Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of a multidisciplinary weight loss intervention in overweight and obese children and adolescents: 11 years of experience

Aims To evaluate the effects of an outpatient multidisciplinary weight loss intervention in reducing body mass index (BMI) in children and adolescents suffering overweight and obesity, changes in A Body Shape Index (ABSI, waist circumference normalized to height and weight) and Hip Index (HI, normalized hip circumference) during treatment and correlation between the ABSI and HI with change in BMI z score. Methods We analyze anthropometric data from pediatric patients affected by overweight and obesity aged 2 to 18 years old who entered our multidisciplinary weight loss intervention, which included medical, psychological and nutritional sessions, from January 1st 2006 to December 31st 2016. Lifestyle modification counselling was delivered. Follow-up visits were planned every month for 3 months and subsequently every 2–4 months. BMI, ABSI, and HI were converted to z scores using age and sex specific population normals. Results 864 patients entered our intervention. 453 patients (208 males), mean age 11.2 ±3.1 years, 392 with obesity (86%, z-BMI 2.90 ±0.80 SD) and 61 patients with overweight (z-BMI 1.73±0.21 SD) attended at least 1 follow-up visit. The mean number of visits was 3.5 (± 1.8 SD) in overweight subjects and 3.9 (±2.2 SD) in ones with obesity. At the last attended follow-up visit (at 16 ± 12 months SD) we observed a reduction in mean z-BMI in patients with obesity (to 2.52 ±0.71 SD) and patients with overweight (to 1.46 ±0.5 SD). Most patients (80.8%) reduced their BMI z scores. Mean ABSI and HI z scores showed no significant change. 78/392 patients (19.8%) recovered from obese to overweight, 5/392 (1.2%) from obese to normal weight. The recovery rate from overweight to normal weight was 13.1%. In a multivariate model, initial BMI z score and number of follow-up visits were significant predictors of weight change, while age, sex, ABSI, and HI were not significant predictors. Conclusions Patients affected by overweight and obesity involved in a multidisciplinary weight loss intervention reduced their mean BMI z score, while ABSI and HI were stable. Weight loss was not predicted by initial ABSI or HI. More visits predict more weight loss, but dropout rates are high. The great majority of patients leave the weight management program before having normalized their BMI.
Does the EMU Need a Fiscal Transfer Mechanism

The aim of this paper is to investigate how the birth of a central fiscal authority or the creation of a fiscal transfer mechanism could improve the action of fiscal policy in terms of stabilization in the EMU. In particular, the paper examines the theoretical reasons to support this conclusion and provides empirical evidence that shows how the EMU is not able to face asymmetric and symmetric idiosyncratic shocks. Die zentrale Frage des Aufsatzes lautet: Ob und wie kann eine zentrale Fiskalbehorde oder ein fiskalischer Transfermechanismus die fiskalpolitische Stabilisierung in der EWU verbessern? Dazu werden theoretische Argumente und empirische Evidenz prasentiert, die die These bestatigen, dass die gegenwartige EWU nicht in der Lage ist, asymmetrische und symmetrische idiosynkratische Schocks zu verarbeiten.
Allometric scaling and maximum efficiency in physiological eigen time

General optimization results from physics indicate that maximum efficiency of a process, in the sense of minimum overall entropy production, is achieved when the rate of entropy production is constant over time, however not in ordinary clock time but on an, in general varying, “eigen time” scale, intrinsic to the system. We identify the eigen time of a biological system with “physiological time,” which generally scales with the 1/4 power of body mass, M1/4, over a vast range of species. Since it is equally well established that metabolic rate scales as M3/4, it follows that organisms produce entropy at the same intrinsic rate, fulfilling a necessary condition for maximum efficiency, and are all, furthermore, equally efficient on the physiological eigen time scale.
Video training of imagery for mature adults

To examine the effectiveness of videotaped memory training, two groups of middle-aged and older adults were given imagery training that included videotaped presentation of interactive imagery for object location recall and linking items on a list, and the image-name match method for name recall. The training group performed significantly better than the waiting list on the initial post-test, and the two groups were comparable after both groups had received training. Evidence for both maintenance and generalization was found. Videotaped presentation of imagery training is effective for mature adults as a self-paced at-home intervention, and has cost-saving advantages over the predominant training methodology.
An Effective Mechanism for Congestion Control in High Speed Networks

