Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The interactive effect of Gestalt situations and arousal seeking tendency on customers' emotional responses: matching color and music to specific servicescapes

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the interactive effect of Gestalt versus non‐Gestalt situations, and arousal seeking tendency (AST) on customers' pleasure and arousal with matching color and music to hotel bars and hotel guest rooms; thereby providing guidance for service providers.Design/methodology/approach – This is an experimental design study with four treatments. Fictitious hotel bar and guest room video clips were created with the appropriate manipulation of color schemes and music as independent variables. After the video clip was shown, subjects were asked to complete a survey instrument. The hypothesized model was then tested.Findings – The results showed that the interactive effect of Gestalt versus non‐Gestalt, and AST on an individual's pleasure and arousal are both positive and statistically significant. As an individual's AST increases, both the arousal score and pleasure score increased in Gestalt situations (dynamic bar and tranquil guest room) and decreased in non‐Gestalt situat.
The AC Line Current Regulation Strategy for the Grid-Connected PV System

The ac line current regulation strategy for the grid-connected photovoltaic (GCPV) system is proposed in this paper. The power flow of the GCPV system and the operational principles of different ac line current regulation strategies are presented. In this paper, the optimal ac line current regulation is defined to be able to achieve dc-link voltage regulation in one 60 Hz ac mains cycle while minimizing the injected ac line current variation. The mathematical equations for the proposed optimal ac line current regulation strategy are derived thoroughly. The derived equations also explain the behavior of the dc-link voltage responding to the power variation of the GCPV system. As a result, the selection criteria of the dc-link capacitor can be established. Hardware experimental results have been presented to verify the validity of the proposed optimal ac line current regulation strategy.
Experiencing Parenthood, Care and Spaces of Hospitality

Drawing on research conducted in Australia and the United Kingdom, this paper explores how parenting and care provision is entangled with, and thus produced through, consumption in hospitality venues. We examine how the socio-material practices of hospitality provision shape the enactment of parenting, alongside the way child-parent/consumer-provider interactions impact upon experiences of hospitality spaces. We argue that venues provide contexts for care provision, acting as spaces of sociality, informing children's socialization and offering temporary relief from the work of parenting. However, the data also highlight various practices of exclusion and multiple forms of emotional and physical labour required from care-providers. The data illustrate children's ability to exercise power and the ways in which parents'/carers' experiences of hospitality spaces are shaped by their enactment of discourses of ‘good parenting’. Finally, we consider parents'/carers' coping behaviours as they manage social and psychological risks associated with consumption in such public spaces of leisure.
THE UNCERTAINTY OF THE PAST: ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING UNDER AMBIGUITY*

Classical theories of omniscient rationality in organizational decision-making have largely been replaced by a view of limited rationality, but no similar concern has been reflected in the analysis of organizational learning. There has been a tendency to model a simple complete cycle of learning from unambiguous experience and to ignore cognitive and evaluative limits on learning in organizations. This paper examines some theoretical possibilities for assuming that individuals in organizations modify their understanding in a way that is intendedly adaptive even though faced with ambiguity about what happened, why it happened, and whether it is good. To develop a theory of learning under such conditions, we probably require ideas about information exposure, memory, and retrieval; learning incentives; belief structures; and the micro development of belief in organizations. We exhibit one example by specifying a structural theory of the relations among liking, seeing, trusting, contact, and integration in an organization. The argument is made that some understanding of factors affecting learning from experience will not only be important to the improvement of policy making in an organizational context, but also a necessary part of a theory of organizational choice.
Routing and course control of an autonomous sailboat

In this paper, we present a layered control scheme for an autonomous sailboat. The high level control uses a custom cost function with a PRM-Dijkstra algorithm for the routing (global path planning) of autonomous sailboat. This algorithm exploits the sailboat kinematics and wind distribution on a map. For the low level control, we design a new nonlinear course (direction of the velocity vector) controller that exhibits superior performance compared to conventionally used heading controller. A smoothing function is also introduced in the design of the controller to switch easily from course control to heading control, especially when course measurements are noisy at low speed.
Normal Estimation of a Transparent Object Using a Video

Reconstructing transparent objects is a challenging problem. While producing reasonable results for quite complex objects, existing approaches require custom calibration or somewhat expensive labor to achieve high precision. When an overall shape preserving salient and fine details is sufficient, we show in this paper a significant step toward solving the problem when the object's silhouette is available and simple user interaction is allowed, by using a video of a transparent object shot under varying illumination. Specifically, we estimate the normal map of the exterior surface of a given solid transparent object, from which the surface depth can be integrated. Our technical contribution lies in relating this normal estimation problem to one of graph-cut segmentation. Unlike conventional formulations, however, our graph is dual-layered, since we can see a transparent object's foreground as well as the background behind it. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation are performed to verify the efficacy of this practical solution.
Puriﬁcation and Biochemical Characterization of Mutacin I from the Group I Strain of Streptococcus mutans , CH43, and Genetic Analysis of Mutacin I Biosynthesis Genes

