Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surveying the accessibility of touchscreen games for persons with motor impairments: a preliminary analysis

Touchscreen devices have become one of the most pervasive video game platforms in the world and, in turn, an integral part of popular culture; however, little work exists on comprehensively examining their accessibility. In this poster paper, we present initial findings from a survey and qualitative analysis of popular iPad touchscreen games with a focus on exploring factors relevant to persons with motor impairments. This paper contributes a novel qualitative codebook with which to examine the accessibility of touchscreen games for users with motor impairments and the results from applying this codebook to 72 iPad games.
Longitudinal Trends in Vaccine Hesitancy in a Cohort of Mothers Surveyed in Washington State, 2013-2015

Parents who refuse or delay vaccines because of vaccine hesitancy place children at increased risk for vaccine-preventable disease. How parental vaccine hesitancy changes as their children age is not known. In 2015, we conducted a follow-up survey of 237 mothers enrolled in a 2-arm clinic-level cluster randomized trial (n = 488) in Washington State that was completed in 2013. We surveyed mothers at their baby’s birth, age 6 months, and age 24 months using a validated measure of vaccine hesitancy. Both mean hesitancy scores (mean 4.1-point reduction; 95% CI, 2.5-5.6; P = .01) and the proportion of mothers who were vaccine hesitant (9.7% at baseline vs 5.9% at 24 months; P = .01) decreased significantly from child’s birth to age 24 months. Changes from baseline were similar for first-time mothers and experienced mothers. Individual item analysis suggested that the decrease may have been driven by increases in maternal confidence about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Our results suggest that hesitancy is a dynamic measure that may peak around childbirth and may remit as experience with vaccines accumulates.
Foot Placement Modification for a Biped Humanoid Robot with Narrow Feet

This paper describes a walking stabilization control for a biped humanoid robot with narrow feet. Most humanoid robots have larger feet than human beings to maintain their stability during walking. If robot's feet are as narrow as humans, it is difficult to realize a stable walk by using conventional stabilization controls. The proposed control modifies a foot placement according to the robot's attitude angle. If a robot tends to fall down, a foot angle is modified about the roll axis so that a swing foot contacts the ground horizontally. And a foot-landing point is also changed laterally to inhibit the robot from falling to the outside. To reduce a foot-landing impact, a virtual compliance control is applied to the vertical axis and the roll and pitch axes of the foot. Verification of the proposed method is conducted through experiments with a biped humanoid robot WABIAN-2R. WABIAN-2R realized a knee-bended walking with 30 mm breadth feet. Moreover, WABIAN-2R mounted on a human-like foot mechanism mimicking a human's foot arch structure realized a stable walking with the knee-stretched, heel-contact, and toe-off motion.
Effector function of type II collagen-stimulated T cells from rheumatoid arthritis patients: cross-talk between T cells and synovial fibroblasts.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effector function exerted by type II collagen (CII)-stimulated T cells on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS), and to determine their contribution to RA pathogenesis. METHODS We used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays to measure the levels of interleukin-15 (IL-15), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha), and IL-18 production by FLS that were cocultured with antigen-activated T cells. Likewise, we analyzed the levels of interferon-gamma (IFN gamma) and IL-17 production by RA T cells coincubated with FLS. To investigate the cross-talk between CII-stimulated T cells and RA FLS, we examined the effect of using a transwell membrane to separate T cells and FLS in a culture chamber, as well as the effect of adding an antibody to block CD40 ligation. RESULTS The levels of IL-15, TNF alpha, IFN gamma, and IL-17 were all significantly increased in the serum of RA patients compared with normal control serum. Among the patients, the group with a stronger T cell proliferation response to CII showed higher levels of these inflammatory mediators. When coincubated with RA FLS, these T cells induced the production of IL-15, TNF alpha, and IL-18 by FLS with an intensity that increased in proportion to the duration of CII stimulation. T cells, in turn, responded to FLS stimulation by secreting higher amounts of IL-17 and IFN gamma in coculture. Interestingly, T cells that were activated by CII for longer periods of time showed stronger induction of these cytokines. The cross-talk between T cells and FLS appeared to require direct cell-cell contact as well as CD40 ligation, at least in part. CONCLUSION Through repeated stimulation by CII, RA synovial T cells became trained effector cells that induced the production of proinflammatory mediators by FLS, while in the process the T cells becoming more sensitized to the activation signal from FLS.
A New Solution to Map Dynamic Indoor Environments

