward attending these self-organised circles. They found the program effective in helping them develop their personal skills and promoting their communicative competence at different levels.
A proposal of voxel data interpolation method by using gradient direction of range data

In this paper, we propose a voxel data interpolation method. High-resolution voxel data is required to represent the detailed shape of object's visual hulls. Therefore, we are studying an interpolation method against the low-resolution voxel data. This method defines three or more reference planes in the voxel space, and then the voxel data is cnverted to the range data between the each plane and the surface of the object's visual hull. These range data are interpolated by the interpolation method based on the gradient direction. Finaly, the result of the interpolated visual hull is created by integrating these range data. Our proposed method using the visual hull created by the volume intersection is described in this paper.
Investigation of Self-Compassion, Shame, and Self-Blame in Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

INVESTIGATION OF SELF-COMPASSION, SHAME, AND SELF-BLAME IN SURVIVORS OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE Sandra R. Erb Advisor: University of Guelph, 2016 Paula Barata, PhD This thesis investigated the relationship between self-compassion, shame, and self-blame in survivors of intimate partner violence and explored whether levels of selfcompassion varied by violence type. Fifty-one female participants, 19 to 64 years of age (Mage = 30.60), who identified serious romantic relationship conflict within the last five years were recruited from women's shelters and related organizations, Kijiji online advertisements, a University campus, an online women's forum, and social media sites. Participants completed an online survey that asked women about the relationship violence and about their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Results indicated that women experiencing high levels of shame and self-blame possessed lower levels of self-compassion. Results also revealed that women exposed to intimate terrorism had significantly more difficulty experiencing self-compassion than those encountering situational couple violence. The results of this study suggest the importance of selfcompassion to address the shame and self-blame that often plague survivors of IPV.
Octa-Arginine Mediated Delivery of Wild-Type Lnk Protein Inhibits TPO-Induced M-MOK Megakaryoblastic Leukemic Cell Growth by Promoting Apoptosis

Background Lnk plays a non-redundant role by negatively regulating cytokine signaling of TPO, SCF or EPO. Retroviral expression of Lnk has been shown to suppress hematopoietic leukemic cell proliferation indicating its therapeutic value in cancer therapy. However, retroviral gene delivery carries risks of insertional mutagenesis. To circumvent this undesired consequence, we fused a cell permeable peptide octa-arginine to Lnk and evaluated the efficacy of inhibition of leukemic cell proliferation in vitro. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, proliferation assays, flow cytometry, Western Blot analyses were performed on wild-type (WT), mutant Lnk R8 or BSA treated M-MOK cells. We found that delivered WT, but not mutant Lnk R8 blocked TPO-induced M-MOK megakaryoblastic leukemic cell proliferation. In contrast, WT Lnk R8 showed no growth inhibitive effect on non-hematopoietic HELA or COS-7 cell. Moreover, we demonstrated that TPO-induced M-MOK cell growth inhibition by WT Lnk R8 was dose-dependent. Penetrated WT Lnk R8 induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Immunoprecipitation and Western blots data indicated WT Lnk R8 interacted with endogeneous Jak2 and downregulated Jak-Stat and MAPK phosphorylation level in M-MOK cells after TPO stimulation. Treatment with specific inhibitors (TG101348 and PD98059) indicated Jak-Stat and MAPK pathways were crucial for TPO-induced proliferation of M-MOK cells. Further analyses using TF-1 and HEL leukemic cell-lines showed that WT Lnk R8 inhibited Jak2-dependent cell proliferation. Using cord blood-derived CD34+ stem cells, we found that delivered WT Lnk R8 blocked TPO-induced megakaryopoiesis in vitro. Conclusions/Significance Intracellular delivery of WT Lnk R8 fusion protein efficiently inhibited TPO-induced M-MOK leukemic cell growth by promoting apoptosis. WT Lnk R8 protein delivery may provide a safer and more practical approach to inhibit leukemic cell growth worthy of further development.
Intelligent sensing of biomedical signals - Lung tumor motion prediction for accurate radiotherapy

This paper presents a medical application of the intelligent sensing, a new lung tumor motion prediction method for tumor following radiation therapy. An essential core of the method is accurate estimation of complex fluctuation of time-variant periodical nature of lung tumor motion. Such estimation can be achieved by using a novel multiple time-variant seasonal autoregressive integral moving average (TVSARIMA) model in which several windows of different lengths are used to calculate correlation based time-variant periods of the motion. The proposed method provides the resulting prediction as a combination of those based on different window lengths. We have compared unweighted average, multiple regression, and multilayer perceptron (MLP) for the combinations with some conventional predictions by using real data of lung tumor motion. The proposed methods with the multiple regression and MLP based combinations showed high accurate prediction and are superior to the single TVSARIMA based prediction. The best prediction performance was achieved by using the MLP based combination. The average errors were 0.7953 ± 0.0243 mm at 0.5 s ahead and 0.8581±0.0510 mm at 1.0 s ahead predictions, respectively. The results of the proposed method are clinically sufficient and superior to the conventional methods. Thus the proposed TVSARIMA with an appropriate combination method is useful for improving the prediction performance.
Blogging slum tourism: a critical discourse analysis of travel blogs.

