Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantifying the impact of system characteristics on perceived quality dimensions of a spoken dialogue service

A belt grinding or sanding machine of the type incorporating at least one endless grinding belt guided by at least two rollers and a clamping bar or pressure beam located diagonally at the inside of the grinding belt between such rollers and serving to press such grinding belt against the workpiece. According to important aspects of the invention, the aforementioned at least two rollers are arranged at the region of the respective ends of the clamping bar, with the respective axis of such rollers being inclined in opposite direction with respect to one another. Such imparts a predetermined curvature to the grinding belt. The clamping bar is arranged in the lengthwise direction of such predetermined curvature of the grinding belt.
A novel use of stochastic approximation algorithms for estimating degree of each node in social networks

A duplication-deletion random graph is presented in this paper to model social networks which change over time. The paper analyzes the dynamics of this duplication-deletion random graph where at each time instant, one node can either join or leave the network. A degree distribution analysis is provided for this graph and an expression is derived to compute the power law component. Also a Markov-modulated random graph is analyzed where the the growth of the network evolves according to a slow Markov chain. An upper bound is derived for the mean square error between the estimated degree distribution and the asymptotic one. Using the fact that the duplication-deletion graph satisfies a power law, an upper bound is presented for the most significant singular value of the adjacency matrix of the graph.
Prenilpotent pairs in the E10 root lattice

Abstract Tits has defined Kac–Moody groups for all root systems, over all commutative rings with unit. A central concept is the idea of a prenilpotent pair of (real) roots. In particular, writing down his group presentation explicitly would require knowing all the Weyl-group orbits of such pairs. We show that for the hyperbolic root system E10 there are so many orbits that any attempt at direct enumeration is impractical. Namely, the number of orbits of prenilpotent pairs having inner product k grows at least as fast as (constant) ⋅ k7 as k → ∞. Our purpose is to motivate alternate approaches to Tits' groups, such as the one in [2].
Generalise PQ theory with SPWM for single phase shunt active filter applications

In this paper current control technique is used for reference signal generation for voltage base PWM i.e. SPWM. Voltage source inverter with the help of generalized PQ theory is implemented for shunt active filter applications. Two methods are used to generate compensated current. Current is further converted into voltage as reference signal and this is fed to the inverter's sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique (SPWM). This inverter is generating the injected current with all possible modification in the conventional single phase shunt active filter. A multipurpose single phase shunt active filter (SAPF) for domestic purpose is presented in this paper. The simulation results using MATLAB/SIMULINK are shown to validate the proposed technique. Total harmonic distortion (THD) and power factor (P.F.) are comes under the IEEE standard-519.
Natural Bare-Hand Interaction for Remote Operating Large Touch Screen

The paper presents a vision-based natural bare-hand gesture recognition for remote operating LTSS, which offers simple, high resolution and robust against occlusion. The system is a kind of embedded systems that combines the hardware and software design. It allows users to interact with the information by pointing large screen directly with their fingertips approximately parallel to ground. The key technology of the system is fingertip recognition, tracking , computer vision algorithm s and operation judgment. Experiments show that our approach extremely suit to be embedded into real-time human-computer interaction systems.
Child and Adolescent Development for Educators

Introduction to Child Development and Education. Biological Development. Cognitive Development: Piaget's Stage Theory. Cognitive Development: Information-processing Theory. Social Theories of Development and Learning. Sociocultural Theories of Development and Education. Language Development and Linguistic Diversity. Intelligence and Individual Differences in Academic Competence. The Development of Academic Motivation. Family and Peer Relationships. Gender Role Development. Scherer, Recognizing and Understanding Student Mental Health Problems. Integrative Review of Major Concepts.
NON-DIRECTED SELF-DISCLOSURE IN THE BLOGOSPHERE

