Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mock Jurors' Ratings of Mitigating Value in Capital Mitigation: Role of Impairment and Defendant Effort

WEEKS, STEPHANIE WRIGHT. Mock Jurors' Ratings of Mitigating Value in Capital Mitigation: Role of Impairment and Defendant Effort. (Under the direction of Jim Luginbuhl.) Applying attribution theory to capital sentencing decisions, it was hypothesized that temporal location of mitigation (suggesting defendant impairment) and level of defendant effort would affect mock jurors' ratings of mitigating value and subsequent life v. death votes. This was tested experimentally in a 2 (type of mitigation: proximal v. remote-chronic) x 2 (defendant effort: high v. low) design with 240 university psychology students. Two sentencing scenarios were nested within each level of type of mitigation. Thus, participants received one of eight sentencing scenarios. Participants rated the evidence on a variety of dimensions, including perceived defendant impairment, effort and responsibility. They also assigned mitigating value to the circumstances presented in the scenarios and indicated a final penalty vote (life in prison or death). Multivariate analysis of variance results indicated that outcomes were affected by whether the mitigation had a recent or distant onset, but they were not affected by the level of defendant effort. The mitigating value rating was a significant predictor of the vote for life, as more mitigating value was associated with an increased likelihood of voting for life. Supplementary analyses indicated that perceived impairment was a significant mediator of the relationship between mitigating value and the vote for life. When controlling for perceptions of impairment, the predictive power of mitigating value was diminished. These results support previous qualitative and exploratory experimental research concerning the efficacy of capital mitigation. Mock Jurors' Responses to Capital Mitigation ii
Sensory reflex control for a pneumatic biped robot

This paper presents a bionic control strategy for a pneumatic biped robot based on sensory reflexes. The proposed controller consists of a rhythm motion controller and a torso attitude controller. The rhythm motion controller is modeled as motor neurons and modulated by global motion feedback, joints coordination feedback and joint angle feedback. The torso attitude controller is designed to maintain a desired torso attitude. Simulation results show that the proposed walking strategy not only has the ability to suppress the bifurcation phenomenon, but also has a good robustness against unexpected external pushes. The effectiveness of the proposed method was confirmed by walking experiments of a planar biped robot which is actuated by pneumatic muscles.
Interaction as a bridge between cognition and robotics

The triplet formed by studies of cognition, interaction, and robotics offers a number of opportunities for symbiotic relationships and mutual benefits. One such avenue is explored by the workshop’s main theme in which cognition is seen as a bridge between interaction and robotics. Exploring ideas along that direction leads, as also discussed here, amongst others to the question of how theoryof-mind mechanisms might facilitate interaction between humans and robots. A complementary view that we explore more fully here sees interaction as the bridge that connects robotics to relevant research on cognition. We follow recent trends in social cognition that go beyond studying social interaction as the outcome of the individuals’ cognitive processes by seeing it as a constitutive and enabling element of social cognition. Here, we discuss this idea and show that it leads, amongst others, to the question of how interaction can be a constitutive element of a robot’s cognitive architecture. It also leads to pointers towards research in the cognitive sciences that is beneficial to robotics but goes beyond cognitive architectures themselves. We show that considering the degree to which the robot is perceived by its end user as a tool and/or social partner points, for instance, to distributed and/or social cognition approaches for methodologies to evaluate human-robot interaction.
Performance Analysis of Motion-Sensor Behavior for User Authentication on Smartphones

