Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supporting care-giving fathers: fathers' perspectives of work, care and masculinity.

Supervisory Committee Dr. Jessica Ball, School of Child and Youth Care Supervisor John Hart, School of Child and Youth Care Departmental Member This study explores fatherhood in contemporary Canadian society by drawing on the experiences of nine full-time care-giving fathers in Vancouver, Canada. Using a social constructionist epistemology, the study explored how fathers who are primary caregivers to their young children construct masculinity, how they enact primary caregiving, and how they can be better supported within communities. Fathers were recruited through posters in community centres and through snowball sampling and volunteered to participate in interviews lasting between one and three hours. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed using pragmatic thematic analysis. Three key themes were constructed to represent the fathers’ self-reported experiences: fathers’ enactment of primary care-giving; fathers’ constructions of masculinity within dominant discourses of masculinity and care; and father’s support needs. Findings suggest that for these primary care-giving fathers, care-giving is active and adventurous, and egalitarian beliefs and roles regarding child care and domestic responsibility predominate within their coparenting relationship. Traditional Euro-western masculine ideology tends to give way to a “hybrid” ideology that emphasizes affection, emotional intelligence, and caring for one’s family as a whole. Fathers indicated a preference for supports that are self-sought such as the internet and support from partners, and informal supports such as community events and time with peers to structured supports provided by community programs. Fathers who reported benefits from formal community programs offered insight into father-friendly practices. Stigma about primary care-giving by fathers was a significant theme constructed from the data. Implications for community programs for families and primary care-giving fathers in particular are discussed.
Diphone concatenation using a harmonic plus noise model of speech

In this paper we present a high-quality text-to-speech system using diphones. The system is based on a Harmonic plus Noise (HNM) representation of the speech signal. HNM is a pitch-synchronous analysis-synthesis system but does not require pitch marks to be determined as necessary in PSOLA-based methods. HNM assumes the speech signal to be composed of a periodic part and a stochastic part. As a result, diierent prosody and spectral envelope modiication methods can be applied to each part, yielding more natural-sounding synthetic speech. The fully para-metric representation of speech using HNM also provides a straightforward way of smoothing diphone boundaries. Informal listening tests, using natural prosody, have shown that the synthetic speech quality is close to the quality of the original sentences, without smoothing problems and without buzziness or other oddities observed with other speech representations used for TTS.
Fast, Fully Automated Global and Local Magnetic Field Optimization for fMRI of the Human Brain

The aim of this novel technique is to allow researchers, particularly those operating at high static magnetic field strengths on fMRI applications, to tailor the static magnetic field within the brain. The optimum solution for their experimental needs is reached, utilizing the full potential of the active shims at their disposal. The method for shimming human brain, which incorporates automatic brain segmentation to remove nonbrain tissue from the optimization routine, is presented and validated. The technique is fast, robust, and accurate, achieving the global minimum to a static field homogeneity function of the in vivo brain. Both global and specified local regions of the brain can be selected on which to optimize the shims without requiring skilled intervention. The effectiveness of the automated local shim is demonstrated in an olfactory fMRI study where significant activations in the orbitofrontal cortex were very clear when the above method was employed.
Normative Communication Models for Agent Error Messages

An agent message is an attempted action upon the information state of the receiver that, if successful, would cause the receiver to move to a new information state. A model of normative com- munication can define when messages are not merely unsuccessful but instead are illegal or impossible actions upon the receiver's internal state. The model uses the preconditions of the other core message types, coupled with a model of task interdependencies, agent roles, and belief-desire-intention elements, to define the preconditions for sending a canonical not-understood error message. By defining the space of messages that are legal actions on an agent's internal state, a normative communication model also defines a set of 'reasons' that can accompany the error message. A not-understood error message signals a mis- match between agent interaction models and the accompanying reason opens the possibility for agents to realign their respective models. The paper discusses the matters arising from this possibility. This approach assumes that normative communication behavior reflects normative domain behavior. It also assumes that each agent accesses the normative model, in contrast with more centralized frameworks for defining normative interaction among agents and identifying interaction errors.
Aluminum thermomigration technology for fabrication of silicon packages

This work researched the opportunity of application of aluminum thermomigration technology for fabrication of silicon packages. The thermomigration process is also called temperature gradient zone melting. The process was used for production of through-wafer interconnections. We describe both the process and the apparatus designed for making recrystallized doped regions during heating of a silicon wafer under a temperature gradient created along the wafer thickness. In addition, we also consider three types packages which would be possible to be made by aluminum thermomigration technology: ordinary silicon ball grid array (BGA) package, combined silicon BGA package and silicon-and-silicon BGA package.
Toward the construction of a C^* algebra in string field theory

