Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Charack: Tool for Real-Time Generation of Pseudo-Infinite Virtual Worlds for 3D Games

In MMO games the player’s experience is mainly influenced by the size and details of the virtual world. Technically the bigger the world is, the bigger is the time the player takes to explore all the places. This work presents a tool (named Charack) able to generate pseudo-infinite virtual worlds with different types of terrains. Using a combination of algorithms and content management methods, Charack is able to create beaches, islands, bays and coastlines that imitates real world landscapes. The tool clearly distinguish the generation of each type of content. The contribution of the tool is the ability to generate arbitrarily large pieces of land (or landscape) focusing on detailed coastline generation, by means of using procedural algorithms.
Working memory in Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) : assessment and intervention

The principal aim of this dissertation is to investigate and intervene upon working memory (WM) impairments in two clinical populations: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The dissertation is comprised of three empirical articles. The goal of the first study was to examine WM impairments in normal aging, MCI and AD using two versions of the complex span task: sentence span and operation span. In addition, the effect of forgetting was assessed by manipulating the length of the retention interval. Results indicate impaired WM on complex spans in MCI and, to a greater extent, in AD. Data also support a role for forgetting within WM. Increasing the retention interval augmented deficit in persons with AD, and showed potential in predicting a negative prognosis in those with MCI. The objective of the second article was to investigate the feasibility of a computerized cognitive training paradigm for the attentional control component of WM in healthy older individuals and those with MCI. Data from this experiment revealed positive effects of the intervention for both groups. However, the absence of a control group limited interpretation of results. Based on those data, the third article aimed to implement a double-blind randomized controlled study of training of attentional control in MCI with executive deficits. This involved a dual-task paradigm comprised of a visual detection task and a visual alpha-arithmetic judgment task. While the control group performed simple dual-task practice over six one-hour sessions, the experimental group received variable-priority training, in which participants managed their attentional control by varying the proportion of attentional resources allocated to each task. Results show a significant effect of intervention on one of the two tasks involved (accuracy on the visual detection task) and a trend for transfer to another task of divided attention, but little generalization to other tasks of attention. In summary, the original data reported in this thesis demonstrates WM impairment in age-related disorders, with a gradient between MCI and AD, and suggest preserved plasticity of attentional capacities in persons at risk of developing dementia.
A Geometric Approach to Sound Source Localization from Time-Delay Estimates

This paper addresses the problem of sound-source localization from time-delay estimates using arbitrarily-shaped non-coplanar microphone arrays. A novel geometric formulation is proposed, together with a thorough algebraic analysis and a global optimization solver. The proposed model is thoroughly described and evaluated. The geometric analysis, stemming from the direct acoustic propagation model, leads to necessary and sufficient conditions for a set of time delays to correspond to a unique position in the source space. Such sets of time delays are referred to as feasible sets. We formally prove that every feasible set corresponds to exactly one position in the source space, whose value can be recovered using a closed-form localization mapping. Therefore we seek for the optimal feasible set of time delays given, as input, the received microphone signals. This time delay estimation problem is naturally cast into a programming task, constrained by the feasibility conditions derived from the geometric analysis. A global branch-and-bound optimization technique is proposed to solve the problem at hand, hence estimating the best set of feasible time delays and, subsequently, localizing the sound source. Extensive experiments with both simulated and real data are reported; we compare our methodology to four state-of-the-art techniques. This comparison shows that the proposed method combined with the branch-and-bound algorithm outperforms existing methods. These in-depth geometric understanding, practical algorithms, and encouraging results, open several opportunities for future work.
An Empirical Analysis of Earnings Management During the IPO Process: The Evidence from Manufacturing SMEs in China

IPO is an important means for the reform of state enterprises as well as capital allocation in the People's Republic of China. The literature documents that IPO firm's financial performance declines subsequent to IPO. In this paper, We use the Jones-CFO model to prove the hypothesis which is Form theories analysis and find the 52 sample companies have earnings management behavior which leads to bad performance after listing. Finally, this paper analyses the negative influence of earnings management and offer five policy suggestions combined with the real condition of our country. We hope these proposals can help avoid or control earning management in SMEs and keep away the risk of market, so that the SMEs Board can grow up healthily and stride forward Growth Enterprise Market (CEM) successfully.
Improving Link Quality by Exploiting Channel Diversity in Wireless Sensor Networks

