Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Constituting the polity, constituting the demos: on the place of the all affected interests principle in democratic theory and in resolving the democratic boundary problem

This essay considers the role of the ‘all affected interests’ principle in democratic theory, focusing on debates concerning its form, substance and relationship to the resolution of the democratic boundary problem. It begins by defending an ‘all actually affected’ formulation of the principle against Goodin's ‘incoherence argument’ critique of this formulation, before addressing issues concerning how to specify the choice set appropriate to the principle. Turning to the substance of the principle, the argument rejects Nozick's dismissal of its intuitive appeal and considers the two arguments advanced in favour of the principle as a criterion of democratic inclusion: the interlinked interests argument and the tracking power argument. It is shown that neither of these arguments can substantiate a view of the principle as a criterion of democratic inclusion, although both ground a constitutional understanding of the principle as specifying the scope of a duty of justification. It is then proposed that the principle can play an important role in a two-stage resolution of the democratic boundary problem in which it addresses the question of who is entitled to inclusion in the ‘pre-political’ demos that determines whether to constitute a polity. The second stage of this resolution requires an answer to the question of who should constitute the ‘political demos’, that is, the demos of a constituted polity and it is argued that a version of the “all subjected persons” principle can appropriately play this role.
Dating The Prince: Beginnings and Endings

Let's begin by presenting some newly discovered documents concerning Niccolò Machiavelli. The biographical detail may at first appear overwhelming, but the light these documents shed on the chronology of Machiavelli's composition of The Prince helps to answer some old questions concerning the character of Machiavelli's little treatise. The new documents date from the year 1515. They were drawn up at a time of financial difficulty and profound personal disappointment in the life of the former Florentine secretary and second chancellor. In 1512 Machiavelli had been fired from the chancery of the Florentine Republic. In 1513 he had been arrested on a probably false charge of conspiracy, tortured (although he gave no confession), and then unexpectedly freed in a general amnesty following the election of a Florentine, Giovanni de' Medici, as Pope Leo X. In 1515, at the time these documents were drawn up, Machiavelli was still out of favor. But he was also putting into prose the theoretical work that established the extraordinary reputation still associated with him today.
Anatomy is not destiny: A feminist analysis of the scholarship on women's leisure

Abstract The extent of the scholarship on women has accelerated over the past 20 years, yet many questions remain unanswered concerning what is known about women and their leisure behavior. Social science research about women and leisure that analyzes the interaction between the environment and biological sex has aided in understanding leisure behavior more completely and has enabled researchers to conclude that anatomy is not destiny. An analysis focusing on the critical corrective, and transformative aspects of feminist research provides a way to examine the trends in research on women specifically concerning women and leisure. The purpose of this article is to examine the foundations of the emerging scholarship on women and leisure, especially the research on gender differences, from a feminist perspective. The emerging trends in feminist research and the “state of the art” concerning scholarship on women as it is occurring in other disciplines is examined in light of how research in other fields may o.
DUX4c Is Up-Regulated in FSHD. It Induces the MYF5 Protein and Human Myoblast Proliferation

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a dominant disease linked to contractions of the D4Z4 repeat array in 4q35. We have previously identified a double homeobox gene (DUX4) within each D4Z4 unit that encodes a transcription factor expressed in FSHD but not control myoblasts. DUX4 and its target genes contribute to the global dysregulation of gene expression observed in FSHD. We have now characterized the homologous DUX4c gene mapped 42 kb centromeric of the D4Z4 repeat array. It encodes a 47-kDa protein with a double homeodomain identical to DUX4 but divergent in the carboxyl-terminal region. DUX4c was detected in primary myoblast extracts by Western blot with a specific antiserum, and was induced upon differentiation. The protein was increased about 2-fold in FSHD versus control myotubes but reached 2-10-fold induction in FSHD muscle biopsies. We have shown by Western blot and by a DNA-binding assay that DUX4c over-expression induced the MYF5 myogenic regulator and its DNA-binding activity. DUX4c might stabilize the MYF5 protein as we detected their interaction by co-immunoprecipitation. In keeping with the known role of Myf5 in myoblast accumulation during mouse muscle regeneration DUX4c over-expression activated proliferation of human primary myoblasts and inhibited their differentiation. Altogether, these results suggested that DUX4c could be involved in muscle regeneration and that changes in its expression could contribute to the FSHD pathology.
FROM PROSPECTION TO PROSPECTIVE MEMORY: CONSTRUCTING, ENCODING, AND REMEMBERING FUTURE PLANS

Recent studies have documented cognitive and neural processes related to human abilities for prospection and prospective memory. In this review article, I discuss functional neuroimaging findings on these two inter-related neurocognitive processes in humans, which are both thought to develop in relation to episodic memory. Prospection is the ability to construct ideas about possible future events, whereas prospective memory involves the formation and encoding of personal behavioural plans that are then maintained and retrieved at a planned time (or condition) during other ongoing activities. A growing body of neuroimaging studies investigating human prospection has consistently identified a core brain network consisting of medial regions of the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes. The medial prefrontal cortex has also been identified to play a significant role for executive processes in prospective memory. Further investigations will be needed to disambiguate the contributions of the medial temporal lobe in constructing, encoding, and remembering future plans.
Influence of the polymorphism of apolipoprotein E in cerebral vascular disease.

