Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The power and omnipotence of voices: subordination and entrapment by voices and significant others

Background. Cognitive therapy for psychotic symptoms often embraces self-evaluative beliefs (e.g. self-worth) but whether and how such beliefs are related to delusions remains uncertain. In previous research we demonstrated that distress arising from voices was linked to beliefs about voices and not voice content alone. In this study we examine whether the relationship with the voice is a paradigm of social relationships in general, using a new framework of social cognition, ‘ranking’ theory. Method. In a sample of 59 voice hearers, measures of power and social rank difference between voice and voice hearer are taken in addition to parallel measures of power and rank in wider social relationships. Results. As predicted, subordination to voices was closely linked to subordination and marginalization in other social relationships. This was not the result of a mood-linked appraisal. Distress arising from voices was linked not to voice characteristics but social and interpersonal cognition. Conclusion. This study suggests that the power imbalance between the individual and his persecutor(s) may have origins in an appraisal by the individual of his social rank and sense of group identification and belonging. The results also raise the possibility that the appraisal of voice frequency and volume are the result of the appraisal of voices' rank and power. Theoretical and novel treatment implications are discussed.
Examining the Construction of the Perceived Teacher Identity of Secondary Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers in Career and Technical Education Classrooms

Given the current state of public education reform and policy conversations, a fundamental component of effective teaching is left out of the dialogue: teacher identity. At present, few studies were found in the literature that focus specifically on the construction of the perceived teacher identity of secondary family and consumer sciences (FCS) teachers in career and technical education (CTE) classrooms. Thus, exploring teachers' experiences and perceptions of how their professional identities developed is important not only for FCS teachers, but for all educators because examining the beliefs held by teachers can improve practice by helping teachers respond to the changes in education. The first purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of secondary FCS teachers in CTE classrooms as they relate to their beliefs about teaching. The second purpose was to further examine the meanings that these teachers make of these experiences and influences as they are connected to the construction of their perceived teaching identities. The researcher used a qualitative research design to examine the lived experiences of 10 FCS teachers. Guided by a theoretical framework of reflective practice, data were gathered using semi-structured participant interviews, researcher reflexive journal, and field notes. The findings are presented in narratives, one for each participant. Themes are identified within each narrative and common themes emerged across narratives. Among the results of the study were that beliefs about teaching are: reflective of the teacher, responsive to students’ needs, and related to the
High-level design validation using algorithmic debugging

This paper proposes a new environment for high-level LSI design validation using "Algorithmic Debugging" and evaluates its benefits on three significant examples. A design is specified at a high-level using the structured analysis (SA) method and some errors included in SA specifications are efficiently located by answering just a few queries from the debugger. The number of interactions between the designer and the debugger is reduced by a factor of ten to a hundred compared to conventional simulation based validation methodologies. This environment promises to be an important step towards efficient high-level LSI design validation. <<ETX>>
Learning statistically relevant edge structure improves low-level visual descriptors

Over the recent years, low-level visual descriptors, among which the most popular is the histogram of oriented gradients (HOG), have shown excellent performance in object detection and categorization. We form a hypothesis that the low-level image descriptors can be improved by learning the statistically relevant edge structures from natural images. We validate this hypothesis by introducing a new descriptor called the histogram of compositions (HoC). HoC exploits a learnt vocabulary of parts from a state-of-the-art hierarchical compositional model. Furthermore, we show that HoC is a complementary HoC descriptor to HOG. We experimentally compare our descriptor to the popular HOG descriptor on the task of object categorization. We have observed approximately 4% improved categorization performance of HoC over HOG at lower dimensionality of the descriptor. Furthermore, in comparison to HOG, we show a categorization improvement of approximately 10% when combining HOG with the proposed HoC.
Estimation of Factor Augmenting Technical Change: The Case of Us Agriculture

This paper deals with estimation of technical change through changes in input factor efficiency/productivity. The main advantage of this factor augmenting (FA) approach, unlike the generic time trend models of technical change, is that one can measure input-specific productivity, change in input productivity, and the contribution of each input to overall (aggregate) technical change. In general, one can obtain more information about the nature of technical change from the FA approach compared to the popular time trend models. We model FA technical change in both primal and dual setups. In the dual approach we consider both cost and profit functions in the single and multiple output cases. Output efficiency factors are also added in the multiple output FA cost function model. Time series and panel (state level) data from U.S. agriculture are used to estimate several FA cost function models. The standard time trend models are also estimated using both the data sets. A translog cost system is used for all the specifications. Finally, results from alternative models are analyzed. JEL Classification: 030
Optimization of Intrabone Delivery of Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells in a Swine Model Using Cell Radiolabeling with [89]zirconium

