Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ceramic image processing using the second curvelet transform and watershed algorithm

Ceramic materials physical properties are the results from their microstructures characteristics. So, it is very important to quantify these characteristics in an accurate way. Ceramic microscopic image processing may be divided into two main procedures: image pre-processing for noise reduction and edges enhancement to clarify the image and image segmentation for locating and detecting the objects of interest. Conventional 2D wavelet transform is separable and thus can not sparsely represent non-separable structures of the image, such as directional curves. Curvelet transform is a new extension to wavelet transform in two dimensions. The directionality feature of curvelet transform makes it a good choice for representation of curves and edges in the image. The second generation curvelet transform theory makes it understood and implemented more easily. In this paper, a new enhancement function is proposed to enhance the edges by curvelet transform. The method is also compared with two usual contrast enhancement methods, histogram equalization and wavelet based contrast enhancement. It is shown that the contrast enhancement method based on curvelet transform is superior to both histogram equalization and the method based on wavelet transform, in both enhancement of fine structures and reduction of noise in the images. This enhancement method is used to ceramic images pre-processing, and then watershed algorithm is applied to the segmentation. The grain size distributions can be obtained from segmentation images. It has been proved that this method is effective for the ceramic grain image.
Differences in Living and Learning: Chinese International Students in New Zealand

The international education market has developed rapidly throughout the Western world. Accordingly, Chinese students have become the largest group of international students studying in New Zealand. However, despite an increasing role that the Chinese market plays in sustaining the New Zealand education export industry, the education experience of Chinese students has not always been reported positively. The importance of this market to the educational sector gave rise to questions about the way in which Chinese international students perceived their New Zealand education and how satisfied they were with both their sociocultural and educational experiences. A study of 140 Chinese international students enrolled at a range of educational institutions in Auckland was undertaken. The results show that recognition of the influence of sociocultural factors beyond the learning experience itself is vital in facilitating mutually beneficial outcomes for Chinese international students and the international education industry in New Zealand.
A Comparison of the Response Styles Theory and the Hopelessness Theory of Depression in Preadolescents

This study compares predictions from the Hopelessness Theory of depression (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989) with the Response Styles Theory of depression (RST; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1987) with data obtained from a preadolescent sample (ages 9 to 13 years). Three hundred ten preadolescents completed self-report measures of stress, sense of control, rumination, and depressive symptoms. Neither rumination nor perceived control moderated the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms. However, path models revealed that perceived control was a more powerful mediator of the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms than rumination. Rather than having a direct impact on depressive symptoms, rumination exerted an indirect effect by predicting lowered perceived control. Overall, these results provide support for the Hopelessness Theory of depression and partial support for the RST in this sample of preadolescents.
MyD88-dependent expansion of an immature GR-1+CD11b+ population induces T cell suppression and Th2 polarization in sepsis

Polymicrobial sepsis alters the adaptive immune response and induces T cell suppression and Th2 immune polarization. We identify a GR-1+CD11b+ population whose numbers dramatically increase and remain elevated in the spleen, lymph nodes, and bone marrow during polymicrobial sepsis. Phenotypically, these cells are heterogeneous, immature, predominantly myeloid progenitors that express interleukin 10 and several other cytokines and chemokines. Splenic GR-1+ cells effectively suppress antigen-specific CD8+ T cell interferon (IFN) γ production but only modestly suppress antigen-specific and nonspecific CD4+ T cell proliferation. GR-1+ cell depletion in vivo prevents both the sepsis-induced augmentation of Th2 cell–dependent and depression of Th1 cell–dependent antibody production. Signaling through MyD88, but not Toll-like receptor 4, TIR domain–containing adaptor-inducing IFN-β, or the IFN-α/β receptor, is required for complete GR-1+CD11b+ expansion. GR-1+CD11b+ cells contribute to sepsis-induced T cell suppression and preferential Th2 polarization.
The Potential of Education for Sustainable Development for Reform in Schools

Can the concept of education for sustainable development foster reform in schools? The discussion of this question is based upon some reflection on social challenges in education, on a brief presentation of three concepts of environmental education (OECD Project 'Environment and School Initiatives' (ENSI); Action Competence Model; Socio-ecological Environmental Education) and on a closer theoretical look at the term Education for Sustainable Development. With some reference to an ongoing initiative in whole school development on the basis of education for sustainability called 'Ecologisation of Schools', the present and future relevance of the sustainability debate, with all its inherent dilemmas, uncertainties and confusions, is seen as a breeding ground for promoting innovations in education which might meet and cope with the current social challenges in an active and constructive manner.
Position Error Bound for UWB Localization in Dense Cluttered Environments

