Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of low cost “GloveMAP” based on fingertip bending tracking techniques for virtual interaction

Thedevelopment of a new low cost GloveMAP based on fingertip bending tracking techniques for measuring the sign language is presented. Nowadays, the communication between two parties has always been a huge obstacle in the context to convey their conversation information.The project specification significant requirement is to facilitate people with verbal disabilities to communicate and interact with the normal people. This research study used the flexible bend sensor in order to obtain the output resistance values of each bending fingers of patient. The sensors are located at the upper fingers and physical of the GloveMAP made by the universal stretchable and covered with lycra fabric known for wearingcomfort. The evaluation of the prototype GloveMAP was designed to distinguish in deferent size of human hands to Nazrul H. ADNAN is serving in Advanced Intelligent Computing and Sustainability UNIMAP Research Group School Of Mechatronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Arau, Malaysia InstitutKemahiran MARA Beseri Perlis, Malaysia Khairunizam WAN is serving in Advanced Intelligent Computing and Sustainability UNIMAP Research Group School Of Mechatronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Arau, Malaysia Shahriman A.B. is serving in Advanced Intelligent Computing and Sustainability UNIMAP Research Group School Of Mechatronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Arau, Malaysia M. Hazwan ALI is serving in Advanced Intelligent Computing and Sustainability UNIMAP Research Group School Of Mechatronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Arau, Malaysia InstitutKemahiran MARA Beseri Perlis, Malaysia M. NasirAyob is serving in School Of Mechatronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Arau, Malaysia Azri A. AZIZ is serving in Advanced Intelligent Computing and Sustainability UNIMAP Research Group School Of Mechatronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Arau, Malaysia This work is upprted by fundamenta research grant scheme (FRGS) awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education to Universiti Malaysia Perlis (FRGS 9003-00313). (DOF) of fingers orientation. The main propose of developing the GloveMAP is to provide the natural input control of interaction in virtual circumstances, multimodal and telepresence environments as an input devices provide as they can monitor the dexterity and flexibility characteristics of the human hand motion. Index Term-degree of freedom (DOF), flex sensor, fingers orientation, DataGlove, GloveMAP
FX trading: An empirical study

Given a set of tick-by-tick data of five currency pairs we analyze several traditional asset allocation techniques as well as technical trading rule based models. In particular we explore appropriate levels of time aggregation and rebalancing frequencies. We also suggest a triggered rebalancement strategy which results in better performance and lower transaction costs. For the asset allocation approach multiple objectives are optimized using heuristic optimization techniques.
A Practical Scheme and Fast Algorithm to Tune the Lasso With Optimality Guarantees

We introduce a novel scheme for choosing the regularization parameter in high-dimensional linear regression with Lasso. This scheme, inspired by Lepski's method for bandwidth selection in non-parametric regression, is equipped with both optimal finite-sample guarantees and a fast algorithm. In particular, for any design matrix such that the Lasso has low sup-norm error under an "oracle choice" of the regularization parameter, we show that our method matches the oracle performance up to a small constant factor, and show that it can be implemented by performing simple tests along a single Lasso path. By applying the Lasso to simulated and real data, we find that our novel scheme can be faster and more accurate than standard schemes such as Cross-Validation.
A case study of an EFL teacher’s critical literacy teaching in a reading class in Taiwan

This qualitative case study describes in detail a college teacher’s experience in teaching critical literacy to English major students in Taiwan. A qualitative analysis of the data collected from classroom observation, class discussion and interviews shows that the teacher struck a balance between language skills teaching and critical literacy teaching. By posing critical questions and having a critical dialogue with students, the teacher helped students to read beyond the text on its literal level and raised their awareness of the subtle workings of ideologies in it. The teacher himself also underwent a change in his professional development, moving from banking pedagogy to empowering pedagogy. However, in taking a critical literacy approach to reading instruction, he encountered some difficulties such as a transmission model of literacy, students’ language learning beliefs, and teaching resources.
Targeted Ablation of Periostin-Expressing Activated Fibroblasts Prevents Adverse Cardiac Remodeling in Mice.

RATIONALE Activated cardiac fibroblasts (CF) are crucial players in the cardiac damage response; excess fibrosis, however, may result in myocardial stiffening and heart failure development. Inhibition of activated CF has been suggested as a therapeutic strategy in cardiac disease, but whether this truly improves cardiac function is unclear. OBJECTIVE To study the effect of CF ablation on cardiac remodeling. METHODS AND RESULTS We characterized subgroups of murine CF by single-cell expression analysis and identified periostin as the marker showing the highest correlation to an activated CF phenotype. We generated bacterial artificial chromosome-transgenic mice allowing tamoxifen-inducible Cre expression in periostin-positive cells as well as their diphtheria toxin-mediated ablation. In the healthy heart, periostin expression was restricted to valvular fibroblasts; ablation of this population did not affect cardiac function. After chronic angiotensin II exposure, ablation of activated CF resulted in significantly reduced cardiac fibrosis and improved cardiac function. After myocardial infarction, ablation of periostin-expressing CF resulted in reduced fibrosis without compromising scar stability, and cardiac function was significantly improved. Single-cell transcriptional analysis revealed reduced CF activation but increased expression of prohypertrophic factors in cardiac macrophages and cardiomyocytes, resulting in localized cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. CONCLUSIONS Modulation of the activated CF population is a promising approach to prevent adverse cardiac remodeling in response to angiotensin II and after myocardial infarction.
A long-term perspective on person-environment fit and ADL dependence among older Swedish adults.

PURPOSE This study described person-environment (P-E) fit and activities of daily living (ADLs) among older adults, and it explored the relationship between P-E fit and ADL dependence, testing Lawton's docility hypothesis at two points in time. DESIGN AND METHODS From a random sample of individuals aged 75-84 living in a Swedish municipality, 72 persons were available for baseline and follow-up interviews over a 6-year period. Interviews and observations were used for data collection at home visits. RESULTS P-E fit problems as well as ADL dependence increased from baseline to follow-up. Functional limitations and dependence on mobility devices increased; few changes were found concerning environmental barriers. At follow-up, ADL dependence and P-E fit correlated significantly in the frailest subsample. IMPLICATIONS In advanced age, P-E fit problems in housing are related to ADL dependence. The increase of P-E fit problems mostly results from functional decline, although to some extent it is from environmental changes as well. The methodology used demonstrates the potential to increase our understanding of how the main components of Lawton's model change and interact over time.
Improving Lazy Attribute Selection

Attribute selection is a data preprocessing step which aims at identifying relevant attributes for a target data mining task - specifically in this article, the classification task. Previously, we have proposed a new attribute selection strategy - based on a lazy learning approach - which postpones the identification of relevant attributes until an instance is submitted for classification. Experimental results showed the effectiveness of the technique, as in most cases it improved the accuracy of classification, when compared with the analogous eager attribute selection approach performed as a data preprocessing step. However, in the previously proposed approach, the performance of the classifier depends on the number of attributes selected, which is a user-defined parameter. In practice, it may be difficult to select a proper value for this parameter, that is, the value that produces the best performance for the classification task. In this article, aiming to overcome this drawback, we propose two approaches to be used coupled with %the previously proposed lazy attribute selection technique: one that tries to identify, in a wrapper-based manner, the appropriate number of attributes to be selected and another that combines, in a voting approach, different numbers of attributes. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed techniques. The assessment of these approaches confirms that the lazy learning paradigm can be compatible with traditional methods and appropriate for a large number of applications.
Sex as Leisure in the Shadow of Depression

Abstract As a freely chosen activity intended to generate pleasure and enjoyment, sex is an important human experience associated with a sense of “normality” and well-being. However, depression and antidepressants are typically associated with decreased libido and diminished sexual functioning. Drawing upon netnography and constructivist grounded theory, this study explored how sex is perceived and experienced by people with depression who participate in on-line depression communities. Analysis identified five themes dealing with sex, antidepressants, relationships, loving oneself and others, and sex as a resource for coping. Demonstrating that sex loses its qualities as a leisure activity, the findings suggested a complex and multidimensional paradox of sex as leisure in coping with depression, which involves not only individuals with depression but also their significant others.
Blended Learning Pedagogy: The Time is Now!

ABSTRACT Pedagogy is rapidly changing. To develop best practice in academia, it is important that we change with the changing needs of students. This article suggests that blended learning is one of the most important pedagogical formats that can enhance student learning, optimize the use of active learning strategies, and potentially improve student learning outcomes.
A PCR blood test outperforms chromogranin A in carcinoid detection and is unaffected by proton pump inhibitors

A critical requirement in neuroendocrine tumor (NET) management is a blood biomarker test that is sensitive, specific and reproducible. We evaluated a PCR-based 51-transcript signature to detect tumors, compared it with chromogranin A (CgA) and examined the confounding effect of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), which cause falsely elevated CgA levels. The multigene signature was evaluated in two groups. Group 1: 125 prospectively collected NETs: gastroenteropancreatic NETs (n=91, including 42 pancreatic and 40 small intestinal), carcinoids of unknown primary (n=18) and other sites (n=16). Group 2: prospectively collected non-NET patients receiving PPIs (>1 month; dyspepsia, n=19; GERD, n=6; and pancreatitis, n=4) and 50 controls. All samples were analyzed by PCR (marker genes) and ELISA (DAKO–CgA). Sensitivity comparisons included χ 2, non-parametric measurements, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Group 1: 123 NETs were PCR-positive (98.4%) compared with 50 (40%) CgA-positive (χ 2=97.3, P<10−26). Significant differences (P<0.001) were noted between pancreas: PCR 95% vs CgA 29.2% (P<10−9) and small intestine: 100 vs 58% (P<10−4). The multigene test was elevated in all grades (G1–G3), in both local and disseminated disease, and was not normalized by somatostatin analog therapy. It was also elevated in 97% of CgA normal NETs. Group 2: PPI administration increased CgA in 83% and CgA was elevated in 26% of controls. PCR values were not elevated in either group. PCR performance metrics were as follows: sensitivity 98.4%, specificity 100%, positive predictive value 100%, negative predictive value 97.8%, and the ROC-derived area under the curve (AUC) was 0.997. These were significantly better than CgA (all metrics <60%; AUC, 0.54; Z-statistic, 10.44, P<0.0001). A 51-panel multigene blood transcript analysis is significantly more sensitive than plasma CgA for NET detection and is unaffected by acid suppression therapy.
Synergistic Effect of Apolipoprotein E Polymorphisms and Cigarette Smoking on Risk of Ischemic Stroke in Young Adults

Background and Purpose— The effect of apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphisms on stroke risk may be influenced by the coexistence of modifiable predisposing conditions. We explored the interactions of APOE genotypes and conventional risk factors in a case-control study of young adults with cerebral infarct. Methods— We analyzed 124 consecutive patients (age, 34.7±7.3 years) and 147 age- and sex-matched controls. APOE genotypes were determined by restriction fragment-length polymorphism analysis. Results— The prevalence of the &egr;4 allele and &egr;34 genotype was slightly higher in cases than in controls (0.125 versus 0.071 and 0.242 versus 0.136, respectively). Carriers of the &egr;34 genotype and &egr;4 allele were associated with an increased risk of stroke on multivariate analysis compared with the &egr;33 genotype and non-&egr;4 carriers, respectively (odds ratio [OR], 2.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10 to 4.76; and OR, 2.27; 95% CI, 1.13 to 4.56). ORs for stroke were 2.99 (95% CI, 1.64 to 5.45), 2.69 (95% CI, 1.25 to 5.77), and 5.39 (95% CI, 1.59 to 18.30) for smokers with the &egr;33 genotype, nonsmokers with the &egr;34 genotype, and smokers with the &egr;34 genotype, respectively, compared with nonsmokers with the &egr;33 genotype. Similar results were obtained when &egr;4 carriers and non-&egr;4 carriers were compared in the same interaction model. No significant interaction between APOE and hypertension was found. Conclusions— In young adults, the APOE &egr;4 allele and cigarette smoking act synergistically, increasing an individual’s propensity to have a cerebral ischemic event. This finding may help in determining an individual’s predisposition to stroke and more targeted preventive interventions.
Multiple Shape-based Template Matching for time series data

