Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A model of Indigenous commercial gambler profiles in north Queensland, Australia

This paper examines commercial gambling by Indigenous Australians in three regions of north Queensland. Semi-structured interviews conducted with 60 Indigenous Australians revealed numerous themes that influence Indigenous gambling activities. Themes were synthesized into a conceptual model for understanding Indigenous commercial gambling by developing several gambler profiles. These profiles were analysed as being positioned along a public health continuum model of gambling, from healthy to unhealthy commercial gambling. The four emerging profiles were labelled social, binge, exploited and committed gambler, respectively. The continuum model explains gambler profiles, including behaviours, motivations and outcomes as moving from healthy gambling in low-risk situations to unhealthy gambling in high-risk situations. The model contributes to a deeper understanding of influences involved in controlling or stimulating gambling by Indigenous gamblers in these regions.
Paternal authority and patrilineal power: stem family arrangements in peasant communities and eighteenth-century Tyrolean marriage contracts

In historical research, stem family arrangements are regarded as a classic context for the exertion of paternal power and authority. Inheritance practice has hitherto been considered a crucial basis for stem family households, but this paper emphasizes the significance of marital property law, as an instrument for further reinforcing paternal authority by means of patrilineal logics and the vertical orientation derived from these. Stem family arrangements imply that, despite their status as married men, sons or sons-in-law were subject to the father's management and decision-making power in the household. Working with marriage contracts from two Tyrolean courts, the article highlights forms of paternal authority over the couple marrying into the house. It notes that in the region studied, stem family arrangements are documented primarily for the peasant communities of the Welsberg court, and almost never in the market town of Innichen with its artisan and trade-based structure; and that stem families, as one generation arrangement among others, were not dominant locally but do appear to have been more frequent than has generally been presumed up to now. Finally, the article addresses the changes and the continuities that occurred during the transition from the ancien régime to the modern period.
To Be or Not to Be: Predicting Soluble SecAs as Membrane Proteins

SecA is an important component of protein translocation in bacteria, and exists in soluble and membrane-integrated forms. Most membrane prediction programs predict SecA as being a soluble protein, with the exception of TMpred and TopPred. However, the membrane associated predicted segments by TMpred and TopPred are inconsistent across bacterial species in spite of high sequence homology. In this paper we describe a new method for membrane protein prediction, PSSM_SVM, which provides consistent results for integral membrane domains of SecAs across bacterial species. This PSSM encoding scheme demonstrates the highest accuracy in terms of Q2 among the common prediction methods, and produces consistent results on blind test data. None of the previously described methods showed this kind of consistency when tested against the same blind test set. This scheme predicts traditional transmembrane segments and most of the soluble proteins accurately. The PSSM scheme applied to the membrane-associated protein SecA shows characteristic features. In the set of 223 known SecA sequences, the PSSM_SVM prediction scheme predicts eight to nine residue embedded membrane segments. This predicted region is part of a 12 residue helix from known X-ray crystal structures of SecAs. This information could be important for determining the structure of SecA proteins in the membrane which have different conformational properties from other transmembrane proteins, as well as other soluble proteins that may similarly integrate into lipid bi-layers.
Extending Bayesian RFS SLAM to multi-vehicle SLAM

In this paper we present a novel solution to the Multi-Vehicle SLAM (MVSLAM) problem by extending the random finite set (RFS) based SLAM filter framework using two recently developed multi-sensor information fusion approaches. Our solution is based on the modelling of the measurements and the landmark map as RFSs and factorizing the MVSLAM posterior into a product of the joint vehicle trajectories posterior and the landmark map posterior conditioned the vehicle trajectories. The joint vehicle trajectories posterior is propagated using a particle filter while the landmark map posterior conditioned on the vehicle trajectories is propagated using a Gaussian Mixture (GM) implementation of the probability hypothesis density (PHD) filter.
Experimental study on fine motion control of underwater robots

This paper considers thruster dead zones and saturation limits, which are nonlinear elements that complicate fine motion control of underwater robots. If the vehicle is configured with redundant thrusters, the respective dead zones and their surrounding nonlinear regions could be avoided by implementing a null motion solution for the command input of the vehicle. This solution is derived from the vehicle's geometry and is realized before the application of the motion control algorithm. The result is an improvement in system performance exclusive of the implemented controller type. The approach is illustrated through simulation and experiment with an underwater robot, ODIN.
An adaptive parameter design for adaptive virtual queue management algorithm