Intrabone (IB) hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) of umbilical cord blood in humans remains experimental and the technique has not been optimized. It is unknown whether hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) injected IB are initially retained in the marrow or rapidly enter into the venous circulation before homing to the marrow. To develop an IB‐injection technique that maximizes HPC marrow‐retention, we tracked radiolabeled human HPCs following IB‐injection into swine. We developed a method to radionuclide‐label HPCs using a long‐lived positron emitter 89Zr and protamine sulfate that resulted in cellular‐retention of low‐dose radioactivity. This approach achieved radioactivity levels sufficient for detection by positron emission tomography with both high sensitivity and spatial resolution when fused with computed tomography. We found that conditions utilized in pilot IB‐HCT clinical trials conducted by others led to both rapid drainage into the central venous circulation and cellular extravasation into surrounding muscle and soft tissues. By optimizing the needle design, using continuous real‐time intra‐marrow pressure monitoring, and by reducing the infusion‐volume and infusion‐rate, we overcame this limitation and achieved high retention of HPCs in the marrow. This method of IB cellular delivery is readily applicable in the clinic and could be utilized in future investigational IB‐HCT trials aimed at maximizing marrow retention of HPCs.
Complete and Accurate Discrete Complex Image Approximation of Periodic Green's Function in Layered Media

The periodic Green's functions (PGF) in layered media can be expressed as an infinite series in terms of the spectral domain Green's functions. The discrete complex image method (DCIM) can be used to approximate these spectral domain Green's functions. In this work, it is demonstrated that the complete and accurate DCIM approximation of the PGF is possible only when the DCIM approximation is obtained through the samples of the spectral domain Green's function along the real kρ axis. This choice of sampling path requires the extraction of surface wave pole contributions prior to the application of DCIM. Different forms of the Ewald method are utilized to efficiently compute the infinite summations associated with the complex images and the contribution of surface wave poles.
Predicting financial stress in farm businesses

This study uses a multinomial logit (MNL) model to examine financial strategies which may influence the likelihood of a farm becoming financially stressed in the next year. The model is operationalised by categorizing farms into one of three financial stress categories and accompanied by a comprehensive range of specification tests. The MNL model highlights the importance of industry and farm-specific factors on the incidence of financial stress. The model confirms the importance of increasing returns to equity as a strategy for reducing the likelihood of being classified as financially stressed. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.
Physiology of ski mountaineering racing.

The aim of this study was to quantify and describe the exercise intensity of ski mountaineering racing, and to identify the best physiological predictors of ski mountaineering racing. Before participating in the race in which heart rate (HR) and speed were continuously recorded, 10 trained ski-mountaineers performed a field maximal test to determine the first ventilatory threshold (VT1) and the respiratory compensation threshold (RCT) in order to establish 3 exercise intensity zones (Z1: below VT1, Z2: between VT1 and RCT, and Z3: above RCT). Energy cost (EC) of each subject was estimated on the HR/ V˙O2 relationship obtained during the field maximal test. VT1 and RCT threshold were equal to 84.2±3.0 and 94.5±1.7% of HR (max). Race time was significantly correlated with V˙O2max (r = -0.87), VT1 (r = -0.82) and RCT (r = -0.85) expressed for body mass unit. The mean race time and the mean HR were 101±11 min and 93.4±1.8% of HR (max). The % race time spent in Z1, Z2 and Z3, were 7.0±4.8, 51.3±4.7 and 42.0±6.5%, respectively. The mean value of EC during the two uphill of the race was 14.3±2.6 J x kg(-1) x m(-1). HR and speed decreased significantly during the second uphill whereas EC increased significantly by ∼15%. Data obtained in the present study represent the first qualitative description of physiology demand of ski mountaineering racing. The long period of time spent just below and above RCT suggest that ski-mountaineering can be viewed as one of the most strenuous endurance sports like cross-country skiing, running and off-road biking. In addition to high aerobic capacities, body mass seems to appear as a key factor given that performance in ski mountaineering is strongly correlated to relative common physiological variables. The changes of HR, speed and EC during the second uphill, which indicate the prevalence of fatigue, confirm the exhaustive character of ski mountaineering.
Hierarchy Organization Model Based on the Logic of Tasks

