Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phase statistics and decorrelation in SAR interferograms

SAR interferometry requires a thorough phase control throughout the imaging process. The phase accuracy is affected by decorrelation effects between the individual surveys. The paper presents the probability density function of the interferometric phase and analyzes quantitatively the influence of decorrelation. In particular, phase aberrations typical for SAR processors are studied. The dependence of phase bias and variance on processor parameters is demonstrated. <<ETX>>
Changing Interpretive Schemes and Organizational Restructuring: The Example of a Religious Order

Jean M. Bartunek This paper reports a case study of a religious order whose shared interpretive schemes (the schemata that map its experience of the world), especially its understanding of its mission, were being substantially changed. During thistime the order underwent a major revision in structure. On the basis of the case, the paper explores ways interpretive schemes undergo fundamental change and ways these changes are linked to restructuring. The paper proposes that major changes in interpretive schemes occur through dialectical processes in which old and new ways of understanding interact, resulting in a synthesis. The process of change in interpretive schemes is in a reciprocal relationship with changes in structure. This relationship is not direct, but rather is mediated by the actions of organizational members and their emotional reactions to change. Environmental forces are likely to initiate the change, but the way the environment is interpreted by organizational members affects the type of change that takes place. Similarly, the way the organization's leadership initiates or responds to alternate interpretive schemes limits the type of change in understanding that can occur.
Kernel-Based Clustering with Automatic Cluster Number Selection

Kernel k-means is one of the most well-known kernel-based clustering methods for discovering nonlinearly separable clusters. However, like its original counterpart k-means, kernel k-means has two inherent drawbacks: (1) it is easily trapped into degenerate local minima when the prototypes of clusters are ill-initialized, and (2) the actual number of clusters has to be provided in advance. Although some algorithms have been proposed to handle the first problem, there is still a lack of methods for automatically estimating the number of clusters in kernel space. In this paper, inspired by the on-line learning framework and the rival penalization mechanism, we propose a novel kernel-based clustering method with automatic cluster number selection (KeCans for short). In KeCans, prototypes are represented by a prototype descriptor, which is a real-valued matrix with each row representing a prototype. The prototype descriptor is allocated with more than the actual number of rows in initialization. Rival penalization is utilized in competition process to eliminate the redundant rows. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in revealing the real number of clusters in kernel space. And compared with the state-of-the-art kernel-based clustering algorithms, the proposed method achieves comparable clustering results.
Glycomics‐based analysis of chicken red blood cells provides insight into the selectivity of the viral agglutination assay

Agglutination of red blood cells (RBCs), including chicken RBCs (cRBCs), has been used extensively to estimate viral titer, to screen glycan‐receptor binding preference, and to assess the protective response of vaccines. Although this assay enjoys widespread use, some virus strains do not agglutinate RBCs. To address these underlying issues and to increase the usefulness of cRBCs as tools for studying viruses, such as influenza, we analyzed the cell surface N‐glycans of cRBCs. On the basis of the results obtained from complementary analytical strategies, including MS, 1D and 2D‐NMR spectroscopy, exoglycosidase digestions, and HPLC profiling, we report the major glycan structures present on cRBCs. By comparing the glycan structures of cBRCs with those of representative human upper respiratory cells, we offer a possible explanation for the fact that certain influenza strains do not agglutinate cRBCs, using specific human‐adapted influenza hemagglutinins as examples. Finally, recent understanding of the role of various glycan structures in high affinity binding to influenza hemagglutinins provides context to our findings. These results illustrate that the field of glycomics can provide important information with respect to the experimental systems used to characterize, detect and study viruses.
CD8 beta chain influences CD8 alpha chain-associated Lck kinase activity

