Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Behavior Assessment——Evolution of Method of Behavior Assessment

Functional behavior assessment is a new method of behavior assessment based on the science of applied behavior analysis. This article first introduces the main theoretical assumptions and the basic procedures of FBA, and then makes a comparison between FBA and traditional behavior assessment from three dimensions: attitudes towards challenging behaviors, emphasis of the assessment, and intervention measures.
Understanding Maintenance Design : How Developers Work at the Whiteboard to Design Solutions for Software Maintenance

In this paper, we present our findings from a study into the nature of maintenance design meetings. Previous studies of software developers practicing design predominantly focused on the design of new software. In practice, however, developers often find themselves working on changes to already-existing software. Such changes can be complex to undertake, and frequently require impromptu, relatively short meetings in which developers work jointly at a whiteboard to design solutions. We performed an in-depth analysis of six such maintenance design meetings, three in our lab, and three at a local company. Each meeting involved experienced developers working on a real problem, and was studied through a combination of direct observation, interviews, and analyses of electronic sketching log files. Our findings detail several serious differences that distinguish maintenance design from new software design, with several implications for future tools aiming to support maintenance design.
Education as an Instrument for Achieving Social Justice and Good Governance

This paper is an attempt to alert educators and education stake holders to the viability of using education as an instrument for achieving social justice and good governance. The paper, utilising the literature review methodology, begins by highlighting the relationship between social justice and good governance and proceeds to examine the instrumental value of education. The paper further draws on current literacy on education, social justice and good governance to show how education may effectively be used to propagate the ideals of social justice and promote good governance. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2016. v6n2p205
Envejecimiento poblacional en Argentina: ¿qué es ser un adulto mayor en Argentina? Una aproximación desde el enfoque de la vulnerabilidad social

La caracteristica principal de la poblacion mundial en el siglo XXI, sera el envejecimiento demografico, entendido como un proceso que esta caracterizado por el aumento poblacional de los adultos mayores. El grado de avance y el estado actual de este proceso en cada uno de los paises es diferente. El objetivo general de esta investigacion es caracterizar la poblacion mayor de 65 anos, utilizando indicadores demograficos robustos, a fin de mostrar el impacto del envejecimiento en las estructuras poblacionales por grupos de edad y sexo. Se tendra en cuenta que las realidades actuales estan determinadas fuertemente por las etapas anteriores del ciclo de vida de las personas, no solo los personales, sino tambien los familiares, socioeconomicas e historicas.
Standard Setting Issues of Internet Addiction Scale and Internet Game Addiction Scale

The present study aimed to establish criteria for internet addiction and internet game addiction.By using the widely accepted Angoff method,the present study set the standards for both scales.The cutoff point of the internet addiction scale was 8,i.e.,the participants who gave 8 positive answers out of the 12(items,)would fall under the group of internet addiction,whereas the cutoff point of internet game addiction was 7,i.e.,the participants who gave 7 positive answers out of the 10 items,would fall under the group of internet game addiction.
Substrate Specificity of MarP, a Periplasmic Protease Required for Resistance to Acid and Oxidative Stress in Mycobacterium tuberculosis*

Background: MarP is a serine protease critical for pH homeostasis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Results: MarP is localized in the periplasm, and its substrate specificity was uncovered using synthetic peptides. Conclusion: The periplasmic location of MarP is essential for function and the substrate profile shows high selectivity at multiple subsites. Significance: Understanding the MarP proteolytic pathway may lead to the development of novel anti-tuberculosis chemotherapeutics. The transmembrane serine protease MarP is important for pH homeostasis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Previous structural studies revealed that MarP contains a chymotrypsin fold and a disulfide bond that stabilizes the protease active site in the substrate-bound conformation. Here, we determined that MarP is located in the Mtb periplasm and showed that this localization is essential for function. Using the recombinant protease domain of MarP, we identified its substrate specificity using two independent assays: positional-scanning synthetic combinatorial library profiling and multiplex substrate profiling by mass spectrometry. These methods revealed that MarP prefers bulky residues at P4, tryptophan or leucine at P2, arginine or hydrophobic residues at P1, and alanine or asparagine at P1′. Guided by these data, we designed fluorogenic peptide substrates and characterized the kinetic properties of MarP. Finally, we tested the impact of mutating MarP cysteine residues on the peptidolytic activity of recombinant MarP and its ability to complement phenotypes of Mtb ΔMarP. Taken together, our studies provide insight into the enzymatic properties of MarP, its substrate preference, and the importance of its transmembrane helices and disulfide bond.
A 3.4Mbps NFC card emulator supporting 40mm2 loop antenna

