Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The challenges of fostering and maintaining continuity in a music therapy group for mothers and children who meet primarily during school holidays

This paper explores the concept of continuity in the context of a long-term open music therapy group for mothers and children with learning disabilities between 5 and 18 years old. Based in a small rural village in Japan where there was no previous access to music therapy, the group has been active for 13 years and meets primarily during school holidays. Over time, up to 27 Japanese mothers with their children have participated in the group. The therapist encourages musical interaction and expression through musical improvisation and engagement with the family. The significance of continuity in therapeutic practice is explored in different ways. In addition to focusing on a case study of individual music therapy with a child on the autistic spectrum (who attended the group), this paper presents feedback from the mothers who participated together with their children in the group. Theories and methods which the music therapist has found helpful in her work with the group are also discussed, such as the “back to basics” music therapy approach (Drake 2008) which draws on attachment theory (Bowlby 1988) and the writings of Winnicott (1960, 1963, 1971). Continuity is discussed in terms of helping the group to develop a safe environment to which the mothers and children repeatedly returned. It is proposed that the process of developing this safe environment, in turn, may eventually lead to the type of parent networking that may be able to support children with learning disabilities throughout their lifetime.
GOLD NANOPARTICLES IN CANCER THERAPY

Gold nanoparticles have many properties that are attractive for the use in the cancer therapy. They are small and widely penetrate into the body, preferentially accumulating at the tumor sites owing to EPR effect . They can bind many proteins and drugs and can be actively targeted to cancer cells over expressing cell surface receptors. Gold nanoparticle have high atomic number, which leads to greater absorption of kilovoltage Xrays and provide greater contrasts than standard agents. Gold nanoparticles have been shown to cause radio sensitization at kilovoltage and megavoltage photon energies. The factors that affect gold nanoparticle pharmacokinetics, bio-distribution and in-vivo toxicity need to be clarified. Targeted gold nanoparticle need to exit tumour vasculature, cross the tumour intersitium, enter the cells and potentially exit lysosomes to be effective in-vivo. A standard approach for physicochemical characterization and pre-clinical testing needs to be implemented and this process is being aided by the NLC. With intense global interest in nanotechnology and particularly in nanomedicine.
Deep Challenges of Natural Vision for AI

Much research on vision assumes that the functions of vision are obvious and attempts to investigate, or build, mechanisms that those functions require. However, there are many functions of biological vision that go unnoticed, or are mis-described, and that holds back both science and engineering. Some generally unrecognized or poorly characterised functions of vision are described, including uses of vision to provide information about what is not the case, the variety of requirements for integrating visual input across time and space, and the roles of vision in mathematical discoveries leading up to Euclid’s Elements, for instance reasoning about what is and is not possible in the environment and why. Some visual functions are important for “online intelligence”, e.g. in visual servo-control, others for “offline intelligence”, e.g. in planning, designing or explaining. Vision can be important in “social intelligence” including requesting or providing shareable information, and acquiring and using information about other individuals (e.g. what they can or cannot reach, or do, or see, or their states of mind). Exhaustively specifying functions of vision is impossible, since they can change. However, we can start with a set of unnoticed requirements relevant to research on vision in intelligent animals and machines.
Effects Of Rose-Hip And Grapeseed Dietary Supplementation On Serum Oxidative Stress Parameters In Dogs Before And After Physical Exercise

Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of 60 days of rose-hip and grapeseed dietary supplementation of a balanced home-cooked diet on serum oxidative stress parameters: ROMs, MDA and FRAP in army service dogs before and after regular physical exercise. The dogs were fed a balanced cooked diet as instructed by army standards until the initial blood sampling in June. Thereon the dogs were randomly allotted to 4 groups according to the dietary regime: dogs maintained on a balanced cooked diet according to army standards, branded dry dog food, cooked diet with added 500 mg rose-hip extract, and cooked diet with added 100 mg grapeseed extract for a 60 day period from June to September after which all 4 groups were fed the standard cooked meal diet. Sampling was performed at the beginning of the experiment (June), 60 days from the start of the treatment (September) and finally 60 days after the end of supplementation (November). Statistical analysis of the results included descriptive statistical parameters: mean (M), standard deviation (SD), and variation coefficient (CV%). In order to test the statistical significance of the differences between treatments a multifactor variance test (ANOVA) was performed for ROM, MDA and FRAP and the combined effects of diet, exercise and time period were observed. The initial (in June) increase in MDA and ROMs after exercise indicates the presence of oxidative stress 30 minutes after exercise. However, the antioxidative effects of rose-hip and grapeseed extracts are not conclusive, as multifactor ANOVA testing of time, diet, and exercise factors did not reveal for MDA statistically significant differences either at 60 days of supplementation nor 60 days after withdrawal of the supplements. Only one distinct exception was recorded for the prolonged antioxidative effects reflected in significantly decreased (p<0.01) ROMs before and after exercise in dogs fed the branded dry food 60 days after the end of such dietary regime (November). FRAP values tend to be higher (p>0.05) after exercise compared to before exercise in all experimental groups in November, indicating on a possible redistribution and upregulation of endogenous antioxidants during the experiment.
Designing Data Structures to Minimize Bit Flips on NVM