The CD8 molecule plays an important role in the differentiation of CD8+ T cells in the thymus and in their normal function in the periphery. CD8 exists on the cell surface in two forms, the alpha alpha homodimer and the alpha beta heterodimer. Recent studies indicate an important role for the CD8 beta chain in thymic development of CD8+ T cells and suggest that signaling via CD8 alpha beta may be distinct from CD8 alpha alpha. To better understand these differences, we introduced the CD8 beta gene into a T cell hybridoma which only expressed the CD8 alpha alpha homodimer. In the parent hybridoma, cross-linking of the CD8 alpha chain led to minimal enhancement of CD8-associated Lck tyrosine kinase activity. In the CD8 beta+ transfectants, several observations suggested that CD8 beta modifies CD8 alpha-associated Lck tyrosine kinase activity: (a) in in vitro kinase assays, antibody- mediated crosslinking of CD8 alone, or CD8 cross-linking with the TCR, resulted in 10-fold greater activation of Lck kinase activity, compared to cells expressing CD8 alpha alpha alone; (b) in vivo, markedly enhanced tyrosine phosphorylation of several intracellular proteins was observed upon CD8 cross-linking with the TCR in CD8 alpha beta- expressing cells, compared to cells expressing CD8 alpha alpha alone; and (c) Lck association with CD8 alpha was stabilized by the coexpression of CD8 beta. Thus, the differential Lck kinase activation and tyrosine phosphorylation seen with CD8 alpha alpha vs. CD8 alpha beta may reflect the unique signaling capabilities of the CD8 beta molecule. These differences in signaling may, in part, account for the diminished ability to generate CD8 single positive thymocytes in mice bearing a homozygous disruption of the CD8 beta gene.
Regulation and measuring cost-efficiency with panel data models

This paper examines the application of different parametric methods to measure cost efficiency of electricity distribution utilities. The cost frontier model is estimated using four Likelihood Estimation. These methods are applied to a sample of 59 distribution utilities in Switzerland. The data consist of an unbalanced panel over a nine-year period from 1988 to 1996. Different specifications are compared with regards to the estimation of cost frontier characteristics and inefficiency scores. The results point to some advantages for the FE model in the estimation of cost function's characteristics. The mutual consistency of different methods with regard to efficiency measures is analyzed. The results are mixed. The summary statistics of inefficiency estimates are not sensitive to the specification. However, the ranking changes significantly from one model to another. In particular, the least and most efficient companies are not identical across different methods. These results suggest that a valid benchmarking analysis should be applied with special care. It is recommended that the regulator use several specifications and perform a (mutual) consistency analysis. Finally, the out-of-sample prediction errors of different models are analyzed. The results suggest that benchmarking methods can be used as a control instrument in order to narrow the information gap between the regulator and regulated companies.
Latent Toxoplasmosis and Human

Toxoplasmosis is one of the most common parasitic diseases worldwide. Although estimated that one third of the world's population are infected with Toxoplasma gondii, but the most common form of the disease is latent (asymptomatic). On the other hand, recent findings indicated that latent toxoplasmosis is not only unsafe for human, but also may play various roles in the etiology of different mental disorders. This paper reviews new findings about importance of latent toxoplasmosis (except in immunocompromised patients) in alterations of behavioral parameters and also its role in the etiology of schizophrenia and depressive disorders, obsessive–compulsive disorder, Alzheimer's diseases and Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, headache and or migraine, mental retardation and intelligence quotients, suicide attempt, risk of traffic accidents, sex ratio and some possible mechanisms of T. gondii that could contribute in the etiology of these alterations.
Directions in Healthcare Research: Pointers from Retailing and Services Marketing

Purpose: Although the importance of the environment in relation to healing processes has been well established, empirical evidence for environmental effects on patient well-being and behavior is sparse. In addition, few attempts have been made to integrate insights from related fields of research such as retailing and services marketing with findings from healthcare studies. In this paper, relevant findings and insights from these domains are discussed. What insights and findings from retailing and services marketing are (potentially) of interest to the healthcare context, and how should one interpret and follow up on these results in healthcare environments? Background: Research in retailing and services marketing indicates that physical environmental factors (i.e., music and scent) and social environmental factors (i.e., crowded conditions) may affect consumer satisfaction and well-being. In addition, environmental effects have been shown to vary with contextual factors (e.g., the type of environment) and consumer needs (e.g., the extent to which consumers value social contact or stimulation in a specific setting). Although the evidence base for environmental factors in health environments is steadily growing, few attempts have been made to integrate findings from both domains. Conclusions/Recommendations: The findings presented indicate that environmental variables such as music and scent can contribute to patient well-being and overall satisfaction. In addition, findings suggest that these variables may be used to counteract the negative effects resulting from crowded conditions in different healthcare units. Taking into account recent developments in the healthcare industry, the importance of creating memorable and pleasant patient experiences is likely to grow in the years to come. Hence, the finding that subtle and relatively inexpensive manipulations may affect patient well-being in profound ways should inspire follow-up research aimed at unraveling the specifics of environmental influences in health environments.
Sensory‐specific clock components and memory mechanisms: investigation with parallel timing

