Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social anxiety disorder in callers to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is among the most common anxiety disorders with a lifetime prevalence of up to 16%. Among callers to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA), we surveyed 1,000 participants using a 97‐item questionnaire to understand the characteristics of participants with SAD and subthreshold SAD (SSAD). Current prevalence rates of SAD (n=295) and SSAD (n=41) were 29.5% and 4.1%, respectively. SAD and SSAD participants were more likely to be younger, single, with less education and lower income than their no axis‐I‐psychiatric‐disorder controls (NAC). In addition, they presented with more psychiatric comorbidity, lifetime numbers of trauma, recent psychotropic use and side effects. Increased medical comorbidity, health service utilization, as well as reduced work productivity were also found, particularly among SAD participants. SSAD participants were comparable to SAD participants for most of the measures with a few exceptions, mainly less psychiatric comorbidity, less medication use for panic attack and social fear, and fewer visits to the health professionals. In conclusion, SAD was highly prevalent among callers to the ADAA. SAD participants were particularly impaired and tended to use the health care system extensively. Although SSAD participants were less impaired than those with SAD, they were disadvantaged in many ways. Early diagnosis and better treatment are urged for reducing costs and improving life. An organization such as ADAA can play a vital role in bringing this about. Depression and Anxiety 00:000–000, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Multi-objective design optimization of a soft, pneumatic robot

We present a method for the design optimization of a soft, inflatable robot. The method described utilizes a multi-objective fitness function together with custom, platform-specific metrics related to the dexterity and load-bearing capacity of inflatable manipulators. Candidate designs are scored by computing these metrics at many randomly generated configurations and then by appropriately combining these scores within the multi-objective optimization framework. High performing designs are propagated through a genetic algorithm. The final result is a set of diverse, optimal designs lying along a Pareto front spanning the design space. By examining variations and trade-offs within this set, a designer can more appropriately choose design parameters for a target application. This is especially relevant for robots with many design parameters that can quickly be manufactured as is the case with emerging, soft robot technologies.
Enhancing the real-time behavior of IEEE 802.11n

IEEE 802.11 systems are drawing an ever increasing interest for wireless industrial communication, also thanks to the interesting features provided by the most recent and advanced amendments to this standard, such as IEEE 802.11n. Due to the intrinsic unreliability of the wireless medium, the current research efforts aim at improving both timeliness and reliability of such a protocol in view of its adoption for real-time applications. A significant issue in this context is represented by the reduction of the randomness that affects packet delivery times. An important benefit in this direction can be obtained by the deactivation of the standard legacy carrier sensing and backoff procedures. In this paper we show, through a simulative assessment, that a fine control of such features leads to improved real-time performance.
Inflammatory breast carcinoma and noninflammatory locally advanced breast carcinoma: distinct clinicopathologic entities?

PURPOSE Inflammatory breast carcinoma (IBC) and noninflammatory locally advanced breast carcinoma (LABC) are both associated with poor prognosis; however, whether they are distinct clinicopathologic entities remains controversial. MATERIALS AND METHODS To determine whether IBC and LABC were different, we compared tumor characteristics, prognosis, and age-specific incidence rate patterns in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results program. An age of 50 years served as a surrogate marker for menopause. RESULTS Younger age at diagnosis, poorer tumor grade, and negative estrogen receptors (ERs) were more predictive of IBC (n = 2,237) than of LABC (n = 7,985). Breast carcinoma survival was worse for patients with IBC than for those with LABC (log-rank test, P <.0001). Age-specific incidence rates for IBC increased until 50 years and then flattened, whereas rates for LABC increased for all ages. When rates for LABC were stratified by estrogen receptor-positive (ERP) and -negative (ERN) expression, rates for ERP and ERN diverged; that is, rates for ERP increased with advancing age, whereas rates for ERN flattened after 50 years. When rates for IBC were stratified by ER expression, rates for both ERP and ERN flattened after 50 years of age. CONCLUSION IBC and LABC seemed to be distinct biologic entities, as indicated by different prognostic factor profiles and age-specific incidence rate patterns. Rates that increased before 50 years and then stabilized, possibly indicated that premenopausal exposures had a greater effect on maintaining rates for IBC than for LABC.
Estimating Potential GDP for the Romanian Economy. An Eclectic Approach

