Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Agents Control for Intelligent E-Learning Systems

The control and arbitration problem has been an important issue for multi-agent systems. Intelligent e-learning systems (ILS) based nowadays on agents and cognitive modeling to enhance their functionality, present specific features for handling arbitration or control. The paper analyses several control mechanisms directly related to ILS operation and performance, based on certain stimuli received by agents. Practical results are given referred to the operation of NEOCAMPUS2, a specific platform for ILS development
Intact implicit learning in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE Schizophrenia impairs performance on explicit, but not implicit, memory tasks, indicating that conscious awareness at retrieval is a critical determinant of impaired memory. The authors investigated implicit learning, i.e., knowledge acquisition in the absence of conscious awareness, in patients with schizophrenia. METHOD An artificial grammar learning task was used to assess implicit learning in 48 patients with schizophrenia and 24 healthy comparison subjects. The subjects were first presented with letter strings that were generated according to the rules of a finite-state grammar paradigm. They were then required to indicate whether new letter strings were "grammatical," depending on whether or not the strings corresponded to the rules. IQ, working memory, explicit memory, verbal fluency, and speed of processing were also assessed. RESULTS Patients performed significantly worse than the comparison subjects on cognitive tasks that assessed episodic memory, verbal fluency, working memory, and speed of processing. In contrast, patients classified as being correct more grammatical than nongrammatical letter strings, and the magnitude of the difference was similar to that observed in healthy comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS Implicit learning, as assessed with an artificial grammar learning task, is intact in patients with schizophrenia. Conscious awareness might be a critical determinant of memory impairment both at encoding and at retrieval.
Diffuse radio emission from clusters in the MareNostrum Universe simulation

Large-scale diffuse radio emission is observed in some clusters of galaxies. There is ample of evidence that the emission has its origin in synchrotron losses of relativistic electrons that have been accelerated in cluster mergers. In a cosmological simulation, we estimate the radio emission of structure formation shocks as follows: introducing a novel approach to identify strong shock fronts in an smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation, we determine the Mach number as well as the downstream density and temperature in the MareNostrum Universe simulation which has 2 x 1024 3 particles in a 500 h -1 Mpc box. Then, we estimate the radio emission using the formalism derived in Hoeft & Briiggen to produce artificial radio maps of massive clusters and to derive a luminosity function of diffuse radio sources. Several of our clusters show radio objects with similar morphology to observed large-scale radio relics, whereas about half of the clusters show only very little radio emission. In agreement with observational findings, the maximum diffuse radio emission of our clusters depends strongly on their X-ray temperature. We find that the so-called accretion shocks cause only very little radio emission. We conclude that a moderate efficiency of shock acceleration, namely ξ e = 0.005, and moderate magnetic fields in the region of the relics, namely 0.07-0.8 μG are sufficient to reproduce the number density and luminosity of radio relics.
Older adults' hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in information and communication technology activities

Purpose of the study This research examined whether older adults' hedonic and eudaimonic well-being during information and communication technology (ICT) activities are associated with their experiences in daily life activities, and investigated whether perceived usefulness, daily life well-being and computer attitudes can be used to predict hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in ICT usage. Methods The sample comprised 84 older adults aged 61 to 86 years living in Japan. A battery of questionnaires was used to assess hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, perceived usefulness and computer attitudes in a range of daily life activities and their ICT counterparts. Results The results indicated that in online news reading and online chatting, older adults' well-being associated with ICT activities was significantly correlated with that in corresponding daily life activities. In online shopping and writing email, the relation between older adults' well-being in ICT activities and their well-being in corresponding daily activities was moderated by perceived usefulness. Perceived usefulness and daily life well-being are important predictors of both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in ICT usage, whereas self-efficacy is a unique predictor of eudaimonic well-being in ICT usage. Discussion Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in ICT usage were two important and different perspectives when investigating user experiences in ICT. In addition, older adults’ hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in ICT usage were associated with that in corresponding daily life. These findings are discussed in terms of the design of ICT systems to improve well-being of older adults in ICT usage.
Valuing differences: Strategies for dealing with the tensions of educational leadership in a global society

In this article, we show that school leaders find themselves increasingly tom between pressures for conformity and diversity. We argue that pressures toward conformity undermine the ability of schools to respond effectively to diversity in their local communities. This, in turn, threatens the capacity to learn. If schools are to become learning organizations, then school leaders must recognize and challenge the confines of sameness while exploring a conception of leadership that values difference. Finally, four strategies are suggested by which leaders assist their schools in valuing and learning from difference.
Dynamic coding of dorsal hippocampal neurons between tasks that differ in structure and memory demand

