Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Timescapes secondary analysis: comparison, context and working across data sets

The article illustrates some of the strategies we are developing in the secondary analysis of Timescapes data and seeks to draw some general lessons for qualitative data analysts. We focus on three different areas of work. Across all of these we examine the potential explanatory value of working with data in a comparative way, and engage with some challenges presented by contextual specificity in the way qualitative data are generated. In the first area we consider the issue of how we situate qualitative data with reference to diversity across the population, and use an example of working between a single qualitative Timescapes data set and survey data. Understanding how qualitative data are situated offers a framework for internal comparison which maps onto wider diversity. In the second area we consider the outcome of bringing together primary researchers whose comparison of project data, as secondary analysts, allow them to ‘hear silences’ and, therefore, re-interrogate their own data within a revised conceptual framework. In the third area we describe how, as secondary analysts, we have worked across Timescapes data sets. Here we consider the challenges of undertaking secondary analysis across diverse, project specific, research contexts, and the potential of comparative working across data sets for enhancing understanding.
Approches Combinatoires pour le Consensus d'Arbres et de Séquences. (Combinatorial Approaches for the Consensus of Trees and Sequences)

Cette these etudie d'un point de vue algorithmique diverses methodes de consensus portant sur des collections d'objets etiquetes. Les problemes etudies impliquent des objets etiquetes sans repetition d'etiquettes ; ces objets peuvent etre des arbres enracines ou des sequences, avec des applications a la bioinformatique. Ainsi, les problemes sur les arbres consideres dans cette these peuvent trouver des applications pour l'estimation de congruence entre phylogenies, pour la construction de superarbres, et pour l'identification de transferts horizontaux de genes. Pour leur part, les problemes sur les sequences consideres dans cette these ont des applications potentielles pour le calcul de distance genomique base sur les ordres de genes. De maniere generale, ce travail met a profit les theories de la complexite parametrique et de l'approximabilite pour obtenir des algorithmes et des resultats de difficulte pour les problemes etudies.
Using CMU PIE Human Face Database to a Convolutional Neural Network - Neocognitron

This work presents the application of Neocognitron to the human face recognition. Using a large-scale human face database (CMU PIE), the optimal thresholds of the Neocognitron to human face recognition are verified. During the first experiment, increasing the activation thresholds of the Neocognitron, their best values to be used in the second experiment, increasing the number of training images per subjects, are obtained. As a result it is verified that a number of 25 training images per subjects is enough to obtain very high recognition rate (98%) to the frontal pose images from the database. 350 validation images, non-overlapping with the training images, were used.
Motion analysis of an ellipsoidal kinematic closed chain

Concerning robotics, one topic of interest is locomotion and specifically non-conventional locomotion that can be oriented to design robots that could pass through different surfaces in an autonomous way, with the lower power consumption possible. An approach to it, is a modular snake robot in a closed chain configuration (as a rolling wheel) instead of a creeping locomotion. In this article we propose a general framework for analyzing the rolling motion of a closed robotic chain. We give a general view of the state of the art concerning limbless locomotion; we explain the kinodynamics of the proposed robot and its motion, we obtain a model based on the inverted pendulum analysis, and we present the steps to follow for the analysis of any closed kinematic chain. Results are compared with experiments reported by other authors using the CKBot modular robot in dynamic rolling locomotion configuration. Some metrics are also used to validate the analysis and make a comparison between experiments done with the real robot, and the model proposed here.
A novel popularity-independent resource locating scheme in a P2P network

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks have been developed for resource sharing for years. In a P2P network, resource locating is the first and foremost challenge, including issues about long searching time, a large amount of duplicated query message and a small success rate. Many efficient methods have been proposed to resolve these issues. However, most of these proposals may only benefit searching a popular object. In this paper, we propose a Cloning Random Walker with a Dominating Set (CloneRW+DS) method to adaptively locate the target resource no matter the target resource is popular or unpopular in a P2P network. Our simulation results show our proposed scheme can perform a better trade-off among message overhead, searching delay, and success rate while conducting resource locating in a P2P network.
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for acute pain.

