Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
"An exploration into children's and adolescents' perceptions of community violence"

i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii DECLARATION iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background and Rationale 1-3 1.2 Aims 3-4 1.3 Chapter Outline 4 1.4 Conclusion 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2.
Interpretation of Recent Southern Hemisphere Climate Change

Climate variability in the high-latitude Southern Hemisphere (SH) is dominated by the SH annular mode, a large-scale pattern of variability characterized by fluctuations in the strength of the circumpolar vortex. We present evidence that recent trends in the SH tropospheric circulation can be interpreted as a bias toward the high-index polarity of this pattern, with stronger westerly flow encircling the polar cap. It is argued that the largest and most significant tropospheric trends can be traced to recent trends in the lower stratospheric polar vortex, which are due largely to photochemical ozone losses. During the summer-fall season, the trend toward stronger circumpolar flow has contributed substantially to the observed warming over the Antarctic Peninsula and Patagonia and to the cooling over eastern Antarctica and the Antarctic plateau.
Prediction of collisions between vehicles using attainable region

Traffic surveillance is an important facet of computer vision. In this paper, we propose a method for predicting collisions between vehicles from traffic monitoring movies. In our method, future behaviors of vehicles are transformed into spatial regions called Attainable Regions (ARs). Collisions are predicted by checking whether these two different ARs overlap each other. From experimental results, we show the feasibility of developing a collision-warning system by using ARs.
Tetrakis{1-[4-(1H-imidazol-1-yl-κN 3)phenyl]ethanone}bis(isothiocyanato-κN)nickel(II)

The title complex molecule, [Ni(NCS)2(C11H10N2O)4], has a crystallographically imposed centre of symmetry. The NiII atom is coordinated by the N atoms of two trans-arranged NCS− anions and four 1-[4-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)phenyl]ethanone ligands in a distorted octahedral geometry. In the crystal, C—H⋯S hydrogen bonds link the complex molecules into chains parallel to the b axis. The chains are further connected by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming layers parallel to the bc plane.
Complex scheduling strategy for dynamic environment in digitalization-production shop

The digitalization-production shop is a very complex and dynamic production environment. It a task-oriented production organization, so its production scale and machining ability should be dynamic too. This paper presents a two-hierarchical strategy to analyze the machine load balance and machinability so as to obtain a feasible schedule with minimum total tardiness and maximum machines utilizations. In the first hierarchy, using fuzzy judgment, the substitution of equipment or combination of equipment can be found, which has similar functions with the bottleneck equipment. The tasks in the bottleneck equipment can be dispatched to the substitutable equipment in order to achieve load balance. The second hierarchy is an optimization part. A new scheduling algorithm, which integrates genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization algorithm, is adapted to solve scheduling problem. It is more effective than genetic algorithm. The validity and feasibility of the strategy is verified by the final experiment.
Composition of the Earth's interior: the importance of early events

The detection of excess 142Nd caused by the decay of 103 Ma half-life 146Sm in all terrestrial rocks compared with chondrites shows that the chondrite analogue compositional model cannot be strictly correct, at least for the accessible portion of the Earth. Both the continental crust (CC) and the mantle source of mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) originate from the material characterized by superchondritic 142Nd/144Nd. Thus, the mass balance of CC plus mantle depleted by crust extraction (the MORB-source mantle) does not sum back to chondritic compositions, but instead to a composition with Sm/Nd ratio sufficiently high to explain the superchondritic 142Nd/144Nd. This requires that the mass of mantle depleted by CC extraction expand to 75–100 per cent of the mantle depending on the composition assumed for average CC. If the bulk silicate Earth has chondritic relative abundances of the refractory lithophile elements, then there must exist within the Earth's interior an incompatible-element-enriched reservoir that contains roughly 40 per cent of the Earth's 40Ar and heat-producing radioactive elements. The existence of this enriched reservoir is demonstrated by time-varying 142Nd/144Nd in Archaean crustal rocks. Calculations of the mass of the enriched reservoir along with seismically determined properties of the D″ layer at the base of the mantle allow the speculation that this enriched reservoir formed by the sinking of dense melts deep in a terrestrial magma ocean. The enriched reservoir may now be confined to the base of the mantle owing to a combination of compositionally induced high density and low viscosity, both of which allow only minimal entrainment into the overlying convecting mantle.
Multiple Features Based Low-Contrast Infrared Ship Image Segmentation Using Fuzzy Inference System

Infrared (IR) ship image segmentation is a challenging task due to defects of IR images, such as low-contrast, sea clutters, noises and etc. Aiming to solve this problem, we propose a multiple features based IR ship image segmentation method using fuzzy inference system (FIS). Because of complexness of the low-contrast IR image, the ship target cannot be segmented by only one kind of feature. Thus we extract multiple features from IR image to sufficiently represent the ship target. As the FIS can well handle the uncertainty of IR image and express expert knowledge with fuzzy rules, multiple features are input to FIS, then the ship target can be simply extracted from the output of FIS. In this paper, the proposed method is implemented as follows. Firstly, intensity is chosen as the first input of FIS, because it is fundamental feature of ship target in IR image. Secondly, the spatial feature is constructed through saliency detection, region growing and morphology processing, which is used to represent spatial constrain of ship target region. Thirdly, the multiple features are fuzzified with adaptive methods and prior knowledge. Fourthly, the fuzzified features are well combined through FIS, according to the fuzzy rules based on expert knowledge. Finally, the intact ship target segmentation can be simply extracted through the output of the FIS. Experimental results show that our method can effectively extracts the complete and precise ship targets from the low-contrast IR ship images. Moreover, our method performs better than other existed segmentation methods.
Identifying Markers of Dignity-Conserving Care in Long-Term Care: A Modified Delphi Study

Ensuring that people living in nursing homes (NHs) are afforded with dignity in their daily lives is an essential and humane concern. Promoting dignity-conserving care is fundamentally important. By nature, however, this care is all-encompassing and holistic, and from current knowledge it is challenging to create explicit strategies for measuring dignity-conserving care. In practice the majority of current NH indicators of quality care are derived from information that is routinely collected on NH residents using the RAI-Minimum Data Set (MDS). In this regard, issues that are more tangible to resident dignity such as being treated with respect, compassion, and having opportunities to engage with others are not adequately captured in current NH quality of care indicators. An initial set of markers was created by conducting an integrative literature review of existing markers and indicators of dignity in the NH setting. A modified Delphi process was used to prioritize essential dignity-conserving care markers for use by NH providers, based on factors such as the importance to fostering a culture of dignity, the impact it may have on the residents, and how achievable it is in practice. Through this consensus building technique, we were able to develop a comprehensive set of markers that capture the range and diversity of important dignity-conserving care strategies for use in NHs. The final 10 markers were judged as having high face validity by experts in the field and have explicit implications for enhancing the provision of daily dignified care to NH residents. These markers make an important addition to the traditional quality indicators used in the NH setting and as such, bridge an important gap in addressing the psychosocial and the less easily quantified needs of NH residents.
Zalypsis has in vitro activity in acute myeloid blasts and leukemic progenitor cells through the induction of a DNA damage response

Background Although the majority of patients with acute myeloid leukemia initially respond to conventional chemotherapy, relapse is still the leading cause of death, probably because of the presence of leukemic stem cells that are insensitive to current therapies. We investigated the antileukemic activity and mechanism of action of zalypsis, a novel alkaloid of marine origin. Design and Methods The activity of zalypsis was studied in four acute myeloid leukemia cell lines and in freshly isolated blasts taken from patients with acute myeloid leukemia before they started therapy. Zalypsis-induced apoptosis of both malignant and normal cells was measured using flow cytometry techniques. Gene expression profiling and western blot studies were performed to assess the mechanism of action of the alkaloid. Results Zalypsis showed a very potent antileukemic activity in all the cell lines tested and potentiated the effect of conventional antileukemic drugs such as cytarabine, fludarabine and daunorubicin. Interestingly, zalypsis showed remarkable ex vivo potency, including activity against the most immature blast cells (CD34+ CD38− Lin−) which include leukemic stem cells. Zalypsis-induced apoptosis was the result of an important deregulation of genes involved in the recognition of double-strand DNA breaks, such as Fanconi anemia genes and BRCA1, but also genes implicated in the repair of double-strand DNA breaks, such as RAD51 and RAD54. These gene findings were confirmed by an increase in several proteins involved in the pathway (pCHK1, pCHK2 and pH2AX). Conclusions The potent and selective antileukemic effect of zalypsis on DNA damage response mechanisms observed in acute myeloid leukemia cell lines and in patients’ samples provides the rationale for the investigation of this compound in clinical trials.
Heavy quark solitons in the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model.

The Nambu{endash}Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model is extended to incorporate heavy quark spin symmetry. In this model baryons containing one heavy quark are analyzed as bound states of light baryons, represented as chiral solitons, and mesons containing one heavy quark. From related studies in Skyrme-type models, the ground-state heavy baryon is known to arise for the heavy meson in a {ital P}-wave configuration. In the limit of an infinitely large quark mass the heavy meson wave function is sharply peaked at the center of the chiral soliton. Therefore, the bound state equation reduces to an eigenvalue problem for the coefficients of the operators contained in the most general {ital P}-wave ansatz for the heavy meson. Within the NJL model a novel feature arises from the coupling of the heavy meson to the various light quark states. In this respect conceptual differences to Skyrme-model calculations are discovered: The strongest bound state is given by a heavy meson configuration, which is completely decoupled from the grand spin zero channel of the light quarks. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society. }
High gain L twin probe fed patch antenna for dual-band WLAN2.4/5GHz &WIMAX applications

A dual band antenna design is proposed and studied in this paper. The actual dual band operation is achieved by using the in phase L twin in form of V shape. The simulation study reveal that antenna can cover the useful two WLAN bands namely IEEE standards 802.11a b/g(2.4-2.4835GHz and 5WLAN), WIMAX bands (2.5-2.8GHz, 3.2-3.8GHz), and satellite TV in C band (3.7-4.2GHz). With proper dimensions choice antenna has been succefully radiate in two bands low band 2.2-3GHz and high band 3.3-6.25GHz with maximum gain 5.6dBi and 10.3dBi respectively, parameters dimensions can also be adjusted to achieve an ultra-wide band operation (2.2-6.5GHz) details of the design process are described in the sections to follow CST MWS 2012 is used as simulator tool.
A novel neural network for nonlinear convex programming

In this paper, we present a neural network for solving the nonlinear convex programming problem in real time by means of the projection method. The main idea is to convert the convex programming problem into a variational inequality problem. Then a dynamical system and a convex energy function are constructed for resulting variational inequality problem. It is shown that the proposed neural network is stable in the sense of Lyapunov and can converge to an exact optimal solution of the original problem. Compared with the existing neural networks for solving the nonlinear convex programming problem, the proposed neural network has no Lipschitz condition, no adjustable parameter, and its structure is simple. The validity and transient behavior of the proposed neural network are demonstrated by some simulation results.
Serum Albumin Reserve for Bilirubin Binding During Pregnancy in Healthy Women

The concentrations of serum albumin and albumin reserve for bilirubin binding were studied in 24 healthy women during and after pregnancy, using monoacetyl-4,4'-diaminodiphenylsulphone as a deputy ligand for bilirubin. In the first trimester, the serum albumin concentration was already diminished. Likewise, the serum reserve albumin for bilirubin binding was reduced gradually during pregnancy. These reductions were evident as early as the 20th week of gestation, and at delivery the level averaged 53% of the nonpregnant level. The reduction in bilirubin binding capacity was partly dependent on the decreasing serum albumin concentration, but a reduction in the albumin molecule's binding capability was also shown. This binding defect, which is also present in neonates, is not fully explained. The reduction in bilirubin binding capability probably reflects a reduced degree of protein binding for many protein-bound drugs during pregnancy, which may contribute to pharmacokinetic alterations in pregnancy
On Reading Sketch Maps

A computer program, named MAPSEE, for interpreting maps sketched freehand on a graphical data tablet is described. The emphasis in the program is on discovering cues that invoke descriptive models which capture the requisite cartographic and geographic knowledge. A model interprets ambiguously the local environment of a cue. By resolving these interpretations using a new network consistency algorithm for n-ary relations , MAPSEE achieves an interpretation of the map. It is demonstrated that this approach can be made viable even though the map cannot initially be properly segmented. A thoroughly conservative, initial, partial segmentation is described. The effects of its necessary deficiencies on the interpretation process are shown. The ways in which the interpretation can refine the segmentation are indicated.
DLRule: A Rule Editor plug-in for Protege

OWL is a very expressive language, but some user obviously struggle to formulate what they want to say. Now, some of these users may find it easier to write down a SWRL rule instead of an OWL axiom. Hence, we present a rule editor plug-in for Protege that brings something different to rule and OWL integration. We part from the two usual approaches: (i) use it as is with say, Hoolet, knowing that it leads to undecidability. (ii) Or make it DL-safe, but then it restricts the semantic impact and, e.g., looses the nice “car owners are engine owners” inference. This plug-in implements a rewriting technique that rewrites certain forms of rules into DL axioms using OWL 1.1’s new features. These rules rewritten as OWL 1.1 axioms do not require DL-safety, thus allow the extra inferences, and do not cause any undecidability. In this paper, we outline the rewriting technique, present the plug-in and give some practical results.
Appraise: An Open-Source Toolkit for Manual Phrase-Based Evaluation of Translations

We describe a focused effort to investigate the performance of phrase-based, human evaluation of machine translation output achieving a high annotator agreement. We define phrase-based evaluation and describe the implementation of Appraise, a toolkit that supports the manual evaluation of machine translation results. Phrase ranking can be done using either a fine-grained six-way scoring scheme that allows to differentiate between ""much better"" and ""slightly better"", or a reduced subset of ranking choices. Afterwards we discuss kappa values for both scoring models from several experiments conducted with human annotators. Our results show that phrase-based evaluation can be used for fast evaluation obtaining significant agreement among annotators. The granularity of ranking choices should, however, not be too fine-grained as this seems to confuse annotators and thus reduces the overall agreement. The work reported in this paper confirms previous work in the field and illustrates that the usage of human evaluation in machine translation should be reconsidered. The Appraise toolkit is available as open-source and can be downloaded from the author's website.
Development of a motorized variable angle slant-hole collimator