The growing trend of using smartphones as personal computing platforms to access and store private information has stressed the demand for secure and usable authentication mechanisms. This paper investigates the feasibility and applicability of using motion-sensor behavior data for user authentication on smartphones. For each sample of the passcode, sensory data from motion sensors are analyzed to extract descriptive and intensive features for accurate and fine-grained characterization of users’ passcode-input actions. One-class learning methods are applied to the feature space for performing user authentication. Analyses are conducted using data from 48 participants with 129,621 passcode samples across various operational scenarios and different types of smartphones. Extensive experiments are included to examine the efficacy of the proposed approach, which achieves a false-rejection rate of 6.85% and a false-acceptance rate of 5.01%. Additional experiments on usability with respect to passcode length, sensitivity with respect to training sample size, scalability with respect to number of users, and flexibility with respect to screen size were provided to further explore the effectiveness and practicability. The results suggest that sensory data could provide useful authentication information, and this level of performance approaches sufficiency for two-factor authentication on smartphones. Our dataset is publicly available to facilitate future research.
Formalizing the Design, Evaluation, and Application of Interaction Techniques for Immersive Virtual Environments

Immersive virtual environments (VEs) have potential in many application areas, but many complex VE systems exhibit usability and interaction problems. This is partly due to a lack of consideration or understanding of 3D interaction tasks and techniques. This paper proposes the systematic study of the design, evaluation, and application of VE interaction techniques. In this methodology, design and evaluation are based on a formal task analysis and categorization of techniques, using multiple performance measures. As a direct consequence of our use of this methodology, we also present a variety of novel designs and evaluation results with respect to interaction techniques for three common VE tasks. ( 1999 Academic Press
User-specific skin temperature-aware DVFS for smartphones

Skin temperature of mobile devices intimately affects the user experience. Power management schemes built into smartphones can lead to quickly crossing a user's threshold of tolerable skin temperature. Furthermore, there is a significant variation among users in terms of their sensitivity. Hence, controlling the skin temperature as part of the device's power management scheme is paramount. To achieve this, we first present a method for estimating skin and screen temperature at run-time using a combination of available on-device thermal sensors and performance indicators. In an Android-based smartphone, we achieve 99.05% and 99.14% accuracy in estimations of back cover and screen temperatures, respectively. Leveraging this run-time predictor, we develop User-specific Skin Temperature-Aware (USTA) DVFS mechanism to control the skin temperature. Performance of USTA is tested both with benchmarks and user tests comparing USTA to the standard Android governor. The results show that more users prefer to use USTA as opposed to the default DVFS mechanism.
An algorithm based on resolution for the satisfiability problem

The satisfiability problem is the core problem in artificial intellgence. The algorithm directional resolution(DR) is a well known method based on resolution for satisfiability problem. But the number of clauses has great impact on the efficiency of the method. In this paper, an algorithm SRDR is proposed to solve the problem. SRDR is based on algorithm DR and splitting rule. By using splitting rule, the number of clauses can be reduced obviously. Furthermore, the strategy MO is designed for SRDR. With the strategy, we can get a better order of variables and the efficiency of SRDR is improved. The experimental data shows that SRDR is more efficient that DR.
Long-term non-catatonic mutism in schizophrenia: cultural influences

ABSTRACT Selective mutism stemming from social anxiety is not rare in childhood and can also occur, though less frequently, in adulthood. Mutism can be one component of a catatonic syndrome but it can also occur, as reviewed in this paper, as a symptom in non-catatonic schizophrenic illness. Reviewing mutism in non-catatonic schizophrenia in the Google Scholar database (1995–2015), a large majority of reports originate in the Indian subcontinent, which raises the question of what this symptom might mean from a perspective of culture, ethnicity and religion. Silence is valued in many cultures and is an integral part of many religious rites but appears to have special spiritual value in India, which may explain the prevalence in that country of long-term mutism in the context of schizophrenia. Mutism manifesting in other diagnostic categories may also be prevalent in India, but perhaps less likely to come to psychiatric attention. A case history of prolonged non-catatonic mutism in an Orthodox Jewish woman with schizophrenia is included, an exception that perhaps proves the rule because silence is also of great spiritual significance in Orthodox Judaism. The psychological uses of silence and the value one’s culture places on silence appear to determine the symptom of mutism.
UGT1A7 and UGT1A9 polymorphisms predict response and toxicity in colorectal cancer patients treated with capecitabine/irinotecan.

