Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mixed filtering method based on Curvelet research and application

Adaptive median filtering method was mainly used for filtering Salt&Pepper (impulse) noise, while the method based on Curvelet transform was mainly used for filtering Gaussian noise. In the actual processing for sealed rubber ring image, which usually contains the mixture of Salt&Pepper noise and Gaussian noise. In order to filter out the mixed noisy image preferably, a new mixed filtering algorithm was proposed in this paper. First, pixel separation method was adopted to separate the pixels corrupted by Salt&Pepper noise from the pixels corrupted by Gaussian noise. Then for the former we utilize the adaptive median filtering method, for the later we utilize the improved threshold filtering algorithm based on the Curvelet transform. The simulated results showed that the mixed filtering algorithm was better for the mixed noisy image.
The Effects of Practice Progressions on Learning Two Volleyball Skills

The purpose was to compare the effectiveness of practice progressions on learning the volleyball serve and overhead set. Ninth-grade students were randomly assigned to three groups. Each group practiced the volleyball serve and set for 60 trials over 6 days. The progression group practiced four levels of difficulty of the set and serve. The criterion group began practice at the beginning level of difficulty and had to achieve an 80% success rate before practicing at a more advanced level. The third group practiced the AAHPERD volleyball skill tests for the serve and set for all 60 trials. At the end of practice, all subjects were posttested using these AAHPERD tests. The results indicated the progression and criterion groups had higher posttest scores than the third group. Profiles of the success rates across acquisition for each group showed that students in the third group and low-skilled students in the progression and criterion groups did not improve during practice. Students with some initial skill i.
Visual Online Control of Goal-Directed Aiming Movements in Children

The present study investigated whether the initial impulse of goal-directed movements was visually monitored by 5- to 12-years-old children (n = 36) in a manner similar to adults (n = 12). The participants moved a cursor toward a fixed target. In some trials, the cursor was unpredictably translated by 20 mm following movement initiation. The results showed that even the youngest children visually monitor the initial impulse of goal-directed movements. This monitoring and the error correction process that it triggers seem automatic because it occurs even when the cursor jump is not consciously detected. Finally, it appears that this process does not fully mature before late childhood, which suggests that a putative dedicated channel for processing visual hand information develops during childhood.
Victorian Precedents: Narrative Form, Law Reports and Stare Decisis

Victorian-era law reports are often choppy or truncated, miserly in detail, and utterly lacking in character descriptions, creating what I have identified as an “anti-narrative” style. This article shows how the law reports use narrative conventions — often in counter-intuitive ways — to manifest the tension between a concrete case and the abstract rule which is its potential precedent. Incorporating a discussion of nineteenth-century theories of legal precedent and the history of common law reporting with a formal analysis, I contend that the insular “anti-narrative” form of the reports enables the communal nature and goal of precedential reasoning: the creation of a common law, dating from “time immemorial. ” It also reveals a legal doctrine — and a narrative genre — in crisis.
Imagineering Uneven Geographical Development in Central Florida

In an era when it is proclaimed that, through globalization, the world has become flat, the unevenness of economic and social development is often overlooked or suppressed. This case study explores the conditions of uneven geographical development in the urban space of central Florida. Focusing primarily on the Reedy Creek Improvement District (), better known to much of the world as Walt Disney World, and on Celebration, the community developed by the Disney Corporation in the 1990s, the relationship between tourism, the defining economic sector in the region, and uneven geographical development is explored. This study shows that the theory of uneven geographical development applies well to a region that is heavily dependent upon the tourist sector for its economy, and thereby works to control the narrative of that space to continue attracting consumers.
Partial Knowledge in Vocabulary Acquisition: General Constraints and Specific Detail

The authors investigated the relationship of partial word knowledge and instruction by asking subjects to choose, from a pair of sentences, the correct use of a target word that they had or had not looked up in a dictionary. When the correct sentence of the pair could be chosen on the basis of general semantic constraints, subjects performed well even for words they had dented were part of their language, and instruction had no effect. Studying dictionary definitions did, however, increase the amount of specific, detailed information available in memory. Researchers have speculated on the role of partial word knowledge in the area of reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition and on the exact characteristics of known words (e.g., Beck, McKeown, & Omanson, 1987; Dale, 1965; Loewenthal, 1971; Loewenthal & Gibbs, 1974; Trembly, 1966). Three general levels of word knowledge can be identified: One may know nothing at all about the word's meaning; one may have complete knowledge of the word's meaning; or knowledge may fall between these two extremes. Different researchers have operationalized these levels of word knowledge in different ways, especially the intermediate level of familiarity where some, but not complete, knowledge is assumed. Like Loewenthal (1971), we identified words about which the reader has no knowledge as "unknown*' words. According to Dale (1965), these are words to which the reader responds, "I never saw the word before. * At the other extreme, words that constitute the expressive vocabulary were classified as "known" words (Dale, 1965; Loewenthal, 1971). In addition to these two extremes of word knowledge, there is a somewhat nebulous intermediate level that has been defined in a variety of ways. One of the clearest conceptualizations of this level is given by Dale (1965) and again by Trembly (1966). Dale characterized this level by the statement, "I know there is such a word, but I don't know what it means. " Such words have been encountered in some form, most likely in the context of reading or listening. Trembly labeled this type as frontier words because they exist at the "frontier" of the learner's knowledge. We have adopted Trembly's nomenclature in our discussion of this intermediate level of word knowledge. Hence, our study focuses on three levels of word knowledge: unknown, frontier, and known.
A genome‐wide linkage analysis for the personality trait neuroticism in the Irish affected sib‐pair study of alcohol dependence

