Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ageing Gay Men

One of the aims of this article is to look at the contribution that has been made by the sociology of embodiment to the study of older people. Researchers within this field have pointed to the ways in which negative perceptions of ageing bodies reflect attitudes toward older people and are factors leading to their marginalization within many contemporary Western societies. We hope to develop this idea further by investigating attitudes of gay men toward ageing bodies and, from this, to suggest reasons why older gay men appear to be marginal to gay culture. In so doing, we shall be drawing comparisons between older women and older gay men with particular reference to the work of Tseelon.
Titanium Versus Nontitanium Ossicular Prostheses-A Randomized Controlled Study of the Medium-Term Outcome

Objective: The study compares the medium-term outcome of ossiculoplasty using titanium and nontitanium prostheses. Study Design: Randomized controlled, prospective clinical trial. Setting: District general hospital. Patients: Patients with chronic otitis media with partial and total ossicular reconstructions were included. Trauma and congenital malformation cases were excluded. Intervention(s): Partial and total ossicular reconstructions using either titanium (Ti) or hydroxyapatite (HA) prostheses. Cartilage plate was used to cover the Ti head plate but not the HA head plate. Main Outcome Measure(s): The principal outcome was hearing gain and postoperative air-bone gaps. The secondary outcome was extrusion of the prosthesis. Results: The mean hearing gain in the HA partial ossicular replacement prosthesis (PORP) and the Ti PORP cohorts were 14.30 and 15.10 dB, respectively. The mean hearing gain in the HA total ossicular replacement prosthesis (TORP) and Ti TORP cohorts were 13.52 and 13.48 dB, respectively. There was no significant difference between HA and Ti for both PORPs and TORPs. There also was no significant difference in the extrusion rate between both prostheses. Conclusion: The lack of statistical difference in the clinical outcome of the 2 prostheses may be due to the limitation of randomized controlled trial with the small sample size and limited statistical power in the comparison of surgical techniques.
MGRN1‐mediated ubiquitination of α‐tubulin regulates microtubule dynamics and intracellular transport

MGRN1‐mediated ubiquitination of α‐tubulin regulates microtubule stability and mitotic spindle positioning in mitotic cells. This study elucidates the effect of MGRN1‐mediated ubiquitination of α‐tubulin in interphase cells. Here, we show that MGRN1‐mediated ubiquitination regulates dynamics of EB1‐labeled plus ends of microtubules. Intracellular transport of mitochondria and endosomes are affected in cultured cells where functional MGRN1 is depleted. Defects in microtubule‐dependent organellar transport are evident in cells where noncanonical K6‐mediated ubiquitination of α‐tubulin by MGRN1 is compromised. Loss of MGRN1 has been previously correlated with late‐onset spongiform neurodegeneration. Mislocalised cytosolically exposed PrP (CtmPrP) interacts with MGRN1 leading to its loss of function. Expression of CtmPrP generating mutants of PrP[PrP(A117V) and PrP(KHII)] lead to decrease in MGRN1‐mediated ubiquitination of α‐tubulin and intracellular transport defects. Brain lysates from PrP(A117V) transgenic mice also indicate loss of tubulin polymerization as compared to non‐transgenic controls. Depletion of MGRN1 activity may hamper physiologically important processes like mitochondrial movement in neuronal processes and intracellular transport of ligands through the endosomal pathway thereby contributing to the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration in certain types of prion diseases.
If You Want to Convict a Domestic Violence Batterer, List Multiple Charges in the Police Report

Problem: Even though reforms in the past 40 years mandated police response to domestic violence (DV) crime, and in many states also mandated arrest, never-the-less baseline rates of DV prosecution remain low. Background: The nature of prosecution is reviewed, noting that nearly all criminal cases are resolved through plea bargaining in state and federal cases. Thus, the nature of plea bargaining is examined from a perspective of negotiable currency. Past research demonstrates that if multiple crimes are described and listed in the first responding police officer’s written report, there is a substantially greater odds that the suspect will be prosecuted and found guilty. Those extra charges can be dropped by prosecutors in exchange for a plea of guilt. Purpose: This empirical study examines a discretionary best practices crime investigation method that can be operationalized by first responding police officers, in situ, to determine whether its use leads to a significant increase in rates of prosecution and criminal conviction for DV crime. The methodology is the choice to thoroughly investigate each DV crime to uncover concurrent and also past-but-still-chargeable crimes. This optional work is time-consuming because children, neighbors, the 911 caller, and others must be contacted and interviewed. Method: Randomly selected police reports (n = 366) were found to contain 22 combinations of crime codes listed as violations, for DV and other concurrent crimes. The reports were evaluated on a number of prosecutorial outcomes. Frequency statistics were calculated, and logistic regression was used to confirm key relationships. Results: Only one third of all submitted reports listed more than one crime. For those investigations that did lead to prosecution, 97% resolved through plea bargaining. Most single charge misdemeanor DV police reports were found to be “dead upon arrival” at the prosecutor’s office, with only 29% resulting in any type of criminal conviction. Conversely, reports that list four crimes have a 100% rate of conviction. Three quarters of all “felony” DV, as labeled by police, either resulted in no criminal prosecution or prosecution as a misdemeanor. This replicates a finding of the California State Attorney General who reported a serious problem with police regularly inflating DV charges. Police routinely failed to list children as victims (4% of investigations), even though they could have been listed about 61% to 86% of the time. Conclusions: There is substantial room for investigative improvement by police. A number of easily added crime codes are reviewed in the discussion section. The importance of sergeants sending officers back to the scene of the DV crime, while it is still warm and witnesses and additional evidence are still available is discussed. The article concludes with a prediction: As rates of listing more than one crime in police reports increases, there should follow a significant and permanent increase in rates of prosecution and criminal conviction for DV crime.
Order Independent Temporal Properties

The paper investigates temporal properties that are invariant with respect to the temporal ordering and that are expressible by temporal query languages either explicit like FO(≤) or implicit like TL. In the case of an explicit time representation, these 'order invariant' temporal properties are simply those expressible in the language FO(=). In the case of an implicit time representation, we introduce a new language, TL(Ei) that captures exactly these properties. The expressive power of the language TL(Ei) is characterized via a game a la Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse. This provides another proof, using a more classical technique, that the implicit temporal language TL is strictly less expressive than the explicit temporal language FO(≤). This alternative proof is interesting by itself and opens new perspectives in the investigation of results of the same kind for more expressive implicit temporal languages than TL.
HEVC fast FME algorithm using IME RD-costs based error surface fitting scheme

Motion Estimation (ME), which is composed of integer motion estimation (IME) and fractional motion estimation (FME), is the most computational intensive module in HEVC encoding procedure. In this paper, a new fast fractional pixel motion search method, that is based on a six-parameter two-dimension error surface model, is proposed. In our proposal, by solving the over-determined equations, nine integer-pixel rate-distortion costs (RDC), including the best integer-pixel search candidate and its eight neighboring integer pixels, are used to estimate the six parameters in the model. Then, we can obtain the minimal position on the fitted error surface equation, which is the quarter-pixel accurate search center. We provided three kinds of search patterns in the quarter-pixel search stage, which could take a tradeoff between the computational complexity and the prediction accuracy. Experimental results demonstrate that, as compared with HM reference software (HM-15.0), the three proposed FME patterns could reduce 35.1%, 29.4%, and 22.5% encoding time, while the corresponding compression efficiency losses in terms of BDBR are 3.04%, 0.79%, and 0.43%, respectively.
4-(Decyloxy)phenyl 2-oxo-7-trifluoromethyl-2H-chromene-3-carboxylate

The title compound, C27H29F3O5, is a liquid crystal (LC) and exhibits enantiotropic SmA phase transitions. In the crystal, the dihedral angle between the 2H-chromene ring system and the benzene ring is 62.97 (2)°. The three F atoms of the –CF3 group are disordered over two sets of sites with occupancy factors 0.71 (4):0.29 (4). In the crystal, pairs of C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds form inversion dimers and generate R 2 2(10) rings. The structure also features C—H⋯F and C—H⋯π interactions along [100] and [010], respectively.
Employability, Curriculum of Higher Vocational Education and Human Resource Practice in Tourism and Hospitality

This study focuses on the question: which aspects of career employability of students of higher vocational education satisfy to tourism and hospitality sector in Taiwan, aimed at exploring current school curriculums provided as requested, correspond with the development of career employability among students of higher vocational education in Taiwan. The basis should accord with the expectation of the school’s operational strategies, foster the strengths for the students, and improve employability for the students
Trainees’ experiences of impasses in counselling and the impact of group supervision on their resolution: A pilot study

A qualitative analysis of eight interviews was conducted to answer the following questions: ‘How do trainees experience a clinical impasse? ’ and ‘How does the experience of group supervision help or hinder the resolution of these impasses? ’ MA students in a counselling psychology program at a Canadian university were interviewed at two points in time: after experiencing a clinical impasse and after receiving group supervision for the impasse. Data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research methodology (CQR; Hill, Thompson & Nutt-Williams, 1997) to identify themes relative to our two questions. Results indicated that when trainees experienced an impasse they reacted with negative emotions because they did not know what to do in session with the client at that point in time, and they experienced the impasse as a failure. Trainees reported seeking supervision to obtain validation/support, and found that supervision provided them with this. As well, a new perspective on the impasse event and increase in self-awareness was reported. An unexpected finding included dissatisfaction with the dynamics of the supervision group. These findings have implications for trainers: for understanding the supervisory needs of trainees, for appreciating the impact of supervision on counsellor development, and for generating alternate practices of supervision.
Non-genotoxic anti-neoplastic effects of ellipticine derivative NSC176327 in p53-deficient human colon carcinoma cells involve stimulation of p73

We previously performed a high-throughput screen using real-time noninvasive bioluminescence imaging of p53 transcriptional activity and identified a group of small molecules that trigger p53-like transcriptional responses in p53-deficient tumor cells. Here we further examined the anti-tumor effects of selected compounds in vitro and showed that NSC176327, a derivative of the cytotoxic plant alkaloid ellipticine, exhibited strong anti-neoplastic effects in wild-type p53, p53-mutant or p53-deficient human colon cancer cells. NSC176327 was more potent at inhibiting tumor cell growth as compared with chemotherapeutic drugs and other ellipticine derivatives and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Surprisingly, unlike what is observed with the parent compound ellipticine, a DNA damage signaling response was not observed with NSC176327 as evidenced by lack of phosphorylated histone H2AX foci in NSC176327-treated tumor cells. NSC176327 treatment caused a significant increase in p53-activated reporter signal in HCT116, SW620 and HCT116 p53−/− cells and upregulated DR5 and p21 protein expression. NSC176327 treatment also resulted in increased p73 protein expression and knockdown of transactivating isoforms of p73 in HCT116 p53−/− cells showed significant resistance to drug treatment. These results demonstrate an important role of p73 in the anti-tumor effects of NSC176327, and suggest that a close analog of ellipticine may act by a non-genotoxic mechanism targeting the p53/p73 pathway as compared with the original parent compound that targets the same pathway.
Social metrics included in prediction models on software engineering: a mapping study

Context: Previous work that used prediction models on Software Engineering included few social metrics as predictors, even though many researchers argue that Software Engineering is a social activity. Even when social metrics were considered, they were classified as part of other dimensions, such as process, history, or change. Moreover, few papers report the individual effects of social metrics. Thus, it is not clear yet which social metrics are used in prediction models and what are the results of their use in different contexts. Objective: To identify, characterize, and classify social metrics included in prediction models reported in the literature. Method: We conducted a mapping study (MS) using a snowballing citation analysis. We built an initial seed list adapting strings of two previous systematic reviews on software prediction models. After that, we conducted backward and forward citation analysis using the initial seed list. Finally, we visited the profile of each distinct author identified in the previous steps and contacted each author that published more than 2 papers to ask for additional candidate studies. Results: We identified 48 primary studies and 51 social metrics. We organized the metrics into nine categories, which were divided into three groups - communication, project, and commit-related. We also mapped the applications of each group of metrics, indicating their positive or negative effects. Conclusions: This mapping may support researchers and practitioners to build their prediction models considering more social metrics.
Time-domain blind audio source separation using advanced ICA methods

In this paper, a prototype of novel algorithm for blind separation of convolutive mixtures of audio sources is proposed. The method works in time-domain, and it is based on the recently very successful algorithm EFICA for Independent Component Analysis, which is an enhanced version of more famous FastICA. Performance of the new algorithm is very promising, at least, comparable to other (mostly frequency domain) algorithms. Audio separation examples are included.
Examining relations between shame and personality among university students in the United States and Japan: A developmental perspective

American and Japanese university students’ shame (haji)-related reactions across a number of diverse situations, and the personality correlates of these reactions, were studied. With age, shame ratings decreased significantly in situations describing defects in the “private selffiamong American students, and haji ratings decreased significantly in situations in which the “public selffiwas ridiculed or discomforted among Japanese students. Also with age, individual differences in personality, particularly internal self-introspection, played an increasingly important role in predicting shame reactions among American students, whereas among Japanese students, individual personality differences became increasingly unimportant in determining haji-related phenomena. Finally, American students showed an increasing, and Japanese students a decreasing, integration of internal- and external-oriented elements of personality with development. Results are discussed in terms of theories of emotional development and cultural differences in self-concept.
High performance elliptic curve point operations with pipelined GF(2m) field multiplier

