Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wii-Fit for Improving Gait and Balance in an Assisted Living Facility: A Pilot Study

Objectives. To determine the effects on balance and gait of a Wii-Fit program compared to a walking program in subjects with mild Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Methods. A prospective randomized (1 : 1) pilot study with two intervention arms was conducted in an assisted living facility with twenty-two mild AD subjects. In both groups the intervention occurred under supervision for 30 minutes daily, five times a week for eight weeks. Repeated measures ANOVA and paired t-tests were used to analyze changes. Results. Both groups showed improvement in Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Tinetti Test (TT) and Timed Up and Go (TUG) over 8 weeks. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups over time. Intragroup analysis in the Wii-Fit group showed significant improvement on BBS (P = 0.003), and TT (P = 0.013). The walking group showed a trend towards improvement on BBS (P = 0.06) and TUG (P = 0.07) and significant improvement in TT (P = 0.06). Conclusion. This pilot study demonstrates the safety and efficacy of Wii-Fit in an assisted living facility in subjects with mild AD. Use of Wii-Fit resulted in significant improvements in balance and gait comparable to those in the robust monitored walking program. These results need to be confirmed in a larger, methodologically sound study.
The Ethical Use of Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing has attracted increasing attention as a means to enlist online participants in organisational activities. In this paper, we examine crowdsourcing from the perspective of its ethical use in the support of open innovation taking a broader system view of its use. Crowdsourcing has the potential to improve access to knowledge, skills, and creativity in a cost-effective manner but raises a number of ethical dilemmas. The paper discusses the ethical issues related to knowledge exchange, economics, and relational aspects of crowdsourcing. A guiding framework drawn from the ethics literature is proposed to guide the ethical use of crowdsourcing. A major problem is that crowdsourcing is viewed in a piecemeal fashion and separate from other organisational processes. The trend for organisations to be more digitally collaborative is explored in relation to the need for greater awareness of crowdsourcing implications.
The Impact of Perceptual and Situational Factors on Environmental Communication: A Study of Citizen Engagement in China

ABSTRACT This study applied a situational approach to understanding an environmental problem: PM2.5 (its resulted haze and smog air pollution) in China. Based on a national sample of 374 citizens living in China, it tested a situational model of problem solving and extended it by adding citizens’ environmental engagement behaviour as an immediate consequence of their communicative action. Results of a structural equation modelling analysis supported all the causal links in the conceptual model. Moreover, communicative action significantly mediated the relationship between referent criterion and environmental engagement. Problem recognition, constraint recognition, and involvement recognition did not influence environmental engagement directly, but exerted their significant indirect impact via two key mediators in the model: situational motivation in problem solving and communicative action in problem solving. Theoretical and practical implications of the present study were discussed.
Association of Sleep-Disordered Breathing, Sleep Apnea, and Hypertension in a Large Community-Based Study

ContextSleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and sleep apnea have been linked to hypertension in previous studies, but most of these studies used surrogate information to define SDB (eg, snoring) and were based on small clinic populations, or both.ObjectiveTo assess the association between SDB and hypertension in a large cohort of middle-aged and older persons.Design and SettingCross-sectional analyses of participants in the Sleep Heart Health Study, a community-based multicenter study conducted between November 1995 and January 1998.ParticipantsA total of 6132 subjects recruited from ongoing population-based studies (aged ≥40 years; 52.8% female). Main Outcome MeasuresApnea-hypopnea index (AHI, the average number of apneas plus hypopneas per hour of sleep, with apnea defined as a cessation of airflow and hypopnea defined as a ≥30% reduction in airflow or thoracoabdominal excursion both of which are accompanied by a ≥4% drop in oxyhemoglobin saturation), obtained by unattended home polysomnography. Other measures include arousal index; percentage of sleep time below 90% oxygen saturation; history of snoring; and presence of hypertension, defined as resting blood pressure of at least 140/90 mm Hg or use of antihypertensive medication.ResultsMean systolic and diastolic blood pressure and prevalence of hypertension increased significantly with increasing SDB measures, although some of this association was explained by body mass index (BMI). After adjusting for demographics and anthropometric variables (including BMI, neck circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio), as well as for alcohol intake and smoking, the odds ratio for hypertension, comparing the highest category of AHI (≥30 per hour) with the lowest category (<1.5 per hour), was 1.37 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-1.83; P for trend=.005). The corresponding estimate comparing the highest and lowest categories of percentage of sleep time below 90% oxygen saturation (≥12% vs <0.05%) was 1.46 (95% CI, 1.12-1.88; P for trend <.001). In stratified analyses, associations of hypertension with either measure of SDB were seen in both sexes, older and younger ages, all ethnic groups, and among normal-weight and overweight individuals. Weaker and nonsignificant associations were observed for the arousal index or self-reported history of habitual snoring.ConclusionOur findings from the largest cross-sectional study to date indicate that SDB is associated with systemic hypertension in middle-aged and older individuals of different sexes and ethnic backgrounds.
Energy Recycling From Multigigahertz Clocks Using Fully Integrated Switching Converters