Summary Due to the recent trends in Internet, for exchange of information in the form of pure data traffic and multimedia traffic, High-speed network is necessary. As there is a growing demand for high-speed networks, data transfer must take place without any congestion. In data networking and queueing theory, Network congestion occurs when a link or node is carrying so much data that its quality of service deteriorates. Typical effects include queueing delay, packet loss or the blocking of new connections. A consequence of these latter two is that incremental increases in offered load lead either only to small increase in network throughput, or to an actual reduction in network throughput. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP has not performed well on high-speed network because the standard TCP’s algorithm for congestion control may cause thousands of packet drops in one Round Trip Time (RTT) and the window size is halved at the time of congestion. So the utilization of the bandwidth and throughput is minimized. The researchers developed different TCP variants to improve the performance of the congestion control algorithms in high-speed network. In this paper we propose a sequence of algorithms based on window adjustment, feedback mechanism and buffer management to overcome the limitations for high-speed network. The congestion control mechanism that we adopt starts with Queue Management, which enables to modify and control the transmission queue. The Window Adjustment Mechanism alters the Congestion window size based on the Input load. The Feedback mechanism renders the optimum load that can be serviced currently when congestion had taken place. Also the feedback information is notified to the sender. This solution to control the congestion in the network achieves maximum throughput and bandwidth utilization, with minimum delay and drop probability. The performance of the congestion window, throughput, utilization of the bandwidth, delay are analyzed and presented.
Impact of the Linux Real-time Enhancements on the System Performances for Multi-core Intel Architectures

In this paper, we study the impact of timing enhancement offered by various real-time Linux kernel extensions and their impact into the overall system performance. The obtained results are compared with the standard and server kernels performances. We used for our study a multi-core Intel® based architecture since we considered the trend of the embedded control market for this kind of architectures. In our work we studied two metrics to reflect the performance of the studied kernel that are latency and throughput. Such work can be used to orient the adoption of real-time Linux extension for a given hardware architecture to reach control application requirements.
A Critical Appraisal of Self‐Report Defense Mechanism Measures

Defense mechanisms have been a source of both fascination and frustration for most personality researchers because they are conceptually intriguing but their assessment is often problematic. To aid personality researchers in integrating defense mechanism theory into personality research, we review and critique the major existing self-report defense mechanism measures: the Coping and Defending Scales (Joffe & Naditch, 1977); the Defense Mechanisms Inventory (Gleser & Ihilevich, 1969); the Life-Style Index (Plutchik, Kellerman, & Conte, 1979); and the Defense Style Questionnaire (Bond, Gardner, Christian, & Sigal, 1983). We conclude that no self-report measure adequately assesses the defining features of defense mechanisms. We offer a number of person and situation variables that must be considered when evaluating any defense mechanism measure, and we conclude that the comprehensive assessment of defense mechanism use will likely require measures obtained from multiple sources.
Consequences of Weight Cycling: An Increase in Disease Risk?

Research indicates that weight cycling, or “yo-yo dieting” is a common occurrence in overweight and obese populations. The long term negative health consequences of weight cycling are debated and it is unclear whether or not this weight change pattern poses a greater disease risk compared to obesity maintenance. This review discusses the prevalence of weight cycling and physiological alterations occurring during weight loss that promotes weight regain. We also discuss the effect weight regain has upon adipose tissue in terms of rate and type of accumulation. Also within this review are discussions surrounding the previously published literature based upon human and rodent research. We focus on previous limitations and difference in experimental design that have perhaps resulted in mixed findings concerning independent effects of weight cycling on health parameters. The final purpose of this review is to discuss future directions in evaluating the pro-inflammatory response to weight cycling in order to compare the disease risk compared to obesity maintenance.
Proportional-Integral-Differential (PLC) Control System Design of Compressor Performance Test Bench

To improve the working efficiency of compressor performance test and the quality of testing data, a PLC control system was designed for the compressor performance test bench. The test bench's turnon & turnoff, the compressor rotate speed, the air mass flow, can all be controlled accurately by the PLC control system. Compared with the traditional manual testing method, this test & control system improved testing efficiency, and met the requirement of compressor performance test.
Examining the Link Between Friendship Contingent Self-Esteem and the Self-Propagating Cycle of Depression

Research has shown that basing one's self-worth on the quality of one's friendships, termed friendship contingent self-esteem (FCSE), is a risk factor for depressive symptoms (Cambron, Acitelli, & Steinberg, 2010). The current research extends this research by examining the hypothesis that individuals high in FCSE engage in behaviors and cognitions that maintain depressive symptoms. Study 1 showed that negative feedback seeking (NFS) and rumination mediated the relation between FCSE and depressive symptoms. Study 2, utilizing a daily diary study methodology, supported the findings of Study 1, and showed that the relation between FCSE and daily depressive symptoms was partially mediated by excessive reassurance seeking (ERS), NFS, and rumination over the course of three weeks. Findings imply that individuals whose self-esteem is determined by their friendship quality engage in maladaptive interpersonal behaviors that ultimately lead to experiencing greater depressive symptoms. Implications for future resea.
Parents’ Conceptions of School Readiness, Transition Practices, and Children's Academic Achievement Trajectories