In this paper, we propose a new algorithm of mapping dynamic indoor environments. Instead of accurate but expensive laser, we employ sonar and camera to map dynamic structured indoor environments. Based on fuzzy-tuned grid-based map (FTGBM), we use two methods: sonar temporal difference (STD) and statistical background subtraction (SBS), to detect and track moving objects when mapping dynamic environments. The former is a consistency-based method realized by monitoring a sequence of temporal lattice maps for a certain number of measurement periods to detect moving objects by using sonars; and the latter is a background subtraction technique which adopts an expectation maximization (EM) learned 3-class mixture of Gaussians to model the nonstationary background relied on sufficient update during mapping process. After finding the moving objects, we propose a fuzzy-tuned integration (FTI) method to incorporate the results of motion detection into the mapping process. The simulation and experiment demonstrate the capabilities of our approach.
MAP4 Mechanism that Stabilizes Mitochondrial Permeability Transition in Hypoxia: Microtubule Enhancement and DYNLT1 Interaction with VDAC1

Mitochondrial membrane permeability has received considerable attention recently because of its key role in apoptosis and necrosis induced by physiological events such as hypoxia. The manner in which mitochondria interact with other molecules to regulate mitochondrial permeability and cell destiny remains elusive. Previously we verified that hypoxia-induced phosphorylation of microtubule-associated protein 4 (MAP4) could lead to microtubules (MTs) disruption. In this study, we established the hypoxic (1% O2) cell models of rat cardiomyocytes, H9c2 and HeLa cells to further test MAP4 function. We demonstrated that increase in the pool of MAP4 could promote the stabilization of MT networks by increasing the synthesis and polymerization of tubulin in hypoxia. Results showed MAP4 overexpression could enhance cell viability and ATP content under hypoxic conditions. Subsequently we employed a yeast two-hybrid system to tag a protein interacting with mitochondria, dynein light chain Tctex-type 1 (DYNLT1), by hVDAC1 bait. We confirmed that DYNLT1 had protein-protein interactions with voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1) using co-immunoprecipitation; and immunofluorescence technique showed that DYNLT1 was closely associated with MTs and VDAC1. Furthermore, DYNLT1 interactions with MAP4 were explored using a knockdown technique. We thus propose two possible mechanisms triggered by MAP4: (1) stabilization of MT networks, (2) DYNLT1 modulation, which is connected with VDAC1, and inhibition of hypoxia-induced mitochondrial permeabilization.
Coding assisted iterative channel estimation for impulse radio ultra-wide band communication systems

In this paper, we consider a coded ultra-wide band (UWB) impulse radio system. At the receiver, to estimate multipath delays and amplitudes, the soft information output from a soft-input soft-output (SISO) decoder is used to assist the estimation. The SISO decoder and the channel estimator work in an iterative way and no training sequence is used in the estimation. Compared with the non data-aided channel estimation without using the soft information output from the SISO decoder, the performance of this iterative channel estimation is better. We also explain this iterative method by using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, which can be used to prove the convergence of this iterative method.
Materials-based, imagery-based, and rote exercise occupational forms: effect on repetitions, heart rate, duration of performance, and self-perceived rest period in well elderly women.

OBJECTIVES This study extends previous research that contrasted occupational forms with elderly persons living in institutions to include elderly women living independently. In addition to differences in number of repetitions elicited, the current study measured heart rate response and perceived rest period duration. METHOD Forty-five women over the age of 65 years were randomly assigned to one of three occupational forms: materials based (kicking a balloon), imagery based (kicking an imaginary balloon), and rote exercise (performing a kicking movement without a balloon or imagery prompt). Subjects were instructed to perform the assigned lower-extremity movement until they fatigued and after a self-determined period of rest indicated when they felt able to do another set of movements. Dependent variables included number of repetitions of movement, heart rate (at baseline, at completion of movements, at end of rest period), duration of movement, and self-perceived rest period. Group means for each variable were compared using analyses of variance. RESULTS Groups showed no significant difference in baseline and demographic data. Subjects in the materials-based occupational form performed significantly more repetitions and required a significantly longer self-perceived rest period than subjects in the imagery-based and rote exercise forms. There were no significant differences among the groups for heart rate response. Duration of movement and number of repetitions variables were strongly correlated (r = .95), indicating lack of independence. CONCLUSIONS The materials-based occupational form elicited a quantitatively different performance than the other forms. Given the relatively fuller experience (i.e., interaction with an object, clear objective) of the materials-based form, an occupational form that has added meaning for the person appears to result in enhanced performance when compared with forms that lack strong meaning and suggest more limited purposes.
The rhythms of head, eyes and hands at intersections