Large digital chips use a significant amount of energy to broadcast a low-skew, multigigahertz clock to millions of latches located throughout the chip. Every clock cycle, the large aggregate capacitance of the clock network is charged from the supply and then discharged to ground. Instead of wasting this stored energy, it is possible to recycle the energy by controlling its delivery to another part of the chip using an on-chip dc-dc converter. The clock driver and switching converter circuits share many compatible characteristics that allow them to be merged into a single design and fully integrated on-chip. Our buck converter prototype, manufactured in 90-nm CMOS, provides a proof-of-concept that clock network energy can be recycled to other parts of the chip, thus lowering overall energy consumption. It also confirms that monolithic multigigahertz switching converters utilizing zero-voltage switching can be implemented in deep-submicrometer CMOS. With multigigahertz operation, fully integrated inductors and capacitors use a small amount of chip area with low losses. Combining the clock driver with the power converter can share the large MOSFET drivers necessary as well as being energy and space efficient. We present an analysis of the losses which we confirm by experimentally comparing the merged circuit with a conventional clock driver.
Chapter 1 Spatial Symbols and Spatial Thought : Cross-Cultural , Developmental , and Historical Perspectives on the Relation Between Map Use and Spatial Cognition

*Concepts and Conceptual Development: Ecological and intellectual factors in categorization (1987), Ulric Neisser, Editor *Remembering Reconsidered: Ecological and traditional approaches to the study of memory (1988), Ulric Neisser & Eugene Winograd, Editors "Knowing and Remembering in Young Children (1990). Robyn Fivush and Judith A. Hudson, Editors *Affect and Accuracy in Recall: Studies of "flashbulb" memories (1992). Eugene Winograd & Ulric Neisser, Editors *The Perceived Self: Ecological and interpersonal sources of self-knowledge (1 993), Ulric Neisser, Editor *The Remembering Self: Construction and accuracy in the self-narrative (1 994), Ulric Neisser & Robyn Fivush, Editors *The Conceptual Self in Context: Culture, experience and self understanding (1997). Ulric Neisser & David A. Jopling, Editors Ecological Approaches to Cognition: Essays in Honor of Ulric Neisser (1999) Eugene Winograd, Robyn Fivush, & William Hirst, Editors
Microsummarization of Online Reviews: An Experimental Study

Mobile and location-based social media applications provide platforms for users to share brief opinions about products, venues, and services. These quickly typed opinions, or microreviews, are a valuable source of current sentiment on a wide variety of subjects. However, there is currently little research on how to mine this information to present it back to users in easily consumable way. In this paper, we introduce the task of microsummarization, which combines sentiment analysis, summarization, and entity recognition in order to surface key content to users. We explore unsupervised and supervised methods for this task, and find we can reliably extract relevant entities and the sentiment targeted towards them using crowdsourced labels as supervision. In an end-to-end evaluation, we find our best-performing system is vastly preferred by judges over a traditional extractive summarization approach. This work motivates an entirely new approach to summarization, incorporating both sentiment analysis and item extraction for modernized, at-a-glance presentation of public opinion.
Role of the AAA protease Yme1 in folding of proteins in the intermembrane space of mitochondria

We show here that the i-AAA protease Yme1 has a role in folding of proteins in the intermembrane space of mitochondria and identify a number of endogenous proteins that aggregate in its absence. Thus the function of Yme1 in mitochondrial proteostasis extends beyond its role in proteolytic removal of misfolded and nonassembled inner membrane proteins.
A Novel Adaptive Call Admission Control Scheme for Distributed Reinforcement Learning Based Dynamic Spectrum Access in Cellular Networks

This paper introduces a novel Q-value based adaptive call admission control scheme (Q-CAC) for distributed reinforcement learning (RL) based dynamic spectrum access (DSA) in mobile cellular networks, which provides a good quality of service (QoS) without the need for spectrum sensing. A DSA algorithm has been developed in this paper using the stateless Q-learning algorithm with Win-or-Learn-Fast (WoLF) learning rates. Its performance was analysed using the spatial distribution of the probabilities of call blocking (BP) and dropping (DP) across the network and compared to that of a 100% accurate spectrum sensing based DSA scheme. The Q-CAC scheme demonstrated good controllability of the blocking probability using a Q-value based call admission threshold parameter. It significantly reduced spatial fluctuations in BP and DP, thus providing more cells with acceptable quality of service (QoS). Keywords—Dynamic Spectrum Access, Adaptive Call Admission Control, Distributed Reinforcement Learning
Performance evaluation of AODV routing protocol under Black Hole attack with varying Black hole nodes

A Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is a temporary network set up by wireless mobile computers (or nodes) moving arbitrary in the places that have no network infrastructure. Due to this it is vulnerable to various kinds of security threats. Black hole attack is one of such threats. This paper lead emphasis on AODV routing protocol in MANET, along with various types of security attacks and security threats with major concern on the Black Hole attack.
structure models energy functions improve error detection in near-native protein Nonbonded terms extrapolated from nonlocal knowledge-based

The accurate assessment of structural errors plays a key role in protein structure prediction, constitutes the first step of protein structure refinement, and has a major impact on subsequent functional inference from structural data. In this study, we assess and compare the ability of different full atom knowledgebased potentials to detect small and localized errors in comparative protein structure models of known accuracy. We have evaluated the effect of incorporating close nonbonded pairwise atom terms on the task of classifying residue modeling accuracy. Since the direct and unbiased derivation of close nonbonded terms from current experimental data is not possible, we extrapolated those terms from the corresponding pseudo-energy functions of a nonlocal knowledge-based potential. It is shown that this methodology clearly improves the detection of errors in protein models, suggesting that a proper description of close nonbonded terms is important to achieve a more complete and accurate description of native protein conformations. The use of close nonbonded terms directly derived from experimental data exhibited a poor performance, demonstrating that these terms cannot be accurately obtained by using the current data and methodology. Some external knowledge-based energy functions that are widely used in model assessment also performed poorly, which suggests that the benchmark of models and the specific error detection task tested in this study constituted a difficult challenge. The methodology presented here could be useful to detect localized structural errors not only in highquality protein models, but also in experimental protein structures.
Multiscale Modeling of Tumorigenesis Induced by Mitochondrial Incapacitation in Cell Death

There is a renewed interest in tumorigenesis provoked by glycolysis and prosurvival autophagy following the mitochondrial permeability transition during cell death. To investigate such mitochondrial dysfunction, we have developed a multiscale model by integrating the dynamic behaviors of essential oncogenic proteins, cells, and their microenvironment. We found that 1) the concentration of cellular ATP (adenosine triphosphate) available during the autophagy-related processes is a critical factor in determining tumorigenesis; 2) mitochondrial aging rate has a significant influence on this tumorigenic effect, 3) specific hypoxic and oxidative stresses work cooperatively for tumorigenesis during cell death. We conclude that the cellular mitochondrial status is critical in triggering tumorigenesis during the cell death process, particularly under harsh microenvironments.
Maximal compact positively invariant sets of discrete-time nonlinear systems

Abstract In this paper we examine the existence problem for maximal compact positively invariant sets of discrete-time nonlinear systems. To find these sets we propose the method based on the localization procedure of compact positively invariant sets. Analysis of a location of compact positively invariant sets and maximal compact positively invariant set of the Chatala system is realized for all values of its parameters.
The Rise Times and Bolometric Light Curve of SN 1994D: Constraints on Models of Type Ia Supernovae

Using published photometry and an empirical model of the temporal evolution of the apparent magnitudes in the UBVRI passbands, we have constructed a continuous optical bolometric, or “quasi-bolometric,” light curve of the well-observed Type Ia supernova SN 1994D. The optical bolometric light curve is found to have a maximum luminosity of about 8.8 × 1042 × (D/13.7 Mpc)2 ergs s-1, which is reached ~18 days after the explosion. In addition, the optical bolometric light curve exhibits an inflection, or “shoulder,” about 25 days after maximum. This inflection corresponds to the secondary maximum observed in all filter light curves redder than B. The individual filter curves have rise times similar to that of the optical bolometric light curve; other Type Ia supernovae are found to have similar rise times. Our fits indicate that the peak bolometric luminosity and the maxima in the B, V, and R light curves all occur within a day of one another. These results can be used to place constraints on theoretical models of Type Ia events. For example, most current theoretical models predict rise times to peak luminosity which are significantly shorter than that estimated for SN 1994D.
Detection Algorithms to Discriminate Between Radar Targets and ECM Signals

