Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Critical responses to neoliberal globalization in the Mercosur region: roads towards cosmopolitan democracy?

Thus far, the most articulate political theoretical response to the process of globalization is the theory of cosmopolitan democracy: given our democratic ideals and aspirations, globalization requires us to rethink the political community within which these ideals and aspirations can be realized. The problem of many models of cosmopolitan democracy, such as David Held's, is that they are partially detached from the real world historical processes. In this paper, we take a step towards correcting this bias. In the Mercosur region of Latin America, neoliberal globalization has led and will lead to a variety of critical political responses, some of which carry the seeds of cosmopolitan democracy. In Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil, it seems that there has occurred a dialectical deveopment of political consciousness to tackle directly the real conditions of people's lives. After defining our basic concepts - globalization, democracy and civic public spaces - we develop a categorization of different trans- and supranational responses to globalization. Our empirical research indicates the need to redefine the conceptual basis for cosmopolitan democracy in political economy terms. For the actors in the Mercosur region, the most pressing priorities have to do with tackling the problems caused by financial globalization and the repressive governance of the globalising economy. However, instead of legalist blueprints, there seems to be a quest for more imaginative and context-sensitive (radical) reforms.
Antioxidant and antibacterial activities of various extracts and fractions of fresh tea leaves and green tea.

Polyphenol content, polyphenol yield, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of methanol, ethanol and water extracts and their crude, ethyl acetate and water fractions derived from fresh tea leaves (FTL) and green tea (GT) were evaluated. Ethyl acetate fractions of ethanolic extracts contained the highest polyphenol content in FTL and GT samples (680.2 and 560.8 mg gallic acid equivalent g -1 dry extract, respectively). For each of 3 extraction solvents, ethyl acetate fractions always had highest polyphenol content, for both teas. Ethyl acetate fractions of water extracts of FTL and GT had highest antioxidant activity (80.8 and 78.6 g ascorbic acid 100g -1 dry extract). A rather high correlation coefficient (R 2 = 0.9376 for FTL and 0.9783 for GT) was obtained between antioxidant activity to total polyphenol content for both tea. Ethyl acetate fractions of extracts showed antibacterial activity on S. aureus and B. cereus . Crude extract of FTL were also effective on S. aureus .
Creativity and Goal Conflict

This study assessed the relation of goal conflict variables to faculty-rated creativity in advanced students of art, physics, and ecology. Neither the amount of conflict between personal strivings nor the amount of ambivalence felt toward strivings predicted ratings of creativity. However, the degree to which subjects felt that they could handle and ultimately resolve their striving conflicts was correlated with creativity. These results support the proposal that the ability to tolerate conflict is a core characteristic of creative persons. They are also consistent with the claim that creativity results from exceptional mental health rather than from illness.
Location grounding in multimodal local search

Computational models of dialog context have often focused on unimodal spoken dialog or text, using the language itself as the primary locus of contextual information. But as we move from spoken interaction to situated multimodal interaction on mobile platforms supporting a combination of spoken dialog with graphical interaction, touch-screen input, geolocation, and other non-linguistic contextual factors, we will need more sophisticated models of context that capture the influence of these factors on semantic interpretation and dialog flow. Here we focus on how users establish the location they deem salient from the multimodal context by grounding it through interactions with a map-based query system. While many existing systems rely on geolocation to establish the location context of a query, we hypothesize that this approach often ignores the grounding actions users make, and provide an analysis of log data from one such system that reveals errors that arise from that faulty treatment of grounding. We then explore and evaluate, using live field data from a deployed multimodal search system, several different context classification techniques that attempt to learn the location contexts users make salient by grounding them through their multimodal actions.
Quality Appraisal of Clinical Practice Guidelines on Pancreatic Cancer

AbstractClinical practice guidelines (CPGs) play an important role in health care. The guideline development process should be precise and rigorous to ensure that the results are reproducible and not vague. To determine the quality of guidelines, the Appraisal of Guidelines and Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument was developed and introduced.The objective of this study is to assess the methodological quality of CPGs on pancreatic cancer.Five databases (included MEDLINE and EMBASE) and guideline websites were searched till April, 2014. The methodological quality of the guidelines was assessed by 4 authors independently using the AGREE II instrument.From 2526 citations, 21 relevant guidelines were included. The overall agreement among reviewers was moderate (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.86, 95% confidence interval 0.64–0.96). The mean scores were moderate for the domains “scope and purpose” and “clarity of presentation”; however, they were low for the domains “stakeholder involvement” (31.22), “rigor of development”, “applicability”, and “editorial independence”. These domain scores were lower when compared with international levels. There are 5 (23.81%) guidelines that described the systematic methods for searching. Moreover, only 5 (23.81%) guidelines reported that methodological expertise were included in the guideline developing teams.The quality and transparency of the development process and the consistency in the reporting of pancreatic cancer guidelines need to be improved. Many other methodological disadvantages were identified. In the future, pancreatic cancer CPGs should base on the best available evidence rigorously developed and reported. Greater efforts are needed to provide high-quality guidelines that serve as a useful and reliable tool for clinical decision making in this field.
Opinion Mining in a Code-Mixed Environment: A Case Study with Government Portals

