Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Choice on Exercise Motivation and Physical Activity in College Students

Background : While research suggests that college courses contribute to significant health benefits, there is limited research on the effectiveness of these courses in increasing motivation and lifetime PA habits of college students. Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of choice in a conceptually-based college health and wellness course on exercise motivation and physical activity of undergraduate students. Method: Participants included undergraduate students (N = 81) enrolled in a health and wellness course at a four-year liberal arts university located in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Quantitative data from the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire and the Leisure Time in Exercise Questionnaire were collected over three time points from two groups (choice and non-choice). Qualitative data from semistructured interviews with course instructors (N = 4) and open-ended questions were also collected. Results: There was a significant increase in intrinsic regulation F (2, 158) = 10.13, p = . 00, η p 2 =. 114; identified regulation F (2, 158) = 7.35, p = . 001, η p 2 = . 085; introjected regulation F (2, 158) = 6.61, p = . 002, η p 2 = . 077; and PA F (2, 158) = 5.63, p = . 004, η p 2 = . 067 over time. No significant differences were found between groups. Conclusion: While there was no significant difference between instruction type, instructors and participants suggested that choice was the preferred method for adult learners.
A Survey on Hybrid Channel Allocation Using Hybrid Genetic Algorithm

With the limited frequency spectrum, the channel assignment problem (CAP) i.e., to assign the calls to the available channels so that the interference is minimized while the demand is met, has become increasingly important. There have been several published algorithms and each approach has its assumptions, advantages, and limitations. This paper presents a review of some significant work in the area of hybrid channel allocation. Some popular approaches are classified into different groups and an overview of various algorithms and analysis is provided. Insights and potential future trends in the area of HCA are also discussed. Primarily, hybrid technique of Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing (HGASA) is discussed for hybrid channel allocation. With this hybrid algorithm effort is made to reduce the search complexity of channel allocation while satisfying constraints of interference.
Impediments to user gains: experiences from a critical participatory design project

Actual studies of user gains from involvement in design processes are few, although a concern for user gains is a core characteristic of participatory design (PD). We explore the question of user gains through a retrospective evaluation of a critical PD project. We conducted ten qualitative interviews with participants in a project aimed at developing technology to foster engaging museum experiences and rethinking cultural heritage communication. Despite the use of established PD techniques by experienced PD practitioners, a significant number of frustrations relating to the PD process were prominent in the study. Based on these findings, we provide an analysis of impediments to user gains in PD projects in terms of unresolved differences between aims, absence of a clear set-up for collaboration, and different conceptions of technology.
Extracellular water may mask actual muscle atrophy during aging.

BACKGROUND Skeletal muscle tissue holds a large volume of water partitioned into extracellular water (ECW) and intracellular water (ICW) fractions. As the ECW may not be related to muscle strength directly, we hypothesized that excluding ECW from muscle volume would strengthen the correlation with muscle strength. METHODS A total of 119 healthy men aged 20-88 years old participated in this study. Knee isometric extension strength, vertical jump, and standing from a chair were measured as indices of muscle strength and power in the lower extremities. The regional lean volume (LV), total water (TW), ICW, and ECW in the lower leg were estimated by anthropometry (skinfold and circumference measurements) and segmental multifrequency bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy (S-BIS). Then, we calculated the ECW/TW and ICW/TW ratios. RESULTS Although ICW and the LV index decreased significantly with age (p < .001), no significant changes in ECW were observed (p = .134). Consequently, the ECW/TW ratio increased significantly (p < .001) with age (young adult, 27.0 +/- 2.9%; elderly, 34.3 +/- 4.9%; advanced elderly, 37.2 +/- 7.0%). Adjusting for this by including the ICW/TW ratio in our models significantly improved the correlation between the LV index and strength-related measurements and correlated with strength-related measurements independently of the LV index (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS The ECW/TW ratio increases in the lower leg with age. The results suggest that the expansion of ECW relative to ICW and the LV masked actual muscle cell atrophy with aging.
Effects of thermal fluctuations in the SPOrt experiment

The role of systematic errors induced by thermal fluctuations is analyzed for the SPOrt experiment with the aim at estimating their impact on the measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization (CMBP). The transfer functions of the antenna devices from temperature to data fluctuations are computed, by writing them in terms of both instrument and thermal environment parameters. In addition, the corresponding contamination maps are estimated, along with their polarized power spectra, for different behaviours of the instabilities. The result is that thermal effects are at a negligible level even for fluctuations correlated with the Sun illumination provided their frequency f tf is larger than that of the Sun illumination ( f day ) by a factor $f_{\rm tf} / f_{\rm day} > 30$, which defines a requirement for the statistical properties of the temperature behaviour. The analysis with actual SPOrt operative parameters shows that the instrument is only weakly sensitive to temperature instabilities, the main contribution coming from the cryogenic stage. The contamination on the E -mode spectrum does not significantly pollute the CMBP signal and no specific data cleaning seems to be needed.
A Parameterized TS Digital Fuzzy Logic Processor : Soft Core VLSI Design and FPGA Implementation

