Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sexual Minority Women in Treatment for Serious Mental Illness: A Literature Review

The treatment of the seriously mentally ill tends toward homogeneity and often does not focus on unique needs. The aim of this article is to review the literature specifically relevant to the treatment of sexual minority women in ongoing, outpatient care for serious mental illness (SMI). Medical and psychosocial databases (2000–2015) were searched by entering search terms focused on treatment issues in both qualitative and quantitative studies relevant to this topic. The emphasis in the literature was found to be the extent and severity of minority stress experienced by sexual minority women in psychiatric treatment. Chief therapeutic concerns were establishment of a therapeutic relationship, conflicts over whether or not to disclose sexual orientation to staff and to family and to fellow patients, depression and self-harm, abuse of substances, difficulties with intimacy, domestic clashes with partners and relatives, and legal questions unique to this population. Women who suffer from SMI and who, at the same time, belong to an additional stigmatized group, are exposed to double discrimination that needs to be recognized and effectively targeted.
Methods and Data Analysis for Cross-Cultural Research

'A sound guide through the complexities of cross-cultural research, written by an international team of first-rate scholars' - Harry C Triandis, University of Illinois This comprehensive guide, which covers all major issues in the field, presents cross-cultural methodology in a practical light. The initial presentation of theory serves as a basis for the discussion of methods, design and analysis that follows. Topics examined include: the design and analysis of quasi-experiments - the dominant framework for cross-cultural research; the most important tools of cross-cultural research; and the most useful techniques, illustrated with sample data.
System for the experimental evaluation of anthropomorphic hands. Application to a new 3D-printed prosthetic hand prototype

Abstract In the present study, we propose a new actuation device and protocol for testing the grasping performance of low-cost 3D-printed hand prototypes. The actuation device is connected to the forearm of a healthy user and allows him to use his thumb and fingers to control any prototype moved by up to six tendons attached to this device. The protocol includes grasping actions on 24 different objects using eight typical grasp types to obtain a grasping ability score and information about the coordination of motion among the fingers. This study also presents a new design for a low-cost 3D-printed prosthetic hand, called the IMMA hand. Preliminary tests were performed with the IMMA hand and the actuation device on two subjects, using the protocol, to assess the validity of the device for the experimental evaluation of hand prototypes in early design stages. The analysis of the results of these tests shows that the coordination of motions among fingers is quite similar for both subjects, indicating a similar control of the artificial hand. Index and ring finger motions are highly correlated in over half of the grasp actions performed for both subjects.
Evaluation and modelling of perceived audio quality in popular music, towards intelligent music production

This thesis addresses three fundamental questions: What is mixing? What makes a high-quality mix? How can high-quality mixes be automatically generated? While these may seem essential to the very foundations of intelligent music production, this thesis argues that they have not been sufficiently addressed in previous studies. An important contribution is the questioning of previously-held definitions of a 'mix'. Experiments were conducted in which participants used traditional mixing interfaces to create mixes using gain, panning and equalisation. The data was analysed in a novel 'mix-space', 'panning-space' and 'tone-space' in order to determine if there is a consensus in how these tools are used. Methods were developed to create mixes by populating the mix-space according to parametric models. These mixes were characterised by signal features, the distributions of which suggest tolerance bounds for automated mixing systems. This was complemented by a study of real-world music mixes, containing hundreds of mixes each for ten songs, collected from on-line communities. Mixes were shown to vary along four dimensions: loudness/dynamics, brightness, bass and stereo width. The variations between individual mix engineers were also studied, indicating a small effect of the mix engineer on mix preference ratings (eta2 = 0.021). Perceptual audio evaluation revealed that listeners appreciate 'quality' in a variety of ways, depending on the circumstances. In commercially-released music, 'quality' was related to the loudness/dynamic dimension. In mixes, 'quality' is highly correlated with 'preference'. To create mixes which maximised perceived quality, a novel semi-automatic mixing system was developed using evolutionary computation, wherein a population of mixes, generated in the mix-space, is guided by the subjective evaluations of the listener. This system was evaluated by a panel of users, who used it to create their ideal mixes, rather than the technically-correct mixes which previous systems strived for. It is hoped that this thesis encourages the community to pursue subjectively motivated methods when designing systems for music-mixing.
Plantas medicinales utilizadas en el tratamiento de enfermedades de la piel en comunidades rurales de la provincia de Los Ríos – Ecuador

