Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Haptic reference cues to support the exploration of touchscreen mobile devices by blind users

Mobile devices are currently used for an increasing number of activities. However, their use is still a challenge for blind users. Main problems are especially due to the interaction via touchscreen and the lack of hardware keys for quickly detecting or activating functions. In this paper we investigated the use of the tactile channel to make interaction with touch-based mobile devices easier for blind users. After introducing common touchscreen usability problems, we presented our proposal aimed at enriching the user interface with haptic points to aid blind user orientation on the main sections of a user interface. Starting from two use cases, in order to set-up the proposed solution we have developed a simple controller prototype, based on Arduino open-hardware.
KILLING AS AN INITIATOR OF SELF-CHANGE: A Symbolic Interactionist Comparison of the

Using the theories proposed within symbolic interactionism, and concentrating on Erving Goffman’s work on the creation and presentation of the “self,” we explore how the killings of Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Andrew Nilsen were engaged in as part of a process of the killer seeking to become something or someone else. The killings, which resulted in corpses that each man kept with him for a certain length of time, didn’t just satisfy an immediate blood-lust in the two men, the killings, and the bodies of the dead men, facilitated an imagined personal change from the men being shy and socially awkward to being romantically and sexually accepted by other men (in the form of corpses) in a longer-term relationship.
MAGNETOSPHERIC STRUCTURE AND ATMOSPHERIC JOULE HEATING OF HABITABLE PLANETS ORBITING M-DWARF STARS

We study the magnetospheric structure and the ionospheric Joule Heating of planets orbiting M-dwarf stars in the habitable zone using a set of magnetohydrodynamic models. The stellar wind solution is used to drive a model for the planetary magnetosphere, which is coupled with a model for the planetary ionosphere. Our simulations reveal that the space environment around close-in habitable planets is extreme, and the stellar wind plasma conditions change from sub- to super-Alfvénic along the planetary orbit. As a result, the magnetospheric structure changes dramatically with a bow shock forming in the super-Alfvénic sectors, while no bow shock forms in the sub-Alfvénic sectors. The planets reside most of the time in the sub-Alfvénic sectors with poor atmospheric protection. A significant amount of Joule Heating is provided at the top of the atmosphere as a result of the intense stellar wind. For the steady-state solution, the heating is about 0.1%–3% of the total incoming stellar irradiation, and it is enhanced by 50% for the time-dependent case. The significant Joule Heating obtained here should be considered in models for the atmospheres of habitable planets in terms of the thickness of the atmosphere, the top-side temperature and density, the boundary conditions for the atmospheric pressure, and particle radiation and transport. Here we assume constant ionospheric Pedersen conductance similar to that of the Earth. The conductance could be greater due to the intense EUV radiation leading to smaller heating rates. We plan to quantify the ionospheric conductance in future study.
Association of Early National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale Improvement With Vessel Recanalization and Functional Outcome After Intravenous Thrombolysis in Ischemic Stroke

