Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kinematic features of unrestrained vertical arm movements

Unrestrained human arm trajectories between point targets have been investigated using a three-dimensional tracking apparatus, the Selspot system. Movements were executed between different points in a vertical plane under varying conditions of speed and hand-held load. In contrast to past results which emphasized the straightness of hand paths, movement regions were discovered in which the hand paths were curved. All movements, whether curved or straight, showed an invariant tangential velocity profile when normalized for speed and distance. The velocity profile invariance with speed and load is interpreted in terms of simplification of the underlying arm dynamics, extending the results of Hollerbach and Flash (Hollerbach, J. M., and T. Flash (1982) Biol. Cybern. 44: 67–77).
Game theoretic data privacy preservation: Equilibrium and pricing

Privacy issues arising in the process of collecting, publishing and mining individuals' personal data have attracted much attention in recent years. In this paper, we consider a scenario where a data collector collects data from data providers and then publish the data to a data user. To protect data providers' privacy, the data collector performs anonymization on the data. Anonymization usually causes a decline of data utility on which the data user's profit depends, meanwhile, data providers' would provide more data if anonymity is strongly guaranteed. How to make a trade-off between privacy protection and data utility is an important question for data collector. In this paper we model the interactions among data providers/collector/user as a game, and propose a general approach to find the Nash equilibriums of the game. To elaborate the analysis, we also present a specific game formulation which takes k-anonymity as the anonymization method. Simulation results show that the game theoretical analysis can help the data collector to deal with the privacy-utility trade-off.
ANALYSES OF CHRIS DATA OF THE AQUIFEREX TEST-SITES IN TUNISIA APPLYING RADIATIVE TRANSFER MODELS

The evaluation of CHRIS data of the AquiferEx testsites in Tunisia concerning their information content for advanced land use classifications will be presented. As first essential step, the data need a careful atmospheric correction. A new approach is developed for the two test-sites where atmospheric measurements were missing. The atmospheric parameters i.e. the optical thickness and the water vapour were derived from the CHRIS data themselves using the hyperspectral and directional capabilities of the sensor. The methodology is presented and resulting BRDF functions of this arid region are demonstrated. The classification approach uses the soil-leaf-canopy reflectance model SLC to interpret the signatures measured by CHRIS. Bio-geophysical land surface properties like LAI and surface soil moisture are retrieved that in a next step are translated into land use classes. Comparison with results obtained from the hyperspectral airborne sensor will be given. Synergistic and complementary use of SAR data is investigated.
Talent management and building high performance organisations

Purpose – Many contemporary approaches to talent management are unaffordable. This paper seeks to summarise some key findings of a five‐year investigation into quicker and more affordable routes to creating high performance organisations. It aims to suggest a practical and much more cost‐effective way of quickly achieving multiple corporate objectives and measurable benefits for both people and organisations is often being overlooked.Design/methodology/approach – A programme of critical success factor, “issue” and other surveys was complemented with a five‐year evaluation of more recent case studies to understand early adoptions of performance support and to assess their results and implications. The applications examined were discussed with the relevant technical architect and the results obtained corroborated with commissioner/user performance data and/or documented assessments/reactions.Findings – Recruiting exceptional people – even if affordable – can create a host of problems if they are not properl.
Immunogenic Comparison of Chimeric Adenovirus 5/35 Vector Carrying Optimized Human Immunodeficiency Virus Clade C Genes and Various Promoters

