Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of assistive technologies on formal and informal home care.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Assistive technologies help people with disabilities compensate for their impairments. This study assessed which of 5 categories of assistive technologies-indoor/outdoor mobility, bed transfer, bathing, toileting, and telephone assistance-were substitutes or complements for human personal assistance by differentiating between total and formal personal assistance service (PAS) hours. DESIGN AND METHODS The study analyzed 2004 National Long-Term Care Survey community-dwelling respondents receiving assistance with activities of daily living. Ordinary least squares (OLS) on total PAS hours was estimated on the entire sample, and logit and OLS models were estimated on the likelihood and hours of formal PAS, respectively. RESULTS Assistive technology for indoor/outdoor mobility, bed transfer, and bathing was found to be substitutes for total PAS, whereas assistive technology for bed transfer and toileting was found to be complements for the use of formal PAS. Telephone assistance was not significant for either total or formal PAS hours. IMPLICATIONS The use of some assistive technologies by older people with disabilities appears to reduce the amount of informal care provided, but not the amount of paid PAS. Thus, this study does not provide support for the hypothesis that the use of assistive technologies will reduce use of paid care and, therefore, spending for long-term care.
A Reliability-Based Trust Model for Efficient Collaborative Routing in Wireless Networks

Different wireless Peer-to-Peer (P2P) routing protocols rely on cooperative protocols of interaction among peers, yet, most of the surveyed provide little detail on how the peers can take into consideration the peers' reliability for improving routing efficiency in collaborative networks. Previous research has shown that in most of the trust and reputation evaluation schemes, the peers' rating behaviour can be improved to include the peers' attributes for understanding peers' reliability. This paper proposes a reliability based trust model for dynamic trust evaluation between the peers in P2P networks for collaborative routing. Since the peers' routing attributes vary dynamically, our proposed model must also accommodate the dynamic changes of peers' attributes and behaviour. We introduce peers' buffers as a scaling factor for peers' trust evaluation in the trust and reputation routing protocols. The comparison between reliability and non-reliability based trust models using simulation shows the improved performance of our proposed model in terms of delivery ratio and average message latency.
Statistical analysis of neural data : Maximum a posteriori techniques for decoding spike trains

2 Maximum a posteriori neural decoding 3 2.1 Gaussian approximations to the posterior p(~x|D) are tractable and useful . 4 2.1. 1 Moment-matching provides an alternative method for constructing the Gaussian approximation . 5 2.2 Numerical implementation . 7 2.3 MAP decoding examples: correlated and spatial stimuli . 7 2.4 Decoding Poisson image observations . 11
HAND CALCULATION METHOD FOR AIR SUPPLY RATES IN VESTIBULE PRESSURIZATION SMOKE CONTROL SYSTEM

While vestibule pressurization smoke control systems are now popularly used in Japan in place of the smoke extraction methods prescribed in the Building Standards Law, it cannot be said that a rational method for determining the air supply rates required for achieving the smoke control goals has been well-established. As a result, computer simulation models are usually used as the means to estimate the air supply rates. It may not be inappropriate but it causes some difficulties for ordinary designers to try this smoke control system. This paper proposes a practical design method of vestibule pressurization smoke control systems. This method comprehensively covers the fire scenarios corresponding to every stage of evacuation, namely fire room evacuation, fire floor evacuation and whole building evacuation. The required rates of air supply are determined to meet all the criteria imposed to verify the safety requirements at these three stages of evacuation. The calculation procedure in this method consists of a set of simple formulas for pressure and opening flow rates developed based on the average pressure difference concept so it can only be followed by the use of a hand calculator. This method is expected to help designers and engineers easily understand what and how to do to rationally and effectively design the smoke control system and to help building officials or whoever may concern with approval of the system know how to check its compliance.
Genetic Characterization of Toxin A-Negative, Toxin B-Positive Clostridium difficile Isolates by PCR

ABSTRACT Toxin-specific enzyme immunoassays, cytotoxicity assays, and PCR were used to analyze 48 toxin A-negative, toxin B-positiveClostridium difficile isolates from various geographical sites around the world. All the isolates were negative by the TOX-A TEST and positive by the TOX A/B TEST. A deletion of approximately 1.7 kb was found at the 3′ end of the toxA gene for all the isolates, similar to the deletion in toxinotype VIII strains (e.g.,C. difficile serotype F 1470). Additional PCR analysis indicated that the toxin B encoded by these isolates contains sequence variations downstream of the active site compared to the sequence of reference strain VPI 10463. This variation may extend the glucosylation spectrum to Ras proteins, as observed previously for closely related lethal toxin from Clostridium sordellii and toxin B from toxin A-negative, toxin B-positive strain F 1470. Toxin A-negative, toxin B-positive isolates have recently been associated with disease in humans, and they may be more common than was previously supposed.
Molecular and serological diagnosis of Bartonella infection in 61 dogs from the United States.