Introduccion. Las enfermedades de la piel ocupan el tercer lugar dentro de las 10 causas de morbilidad general en Ecuador y las practicas de la medicina tradicional son las opciones terapeuticas mas frecuentes en los sectores rurales. Objetivo. Identificar las plantas medicinales utilizadas para el tratamiento de enfermedades de la piel. Diseno. Estudio descriptivo, transversal. Lugar. Dos parroquias rurales del canton Babahoyo -Pimocha y Febres-Cordero-, ubicadas al sur de la provincia de Los Rios, Ecuador. Participantes. Personas responsables del cuidado de la familia, conformado por 198 mujeres (61,7%) y 123 hombres (38,3%), de edades entre 17 y 76 anos. Intervenciones. Previo consentimiento informado, se realizaron observaciones directas, entrevistas y encuestas, en las cuales se utilizo el cuestionario U-PlanMed. Principales medidas de resultados. Especies de plantas y usos terapeuticos. Resultados. Se identificaron 10 especies de plantas y sus aplicaciones terapeuticas en enfermedades como acne, quemaduras, prurito, sarpullido, dermatitis, ulceraciones de la piel (llagas), manchas y cuidado de la piel. Conclusiones. El 100% de la poblacion utilizo plantas medicinales para el tratamiento de afecciones de la piel, siendo las mas usadas la Aloe vera (Sabila), Chamaemelum nobile (manzanilla), Melissa officinalis (toronjil) y Scoparia dulcis (teatina).
Study and evaluation of several cache replacement policies on a commercial MIPS Processor

Actualmente, el rendimiento de los computadores es un tema candente. Existen importantes limitaciones fisicas y tecnologicas en los semiconductores de hoy en dia, por lo que se realiza un gran esfuerzo desde las universidades y la industria para garantizar la continuidad de la ley de Moore. Este proyecto esta centrado en el estudio de la cache y la jerarquia de memoria, uno de los grandes temas en la materia. Para ello, hemos escogido MIPSfpga, una plataforma hardware abierta de Imagination Technologies, lo que nos ha permitido implementar y testear diferentes politicas de reemplazamiento como prueba de concepto, demostrando, ademas, las bondades de la plataforma.
Contested Discourses on Migrant Connectivity: Migrant Users and Corporations of Mobile Phone and Money Transfer Services in Catalonia. An interdisciplinary approach

La tesi soste que les empreses privades que presten serveis de connectivitat constitueixen actors cada vegada mes influents en la migracio contemporania. Per aixo analitza els discursos comercials dels proveidors de telefonia mobil i serveis de transferencia de diners a Espanya, i els contrasta amb les experiencies d'equatorians i marroquins que viuen a Catalunya i usen aquests serveis per mantenir-se en contacte amb les seves xarxes personals, tant en les societats d'origen com de destinacio. El disseny de la recerca combina els Estudis Culturals i els Estudis Critics del Discurs per analitzar els testimoniatges dels migrants aixi com els discursos comercials a traves de la publicitat i d'entrevistes amb responsables de les empreses. D'una banda, les conclusions van mostrar els mecanismes mitjancant els quals els discursos corporatius han mercantilizat i estetizat les experiencies de connectivitat dels migrants. D'altra banda, es va evidenciar un paper actiu dels migrants com a agents de les seves estrategies de connectivitat, apropiant-se dels serveis oferts i creant estrategies de baix cost per convertir limitacions en oportunitats, en moments de creixent mobilitat, connectivitat digital i la consolidacio d'una economia de serveis.
Fuzzy Histogram of Optical Flow Orientations for Micro-Expression Recognition

In high-stake situations, the micro-expressions reveal the hidden emotions of a person and it has potential applications in many areas. The recognition of such short-lived subtle expressions is a challenging task. The literature proposes several spatio-temporal features to encode the subtle changes on the face during a micro-expression. The spatial changes are almost indistinguishable as the facial appearance does not change appreciably. However, these changes possess a temporal pattern. This paper explores the temporal features associated with facial micro-movements and proposes fuzzy histogram of optical flow orientation (FHOFO) features for recognition of micro-expressions. The FHOFO constructs suitable angular histograms from optical flow vector orientations using histogram fuzzification to encode the temporal pattern for classifying the micro-expressions. We have also discussed the effect of inclusion and exclusion of the motion magnitudes during FHOFO feature extraction. It has been demonstrated by repeated experiments on the publicly available databases, that the performance of FHOFO is consistent and close or at times even better than the state-of-art techniques.
Predictors of trends were similar for absolute and percentage CD4+ T-lymphocytes in HIV-infected children in Ghana

Abstract Percentage CD4+ T-lymphocyte is used for immunologic monitoring human immune deficiency virus (HIV) infections in children. Given the relative ease of obtaining absolute CD4+ T-lymphocyte, we sought to investigate whether the predictors of the trends in absolute and percentage CD4+ T-lymphocytes in HIV-infected children in resource-limited setting were similar. A retrospective analysis of CD4+ T-lymphocytes data from June, 2004 to December, 2007 of the Pediatric HIV cohort at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana. Mixed models were used to examine predictors of the trends in absolute and percentage CD4+ T-lymphocytes. Absolute and percentage CD4+ T-lymphocytes increased over time (p < 0.001). Baseline absolute and percentage values correlated with subsequent values (p < 0.001). Gender, age, treatment, World Health Organization clinical staging, and the source of patient referral to the clinic did not predict the changes in CD4+ T-lymphocytes. The predictors of the trends in absolute and percentage CD4+ T-lymphocytes were similar. Studies are needed to examine whether absolute CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts could be used to monitor pediatric HIV in resource-limited settings.
Teaching Android Mobile Security

At present, computer science studies generally offer courses addressing mobile development and they use mobile technologies for illustrating theoretical concepts such as operating system, design patterns, and compilation because Android and iOS use a large variety of technologies for developing applications. Teaching courses on security is also becoming an important concern for academics, and the use of mobile platforms (such as Android) as supporting material is becoming a reasonable option. In this paper, we intend to bridge a gap in the literature by reversing this paradigm: Android is not only an opportunity to learn security concepts but requires strong pedagogical efforts for covering all the aspects of mobile security. Thus, we propose teaching Android mobile security through a two-dimensional approach. The first dimension addresses the cognitive process of the Bloom taxonomy, and the second dimension addresses the technical layers of the architecture of the Android operating system. We describe a set of comprehensive security laboratory courses covering various concepts, ranging from the application development perspective to a deep investigation of the Android Open Source Project and its interaction with the Linux kernel. We evaluated this approach, and our results verify that the designed security labs impart the required knowledge to the students.
An Investigation of the Psychometric Properties of Pictorial Testimonial of Verbs Expression in Persian Language and Hearing Loss Children

Purpose: The purpose of the research was to assess the content validity and, internal consistency review of pictorial testimonial of verbs expression in Persian language and sever hearing loss children and 4-5 years. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, list of frequency and every day verbs of Persian language were selected. Selected list with their pictures were examined in terms of pictures suitability and frequency of selected verbs in the bachelor panel consists of academic speech therapists of the university. To gain content validity of pictorial testimonial of verbs expression, questionnaire according to the selected list was designed. Then, 14 speech therapists were judged all questionnaire verbs and validity questionnaire was evaluated to employ Lawshe method. Then, 17 (9 girls and 8 boys) children 5, 6 years and sever hearing loss were identified that were matched by entry and exit criteria. After sample selection and test run, children's answers are registered in the form of correct and false answers. And finally, internal consistency calculated to using Cranach's alpha. Results: To investigate responses of 14 speech therapists, 86.8 of testimonial verbs have content validity greater than 5 as result of 5 from 38 verbs was deleted. 69.69 of items of testimonial have the value of internal consistency (0.3-0.7) Conclusion: Pictorial testimonial of verbs expression in Persian language and hearing loss children has partly good internal consistency and content validity for assessment verbs expression of hearing loss children.
Phoneme Concatenation Method for Myanmar Speech Synthesis System

This paper discusses the approach used to develop a Text-to-Speech (TTS) synthesis system for the Myanmar language. Concatenative method has been used to develop this TTS system using phoneme as the basic units for concatenation. In this proposed system, phoneme plays an important role so that Myanmar phoneme inventory is presented in detail. In Myanmar language, schwa is the only vowel that is allowed in a minor syllable or consonant that has half-sound of the original one. If these half sound can be handled, the TTS quality will be high. After analyzing the number of phoneme and half-sound consonant to be recorded, create the Myanmar phoneme speech database which contains total 157 phoneme speech sounds that can speech out for all Myanmar texts. These phonemes are fetched according to the result from the phonetic analysis modules and concatenated them by using proposed new phoneme concatenation algorithm. According to the experimental results, the system achieved the high level of intelligibility and acceptable level of naturalness. As the application area, it is intended for the resource limited device to use as language learning app and so on.
Throughput increase of the covert communicatio n channel organized by the stable steganography algorithm using spatial domain of the image.