In string field theory there is a fundamental object, the algebra of string field states \A, that must be understood better from a mathematical point of view. In particular we are interested in finding, if possible, a C^* structure over it, or possibly over a subalgebra U \subset \A. In this paper we define a * operation on \A, and then using a particular description of Witten's star product, the Moyal's star product, we find an appropriate pre C^* algebra S(R^{2n}) on a finite dimensional manifold, where the finite dimensionality is obtained with a cutoff procedure on the string oscillators number. Then we show that using an inductive limit we obtain a pre C^* algebra S \subset \A that can be completed to a C^* algebra.
Optical Antennas

Optical antennas are an emerging concept in physical optics. Similar to radio-wave and microwave antennas, their purpose is to convert the energy of free propagating radiation to localized energy, and vice versa. Optical antennas exploit the unique properties of metal nanostructures, which behave as strongly coupled plasmas at optical frequencies. The tutorial provides an account of the historical origins and the basic concepts and parameters associated with optical antennas. It also reviews recent work in the field and discusses areas of application , such as light-emitting devices, photovoltaics, and spectroscopy.
Can Christians really make a difference? A response to the call for change to make the world a better place

Christianity changed the world for the better through the development of education, charity organisations, art, music, law and medical care among others. However, not all changes initiated by Christianity were positive. The Christian religion was also responsible for division, death, destruction and war. Focusing on the positive changes, nearly 500 years after the reformation though, it seems as if Christianity has lost its renewing and transformative powers. It seems as if society, politics and the economy are pressurising Christianity to conform to the world and not the other way round. Therefore, the research focuses on the question whether Christians can bring about positive change and transformation to the current problems in society. What can Christians do to provide a religious response to current persistent societal problems? Change agents – people who drive positive change – are capable and competent, make use of networks, are visible and contactable and are often also outsiders in the communities they serve. Examples of the work done by change agents – Christians within their local communities – through small-scale community projects are showcased here to suggest possible ways forward for dealing with persistent problems from a Christian point of view.
A method to attain PIP in the TV screen for automated wireless home security

This paper is to explain about the picture in picture technology that is used innovatively for automated wireless home security. The present home security system needs an LCD screen that is located somewhere inside the home to view the camera video. At some point of time, consider the time when you are watching a very interesting program in the television, may be the last over of a T-20 match or the final minutes of a soccer match, your mind won't allow you to think of anything else than the ongoing match. At this circumstance, when anyone rings your door bell, naturally you won't mind that, whoever the guest may be. At another instance, if you are tired of attending unwelcomed guests n times, chances are there to neglect the guest at the n+1th time more consciously. If the guest at the door is an opportunity, it would be evidently missed. Our innovation to conquer this problem is, the video of the person standing at the door is made appeared at the television screen not by replacing the existing cable signal but as a pop up screen which covers a small portion of the TV screen. So, by noticing the pop up, one can decide which is vital - either the TV program or the guest. This pop up disappears automatically after a certain point of time when the guest leaves.
Konrad-zuse-zentrum F ¨ Ur Informationstechnik Berlin Algorithms to Separate {0, }-chvátal-gomory Cuts Algorithms to Separate {0, }-chvátal-gomory Cuts

Chvátal-Gomory cuts are among the most well-known classes of cutting planes for general integer linear programs (ILPs). In case the constraint multipliers are either 0 or 1 2 , such cuts are known as {0, 1 2 }-cuts. It has been proven by Caprara and Fischetti [8] that separation of {0, 1 2 }-cuts is NP-hard. In this paper, we study ways to separate {0, 1 2 }-cuts effectively in practice. We propose a range of preprocessing rules to reduce the size of the separation problem. The core of the preprocessing builds a Gaussian elimination-like procedure. To separate the most violated {0, 1 2 }-cut, we formulate the (reduced) problem as integer linear program. Some simple heuristic separation routines complete the algorithmic framework. Computational experiments on benchmark instances show that the combination of preprocessing with exact and/or heuristic separation is a very vital idea to generate strong generic cutting planes for integer linear programs and to reduce the overall computation times of state-of-the-art ILP-solvers.
miR-23 regulation of lamin B1 is crucial for oligodendrocyte development and myelination