PURPOSE Capecitabine and irinotecan are commonly used in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). We hypothesized that germline polymorphisms within genes related to drug target (thymidylate synthase) or metabolizing enzymes (UDP-glucuronosyltransferase, UGT) would impact response and toxicity to the combination of capecitabine plus irinotecan (CPT-11). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Sixty-seven patients with measurable CRC were treated with irinotecan i.v. (100 or 125 mg/m(2)) on days 1 and 8 and capecitabine orally (900 or 1,000 mg/m(2), twice daily) on days 2 through 15 of each 3-week cycle. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood and genotyped using Pyrosequencing, GeneScan, and direct sequencing (Big Dye terminator) technologies. RESULTS The overall objective response rate was 45% with 21 patients (31%) exhibiting grade 3 or 4 diarrhea and 3 patients (4.5%) demonstrating grade 3 or 4 neutropenia in the first two cycles. Low enzyme activity UGT1A7 genotypes, UGT1A7*2/*2 (six patients) and UGT1A7*3/*3 (seven patients), were significantly associated with antitumor response (p = 0.013) and lack of severe gastrointestinal toxicity (p = 0.003). In addition, the UGT1A9 -118 (dT)(9/9) genotype was significantly associated with reduced toxicity (p = 0.002) and increased response (p = 0.047). There were no statistically significant associations between UGT1A1, UGT1A6, or thymidylate synthase genotypes and toxicity or tumor response. CONCLUSIONS These data strongly suggest that UGT1A7 and/or UGT1A9 genotypes may be predictors of response and toxicity in CRC patients treated with capecitabine plus irinotecan. Specifically, patients with genotypes conferring low UGT1A7 activity and/or the UGT1A9 (dT)(9/9) genotype may be particularly likely to exhibit greater antitumor response with little toxicity.
Analysis of the distribution of -asarone in rat hippocampus, brainstem, cortex and cerebellum with gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS)

The β-asarone was a major component of Acorus tatarinowii Schott which had significant pharmacological effects on the central nervous system (CNS). We have reported that β-asarone can pass through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and then go into the brain tissues in the 2002. However, the β-asarone in the brain blood was not excluded, which might lead to a false positive result. In this study, we used the cardio-perfusion method to exclude the β-asarone in the brain blood then examined the brain tissues with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Meanwhile we hypothesized that the β-asarone could be widely distributed without target regions in the brain. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the distribution of β-asarone in rat hippocampus, brainstem, cortex and cerebellum. We found that β-asarone could be detected in rat hippocampus, brainstem, cortex and cerebellum but the β-asarone amount was less than our previous results, which indicated the β-asarone in brain blood had affected the assay of β-asarone in the brain tissues. Meanwhile, we found that distribution of β-asarone among the hippocampus, brainstem, cortex and cerebellum did not have significant differences. We concluded that β-asarone could pass through BBB and be widely distributed without target regions in the brain. Key words: Distribution of β-asarone, Acorus tatarinowii Schott, hippocampus, brainstem, cortex, cerebellum, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
Physical properties of two compact high-velocity clouds possibly associated with the leading arm of the Magellanic system