BACKGROUND Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) is a non-pharmacological agent, based on delivering low voltage electrical currents to the skin. TENS is used for the treatment of a variety of pain conditions. OBJECTIVES To assess the analgesic effectiveness of TENS for acute pain in adults to see if it had any clear analgesic effect in its own right. SEARCH STRATEGY The following databases were searched: Cochrane Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care Group Specialised Register; the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CENTRAL (in The Cochrane Library); MEDLINE; EMBASE; CINAHL; AMED; PEDro; OTseeker; OpenSIGLE; and, reference lists of included studies. The most recent search was undertaken in August 2008. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of adults with acute pain (less than 12 weeks) were included if they examined TENS given as a sole treatment and assessed pain with subjective pain scales. Studies were eligible if they compared TENS to placebo TENS, no treatment controls, pharmacological interventions or non-pharmacological interventions. Studies on experimental pain, case reports, clinical observations, letters, abstracts or reviews were excluded. Studies on TENS and labour pain, pain due to dental procedures and primary dysmenorrhoea were excluded. Studies where TENS was given with another treatment as part of the formal study design were also excluded. No restrictions were made regarding language. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two authors independently assessed trial eligibility and extracted data. Data were extracted on the following: types of participants and pain condition, study design and methods, treatment parameters, adverse effects, and outcome measures. Study authors were contacted for additional information if necessary. MAIN RESULTS Of 1479 studies identified in the search, 132 were identified as relevant. Of these, 116 were excluded; the vast majority of these were excluded due to TENS being given with another treatment. Four studies were categorised as awaiting classification as the information provided in the full text failed to clarify their eligibility. Twelve RCTs involving 919 participants at entry were included. The types of acute pain conditions included procedural pain, e.g. cervical laser treatment, venipuncture, screening flexible sigmoidoscopy and non-procedural pain, e.g. postpartum uterine contractions, rib fractures. It was not possible to perform a meta-analysis due to insufficient data. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS Due to insufficient extractable data in the studies included in this review, we are unable to make any definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of TENS as an isolated treatment for acute pain in adults.
The importance of trust and cognitive ability measures in hedonic and utilitarian technology acceptance models : the development of the LTAM

many research models about Information technology (IT) acceptance have yielded, and each with different sets of determinant factors of user acceptance behavior. In this paper, we review user acceptance literature and discuss four important models: Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), The Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM2), the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and Technology Acceptance Model 3 (TAM3). All the evolution process focus on the key point that usage behavior are mediated by intention to use. Also we have made comparative analysis to their main determinants and made several recommendations for future research. Keywords-technology acceptance model; extension of the technology acceptance model; technology adoption; information system
Learning to tie well with others: bimanual versus intermanual performance of a highly practised skill

Studies indicate that novices are faster in manual tasks when performing with a partner (‘intermanual’) than with their own two hands (‘bimanual’). The generality of this ‘mode effect’ was examined using a highly practised bimanual task, shoe tying, at which participants were experts. Speed–variability correlations confirmed participants were bimanually skilled but not intermanually skilled. Contrary to results using novices, intermanual was slower, such that prior skill reverses the effect. Analyses incorporating the similarity of shoe-tying strategies across dyads implicated a perceptual rather than shared knowledge/representation basis for intermanual performance. Practice effects indicated that intermanual performance built upon prior bimanual skill, such that novel relative timings between dyads' hands must be acquired. Motor transfer effects provided support for this conclusion. During shoe tying, hands were tightly coupled in the intermanual mode due to the perceptual coupling constraints of intermanual performance. Increased coupling was correlated with slower performance. Implications for real-world tasks (e.g. surgical knot tying) are described. Practitioner Summary: Novice participants perform manual tasks faster with a partner (‘intermanual’) than on their own (‘bimanual’). The generality of this ‘mode effect’ was investigated using a highly practised bimanual task, shoe tying. The mode effect was reversed and mechanisms underlying intermanual skill acquisition were identified. Practical implications extend to tasks such as surgical knot tying.
The Challenges and Joys of Analysing Ongoing Language Change in Web-based Corpora: a Case Study

Researchers of language variation and change often need to go to great lengths to find sufficient data, particularly when they shall be used for a sound statistical analysis of the phenomenon in question. The recent analogical change in the formation of the imperative singular of German strong verbs with vowel gradation is a case in point, as it could not have been studied without the compilation of a webbased corpus. On the one hand, the investigation was faced with a number of challenges during the compilation of the corpus, the search for relevant hits and their annotation for a number of variables. On the other hand, results which would otherwise not have been obtained balance out this increased amount of manual labour. The present paper elaborates on some of these challenges and provides suggestions how they might be avoided in similar investigations in future. It concludes by presenting invaluable insights which would not have been gained without the present corpus study.
Measuring Spiritual Fitness: Atheist Military Personnel, Veterans, and Civilians

This study investigated the impact of transcendent item phrasing (i.e., phrasing which assumes the respondent believes in certain sacred or supernatural concepts) on the validity of the U.S. Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program’s spiritual fitness scale when administered to atheist military personnel, veterans, and civilians. Results indicated that the inclusion of transcendent phrasing led to reduced concurrent validity for the spiritual fitness scale when administered to atheist military personnel and veterans, reduced concurrent and predictive validity when administered to atheists’ but not Christians’ spiritual fitness. Notably, the removal of transcendent phrasing actually led to increased concurrent validity for Christian respondents. Taken together, these findings suggest the Revised scale, which is composed of items that do not rely on transcendent phrasing, produces better psychometric outcomes for both atheist and Christian respondents. Implications for the CSF program and the measurement of spiritual fitness are addressed.
Show Me: Automatic Presentation for Visual Analysis