Social exchange via personal blogs challenges traditional norms regarding interpersonal communication due to the typically non-directed nature of self-disclosure inherent in blogging. This study investigates the relationship between bloggers' individual differences in terms of gender, their intended audiences, tendencies towards self-disclosure, and expectations for familiar communication norms such as equitable reciprocity. The results from a survey of 145 bloggers from 32 countries suggest that bloggers' self-disclosure tendencies and their inclination to target their content towards strong-tie networks are positively associated with the adoption of traditional self-disclosure norms when using blogs. Additionally, results indicate that while female bloggers expect others to acknowledge posts to their blogs, they do not feel obligated to acknowledge others' posts.
Overexpression of metallothionein decreases sensitivity of pulmonary endothelial cells to oxidant injury

Pitt, Bruce R. , Margaret Schwarz, Elizabeth S. Woo, Emily Yee, Karla Wasserloos, Sothi Tran, Weili Weng, Robert J. Mannix, Simon A. Watkins, Yulia Y. Tyurina, Vladimir A. Tyurin, Valerian E. Kagan, and John S. Lazo. Overexpression of metallothionein decreases sensitivity of pulmonary endothelial cells to oxidant injury. Am. J. Physiol. 273 (Lung Cell. Mol. Physiol. 17): L856–L865, 1997. — Metallothionein (MT) is a low-molecular-weight cysteine-rich protein with extensive metal binding capacity and potential nonenzymatic antioxidant activity. Despite the sensitivity of vascular endothelium to either heavy metal toxicity or oxidative stress, little is known regarding the role of MT in endothelial cells. Accordingly, we determined the sensitivity of cultured sheep pulmonary artery endothelial cells (SPAEC) that overexpressed MT to tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BOOH), hyperoxia, or 2,28-azobis(2,4-dimethylvaleronitrile) (AMVN; peroxyl radical generator). Nontoxic doses of 10 μM Cd increased MT levels from 0.21 6 0.03 to 2.07 6 0.24 μg/mg and resulted in resistance to t-BOOH and hyperoxia as determined by reduction of Alamar blue or [3H]serotonin transport, respectively. SPAEC stably transfected with plasmids containing either mouse or human cDNA for MT were resistant to both t-BOOH and hyperoxia. In addition, we examined transition metal-independent, noncytotoxic AMVNinduced lipid peroxidation after metabolic incorporation of the oxidant-sensitive fluorescent fatty acid cis-parinaric acid into phospholipids and high-performance liquid chromatography separation. SPAEC that overexpressed MT after gene transfer completely inhibited peroxyl oxidation of phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylcholine, and sphingomyelin (but not phosphatidylethanolamine) noted in wild-type SPAEC. These data show for the first time that MT can 1) protect pulmonary artery endothelium against a diverse array of prooxidant stimuli and 2) directly intercept peroxyl radicals in a metalindependent fashion, thereby preventing lipid peroxidation in intact cells.
Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning

1. Making Meaning: The Dynamics of Learning. 2. Meaning Perspectives: How We Understand Experience. 3. Intentional Learning: A Process of Problem Solving. 4. Making Meaning Through Reflection. 5. Distorted Assumptions: Uncovering Errors in Learning. 6. Perspective Transformation: How Learning Leads to Change. 7. Fostering Transformative Adult Learning.
Hantavirus in new geographic regions, Sweden

In Sweden, human cases of Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) infections are reported from the northern endemic regions. We found hantavirus-specific antibodies in yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) trapped in human dwellings in the surroundings of the cities of Uppsala and Stockholm, which are situated far south from the traditional endemic areas of PUUV. Because the yellow-necked mouse is the most common rodent in human dwellings, hantaviruses in this rodent species may be important for the public health.
Análisis factorial de grupo múltiple de una versión muy breve del Cuestionario Revisado de Personalidad de Eysenck (EPQR-BV)

The aim of this study is present a preliminary psychometric data to explore the internal consistency and structure of EPQR-BV (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised – Brief Version), a short version proposed by Sato (2005) modifying the EPQR-S in the item format and the number of subscales including (E and N). Participants were 108 young adults from a private university in Lima (Peru). We used a oblique confirmatory factor analysis to test the configurational invariance. The results were favorable for the dimensionality (two factors representative), configuration (except for two items, the rest was related to their scales) and the simplicity of the factor solution. Internal consistency was satisfactory for both scales (> .80). We discuss the appropriateness of this new abridged version.
Investigation of Atomic Level Patterns in Protein—Small Ligand Interactions

Background Shape complementarity and non-covalent interactions are believed to drive protein-ligand interaction. To date protein-protein, protein-DNA, and protein-RNA interactions were systematically investigated, which is in contrast to interactions with small ligands. We investigate the role of covalent and non-covalent bonds in protein-small ligand interactions using a comprehensive dataset of 2,320 complexes. Methodology and Principal Findings We show that protein-ligand interactions are governed by different forces for different ligand types, i.e., protein-organic compound interactions are governed by hydrogen bonds, van der Waals contacts, and covalent bonds; protein-metal ion interactions are dominated by electrostatic force and coordination bonds; protein-anion interactions are established with electrostatic force, hydrogen bonds, and van der Waals contacts; and protein-inorganic cluster interactions are driven by coordination bonds. We extracted several frequently occurring atomic-level patterns concerning these interactions. For instance, 73% of investigated covalent bonds were summarized with just three patterns in which bonds are formed between thiol of Cys and carbon or sulfur atoms of ligands, and nitrogen of Lys and carbon of ligands. Similar patterns were found for the coordination bonds. Hydrogen bonds occur in 67% of protein-organic compound complexes and 66% of them are formed between NH- group of protein residues and oxygen atom of ligands. We quantify relative abundance of specific interaction types and discuss their characteristic features. The extracted protein-organic compound patterns are shown to complement and improve a geometric approach for prediction of binding sites. Conclusions and Significance We show that for a given type (group) of ligands and type of the interaction force, majority of protein-ligand interactions are repetitive and could be summarized with several simple atomic-level patterns. We summarize and analyze 10 frequently occurring interaction patterns that cover 56% of all considered complexes and we show a practical application for the patterns that concerns interactions with organic compounds.
Poppy humanoid platform: Experimental evaluation of the role of a bio-inspired thigh shape

In this paper, we present an experimental evaluation of the role of the morphology in the Poppy humanoid platform. More precisely, we have investigated the impact of the bio-inspired thigh, bended of 6°, on the balance and biped locomotion. We compare this design with a more traditional straight thigh. We describe both the theoretical model and real experiments showing that the bio-inspired thigh allows the reduction of falling speed by almost 60% (single support phase) and the decrease of the lateral motion needed for the mass transfer from one foot to the other by 30% (double support phase). We also present an experiment where the robot walks on a treadmill thanks to the social and physical guidance of expert users and we show that the bended thigh reduces the upper body motion by about 45% indicating a more stable walk.
Concurrent Lactation and Pregnancy: Pregnant Domestic Horse Mares Do Not Increase Mother-Offspring Conflict during Intensive Lactation

Lactation is the most energy demanding part of parental care in mammals, so parent-offspring conflict arises over milk provided by the mother. In some species females commonly become pregnant shortly after parturition of previous young. This further intensifies mother-offspring conflict due to concurrent pregnancy and lactation. In equids it has been well established that pregnant females wean their foals earlier than non-pregnant ones. Intensified mother-offspring conflict was presumed to associate with pregnancy also during the period of intensive lactation, i.e., before the weaning process starts. We investigated the effect of pregnancy on suckling behaviour characteristics as indicators of mother-offspring conflict in domestic horses. Contrary to expectation, here we provide evidence of a decreased mother-offspring conflict related to pregnancy in lactating females during first two trimesters of pregnancy. Pregnant mares provided longer suckling bouts and did not reject or terminate suckling of their foals more often than non-pregnant mares. Our results suggest that pregnant mares cope with parallel investment into a nursed foal and a foetus through enhancing nursing behaviour in early stages of pregnancy before the initially low requirements of the foetus increase. They compensate their suckling foal with the perspective of its early weaning due to ongoing pregnancy.
Decentralized spectrum learning and access adaptive to channel availability distribution in primary network

We consider the effect of the mean availability distribution of primary channels on the performance of distributed learning and access policies, and develop a distributed learning and access policy that is effective in a wide range of primary channel conditions. We first extend the recently proposed BLA algorithm to distributed online learning of underlying primary channel availabilities, and modify the existing access policies to form BLA-ρRAND and BLA-DLF policies. By analyzing the distributed access collision mechanism offered by the ρRAND and DLF policies [1], [2], we identify how different mean channel availability distributions can impact the effectiveness of each policy. In light of this, we propose DSLA policy that adapts to different channel availability distribution conditions. Based on a closeness factor we propose, the DSLA policy automatically switches between the underlying learning policies, as well as the access policies, to determine which policy is most effective for a given primary channel condition. Simulation studies show that our proposed DSLA policy is effective in providing a good performance for a wide range of primary channel availability distributions.
A Comparative Study of Iran's TEFL and English Translation UEEs: Do High-stakes Tests Assess Critical Thinking?

Tests that require intellectual work and critical thinking increase students' achievement as well as motivation. The University Entrance Exams (UEEs) in Iran which are multiple-choice high-stakes tests and are primarily designed to screen the candidates for postgraduate studies are no exception. This paper aims at comparatively investigating Iran's MA (Master's of Art) UEEs of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and English translation through the use of Anderson and Krathwohl's (2001) taxonomy of the cognitive domain. With this aim, the (2007-2011) TEFL and English translation UEE test items of the technical knowledge sections were content analyzed in terms of the taxonomy of educational objectives using a detailed checklist developed based on the respective classification of cognitive objectives. The findings showed slight differences between TEFL and English translation UEEs in terms of critical thinking skills. The English translation test items pertained to critical cognitive skills in general and evaluation in particular to a larger extent. On the whole, the degree of critical thinking skills in the TEFL and English translation UEEs were not so desirable and the majority of the test items revealed lower-order thinking skills. Therefore, it is necessary to both reconsider teaching process and to promote critical thinking skills in constructing test items.
Sapap3 and pathological grooming in humans: Results from the OCD collaborative genetics study

SAP90/PSD95‐associated protein (SAPAP) family proteins are post‐synaptic density (PSD) components that interact with other proteins to form a key scaffolding complex at excitatory (glutamatergic) synapses. A recent study found that mice with a deletion of the Sapap3 gene groomed themselves excessively, exhibited increased anxiety‐like behaviors, and had cortico‐striatal synaptic defects, all of which were preventable with lentiviral‐mediated expression of Sapap3 in the striatum; the behavioral abnormalities were also reversible with fluoxetine. In the current study, we sought to determine whether variation within the human Sapap3 gene was associated with grooming disorders (GDs: pathologic nail biting, pathologic skin picking, and/or trichotillomania) and/or obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD) in 383 families thoroughly phenotyped for OCD genetic studies. We conducted family‐based association analyses using the FBAT and GenAssoc statistical packages. Thirty‐two percent of the 1,618 participants met criteria for a GD, and 65% met criteria for OCD. Four of six SNPs were nominally associated (P < 0.05) with at least one GD (genotypic relative risks: 1.6–3.3), and all three haplotypes were nominally associated with at least one GD (permuted P < 0.05). None of the SNPs or haplotypes were significantly associated with OCD itself. We conclude that Sapap3 is a promising functional candidate gene for human GDs, though further work is necessary to confirm this preliminary evidence of association. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Compressive Sensing Approach to Multistatic Radar Change Imaging

