Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Video game experience improves sustained and divided attention but does not affect resistance to cognitive fatigue

An increasing number of occupations involve tasks requiring sustained and divided attention skills. These tasks are often susceptible to the effects of cognitive fatigue, resulting in poorer performance and increasing the likelihood of human error. Previous research indicates that those who regularly play action video games have superior performance on cognitive tests that are related to sustained attention and divided attention performance. Few studies, however, have investigated how performance on these tasks change as time-on-task increases. The current study compared the performance of 18 video game players (VGPs) and 24 non-video game players (NVGPs) on the NASA Multi-Attribute Task Battery (version 2; MATB-II) before and after completing a 60-minute sustained attention task. Results indicated that at the multivariate level, VGPs demonstrated superior sustained attention compared to NVGPs, however both groups experienced similar levels of cognitive fatigue with an increasing number of errors and greater reaction time variability as time-on-task increased. In addition, at the multivariate level, VGPs demonstrated superior divided attention performance compared to NVGPs, however univariate analyses revealed a more complex relationship. Further, the performance of both groups improved in the second session compared to the first, indicating a learning effect rather than a fatigue effect. Whilst the current results demonstrate VGP superiority in sustained and divided attention tasks, there was no evidence that these abilities assist with resisting the effects of cognitive fatigue.
The Misty Grail: The Search for a Comprehensive Measure of Development and the Reasons of GDP Primacy

The last decades have seen a flourishing of new indicators to measure economic progress, but none of them has succeded in replacing GDP. Why? The article reviews what are arguably the three most successful alternatives to GDP (the Human Development Index, the Genuine Progress Indica-tor, and the Happy Planet Index), by focusing on their conceptual foundations (the capability ap-proach, utilitarism, the wealth approach, or a mix of these) − rather than on statistical solidity or mathematical refinement as most of the literature does. After discussing their faults, it is shown that the wealth approach underlying GDP can be easily extended to include environmental and well-being components (non-market wealth measured at market prices), and to substantiate this claim es-timates of environment-augmented GDP for 130 countries are presented and discussed. However, up to the present not even this line of research has been successful. This suggests that among the reasons behind GDP primacy there is not only philosophical consistency or statistical soundness, but also social suitability, being the standard GDP more suitable to reflect the goals of capitalist-market economies. Constructing composite indicators alternative to GDP is trivial, until when the current preference system has not been changed. To achieve this change, a dashboard approach may be preferable to composite indicators, since the former provides the different social groups with in-telligible quantitative instruments.
Neural Network based Control Method Implemented on Ambidextrous Robot Hand

Human hands can precisely perform a wide range of tasks. This paper investigates key performance differences when conventional robotic hand controllers are combined with Neural Networks (NN). Tests are performed on a novel 3D printed multi-finger ambidextrous robot hand. The ambidextrous hand is actuated using pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) and can bend its fingers both left and right, offering full ambidextrous functionality. Force sensors are placed on the fingertips. In our control method, the grasping trajectory of each finger combines its data with that of the neighboring fingers to obtain accurate results.
Gymnasiebetyg eller högskoleprov som urvalsinstrumewnt? Fallet civilingenjörsutbidningarna

I undersokningen ingar 35 000 individer som paborjat en civilingenjorsutbildning mellan 1993 och 2000. Huvudsyftet ar att klarlagga om det finns nagra skillnader i studieframgang mellan dem som antagits utifran gymnasiebetyg respektive resultat pa hogskoleprov.Om man ser till resultaten efter det forsta studiearet i civilingenjorsutbildningen finns det en mycket tydlig skillnad till betygsgruppens forman; gruppen har i genomsnitt klarat av drygt fyra poang mer och detta galler for samtliga arskullar som ingar i undersokningen. Granskar man den fortsatta studiekarriaren bestar samma monster. De i betygsurvalet fortsatter studierna i hogre utstrackning, de producerar fler poang och de avlagger oftare examen. En huvudorsak till de konstaterade resultaten torde vara skillnaderna i gymnasiebetyg, eftersom ett bra betyg ar mer avgorande for hur man lyckas i civilingenjorsutbildningen an ett bra resultat pa hogskoleprovet. De erhallna resultaten ger upphov till tva fragor: (i) Ar skillnaderna av den storleksordningen att de har nagon egentlig betydelse? (ii) Bor man endast anvanda gymnasiebetygen vid antagningen till civilingenjorsutbildningarna? Bada fragorna diskuteras ingaende i artikeln. Antalet ungdomar som paborjar hogre studier har okat kontinuerligt
CANCER STEM CELLS: A MYTH OR REAL TARGET