Previously, we reported isolation and characterization of mutacin III and genetic analysis of mutacin III biosynthesis genes from the group III strain of Streptococcus mutans , UA787 (F. Qi, P. Chen, and P. W. Cauﬁeld, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65:3880–3887, 1999). During the same process of isolating the mutacin III structural gene, we also cloned the structural gene for mutacin I. In this report, we present puriﬁcation and biochemical characterization of mutacin I from the group I strain CH43 and compare mutacin I and mutacin III biosyn- thesis genes. The mutacin I biosynthesis gene locus consists of 14 genes in the order mutR , - A , - A * , - B , - C , - D , - P , - T , - F , - E , - G , orfX , orfY , orfZ. mutA is the structural gene for mutacin I, while mutA * is not required for mutacin I activity. DNA and protein sequence analysis revealed that mutacins I and III are homologous to each other, possibly arising from a common ancestor. The mature mutacin I is 24 amino acids in size and has a molecular mass of 2,364 Da. Ethanethiol modiﬁcation and peptide sequencing of mutacin I revealed that it contains six dehydrated serines, four of which are probably involved with thioether bridge formation. Comparison
A Simplified Method for the Efficient Refolding and Purification of Recombinant Human GM-CSF

Human granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) is a haematopoietic growth factor and proinflammatory cytokine. Recombinant hGM-CSF is important not only as a research tool but also as a biotherapeutic. However, rhGM-CSF expressed in E. coli is known to form inclusion bodies of misfolded, aggregated protein. Refolding and subsequent purification of rhGM-CSF from inclusion bodies is difficult with low yields of bioactive protein being produced. Here we describe a method for the isolation, refolding and purification of bioactive rhGM-CSF from inclusion bodies. The method is straightforward, not requiring extensive experience in protein refolding nor purification and using standard laboratory equipment.
Integrating presence inference into trust management for ubiquitous systems

We propose a new architecture for trust management in ubiquitous environments that deals with RBAC policy, digital signatures, and user presence in a uniform framework. The proposed architecture includes inferences about user presence from incomplete sensor signals based on the hidden Markov model. We implemented a prototype system for a connection service in an office computer network with an RFID tag sensor system.Experimental results show that the proposed architecture is effective in providing both useful and secure services in a ubiquitous environment.
Competitive and Penalized Clustering Auto-encoder

The paper has been withdrawn since more effective experiments should be completed. Auto-encoders (AE) has been widely applied in different fields of machine learning. However, as a deep model, there are a large amount of learnable parameters in the AE, which would cause over-fitting and slow learning speed in practice. Many researchers have been study the intrinsic structure of AE and showed different useful methods to regularize those parameters. In this paper, we present a novel regularization method based on a clustering algorithm which is able to classify the parameters into different groups. With this regularization, parameters in a given group have approximate equivalent values and over-fitting problem could be alleviated. Moreover, due to the competitive behavior of clustering algorithm, this model also overcomes some intrinsic problems of clustering algorithms like the determination of number of clusters. Experiments on handwritten digits recognition verify the effectiveness of our novel model.
Meta‐Analysis of Homework Effects in Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy: A Replication and Extension

[Clin Psychol Sci Prac 17: 144–156, 2010] Kazantzis, Deane, and Ronan (2000) estimated the effect size (ES) for homework’s causal effects on outcome, but did not (a) estimate ES for “control” therapy conditions, (b) incorporate data from correlational studies, or (c) test for outliers. The present analysis (46 studies, N = 1,072) replicated and extended Kazantzis and colleagues’ review and obtained a pre–posttreatment ES of d = 0.63 for control conditions, and a larger d = 1.08 for therapy conditions with homework. A pooled ES of d = 0.48 favoring homework was obtained when the analysis was restricted to controlled studies contrasting the same therapy. No evidence was found for outlier or publication bias effects. Results supported the conclusion that homework assignments enhance therapy outcomes.
Cleaning Framework for BigData: An Interactive Approach for Data Cleaning