Neuroticism is a personality trait which reflects individual differences in emotional stability and vulnerability to stress and anxiety. Consistent evidence shows substantial genetic influences on variation in this trait. The present study seeks to identify regions containing susceptibility loci for neuroticism using a selected sib‐pair sample from Ireland. Using Merlin regress, we conducted a 4 cM whole‐genome linkage analysis on 714 sib‐pairs. Evidence for linkage to neuroticism was found on chromosomes 11p, 12q, and 15q. The highest linkage peak was on 12q at marker D12S1638 with a Lod score of 2.13 (−log p = 2.76, empirical P‐value <0.001). Our data also support gender specific loci for neuroticism, with male specific linkage regions on chromosomes 1, 4, 11, 12, 15, 16, and 22, and female specific linkage regions on chromosomes 2, 4, 9, 12, 13, and 18. Some genome regions reported in the present study replicate findings from previous linkage studies of neuroticism. These results, together with prior studies, indicate several potential regions for quantitative trait loci for neuroticism that warrant further study. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A succinate dehydrogenase with novel structure and properties from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius: genetic and biophysical characterization

The sdh operon of Sulfolobus acidocaldarius DSM 639 is composed of four genes coding for the 63.1-kDa flavoprotein (SdhA), the 36.5-kDa iron-sulfur protein (SdhB), and the 32.1-kDa SdhC and 14.1-kDa SdhD subunits. The four structural genes of the sdhABCD operon are transcribed into one polycistronic mRNA of 4.2 kb, and the transcription start was determined by the primer extension method to correspond with the first base of the ATG start codon of the sdhA gene. The S. acidocaldarius SdhA and SdhB subunits show characteristic sequence similarities to the succinate dehydrogenases and fumarate reductases of other organisms, while the SdhC and SdhD subunits, thought to form the membrane-anchoring domain, lack typical transmembrane alpha-helical regions present in all other succinate:quinone reductases (SQRs) and quinol:ifumarate reductases (QFRs) so far examined. Moreover, the SdhC subunit reveals remarkable 30% sequence similarity to the heterodisulfide reductase B subunit of Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum and Methanococcus jannaschii, containing all 10 conserved cysteine residues. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopic studies of the purified enzyme as well as of membranes revealed the presence of typical S1 [2Fe2S] and S2 [4Fe4S] clusters, congruent with the deduced amino acid sequences. In contrast, EPR signals for a typical S3 [3Fe4S] cluster were not detected. However, EPR data together with sequence information implicate the existence of a second [4Fe4S] cluster in S. acidocaldarius rather than a typical [3Fe4S] cluster. These results and the fact that the S. acidocaldarius succinate dehydrogenase complex reveals only poor activity with caldariella quinone clearly suggest a unique structure for the SQR of S. acidocaldarius, possibly involving an electron transport pathway from the enzyme complex into the respiratory chain different from those for known SQRs and QFRs.
Evaluation of the attention process training programme

This study evaluated the effectiveness of attention process training (APT), a training programme that provides practice in a variety of tasks requiring several different types of attention. The APT programme was administered to 23 traumatically brain-injured (TBI) participants. Training lasted about 40 hours, and typically consisted of 2-hour sessions spread out over 7 months. Results show that performance of the TBI participants improved after training on the primary outcome measures, but did not improve significantly more than the performance of a control group, given the outcome measures twice, but no training. We conclude that direct training does not improve the integrity of damaged attention functions, but does result in learning of specific skills.
Robot excitation trajectories for dynamic parameter estimation using optimized B-splines