Ever since the 17 th century, determining which cells are able to produce tumours has been a key question in cancer biology. Th e answer seemingly lies somewhere between the postulates of the stochastic and hierarchical hypotheses, which is to say that hierarchical order exists in both normal tissue and tumours, that both stem cells and diff erentiated cells (after dediff erentiation) can give rise to several cell lineages, and that both stem cells and mature cells can mutate. It has been found that tumours of various types contain a small percentage of chemotherapy- and radiotherapy-resistant tumour cells, which are long-lived and capable of self-renewal, much like normal stem cells. Th ese cells, which are capable of regrowing tumours, were named “cancer stem cells” (CSCs). According to recent fi ndings, CSCs are genetically and phenotypically similar to normal stem cells and represent the only cell population within tumours that can completely regenerate the original tumour following transplantation. Th ey are the only malignant cells that can be grown as spheres in non-adherent, serum free cultures (a unique characteristic of stem cells). Normal stem cells and CSCs both reside anchored in specifi cally organized microenvironments, or niches, which modulate their behaviour and determine their destiny. CSCs are highly metastatic and resistant to conventional tumour therapies. Conclusion. CSCs and normal tissue stem cells share most of their signalling and self-renewal pathways. Th e only way to overcome CSCs may be to discover their unique regulatory mechanisms and attempt to block these pathways using targeted therapies. Given this conclusion, additional investigation should be performed.
An etymological comparison of English fist and Polish pięść: how they both descended from the pie root for ‘five’

The focus of the paper is the historical comparison of E fist and P pięść from the perspective of diachronic phonology. The paper specifically addresses the issue of the phonological development of this pair of cognates. The main aim is to explain the relatedness and differentiations of the modern reflexes of the original Proto-IndoEuropean roots and to account for their different phonological developments in both languages with a view to understanding the connection between the contemporary cognates. These aims are realised by means of searching for sound changes that explain the discrepancy in the phonological shapes of modern cognates and collecting other pairs of cognates that demonstrate the effect of these sound changes. As the result of the historical and comparative analysis, it is argued that some of the Proto-Germanic reconstructions are more likely than others and in conclusion the most probable development of the two cognates is outlined in the chronological order. It is remarkable that the cognates of the compounds pięść / fist are to be found almost exclusively in Slavic and Germanic and the effect of their development resembles blending.
First derivatives at the optimum analysis (fdao): An approach to estimate the uncertainty in nonlinear regression involving stochastically independent variables

An important problem of optimization analysis surges when parameters such as $ \{\theta_i\}_{i=1,\, \dots \,,k }$, determining a function $ y=f(x | \{\theta_i\}) $, must be estimated from a set of observables $ \{ x_j,y_j\}_{j=1,\, \dots \,,m} $. Where $ \{x_i\} $ are independent variables assumed to be uncertainty-free. It is known that analytical solutions are possible if $ y=f(x | \theta_i) $ is a linear combination of $ \{\theta_{i=1,\, \dots \,,k} \}. $ Here it is proposed that determining the uncertainty of parameters that are not \textit{linearly independent} may be achieved from derivatives $ \tfrac{\partial f(x | \{\theta_i\})}{\partial \theta_i} $ at an optimum, if the parameters are \textit{stochastically independent}.
Efficient Design of Experiment for Exponential Regression Models

In this paper robust and efficient designs are derived for several exponential decay models. These models are widely used in chemistry, pharmacokinetics or microbiology. We propose a maximin approach, which determines the optimal design such that a minimum of the D-efficiencies (taken over a certain range for the nonlinear parameters) becomes maximal. Analytic solutions are derived if optimization is performed in the class of minimal supported designs. In general the optimal designs with respect to the maximin criterion have to be determined numerically and some properties of these designs are also studied.
A THESIS SUBMI’FiED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

This research was designed to address the question of whether 14-month old infants’ ability to associate word-object pairings is influenced by sentence structure. Lloyd, Werker, and Cohen (1993) have shown that 14-month old girls notice changes in word-object pairings in an habituation/dishabituation paradigm, but 8-, 10and 12-month old infants and 14-month old boys do not. Using video images, infants were habituated to two instances of word-object pairings. A set of test trials was then shown: One in which the word-object pairing changed, and one in which it remained the same. The present research used the same habituation/dishabituation procedure in two experiments with 14-month old infants. In Experiment 1 the nonsense words were presented alone, and in Experiment 2 the nonsense words were embedded in a set of carrier phrases. The first critical question was whether the infants would notice that the word-object pairing had been changed. The second critical question was whether this ability varied across conditions: word in isolation vs word in a set of carrier phrases. The results from Experiment 1 provide clear evidence that 14-month old girls, but not boys, are able to make word-object associations when the object labels are presented in isolation. Findings from Experiment 2, in which the target words were presented in a set of carrier phrases, indicate that the particular carrier phrases presented in this study do not facilitate word-learning at this age.
Technological shocks mechanism on Macroeconomic Variables: A Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) approach

