Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Emergence of Technical Communication in China—Yi Jing (I Ching)

To promote intercultural understanding in technical communication, this article studies Yi Jing as a technical instructions manual, the first technical communication book in China. After examining the information in Yi Jing and its organization as well as a modern Chinese instructional manual, the author claims that Yi Jing developed the theory that context and individual objects should be seen as a unity and thus established a tradition that Chinese instructional manuals observe: focusing on contextual information instead of action-oriented instructions for task performance. The author compares the Chinese manual and an American one to support his claim that Yi Jing's philosophy helps us uncover a pattern of meaning in modern Chinese instructional manuals.
3G Services Adoption among University Students: Diffusion of Innovation Theory

3G services represents an evolution in telecommunication industry. However, 3G services has not received great adoption rule as expected despite of various benefits provided by this service. This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the intention to adopt 3G services among the university students in Malaysia since they expected to be the group with great potential to adopt 3G services. Diffusion of innovation theory is modified and applied in this study to achieve the objective. Results of this study show that perceived compatibility, perceived relative advantage, perceived results demonstrability, perceived trailability, perceived image, and perceived enjoyment are significantly associated with invention to adopt 3G services. Surprisingly, perceived cost of using 3G services is found to be positive but insignificant associated with intention to adopt 3G services. Managerial implications and conclusion have been discussed.
Bayesian Inference for the Mixed Conditional Heteroskedasticity Model

We estimate by Bayesian inference the mixed conditional heteroskedasticity model of (Haas, Mittnik, and Paolella 2004a). We construct a Gibbs sampler algorithm to compute posterior and predictive densities. The number of mixture components is selected by the marginal likelihood criterion. We apply the model to the SP500 daily returns.
A Monte Carlo Comparison of Various Semiparametric Type-3 Tobit Estimators

This paper compares recently developed semiparametric estimators of Type-3 Tobit model using Monte Carlo simulations. In particular, we examine the finite sample performance of the recently proposed method by Li and Wooldridge and compare it to some alternative semiparametric estimators. Simulation results indicated that Li and Wooldridge (2002) estimator under the independence restriction compares well relative to other alternative estimators, especially when the sample size is small or the error distribution has a thick tail.
Approaching Others: Aristotle on Friendship’s Possibility

The essay sheds light on Aristotle’s understanding of friendship and its relation to political life.The author challenges the usual view that Aristotle postulates three distinct kinds of friendship. Instead the author argues that Aristotle understood there to be only one kind of friendship, and that other “friendships” were to Aristotle “unfinished” and thus not friendship at all. Aristotle shows that the relation between friendship and politics is grounded in friendship’s possibility for human beings, and not as something cherished for its actuality. By looking at proper friendship as possibility and not actuality, we could only ever interpret the infamous statement attributed to Aristotle—“my friends, there are no friends”—not as illuminating of what friendship is but rather as a nostalgic diagnosis of the decay of the possibility of friendship, and hence of politics. By extension, and more poignantly, interpreting Aristotle’s work on friendship in this light, we stand ready to reinterpret the mobilization of Aristotelian friendship for contemporary understandings of democratic practice.
Constraining jet/disc geometry and radiative processes in stellar black holes XTE J1118+480 and GX 339−4

We present results from modelling of quasi-simultaneous broad-band (radio through X-ray) observations of the Galactic stellar black hole (BH) transient X-ray binary (XRB) systems XTE J1118+480 and GX 339−4 using an irradiated disc + compact jet model. In addition to quantifying the physical properties of the jet, we have developed a new irradiated disc model which also constrains the geometry and temperature of the outer accretion disc by assuming a disc heated by viscous energy release and X-ray irradiation from the inner regions. For the source XTE J1118+480, which has better spectral coverage of the two in optical and near-infrared (OIR) wavelengths, we show that the entire broad-band continuum can be well described by an outflow-dominated model + an irradiated disc. The best-fitting radius of the outer edge of the disc is consistent with the Roche lobe geometry of the system, and the temperature of the outer edge of the accretion disc is similar to those found for other XRBs. Irradiation of the disc by the jet is found to be negligible for this source. For GX 339−4, the entire continuum is well described by the jet-dominated model only, with no disc component required. For the two XRBs, which have very different physical and orbital parameters and were in different accretion states during the observations, the sizes of the jet base are similar and both seem to prefer a high fraction of non-thermal electrons in the acceleration/shock region and a magnetically dominated plasma in the jet. These results, along with recent similar results from modelling other galactic XRBs and AGNs, may suggest an inherent unity in diversity in the geometric and radiative properties of compact jets from accreting black holes.
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Imaging of the Effects of treatment of TBI Depression : Lessons Learned

Background: Major depression is a common complication following traumatic brain injury. It is associated with poor global clinical and psychosocial outcomes. Even though there are several studies on risk factors for major depression after TBI (henceforth will be referred to as TBI depression) there is minimal literature on the treatment of TBI depression. Further, the neurobiological changes associated with treatment have not been a focus of study. Aims: (1) To determine the effectiveness of escitalopram for the treatment of TBI depression as assessed by the Montgomery Depression H1 or proton before rating Scale (MADRS) and Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) scale. (2) To determine differences in brain metabolite ratios as measured by single voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and multi slice magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging (MRSI) before and after treatment with escitalopram. Methods: Double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Subjects were randomized to either the escitalopram or the placebo group. Escitalopram was started at 10mg per day and increased to 20 mg if deemed clinically necessary, at week 4. No medication changes were made after week 8. The placebo group received a pill which appeared similar to the 10 and 20 mg of escitalopram. All subjects had a total of 4 visits: baseline evaluation and follow-up visits at weeks 4, 8 and 12. All subjects underwent brain MRS/MRSI scans before (Week 1) and after treatment (week 12). Results: At the end of 12 weeks of intervention, no statistically significant differences were found between the drug and placebo groups on the MADRS or the CGI-I scale scores. There were also no statistically significant differences between the two groups on the brain metabolite ratios. However, there was a trend towards statistical significance (p value =<0.1) in escitalopram compared to placebo group after treatment. In the escitalopram compared to placebo groups, changes before to after treatment were observed. Higher Cho/Cr ratios in the right frontal cortex (median values: -0.08 versus 0.13; p values =0.08), higher NAA/Cr ratios in the right thalamus (median values: -0.12 versus 0.19 p-value=0.09), higher NAA/Cho ratios (median values: -0.40 versus -0.02; p-value = 0.06), lower NAA/Cr ratio (median values: 0.28 versus -0.38; p-value = 0.06) and lower Cho/Cr ratio (median values: 0.23 versus -0.09; p-value = 0.06) in the left frontal cortex Conclusion: These preliminary findings support the further investigation of changes in brain metabolites before and after treatment with antidepressants using larger sample sizes and strategies to reduce or eliminate artifacts in magnetic resonance imaging. Such neuro imaging studies have the potential to provide an understanding of biological mechanisms of TBI depression.
Foot speed, foot-strike and footwear: linking gait mechanics and running ground reaction forces

Running performance, energy requirements and musculoskeletal stresses are directly related to the action–reaction forces between the limb and the ground. For human runners, the force–time patterns from individual footfalls can vary considerably across speed, foot-strike and footwear conditions. Here, we used four human footfalls with distinctly different vertical force–time waveform patterns to evaluate whether a basic mechanical model might explain all of them. Our model partitions the body's total mass (1.0Mb) into two invariant mass fractions (lower limb=0.08, remaining body mass=0.92) and allows the instantaneous collisional velocities of the former to vary. The best fits achieved (R2 range=0.95–0.98, mean=0.97±0.01) indicate that the model is capable of accounting for nearly all of the variability observed in the four waveform types tested: barefoot jog, rear-foot strike run, fore-foot strike run and fore-foot strike sprint. We conclude that different running ground reaction force–time patterns may have the same mechanical basis.
Use of In Vivo-Regulated Promoters To Deliver Antigens from Attenuated Salmonella enterica var. Typhimurium

ABSTRACT This study describes the construction and analysis of three in vivo-inducible promoter expression plasmids, containing pnirB, ppagC, and pkatG, for the delivery of foreign antigens in the ΔaroAD mutant ofSalmonella enterica var. Typhimurium (hereafter referred to as S. typhimurium). The reporter genes encoding β-galactosidase and firefly luciferase were used to assess the comparative levels of promoter activity in S. typhimuriumin vitro in response to different induction stimuli and in vivo in immunized mice. It was determined that the ppagC construct directed the expression of more β-galactosidase and luciferase inS. typhimurium than the pnirB and pkatG constructs, both in vitro and in vivo. The gene encoding the C fragment of tetanus toxin was expressed in thearoAD mutant of S. typhimurium (BRD509) under the control of the three promoters. Mice orally immunized with attenuated S. typhimurium expressing C fragment under control of the pagC promoter [BRD509(pKK/ppagC/C frag)] mounted the highest tetanus toxoid-specific serum antibody response. Levels of luciferase expression in vivo and C-fragment expression in vitro from thepagC promoter appeared to be equivalent to if not lower than the levels of expression detected with the constitutivetrc promoter. However, mice immunized with BRD509(pKK/ppagC/C frag) induced significantly higher levels of tetanus toxoid-specific antibody than BRD509(pKK/C frag)-immunized mice, suggesting that the specific location of foreign antigen expression may be important for immunogenicity. Mutagenesis of the ribosome binding sites (RBS) in the three promoter/C fragment expression plasmids was also performed. Despite optimization of the RBS in the three different promoter elements, the expression levels in vivo and overall immunogenicity of C fragment when delivered to mice by attenuated S. typhimurium were not affected. These studies suggest that in vivo-inducible promoters may give rise to enhanced immunogenicity and increase the efficacy of S. typhimuriumas a vaccine vector.
Strategic planning and organizational values: links to alignment

Organizational values have been known to partially define organizational culture and to serve as a bonding mechanism between workers. In the recent past, values served as a critical component of the organization's perspective regarding strategic direction, mission determination and visioning. With the onset of numerous shortterm focused management practices, the core organizational values that contributed to organizational purpose were segregated from the business strategic planning process. However, recently re-emerging is a move to ground strategic planning processes again in core organizational values because both strategy and values are seen as defining an organization's purpose in an integrated manner that allows for differentiation. This article outlines these developments, provides reasons for the recent re-surfacing of organizational values, and argues from both a strategic business perspective and a human resources perspective the need to reestablish a meaningful linkage between business strategy and organizational values. The strategic business planning literature is overviewed herein, but is focused toward its particular association with organizational values and the HR/HRD impacts thereon.
Spasticity After Stroke: Its Occurrence and Association With Motor Impairments and Activity Limitations

Background and Purpose— There is no consensus concerning the number of patients developing spasticity or the relationship between spasticity and disabilities after acute stroke. The aim of the present study was to describe the extent to which spasticity occurs and is associated with disabilities (motor impairments and activity limitations). Methods— Ninety-five patients with first-ever stroke were examined initially (mean, 5.4 days) and 3 months after stroke with the Modified Ashworth Scale for spasticity; self-reported muscle stiffness; tendon reflexes; Birgitta Lindmark motor performance; Nine Hole Peg Test for manual dexterity; Rivermead Mobility Index; Get-Up and Go test; and Barthel Index. Results— Of the 95 patients studied, 64 were hemiparetic, 18 were spastic, 6 reported muscle stiffness, and 18 had increased tendon reflexes 3 months after stroke. Patients who were nonspastic (n=77) had statistically significantly better motor and activity scores than spastic patients (n=18). However, the correlations between muscle tone and disability scores were low, and severe disabilities were seen in almost the same number of nonspastic as spastic patients. Conclusions— Although spasticity seems to contribute to disabilities after stroke, spasticity was present in only 19% of the patients investigated 3 months after stroke. Severe disabilities were seen in almost the same number of nonspastic as spastic patients. These findings indicate that the focus on spasticity in stroke rehabilitation is out of step with its clinical importance. Careful and continual evaluation to establish the cause of the patient’s disabilities is essential before a decision is made on the most proper rehabilitation approach.
Distal Hypospadias Repair in Adults: The Results of 97 Cases

Introduction: We reviewed our 9-year experience on 97 men with distal hypospadias who had undergone hypospadias surgeries. Subjects and Methods: Patients were divided into two groups: group 1 included 17 men who had one or more unsuccessful surgeries in their childhood, and group 2 included 80 men with no previous hypospadias repairs. Meatal positions were glanular in 6, coronal in 35 and subcoronal in 56 patients. Our 97 hypospadias surgeries involved 42 meatal advancement and glanuloplasty, 41 Mathieu and 14 tubularized incised plate urethroplasty procedures. Results: The overall success rate was 88% (86 of the 97 patients). The success rate was 76.5% for group 1 (13 of the 17 patients) and 91.3% for group 2 (73 of the 80 patients). Better voiding function and good cosmetic appearance was achieved in all patients. Urinary flow rates were significantly higher in all groups postoperatively. The success rates were 91.4 and 85% for the patients with preoperative coronal and subcoronal meatal positions, respectively. The success rate was significantly lower in crippled cases and in cases with longer neourethra. Conclusion: Although the same techniques are used for children and adults in hypospadias surgery, the results in adults differ from those in children. The success rate for primary adult cases is quite acceptable, but it is decreased in patients having longer neourethra and having multiple previous interventions.
Informed love as a curative factor

Research concerning the curative factors in psychotherapy has thus far overlooked reports of religious experiences as a potential source of hypotheses. The author examines a variety of anecdotal encounters with personifications of higher power for the presence of therapeutic factors. He finds that the attitude expressed by the being, as perceived by the recipients, reflects unconditional positive regard (UCR) in the context of a thorough and intimate knowledge of the person. He thus hypothesizes that the curative factor operating in such experiences is “informed love”, defined as the twofold experience of feeling completely loved and completely known. The author discusses the differences between informed love and UCR, and the implications of informed love in modern psychotherapy practice.
A Complementary Pivoting Approach to the Maximum Weight Clique Problem