Adenovirus vector-based vaccine is a promising approach to protect HIV infection. However, a recent phase IIb clinical trial using the vector did not show its protective efficacy against HIV infection. To improve the vaccine, we explored the transgene protein expression and its immunogenicity using optimized codon usage, promoters and adaptors. We compared protein expression and immunogenicity of adenovirus vector vaccines carrying native or codon usage-optimized HIV-1 clade C gag and env genes expression cassettes driven by different promoters (CMV, CMVi, and CA promoters) and adapters (IRES and F2A). The adenovirus vector vaccine containing optimized gag gene produced higher Gag protein expression and induced higher immune responses than the vector containing native gag gene in mice. Furthermore, CA promoter generated higher transgene expression and elicited higher immune responses than other two popularly used promoters (CMV and CMVi). The second gene expression using F2A adaptor resulted in higher protein expression and immunity than that of using IRES and direct fusion protein. Taken together, the adenovirus vector containing the expression cassette with CA promoter, optimized HIV-1 clade C gene and an F2A adaptor produced the best protein expression and elicited the highest transgene-specific immune responses. This finding would be promising for vaccine design and gene therapy.
Fine-Grained Visual Categorization with 2D-Warping

The task of fine-grained visual categorization is related to both general object recognition and specialized tasks such as face recognition. Hence, we propose to combine two methods popular for general object recognition and face recognition to build a new model-free system for fine-grained visual categorization. Specifically, we use Local Naive-Bayes Nearest Neighbor as a pre-selection method and 2D-Warping as a refinement step. For the latter, we explore different ways to use the alignments computed by a 2D-Warping algorithm for classification. We demonstrate the performance of our approach on the CUB200-2011 database and show that our approach outperforms the recognition accuracy of current state-of-the-art methods.
Selection Bias in Observing the Cosmological Evolution of the M•-σ and M•-L Relationships

Programs to observe evolution in the M•-σ or M•-L relations typically compare black hole masses, M•, in high-redshift galaxies selected by nuclear activity to M• in local galaxies selected by luminosity L or velocity dispersion σ. Because active galactic nucleus luminosity can depend on M•, selection effects are different for the two samples, potentially producing a false signal of evolution. Cosmic scatter in the M• relations means that the mean log L or log σ among galaxies that host a black hole of given M• may be substantially different than the log L or log σ obtained from inverting the M•-L or M•-σ relations for the same nominal M•. The bias is strongest at high M•, where the luminosity and dispersion functions of galaxies fall rapidly. The most massive black holes occur more often as rare outliers in galaxies of modest mass than in the even rarer high-mass galaxies, which would otherwise be the sole location of such black holes in the absence of cosmic scatter. Because of this bias, M• will typically appear to be too large in the distant sample for a given L or σ. For the largest black holes and the largest plausible cosmic scatter, the bias can reach a factor of 3 in M• for the M•-σ relation and 9 for the M•-L relation. Unfortunately, the cosmic scatter is not known well enough to correct for the bias. Measuring evolution of the M• relations requires object selection to be precisely defined and exactly the same at all redshifts.
TEACHING PARENTS TO REMEDIATE THE ACADEMIC PROBLEMS OF THEIR CHILDREN

Mothers of three males (ages 7 - 8) were taught to administer systematically tokens, redeemable for favored objects, contingent on the correct reading, and spelling responses of their children; quick mastery was followed by more reinforcement than slow learning. Results, evaluated mainly via multiple baseline analyses, showed the effectiveness of the procedures in improving Ss’ reading and spelling. Follow-up data (two months) revealed that two Ss maintained a good proportion of their gains. One S lost appreciably more than the other two. It was concluded that furthering the development of behavior modification practices for ameliorating the academic behaviors of children in conjunction with furthering the development of ways for teaching parents to implement these practices are important activities.
A NEUROMORPHIC APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF MONAURAL AND BINAURAL AUDITORY SIGNALS

A neuromorphic approach to the analysis of monaural and binaural auditory signals is presented. Several aspects of the mammalian auditory system, including the cochlea, are modeled and then applied to engineering problems such as auditory feature extraction and source localization. In the case of auditory feature extraction, the spectral response fields of primary auditory cortical neurons are modeled and implemented in analog VLSI. In the case of source localization, the stereausis algorithm exploiting the inherent phase accumulation of the cochlea is used. Both methodologies are particularly suitable for portable applications in noisy environments due to their robustness to background noise, minimal power consumption and ease of implementation in silicon.
APOBEC3G Variants and Protection against HIV-1 Infection in Burkina Faso

Studies on host factors, particularly the APOBEC3G gene, have previously found an association with AIDS progression in some populations and against some HIV-1 strains but not others. Our study had two main objectives: firstly, to screen a population from Burkina Faso for three variants of APOBEC3G previously described, and secondly to analyze the effect of these three variants and their haplotypes on HIV-1 infection with Circulating Recombinant Forms (CRFs) present in Burkina Faso. This case control study involved 708 seropositive and seronegative individuals. Genotyping was done by the TaqMan allelic discrimination method. Minor allele frequencies of rs6001417 (p<0.05), rs8177832 (P<0.05), and rs35228531 (P<0.001) were higher in seronegative subjects. The rs6001417 and rs8177832 SNPs were associated with HIV-1 infection in an additive model (P<0.01). Furthermore the SNP rs35228531 was also associated with HIV-1 infection in a dominant model (P<0.001). Odds ratio analysis of genotypes and alleles of the different APOBEC3G variants showed that there is a strong association between the minor genetic variants, genotype of the three SNPs, and HIV-1 status. Haplotype analysis demonstrated that rs6001417, rs8177832, and rs35228531 are in linkage disequilibrium. The haplotype GGT from the rs6001417, rs8177832 and rs35228531 respectively has a protective effect OR = 0.54 [0.43–0.68] with P<0.001. There was also associations between the haplotypes GGC OR = 1.6 [1.1;-2.3] P<0.05, and CGC OR = 5.21 [2.4–11.3] P<0.001, which increase the risk of infection by HIV-1 from almost two (2) to five (5) fold. This study demonstrates an association of rs6001417, rs8177832, and rs35228531 of APOBEC3G with HIV-1 infection in a population from Burkina Faso.
Characterization of human herpesvirus 7 U27 gene product and identification of its nuclear localization signal.

A monoclonal antibody, 5H4, that recognizes human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) was used in Western analysis to probe HHV-7-infected SupT1 cells. This antibody recognizes a 40-kDa virus-specific polypeptide that is expressed in the absence of viral DNA synthesis. By screening a lambdagt11 HHV-7 cDNA library, the gene encoding the protein was identified as the U27 open reading frame previously reported [J. Virol. (1996) 70, 5975-5989]. Immunofluorescent studies showed a punctate nuclear localization of the protein in both HHV-7-infected cells and transfected cells. A computer program predicted two classic nuclear localization signals (NLSs) in the middle and C-terminal regions of the protein. A C-terminal deletion mutant of the protein could not enter the nucleus, whereas green fluorescent protein or maltose binding protein fused to the C-terminal region of the protein was transported into the nucleus. These findings demonstrate that the predicted C-terminal, but not middle, NLS of the protein actually function as NLS. In addition, nuclear transport of a maltose binding protein-fusion protein containing the C-terminal NLS of the U27 protein was inhibited by both wheat germ agglutinin and a Q69L Ran-GTP mutant, indicating that the U27 protein is transported into the nucleus from the cytoplasm by means of classic nuclear transport machinery. Interestingly, this NLS motif is highly conserved at the C-termini of all herpesvirus DNA polymerase processivity factors that have been examined.
Immune response to HIV