In this paper, the sensitivity problem of the AVQ algorithm to the desired utilization parameter /spl gamma/ and the damping parameter /spl alpha/ is investigated. It is difficult to achieve a fast system response and high link utilization simultaneously using a constant value /spl gamma/. An adaptive setting method for /spl gamma/ is proposed according to the instantaneous queue size and the given reference queue value. This new algorithm, called stabilized AVQ (SAVQ), stabilizes the dynamics of queue maintaining a high link utilization. Experiments also show that savq achieves good responsiveness and relatively high utilization compared with original AVQ scheme.
Video anomaly detection using deep incremental slow feature analysis network

Existing anomaly detection (AD) approaches rely on various hand-crafted representations to represent video data and can be costly. The choice or designing of hand-crafted representation can be difficult when faced with a new dataset without prior knowledge. Motivated by feature learning, e.g. deep leaning and the ability to directly learn useful representations and model high-level abstraction from raw data, the authors investigate the possibility of using a universal approach. The objective is learning data-driven high-level representation for the task of video AD without relying on hand-crafted representation. A deep incremental slow feature analysis (D-IncSFA) network is constructed and applied to directly learning progressively abstract and global high-level representations from raw data sequence. The D-IncSFA network has the functionalities of both feature extractor and anomaly detector that make AD completion in one step. The proposed approach can precisely detect global anomaly such as crowd panic. To detect local anomaly, a set of anomaly maps, produced from the network at different scales, is used. The proposed approach is universal and convenient, working well in different types of scenarios with little human intervention and low memory and computational requirements. The advantages are validated by conducting extensive experiments on different challenge datasets.
Developing curriculum leadership in the UAE

Purpose – This paper aims to build a comprehensive picture of teacher experiences as three educational institutions undertook the process of pedagogical strategy reform through professional development thus uncovering important local data to inform policy and the change process in public and private schools in the UAE. This paper compares the outcomes, successes and challenges that impacted each project.Design/methodology/approach – The three studies were ethnographic case studies using autoethnographic techniques. Data were collected using the following methods: survey, semi‐structured and unstructured interviews, evaluations, observation, document analysis, and reflective journals. The data were analysed using an inductive process of identifying themes.Findings – The findings indicate that individual and collective learning as a result of developing learning communities contributes to a new, evolving and organic model of professional learning which encourages a focus on long‐term solutions for education.
Combination Chemotherapy for Influenza

The emergence of pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses in April 2009 and the continuous evolution of highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza viruses underscore the urgency of novel approaches to chemotherapy for human influenza infection. Anti-influenza drugs are currently limited to the neuraminidase inhibitors (oseltamivir and zanamivir) and to M2 ion channel blockers (amantadine and rimantadine), although resistance to the latter class develops rapidly. Potential targets for the development of new anti-influenza agents include the viral polymerase (and endonuclease), the hemagglutinin, and the non-structural protein NS1. The limitations of monotherapy and the emergence of drug-resistant variants make combination chemotherapy the logical therapeutic option. Here we review the experimental data on combination chemotherapy with currently available agents and the development of new agents and therapy targets.
Dressed for the Occasion: Font-Product Congruity in the Perception of Logotype

Styles of lettering (i.e., fonts) can differ in their appropriateness for describing certain types of brands and products. We use the Osgood dimensions of evaluation, potency, and activity to measure the connotative meaning of fonts and product categories. Judgments of the appropriateness of a font for a product partly depend on the consistency between the connotative meaning of the font and that of the product along dimensions of potency and activity. However, its perceived appropriateness also depends on the connotative meaning of the font per se, indeendent of the type of product being described. These differences are also evident when participants choose a company to call on the basis of ads similar to those found in the Yellow Pages. Finally, the effect of the meaning that people assign to a font is similar to the effect of the meaning they assign to the product's name itself.
Deep Processing Strategies and Critical Thinking: Developmental Trajectories Using Latent Growth Analyses

ABSTRACT The author explored the developmental courses of deep learning approach and critical thinking over a 2-year period. Latent growth curve modeling (LGM) procedures were used to test and trace the trajectories of both theoretical frameworks over time. Participants were 264 (119 women, 145 men) university undergraduates. The Deep Learning subscale of Biggs's (1987) Study Process Questionnaire and the Critical Thinking subscale of the Reflective Thinking Questionnaire (Kember et al., 2000) were administered to the participants across four waves of data collection. Results of the LGM analyses indicated the growth of change of deep learning approach increased over time, whereas critical thinking practice decreased. Further multivariate growth curve analysis revealed an interactive, dynamic association between the intercept of critical thinking and the slope of deep learning approach. This evidence supports previous research findings, indicating that critical thinking may serve as an informational source in students’ engagement in deep learning approach.
CrowdOut: A mobile crowdsourcing service for road safety in digital cities