In this paper we adressed the problem of finding exciting trajectories for the identification of manipulator link inertia parameters. This can be formulated as a constraint nonlinear optimization problem. The new approach in the presented method is the parameterization of the trajectories with optimized B-splines. Experiments are carried out on a 7 joint Light-Weight robot with torque sensoring in each joint. Thus, unmodeled joint friction and noisy motor current measurements must not be taken into account. The estimated dynamic model is verified on a different validation trajectory. The results show a clear improvement of the estimated dynamic model compared to a CAD-valued model.
Bullying and the politics of ‘telling’

This paper reports on a study of pupils’ views about tackling bullying and discusses the findings in the context of related research on ‘telling’ and other coping strategies. The research was undertaken in two related phases. In the first phase, in‐depth focus groups were conducted with pupils in Years 5 and 8 in twelve participating schools across England. This was followed by a questionnaire survey of all pupils in Years 5 and 8 in the same schools. In total, 230 pupils participated in the initial focus group stage of the research and 953 pupils participated in the questionnaire survey. Young people’s perceptions concerning the relative effectiveness of different options for tackling bullying, and the responses of others (peers, teachers, parents and other adults) to reports of bullying, were discussed. Pupils reported a reluctance to tell adults, particularly teachers, about their experiences of bullying, and this tendency increased with age. Only a third of pupils in Year 8 (31%) reported that they would find talking to a teacher about bullying ‘quite easy’ or ‘very easy’, compared with just over half of pupils in Year 5 (51%). Pupils’ willingness to tell parents also declined over time. However, the likelihood of telling friends remained consistently high. This suggests that telling friends is perceived as a less risky option by both age groups, but pupils become increasing wary of telling parents and teachers as they get older. Reluctance to tell may be attributable to a variety of factors. Adult responses that were perceived as ineffective, insensitive or excessive were highlighted, as was the influence of peer cultures that discourage ‘telling tales’ to adults, or other help‐seeking behaviours. The implications of the findings for developments in anti‐bullying policy and practice are also discussed.
Children's perception of the Thatcher illusion: Evidence for development in configural face processing

The present study reports the ability of young children to detect the Thatcher illusion. Participants were asked to detect the “unusual” face in a two-alternative forced-choice version of the Thatcher illusion with greyscale (Experiment 1) and monochrome “Mooney” face images (Experiment 2). The results of Experiment 1 showed that all groups of children could see the Thatcher illusion. When processing demands were increased (Experiment 2) sensitivity to the Thatcher task increased with age and was absent for 6-year-olds. The results are discussed in terms of differential task demands determining whether evidence for or against the development of configural face processing is found.
Foreign Investment and Transition : Data and Time Series Evidence , 1991-2001 • 1 n Direct Growth Panel

Original article UDC 330.322:338.24 Received in June 2004. I analyse panel data and time series evidence about the effect of FDIon growth in twenty transition economies. The panel data analysis suggests that the effect of FDI on growth in the group of transition economies has been marginally negative, albeit less so for the subsample of candidates for membership in the EU. On the other hand, VEC analysis of the case of Hungary reveals positive cointegration between foreign capital and industrial production in that country, with aforeign capital elasticity of around 0.5. Granger-causality tests support the relevance of FDI in explaining productivity and growth, and show evidence of "FDI-led growth", rather than of "growth-led FDI", in the case of Hungary. Anton Nakov*
Fall Detection and Damage Reduction in Biped Humanoid Robots

The appropriate management of fall situations, i.e., fast instability detection, avoidance of unintentional falls, falling without damaging the body, fast recovery of the standing position after a fall-is an essential ability for biped humanoid robots. This issue is especially important for biped humanoid robots carrying out demanding movements such as walking on irregular surfaces, running, or playing a given sport. In this paper, we tackle the detection of instability, and the management of falls in biped humanoids using an integrated framework. In this framework, after instability is detected, a fall can be avoided, or at the very least, low-damage falling sequences can be triggered, depending on the degree of the detected instability. The proposed fall detection and fall avoidance methodologies have been validated in real-world experiments with biped humanoid robots (525 collision experiments were carried out). The obtained results show the robustness of the fall detection methodology. In addition, they show under which conditions falls can be avoided, and the reduction of the fall damage when a fall occurs. Besides, results also suggest that the proposed fall avoidance methodology still needs improvements. Moreover, the methodology is more suitable for small-sized and light-weight robots which are more mechanically robust to falling and can bear the required tests.
A functional connectivity inspired approach to non-local fMRI analysis

We propose non-local analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in order to detect more brain activity. Our non-local approach combines the ideas of regular fMRI analysis with those of functional connectivity analysis, and was inspired by the non-local means algorithm that commonly is used for image denoising. We extend canonical correlation analysis (CCA) based fMRI analysis to handle more than one activity area, such that information from different parts of the brain can be combined. Our non-local approach is compared to fMRI analysis by the general linear model (GLM) and local CCA, by using simulated as well as real data.
Dynamic and stable populations of microtubules in cells

