Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Believing What You Hear: The Impact of Aging Stereotypes upon the Old

Stereotypes about aging and the old, both negative and positive, have significant influence upon older people themselves. Often unknowingly, older people incorporate these stereotypes into their own thinking and self-perceptions. A literature search revealed four primary hypotheses about the manner in which these self-stereotypes impact older people: stereotype threat, comparison, externalization, and internalization. Anecdotal examples of the four hypotheses are drawn from an unrelated research study that the authors are currently undertaking. Among these hypotheses, four basic characteristics of self-stereotypes are identified: (a) stereotypes can be negative or positive; (b) stereotypes have significant power, particularly if they are self-relevant; (c) stereotypes can be operative without awareness and influence physical and cognitive outcomes; and (d) negative stereotypes can be countered by positive priming. Due to their ability to significantly influence the cognitive and functional well-being of older people, further research is essential to better understand how these self-stereotypes function.
Dialogic action therapy: an integrative approach to effective living

Dialogic action therapy (DAT) integrates two cardinal constructs, dialogics and action, into a coherent framework for therapeutic intervention. DAT makes explicit its assumptions about human nature. It gives due recognition to the whole range of capabilities and potentialities unique to humans. In particular, metacognitive capabilities such as self-reflective thought play a vital role in the therapeutic process. DAT is founded on the thesis that selfhood is dialogic in nature. The dialogic self engages in both internal and external dialogues, in the process of which it may transform itself. Hence, its potentiality for self-transformation, even self-creation, is immense. The defining characteristics of action are intentionality, self-consciousness and self-knowledge. Grounded in dialectics, DAT promotes the unity of thought and action, as well as enhancing effective problem solving and productive living.
Motor recovery following olfactory ensheathing cell transplantation in rats with spinal cord injury.

BACKGROUND Olfactory ensheathing cells (OEC) are considered to be the most suitable cells for transplantation therapy in the central nervous system (CNS) because of their unique ability to help axonal regrowth and remyelination in the CNS. However, there are conflicting reports about the success rates with OEC. AIM This study was undertaken to evaluate the therapeutic effect of OEC in rat models using different cell dosages. MATERIAL AND METHODS OECs harvested from the olfactory mucosa of adult white Albino rats were cultured. Spinal cord injury (SCI) was inflicted at the lower thoracic segment in a control and test group of rats. Two weeks later, OECs were delivered in and around the injured spinal cord segment of the test group of the rats. The outcome in terms of locomotor recovery of limb muscles was assessed on a standard rating scale and by recording the motor-evoked potentials from the muscles during transcranial electrical stimulation. Finally, the animals were sacrificed to assess the structural repair by light microscopy. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Wilcoxon signed rank test and Mann-Whitney U-test were used to compare the data in the control and the test group of animals. A P value of <0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS The study showed a moderate but significant recovery of the injured rats after OEC transplantation (P=0.005). CONCLUSION Transplantation of OECs along with olfactory nerve fibroblasts improved the motor recovery in rat models with SCI.
Sibling Bereavement in Late Life

Elders are more likely to confront the death of a sibling than any other kinship bereavement. Yet we know almost nothing about the impact of sibling deaths on older adults. We used attachment theory to generate hypotheses about the impact of this life event on physical health, mood, social support, and economic outcomes in late life. At the Duke University site of a large multi-center epidemiologic study (EPESE), 3173 elderly community-dwellers provided data on bereavements experienced in the past year as well as on demographic, health-related, and socioeconomic characteristics. Bereaved siblings were more functionally and cognitively impaired than bereaved friends and rated their overall health as worse than bereaved spouses or bereaved friends who were similarly impaired. Brothers and sisters bereaved of a brother reported excess financial hardship and mood impairment, respectively. Terminal care programs should screen for excess risk among surviving siblings and plan for assisting these survivors in adaptation to this loss.
Multipath effects and adaptive transmission in presence of indoor power line background noise

The paper studies the background noise characteristics of a typical indoor power line (PL) in India. The noise decreases rapidly with frequency and can be considered as white beyond 5 MHz. The time variation of the background noise at every frequency in the non‐white region is modeled and compared in different environments which include laboratory and factory setups. In all cases, the background noise can be modeled by density functions related to multipath fading i.e. Nakagami‐m, Rayleigh and Rician. Fading is worse than the Rayleigh fading when the PL network has more connected loads and impedance discontinuities. Single frequency noise shows Rician fading when the background noise is narrowband Gaussian. The results are compared with those obtained in other countries in an attempt to check the validity of the model worldwide. A PL channel noise simulator is developed using the density functions to simulate the background noise. A technique is proposed that adapts the carrier frequency according to the channel property at a particular instant. The performance of such a system is tested in a simulated environment and shows that the method enables transmission of signals at very low transmission power compared with that in the AWGN channel. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
B gg revisited: The environments of low-excitation radio galaxies and unified models

Recent measurements of the galaxy clustering environments around intermediate-redshift radio sources have sug- gested a systematic environmental difference between radio galaxies and radio-loud quasars, in contradiction to the predictions of simple unified models for the two classes of object. I show that the apparent difference arises mainly as a result of the properties of low-excitation radio galaxies included in the radio-galaxy sample, which tend to lie in significantly richer envi- ronments. The environmental properties of high-excitation radio galaxies and quasars are statistically consistent in the redshift range 0.15 < z < 0.4, as unified models would predict.
The effects of blood pressure reduction on cyclosporine nephrotoxicity in the rat.

The effects of blood pressure reduction on cyclosporine nephrotoxicity were studied over 12 months in four groups of rats. Group 1 received no drugs and served as controls. Groups 2, 3, and 4 received cyclosporine (CyA), approximately 9 mg/kg.day, in their food. In addition, Group 3 received enalapril and Group 4 received minoxidil, hydrochlorothiazide, and reserpine. Time-averaged monthly systolic blood pressure was equal in Groups 1 and 2 (136 +/- 1 and 135 +/- 1 mm Hg, respectively). Antihypertensive agents reduced average systolic blood pressure in Groups 3 and 4 (116 +/- 1 and 117 +/- 1 mm Hg, respectively). Morphometric studies showed that 12 months of CyA treatment caused interstitial fibrosis with an increase in the fractional volume of cortical interstitium (VvInt: Group 2, 20 +/- 1%; Group 1, 11 +/- 1%) and a reduction in mean glomerular volume (VG. Group 2, (2.00 +/- 0.06) x 10(6) mu 3; Group 1, (2.48 +/- 0.06) x 10(6) mu 3). These structural changes were accompanied by a significant reduction in GFR (Group 2, 2.27 +/- 0.10 mL/min; Group 1, 2.76 +/- 0.10 mL/min). Cotreatment with enalapril reduced interstitial fibrosis (VvInt, 14 +/- 1%) and maintained VG (2.23 +/- 0.08 x 10(6) mu 3) and GFR (2.56 +/- 0.08 mL/min) at near-normal values in Group 3. In contrast, the combination antihypertensive regimen increased the extent of interstitial fibrosis (VvInt, 24 +/- 1%) and further lowered VG (1.72 +/- 0.05 x 10(6) mu 3) and GFR (1.72 +/- 0.05 mL/min) in Group 4. These results show that sustained treatment with a moderate dose of CyA causes interstitial fibrosis and impairs renal function in rats. The administration of enalapril, but not minoxidil, reserpine, and hydrochlorothiazide, limits renal injury in this model.
Theodore Levitt: The Ultimate Writing Machine

Professor Theodore Levitt is widely regarded as the Poet Laureate of the marketing academy. His seminal, occasionally controversial, articles owe as much to their racy writing style as their provocative content. Although the content of Levitt’s publications have been debated at length, his style has attracted much less academic attention. Academics, however, are writers. They publish or perish. Placing compelling words on a page is a core scholarly competence. This article examines the great guru’s published work from a literary perspective. It specifies his signature stylistic device, shows how it pervades his manifold publications and, in the belief that everyone can learn from Levitt, reveals the inner workings of the ultimate writing machine.
Olson on literacy