In this paper, we study the complex coordination of head, eyes and hands as the driver approaches a stop-controlled intersection. The proposed framework is made up of three major parts. The first part is the naturalistic driving dataset collection: synchronized capture of sensors looking-in and looking-out, multiple drivers driving in urban environment, and segmenting events at stop-controlled intersections. The second part is extracting reliable features from purely vision sensors looking in at the driver: eye movements, head pose and hand location respective to the wheel. The third part is in the design of appropriate temporal features for capturing coordination. A random forest algorithm is employed for studying relevance and understanding the temporal evolution of head, eye, and hand cues. Using 24 different events (from 5 drivers resulting in ~ 12200 frames analyzed) of three different maneuvers at stop-controlled intersections, we found that preparatory motions range in the order of a few seconds to a few milliseconds, depending on the modality (i.e. eyes, head, hand), before the event occurs.
A 2Gb/s network processor with a 24mW IPsec offload for residential gateways

The Internet has become an important tool to deliver services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (IP) and high-definition video. To enable the widespread use of these services, it is essential to ensure quality-of-service (QoS) and security protection in communication. In using consumer-oriented gateway equipment (GW) consisting of low-cost network processors (NPs), however, it is difficult to ensure QoS because the CPU load becomes 100% when packets are received at a traffic load of 1Gb/s. A packet engine (PE) achieving a throughput of 2Gb/s (i.e., bidirectional 1Gb/s communication) and offloading the network processing from CPUs solves the problem as shown in Fig. 15.4. 1. The PE achieves a 2Gb/s throughput for all cases as shown in Fig. 15.4. 2 as follows: (1) inline-type IPsec circuits whose transmitting/receiving blocks independently process enc/decryption, authentication, and encapsulation [1] achieve a total processing speed of 2Gb/s; (2) an IP-forwarding performance of 2Gb/s is achieved by adopting a high-speed, compact look-up circuit [1] that searches by providing an action rule from one memory read-out circuit to multiple comparators in an IP switch (IP-SW); and (3) a local-area-network switch (LAN-SW) achieves 5Gb/s forwarding by 5 parallel look-up engines and a high-speed internal packet buffer.
Elman NN and Time Series in Forecasting Models for Decision Making

This paper examines and compares analytical tools in analysis of economic statistical data, econometric modeling, and neural network, soft-computing modeling, as representation models for time series processing in forecasting, decision and control. In addition, a novel forecasting model using Elman networks is proposed. A comprehensive experiment in applying the latter modeling has been carried out, some specific applications software developed, and a number of benchmark series from the literature processed. This paper reports on comparison findings as well on the use of our application software package which encompasses routines for regression, ARIMA and NN analysis of time series. The comparison analysis is illustrated by a sample example known as difficult to model via any technique.
Extrapair Paternity in Golden-Cheeked Gibbons (Nomascus gabriellae) in the Secondary Lowland Forest of Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam

We observed 18 groups of golden-cheeked gibbons (Nomascus gabriellae) in the secondary lowland forest in Cat Tien National Park from January 2004 to December 2005 to obtain information about the social organization of this little-studied species, in an area where the population is recovering through increased protection and forest regeneration. DNA from faecal samples of 10 infants and juveniles identified 1 case of extrapair paternity. DNA from faecal samples of 18 adults from three communities revealed the majority of adults sampled of both sexes to be related to adults in neighbouring territories. Overall, the indications are that in this empty habitat, gibbons appear to be able to establish territories adjacent to those of their kin.
The effectiveness of a community-based intensive intervention for young people with complex psychological and forensic needs

This thesis examined the effectiveness of an intensive, community-based intervention for youth presenting with complex psychological needs, and their families, and discussed the need to understand and address the multiple risk and protective factors across several systems associated with aggressive, violent, antisocial and offending behaviour in young people, in order to intervene effectively. The intervention is based on the principles of Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST), a renowned intensive, community-based intervention for aggressive, violent and antisocial young people, which is explored in the literature review (Chapter 1). The available evidence-base on MST demonstrates that the behaviour of young people considered at significant risk to themselves and/or others can be managed safely within the community, while engaging their caregivers and wider ecology to effect positive changes that are sustainable. The research study (Chapter 2) reports on a modest sample of 17 young people and 12 caregivers who completed research measures prior to and following the receipt of the intensive intervention based on MST principles aimed at improving youth and family functioning. Positive changes in both individual functioning and family environment observed were found to be consistent with the existing evidence-base regarding the effectiveness of community based interventions. This provides support for moving away from traditional office-based approaches to engaging these clients in order to prevent further deterioration in behaviour and subsequent placement of the young person away from his/her family and community. A discussion surrounding the use of psychometric measures provides insight into the role of the family environment in assessing and intervening with this client group in Chapter 3. Finally, the importance of recognising families as the key to a successful system of care is further explored in the case study in Chapter 4. Overall, this thesis provides support for the abandonment of a simplistic superficial understanding of social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties in young people to a more ecological, dynamic approach, which has implications for prevention of the detrimental and long lasting costs of youth social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.
A Quantitative Survey of various Fingerprint Enhancement techniques