UNLABELLED The genetic heterogeneity of apolipoprotein E (apo E) has been associated with lipid profile and atherothrombotic stroke, however this association remains inconclusive. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relationship between the isoforms of apo E and atherothrombotic stroke, by ascertaining the frequency of its alleles and genotypes associated with the lipid profile in patients with stroke. METHOD A total of 207 individuals were divided into two groups, consisting of 107 patients with stroke and 100 individuals without clinical symptoms of the disease. Blood samples were taken from patients and controls for molecular investigation of the apo E (epsilon2, epsilon3 and epsilon4 alleles) for the analysis of the lipid profile. RESULTS The epsilon3 allele was the most common and its prevalence was significantly higher in patients (0.93) compared to the controls (0.86; p=0.024). The epsilon2 allele was rarely seen specifically in patients (0.02 versus 0.05 in controls, p=0.191). The epsilon4 allele was not associated with stroke showing a reduced frequency in patients (0.05) when compared to controls (0.09; p=0.011). Although higher average levels of lipid profile were found in patients when compared to controls, with statistical significance for the values of total cholesterol (TC) (203.6 mg/dL +/- 57.98 and 181.9 mg/dL +/- 68.47 respectively; p=0.003) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc) (131.4mg/dL +/- 52.60 and 116 mg/dL +/- 56.38, respectively; p=0.014), these were independent of the presence of the epsilon4 allele. In control group the higher TC and LDLc values occurred in the absence of the epsilon4 allele, confirming the conflicting effect of the alleles of apo E on the plasmatic lipids and atherothrombotic stroke. CONCLUSION The isoforms of apo E cannot be regarded as an isolated risk factor for stroke and do not show association with lipid profile in this study.
Nonverbal Dominance Versus Verbal Accuracy in Lie Detection

With the exclusion of some specific circumstances, police officers typically pay more attention to nonverbal behavior than verbal behavior when they attempt to detect deceit. One of the reasons for this is that they believe that suspects are less able to control their nonverbal than verbal behavior and, consequently, nonverbal cues to deception are more likely to leak through. The author states that this assumption is not necessarily valid; deception research has revealed that many verbal cues are more diagnostic cues to deceit than nonverbal cues. Paying attention to nonverbal cues results in being less accurate in truth/lie discrimination, particularly when only visual nonverbal cues are taken into account. Also, paying attention to visual nonverbal cues leads to a stronger lie bias (i.e., indicating that someone is lying). The author recommends a change in police practice and argues that for lie detection purposes it may be better to listen carefully to what suspects say.
Transforming Experience through English Use and Service-oriented Cultural Capital

Study of the role of English use in the lives of two undocumented indigenous Honduran immigrants to the southwestern United States reveals that the label “illegal” applied to undocumented immigrants influences their integration into U.S. society. Participants in the study used social/cultural capital to intervene in their underclass status. English proficiency served as a credentialed skill that allowed them social mobility, and the cultural value of being of service enabled them to transform their experience. Un estudio de la función de uso del inglés en las vidas de dos indígenas hondureños indocumentados en el suroeste de Estados Unidos revela que la etiqueta de “ilegal” aplicada a los inmigrantes indocumentados influye en su integración a la sociedad estadounidense. Los participantes en el estudio utilizaron capital social/cultural para intervenir en su condición de subclase. El dominio del idioma inglés sirvió como una habilidad reconocida que les permitía acceder a la movilidad social, y el valor cultural de ser de utilidad les permitió transformar su experiencia.
DRIVER ACTIVITY RECOGNITION THROUGH HAND GESTURES MASTER THESIS

Driver activity recognition and monitoring is a widely researched topic. One of the primary reasons for vehicle accidents is distracted drivers. The most researched observation method are eye and iris detection, where the prediction is based on the driver’s gaze. Understanding what drivers are doing while driving could help develop systems to prevent further accidents. Throughout this article, we explore hand gestures and how these can be used to determine the activity of the driver, due to the natural occurring interaction inside the car include distinct hand gestures, e.g. holding the wheel or the gear stick. With an average accuracy of 85.60% based on 17 evaluations in two cars with 13 participants and six different gestures, we conclude that hand gestures provide enough insight to accurately classify driver activities. ACM Classification
A Study on Rotational OFDM Transmission with Multi-Dimensional Demodulator and Twin Turbo Decoder

