Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BallotMaps: Detecting Name Bias in Alphabetically Ordered Ballot Papers

The relationship between candidates' position on a ballot paper and vote rank is explored in the case of 5000 candidates for the UK 2010 local government elections in the Greater London area. This design study uses hierarchical spatially arranged graphics to represent two locations that affect candidates at very different scales: the geographical areas for which they seek election and the spatial location of their names on the ballot paper. This approach allows the effect of position bias to be assessed; that is, the degree to which the position of a candidate's name on the ballot paper influences the number of votes received by the candidate, and whether this varies geographically. Results show that position bias was significant enough to influence rank order of candidates, and in the case of many marginal electoral wards, to influence who was elected to government. Position bias was observed most strongly for Liberal Democrat candidates but present for all major political parties. Visual analysis of classification of candidate names by ethnicity suggests that this too had an effect on votes received by candidates, in some cases overcoming alphabetic name bias. The results found contradict some earlier research suggesting that alphabetic name bias was not sufficiently significant to affect electoral outcome and add new evidence for the geographic and ethnicity influences on voting behaviour. The visual approach proposed here can be applied to a wider range of electoral data and the patterns identified and hypotheses derived from them could have significant implications for the design of ballot papers and the conduct of fair elections.
A tecnologia e a realização do trabalho

The introduction of new technologies have noticeable impacts on most segments of business and society. This survey focuses on the impacts of such technologies on the human work. Several common points and the most frequent apprehension have been identified, specially those related with employment, professional deskilling and new management patterns needed to cope with the renewed forms of doing the jobs. The items that discuss measures to soften the negative impacts and to enhance the positive ones are also presented.
Using Sparse Training to Estimate Context-Sensitive Translation Probabilities

Machine Translation is the task of creating computer software that accepts text in one language and returns a translation in a different language. The input language is referred to as the ‘source’ and the output language is the ‘target’. Today, the most successful approaches to machine translation are statistical. A Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) system is one that is based on probabilites learned from a corpus of parallel data.1 As a part of the translation process, it is necessary to accurately estimate translation probabilities of individual words. Most words have multiple different valid translations and this is modeled by assuming that any particular translation is chosen randomly among the possible translations.
Self-Integration for Virtualization of Embedded Many-Core Systems

Virtualization of embedded systems enables the integration of various independent and isolated virtual environments on the same hardware. It is therefore seen as a key enabler for implementing mixed-criticality systems on future many-core technology. However, a challenge is that such systems are increasingly exposed to dynamic workloads, e.g., due to the "openness" of modern mobile devices or the execution of varying application mixes. As a remedy, run-time management enables the dynamic allocation of system resources to the virtual environments according to their current requirements. This paper investigates self-integration of such dynamic environments in virtualized embedded systems by providing management strategies for re-partitioning shared resources at run time. We formulate and analyze the underlying optimization problem with the particular focus on security and scalability as two important factors for managing embedded systems in the many-core era. The evaluation of the theoretical results by means of a case study shows the improvements with respect to scalability and security, and leads to a discussion of the most important future trends for paving the road to self-integrating virtualized embedded systems.
Gazing in triads : a powerful signal in floor apportionment

This article deals with three experiments which revealed a special gazing pattern at the end of a speaker's turn in three-person groups. This gazing pattern appears to perform a definite function with regard to turn taking. In the first experiment a fine-grained, etho-logically oriented description was obtained of the non-verbal behaviour of 120 adult male subjects who participated in triadic discussion groups. Using sequential analysis, distinctive non-verbal behaviour patterns were found. In addition we looked for differences between the non-verbal behaviour of subjects who were the emergent leaders in their group and subjects who had the lowest position of influence. One of the most interesting differences is that leaders were more likely to show a ‘prolonged gaze’ pattern at the end of an utterance, as if inviting someone else to take the floor. In the second experiment the ‘prolonged gaze’ was defined more precisely. In this experiment the position of influence of 30 male subjects was manipulated by assigning roles in three-person groups. It appeared that appointed leaders were more likely to show the ‘prolonged gaze’ pattern than persons who were not appointed leaders. In the third experiment the behaviour of 23 triads engaged in free discussions was registered. In order to obtain more general results both male and female groups were used. The ‘prolonged gaze’ was constructed from its observed component parts by a computer. Floor switches during three hours of triadic discussions showed that the person who displayed a ‘prolonged gaze’ would yield the floor, and that the receiver of the gaze was the most likely to take the floor. Therefore, the ‘prolonged gaze’ can be considered as a powerful yielding signal in turn taking.
The Child PTSD Symptom Scale: A Preliminary Examination of its Psychometric Properties

Reports on the development and preliminary validation of the Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS) for children and adolescents. The CPSS is a new instrument that was developed to assess the severity of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in children exposed to trauma. The CPSS was administered to 75 school-age children approximately 2 years after the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake. The psychometric properties of the CPSS show high internal consistency and test-retest reliability for both the total score and the three subscales. Convergent validity with the Child Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (CPTSD-RI) was established. As expected, the correlations of the CPSS with depression and anxiety measures were lower than those with the CPTSD-RI, providing some support for discriminant validity of the CPSS. These results suggest that the CPSS is a useful tool for the assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity and for the screening of PTSD diagnosis among traumatized children.
Evidence that an RGD-dependent receptor mediates the binding of oligodendrocytes to a novel ligand in a glial-derived matrix

A simple adhesion assay was used to measure the interaction between rat oligodendrocytes and various substrata, including a matrix secreted by glial cells. Oligodendrocytes bound to surfaces coated with fibronectin, vitronectin and a protein component of the glial matrix. The binding of cells to all of these substrates was inhibited by a synthetic peptide (GRGDSP) modeled after the cell-binding domain of fibronectin. The component of the glial matrix responsible for the oligodendrocyte interaction is a protein which is either secreted by the glial cells or removed from serum by products of these cultures; serum alone does not promote adhesion to the same extent as the glial- derived matrix. The interaction of cells with this glial-derived matrix requires divalent cations and is not mediated by several known RGD- containing extracellular proteins, including fibronectin, vitronectin, thrombospondin, type I and type IV collagen, and tenascin.
A FIXED-BUDGET QUANTIZED KERNEL LEAST MEAN SQUARE ALGORITHM

We present a quantization-based kernel least mean square (QKLMS) algorithm with a ﬁxed memory budget. In order to deal with the growing support inherent in online kernel methods, the proposed method utilizes a growing and pruning combined technique and deﬁnes a criterion, signiﬁcance, based on weighted statistical contribution of a data center. This method doesn’t need any apriori information and its computational complexity is acceptable, linear with the center number. As we show theoretically and experimentally, the introduced algorithm successfully quantiﬁes the least ‘signif-icant’ datum and preserves the most important ones resulting in less system error.
Long-term forecasting of Internet backbone traffic: observations and initial models

We introduce a methodology to predict when and where link additions/upgrades have to take place in an IP backbone network. Using SNMP statistics, collected continuously since 1999, we compute aggregate demand between any two adjacent PoPs and look at its evolution at time scales larger than one hour. We show that IP backbone traffic exhibits visible long term trends, strong periodicities, and variability at multiple time scales. Our methodology relies on the wavelet multiresolution analysis and linear time series models. Using wavelet multiresolution analysis, we smooth the collected measurements until we identify the overall long-term trend. The fluctuations around the obtained trend are further analyzed at multiple time scales. We show that the largest amount of variability in the original signal is due to its fluctuations at the 12 hour time scale. We model inter-PoP aggregate demand as a multiple linear regression model, consisting of the two identified components. We show that this model accounts for 98% of the total energy in the original signal, while explaining 90% of its variance. Weekly approximations of those components can be accurately modeled with low-order autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. We show that forecasting the long term trend and the fluctuations of the traffic at the 12 hour time scale yields accurate estimates for at least six months in the future.
Common Knowledge: Supporting the Orchestration of Multi- Modal Note-Sharing in a Heterogeneous Classroom Ecology

We will present Common Knowledge (CK) - a pedagogical and technological innovation that supports teacher orchestration of inquiry discourse occurring in the digital and classroom environments. We designed CK to support a "knowledge community" pedagogy where students add their own ideas, build on peers' contributions, and structure their inquiry. Using tablets, students contributed to a knowledge base that was publicly displayed on an interactive whiteboard (IWB). The IWB visualized the community's idea flow, enabling learners to sort their ideas along socially-negotiated categories, and allowing teachers to track student progress to guide whole-class discussions. We present the final design, analyzed according to a Technology-Discourse-Activity system. We observed that teachers used "3R" orchestration cycle of Reflect-Refocus-Release, and offer guidelines about linking pedagogy to technology design.
The mRNA transportome of the BicD/Egl transport machinery