ABSTRACT The author empirically tests the conceptual model of academic socialization, which suggests that parental cognitions about schooling influence parenting practices and child outcomes during the transition to school (Taylor, Clayton, & Rowley, 2004). More specifically, the author examines associations among parents’ conceptions of school readiness, transition practices, and children's academic achievement in reading and mathematics from kindergarten through Grade 1 using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (N = 12,622). A latent growth curve model was estimated, and results show that parents’ school readiness beliefs were positively associated with children's beginning achievement and growth. Parents’ transition practices were positively associated with children's achievement at the onset of kindergarten. Parents’ beliefs also positively predicted their use of transition practices. The analysis largely confirmed the conceptual model of academic socialization. Furthermore, findings suggest that early interventions seeking to change parenting practices should consider parents’ school readiness beliefs and expectations.
A brief introduction to regression designs and mixed-effects modelling by a recent convert

This article discusses the advantages of multiple regression designs over the factorial designs traditionally used in many psycholinguistic experiments. It is shown that regression designs are typically more informative, statistically more powerful and better suited to the analysis of naturalistic tasks. The advantages of including both fixed and random effects are demonstrated with reference to linear mixed-effects models, and problems of collinearity, variable distribution and variable selection are discussed. The advantages of these techniques are exemplified in an analysis of a word recognition experiment in Danish.
A Parallel Architecture for Knowledge Based Autonomous Navigation

Vision guided autonomous vehicles requires effective methods for path planning and obstacle avoidance in real-time. The algorithms must be able to determine the current position of the vehicle and make decisions to find a path to access desired location while avoiding obstacles along the way. To achieve these goals, machine vision is utilized as the main source of sensory input to recognize the environment and to assist planning and steering the autonomous vehicle. Computations performed in machine vision can be categorized into three levels, pixel level processing, symbolic representation and symbolic processing and they are usually complex. This complexity, mainly due to large size of data and real-time processing requirements, can be dealt with using parallel computing techniques. In this paper, we present a dedicated architecture built for this purpose.
Ethernet for High-Performance Data centers: On the New IEEE Datacenter Bridging Standards

Through the Datacenter Bridging task group, IEEE will add four supplements to the 802.1 standard that will both close the performance gap between Ethernet and InfiniBand and make the converged network a reality. In a converged network, all applications use a single physical infrastructure, which is ideal for the emerging next generation of data centers.
Collagen TM : Middleware for Building Mixed-Initiative Problem Solving Assistants

Collagenis Java middleware for building mixedinitiative problem solving assistants, based on Grosz and Sidner’s SharedPlan theory of collaborative discourse. The implementation includes a discourse state representation, comprised of a focus stack and a plan tree, as well as algorithms for discourse interpretation (including plan recognition) and discourse generation. Collagen has been used to build over a dozen research prototype systems.
Hemagglutination and adhesiveness of epidemiologically distinct strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Twelve strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus from four epidemiologically distinct groups were examined for their ability to hemagglutinate human, bovine, chicken, guinea pig, and rabbit erythrocytes and to adhere to human buccal mucosal epithelial cells in the presence and absence of mannose. Four of six Kanagawa-positive but none of six Kanagawa-negative strains showed mannose-sensitive hemagglutination with erythrocytes of rabbits and of one or more additional species. Mannose-resistant hemagglutination was shown by one strain in each group with no apparent relationship to strain source or hemolytic capability. All strains adhered to human buccal mucosal cells, with but a single strain showing significant difference in adherence at the alpha = 0.05 level. The adherence pattern had no relationship to the four epidemiological groups. Although adhesive processes may well be involved in disease caused by V. parahaemolyticus, our results do not support a role for adherence as a predictor of pathogenicity.
On the estimation of reliability of a software system using reliabilities of its components

We report an experiment to evaluate a method, known as component based reliability estimation (CBRE), for the estimation of reliability of a software system using reliabilities of its components. CBRE involves computing path reliability estimates based on the sequence of components executed for each test input. Path reliability estimates are averaged over all test runs to obtain an estimate of the system reliability. In the experiment reported, three components of a Unix utility were seeded with errors and the reliability of each component was measured. The faulty components were then introduced systematically into the utility, in various combinations, to produce several faulty versions of the utility. For each faulty version, test cases were drawn from an operational profile to measure the component-based reliability. The true reliability of the faulty version was estimated using the frequency count approach. The goodness of CBRE was assessed in terms of the accuracy and efficiency of the estimates with respect to the true reliability. Results from this experiment suggest that CBRE yields reasonably accurate results at an efficient rate. However, the accuracy and efficiency of CBRE is sensitive to the dependency among successive calls to a component.
On the nonadiabatic geometric quantum gates