This paper proposes rotational orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (R-OFDM) transmission with multi-dimensional demodulator (MDD) and twin turbo decoder (T2D). R-OFDM uses rotational multi-carrier modulation (R-MCM), which provides suitable frequency diversity gain in any coding rates although coded OFDM cannot obtain it in high coding rates. In addition, by applying MDD to its receiver, R-OFDM does not cause inter symbol interference degrading multi-carrier code division multiplexing (MC-CDM) with Walsh code multiplexing (WCM). Then, aiming at high spectrum efficiency, T2D is also proposed. T2D is based on a turbo decoder and has the proposed likelihood estimation taking into account the mutual information between multiplexed bits in the identical received symbol. Computer simulations verify that the proposed scheme improves the packet error rate (PER) performance of not only MC-CDM with WCM, but also OFDM, and the required Es/N0 of the OFDM obtaining a PER of 1% is improved by about 1.5 dB at the maximum.
Commissioning for Quality: Ten Years of Social Care Markets in England

The introduction of social care markets was one of the main planks of the Conservative government's community care reforms of 1990. The Labour government, whilst emphasising collaboration rather than competition, has not sought to reverse this policy. What have been the consequences? We discuss a decade of market-related change under five heads: purchasers, providers, commissioning, care planning and delivery, and users and carers. There have been quite substantial changes effected by social care markets in each domain, in turn generating a number of pertinent questions for the future success of social care policy in England. One is the very suitability of market-like arrangements in social care. Another is whether transaction costs are too high. More generally, are social care markets structured in a way that will generate the efficiency improvements that successive governments expect of them? Fourth, to what extent will price competition damage quality of care? Finally, will commissioning arrangements mature so as to achieve a better balance between competitive and collaborative modes of working?
Special decentralized control problems and effectiveness of parameter-dependent Lyapunov function method

This paper is devoted to studying decentralized control problems from a special viewpoint and testing the effectiveness of parameter-dependent Lyapunov function method. First it is pointed out that in order to stabilize some given interconnected systems, some subsystems should be assigned to be unstable in some special cases. Then a special kind of decentralized control problem is studied. This kind of problem can be viewed as harmonic control among independent subsystems. Research results show that two unstable systems can generate a stable system through some effective cooperations. Linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based decentralized controller design method is also given for the special problems studied here by using parameter-dependent Lyapunov function method developed for robust stability.
Automated planning for pathfinding in real-time strategy games

This thesis is focused on the design of a new path planning algorithm to solve path planning problems in dynamic, partially observable and real-time environments such as Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games. The emphasis is put on fast action selection motivating the use of Monte-Carlo planning techniques. Three main contributions are presented in this thesis. The first contribution is a Monte-Carlo planning technique, called MCRT, that performs selective action sampling and limits how many times a particular state-action pair is explored to balance the trade-off between exploration of new actions and exploitation of the current best action. The thesis also presents two variations of MCT as the second contribution. The first variation of MCRT randomly selects an action as a sample at each state seen during the look-ahead search. The second variation, called MCRT-CAS, performs the selective action sampling using corridors. The third contribution is the design of four real-time path planners that exploit MCRT and its variations to solve path planning problems in real-time. Three of these planners are empirically evaluated using four standard pathfinding benchmarks (and over 1000 instances). Performance of these three planners is compared against two recent rival algorithms (Real-time D*-Lite (RTD) and Local Search Space-Learning Real-Time A* (LSS-LRTA)). These rival algorithms are based on real-time heuristic search. The results show that a variation of MOCART, called MOCART-CAS, performs action selection significantly faster than the rival planners. The fourth planner, called the MG-MOCART planner, is evaluated using a typical Real-Time Strategy game. The MG-MOCART planner can solve the path planning problems with multiple goals. This planner is compared against four rivals: Upper Con�dence bounds applied to Trees (UCT), LSS-LRTA, Real-Time Dynamic Programming (RTDP) and a rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) planner. The performance is measured using score and planning cost. The results show that the MG-MOCART planner performs better than its rival techniques with respect to score and planning cost.
Forest parameter retrieval from SAR data using an estimation algorithm applied to regrowing forest stands in Queensland, Australia

