Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image denoising using anisotropic second and fourth order diffusions based on gradient vector convolution

In this paper, novel second order and fourth order diffusion models are proposed for image denoising. Both models are based on the gradient vector convolution (GVC) model. The second model is coined by incorporating the GVC model into the anisotropic diffusion model and the fourth order one is by introducing the GVC to the You-Kaveh fourth order model. Since the GVC model can be implemented in real time using the FFT and possesses high robustness to noise, both proposed models have many advantages over traditional ones, such as low computational cost, high numerical stability and remarkable denoising effect. Moreover, the proposed fourth order model is an anisotropic filter, so it can obviously improve the ability of edge and texture preserving except for further improvement of denoising. Some experiments are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed models.
Structural Error Correction Models: Instrumental Variables Methods and an application to an exchange rate model

Error correction models are widely used to estimate dynamic cointegrated systems. In most applications error correction models are reduced form models. As a result, non-structural speed of adjustment coefficients are estimated in these applications. A single equation instrumental variable method can be used to estimate a structural speed of adjustment coefficient. This paper develops a system instrumental variable method to estimate the structural speed of adjustment coefficient in an error correction model. This method utilizes Hansen and Sargent's (1982) instrumental variable estimator for linear rational expectations models, and is applied to an exchange rate model with sticky prices.
The English ‘Perfect’ reconsidered

In an article in this Journal (Specification and English tenses) Crystal has pointed out the hitherto neglected role that adverbial determiners may play in giving unambiguous indication of time where the verbal tense-form itself is not specific enough: ‘It is [in such cases] not a question of tense-form alone giving the relevant distinguishing indication of time, as has been traditionally assumed, but of tense-form with or without adverbial specification which gives unambiguous indication’ (Crystal, 1966: 5). Adverbials may thus become ‘non-omissible determiners’ (a term borrowed by Crystal from Ivić, 1962).
Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Performance Management Audit Questionnaire

This article reports on the findings of a more sophisticated and demanding re-analysis of a data set collected and analyzed by Spangenberg and Theron (1997) to examine the validity of a Performance Management audit questionnaire. LISREL 8 was used for a confirmatory factor analysis to determine the fit of the measurement model that guided the construction of the Performance Management Audit Questionnaire (PMAQ). The findings reported here corroborate the position explicated in Spangenberg and Theron (1997) that the PMAQ provides a content valid measure of the Performance Management domain as conceptualised by the systems model.
LRU-SP: a size-adjusted and popularity-aware LRU replacement algorithm for web caching

This paper presents LRU-SP, a size-adjusted and popularity-aware extension to Least Recently Used (LRU) for caching web objects. The standard LRU, focusing on recently used and equal sized objects, is not suitable for the web context because web objects vary dramatically in size and the recently accessed objects may possibly differ from popular ones. LRU-SP is built on two LRU extensions, namely Size-Adjusted LRU and Segmented LRU. As LRU-SP differentiates object size and access frequency, it can achieve higher hit rates and byte hit rates. Furthermore, an efficient implementation scheme is developed and trace-driven simulations are performed to compare LRU-SP against Size-Adjusted LRU, Segmented LRU and LRV caching algorithms.
Hypercaloric diets with increased meal frequency, but not meal size, increase intrahepatic triglycerides: A randomized controlled trial

American children consume up to 27% of calories from high‐fat and high‐sugar snacks. Both sugar and fat consumption have been implicated as a cause of hepatic steatosis and obesity but the effect of meal pattern is largely understudied. We hypothesized that a high meal frequency, compared to consuming large meals, is detrimental in the accumulation of intrahepatic and abdominal fat. To test this hypothesis, we randomized 36 lean, healthy men to a 40% hypercaloric diet for 6 weeks or a eucaloric control diet and measured intrahepatic triglyceride content (IHTG) using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H‐MRS), abdominal fat using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and insulin sensitivity using a hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp with a glucose isotope tracer before and after the diet intervention. The caloric surplus consisted of fat and sugar (high‐fat‐high‐sugar; HFHS) or sugar only (high‐sugar; HS) and was consumed together with, or between, the three main meals, thereby increasing meal size or meal frequency. All hypercaloric diets similarly increased body mass index (BMI). Increasing meal frequency significantly increased IHTG (HFHS mean relative increase of 45%; P = 0.016 and HS mean relative increase of 110%; P = 0.047), whereas increasing meal size did not (2‐way analysis of variance [ANOVA] size versus frequency P = 0.03). Abdominal fat increased in the HFHS‐frequency group (+63.3 ± 42.8 mL; P = 0.004) and tended to increase in the HS‐frequency group (+46.5 ± 50.7 mL; P = 0.08). Hepatic insulin sensitivity tended to decrease in the HFHS‐frequency group while peripheral insulin sensitivity was not affected. Conclusion: A hypercaloric diet with high meal frequency increased IHTG and abdominal fat independent of caloric content and body weight gain, whereas increasing meal size did not. This study suggests that snacking, a common feature in the Western diet, independently contributes to hepatic steatosis and obesity. (Trial registration: www.clinicaltrials.gov; nr.NCT01297738.) (Hepatology 2014;60:545–553)
Evaluation of an Anger Management Therapy Programme Following Acquired Brain Injury: A Preliminary Study