A large percentage of links in low-power wireless sensor networks are of intermediate quality. To the best of our knowledge, opportunistic exploitation is currently the only way to use these links. However, such exploitation requires overhearing which consumes a significant amount of energy. In this paper, we propose a new approach to exploit intermediate quality (IQ) links through channel diversity with a new protocol, called IQ Link Transformation Protocol (ILTP), that does not require overhearing. ILTP transforms IQ links into good links thus allowing us to exploit such links continuously rather than using them only opportunistically. Our key insight is that the packet reception ratios (PRR) across different channels on IQ links are not correlated and it is common on such links to find channels that change in quality on the time scale of a few minutes. Consequently, when the link quality of a channel is bad, it is highly likely that a good channel can be found and its quality will remain good for at least a few minutes. Our evaluations on three large-scale test beds demonstrate that ILTP is able to consistently transform the IQ links into good links. We observe that even a poor link with a PRR of 0.05 can be transformed into a good link with a PRR greater than 0.9. When ILTP is integrated with CTP, the default collection tree protocol for TinyOS, the average number of transmissions per end-to-end packet delivery is reduced by 24% to 58%.
Icariside II Enhances Nrf2 Nuclear Translocation to Upregulate Phase II Detoxifying Enzyme Expression Coupled with the ERK, Akt and JNK Signaling Pathways

In the present study, the potent inducers of phase II detoxifying and antioxidant stress responsive to icariside II was investigated. First, a dose of 0–10 µM icariside II showed no significantly cytotoxicity on HepG2 cells by MTT assays and icariside II could enhance cellular GSH levels by ELISA assay. Then, the potential roles of ERK, Akt and JNK in the regulation of icariside II-induced Nrf2-dependent ARE transcriptional activity as well as ARE-mediated endogenous HO-1 and glutathione GST protein expression in HepG2 cells were estimated. Icariside II activated the nuclear translocation of Nrf2 and the up-regulated expression of Nrf2-related antioxidant protein OH-1 and GST were evaluated by Western blotting. Then the phosphorylation levels of ERK1/2, Akt and JNK1/2 were further examined by Western blotting assays. Results showed that icariside II significantly increased the phosphorylation levels of ERK1/2, Akt and JNK1/2. Furthermore, icariside II-induced ARE transcriptional activity was attenuated by the inhibition of ERK, Akt and JNK signaling using biochemical inhibitors. These results suggest that the Nrf2/ARE pathway plays an important role in the regulation of icariside-mediated antioxidant effects in HepG2 cells.
Adaptive assessment of young children with visual impairment

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of adaptations for children with low vision of the Bayley Scales, a standardized developmental instrument widely used to assess development in young children. Low vision adaptations were made to the procedures, item instructions and play material of the Dutch version of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development — Second Edition (BSID-II), and the Original and Low Vision versions were administered to children with visual impairment over an interval of two weeks. Although quantitative analysis revealed no significant differences between the Original and Low Vision versions of the test in children’s scores, feedback from test administrators indicates that the Low Vision materials make the test easier to administer and more engaging for children.
Vulnerability and Acceptance: Lesbian Women's Family-Making through Assisted Reproduction in Swedish Public Health Care

Female same-sex couples in Sweden have had access to fertility treatment within public health care since 2005. Treatment is generally tax funded, with a minimal of personal expenses. After birth, both mothers gain legal status as the child's parents. This article draws on findings from interviews with 29 lesbian mothers, all of whom have sought treatment at fertility clinics within the Swedish public health care system. Parts of the interviews in which the mothers describe deficiencies in the provided treatment have been scrutinized in detail. Results show how heteronormative assumptions about the family and a feeling of exposure in the role of patient give rise to vulnerability in lesbian mothers. Furthermore, neither routines nor the offered treatment are adapted to lesbian women's specific needs. Regarding dealing with deficiencies, the interviews are filled with expressions of acceptance, which rhetorically minimize the impact of potential stressors. A main conclusion is that legal inclusion of lesbians in fertility treatment is of groundbreaking importance to lesbians with a desire to become parents. The next step is to address heteronormativity within the health care institutions in order to develop treatment adapted to lesbian couples’ specific needs.
Channel estimation in UWB channels using compressed sensing

We consider sub-Nyquist sampling and Compressed Sensing (CS) for channel estimation in Ultra Wideband (UWB) communication systems, by exploiting the sparse nature of the channel impulse response. Receiver hardware schemes are presented that directly sample the analog channel output at rates far below Nyquist and allow access to a predefined subset of channel Fourier coefficients. CS methods are then applied to these coefficients in order to estimate the unknown channel. Simulations on Channel Model (CM) 1 of the IEEE 802.15. 4a standard show that estimation is possible from low rate samples with little performance degradation paving the way to sub-Nyquist UWB channel sounding.
Observed and modeled effects of pH on bioconcentration of diphenhydramine, a weakly basic pharmaceutical, in fathead minnows

