Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cannabis, Alcohol and Cigarettes: Substitutes or Complements?

This paper uses individual level data from the National Drug Strategy Household Surveys to estimate the price responsiveness of participation in cannabis, alcohol and cigarette use. In addition to own price effects, we estimate cross price effects and the impact of decriminalizing cannabis use. We find that participation is responsive to own prices. There is some evidence that cannabis is a substitute for alcohol and a complement to cigarettes, and that alcohol and cigarettes are complements. The liberalization of cannabis laws in South Australia may have led to a temporary increase in cannabis use among the over-30 age group. Copyright 2001 by The Economic Society of Australia.
Decentralized Stabilization for a Class of Continuous-Time Nonlinear Interconnected Systems Using Online Learning Optimal Control Approach

In this paper, using a neural-network-based online learning optimal control approach, a novel decentralized control strategy is developed to stabilize a class of continuous-time nonlinear interconnected large-scale systems. First, optimal controllers of the isolated subsystems are designed with cost functions reflecting the bounds of interconnections. Then, it is proven that the decentralized control strategy of the overall system can be established by adding appropriate feedback gains to the optimal control policies of the isolated subsystems. Next, an online policy iteration algorithm is presented to solve the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations related to the optimal control problem. Through constructing a set of critic neural networks, the cost functions can be obtained approximately, followed by the control policies. Furthermore, the dynamics of the estimation errors of the critic networks are verified to be uniformly and ultimately bounded. Finally, a simulation example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the present decentralized control scheme.
Developing Online Bookstore to Facilitate Manual Process – UTP Case Study

Knowledge sharing enables the information or knowledge to be transmitted from one source to anot her. This paper demonstrates the needs of having the online book ca talogue which can be used to facilitate disseminating information on textbook used in the university. This project is aimed to give ac cess to the students and lecturers to the list of books in the bookstore and at the same time to allow book reviewing without having to visi t the bookstore physically. Research is carried out according to th e boundaries which accounts to current process of new book purchasing, current system used by the bookstore and current process the lectu rers go through for reviewing textbooks. The questionnaire is used to gather the requirements and it is distributed to 100 students and 40 lecturers. This project has enabled the improvement of a manua l process to be carried out automatically, through a web based plat form. It is shown based on the user acceptance survey carried out tha t arget groups found that this web service is feasible to be imple ented in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), and they have shown positive signs of interest in utilizing it in the f uture. Keywords—bookstore, knowledge sharing, online book catalogue, textbook
Preconscious Prediction of a Driver's Decision Using Intracranial Recordings

While driving, we make numerous conscious decisions such as route and turn direction selection. Although drivers are held responsible, the neural processes that govern such decisions are not clear. We recorded intracranial EEG signals from six patients engaged in a computer-based driving simulator. Patients decided which way to turn (left/right) and subsequently reported the time of the decision. We show that power modulations of gamma band oscillations (30–100 Hz) preceding the reported time of decision (up to 5.5 sec) allow prediction of decision content with high accuracy (up to 82.4%) on a trial-by-trial basis, irrespective of subsequent motor output. Moreover, these modulations exhibited a spatiotemporal gradient, differentiating left/right decisions earliest in premotor cortices and later in more anterior and lateral regions. Our results suggest a preconscious role for the premotor cortices in early stages of decision-making, which permits foreseeing and perhaps modifying the content of real-life human choices before they are consciously made.
Conflict Initiating Factors and Management Styles in Family and Nonfamily Intergenerational Relationships: Young Adults’ Retrospective Written Accounts

Using a content analytic approach, this study examined young adults’ retrospective written accounts about their perceived communication with family and nonfamily elders in conflict situations to uncover conflict initiating factors and management styles. Results revealed that old-to-young criticism (especially in nonfamily contexts) and competition were the most frequently reported conflict initiating factor and management style in intergenerational relationships. Also, results indicated that family elders’ use of the competing and avoiding styles were reciprocated by young adults.
Automated Paraphrase Lattice Creation for HyTER Machine Translation Evaluation

We propose a variant of a well-known machine translation (MT) evaluation metric, HyTER (Dreyer and Marcu, 2012), which exploits reference translations enriched with meaning equivalent expressions. The original HyTER metric relied on hand-crafted paraphrase networks which restricted its applicability to new data. We test, for the first time, HyTER with automatically built paraphrase lattices. We show that although the metric obtains good results on small and carefully curated data with both manually and automatically selected substitutes, it achieves medium performance on much larger and noisier datasets, demonstrating the limits of the metric for tuning and evaluation of current MT systems.
Methods of the Pharmacological Imaging of the Cannabinoid System (PhICS) study: towards understanding the role of the brain endocannabinoid system in human cognition

