Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GENDER SALIENCE AND SOCIAL IDENTITY: THE IMPACT OF SEX OF SIBLINGS ON EDUCATIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATIONS

Summary. It is proposed that an understanding of sex differences in educational and occupational aspirations of adolescents would benefit from a perspective which stresses gender identification. The social identification approach (Turner, 1982) hypothesises that these differences are a function of the degree of gender identification, which in turn is a function of the salience of sex. According to McGuire and McGuire's (1981) distinctiveness postulate, gender becomes more salient as the number of opposite sex siblings increases. In order to explore these gender salience effects 81 male and female sixth form pupils completed a questionnaire concerning their self-perceptions, examination performance, occupational choice, and comparisons with members of each sex. Large sex differences were obtained, showing that educational and occupational ambitions were inhibited among females. Correlational analyses revealed that number of opposite sex siblings was more closely related to responses than were number of same sex, or total number of, siblings. In particular, females' choice of science O-levels decreased as number of brothers increased. The results are taken to suggest that sex of sibling effects have an intergroup dimension which should be the focus of further research.
Iterative Superimposed Pilot-Assisted Channel Estimation Using Sliding Wiener Filtering for Single-Carrier Block Transmission

In the conventional iterative superimposed pilot-assisted channel estimation (SI-PACE), simple averaging of the instantaneous channel estimates obtained by using the pilot over several single-carrier (SC) blocks (called the frame in this paper) is taken in order to reduce the interference from data symbols. Therefore, the conventional SI-PACE has low tracking ability against fading time variations. To solve the tracking problem, Wiener filtering (WF)-based averaging can be used instead of simple averaging. However, WF incurs high computational complexity. Furthermore, the estimation error of the fading autocorrelation function significantly degrades the channel estimation accuracy. In order to improve the channel estimation accuracy while keeping the computational complexity low, a new iterative SI-PACE using sliding WF (called iterative SWFSI-PACE) is proposed. The channel estimation is done by sliding a WF having a shorter filter size than the measurement interval. The bit error rate (BER) and throughput performances of SC-FDE using iterative SWFSI-PACE are investigated by computer simulation to show that the proposed scheme achieves good BER and throughput performances while keeping the computational complexity low irrespective of the fading rate (or maximum Doppler frequency).
Review of harmonic losses in HVDC converter transformer: Its causes and mitigation techniques

Due to the disturbances created in the various layers of the Earth's atmosphere, the geomagnetic field interacts with the electric field of Earth. This induces voltages in the pipes, telecommunication circuits, transmission lines, etc. leading to the creation of geomagnetically induced currents (GIC). The GIC when flows through the neutrals of transformer, it results into the saturation of transformer core, generation of harmonics and various other adverse effects. DC bias is an important consequence of the invasion of GIC into the converter transformer neutrals. This paper describes about the effects of GIC on the converter transformer and also the measures to inhibit GIC is revealed. Further various methods to reduce harmonics due to GIC are studied.
Study of low-frequency bifurcation phenomena of a parallel-connected boost converter system via simple averaged models

This brief attempts to study the low-frequency bifurcation phenomena of a system of parallel-connected dc/dc boost converters. Analysis of the averaged state equations shows that the system loses stability via a Hopf bifurcation. The loci of eigenvalues and the local trajectories are studied. Computer simulations and experiments are performed to capture the effects of variation of some chosen parameters on the qualitative behavior of the system. In particular, it is shown that simple averaged models can be used to predict the occurrence of Hopf bifurcation in such systems.
Adversarial Allies: Care, Harm, and Resistance in the Helping Professions

Professional encounters bestow moral esteem upon professional helpers while denigrating those who access services. Yet society is arranged in such a way that professional services are indispensable for many to survive, and service users can experience them as simultaneously helpful and oppressive. We explore the ambivalent figure of the professional “adversarial ally” working within these systems through accounts from two research studies that straddle or resist the common-sense line that separates care from harm. Professionals need to acknowledge how we are experienced as adversaries in order to better forge relationships of solidarity or “alliance” with those using social and medical services.
Changing the focus of attention: The interacting effect of valence and arousal

We examined how valence and arousal of an image influence visual attention. “Spotlight of attention” theory suggests that positive affect broadens, and negative affect narrows, one's aperture of attention, whereas the arousal theory literature suggests that arousal level is what modulates attentional focus, with highly arousing affect capturing attention, regardless of valence. In two experiments, a digit parity task was used to index the influence of valence, and arousal, on visual attention. Positive or negative images were displayed centrally on each trial, with single digits presented more peripherally (Experiment 1) or more centrally (Experiment 2) to the image. In both Experiments participants were slower, and less accurate at making parity decisions (e.g., both digits odd or both even) when the image was negative relative to positive, and of high arousal. For low arousal images, positive, relative to negative, valence images led to greater impairment of the digit parity task. Findings suggest that arousal level of images modulates the influence of valence on distribution of visual attention. Highly negative emotional images may command or capture attention, but there are other factors that can lead to attention capture, even in low arousing positive stimuli.
Noninvasive Subject-Specific Monitoring of Autonomic-Cardiac Regulation

This paper presents a feasibility study of a model-based approach to noninvasive and subject-specific monitoring of autonomic-cardiac regulation. The proposed approach is built upon individualizing a physiologically-based model by applying a parameter estimation method to routine clinical observations, thereby assuring physical transparency, computational efficiency, and clinical adaptability. To develop an efficient parameter estimation procedure, a parametric sensitivity analysis was performed on the autonomic-cardiac regulation model to identify high-sensitivity model parameters whose changes exert significant impacts on the system outputs. Then, a parameter estimation problem formulated as a nonlinear optimization was solved to estimate high-sensitivity model parameters associated with autonomic-cardiac regulation, whereas the remaining parameters were fixed at their nominal values. The proposed approach can potentially monitor temporal changes in autonomic-cardiac regulation by identifying time-varying changes in the autonomic-cardiac model parameters, including sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve activities on the heart (modulating heart rate), and sympathetic nerve activity on the arterial tree (modulating total peripheral resistance). The proof-of-concept for the proposed approach was tested using a number of experimental data from the MIMIC database and the orthostatic hypotension tests. Our finding shows that the proposed approach is able to provide low-variance estimates of the autonomic-cardiac model parameters, which are consistent with their anticipated behaviors inferred from the physiologic knowledge. An extensive comparison study must be conducted in the future to establish the clinical validity of the proposed approach.
Chronic Oxidative Stress Increases Resistance to Doxorubicin-Induced Cytotoxicity in Renal Carcinoma Cells Potentially Through Epigenetic Mechanism

Renal cell carcinoma is the most common form of kidney cancer and is highly resistant to chemotherapy. Although the role of oxidative stress in kidney cancer is known, the chemotherapeutic response of cancer cells adapted to chronic oxidative stress is not clear. Hence, the effect of oxidative stress on sensitivity to doxorubicin-induced cytotoxicity was evaluated using an in vitro model of human kidney cancer cells adapted to chronic oxidative stress. Results of MTT- and anchorage-independent growth assays and cell cycle analysis revealed significant decrease in sensitivity to doxorubicin in Caki-1 cells adapted to oxidative stress. Changes in the expression of genes involved in drug transport, cell survival, and DNA repair–dependent apoptosis further confirmed increased resistance to doxorubicin-induced cytotoxicity in these cells. Decreased expression of mismatch repair (MMR) gene MSH2 in cells exposed to oxidative stress suggests that loss of MMR-dependent apoptosis could be a potential mechanism for increased resistance to doxorubicin-induced cytotoxicity. Additionally, downregulation of HDAC1, an increase in the level of histone H3 acetylation, and hypermethylation of MSH2 promoter were also observed in Caki-1 cells adapted to chronic oxidative stress. DNA-demethylating agent 5-Aza-2dC significantly restored the expression of MSH2 and doxorubicin-induced cytotoxicity in Caki-1 cells adapted to chronic oxidative stress, suggesting the role of DNA hypermethylation in inactivation of MSH2 expression and consequently MMR-dependent apoptosis in these cells. In summary, this study for the first time provides direct evidence for the role of oxidative stress in chemotherapeutic resistance in renal carcinoma cells potentially through epigenetic mechanism.
Oracle-based Regression Test Selection

Regression test selection (RTS) techniques attempt to reduce regression testing costs by selecting a subset of a software system's test cases for use in testing changes made to that system. In practice, RTS techniques may select inordinately large sets of test cases, particularly when applied to industrial systems such as those developed at ABB, where code changes may have far-reaching impact. In this paper, we present a new RTS technique that addresses this problem by focusing on specific classes of faults that can be detected by internal oracles - oracles (rules) that enforce constraints on system states during system execution. Our technique uses program chopping to identify code changes that are relevant to internal oracles, and selects test cases that cover these changes. We present the results of an empirical study that show that our technique is more effective and efficient than other RTS techniques, relative to the classes of faults targeted by the internal oracles.
Bayesian learning in multi-layer perceptron neural network using Monte Carlo: mlp-mc-1

A Bayesian implementation of learning in neural networks using Monte Carlo sampling has been developed by Neal (1996). This computation intensive method has shown encouraging performance in (Neal 1996) and in a study using several datasets in (Rasmussen 1996). For a full description of the method the reader is referred to (Neal 1996). Here a brief description of the algorithm will be given, along with the heuristics employed. A feed forward multi-layer perceptron neural network with a single hidden layer of hyperbolic tangent units is used; the network is fully connected, including direct connections from the input to the output layer. The output units are linear. All units have biases. A network with a single output, I inputs and H hidden units implements the function
An Architecture for Smart Semantic Recommender Applications

With the growing availability of semantic datasets, the processing of such datasets becomes the focus of interest. In this paper, we introduce a new architecture that supports the aggregation of different types of semantic data and provides components for deriving recommendations and predicting relevant relationships between dataset entities. The developed system supports different types of data sources (e.g. databases, semantic networks) and enables the efficient processing of large semantic datasets with several different semantic relationship types. We discuss the presented architecture and describe an implemented application for the entertainment domain. Our evaluation shows that the architecture provides a powerful and flexible basis for building personalized semantic recommender systems.
Redirecting Efforts to Achieve Patient Satisfaction in the Chronic Pain Clinic

half-life of IV heparin varies with dose; it increases from approximately 30 minutes with an IV bolus of 25 U/kg, 60 minutes with 100 U/kg, to 150 minutes with a bolus of 400 U/kg. We considered 5 half-lives of the drug, which corresponds to 97% elimination of the drug, as the safe interval between administration of the anticoagulant and neuraxial injection. This corresponds to a 2.5 hour interval for the 25-U/kg dose, 5 hours for the 100-U/kg dose, and 12.5 hours for the 400-U/kg dose. After subcutaneous injection, the plasma recovery of heparin is less at low doses (eg, 5000 U twice a day) and moderate at high doses of 12,500 U every 12 hours. It can be assumed that the half-lives of IV and subcutaneous heparin are basically the same, or slightly longer with subcutaneous administration because of slightly delayed absorption. Most subcutaneous doses are 5000 or 10,000 U (approximately 71 and 143 U/kg in a 70-kg person, respectively). This results in approximate half-life of 60 minutes for both doses and translating to at least 5 hours based on 5 half-lives. (This may be the reason why the upcoming ASRA regional anesthesia guidelines recommended an interval of 4 to 6 hours. Note that our pain guidelines were submitted to our journal before the upcoming regional guidelines were posted in the ASRA Web site.) Although 6 hours would have been acceptable, we recommended an 8to 10-hour interval for extra safety. This was because most of our patients have spinal stenosis, a known risk factor in the occurrence of neurological complications after neuraxial anesthesia. Pain procedures are usually elective, as the patient's pain can be controlled with other measures includingmedicationswhilewaiting for our intervention.
Spatial representation and assessment of family relationships

Abstract In recent years, several attempts have been made to assess patterns of cohesion and power in order to analyze family functioning (e.g., Olson, 1986; Wood, 1985). In most studies, researchers use self-report methods or observation of family interactions. These methods often base the measurement of family structure on a total family score and therefore do not explicitly consider different system levels (dyads, etc.). This review presents Symbolic Figure Placement Techniques (SFPTs) and discusses their relevance for the investigation of family cohesion and power.
Trans men and friendships: A Foucauldian discourse analysis

While research focusing on friendships of sexual minority individuals has increased over the last two decades, studies of transgender persons’ friendships have been largely absent. Yet, within mainstream literature it has been demonstrated that friendships are central both to identity formation and as support in terms of psychological need and distress. Given that trans people face important identity challenges and may well be disenfranchised within society, the role of friendships warrants study. Research which has occurred has largely focussed on trans women, yet trans men face particular issues in terms of their relationships with lesbian women and being positioned as joining patriarchy. This study explored this gap in the literature and used Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore friendship and gender identity. Dominant discourses identified included ‘friends as family’, ‘romance’ and discursive practices of ‘disowning male privilege’, ‘effeminate heterosexual male’ and ‘gender fluidity’ which counter hegemonic (trans) male re-positioning within friendships. The results indicate that trans men elevate the status of friends to those of other culturally dominant relationships (e.g. family or sexual partner). Furthermore, their friendships, in particular friendships with lesbian women, can become complex platforms from which to contest privilege and power associated with their (trans) masculinities. Conceptual and research implications are discussed.
Assessing Offender Needs and Performance for Planning and Monitoring Criminal Justice Drug Treatment

With the rise of coerced treatment in both correctional and community settings, increased awareness and focus is being placed on motivation for change and treatment readiness as dynamic factors relevant to individual treatment planning. In addition, within correctional-treatment populations, the need for targeting criminal thinking and attitudes as primary treatment issues also has been well-established. The importance of these two issues to the effectiveness of treatment programming highlights the need for instruments that can reliably assess offender risk and needs, guide the treatment planning process, and monitor progress over time. This article provides an overview of how selected scales from the Texas Christian University Criminal Justice Client Evaluation of Self and Treatment and Criminal Thinking Scales instruments are being used to inform treatment planning and service delivery in a large, intensive therapeutic community program for substance-abusing offenders in Virginia.
Fermi/GAMMA-RAY BURST MONITOR OBSERVATIONS OF SGR J0501+4516 BURSTS