Range-only localization techniques in dense cluttered environments typically lack accuracy due, notably, to partial and complete line-of-sight (LOS) blockage. Furthermore, the quality of the range measurements degrades with distance, and the geometric configuration of the beacons also affects the localization accuracy. In this paper we derive a fundamental limit of localization accuracy for an ultra-wide bandwidth (UWB) system operating in such environments, which we call the Position Error Bound (PEB). The impact of different ranging estimation errors due to beacons distance and biases on the best positioning accuracy is investigated. The statistical characterization of biases coming from measurement campaigns can easily be incorporated into this analysis. We show that the relative importance of information coming from different beacons varies depending on the propagation conditions, such as whether the beacon is LOS or non-line-of-sight (NLOS). We show in particular that NLOS beacons can significantly improve the localization accuracy compared to the case when they are not considered, especially in dense cluttered environments.
Short-term Effectiveness of a School-based Early Intervention Program for Adolescent Depression

This article reports on the effectiveness of an early intervention program, 'Adolescents Coping with Emotions' (ACE), for depression in girls. ACE was assessed in a short-term wait-list control trial. In 1999, 882 students (aged 13-16 years) were screened using the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). One hundred and seventy-nine students (63% female) who scored above the CDI cutoff (of 18) were offered the program and 143 (65% female) agreed to participate. On a school basis, participants were allocated to the intervention group ( n = 76; 56% female) who commenced the program within one month, or to a wait-list control condition (control group, n = 50; 79% female) who commenced the ACE program after 10 weeks. Data analysis was conducted for 82 female participants. All students completed the CDI, Adolescent Coping Scale and Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale at pre-And post-intervention. The intervention group also completed a 6-month follow-up. At post-intervention, female ACE participants reported significantly reduced depressive symptoms and significantly improved coping skills compared with the control group. Using cognitive-behavioural and interpersonal techniques, the ACE program diminished depressive symptoms and increased coping skills in girls screening at-risk for depression.
La défense sociale en Belgique, entre soin et sécurité. Une approche empirique

En application de la loi de defense sociale en Belgique, l’auteur d’un fait qualifie infraction considere comme irresponsable fait l’objet d’une mesure d’internement, soit dans une annexe psychiatrique rattachee a une prison, soit dans un etablissement de defense sociale prevu a cet effet, soit encore dans un hopital psychiatrique. La mesure d’internement est decrite comme une mesure de securite et de soin. Dans les faits, tant en annexe psychiatrique de prison qu’en etablissement de defense sociale, la place faite au soin reste problematique : le manque de moyens est chronique et le recours a la medication systematique dans des lieux d’internement souvent surpeuples. La scission entre les fonctions de soin et d’expertise, intervenue dans certains lieux d’internement, constitue a cet egard un enjeu important.
The importance of letter knowledge in the relationship between phonological awareness and reading

Previous correlational and experimental research has found a positive association between phonological awareness and reading skills. This paper provides an overview of studies in this area and shows that many studies have neglected to control for extraneous variables such as ability, phonological memory, pre-existing reading skills and letter knowledge. The paper reports on the results of a longitudinal study that took account of these variables when examining the relationship between phonological awareness and reading for a group of children during their first two years at school. Children showed rhyme awareness before they began to read but were unable to perform a phoneme deletion task until after they had developed word-reading skills. Concurrent and predictive correlations between phonological awareness scores and later reading were often significant and remained so after adjusting for verbal ability or phonological memory. Controlling for letter knowledge, however, reduced most correlations to nonsignificant levels.
A dynamic wavelength resource allocation capable passive optical network with shared transceivers

The paper proposes a new PON architecture that applies an optical broadcast capable router (OBR) to route a wavelength to a set of selected PON branches and thus enables the transceivers in the central office (CO) to be shared among them. The OBR is built on fiber splitters and switching gates, and by controlling the gates the wavelengths at the inputs can reach any outputs of the OBR. Logical PONs are dynamically configured based on users' changing traffic patterns, and the traffic is further scheduled in the time domain in the logical PONs. The network achieves network resource sharing without requiring tunable transceivers or wavelength filters, and furthermore without changing deployed network devices in the field or at the user end. Experiment study and analysis results demonstrate the concept of resource sharing among PON branches and show the efficiency of resource sharing.
Contextual Influences on Integration in Australia: Overview of a Report to the Commonwealth Schools Commission. Part I.