ABSTRACT mRNA (mRNA) transport focuses the expression of encoded proteins to specific regions within cells providing them with the means to assume specific functions and even identities. BicD and the mRNA binding protein Egl interact with the microtubule motor dynein to localize mRNAs in Drosophila. Because relatively few mRNA cargos were known, we isolated and identified Egl::GFP associated mRNAs. The top candidates were validated by qPCR, in situ hybridization and genetically by showing that their localization requires BicD. In young embryos these Egl target mRNAs are preferentially localized apically, between the plasma membrane and the blastoderm nuclei, but also in the pole plasm at the posterior pole. Egl targets expressed in the ovary were mostly enriched in the oocyte and some were apically localized in follicle cells. The identification of a large group of novel mRNAs associated with BicD/Egl points to several novel developmental and physiological functions of this dynein dependent localization machinery. The verified dataset also allowed us to develop a tool that predicts conserved A'-form-like stem loops that serve as localization elements in 3′UTRs.
A 7GHz 1mV-input-resolution comparator with 40mV-input-referred-offset compensation capability in 65NM CMOS

A 7GHz-clock 1mV-input-resolution comparator is designed and simulated in a 65nm CMOS process. The comparator offset is compensated by changing the body voltages of the input differential triple-well NFET transistor pair. A reset switch is added between two regeneration nodes to further match voltages in reset phase. Kickback noise in this comparator is reduced by isolating regeneration nodes of the cross-coupled inverters from the input nodes. Simulated delay of the comparator at ΔVin = 1mV@VDD=1.2V is 69ps. The comparator can operate with a 7GHz clock and a differential input voltage as small as 1mV@VDD=1.2V and can compensate for an input-referred offset of up to 40mV.
Socializing Hungarians in Transylvania, Romania: A case of international organizational socialization

This study was the first to compare organizational socialization of Hungarians (N = 122) and Romanians (N = 193) in Transylvania. Organizational socialization content was measured with the OSI (Organizational Socialization Inventory; Taormina, 1994) and included four domains: training, understanding, co-worker support, and future prospects. The effectiveness of organizational socialization was expressed in terms of global job satisfaction (Rice, Gentile, & McFarlin, 1991). When controlling for sample characteristics other than ethnic identity, there were no differences between Hungarians and Romanians on “understanding” and “future prospects”. On the domains “training” and “co-worker support” Hungarian respondents scored lower than Romanian respondents did. In both ethnic groups, “training” and “future prospects” facilitated global job satisfaction. In addition, “understanding” was positively related to global job satisfaction in the Hungarian sample. “Co-worker support” did not predict global job satisfaction. The role of tenure in content areas of organizational socialization and global job satisfaction was explored: There were no relations. Implications for the professional field discuss the provision of training, the facilitation of co-workers to act as socializing agents, and the information on future career opportunities.
Gastric emptying and motility: assessment with MR imaging--preliminary observations.

PURPOSE To evaluate a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging method for simultaneous assessment of gastric emptying and motility. MATERIALS AND METHODS Gastric emptying and motility were measured in nine volunteers after ingestion of a liquid meal. A specially designed MR imaging protocol was used that allowed simultaneous assessment of gastric emptying (spatial resolution, 1.5 mm; corrected for gastric secretion volume) and gastric motility (temporal resolution, 1.2 seconds; spatial resolution, 3.1 mm). To evaluate the ability to detect small changes in gastric motor activity with findings from this method, the influence of a prokinetic agent (loxiglumide) on gastric emptying and motility was tested in five volunteers. RESULTS Each contraction could be individually visualized at MR imaging. Administration of loxiglumide resulted in decreased gastric half-emptying time (mean +/- 1 standard error of the mean, 88.1 minutes +/- 6.3 for the placebo and 39.1 minutes +/- 6.7 for loxiglumide) and increased gastric motility (contraction frequency, 2.26 contractions per minute +/- 0.15 for the placebo and 3.04 per minute +/- 0.04 for loxiglumide). CONCLUSION MR imaging makes it feasible to study gastric emptying and gastric motility and to determine the influence of drugs on gastric motor activity.
The Mechanics of Surface Expansion Anisotropy in Medicago truncatula Root Hairs1

Wall expansion in tip-growing cells shows variations according to position and direction. In Medicago truncatula root hairs, wall expansion exhibits a strong meridional gradient with a maximum near the pole of the cell. Root hair cells also show a striking expansion anisotropy, i.e. over most of the dome surface the rate of circumferential wall expansion exceeds the rate of meridional expansion. Concomitant measurements of expansion rates and wall stresses reveal that the extensibility of the cell wall must vary abruptly along the meridian of the cell to maintain the gradient of wall expansion. To determine the mechanical basis of expansion anisotropy, we compared measurements of wall expansion with expansion patterns predicted from wall structural models that were either fully isotropic, transversely isotropic, or fully anisotropic. Our results indicate that a model based on a transversely isotropic wall structure can provide a good fit of the data although a fully anisotropic model offers the best fit overall. We discuss how such mechanical properties could be controlled at the microstructural level.
Making Sense of the Role of Culture in School Improvement

