Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Policewomen and their problems: the Philippine context

The lot of policewomen has been a difficult adaptation to a predominantly male‐dominated organization. Being traditionally dominated by males, the police organization may become a problematic workplace for policewomen. In a patriarchal society, women are placed at a disadvantage because of gender‐related workplace problems that may arise. This study involves an assessment of the gender‐related problems experienced by the policewomen of the Philippine National Police in the central region of the Philippines. Likewise, the study provides analyses of the relationships of these gender‐related problems to the job performance of women officers. Using a survey questionnaire, gender‐related problems of policewomen are identified and related to their performance using both objective and subjective measures. The data indicate that women officers experience gender‐related problems. However, these problems do not seem to relate significantly to their job performances.
Risk and Valuation of Mortality Contingent Catastrophe Bonds

Catastrophe Mortality Bonds are a recent capital market innovation providing insurers and reinsurers with the possibility to transfer catastrophe mortality risk off their balance sheets to capital markets. This article introduces a time-continuous model for analyzing and pricing catastrophe mortality contingent claims based on stochastic modeling of the force of mortality. In addition, we give an concise survey of past transactions and explain in detail the structure of the deals and the securities. Parametrizations of the proposed model based on three different calibration procedures are derived. The resulting loss profiles and prices are compared to loss profiles provided by the issuers and to market prices, respectively. We find that the profiles are subject to great uncertainties and should hence be considered with care by investors and rating agencies. Furthermore, by comparing outcomes of risk-adjusted parametrizations based on insurance quotes and parametrizations implied by market prices, we are able to give a possible explanation for the relatively fast growth of the market for Catastrophe Mortality Bonds over the last years.
Differential optical spectroscopy for absorption characterization of mono & two-layered scattering media

Diffuse reflectance techniques are commonly used to characterize the optical properties of various biological tissues in the visible and NIR spectral ranges. Nevertheless a sharp determination of local chromophores concentration in turbid media is usually difficult to obtain because of the nonlinear dependence of the reflected light intensity as a function of scattering and absorption coefficients. The proposed technique of this paper allows to determine absorbent compounds concentration ratios in a turbid medium from three reflectance spectra, measured for source-detector distances inferior to 1 cm. This method is validated in the visible range in case of typical biological absorption and reduced scattering coefficients. Two- layered scattering media are also investigated.
A novel allosteric mechanism in haemoglobin. Structure of bovine deoxyhaemoglobin, absence of specific chloride-binding sites and origin of the chloride-linked Bohr effect in bovine and human haemoglobin.

The structure of bovine deoxyhaemoglobin has been determined at 2.2 A resolution and refined to an R-factor of 0.193 for all 32,583 reflections, and a free R-factor of 0.249 for 1527 reflections excluded from the refinement. The structure shows no significant differences between the alpha-carbon positions of bovine and human haemoglobin, except at the N-terminal segment and the first helix (A) which are closer to the dyad symmetry axis and pushed more tightly against the rest of the beta-subunits in the bovine form. In a search for the predicted chloride-binding sites, three-dimensional data were collected from crystals suspended in 50% polyethylene glycol buffered either with 50 mM Na phosphate (pH 7.3) +/- 0.1 M NaCl or with 0.1 M Hepes (pH 7.3) +/- 0.1 M NaBr. Difference electron density maps with and without NaCl or NaBr showed no evidence of specific halide ion-binding sites. Oxygen equilibria were measured in 10 mM Hepes buffer without added NaCl, with 0.1 mM NaCl, 0.1 M NaCl + 1 mM 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, and 0.1 M NaCl + 1 mM inositol hexaphosphate. Without added chloride, P50 of stripped bovine haemoglobin was similar to that of human haemoglobin with 0.1 M NaCl. With 0.1 M NaCl it was similar to that of human haemoglobin saturated with 2,3-diphosphoglycerate. In 0.1 M NaCl neither organic phosphate significantly affected the oxygen affinity. Titration of P50 with NaCl showed delta log P50/delta log[Cl-] of bovine and human haemoglobin to be identical. Analysis of the oxygen equilibrium curves showed the low intrinsic oxygen affinity of bovine haemoglobin to be due to a larger oxygen dissociation constant from the T-structure. The influence of chloride on P50 and on the alkaline Bohr effect is the same in bovine and human haemoglobins. It is proposed that this is due to the excess positive charges in the central cavity and its widening in the transition from the R to the T-structure. The widening would allow more chloride ions to enter and neutralize the positive charges, but these ions would remain mobile and therefore do not show up as peaks of high electron density. Repulsion between excess positive charges in the central cavity raises the free energy of the T-structure relative to the R-structure, thereby raising the oxygen affinity. Conversely, entry of chloride ions on widening of the cavity reduces the free energy of the T-structure and therefore lowers the oxygen affinity. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Multi-layer joint gait-pose manifold for human motion modeling

We present a multi-layer joint gait-pose manifold (multi-layer JGPM) for human motion modeling to enhance the representative capability of the original JGPM that represents gait kinematics by two variables. One is the pose to denote a series of stages in a walking cycle and the other is the gait to reflect the individual walking styles. Coupling pose and gait variables in the same latent space was shown effective for human motion estimation. However, the original JGPM is limited to one kind of human gaits, and its learning cannot be scaled up to a large dataset due to a high computational load. This work overcomes the limitations of the previous method by involving a multi-layer topology prior that is able to accommodate a variety of walking styles, leading to better motion synthesis results. Moreover, to learn multi-layer JGPM effectively and efficiently, we adopted two techniques, training data diversification and topology-aware local learning. The experimental results confirm the advantages and superiority of our proposed method over several existing Gaussian process-based motion models.
Early-life glucocorticoids programme behaviour and metabolism in adulthood in zebrafish

Glucocorticoids (GCs) in utero influence embryonic development with consequent programmed effects on adult physiology and pathophysiology and altered susceptibility to cardiovascular disease. However, in viviparous species, studies of these processes are compromised by secondary maternal influences. The zebrafish, being fertilised externally, avoids this problem and has been used here to investigate the effects of transient alterations in GC activity during early development. Embryonic fish were treated either with dexamethasone (a synthetic GC), an antisense GC receptor (GR) morpholino (GR Mo), or hypoxia for the first 120h post fertilisation (hpf); responses were measured during embryonic treatment or later, post treatment, in adults. All treatments reduced cortisol levels in embryonic fish to similar levels. However, morpholino- and hypoxia-treated embryos showed delayed physical development (slower hatching and straightening of head–trunk angle, shorter body length), less locomotor activity, reduced tactile responses and anxiogenic activity. In contrast, dexamethasone-treated embryos showed advanced development and thigmotaxis but no change in locomotor activity or tactile responses. Gene expression changes were consistent with increased (dexamethasone) and decreased (hypoxia, GR Mo) GC activity. In adults, stressed cortisol values were increased with dexamethasone and decreased by GR Mo and hypoxia pre-treatments. Other responses were similarly differentially affected. In three separate tests of behaviour, dexamethasone-programmed fish appeared ‘bolder’ than matched controls, whereas Mo and hypoxia pre-treated fish were unaffected or more reserved. Similarly, the dexamethasone group but not the Mo or hypoxia groups were heavier, longer and had a greater girth than controls. Hyperglycaemia and expression of GC responsive gene (pepck) were also increased in the dexamethasone group. We conclude that GC activity controls many aspects of early-life growth and development in the zebrafish and that, like other species, manipulating GC status pharmacologically, physiologically or genetically in early life leads to programmable metabolic and behavioural traits in adulthood.
Some Remarks on the Problem of Incommensurability in Organization Studies

Organization studies have become differentiated and complex fields of research. It has become difficult for both the researcher and the practitioner to find appropriate answers to theoretical or practical problems, and theoretical advice is often contradictory. Today, we have to deal with various schools of thought that are often considered incommensurable. An objective frame of reference to evaluate different paradigms is missing, and recent discussions in organization theory have shown that it is rather difficult to find common ground. It is the purpose of this paper to review the current paradigmatic state of organization studies, to consider the pluralism of paradigms and its consequences, and to discuss the possibility of overcoming the incommensurability problem. Our discussion makes clear that there is no theoretical solution to the incommensurability problem, but that the possibility of a practical solution does exist.
Spatial Judgments with Monoscopic and Stereoscopic Presentation of Perspective Displays

Spatial judgments with monoscopic and stereoscopic presentation of perspective displays were investigated in the present study. The stimulus configuration emulated a visual scene consisting of a volume of airspace above a ground reference plane. Two target symbols were situated at various positions in the space, and observers were instructed to identify the relative depth or altitude of the two symbols. Three viewing orientations (15, 45, or 90 deg elevation angle) were implemented in the perspective projection. In the monoscopic view, depth cues in size, brightness, occlusion, and linear perspective were provided in the format. In the stereoscopic view, binocular disparity was added along the line of sight from the center of projection to reinforce the relative depth in the visual scene. Results revealed that spatial judgments were affected by manipulation of the relative spatial positions of the two target symbols and by the interaction between relative position and viewing orientation. The addition of binocular disparity improved judgments of three-dimensional spatial relationships, and the enhancement was greater when monocular depth cues were less effective and/or ambiguous in recovering the three-dimensional spatial characteristics.
TODTLER: Two-Order-Deep Transfer Learning