Background and Purpose— Early neurological improvement (ENI) after thrombolytic therapy of acute stroke has been linked with recanalization and favorable outcome, although its definition shows considerable variation. We tested the ability of ENI, as defined in previous publications, to predict vessel recanalization and 3-month functional outcome after intravenous thrombolysis recorded in an extensive patient cohort in the Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke–International Stroke Thrombolysis Register (SITS-ISTR). Methods— Of 21 534 patients registered between December 2002 and December 2008, 798 patients (3.7%) had CT- or MR angiography-documented baseline vessel occlusion and also angiography data at 22 to 36 hours post-treatment. ENI definitions assessed at 2 hours and 24 hours post-treatment were (1) National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score improvement ≥4 points from baseline; (2) NIHSS 0, 1, or improvement ≥8; (3) NIHSS ⩽3 or improvement ≥10; (4) improvement by 20%; (5) 40% from baseline; or (6) NIHSS score 0 to 1. Receiver operating curve analysis and multiple logistic regression were performed to evaluate the association of ENI with vessel recanalization and favorable functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale score 0 to 2 at 3 months). Results— ENI at 2 hours had fair accuracy to diagnose recanalization as derived from receiver operating curve analysis. Definitions of improvement based on percent of NIHSS score change from baseline demonstrate better accuracy to diagnose recanalization at 2 hours and 24 hours than the definitions based on NIHSS cutoffs (the best performance at 2 hours was area under the curve 0.633, sensitivity 58%, specificity 69%, positive predictive value 68%, and negative predictive value 59% for 20% improvement; and area under the curve 0.692, sensitivity 69%, specificity 70%, positive predictive value 70%, and negative predictive value 62% for 40% improvement at 24 hours). ENI-predicted functional outcome with OR 2.8 to 6.0 independently from recanalization in the angiography cohort (n=695) and with OR of 6.9 to 9.7 in the whole cohort (n=18 181). Conclusions— Early 20% neurological improvement at 2 hours was the best predictor of 3-month functional outcome and recanalization after thrombolysis, although fairly accurate, and may serve as a surrogate marker of recanalization if only imaging evaluation of vessel status is not available. If recanalization status is required after intravenous thrombolysis, vascular imaging is recommended despite ENI.
Analysis of Popular Video Shot Boundary Detection Techniques in Uncompressed Domain

days there are tremendous amount of videos available on internet. Entertainment video, news video, sports video are accessed by users to fulfill their different needs. Our daily routine systems are also producing huge amount of videos for example surveillance system, shopping malls, home videos etc. These videos need to be accessed for different purposes. Current research topics on video includes video abstraction or summarization, video classification, video annotation, content based video retrieval. In nearly all these application one needs to identify shots and key frames in video which will correctly and briefly indicate the contents of video. This paper compares some of the popular shot boundary detection techniques in uncompressed domain. The merits and demerits of each of the techniques are also discussed. Some experiment done are also discussed.
Quantum state during and after O(4)-symmetric bubble nucleation with gravitational effects.

We extend our previous analysis of the quantum state during and after $O(4)$-symmetric bubble nucleation to the case including gravitational effects. We find that there exists a simple relationship between the case with and without gravitational effects. In a special case of a conformally coupled scalar field which is massless except on the bubble wall, the state is found to be conformally equivalent to the case without gravity.
Auditory/Verbal Hallucinations, Speech Perception Neurocircuitry, and the Social Deafferentation Hypothesis

Auditory/verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are comprised of spoken conversational speech seeming to arise from specific, nonself speakers. One hertz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) reduces excitability in the brain region stimulated. Studies utilizing 1-Hz rTMS delivered to the left temporoparietal cortex, a brain area critical to speech perception, have demonstrated statistically significant improvements in AVHs relative to sham simulation. A novel mechanism of AVHs is proposed whereby dramatic pre-psychotic social withdrawal prompts neuroplastic reorganization by the “social brain” to produce spurious social meaning via hallucinations of conversational speech. Preliminary evidence supporting this hypothesis includes a very high rate of social withdrawal emerging prior to the onset of frank psychosis in patients who develop schizophrenia and AVHs. Moreover, reduced AVHs elicited by temporoparietal 1-Hz rTMS are likely to reflect enhanced long-term depression. Some evidence suggests a loss of long-term depression following experimentally-induced deafferentation. Finally, abnormal cortico-cortical coupling is associated with AVHs and also is a common outcome of deafferentation. Auditory/verbal hallucinations (AVHs) of spoken speech or “voices” are reported by 60–80% of persons with schizophrenia at various times during the course of illness. 1–2 AVHs are associated with high levels of distress, 3 –5 functional disability, 6 and can lead to violent acts. 7,8 Among patients with AVHs, these symptoms remain poorly or incompletely responsive to currently available treatments in approximately 25% of cases. 9 For patients with AVHs who do respond to antipsychotic drugs, there is a very high likelihood that these experiences will recur in subsequent episodes. 10 A more precise characterization of underlying pathophysiology may lead to more efficacious treatments.
The Accuracy of Autobiographical Memory: A Replication of Barclay & Wellman (1986)