For compact integration of 13.56MHz NFC functionality in mobile devices, a small planar loop antenna is a necessity. Active load modulation (ALM) is a commonly adopted technique to boost load modulation amplitude to overcome weak inductive coupling in small antennas. However, due to the challenges of phase synchronization, ALM is mainly limited to low data rate NFC applications. This paper describes the challenges of supporting NFC Very High Bit Rate (VHBR) Card Emulation Mode (PICC) in small antennas. An ultra-fast retimed phase synchronization PLL technique is proposed to overcome the technical challenges of ALM for high data rate uplink transmission. A sub-sampling ADC topology is implemented as VHBR ASK envelope demodulator. A clock extractor-based PLL provides precise synchronized continuous clock to the high speed sub-sampling ADC for accurate demodulation of all ASK envelopes with modulation index (MI) ranging from 8% to 100%.
Evaluation of prediction reliability in regression using the transduction principle

In machine learning community there are many efforts to improve overall reliability of predictors measured as an error on the testing set. But in contrast, very little research has been done concerning prediction reliability of a single answer. This article describes an algorithm that can be used for evaluation of prediction reliability in regression. The basic idea of the algorithm is based on construction of transductive predictors. Using them, the algorithm makes inference from the differences between initial and transductive predictions to the error on a single new case. The implementation of the algorithm with regression tress managed to significantly reduce the relative mean squared error on the majority of the tested domains.
Exposure to Ambient Particulate Matter during Specific Gestational Periods Produces Adverse Obstetric Consequences in Mice

Background: Epidemiological studies associate inhalation of fine-sized particulate matter (PM2.5) during pregnancy with preterm birth (PTB) and low birth weight (LBW) but disagree over which time frames are most sensitive, or if effects are cumulative. Objectives: Our objective was to provide experimental plausibility for epidemiological observations by testing the hypothesis that exposure to PM2.5 during discrete periods of pregnancy results in PTB and LBW. Methods: For the first study, timed-pregnant B6C3F1 mice were exposed to concentrated ambient PM2.5 (CAPs) or filtered air (FA) throughout pregnancy [6 h/d from gestational day (GD) 0.5 through GD16.5]. A follow-up study examined the effects of CAPs exposure during discrete gestational periods (1: GD0.5–5.5; 2: GD6.5–14.5; 3: GD14.5–16.5; 4: GD0.5–16.5) aligning to milestones during human development. Results: In the first experiment, exposure to 160 μg CAPs/m3 throughout pregnancy decreased gestational term by 0.5 d (∼1.1 wk decrease for humans) and birth weight by 11.4% compared with FA. The follow-up experiment investigated timing of CAPs exposure (mean concentrations at 178, 193, 171, and 173 μg/m3 for periods 1–4, respectively). Pregnancy was significantly shortened (vs. FA) by ∼0.4d when exposure occurred during gestational periods 2 and 4, and by ∼0.5d if exposure occurred during period 3. Exposure during periods 1, 2, and 4 reduced birth weight by ∼10% compared with FA, and placental weight was reduced (∼8%) on GD17.5 if exposure occurred only during period 3. Conclusions: Adverse PM2.5-induced outcomes such as PTB and LBW are dependent upon the periods of maternal exposure. The results of these experimental studies could contribute significantly to air pollution policy decisions in the future. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1029
A self-study of practice: Words versus action in music problem solving

This study explores the strategies, thoughts, and artistic behaviors involved in learning a new piece for memorized performance. It discusses how an experienced cellist (the first author) prepared the Prelude from Bach’s Suite No. 6 for cello solo, BWV 1012, for performance. The paper describes her experience and insights as a musician studying her own practice in collaboration with psychologists. This longitudinal case study took place over a period of 3.5 years during which the entire process of learning, memorizing, and giving ten public performances of the Prelude was recorded and analyzed. The results highlight the contrasts between thoughts (articulated in words) and actions (demonstrated through playing). Although a large number of comments were on technique, practice was shaped by general musical understanding, from very early stages of learning. Expert music learning can, therefore, be compared to theories of expert problem solving: identifying underlying principles, developing a deeper understanding of the issues before proceeding, taking steps toward solving the problem guided by a big picture. This is in line with Neuhaus’ suggestion that a musician’s first goal in approaching a new piece should be to develop an “artistic image” of its musical shape.
Wearable health systems: From smart technologies to real applications