The traditional way of obtaining models from data, inductive learning, has proved itself both in theory and in many practical applications. However, in domains where data is difficult or expensive to obtain, e.g., medicine, deep transfer learning is a more promising technique. It circumvents the model acquisition difficulties caused by scarce data in a target domain by carrying over structural properties of a model learned in a source domain where training data is ample. Nonetheless, the lack of a principled view of transfer learning so far has limited its adoption. In this paper, we address this issue by regarding transfer learning as a process that biases learning in a target domain in favor of patterns useful in a source domain. Specifically, we consider a first-order logic model of the data as an instantiation of a set of second-order templates. Hence, the usefulness of a model is partly determined by the learner's prior distribution over these template sets. The main insight of our work is that transferring knowledge amounts to acquiring a posterior over the second-order template sets by learning in the source domain and using this posterior when learning in the target setting. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates our approach to outperform the existing transfer learning techniques in terms of accuracy and runtime.
Downlink Performance Analysis of LTE and WiFi Coexistence in Unlicensed Bands with a Simple Listen-Before-Talk Scheme

Deployment of LTE in unlicensed bands is being considered in Rel-13 of LTE. This feature is called Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA) using LTE. Unlicensed band is attractive due to the large amount of available spectrum. However, in shared spectrum the coexistence between LAA and WiFi systems becomes a primary challenge. This paper presents an analytical framework to investigate the downlink coexistence performance between two systems with a simple listen-before-talk (LBT) mechanism enforced on LAA. Using this framework, theoretical models based on Markov chains are established for both systems and downlink throughput can be calculated. Numerical results from the models show that the simple listen-before-talk scheme is very effective in LAA and LAA coexistence scenario (i.e. two LAA systems sharing the same spectrum). In LAA and WiFi coexistence scenario, it can improve WiFi performance substantially.
A Feedback-Augmented Method for Detecting Errors in the Writing of Learners of English

This paper proposes a method for detecting errors in article usage and singular plural usage based on the mass count distinction. First, it learns decision lists from training data generated automatically to distinguish mass and count nouns. Then, in order to improve its performance, it is augmented by feedback that is obtained from the writing of learners. Finally, it detects errors by applying rules to the mass count distinction. Experiments show that it achieves a recall of 0.71 and a precision of 0.72 and outperforms other methods used for comparison when augmented by feedback.
Design of atto‐vial based recombinant antibody arrays combined with a planar wave‐guide detection system

Antibody microarray is a rapidly emerging, powerful approach with great promise within high‐throughput proteomics. However, before a truly proteome‐wide analysis can be performed, the antibody array format needs to be miniaturized even further in order to enable ultradense arrays to be fabricated. To this end, we have designed and generated proof‐of‐concept for the first generation of an atto‐vial based recombinant antibody array platform. Briefly, we have designed a novel nanostructured substrate using electron beam lithography. Vials, ranging in volume/size from 6 (200 nm in diameter) to 4000 aL (5 μm in diameter), were fabricated. Human recombinant single‐chain Fv antibody fragments, microarray adopted by design, were used as probes. The set‐up was interfaced with planar wave‐guide technology for evanescant field fluorescence detection. The results showed that protein analytes could be specifically detected in the subzeptomole range for pure systems, using vials down to 57 aL. Further, low‐abundant (pg/mL) protein analytes could be detected in directly labeled complex proteomes, such as human whole serum, using 157 aL‐vials. Taken together, these results outline the potential of the atto‐vial array set‐up for miniaturized affinity proteomics‐based approaches.
The impact of array genomic hybridization on mental retardation research: a review of current technologies and their clinical utility

Our understanding of the causes of mental retardation is benefiting greatly from whole‐genome scans to detect submicroscopic pathogenic copy number variants (CNVs) that are undetectable by conventional cytogenetic analysis. The current method of choice for performing whole‐genome scans for CNVs is array genomic hybridization (AGH). Several platforms are available for AGH, each with its own strengths and limitations. This review discusses considerations that are relevant to the clinical use of whole‐genome AGH platforms for the diagnosis of pathogenic CNVs in children with mental retardation. Whole‐genome AGH studies are a maturing technology, but their high diagnostic utility assures their increasing use in clinical genetics.
Fatigue as a Driver of Overall Quality of Life in Cancer Patients