SUMMARY Duplication of the gene encoding lamin B1 (LMNB1) with increased mRNA and protein levels has been shown to cause severe myelin loss in the brains of adult-onset autosomal dominant leukodystrophy patients. Similar to many neurodegenerative disorders, patients with adult-onset autosomal dominant leukodystrophy are phenotypically normal until adulthood and the defect is specific to the central nervous system despite the ubiquitous expression pattern of lamin B1. We set out to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying this demyelinating phenotype. Increased lamin B1 expression results in disturbances of inner nuclear membrane proteins, chromatin organization and nuclear pore transport in vitro. It also leads to premature arrest of oligodendrocyte differentiation, which might be caused by reduced transcription of myelin genes and by mislocalization of myelin proteins. We identified the microRNA miR-23 as a negative regulator of lamin B1 that can ameliorate the consequences of excessive lamin B1 at the cellular level. Our results indicate that regulation of lamin B1 is important for myelin maintenance and that miR-23 contributes to this process, at least in part, by downregulating lamin B1, therefore establishing novel functions of lamin B1 and miR-23 in the regulation of oligodendroglia development and myelin formation in vitro.
Mechanisms of Dopamine D1 Receptor-Mediated ERK1/2 Activation in the Parkinsonian Striatum and Their Modulation by Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Type 5

In animal models of Parkinson′s disease, striatal overactivation of ERK1/2 via dopamine (DA) D1 receptors is the hallmark of a supersensitive molecular response associated with dyskinetic behaviors. Here we investigate the pathways involved in D1 receptor-dependent ERK1/2 activation using acute striatal slices from rodents with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions. Application of the dopamine D1-like receptor agonist SKF38393 induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation and downstream signaling in the DA-denervated but not the intact striatum. This response was mediated through a canonical D1R/PKA/MEK1/2 pathway and independent of ionotropic glutamate receptors but blocked by antagonists of L-type calcium channels. Coapplication of an antagonist of metabotropic glutamate receptor type 5 (mGluR5) or its downstream signaling molecules (PLC, PKC, IP3 receptors) markedly attenuated SKF38393-induced ERK1/2 activation. The role of striatal mGluR5 in D1-dependent ERK1/2 activation was confirmed in vivo in 6-OHDA-lesioned animals treated systemically with SKF38393. In one experiment, local infusion of the mGluR5 antagonist MTEP in the DA-denervated rat striatum attenuated the activation of ERK1/2 signaling by SKF38393. In another experiment, 6-OHDA lesions were applied to transgenic mice with a cell-specific knockdown of mGluR5 in D1 receptor-expressing neurons. These mice showed a blunted striatal ERK1/2 activation in response to SFK38393 treatment. Our results reveal that D1-dependent ERK1/2 activation in the DA-denervated striatum depends on a complex interaction between PKA- and Ca2+-dependent signaling pathways that is critically modulated by striatal mGluR5.
The implementation of procedurally reflective languages

In a procedurally reflective programming language, all programs are executed not through the agency of a primitive and inaccessible interpreter, but rather by the explicit running of a program that represents that interpreter. In the corresponding virtual machine, therefore, there are an infinite number of levels at which programs are processed, all simultaneously active. It is therefore a substantial question to show whether, and why, a reflective language is computationally tractable. We answer this question by showing how to produce an efficient implementation of a procedurally reflective language, based on the notion of a level-shifting processor. A series of general techniques, which should be applicable to reflective variants of any standard applicative or imperative programming languages, are illustrated in a complete implementation for a particular reflective LISP dialect called 3-LISP.
A Particle Level Set Library

This paper presents the implementation of a fast and accurate particle level set library. Level sets are very effective for representating dynamic surfaces and have been crucial to recent research within computer graphics, perhaps most significantly within fluid simulations. However, implementating a particle level set method is involved and requires significant effort. This paper aims to provide a publicly available library that implements a particle level set method as a blackbox. The users mainly need to provide a velocity field through which the level set is moved. The paper is self-contained. We first describe the particle level set method and the subtleties of a robust implementation. We then demonstrate the use and the effectiveness of the library with a few simple examples. The source code of the library and working examples are publicly available at our web site.
Evaluating nested queries on XML data

In the past few years, much attention has been paid to the study of semistructured data, i.e., data with irregular, possibly unstable, and rapidly changing structure, and, in particular, to the study of their best-known incarnation: XML. The growing interest toward XML leaded to the definition of many querying and manipulating tools, such as the standard query language XQuery (Boag et al., 2002). Unlike SQL, XQuery poses no restriction on query nesting (an XQuery query can be nested wherever a well-formed XML document is expected), and lacks explicit clauses for performing group-by operations. As a result, nested queries play an important role in the context of XQuery. This paper shows the techniques used in the Xtasy system for processing and evaluating nested queries on XML data. These techniques applies to the physical level only, and they are based on the massive use of node sharing, with the aim of decreasing as much as possible the use of secondary storage. The proposed solutions are general enough to be applied, with a few modifications, to more structured contexts.
1-Evaluation of the C 2 IEDM as an Interoperability-Enabling Ontology