Modern slum tourism, rooted in the social justice movements of South Africa and Brazil in the early 1990s, has become an increasingly popular practice among tourists looking for experiences off the beaten path. Unsurprisingly, a form of tourism that allows wealthy travelers to experience the "reality" of how poor people live has elicited criticism and controversy. Slum tourism has been lauded as an innovative economic opportunity for poor urban neighborhoods and has been condemned for promoting poverty voyeurism. The first author undertook a critical discourse analysis in the winter of 2013–2014, analyzing slum tourism discourse in travel blogs. Eighteen travel blogs and 36 blogs postings were analyzed using a Foucauldian critical discourse perspective. The study found that travel bloggers use a number of structures of authority and structures of responsibility to convince their readers of the value of this touristic practice and the integrity of the travelers who would choose to participate in slum tourism
Characterization of the electrode-skin impedance of textile electrodes

Wearable systems are expected to contribute for improving traditional biopotential signals monitoring devices due to higher freedom and unobtrusiveness provided to the wearer. Textile electrodes present advantages compared with the conventional Ag/AgCl electrodes for the capturing of biopotentials, namely in terms of skin irritation due to the hydrogel and the need of a technician to place the electrodes on the correct positions. Due to the lack of hydrogel, textile electrodes present different electrical contact characteristics. The skin-electrode impedance is an important feature since it affects the captured signal quality. Although a low impedance is desired, a comfortable wearable system should not require the electrodes to be covered by the hydrogel or be moistened. A forearm sleeve provided with textile electrodes was used to study the electrode-skin impedance and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of surface electromyographic (EMG) signals on a long-term use basis. The sleeve can be adjusted for different levels of tightening to control the pressure applied on the electrodes. The obtained results provide valuable information on the pressure that the textile garments of a sleeve or vest should apply on the recording electrodes, in order to assure a good electrical and mechanical contact between the electrodes and the skin and decrease the noise due to motion. It was observed that the electrode-skin impedance measurement alone is not sufficient to establish a relation with the SNR. The extraction of parameters from an electrical equivalent model of the electrode-skin interface allows to determine a relation with the model parameters and the SNR. The evaluation of these parameters during long-term monitoring will allow assessing the quality of biopotential measurements in textile electrodes.
Optofluidic device for ultrasensitive detection of proteins using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

An optofluidic device is reported in this paper that can highly improve the robustness of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection and provide fingerprint information of proteins with a concentration in the nanogram per liter range within minutes. Moreover, the conformational change of protein can also be obtained using this device. Fabricated by standard photolithography processes, the optofluidic device has a step microfluidic– nanofluidic structure, which provides robust SERS detection. The sensitivity of the device is investigated using insulin and albumin as target analytes at a concentration of 0.9 ng/L. The ability to detect conformational changes of proteins using this technology is also shown by probing these analytes before and after their denaturation.
An optimal learning method for developing personalized treatment regimes

A treatment regime is a function that maps individual patient information to a recommended treatment, hence explicitly incorporating the heterogeneity in need for treatment across individuals. Patient responses are dichotomous and can be predicted through an unknown relationship that depends on the patient information and the selected treatment. The goal is to find the treatments that lead to the best patient responses on average. Each experiment is expensive, forcing us to learn the most from each experiment. We adopt a Bayesian approach both to incorporate possible prior information and to update our treatment regime continuously as information accrues, with the potential to allow smaller yet more informative trials and for patients to receive better treatment. By formulating the problem as contextual bandits, we introduce a knowledge gradient policy to guide the treatment assignment by maximizing the expected value of information, for which an approximation method is used to overcome computational challenges. We provide a detailed study on how to make sequential medical decisions under uncertainty to reduce health care costs on a real world knee replacement dataset. We use clustering and LASSO to deal with the intrinsic sparsity in health datasets. We show experimentally that even though the problem is sparse, through careful selection of physicians (versus picking them at random), we can significantly improve the success rates.
Multilayer feedforward potential function network

The authors present a multilayer feedforward network, called the Gaussian potential function network (GPFN), performing association or classification based on a set of potentially fields synthesized over the domain of input space by a number of Gaussian potential function units (GPFUs). A GPFU as a basic component of the GPFN is designed to generate a Gaussian form of a potential field. A weighted summation of Gaussian potential fields generated by a suitable number of GPFUs provides an arbitrary shape of a potential field over the domain of input space. The authors also present a detailed learning algorithm for the GPFN. Learning consists of the determination of the minimally necessary number of GPFUs and the adjustment of the locations and shapes of the individual Gaussian potential fields defined by GPFUs as well as the summation weights. The learning of the minimally necessary number of GPFUs is based on the control of the effective radius of GPFUs, while the parameter learning is based on the gradient descent procedure. <<ETX>>
A comparison of the stucture of elite and mass political attitudes: The dimensionality of American political thinking, 1980-2004