Using a new immunocytochemical technique, we have visualized the spatial arrangement of those microtubules in cells that are stable to biotin-tubulin incorporation after microinjection. Cells fixed at various periods of time after injection were exposed to antibody to biotinylated tubulin and several layers of secondary antibodies; these layers prevented reaction of biotin-containing microtubules with antitubulin antibodies. The microtubules that had not incorporated biotin-tubulin could then be stained with anti-tubulin and a fluorescent secondary antibody. In BSC1 cells, most microtubules in the cell exchange with a half-time of 10 min. A separate population of microtubules can be detected, using the above techniques, that are stable to exchange for 1 h or more; these have a characteristic pericentrosomal spatial arrangement as compared to the majority of dynamic microtubules. Unlike the dynamic microtubules, most of the stable microtubules are nongrowing. The average BSC-1 cell contains approximately 700 microtubules: approximately 500 growing at 4 micron min-1, 100 shrinking at approximately 20 micron min-1, and approximately 100 that are relatively more stable to exchange. The potential significance of these stable microtubules is discussed.
The impact on a primary school community in England of failed inspection and subsequent academisation

This research reports upon the impact of two concurrent processes of Special Measures and academisation applied to a primary school in the north of England as a result of an unsatisfactory inspection by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). The aim of the study is to describe how the process of being placed in special measures, coupled with subsequent academisation, affected key ‘school facing’ stakeholders. Data collection commenced from when the school received the judgement about its performance from Ofsted. This paper will examine the emerging themes during the first phase of the process of school transformation.
Study on the natural air cooling design of electronic equipment casings: Effects of the height and size of outlet vent on the flow resistances

This paper describes the effects of the outlet vent size and the distance between the outlet vent location and the power heater position on the flow resistance in natural-air-cooled electronic equipment casings. An experiment was carried out using a simple model casing simulated for the practical natural-air-cooled casing which is composed of 4 side walls, a top plate and bottom plate which has an inlet opening. A power heater to served as a power dissipation unit was placed at its open bottom. An outlet opening was set on one of the side walls. The opening area, the height of the outlet and the heater location were varied. The experimental results were analyzed using the flow resistance coefficient K which was related to the distance between the outlet vent and the power heater position and the heat removal from the outlet vent, and K values were plotted against a pair of Reynolds numbers Re and the outlet vent porosity β which is defined as the ratio of outlet vent open area to the top surface area of the casing.
How Do Expectations about the Macroeconomy Affect Personal Expectations and Behavior?

Abstract Using a representative online panel from the United States, we examine how individuals' macroeconomic expectations causally affect their personal economic prospects and their behavior. To exogenously vary respondents' expectations, we provide them with different professional forecasts about the likelihood of a recession. Respondents update their macroeconomic outlook in response to the forecasts, extrapolate to expectations about their personal economic circumstances, and adjust their consumption plans and stock purchases. Extrapolation to expectations about personal unemployment is driven by individuals with higher exposure to macroeconomic risk, consistent with macroeconomic models of imperfect information in which people are inattentive but understand how the economy works.
Sex differences in task and social-emotional behavior.

Studies which used behavioral observation techniques were reviewed to determine if significant sex differences exist in small group interaction. Results-indicated that (1) there are no significant differences between men and women in total participation rates, (2) men have significantly higher active task behavior (answers) and women have significantly higher positive social-emotional behavior, but the differences are less than 10%, (3) there are no significant sex differences in rates of negative social-emotional behavior or passive task behavior (questions), (4) these interaction rates are independent of sexual composition of the group but are affected by the sexual bias of the group's task, (5) sex differences in interaction are not related to differences in group productivity, (6) the majority of men's and women's interaction, both as members and as group leaders, is in the task categories, (7) members' attitudes and satisfaction are related to sex differences in approximately 30% of the tested relati.
Self-folding hydrogel bilayer for enhanced drug loading, encapsulation, and transport

Hydrogel-based robotic microdevices are currently investigated for minimally invasive medical procedures. Hydrogels are especially suited to targeted drug delivery applications as they are able to carry several times more drug solution than its dry weight. A major drawback of these system is that drug release takes place before reaching the targeted area in the body. We introduce a strategy based on a self-folding bilayer to prevent release during transportation without hindering the drug loading efficiency of the hydrogel. The drug is loaded into the hydrogel matrix at room temperature. When the temperature is increased to body temperature, the hydrogel-matrix collapses and the self-folded bilayer refolds into another tube. In this configuration, we observed a significant reduction in drug leakage with less than 5% drug loss during encapsulation. Finally, we demonstrate that the tube can be manipulated magnetically, which shows its potential use in targeted drug delivery applications.