Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pose-based 3D human motion analysis using Extreme Learning Machine

In 3D human motion pose-based analysis, the main problem is how to classify multi-class label activities based on primitive action (pose) inputs efficiently for both accuracy and processing time. Because, pose is not unique and the same pose can be anywhere on different activity classes. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) in 3D human motion analysis based on pose cluster. ELM has reputation as eager classifier with fast training and testing time but the classification result originally has still low testing accuracy even by increasing the hidden nodes number and adding more training data. To achieve better accuracy, we pursue a feature selection method to reduce the dimension of pose cluster training data in time sequence. We propose to use frequency of pose occurrence. This method is similar like bag of words which is a sparse vector of occurrence counts of poses in histogram as features for training data (bag of poses). By using bag of poses as the optimum feature selection, the ELM performance can be improved without adding network complexity (Hidden nodes number and training data).
Effects of the interaction between ferric iron and L‐dopa melanin on T1 and T2 relaxation times determined by magnetic resonance imaging

T1 and T2 relaxation times of agar phantoms containing L‐dopa melanin and Fe3+ were measured under MRI conditions. Fe3+ shortened T1 and T2 relaxation times. Melanin influenced relaxation times only in the presence of Fe3+; thus, contrast in MR images of the basal ganglia may depend upon levels of both paramagnetic iron and neuromelanin.
Effects of age and gender on the classification and phenomenology of unipolar depression

Aim: The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of age and gender on depressive classification and phenomenology in unipolar depressed in-patients. Methods: The authors have assessed 14 items relevant to depressive symptomatology from the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III (SCID) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) in 180 depressed in-patients. Results: Melancholia was significantly more prominent in older depressed patients (≥ 55 years), whereas minor depression (i.e. adjustment disorder with depressed mood and dysthymic disorder) in younger (< 55 years) depressed subjects. Older depressed subjects exhibited significantly more anorexia/weight loss, non-reactivity, depressed mood, loss of interest, early morning awakening, loss of energy, somatic anxiety, loss of insight, psychotic symptoms and retardation than younger depressed people. Male depressed subjects showed significantly more loss of interest, suicidal ideation and agitation than their female counterparts. Psychomotor disorders, a distinct quality of mood and early morning awakening were characteristics of older depressed males, while diurnal variation occurred more frequently in older depressed females. Conclusion: It is concluded that increasing age in unipolar depression may be accompanied by an increase in severity of illness, increased frequency of some melancholic symptoms, particularly in men and a higher frequency of major depression in women and of melancholia in men.
Visual detection of vehicles using a bag-of-features approach

This paper presents and evaluates the performance of a method for vehicle detection using a bag-of-features methodology. The algorithm combines Speeded Up Robust Features with a Support Vector Machine. An optimization to the bag-of-features dictionary based on a genetic algorithm for attribute selection is also described. The results obtained show that this method can successfully address the problem of vehicle classification.
Debates About Assisted Suicide in Switzerland

AbstractAssisted suicide is allowed in 3 states of the United States (Oregon, Washington, Montana) but only if performed by a physician.On the opposite, in Switzerland, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Swiss Penal Code referred to assisted suicide in the context of honor or an unhappy love affair. It was only in 1985 that Exit Deutsche Schweiz (Exit for German-speaking Switzerland) “medically” assisted the first patient to end his life.Even if authorized by the Swiss law upon certain conditions, assisted suicide is subject to debates for ethical reasons. The Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences described directives to guide physicians on this difficult subject.Different studies showed an increase in the number of medical-assisted suicide in Switzerland since the 1990s. Now, this number seems to be quite stable. Assisted suicide is authorized in a few hospitals under strict conditions (especially when returning home is impossible). Thus, according to the Swiss law, any person could perform assisted suicide; this is essentially performed by 3 main associations, using pentobarbital on medical prescription as lethal substance.Generally speaking, the Swiss population is rather in favor of assisted suicide. Among politics, the debate has been tough until 2010, when the Federal Council decided not to modify the Swiss Penal Code concerning assisted suicide.
Exploration of power flow distribution to reveal scale-free characteristics in power grids