Data is a valuable resource. Proper use of high-quality data can help people make better predictions, analyses and decisions. However, no matter how much effort we put into collecting a good dataset, errors will inevitably creep into the data, making it necessary for data cleaning. This becomes a concern particularly when large-scale heterogeneous data from multiple sources are integrated for other purposes. Data cleaning can be complicated, time-consuming, and expensive, but it is a necessary step in any data-related system since poor-quality data may not be suitable to achieve the intended purposes. The core of our data cleaning system is data association and repairing. Association aims to identify the same object and link with the most associated objects, and repairing is to make a database reliable by fixing errors in the data. For big data applications, we don't necessarily need to use all the data. In most situations, we only need a small subset of the most relevant data. So the goal of association is to convert big raw data into a small subset of the most relevant data that are most useful for a particular application. After we obtain a small amount of relevant data, we also need to further analyze the data to help people digest the data and turn the data into knowledge. We use a number of techniques to associate the data to get useful knowledge for data repairing. Our research shows that data association can effectively help with data repairing. To capture the interaction, we provide a uniform framework that unifies the association and repairing process seamlessly based on context patterns, usage patterns, metadata, and repairing rules.
Genuine Dialogue: Relational Accounts of Moments of Meeting

This study seeks to fill a void in dialogue and interpersonal communication research. Although a vast amount of scholarship on dialogue exists, it seems to be highly philosophical and somewhat lacking in data-based findings of specific interpersonal accounts of dialogue. Favoring the philosophical approach over the empirical hinders teachers' and practitioners' abilities to educate, illustrate, and encourage others to participate in such moments. The dialogic moments analyzed in this study draw from a number of interpersonal relationships among family members, friends, and acquaintances. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was applied to the analysis of 28 qualitative interviews. The analysis of the dialogic moments was done through the lens of dialogue theory in order to illuminate the communicative patterns and social conditions that enable participants to experience a profound connection with another person. The sequence of exchanges that took place during these moments was conceptualized as the inviting–accepting cycle. The four subthemes, which explained the key points in the inviting–accepting cycle, included initial invitation, deliberate invitation, prolonged engagement, and transformation. The implications of these findings for dialogic research and interpersonal communication are discussed.
Identification of novel bladder tumour suppressor genes

Many genetic alterations have recently been identified in transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder. These include alterations to known proto‐oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes and the identification of multiple sites of nonrandom chromosomal deletion which are predicted to define the location of as yet unidentified tumour suppressor genes. This review summarises recent efforts to define the location of novel bladder tumour suppressor genes using loss of heterozygositiy (LOH) and homozygous deletion analyses and to isolate the genes targeted by these deletions. For three of the four regions of deletion on chromosome 9, the most frequently deleted chromosome in TCC, candidate genes have been identified. It is anticipated that the identification of the genes and/or genetic regions which are frequently altered in TCC will provide useful tools for diagnosis, prediction of prognosis, patient monitoring and novel therapies.
Case Report: Brief Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapeutic Intervention During Inpatient Hospitalization in a Patient With Conversion and Dissociation

Conversion and dissociative disorders have psychopathological mechanisms in common and can simultaneously be present in the same patient. Evidence-based treatments for conversion and dissociative disorders are limited and mostly focused on cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBT) for a few conversion disorders. Avoidance and difficulties in emotion expression are thought to explain conversion and hence, mindfulness-based therapies (MBTs) could hypothetically constitute a beneficial intervention. Here, we present the case of Anne, a 31-year-old female with a long-term history of depression, anxiety, and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). While facing health-related and marital stressors, Anne acutely developed conversion left-sided paralysis, psychogenic bilateral tremor, and dissociative amnesia and had an increase in PNES frequency. Some of these newly developed symptoms resolved and other improved significantly after an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) intervention was offered during a brief inpatient hospitalization. This constitutes the first report of an ACT-based intervention used in this type of clinical syndromes.
Protein Kinase CK2 Inhibition Induces Cell Death via Early Impact on Mitochondrial Function

CK2 (official acronym for casein kinase 2 or II) is a potent suppressor of apoptosis in response to diverse apoptotic stimuli—thus its molecular downregulation or activity inhibition results in potent induction of cell death. CK2 downregulation is known to impact mitochondrial apoptotic circuitry but the underlying mechanism(s) remain unclear. Utilizing prostate cancer cell lines subjected to CK2‐specific inhibitors which cause loss of cell viability, we have found that CK2 inhibition in cells causes rapid early decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm). Cells treated with the CK2 inhibitors TBB (4,5,6,7‐tetrabromobenzotriazole) or TBCA (tetrabromocinnamic acid) demonstrate changes in Δψm which become apparent within 2 h, that is, significantly prior to evidence of activation of other mitochondrial apoptotic signals whose temporal expression ensues subsequent to loss of Δψm. Further, we have demonstrated the presence of CK2 in purified mitochondria and it appears that the effect on Δψm evoked by inhibition of CK2 may involve mitochondrial localized CK2. Results also suggest that alterations in Ca2+ signaling may be involved in the CK2 mediated regulation of Δψm and mitochondrial permeability. Thus, we propose that a key mechanism of CK2 impact on mitochondrial apoptotic circuitry and cell death involves early loss of Δψm which may be a primary trigger for apoptotic signaling and cell death resulting from CK2 inhibition. J. Cell. Biochem. 115: 2103–2115, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
116-fs soliton source based on an Er-Yb codoped waveguide amplifier