Nowadays cities invest more in their public services, and particularly digital ones, to improve their resident's quality of life and attract more people. Thus, new crowdsourcing services appear and they are based on contributions made by mobile users equipped with smartphones. For example, the respect of the traffic code is essential to ensure citizens' security and welfare in their city. In this paper, we present CrowdOut, a new mobile crowdsourcing service for improving road safety in cities. CrowdOut allows users to report traffic offence they witness in real time and to map them on a city plan. CrowdOut service has been implemented and experiments and demonstrations have been performed in the urban environment of the Grand Nancy, in France. This service allows users appropriating their urban environment with an active participation regarding the collectivity. This service also represents a tool for city administrators to help for decisions and improve their urbanization policy, or to check the impact of their policy in the city environment.
Reliability and criterion validity of the Self-Administered Physical Activity Checklist in Greek children

Abstract The purpose of this study was to assess the test–retest reliability and criterion validity the Self-Administered Physical Activity Checklist (SAPAC) translated into the Greek language. To evaluate reliability, 72 students (35 girls and 37 boys) of the fifth and sixth grade completed SAPAC on two separate occasions, two weeks apart. Internal consistency was determined with Cronbach alpha coefficient and test–retest reliability with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). To evaluate criterion validity, the RT3 Research Tracker accelerometer was used as standard measure, in 90 randomly selected Greek children (51 girls and 39 boys), aged between 10 and 13. Each subject participated for two consecutive days. On day one, an accelerometer was fitted when school started. On day two, the accelerometers were returned and each subject completed the questionnaire. The internal consistency and the test–retest reliability of SAPAC on total metabolic equivalent (MET) score, MET score of low physical activities (LPA) and MET score of moderate to vigorous physical activities (MVPA) were very satisfactory (all Cronbach's alpha > 0.87, and all ICC > 0.85, P <0.001). The Kendall's tau-b test revealed that the degree of agreement between SAPAC and RT3 accelerometer on total MET score and MET score of MVPA were 0.31 and 0.37, respectively (P <0.01). It was concluded that the Greek translated version of SAPAC is a reliable questionnaire that provides valid estimates of total, as well as moderate to vigorous activities MET scores.
Does unrestricted sociosexual behaviour have a shared genetic basis with sexual coercion?

Abstract Sociosexual orientation refers to the differences between individuals in willingness to engage in uncommitted sexual relations. According to evolutionary theory, much of the variation in sociosexual orientation results from different evolved mating strategies and could reflect heritable factors. Previous research has identified an association between unrestricted sociosexual behaviour and sexual coercion. The major objective with this study was to (a) to replicate this association and (b) to explore whether the two phenotypes would share a genetic basis using a Finnish population based sample of male twins and their siblings (n=4645). Sexual coercion correlated positively with unrestricted sociosexual behaviour (r p =0.20) and unrestricted sociosexual attitudes (r p =0.07). Genetic effects influenced sociosexual behaviour (54%), sociosexual attitudes (23%), and sexual coercion (20–25%). Also, genetic correlations, i.e. common genetic basis, were found between the phenotypes of sociosexuality and sexual coercion. The results of this study can contribute to the understanding of sociosexual orientation, sexual coercion and their possible underlying factors. Identifying correlates of sexual coercion is essential in developing preventive measures.
RFM-SLAM: Exploiting relative feature measurements to separate orientation and position estimation in SLAM