ABSTRACT Continuing a line of thought begun by Havelock and Goody, often called the “literacy thesis,” Olson has proposed in a series of articles several new ideas about how literacy may have altered human cognition to make modern scientific thinking possible. He attributes to literacy the development of explicit, autonomous prose, the ability to distinguish data from interpretation, and the growth of metalanguage, all of which are held to be essential to systematic thought. An examination of these proposals indicates that they lack sufficient evidence, coherence, and substance to support a case for any significant “cognitive consequences“ of literacy. (Literacy and cognition, orality and literacy)
Distributed Algorithms for Joint Optimization of Multiuser Receivers and Power Control

Uplink communication in a cellular radio network is considered where the base station in each cell employs linear or decision feedback multiuser receivers. We address the problem of minimizing the total of the user transmit powers over all linear or decision feedback multiuser receivers, such that all the users achieve their signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) targets. A distributed algorithm is obtained that is shown to converge, both in the deterministic and stochastic formulations, to the jointly optimal pair of power allocations and multiuser receivers.
Lifting a Metadata Model to the Semantic Multimedia World

This paper describes best-practices in lifting an image metadata standard to the Semantic Web. We provide guidelines on how an XML-based metadata format can be converted into an OWL ontology. Additionally, we discuss how this ontology can be mapped to the W3C's Media Ontology. This ontology is a standardization effort of the W3C to provide a core vocabulary for multimedia annotations. The approach presented here can be applied to other XML-based metadata standards.
Measuring Safety Performance

Abstract Partial-interval (PIR), whole-interval (WIR), and momentary time sampling (MTS) estimates were compared against continuous measures of safety performance for three postural behaviors: feet, back, and shoulder position. Twenty-five samples of safety performance across five undergraduate students were scored using a second-by-second continuous recording procedure to calculate actual levels of safety performance. Then 15, 30, 45, 60, and 75 s (seconds) PIR, WIR, and MTS estimates of safety performance were calculated. The results of Analysis 1 show that across all samples, PIR overestimated and WIR underestimated safety performance. MTS both under- and overestimated safety performance, but with substantially smaller errors than both PIR and WIR. Actual levels of safety performance were then categorized into low, moderate and high levels of safety performance for further analysis in Analysis 2. The results demonstrate that as safety performance increases, the degree of WIR underestimation increases across all behaviors, and the degree of PIR overestimation varies across levels of safety and behaviors, the level of safety occurrence did not appear to differentially affect MTS estimates.
A genomic study of the inter‐ORF distances in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The genome of eukaryotic microbes is usually quite compacted. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the best‐known examples. Open reading frames (ORFs) occupy about 75% of the total DNA sequence. The existence of other, non‐protein coding genes and other genetic elements leaves very little space for gene promoters and terminators. We have performed an in silico study of inter‐ORF distances that shows that there is a minimum distance between two adjacent ORFs that depends on the relative orientation between them. Our analyses suggest that different kinds of promoters and terminators exist with regard to their length and ability to overlap each other. The experimental testing of some putative exceptions to the minimum length model in tandemly orientated ORF pairs suggests that, in those cases, defects in promoter or terminator functionality exist that provoke transcription of polycistronic mRNAs. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Robust decoupled control of direct field-oriented induction motor drive

This study focuses on the development of a decoupling mechanism based on total sliding-mode control (TSMC) theory for a direct rotor field orientated (DRFO) induction motor (IM). First, a robust decoupling mechanism including an adaptive flux observer and a sliding-mode current estimator is investigated to decouple the complicated flux and torque dynamics of an IM. Moreover, the acquired flux angle is utilized for the DRFO object such that the dynamic behavior of the IM is like that of a separately excited DC motor. This strategy is derived in the sense of Lyapunov stability theorem such that the stable decoupling performance can be ensured under the occurrence of system uncertainties. In addition, numerical simulations as well as experimental results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the developed methodology in comparison with a model reference adaptive system (MRAS) flux observer.
`What have the Humanities to Offer 21st-Century Europe?'

The Humanities have much to offer 21st-century Europe, in terms of both method and issues which may complement and correct those of Science and Social Science. These include, for instance, humanities' generation of plural narratives and plural explanations, of attention to singularity and complexity, and to others' sensibilities and ways of knowing. These disciplines provide higher order skills needed to engage and engage with the New Europe — rhetorical and communication skills, networked knowledge sharing, responsive and responsible citizenship. In interdisciplinary partnership with `hard' science research, the Humanities can offer ways of dealing with particularity and imagination, with issues of identity and sensibility, with encountering the other. At the same time, the humanities' own complex interpretative narratives and ability to generate and cope with complexity are vitalizing and enabling in a fearful, complex and supercomplex world.
On the Lack of Thermal Emission from the Quiescent Black Hole XTE J1118+480: Evidence for the Event Horizon

A soft component of thermal emission is very commonly observed from the surfaces of quiescent, accreting neutron stars. We searched with Chandra for such a surface component of emission from the dynamical black hole candidate XTE J1118+480 (=J1118), which has a primary mass M1 ≈ 8 M☉. None was found, as one would expect if the compact X-ray source is a bona fide black hole that possesses an event horizon. The spectrum of J1118 is well fitted by a simple power-law model that implies an unabsorbed luminosity of LX ≈ 3.5 × 1030 ergs s-1 (0.3-7 keV). In our search for a thermal component, we fitted our Chandra data to a power-law model (with slope and NH fixed) plus a series of nine hydrogen atmosphere models with radii ranging from 9/8 to 2.8 Schwarzschild radii. For the more compact models, we included the important effect of self-irradiation of the atmosphere. Because of the remarkably low column density to J1118, NH ≈ 1.2 × 1020 cm-2, we obtained very strong limits on a hypothetical thermal source: kT∞ < 0.011 keV and L∞,th < 9.4 × 1030 ergs s-1 (99% confidence level). In analogy with neutron stars, there are two possible sources of thermal radiation from a hypothetical surface of J1118: deep crustal heating and accretion. The former mechanism predicts a thermal luminosity that exceeds the above luminosity limit by a factor of ≳25, which implies that either one must resort to contrived models or, as we favor, J1118 is a true black hole with an event horizon. In addition to neutron stars, we also consider emission from several exotic models of compact stars that have been proposed as alternatives to black holes. As we have shown previously, accreting black holes in quiescent X-ray binaries are very much fainter than neutron stars. One potential explanation for this difference is the larger and hence cooler surface of an 8 M☉ compact object that might be masked by the interstellar medium. However, our upper limit on the total luminosity of J1118 of 1.3 × 1031 ergs s-1 is far below the luminosities observed for neutron stars. This result strengthens our long-held position that black holes are faint relative to neutron stars because they possess an event horizon.
Reimagining internationalization in higher education: international consortia as a transformative space?

From ongoing practices and rhetorics of globalization have emerged a new set of actors, logics and relations between and beyond institutions of higher education and research. As universities across the world continue to grapple with fundamental changes in resource structures and institutional missions, the ‘rolling back’ of state support and involvement in university governance has given way to more decentralized and market-oriented forms of organization, leading to new strategies for cooperation and competition. For a variety of reasons, universities are increasingly seeking to develop internationalization strategies and programmes as a part of their evolving institutional missions, and an increasingly important element of these strategies is engagements with and through international consortia. Despite the wealth of scholarship that has emerged exploring internationalization discourses as a predetermined institutional priority, there is a lack of scholarship on the politics and transformative potential of consortia as deliberative spaces capable of reframing internationalization agendas. This article attempts to sketch and interrogate the transformative potential of international consortia by developing a theoretical framework for agency in globalizing universities, and then exploring an empirical case from an international consortium of prestigious research universities in the Asia Pacific. By understanding the discourses and practices of internationalization as always ‘in the making’, we can draw our attention to where and how certain ideas, projects and norms of internationalization become established, and perhaps we can expand our ability to make them differently.
First Comparison of Hypothermic Oxygenated PErfusion Versus Static Cold Storage of Human Donation After Cardiac Death Liver Transplants: An International-matched Case Analysis.

