Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Parenting Emerging Adults Who Game Excessively: Parents' Lived Experiences

Excessive gaming among emerging adults is a growing concern, especially in cases where it interferes with key developmental milestones such as gaining an education or establishing a career. Although researchers have begun to understand the effects of excessive gaming on young people themselves, we know remarkably little about how emerging adults' gaming may affect family relationships. Utilizing phenomenological interviewing of parents of emerging adult sons who game excessively, this study presents a rich description of the experience of parenting a young adult who games excessively. In-depth interviews were conducted with two fathers and two mothers. Findings suggested that parents felt their sons were missing out on aspects of their life due to their gaming and were not meeting their full potential. They also felt their sons were different from other people their age and found it difficult to talk to them about their gaming. Finally, they believed their sons were addicted to gaming.
Robustness of SVD-based optimal filtering for noise reduction in multi-microphone speech signals

This paper discusses an SVD-based signal enhancement proce dure, applied to noise reduction in multi-microphone speec h signals. The SVD-based signal enhancement procedure amounts t o a specific optimal filtering problem when the so-called ‘desi r d response’ signal cannot be observed. The optimal filter can t he be written as a function of the generalized singular vectors and singular values of a speech and noise data matrix. It is shown that the SNR improvement provided by the SVD-base d optimal filtering technique is better than the improvement o btained with standard beamforming techniques. Moreover most beamforming techniques assume the position of the speech source and the microphone array configuration to be known. Therefore th e performance of these techniques is rather sensitive to devi ations from these assumptions, i.e. incorrect estimation of the position of the speech source and uncalibrated microphone arrays. It is shown that the SVD-based optimal filtering technique is more robus t to such deviations than standard beamforming techniques.
ALOJA: A systematic study of Hadoop deployment variables to enable automated characterization of cost-effectiveness

This article presents the ALOJA project, an initiative to produce mechanisms for an automated characterization of cost-effectiveness of Hadoop deployments and reports its initial results. ALOJA is the latest phase of a long-term collaborative engagement between BSC and Microsoft which, over the past 6 years has explored a range of different aspects of computing systems, software technologies and performance profiling. While during the last 5 years, Hadoop has become the de-facto platform for Big Data deployments, still little is understood of how the different layers of the software and hardware deployment options affects its performance. Early ALOJA results show that Hadoop's runtime performance, and therefore its price, are critically affected by relatively simple software and hardware configuration choices e.g., number of mappers, compression, or volume configuration. Project ALOJA presents a vendor-neutral repository featuring over 5000 Hadoop runs, a test bed, and tools to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of different hardware, parameter tuning, and Cloud services for Hadoop. As few organizations have the time or performance profiling expertise, we expect our growing repository will benefit Hadoop customers to meet their Big Data application needs. ALOJA seeks to provide both knowledge and an online service to with which users make better informed configuration choices for their Hadoop compute infrastructure whether this be on-premise or cloud-based. The initial version of ALOJA's Web application and sources are available at http://hadoop.bsc. es.
4‐Aminopyridine‐induced epileptogenesis depends on activation of mitogen‐activated protein kinase ERK

Extracellular signal‐regulated kinases such as ERK1 [p44 mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK)] and ERK2 (p42 MAPK) are activated in the CNS under physiological and pathological conditions such as ischemia and epilepsy. Here, we studied the activation state of ERK1/2 in rat hippocampal slices during application of the K+ channel blocker 4‐aminopyridine (4AP, 50 µm), a procedure that enhances synaptic transmission and leads to the appearance of epileptiform activity. Hippocampal slices superfused with 4AP‐containing medium exhibited a marked activation of ERK1/2 phosphorylation that peaked within about 20 min. These effects were not accompanied by changes in the activation state of c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK), another member of the MAP kinase superfamily. 4AP‐induced ERK1/2 activation was inhibited by the voltage‐gated Na+ channel blocker tetrodotoxin (1 µm). We also found that application of the ERK pathway inhibitors U0126 (50 µm) or PD98059 (100 µm) markedly reduced 4AP‐induced epileptiform synchronization, thus abolishing ictal discharges in the CA3 area. The effects induced by U0126 or PD98059 were not associated with changes in the amplitude and latency of the field potentials recorded in the CA3 area following electrical stimuli delivered in the dentate hylus. These data demonstrate that activation of ERK1/2 accompanies the appearance of epileptiform activity induced by 4AP and suggest a cause‐effect relationship between the ERK pathway and epileptiform synchronization.
A FACIAL ANIMATION FRAMEWORK WITH EMOTIVE / EXPRESSIVE CAPABILITIES