An investigation into the power flow distribution is conducted to better understand the vulnerability of power grids. The distribution of number of links connected to any random node of the power grid follows an exponential distribution. Hence, network theory based topological degree distribution of power grids does not provide useful information about critical elements (e.g., nodes and links). Hence, the distribution of an alternative functional parameter of power grids, node flow, is scrutinized with a view to gain understanding of the paradoxical robust but fragile characteristics explained by power-law distribution. We show that, although the node flow follows the exponential distribution, a meticulous examination of the distribution of high power flow nodes reveals the scale-free characteristics.
Sociability, altruism and well-being

We provide non-experimental evidence of the relevance of sociability to subjective well-being by investigating the determinants of life satisfaction on a sample of Europeans aged above 49. Departing from the neoclassical Homo economicus paradigm of human behaviour, we document that voluntary work, religious attendance, helping friends/neighbours and participation in community-related organisations affect life satisfaction positively and significantly. Moreover, different combinations between actions and motivations generate differential effects on life satisfaction, thereby providing support to the importance of these specific ‘contingent goods’ and to the literature of procedural utility. Our empirical findings are confirmed in robustness checks including refinements of the dependent variable, instrumental variables and sensitivity analysis on departures from the exogeneity assumption.
Establishment and characterization of primary gallbladder epithelial cell cultures in the prairie dog.

BACKGROUND The prairie dog has become the established animal gallstone model. This species has a unique propensity to form cholesterol gallstones in response to dietary manipulations. The development of a reliable gallbladder cell culture technique is critical for understanding pathogenic mechanisms of gallstone formation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Prairie dogs underwent laparotomy and cholecystectomy, followed by initiation of cell cultures. [3H]Thymidine incorporation was used to assess cell growth, and cell lines were assessed using routine histochemical and immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS Cell yields from prairie dog gallbladders were 4-8 x 10(6) viable cells per animal with viability ranging from 80 to 95%. When plated at 5 x 10(5) cells/cm2, cell clusters, visible within 24 h, coalesced into confluent monolayers within 3-5 days. Cultures remained viable for 6-8 weeks and could be passed for three to four subcultures. Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated a high degree of epithelial purity with immunopositivity for AE1/AE3, and cytokeratin, with no vimentin positivity (mesenchymal antigen). Intracytoplasmic vacuoles demonstrated positive staining for Alcian blue, periodic acid-Schiff, and mucicarmine and an anti-gallbladder mucin antibody confirmed the presence of the glycoprotein mucin. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates a reliable method for initiation and maintenance of prairie dog gallbladder epithelial cell cultures with a high degree of purity. This technique should allow further studies into the pathogenesis of cholesterol gallstones in this model.
Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA): Normative data for old and very old Czech adults

ABSTRACT The principal aim of our study was to present norms for old and very old Czech adults on the Czech version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and investigate the influence of social and demographic factors on MoCA performance. We analyzed 540 adults aged ≥ 60 years (5-year age categories; nationally representative sample in terms of sex and educational level), who met strict inclusion criteria for the absence of neurodegenerative disorders and performed within normal range in neuropsychological assessment. Using multiple regression model, we found that MoCA performance was affected by age and education (both p < .001) but not sex. The study provides normed percentile estimates for MoCA performance stratified by age (60–74 years; ≥ 75 years) and education lower versus higher. We also present percentile equivalents for the MoCA and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for use in clinical practice. We found age- and education-related effects on MoCA performance which support the use of culturally adapted normative data.
Childhood Family Dysfunction and Associated Abuse in Patients With Nonepileptic Seizures: Towards a Causal Model

Objective: A history of childhood sexual abuse is thought to characterize patients with nonepileptic seizures (NES). We tested the hypotheses: 1) that history of sexual abuse is more prevalent in patients with NES than in controls with epilepsy; 2) that such abuse is associated with NES, not directly but because it is a marker of family dysfunction; and 3) that family dysfunction and abuse are, in turn, linked to NES because they increase a general tendency to somatize. Methods: We compared 81 patients with NES with 81 case‐matched epilepsy patients, using questionnaires to elicit recollections of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse and family atmosphere and to quantify current somatization. Results: Although each form of abuse was more prevalent in NES patients, only child psychological abuse uniquely distinguished NES from epilepsy. However, its association with NES was explained by family dysfunction. A general tendency to somatize explained part of the relationship of abuse to NES. Conclusions: Abuse therefore seems to be a marker for aspects of family dysfunction that are associated with ‐ and may therefore cause ‐ somatization and, specifically, NES.
Novel, side opened out-of-plane microneedles for microfluidic transdermal interfacing