О. В. Костирка. Підвищення пропускної спроможності прихованого каналу зв’язку, організованого стійким стеганоалгоритмом, що використовує просторову область зображення. При організації прихованого каналу зв’язку до стеганографічних алгоритмів, що використовуються, висувається ряд вимог, основними з яких є стійкість до атак проти вбудованого повідомлення, надійність сприйняття сформованого стеганоповідомлення, значна пропускна спроможність стеганографічного каналу зв’язку. Мета: Метою роботи є модифікація розробленого автором раніше стеганографічного методу, яка дозволить при збереженні стійкості до атак проти вбудованого повідомлення і надійності сприйняття стеганоповідомлення, що формується, властивих методу, збільшити пропускну спроможність відповідного прихованого каналу зв’язку. Матеріали і методи: Запропоновано дві модифікації стеганографічного методу, стійкого до атак проти вбудованого повідомлення, здійснюючого занурення і декодування інформації, яка пересилається (додаткової), в просторовій області зображення, що дозволяють збільшити пропускну спроможність прихованого каналу зв’язку. Використання просторової області зображення дозволяє уникнути накопичення додаткової обчислювальної похибки в процесі занурення/декодування додаткової інформації за рахунок «переходів» з просторової області зображення в область перетворення і назад, що позитивно позначається на ефективності декодування. Розглянуті наступні атаки проти вбудованого повідомлення: накладення на стеганоповідомлення різних шумів, фільтрація, стиск стеганоповідомлення із втратами, для чого використано формати JPEG і JPEG2000 з різними коефіцієнтами якості для збереження стеганоповідомлення. Результати: Показано, що алгоритмічні реалізації запропонованих модифікацій залишаються стійкими до збурюючих дій, в тому числі значних, забезпечують надійність сприйняття сформованих стеганоповідомлень, в два рази збільшують пропускну спроможність стеганографічного каналу зв’язку, що формується, в порівнянні з алгоритмом, який реалізує стеганографічний метод, взятий за основу. Всі висновки підтверджено результатами представницьких обчислювальних експериментів. Ключові слова: стеганографічний алгоритм, цифрове зображення, пропускна спроможність прихованого каналу зв’язку, стійкість до атак проти вбудованого повідомлення, надійність сприйняття.
Beyond FYA: Analysis of the Utility of LSAT Scores and UGPA for Predicting Academic Success in Law School. LSAC Research Report Series.

This study was designed to examine questions about the validity and utility of two commonly used predictors of academic success in law school, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) score and the undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), when the criterion measure is grade point average at the completion of law school (LGPA). The study also examined the multiple correlation of LSAT scores and UGPA with LGPA. Data were examined for individual schools and for six clusters of law schools similar to one another on a variety of school and student body characteristics. A second set of issues examined concerned differential prediction: whether LSAT and UGPA predict cumulative LGPA as accurately for nonwhite students as for white students, and whether there are patterns of overor underprediction among those groups that are different when cumulative LGPA is the criterion or when first-year LGPA (FYA) is the criterion. Data are from 142 law schools. The major finding is that LSAT score and UGPA in combination are related to cumulative LPA at approximately the same level as they are related to firstyear LGPA. A second important finding is that patterns of predictive validity for different ethnic and sex groups do not seem to change regardless of whether the criterion is first-year or cumulative LGPA. However, there is an overall tendency for test scores and undergraduate grades to overpredict law school performance for nonwhite students. Data from the study demonstrate the utility of LSAT scores and UGPAs in the law school admission process beyond the prediction of first-year performance. (Contains 15 tables and 21 references.) (SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. LSAC RESEARCH REPORT SERIES PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
Platooning Maneuvers in Vehicular Networks: A Distributed and Consensus-Based Approach

Cooperative driving is an essential component of future intelligent road systems. It promises greater safety, reducing accidents due to drivers distraction, improved infrastructure utilization, and fuel consumption reduction with platooning applications. Proper platoon management requires inter-vehicular communication (IVC), longitudinal control and lateral control for stability and safety, and proper application protocols and algorithms to manage platoons and perform coordinated maneuvers. This paper shows, how a longitudinal controller based on distributed consensus can, at the same time, guarantee stability and performance in regime platoon operations, and be at the hearth of maneuvering protocols and algorithms, as it remains stable in face of changes of platoon topology and control gains. The adoption of a single control algorithm for two fundamental tasks greatly simplify the overall design of the system and improves stability and safety as it is not required to switch between different controllers during platoon operation. The theoretical properties are proven in the first part of the paper. The second part of the paper is devoted to its implementation in a state-of-the-art mobility and IVC simulator, which is used for an extensive experimental campaign showing the dynamic properties of the system and its performance in a set of typical platoon maneuvers as join, leave, and inclusion of a vehicle in the middle of the platoon. All simulations include realistic details of the vehicle dynamics (mass, dimensions, power train dynamics) as well as extremely detailed modeling of the communication network, from IEEE 802.11p protocol details, to collisions, packet errors, path loss and fading on the channel, and source-destination-based delays.
Tailored Teaching: Emerging Themes from the Literature on Teachersâ€™ Use of Ongoing Child Assessment to Individualize Instruction

Ongoing child assessment is increasingly viewed as a tool for informing and individualizing instruction in early childhood, yet little is known about how ongoing child assessment is implemented at the classroom or the programmatic level. This literature review focuses on how teachers use ongoing assessment and adjust instructional practices and content to better meet the individual strengths, needs, and interests of young children. We identified four important issues in the literature in ongoing assessment in early childhood: (1) many teachers do not consistently collect ongoing assessment data, nor do they use it for instruction and individualization; (2) barriers to using data include lack of pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge about how to conduct assessments and interpret data; (3) teachers want more training and professional development in this area; and (4) more needs to be known about how to support the successful implementation of ongoing child assessment.