Problems with anger management after traumatic brain injury are one of the most frequent changes in the long term reported by relatives of injured people. In spite of their impact there have been few reports either describing therapy procedures for this disorder or examining their efficacy. The present study evaluated a cognitive-behavioural intervention for anger management difficulties following acquired brain injury. Participants were screened and randomly allocated to either a Treatment Group (TREAT) or Waiting List Group (WAIT). Each participant in TREAT received approximately six, hourly individual sessions of anger-management therapy while those in WAIT monitored their anger daily. Sixteen participants proceeded through to the final stages of the study. A significant decrease in anger on the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) was found for TREAT in comparison with WAIT at post-treatment. Repeated-measures analyses for TREAT showed significant improvements between pre-treatment and post-treatment measures (immediate and 2-month follow-up) on the STAXI. No significant generalisation of treatment effects to self-esteem, anxiety, depression, or degree of self-awareness were found.
Exploiting Heavy-Tailed Statistics for Predictable QoS Routing in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

Extensive measurement and analysis have shown that traffic in data networks is better described by heavy-tailed distributions. In this paper, we present our current work on ad hoc routing by exploiting the heavy-tailed nature of the flow lifetime. In particular, the long- and short-lived flows are differentiated based on the unique predictability nascent in heavy- tailed distributions, with the long- and short-lived flows being handled separately. A modified AODV has been implemented to enable heavy-tailedness awareness. Simulation results reveal that the new protocol, AODV-HT, significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art under heavy-tailed workload.
Understanding Cross-Cultural Management Interaction: Research into Cultural Standards to Complement Cultural Value Dimensions and Personality Traits

Understanding why critical incidents emerge and interpreting their importance in cross-cultural interactions requires novel constructs of culture. Therefore, we suggest cultural standards as a new tool for research. With reference to the Parsons and Shils' theory of action, we reflect on the interrelations of cultural standards with cultural dimensions and personality traits, which constitute those constructs that are most widely used in the English-language literature. Finally, in the context of management, we develop a model of cross-cultural learning and adjustment, triggered by critical incidents and performance achieved.
Temporal Changes in Deceased Kidney Donor Characteristics in Australia

Background Demand for deceased donor kidneys has exceeded supply in Australia over the past 2 decades. With a desire to use as many donor organs as possible, the health characteristics of accepted donors may have changed over time. Methods All deceased kidney donors actually transplanted in Australia between January 1, 1994, and December 31, 2013, were retrospectively analyzed, using data from the Australian and New Zealand Organ Donor Registry. Results Of 4172 deceased donors, 57% were men. Mean donor age increased from 37.2 ± 16.8 years to 46.1 ± 17.7 years over time, and donor numbers increased from 162 in 1994 to 334 in 2013. As the primary cause of death, motor vehicle accidents decreased from 27% to 12%, whereas cerebral pathology persisted at 50%. There was an increase in the proportion of donors with hypertension (12% to 24%), diabetes (2% to 7%), and an increase in mean body mass index (24.4 ± 4.4 kg/m2 to 27.5 ± 6.3 kg/m2) between 1994 and 2013. These changes were reflected by an increase in the median kidney donor risk index from 1.08 (interquartile range, 0.85-1.25) to 1.32 (interquartile range, 0.95-1.53). The proportion of medically higher risk donors increased over time. Conclusions Because deceased kidney donor numbers have increased, the range of donor quality has broadened, with an increase in both the proportion and number of high-risk donors, as well as a decline in donor quality. These data highlight the need for kidney allocation algorithms to evolve to ensure appropriate allocation of deceased donor kidneys.
Process discovery for evaluating dialogue strategies

We develop a diagnostic method for detecting problematic dialogue strategies in spoken dialogue systems (SDS). Our tool classifies relations between semantically-pragmatically labelled system prompts and user inputs in a Dutch SDS corpus, and constructs a dependency/frequency graph that provides rich information about the underlying interaction process. The graph can be directly analysed to specify those system events from which more paths lead to problematic user events than to the unproblematic semantic equivalents of those user inputs. As a result, we can pinpoint bad sequences of prompting strategies in the system and suggest ways to replace such prompts with more effective ones. Our approach is a general method that provides straightforward output for evaluating a SDS design, given some labelled data.
Capitalists Against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden

Capitalists Against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden. By Peter A. Swenson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 448p. $24.95. Peter Swenson has written a thought-provoking and edifying work of comparative political economy that examines the causal relationship between national differences in capitalist interests and divergent welfare state development. Given Swenson's ambitious challenge to many existing accounts of welfare developments and his detailed historical analysis, this book should attract some well-deserved attention.
Classification of Data Streams Applied to Insect Recognition: Initial Results

Applications such as intelligent sensors should be able to collect information about the environment and make decisions based on input data. An example is a low-cost sensor able to detect and classify species of insects using a simple laser and machine learning techniques. This sensor is an important step towards the development of intelligent traps able to attract and selectively capture insect species of interest such as disease vectors or agricultural pests, without affecting non-harmful species. The data gathered by the sensor constitutes a data stream with non-stationary characteristics, since the insects' metabolisms are influenced by environmental conditions (such as temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure), circadian rhythm and age. Algorithms that classify data streams often assume that once a prediction is made, the actual labels are provided to assist in updating the classifier. In the case of intelligent sensors, these labels are rarely available. The objective of this paper is to evaluate methods that adapt concept drifts by regularly updating the classification models applied to insect recognition in a data stream. We show in our initial results that the philosophy of inserting and removing examples from the training set are of essential importance. We also show that a simple criterion to insert examples with high classification confidence can significantly improve the accuracy.
A Dependency Model of Mass-Media Effects

It is suggested that one of the reasons that there is such a lack of clarity as to whether the media have effects is that researchers have proceeded from the wrong theoretical conceptualizations to study the wrong questions. The dependency model of media effects is presented as a theoretical alternative in which the nature of the tripartite audience-media-society relationship is assumed to most directly determine many of the effects that the media have on people and society. The present paper focuses upon audience dependency on media information resources as a key interactive condition for alteration of audience beliefs, behavior, or feelings as a result of mass communicated in formation. Audience dependency is said to be high in societies in which the media serve many central information functions and in periods of rapid social change or pervasive social conflict. The dependency model is further elaborated and illustrated by examination of several cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects which may be readily analyzed and researched from this theoretical framework.
Identifying Frequent Word Associations for Extracting Specific Product Features from Customer Reviews

Product feature extraction from customer reviews is an important task in the field of opinion mining. Extracted features help to assess feature based opinions written by the customers who bought a particular product and gave their valuable opinions concerning their satisfactions and criticisms. This helps future customers and vendors to know about the pros and cons of the product under consideration. Due to unstructured format of the opinion text in most of the cases, it is necessary to formulate ways to extract product features both implicitly and explicitly visible in plain text reviews. In this paper, a process is discussed where frequent words associated with specific product features are identified with the help of a previously managed corpus of product reviews. The process involves finding out the keywords or Ngrams that are frequently associated with the specific product features. These frequent associations are then normalized within each product feature scope with the popular tf.idf metric. Two different classification techniques are applied to associate unclassified review lines with appropriate product feature classes using the found word associations. Results are then evaluated by comparing with the human identified product features.
Development and validation of a reversed-phase HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of Aniracetam and impurities in the bulk drug

Simultaneous determination of aniracetam and its related impurities [2-pyrrolidinone, 4-Methoxy benzoic acid(p-anisic acid), N-anisoyl GABA (4-p-anisamidobutyric acid)]were accomplished in the bulk drug, synthesis for drug and drug intermediate and a tablet formulation using a Reversed Phase High Performance liquid chromatography method with UV detection separation was achieved on zorbox Agilent Eclipsc XDB column C18(150mm× 4.6 mm×5μm) as stationary phase with binary gradient mode solvent phase A composed of H3PO4 (Ortho phosphoric acid ) buffer ( pH ≈2, 0.02M) and phase B of acetonitrile. The flow rate of the mobile phase was 1.0 mL/min and the total elution time including the column re-equilibration was approximately 35 min. The UV detection wavelength was 215nm,Injection volume was 10μL and experiments were conducted at 30 °C temperature. The developed method was validated in terms of system suitability, selectivity, linearity, range, precision, accuracy, limits of detection and quantification for the impurity, short term and long term stability of the analysts in the prepared solution and robustness, following the ICH guidelines. Therefore, the proposed method was suitable for the simultaneous determination of aniracetam and its studied related impurity and intermediate.
Field theory and educational practice: Bourdieu and the pedagogic qualities of local field positions in educational contexts

Bourdieu’s version of field theory has had an impressive impact on the ways that sociologists of education conceptualize educational practices. These accounts tend to focus on the varying levels of ontological complicity established between students’ cultural dispositions and educational institutions. In this paper, the wisdom of these accounts is acknowledged but it is also suggested that Bourdieu’s field theory does not go far enough to detail the ways that positions in local educational fields embody pedagogic qualities and action trajectories. Drawing on insights from social psychology and relational sociology, a field theory for local educational action is outlined that more adequately accounts for the ways that students and educators directly experience and act upon curricular and pedagogic qualities in educational settings. An empirical example is then offered of the authors’ claims within the context of curricular tracking/streaming, and the article concludes by considering the practical and political consequences of this theoretical shift.
Retroviral vectors: from cancer viruses to therapeutic tools.