We present the first hollow out of wafer plane silicon microneedles that have openings in the shaft rather than having an orifice at the tip. These structures are suited for transdermal microfluidic applications, e.g. drug- or vaccine delivery. The developed deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process allows fabrication of two dimensional, mechanically highly resistant needle arrays offering low resistance to liquid flows and offering a large exposure area between the fluid and the tissue. The presented process does not require much wafer handling and only two photolithography steps are needed. Using this chip in a typical application, e.g. vaccine delivery, a 100 /spl mu/l volume of aqueous fluid injected through a chip of 3/spl times/3 mm/sup 2/ in 2s would cause a pressure drop of less than 2kPa. The presented needles are approximately 210 /spl mu/m long.
Increasing Students’ Awareness of Their Behavior in Online Learning Environments with Visualizations and Achievement Badges

In online learning environments where automatic assessment is used, students often resort to harmful study practices such as procrastination and trial-and-error. In this paper, we study two teaching interventions that were designed to address these issues in a university-level computer science course. In the first intervention, we used achievement badges, a form of gamification, to reward students for submitting early, solving exercises with few iterations, and completing the exercises with full points. In the second intervention, we used heatmap visualizations that show a prediction of the student's success if he or she continues to behave in the same way, based on data from earlier courses. The results from a controlled experiment show that the heatmap visualizations had an impact on how early the students submitted their exercises and how many points they earned from them. We also observed that performance approach goal orientation correlated with an interest towards the achievement badges whereas performance avoidance correlated with an interest towards the visualizations. The results indicate that increasing students' awareness of their behavior can have a positive impact on their study practices and results. However, the same type of feedback may not suit all students because of individual differences.
Biologic augmentation of rotator cuff tendon-healing with use of a mixture of osteoinductive growth factors.

BACKGROUND Clinical studies have demonstrated a high rate of incomplete healing of rotator cuff tendon repair. Since healing of such a repair is dependent on bone ingrowth into the repaired tendon, we hypothesized that osteoinductive growth factors would improve rotator cuff tendon-healing. METHODS Seventy-two skeletally mature sheep underwent detachment of the infraspinatus tendon followed by immediate repair. The animals received one of three treatments at the tendon-bone interface: (1) an osteoinductive bone protein extract on a Type-I collagen sponge carrier, (2) the collagen sponge carrier alone, and (3) no implant. The animals were killed at six and twelve weeks, and the repaired rotator cuff was evaluated with use of magnetic resonance imaging, plain radiographs, histologic analysis, and biomechanical testing. RESULTS A gap consistently formed between the end of the repaired tendon and bone in this model, with reparative scar tissue and new bone spanning the gap. Magnetic resonance imaging showed that the volume of newly formed bone (p < 0.05) and soft tissue (p < 0.05) in the tendon-bone gap were greater in the growth factor-treated animals compared with the collagen sponge control group at both time-points. Histologic analysis showed a fibrovascular tissue in the interface between tendon and bone, with a more robust fibrocartilage zone between the bone and the tendon in the growth factor-treated animals. The repairs that were treated with the osteoinductive growth factors had significantly greater failure loads at six weeks and twelve weeks (p < 0.05); however, when the data were normalized by tissue volume, there were no differences between the groups, suggesting that the treatment with growth factor results in the formation of poor-quality scar tissue rather than true tissue regeneration. The repairs that were treated with the collagen sponge carrier alone had significantly greater stiffness than the growth factor-treated group at twelve weeks (p = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS This model tests the effects of growth factors on scar tissue formation in a gap between tendon and bone. The administration of osteoinductive growth factors resulted in greater formation of new bone, fibrocartilage, and soft tissue, with a concomitant increase in tendon attachment strength but less stiffness than repairs treated with the collagen sponge carrier alone.
An exploratory study on how Big Data is perceived by IT organizations in Sweden