BACKGROUND Molecular diagnosis of canine bartonellosis can be extremely challenging and often requires the use of an enrichment culture approach followed by PCR amplification of bacterial DNA. HYPOTHESES (1) The use of enrichment culture with PCR will increase molecular detection of bacteremia and will expand the diversity of Bartonella species detected. (2) Serological testing for Bartonella henselae and Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii does not correlate with documentation of bacteremia. ANIMALS Between 2003 and 2009, 924 samples from 663 dogs were submitted to the North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Vector Borne Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory for diagnostic testing with the Bartonella α-Proteobacteria growth medium (BAPGM) platform. Test results and medical records of those dogs were retrospectively reviewed. METHODS PCR amplification of Bartonella sp. DNA after extraction from patient samples was compared with PCR after BAPGM enrichment culture. Indirect immunofluorescent antibody assays, used to detect B. henselae and B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii antibodies, were compared with PCR. RESULTS Sixty-one of 663 dogs were culture positive or had Bartonella DNA detected by PCR, including B. henselae (30/61), B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii (17/61), Bartonella koehlerae (7/61), Bartonella volans-like (2/61), and Bartonella bovis (2/61). Coinfection with more than 1 Bartonella sp. was documented in 9/61 dogs. BAPGM culture was required for PCR detection in 32/61 cases. Only 7/19 and 4/10 infected dogs tested by IFA were B. henselae and B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii seroreactive, respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE Dogs were most often infected with B. henselae or B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii based on PCR and enrichment culture, coinfection was documented, and various Bartonella species were identified. Most infected dogs did not have detectable Bartonella antibodies.
Impact of an Imagination Exercise on Creativity for Fashion Design Students

Research has found that creativity and imagination are highly correlated. In practice, educators may ask themselves, “How far can the imagination push creativity? ” The purpose of this study was to use an imagination activity for fashion design students to increase creativity when sketching a garment. It was hypothesized that students who received an imagination activity would produce more creative products than those who did not receive this kind of activity. Two major findings were found. First, the relationship between GPA and technical goodness and aesthetics was moderate and strong, respectively. However, the relationship between GPA and creativity was weak. Canonical correlation further confirmed this relationship. Second, students who received an imagination activity excelled their counterparts in terms of creativity, and this effect was large. For students in the field of fashion design creativity is critical. And the major findings of this study support the notion of encouraging creativity development in fashion design curricula.
Electrical Coupling of Lobula Plate Tangential Cells to a Heterolateral Motion-Sensitive Neuron in the Fly

Many motion-sensitive tangential cells of the lobula plate in blowflies are well described with respect to their visual response properties and the connectivity among them. In addition to extensive connections between tangential cells within the lobula plate of one brain hemisphere, there exist many connections between the two hemispheres. Most of these connections have been found for neurons sensitive to horizontal motion. For neurons sensitive to vertical motion, however, only the connection of vertical sensitive cells (VS cells) and a cell (V1 cell) projecting to the other hemisphere has been demonstrated thus far. The ability to identify the presynaptic and postsynaptic cells as well as the good accessibility has made this specific synapse a model for graded transmission of synapses. However, the exact type of synapse, electrical or chemical, is not known. Investigating the connectivity between VS cells 1–3 and the V1 cell by means of dual recordings, we find that the VS cells are coupled via electrical synapses to the V1 cell. The results were confirmed by visualizing dye coupling between VS cells and V1.
Porosity of porcine small-intestinal submucosa for use as a vascular graft.

The porosity of a vascular graft material has been suggested as a major factor affecting the rate and degree of neovascularization of newly implanted grafts, with higher porosities generally associated with better performance. The objective of this study was to determine the water porosity of a new vascular graft material, small-intestinal submucosa (SIS), and to compare the values to those reported for other common vascular graft materials. In addition, the porosity of SIS was investigated with respect to applied pressure and applied uniaxial tension. Both rectangular, flat specimens and tubular specimens of SIS were subjected to static water pressure, and water was collected as it passed through the SIS material. SIS has a typical porosity of 0.52 mL/min.cm-2 at an applied pressure of 120 mm Hg. Although porosity appeared to be unaffected by uniaxial tension, it increased in proportion to applied pressure at a rate of 4.8 x 10(-3) mL/min.cm-2/mm Hg. These low porosity values and the past success of SIS as a vascular graft material suggest that high-porosity materials are not required for implant success.
NetCluster: A Clustering-Based Framework for Internet Tomography