Ten volunteers kept written records of self-selected, daily events for a one-week period. After four months, they were given a surprise recognition test. This test consisted of original memories and several types of foils. In line with previous findings of Barclay and Wellman, it was found that acceptance of foils as one's own memories is a relatively common phenomenon. This suggests that pseudomemories may also occur in the absence of suggestions and repeated interviews and, more generally, that autobiographical memory is intrinsically unreliable.
Differential FCM: increasing value prediction accuracy by improving table usage efficiency

Value prediction is a relatively new technique to increase the Instruction Level Parallelism (ILP) in future microprocessors. An important problem when designing a value predictor is efficiency, an accurate predictor requires huge prediction tables. This is especially the case for the finite context method (FCM) predictor the most accurate one. In this paper, we show that the prediction accuracy of the FCM can be greatly improved by making the FCM predict studies instead of values. This new predictor is called the differential finite context method (DFCM) predictor. The DFCM predictor outperforms a similar FCM predictor by as much as 33%, depending on the prediction table size. If we take the additional storage into account, the difference is still 15% for realistic predictor sizes. We use several metrics to show that the key to this success is reduced aliasing in the level-2 table. We also show that the DFCM is superior to hybrid predictors based on FCM and stride predictors, since its prediction accuracy is higher than that of a hybrid one using a perfect meta-predictor.
Energy consumption in android phones when using wireless communication technologies

Wireless communication technologies enable communication among different devices that are within a certain radius. Although, this radius is definite, communication when using wireless communication technologies is more flexible than when using wireline approach. This paper presents results from a measurement study where we measured energy consumption of three wireless communication technologies: Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G. We proposed an energy consumption model that is based on these measurements. Using proposed model one can calculate energy consumption for each communication technology. We show how our energy consumption model can be used on an example of the service called Collaborative Downloading. The primary goal of Collaborative Downloading service is to lower the overall energy consumption of mobile users while downloading data combining together 3G and Bluetooth or 3G and WiFi communication technologies.
Ex vivo sputum analysis reveals impairment of protease-dependent mucus degradation by plasma proteins in acute asthma.

RATIONALE Airway mucus plugs, composed of mucin glycoproteins mixed with plasma proteins, are an important cause of airway obstruction in acute severe asthma, and they are poorly treated with current therapies. OBJECTIVES To investigate mechanisms of airway mucus clearance in health and in acute severe asthma. METHODS We collected airway mucus from patients with asthma and nonasthmatic control subjects, using sputum induction or tracheal aspiration. We used rheological methods complemented by centrifugation-based mucin size profiling and immunoblotting to characterize the physical properties of the mucus gel, the size profiles of mucins, and the degradation products of albumin in airway mucus. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Repeated ex vivo measures of size and entanglement of mucin polymers in airway mucus from nonasthmatic control subjects showed that the mucus gel is normally degraded by proteases and that albumin inhibits this degradation. In airway mucus collected from patients with asthma at various time points during acute asthma exacerbation, protease-driven mucus degradation was inhibited at the height of exacerbation but was restored during recovery. In immunoblots of human serum albumin digested by neutrophil elastase and in immunoblots of airway mucus, we found that albumin was a substrate of neutrophil elastase and that products of albumin degradation were abundant in airway mucus during acute asthma exacerbation. CONCLUSIONS Rheological methods complemented by centrifugation-based mucin size profiling of airway mucins in health and acute asthma reveal that mucin degradation is inhibited in acute asthma, and that an excess of plasma proteins present in acute asthma inhibits the degradation of mucins in a protease-dependent manner. These findings identify a novel mechanism whereby plasma exudation may impair airway mucus clearance.
Absolute localization for low capability robots in structured environments using barcode landmarks