Motivated for the fault tolerant quantum computation, quantum gate by adiabatic geometric phase shift is extensively investigated. In this paper, we demonstrate the nonadiabatic scheme for the geometric phase shift and conditional geometric phase shift. Essentially, the new scheme is simply to add an appropriate additional field. With this additional field, the state evolution can be controlled exactly on a dynamical phase free path. Geometric quantum gates for single qubit and the controlled NOT gate for two qubits are given.
Boolean Games Revisited

Game theory is a widely used formal model for studying strategical interactions between agents. Boolean games [8] are two players, zero-sum static games where players' utility functions are binary and described by a single propositional formula, and the strategies available to a player consist of truth assignments to each of a given set of propositional variables (the variables controlled by the player.) We generalize the framework to n-players games which are not necessarily zero-sum. We give simple characterizations of Nash equilibria and dominated strategies, and investigate the computational complexity of the related problems.
Context-Aware Intelligent Assistant Approach to Improving Pilot's Situational Awareness

Faulty decision making due to inaccurate or incomplete awareness of the situation tends to be the prevailing cause of fatal general aviation accidents. Of these accidents, loss of weather situational awareness accounts for the largest number of fatalities. We describe a method for improving weather situational awareness through the support of a contextaware,domain and task knowledgeable, personalized and adaptive assistant. The assistant automatically monitors weather reports for the pilot's route of flight and warns her of detected anomalies. When and how warnings are issued is determined by phase of flight, the pilot s definition of acceptable weather conditions, and the pilot's preferences for automatic notification. In addition to automatic warnings, the pilot is able to verbally query for weather and airport information. By noting the requests she makes during the approach phase of flight, our system learns to provide the information without explicit requests on subsequent flights with similar conditions. We show that our weather assistant decreases the effort required to maintain situational awareness by more than 5.5 times when compared to the conventional method of in-flight weather briefings.
Bullying: Are researchers and children/youth talking about the same thing?

Given the rapid increase in studies of bullying and peer harassment among youth, it becomes important to understand just what is being researched. This study explored whether the themes that emerged from children's definitions of bullying were consistent with theoretical and methodological operationalizations within the research literature, and whether the provision of a definition when administering bullying experience items would lead to different prevalence rates in reported victimization and bullying. Students aged 8—18 (N = 1767) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the first condition, students were provided with a standard bullying definition; in the second condition, students provided their own definition of bullying. Results indicated that students' definitions of bullying rarely included the three prominent definitional criteria typically endorsed by researchers: intentionality (1.7%), repetition (6%), and power imbalance (26%), although almost all students (92%) did emphasize negative behaviors in their definition. Younger children made more mention of physical aggression, general harassing behaviors, and verbal aggression in their definitions, whereas the theme of relational aggression was most prominent in the middle years and reported more by girls than boys. Finally, students who were given a definition of bullying reported being victimized less than students not provided with a definition. As well, boys who were given a definition of bullying tended to report higher levels of bullying than those not given a definition (marginal effect).
Jane, Meet Charles: Literature, Evolution, and Human Nature

In the social sciences since the 1900s and the humanities since the 1960s, the world and the mind have increasingly been seen as socially, culturally, or linguistically constructed. Culture, not biology, shapes what we are; language, not the world, determines what we think. If we are what culture, convention, discourse, or ideology make of us, then there is no such thing as a universal human nature, and to believe in such a thing would be to commit the naive error, or the reactionary crime, of "essentialism. " When the sociologist Emile Durkheim at the end of last century and the anthropologist Franz Boas at the start of this one tried to sever the study of humanity from biology, they had good intellectual and social reasons for doing so in a world where the muddled and heartless doctrines of Social Darwinism and eugenics held popular and even "scientific" sway.
CFD Modeling in the San Francisco Bay and Delta

We describe a two-dimensional shallow water model whose initial implementation simulates flows in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This model, called REALM, is based on a Cartesian grid, embedded boundary discretization of the shallow water equations. We employ parallel computation and adaptive mesh refinement for rapid computation. Grid generation from digital elevation models faithfully represents the shoreline and the use of implicit functions and constructive solid geometry permits the representation of structures such as gates.