The science of linguistics tells us that Ontology is the specification of meaning for the elements of a language, and the relationships between those elements. Within the world of data modeling, as different models must interact with each other, the ability to describe the ontology of a data model becomes increasingly more important. This is especially true in the realm of simulation interoperability, where each different simulation system has it’s own data model, and therefore, it’s own ontology. One of the most crucial paths of research currently being explored by a number of different parties is the use of the Command and Control Information Exchange Data Model (C2IEDM) as a referential tool enabling the interchange of data between two (or more) distinct systems. The C2IEDM necessarily has it’s own ontology, but is it sufficiently complete to serve as a referential ontology for simulation interoperability? This paper will first describe what defines an ontology, and what is a sufficiently complete ontology to serve as a reference for simulation interoperability. A review of the functional areas of the C2IEDM will follow, and finally based on this review, an evaluation will be made as to whether the C2IEDM is a sufficiently complete ontology.
Cooperative dynamic measurement system based on XML and Web service

In order to improve the work efficiency of dynamic measurement, the paper applies CSCW into the field of dynamic measurement. In the process of design and implementation of cooperative work, the Web service technology and XML technology are adopted, solving the heterogeneousness of dynamic measurement platform and the standardization of measurement instruments. On the basis, the work mode and architecture of the cooperative dynamic measurement system are designed and the applied example is given. At last future work is introduced.
A facile method to prepare superparamagnetic iron oxide and hydrophobic drug-encapsulated biodegradable polyurethane nanoparticles

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIO NPs) have a wide range of biomedical applications such as in magnetic resonance imaging, targeting, and hyperthermia therapy. Aggregation of SPIO NPs can occur because of the hydrophobic surface and high surface energy of SPIO NPs. Here, we developed a facile method to encapsulate SPIO NPs in amphiphilic biodegradable polymer. Anionic biodegradable polyurethane nanoparticles (PU NPs) with ~35 nm size and different chemistry were prepared by waterborne processes. SPIO NPs were synthesized by chemical co-precipitation. SPIO NPs were then added to the aqueous dispersion of PU NPs, followed by application of high-frequency (~20 kHz) ultrasonic vibration for 3 min. This method rendered SPIO-PU hybrid NPs (size ~110 nm) suspended in water. SPIO-PU hybrid NPs contained ~50–60 wt% SPIO and retained the superparamagnetic property (evaluated by a magnetometer) as well as high contrast in magnetic resonance imaging. SPIO-PU NPs also showed the ability to provide cell hyperthermic treatment. Using the same ultrasonic method, hydrophobic drug (Vitamin K3 [VK3]) or (9-(methylaminomethyl) anthracene [MAMA]) could also be encapsulated in PU NPs. The VK3-PU or MAMA-PU hybrid NPs had ~35 nm size and different release profiles for PUs with different chemistry. The encapsulation efficiency for VK3 and MAMA was high (~95%) without burst release. The encapsulation mechanism may be attributed to the low glass transition temperature (Tg) and good mechanical compliance of PU NPs. The new encapsulation method involving waterborne biodegradable PU NPs is simple, rapid, and effective to produce multimodular NP carriers.
A highly sensitive chemiluminescence assay for superoxide detection and chronic granulomatous disease diagnosis

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by neutrophils are crucial for defense against infectious diseases, and the adequate measurement of ROS levels is an important way to evaluate the possibility of infections. The fluorescent probe dihydrorhodamine 123 has been applied exclusively to the measurement of ROS thus far. We developed a novel method for detecting ROS, which utilizes the chemiluminescent probes Luminol and Diogenes. The new method quantitatively detects ROS produced by as few as 10 to 104 neutrophils. Furthermore, this method can detect ROS levels in one microliter of whole blood or ROS produced by Epstein-Barr immortalized B lymphocytes. This method will be valuable for prompt diagnosis of neonatal chronic granulomatous diseases in which neutrophils aberrantly produce superoxide.
A Pen-Based Tool for Visualizing Vector Mathematics

We present VectorPad, a novel, pen-based application for three-dimensional vector mathematics visualization. VectorPad allows users to define vectors and perform mathematical operations on them through the recognition of handwritten mathematics. The user interface consists of a sketching area, where the user can write vector definitions and operations such as addition, subtraction, scalar multiplication, and cross product, and a 3D graph for visualization. Vectors are visualized dynamically on the graph, which can be manipulated by the user. We also performed a short, informal user study evaluating the user interface and visualizations of VectorPad. Results from the study show that visualizations were generally well liked but the application needs to provide a more comprehensive set of visualization tools as well as refinement to some of the animations.