Given an undirected graph with positive weights on the vertices, the maximum weight clique problem (MWCP) is to find a subset of mutually adjacent vertices (i.e., a clique) having largest total weight. The problem is known to be NP-hard, even to approximate. Motivated by a recent quadratic programming formulation, which generalizes an earlier remarkable result of Motzkin and Straus, in this paper we propose a new framework for the MWCP based on the corresponding linear complementarity problem (LCP). We show that, generically, all stationary points of the MWCP quadratic program exhibit strict complementarity. Despite this regularity result, however, the LCP turns out to be inherently degenerate, and we find that Lemke's well-known pivoting method, equipped with standard degeneracy resolution strategies, yields unsatisfactory experimental results. We exploit the degeneracy inherent in the problem to develop a variant of Lemke's algorithm which incorporates a new and effective "look-ahead" pivot rule. The resulting algorithm is tested extensively on various instances of random as well as DIMACS benchmark graphs, and the results obtained show the effectiveness of our method.
A Channel Assignment Algorithm for Wireless Mesh Networks Using the Maximum Flow Approach

Wireless mesh networks gradually become the core of the next generation wireless networks technology and provide ubiquitous network connectivity to Internet. However, in the process of transmission, wireless interference severely limits network capacity. Therefore, many channel assignment algorithms are recently proposed for WMNs to improve the overall network capacity, but most of them make an assumption that the traffic proflie is given. In this paper, we design a centralized maxflow-based channel assignment algorithm(CMCA) for the above channel assignment problem. Finally, we use ns-2 simulations to evaluate the quality of the solution obtained by our algorithm. Simulation results show that our propose CMCA algorithm enhances the aggregate throuphput more excellently than other channel assignment algorithms.
A semi-digital DLL with unlimited phase shift capability and 0.08-400 MHz operating range

The DLL consists of two loops. The core loop is a first order DLL generating six edges evenly spaced by 30/spl deg/. The peripheral digital loop selects a pair of edges, /spl phi/ and /spl psi/, to interpolate. To cover the 360/spl deg/ desired range, the edges can be selectively inverted. The resulting edges, /spl phi/' and /spl psi/', drive a digitally-controlled interpolator that generates the main clock /spl Theta/. The interpolator quantization step is 2/spl deg/, i.e. 22ps for a 250MHz clock. This dual-loop architecture provides unlimited phase shift capability eliminating start-up issues and phase relationship constraints. The only requirement is that the DLL input clock and the reference clock are plesiochronous making this architecture suitable for clock-recovery applications.
Efficient detection of hessian matrix sparsity pattern

Evaluation of the Hessian matrix of a scalar function is a subproblem in many numerical optimization algorithms. For large-scale problems often the Hessian matrix is sparse and structured, and it is preferable to exploit such information when available. Using symmetry in the second derivative values of the components it is possible to detect the sparsity pattern of the Hessian via products of the Hessian matrix with specially chosen direction vectors. We use graph coloring methods and employ efficient sparse data structures to implement the sparsity pattern detection algorithms. Results from preliminary numerical testings are highly promising.
Parent-trainee experiences of child and mental health training : an interpretative phenomenological analysis

5 Preface 6 Introduction 7 Literature Review 7 Summary and Implications for Further Research 29 The Researcher‟s Position 30 Aims 34 Research Question 34 Methodology 35 Qualitative Approaches 35 Phenomenological Approaches 35 Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) 36 Design 38 Ethical Approval 38 Recruitment 40 Participants 41 Data Collection 43 Reflections of the interview process 48 Data Analysis 48 Quality of Data Interpretation 52 Results 54 1. A Changed Identity: Seeing and Being Seen in a Different Light. 56 2. A Journey from Dependency towards Autonomy 67 3. Cutting the Cord Doesn‟t Destroy the Bond: The Inseparable Nature of the Parental and Professional Self 85 Discussion 101 Methodological Considerations 118 Clinical Implications 120 Implications for Further Research 125 Conclusion 126 Final Reflections 127 References 128 Appendices 152
Prosuming Identity

Prosumption refers to the blurring of production and consumption. Although this has always been present (Ritzer, 2009), the contemporary era creates an environment in which prosumption can flourish. Specifically, the presence of Web 2.0 has led to an abundance of user-generated content, produced by those who consume it. I wish to argue here for an extension of the theoretical idea of prosumption into the arena of identity. Currently, prosumption is conceptualized in a way that understands as separate the prosumer of content, and the content that is prosumed. I argue that this is a false distinction, as content that is prosumed can also signify an identity for its prosumer(s). I illustrate this argument by qualitatively analyzing the introduction statements, subsequent entries, and public comments of the bloggers and participants on transabled.org , a user-generated website for people who believe that they were born in incorrectly-able bodies. By prosuming the content on transabled.org , members of this online community simultaneously prosume their own transabled identities, and construct transableism as a culturally available identity category.