A need exists to better understand the influence of pH on the uptake and accumulation of ionizable pharmaceuticals in fish. In the present study, fathead minnows were exposed to diphenhydramine (DPH; disassociation constant = 9.1) in water for up to 96 h at 3 nominal pH levels: 6.7, 7.7, and 8.7. In each case, an apparent steady state was reached by 24 h, allowing for direct determination of the bioconcentration factor (BCF), blood–water partitioning (PBW,TOT), and apparent volume of distribution (approximated from the whole‐body–plasma concentration ratio). The BCFs and measured PBW,TOT values increased in a nonlinear manner with pH, whereas the volume of distribution remained constant, averaging 3.0 L/kg. The data were then simulated using a model that accounts for acidification of the gill surface caused by elimination of metabolically produced acid. Good agreement between model simulations and measured data was obtained for all tests by assuming that plasma binding of ionized DPH is 16% that of the neutral form. A simpler model, which ignores elimination of metabolically produced acid, performed less well. These findings suggest that pH effects on accumulation of ionizable compounds in fish are best described using a model that accounts for acidification of the gill surface. Moreover, measured plasma binding and volume of distribution data for humans, determined during drug development, may have considerable value for predicting chemical binding behavior in fish. Environ Toxicol Chem 2015;34:1425–1435. © 2015 SETAC
A compiler for lazy ML

LML is a strongly typed, statically scoped functional Language with Lazy evaluation. It is compiled trough a number of program transformations which makes the code generation easier. Code is generated in two steps, first code for an abstract graph manipulation machine, the G-machine. From this code machine code is generated. Some benchmark tests are also presented.
Surface Structures Formed by a Copper(II) Complex of Alkyl-Derivatized Indigo

Assembled structures of dyes have great influence on their coloring function. For example, metal ions added in the dyeing process are known to prevent fading of color. Thus, we have investigated the influence of an addition of copper(II) ion on the surface structure of alkyl-derivatized indigo. Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) analysis revealed that the copper(II) complexes of indigo formed orderly lamellar structures on a HOPG substrate. These lamellar structures of the complexes are found to be more stable than those of alkyl-derivatized indigos alone. Furthermore, 2D chirality was observed.
Multi-task deep learning for image understanding

Deep learning models can obtain state-of-the-art performance across many speech and image processing tasks, often significantly outperforming earlier methods. In this paper, we attempt to further improve the performance of these models by introducing multi-task training, in which a combined deep learning model is trained for two inter-related tasks. We show that by introducing a secondary task (such as shape identification in the object classification task) we are able to significantly improve the performance of the main task for which the model is trained. Using public datasets we evaluated our approach on two image understanding tasks, image segmentation and object classification. On the image segmentation task, we observed that the multi-task model almost doubled the accuracy of segmentation at the pixel-level (from 18.7% to 35.6%) compared to the single task model, and improved the performance of face-detection by 10.2% (from 70.1% to 80.3%). For the object classification task, we observed a 2.1% improvement in classification accuracy (from 91.6% to 93.7%) compared to a single-task model. The proposed multi-task models obtained significantly higher accuracies than previously published results on these datasets, obtaining 22.0% and 6.2% higher accuracies on the face-detection and object classification tasks respectively. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of multi-task training of deep learning models for image understanding tasks.
Perspective Ability: The Conditions of Change.

Cox, M. V. Perspective Ability: The Conditions of Change. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1724-1727. 5-year-olds were trained in perspective-taking skills in order to assess the effectiveness of various types of feedback in training. There were 4 groups (movement, visual, verbal, and control) with 9 children in each group. Piaget and Inhelder's hypothesis that a child needs to occupy another observer's position before he can successfully predict the corresponding view was not supported; training procedures which provided the child with visual or verbal information about the other observer's view while he was still confronted by his own view were more successful.
Inter-domain Mobility with LISP-MN -- A Performance Comparison with MIPv6