We developed a motorized variable angle slant-hole collimator (VASH) for a breast-specific gamma imaging detector. The collimator system consists of a stack of 48 tungsten sheets, four wedge blocks, and two motorized actuators for moving the wedge blocks. User controlled shearing of the stack of tungsten sheets can provide multiple projection angles allowing the implementation of limited angle tomography also known as tomosynthesis. Each individual sheet has an edge profile with a different angled cut on each side. Face matching wedge blocks, driven by two servo motors provide accurate positioning of each sheet resulting in the desired collimation angle. A prototype plastic model was built using a 3D printer to verify the design of the drive mechanism. The final product was built using 48 tungsten sheets with 0.255 mm thickness. The range of collimation angle is 29 degrees for each direction.
Surveillance for rotavirus in Argentina

Group A rotaviruses are the major cause of severe gastroenteritis in young children worldwide. Because rotavirus vaccination appeared imminent, a nationwide surveillance program was organized between October 1996 and October 1998 in the largest Argentine cities. Surveillance for disease burden, rotavirus detection, and rotavirus typing was undertaken at nine locations. Results showed rotavirus to be associated with 42% of diarrhea admissions. Although the prevalent G types changed from year to year, common G types were found in 96% of the cases and were usually associated with common P types. Uncommon G types, G9 and G5, were found at low prevalence and uncommon G/P combinations occurred at almost every study site. These data suggest that a rotavirus vaccine could substantially decrease the rotavirus disease burden in Argentina, but that introduction of a vaccine should be accompanied by a concurrent surveillance system. J. Med. Virol. 65:190–198, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Homeostatic Regulation of Serotonergic Function by the Serotonin Transporter As Revealed by Nonviral Gene Transfer

With the aim of exploring the relationship between the serotonin transporter (5-HTT or SERT) and the activity level of serotonin (5-HT) neurotransmission, in vivo expression of this protein was specifically altered using a nonviral DNA transfer method. Plasmids containing the entire coding sequence or a partial antisense sequence of the 5-HTT gene were complexed with the cationic polymer polyethylenimine and injected into the dorsal raphe nucleus of adult male rats. Significant increase or decrease in both [3H]citalopram binding and [3H]5-HT synaptosomal uptake were observed in various brain areas up to 2 weeks after a single administration of the sense plasmid or 7 d after injection of the short antisense plasmid, respectively. Such changes in 5-HTT expression were associated with functional alterations in 5-HT neurotransmission, as shown by the increased capacity of 5-HT1A receptor stimulation to enhance [35S]GTP-γ-S binding onto the dorsal raphe nucleus in sections from rats injected with the sense plasmid. Conversely, both a decrease in 5-HT1A-mediated [35S]GTP-γ-S binding and a reduced potency of the 5-HT1A receptor agonist ipsapirone to inhibit neuronal firing were observed in the dorsal raphe nucleus of antisense plasmid-injected rats. Furthermore, changes in brain 5-HT and/or 5-HIAA levels, and sleep wakefulness circadian rhythm in the latter animals demonstrated that altered expression of 5-HTT by recombinant plasmids has important functional consequences on central 5-HT neurotransmission in adult rats.
MSCAN: identification of functional clusters of transcription factor binding sites

Identification of functional transcription factor binding sites in genomic sequences is notoriously difficult. The critical problem is the low specificity of predictions, which directly reflects the low target specificity of DNA binding proteins. To overcome the noise produced in predictions of individual binding sites, a new generation of algorithms achieves better predictive specificity by focusing on locally dense clusters of binding sites. MSCAN is a leading method for binding site cluster detection that determines the significance of observed sites while correcting for local compositional bias of sequences. The algorithm is highly flexible, applying any set of input binding models to the analysis of a user-specified sequence. From the user's perspective, a key feature of the system is that no reference data sets of regulatory sequences from co-regulated genes are required to train the algorithm. The output from MSCAN consists of an ordered list of sequence segments that contain potential regulatory modules. We have chosen the features in MSCAN such that sequence and matrix retrieval is highly facilitated, resulting in a web server that is intuitive to use. MSCAN is available at http://mscan.cgb. ki.se/cgi-bin/MSCAN.
A survey on stereo vision matching algorithms

Stereo matching is an important research topic in the field of stereo vision. According to the stereo matching information, stereo matching algorithms can be divided into local, global, and semi-global algorithms. This paper summarizes the advantages and shortcomings of these matching algorithms. An experimental platform is set up for health care, and some matching algorithms are tested. Experimental results demonstrate that the dimensionality reduction and minimum spanning tree algorithm outperform guided filter and binary method in terms of both accuracy and speed.