Fuzzy Logic (FL) was developed by Zadeh to deal with the uncertainty involved in decision making and system modeling and control of real–life systems, and is an extension of the two– valued logic defined by the binary pair {false, true} or {0,1} to the entire continuous interval [0,1] of logic values between false=0 and true=1. The purpose of this paper is to design and implement a zero-order Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) parameterized digital fuzzy logic processor (DFLP), in which only the active rules (i.e. rules that give a non–null contribution for a given data set) are considered, at high speed of operation, without significant increase in hardware complexity. The DFLP discussed in this paper achieves an internal core processing speed of at least 100 MHz, and based on the chosen parameters is featuring four 12-bit inputs and one 12-bit output, with seven trapezoidal shape membership functions per input and a rule base of up to 2401 rules. The proposed architecture was implemented in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip with the use of a very high-speed integrated-circuit hardware-description-language (VHDL) and advanced synthesis and place and route tools.
Models for Patch-Based Image Restoration

We present a supervised learning approach for object-category specific restoration, recognition, and segmentation of images which are blurred using an unknown kernel. The novelty of this work is a multilayer graphical model which unifies the low-level vision task of restoration and the high-level vision task of recognition in a cooperative framework. The graphical model is an interconnected two-layer Markov random field. The restoration layer accounts for the compatibility between sharp and blurred images and models the association between adjacent patches in the sharp image. The recognition layer encodes the entity class and its location in the underlying scene. The potentials are represented using nonparametric kernel densities and are learnt from training data. Inference is performed using nonparametric belief propagation. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our model for the restoration and recognition of blurred license plates as well as face images.
A Dramaturgical Model of the Production of Performance Data

The production of performance data in organizations is often described as a functional process that managers enforce on their employees to provide leaders with accurate information about employees' work and their achievements. This study draws on a 15-month ethnography of a desk sales unit to build a dramaturgical model that explains how managers participate in the production of performance data to impress rather than inform leaders. Research on management information systems is reviewed to outline a protective specification of this model where managers participate in the production of performance data to suppress information that threatens the image they present to leaders. Ethnographic data about the production and use of performance records and performance reports in a desk sales unit is examined to induce an exploitive specification of this dramaturgical model. This specification explains how people can take advantage of the opportunities, rather than just avoid the threats that performance data presents for impression management. It also demonstrates how managers can participate in the production of performance data to create an idealized version of their accomplishments and that leaders reify these data by using them in their own attempts at impressing others. By doing so, leaders and managers turn information systems into store windows to show achievement upward instead of transparent windows to monitor compliance downward.
Preferential Inhibition of T Helper 1, but Not T Helper 2, Cytokines in Vitro by L-826,141 [4-{2-(3,4-Bisdifluromethoxyphenyl)-2-{4-(1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-hydroxypropan-2-yl)-phenyl]-ethyl}-3-methylpyridine-1-oxide], a Potent and Selective Phosphodiesterase 4 Inhibitor

L-826,141 [4-{2-(3,4-bis-difluromethoxyphenyl)-2-{4-(1,1,1, 3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-hydroxypropan-2-yl)-phenyl]-ethyl}-3-methylpyridine-1-oxide] is a selective and potent inhibitor of phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) with an IC50 value of 0.26 to 2.4 nM for inhibition of the catalytic activity of PDE4A, B, C, and D. The cAMP elevation that can be maintained by PDE4 inhibitors attenuates the signaling cascades that lead to the production of certain cytokines. In cellular-based assays, L-826,141 transcriptionally down-regulates production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in peripheral blood mononuclear cell and whole blood assays with IC50 values of 31 and 310 nM, respectively. Profiling the effect of this compound on various cytokines in the signaling cascade attenuated by cAMP elevation demonstrates that L-826,141 is also a potent inhibitor of interleukin (IL)-12, granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor, and interferon (IFN)γ (IC50 values of 0.3-0.9 μM) as well as TNF-α formation. We have also shown that the PDE4 inhibitors rolipram and L-826,141 are potent inhibitors of CD3-plus CD28-stimulated IL-2 production in naive human T cells. To address the effect of PDE4 inhibitors on cytokine release from T helper (Th)1 and Th2 effector cells, we used a well characterized model in which T cells are derived from ovalbumin (323-339)-specific T cell receptor transgenic mice. L-826,141 inhibits Th0-mediated IL-2 production with an IC35 value of 25 nM and Th1-mediated IFNγ production with an IC30 value of 46 nM. In contrast, L-826,141 had no significant inhibitory effect (IC30 value > 2.5 μM) on Th2 cell-mediated IL-4 nor IL-13 production. Together, these data demonstrate that specific inhibition of PDE4 preferentially blocks the production of Th1 versus Th2 effector cytokines in vitro.
A MODEL FOR THE QUASI-STATIC GROWTH OF BRITTLE FRACTURES BASED ON LOCAL MINIMIZATION

