Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thinking about Judges and Judicial Performance: Perspective of the Public and Court Users

English Abstract: Studies of the courts, conducted primarily in the United States, suggest that the way legal professionals think about judging underpins nearly all official evaluations of judicial performance. The general public has a different view than lawyers of judging that merits consideration along with the type of criteria emphasized by the legal community. Research demonstrates that the public places the greatest importance on the extent to which a judge reaches decisions through a process that meets the public's expectations of fairness. Surveys of California residents and California attorneys are used to demonstrate the importance of procedural justice for explaining whether people have trust in the courts and regard court decisions as legitimate. The article describes and critiques existing judicial performance evaluation programs that incorporate procedural justice principles as a dimension for measuring judicial quality through both survey and observational methods.Spanish Abstract: Los estudios sobre tribunales llevados a cabo principalmente en Estados Unidos, sugieren que la opinion sobre el hecho de juzgar de los profesionales del derecho estan detras de casi todas las evaluaciones del rendimiento judicial oficiales. El publico general tiene una vision del hecho de juzgar diferente a la de los abogados, que debe tenerse en cuenta junto con los criterios destacados por la comunidad juridica. La investigacion demuestra que el publico da mayor importancia a que un juez tome una decision a traves de un proceso que cumpla con sus expectativas de justicia. Se emplean encuestas a residentes de California y abogados de California para demostrar la importancia de la justicia procesal, a la hora de explicar si la gente tiene confianza en los tribunales y perciben las decisiones judiciales como legitimas. El articulo describe y critica los programas de evaluacion del rendimiento judicial que incorporan principios de justicia procesal como una dimension para medir la calidad judicial, tanto a traves de encuestas como de metodos de observacion.
Distributed Constraint Optimization for Large Teams of Mobile Sensing Agents

A team of mobile sensors can be used for coverage of targets in different environments. The dynamic nature of such an application requires the team of agents to adjust their locations with respect to changes which occur. The dynamic nature is caused by environment changes, changes in the agents’ tasks and by technology failures. A new model for representing problems of mobile sensor teams based on Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (DCOP), is proposed. The proposed model, needs to handle a dynamic problem in which the alternative assignments for agents and set of neighbors, derive from their physical location which is dynamic. DCOP MST enables representation of variant dynamic elements which a team of mobile sensing agents face. A reputation model is used to determine the credibility of agents. By representing the dynamic sensing coverage requirements in the same scale as the agents’ credibility, the deployment of sensors in the area can be evaluated and adjusted with correspondence to dynamic changes. In order to solve a DCOP MST, a local (incomplete) search algorithm (MGM MST) based on the MGM algorithm is proposed and combined with various exploration methods. While existing exploration methods are evidently not effective in DCOP MSTs, new exploration methods which are designed for these special applications are found to be successful in our experimental study.
Single-Pass Rendering of Day and Night Sky Phenomena

This paper presents astronomical based rendering of skies as seen from low altitudes on earth, in respect to location, date, and time. The technique allows to compose an atmosphere with sun, multiple cloud layers, moon, bright stars, and Milky Way, into a holistic sky with unprecedented high level of detail and diversity. GPU generated, viewpoint-aligned billboards are used to render stars with approximated color, brightness, and scintillations. A similar approach is used to synthesize the moon considering lunar phase, earthshine, shading, and lunar eclipses. Atmosphere and clouds are rendered using existing methods adapted to our needs. Rendering is done in a single pass supporting interactive day-night cycles with low performance impact, and allows for easy integration in existing rendering systems.
The Response of the Root Apex in Plant Adaptation to Iron Heterogeneity in Soil

Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient for plant growth and development, and is frequently limiting. By contrast, over-accumulation of Fe in plant tissues leads to toxicity. In soils, the distribution of Fe is highly heterogeneous. To cope with this heterogeneity, plant roots engage an array of adaptive responses to adjust their morphology and physiology. In this article, we review root morphological and physiological changes in response to low- and high-Fe conditions and highlight differences between these responses. We especially focus on the role of the root apex in dealing with the stresses resulting from Fe shortage and excess.
Kinship: The Relationship Between Johnstone's Ideas about Philosophical Argument and the Pragma-Dialectical Theory Of Argumentation