A passively mode-locked soliton ring fiber laser is investigated that utilizes a 4.5-cm erbium-ytterbium (Er-Yb) codoped waveguide amplifier as the gain element. The resulting short cavity (1.3 m of fiber) eliminates multipulsing behaviour and reduces the effects of resonant sidebands, enabling generation of 116-fs solitons with a pulse energy of 160 pJ at a fundamental repetition rate of 130 MHz.
The adenovirus Ela gene induces differentiation of F9 teratocarcinoma cells

Undifferentiated F9 cells transfected with plasmids encoding adenovirus E1a gene products underwent radical morphological changes. They ceased to express the SSEA-1 stem cell marker antigen and started to express a number of the characteristics of the differentiated state that is induced in F9 cells by treatment with retinoic acid. In particular, they expressed keratin intermediate filaments and acquired the ability to synthesise simian virus 40 tumor antigens after virus infection. The transfected cells expressed the E1a proteins, and this expression was necessary to induce the phenotypic changes, since a coisogenic plasmid encoding only a truncated 70-amino-acid E1a polypeptide and the transfection procedure itself did not detectably after the morphology or marker expression of the F9 stem cells. The phenotypic change was induced by both 13S and 12S cDNA plasmids. We discuss these results in the context of known E1a functions and with reference to the other oncogenes and external factors that can cause F9 cell differentiation.
Correlates of health-related quality of life in Thai patients with alcohol dependence

ABSTRACT This study aimed to examine the correlates of health related quality of life in Thai patients with alcohol dependence. The amount of alcohol intake was calculated by timeline followback chart and the health related quality of life was determined by Short Form–36 Health Survey. The means of the Short Form–36 Physical Component and Mental Component Summary were 67.43 (18.74) and 64.45 (20.90), respectively. Stepwise linear regression models showed the number of heavy drinking days was significantly correlated with the Physical Component Summary and Mental Component Summary. Such moderate correlations suggest that drinking and health related quality of life measures might tap different aspects of alcohol outcomes and should be concurrently administered.
What Form of Language Education Do Immigrant Parents Want? An Investigation into the Educational Desires of Members of Ontario’s Arab Community

The purpose of this study is to investigate the language education desires [whether they be English as a second language (ESL), French as a second language (FSL), and/or heritage language classes] and needs of one segment of Ontario’s ESL population, Arabic speakers, and to determine if those desires vary from the current language education offerings in Ontario’s elementary schools. The findings in this study, provided by data collected from document analysis and an online questionnaire, suggest that members of Ontario’s Arab community strongly value the learning of multiple languages. Also, although all participants agree that learning French is important; most agree that learning English is more important. Furthermore, in addition to supporting Ontario’s bilingual language education program, members of Ontario’s Arab community also desire heritage language classes. The majority of participants in this study would like their children to have access to Arabic at school to maintain their L1 and this desire is further supported by the almost 87% who agree that their children’s use of Arabic is decreasing.
CLI-based compilation flows for the C language

Embedded systems contain a wide variety of processors. Economical and technological factors favor systems made of a combination of diverse but programmable processors. Software has a longer lifetime than the hardware for which it is initially designed. Application portability is thus of utmost importance for the embedded systems industry. The Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) is a rich virtu-alization environment for the execution of applications written in multiple languages. CLI efficiently captures the semantics of unmanaged languages, such as C. We investigate the use of CLI as a deployment format for embedded systems to reconcile apparently contradictory constraints: the need for portability, the need for high performance and the existence of a large base of legacy C code. In this paper, we motivate our CLI-based compilation environment for C, and its different use scenarios. We then focus on the specific challenges of effectively mapping the C language to CLI, and our proposed solutions. We finally analyze the interactions between the CLI environment and native libraries, which is of primary importance for a practical use of the proposed approach.
An improved RIP-based performance guarantee for sparse signal reconstruction via subspace pursuit

Subspace pursuit (SP) is a well-known greedy algorithm capable of reconstructing a sparse signal vector from a set of incomplete measurements. In this paper, by exploiting an approximate orthogonality condition characterized in terms of the achievable angles between two compressed orthogonal sparse vectors, we show that perfect signal recovery in the noiseless case, as well as stable signal recovery in the noisy case, is guaranteed if the sensing matrix satisfies RIP of order 3K with RIC δ3K ≤ 0.2412 . Our work improves the best-known existing results, namely, δ3K <; 0.165 for the noiseless case [3] and δ3K <; 0.139 when noise is present [4]. In addition, for the noisy case we derive a reconstruction error upper bound, which is shown to be smaller as compared to the bound reported in [4].