The interest in wearable health systems (WHS) originates initially from the need to extend health services out of the hospital and monitor patients over extensive periods of time. Intelligent WHS are integrated systems in contact with or near the body able to sense, process and communicate biomedical, biochemical and physical parameters – and even carry out actions if necessary. Research and development (R&D) in WHS is mainly driven by two different, but complementary, approaches. The first one is "application-pull," stemming from an increased user demand for new solutions in healthcare. The second one is "technology-push," in which technological innovations lead to new systems and products for healthcare solutions. In both approaches, inter-disciplinarity is a key issue. Synergies across multiple domains like biomedical technologies, micro- and nano-technologies, materials engineering, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), enable new approaches to support personal health and well-being. These include, for example, unobtrusive personal health monitoring and point-of-care biochemical testing for disease prevention and early diagnosis, as well as follow-up of treatments. This article presents the state-of-the-art on wearable health systems, outlines current research achievements and indicates research trends and challenges in line with these two approaches.
Fine-grained write scheduling for PCM performance improvement under write power budget

Phase-change memory (PCM) has gained much attention recently since it offers several advantages over DRAM, such as high cell density and low leakage power. PCM has similar read power and latency as DRAM; however, its write power and latency are significantly higher than DRAM. Therefore, one challenge with PCM is how to increase write throughput under write power budget constraints. To increase write concurrency, PCM often adopts division programming, where a write occurs in a series of divisions, so that writes to different banks proceed concurrently. In this study, we observe that since the write scheduling granularity in the memory controller differs from the actual write granularity in PCM chips, i.e., requests vs. divisions, the available power budget cannot be fully utilized. We therefore propose enhancing the interface between the memory controller and PCM chips to allow the memory controller to schedule writes in the division granularity. To further increase power budget utilization, we design a variable-length division mechanism to allow the division granularity to be adjusted at runtime according to the available write power budget. Our experimental results show that these techniques improve system performance by up to 65%.
Surface impedance approach to calculate loss in rough conductor coated with dielectric layer

The analysis presented herein contains closed-form analytical expressions to calculate attenuation in a layered structure “rough metal-dielectric-dielectric”, which is a practically important problem in separating dielectric loss from rough conductor loss in actual PCB stripline geometries, when measuring dielectric constant (Dk) and dissipation factor (Df) using travelling wave S-parameter methods. This approach is based on the surface impedance concept. It is shown that the presence of an epoxy layer on the conductor may affect extracted dielectric parameters, of a PCB substrate, especially the Df data.
The Media Scapegoat and Mom’s Mouth

Swearing acceptance as a function of media and family influences was examined among 763 college students from a large southeastern public research university. Participants completed an online questionnaire and answered a series of questions related to their personality characteristics, religiosity, and swearing histories and attitudes. Participants reported being most frequently exposed to swearing from their mothers followed by media sources. Swearing acceptance varied as a function of the Big Five personality characteristics as well as religiosity. The extent to which media and family influences related to swearing acceptance through potential mediating factors of personality characteristics and religiosity was assessed with structural equation modeling. Overall, the model was able to explain some of the relationship between media and family influences and the swearing acceptance of participants.
Health promoting outdoor environments - Associations between green space, and health, health-related quality of life and stress based on a Danish national representative survey

Aims: To investigate the associations between green space and health, health-related quality of life and stress, respectively. Methods: Data were derived from the 2005 Danish Health Interview Survey and are based on a region-stratified random sample of 21,832 adults. Data were collected via face-to-face interviews followed by a self-administered questionnaire, including the SF-36, which measures eight dimensions of health and the Perceived Stress Scale, which measures self-reported stress. A total of 11,238 respondents completed the interview and returned the questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the association between distance to green space and self-perceived stress. Results: Danes living more than 1 km away from the nearest green space report poorer health and health-related quality of life, i.e. lower mean scores on all eight SF-36 dimensions of health than respondents living closer. Respondents living more than 1 km away from a green space have 1.42 higher odds of experiencing stress than do respondents living less than 300 m from a green space. Respondents not reporting stress are more likely to visit a green space than are respondents reporting stress. Reasons for visiting green spaces differ significantly depending on whether or not respondents experience stress. Respondents reporting stress are likely to use green spaces to reduce stress. Conclusions: An association between distance to a green space and health and health-related quality of life was found. Further, the results indicate awareness among Danes that green spaces may be of importance in managing stress and that green spaces may play an important role as health-promoting environments.
Edge preserving motion estimation with occlusions correction for assisted 2D to 3D conversion