As he himself declared in Validity and Rhetoric in Philosophical Argument (1978, 1), the late philosopher Henry W. Johnstone Jr. devoted a long period of his professional life to clarifying the nature of philosophical argument. His well-known view was that philosophical arguments are sui generis, i.e., not to be judged by the standards of argumentation in science or everyday discourse. Philosophical arguments are not ad rem, but are based on premises that are ex pressed or implied commitments of a party in dialogue. This is why philosophical argumentation is, according to Johnstone, always ad hominem. In philosophical argumentation, every ad rem argument begs the question. Usually, ad hominem argumentation is dismissed as invalid. Johnstone, however, maintains that making use of argumentum ad hominem is the only way to establish a philosophical conclusion. In an argumentum ad hominem, inferences are drawn from propositions stated or implied by the other party and critical questions are raised about the conclusions that were drawn, so that it can be used to refute a philosophical position by showing that this position is inconsistent. As Walton (2001) rightly observes, this type of ad hominem argumentation boils down to arguing from commitments of the other party, i.e., ex concessis. The use of ad hominem argumentation as the criticism of a position in terms of its own presuppositions is, in Johnstone's view, the only valid argument in philosophy, if any philosophical argument is indeed valid. All philosophical polemic is in this perspective in fact addressed ad hominem. This applies not only to philosophical argumentation that concerns self-referential refutation but also to other ad hominem types of philosophical argumentation, including the tu quoque argument (1978, 11-12). According to Johnstone, there is no objective criterion for determining the validity of ad hominem argumentation. Validity must, says Johnstone in the
A Unified Method of Detecting Core-Periphery Structure and Community Structure in Networks

The core-periphery structure and the community structure are two typical meso-scale structures in complex networks. Although community detection has been extensively investigated from different perspectives, the definition and the detection of the core-periphery structure have not received much attention. Furthermore, the detection problems of the core-periphery and community structure were separately investigated. In this paper, we develop a unified framework to simultaneously detect the core-periphery structure and community structure in complex networks. Moreover, there are several extra advantages of our algorithm: our method can detect not only single but also multiple pairs of core-periphery structures; the overlapping nodes belonging to different communities can be identified; different scales of core-periphery structures can be detected by adjusting the size of the core. The good performance of the method has been validated on synthetic and real complex networks. So, we provide a basic framework to detect the two typical meso-scale structures: the core-periphery structure and the community structure.
Collective Traumas and the Development of Leader Values: A Currently Omitted, but Increasingly Urgent, Research Area

The number of worldwide traumatic events is significant, yet the literature pays little attention to their implications for leader development. This article calls for a consideration of how collective trauma such as genocide and the Holocaust can shape the values of leaders, who are second- and third-generation descendants. Drawing on research on the transgenerational transmission of collective trauma and leader values, we show how collective trauma resides in (1) cultural rituals and artifacts, (2) community events and commemorations, and (3) family narratives is transmitted to leader descendants through at least three channels: social learning, social identity, and psychodynamics. We also offer propositions that recommend ways in which the transmission of these repositories can shape certain leader values that guide leader behaviors. Our conceptual review suggests that the transmission of collective trauma on leader development and leader values remains under-researched, offering prospects for new research and learning on the origins and seeds of leader development.
Blind separation of noisy Gaussian stationary sources. Application to cosmic microwave background imaging

We present a new source separation method which maximizes the likelihood of a model of noisy mixtures of stationary, possibly Gaussian, independent components. The method has been devised to address an astronomical imaging problem. It works in the spectral domain where, thanks to two simple approximations, the likelihood assumes a simple form which is easy to handle (low dimensional sufficient statistics) and to maximize (via the EM algorithm).
A comparison of the ultrasonographic median nerve cross-sectional area at the wrist and the wrist-to-forearm ratio in carpal tunnel syndrome

Background: Electrophysiologic (EDX) study is the most valuable method in grading the severity of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), but it is invasive and painful. We evaluated the efficacy of ultrasound for this purpose. Materials and Methods: Eighty-one wrists of 52 consecutive patients with clinical evidences of CTS, confirmed and graded by EDX as mild, moderate, and severe, were examined by ultrasonography. Cross-sectional area (CSA) of the median nerve was measured at the distal wrist (CSA-D), and proximal forearm (CSA-P), and wrist-to-forearm ratio (WFR) was calculated for each hand. Results: The mean CSA-D was 0.12 cm2 ± 0.03, 0.15 cm2 ± 0.03 and 0.19 cm2 ± 0.06 and the mean WFR was 2.77 ± 1.14, 3.07 ± 1.07 and 4.07 ± 1.61 in mild, moderate and severe groups respectively. WFR showed significant differences between the severe and none severe CTS groups (P < 0.001), but there was no significant difference between mild and moderate CTS groups (P < 0.381). CSA-D showed a significant difference between all groups (P < 0.0001). In the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis, the optimal cut-off value of the CSA-D and WFR for detecting severe CTS were 0.15 (area under the curve 0.784, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.662-0.898, P < 0.001, sensitivity of 68.2% and specificity of 70.9%) and 3 (area under the curve 0.714, 95% CI: 0.585-0.84, P = 0.001, sensitivity of 68.2% and specificity of 64.8%) respectively. All values were superior in CSA-D. Conclusion: Ultrasonography, can be complementary but not conclusive to the classification of CTS severities. CSA-D and WFR both increased in proportion to CTS severity, but neither parameter exhibited excellent performance in grading the severities.
QoE in 5G cloud networks using multimedia services

