Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ning for Helpful Comments and Suggestions. This Paper Benefited Con- Siderably from Conscientious Peer Review, and We Thank Our Reviewers the Psychometric Function: I. Fitting, Sampling, and Goodness of Fit

The performance of an observer on a psychophysical task is typically summarized by reporting one or more response thresholds—stimulus intensities required to produce a given level of performance—and by characterization of the rate at which performance improves with increasing stimulus intensity. These measures are derived from a psychometric function, which describes the dependence of an observer's performance on some physical aspect of the stimulus: One example might be the relation between the contrast of a visual stimulus and the observer's ability to detect it. Fitting psychometric functions is a variant of the more general problem of modeling data. Modeling data is a three-step process. First, a model is chosen, and the parameters are adjusted to minimize the appropriate error metric or loss function. Second, error estimates of the parameters are derived, and third, the goodness of fit between the model and the data is assessed. This paper is concerned with the first and the third of these steps, parameter estimation and goodness-of-fit assessment. Our companion paper (Wichmann & Hill, 2001) deals with the second step and illustrates how to derive reliable error estimates on the fitted parameters. Together, the two papers provide an integrated approach to fitting psychometric functions, evaluating goodness of fit, and obtaining confidence intervals for parameters, thresholds, and slopes, avoiding the known sources of potential error. This paper is divided into two major subsections, fitting psychometric functions and goodness of fit. Each subsection itself is again subdivided into two main parts: first, an introduction to the issue, and second, a set of simulations addressing the issue raised in the respective introduction. NOTATION We adhere mainly to the typographic conventions fre-Variables are denoted by uppercase italic letters, and observed values are denoted by the corresponding lowercase letters—for example , y is a realization of the random variable Y. Greek letters are used for parameters, and a circumflex for estimates ; thus, parameter b is estimated by b ˆ. Vectors are denoted by boldface lowercase letters, and matrices by boldface italic uppercase letters. The ith element of a vector x is denoted by x i. The probability density function of the random variable Y (or the probability distribution if Y is discrete) with q as the vector of parameters of the distribution is written as p(y;q). Simulated data sets (repli-cations) are indicated by an asterisk—for example, The psychometric function relates an observer's performance to an independent variable, usually some …
A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics

The first comprehensive dictionary of the field of sociolinguistics, this is a valuable reference book for students and teachers of sociolinguistics, others concerned with the socially-oriented study of language and those with a professional interest in language. Entries are concise, the style is reader-friendly and numerous cross-references enable readers to follow up links to related terms and concepts. Sociolinguistics is characterised by increasing heterogeneity, and students are faced with a proliferation of theories, concepts and terminology. This is sometimes a minefield, with similar terms used rather differently within different academic traditions. The dictionary provides a broad coverage of sociolinguistics, including macro- and micro-sociolinguistics and a range of approaches within variationist, interactional, critical and applied traditions. In explaining sociolinguistic terminology, the dictionary is able to map out the traditions and approaches that comprise sociolinguistics and will thus help readers find their way around this fascinating but complex subject. The authors have taught and researched widely across different areas of sociolinguistics.They also draw on their experience of working in different geographical areas, including the USA, UK and Europe, Australia, southern Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Features: *Covers topics relevant to a broad range of disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, sociology and education as well as linguistics *Organised alphabetically with terms explained in a non-technical way *Includes an extensive bibliography.
Development of an Artificial Myocardium using a Covalent Shape-memory Alloy Fiber and its Cardiovascular Diagnostic Response

The authors have been developing a newly-designed totally-implantable artificial myocardium using a covalent shape-memory alloy fibre (Biometalreg, Toki Corporation), which is attached onto the ventricular wall and is also capable of supporting the natural ventricular contraction. This mechanical system consists of a contraction assistive device, which is made of Ti-Ni alloy. And the phenomenon of the martensitic transformation of the alloy was employed to achieve the physiologic motion of the device. The diameter of the alloy wire could be selected from 45 to 250 mum. In this study, the basic characteristics of the fiber of 150 mum was examined to design the sophisticated mechano-electric myocardium. The stress generated by the fiber was 400 gf under the pulsatile driving condition (0.4W, 1 Hz). Therefore it was indicated that the effective assistance might be achieved by using the Biometal shape-memory alloy fiber
LiFe-support: an environment to get live feedback during emergency scenarios

The paper presents an environment, called LiFe-Support, for facilitating the caregiver staff at health service centers in getting live feedback of an emergency situation that may occur to an elderly person at home. The two main components of the system include an autonomous mobile robot, called ARTOS, for serving elderly people in their homes and a visual platform for the caregivers to control communication and navigation of the robot in case of an emergency situation. A preliminary evaluation of the LiFe-Support environment has been carried out and promising results indicate usefulness of the system.
What ’ s new in Querying , Query Processing and Optimization in PBMS ?