Various lines of (pre)clinical research indicate that cannabinoid agents carry the potential for therapeutic application to reduce symptoms in several psychiatric disorders. However, direct testing of the involvement of cannabinoid brain systems in psychiatric syndromes is essential for further development. In the Pharmacological Imaging of the Cannabinoid System (PhICS) study, the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in cognitive brain function is assessed by comparing acute effects of the cannabinoid agonist Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on brain function between healthy controls and groups of psychiatric patients showing cognitive dysfunction. This article describes the objectives and methods of the PhICS study and presents preliminary results of the administration procedure on subjective and neurophysiological parameters. Core elements in the methodology of PhICS are the administration method (THC is administered by inhalation using a vaporizing device) and a comprehensive use of pharmacological magnetic resonance imaging (phMRI) combining several types of MRI scans including functional MRI (fMRI), Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) to measure brain perfusion, and resting‐state fMRI. Additional methods like neuropsychological testing further specify the exact role of the endocannabinoid system in regulating cognition. Preliminary results presented in this paper indicate robust behavioral and subjective effects of THC. In addition, fMRI paradigms demonstrate activation of expected networks of brain regions in the cognitive domains of interest. The presented administration and assessment protocol provides a basis for further research on the involvement of the endocannabionoid systems in behavior and in psychopathology, which in turn may lead to development of therapeutic opportunities of cannabinoid ligands. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effect of sublethal doses of Abamectin and fenpropathrin on functional response of Cryptolaemus Montrouzieri (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) predator of Planococcus citri (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae)

The sublethal affects of abamectin and fenpropathrin on the functional response of predatory coccinellid, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri Mulsant a potential biological control agent, were investigated on 4th-instar nymphs of Planococcus citri Risso as prey. The experiment was conducted in varying densities (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128) of P. citri at 28 ± 1 °C, 60%±10% relative humidity (RH) and a photoperiod of 16:8 h (L: D). The results of logistic regressions showed a type II functional response in the control and all insecticide concentrations. Comparison of functional response curves revealed that tested insecticides markedly decreased the mean of preys consumed by C. montrouzieri. The search rates found for predators decreased when exposed to increasing sublethal concentrations from LC10 to LC30 of both insecticides. The handling times of females exposed to insecticides were in all cases lower than in the control treatment. The maximum handling time observed in LC10 of fenpropathrin and the minimum attack rate observed in LC30 of abamectin. The maximum theoretical predation was increased when exposed to increasing sublethal concentrations from LC10 to LC30 of Abamectin but the highest theoretical maximum predation observed in LC20 of fenpropathrin. The studies suggested that the adverse effect of these insecticides on C. montrouzieri must be considered in integrated pest management programs (IPM).
Application of Silver Degeneration Stains for Neurotoxicity Testing

Silver staining procedures have been used in numerous ways to render a variety of physical and biological features visible. In biological tissue, histologic protocols use silver to visualize diverse structures or features, such as reticulin, melanin, fungi, chromosome bands, nucleolar organizing regions, and different features in the nervous system. A comparison of the specific steps in these protocols indicates that the silver is "directed" to stain any given feature by the type of fixation, the pretreatment ("mordanting"), the composition of the silver-containing solution(s), and the form of development (reduction). Since the mechanisms of staining have not been understood historically (nor are they now), each method was developed by trial and error. Keystone methods such as those of Bodian and Bielschowsky exploit the nervous system's affinity for silver (argyrophilia). The beginning of a new era in brain research came with the recognition that distinct silver-impregnated morphologic changes occurring in damaged axons could be used for tracing axon pathways in experimental animals with specifically placed lesions. Improvements in staining methods used to selectively impregnate the disintegrating axons but to leave normal axons unstained were achieved by Nauta and Gygax (early workers with these procedures) and spawned a host of method variations known as the "Nauta" methods. Of these, the Fink-Heimer and de Olmos cupric-silver methods were able to unambiguously demonstrate disintegrating synaptic terminals, thereby allowing complete tracing of axon pathways. The late 1970s and 1980s witnessed innovative applications of these techniques. The silver methods once used to trace axon pathways became indicators of the extreme endpoint of neurotoxicity: disintegrative degeneration of neurons induced by neurotoxic chemicals that were administered systemically. The hallmark of neurotoxic substances is the selectivity with which each destroys specific populations or subpopulations of neurons. The high contrast and sensitivity of the silver degeneration stains greatly facilitate the screening process to detect these affected populations, especially when there is no basis for knowing where in the brain to look for damage. More recently, in addition to expanded use in screening for neurotoxic effects, the silver degeneration stains are being used to chart the neuron populations undergoing programmed cell death in the developing brain. Other newly developed silver methods have been refined to show nondisintegrative degeneration, such as the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer's disease.
Mediation Effect of Cognitive Emotion-regulation Strategy in the Relationship between Family Stress and Marital Satisfaction -focused on the comparison of husbands and wives-