Addressing the need to find new ways for examining workplace cultures quickly and effectively in order to facilitate school improvement efforts, this article proposes a technique for carrying out such enquiries. By exploring the nature of school cultures and how they impact upon day-to-day encounters in classrooms, it illustrates how critical incidents can be analysed so as to help those in schools to understand themselves better in terms of those factors that shape their practice. It is argued that the proposed method has the potential to go beyond systems of external monitoring in such a way as to enable schools to develop procedures for self-review.
Seven-year experience of a primary care antiretroviral treatment programme in Khayelitsha, South Africa

Objectives:We report on outcomes after 7 years of a community-based antiretroviral therapy (ART) programme in Khayelitsha, South Africa, with death registry linkages to correct for mortality under-ascertainment. Design:This is an observational cohort study. Methods:Since inception, patient-level clinical data have been prospectively captured on-site into an electronic patient information system. Patients with available civil identification numbers who were lost to follow-up were matched with the national death registry to ascertain their vital status. Corrected mortality estimates weighted these patients to represent all patients lost to follow-up. CD4 cell count outcomes were reported conditioned on continuous virological suppression. Results:Seven thousand, three hundred and twenty-three treatment-naive adults (68% women) started ART between 2001 and 2007, with annual enrolment increasing from 80 in 2001 to 2087 in 2006. Of 9.8% of patients lost to follow-up for at least 6 months, 32.8% had died. Corrected mortality was 20.9% at 5 years (95% confidence interval 17.9–24.3). Mortality fell over time as patients accessed care earlier (median CD4 cell count at enrolment increased from 43 cells/μl in 2001 to 131 cells/μl in 2006). Patients who remained virologically suppressed continued to gain CD4 cells at 5 years (median 22 cells/μl per 6 months). By 5 years, 14.0% of patients had failed virologically and 12.2% had been switched to second-line therapy. Conclusion:At a time of considerable debate about future global funding of ART programmes in resource-poor settings, this study has demonstrated substantial and durable clinical benefits for those able to access ART throughout this period, in spite of increasing loss to follow-up.
Masculinity, femininity and sex: an exploration of their relative contribution to explaining gender differences in health

The emergence of gender as a major area of interest in medical sociology in the 1970s set an exciting agenda for future research. However, despite a growing literature, our understanding of the mechanisms linking gender and health has advanced little in recent years. This may, in part, be due to problems in conceptualising gender. In particular, despite theoretical advances, biological sex and sociological gender continue to be conflated in empirical research. In this paper we argue that sex and gender are not necessarily coincidental and that gender roles and gender role orientations may cross-cut sex. We draw upon a recent tradition of research on gender role orientation in psychology which assesses the level of ‘bmasculinity’ and ‘femininity’ in an individual's self-concept through identification with traditionally ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ characteristics. Considering a range of health measures we conclude that the sex (male-female) differences that are traditionally found in research on gender and health may mask an association of ‘femininity’ with relatively poor health and ‘masculinity’ with relatively good health in both men and women.
Planning in the continuous domain: A generalized belief space approach for autonomous navigation in unknown environments

We investigate the problem of planning under uncertainty, with application to mobile robotics. We propose a probabilistic framework in which the robot bases its decisions on the generalized belief, which is a probabilistic description of its own state and of external variables of interest. The approach naturally leads to a dual-layer architecture: an inner estimation layer, which performs inference to predict the outcome of possible decisions; and an outer decisional layer which is in charge of deciding the best action to undertake. Decision making is entrusted to a model predictive control (MPC) scheme. The formulation is valid for general cost functions and does not discretize the state or control space, enabling planning in continuous domain. Moreover, it allows to relax the assumption of maximum likelihood observations: predicted measurements are treated as random variables, and binary random variables are used to model the event that a measurement is actually taken by the robot. We successfully apply our approach to the problem of uncertainty-constrained exploration, in which the robot has to perform tasks in an unknown environment, while maintaining localization uncertainty within given bounds. We present an extensive numerical analysis of the proposed approach and compare it against related work. In practice, our planning approach produces smooth and natural trajectories and is able to impose soft upper bounds on the uncertainty. Finally, we exploit the results of this analysis to identify current limitations and show that the proposed framework can accommodate several desirable extensions.