We address adaptive detection of coherent signals backscattered by possible point-like targets or originated from electronic countermeasure (ECM) systems in presence of thermal noise, clutter, and possible noise-like interferers. In order to come up with a class of decision schemes capable of discriminating between targets and ECM signals, we resort to generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) implementations of a generalized Neyman-Pearson rule (i.e., for multiple hypotheses). The adaptive detectors rely on secondary data, free of signal components, but sharing the statistical characterization of the noise in the cell under test. The performance assessment focuses on an adaptive beamformer orthogonal rejection test (ABORT)-like detector; analytical expressions for the probability of false alarm, the probability of detection of the target, and the probability of blanking the ECM (coherent) signal are given. More remarkably, it guarantees the constant false alarm rate (CFAR) property. The performance assessment shows that it can outperform the adaptive sidelobe blanker (ASB) in presence of ECM systems.
Social media on the job: an exploration of the potential legal consequences of employees' social media activities during the course of employment

This paper examines the current interplay between the actions of harassment and defamation and the nature and characteristics of social media specifically towards addressing the issues surrounding the growing usage of social media by employees during employment. It argues that with the legislation and provisions we currently have in place in the U.K. many problems are likely to arise for employers and employees alike as usage continues to rise.
Innovative approaches to the rehabilitation of upper extremity hemiparesis using virtual environments.

AIM Upper-extremity interventions for hemiparesis are a challenging aspect of stroke rehabilitation. Purpose of this paper is to report the feasibility of using virtual environments (VEs) in combination with robotics to assist recovery of hand-arm function and to present preliminary data demonstrating the potential of using sensory manipulations in VE to drive activation in targeted neural regions. METHODS We trained 8 subjects for 8 three hour sessions using a library of complex VE's integrated with robots, comparing training arm and hand separately to training arm and hand together. Instrumented gloves and hand exoskeleton were used for hand tracking and haptic effects. Haptic Master robotic arm was used for arm tracking and generating three-dimensional haptic VEs. To investigate the use of manipulations in VE to drive neural activations, we created a "virtual mirror" that subjects used while performing a unimanual task. Cortical activation was measured with functional MRI (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation. RESULTS Both groups showed improvement in kinematics and measures of real-world function. The group trained using their arm and hand together showed greater improvement. In a stroke subject, fMRI data suggested virtual mirror feedback could activate the sensorimotor cortex contralateral to the reflected hand (ipsilateral to the moving hand) thus recruiting the lesioned hemisphere. CONCLUSION Gaming simulations interfaced with robotic devices provide a training medium that can modify movement patterns. In addition to showing that our VE therapies can optimize behavioral performance, we show preliminary evidence to support the potential of using specific sensory manipulations to selectively recruit targeted neural circuits.
Back Propagation Neural Network Arabic Characters Classification Module Utilizing Microsoft Word

Problem statement: Arabic character recognition has been one of the last major languages to receive attention. This may be attributed to the inherent complexity of both printed and handwritten Arabic characters. The objectives of this study were to: (i) summarize the main characteristics of Arabic language writing style. (ii) suggest a neural network recognition circuit. Approach: A Neural network with back propagation training mechanism for classification was designed and trained to recognize any set of character combinations, sizes or fonts used in Microsoft word. Results: The proposed network recognition behaviours were compared with perceptron-like net that combines perceptron with ADALINE features. These circuits were tested for three character sets combinations; 28 basic Arabic characters plus 10 numerals set, 52 Latin characters and 10 numerals only. Conclusions: The method was robust and flexible and can be easily extended to any character set. The network exhibited recognition rates approaching 100% with reasonable noise tolerance.
Touching the Sphere: Leveraging Joint-Centered Kinespheres for Spatial User Interaction

Designing spatial user interfaces for virtual reality (VR) applications that are intuitive, comfortable and easy to use while at the same time providing high task performance is a challenging task. This challenge is even harder to solve since perception and action in immersive virtual environments differ significantly from the real world, causing natural user interfaces to elicit a dissociation of perceptual and motor space as well as levels of discomfort and fatigue unknown in the real world. In this paper, we present and evaluate the novel method to leverage joint-centered kinespheres for interactive spatial applications. We introduce kinespheres within arm's reach that envelope the reachable space for each joint such as shoulder, elbow or wrist, thus defining 3D interactive volumes with the boundaries given by 2D manifolds. We present a Fitts' Law experiment in which we evaluated the spatial touch performance on the inside and on the boundary of the main joint-centered kinespheres. Moreover, we present a confirmatory experiment in which we compared joint-centered interaction with traditional spatial head-centered menus. Finally, we discuss the advantages and limitations of placing interactive graphical elements relative to joint positions and, in particular, on the boundaries of kinespheres.
Robust eigenvector of a stochastic matrix with application to PageRank

We discuss a definition of robust dominant eigenvector of a family of stochastic matrices. Our focus is on application to ranking problems, where the proposed approach can be seen as a robust alternative to the standard PageRank technique. The robust eigenvector computation is reduced to a convex optimization problem. We also propose a simple algorithm for robust eigenvector approximation which can be viewed as a regularized power method with a special stopping rule.