Research on multi-robot systems often demands the use of a large population of small, cheap, and low capability mobile robots. Many non-trivial behaviors demand these robots to be localized in real-time. This paper addresses the problem of absolute localization of such low capability robots using onboard sensors and local computation. The approach is based on the use of a pair of scan lines perceived by an onboard B&W camera to detect and decode artificial visual landmarks deployed along the environment. Each landmark consists on a dual-layer barcode which can encode its pose with respect to a global coordinate frame. Thus, the robot is not required to store a map of the landmark locations onboard. The method is based on an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) fusing odometry readings with absolute pose estimates obtained from the camera. Experimental results using an e-puck robot with 8KB of RAM and a 16MIPs processor are presented, comparing the location estimates with both ground truth and odometry.
Performance analysis of doubly fed brushless machine with cage rotor

Due to the complexity of structure as well electromagnetic coupling, accurate calculation of self and mutual inductances of stator and rotor windings for doubly fed brushless machine (DFBM) with cage rotor is difficult which is likely to lead to inaccuracy in performance analysis. In this paper, a method of parameter calculation and performance simulation based on combined magnetic field analysis with circuit model for cage rotor DFBM is introduced. The determination method of parameters based on magnetic field analysis can take the influence of teeth and slots as well the saturation effect into account; and the performance simulation based on the circuit model can consider easily the different operation modes and control strategies of the DFBM. As an example, the parameter determination and performance simulation for a 75kW cage rotor DFBM with 10-pole stator power winding and 6-pole control winding are introduced in detail. The comparisons of simulated starting and load characteristics with the tested results of the DFBM verify the validity of the proposed method of parameter determination and performance analysis.
Death from Asthma in Children

We have recorded 29 cases of death from asthma in children who had visited the Department of Pediatrics of Doai Memorial Hospital between 1965 and 1987. These cases have been analyzed. They were 18 males and 11 females. The mean age at death was 12.4 years and we found that in later childhood and adolescence the age at death had been increasing since 1973. The duration from final attack to death was very short: less than 1 hour: 21% and less than 2 hours: 50%. About half of the cases could not reach the hospital. Ten cases died within one year after cessation of long‐term systemic use of steroid. Severe attacks of asthma were particularly likely to occur during the reducing period or following cessation of these drugs. The importance of adequate and vigorous initial therapy in severe asthmatic attacks should be emphasized. The causes of death are as follows: asphyxia: 23 cases (one complicated by aspiration, one withdrawal syndrome of steroid, one subendocardial haemorrhage and two pneumothorax cases), anaphylactic shock to ACTH: 1 case, shock to stimulant: 1 case, following emergency operation: 1 case and unknown: 3 cases. Asthma death in children in Japan is reviewed.
Thymosin Beta-4, Actin-Sequestering Protein Regulates Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression via Hypoxia-Inducible Nitric Oxide Production in HeLa Cervical Cancer Cells

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an important regulator of neovascularization. Hypoxia inducible nitric oxide (NO) enhanced the expression of VEGF and thymosin beta-4 (Tβ4), actin sequestering protein. Here, we investigated whether NO-mediated VEGF expression could be regulated by Tβ4 expression in HeLa cervical cancer cells. Hypoxia inducible NO production and VEGF expression were reduced by small interference (si) RNA of Tβ4. Hypoxia response element (HRE)-luciferase activity and VEGF expression were increased by the treatment with N-(β-D-Glucopyranosyl)-N2-acetyl-S-nitroso-D, L-penicillaminamide (SNAP-1), to generate NO, which was inhibited by the inhibition of Tβ4 expression with Tβ4-siRNA. In hypoxic condition, HRE-luciferase activity and VEGF expression were inhibited by the treatment with NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA), an inhibitor to nitric oxide synthase (NOS), which is accompanied with a decrease in Tβ4 expression. VEGF expression inhibited by L-NMMA treatment was restored by the transfection with pCMV-Tβ4 plasmids for Tβ4 overexpression. Taken together, these results suggest that Tβ4 could be a regulator for the expression of VEGF via the maintenance of NOS activity.
Okul Kültürünün Şekillendirilmesinde Müdürün Rolleri