The paper provides potential output and output gap estimates for the Romanian economy in the period 1998-2008. Our approach consists in combining the production function structural method with several statistical de-trending methods. The contribution of our analysis to the scarce literature dealing with the estimation of the cyclical position of the Romanian economy is twofold. First, we identify the contribution of the production factors to the potential output growth. Second, we aggregate the results obtained through filtering techniques in a consensus estimate, ascribing to each method a weight inversely related to its revision stability. The results suggest for the period 2001-2008 an average annual growth rate of the potential output equal to 5.8%, but on a descending slope, due to the adverse developments in the macroeconomic context.
Developmental changes in brain activation involved in the production of novel speech sounds in children

Older children are more successful at producing unfamiliar, non‐native speech sounds than younger children during the initial stages of learning. To reveal the neuronal underpinning of the age‐related increase in the accuracy of non‐native speech production, we examined the developmental changes in activation involved in the production of novel speech sounds using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Healthy right‐handed children (aged 6–18 years) were scanned while performing an overt repetition task and a perceptual task involving aurally presented non‐native and native syllables. Productions of non‐native speech sounds were recorded and evaluated by native speakers. The mouth regions in the bilateral primary sensorimotor areas were activated more significantly during the repetition task relative to the perceptual task. The hemodynamic response in the left inferior frontal gyrus pars opercularis (IFG pOp) specific to non‐native speech sound production (defined by prior hypothesis) increased with age. Additionally, the accuracy of non‐native speech sound production increased with age. These results provide the first evidence of developmental changes in the neural processes underlying the production of novel speech sounds. Our data further suggest that the recruitment of the left IFG pOp during the production of novel speech sounds was possibly enhanced due to the maturation of the neuronal circuits needed for speech motor planning. This, in turn, would lead to improvement in the ability to immediately imitate non‐native speech. Hum Brain Mapp 35:4079–4089, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Theory and Design of Practical Metamaterials for Acoustic Cloaking

Significant research has recently been dedicated to reducing the interaction between acoustic waves and given objects. The coordinate transformation theory provides an elegant approach to the design of coatings capable of reaching this goal. First demonstrated for electromagnetic waves [1], this method has later been adapted to acoustic waves [2–5]. Its appeal stems from its generality: it can be applied to obtain coatings capable to conceal objects of arbitrary shapes and sizes. Moreover, its efficacy depends only on our ability to create materials having the right acoustic properties. However, these properties are quite restrictive. They include inhomogeneity, i.e. material parameters that vary continuously with position, and a high degree of anisotropy. In practice, one would relax these constraints but reduce the performance of the design. For example, in many instances an inhomogeneous material can be approximated by thin layers of homogeneous media. However, a large number of such layers are usually required to obtain acceptable results [6]. Copyright © 2009 by ASME
bLARS: An Algorithm to Infer Gene Regulatory Networks

Inferring gene regulatory networks (GRNs) from high-throughput gene-expression data is an important and challenging problem in systems biology. Several existing algorithms formulate GRN inference as a regression problem. The available regression based algorithms are based on the assumption that all regulatory interactions are linear. However, nonlinear transcription regulation mechanisms are common in biology. In this work, we propose a new regression based method named bLARS that permits a variety of regulatory interactions from a predefined but otherwise arbitrary family of functions. On three DREAM benchmark datasets, namely gene expression data from E. coli, Yeast, and a synthetic data set, bLARS outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms in the terms of the overall score. On the individual networks, bLARS offers the best performance among currently available similar algorithms, namely algorithms that do not use perturbation information and are not meta-algorithms. Moreover, the presented approach can also be utilized for general feature selection problems in domains other than biology, provided they are of a similar structure.
Usage of thin clients on STB for secure interactive applications

In our days, interactive TV has become an important distribution channel for service sector companies like banks or sellers. In that direction, the use of cloud computing solutions are today one of the most effective ways to provide new services and features to end users in an elastic and immediate manner. We have developed a solution based on open standards, which uses a cloud computing infrastructure to provide a great level of security, usability and multi-platform capability. The user connects through the VNC protocol to a virtual machine server held by the company, which provides a virtual browser session, which is used to securely connect to the company website to perform sensible
Resources through which Chinese students learn about Western society and culture

This article presents the results of a study conducted in order to determine how Chinese university students in Mainland China gain their cultural knowledge about Western culture and society, and the resources they would prefer to use to learn more. The study involved administration of both a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Responses were obtained from 470 undergraduate students from 15 universities based in Beijing. The results showed that the students believed they learned more from foreign media and, in particular, films and TV series from the United States than from any other source, and that they also preferred to learn in this way. The results also showed that they learned little about Western culture and society through conversations with native English speakers, although they wanted more opportunities to learn in this way. These results have implications for those involved in developing and delivering pre-sessional and orientation programmes for Chinese university students in the Western higher education contexts.
Negotiating a Multidimensional Framework for Relevance Space

This work reports the results of an enquiry on the concept of relevance and on relevance judgments carried out during the MIRA workshops activities in 1998/1999. Starting from a previous proposal [23], we present the multidimensional relevance space, a framework for describing the various kinds of relevance, which has been negotiated with experts belonging to the MIRA community. The relevance dimensions of information needs, information resources, and information use context are presented, and a three dimensional graphical representation of the framework is proposed. The differences between the original framework and the revised one, and the advantages of the latter, are discussed. Some implications of the framework for the design and evaluation of information access systems and their user interfaces are also derived and, finally, an exploratory study on the issue of agreement in relevance judgments, and its consequences for the design of multimedia test collections, are presented.
Youth Mental Health Promotion in the Hunter Region

Objective: To describe the work of the Hunter Institute of Mental Health, with special emphasis on its role in mental health promotion and prevention with adolescents. Method and Results: The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion is used as a framework to describe the varied functions of this organisation. Four youth mental health promotion programs are given as examples of the Institute's work. Results of preliminary evaluation of the Youth Suicide Prevention — National University Curriculum Project are provided. Conclusion: The Hunter Institute of Mental Health, a self-funding unit of the Hunter Area Health Service, provides innovative health promotion programs as part of its role as a provider of mental health education and training. The model may be particularly applicable to mental health services in regional Australia.
Do people hold a humanoid robot morally accountable for the harm it causes?

Robots will increasingly take on roles in our social lives where they can cause humans harm. When robots do so, will people hold robots morally accountable? To investigate this question, 40 undergraduate students individually engaged in a 15-minute interaction with ATR's humanoid robot, Robovie. The interaction culminated in a situation where Robovie incorrectly assessed the participant's performance in a game, and prevented the participant from winning a $20 prize. Each participant was then interviewed in a 50-minute session. Results showed that all of the participants engaged socially with Robovie, and many of them conceptualized Robovie as having mental/emotional and social attributes. Sixty-five percent of the participants attributed some level of moral accountability to Robovie. Statistically, participants held Robovie less accountable than they would a human, but more accountable than they would a vending machine. Results are discussed in terms of the New Ontological Category Hypothesis and robotic warfare.
Maximum Entropy combined FSM stemming method for Uyghur

This paper presents the generation of Uyghur Noun Suffix DFA combined with Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) for stemming algorithm. Because of the agglutinative nature of Uyghur language, stemming is an essential task for Uyghur language processing applications. We generate Uyghur noun inflectional suffixes finite state machines (FSMs) by using the morphotactic rules in reverse order. But there are eight suffixes which is similar to the ending part of some words. These suffixes make the FSM ambiguous. We apply the MaxEnt model to resolve ambiguity of the FSM. This paper describes the steps of generating the FSM, building the MaxEnt suffix identifying model and combination of MaxEnt with FSM.
Algebraic and logical descriptions of generalized trees

Quasi-trees generalize trees in that the unique "path" between two nodes may be infinite and have any countable order type. They are used to define the rank-width of a countable graph in such a way that it is equal to the least upper-bound of the rank-widths of its finite induced subgraphs. Join-trees are the corresponding directed trees. They are useful to define the modular decomposition of a countable graph. We also consider ordered join-trees, that generalize rooted trees equipped with a linear order on the set of sons of each node. We define algebras with finitely many operations that generate (via infinite terms) these generalized trees. We prove that the associated regular objects (those defined by regular terms) are exactly the ones that are the unique models of monadic second-order sentences. These results use and generalize a similar result by W. Thomas for countable linear orders.
Why does patriotism prevail? Contextual explanations of patriotism across countries