A COMPARISON OF THE STRUCTURE OF ELITE AND MASS POLITICAL ATTITUDES: THE DIMENSIONALITY OF AMERICAN POLITICAL THINKING, 1980-2004 By Robert Nash Lupton This dissertation examines the structure of Americans’ political attitudes among political elites and the mass public. I demonstrate the presence, nature, determinants and dimensionality of political thinking in the United States, or the underlying structure (or lack thereof) that connects constellations of individuals’ political issue attitudes. In doing so, I describe and explain the cognitive map that citizens bring to bear to the political world. This project begins by analyzing the attitudes of political elites, represented by survey responses of delegates to the Democratic and Republican party national conventions from 19802004. Although studies show that ideology influences elites’ political attitudes, no empirical study has demonstrated that these attitudes share a single structure outside of the context of congressional roll call voting, where agenda setting and party influences potentially conflate behavior with attitudes. I provide evidence that a single underlying dimension, the traditional liberal-conservative continuum, structures elites’ issue attitudes. Elites’ reliance on “liberal” and “conservative” abstractions to conceptualize the political world produces interrelationships among disparate political issues, reducing attitudes to a single ideological dimension. Next, I analyze surveys of the mass public over the same time period in order to compare the attitude structure of ordinary citizens to the benchmark of ideological thinking exhibited by elites. Despite elites’ pervasive influence on mass attitudes and behavior, only a small percentage of citizens are shown to structure their attitudes similarly to that of the delegates. The consequence of this finding is that intense elite polarization, and, consequently, increasingly
Evaluation of Euclidean and Manhanttan metrics in Content Based Image Retrieval system

Content-Based Image Retrieval is used nowadays for generating signatures of images in databases and then comparing these stored signatures with the signature of the query image. In this paper color histogram is used as signature of an image and used to compare two images based on Manhattan distance (L1 norm) and Euclidean distance (L2 norm) distance metrics.In this paper, Corel database is used to evaluate the performance of Manhattan and Euclidean distance metrics. The experimental results showed that Manhattan showed better precision rate than Euclidean distance metric. The evaluation is made using Content based image retrieval application developed using color moments of the Hue, Saturation and Value(HSV) of the image and Gabor descriptors are adopted as texture features.
Do Optimists Grow Faster and Invest More?

The paper discusses a two-period model of an economy with two industries, positive production externalities and random shocks to production functions. Multiple equilibria that arise in such a framework can be ranked according to agent's optimism. The equilibria with higher levels of optimism are characterized by higher economic growth, higher production growth and higher proportion of investments in externality yielding industries. Using the U.S. data, it is shown that changes in sentiment predict economic growth. Sentiment has significant positive impact on industry growth, aggregate economic growth and relative levels of investment in industries. Externality yielding industries also appear to be more affected by shifts in sentiment than non-externality yielding industries.
A Security Analysis of Emerging Web Standards - HTML5 and Friends, from Specification to Implementation

Over the past few years, a significant effort went into the development of a new generation of web standards, centered around the HTML5 specification. Given the importance of the web in our society, it is essential that these new standards are scrutinized for potential security problems. This paper reports on a systematic analysis of ten important, recent specifications with respect to two generic security goals: (1) new web mechanisms should not break the security of existing web applications, and (2) different newly proposed mechanisms should interact with each other gracefully. In total, we found 45 issues, of which 12 are violations of the security goals and 31 issues concern under-specified features. Additionally, we found that 6 out of 11 explicit security considerations have been overlooked/overruled in major browsers, leaving secure specifications vulnerable in the end. All details can be found in an extended version of this paper (De Ryck et al., 2012).
The sequence asymptotic average shadowing property and transitivity

Let X be a compact metric space and f be a continuous map from X into itself. In this paper, we introduce the concept of the sequence asymptotic average shadowing property, which is a generalization of the asymptotic average shadowing property. In the sequel, we prove some properties of the sequence asymptotic average shadowing property and investigate the relationship between the sequence asymptotic average shadowing property and transitivity. c ©2016 All rights reserved.
The Magellanic Clouds and the Primordial Helium Abundance (Invited Paper)

A new determination of the pregalactic helium abundance based on the Magellanic Clouds H II regions is discussed. This determination amounts to Yp = 0.2345 +- 0.0030 and is compared with those derived from giant extragalactic H II regions in systems with extremely low heavy elements content. It is suggested that the higher primordial value derived by other authors from giant H II region complexes could be due to two systematic effects: the presence of neutral hydrogen inside the helium Stromgren sphere and the presence of temperature variations inside the observed volume.