As Ghana assumes a position of oil producer and middle-income country, it must learn to effectively deal with the related pressures from shocks. We analyze the effects of productivity shocks on Ghana’s total output using the multi-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model. It was actualized that a productivity shock results in a temporary shrinkage in the final goods sectors due to the reallocation of labour from the final and intermediate goods sectors. We demonstrated that technological shock induces an initial fall in marginal cost of production but later rises to reach equilibrium.
Robust observer–controller compensator design using the loop shaping design procedure and the algebraic method

This paper investigates robust observer‐controller compensator design using Vidyasagar's structure (VS). VS has a unit matrix parameter H similar to the Q parameter for the Youla–Kucera parameterization. VS can be designed based on the left coprimeness of the central controller in the H∞‐loop shaping design procedure (H∞‐LSDP) and therefore can preserve the intrinsic properties of the H∞‐LSDP. This paper introduces algebraic methods to simplify the design of H in the VS controller by solving specific algebraic equations. In particular, the algebraic design of H can achieve two things. First, a dynamic H adjusts the tracking performance and yields the integral action. Second, a dynamic H rejects the input and output sinusoidal disturbances with known frequencies. These attributes are indications of the flexibility of the proposed method since the output‐feedback controller design of the H∞‐LSDP cannot easily deal with such conditions. This paper discusses the achieved loop and the closed‐loop behavior of the system with VS, and also gives two numerical examples. The first example shows that the proposed method results in a better design in many aspects than the resulting from H∞‐LSDP. The second example shows the application of the proposed method to rejecting input and output step disturbances, and input and output multiple sinusoidal disturbances, for which the H∞‐LSDP can hardly be used. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Long-term trends of surface ozone and its influencing factors at the Mt Waliguan GAW station, China – Part 1: Overall trends and characteristics

Abstract. Tropospheric ozone is an important atmospheric oxidant, greenhouse gas and atmospheric pollutant at the same time. The oxidation capacity of the atmosphere, climate, human and vegetation health can be impacted by the increase of the ozone level. Therefore, long-term determination of trends of baseline ozone is highly needed information for environmental and climate change assessment. So far, studies on the long-term trends of ozone at representative sites are mainly available for European and North American sites. Similar studies are lacking for China and many other developing countries. Measurements of surface ozone were carried out at a baseline Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) station in the north-eastern Tibetan Plateau region (Mt Waliguan, 36°17′ N, 100°54′ E, 3816 m a.s.l.) for the period of 1994 to 2013. To uncover the variation characteristics, long-term trends and influencing factors of surface ozone at this remote site in western China, a two-part study has been carried out, with this part focusing on the overall characteristics of diurnal, seasonal and long-term variations and the trends of surface ozone. To obtain reliable ozone trends, we performed the Mann–Kendall trend test and the Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT) analysis on the ozone data. Our results confirm that the mountain-valley breeze plays an important role in the diurnal cycle of surface ozone at Waliguan, resulting in higher ozone values during the night and lower ones during the day, as was previously reported. Systematic diurnal and seasonal variations were found in mountain-valley breezes at the site, which were used in defining season-dependent daytime and nighttime periods for trend calculations. Significant positive trends in surface ozone were detected for both daytime (0.24 ± 0.16 ppbv year−1) and nighttime (0.28 ± 0.17 ppbv year−1). The largest nighttime increasing rate occurred in autumn (0.29 ± 0.11 ppbv year−1), followed by spring (0.24 ± 0.12 ppbv year−1), summer (0.22 ± 0.20 ppbv year−1) and winter (0.13 ± 0.10 ppbv year−1), respectively. The HHT spectral analysis identified four different stages with different positive trends, with the largest increase occurring around May 2000 and October 2010. The HHT results suggest that there were 2–4a, 7a and 11a periodicities in the time series of surface ozone at Waliguan. The results of this study can be used for assessments of climate and environment change and in the validation of chemistry–climate models.
A review of central nervous system leukaemia in paediatric acute myeloid leukaemia