ABSTRACT Addressing the normative and empirical debate regarding the nature of patriotism, this paper examines the social contexts in which patriotism – defined here as an expression of national pride – thrives. Combining diverse theoretical explanations, it investigates whether expressions of patriotism are related to globalization, state function, social fractionalization and conflict. A multilevel regression analysis of data from 93 countries led to three principal findings. First, citizens of more developed and globalized countries are less likely to be proud of their country. Second, citizens are more likely to be patriotic in countries characterized by higher levels of income inequality and religiously homogeneity. Third, citizens of countries exposed to direct conflict – that is, suffering terror and causalities from external conflict – tend to exhibit higher levels of national pride. Patriotism frequently being identified as a mandatory political commodity, these results suggest that, overall, patriotism forms part of a less attractive matrix than its advocates tend to assume.
Follow the Leader The Role of Local and Global Visual Information for Keeping Distance in Interpersonal Coordination

I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . III TABLE OF CONTENTS . V LIST OF TABLES . X LIST OF FIGURES . XII PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS RELATED TO THIS THESIS . XV PREFACE . XVII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . XIX CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . 1 1.
Personalistic self-disclosure and attraction: basis for relationship or scarce resource

The effects of personalistic self-disclosure on attraction were first predicted from attribution theory as the result of perceptions of a special relationship beginning between revealer and recipient (Jones and Archer, 1976). Recently, a commodity theory explanation has been proposed in which attraction is seen as the result of the delivery of valuable information that is difficult to obtain elsewhere (e.g., Petty and Mirels, 1981). To pit both versions of the hypothesis against each other, a laboratory experiment was conducted in which availability of information (available versus unavailable) about the subject's confederate partner and the attribution for the partner's disclosure (personalistic versus situational) were manipulated independently, along with the disclosure's intimacy (high versus low). In accord with commodity theory, personalistic disclosure effects on attraction emerged only when the information revealed was unavailable through another source. However, in keeping with attribution theory, inferences about the partner's attraction to the subject were also based on the availability of the information.
The influence of cognitive function on outcome after a hip fracture.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have indicated that patients with a hip fracture who have impaired cognitive function have an increased risk for complications, poor long-term outcome, and an increased mortality rate. An assessment of cognitive function is often lacking in nursing and medical records. We investigated whether an assessment of cognitive function obtained with use of a validated instrument would be a useful patient management adjunct. METHODS We studied 213 patients with a hip fracture who had a mean age of eighty-four years and were entered in a prospective trial with a follow-up evaluation at four and twelve months. On admission to the orthopaedic ward, the patients were evaluated with use of the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire to assess their cognitive function. The outcome for patients with severe cognitive dysfunction, i.e., those with a score of <3 on the questionnaire, was compared with the outcome for patients with higher scores. The main outcome measurements were the Charnley hip score, activities of daily living status, health-related quality of life, and mortality. RESULTS A Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire score of <3 and male gender were associated with an increased mortality rate during the first twelve months. Moreover, patients with a score of <3 had a significantly worse outcome with regard to the ability to walk and to perform the activities of daily living, with 36% of these patients confined to a wheelchair and almost 39% totally dependent with regard to daily living functions at the time of the final follow-up (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The systematic use of the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire upon admission to the orthopaedic ward identifies patients with a hip fracture who have severe cognitive dysfunction and effectively predicts their outcome with regard to the ability to walk, ability to perform the activities of daily living, and mortality, and it can be recommended for use in the care of elderly patients with a hip fracture.
Learning Physical Collaborative Robot Behaviors From Human Demonstrations

Robots are becoming safe and smart enough to work alongside people not only on manufacturing production lines, but also in spaces such as houses, museums, or hospitals. This can be significantly exploited in situations in which a human needs the help of another person to perform a task, because a robot may take the role of the helper. In this sense, a human and the robotic assistant may cooperatively carry out a variety of tasks, therefore requiring the robot to communicate with the person, understand his/her needs, and behave accordingly. To achieve this, we propose a framework for a user to teach a robot collaborative skills from demonstrations. We mainly focus on tasks involving physical contact with the user, in which not only position, but also force sensing and compliance become highly relevant. Specifically, we present an approach that combines probabilistic learning, dynamical systems, and stiffness estimation to encode the robot behavior along the task. Our method allows a robot to learn not only trajectory following skills, but also impedance behaviors. To show the functionality and flexibility of our approach, two different testbeds are used: a transportation task and a collaborative table assembly.