With the phenomenal growth in social media, citizens are coming forward to participate more in discussions on socially relevant topics including government policies, public health etc. India is not an exception to this, and the website mygov.in launched by the Government of India acts as a platform for discussion on such topics. People raise their viewpoints as comments and blogs on various topics. In India, being a diverse country, citizens write their opinions in different languages, which are often in mixed-languages. Code-Mixing refers to the mixing of two or more languages in speech or in a text, and this poses several challenges. In this paper, we propose a deep learning based system for opinion mining in an environment of code-mixed languages. The insights obtained by analyzing the techniques lay the foundation for better lives of citizens, by improving the efﬁcacy and efﬁciency of public services, and satisfying complex information needs arising within this context. Moreover, understanding the deep feelings can help government to anticipate deep social changes and adapt to population expectations, which will help building Smart city.
Homographic active shape models for view-independent facial analysis

This work addresses the problem of face modelling when the available images are taken from different viewpoints other than frontal. Examples of this situation can be found in surveillance systems, car driver images or whenever it is not possible to place a camera in front of the subjects' face. A number of solutions have been proposed in the literature to deal with these images, but in general they need special databases with explicit 3D data or multiple views to allow for its estimation. As opposed to that, we propose a method able to model faces from a single two-dimensional image captured from a generic viewpoint, as long as there are only bounded occlusions (i.e. only those produced by the nose). Taking advantage of the fact that most facial features lie approximately on the same plane, projective geometry is used to link different views. An Active Shape Model constructed with frontal view images can then be directly applied to the segmentation of pictures taken from other viewpoints.
Comparative study on 8T SRAM with different type of sense amplifier

This paper presents the comparative study on 8T SRAM with different type of sense amplifier. These sense amplifiers are voltage-mode sense amplifier (VMSA) and current-mode sense amplifier (CMSA). The first objective of this research is to design the 8T SRAM and sense amplifier and the next objective is to identify which design has better performance in term of power, speed, stability and area. Sense amplifiers are one of the most critical circuits in the periphery of CMOS memories that plays an important role to reduce the overall sensing delay and voltage. Earlier voltage mode sense amplifiers sense the voltage difference at bit and bit lines bar but as the memory size increase the bit line and date line capacitances increases. The tools used for simulation is SILVACO EDA Gateway and SILVACO EDA Expert for layout using 0.18um technology. The results show that the CMSA has higher speed with lower delay, and low power dissipation than VMSA. But, VMSA has smaller cell area and higher noise margin than CMSA. CMSA is more suitable for high speed performance and low power circuitry and VMSA is best suited for stability and smaller design.
Randomized placebo-controlled trial of donepezil in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy

Objective: There is no effective treatment for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Because results of immunochemical and pharmacologic studies suggest that the cholinergic system may play a role in the cognitive and motor features of PSP, the authors investigated the effects of donepezil (10 mg/day), an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, in 21 patients with PSP (mean age ± SD; 65.7 ± 4.7 years) by a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial. Methods: Donepezil and placebo were administered for 6 weeks each with a 1-month washout period. Patients were evaluated before and at the end of each treatment phase. Outcome measures evaluated neuropsychiatric, global cognitive, frontal, memory, motor, and activities of daily living (ADL) status. Results: Two patients withdrew during the washout phase because of unrelated medical problems. Donepezil-induced systemic side effects were transient and generally mild. Because of worsening of motor function, three patients received 5 mg/day of donepezil. All patients achieved blood and CSF therapeutic levels of donepezil. While the patients were taking donepezil, their Double Memory Test scores improved, whereas their ADL/mobility scores significantly worsened. Conclusion: The findings suggest that acetylcholinesterase inhibitors such as donepezil have at best selective, modest effects on cognition in patients with PSP. In light of its deleterious effects on ADL/mobility, donepezil is not recommended for this patient population.
Comparison of cooperative schemes using joint channel coding and high-order modulation