This paper describes Show Me, an integrated set of user interface commands and defaults that incorporate automatic presentation into a commercial visual analysis system called Tableau. A key aspect of Tableau is VizQL, a language for specifying views, which is used by Show Me to extend automatic presentation to the generation of tables of views (commonly called small multiple displays). A key research issue for the commercial application of automatic presentation is the user experience, which must support the flow of visual analysis. User experience has not been the focus of previous research on automatic presentation. The Show Me user experience includes the automatic selection of mark types, a command to add a single field to a view, and a pair of commands to build views for multiple fields. Although the use of these defaults and commands is optional, user interface logs indicate that Show Me is used by commercial users.
Adenoma Formation following Limited Ablation of p120-Catenin in the Mouse Intestine

p120 loss destabilizes E-cadherin and could therefore result in tumor and/or metastasis-promoting activities similar to those caused by E-cadherin downregulation. Previously, we reported that p120 is essential in the intestine for barrier function, epithelial homeostasis and survival. Conditional p120 ablation in the mouse intestine induced severe inflammatory bowel disease, but long-term cancer-related studies were impossible because none of the animals survived longer than 21 days. Here, we used a tamoxifen-inducible mouse model (Vil-Cre-ERT2;p120fl/fl) to limit the extent of p120 ablation and thereby enable long-term studies. Reducing p120 KO to ∼10% of the intestinal epithelium produced long-lived animals outwardly indistinguishable from controls. Effects of prolonged p120 absence were then evaluated at intervals spanning 2 to 18 months. At all time points, immunostaining revealed microdomains of p120-null epithelium interspersed with normal epithelium. Thus, stochastic p120 ablation is compatible with crypt progenitor cell function and permitted lifelong renewal of the p120-null cells. Consistent with previous observations, a barrier defect and frequent infiltration of neutrophils was observed, suggesting that focal p120 loss generates a microenvironment disposed to chronic inflammation. We report that 45% of these animals developed tumors within 18 months of tamoxifen induction. Interestingly, β-catenin was upregulated in the majority, but none of the tumors were p120 null. Although further work is required to directly establish mechanism, we conclude that limited p120 ablation can promote tumorigenesis by an indirect non-cell autonomous mechanism. Given that byproducts of inflammation are known to be highly mutagenic, we suggest that tumorigenesis in this model is ultimately driven by the lifelong inability to heal chronic wounds and the substantially increased rates of stochastic gene mutation in tissue microenvironments subjected to chronic inflammation. Indeed, although technical issues precluded direct identification of mutations, β-catenin upregulation in human colon cancer almost invariably reflects mutations in APC and/or β-catenin.
Coalgebraic Derivations in Logic Programming

Coalgebra may be used to provide semantics for SLD-derivations, both finite and infinite. We first give such semantics to classical SLD-derivations, proving results such as adequacy, soundness and completeness. Then, based upon coalgebraic semantics, we propose a new sound and complete algorithm for parallel derivations. We analyse this new algorithm in terms of the Theory of Observables, and we prove correctness and full abstraction results.
The relationship between home and work in an enlarged Europe: a quantitative analysis

Abstract: The following report contributes to our knowledge about labour market behaviour in an enlarged Europe with a special focus on gender aspects and on cross-national settings embedded in different welfare state architecture. First, we deal with the determinants of cross-country variations in gendered employment patterns by drawing on the 'Households, Work and Flexibility' (HWF) survey. Second, we use these data to investigate which factors make employees more or less satisfied with theirjobs, with a special focus on gender aspects. Third, we look at employment patterns from a life course perspective in an enlargedEurope by using official data from various sources (OECD, Eurostat). Finally, drawing on the Eurobarometer Surveys on Time Use EB 60.3 (EU-15) and CCEB 2003 (Candidate Countries), we investigate female labour market participation over the life course. ;
The Effect of Air Tourniquet on Interleukin-6 Levels in Total Knee Arthroplasty