Hippocampal place fields show remapping between environments that contain sufficiently different contextual features, a phenomenon that may reflect a mechanism for episodic memory formation. Previous studies have shown that place fields remap to changes in the configuration of visual landmarks in an environment. Other experiments have demonstrated that remapping can occur with experience, even when the visual features of an environment remain stable. A special case of remapping may be trajectory coding, the tendency for hippocampal neurons to exhibit different firing rates depending upon recently visited or upcoming spatial locations. To further delineate the conditions under which different task features elicit remapping, we recorded from place cells in dorsal CA1 of hippocampus while rats switched between tasks that differed in memory demand and task structure; continuous spatial alternation (CA), delayed spatial alternation (DA), and tactile‐visual conditional discrimination (CD). Individual hippocampal neurons and populations of simultaneously recorded neurons showed coherent remapping between CA and CD. However, task remapping was rarely seen between DA and CD. Analysis of individual units revealed that even though the population retained a coherent representation of task structure across the DA and CD tasks, the majority of individual neurons consistently remapped at some point during recording sessions. In contrast with previous studies, trajectory coding on the stem of the T‐maze was virtually absent during all of the tasks, suggesting that experience with multiple tasks in the same environment reduces the likelihood that hippocampal neurons will represent distinct trajectories. Trajectory coding was, however, observed during the delay period of DA. Whether place fields change in response to task or trial type or remain stable within the same environment may depend on which aspects of the context are most salient or relevant to behavior. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A new approach to analyze cell surface protein complexes reveals specific heterodimeric metabotropic glutamate receptors

G‐protein‐coupled receptors (GPCRs) can form heteromeric complexes. Herein’ we describe a new approach to test the heteromerization of 2 receptors’ or 2 receptor subunits’ and to study the stoichiometry of the resulting complexes. As a proof‐of‐concept study’ we investigated whether metabo‐tropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs)’ in addition to being well‐known homodimers’ can form heteromers. To that aim’ we combine the benefits of time‐resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (trFRET) with the specific’ cell‐surface labeling of SNAP‐ and CLIP‐tagged rat mGluR subunits’ expressed in a mammalian cell line. First’ we show that mGlu2 and mGlu4 subunits (but not mGlu2 and mGlu1) can heteromerize. Moreover’ our trFRET data are consistent with mGluR subunits forming strict homodimeric receptors on single expression’ and a combination of strict het‐erodimeric and strict homodimeric receptors on coex‐pression. Second’ a comprehensive analysis reveals that from the 21 possible pairs of 2 mGluR subunits out of 7 subtypes (mGlul to 8’ but not 6)’ only 11 are able to form heterodimers. These findings were further validated by biochemical and functional complementation studies. In addition to describing a new method to analyze cell‐surface receptor complexes’ our data reveal a new level of complexity within the mGluR family. —Doumazane’ E. ’ Scholle, P., Zwier, J. M. , Trinquet, E. , Rondard, P., Pin, J.‐P. A new approach to analyze cell surface protein complexes reveals specific heterodimeric metabotropic glutamate receptors. FASEB J. 25, 66–77 (2011). www.fasebj. org
Paliperidone for schizophrenia.

PURPOSE The efficacy, safety, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, drug-drug interactions, and administration of paliperidone for schizophrenia are reviewed. SUMMARY Paliperidone is a benzisoxazole derivative and the principal active metabolite of risperidone. Representative of most oxidative metabolites, paliperidone is less lipophilic than risperidone. Like other atypical antipsychotics, paliperidone has a greater affinity for serotonin type 2A- receptor blockade relative to dopamine type 2-receptor blockade. Paliperidone's advanced-generation osmotic release delivery system allows for the avoidance of dosage adjustment when initiating therapy and may decrease the frequency of antido-paminergic effects that would occur with an immediate-release formulation. The pharmacologic actions of paliperidone are similar to other high potency atypical antipsychotics. The receptor-binding profile of paliperidone most closely resembles that of risperidone and ziprasidone. Paliperidone differs from risperidone and most other antipsychotics by its relatively low extent of enzymatic metabolism. A limited number of investigations have demonstrated the ability of paliperidone to produce significant improvements in psychopathology, functioning, and relapse in patients with schizophrenia when compared with placebo. Paliperidone appears to have a similar adverse-effect profile compared to risperidone, except for an increased rate of hyperprolactinemia. The recommended dose of paliperidone for the treatment of adults with schizophrenia is 6 mg every morning. CONCLUSION Paliperidone does not offer any clear advantage over other atypical antipsychotics with a similar receptor-binding profile, such as risperidone and ziprasidone. Nevertheless, a few investigations have demonstrated the ability of paliperidone to produce significant improvements in psychopathology, functioning, and relapse when compared with placebo. Based on limited studies, the frequency of adverse effects, except for hyperprolactinemia, appears to favor paliperidone over risperidone.
Perceived Urgency in Speech Warnings