A challenge for researchers in the time‐perception field is to determine whether temporal processing is governed by a central mechanism or by multiple mechanisms working in concert. Behavioral studies of parallel timing offer interesting insights into the question, although the conclusions fail to converge. Most of these studies focus on the number‐of‐clocks issue, but the commonality of memory mechanisms involved in time processing is often neglected. The present experiment aims to address a straightforward question: do signals from different modalities marking time intervals share the same clock and/or the same memory resources? To this end, an interval reproduction task involving the parallel timing of two sensory signals presented either in the same modality or in different modalities was conducted. The memory component was tested by manipulating the delay separating the presentation of the target intervals and the moment when the reproduction of one of these began. Results show that there is more variance when only visually marked intervals are presented, and this effect is exacerbated with longer retention delays. Finally, when there is only one interval to process, encoding the interval with signals delivered from two modalities helps to reduce variance. Taken together, these results suggest that the hypothesis stating that there are sensory‐specific clock components and memory mechanisms is viable.
Analysis of Test Case Prioritization in Regression Testing using Genetic Algorithm

Testing is an accepted technique for improving the quality of developed software with the increase in size and complexity of modern software products, the importance of testing is rapidly growing. Regression testing plays a vital role for software maintenance when software is modified. The main purpose of regression testing is to ensure the bugs are fixed and the new functionality that are incorporated in a new version of a software do not unfavorably affect the correct functionality of the previous version. So to revalidate the modified software, regression testing is the right testing process. Though it is an expensive process which requires executing maintenance process frequently but it becomes necessary for subsequent version of test suites. To evaluate the quality of test cases which are used to test a program.Testing requires execution of a program. In this paper it is proposed a new test case prioritization technique using genetic algorithm. The proposed technique separate the test case detected as severe by customer and among the rest test case prioritizes subsequences of the original test suite so that the new suite, which is to run within a time-constrained execution environment. It will have a superior rate of fault detection when compared to rates of randomly prioritized test suites. This experiment analyzes the genetic algorithm with regard to effectiveness and time overhead by utilizing structurallybased criterion to prioritize test cases.
Transcending the medical/media opposition in research on news coverage of health and medicine

Health and medicine are major topics of news coverage, but research on health and medical reporting has remained mainly confined to specialist subfields, with less impact on broader academic fields, including journalism studies, than would seem warranted by its importance. This article argues that assumptions implicit in much of this literature have limited the development of a wider tradition of research on health journalism. We point particularly to what we call the linear-reflectionist perspective, which sees health journalism as an often-flawed mechanism for transmitting pre-existing medical knowledge to the mass public. We propose an alternative framework that seeks to illuminate the complexity and importance of this field of study.
A Theological Examination of the Two-Structure Theory

In 1974, Ralph Winter wrote a paradigm-changing article, “The Two Structures of God's Redemptive Mission,” which affected the way many evangelical mission leaders view the role of the local church and the mission agency in world evangelization. What began as a historical observation, primarily, has developed into a theological doctrine which advocates theological legitimacy for mission agencies. Using Winter's document as a beginning point for discussion, this article analyzes and rejects the doctrine of sodalities as being another expression of the universal church. Instead of arguing for the acceptance of mission agencies (independent or demoninational) from a biblical basis, the author maintains that agencies should be accepted and utilized on a pragmatic basis by congregations.
Fun and Laughter: Culture Jamming and the Emotional Regime of Late Capitalism

In contemporary social movement protest in general and in culture jamming in particular fun and laughter are key ingredients. But why and what is the meaning of fun in protest? These questions are answered by analyzing the various meanings and uses of fun and laughter in culture jamming. The data consist of texts and visuals from the websites of five groups, seven in-depth interviews, two participant observations, and the book Culture Jam. The first part explores the ways that the emotional (sub)regime of culture jamming is contingent upon the dominant emotional regime of late capitalism where fun, too, is a key ingredient. But jammers reject the fun of consumption and offer their own definition of a kind of fun which is real and authentic, e.g. the fun of freedom and protest. Thereby they articulate the inherent tension between ‘real’ and ‘fake’ emotions pertinent to the contemporary commodification of feelings. I further suggest that this tension and its articulations in culture jamming parallels the utopian laughter (genuine and transforming) of the medieval carnival vs the laughter of satire in Bakhtin's classic interpretation of Rabelais. Hence culture jamming is both shaped by the contemporary emotional regime and contesting it, reaching beyond it. The second part shows that fun is also an expression of emotional energy contingent upon successful interaction rituals in exclusive and friendship based protest groups. But as emotional energy, fun in culture jamming also points to the broader field of protest groups – an imagined community – and suggests a link that makes individual and fragmented protest actions nevertheless an expression of a loosely identified collective identity. Last but not less important in the context of contemporary studies of emotions in social movements, my analysis shows that emotions are not only part of movement means but also an end in itself.
Frame Shifts and Catastrophic Events: The Attacks of September 11, 2001, and New York Times's Portrayals of Arafat and Sharon