Aims. We observed two compact high-velocity clouds HVC 291+26+195 and HVC 297+09+253 to analyse their structure, dynamics, and physical parameters. In both cases there is evidence for an association with the Leading Arm of the Magellanic Clouds. The goal of our study is to learn more about the origin of the two CHVCs and to use them as probes for the structure and evolution of the Leading Arm. Methods. We have used the Parkes 64-m radio telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to study the two CHVCs in the 21-cm line emission of neutral hydrogen. The observations with a single-dish and a synthesis telescope allow us to analyse both the diffuse, extended emission as well as the small-scale structure of the clouds. We present a method to estimate the distance of the two CHVCs. Results. The investigation of the line profiles of HVC 297+09+253 reveals the presence of two line components in the spectra which can be identified with a cold and a warm gas phase. In addition, we find a distinct head-tail structure in combination with a radial velocity gradient along the tail, suggesting a ram-pressure interaction of this cloud with an ambient medium. HVC 291+26+195 has only a cold gas phase and no head-tail structure. The ATCA data show several cold, compact clumps in both clouds which, in the case of HVC 297+09+253, are embedded in the warm, diffuse envelope. All these clumps have very narrow HI lines with typical line widths between 2 and 4 km s -1 FWHM, yielding an upper limit for the kinetic temperature of the gas of T max = 300 K. We obtain distance estimates for both CHVCs of the order of 10 to 60 kpc, providing additional evidence for an association of the clouds with the Leading Arm. Assuming a distance of 50 kpc, we get Hi masses of 5.9 x 10 3 M ⊙ , and 4.0 x 10 4 M ⊙ for HVC 291+26+195 and HVC 297+09+253, respectively.
Functional alterations in the amygdala following traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) afflicts approximately 3.8 million people each year, in the United States alone. In addition to the largely acute physical and cognitive symptoms of TBI, patients exhibit a heightened risk of developing persistent neuropsychological symptoms including anxiety, aggression, rage, depression/ anhedonia and apathy in the months to years after TBI. Despite the deleterious impact of these neuropsychological symptoms, very little is known of their neurological bases and there is currently no treatment targeting the underlying neuropathology giving rise to these symptoms. Employing a murine model of mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (mTBI), known as lateral fluid percussion injury (LFPI), we examined the effects mTBI on the physiology and function of the amygdala; a brain structure critical in processing emotional responses to sensory stimuli in humans. Behavioral experiments using a cued-fear conditioning paradigm, revealed significant deficits in the behavioral threat response of brain injured animals. We then utilized a combination of intracellular, extracellular, and voltage sensitive dye imaging (VSD) recording techniques to determine electrophysiological alterations in the amygdala following LFPI. These experiments revealed that LPFI causes a robust decrease in network excitability and circuit propagation strength in the basolateral and central amygdalae (BLA & CeA), without affecting the intrinsic excitability of BLA pyramidal neurons. Further experiments demonstrated that the injury-induced decrease in BLA network excitability is due in part to a decrease in glutamatergic excitation and preservation or augmentation of GABAergic inhibition; which increases the ratio inhibition to excitation in the amygdala of brain injured animals. This work demonstrates that mTBI has robust effects on amygdalar physiology that ultimately disrupt its normal function. The brain injury induced alterations in amygdalar function described herein, provide a potential neurological substrate for the neuropsychological symptoms suffered by TBI patients. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Neuroscience First Advisor Akiva S. Cohen
Uniqueness in Law of the stochastic convolution process driven by Lévy noise

We will give a proof of the following fact. If $\mathfrak{A}_1$ and $\mathfrak{A}_2$, $\tilde \eta_1$ and $\tilde \eta_2$, $\xi_1$ and $\xi_2$ are two examples of filtered probability spaces, time homogeneous compensated Poisson random measures, and progressively measurable Banach space valued processes such that the laws on $L^p([0,T],{L}^{p}(Z,\nu ;E))\times \mathcal{M}_I([0,T]\times Z)$ of the pairs $(\xi_1,\eta_1)$ and $(\xi_2,\eta_2)$, are equal, and $u_1$ and $u_2$ are the corresponding stochastic convolution processes, then the laws on $ (\mathbb{D}([0,T];X)\cap L^p([0,T];B)) \times L^p([0,T],{L}^{p}(Z,\nu ;E))\times \mathcal{M}_I([0,T]\times Z) $, where $B \subset E \subset X$, of the triples $(u_i,\xi_i,\eta_i)$, $i=1,2$, are equal as well. By $\mathbb{D}([0,T];X)$ we denote the Skorokhod space of $X$-valued processes.
Automated Polyp Detection in Colon Capsule Endoscopy