Background This manuscript describes an approach for analyzing large amounts of disparate clinical data to elucidate the most impactful factor(s) that relate to a meaningful clinical outcome, in this case, the quality of life of cancer patients. The relationships between clinical and quality of life variables were evaluated using the EORTC QLQ-C30 global health domain—a validated surrogate variable for overall cancer patient well-being. Methods A cross-sectional study design was used to evaluate the determinants of global health in cancer patients who initiated treatment at two regional medical centers between January 2001 and December 2009. Variables analyzed included 15 EORTC QLQ-C30 scales, age at diagnosis, gender, newly diagnosed/ recurrent disease status, and stage. The decision tree algorithm, perhaps unfamiliar to practicing clinicians, evaluates the relative contribution of individual parameters in classifying a clinically meaningful functional endpoint, such as the global health of a patient. Findings Multiple patient characteristics were identified as important contributors. Fatigue, in particular, emerged as the most prevalent indicator of cancer patients’ quality of life in 16/23 clinically relevant subsets. This analysis allowed results to be stated in a clinically-intuitive, rule set format using the language and quantities of the Quality of Life (QoL) tool itself. Interpretation By applying the classification algorithms to a large data set, identification of fatigue as a root factor in driving global health and overall QoL was revealed. The ability to practice mining of clinical data sets to uncover critical clinical insights that are immediately applicable to patient care practices is illustrated.
Test of a Process Evaluation Checklist to Improve Neonatal Pain Practices

The Evidence-Based Practice Identification and Change (EPIC) strategy is a multifaceted knowledge translation intervention. Although the intervention promoted evidence-based practice, the process of delivering the intervention components is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the construct validity of the Process Evaluation Checklist developed for monitoring the fidelity of implementing the intervention to improve neonatal pain practices (i.e., documentation of ordering and administration of sucrose). A case study design was used. A research practice council in a single Neonatal Intensive Care Unit implemented the intervention. The Process Evaluation Checklist was used to record adherence in carrying out the intervention components. A significant improvement in the documentation of sucrose orders (p = .002) and administration (p = .004) provided evidence of the construct validity of this intervention fidelity measure. Using this measure in different contexts over longer periods of time will further validate the Process Evaluation Checklist.
Improved Collaborative Filtering using Evolutionary Algorithm based Feature Extraction

ubiquity of Collaborative Filtering systems is evident in the wide variety of domains to which they have been applied successfully. However a major challenge to such systems is the high dimensionality and sparsity of the expressed preferences. Dealing effectively with large user profiles would improve the scalability of the system whereas reducing sparsity would increase the quality of recommendations. Several approaches in this direction have focused on feature selection and feature extraction in order to reduce the data dimension and thus make the recommendation process more scalable. Some of the features extraction techniques are based on extracting content based features. However many such solutions have been handcrafted and thus not guaranteed to work optimally under all data environments. This work explores Evolutionary algorithms based feature extraction techniques where the extracted features may describe user or item profiles. The features constructed/extracted thus are compact, dense and are discriminative. Moreover they have the advantage of requiring no extra information (such as content description) and are adaptive, delivering the optimal feature extraction scheme for the particular dataset. We have performed experiments with the popular MovieLens dataset and have compared the user-based and item-based evolutionary feature extraction schemes with respect to their accuracy. The experiments establish that the evolutionary feature extraction schemes score over traditional algorithms as well as content-based feature extraction schemes. Moreover we find that the item-based evolutionary feature extraction schemes outperform their user-based counterparts under varying parameter values.
Prediction of postprandial glycemia and insulinemia in lean, young, healthy adults: glycemic load compared with carbohydrate content alone.

BACKGROUND Dietary glycemic load (GL; defined as the mathematical product of the glycemic index and carbohydrate content) is increasingly used in nutritional epidemiology. Its ability to predict postprandial glycemia and insulinemia for a wide range of foods or mixed meals is unclear. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to assess the degree of association between calculated GL and observed glucose and insulin responses in healthy subjects consuming isoenergetic portions of single foods and mixed meals. DESIGN In study 1, groups of healthy subjects consumed 1000-kJ portions of 121 single foods in 10 food categories. In study 2, healthy subjects consumed 2000-kJ servings of 13 mixed meals. Foods and meals varied widely in macronutrient content, fiber, and GL. Glycemia and insulinemia were quantified as area under the curve relative to a reference food (= 100). RESULTS Among the single foods, GL was a more powerful predictor of postprandial glycemia and insulinemia than was the available carbohydrate content, explaining 85% and 59% of the observed variation, respectively (P < 0.001). Similarly, for mixed meals, GL was also the strongest predictor of postprandial glucose and insulin responses, explaining 58% (P = 0.003) and 46% (P = 0.01) of the variation, respectively. Carbohydrate content alone predicted the glucose and insulin responses to single foods (P < 0.001) but not to mixed meals. CONCLUSION These findings provide the first large-scale, systematic evidence of the physiologic validity and superiority of dietary GL over carbohydrate content alone to estimate postprandial glycemia and insulin demand in healthy individuals. This trial was registered at ANZCTR.org as ACTRN12610000484044.