본 연구는 부산·경남지역에 소재하는 중년기 부부의 가족스트레스와 결혼만족도와의 관계에서 인지적 정서 조절전략의 매개효과에 따른 남편과 아내의 비교를 위해 시도 되었다. 수집된 자료는 SPSS 19. 0프로그램을 이용하여 빈도분석, 대응표본 T 검증, 중다회귀분석을 하였다. 또 매개효과 검증을 위해 위계적 회귀분석과 Baron과 Kenny(1986)가 제안한 매개효과 검증에 따라 단순회귀분석과 Sobel test(1982)를 하였다. 본 연구의 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 중년기 부부의 결혼 만족도에 미치는 영향을 살펴보기 위한 위계적 중다회귀분석에서 남편은 교육수준, 부부문제, 계획다시세우기에서 영향을 미쳤고 아내는 연 령, 부부문제, 수용에서 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 인지적 정서조절전략은 중년기 부부의 가족 스트레스와 결혼만족도에서 부분매개하는 것으로검증되었다. 이러한 연구결과를 바탕으로 본 연구의 한계 점과 추후연구를 위한 제언도 함께 논의되었다.
Measuring absorption below 100Hz with a particle velocity-pressure sensor

© 2016, German Acoustical Society (DEGA). All rights reserved.Absorption is a difficult quantity to measure. The standards based on reverberation chamber measurements are limited to those above 100 Hz. Those based on commercially available impedance tubes are limited to 63 Hz and above. The Microflown impedance gun offers a newer approach to the measurement of absorption coefficients, but is limited to 300-8000 Hz in its commercial form. An extension to the commercial instrumentation to lower the operational range to 40 Hz is proposed. Measurements have been undertaken of dissipative type absorbers and panel absorbers to determine if this method can be used in the 40-100 Hz range. Results are reported and discussed along with the uncertainty in the measurement.
Continuity metric for unit selection based text-to-speech synthesis

A new method based on unit continuity metric (UCM) is proposed for optimal unit selection in text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis. UCM employs two features, namely, pitch continuity metric and spectral continuity metric. The methods have been implemented and tested on our test bed called MILE-TTS and it is available as web demo. After verification by a self selection test, the algorithms are evaluated on 8 paragraphs each for Kannada and Tamil by native users of the languages. Mean-opinion-score (MOS) shows that naturalness and comprehension are better with UCM based algorithm than the non-UCM based ones. The naturalness of the TTS output is further enhanced by a new rule based algorithm for pause prediction for Tamil language. The pauses between the words are predicted based on parts-of-speech information obtained from the input text.
Deliquescence of small particles

The deliquescence of particles smaller than 100 nm in diameter from crystalline form to liquid droplets involves both solvation effects and surface energies. Here we study this phenomenon for the case of salt particles of initial dry diameters from 8 to 100 nm that are exposed to humid conditions from 45 to 95% relative humidity. With a simple thermodynamic equilibrium model for three soluble species (sodium chloride, ammonium sulfate, and a soluble organic compound), we show that the role of surface tension is to increase the relative humidity at which particles will deliquesce. For example, 15 nm dry diameter sodium chloride particles deliquesce at 83%, an 8% increase over the 75% deliquescence relative humidity for supermicron droplets and bulk solution. Many soluble species in air above 45% relative humidity are wetted with multiple layers of water molecules such that the relevant interface is that between the partially dissolved salt crystal and a saturated salt solution rather than between the dry c.
Detection and Elimination of Distributed Reflection DoS (DR-DOS) Attack Using Rank Correlation Detection (RCD) Algorithm

DDoS represent Denial of service in Distributed system and presents a serious threat into the Internet, when it incepts. In Distributed Reflection DoS (DRDoS), attackers may try to make fool innocent servers while flushing massive packets to victim. But most of current DRDoS detection mechanisms are available which contain own protocol and doesn't work on other than specific protocol. In DDoS attcks it is found that because of attacking flow and normal flow from server have relation between different packets. While taking this consideration, the Rank Correlation Detection algorithm is comes under the picture. RCD is most efficient algorithm to finding a difference between massive packets and normal packets. It finds the rank of each packets and if it is found as massive then, it discard from the router. RCD can find the difference between reflection flows from legal clients. It is most efficient as well as effectively algorithm for DRDoS, it is used as a indicator in DRDoS.
Multimodal Signal Processing and Learning Aspects of Human-Robot Interaction for an Assistive Bathing Robot