In this work, we aim to evaluate Locator Identifier Separation Protocol-Mobile Node's (LISP-MN) performance in an inter-domain mobility scenario for both multi-interface and single interface Mobile Node (MN) with focus on throughput, handover delay, service disruption time and packet loss. To serve as the benchmark for performance, we compare LISP-MN with the IETF standardised MIPv6. We implement the 2 protocols on a laboratory test bed comprising all the nodes necessary for their operation. For multi-interface MNs, LISP-MN shows a better response in soft handover scenarios in terms of throughput and packet loss. MIPv6 on the other hand shows shorter handover delay with lower service disruption time in a hard handover scenario. Both protocols demonstrate poor performance for a single interface MN due to the long handover delay experienced. Although LISP-MN's handover control messages doubled that of MIPv6, our experiments show that it takes a similar time as MIPv6 to complete the handover message exchange.
An analysis of leisure constraints based on different recreational sport participation levels: Results from a study in Greece

What constraints are experienced by a sample of the Greek population when participating in recreational sport activities? An attempt was made to answer this question by using data collected by a household survey conducted in an urban area in Greece. The study aimed specifically to investigate (a) constraints on recreational sport participation, as experienced by a sample of the Greek population; (b) the relationship between constraint dimensions (derived by a principal component analysis) and sport participation or nonparticipation; and (c) the relationship between constraint dimensions and frequency of sport participation. The results indicated that (a) the most important perceived constraints were time and facilities‐ or services‐related problems; (b) nonparticipants were significantly more constrained than participants, particularly in the intrapersonal dimension; and (c) perception of constraints decreased with the level of participation. The study provides support of the hierarchical model of leisure.
The ambiguity of context-specific metabolic model predictions

The integration of experimental data into genome-scale metabolic models can greatly improve flux predictions. This is achieved by restricting predictions to a more realistic context-specific domain, like a particular cell or tissue type. Several computational approaches to integrate data have been proposed — generally obtaining context-specific (sub)models or flux distributions. However, these approaches may lead to a multitude of equally valid but potentially different models or flux distributions, due to possible alternative optima in the underlying optimization problems. Although this issue introduces ambiguity in context-specific predictions, it has not been generally recognized, especially in the case of model reconstructions. In this study, we analyze the impact of alternative optima in four state-of-the-art context-specific data integration approaches, providing both flux distributions and/or metabolic models. To this end, we present three computational methods and apply them to two particular case studies: leaf-specific predictions from the integration of gene expression data in a metabolic model of Arabidopsis thaliana, and liver-specific reconstructions derived from a human model with various experimental data sources. The application of these methods allows us to obtain the following results: (i) we sample the space of alternative flux distributions in the leaf-specific case and quantify the ambiguity of the predictions. In addition, we show how the inclusion of l1regularization during data integration reduces the ambiguity in this case. (ii) We generate sets of alternative leafand liver-specific models that are optimal to each one of the evaluated model reconstruction approaches. We demonstrate that alternative models of the same context contain a marked fraction of disparate reactions. Further, we show that a careful balance between model sparsity and metabolic functionality helps in reducing the discrepancies between alternative models. Finally, our findings indicate that alternative optima must be taken into account for rendering the context-specific metabolic model predictions less ambiguous.
An Improved Criterion for Controllability of Boolean Control Networks

This paper tackles the controllability problem of Boolean control networks (BCNs). By resorting to the semi-tensor product technique and the Warshall algorithm, several improved novel reachability and controllability criteria are obtained for the BCNs. Through constructing a sequence of rigorous Boolean matrices, controllability matrix of the considered BCNs is derived iteratively. It is worth pointing out that the proposed method has lower computational complexity, and thus facilitates the reachability and controllability analysis for BCNs. In addition, the issue concerning controllability of BCNs with undesirable interior states is investigated by checking a set of designated Boolean matrices. Finally, to test the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results, a genetic network model known as the $\lambda$ switch is used as an example for numerical simulation.
On the concept "Microscope": Biology student teachers' cognitive structure

The purpose of the current study is to determine biology student teachers' cognitive structures on the concept of microscope. Qualitative research methodology has been applied in the study. The data were collected from biology student teachers. Free word association test and drawing-writing test were used to collect data. The data collected were subject to content analysis and divided into categories. According to the analyses conducted, while 6 categories were determined through the free word association test in biology student teachers' cognitive structures on the concept of microscope, in the drawing-writing technique, 5 categories were specified. Through both measurement tools, rich data were obtained, supporting, expanding on, and explaining one another. In this context, it was determined through both measurement tools that student teachers' cognitive structures focused on "microscope tools". Moreover, the data collected through these data collection instruments indicated that student teachers had alternative conceptions about the concept of microscope. Alternative conceptions were determined in almost all categories, which may be attributed to the fact that student teachers have naive experiences and/or the units that require the use of microscopes during the laboratory work included in biology curriculum which is provided in different teaching levels at university or pre-university education cannot be explored efficiently and appropriately.