LUCIA is an MPEG-4 facial animation system developed at ISTC-CNR . It works on standard Facial Animation Parameters and speaks with the Italian version of FESTIVAL TTS. To achieve an emotive/expressive talking head LUCIA was build from real human data physically extracted by ELITE optotracking movement analyzer. LUCIA can copy a real human by reproducing the movements of passive markers positioned on his face and recorded by the ELITE device or can be driven by an emotional XML tagged input text, thus realizing a true audio/visual emotive/expressive synthesis. Synchronization between visual and audio data is very important in order to create the correct WAV and FAP files needed for the animation. LUCIA’s voice is based on the ISTC Italian version of FESTIVAL-MBROLA packages, modified by means of an appropriate APML/VSML tagged language. LUCIA is available in two different versions: an open source framework and the “work in progress” WebGL
Striatal Circuits as a Common Node for Autism Pathophysiology

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by two seemingly unrelated symptom domains—deficits in social interactions and restrictive, repetitive patterns of behavioral output. Whether the diverse nature of ASD symptomatology represents distributed dysfunction of brain networks or abnormalities within specific neural circuits is unclear. Striatal dysfunction is postulated to underlie the repetitive motor behaviors seen in ASD, and neurological and brain-imaging studies have supported this assumption. However, as our appreciation of striatal function expands to include regulation of behavioral flexibility, motivational state, goal-directed learning, and attention, we consider whether alterations in striatal physiology are a central node mediating a range of autism-associated behaviors, including social and cognitive deficits that are hallmarks of the disease. This review investigates multiple genetic mouse models of ASD to explore whether abnormalities in striatal circuits constitute a common pathophysiological mechanism in the development of autism-related behaviors. Despite the heterogeneity of genetic insult investigated, numerous genetic ASD models display alterations in the structure and function of striatal circuits, as well as abnormal behaviors including repetitive grooming, stereotypic motor routines, deficits in social interaction and decision-making. Comparative analysis in rodents provides a unique opportunity to leverage growing genetic association data to reveal canonical neural circuits whose dysfunction directly contributes to discrete aspects of ASD symptomatology. The description of such circuits could provide both organizing principles for understanding the complex genetic etiology of ASD as well as novel treatment routes. Furthermore, this focus on striatal mechanisms of behavioral regulation may also prove useful for exploring the pathogenesis of other neuropsychiatric diseases, which display overlapping behavioral deficits with ASD.
On the Convergence of the Method of Successive Averages for Calculating Equilibrium in Traffic Networks

The traffic assignment problem aims to calculate an equilibrium route flow vector, generally by seeking a zero of an appropriate objective function. If a continuous dynamical system follows a descent direction for this objective function at each nonequilibrium route flow vector, the system converges to equilibrium. It is shown that when this dynamical system is discretized with a fixed step length, the system eventually approaches close to equilibrium provided that the objective function is continuously differentiable and that the rate of descent is bounded below. The method of successive averages is widely used in traffic assignment; it has a decreasing step size at each iteration. With the same conditions as above, it is shown that the resulting dynamical system converges to equilibrium. In the steady-state model, the necessary conditions are shown to be satisfied, provided that the route cost vector is a continuously differentiable monotone function of the route flow vector. However, continuous differentiability of the cost function is shown not to hold in the dynamic queueing model.
AspecTiles: tile-based visualization of diversified web search results

A diversified search result for an underspecified query generally contains web pages in which there are answers that are relevant to different aspects of the query. In order to help the user locate such relevant answers, we propose a simple extension to the standard Search Engine Result Page (SERP) interface, called AspecTiles. In addition to presenting a ranked list of URLs with their titles and snippets, AspecTiles visualizes the relevance degree of a document to each aspect by means of colored squares ("tiles"). To compare AspecTiles with the standard SERP interface in terms of usefulness, we conducted a user study involving 30 search tasks designed based on the TREC web diversity task topics as well as 32 participants. Our results show that AspecTiles has some advantages in terms of search performance, user behavior, and user satisfaction. First, AspecTiles enables the user to gather relevant information significantly more efficiently than the standard SERP interface for tasks where the user considers several different aspects of the query to be important at the same time (multi-aspect tasks). Second, AspecTiles affects the user's information seeking behavior: with this interface, we observed significantly fewer query reformulations, shorter queries and deeper examinations of ranked lists in multi-aspect tasks. Third, participants of our user study found AspecTiles significantly more useful for finding relevant information and easy to use than the standard SERP interface. These results suggest that simple interfaces like AspecTiles can enhance the search performance and search experience of the user when their queries are underspecified.
Bodies at the border: the medical protection of immigrants in a French immigration detention centre