The advent of byte-addressable non-volatile memory technologies such as phase change memory (PCM) has spurred a flurry of research on topics including consistency and durability of data structures across power failures and optimizing systems for the low-latency nature of these technologies, while typically aiming to increase lifetime and reduce power consumption by reducing the number of writes to the non-volatile memory. However, in technologies such as PCM, it is bit flips that consume power and wear out cells, not writes. Thus, PCM controllers do not rewrite cells unless the cell changes value. However, this crucial optimization, reducing the number of bits flipped, has not been sufficiently explored for the rest of the hardware and software stack. We develop a framework for using the number of bit flips as the measure of "goodness" for a range of hardware and software techniques. We also introduce several simple and straightforward modifications to existing data structures that can reduce the number of bit flips over time, and profile use cases in which the approach with the fewest writes does not also minimize bit flips. Based on these findings, we discuss potential approaches that can further minimize bit flips, better optimizing hardware and software for non-volatile memory technologies such as PCM.
X-Ray Microscopy of Spin Wave Focusing using a Fresnel Zone Plate

Magnonics, i.e. the artificial manipulation of spin waves, is a flourishing field of research with many potential uses in data processing within reach. Apart from the technological applications the possibility to directly influence and observe these types of waves is of great interest for fundamental research. Guidance and steering of spin waves has been previously shown and lateral spin wave confinement has been achieved. However, true spin wave focusing with both lateral confinement and increase in amplitude has not been shown before. Here, we show for the first time spin wave focusing by realizing a Fresnel zone plate type lens. Using x-ray microscopy we are able to directly image the propagation of spin waves into the nanometer sized focal spot. Furthermore, we observe that the focal spot can be freely moved in a large area by small variations of the bias field. Thus, this type of lens provides a steerable intense nanometer sized spin wave source. Potentially, this could be used to selectively illuminate magnonic devices like nano oscillators with a steerable spin wave beam.
A Collaboration Pipeline for Cybersecurity Research , Analytics , and Tools

Network and host-based sensors collect data that are foundational for current-day cybersecurity technologies such as intrusion detection and prevention systems. However, for cybersecurity incidents, these data only tell a part of the story. Lacking are the data from the inside view (or attacker perspective), including specific attacker actions, tools used, and strategies. Availability of such data will lead to technologies that provide decision support, perform automated security testing, and strengthened intrusion detection systems.
Vegetation changes associated with cattle (Bos taurus) and wombat (Vombatus ursinus) activity in a riparian forest

Question Is the composition of groundstorey vegetation influenced by wombat burrowing and mound construction as well as streambank tracks by domestic cattle at high and low levels of usage? Location Sixteen streambank study sites in an agricultural area in Kangaroo Valley, southeastern New South Wales, Australia. Methods We examined the effects of cattle and wombats on vegetation by measuring plant and litter cover on three markedly different microsites; wombat mounds, the network of tracks used by both cattle and wombats to access pastures away from the riparian area, and control sites that were neither tracks nor mounds, and which were located 1–2 m away from mounds or tracks. Results We recorded significantly fewer vascular plant species on the mounds and tracks than on the control microsites, but there were significantly more species at sites of high cattle usage than low cattle usage. Plant cover on the control microsites was more than twice that on the mounds and tracks. The exotic plants, panic veldt grass (Ehrharta erecta) and kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum) were typical indicators of high cattle use sites, while wandering jew (Tradescantia fluminensis) and to a lesser extent the unpalatable, low-sprawling shrub mistflower (Ageratina riparia) were indicators of low cattle use sites. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that there are few differences in plant community composition between microsites constructed by cattle and those of wombats. Both microsites supported a community that was a subset of the species pool in the surrounding vegetation. Cattle grazing since 1851 in Kangaroo Valley has probably reduced disturbance-sensitive plant species, resulting in an effect that is more apparent at the landscape scale. Further study should focus on the landscape-scale effects of cattle grazing to determine whether cattle or wombats are the major causes of ecosystem degradation in Australian riparian environments.
A Cohort Study on Detecting Delirium Using 4 'A's Test in a London,UK, Hospital