BACKGROUND Exposure of donor liver grafts to prolonged periods of warm ischemia before procurement causes injuries including intrahepatic cholangiopathy, which may lead to graft loss. Due to unavoidable prolonged ischemic time before procurement in donation after cardiac death (DCD) donation in 1 participating center, each liver graft of this center was pretreated with the new machine perfusion "Hypothermic Oxygenated PErfusion" (HOPE) in an attempt to improve graft quality before implantation. METHODS HOPE-treated DCD livers (n = 25) were matched and compared with normally preserved (static cold preservation) DCD liver grafts (n = 50) from 2 well-established European programs. Criteria for matching included duration of warm ischemia and key confounders summarized in the balance of risk score. In a second step, perfused and unperfused DCD livers were compared with liver grafts from standard brain dead donors (n = 50), also matched to the balance of risk score, serving as baseline controls. RESULTS HOPE treatment of DCD livers significantly decreased graft injury compared with matched cold-stored DCD livers regarding peak alanine-aminotransferase (1239 vs 2065 U/L, P = 0.02), intrahepatic cholangiopathy (0% vs 22%, P = 0.015), biliary complications (20% vs 46%, P = 0.042), and 1-year graft survival (90% vs 69%, P = 0.035). No graft failure due to intrahepatic cholangiopathy or nonfunction occurred in HOPE-treated livers, whereas 18% of unperfused DCD livers needed retransplantation. In addition, HOPE-perfused DCD livers achieved similar results as control donation after brain death livers in all investigated endpoints. CONCLUSIONS HOPE seems to offer important benefits in preserving higher-risk DCD liver grafts.
COGNITO: a cognitive assistance and training system for manual tasks in industry

In this paper we present a novel concept for cognitive assistance and training in manual industrial assembly. In the European FP7 project COGNITO, our aim is to design a mobile, personal system, which instructs operators in task solving and tool handling. The system not only provides instructions, but it is also able to understand and induce human workflows. Due to its high sensing capabilities, the system automatically analyzes and records assembly workflows by observing advanced users to build-up a system-internal understanding of assembly processes. The captured knowledge is then used by the system to assist and train inexperienced operators. The overall approach is based on state-of-the-art techniques in motion and object tracking, task analysis, decision-making and user-adaptive visualisation by means of augmented reality. The COGNITO system is an important step towards cognitive operator support. Enterprise knowledge can be documented, shared and applied in a cooperative and interactive manner, enabling human operators to keep pace with increased complexity in industrial processes.
Robust continuous prediction of human emotions using multiscale dynamic cues

Designing systems able to interact with humans in a natural manner is a complex and far from solved problem. A key aspect of natural interaction is the ability to understand and appropriately respond to human emotions. This paper details our response to the Audio/Visual Emotion Challenge (AVEC'12) whose goal is to continuously predict four affective signals describing human emotions (namely valence, arousal, expectancy and power). The proposed method uses log-magnitude Fourier spectra to extract multiscale dynamic descriptions of signals characterizing global and local face appearance as well as head movements and voice. We perform a kernel regression with very few representative samples selected via a supervised weighted-distance-based clustering, that leads to a high generalization power. For selecting features, we introduce a new correlation-based measure that takes into account a possible delay between the labels and the data and significantly increases robustness. We also propose a particularly fast regressor-level fusion framework to merge systems based on different modalities. Experiments have proven the efficiency of each key point of the proposed method and we obtain very promising results.