Abstract Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork performed in a French immigration detention centre, this article analyses the complex dynamics of medical protection for detained immigrants who face deportation, but who may not be removed if they suffer from a serious illness that cannot be properly treated in their country of origin. These detainees' bodies may be subject to the physical constraint involved in deportation, while being entitled to a residence permit if this body proves to be gravely ill after official medical examination. This article describes the complex social logic – involving both legal and medical expertise – behind the production of such protection. This displays complex bio-political struggles over medical protection, calling into question the description of humanitarianism as apolitical, and the definition of the immigration detention centre as an exceptional device placed outside the political order.
Matting-Based Stereo Refinement for Computational Photography

We present a method for refining disparity maps generated by a stereo matcher for the purpose of computational photography. We automatically fill holes in disparity maps, remove noisy artefacts, and enhance visible object geometries based on available disparity and image data, for the purpose of generating visually appealing depth representations. The key idea is that we use image features (e.g. edges) of the base image (say, the left image of the stereo pair) for enhancing the corresponding depth map. To achieve this, we analyse the base image by spectral matting, and then revise disparity values by a weighted median filter. Experiments show that our method is able to fill holes (i.e. pixels where depth information is unavailable), to revise inaccurate object edges, and to remove speckle noise and invalid step-edges from the given depth information. Besides photo editing, results provided by our method can also be used for image segmentation or object detection.
Data Synchronization and Resynchronization for Heterogeneous Databases Replication in Middleware-based Architecture

Currently more and more web applications and telecommunication applications are required to be separation with database layer. A general solution is to employ a middleware-based architecture, including an application client tier, a database front end (DB-FE) tier, also called middleware tier, and a database backend (DBBE) tier. This paper mainly focuses on the issues of data synchronization and resynchronization in the case of failures for the architecture. Firstly, a synchronous update everywhere replication model and a replication 2-phase commit protocol (R2PC) are discussed, which can increase update success ratio of replication transactions through relaxing the commit constraints, and enhance DB-BEs’ availability using transaction retry and discard mechanisms. Then, a novel method using request logs is suggested for data resynchronization. The method only records the missing transaction requests for the unavailable DB-BEs in the DB-FEs and links the logs belonging to a site together, to reduce the resynchronization time. Moreover, the method doesn’t interrupt the normal transaction processing in the DB-BEs, so system throughput using request logs is higher than using transaction logs. Experiences validate that the suggested methods have better performance.
The Effect of Visual Illustrations upon Perception and Retention of News Programmes

What is the importance of picture-sound interaction for the transmission of information by TV? What function has the illustration? Has the choice of illustration any effect on retention and perception of a message? These are some of the questions which we wanted to study in this investigation. We know that man's ability to perceive and retain is limited. This is true at least for the electronic media where the message is presented only once and where it is impossible to obtain repetition of the message which we missed. Very often we remember only parts of the programmes we have seen. Some items are remembered quite clearly while other pass by without leaving any trace. Perhaps parts of the programme are misunderstood, and that which is best retained may be some unimportant details. These situations are partly caused by man's limited ability to perceive and process information, and partly by the way in which information is presented. To facilitate perception, programme presentation has to be adapted to man. Increased knowledge of what facilitates information transmission or what renders it difficult is therefore of great importance. It is of special interest to study these conditions in respect of TV. In a viewing situation, attention has to be divided between picture and sound, which puts great demands on our ability. Sound and picture can disturb and counteract each other but they can also support and complement one another. Methods The experiment is designed around a TV news programme. For five of the news items the visual elements were varied systematically. The programme was recorded in eight different variants, each exactly identical in all respects except the illustrations to five of the news items. Each programme variant was shown to a group of respondents, one group for each programme variant. In this way all groups could watch and hear the same
Network-parameter-based modeling in microwave design

As system integration evolves and clock frequencies rise, it becomes increasingly important to consider the electrical behavior of previously neglected non-ideal effects of the microwave structures and components. This paper addresses the generation of broadband SPICE-based circuit models from frequency-domain network-parameters. A combination of subspace identification algorithm and vector fitting is applied to generate passive multi-port models of microwave devices characterized by measured or simulated network parameters. Results of the proposed method applied to microwave devices are given.
Using aromatherapy massage to increase shared attention behaviours in children with autistic spectrum disorders and severe learning difficulties