The treatment of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the subject of many studies by collaborative groups around the world. These studies have examined both variations in the timing of chemotherapy agents being given, as well as the addition or omission of specific chemotherapeutic agents. In cooperative group studies, the methods utilized for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) leukemia have remained relatively stable over the years. However, there are significant differences among the different cooperative groups as to the therapy used to treat both overt CNS leukemia and the therapy used for the prevention of CNS leukemia. Similarly, the criterion used to define the presence of CNS leukemia differs among the groups. The majority of cooperative groups classify CNS findings in a similar manner, specifically CNS1 status is less than 5 white blood cells in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with no blasts present, CNS2 status is less than 5 white blood cells in the CSF with the presence of blasts, and CNS3 status is 5 or more white blood cells in the CSF with the presence of blasts (all in an atraumatic tap). This manuscript will examine both the definition and therapy of CNS leukemia in pediatric AML cooperative group trials as well as the incidence of CNS relapse in these trials, with recommendations for therapy based on these studies.
Bank Risk-Taking Abroad: Does Home-Country Regulation and Supervision Matter?

This paper provides the first empirical evidence on how home-country regulation and supervision affects bank risk-tailing in host-country markets. We analyze lending by 136 banks to 8,253 firms in 1,513 different localities across 13 countries. We find strong evidence that laxer regulatory restrictions in the home country are associated with higher loan rejection rates by banks in host-country markets, but that the resulting loans are mostly to small, unaudited, nonexporting, and innovative firms. The results are stronger when banks are less efficiently supervised at home, and they are observed independently from the effect that bank balance sheet have on lending. These findings imply that loose home-country regulation and supervision are associated with important negative externalities for the host-country in terms of more risk-taking by cross-border banks.
MINIATURIZED MICROSTRIP-FED CIRCULAR SPLIT RING RESONATOR ANTENNA

A miniaturized microstrip-fed antenna composed of a broadside coupled split ring resonator and an excitation arc-shaped monopole is presented. Numerical and experimental results are presented for an antenna conflguration of 1/25 wavelength in diameter (ka » 0:126). The antenna size including the ground plane is 60 £ 38:5mm 2 and it is operating at 200MHz. Its resonant frequency can be tuned over a good range of frequency without changing the antenna size, which can increase its usable bandwidth using reconflgurable antenna techniques.
Exploratory Study of Job Insecurity and Entrepreneurial Intention as Correlates of Counterproductive Work Behaviour

In this study, job insecurity and entrepreneurial intention were explored to determine their relationships with counterproductive work behavior. A total of 257 bankers from 23 banks in Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria served as respondents in the study. The participants were selected using stratified sampling method. Out of the 257 participants 142 (55.3%) were males while 115 (44.7%) were females. The ages of the participants ranged from 20 to 50 years with a mean age of 29.41 years and standard deviation of 7.08. Counterproductive work behaviour was measured using a 10-item scale. Job insecurity was measured with a 7-item scale. 4-item scale was used to measure entrepreneurial intentions. Pearson product moment correlation was adopted as a statistical tool for data analysis. The result showed that job insecurity had significant positive relationship with counterproductive work behavior, r (257)= . 66, P
Asymptotic Average Consensus of Continuous-time Multi-agent Systems with Dynamically Quantized Communication

Abstract This paper focuses on the consensus problem of continuous-time single-integrator and double-integrator multi-agent systems (MASs) with dynamically quantized information transmission. The connected undirected graphs are utilized to characterize the interaction topology between the agents. Dynamic quantizers are firstly introduced for a linear asymptotically stable system with a less conservative update interval. Through certainty equivalent quantized feedback controller and state transformation, the consensus problems of single-integrator and double-integrator MASs are then converted to the linear asymptotic stabilization problem, meanwhile the proposed dynamic quantization strategy is naturally applied to MAS to achieve asymptotic quantized average consensus. Finally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.
Server-Customer Interaction Tracker ( SCIT ) : A Computer Vision-Based System to Estimate Dirt-Loading Cycles

Real-time monitoring of the heavy equipment can help practitioners improve machineintensive and cyclic earthmoving operations. It can also provide reliable data for future planning. Surface earthmoving job sites are among the best candidates for vision-based systems due to relatively clear sightlines and recognizable equipment. Several cutting edge computer vision algorithms are integrated with spatiotemporal information, and background knowledge to develop a framework, called server-customer interaction tracker (SCIT), which recognizes and measures the dirt loading cycles. The SCIT system detects dirt loading plants, including excavator and dump trucks, tracks them, and then uses captured spatiotemporal data to recognize loading cycles. A novel hybrid tracking algorithm is developed for the SCIT system to track dump trucks under visually noisy conditions of loading zones. The developed framework was evaluated using videos taken under various conditions. The SCIT system with novel hybrid tracking engine demonstrated reliable performance as the comparison of the machine-generated and ground truth data showed high accuracy. CE Database subject headings: Construction management; automatic identification systems; data collection; imaging techniques; earthmoving; construction equipment.