Preprocessing is an important step in the area of image processing and pattern recognition. This paper aims to present a review of recent as well as classic fingerprint image enhancement techniques. The umbrella of techniques used for evaluation varies from histogram based enhancement, frequency transformation based, Gabor filter based enhancement and its variants to composite enhancement technique. The effectiveness of enhancement techniques proposed by various researchers is evaluated on the basis of peak signal to noise ratio and equal error rate which refers to robustness and stability of identification process. Experimental results shows that incorporating the enhancement technique based on Gabor filter in wavelet domain and composite method improves equal error rate . Improved error rate and peak signal noise ratio improves the identification/verification accuracy marginally. The major goal of the paper is to provide a comprehensive reference source for the researchers involved in enhancement of fingerprint images which is essential preprocessing step in automatic fingerprint identification and verification.
Core Inflation: A Review of Some Conceptual Issues

This paper reviews various approaches to the measurement of core inflation that have been proposed in recent years. The objective is to determine whether the ECB should pay special attention to one or other of these measures in assessing inflation developments in the euro area. I put particular emphasis on the conceptual and practical problems that arise in the measurement of core inflation, and propose some criteria that could be used by the ECB to choose a core inflation measure. JEL Classification: C8, E0, E31
Bidirectional Association between Self-Reported Hypertension and Gout: The Singapore Chinese Health Study

It has been hypothesized that the association between hypertension and gout is bidirectional, however, few studies have examined this in a prospective cohort. We analyzed data from the Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS) follow-up I (1999–2004) and II (2006–2010) interviews, when both physician-diagnosed hypertension and gout were self-reported. We included participants with data for both follow-up interviews and who were free of heart disease, stroke and cancer at follow-up I. The analysis of hypertension and risk of gout included 31,137 participants when prevalent gout cases were excluded, while the analysis of gout and risk of hypertension included 20,369 participants when prevalent hypertension cases were excluded. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The mean age at follow-up I was 60.1 (SD 7.3) years, and the average follow-up was 6.8 (SD 1.4) years. In the analysis of hypertension and risk of gout, 682 incident cases were identified. Compared to normotensive participants, hypertensive patients had an88% increased risk of developing gout (HR 1.88; 95% CI 1.61–2.21). In the parallel analysis, 5,450 participants reported to have newly diagnosed hypertension during follow-up. Compared to participants without gout, those with gout had an18% increased risk of developing hypertension (HR 1.18; 95% CI 1.02–1.37). The bidirectional association was stronger in normal weight adults compared to overweight/obese individuals (P interaction = 0.06 and 0.04, respectively). The hypertension to gout association was stronger in women compared to men (P interaction = 0.04), while the gout to hypertension association was evident in women but not in men (P interaction = 0.02). In conclusion, our results suggest that the hypertension-gout association is bidirectional in this cohort of Singapore Chinese adults. The potential interactions of the bidirectional association with obesity and sex deserve further investigations.
Microarray identification of novel genes downstream of Six1, a critical factor in cranial placode, somite, and kidney development

Background: Six1 plays an important role in the development of several vertebrate organs, including cranial sensory placodes, somites, and kidney. Although Six1 mutations cause one form of branchio‐otic syndrome (BOS), the responsible gene in many patients has not been identified; genes that act downstream of Six1 are potential BOS candidates. Results: We sought to identify novel genes expressed during placode, somite and kidney development by comparing gene expression between control and Six1‐expressing ectodermal explants. The expression patterns of 19 of the significantly up‐regulated and 11 of the significantly down‐regulated genes were assayed from cleavage to larval stages. A total of 28/30 genes are expressed in the otocyst, a structure that is functionally disrupted in BOS, and 26/30 genes are expressed in the nephric mesoderm, a structure that is functionally disrupted in the related branchio‐otic‐renal (BOR) syndrome. We also identified the chick homologues of five genes and show that they have conserved expression patterns. Conclusions: Of the 30 genes selected for expression analyses, all are expressed at many of the developmental times and appropriate tissues to be regulated by Six1. Many have the potential to play a role in the disruption of hearing and kidney function seen in BOS/BOR patients. Developmental Dynamics 244:181–210, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Fast Tree-Structured Recursive Neural Tensor Networks

In this project we explore different ways in which we can optimize the computation of training a Tree-structured RNTN, in particular batching techniques in combining many matrix-vector multiplications into matrix-matrix multiplications, and many tensor-vector operations into tensor-matrix operations. We assume that training is performed using mini-batch AdaGrad algorithm, and explore how we can exploit the presence of multiple examples and batch computation across the set as a whole. We explore how we can apply our optimization techniques to the forward propagation phase, the back propagation phase, and run the batched operations on GPUs. Our goal is to speed up the execution of Tree-structured RNNs so that its runtime performance is no more a limiting factor for adoption.