Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Movement in the Perception of an Affordance for Wheelchair Locomotion

We investigated the role of movement in the perception of a novel affordance for wheelchair locomotion. Healthy adults without prior wheelchair experience judged the lowest lintel under which they could roll in the wheelchair. Prior to judgments, some participants were given brief (~2 min) practice at self-controlled wheelchair locomotion. There were 2 main results. First, participants who had this brief practice accurately judged their own minimum passage height (even when practice did not include passage under low lintels), whereas participants who had no practice gave inaccurate judgments. Second, prejudgment practice strongly influenced movement of the head and torso during judgment sessions. The results demonstrate that affordance perception can be learned through brief, indirect practice and suggest that such practice can inform exploratory movement.
Classification Methods for Computerized Interpretation of the Electrocardiogram

Abstract Two methods for diagnostic classification of the electrocardiogram are described: a heuristic one and a statistical one. In the heuristic approach, the cardiologist provides the knowledge to construct a classifier, usually a decision tree. In the statistical approach, probability densities of diagnostic features are estimated from a learning set of ECGs and multivariate techniques are used to attain diagnostic classification. The relative merits of both approaches with respect to criteria selection, comprehensibility, flexibility, combined diseases, and performance are described. Optimization of heuristic classifiers is discussed. It is concluded that heuristic classifiers are more comprehensible than statistical ones; encounter less difficulties in dealing with combined categories; are flexible in the sense that new categories may readily be added or that existing ones may be refined stepwise. Statistical classifiers, on the other hand, are more easily adapted to another operating environment and require less involvement of cardiologists. Further research is needed to establish differences in performance between both methods. In relation to performance testing the issue is raised whether the ECG should be classified using as much prior information as possible, or whether it should be classified on itself, explicitly discarding information other than age and sex, while only afterwards other information will be used to reach a final diagnosis. Consequences of taking one of both positions are discussed.
Design of robust robot programs: Deviation detection and classification using entity-based resources

Robot applications are located more and more often in highly dynamic environments. In contrast to well known, structured environments, this leads to the challenging problem of keeping the robot programs robust. One aspect of robustness is the ability to detect and handle unexpected events, e.g. a dropped object or a storage place, which should be free, but is already occupied. In this work we call such events deviations. The contribution of this paper is to show, that we can design robot programs more robust, when we regard these deviations. We propose an approach that provides the detection and classification of deviations occurring during the execution of a robot program. Furthermore we show that the classified deviations can be used to develop a customized deviation management. For this purpose, an Entity-Component-System (ECS) is used to describe any relevant resources in the workspace of the robot. With such a resource model we are able to detect whether there is a difference between the expected state and the actual state of the relevant robot environment. Based on that monitoring our approach provides a statement about the presence and type of a deviation. The advantages of these approach including a unified detection and classification principle and a base for recovering from failures.
The labors of the Odysseans and the legacy of the Odyssey

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the 1985-1991 project called “The Consumer Behavior Odyssey”, including a retrospective assessment of its context and role in influencing consumer research paradigms. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on personal recollections, introspective fieldnotes from the Odyssey and various publications and videos that emerged from the project. It also reflects on several subsequent “inside” and “outside” accounts of the project and its impact. Findings – The paper concludes that the Odyssey was a critical event within a nexus of other critical events that helped precipitate what is now widely called Consumer Culture Theory. It was a highly visible project that acted as a lightning rod that attracted both supporters and opponents at the time, but that ultimately helped carve out a place for interpretive, qualitative, visual and ethnographic consumer research within business schools. Originality/value – Although there were a number of methodological and.
Performance analysis: Knowing what to do and how by Dale Brethower, CPT

Dale Brethower, CPT, is professor emeritus of psychology at Western Michigan University and a visiting professor at the Technological Institute of Sonora, Mexico. He has been a consultant more than 30 years with a very impressive client list. In addition, he has served two terms on the board of directors of ISPI and is a former president of ISPI. HRD Press and ISPI publish Performance Analysis (price: $19.95; ISBN: 1–59996–054–0). The publisher may be reached online at http://www.hrdpress. com or by phone at 800-822–2891.
Coaching the coaches, to develop the teams, to accelerate the pace of change

The past decade has been one of change and rationalisation for Unilever, as for many other organisations. Elida Faberge´, a flagship UK factory (now known as Lever Faberge´), which deals with many well‐known brand names in the health and personal care product range, needed to upskill its workforce to deal with the certainty of change. An innovative and risky strategy was taken to enable the developments to take place. A team of 12 people were recruited, on three‐year contracts, as coaches to the manufacturing teams and leaders. This case study discusses how, by using a mixture of action development (our build from action learning) and coaching, we helped the coaches to: develop their own skills in line with the business coach model defined, work as coaches at the same time as developing these skills; build themselves into an effective team; rapidly understand and use the organisation culture; develop a real understanding of how to learn and how to build learning into the organisation and, at the same time, to achieve work‐based qualifications of real value to themselves and the organisation.
A Co-Word Study of Artificial Intelligence

This Note briefly describes the method of `co-word analysis', and presents some results of its application to the scientific literature in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). A sample of AI literature, published in 1984 and 1985, was drawn from the CNRS/INIST database in Paris. The co-word analysis of this sample suggests that AI is a field characterized by relative intellectual coherence in a specifiable `core'. In this, AI seems to differ from scientific studies of the acidification of the environment: a co-word analysis of the latter field reveals no evidence of the likely emergence of a unifying general theory. The policy implications of such co-word studies are discussed.
Perceptions of Cousin Marriage Among Young Bedouin Adults in Israel

Abstract Attitudes of young Bedouin adults (26 men and 23 women) in Israel towards cousin marriage, a traditional marriage pattern in the Bedouin society, were investigated. A Bedouin clan (population 3,400) with a high rate of cousin marriage and consanguinity was targeted for this study. Thirty-seven percent of the respondents expressed unconditional positive attitudes towards cousin marriage, while 22% said that this form of mate selection is inevitable because of the parents. These views represented the persistence of this tradition in Bedouin culture. However, there was also support for change and modernization, reflected in a negative view of parental intervention (8%, all men) as well as in a new predilection for romantic love (22%). A majority (65%) of the respondents held the view that cousin marriage is associated with genetic diseases. However, the biomedical discourse of genetic risk did not change the traditional Bedouin method of mate selection and was rather incorporated into the traditional discourse through a system referred to as “healthy consanguinity” (namely the option of premarital carrier matching). The paper concludes by considering the persistence of consanguinity from educational, political and cultural perspectives.
animal model of amnesia that uses Receiver Operating Characteristics ( ROC ) nalysis to distinguish recollection from familiarity deficits in ecognition memory

Here we review our development of an animal model of episodic memory and amnesia that employs a signal detection analyses to characterize recognition memory performance in rats. This approach aims to distinguish episodic recollection of studied items from mere familiarity for recently experienced stimuli, and then to examine the neural basis of these memory processes. Our findings on intact animals indicate that it is possible to distinguish independent components of recognition that are associated with fea-
Destabilization of epidemic models with the inclusion of realistic distributions of infectious periods

Most mathematical models used to understand the dynamical patterns seen in the incidence of childhood viral diseases, such as measles, employ a simple, but epidemiologically unrealistic, description of the infection and recovery process. The inclusion of more realistic descriptions of the recovery process is shown to cause a significant destabilization of the model. When there is seasonal variation in disease transmission this destabilization leads to the appearance of complex dynamical patterns with much lower levels of seasonality than previously predicted. More generally, this study illustrates how detailed dynamical properties of a model may depend in an important way on the assumptions made in the formulation of the model.
Goal attainment, satisfaction and learning from teamwork

Purpose – Businesses have increasingly relied on educators to train students on teamwork skills that are valuable in a highly competitive marketplace. But what are students actually getting from these initiatives? Are they seeing the linkage between teamwork skills and goal accomplishment? Are they developing positive attitudes toward teamwork? What skills are they learning from their teamwork experiences? Design/methodology/approach – This study investigated the relationship between student team member outcomes and the team activities that they engage into achieve these outcomes. Students were surveyed using items developed from a taxonomy of team processes found in the management literature, and measures of goal attainment, satisfaction and learning.Findings – Results show that students derived different outcomes when practicing specific team process activities. Students who engaged in transition and action processes perceived that their goals were accomplished through teamwork. Those who engaged in tran.
Converters for the grid integration of wind farms

Wind power is the most dominant renewable source and the global wind power capacity, both on shore and off shore are rapidly increasing. The United Kingdom is leading the use of off shore wind energy and has the largest off shore wind farm in the world. Power electronics is essential for the harnessing of wind energy for use by the consumers. Power electronic converters required are line commutated thyristor converters, two level and multilevel voltage source converters including energy diverting converters for facilitating fault ride through and reactive power compensators. With the advent of DC grids DC-DC converters are required for interfacing different voltage levels and novel designs are required. All these converters require either series connection or modularization of Thyristors and IGBTS with associated voltage equalization networks.
Exploring the Relationship between School Discipline Referrals and Delinquency.