In this paper, we compare cooperative networks using either coded amplify-and-forward, coded cooperation or distributed turbo coding, over quasi-static fading channels under the condition of identical data rate and power consumption. We demonstrate that, when the quality of the communication channels is sufficiently high, cooperative transmission provides gains with respect to direct transmission while coded amplify-and- forward performs similarly to coded cooperation. Furthermore, we compare selfish and unselfish coded cooperation and show that, in most cases, selfishness provides a performance advantage over unselfishness.
BER performance enhancement in OFDM AF fixed gain relay systems

We analysed bit error rate (BER) performance of dual-hop OFDM amplify and forward (AF) relay system with fixed gain (FG) at relay station (R), implementing ordered subcarrier mapping (SCM) at R. A scenario with Rayleigh fading statistics on both hops is assumed. In previous works we showed that in the region of small values of average signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) on hops best-to-best SCM (BTB SCM) scheme should be applied, while in the region of medium and high values of average SNRs on hops, BER performance improvement is achieved by implementing best-to-worst SCM (BTW SCM) scheme. In this paper we analysed new solution, where in the assumed relay systems with SCM, one or more subcarriers having the lowest SNRs on each hop are omitted. Besides, we examined power balance of the system implementing SCM through comparison of BER performance expressed as a function of power transmitted per subcarrier, with BER performance of the ordinary OFDM AF FG relay system, as well as with the performance in case of direct transmission between source of information (S) and destination terminal (D).
The psychology and psychopathology of attention.

The study of attention has played a significant role in the history of both clinical psychiatry and experimental psychology. The former is marked by unconditional positive regard, while the latter reveals a variable course that extends over the span of a century. The first psychology laboratory gave primacy to attentional studies and other laboratories modeled that interest. Then for a period of 30 years that initial involvement diminished to the point of utter rejection of attention as a viable area of research. Yet today we witness a sparkling recovery and a resurgence of scientific interest in attentional processes. It is intriguing to speculate on the reasons underlying the consistently positive history of psychiatry, in comparison with the markedly ambivalent posture of psychology over an equivalent time period.
Modeling the Cross-Cultural Adaptation Process of Immigrants Using Categorical Data Clustering

This paper introduces a quantitative method for social data analysis, which is based on the use of categorical data clustering. More specifically, we employ categorical data clustering to analyze the cross-cultural adaptation process of immigrants in a foreign cultural environment To assess the extend to which individuals adapt themselves in a strange cultural environment we performed an experiment, where a set of cross-cultural categorical data was generated by using a questionnaire over a number of immigrants who live in Greece. The key idea is to cluster the available categorical data and to treat these clusters as patterns, each of which corresponds to a certain level of adaptation capability. Then, we detect and analyze changes of these patterns through time. These changes directly indicate how the cross-cultural adaptation process proceeds, In order to cluster the available data set we use the well-known ROCK algorithm
The other voices of international higher education: an empirical study of students' perceptions of British university education in China

Against a backdrop of globalised higher education (HE) – one in which a number of British universities are setting up campuses overseas – China represents a vast and lucrative market. This paper presents data on the perceptions and experiences of 20 Chinese students who are currently studying at a British university's campus located in China. Drawing upon theoretical and empirical linkages between the expansion of British HE into overseas markets and neo-colonial (or imperialist) activities, this paper discovers that sociocultural perceptions and ideological constructs such as ‘creativity’ and ‘value’ form a vital basis for the exchange of knowledge in transnational HE.
Public Relations As Structuration: A Prescriptive Critique of the StarLink Global Food Contamination Case

In this case study, the contamination of the world food supply with genetically modified (GM) corn in 2000 by the transnational corporation, Aventis CropScience, provides the context for considering how theory and practice can be adapted to support a more dialogue-based approach to public relations. As a poststructural alternative, Giddens's theory of structuration is presented as a paradigmatic alternative to the traditional functionalism that is evident in the Aventis public relations experience.
Inbound time stamping for detecting rogue access point

Rogue Access Point (RAP) is a network vulnerability phenomenon of improper usage of wireless Access Point unknown to an organizational network engineer.Once it is inside the subnet or Local Area Network (wired structure) then we need to rectify of its availability.The process of rectifying can be classified into passive monitoring, using visualization and traffic characteristic.We prefer traffic characteristic scanning where a packet capturing can become one of the best tools to differentiate between wired and wireless network.Our main concentration is time stamping as a value added to packet capturing for wired and wireless differentiation.The time stamping is done at two point inbound inside subnet focusing on a PAYLOAD and its ACK using network test bed measured by finding an average of 100 PAYLOAD-ACK pairs.The test show about 16 to 56 percent differences between wired and wireless g mode and 15 to 26 percent differences between wired and wireless n mode.As a result, it shows that there is more delay on wireless than the wired and easier for us to detect RAP existence in wired network.
Preliminary results of SEU fault-injection on multicore processors in AMP mode

The current technological challenge for computing systems is to use multicore processors in order to ensure reliability, improve performance, and reduce power consumption. This paper presents a method and preliminary results of SEU fault-injection campaigns performed on multicore systems in asymmetric multi-processing mode. The target used for this purpose was a Quad-core processor. This work aims at validating the efficiency of TMR fault-tolerance method and to show the weakest variables of a given application running over multicore systems.
RFID augmented devices for autonomous sensing and computation

In several application scenarios, the integration between passive RFID devices and sensors would represent a real added value, primarily in terms of cost and ease of use. In this work, two different passive RFID devices with sensing and computing capabilities are presented. The former device, named RAMSES, relies on a novel approach exploiting a new-generation I2C-UHF RFID chip. RAMSES is able to write sensor data into the EPC code and communicate up to 5 meters of distance from a conventional RFID Class-1 Generation-2 (Gen2) reader. The latter platform, named SPARTACUS, represents the first example in literature of RFID-based device embedding sensing and actuation functionalities, distributed computation, and bidirectional communication with the Gen2 reader. Satisfactory operating range, sensing, computation, data storage, and cost-effectiveness are the main strengths making the proposed devices definitely suitable for a wide variety of applications.
Artificial Life and the Chinese Room Argument

Strong artificial life refers to the thesis that a sufficiently sophisticated computer simulation of a life form is a life form in its own right. Can John Searle's Chinese room argument [12]originally intended by him to show that the thesis he dubs strong AI is falsebe deployed against strong ALife? We have often encountered the suggestion that it can be (even in print; see Harnad [8]). We do our best to transfer the argument from the domain of AI to that of ALife. We do so in order to show once and for all that the Chinese room argument proves nothing about ALife. There may indeed be powerful philosophical objections to the thesis of strong ALife, but the Chinese room argument is not among them.
Attachments past and present: Implications for therapeutic intervention with mother-infant dyads

Abstract Theory and research on parent-infant attachment and on adult representations of past relationships suggest several possible themes and approaches for therapeutic intervention with parent-infant dyads. These include strategies aimed at increasing the parent's insight into the connection between past and present relationships and enhancing the parent's understanding of the child's needs and feelings, as well as the use of the therapeutic alliance to help the parent move toward more positive working models of self and others. Project STEEP (Steps Toward Effective, Enjoyable Parenting), an ongoing study of the effectiveness of preventive intervention with new mothers, provides one model of therapeutic intervention built on attachment theory and research.
Real-Time Spin Estimation of Ping-Pong Ball Using Its Natural Brand

Predicting the trajectory of flying objects with spin is a challenge but an essential task in many fields, especially in military and sports. Robots playing ping-pong is a very good platform to validate the trajectory prediction method. Various vision systems have been proposed, but only position information was used in most cases, which limits their capability to predict the trajectory of the spinning ball. Based on the fact that a spinning ball's motion can be separated into translation movement and spinning with respect to the ball's center, this paper proposes a novel vision system that can provide both the position and the spin information of a flying ball in a real-time mode with high accuracy. With a frame difference-based recognition method, the natural brand of a ball can be recognized under normal illumination conditions. Then the 3-D pose of the ball can be restored in ball coordinates. With the observation and analysis that the axis and angular speed of spin do not change during flying, the spin state can be estimated using a weighted-random sample consensus-based plane fitting method. Combining both position and spin information in a force-based dynamic model, accurate trajectory prediction can be achieved via an extended Kalman filter. Experimental results show the effectiveness and precision of the proposed method.
The effects of elicitation on the expression of key enzyme genes and on production of tropane alkaloids in Anisodus acutangulus plant

Tropane alkaloids (TAs) including hyoscyamine, anisodamine, anisodine and scopolamine are widely used as anticholinergic agents, which act on the parasympathetic nervous system, and their clinical demands are increasing rapidly. Anisodus acutangulus is a solanaceous perennial plant that is endemic to China with good potential for TA production and classified as an endangered species in China. Therefore there is a need to improve the TA production in this resource plant by biology methods. In our research, three different important elicitors including methyl jasmonate (MJ), yeast elicitor (YE) and abscisic acid (ABA) were used to study their effects on TA production, and genes expressions in A. acutangulus plant under each treatment were examined. The results revealed that TA production was induced by all the three treatments. However, its quantity varies with inducers used. The effect induced by MJ and YE were significant, while the effect induced by ABA was not obviously. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the relationship between TA production and genes expression profile induced by different elicitors in cultivated A. acutangulus plant, which should provide some useful information on how to improve TA production with the cultivated A. acutangulus plant in the near future.