We study a variant of the variational model for the quasi-static growth of brittle fractures proposed by Francfort and Marigo.9 The main feature of our model is that, in the discrete-time formulation, in each step we do not consider absolute minimizers of the energy, but, in a sense, we look for local minimizers which are sufficiently close to the approximate solution obtained in the previous step. This is done by introducing in the variational problem an additional term which penalizes the L2-distance between the approximate solutions at two consecutive times. We study the continuous-time version of this model, obtained by passing to the limit as the time step tends to zero, and show that it satisfies (for almost every time) some minimality conditions which are slightly different from those considered in Refs. 9 and 8, but are still enough to prove (under suitable regularity assumptions on the crack path) that the classical Griffith's criterion holds at the crack tips. We also prove that, if no initial crack is present and if the data of the problem are sufficiently smooth, no crack will develop in this model, provided the penalization term is large enough.
Time-series spectroscopy of pulsating sdB stars — III.Line indices of PG 1605+072

We present the detection and analysis of line index variations in the pulsating sdB star PG 1605+072. We have found a strong dependence of line index amplitude on Balmer line order, with high-order Balmer line amplitudes up to 10 times larger than Hβ. Using a simple model, we have found that the line index may not only be dependent on temperature, as is usually assumed for oscillating stars, but also on surface gravity. This information will provide another set of observables that can be used for mode identification of sdBs.
An Application of Continuous Ant Colony Optimization for Multi-level Thresholding

Ant colony optimization (ACO) was first proposed by Dorigo in 1992 as a multi-agent approach to solve difficult combinatorial problems. Many variants have been presented and employed to many different applications. Socha and Dorigo proposed an extension of ACO to continuous domains named ACOR (K. Socha and M. Dorigo, Ant colony optimization for continuous domains, European Journal of Operational Research, 185(3), 1155-1173, 2008. ) In this paper, we present a fast estimation algorithm based on ACOR and the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm for solving multi-level thresholding problems in image segmentation. The distribution of image intensity is modeled as random variables, which are approximated by a mixture of Gaussian distributions. The solution quality provided by the iterative EM algorithm is intensely affected by the initial solution fed into the EM algorithm. Therefore, we apply the ACOR to provide a good initial solution for the EM algorithm. The EM algorithm is then used as a local search procedure to improve each new solution generated by ACOR while fitting the mixture Gaussian model. The preliminary experiment results successfully show the effectiveness and efficiency of the ACOR–EM algorithm.
On efficiently searching trajectories and archival data for historical similarities

We study the problem of efficiently evaluating similarity queries on histories, where a history is a d-dimensional time series for d ≥ 1. While there are some solutions for time-series and spatio-temporal trajectories where typically d ≤ 3, we are not aware of any work that examines the problem for larger values of d. In this paper, we address the problem in its general case and propose a class of summaries for histories with a few interesting properties. First, for commonly used distance functions such as the Lp-norm, LCSS, and DTW, the summaries can be used to efficiently prune some of the histories that cannot be in the answer set of the queries. Second, histories can be indexed based on their summaries, hence the qualifying candidates can be efficiently retrieved. To further reduce the number of unnecessary distance computations for false positives, we propose a finer level approximation of histories, and an algorithm to find an approximation with the least maximum distance estimation error. Experimental results confirm that the combination of our feature extraction approaches and the indexability of our summaries can improve upon existing methods and scales up for larger values of d and database sizes, based on our experiments on real and synthetic datasets of 17-dimensional histories.
DETECTION OF MULTIPLE OUTLIERS BY RANDOM ROBUST TESTING

Numerous studies clearly show that least-squares estimators are vulnerable to the violation of these assumptions and they tend to smooth blunders or outliers into all observations. The robust estimators have been proved to be superior over the conventional least squares (LSs) estimator in processing observations contaminated by multiple blunders in both theoretical and experimental aspects. In this paper, we integrate the random sample consensus paradigm and the basic idea of a robust testing procedure to implement a random robust testing algorithm that is used to detect multiple blunders in linear systems. The algorithm can improve the computational efficiency and has equivalent blunder identification ability. We have implemented a general framework that is readily applicable to all kinds of robust estimators in a simple manner. The advantages and disadvantaged of our algorithm compared with the robust testing procedure are discussed by comparing their numerical results. The experimental results show that all the Mestimators can correctly identify the blunders, and the local statistic test and scaled robust residual test have the same blunder detection ability when they are applied to M-estimators.
NOS1 ex1f‐VNTR polymorphism affects prefrontal oxygenation during response inhibition tasks