In this paper, Internet data collected via passive measurement are analyzed to obtain localization information on nodes by clustering (i.e., grouping together) nodes that exhibit similar network path properties. Since traditional clustering algorithms fail to correctly identify clusters of homogeneous nodes, we propose a novel framework, named "NetCluster", suited to analyze Internet measurement datasets. We show that the proposed framework correctly analyzes synthetically generated traces. Finally, we apply it to real traces collected at the access link of our campus LAN and discuss the network characteristics as seen at the vantage point.
Mexican Immigrant Mothers' Expectations for Children's Health Services

Women of Mexican descent living in the United States raise children who use health care services. What do immigrant Mexican mothers expect from children's health care services? And how do their expectations for children's health services compare to acculturated Mexican American mothers' expectations? This focused ethnographic study, based on repeated interviews with 28 mothers of varying acculturation levels, describes their expectations and experiences with children's health care services in the United States. Findings support a shared core of expectations for both Mexican immigrant and Mexican American mothers, and differences in health care access and financing, time spent in health care encounters, and cultural and linguistic expectations for care. Health care providers can use this information to approach Mexican-descent mothers and children with their expectations in mind, and craft a negotiated plan of care congruent with their expectations.
The evolutionary psychology of women's aggression

Evolutionary researchers have identified age, operational sex ratio and high variance in male resources as factors that intensify female competition. These are discussed in relation to escalated intrasexual competition for men and their resources between young women in deprived neighbourhoods. For these women, fighting is not seen as antithetical to cultural conceptions of femininity, and female weakness is disparaged. Nonetheless, even where competitive pressures are high, young women's aggression is less injurious and frequent than young men's. From an evolutionary perspective, I argue that the intensity of female aggression is constrained by the greater centrality of mothers, rather than fathers, to offspring survival. This selection pressure is realized psychologically through a lower threshold for fear among women. Neuropsychological evidence is not yet conclusive but suggests that women show heightened amygdala reactivity to threatening stimuli, may be better able to exert prefrontal cortical control over emotional behaviour and may consciously register fear more strongly via anterior cingulate activity. The impact of testosterone and oxytocin on the neural circuitry of emotion is also considered.
Crystal structures of the Arabidopsis thaliana organellar RNA editing factors MORF1 and MORF9

Abstract In flowering plant plastids and mitochondria, multiple organellar RNA editing factor (MORF/RIP) proteins are required at most sites for efficient C to U RNA editing catalyzed by the RNA editosome. MORF proteins harbor a conserved stretch of residues (MORF-box), form homo- and heteromers and interact with selected PPR (pentatricopeptide repeat) proteins, which recognize each editing site. The molecular function of the MORF-box remains elusive since it shares no sequence similarity with known domains. We determined structures of the A. thaliana mitochondrial MORF1 and chloroplast MORF9 MORF-boxes which both adopt a novel globular fold (MORF domain). Our structures state a paradigmatic model for MORF domains and their specific dimerization via a hydrophobic interface. We cross-validate the interface by yeast two-hybrid studies and pulldown assays employing structure-based mutants. We find a structural similarity of the MORF domain to an N-terminal ferredoxin-like domain (NFLD), which confers RNA substrate positioning in bacterial 4-thio-uracil tRNA synthetases, implying direct RNA contacts of MORF proteins during RNA editing. With the MORF1 and MORF9 structures we elucidate a yet unknown fold, corroborate MORF interaction studies, validate the mechanism of MORF multimerization by structure-based mutants and pave the way towards a complete structural characterization of the plant RNA editosome.
PHY foundation for multi-factor ZigBee node authentication

The ZigBee specification builds upon IEEE 802.15. 4 low-rate wireless personal area standards by adding security and mesh networking functionality. ZigBee networks may be secured through 128-bit encryption keys and by MAC address access control lists, yet these credentials are vulnerable to interception and spoofing via free software tools available over the Internet. This work proposes a multi-factor PHY-MAC-NWK security framework for ZigBee that augments bit-level security using radio frequency (RF) PHY features. These features, or RF fingerprints, can be used to differentiate between dissimilar or like-model wireless devices. Previous PHY-based works on mesh network device differentiation predominantly exploited the signal turn-on region, measured in nanoseconds. For an arbitrary benchmark of 90% or better classification accuracy, this work shows that reliable PHY-based ZigBee device discrimination can be achieved at SNR ≥ 8 dB. This is done using the entire transmission preamble, which is less technically challenging to detect and is over 1000 times longer than the signal turn-on region. This work also introduces a statistical, pre-classification feature ranking technique for identifying relevant features that dramatically reduces the number of RF fingerprint features without sacrificing classification performance.
Role of free school lunch in the associations between family-environmental factors and children's fruit and vegetable intake in four European countries