Abstract Integration of students with special needs has emerged as a significant challenge to education practice in Australia, as elsewhere in the world community. To date, however, little information is available regarding the implementation of integration policy which, in many cases, is still evolving. This paper presents findings of a study sponsored by the Commonwealth Schools Commission at the request of the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development, Centre for Education Research and Innovation (OECD/CERI) and describes the current context within which integration in Australia occurs. Reference is made to the philosophical, legislative, and policy bases, administrative organization, and funding structures from which the implementation of policy is proceeding. Differences between States, as well as issues of common interest are identified.
Optimal Performance in Means-Ends Activities: On the Emergence of Self-Other/World Differentiation in Infancy

We know little about the role of background positive affectivity and flow experiences in early development concerning means-ends activities and their possible contribution regarding symbolic functioning and the consolidation of the self as agent. The theoretical argument presented here is that a deeper appreciation of the benefits and challenges of optimal experience may help built a more unified account of optimal functioning in development. That is, the paradox of control in flow, and its relational/mirroring structure, wherein the demands of the structure (means) are entities in themselves (ends), mark possibilities for the temporal organization of experience when fine motor tuning and gross motor intention overlap. When means-focused action/temporal regulation (I) and ends-focused action (Me) become synchronized in an integrated embodied system, the system shifts experience to the experiential gear. Means-ends dynamics, then, via mirroring processes organized in turn-taking flow structures between formative action (means) and production, push the child’s primary reactive space to be converted into the child’s interactive experiential space and in turn mapped on and gradually transformed to the “secondary,” communicative/expressive space, which also controls its manifestation, initiating in line conscious control and self-referential intentionality.
Predictors of Parents’ Satisfaction with Their Children's School.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify factors of parent satisfaction, then identify predictors of overall school satisfaction among three groups of variables: district characteristics, parent demographics, and school satisfaction factors. Despite the importance of parents in the success of schoolchildren, few empirical studies address the complexities and factor structure of parent satisfaction with their children’s school.Design/methodology/approach – This paper reports findings from a survey of 30,279 parents from 121 schools in 27 school districts across the USA conducted by Harris Interactive, Inc. The researchers employed factor analysis to identify factors of parent satisfaction, and then regressed overall satisfaction on district characteristics, demographic variables, and satisfaction factors.Findings – In this paper three parent satisfaction factors were found: the extent to which parents received adequate information from the school about their children, and the degree of involvement the school and teachers afforded them, the adequacy of school resources, and the extent to which school leadership (Board of Education and School Superintendent) was effective and managed the school budget well. These factors significantly predicted overall parent/school satisfaction even after district and demographics were controlled.Originality/value – The study increases one’s understanding of the underlying factors that explain parent satisfaction, and demographic, and district characteristics that predict parents’ satisfaction.The findings suggest factors that school administrators manage these factors in order to improve parent satisfaction.
INFLUENCE OF ANTIBIOTIC TREATMENT AND WOLBACHIA CURING ON SEXUAL ISOLATION AMONG DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER CAGE POPULATIONS

Abstract Speciation depends on the establishment of reproductive isolation between populations of the same species. Whether assortative mating evolves as a by-product of adaptation is a major question relevant to the origin of species by reproductive isolation. The long-term selection populations used here were originally established 30 years ago from a single cage population (originating from a maternal one) and subsequently subjected to divergent selection for tolerance of toxins in food (heavy metals versus ethanol) to investigate this question. Those populations now differ in sexual isolation and Wolbachia infection status. Wolbachia are common and widespread bacteria infecting arthropods and nematodes. Attention has recently focused on their potential role in insect speciation, due to post-mating sperm-egg incompatibilities induced by the bacteria. In this paper we examine the potential effect of Wolbachia on the level of sexual isolation. By antibiotic curing, we show that removal of Wolbachia decreases levels of mate discrimination (sexual isolation index) between populations by about 50%. Backcrossing experiments confirm that this effect is due to infection status rather than to genetic changes in the populations resulting from antibiotic treatment. Antibiotic treatment has no effect on mate discrimination level between uninfected populations. Our findings suggest that the presence of Wolbachia (or another undetected bacterial associate) act as an additive factor contributing to the level of pre-mating isolation between these Drosophila melanogaster populations. Given the ubiquity of bacterial associates of insects, such effects could be relevant to some speciation events.
Bringing computer science to U.S. schools, state by state