Two experiments are reported that investigate the effects of acoustics and semantics in verbal warnings. In the first experiment subjects rated the urgency of warning signal words spoken in different presentation styles (URGENT, NON-URGENT, MONOTONE). Significant differences in urgency ratings were found between presentation styles. Acoustic analysis revealed how acoustic parameters differed within these different presentation styles. These acoustic measurements were used to construct synthesised speech warnings that differed in urgency. They were rated in experiment 2 and the predicted differences between the urgency of the words were found. These studies indicate that urgency in natural speech is produced by alterations in a few acoustic parameters and that these alterations can easily be incorporated into synthetic speech to reproduce variations in urgency.
Planning autonomous vehicles in the absence of speed lanes using lateral potentials

Chaotic traffic, prevalent in many countries, is marked by a large number of vehicles driving with different speeds without following any predefined speed lanes. Such traffic rules out using any planning algorithm for these vehicles which is based upon the maintenance of speed lanes and lane changes. The absence of speed lanes may imply more bandwidth and easier overtaking in cases where vehicles vary considerably in both their size and speed. Inspired by the performance of artificial potential fields in the planning of mobile robots, we propose here lateral potentials as measures to enable vehicles to decide about their lateral positions on the road. Each vehicle is subjected to a potential from obstacles and vehicles in front, road boundaries, obstacles and vehicles to the side and higher speed vehicles to the rear. All these potentials are lateral and only govern steering the vehicle. A speed control mechanism is also used for longitudinal control of vehicle. The proposed system is shown to perform well for obstacle avoidance, vehicle following and overtaking behaviors.
Trends in nutrient intakes and consumption while eating-out among Korean adults based on Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1998-2012) data

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Eating-out among Korean people has become an important part of modern lifestyle due to tremendous growth of the food service industry and various social and economic changes. This study examined trends in meal patterns and meal sources while eating-out among Korean adults aged 19 years and older. SUBJECTS/METHODS Data were from the 1998-2012 KNHNES (Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) by the 24-hour dietary recall method. This study included 55,718 adults aged 19 years and older. For analysis of eating-out frequency, data were categorized by source of meals and serving place. RESULTS Average frequency of meals consumed away from home increased from 1998 to 2012, although it remained lower than that of meals at home. In addition, male, unmarried, employed, higher educated, and high income individuals more frequently consumed meals away from home. Moreover, sodium intake while eating-out significantly increased from 2,370 mg in 1998 to 2,935 mg in 2012. Lastly, percentage contributions of daily total protein intake, fat intake, and sodium intake from eating-out increased to more than half (53-55%) in 2012 compared with 47-48% in 1998. CONCLUSIONS As eating-out has grown in popularity, greater recognition of public health and nutritional education aimed at promoting healthy food choices is needed. In addition to developing consumer education for overall healthier eating patterns, individuals who are younger, unmarried, higher educated, and males are especially at risk and require attention.
Collision-Aware Churn Estimation in Large-Scale Dynamic RFID Systems

RFID technology has been widely adopted for real-world applications, such as warehouse management, logistic control, and object tracking. This paper focuses on a new angle of applying RFID technology—monitoring the temporal change of a tag set in a certain region, which is called churn estimation. This problem is to provide quick estimations on the number of new tags that have entered a monitored region, and the number of pre-existing tags that have departed from the region, within a predefined time interval. The traditional cardinality estimator for a single tag set cannot be applied here, and the conventional tag identification protocol that collects all tag IDs takes too much time, especially when the churn estimation needs to perform frequently to support real-time monitoring. This paper will take a new solution path, in which a reader periodically scans the tag set in a region to collect their compressed aggregate information in the form of empty/singleton/collision time slots. This protocol can reduce the time cost of attaining pre-set accuracy by at least 35%, when comparing with a previous work that uses only the information of idle/busy slots. Such a dramatic improvement is due to our awareness of collision slot state and the full utilization of slot state changes. Our proposed churn estimator, as shown by the extensive analysis and simulation studies, can be configured to meet any pre-set accuracy requirement with a statistical error bound that can be made arbitrarily small.
Lo nuevo del movimiento social internacional por otra globalización

Beginning with the great Seattle mobilizations at the end of 1999, the meetings in opposition to the World Commerce Organization and the institution of the People’s Global Action Day in 1998 in Switzerland, the constitution of the Association for Especulative Financial Transactions for the Assistance of Citizens (ATTAC) and, since 1999, the creation of the “The Other Davos”, the formation of the Intercontinental Caravan of Solidarity and Resistance has been building an international social critical movement struggling against neo liberalism for another possible world. This article is a reflection on the latest developments within that movement.
An Investigation of Predictive Profiling from Handwritten Signature Data