There is a growing concern about violent and destructive behaviors of youth that require intervention by juvenile justice and youth-serving agencies. This concern has led many to conclude that schools and community agencies must increase efforts to prevent juvenile delinquency and to provide programs that will facilitate rehabilitation, education, and vocational training for youth already involved. A clear understanding of the nature and range of behaviors that result in juvenile crime is needed in order to develop programs and interventions that can be expected to lead to beneficial changes for youth and for society as a whole. The purpose of this article is to describe the relationship between school behaviors and youth characteristics in school (e.g., discipline referrals, teacher nominations, nomothetic ratings) and referrals to juvenile authorities (e.g., illegal behaviors). We describe a strategy of using teacher nominations, school discipline referrals, and community arrest data to predict delinquent and violent behavior in youth. We outline data from a group of socially maladjusted middle school youth to illustrate the relationship between the two data sources and recommendations for identification and treatment of youth at risk for delinquency and antisocial behavior. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Use of the Wavelet Approximation Signal as a Tool for the Diagnosis of Rotor Bar Failures

The aim of this paper is to present a new approach for rotor bar failure diagnosis in induction machines. The method focuses on the study of an approximation signal resulting from the wavelet decomposition of the startup stator current. The presence of the left sideband harmonic is used as evidence of the rotor failure in most diagnosis methods based on the analysis of the stator current. Thus, a detailed description of the evolution of the left sideband harmonic during the startup transient is given in this paper; for this purpose, a method for calculating the evolution of the left sideband during the startup is developed, and its results are physically explained. This paper also shows that the approximation signal of a particular level, which is obtained from the discrete wavelet transform of the startup stator current, practically reproduces the time evolution of the left sideband harmonic during the startup. The diagnosis method proposed here consists of checking if the selected approximation signal fits well the characteristic shape of the left sideband harmonic evolution described in this paper. The method is validated through laboratory tests. The results prove that it can constitute a useful tool for the diagnosis of rotor bar breakages.
PDMP sensitizes neuroblastoma to paclitaxel by inducing aberrant cell cycle progression leading to hyperploidy

The sphingolipid ceramide has been recognized as an important mediator in the apoptotic machinery, and its efficient conversion to glucosylceramide has been associated with multidrug resistance. Therefore, inhibitors of glucosylceramide synthase are explored as tools for treatment of cancer. In this study, we used d,l-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol to sensitize Neuro-2a murine neuroblastoma cells to the microtubule-stabilizing agent paclitaxel. This treatment resulted in a synergistic inhibition of viable cell number increase, which was based on a novel mechanism: (a) After a transient mitotic arrest, cells proceeded through an aberrant cell cycle resulting in hyperploidy. Apoptosis also occurred but to a very limited extent. (b) Hyperploidy was not abrogated by blocking de novo sphingolipid biosynthesis using ISP-1, ruling out involvement of ceramide as a mediator. (c) Cyclin-dependent kinase 1 and 2 activities were synergistically decreased on treatment. In conclusion, instead of inducing apoptosis through ceramide accumulation, d,l-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol by itself affects cell cycle–related proteins in paclitaxel-arrested Neuro-2a cells resulting in aberrant cell cycle progression leading to hyperploidy. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(3):593–601]
Language maintenance and identity among Sudanese-Australian refugee-background youth

Abstract This paper reports the results of a sociolinguistic survey-based study of the Sudanese community in a regional settlement in Australia. The context of this study represents a distinctive language contact setting with a unique combination of social, cultural and demographic factors. The study aimed to explore attitudes, perceptions and the actual use of mother tongue in a refugee context among adolescent and young adult secondary school learners from the Sudanese community in a regional settlement in South-East Queensland. Findings from this study demonstrate that the Sudanese refugee community in Australia is strongly attached to their mother tongue, Dinka; however, English is increasingly used in various public and private domains among those of the survey group.
Constraint Complexity of Realizations of Linear Codes on Arbitrary Graphs

A graphical realization of a linear code C consists of an assignment of the coordinates of C to the vertices of a graph, along with a specification of linear state spaces and linear "local constraint" codes to be associated with the edges and vertices, respectively, of the graph. The kappa-complexity of a graphical realization is defined to be the largest dimension of any of its local constraint codes, kappa -complexity is a reasonable measure of the computational complexity of a sum-product decoding algorithm specified by a graphical realization. The main focus of this paper is on the following problem: given a linear code C and a graph G, how small can the kappa-complexity of a realization of C on G be? As useful tools for attacking this problem, we introduce the vertex-cut bound, and the notion of "vc-treewidth" for a graph, which is closely related to the well-known graph-theoretic notion of treewidth. Using these tools, we derive tight lower bounds on the kappa-complexity of any realization of C on G. Our bounds enable us to conclude that good error-correcting codes can have low-complexity realizations only on graphs with large vc-treewidth. Along the way, we also prove the interesting result that the ratio of the kappa-complexity of the best conventional trellis realization of a length-n code C to the kappa-complexity of the best cycle-free realization of C grows at most logarithmically with code length n. Such a logarithmic growth rate is, in fact, achievable.
Symbolic clustering using a new similarity measure