Background: Air tourniquet-induced skeletal muscle injury increases the concentrations of some cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) in plasma. However, the effect of an air tourniquet on the IL-6 concentrations after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is unclear. We therefore investigated the impact of tourniquet-induced ischemia and reperfusion injury in TKA using the IL-6 level as an index. Methods: Ten patients with primary knee osteoarthrosis who underwent unilateral TKA without an air tourniquet were recruited (Non-tourniquet group). We also selected 10 age- and sex-matched control patients who underwent unilateral TKA with an air tourniquet (Tourniquet group). Venous blood samples were obtained at 3 points; before surgery, 24 h after surgery, and 7 days after surgery. The following factors were compared between the two groups; IL-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), creatine phosphokinase (CPK), the mean white blood cell (WBC) counts, and the maximum daily body temperatures. Results: The IL-6 level at 24 h after surgery was significantly higher than that at any other point (p<0.01). No significant differences were observed in the WBC count, the body temperature, or the CRP, CPK, or IL-6 levels of the two groups at any of the time points. Conclusion: The effect of ischemia and reperfusion due to the use of an air tourniquet on increasing the IL-6 level was much smaller than that induced by surgical stress in TKA.
The Automatic Inference of State Invariants in TIM

As planning is applied to larger and richer domains the effort involved in constructing domain descriptions increases and becomes a significant burden on the human application designer. If general planners are to be applied successfully to large and complex domains it is necessary to provide the domain designer with some assistance in building correctly encoded domains. One way of doing this is to provide domain-independent techniques for extracting, from a domain description, knowledge that is implicit in that description and that can assist domain designers in debugging domain descriptions. This knowledge can also be exploited to improve the performance of planners: several researchers have explored the potential of state invariants in speeding up the performance of domain-independent planners. In this paper we describe a process by which state invariants can be extracted from the automatically inferred type structure of a domain. These techniques are being developed for exploitation by STAN, a Graphplan based planner that employs state analysis techniques to enhance its performance.
The Impact of Exercise on the Regulation of Mitochondrial Content and Function in the Brain

The Impact of Exercise on the Regulation of Mitochondrial Content and Function in the Brain Eric A.F. Herbst Advisor: University of Guelph, 2015 Dr. Graham P. Holloway The ability to combat mitochondrial dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases with exercise is currently limited by our lack of understanding of the effects of exercise on brain mitochondria. Therefore, this thesis provides a series of investigations into the impact of acute and chronic exercise on altering mitochondrial content and function in the brain. Study one presents a method for permeabilizing small brain samples for analysis of mitochondrial respiration in situ. Analysis using the permeabilized brain preparation was characterized and compared against isolated mitochondria through assessing changes in respiration with acute ischemia-reperfusion injuries. Results demonstrated that the permeabilized brain preparation provides greater reliability while using less tissue and also maintaining the native mitochondrial reticulum. Study two of this thesis investigated the impact of acute exercise on stimulating traditional signalling kinases in the brain, as well as assessing changes to mitochondrial DNA, protein content, and respiration following chronic training. Results demonstrated that phosphorylation of AMPK, CAMKII, and P38 were not affected by acute exercise, where ERK1/2 phosphorylation was decreased versus controls. Further, no changes were observed in markers of mitochondrial content with chronic exercise training, suggesting mitochondrial biogenesis does not occur in the healthy brain with exercise.
Directed Growth of Electroactive Metal‐Organic Framework Thin Films Using Electrophoretic Deposition

Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is used to assemble metal-organic framework (MOF) materials in nano- and micro-particulate, thin-film form. The flexibility of the method is demonstrated by the successful deposition of 4 types of MOFs: NU-1000, UiO-66, HKUST-1, and Al-MIL-53. Additionally, EPD is used to pattern the growth of NU-1000 thin films that exhibit full electrochemical activity.
Cementless total hip arthroplasty with extended sliding trochanteric osteotomy for high congenital hip dislocation

Abstract Total hip arthroplasty (THA) for high congenital hip dislocation (CHD) is technically demanding. The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the results of cementless THA combined with extended sliding trochanteric osteotomy. We also assessed whether chronic low back pain was relieved after surgery. The study included 19 patients (23 hips) with high CHD treated with cementless THA using extended sliding trochanteric osteotomy technique. Clinical and radiographic outcomes were evaluated. Harris Hip Score, WOMAC score, visual analog scale for low back pain and Trendelenburg sign were significantly improved (P < 0.01) compared with the preoperative. Average limb-length discrepancy in the 15 unilateral hips was reduced from 38.2 ± 7.9 mm to 6.7 ± 4.1 mm (P < 0.01). No dislocation, deep vein thrombosis, or infection occurred. Two patients (8.7%) developed sciatic nerve palsy. One (4.3%) developed symptomatic greater trochanteric bursitis. Two (8.7%) sustained proximal femur shaft fracture during implantation of the femoral component. All femoral components showed successful bony ingrowth at the final follow-up. No stem subsidence was detected. There was no acetabular loosening. Bony union of the reattached greater trochanter was obtained in all hips. Wire breakage occurred in 3 hips (13%). Cementless THA with extended sliding trochanteric osteotomy may be appropriate options for patients with high CHD.