The 4G standard Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) has been deployed in many countries. Now, technology is evolving towards the 5G standard since it is expecting to start its service in 2020. The 5G cellular networks will mainly contain in cloud computing and primarily Quality of Service (QoS) parameters (e.g. delay, loss rate, etc.) influence the cloud network performance. The impact of user perceived Quality of Experience (QoE) using multimedia services, and application significantly relies on the QoS parameters. The key challenge of 5G technology is to reduce the delay less than one millisecond. In this paper, we have described a method that minimizes the overall network delay for multimedia services; which are constant bit rate (VoIP) and variable bit rate (video) traffic model. We also proposed a method that measures the user's QoE for video streaming traffic using the network QoS parameters, i.e. delay and packet loss rate. The performance of proposed QoE method is compared with QoV method, and our proposed QoE method performs best by carefully handle the impact of QoS parameters. The results show that our described method successfully reduces the overall network delays, which result to maximize the user's QoE.
Designing with learners for game-based collaborative learning: an account of T-rex group

This presentation discusses our design approach to incorporating learner voices in developing a game for learning Earth system science, Voyage to the Age of Dinosaurs (VAD). We will particularly focus on the account of a group (T-rex) of 4 participants as to what kind of meanings they are attributing to the artifacts they are creating during the workshops and how these meanings from learners' voices are contributing to our design.
Usefulness of amino terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide in evaluating children with cardiac failure.

BACKGROUND The plasma levels of amino terminal pro-B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) have been found to be useful in evaluating children with heart failure in developed countries where the cause is mainly structural heart lesions. There is paucity of similar studies from developing countries where the causes are mostly of infectious origin. This article is aim to evaluate the relationship between plasma NT-proBNP levels and the severity, outcome and duration of admission of children with heart failure. METHODS The subjects were children presenting to the children's emergency room (CHER) diagnosed with heart failure based on the modified Ross criteria. The controls were age matched well children recruited from follow up clinics. Information on bio-data and socio-demographics was collected while blood was obtained for plasma NT-proBNP measurement. Data analysis was done with SPSS. RESULTS One hundred and twenty six subjects and same number of controls aged 2 months to 13 years were recruited. The mean plasma NT-proBNP in the subjects was 1,137.10±1,243.78 ng/L and in controls, 578.00±665.08 ng/L (t=5.669, P<0.001). Subjects with severe heart failure had a statistically significantly higher mean plasma NT-proBNP than those with mild or moderate categories (P<0.001). A plasma NT-proBNP of 903.15 ng/L had a 73.3% sensitivity and 72.1% specificity for identifying severe heart failure using receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis (95% CI, 0.659-0.912, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Children with heart failure had significantly higher mean NT-proBNP value than controls and the value was highest in those with severe form of heart failure compared to those with moderate or mild categories. Plasma NT-proBNP should be determined for children presenting with clinically diagnosed heart failure to identify those with severe heart failure and institute prompt treatment.
An Effective Fuzzy Feature Selection and Prediction Method for Modeling Tidal Current: A Case of Persian Gulf

This paper develops a new two-stage approach for accurate modeling and prediction of tidal current. The proposed method makes use of a novel fuzzy feature selection to extract the most preferable features from the tidal current speed and direction data set. The selected features are further used to train a support vector regression for accurate prediction. The setting parameters of the proposed model are trained by a new optimization algorithm based on the harmony search algorithm to get to the most optimal training targets. The proposed optimization algorithm makes use of the crossover and mutation operators from genetic algorithm to escape from the local optima and find the global solutions. Experimental tidal data from Persian Gulf, Iran, are used to assess the accuracy and performance of the proposed model. The results show the appropriate performance and high precision of the proposed model in comparison with other famous methods.
β2-Adrenergic Stimulation Attenuates Left Ventricular Remodeling, Decreases Apoptosis, and Improves Calcium Homeostasis in a Rodent Model of Ischemic Cardiomyopathy