Representing, storing, and manipulating useful patterns extracted from raw data is an emerging field of research in data management The architecture of a so-called Pattern-Base Management System (PBMS) should definitely include modules for pattern definition/manipulation languages, appropriate indexing mechanisms and efficient query processing, evaluation and optimization techniques. In this paper, we provide a preliminary overview of the above issues and discuss efficient solutions.
The Information Society: A Retrospective View

From the Publisher: We are told that the industrial age is declining and the information age is emerging. In this new age our lives will be cleaner, greener, more pleasant, more intellectual, and perhaps even less manic because we will value ideas rather than things. In the cusp of this new era are we better off today than we were yesterday? Why has information, information technology, and the information economy and society become so visible and assumed so much importance in our daily lives? To answer these and other questions, The Information Society examines 19 countries, which are categorized as high-, middle-, and low-income nations by their Gross Domestic Product per capita, to define "Informatization" along three primary dimensions: infrastructure, economic, and social. Dordick and Wang take a retrospective look at the information explosion of the past 20 years to see where we have been, what have been the consequences, and where we are now based on the forecasts and predictions made over the past two decades. This in-depth study will be of special interest to students and scholars in communication studies, technology/information systems, political science, sociology, and management and organization studies. The Information Society will also be of value to development planners and decision makers.
Electrical Characterization of NCP- and NCF-Bonded Fine-Pitch Flip-Chip-on-Flexible Packages

Electronic portable devices are aimed towards higher response speed with a better viewing resolution display. Nonconductive paste (NCP) and nonconductive film (NCF) are the adhesive materials used in fine-pitch display applications. This study compares two commercially available adhesives for fine-pitch chip-on-flex (COF) applications. The electrical performance of the NCP-bonded COF was better compared to the NCF. The rheological properties of these materials in the initial stages and the mechanical properties of the adhesives after bonding are claimed to be the main factors. The semisolid form of the NCF which melts and flows slowly from the interconnection joints finally reduced the effective contact area in the joint as compared to the NCP. A low-pressure bonding caused entrapment of adhesive in the joints, induced stress accumulation in the Z-direction during high thermal loading, and a high coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch in between bumps, adhesive, and electrode traces on the flexible substrate were the key factors for the degradation of electrical conductivity. A high load of 100 N and above was recommended since the effective contact area built into the interconnection was good and reliable after 400 cycles of a thermal shock test of -55degC-125degC. The NCP with a higher elastic modulus which ensures higher stiffness and stability towards elongation gave a better reliability in this environmental test. Cross sectioning and SEM analysis provide evidence of the effective contact area of the joint before and after the thermal cycle environmental test
Sexual Assault Risks Among Gay and Bisexual Men

The goal of this study was to examine lifetime patterns of sexual assault and associated risks among a purposive sample of gay and bisexual men (N = 183; 18 to 35 years old, M = 24.3). Cross-sectional data were collected via written, self-administered questionnaires and face-to-face, event-based qualitative interviews. Alcohol severity scores indicated high rates of hazardous drinking (53.0%) and possible dependence (14.2%) among participants. One-half of men (50.8%) reported childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and 67.2% reported adult sexual assault (ASA). Average age at most recent ASA was 21 years. Most perpetrators (83.9%) of recent ASA incidents were male; 67.0% of participants reported consuming alcohol and/or drugs prior to the most recent incident. Regression findings indicated more severe CSA experiences and past alcohol-related problems predicted recent severe ASA. Although we found similarities between gay and bisexual men in lifetime sexual assault history, we found some distinct differences in ASA risk factors. Bisexual men reported higher alcohol severity scores, more female ASA perpetrators, higher internalized homophobia scores, and fewer male sexual partners than gay men. Findings suggest the need for interventions that reduce ASA risk among sexual minority men—and the potential benefits of focusing on alcohol consumption in risk reduction efforts.
Dependence on a Retinophilin/Myosin Complex for Stability of PKC and INAD and Termination of Phototransduction