Data sets are continuously increasing within organizations. Data sets will also be in larger amounts, have shorter lifetime, is becoming more varied and holds various degrees of uncertainty. Together, these dimensions are included in the term Big Data. There is no universally accepted definition of Big Data and how it should be used. Applications that turn out to be part of a Big Data concept often begin as investments in an organization in order come to new insights or create new business perspectives. The purpose of this study is to compare different theoretical descriptions of Big Data and relate them to how Swedish organizations apply IT solutions which can be defined as Big Data. The study includes four interviews with various actors involved in Big Data applications. The results of the analysis show significant differences between how organizations perceive Big Data, what it can be used for and what challenges and risks involved in its implementation. The study's contribution to the field of Informatics is a better understanding of the phenomenon of Big Data. Furthermore, we have also come to the conclusion that Big Data can be used as a new complement of data sources in decision support systems. This thesis has been written in Swedish.
A Scalable and Flexible Repository for Big Sensor Data

Data generation rates of sensors are rapidly increasing, reaching a limit such that storage expansion cannot keep up with the data growth. We propose a new big data archiving scheme that handles the huge volume of sensor data with an optimized lossy coding. Our scheme leverages spatial and temporal correlations inherent in typical sensor data. The spatio-temporal correlations, observed in quality adjustable sensor data, enable us to compress a massive amount of sensor data without compromising distinctive attributes in sensor signals. Sensor data fidelity can also be decreased gradually. In order to maximize storage efficiency, we derive an optimal storage configuration for this data aging scenario. Experiments show outstanding compression ratios of our scheme and the optimality of storage configuration that minimizes system-wide distortion of sensor data under a given storage space.
Five essays on the dynamics of fiscal policy

If future governments want 10 deviate from past plans we say that its planning is time or dynamic Inconsistent, I this chapter I start by asking why future governments may want 10 deviate from the policy plan announced by the current government Another important question is if and how a pre-committnent 10 a plan can be made. A formal pre-committnent violates the basic principle of democracy. Future governments cannot be reduced 10be the "implementers" of the policy announced by governments in the past This does, however, not mean that today's government is constrained from influencing future policy. Many variables that are controlled by the leaders today influence what policy future governments will chose when they are in power. Much of my discussion is concerned with how the current government can "commit" future governments through manipulation of state variables, and what impact this possibility has on current public and private economic behaviour.
THE GROWTH OF A MONEY ECONOMY IN NIGERIA AND GHANA

ONE of the chief difficulties in the study of the economics of underdeveloped territories is that generalizations cannot easily be made about the group of countries' that come under this heading. The problems and history of each one make its experience unique in many respects and it is often more enlightening to consider the growth of a particular territory or group of territories, taking into account their peculiar features. It is proposed to examine in this paper some aspects of the economies of the West African countries of Nigeria and Ghana. Many of the features of these two countries' economic life are similar to those of other underdeveloped countries, especially those in Africa with the same characteristics, and the analysis may throw some light on the problems of these other areas. Both Nigeria and Ghana are young states created artificially half a century ago. Since then a common economic life and government has helped to add some national substance to this creation, aided in the last ten years by the ferment of nationalism and plans for self-government. Trade, however, preceded the flag and the prominent feature of both countries economies has been their dependence upon foreign trade; the exchange of primary products for a wide range of imports began long before there was any political penetration by European powers and continues in very much the same form in the present time of self-government2 and independence. It has been customary to discuss the economic problems of this type of economy in terms of two sectors, an export sector and a 'subsistence' sector. It has not always been clear what has been meant by the second concept. A corollary of these discussions has often been the assertion that the export sector is the source of the major part of the gross domestic product and that the subsistence sector is of small size and of little importance, even in principle. Such discussions were encouraged, no doubt, by the fact that government activity, financial institutions, banking, currency, and taxation in both Ghana and Nigeria concentrated on
Social determinants of health and quality of life of caregivers of children with cancer.

Objective to associate the social determinants of health and quality of life of caregivers of children with cancer. Methods a cross-sectional study conducted in a paediatric cancer centre in Fortaleza, Brazil, with 176 participants in November and December 2013. Data were collected using a questionnaire with social determinants of health, and quality of life was assessed using the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Bref. The determinants were correlated with the averages of the quality of life domains using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results there was a statistically significant association between the domains of social relations and education (p = 0.01792) and between the psychosocial domain and the gender of the caregiver (p = 0.01901). The male caregivers that were highly educated, younger, married, stay-at-home dads from the interior had a better quality of life. Conclusion the study sheds light on the influence of social determinants of health in the quality of life of caregivers of children with cancer.