Delirium is a common neuropsychiatric disorder in hospitalised older adults. Often unrecognized, delirium is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, length of hospital stay, institutionalisation and costs to healthcare providers. The objective of this prospective cohort study was to detect the prevalence of delirium in a London (UK) hospital testing the feasibility and reliability of the 4 A's Test (4AT). Over a seven day period 174 inpatients were assessed by non-psychiatrically trained doctors using the 4AT and three widely adopted screening tools. The 4AT helped detect 21 (10.2%) delirious patients uncovering a delirium prevalence of 8.63 per 1000 hospital days. The 4AT showed a compatibility of 75% with other tools used. Changes in consciousness are often missed, but can be easily detected introducing a screening tool as the 4AT.
An extensible modular tool for distributed control systems

In the present paper a flexible computer aided control engineering environment is illustrated which has been developed to model, simulate and evaluate correctness and performance of distributed real-time control systems. The computer aided design (CAD) system has the capability to allow customization of representation formalisms and to separate the definition (and debugging) of a control algorithm from that of the communication mechanisms among tasks and processors, specific of a target architecture. An accurate data structure and data manipulation functions definitely reduce designer's effort when facing complex control problems. <<ETX>>
Generation of DDoS Attack Dataset for Effective IDS Development and Evaluation

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are performed from multiple agents towards a single victim. Essentially, all attacking agents generate multiple packets towards the victim to overwhelm it with requests, thereby overloading the resources of the victim. Since it is very complex and expensive to conduct a real DDoS attack, most organizations and researchers result in using simulations to mimic an actual attack. The researchers come up with diverse algorithms and mechanisms for attack detection and prevention. Further, simulation is good practice for determining the efficacy of an intrusive detective measure against DDoS attacks. However, some mechanisms are ineffective and thus not applied in real life attacks. Nowadays, DDoS attack has become more complex and modern for most IDS to detect. Adjustable and configurable traffic generator is becoming more and more important. This paper first details the available datasets that scholars use for DDoS attack detection. The paper further depicts the a few tools that exist freely and commercially for use in the simulation programs of DDoS attacks. In addition, a traffic generator for normal and different types of DDoS attack has been developed. The aim of the paper is to simulate a cloud environment by OMNET++ simulation tool, with different DDoS attack types. Generation normal and attack traffic can be useful to evaluate developing IDS for DDoS attacks detection. Moreover, the result traffic can be useful to test an effective algorithm, techniques and procedures of DDoS attacks.
Interaction of imipenem and tigecycline against carbapenem-resistant acinetobacter baumanii: the relativity of synergism

Acinetobacter baumanii is an opportunistic bacterium that causes widespread nosocomial infections and tends to be multi-resistant to most of antibiotics. Tigecycline is a well-known antibiotic that possesses a wide-range of activities and is very active in vitro towards a variety of resistant pathogens, including A. baumanii. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the imipenem and tigecycline combination against carbapenem-resistant A. baumanii (CRAB). The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined using the E-test method. The microbroth checkerboard technique was employed to determine the effects of the imipenem and tigecycline interaction by obtaining the fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) index value. A time kill (TK) study was performed to identify any synergistic effects when both imipenem and tigecycline were used against CRAB strains. The result demonstrated that all A. baumanni strains exhibited imipenem MIC values of 32 μg/mL. The combination of imipenem and tigecycline demonstrated an additive effect (FIC > 0.5-4) against all of the strains and synergistic activity (decrement of > 2 log10 CFU/mL) towards AC 34/07 and AC 32/06 strains. The use of imipenem in combination with tigecycline resulted in a more efficient activity and an increased capability to control CRAB infections. This effect showed potential combination and may be of importance in the development or modification of antimicrobial agents for the treatment of CRAB infections.
Flexible Manufacturing System A Modern Approach To Manufacturing Technology

Flexibility in manufacturing system is one of the most important issues of present scenario, to fulfill the desired customer’s requirement & getting low cost and high quality of product that enforced to adopting the flexible manufacturing system for various modern manufacturing enterprises. The basic of FMS is to convert & increases positivity throughout the manufacturing process for achieving higher productivity and best quality of product. Flexible manufacturing system consist of an integrated system of computerized numerically controlled (CNC) machine tool , automated material handling system operating under the controlled computer , workstation, storage etc. This paper highlights the merits, demerits, application of FMS and also overviewed of other aspect of FMS. Keyword:Computer Numerical Control, FMS Layout, Flexibility, Flexible Manufacturing System
Techniques for quantifying the accuracy of gridded elevation models and for mapping uncertainty in digital terrain analysis