Although it has long been recognized that non-biometric factors (for example, general demographic characteristics) can have an impact on the performance of automated person identification systems, such information is not routinely adopted in most practical biometric processing. In forensic applications, however, such additional information may be exploited most productively, since typical scenarios require the prediction of a wide range of individual characteristics from a range of available samples, biometric and non-biometric. In many such situations, it may be very useful to predict characteristics short of actual identity, since this type of prediction can significantly increase the amount of evidence available. In this paper we provide some benchmarking data to demonstrate the extent to which typical non-biometric information might be effective in practice in this context, and illustrate the differential effects depending on the classifier adopted. In particular, however, we investigate experimentally how traditionally measured handwritten signature data might be used to predict non-biometric categories in a way which can be exploited a variety of practical application scenarios.
INHIBITION OF CROTON OIL-INDUCED OEDEMA IN RAT EAR SKIN BY TOPICAL NICOTINAMIDE GEL

Nicotinamide, a physiologically active form of niacin (nicotinic acid), in combination with zinc is being assessed in clinical studies for the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases such as acne vulgaris and bullous pemphigoid. Consequently the aim of the present study was to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of Nicotinamide gel 2%, 3% and 4% (Apex Laboratories Private Limited, Chennai, India) against croton oilinduced ear oedema skin inflammatory model in Wistar rats. Ear oedema was induced by topical application of irritant solution of croton oil to the right ear only. A total of 24 Wistar rats were randomly grouped into four groups each containing six animals. Croton oil-induced ear oedema control rats (Group I) and Nicotinamide gel 2% (Group II), 3% (Group III) and 4% (Group IV) dissolved in the irritant solution of croton oil was applied for 21 days. The topical application of Nicotinamide gel significantly reduced the oedema (p<0.001) in comparison with the croton oil applied toxic control group (untreated) at all the three concentrations 2%, 3% and 4%. The present study revealed that the Nicotinamide gel 2%, 3% and 4% (Apex Laboratories Private Limited, Chennai, India) is the potential agent that could offer a novel therapeutic option against croton oil-induced ear edema in Wistar rats.
Perception towards sustainable development concept: Egyptian students' perspective

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to measure students' perception towards sustainable development (SD) concept. The paper highlights students' perception before and after joining Heliopolis University (HU). Also, the research underscores different activities, facilities and methods HU is implementing to sharpen the delivery of SD concept. Furthermore, the study emphasizes on the extent to which students are anticipating implementing SD concept in their life. Design/methodology/approach – The research paper is an exploratory qualitative research design. The sample frame was the database of HU. A non-probability convenient sampling approach was applied to select 26 elements of the study. In-depth personal interviews were conducted. Questions were coded to facilitate analysis and to link respondents' answers with different questions. Accordingly, 12 structured open-ended questions were designed to gain clear insights regarding students' awareness of SD. Personal interviews took place at the end of fall seme.
A framework for measuring the supply chain's agility of mass construction industry in Iran

Article history: Received May 14, 2012 Received in Revised form June, 26, 2012 Accepted 2 August 2012 Available online August 9 2012 Impotent planning system in house providing process is the result of inadequate housing management system in theoretical, empirical, and operational fields. In addition, Mass Construction industry in Iran confronts with other problems such as instability in raw material prices, unsteadiness in production and investment laws and regulations, frailty of transportation infrastructure, international sanctions and etc. Furthermore, customers’ needs, lower costs, and greater customizations lead mass producing to search for new solutions and novel producing system. Agility is offered as a strategy to enable Mass Construction associations to be maintained in the competition of constantly changing market in Iran. In such a market, previous approaches lose their capabilities in supply chain. Thus to achieve agility by Mass Construction association is the chief aim of this study. This study is descriptive-analytic and can be identified as developmental –functional considering its target. After surveying previous research literature and using experts’ opinions, we investigated final agile sub criteria of supply chain and then we used interpretivestructural modeling approach to determine the relation among sub criteria and to offer an agile supply chain model. Surveying research literature and experts’ opinions lead us to identify 8 criteria (society, government, financial, information technology, market, partnership, quality and technology) and also 22 sub criteria for supply chain’s agility. Then the results were analyzed through interpretive-structural approach and relation of criteria and sub criteria and their consequence were achieved. These relations showed that government and infrastructure investment, culture, regulations and responses to social and environmental issues are the basis of agility in mass housing productions’ supply chain. This model helps supply chain managers to have strategic planning to enhance agility in supply chain and find effective sub criteria and criteria to invest on. © 2012 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.