The Communications Web site, http://cacm.acm. org, features more than a dozen bloggers in the BLOG@CACM community. In each issue of Communications, we'll publish selected posts or excerpts. twitter Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/blogCACM http://cacm.acm. org/blogs/blog-cacm Mark Guzdial considers the crucial role of states in Computer Science for All.
Automatic gain and fader control for live mixing

A cross-adaptive mixing device has been developed for the purpose of optimizing the gain levels of a live audio mixture. The method aims to achieve optimal mixing levels by optimizing the ratios between the loudness of each individual input channel and the overall loudness contained in a stereo mix. In order to evaluate the amount of loudness of each channel in real-time, accumulative statistical measurements were performed. The system uses a cross-adaptive algorithm to map the loudness indicators to the channel gain values. The system has applications in automatic mixing of live music, live mixing of game audio, and studio recording post-production.
Morphology-based representations of discrete scalar fields

The output of a transducer is passed to an electrical circuit for supply to a fuel control network. In order to check the output of the transducer the output of the electrical circuit is sampled in a sample circuit when the movement of the member associated with the transducer is a known value. The signal from the sample circuit is compared in a comparator with a reference signal. Any difference is passed to a gain determining circuit which calculates a new gain value for a variable gain amplifier in the electrical circuit. The value of the gain is retained in a holding circuit and supplied to the amplifier until further adjustment is required.
Vaginal Microbiome and Epithelial Gene Array in Post-Menopausal Women with Moderate to Severe Dryness

After menopause, many women experience vaginal dryness and atrophy of tissue, often attributed to the loss of estrogen. An understudied aspect of vaginal health in women who experience dryness due to atrophy is the role of the resident microbes. It is known that the microbiota has an important role in healthy vaginal homeostasis, including maintaining the pH balance and excluding pathogens. The objectives of this study were twofold: first to identify the microbiome of post-menopausal women with and without vaginal dryness and symptoms of atrophy; and secondly to examine any differences in epithelial gene expression associated with atrophy. The vaginal microbiome of 32 post-menopausal women was profiled using Illumina sequencing of the V6 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Sixteen subjects were selected for follow-up sampling every two weeks for 10 weeks. In addition, 10 epithelial RNA samples (6 healthy and 4 experiencing vaginal dryness) were acquired for gene expression analysis by Affymetrix Human Gene array. The microbiota abundance profiles were relatively stable over 10 weeks compared to previously published data on premenopausal women. There was an inverse correlation between Lactobacillus ratio and dryness and an increased bacterial diversity in women experiencing moderate to severe vaginal dryness. In healthy participants, Lactobacillus iners and L. crispatus were generally the most abundant, countering the long-held view that lactobacilli are absent or depleted in menopause. Vaginal dryness and atrophy were associated with down-regulation of human genes involved in maintenance of epithelial structure and barrier function, while those associated with inflammation were up-regulated consistent with the adverse clinical presentation.
FQPSK: A BANDWIDTH AND RF POWER EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGY FOR TELEMETRY APPLICATIONS

A simple, low cost radio frequency (RF) power and spectrally efficient integrated transceiver/modem architecture employing Feher’s patented Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (FQPSK) is described. The FQPSK signals presented in this paper are obtained by using additional post low-pass filters in the FQPSK architecture. This implementation significantly improves the spectral efficiency of the worldwide commercially standardized Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) systems. The Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of FQPSK in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel has been investigated by means of computer simulation and hardware prototype measurements. The results of the hardware and software simulations are compared to GMSK and QPSK/OQPSK performance. These results show that the filtered FQPSK modulated signal passing through a non-linear amplifier (NLA) can achieve a spectral efficiency improvement of about 60% over NLA filtered OQPSK and an integrated spectral efficiency improvement of 50% over GMSK and a better BER performance. In particular, 100 kb/s to 34 Mb/s hardware experimental results over 2.4 GHz NLA (saturated) 1 Watt system confirmed that FQPSK hardware systems attain a BER=f(Eb/N0) performance within 1 dB to 2 dB of predicted theoretical results.
Disability-based inequity in youth subjective well-being: current findings and future directions

This selective, critical literature review synthesizes recent research exploring disability-based disparities in the subjective well-being and living conditions of youth in high-income countries. Compared with their non-disabled peers, disabled youth report lower levels of happiness, lower global life satisfaction and higher rates of suicidal ideation. Emerging evidence suggests that the relatively poor subjective well-being of disabled youth reflects, at least in part, differential access to material and social resources rather than the presence of chronic conditions or impairment per se. These findings indicate that disability-based disparities in youth subjective well-being are socially patterned and preventable.