The use of a non-linear estimation algorithm for retrieving the biomass and structure of vegetation from polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data is demonstrated for woody regrowth in Queensland, Australia dominated by Acacia harpophylla (Brigalow). By varying the size and density of trees and associated woody components (branches and trunks), multiple simulations of the backscattering coefficient (σ0) were performed based on the SAR simulation model of [1]. Functions relating σ0 to these variables were subsequently used to generate spatial estimates from NASA JPL airborne SAR (AIRSAR) data. Above ground biomass was estimated from stem density and size measurements using available allometric relationships. The study demonstrates potential for retrieval of regrowth structure and biomass through nonlinear estimation.
Don't forget the posters! Quality and content variables associated with accepted abstracts at a national trauma meeting

BACKGROUND: As a primary venue for presenting research results, abstracts selected for presentation at national meetings should be of the highest scientific merit and research quality. It is uncertain to what degree this is achieved as the methodological quality of abstracts submitted to national surgical meetings has not been previously described. The objective of this study was to evaluate abstracts presented at a leading trauma meeting for methodological quality. METHODS: All abstracts accepted for the 2009 American Association for the Surgery of Trauma meeting were reviewed and scored for methodological quality based on 10 criteria (scores, 0–10; 10 being the highest). Criteria were based on nationally published methodology guidelines. Two independent reviewers who were blinded to institution, region, and author reviewed each abstract. RESULTS: A total of 187 abstracts were accepted for presentation (67 oral and 120 posters). The most frequent clinical topics were shock/transfusion (23%), abdomen (12%), and nervous system (11%). Shock/transfusion abstracts were more common in the oral presentations (31% vs. 19%; p = 0.06). Abstracts from the northeast and south regions were the most common in both oral (26% and 29%) and posters (25% and 24%). Basic science accounted for 12% of accepted studies, while 51% were clinical and 28% were health services/outcomes. Only 8% of abstracts presented randomized data and only 11% reported null findings. Overall abstract scores ranged from 3 to 10 (median, 7; mean, 7.4). Abstracts selected for poster presentation had an overall higher score than those selected for oral presentation (7.4 ± 1.7 vs. 6.8 ± 1.7; p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Although oral presentations traditionally receive the most attention and interest, the methodological quality of abstracts accepted for poster presentation equals (and sometimes exceeds) that of oral abstracts. Attendees of these national meetings should reconsider their time spent in viewing and visiting these poster sessions as with the oral presentations. In light of our findings, we highly encourage that all members and guests attend the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Poster Rounds at each year's scientific assembly.
Approximation of Subnetwork Models using Frequency-Domain Data

In this paper, we approximate models of interconnected systems that are to be used for decentralized control design. The suggested approach is based on approximation of so-called subnetwork models. A subnetwork model is a model of the interconnected system, as seen from one specific position in the network. The simplification is done by using weighted model reduction, and several approximation criteria are given. A new method for weighted model reduction is used. The method is based on a combination of known techniques that use semidefinite programming and frequency-data samples of transfer functions. The method is guaranteed to preserve stability and does not depend strongly on the order of the original model. This is particularly important for large interconnected systems. Two examples are given to illustrate the technique.
Clinicopathological study and management of peripheral soft tissue tumours.

BACKGROUND Soft-tissue tumours comprise a large heterogeneous group of mesenchymal neoplasms that is classified according to their normal tissue counterpart. They are ubiquitous in nature and can pose a challenge in terms of diagnosis and therefore, in their management. Biopsy findings bear direct implications on the treatment outcomes. AIMS The current study was conducted to understand various modes of clinical presentation, diagnostic modalities and to correlate them with operative findings, to delineate the different treatment modalities for patients with soft tissue tumours. We also assessed the risk factors and complications associated with soft tissue tumours. SETTING AND DESIGN This was a prospective study conducted at a rural teaching hospital in India. METHODS Accurate history was elicited from patients with peripheral soft tissue tumours and a thorough physical examination was done. The patient demographics were noted. The clinical parameters assessed included location and size of swelling, any associated pain, neurovascular symptoms, presence of any deformity and medical risk factors. To diagnose the type of swelling, biopsy was done. All swellings were excised, and based on the diagnosis, additional therapeutic measures were employed. Post-operative complications and hospital stay were recorded. RESULTS A total of 74 patients were included in the study, with male to female ratio of 1:1 and average age of 37.96 years. All of them presented with a swelling. The lower extremities and trunk were the most common sites, with each comprising about 25%. The size of tumour varied from 2 to 10 cm in diameter. Seventy one were benign and three were malignant. About one third of patients complained of pain. Comorbid illnesses were present in three patients. For benign tumours, simple excision was done, while for the malignant ones, multimodal therapeutic approach was taken. Post-operatively, two patients developed skin ulceration over the tumour, and six had wound infection. CONCLUSION Most soft tissue tumours encountered in clinical practice are benign, of which lipoma is the commonest. While simple excision suffices for most benign tumours, a more aggressive treatment approach is required for their malignant counterparts.