1-Nearest Neighbor classification with Dynamic Time Warping distance measure is mainly used for time series classification. In large datasets, major concerns for the classification problem are CPU time and storage requirement. Recently, Shape-based Template Matching Framework (STMF) was proposed to resolve these problems by constructing a template as a representative for each class of the data, and then STMF uses these templates to classify a query sequence. However, a single template per class may not well represent the overall characteristic of the data. In this paper, we propose a new method called Multiple Shape-based Template Matching (MSTM) extended from STMF. Our method constructs multiple templates by clustering each class of data and also learning the global constraint to increase the accuracy. In the experiment, we evaluate by comparing with STMF which uses only one template per class and the original 1-NN classification with global constraint. Our proposed method also minimizes the number of templates and still classifies the query sequence effectively.
Spatial Patterns in Antibiotic Resistance among Stream Bacteria: Effects of Industrial Pollution

ABSTRACT The spatial distribution of antibiotic resistance to streptomycin and kanamycin was examined in natural bacterial communities of two streams. The proportion of resistant bacteria was substantially higher (P < 0.05) in the midreaches of an industrially perturbed stream, but no such pattern was apparent in an undisturbed reference stream. The highest relative frequency of resistance was found at the confluence of a tributary draining a nuclear reactor and industrial complex. Antibiotic resistance increased with distance upstream from the confluence and was positively correlated (r2 = 0.54, P = 0.023) with mercury concentrations in the sediments. When the data for two years were compared, this pattern was stable for streptomycin resistance (paired t test, P < 0.05) but not for kanamycin resistance (P > 0.05). Our results imply that heavy metal pollution may contribute to increased antibiotic resistance through indirect selection.
Adaptive Skills Adaptive Partitions (ASAP)

We introduce the Adaptive Skills, Adaptive Partitions (ASAP) framework that (1) learns skills (i.e., temporally extended actions or options) as well as (2) where to apply them. We believe that both (1) and (2) are necessary for a truly general skill learning framework, which is a key building block needed to scale up to lifelong learning agents. The ASAP framework can also solve related new tasks simply by adapting where it applies its existing learned skills. We prove that ASAP converges to a local optimum under natural conditions. Finally, our experimental results, which include a RoboCup domain, demonstrate the ability of ASAP to learn where to reuse skills as well as solve multiple tasks with considerably less experience than solving each task from scratch.
Distributed On-Off Power Control for Amplify-and-Forward Relays with Orthogonal Space-Time Block Code

A single source-destination pair communicating via a layer of parallel relay nodes under quasi-static slow fading environment is investigated. One existing transmission protocol is considered, namely, the combination of the distributed version of the half symbol-rate complex constellation orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBC) with adaptive amplify-and-forward (AAF) relaying strategy. We call this transmission protocol as distributed orthogonal space-time block coded adaptive amplify-and-forward (DOSTBC-AAF). To improve the performance of DOSTBC-AAF, a distributed on-off power control (OOPC) rule applied to the relays is analytically derived and is proved to achieve full diversity order. The outage performance of DOSTBC-AAF with and without power control is evaluated. Our simulation results show that DOSTBC-AAF with all relays transmitting at full power (FP) achieves no diversity gain, whereas DOSTBC-AAF with OOPC achieves full diversity order. Correspondingly, at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) achieved by DOSTBC-AAF (OOPC) is analytically derived and is numerically shown to outperform DOSTBC-AAF (FP) significantly.
Mutant Amyloid Precursor Protein Differentially Alters Adipose Biology under Obesogenic and Non-Obesogenic Conditions

Mutations in amyloid precursor protein (APP) have been most intensely studied in brain tissue for their link to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. However, APP is highly expressed in a variety of tissues including adipose tissue, where APP is also known to exhibit increased expression in response to obesity. In our current study, we analyzed the effects of mutant APP (E693Q, D694N, K670N/M671L) expression toward multiple aspects of adipose tissue homeostasis. These data reveal significant hypoleptinemia, decreased adiposity, and reduced adipocyte size in response to mutant APP, and this was fully reversed upon high fat diet administration. Additionally, mutant APP was observed to significantly exacerbate insulin resistance, triglyceride elevations, and macrophage infiltration of adipose tissue in response to a high fat diet. Taken together, these data have significant implications for linking mutant APP expression to adipose tissue dysfunction and global changes in endocrine and metabolic function under both obesogenic and non-obesogenic conditions.
Behavior of the solution of the two-phase stefan problem with regard to the changing of themal coefficients of the substance

We consider one-dimensional two-phase Stefan problems for a finite sub- stance with different boundary conditions at the fixed faces. The goal of this paper is to de- termine the behavior of the free boundary and the temperature when the thermal coefficients of the material change. We obtain properties of monotony with re- spect to the latent heat, the common mass den- sity, the specific heat of each phase and the thermal conductivity of the liquid phase. We show that the solution is not monotone with respect to the thermal conductivity of solid phase, in some cases, by computing a numerical solution through a finite difference scheme. The results obtained are important in techno- logical applications as the climate of buildings, the storage of energy in satellites and clothes and the transport of biological substances and telecommunications.
Hardware implementation for census 3D disparity map with dynamic search range estimation

In this paper, a new hardware implementation for the real time disparity map is presented. The real time disparity map includes the Dynamic Search Range Estimation, Disparity estimation, and Error Correction. Our demonstrated design flow shows an approach to implementation and hardware architecture of real-time disparity map estimation. This design is efficiently synthesized on Xilinx vertex 5 VLX 330 FPGA. The resulting hardware implementation is analyzed and simulated for system clock speed 100MHz to verify adequate performance. Since the algorithm is not so complicated to adapt real-time hardware design, we successfully made system with FPGA Prototype design.
Recent progress toward a manufacturable polycrystalline SiC surface micromachining technology

In this paper, we present results of recent research from our laboratory directed toward a manufacturable SiC surface micromachining technology for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) applications. These include the development of a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition and in situ doping processes for silicon carbide (SiC) films at relatively low temperatures, as well as the development of selective dry etching processes for SiC using nonmetallic masking materials. Doped polycrystalline SiC films are deposited at 800/spl deg/C by using a precursor 1,3-disilabutane and dopant gas NH/sub 3/, with the minimum resistivity of 26 m/spl Omega//spl middot/cm. Dry etching for SiC and its selectivity toward silicon dioxide and silicon nitride masking materials are investigated using SF/sub 6//O/sub 2/, HBr, and HBr/Cl/sub 2/ transformer coupled plasmas. The etch rate, etch selectivity, and etch profile are characterized and compared for each etch chemistry. By combining the LPCVD and dry etching process with conventional microfabrication technologies, a multiuser SiC MEMS process is developed.
Qualitative research revisited: epistemology of a comprehensive approach

This paper explains why the term 'comprehensive research' appears to be more relevant than 'qualitative research'. Three great epistemological risks are outlined, as they relate to this type of approach: 1) the risk of abstract actors or beings of reason, as per David Emile Durkheim (1858-1917); 2) the risk of circularity, a concept of Karl Popper (1902-1994); 3) the risk linked to the phenomenon of equifinality, a concept introduced by Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901-1972). Our paper shows how to manage these risks, by determining the unit of analysis (abstract actors), by specifying in an independent manner, the theories in terms of social mechanisms and the material in terms of coding (to avoid circularity), expanding the exploration of plausible rival hypotheses, process tracing and counterfactual reasoning (equifinality). Finally, we explain the scientific contributions that can be expected from this kind of approach, such as highlighting mechanisms, building typologies and redefining concepts or theories.