We present our temporal and spectral analyses of 29 bursts from SGR J0501+4516, detected with the gamma-ray burst monitor on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope during 13 days of the source's activation in 2008 (August 22– September 3). We find that the T90 durations of the bursts can be fit with a log-normal distribution with a mean value of ∼123 ms. We also estimate for the first time event durations of soft gamma repeater (SGR) bursts in photon space (i.e., using their deconvolved spectra) and find that these are very similar to the T90 values estimated in count space (following a log-normal distribution with a mean value of ∼124 ms). We fit the time-integrated spectra for each burst and the time-resolved spectra of the five brightest bursts with several models. We find that a single power law with an exponential cutoff model fits all 29 bursts well, while 18 of the events can also be fit with two blackbody functions. We expand on the physical interpretation of these two models and we compare their parameters and discuss their evolution. We show that the time-integrated and time-resolved spectra reveal that Epeak decreases with energy flux (and fluence) to a minimum of ∼30 keV at F = 8.7 × 10−6 erg cm−2 s−1, increasing steadily afterward. Two more sources exhibit a similar trend: SGRs J1550–5418 and 1806–20. The isotropic luminosity, Liso, corresponding to these flux values is roughly similar for all sources (0.4–1.5 × 1040 erg s−1).
The Value of Automated Follicle Volume Measurements in IVF/ICSI

Background/Aims: The objective of this literature study is to investigate the place of recent software technology sonography-based automated volume count (SonoAVC) for the automatic measurement of follicular volumes in IVF/ICSI. Its advantages and disadvantages and potential future developments are evaluated. Methods: A total of 74 articles were read via a PubMed literature study. The literature study included 53 articles, 32 of which for the systematic review. Results: The SonoAVC software shows excellent accuracy. Comparing the technology with the “golden standard” two-dimensional (2D) manual follicle measurements, SonoAVC leads to a significantly lower intra- and inter-observer variability. However, there is no significant difference in clinical outcome (pregnancy rate). We noted a significant advantage in the time gained, both for doctor and patient. By storing the images, the technology offers the possibility of including a quality control and continuous training and further standardization of follicular monitoring can be expected. Ovarian reserve testing by measuring the antral follicle count with SonoAVC is highly reliable. Conclusion: This overview of previously published literature shows how SonoAVC offers advantages for clinical practice, without losing any accuracy or reliability. Doctors should be motivated to the general use of follicular volumes instead of follicular diameters.
A Primary Side Control Method for Wireless Energy Transmission System

This paper presents a primary side control method for a low power wireless energy transmission system (WETS), with no physical wire connection required between the primary and secondary-side circuits. The primary side control method implemented in the WETS does not require extra space in the secondary side to regulate transmission energy. A charging protection was embedded within the secondary side to monitor the charging current and battery voltage, and to protect the battery against over-charging current or voltage. LLC resonant converter and class-E amplifier structures with zero-voltage switching were utilized to minimize transmission loss due to leakage inductance. In our experiments, the secondary side battery was fed a stable charging current in constant-current mode and low current in constant-voltage mode where the battery voltage reached approximately 4.1 V. The results show that the WETS achieved primary side control in all air-gap conditions. The overall efficiency of the WETS with LLC resonant converter was between 33.5% and 54.1%, and that of the class-E amplifier was between 30% and 66.2% when operating in the constant-current mode.
K- and L-theory of group rings

This article will explore the K- and L-theory of group rings and their applications to algebra, geometry and topology. The Farrell-Jones Conjecture characterizes K- and L-theory groups. It has many implications, including the Borel and Novikov Conjectures for topological rigidity. Its current status, and many of its consequences are surveyed.
Do we need sustainability as a new approach in human factors and ergonomics?

The International Ergonomics Association Technical Committee ‘Human Factors and Sustainable Development’ was established to contribute to a broad discourse about opportunities and risks resulting from current societal ‘mega-trends’ and their impacts on the interactions among humans and other elements of a system, e.g. in work systems. This paper focuses on the underlying key issues: how do the sustainability paradigm and human factors/ergonomics interplay and interact, and is sustainability necessary as a new approach for our discipline? Based on a discussion of the sustainability concept, some general principles for designing new and enhancing existent approaches of human factors and ergonomics regarding their orientation towards sustainability are proposed. Practitioner summary: The increasing profile of sustainability on the international stage presents new opportunities for human factors/ergonomics. Positioning of the sustainability paradigm within human factors/ergonomics is discussed. Approaches to incorporating sustainability in the design of work systems are considered.