Impulsivity is a trait shared by many psychiatric disorders and therefore a suitable intermediate phenotype for their underlying biological mechanisms. One of the molecular determinants involved is the NOS1 ex1f‐VNTR, whose short variants are associated with a variety of impulsive behaviors. Fifty‐six healthy controls were stratified into homozygous long (LL) (30 probands) and short (SS) (26 probands) allele groups. Subjects completed a combined stop‐signal go/nogo task, while the oxygenation in the prefrontal cortex was measured with functional near‐infrared spectroscopy. Electromyography was recorded to control for differences in muscle activity in the two inhibition tasks. Two questionnaires on impulsive traits were completed. Differences between the two tasks are shown by distinct activation patterns within the prefrontal cortex. The nogo task resulted mainly in the activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), whereas successful and unsuccessful inhibition in the stop‐signal task elicited the predicted activity in the inferior frontal cortex (IFC). Although significant differences were found in neither the scores obtained on impulsivity‐related questionnaires nor the behavioral data, the LL group displayed increased dlPFC activity during nogo trials and the predicted activation in the IFC during successful inhibition in the stop‐signal task, while no significant activation was found in the SS group. Our data confirm an influence of NOS1 ex1f‐VNTR on impulsivity, as carriers of the short risk allele exhibited diminished activity of (pre‐)frontal brain regions during the inhibition in a stop‐signal task. Impairment of prefrontal control with consecutive failure of inhibitory processes might underlie association findings reported previously. Hum Brain Mapp, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF SELF-REGULATION AND SELF-EFFICACY WITH ACADEMIC STRESS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The present study aims at investigating the relationship of self-regulation and selfefficacy with academic stress in university students. To this aim, 200 students (80 males and 120 females) were selected by cluster sampling from students of six faculties in Tehran Tarbiat Moallem University. The instruments used to serve the purpose of the study include Self-regulated Learning Questionnaire (1995), General Self-efficacy Scale (1981), and Academic Stress Scale (1991). According to the analysis of the results and correlations, while self-regulation, cognition, meta-cognition, and selfefficacy have a positive and significant relationship with each other, they show a negative and significant relationship with academic stress. The results also indicate that self-regulation and self-efficacy affect academic stress directly. The pattern revealed by this study indicates that self-regulation affects academic stress through self-efficacy that acts as a mediator variable. Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to:  Ph.D. student of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Tehran Kharazmi University, Iran. E-mail: Mehdi_arabzadeh@hotmail.com 00989173750200  Ph.D. of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Tehran Kharazmi University, Iran  Ph.D. of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Yasoj University, Iran  Ph.D. of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Tehran Kharazmi University, Iran  MA of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Tehran Kharazmi University, Iran M. Arabzadeh, P. Kadivar, F. Nildel, J. Kavousian, and K. Hashemi / IJEPC, 2012, 2(2), 102-113 ___________________________________________________________________ 103
Toward a deeper understanding of text: Students controlling and developing inquiry skills through small-group discussion.

The aim of this study was to demonstrate that students would move toward a deeper understanding of texts when they were given the skills to control and develop their own inquiry through small-group discussion with peers. This study also demonstrated the necessity of initially providing students with the skills and training prior to developing the expectation for them to work independently in small-group discussions about text. The study took place in a rural school of approximately 130 students located in a small town in northwestern British Columbia. An intaet Grade 7 class of 26 students was chosen as the sample for this study. Students were grouped using paired sampling, and a pretest-posttest control group design was chosen as it allowed that the effects of internal threats to validity were spread equally between the groups. Students’ contributions to the discussions were categorized based on criteria describing envisionment levels, and the Mann-Whitney U Test was used to analyze the leveled protoeols. The results of this study suggest that once students begin to understand how to provide effective scaffolding in discussions, they are capable of working independently in groups and improving their comprehension of texts by developing their own interpretations while building and moving further through their envisionments. Analysis of the quantity of results also showed that individual students must make a substantial number of contributions to discussions in order for them to fully explore their horizons of possibilities and move to a deeper understanding of the text.
Design Methodology of Generalized Fuzzy Controller

In this paper, we investigate a new fuzzy controller which is generalized by combining characteristics of a mamdani fuzzy inference system and a TSK fuzzy inference system. In order to combine two different fuzzy inference systems such as a mamdini fuzzy inference system and TSK fuzzy inference system, we adopt some weighting parameters. We use genetic algorithms to adjust those weighting parameters. In order to evaluate the proposed control scheme, we use a inverted pendulum system which has extensive nonlinear characteristic.