In this article we propose high quality motion estimation based on variational optical flow formulation with non-local regularization term. To improve motion in occlusion areas we introduce occlusion motion inpainting based on 3-frame motion clustering. Variational formulation of optical flow proved itself to be very successful, however a global optimization of cost function can be time consuming. To achieve acceptable computation times we adapted the algorithm that optimizes convex function in coarse-to-fine pyramid strategy and is suitable for modern GPU hardware implementation. We also introduced two simplifications of cost function that significantly decrease computation time with acceptable decrease of quality. For motion clustering based motion inpaitning in occlusion areas we introduce effective method of occlusion aware joint 3-frame motion clustering using RANSAC algorithm. Occlusion areas are inpainted by motion model taken from cluster that shows consistency in opposite direction. We tested our algorithm on Middlebury optical flow benchmark, where we scored around 20th position, but being one of the fastest method near the top. We also successfully used this algorithm in semi-automatic 2D to 3D conversion tool for spatio-temporal background inpainting, automatic adaptive key frame detection and key points tracking.
Recovering the triple coincidence of non-pure positron emitters in preclinical PET

Non-pure positron emitters, with their long half-lives, allow for the tracing of slow biochemical processes which cannot be adequately examined by the commonly used short-lived positron emitters. Most of these isotopes emit high-energy cascade gamma rays in addition to positron decay that can be detected and create a triple coincidence with annihilation photons. Triple coincidence is discarded in most scanners, however, the majority of the triple coincidence contains true photon pairs that can be recovered. In this study, we propose a strategy for recovering triple coincidence events to raise the sensitivity of PET imaging for non-pure positron emitters. To identify the true line of response (LOR) from a triple coincidence, a framework utilizing geometrical, energy and temporal information is proposed. The geometrical criterion is based on the assumption that the LOR with the largest radial offset among the three sub pairs of triple coincidences is least likely to be a true LOR. Then, a confidence time window is used to test the valid LOR among those within triple coincidence. Finally, a likelihood ratio discriminant rule based on the energy probability density distribution of cascade and annihilation gammas is established to identify the true LOR. An Inveon preclinical PET scanner was modeled with GATE (GEANT4 application for tomographic emission) Monte Carlo software. We evaluated the performance of the proposed method in terms of identification fraction, noise equivalent count rates (NECR), and image quality on various phantoms. With the inclusion of triple coincidence events using the proposed method, the NECR was found to increase from 11% to 26% and 19% to 29% for I-124 and Br-76, respectively, when 7.4–185 MBq of activity was used. Compared to the reconstructed images using double coincidence, this technique increased the SNR by 5.1–7.3% for I-124 and 9.3–10.3% for Br-76 within the activity range of 9.25–74 MBq, without compromising the spatial resolution or contrast. We conclude that the proposed method can improve the counting statistics of PET imaging for non-pure positron emitters and is ready to be implemented on current PET systems.
A new method for segmentation of FDG PET metabolic tumour volume using the peritumoural halo layer and a 10-step colour scale

Summary Aim: We observed a layer between tumour activity and background on FDG PET/CT with the 10-step colour scale and the window level set properly. We named the layer peritumoral halo layer (PHL). We performed this study to establish the reliability of metabolic tumor volume (MTV) segmentation using PHL (MTVPHL) in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma. Patients, methods: Of a total of 140 papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients, 70 (50.0%) had FDG-avid PTC. In these patients, MTVPHL, MTV segmented according to fixed 50% SUVmax (MTV50%), and fixed SUV with 2.5 to 4.0 (MTV2.5 to MTV4.0) were compared with pathologic tumour volume (PTV). The absolute percentage difference between MTVPHL and PTV was compared in micropapillary carcinoma (MPTC) and non-micropapillary carcinoma (non-MPTC) subgroups. The % SUVmax and SUV thresholds of MTVPHL were compared with tumour SUVmax. Results: Among the MTVs, MTV50% was not correlated with PTV (r = –0.16, p = 0.182) and was not reliable according to the Bland-Altman plot. Although MTV2.5, MTV3.0, MTV3.5, and MTV4.0 correlated with PTV (r = 0.85, 0.86, 0.87, and 0.87, respectively; p < 0.001), these MTVs were not reliable on Bland- Altman analyses. MTVPHL was significantly correlated with PTV (r = 0.80, p < 0.001), and the Bland-Altman plot did not show systemic error. The MTVPHL was more accurate in non-MPTC than in MPTC (p < 0.001), and the absolute % difference was smaller as PTV became larger (σ = –0.65, p < 0.001). The MTVPHL thresholds had correlations with SUVmax (% SUVmax threshold: σ = –0.87, p < 0.001; SUV threshold: r = 0.88, p < 0.001). Conclusions: MTVPHL was more reliable than MTV%SUVmax or MTVSUV. The reliability of MTVPHL improved with larger PTVs. The threshold of the MTVPHL was naturally altered by PHL according to SUVmax.