Culture grows over a period of time and it takes on greater meaning. School culture is a shared set of ideals, values, assumptions, beliefs and attitudes thal bind a school community together. These norms powerfully shape the experiences of the people in the school and become a shared vision under the leadership of an effective principal. Principals have a fundamental responsibility to ensure overall student achievement and motivation as wel! as teacher produetivity and satisfaction. It is through effective leadership and the modeling of values and beliefs important to education that principals are able to shape the culture within schools. After careful consideration of existing traditions, goals and ceremonies, principals work with staff and students to create a shared and collaborative vision that ensures school success.
Efficient pedestrian detection with enhanced object segmentation in far IR night vision

This paper presents a pedestrian detection system with enhanced object segmentation procedure working on a far infrared (FIR) video. To make the object detection more accurate on the FIR images, we propose an enhanced segmentation procedure with two thresholds and the region enlargement. This combination allowed a significant reduction of the region of interests (ROIs) for further processing. Experiments performed on demanding public dataset show a significant increase of the pedestrian detection performance (up to 33 frames per second) with the accuracy comparable with state-of-the-art algorithms.
Intracellular pH-regulating mechanism of the squid axon. Interaction between DNDS and extracellular Na+ and HCO3-

Intracellular pH (pHi) of the squid axon is regulated by a stilbenesensitive transporter that couples the influx of Na+ and HCO3- (or the equivalent) to the efflux of Cl-. According to one model, the extracellular ion pair NaCO3- exchanges for intracellular Cl-. In the present study, the ion-pair model was tested by examining the interaction of the reversible stilbene derivative 4,4'-dinitrostilbene- 2,2'-disulfonate (DNDS) with extracellular Na+ and HCO3-. Axons (initial pHi approximately 7.4) were internally dialyzed with a pH 6.5 solution containing 400 mM Cl- but no Na+. After pHi, as measured with a glass microelectrode, had fallen to approximately 6.6, dialysis was halted. In the presence of both external Na+ and HCO3- (pHo = 8.0, 22 degrees C), pHi increased due to the pHi-regulating mechanism. At a fixed [Na+]o of 425 mM and [HCO3-]o of 12 mM, DNDS reversibly reduced the equivalent acid-extrusion rate (JH) calculated from the rate of pHi recovery. The best-fit value for maximal inhibition was 104%, and for the [DNDS]o at half-maximal inhibition, 0.3 mM. At a [Na+]o of 425 mM, the [HCO3-]o dependence of JH was examined at 0, 0.1, and 0.25 mM DNDS. Although Jmax was always approximately 20 pmol cm-2 s-1, Km(HCO3-) was 2.6, 5.7, and 12.7 mM, respectively. Thus, DNDS is competitive with HCO3-. At a [HCO3-]o of 12 mM, the [Na+]o dependence of JH was examined at 0 and 0.1 mM DNDS. Although Jmax was approximately 20 pmol cm-2 s-1 in both cases, Km(Na+) was 71 and 179 mM, respectively. At a [HCO3-]o of 48 mM, Jmax was approximately 20 pmol cm-2 s-1 at [DNDS]o levels of 0, 0.1, and 0.25 mM. However, Km(Na+) was 22, 45, and 90 mM, respectively. Thus, DNDS (an anion) is also competitive with Na+. The results are consistent with simple competition between DNDS and NaCO3-, and place severe restrictions on other kinetic models.
Hardware accelerated approach for floating-point multiplication on 32-bit pipelined RISC-V processor

: Implementing hardware support for all extensions of the RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture inside a processor would lead to avoidable area and power consumption for applications that rarely utilize a particular extension. In this paper, authors have first suggested a modified 3-stage pipeline alternative to the ZSCALE processor (32-bit) by UC Berkeley. Subsequently a hardware-accelerated approach for implementing the single-precision floating-point extension (‘F’) on programmable logic interfaced with the processor is implemented. For clear demonstration of the suggested approach, an IEEE 745-2008 compliant multiplication unit, optimized for performance and area using ancient Vedic Mathematics techniques, has been used. Adducing this, the proposed processor and the accelerator units have been implemented as a system on Xilinx Virtex-6 ‘ xc 6 vlx 75 t -3 ff 484’ FPGA platform. A maximum operating-frequency of 335 MHz has been observed for the modified standalone processor.