The benefit of the β2-adrenergic agonist, clenbuterol, in left ventricular assist device patients with dilated cardiomyopathy has been reported, but its effect on ischemic heart failure (HF) is unknown. We investigated whether clenbuterol improves left ventricular remodeling, myocardial apoptosis and has synergy with a β1 antagonist, metoprolol, in a model of ischemic HF. Rats were randomized to: 1) HF only; 2) HF + clenbuterol; 3) HF + metoprolol; 4) HF + clenbuterol + metoprolol; and 5) rats with sham surgery. HF was induced by left anterior descending artery (LAD) artery ligation and confirmed by decreased left ventricular fractional shortening, decreased maximum left ventricular dP/dt (dP/dtmax), and elevated left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) compared with sham rats (p < 0.01). After 9 weeks of oral therapy, echocardiographic, hemodynamic, and ex vivo end-diastolic pressure-volume relationship (EDPVR) measurements were obtained. Immunohistochemistry was performed for myocardial apoptosis and DNA damage markers. Levels of calcium-handling proteins were assessed by Western blot analysis. Clenbuterol-treated HF rats had increased weight gain and heart weights versus HF rats (p < 0.05). EDPVR curves revealed a leftward shift in clenbuterol rats versus metoprolol and HF rats (p < 0.05). The metoprolol-treated group had a lower LVEDP and higher dP/dtmax versus the HF group (p < 0.05). Clenbuterol and metoprolol groups had decreased myocardial apoptosis and DNA damage markers and increased DNA repair markers versus HF rats (all p < 0.01). Protein levels of the ryanodine receptor and sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium-ATPase were improved in clenbuterol-, metoprolol-, and clenbuterol+metoprolol-treated groups versus HF rats. However, as a combination therapy, there were no synergistic effects of clenbuterol+metoprolol treatment. We conclude that clenbuterol ameliorates EDPVR, apoptosis, and calcium homeostasis but does not have synergy with metoprolol in our model of ischemic HF.
Learning STEM through Integrative Visual Representations.

Learning STEM Through Integrative Visual Representations Satyugjit Singh Virk Previous cognitive models of memory have not comprehensively taken into account the internal cognitive load of chunking isolated information and have emphasized the external cognitive load of visual presentation only. Under the Virk Long Term Working Memory Multimedia Model of cognitive load, drawing from the Cowan model, students presented with integrated animations of the key neural signal transmission subcomponents where the interrelationships between subcomponents are visually and verbally explicit, were hypothesized to perform significantly better on free response and diagram labeling questions, than students presented with isolated animations of these subcomponents. This is because the internal attentional cognitive load of chunking these concepts is greatly reduced and hence the overall cognitive load is less for the integrated visuals group than the isolated group, despite the higher external load for the integrated group of having the interrelationships between subcomponents presented explicitly. Experiment 1 demonstrated that integrating the subcomponents of the neuron significantly enhanced comprehension of the interconnections between cellular subcomponents and approached significance for enhancing comprehension of the layered molecular correlates of the cellular structures and their interconnections. Experiment 2 corrected time on task confounds from Experiment 1 and focused on the cellular subcomponents of the neuron only. Results from the free response essay subcomponent subscores did demonstrate significant differences in favor of the integrated group as well as some evidence from the diagram labeling section. Results from free response, short answer and What-If (problem solving), and diagram labeling detailed interrelationship subscores demonstrated the integrated group did indeed learn the extra material they were presented with. This data demonstrating the integrated group learned the extra material they were presented with provides some initial support for the assertion that chunking mediated the greater gains in learning for the neural subcomponent concepts over the control.
Comparison of Genetic Alterations Detected in Circulating Microsatellite DNA in Blood Plasma Samples of Patients with Prostate Cancer and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Abstract: Prostate cancer is the most frequent malignant disease and the second most frequent cause of death due to cancer in men in the Western world. Since serum prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) and its subforms show poor specificity in clinical practice, a molecular marker for the detection and discrimination of prostate cancer (PCa) could be of great interest. To investigate the potential significance of genetic aberrations, such as loss of heterozygosity (LOH), in PCa we identified and characterized allelic losses in circulating tumor‐associated DNA in blood from patients with localized PCa. Genomic DNA extracted from cell‐free plasma of blood samples drawn from 65 PCa patients was analyzed using a panel of 15 polymorphic microsatellite markers mapping to known tumor‐suppressor genes. Comparative analyses were performed with a control group of 36 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In the current study, we demonstrate that PCa patients had higher DNA concentrations in their blood circulation than BPH patients. In the marker panel studied, LOH was more frequently detected in PCa patients (34%) than in BPH patients (22%). The incidence of LOH in the plasma DNA of PCa patients was highest at chromosomal regions 3p24 (THRB, 22%) and 8p21 (D8S360, 22%) in comparison to the BPH control cohort, which frequently showed LOH at loci 8q21, 8p21, 9p21, and 11q22 (D8S286, D8S360, D9S1748, and D11S898, each 6%). These results indicate that microsatellite analysis using plasma DNA may be an interesting tool for molecular screening of PCa patients.