The SLAM problem is known to have a special property that when robot orientation is known, estimating the history of robot poses and feature locations can be posed as a standard linear least squares problem. In this work, we develop a SLAM framework that uses relative feature-to-feature measurements to exploit this structural property of SLAM. Relative feature measurements are used to pose a linear estimation problem for pose-to-pose orientation constraints. This is followed by solving an iterative non-linear on-manifold optimization problem to compute the maximum likelihood estimate for robot orientation given relative rotation constraints. Once the robot orientation is computed, we solve a linear problem for robot position and map estimation. Our approach reduces the computational complexity of non-linear optimization by posing a smaller optimization problem as compared to standard graph-based methods for feature-based SLAM. Further, empirical results show our method avoids catastrophic failures that arise in existing methods due to using odometery as an initial guess for non-linear optimization, while its accuracy degrades gracefully as sensor noise is increased. We demonstrate our method through extensive simulations and comparisons with an existing state-of-the-art solver.
Thyroid follicle formation and thyroglobulin expression in multipotent endodermal stem cells.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the impact of transcriptional induction on thyroid follicular cell (TFC) differentiation from endodermally matured embryonic stem (ES) cells. The thyroid transcription factors-NKx2 homeobox 1 (NKx2-1, formerly called TTF-1) and Paired box gene 8 (Pax8)-are known to associate biochemically and synergistically in the activation of thyroid functional genes including the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS), thyrotropin (TSH) receptor (TSHR), thyroglobulin (Tg), and thyroid peroxidase (TPO) genes. In this study, we investigated the ability of ectopically expressed Pax8 and NKx2-1 to further the induction and differentiation of murine ES cells into potential TFCs. METHODS ES cells were stably transfected with either the Pax8 gene, the NKx2-1 gene, or both genes to study the induction of NIS, TSHR, Tg, and TPO genes as assessed using both quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and protein expression. The derived cells were cultured with or without the presence of activin A to allow their differentiation into multipotent endodermal cells. RESULTS The four thyroid-specific genes NIS, TSHR, Tg, and TPO were all significantly activated by expressing both transcription factors within the same ES cell. In contrast, significant but much lower transcriptional activity of the TSHR, Tg, and TPO genes was detected in cells expressing just NKx2-1, and only the NIS and TSHR genes responded to Pax8 alone. No Tg protein expression could be detected prior to their development into endodermal derivatives. However, after further differentiation of postembryoid body ES cells with activin A and TSH into endodermal cell lines, those cells with dual transfection of Pax8 and NKx2-1 demonstrated greatly enhanced expression of the NIS, TSHR, Tg, and TPO genes to such a degree that it was similar to that found in control thyroid cells. Furthermore, these same cells formed three-dimensional neofollicles in vitro and expressed Tg protein, but these phenomena were absent from lines expressing only Pax8 or NKx2-1. CONCLUSION These findings provide further evidence that co-expression of Pax8 and NKx2-1 in murine ES cells may induce the differentiation of thyroid-specific gene expression within endodermally differentiated ES cells and commit them to form three-dimensional neofollicular structures.
JConstHide: A Framework for Java Source Code Constant Hiding

Software obfuscation or obscuring a software is an approach to defeat the practice of reverse engineering a software for using its functionality illegally in the development of another software. Java applications are more amenable to reverse engineering and re-engineering attacks through methods such as decompilation because Java class files store the program in a semi complied form called 'byte' codes. The existing obfuscation systems obfuscate the Java class files. Obfuscated source code produce obfuscated byte codes and hence two level obfuscation (source code and byte code level) of the program makes it more resilient to reverse engineering attacks. But source code obfuscation is much more difficult due to richer set of programming constructs and the scope of the different variables used in the program and only very little progress has been made on this front. We in this paper are proposing a framework named 'JConstHide' for hiding constants, especially integers in the java source codes, to defeat reverse engineering through decompilation. To the best of our knowledge, no data hiding software are available for java source code constant hiding.
Sorting Permutations by Reversals Through Branch-and-Price

We describe an exact algorithm for the problem of sorting a permutation by the minimum number of reversals, originating from evolutionary studies in molecular biology. Our approach is based on an integer linear programming formulation of a graph-theoretic relaxation of the problem, calling for a decomposition of the edge set of a bicolored graph into the maximum number of alternating cycles. The formulation has one variable for each alternating cycle, and the associated linear programming relaxation is solved by column generation.A major advantage with respect to previous approaches is that the subproblem to face in the column-generation phase no longer requires the solution of min-cost general matching problems, but of min-cost bipartite matching problems. Experiments show that there is a tremendous speed-up in going from general matching to bipartite matching, although the best-known algorithms for the two problems have the same theoretical worst-case complexity. We also show the worst-case ratio between the lower bound value obtained by our new method and previous ones.We illustrate the effectiveness of our approach through extensive computational experiments. In particular, we can solve to proven optimality the largest real-world instances from the literature in a few seconds, and the other (smaller) real-world instances within a few milliseconds on a workstation. Moreover, we can solve to optimality random instances with n = 100 within 3 seconds, and with n = 200 within 15 minutes, where n is the size of the permutation, whereas the size of the instances solvable by previous approaches was at most 100. We also describe a polynomial-time heuristic algorithm that consistently finds solutions within 2% of the optimum for random instances with n up to 1000.
Rapid Synthesis of Carbon Dots by Hydrothermal Treatment of Lignin

A rapid approach has been developed for the fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) by the hydrothermal treatment of lignin in the presence of H2O2. The as-synthesized CDs were found to emit blue photoluminescence with excellent photostability. Moreover, the CDs displayed biocompatibility, low cytotoxicity, and high water solubility properties. Finally, the as-resulted CDs were demonstrated to be excellent probes for bioimaging and biosensing applications.