Normal termination of signaling is essential to reset signaling cascades, especially those such as phototransduction that are turned on and off with great rapidity. Genetic approaches in Drosophila led to the identification of several proteins required for termination, including protein kinase C (PKC), NINAC (neither inactivation nor afterpotential C) p174, which consists of fused protein kinase and myosin domains, and a PDZ (postsynaptic density-95/Discs Large/zona occludens-1) scaffold protein, INAD (inactivation no afterpotential D). Here, we describe a mutation affecting a poorly characterized but evolutionarily conserved protein, Retinophilin (Retin), which is expressed primarily in the phototransducing compartment of photoreceptor cells, the rhabdomeres. Retin and NINAC formed a complex and were mutually dependent on each other for expression. Loss of retin resulted in an age-dependent impairment in termination of phototransduction. Mutations that affect termination of the photoresponse typically lead to a reduction in levels of the major rhodopsin (Rh1) to attenuate signaling. Consistent with the slower termination in retin1, the mutant photoreceptor cells exhibited increased endocytosis of Rh1 and a decline in Rh1 protein. The slower termination in retin1 was a consequence of a cascade of defects, which began with the reduction in NINAC p174 levels. The diminished p174 concentration caused a decrease in INAD. Because PKC requires interaction with INAD for protein stability, this leads to reduction in PKC levels. The decline in PKC was age dependent and paralleled the onset of the termination phenotype in retin1 mutant flies. We conclude that the slower termination of the photoresponse in retin1 resulted from a requirement for the Retin/NINAC complex for stability of INAD and PKC.
Cost–benefit analysis of the mechanisms that enable migrating cells to sustain motility upon changes in matrix environments

Cells can move through extracellular environments with varying geometries and adhesive properties. Adaptation to these differences is achieved by switching between different modes of motility, including lamellipod-driven and blebbing motility. Further, cells can modulate their level of adhesion to the extracellular matrix (ECM) depending on both the level of force applied to the adhesions and cell intrinsic biochemical properties. We have constructed a computational model of cell motility to investigate how motile cells transition between extracellular environments with varying surface continuity, confinement and adhesion. Changes in migration strategy are an emergent property of cells as the ECM geometry and adhesion changes. The transition into confined environments with discontinuous ECM fibres is sufficient to induce shifts from lamellipod-based to blebbing motility, while changes in confinement alone within a continuous geometry are not. The geometry of the ECM facilitates plasticity, by inducing shifts where the cell has high marginal gain from a mode change, and conserving persistency where the cell can continue movement regardless of the motility mode. This regulation of cell motility is independent of global changes in cytoskeletal properties, but requires locally higher linkage between the actin network and the plasma membrane at the cell rear, and changes in internal cell pressure. In addition to matrix geometry, we consider how cells might transition between ECM of different adhesiveness. We find that this requires positive feedback between the forces cells apply on the adhesion points, and the strength of the cell–ECM adhesions on those sites. This positive feedback leads to the emergence of a small number of highly adhesive cores, similar to focal adhesions. While the range of ECM adhesion levels the cell can invade is expanded with this feedback mechanism; the velocities are lowered for conditions where the positive feedback is not vital. Thus, plasticity of cell motility sacrifices the benefits of specialization, for robustness.
Design technology for fault-free and maximally-parallel wavelength-routed optical networks-on-chip

The recent interest in emerging interconnect technologies is bringing the issue of a proper EDA support for them to the forefront, so to tackle the design complexity. A relevant case study is provided by wavelength-routed optical NoCs (WRONoCs), which add communication performance guarantees to the typical latency, throughput and power benefits of an optical link, thus providing an appealing technology for the photonic integration of high-end embedded systems. Typically, only abstract WRONoC models are considered to figure out architecture-level performance, and logic connectivity patterns for the quantification of the required signal strength (i.e., static power). However, this design practice overlooks the needed refinement step, where key physical parameters are assigned such as wavelengths of the optical channels, and size of the optical filters. This step is unfortunately not decoupled from the architectural evaluation, since its main constraint (i.e., avoiding routing faults) turns out to be a key limiter for both the network scale and the achievable communication parallelism. By proposing a formal methodology to select WRONoC parameters while avoding the routing fault concern, this paper aims at maximizing the levels of connectivity and/or of bit parallelism that WRONoCs can achieve, while relating their upper bounds to the uncertainty of the manufacturing process.
Abdominal aortic aneurysm and autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease.