We explore new aspects of assistive living on smart human-robot interaction (HRI) that involve automatic recognition and online validation of speech and gestures in a natural interface, providing social features for HRI. We introduce a whole framework and resources of a real-life scenario for elderly subjects supported by an assistive bathing robot, addressing health and hygiene care issues. We contribute a new dataset and a suite of tools used for data acquisition and a state-of-the-art pipeline for multimodal learning within the framework of the I -Support bathing robot, with emphasis on audio and RGB- D visual streams. We consider privacy issues by evaluating the depth visual stream along with the RGB, using Kinect sensors. The audio-gestural recognition task on this new dataset yields up to 84.5%, while the online validation of the I-Support system on elderly users accomplishes up to 84% when the two modalities are fused together. The results are promising enough to support further research in the area of multimodal recognition for assistive social HRI, considering the difficulties of the specific task.
Air Pollution and Daily Clinic Visits for Migraine in a Subtropical City: Taipei, Taiwan

This study was undertaken to determine whether there was an association between air pollutant levels and daily clinic visits for migraine in Taipei, Taiwan. Daily clinic visits for migraine and ambient air pollution data for Taipei were obtained for the period 2006–2011. The relative risk of clinic visits for migraine was estimated using a case-crossover approach, controlling for weather variables, day of the week, seasonality, and long-term time trends. In the single-pollutant models, on warm days (>23°C) statistically significant positive associations were found for increased rate of migraine occurrence and levels of particulate matter (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3). On cool days (<23°C), all pollutants were significantly associated with increased migraine visits except CO and SO2. For the two-pollutant models, O3 and NO2 were significant for higher rate of migraine visits in combination with each of the other four pollutants on cool days. On warm days, CO remained statistically significant in all two-pollutant models. This study provides evidence that higher levels of ambient air pollutants enhance the risk of clinic visits for migraine.
Count Your Calories and Share Them: Health Benefits of Sharing mHealth Information on Social Networking Sites

ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationship between sharing tracked mobile health (mHealth) information online, supportive communication, feedback, and health behavior. Based on the Integrated Theory of mHealth, our model asserts that sharing tracked health information on social networking sites benefits users’ perceptions of their health because of the supportive communication they gain from members of their online social networks and that the amount of feedback people receive moderates these associations. Users of mHealth apps (N = 511) completed an online survey, and results revealed that both sharing tracked health information and receiving feedback from an online social network were positively associated with supportive communication. Network support both corresponded with improved health behavior and mediated the association between sharing health information and users’ health behavior. As users received greater amounts of feedback from their online social networks, however, the association between sharing tracked health information and health behavior decreased. Theoretical implications for sharing tracked health information and practical implications for using mHealth apps are discussed.
Auscultated forced expiratory time as a clinical and epidemiologic test of airway obstruction.

OBJECTIVE Seeking an inexpensive, readily available, clinical, screening, and field surveillance test of airway obstruction, we determined the validity of current dogma that forced expiratory time (FET) is a good clinical test of airway obstruction yet is of no epidemiologic use given excessive intrasubject variability. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Two hundred twenty-nine white male plumbers and pipefitters were evaluated by spirometry, chest roentgenography, and a standardized respiratory questionnaire during a union-sponsored asbestos screening program. Subjects were classified as having large airway obstruction (LAO), small airway obstruction (SAO) alone, or no obstruction, on the basis of standard spirometric prediction equations. Two physicians, blinded to clinical and spirometric data, independently measured FET while auscultating the trachea with a stethoscope. The FET was defined as the time taken for an individual to forcefully exhale through an open mouth from total lung capacity until airflow became inaudible. Five such times were recorded for each subject. The mean of the three times having the narrowest range was deemed the FET for calculating test sensitivity and specificity. Based on previous literature, an FET greater than or equal to 6 s was considered abnormally prolonged. RESULTS Two hundred five subjects completed both spirometry and FET testing; 67 had LAO, 5 SAO, and 133 no obstruction. A total of 83 percent had three FETs reproducible within a range of less than or equal to 1 s. The sensitivity and specificity of FET for LAO were 92 and 43 percent, respectively, while for SAO alone, 60 and 44 percent, respectively. Overall, FET misclassified 56 percent of nonobstructed subjects. Adjusting the normal-abnormal cutoff points for both FET and SAO minimally improved the performance of FET. CONCLUSION Although FET is a simple, inexpensive, sensitive, and fairly reproducible clinical test of LAO, it cannot be recommended as a clinical or an epidemiologic tool because of its extremely low specificity.
NFE 2 L 2 pathway polymorphisms and lung function decline in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Andrew J. Sandford, Deepti Malhotra, H. Marike Boezen, Mateusz Siedlinski, Dirkje S. Postma, Vivien Wong, Loubna Akhabir, Jian-Qing He, John E. Connett, Nicholas R. Anthonisen, Peter D. Paré, and Shyam Biswal UBC James Hogg Research Centre, Providence Heart Lung Institute, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland; Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Pulmonology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, the Netherlands; Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; and Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland