Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statistical Prediction of Emotional States by Physiological signals with MANOVA and Machine Learning

For the importance of communication between human and machine interface, it would be valuable to develop an implement which has the ability to recognize emotional states. In this paper, we proposed an approach which can deal with the daily dependence and personal dependence in the data of multiple subjects and samples. 30 features were extracted from the physiological signals of subject for three states of emotion. The physiological signals measured were: electrocardiogram (ECG), skin temperature (SKT) and galvanic skin response (GSR). After removing the daily dependence and personal dependence by the statistical technique of MANOVA, six machine learning methods including Bayesian network learning, naive Bayesian classification, SVM, decision tree of C4.5, Logistic model and K-nearest-neighbor (KNN) were implemented to differentiate the emotional states. The results showed that Logistic model gives the best classification accuracy and the statistical technique of MANOVA can significantly improve the performance of all six machine learning methods in emotion recognition system.
Delivering customer loyalty schemes in retailing: exploring the employee dimension

Customer loyalty as a concept is inherently attractive to retail businesses. In many companies however, customer loyalty is operationalised through the activities of an often part‐time and transient workforce. The case illustration presented here, and in particular the analysis of employee responses on issues of loyalty scheme construction and operation, raises two main issues. For any retailer operating a loyalty scheme, these findings raise considerable management implications.
If bone is the answer, then what is the question?

In the 19th century, several scientists attempted to relate bone trabecular morphology to its mechanical, load‐bearing function. It was suggested that bone architecture was an answer to requirements of optimal stress transfer, pairing maximal strength to minimal weight, according to particular mathematical design rules. Using contemporary methods of analysis, stress transfer in bones was studied and compared with anatomical specimens, from which it was hypothesised that trabecular architecture is associated with stress trajectories. Others focused on the biological processes by which trabecular architectures are formed and on the question of how bone could maintain the relationship between external load and architecture in a variable functional environment. Wilhelm Roux introduced the principle of functional adaptation as a self‐organising process based in the tissues. Julius Wolff, anatomist and orthopaedic surgeon, entwined these 3 issues in his book The Law of Bone Remodeling (translation), which set the stage for biomechanical research goals in our day. ‘Wolff's Law’ is a question rather than a law, asking for the requirements of structural optimisation. In this article, based on finite element analysis (FEA) results of stress transfer in bones, it is argued that it was the wrong question, putting us on the wrong foot. The maximal strength/minimal weight principle does not provide a rationale for architectural formation or adaptation; the similarity between trabecular orientation and stress trajectories is circumstantial, not causal. Based on computer simulations of bone remodelling as a regulatory process, governed by mechanical usage and orchestrated by osteocyte mechanosensitivity, it is shown that Roux's paradigm, conversely, is a realistic proposition. Put in a quantitative regulatory context, it can predict both trabecular formation and adaptation. Hence, trabecular architecture is not an answer to Wolff's question, in the sense of this article's title. There are no mathematical optimisation rules for bone architecture; there is just a biological regulatory process, producing a structure adapted to mechanical demands by the nature of its characteristics, adequate for evolutionary endurance. It is predicted that computer simulation of this process can help us to unravel its secrets.
Mobile robot localization by tracking geometric beacons

The application of the extended Kaman filter to the problem of mobile robot navigation in a known environment is presented. An algorithm for, model-based localization that relies on the concept of a geometric beacon, a naturally occurring environment feature that can be reliably observed in successive sensor measurements and can be accurately described in terms of a concise geometric parameterization, is developed. The algorithm is based on an extended Kalman filter that utilizes matches between observed geometric beacons and an a priori map of beacon locations. Two implementations of this navigation algorithm, both of which use sonar, are described. The first implementation uses a simple vehicle with point kinematics equipped with a single rotating sonar. The second implementation uses a 'Robuter' mobile robot and six static sonar transducers to provide localization information while the vehicle moves at typical speeds of 30 cm/s. >
Evaluation of a Nonrigid Motion Compensation Technique Based on Spatiotemporal Features for Small Lesion Detection in Breast MRI

Motion-induced artifacts represent a major problem in detection and diagnosis of breast cancer in dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the performance of a new nonrigid motion correction algorithm based on the optical flow method. For each of the small lesions, we extracted morphological and dynamical features describing both global and local shape, and kinetics behavior. In this paper, we compare the performance of each extracted feature set under consideration of several 2D or 3D motion compensation parameters for the differential diagnosis of enhancing lesions in breast MRI. Based on several simulation results, we determined the optimal motion compensation parameters. Our results have shown that motion compensation can improve the classification results. The results suggest that the computerized analysis system based on the non-rigid motion compensation technique and spatiotemporal features has the potential to increase the diagnostic accuracy of MRI mammography for small lesions and can be used as a basis for computer-aided diagnosis of breast cancer with MR mammography.
Evaluation of Target Specificity of Antibacterial Agents Using Staphylococcus aureus ddlA Mutants and d-Cycloserine in a Silkworm Infection Model

ABSTRACT The availability of a silkworm larva infection model to evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness of antibiotics was examined. The 50% effective doses (ED50) of d-cycloserine against the Staphylococcus aureus ddlA mutant-mediated killing of larvae were remarkably lower than those against the parental strain-mediated killing of larvae. Changes in MICs and ED50 of other antibiotics were negligible, suggesting that these alterations are d-cycloserine selective. Therefore, this model is useful for selecting desired compounds based on their therapeutic effectiveness during antibiotic development.
Non–High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels Predict Five-Year Outcome in the Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation (BARI)

Background—Current National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines recommend that non–high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) be considered a secondary target of therapy among individuals with triglycerides >2.26 mmol/L. It is not known whether non-HDL-C relates to prognosis among patients with coronary heart disease. Methods and Results—Lipid levels were available at baseline among 1514 patients (73% men; mean age, 61 years) enrolled in the Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation (BARI); all had multivessel coronary artery disease. Patients were followed for 5 years. Outcomes of death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and death or myocardial infarction were modeled using univariate and multivariate time-dependent proportional hazards methods; angina pectoris at 5 years was modeled using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Non-HDL-C was a strong and independent predictor of nonfatal myocardial infarction (multivariate relative risk, 1.049 [95% confidence intervals, 1.006 to 1.093] for every 0.26 mmol/L increase) and angina pectoris (multivariate odds ratio, 1.049 [95% confidence intervals, 1.004 to 1.096] for every 0.26 mmol/L increase), but it did not relate to mortality. HDL-C and LDL-C did not predict events during follow-up. Conclusions—Among patients with lipid values in BARI, non-HDL-C is a strong and independent predictor of nonfatal myocardial infarction and angina pectoris at 5 years, even after consideration of powerful clinical variables. Our data suggest that non-HDL-C is an appropriate treatment target among patients with coronary heart disease.
The effects of instructional methods on students' learning outcomes requiring different cognitive abilities: context-aware ubiquitous learning versus traditional instruction

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the context-aware ubiquitous learning (u-learning) approach versus traditional instruction on students' ability to answer questions that required different cognitive skills, using the framework of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives, including knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, and synthesis. In this study, 230 third- and fourth-grade students in 8 classes were counterbalanced and assigned to the u-learning approach and traditional instruction for learning different topics in two separate plant-observing activities. The results showed that the students who learned with traditional instruction performed better than those who used the u-learning approach in terms of answering questions that required their cognitive abilities of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, and synthesis. Moreover, an in-depth analysis of the students' learning behaviors in the u-learning context revealed that most of their learning behaviors recorded in the u-learning system were not significantly related to their cognitive abilities.
Getting access to your own Fitbit data

This study investigates the possibility of getting direct access to one’s own data, as recorded by a Fitbit Charge HR activity tracker, without going through the Fitbit servers. We captured the ﬁrmware image of the Fitbit Charge HR during a ﬁrmware update. By analyzing this ﬁrmware image we were able to reverse-engineer the cryptographic primitives used by the Fitbit Charge HR activity tracker and recover the authentication protocol. We obtained the cryptographic key that is used in the authentication protocol from the Fitbit Android application. We located a backdoor in version 18.102 of the ﬁrmware by comparing it with the latest version of the ﬁrmware (18.122). In the latest version of the ﬁrmware the backdoor was removed. This backdoor was used to extract the device speciﬁc encryption key from the memory of the tracker. While we have not implemented this last step in practice, the device speciﬁc encryption key can be used by a Fitbit Charge HR user to obtain his/her ﬁtness data directly from the device.
Effect of ligand binding on the intraminimum dynamics of proteins

Effects of ligand binding on protein dynamics are studied via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on two different enzymes, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and triosephosphate isomerase (TIM), in their unliganded (free) and liganded states. Domain motions in MD trajectories are analyzed by collectivities and rotation angles along the principal components (PCs). DHFR in the free state has well‐defined domain rotations, whereas rotations are slightly damped in the binary complex with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), and remarkably distorted in the presence of NADP+, showing that NADP+ is solely responsible for the loss of correlation of the domains in DHFR. Although mean square fluctuations of MD simulations in the same PC subspaces are similar for different ligation states, linear stochastic time series models show that backbone flexibility along the first five PCs is decreased upon NADPH and NADP+ binding in subpicosecond scale. This shows that mobility of the protein along the PCs is closely related with intraminimum dynamics, and alterations in ligation states may change the intraminimum dynamics significantly. Low vibrational frequencies of the alpha‐carbon atoms of DHFR are determined from the time series models of a larger number of low indexed PCs, and it is found that number of modes in the lowest frequencies is reduced upon ligand binding. A similar result is obtained for TIM in the unliganded and dihydroxyacetone phosphate bound states. We suggest that stochastic time series modeling is a promising method to be used in determining subtle perturbations in protein dynamics. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2011
Immunological Characterization of Lipopolysaccharides from Proteus Strains Used in Weil‐Felix Test and Reactivity with Patient Sera of Tsutsugamushi Diseases

Immunological analyses of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) isolated from Proteus strains OX2, OX19, and OXK used as antigens of Weil‐Felix (WF) test, were performed by quantitative agglutination, enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and immunoblotting. Antisera against LPS and whole cells (WC) of the three Proteus strains reacted with homologous LPS but not with heterologous LPS. and the reaction was inhibited by the O‐polysaccharide fraction isolated from the homologous LPS except OX19‐LPS. which lacked O‐polysaccharide moiety. The immunological data support the findings that the O‐polysaccharide moieties of LPS from OX2 and OXK strains possess different chemical composition (Mizushiri, Amano, Fujii, Fukushi, and Watanabe, Microbiol. Immunol. 34: 121 133, 1990). Antisera against Proteus strains reacted weakly with WC of Rickettsia prowazekii, Rickettsia typhi, and Rickettsia tsutsugamushi. Antisera from patients with tsutsugamushi disease reacted with OXK‐WC by WF test when the sera were obtained 13 days after onset of fever. The immunoperoxidase (IP) test titers of these antisera began to rise 6 days after the onset of fever. By ELISA tests these antisera reacted with OXK‐WC and OXK‐LPS independently of the titers of WF or IP tests.
Inverse kinetic and kinematic analysis of drop-foot patient's walking

The purpose of this study was to quantify the effect of drop-foot on biomechanical properties of human gait such as heel altitude and sagittal angles and moments of lower limb joints, during a gait cycle. Two subjects with almost the same anthropometric parameters consisted of a healthy and a unilateral drop-foot patient were asked to walk at a self selected speed over two recessed force platforms, while the movements were recorded by six infrared cameras. Joint angles and moments were calculated by inverse kinematics and inverse dynamics, using OpenSim software. The study shows, delayed incomplete swing phase in leg's motion. During the gait cycle, besides excessive hip flexion, no hip extension was observed in the affected leg. Knee flexion curve for this leg shows one peak trend instead of normal double peak behavior. The planter flexion moment of affected ankle was much less than its normal value. In the unaffected leg motion late heel strike was observed. The patient was able to lift that leg to only half of the normal value.
Multi-parametric uncertainty quantification with a hybrid Monte-Carlo / polynomial chaos expansion FDTD method

The increasing complexity of microwave structures necessitates the quantification and analysis of fabrication process uncertainties that directly impact their performance, as a means of ensuring performance robustness. A particular technique that has emerged as a promising alternative to the time-consuming Monte-Carlo method for such analyses, is the polynomial chaos expansion (PCE). However, PCE-based methods suffer from a rapid increase in their computational cost with the number of random variables included in the analysis. This paper demonstrates that a hybrid Monte-Carlo/PCE technique can lead to the dramatic acceleration of its constituent methods, in the context of FDTD, effectively mitigating the “curse of dimensionality” and facilitating the multi-parametric uncertainty analysis of electromagnetic geometries.
Grounding Effect on Common Mode Interference of Underground Inverter

For the neutral point not grounded characteristics of underground power supply system in coal mine, this paper studied common mode equivalent circuit of underground PWM inverter, and extracted parasitic parameters of interference propagation path. The author established a common mode and differential mode model of underground inverter. Taking into account the rise time of PWM, the simulation results of conducted interference by Matlab software is compared with measurement spectrum on the AC side and motor side of converter, the difference is consistent showing that the proposed method has some validity. After Comparison of calculation results by Matlab simulation ,it can be concluded that ungrounded neutral of transformer could redue common mode current in PWM system, but not very effective, the most efficient way is to increase grounding impedance of inverter and motor. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i9. 3267 Full Text: PDF
Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice

PART ONE: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ARENA - The Nature of HRM - Strategic HRM - PART TWO: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CONTEXT - Global Capitalism and Competitive Advantage - Work and Work Organisation - Health and Safety - PART THREE: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES - PLANNING, RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION - Human Resource Planning - Recruitment and Selection - REWARDS AND DEVELOPMENT - Performance Appraisal - Reward Management - Human Resource Development - MANAGING EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS - Communications and Employee Relations - Union-Management Relations - PART FOUR: EVALUATION CONTEXT - Evaluating Human Resource Management - Conclusion: Continuity and Change -
Attitudes toward advertising by lawyer's among Hong Kong consumers

A qualitative study was conducted to investigate attitudes toward advertising by lawyer’s in Hong Kong. The study found that interviewees in general appreciated the information values of these advertisements. There were mixed views regarding the impact on the image of the lawyers brought about by advertising by lawyer’s. Some interviewees found the advertisements helpful and hence perceive that the lwayers was now more approachable and transparent. However, some interviewees found advertising by lawyer’s that use price appeal misleading. They perceived the lawyers to have become more commercialized. Interviewees expressed concern that advertising by lawyer’s encourage the seeking of litigation as a preferred way of problem solving. The study informs lawyers regarding message design and media selection in the marketing of their services in a Chinese context.
Elimination of multimode effects in a silicon-on-insulator etched diffraction grating demultiplexer with bi-level taper structure

Multimode effects in the free propagation region (FPR) of an etched diffraction grating (EDG) demultiplexer based on silicon-on-insulator are analyzed. The insertion loss and the crosstalk increase due to these undesired multimode effects. A bi-level taper structure between the FPR and the input/output waveguides is proposed. It is shown that such a taper structure can reduce the multimode effects to an almost negligible level. At the same time, the 3-dB passband width is enlarged by increasing the rib width. No additional fabrication process is needed for an EDG with such a design.
A Collaborative Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm in Distributed Network Environments

Due to privacy and security requirements or technical constraints, traditional centralized approaches to data clustering in a large dynamic distributed peer-to-peer network are difficult to perform. In this paper, a novel collaborative fuzzy clustering algorithm is proposed, in which the centralized clustering solution is approximated by performing distributed clustering at each peer with the collaboration of other peers. The required communication links are established at the level of cluster prototype and attribute weight. The information exchange only exists between topological neighboring peers. The attribute-weight-entropy regularization technique is applied in the distributed clustering method to achieve an ideal distribution of attribute weights, which ensures good clustering results. And the important features are successfully extracted for the high-dimensional data clustering. The kernelization of the proposed algorithm is also realized as a practical tool for clustering the data with “nonspherical”-shaped clusters. Experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets have demonstrated the efficiency and superiority of the proposed algorithms.
Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: 2005 Family Farm Report

Most farms in the United States—98 percent in 2003—are family farms. They are organized as proprietorships, partnerships, or family corporations. Even the largest farms tend to be family farms, although they are more likely to have more than one operator. Very large family farms and nonfamily farms account for a small share of farms but a large—and growing—share of farm sales. Small family farms account for most of the farms in the United States but produce a modest share of farm output. Median income for farm households is 10 percent greater than the median for all U.S. households, and small-farm households receive substantial off-farm income. Many farm households have a large net worth, reflecting the land-intensive nature of farming.
H∞ filtering design for continuous-time nonlinear systems with interval time-varying delay via T-S fuzzy models

This paper investigates the problem of delaydependent robust stability analysis and H∞ filtering design for a class of uncertain continuous-time nonlinear systems with time-varying state delay represented by T-S fuzzy models. Based on a newly developed Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional combined with an improved free-weighting matrix technique, a new sufficient condition for robust stability analysis is firstly derived and then the filter synthesis is developed based on some matrix relaxation techniques. It is shown that the desired filters can be constructed by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, simulation examples are given to show the effectiveness and less conservatism of the proposed method in comparison with the existing results.
Making marketers accountable:a failure of marketing education?

The academic/practitioner divide in marketing is very evident in marketers’ real world problems of accountability. Empirical research reported in this paper reveals senior non‐marketers perceive marketers to be “unaccountable, untouchable, slippery and expensive” and this is further reflected in the domain literature. Exploration of the issues raises questions about whether marketing educators have failed to deliver the theory and frameworks that could address this problem. Since the 1960s, many tools have been developed and used by marketing educators, academic researchers and consultants that should have helped practitioners to become more accountable; yet something appears to have gone wrong. This paper synthesizes the most recent literature in these areas, contends that accountability is imperative to avoid the marginalization of marketers and proposes an agenda for further research to close the academic/practitioner divide.