My father was an electrical engineer, and I loved to tinker with the dismembered parts of electronic equipment that he brought home for me. He liked working on cars, and I learned mechanical skills from him. So it was natural for me to study engineering as an undergraduate, with heavy doses of physics and math. However, during my senior year at Brown University, I took a one-year trip to the Geographic South Pole in Antarctica to study cosmic rays (highenergy particles originating primarily from outside the solar system), and my plans changed. Likely because of the harsh conditions there (10,500-foot altitude equivalent, <1% humidity, outside temperatures dropping below the freezing point of CO2), the long ride there and back on noisy aircraft, or the plain isolation of the site, I recognized the fragility of life and became more interested in biology and medicine. After finishing my engineering and math degrees and spending a few months on an oceanographic ship, and having spent most of my life on the east coast of the United States, I set sail for Stanford University to learn some biology and hopefully enter medical school. Medical school at Stanford turned out not to be an option, but I was able to find work in a lab in the Stanford Pharmacology Department, under the tutelage of a clever postdoc. Things went well and I was accepted into the PhD program in a lab studying cytochrome P450 regulation, which I hoped would lead me into the field of recombinant DNA and the isolation of the various P450 protein and regulatory genes. The work was very interesting, but my advisor wasn’t interested in cloning genes, and so this would have to wait. But while I was there, I took a class in virology run by the Biochemistry Department, and the section on retroviruses got me thinking about their possible use as gene transfer vehicles to treat genetic disease. Interestingly, Richard Mulligan, the other pioneer cited for his work on retroviral vectors, was doing his graduate work on gene transfer in the Biochemistry Department, just down the hall from my lab in pharmacology!
Contextual Factors for Research on Psychological Therapies for Aboriginal Australians

This paper is to provide a commentary to Can cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) be effective for Aboriginal Australians? Perspectives of Aboriginal practitioners trained in CBT. It is inspiring that this study has found that CBT can play a useful role in therapy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but the outcomes need to be considered with caution. CBT can provide a useful tool when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but in itself is not adequate for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is not culturally responsive but can be part of an approach that might be culturally appropriate. The authors are compelled at this point to give a history of mental health and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to provide a background context to the discussion and to illustrate why some psychological approaches such as CBT can only ever be part of the tools that might be used in a broader framework, that is required to address and strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's well‐being.
trans-Activation of a globin promoter in nonerythroid cells

We show that expression in fibroblasts of a single cDNA, encoding the erythroid DNA-binding protein Eryf1 (GF-1, NF-E1), very efficiently activates transcription of a chicken alpha-globin promoter, trans-Activation in these cells occurred when Eryf1 bound to a single site within a minimal globin promoter. In contrast, efficient activation in erythroid cells required multiple Eryf1 binding sites. Our results indicate that mechanisms exist that are capable of modulating the trans-acting capabilities of Eryf1 in a cell-specific manner, without affecting DNA binding. The response of the minimal globin promoter to Eryf1 in fibroblasts was at least as great as for optimal constructions in erythroid cells. Therefore, the assay provides a very simple and sensitive system with which to study gene activation by a tissue-specific factor.
Búsqueda de Ayuda Académica, Autoeficacia Social Académica y Emociones de Logro en Clase en Estudiantes Universitarios

Un estudio transversal examino (a) si existen relaciones entre la busqueda de ayuda academica (BAA), la autoeficacia social academica (ASA) y la emociones de logro (N=433) y (b) las diferencias de genero en las variables contempladas (N=180). Se encontraron correlaciones parciales de ASA con disfrute, esperanza, ansiedad y verguenza (r=. 19, . 12, -. 13, -. 38; p
The Syntactically Annotated ICE Corpus and the Automatic Induction of a Formal Grammar

The International Corpus of English is a corpus of national and regional varieties of English. The mega-word British component has been constructed, grammatically tagged, and syntactically parsed. This article is a description of work that aims at the automatic induction of a wide-coverage grammar from this corpus as well as an empirical evaluation of the grammar. It first of all describes the corpus and its annotation schemes and then presents empirical statistics for the grammar. I will then evaluate the coverage and the accuracy of such a grammar when applied automatically in a parsing system. Results show that the grammar enabled the parser to achieve 86.1% recall rate and 83.5% precision rate.