Abstract Objective To determine whether an association exists between different clusters of fruit- and vegetable-specific family-environmental factors and children's daily fruit and vegetable intake, and whether these associations differ between countries with different school lunch policies. Design Cross-sectional data from four European countries participating in the Pro Greens project in 2009. These countries have different school food policies: two serve free school lunches and two do not. Self-administered data were used. Food frequency questions served to assess fruit and vegetable intakes. The study assessed sixteen children-perceived family-environmental factors, which were clustered based on principal component analysis into five sum variables: fruit and vegetable encouragement; vegetable modelling, family routine and demand; fruit modelling; fruit and vegetable snacking practices; and fruit and vegetable allowing. Setting Schools in Finland, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. Subjects Schoolchildren aged 11 years (n 3317). Results Multilevel logistic regression analyses revealed positive associations between nearly all clustered family-environmental factors and daily fruit and vegetable intake. The study tested a moderation effect between family-environmental factors and school lunch policy. In five out of twenty models significant interactions occurred. In the stratified analyses, most of the associations between family-environmental factors and raw and cooked vegetable intake were stronger in Germany and the Netherlands, neither of which provided free school lunches. Conclusions Children reporting more fruit- and vegetable-promoting family-environmental factors had a more frequent intake of fruits and vegetables; the associations were stronger for vegetable intakes in countries providing no free school lunches, suggesting that parental involvement is crucial when schools offer no vegetables.
The Social Impact of Social Funds in Jamaica: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Participation, Targeting, and Collective Action in Community-Driven Development

This paper develops an evaluation method that combines qualitative evidence with quantitative survey data analyzed with propensity score methods, on matched samples, to study the impact of a participatory community driven Social Fund on preference targeting, collective action, and community decision making. The data are from a case-study of five pairs of communities in Jamaica where one community in the pair has received funds from the Jamaica Social Investment Fund while the other has not, but has been picked to match the funded community in its social and economic characteristics. The qualitative data reveal that the social fund process is elite-driven and decision making tends to be dominated by a small group of motivated individuals. However, by the end of the project there is broad based satisfaction with the outcome. The quantitative data from 500 households mirror these findings by showing that ex-ante the social fund does not address the expressed needs of the majority of individuals in the majority of communities. By the end of the construction process, however, 80 per cent of the community expresses satisfaction with the outcome. An analysis of the determinants of participation demonstrates that better educated and better networked individuals dominate the process. Propensity score analysis reveals that JSIF has had a causal impact on improvements in trust and the capacity for collective action, but these gains are greater for elites within the community. Both JSIF and non-JSIF communities are more likely now to make decisions that affect their lives which is indicative of a broad based effort to promote participatory development in the country, but JSIF communities do not show higher levels of community driven decisions than non-JSIF communities. The evidence in this paper sheds light on the complex ways in which community driven development works inside communities, a process that is deeply imbedded within Jamaicas socio-cultural and political context.
Detecting communication anomalies in tactical networks via graph learning

A widely practiced approach for detecting suspicious communication in a network is to formulate the problem as statistical anomaly detection. However, the communication patterns in mission-oriented tactical networks are highly variable and have a much richer structure than incorporated by existing anomaly detection methods. For instance, the legitimacy of a communication may depend on who sends the message to who, when and under what circumstances. Existing anomaly detection methods insensitively aggregate data losing critical contextual information about the structure of communication and as a consequence, they either fail to detect suspicious communication or produce excessive amount of false positives. We have developed an extended graph based anomaly detection method that allows us to incorporate the context and rich structure of communication in a mission-oriented tactical network to model and detect suspicious patterns. We use a vector-weighted multidigraph representation to model communication and use a given data to learn the graph, i.e., to determine the nodes, the edges, and their statistical attributes corresponding to normal communication. We then use deviations from the attributes of normal communications to detect the suspicious ones. We have applied the proposed approach to detect suspicious communication in a MANET comprising of USRP2 radios and successfully demonstrated the approach in TRL-6 demonstration of the TITAN project at Fort Dix. While our proposed approach is very general, only a part of it applies to the MANET under consideration and we used it to successfully detect various types of illegal messages, congestion, and the DDoS attack.