Purpose of reviewMajor advances have been made in the delineation of HIV-specific immune response and in the mechanisms of virus escape. The kinetics of the immunological and virological events occurring during primary HIV infection indicate that the establishment of the latent HIV reservoir, the major obstacle to HIV eradication likely occurs during the very early stages of primary infection, that is, the ‘eclipse phase’, prior to the development of the HIV-specific immune response which has limited efficacy in the control of the early events of infection. Therefore, the window of opportunity to develop effective interventions either to clear HIV during primary infection or to prevent rebound of HIV in patients successfully treated who stop antiretroviral therapy is very narrow. Recent findingsGenetic factors most strongly associated with nonprogressive infection are human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I alleles and particularly HLA-B*5701. CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses with polyfunctional profile are associated with nonprogressive infection. Broader neutralizing antibodies are detected 3–4 years after infection, generated only in 20% of individuals but show no efficacy in the control of HIV replication. SummaryIn the present review, we shall discuss the different components of the HIV-specific immune response elicited by the infection, the kinetics of these responses during primary infection and the changes following transition to the chronic phase of infection, and the functional profile of ‘effective’ versus ‘noneffective’ HIV-specific immune responses.
On Translating Camfranglais and other Camerounismes

Post-colonial creative writers constantly resort to creolization and indigenization as modes of linguistic and cultural appropriation. In other words, these writers tend to transpose the imprint of their cultural backgrounds onto their fictional works.This paper addresses the challenges posed by language mixing to the literary translator. Rather than interrogate the theories of translation, the paper seeks to bring new insights to the pragmatics of translation – ways in which the literary translator grapples with meaning discernment and rendition when faced with texts couched in indigenized and hybridized linguistic forms, namely creoles, pidgins, camfranglais, and other forms of hybrid languages. There are clear and obvious benefits in literary indigenization (i.e., a larger audience, self-representation, etc) but how do these benefits transform when these languages are contextualized in literature? In what ways is pidginization complicit or at variance with imperial languages? And what are the ramifications of such complicity or variance for the translator? What forms of discursive agencies are made available through translation?
Analysis of exercise‐induced Na+–K+ exchange in rat skeletal muscle in vivo

We aimed to quantify the Na+–K+ exchange occurring during exercise in rat skeletal muscle in vivo. Intracellular Na+ and K+ content, Na+ permeability (22Na+ influx), Na+–K+ pump activity (ouabain‐sensitive 86Rb+ uptake) and Na+–K+ pump α2 subunit content ([3H]ouabain binding) were measured. Six‐week‐old rats rested (control animals) or performed intermittent running for 10–60 min and were then killed or were killed at 15 or 90 min following 60 min exercise. In the soleus muscle, intracellular Na+ was 80% higher than in control rats after 60 min exercise, was still elevated (38%) after 15 min rest and returned to control levels after 90 min rest. Intracellular K+ showed corresponding decreases after 15–60 min exercise, returning to control levels 90 min postexercise. Exercise induced little change in Na+ and K+ in the extensor digitorum longus muscle (EDL). In soleus, the exercise‐induced rise in Na+ and reduction in K+ were augmented by pretreatment with ouabain or by reducing the content of muscular Na+–K+ pumps by prior K+ depletion of the animals. Fifteen minutes after 60 min exercise, ouabain‐sensitive 86Rb+ uptake in the soleus was increased by 30% but was unchanged in EDL, and there was no effect of exercise on [3H]ouabain binding measured in vitro or in vivo in either muscle. In conclusion, in the soleus, in vivo exercise induces a rise in intracellular Na+, which reflects the excitation‐induced increase in Na+ influx and leads to augmented Na+–K+ pump activity without apparent change in Na+–K+ pump capacity.
An analysis of student teachers' understanding of integration of science and technology activities

Abstract The research reported on in this article was conducted to determine if student teachers enrolled in a Bachelor of Education programme at a South African University are able to integrate science and technology in their teaching. The participants were a cohort of students registered for a course aimed at preparing them to teach grades 4 to 6 in the primary school. The theoretical framework applied in the study is Rogan's Zone of feasible Innovation (ZFI) which uses the analogy that curriculum strategies are good when they proceed just ahead of current practice. Students' understanding of integration of two learning areas was compared to their knowledge base. The findings suggest that students who have very little knowledge of science and/or technology have difficulty in understanding what the scientific and technological processes mean and without this understanding are unable to integrate science and technology effectively in their teaching. It is recommended that the B.Ed programme at this university focuses more on providing opportunities for students to acquire sound knowledge of the two disciplines before attempting any form of integration.
Sarm1-Mediated Axon Degeneration Requires Both SAM and TIR Interactions