To the Editor: In a recent issue of Kidney International, Gibbs et al1 ascertained the risk of growth and rupture of intracranial aneurysms in autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) patients discovered by presymptomatic screening. It is well known that ADPKD is associated with a variety of life-threatening cardiovascular diseases, such as intracranial and coronary aneurysms2. On the other hand, the coexistence of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) has been also reported in some ADPKD patients2,3,4,5. Chapman and Hilson3 have described three patients (9.7%) with AAA and polycystic renal failure out of a total 31 patients with adult polycystic disease who had been on their dialysis and transplantation program for some time. Roodvoets4 has reported an AAA in 1 (5.0%) of 20 patients with polycystic kidney disease. Kato et al2 have reported that the frequency of AAA was 7.1% in ADPKD patients. Ruptured AAA has been also described3, 4, and the technical difficulty of the exposure of the aorta is increased by the presence of voluminous kidneys, causing delay in cross-clamping during emergency laparotomy for rupture5. A significant increase in the aortic diameters (2.7 0.14 cm) was found in the ADPKD patients compared with those in the chronic glomerulonephritis (2.3 0.03 cm) and diabetes mellitus (2.3 0.05 cm) groups (P < 0.02), and a routine screening of the aortic size, using computed tomography or echography, is recommended to detect the presence of AAA in ADPKD patients2. Further studies of screening and follow-up of AAA in ADPKD patients are needed.
Cattle scourge no more

Abstract In 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) officially declared rinderpest eradicated. This cattle virus, which has historically had significant political, economic, and social consequences, is only the second infectious disease to disappear from the face of the planet due to concerted human actions. This paper explores the effects that rinderpest has had historically, chronicles the actions of the Global Rinderpest Eradication Campaign (GREP), and discusses the lessons that GREP can offer for combating other infectious diseases. I argue that rinderpest's unique viral characteristics made eradication particularly feasible, but that GREP's activities offer important lessons for fostering international cooperation on controlling infectious disease outbreaks.
Radiotherapy After Surgical Resection for Head and Neck Mucosal Melanoma

Objectives:To present our single-institution experience with postoperative radiotherapy for mucosal melanoma of the head and neck. Methods:Between 1992 and 2007, 27 patients with mucosal melanoma of the head and neck underwent surgical resection followed by postoperative radiotherapy. Median age was 68 years (range: 45–89 years). Sites included were sinonasal in 24 patients, oral cavity in 2, and oropharynx in 1. All but 2 patients had stage I disease. Twenty-two patients received hypofractionated radiation. Radiation techniques were intensity-modulated radiation therapy in 13, 3-dimensional conformal in 4, and conventional in 10. Results:The median follow-up for living patients was 45 months (range: 24–122 months). The 3- and 5-year estimates of local progression-free, loco-regional progression-free, distant metastasis-free, and overall survival were: 47% and 35%; 34% and 22%; 30% and 24%; and 40% and 33%, respectively. Median time to local failure and distant metastasis was 32 and 14 months, respectively. Acute toxicities included 19% with grade 2 or higher mucositis. No late complications related to the optic structures were seen. Conclusions:Modern radiotherapeutic techniques including intensity-modulated radiation therapy appear feasible and well-tolerated in the postoperative treatment of head and neck mucosal melanoma. Unusual or serious late complications have not been observed despite extensive use of hypofractionated regimens. However, rates of local and distant failure remain high.
A pragmatic theory of responsibility for the egalitarian planner

Equality and responsibility What should an egalitarian seek to equalize? Welfare is, of course, an obvious candidate, and each contributor to the recent discussion has taken it as the foil for his own proposal. To review briefly: John Rawls proposes “primary goods”; Ronald Dworkin proposes “resources,” a resource being defined in a comprehensive way to include various talents and handicaps; Amartya Sen proposes “capabilities to function”; in two recent articles, Richard Arneson has proposed “opportunity for welfare” as the appropriate equalisandum; G. A. Cohen has recently proposed “access to advantage. ” All of these proposals attempt to equalize opportunities, rather than outcomes: for Rawls and Dworkin, primary goods and resources, respectively, are the wherewithal with which people carry out projects that lead to outcomes that have value to them; for Sen, the capabilities to function in various ways are the prerequisites for what individuals make of themselves; and Cohen's “access” is similar to Arneson's straightforward “opportunity. ” If the first issue of contention in modern egalitarian theory is what the equalisandum should be, the second is the distinction between a person's actions that are caused by circumstances beyond his control and those for which he is personally responsible. This issue, among the five authors named, is most actively addressed by Dworkin, Arneson, and Cohen.
National survey of Japanese universities on computing education: Analysis of non-IT departments and courses

We conducted the first national survey of computing education at Japanese universities in 2016. In this paper, we report the survey result of the computing education at non-IT departments and faculties whose major subject is not computing. The survey covers various aspects of computing education including program organization, quality and quantity of educational achievement, students, teaching staff and computing environment. We collected 998 answers through the survey. At least 87,000 non-ICT students are taking computing education in Japan. Although computing education is carried out at every major academic discipline, teaching effort greatly differs depending on the academic discipline. We also find shortage of teaching staff for computing education. The analysis result will be an essential input to develop reasonable curriculum guidelines and accreditation criteria to improve computing education at non-IT departments.