This paper studies the effect of high performance pipelined GF(2256) bit-serial multiplier on elliptic curve point operations. A 3-stage pipelined version of the Massy-Omura GF(2m) normal basis multiplier for 160 lesm les 256 was studied in terms of area overhead and throughput improvement. Simple gate area and delay models were used to estimate the throughput of the pipelined and the non-pipelined multipliers. The proposed pipelined architecture has been shown to have a significant improvement in throughput allowing a single 3-stage pipelined multiplier to have higher throughput than an architecture employing three parallel non-pipelined multipliers. The AT2 performance metric has shown an even more significant improvement.
Content based person retrieval from video using forward backward frame check algorithm

Content based retrieval systems are spanning fast across all search engines and applications. The need for improved retrieval mechanisms has led to development of context aware content based retrieval systems. The recent requirements in automatic surveillance systems have led to development of many feasible solutions by means of Video Analytics. This paper proposes a novel methodology to analyse videos for required person by means of context aware visual search. Visual search involves the process of Key frame extraction, face detection and face identification. Further, the system is enabled with a forward backward frame check algorithm that generates analytical information about the identified person along with temporal information. The proposed method analyses only the key frames in an input video source using the FFmpeg library for extracting key frames. The forward backward frame check technique enables the system to compare the detected face between current frame and previous frame without the need to search the database again if they are found to be same. This reduces the cost of search and helps to summarize the video with analytical information about the persons occurring in the video. The summarized video is labelled with person information and location of occurrence for context aware search. The proposed system is tested with real time video datasets and found to perform better in terms of time and accuracy.
Social Skills Interventions for Young Children with Disabilities

This study synthesizes the findings of social skills interventions conducted with 3- to 5-year-old children with disabilities between 1975 and June of 1999. An extensive search of the professional literature yielded a total of 23 group-design intervention studies that met criteria for inclusion in the synthesis. The synthesis provides a description of the purpose, procedures, measures, and findings of each study as well as an analysis of effect size outcomes in relation to critical features of the primary studies. Positive outcomes were associated with a range of interventions, including modeling, play-related activities, rehearsal/practice, and/or prompting.
A Micromachined Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor with a Shield Layer

This paper presents a piezoresistive pressure sensor with a shield layer for improved stability. Compared with the conventional piezoresistive pressure sensors, the new one reported in this paper has an n-type shield layer that covers p-type piezoresistors. This shield layer aims to minimize the impact of electrical field and reduce the temperature sensitivity of piezoresistors. The proposed sensors have been successfully fabricated by bulk-micromachining techniques. A sensitivity of 0.022 mV/V/kPa and a maximum non-linearity of 0.085% FS are obtained in a pressure range of 1 MPa. After numerical simulation, the role of the shield layer has been experimentally investigated. It is demonstrated that the shield layer is able to reduce the drift caused by electrical field and ambient temperature variation.
Intelligibility and the Listener: The Role of Lexical Stress

For some 30 years, intelligibility has been recognized as an appropriate goal for pronunciation instruction, yet remarkably little is known about the factors that make a language learner's speech intelligible. Studies have traced correlations between features of nonnative speech and native speakers' intelligibility judgements. They have tended to regard prosody as a global phenomenon and to view intelligibility as primarily a quality of the speaker. The present article focuses on a single prosodic element, lexical stress, and shifts the focus of study to the listener. It draws on findings in psycholinguistics that have rarely been applied to second language (L2) contexts. Groups of listeners were asked to transcribe recorded material in which the variables of lexical stress and vowel quality were manipulated. Recognizing the extent to which English is employed in international contexts, the study contrasted the effect of the variables on native listeners (NLs) with their effect on nonnative listeners (NNLs). NLs and NNLs were found to respond in remarkably similar ways to the problems posed by stress misallocation. For both groups, the extent to which intelligibility was compromised depended greatly on the direction in which stress was shifted and whether changes in vowel quality were involved.
High Dimensional Smoothing Based on Multilevel Analysis

A fundamental issue in Data Mining is the development of algorithms to extract useful information from very large databases. One important technique is to estimate a smooth function approximating the data. Such an approximation can for example be used for visualisation, prediction, or classification purposes. However, the number of observations can be of the order of millions and there may be hundreds of variables recorded so one has to deal with the so-called ”curse of dimensionality”. The algorithmic complexity of this process is typically of the order γ3d−2 where γ is the number of grid points in each dimension and d is the number of dimensions. We propose a method for approximating a high dimensional surface by computing a projection onto multi-level spaces of low density and we demonstrate that the algorithmic complexity of this method is proportional to (jd−1(2j+1 − 1))3, where j = ⌊log2 γ⌋ — a substantial reduction in computational work. In addition, we show that the approximation error is proportional to (j+d−1 d−1 ) 2−2j , with the proportionality constant depending on the smoothness of the computed surface.