A hierarchical, agglomerative, symbolic clustering methodology based on a similarity measure that takes into consideration the position, span, and content of symbolic objects is proposed. The similarity measure used is of a new type in the sense that it is not just another aspect of dissimilarity. The clustering methodology forms composite symbolic objects using a Cartesian join operator when two symbolic objects are merged. The maximum and minimum similarity values at various merging levels permit the determination of the number of clusters in the data set. The composite symbolic objects representing different clusters give a description of the resulting classes and lead to knowledge acquisition. The algorithm is capable of discerning clusters in data sets made up of numeric as well as symbolic objects consisting of different types and combinations of qualitative and quantitative feature values. In particular, the algorithm is applied to fat-oil and microcomputer data. >
RECENT RESULTS FROM THE VEPP-2M COLLIDER AT NOVOSIBIRSK

The ee collider VEPP-2M at Novosibirsk is the only machine covering the energy range 360{1400 MeV. The peak luminosity is 5: 10cm s 1 for the resonance region. Two modern detectors| the general-purpose magnetic detector CMD-2 and Spherical Neutral Detector (SND)|are taking data at the VEPP-2M collider. The integrated luminosity about 10 pb 1 has been collected by both detectors. Latest results are presented in this paper.
Teacher-Implemented Prelinguistic Communication Intervention

The purpose of this case study was to explore the efficacy of a prelinguistic intervention implemented by a classroom teacher in the ongoing daily activities of one special education preschool classroom. The project used a multiple baseline across behavior design for both child and teacher. The participants were a 3-year-old boy with severe communication and cognitive delays and his special education classroom teacher. The teacher implemented a prelinguistic intervention designed to increase the child's frequency and clarity of communication. The strategies used by the teacher were environmental arrangement, following the child's lead, imitation of vocalizations and gestures, modeling of vocalizations and gestures, and prompting for communication. The results indicated that the teacher was able to implement the intervention and showed increases in all the intervention strategies. The child increased his rate of intentional communication, eye contact, vocalizations with consonants, and conventional gestures. Two unanticipated results occurred. First, the child increased his use of symbolic communication, primarily of signs. He also developed symbolic play skills that were not targeted in the intervention. Although the results should be viewed with caution, they warrant further investigation of the use of prelinguistic intervention with young children with communication delays and disorders.
Contemporary and Future Characteristics of Precipitation Indices in the Kentucky River Basin

Climatic variability can lead to large‐scale alterations in the hydrologic cycle, some of which can be characterized in terms of indices involving precipitation depth, duration and frequency. This study evaluated the spatiotemporal behavior of precipitation indices over the Kentucky River watershed for both the baseline period of 1986–2015 and late‐century time frame of 2070–2099. Historical precipitation data were collected from 16 weather stations in the watershed, while future rainfall time‐series were obtained from an ensemble of 10 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) global circulation models under two future emission pathways: Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5. Annual trends in seven precipitation indices were analyzed: total precipitation on wet days (PRCPTOT), maximum length (in days) of dry and wet periods (CDD and CWD, respectively), number of days with precipitation depth ≥20 mm (R20mm), maximum five‐day precipitation depth (RX5day), simple daily precipitation index (SDII) and standardized precipitation index (SPI, a measure of drought severity). Non‐parametric Mann–Kendall test results indicated significant trends for only ≈11% of the stationindex combinations, corresponding to generally increasing trends in PRCPTOT, CWD, R20mm and RX5day and negative trends for the others. Projected magnitudes for PRCPTOT, CDD, CWD, RX5day and SPI, indices associated with the macroweather regime, demonstrated general consistency with trends previously identified and indicated modest increases in PRCPTOT and CWD, slight decrease in CDD, mixed results for RX5day, and increased non‐drought years in the late century relative to the baseline period. Late‐century projections for the remaining indices (SDII, R20mm) demonstrated behavior counter to trends in the trends identified in the baseline period data, suggesting that these indices—which are more closely linked with the weather regime and daily GCM outputs—were relatively less robust.