Children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) characteristically display a lack of shared attention behaviours and the lack of these behaviours impacts on their ability to develop social interactions and relationships with others. Steve Solomons, assistant headteacher at Rectory Paddock School and Research Unit in the London Borough of Bromley, set out to explore these issues as an aspect of practice when he was working at St. Ann's School in the London Borough of Merton. He carried out this research as part of his MEd in special education at the University of Birmingham, for which he received the prestigious Annie Deakins prize in 2003. The aim of his study was to investigate whether aromatherapy massage could increase shared attention behaviours in a sample of four children with autistic spectrum disorders and severe learning difficulties (SLD). Aromatherapy massage was introduced into the daily timetable and children's responses were observed. The results indicate that children's shared attention behaviours increased during aromatherapy massage and that other aspects of their behaviour also changed over the course of the research. Family involvement in the study enabled these changes to be transferred from school to home. In this article, Steve Solomons explores the implications of his research for new teaching and learning opportunities for children with autistic spectrum disorders and severe learning difficulties.
Analysis of macroautophagy by immunohistochemistry

(Macro)Autophagy is a phylogenetically conserved membrane-trafficking process that functions to deliver cytoplasmic cargoes to lysosomes for digestion. The process is a major mechanism for turnover of cellular constituents and is therefore critical for maintaining cellular homeostasis. Macroautophagy is characteristically distinct from other forms of autophagy due to the formation of double-membraned vesicles termed autophagosomes which encapsulate cargoes prior to fusion with lysosomes. Autophagosomes contain an integral membrane-bound form (LC3-II) of the microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 β (MAP1LC3B), which has become a gold-standard marker to detect accumulation of autophagosomes and thereby changes in macroautophagy. Due to the role played by macroautophagy in various diseases, the detection of autophagosomes in tissue sections is frequently desired. To date, however, the detection of endogenous LC3-II on paraffin-embedded tissue sections has proved problematic. We report here a simple, optimized and validated method for the detection of LC3-II by immunohistochemistry in human and mouse tissue samples that we believe will be a useful resource for those wishing to study macroautophagy ex vivo.
Verification and Validation Framework for Autonomous Rendezvous Systems in Terminal Phase

T HIS Note reports results from a study carried out for the ESA with the objective of improving the safety of future autonomous rendezvous guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) systems during the terminal rendezvous mission phase, recognized as a key capability for Mars sample return (MSR). The robustness of the critical terminal phase of the mission must be rigorously investigated under different conditions [1,2]. Availability of reliable verification and validation (VV) techniques, which can estimate the worst-case behavior of the system to provide guarantees of correct functionality with a desired safety level under different mission scenarios with a large number of uncertain conditions [3], is key to the success of the mission. In the case of collision avoidance, for example, the distance between chaser and target must be proven to always be greater than a specified minimum value even under worst-case conditions during the approach phase [1,4]. The most widely used VV technique in the space industry is still Monte Carlo (MC) simulation campaigns, which randomly explore the uncertain parameter space using highperformance simulators. Although easy to implement, key drawbacks are computational complexity and lack of guarantee to assess the trueworst-case (rare event) behavior of the system; see the results in [5] for an example of this phenomenon in the context of reusable launch vehicles. The contribution of the Note is an integrated approach combining the analytical μ analysis and the simulation-and-optimization-based method [5], which includes the global optimization algorithms such as Differential Evolution (DE) and Dividing Rectangles (DIRECT), as well as local optimization algorithm Nealder–Mead simplex [6]. The worst-case behavior of an autonomous rendezvous system, based on the industry standard high-integrity autonomous rendezvous and docking (HARVD) andGNC system [7] during the terminal rendezvous phase of a realistic MSR mission scenario, obtained by the proposed approach reveals the significant potential of the methodology when compared with traditional Monte Carlo simulations, in terms of both reliability and efficiency.
Investigation of direct matrix converter working as a versatile converter (AC/AC, AC/DC, DC/AC, DC/DC conversion) with predictive control

The three-phase direct matrix converter has been researched exclusively as a direct AC/AC converter, being a competitive alternative to the conventional AC/DC/AC converter. Other possibilities of the matrix converter such as AC/DC, DC/AC and DC/DC conversion still remain unexplored. This paper firstly explores these possibilities and puts forward a concept of the versatile converter. With one matrix converter, different conversion purposes can be accomplished as required. The matrix converter based conversion has some advantages compared with other converters. Model predictive control (MPC) is applied in this work to control the matrix converter to perform the required conversion goals. A generalized model is obtained for all types of conversion in this work. With MPC, different objectives and constraints can be easily included in the control scheme. In addition, the observers are used to reduce the number of voltage and current sensors. Simulation results verify the effectiveness and feasibility of AC/DC, DC/AC and DC/DC conversion with the matrix converter.