This paper describes a new approach for forming change images from multistatic radar data based on compressive sensing (CS). Broadly speaking, change images are naturally sparse in the raw image domain, which suggests a CS reconstruction method. Recent results show that the sparsity of the estimand dictates the number of samples required for faithful reconstruction, meaning a change image can be formed with far fewer measurements than used for conventional radar imaging. Our application has a small number of antennas arranged around the perimeter of a surveillance region, which provide large angular diversity but very poor angular sampling. Furthermore, due to application constraints, the scene is interrogated with limited frequency diversity. We aim to construct a high-resolution change image from the measurements, which are sub-Nyquist both spatially and in frequency. This paper first develops a radar imaging model in the context of CS, and then shows with collected data that a sparseness model improves image utility over conventional methods in our setting.
Estrogen enhances the bone regeneration potential of periodontal ligament stem cells derived from osteoporotic rats and seeded on nano-hydroxyapatite/collagen/poly(L-lactide)

This study investigated the effects of estrogen on the bone regeneration potential of periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) derived from osteoporotic rats and seeded on a collagen-based composite scaffold [nano-hydroxyapatite/collagen/poly(L-lactide) (nHAC/PLA)]. For this purpose, 48 healthy 3-month-old Sprague-Dawley female rats were divided into 2 groups as follows: the bilaterally ovariectomized (OVX) rats and sham-operated rats. The PDLSCs were isolated at 3 months after surgery (by which time postmenopausal osteoporosis had developed). The effects of estrogen on the characteristics of these cells seeded in a culture plate and of the cells seeded on nHAC/PLA were then investigated. The PDLSC + nHAC/PLA constructs were implanted subcutaneously into the backs of severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice for 12 weeks in order to examine the role of estrogen in the bone formation ability of PDLSCs derived from osteoporotic rats. The results from methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay revealed that the proliferation of the cells derived from the rats in the OVX group was significantly higher than that of the cells derived from the rats in the sham-operated group at the stage of logarithmic growth. The staining intensity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and the mineralization of the cells derived from the rats in the OVX group was significantly weaker than that of the cells from the rats in the sham-operated group. When the PDLSCs were seeded on nHAC/PLA, ALP activity, osteocalcin (OCN) secretion, mineral formation and the mRNA expression levels of ALP, OCN, estrogen receptor (ER)α and ERβ in the cells derived from the rats in the OVX group were markedly decreased. Treatment with 17β-estradiol (E2) significantly weakened the proliferative ability of the cells derived from the OVX group rats, and enhanced their osteogenic differentiation ability and the mRNA expression levels of ALP, OCN, ERα and ERβ. When the constructs were implanted into the backs of SCID mice for 12 weeks, the results of histological analysis indicated that the constructs derived from the OVX group rats had a few newly formed bones and osteoids; however, a great number of newly formed bones and osteoids were present in the ones from the sham-operated group and the OVX + E2 group rats. Our findings further indicate that estrogen deficiency impairs the osteogenic differentiation potential of PDLSCs, and that ER plays an important role in the bone regeneration ability of PDLSCs. Estrogen enhances the bone regeneration potential of PDLSCs derived from osteoporotic rats and seeded on nHAC/PLA. This study may provide insight into the clinical management of periodontal bone tissue repair in postmenopausal women with the use of estrogen-mediated PDLSCs seeded on nHAC/PLA.
Delivery strategies to enhance mucosal vaccination.

BACKGROUND Vaccines capable of eliciting cellular and humoral immune responses in tandem could provide prophylactic and therapeutic responses against infectious diseases and cancer. These responses can be induced systemically and at mucosal surfaces by activating the mucosal immune system, but rarely successfully due to challenges associated with mucosal delivery. OBJECTIVE To investigate delivery strategies to improve the effectiveness of mucosal vaccines. METHODS Different challenges are associated with different types of vaccines. We consider administration routes, schedules, carrier systems and adjuvants that can be used to overcome these challenges to enhance mucosal vaccination. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS The use of particle-mediated delivery systems is an effective strategy to enhance mucosal vaccination by protecting immunogenic material during delivery, providing targeted delivery systems, and allowing incorporation of adjuvant material.