Axon degeneration is an evolutionarily conserved pathway that eliminates damaged or unneeded axons. Manipulation of this poorly understood pathway may allow treatment of a wide range of neurological disorders. In an RNAi-based screen performed in cultured mouse DRG neurons, we observed strong suppression of injury-induced axon degeneration upon knockdown of Sarm1 [SARM (sterile α-motif-containing and armadillo-motif containing protein)]. We find that a SARM-dependent degeneration program is engaged by disparate neuronal insults: SARM ablation blocks axon degeneration induced by axotomy or vincristine treatment, while SARM acts in parallel with a soma-derived caspase-dependent pathway following trophic withdrawal. SARM is a multidomain protein that associates with neuronal mitochondria. Deletion of the N-terminal mitochondrial localization sequence disrupts SARM mitochondrial localization in neurons but does not alter its ability to promote axon degeneration. In contrast, mutation of either the SAM (sterile α motif) or TIR (Toll-interleukin-1 receptor) domains abolishes the ability of SARM to promote axonal degeneration, while a SARM mutant containing only these domains elicits axon degeneration and nonapoptotic neuronal death even in the absence of injury. Protein–protein interaction studies demonstrate that the SAM domains are necessary and sufficient to mediate SARM–SARM binding. SARM mutants lacking a TIR domain bind full-length SARM and exhibit strong dominant-negative activity. These results indicate that SARM plays an integral role in the dismantling of injured axons and support a model in which SAM-mediated multimerization is necessary for TIR-dependent engagement of a downstream destruction pathway. These findings suggest that inhibitors of SAM and TIR interactions represent therapeutic candidates for blocking pathological axon loss and neuronal cell death.
Mandibular Anterior Nutrient Canals in Periapical Radiography in Relation to Hypertension

Background: Hypertension (HTN) is the most commonly encountered systemic disease in general population. Nutrient canals contain blood vessels and nerves that mostly appear in the anterior mandibular region. Nutrient canals are not detected in radiographs of all patients, and their normalcy is controversial by many investigators. Objectives: The present study investigated the correlation between the appearance of nutrient canals and hypertension as a potential clue to diagnose patients with hypertension. Patients and Methods: Thirty two patients with HTN and 32 normotensive subjects were selected. Periapical radiographs were taken from mandibular anterior cuspid-central incisor region since nutrient canals are commonly observed in this area. Data was analyzed by SPSS software with Chi-square and Fisher tests. Results: The incidence of nutrient canals was 37.5% in patients with hypertension and 53.1% in the normotensive subjects, but this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.209). We did not find any association between duration of hypertension (P = 0.292) or controlled hypertension (P = 0.144), and the presence of nutrient canals. The mean of subject age with nutrient canal was more than those without nutrient canals, and this difference was statistically significant in normotensive patients. Conclusions: This study revealed that there was no significant association between mandibular anterior nutrient canals and hypertension.
Managing diversity in Chinese and Indian organizations: a qualitative study

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate diversity management (DM) practices in China and India by analyzing formal DM policy (if one exists) adopted by the company and informal DM practices adopted by managers. It also aims to discuss the appropriateness of the US‐originated notion of, and approach to, managing diversity in the Indian and Chinese contexts by exploring how local managers make sense of diversity and manage it in a pragmatic way.Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopted a qualitative approach. In particular, through a semi‐structured interview design, qualitative data were collected from 16 Chinese and Indian middle and senior managers and four human resources (HR) director of regional headquarters of foreign multinational firms. The data were supplemented by secondary data from a wide range of sources, including government reports and media coverage to extend contextual understanding.Findings – The paper reveals that most Chinese organizations do not see DM as an issue. Where exist.