Colorectal polyps are important precursors to colon cancer, a major health problem. Colon capsule endoscopy is a safe and minimally invasive examination procedure, in which the images of the intestine are obtained via digital cameras on board of a small capsule ingested by a patient. The video sequence is then analyzed for the presence of polyps. We propose an algorithm that relieves the labor of a human operator analyzing the frames in the video sequence. The algorithm acts as a binary classifier, which labels the frame as either containing polyps or not, based on the geometrical analysis and the texture content of the frame.We assume that the polyps are characterized as protrusions that are mostly round in shape. Thus, a best fit ball radius is used as a decision parameter of the classifier. We present a statistical performance evaluation of our approach on a data set containing over 18 900 frames from the endoscopic video sequences of five adult patients. The algorithm achieves 47% sensitivity per frame and 81% sensitivity per polyp at a specificity level of 90%. On average, with a video sequence length of 3747 frames, only 367 false positive frames need to be inspected by an operator.
English Lexical Sample Task Description

The English lexical sample task (adjectives and nouns) for SENSEVAL 2 was set up according to the same principles as for SENSEVAL-1, as reported in (Kilgarriff and Rosenzweig, 2000). (Adjectives and nouns only, because the data preparation for the verbs lexical sample was undertaken alongside that for the English all-words task, and is reported in Palmer et al (this volume). All discussion below up to the Results section covers only adjectives and nouns. )
Performance analysis and comparison of three IPMSM with high homopolar inductance for electric vehicle applications

This paper presents a comparison of different permanent magnets synchronous motors (PMSM) having a high homopolar or zero-sequence inductance. The high value of zero-sequence inductance is particularly a necessity for certain applications in which the winding coupling is not in Wye connection. Thereby, the homopolar currents which are sources of losses are reduced and minimized. In this study, we investigate three topologies of PMSM according to the specifications of an electric vehicle (EV) with severe constraints and a maximum rotation speed of 12, 000 rpm. Those fractional-slots machines are the 3-phase 12 slots / 8 rotor poles (12/8), the 12/10 and the 18/10. Then, the goal is to compare and evaluate the topologies firstly with a fast and coarse approach and then with finite element analysis (FEA) to finally determine which is the most suitable for the application.
Scalable performance monitoring of application specific multiprocessor Systems-on-Chip

It is widely known that Multiprocessor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoC) is the driving force behind many embedded devices. State-of-the-art mobile phones and gaming consoles contain more than four processors in their MPSoC. Performance counters have become the recent trend in these devices to perform runtime adaptations to match power and performance budgets. In this paper, we propose a scalable performance monitoring unit (referred to as Event Monitoring Unit - EMU) for application specific MPSoC. Our monitors can be easily attached to an application specific processor as a hardware IP, to monitor any given event. The monitors are programmable, allowing customizable event handling and performance modeling for runtime adaptation and verification. Our programmable EMU costs very little hardware.
Money Talks, but What Is It Saying? Semiotics of Money and Social Control

The article with the help of semiotic methodology considers social functions of money. The author provides a brief overview of semiotics, and shows how to establish links between inquiry into meanings and contexts and study of money, putting accent on the analogy between money and language and discussing contributions from Austrian and institutionalist traditions. Marxist approach to the analysis of money’s symbolic meanings is used to show how money becomes discourse of power.
Cross-National Surveys of Learning Achievement: How Robust are the Findings?

International surveys of learning achievement and functional literacy are increasingly common. We consider two aspects of the robustness of their results. First, we compare results from four surveys: TIMSS, PISA, PIRLS and IALS. This contrasts with the standard approach which is to analyse a single survey with no regard as to whether it agrees or not with other sources. Second, we investigate whether results are sensitive to the choice of item response model used by survey organisers to aggregate respondents' answers. In both cases we focus on countries' average scores, the within-country differences in scores, and on the association between the two. There is mixed news to report.