Quantitative content analysis of 1 year of editorials and news coverage of the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian territories in The New York Times examines the hypothesis that following major global events, such as the September 11 attacks, media frames of distinct, yet thematically related coverage shift to rally around the government elite frame. Evidence partially supports frame shifting but indicates that frames also become more diverse rather than echo dominant views. Findings raise questions about some traits of the rally effect. The mechanisms and directions of frame shifting merit scholarly attention.
A Model of Knowledge Acquisition in Early Stage Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract: To meaningfully participate in the decision‐making regarding a newly diagnosed breast cancer, a patient must acquire new knowledge. We describe a model of knowledge acquisition that can provide a framework for exploring the process and types of knowledge that breast cancer patients gain following their diagnosis. The four types of knowledge presented in this model—authoritative, technical, embodied, and traditional—are described and potential sources discussed. An understanding of knowledge acquisition in early stage breast cancer patients can provide healthcare practitioners with an important framework for optimizing decision‐making in this population.
Life Course Trajectories of Labour Market Participation among Young Adults Who Experienced Severe Alcohol-Related Health Outcomes: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background Long-term employment trajectories of young problem drinkers are poorly understood. Methods We constructed retrospective labour market participation histories at ages 18–34 of 64 342 persons born in 1969–1982. Beginning from the year of each subject’s 18th birthday, we extracted information from the records of Statistics Finland on educational attainment, main type of economic activity, months in employment, and months in unemployment for a minimum of seven years (range 7–16 years). We used information on the timing of alcohol-related hospitalizations and deaths in the same period to define problem drinkers with early onset limited course, early onset persistent course, and late onset problem drinking. Results Early onset limited course problem drinkers improved their employment considerably by age, whereas early onset persistent problem drinkers experienced a constant decline in their employment by age. From the age of 18 to 34, early onset persistent problem drinkers were in employment merely 12% of the time, in comparison with 39% among the early onset limited course problem drinkers, and 58% among the general population. Conclusions These results indicate that young adults who were retrospectively defined as having early onset persistent course problem drinking were extensively marginalized from the labour market early on during their life course, and that their employment trajectory was significantly worse compared to other problem drinkers.
Effects of the application direction of kinesio taping on isometric muscle strength of the wrist and fingers of healthy adults - A pilot study

[Purpose] The purposes of this study were to investigate the immediate and delayed effects of two directions of Kinesio taping (KT) on maximal isometric strength of the wrist and finger muscles of healthy adults and compare their differences. [Subjects] Nineteen healthy junior college students participated in this study. [Methods] The inhibition and facilitation KT techniques were separately used to tape on the dominant and non-dominant forearms of the participants, respectively. Maximal isometric strength of wrist extension, middle finger extension, and grip of both hands were measured before taping, immediately after taping, and after 24 h of taping (with the tape in situ). [Results] Compared with the baseline, the average maximal isometric strength of middle finger extensors increased considerably after application of the facilitation technique. No significant time effect was observed for measurement of middle finger extension strength on the dominant side or for wrist extension and grip strength on both sides. Significant differences between both taping techniques were observed for wrist and middle finger extension strength immediately after taping, and for middle finger extension after 24 h of taping. [Conclusion] The results suggest that the application direction of KT may have different effects on isometric muscle strength. Future studies involving a larger sample of subjects and a sham condition are warranted to confirm our findings.
Effects of Some Psychoactive Drugs on CFF in Volunteers

We have examined the effects of threshold doses of 13 differ ent psychoactive substances on CFF, quantitative EEG. and behavior in normal male volunteers. CFF was either reduced or showed no change with sedating substances; but was not increased with any substance. While the time course paral leled EEG and vigilance measures. CFF showed Iimited dis criminating power. FVF·Eff8kte einiCl8r psychoaktiver Subst8nzen bei Probenden Wir haben die Effekte der Schwellendosen von 13 verschie denen psychoaktiven Substanzen auf FVF, quantitatives EEG und Verhalten bei normalen männlichen Probanden unter sucht. Sedative Substanzen reduzierten entweder die FVF oder ließen sie unverändert. Keine der Substanzen erhöhte die FVF. Während der zeitliche Verlauf dem des EEG und der Vigilanzmessungen ähnelte. war die Trennschärfe der FVF begrenzt.