Hierarchy organization is suitable for multi-robot system application. Robot or collaborative robots group is considered as an agent, then the organization model consists of agents and the relations between them. This paper introduces the logic of tasks combined with description logic to construct logic system. According to related works [4], we can prove is decidable, complete and sound. Based on the logic system, author presented a formal task-oriented hierarchy organization model that can deduce a plan with a strategy can complete task or not.
Measuring the Value of the Academic Library: Return on Investment and Other Value Measures

Return on investment (ROI) is one method of measuring the value of a library's e-journal collection. In an international study designed to test an ROI formula developed as a case study at the University of Illinois, ROI of the value of e-journals to grants income was found to vary depending on the mission and subject emphasis of the institution. Faculty members report that e-journals have transformed the way they do research, including making them more productive and competitive. Future studies will examine ROI beyond grants income and beyond the value of e-journal collections.
Oil Prices and Stock Market Price in Nigeria

This paper examined the relationship between oil prices (international oil price and domestic oil price) and stock market price in Nigeria for the period spanning 1985:1 to 2010:4. The study utilised the Johansen's multivariate cointegration test and the vector error correction model (VECM). The Johansen's test showed that the variables are cointegrated, and the cointegration equation revealed that oil prices have significant relationship with stock market price in the long run. The VECM estimate only revealed a unidirectional causality from stock market price to international oil price in the long run. A unidirectional causality was also observed from domestic oil price to stock market price in the long run. The study recommended that policymakers, financial analyst and shareholders should into cognizance changes in international oil price and domestic oil price in their financial decisions given the significant impact of oil prices on stock market price in Nigeria.
GESTO: A Glove for Enhanced Sensing and Touching Based on Inertial and Magnetic Sensors for Hand Tracking and Cutaneous Feedback

The human hand represents a complex fascinating system with highly sensitive sensory capabilities and dexterous grasping and manipulation functionalities. As a consequence, estimating the hand pose and at the same time having the capability to provide haptic feedback in a wearable way may benefit areas such as rehabilitation, human–robot interaction, gaming, and many more. Existing solutions allow us to accurately measure the hand configuration and provide effective force feedback to the user. However, they have limited wearability/portability. In this paper, we present the wearable sensing/actuation system glove for enhanced sensing and touching (GESTO). It is based on inertial and magnetic sensors for hand tracking, coupled with cutaneous devices for the force feedback rendering. Unlike vision-based tracking systems, the sensing glove does not suffer from occlusion problems and lighting conditions. We properly designed the cutaneous devices in order to reduce possible interferences with the magnetic sensors and performed an experimental validation on ten healthy subjects. In order to measure the estimation accuracy of GESTO, we used a high-precision optical tracker. A comparison between using the glove with and without the haptic devices shows that the presence of them does not induce a statistically significant increase in the estimation error. Experimental results revealed the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The accuracy of our system, $3.32^\circ$ mean estimation error in the worst case, is comparable with the human ability of discriminating finger joint angle.
Herbal therapy: A review of emerging pharmacological tools in the management of diabetes mellitus in Africa

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic physiological glucose metabolic disorder. It has affected millions of people all over the world thereby having a significant impact on quality of life. The management of diabetes includes both nonpharmacological and conventional interventions. Drawbacks in conventional therapy have led to seeking alternative therapy in herbal medicine. Therefore, the need to review, elucidate and classify their mode of action in therapy for diabetes disease arises. Materials and Methods: Comprehensive literature reports were used to review all conventional agents and herbal therapy used in the management of diabetes. An online database search was conducted for medicinal plants of African origin that have been investigated for their antidiabetic therapeutic potentials. Results: The results showed that of the documented sixty five plants used, fourteen inhibit intestinal absorption of glucose, three exhibit insulin-mimetic properties, seventeen stimulate insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells, twelve enhance peripheral glucose uptake, one promotes regeneration of beta-cell of islets of Langerhans, thirteen ameliorate oxidative stress and twenty induces hypoglycemic effect (mode of action is still obscure). Thirteen of these plants have a duplicate mode of actions while one of them has three modes of actions. These agents have a similar mechanism of action as the conventional drugs. Conclusion: In conclusion, antidiabetic activities of these plants are well established; however, the molecular modulation remains unknown. It is envisaged that the use of herbal therapy will promote good health and improve the status of diabetic patients.
Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality among US adults with hypertension: the NHANES linked mortality study

Objectives: Research suggests that serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] are inversely associated with hypertension incidence. This study examined whether concentrations of 25(OH)D are inversely associated with mortality risk among US adults with hypertension. Methods: We analyzed data from the 2001–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with mortality data obtained through 2006. Hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models. Results: Of 2609 participants with hypertension, 191 died (including 68 CVD deaths) during an average of 3.7-year follow-up. Compared with participants with 25(OH)D concentrations in the highest quartile (≥29 ng/ml), the hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were 1.93 (95% CI 1.06–3.49), 1.32 (95% CI 0.85–2.04), and 1.36 (95% CI 0.84–2.22), respectively (P for trend <0.05), and the hazard ratios for CVD mortality were 3.21 (95% CI 1.14–8.99), 2.42 (95% CI 0.85–6.90), and 2.33 (95% CI 0.88–6.12), respectively (P for trend <0.05), in the first (<17 ng/ml), second (17–<23 ng/ml) and third (23–<29 ng/ml) quartiles of 25(OH)D after adjustment for potential confounding variables. Additionally, concentrations of 25(OH)D as a continuous variable were linearly and inversely associated with the risk of mortality from all causes (P = 0.012) and from CVD (P = 0.010). These relationships were not affected much by adjustment for baseline blood pressure and use of antihypertension medications. Conclusion: Concentrations of 25(OH)D were inversely associated with all-cause and CVD mortality among adults with hypertension in the US. Enhancing vitamin D intake may contribute to a lower risk for premature death.
Fudan at TRECVID 2015: Adaptive Feature Fusion for Multimedia Event Detection in Videos

TRECVID 2015 [4] Multimedia Event Detection (MED) is an interesting and challenging task on the detection of high level complex events in Internet videos [1]. In this notebook paper, we present an overview of our system, focusing on combining multiple feature representations to improve the performance. Speciﬁcally, with the outputs of the multiple features, we adopt a simple yet e ↵ ective fusion method to generate the ﬁnal predictions, where the optimal fusion weights are learned adaptively for each class
The detection of clinically occult nasopharyngeal carcinoma in patients following radiotherapy – an analysis of 69 patients

Abstract A prospective analysis of 69 patients who had been treated for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) by external radiotherapy was carried out. Biopsies from the posterior nasopharynx were performed and analyzed by in situ hybridization using an antisense Epstein-Barr Early RNA (EBER) radio-labelled riboprobe. None of the patients had evidence of disease in the nasopharynx. One patient was found to have nasopharyngeal carcinoma detected only by in situ hybridization. In the subsequent 18-month follow-up of these clinically- and biopsynegative patients, only one patient developed relapse in the nasopharynx. In situ hybridization is a valuable tool for the detection of NPC and should be routinely available in histopathology laboratories where NPC is regularly diagnosed.
Long-term results of intravitreal ranibizumab for osteoma-related choroidal neovascularization in a child

Though choroidal osteoma is a rare benign tumor, associated choroidal neovascularization (CNV) can be a cause of severe visual loss. A nine-year-old boy presented with one-month history of decreased vision in left eye. Upon a complete ophthalmologic examination, including fundus fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography, he was diagnosed with choroidal osteoma-related subfoveal CNV in the left eye. The CNV was associated with subretinal hemorrhage, subretinal fluid, and cystoid macular edema. Owing to the young age and subfoveal localization of the CNV, intravitreal ranibizumab injection was performed on this patient after a detailed discussion with the parents of its safety profile. No local or systemic complications were noted. No recurrence of CNV lesion was noted during 30 months of follow-up, and the vision was maintained. This report shows the favorable outcome of intravitreal injection of ranibizumab in choroidal osteoma-related CNV in a child.
Tourism development, rights consciousness and the empowerment of Chinese historical village communities1

In recent years, China's tourism researchers have started to pay attention to the empowerment of rural communities. Current theoretical research and social practices reflect that tourism needs to seek localized empowerment with respect to different types of tourism destinations. This paper, taking Furong Historical Village in Zhejiang Province as a case study, examines a special kind of Chinese historical village community in which the villagers’ consciousness of their rights is weak and tourism development is only in its initial stages. Based on the field surveys, this paper points out four roots of such a community's disempowerment: (1) the failure of political institutions to ensure the community's public interest; (2) accusations of historical villages ‘damaging protection’; (3) information asymmetry in the relationship between rural leaders and villagers; and (4) a sense of powerlessness in the daily lives of rural residents. Based on these findings, this paper suggests several empowerment paths: (1) placing the enhancement of psychological power as the core of community empowerment; (2) addressing villager empowerment needs according to different types, rather than generalizing a community as a whole; and (3) including a diversity of subjects in the process of empowerment. These empowerment paths would be a moderate extension toward increasing community empowerment, based on this empirical study.