We first provide a critical review of statistical procedures employed in the literature for testing uncertainty in digital terrain analysis, then focus on several aspects of spatial autocorrelation that have been neglected in the analysis of gridded elevation data. When applied to first derivatives of elevation such as topographic slope, a spatial approach using Moran’s I and the LISA (Local Indicator of Spatial Association) allows: (1) georeferenced data patterns to be generated; (2) error hot- and coldspots to be located; and (3) error propagation during DEM manipulation to be evaluated. In a worked example focusing on the Wasatch mountain front, Utah, we analyse the relative advantages of six DEMs resulting from different acquisition modes (airborne, optical, radar, or composite): the LiDAR (2 m), CODEM (5 m), NED10 (10 m), ASTER DEM (15 m) and GDEM (30 m), and SRTM (90 m). The example shows that (apart from the LiDAR) the NED10, which is generated from composite data sources, is the least error-ridden DEM for that region. Knowing error magnitudes and where errors are located determines where corrections to elevation are required in order to minimize error accumulation or propagation, and clarifies how they might affect expert judgement in environmental decisions. Ground resolution issues can subsequently be addressed with greater confidence by resampling the preferred grid to terrain resolutions suited to the landscape attributes of interest. Source product testing is an essential yet often neglected part of DEM analysis, with many practical applications in hydrological modelling, for predictions of slope- to catchment-scale mass sediment flux, or for the assessment of slope stability thresholds.
Extended image differencing for change detection in UAV video mosaics

Change detection is one of the most important tasks when using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for video reconnaissance and surveillance. We address changes of short time scale, i.e. the observations are taken in time distances from several minutes up to a few hours. Each observation is a short video sequence acquired by the UAV in near-nadir view and the relevant changes are, e.g., recently parked or moved vehicles. In this paper we extend our previous approach of image differencing for single video frames to video mosaics. A precise image-to-image registration combined with a robust matching approach is needed to stitch the video frames to a mosaic. Additionally, this matching algorithm is applied to mosaic pairs in order to align them to a common geometry. The resulting registered video mosaic pairs are the input of the change detection procedure based on extended image differencing. A change mask is generated by an adaptive threshold applied to a linear combination of difference images of intensity and gradient magnitude. The change detection algorithm has to distinguish between relevant and non-relevant changes. Examples for non-relevant changes are stereo disparity at 3D structures of the scene, changed size of shadows, and compression or transmission artifacts. The special effects of video mosaicking such as geometric distortions and artifacts at moving objects have to be considered, too. In our experiments we analyze the influence of these effects on the change detection results by considering several scenes. The results show that for video mosaics this task is more difficult than for single video frames. Therefore, we extended the image registration by estimating an elastic transformation using a thin plate spline approach. The results for mosaics are comparable to that of single video frames and are useful for interactive image exploitation due to a larger scene coverage.
Workplace Ergonomics and Employees ’ Health : A Case Study at Automotive Manufacturer

Employees’ health (either physiological or psychological) could have significant effects on organizational productivity and competitiveness. Unhealthy employees incline to be absent and have high sick and hospitalization leaves. Recent statistics from Social Security Organizations of Malaysia indicate that the number of occupational diseases reported has increased every year from 2005 (194 cases) to 2014 (3002 cases). The number of Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) and occupational stress are also rising at alarming rate. Poor workplace ergonomics is claimed as one of the major contributors to the declining of employees’ health. Despite its importance, study on the effect of workplace ergonomics on employees’ health is still very limited. Thus, this paper aimed to identify the effects of workplace ergonomics (in terms of indoor air quality, lighting, furniture and tools, acoustics, building general environment) on employees’ health (physiological or psychological). A cross sectional survey participated by 171 employees of an automotive manufacturer revealed that all elements of workplace ergonomics have significant correlations with employees’ health (p <0.05) with indoor air quality has the strongest coefficient of 0.688. Regression analysis shows that workplace ergonomics explained 51.8% variance in employees’ health with only indoor air quality is retained as significant contributor. This finding implies the importance of workplace ergonomics on employees’ health and that safety and health issues need to be incorporated in organizational strategic directions to ensure the organizational sustainability. Keywords— Workplace Ergonomics; Employees’ Health; Automotive Industry
Design and Implementation of High Performance BPSK Demodulator for Satellite Communications

The Delfi program is a development line of small satellites comprising the successful Delfi-C3 and Delfi-n3Xt CubeSat missions. As part of an effort to involve radio amateurs from all over the world, a telemetry client is designed which allows radio amateurs to demodulate, decode and display telemetry data. This software was designed for an RF front-end connected to a sound card acting as low-end baseband sampling device. It has been discovered that there was a significant gap of 5 dB between the required Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) for the software demodulator and the theoretical required link margin. This thesis presents an approach which decreases this gap while upgrading the demodulator for future use, taking advantage of emerging capabilities of Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology.