Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tangible User Interface Design for Lower Limb Disabled Children - A composite function of toy accompanying children at home

This study describes the requirement of lower limb disabled children. Lower limb disabled children that limit their movement in nowadays environment. Ubiquitous computing concept is more popular now. This research uses tangible user interface to be a toy accompanying children at home, combine ubiquitous computing concept to help them control the electronic equipment so that disable children can earn their lives.
Physical Therapists in Primary Care Are Interested in High Quality Evidence Regarding Efficacy of Therapeutic Ultrasound for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Provincial Survey

Recent high-level evidence favours therapeutic ultrasound (US) for reducing pain in people with knee osteoarthritis (OA). It is unknown how current practice patterns align with current evidence regarding US efficacy and whether physical therapists perceive a need for further high-level evidence. We conducted a descriptive electronic survey to characterize the beliefs and use of US among physical therapists in Ontario treating people with nonsurgical knee OA. Most of the 123 respondents (81%) reported at least some use of US with 45% using it often or sometimes. The main goal for using US was to reduce pain in the surrounding soft tissue (n = 66) and/or the knee joint (n = 43). Almost half (46%) endorsed the belief that US is likely to be beneficial for clients with nonsurgical knee OA. Most respondents (85%) expressed interest in the results of a randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of US on pain and physical function. Patterns of use reflect the respondents' belief that US is likely to be beneficial for knee OA pain.
An empirical comparison of limb joint effects on capacitive and galvanic coupled intra-body communications

Intra-body communication (IBC) is a recent wireless communication technology which uses the human body as the signal propagation medium. While recent studies have shown a degradation of transmission signals for IBC transmissions between limb segments, these degradations have yet to be quantified with respect to relative limb positions. In this paper we report in vivo experiments towards understanding signal attenuation in both capacitive and galvanic coupled IBC methods due to limb joint effects. We examine the impact of elbow joint flexion and extension on signal transmission. Results show that in both IBC methods, the signal attenuation is larger when the angle between forearm and upper arm increases. The maximum attenuation difference was 4.2 dB and 4.7 dB in the capacitive coupling and galvanic coupling methods respectively when the joint angle changed from 45 to 180 degrees and the linear distance between transmitter and receiver electrodes was 15 cm. Capacitive coupling was more sensitive to limb joint position, but galvanic coupling was more dependent on body composition (intra subject variability).
The Hand of God

In this paper, Jordan Alderson applies a disability studies analysis to the Michelangelo Hand, a myoelectric (muscle-sensing) robotic prosthetic made by the company Otto Bock. He argues that the creation of increasingly high-technology, hyper-realistic simulations of human limbs for amputees reinforces ableist and anthropocentric assumptions that a particular, normative type of human body is desirable and represents the pinnacle of ability. Alderson writes that the enhancement of the quality of life of amputees provided by devices like the Michelangelo Hand is overstated, suggesting that they are produced primarily for the comfort of able-bodied people who view disabled bodies are incomplete.
Experimental verification and analysis of AC-DC converter with an input impedance matching for wireless power transfer systems

This paper discusses the performance of an AC-DC converter which converts power from 13.56MHz AC to DC in a receiving side of wireless power transfer systems. The wireless power transfer systems are required to operate in high-frequency such as 13.56 MHz in order to achieve a high power density of transmission coils. Thus the AC-DC converter in the receiving side is demanded to operate at high-frequency. In such high-frequency region, the reflected power occurs when the input impedance is not matched to the characteristic impedance of the transmission line. In other words, the input impedance of the AC-DC converter needs to have the same impedance to the characteristic impedance of the transmission line. In order to overcome the problem, the AC-DC converter with an input impedance matching is proposed in this paper. The proposed AD-DC converter achieves the input impedance matching with a simple circuit configuration. It means that the converter can obtain sinusoidal input current and unity input power factor without a high-frequency switching except the diodes. In this paper, the impedance matching characteristics and the analysis of the operational modes of the proposed circuit are presented. The experimental results confirmed that the proposed converter enables a conversion from 13.56-MHz AC to DC with the sinusoidal input current. In this operation condition, the input impedance is 29.6 + j0.51 Ω. Because the design value of the input impedance is 50 + j0 Ω, there is a non-negligible error on the real part. This is attributed to the parasitic capacitances on the diodes. In order to solve this problem, an improved AC-DC converter is proposed newly. From experimental results, it achieves the input impedance of 52.7-j0.02 Ω. Besides, the reflection coefficient is suppressed by up to 94.5% compared with that of the conventional capacitor input-type diode bridge rectifier (CI-DBR).
Combined MMSE interference suppression and turbo coding for a coherent DS-CDMA system

The performance of a turbo-coded code division multiaccess system with a minimum mean-square error (MMSE) receiver for interference suppression is analyzed on a Rayleigh fading channel. In order to accurately estimate the performance of the turbo coding, two improvements are proposed on the conventional union bounds: the information of the minimum distance of a particular turbo interleaver is used to modify the average weight spectra, and the tangential bound is extended to the Rayleigh fading channel. Theoretical results are derived based on the optimum tap weights of the MMSE receiver and maximum-likelihood decoding. Simulation results incorporating iterative decoding, RLS adaptation, and the effects of finite interleaving are also presented. The results show that in the majority of the scenarios that we are concerned with, the MMSE receiver with a rate-1/2 turbo code will outperform a rate-1/4 turbo code. They also show that, for a bit error rate lower than 10/sup -3/, the capacity of the system is increased by using turbo codes over convolutional codes, even with small block sizes.
Dynamics of Stoichiometric Bacteria-Algae Interactions in the Epilimnion

Bacteria-algae interaction in the epilimnion is modeled with the explicit consideration of carbon (energy) and phosphorus (nutrient). Global qualitative analysis and bifurcation diagrams of this model are presented. We hypothesize that there are three dynamical scenarios determined by the basic reproductive numbers of bacteria and algae. Effects of key environmental conditions are examined through these scenarios and from systematic and extensive simulations. It is also shown that excessive sunlight will destroy bacterial communities. Bifurcation diagrams for the depth of epilimnion mimic the profile of Lake Biwa, Japan. Competition of bacterial strains are modeled to examine Nishimura's hypothesis that in severely P-limited environments such as Lake Biwa, P-limitation exerts more severe constraints on the growth of bacterial groups with higher nucleic acid contents, which allows low nucleic acid bacteria to be competitive.
CiTO + SWAN: The web semantics of bibliographic records, citations, evidence and discourse relationships

Most literature searching in biomedicine is now conducted via PubMed, Google Scholar or other web-based bibliographic search mechanisms. Yet until now a public, open, interoperable and complete web-adapted information schema for bibliographic citations, bibliographic references and scientific discourse has not been available. Such a schema, expressed in the form of a description logic compatible with current web semantics approaches, would provide the ability to treat bibliographic references and citations, and rhetorical discourse in scientific publications, as semantic metadata on the web, with all the benefits that implies for organization, search and mash-up of web-based scientific information.In this paper we present CiTO + SWAN, a set of fully harmonized ontology modules resulting from the harmonization of CiTO the Citation Typing Ontology with SWAN Semantic Web Applications in Neuromedicine, which we have developed by jointly adapting and evolving version 1.6 of CiTO, the Citation Typing Ontology, and version 1.2 of the SWAN Scientific Discourse Ontology v1.2. The CiTO + SWAN model is specified in OWL 2 DL, is fully modular, and inherently supports agent-based searching and mash-ups.Through the harmonization activity presented here, and previous work that harmonized SWAN with the SIOC Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities Ontology for describing blogs, wikis and discussion groups, we have construct the basis of a powerful new web framework for scientific communications.
Large vocabulary speech recognition in French

We present some design considerations concerning our large vocabulary continuous speech recognition system in French. The impact of the epoch of the text training material on lexical coverage, language model perplexity and recognition performance on newspaper texts is demonstrated. The effectiveness of larger vocabulary sizes and larger text training corpora for language modeling is investigated. French is a highly inflected language producing large lexical variety and a high homophone rate. About 30% of recognition errors are shown to be due to substitutions between inflected forms of a given root form. When word error rates are analysed as a function of word frequency, a significant increase in the error rate can be measured for frequency ranks above 5000.
Thresholds and Expectation Thresholds

We consider relations between thresholds for monotone set properties and simple lower bounds for such thresholds. A motivating example (Conjecture 2): Given an n-vertex graph H, write pE for the least p such that, for each subgraph H' of H, the expected number of copies of H' in G=G(n, p) is at least 1, and pc for that p for which the probability that G contains (a copy of) H is 1/2. Then (conjecture) pc=O(pElog n). Possible connections with discrete isoperimetry are also discussed.
A Fast Clustering Algorithm for Data with a Few Labeled Instances

The diameter of a cluster is the maximum intracluster distance between pairs of instances within the same cluster, and the split of a cluster is the minimum distance between instances within the cluster and instances outside the cluster. Given a few labeled instances, this paper includes two aspects. First, we present a simple and fast clustering algorithm with the following property: if the ratio of the minimum split to the maximum diameter (RSD) of the optimal solution is greater than one, the algorithm returns optimal solutions for three clustering criteria. Second, we study the metric learning problem: learn a distance metric to make the RSD as large as possible. Compared with existing metric learning algorithms, one of our metric learning algorithms is computationally efficient: it is a linear programming model rather than a semidefinite programming model used by most of existing algorithms. We demonstrate empirically that the supervision and the learned metric can improve the clustering quality.
Nitric oxide mediates excitotoxic and anoxic damage in rat retinal ganglion cells cocultured with astroglia.

BACKGROUND Nitric oxide has been implicated in the process of retinal ganglion cell death in glaucoma. OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of nitric oxide in mediating retinal ganglion cell death in a culture system that models glial-neuronal interactions at the level of the optic nerve head. METHODS Dissociated retinal ganglion cells from neonatal rats were plated on monolayers of astroglia and identified by retrograde labeling with the fluorescent marker 1.1-dioctadecyl-,3,3,3,tetramethylindocarbocyanineperchlorate. Two days after dissociation, cocultures of retinal ganglion cells and glia were treated with graded concentrations of the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor N-nitro-L-arginine (NNA), and exposed to either anoxia for 1 to 24 hours or excitatory amino acids for 6 hours. Surviving retinal ganglion cells were counted with fluorescence microscopy and expressed as a percentage of retinal ganglion cells surviving in control cultures. RESULTS Cell survival after anoxia increased in a dose-dependent fashion with exposure to NNA. Mean +/- SD survival rate of retinal ganglion cells after 6 hours of anoxia was 57%+/-10% with NNA treatment compared with 31%+/-3% without treatment (P<.01). When treated with excitatory amino acids, cell survival was 31%+/-6% after administration of N-methyl D-aspartate, 500 micromol/L, and 27%+/-8% after administration of sodium glutamate, 500 micromol/L. Survival was increased in cultures with exposure to NNA, 100 micromol/L, to 53%+/-11% and 69%+/-11%, respectively (P<.01). CONCLUSION In this coculture of retinal ganglion cells and astroglia, reduction of the glial source of nitric oxide through nitric oxide synthase inhibition provided partial but significant protection against the lethal effects of anoxia and excitatory amino acids on retinal ganglion cells. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Neuroprotective agents may play a role in patients with glaucoma who have progressive visual field loss, despite satisfactory control of intraocular pressure. Inhibition of nitric oxide synthase at the level of the optic nerve head may contribute to a clinically significant level of neuroprotection.
Is fantasy just fantasy? An ethnography of female fanship: viewing Sex and the City

Abstract This article is an ethnographic study of Chinese female viewers’ fanship on the American TV series of Sex and the City (SATC). It focuses on the micro level of SATC fans’ consumption of and interaction with the text, trying to explore the relationship between SATC fans’ selves and their fan objects, i.e., the intrapersonal pleasures, affection, and motivations among the fans, mainly by way of collecting and analyzing Chinese SATC fans’ discourse on how they make use of this television show on China’s biggest fandom website, Douban.com. The research findings suggest that SATC is so passionately received by its female fans mainly because the type and content of the show (a feminist text) can well satisfy their social and psychological needs—they choose to engage in SATC and utilize it as a resource for their own social lives and personal identities. The fans view it mainly for the therapeutic effect and empowerment it brings to them, rather than for entertainment or scopophilia.
Computing Voronoi Treemaps: Faster, Simpler, and Resolution‐independent

Voronoi treemaps represent hierarchies as nested polygons. We here show that, contrary to the apparent popular belief, utilization of an algorithm for weighted Voronoi diagrams is not only feasible, but also more efficient than previous low‐resolution approximations, even when the latter are implemented on graphics hardware. More precisely, we propose an instantiation of Lloyd's method for centroidal Voronoi diagrams with Aurenhammer's algorithm for power diagrams that yields an algorithm running in 𝒪(n log n) rather than Ω(n2) time per iteration, with n the number of sites. We describe its implementation and present evidence that it is faster also in practice.
Race Differences in Anxiety Disorders, Worry, and Social Anxiety: An Examination of the Differential-K Theory in Clinical Psychology

Differential-K theory, when applied to the study of anxiety disorders, predicts that slower life history (LH) racial groups exhibit higher levels of trait anxiety and worry, and higher prevalence of anxiety disorders, as both LH and anxiety experiences are future oriented. We predict that slower LH racial groups will exhibit an especially high prevalence of those anxiety disorders in which: (A) A central symptom is excessive worry rather than the anxious emotion only, as worry is an effortful cognitive phenomenon that involves mentally scrutinizing longer-term future threats and solutions; and (B) The central source of concern is social interactions, as the long-term maintenance of social relationships is one of the hallmarks of slow LH. We conducted an extensive search in international databases of scientific publications, with selection criteria chosen to reduce the possible effect of methods variance in the design and language of psychometric instruments and protocols, as well as variance in psychological health services and sociopolitical conditions. In line with the evolutionary hypothesis, Whites exhibited a higher prevalence of worry-related and sociality-related anxiety disorders than African-Americans and Latinos. Self-report data on worry and social anxiety traits further supported the evolutionary hypothesis, with Northeast Asians reporting the highest average scores. Importantly however, Blacks exhibited higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, a stressor-related condition, lending partial support to the social psychology hypothesis. We review and discuss racial differences in propensity to seek professional help when experiencing distress, in emotional expression to health care workers, and in the validity of psychometric measures, and conclude they are unlikely explanations for the identified race differences. Future studies that test the evolutionary hypothesis on differences among populations within these broad racial groupings are necessary to further examine the predictive power of this theory.
Little Words, Big Impact: Determiners Begin to Bootstrap Reference by 12 Months

ABSTRACT We tested 12- and 18-month-old English-learning infants on a preferential-looking task which contrasted grammatically correct sentences using the determiner “the” vs. three ungrammatical conditions in which “the” was substituted by another English function word, a nonsense word, or omitted. Our design involved strict controls on phonetic composition of function words and co-articulation effects in the stimuli tested, which were absent in previous studies. The results show an overall significant effect of Function Word (FW), with no significant interaction effects between the two age groups. Overall, infants oriented faster to a target image and had more correct first looks at target following grammatical sentences. Tests within age groups show a significant effect of FW in 18-month-olds for both latency and correct first look, documenting a linguistic sensitivity, which persists over our new acoustic variables. In the 12-month-olds there was a significant effect of FW on first look, although no significant effect of FW for latency appeared. However, pairwise comparisons showed a significant difference between grammatical and ungrammatical FWs in latency even at this age. These findings suggest that some prototypical form of sensitivity to determiners in sentence processing and its use in computing noun reference exists already during early developmental stages surrounding the child’s first words. We speculate on potential explanations for developmental changes between 12 and 18 months.
Feature analysis for modeling game content quality

One promising avenue towards increasing player entertainment for individual game players is to tailor player experience in real-time via automatic game content generation. Modeling the relationship between game content and player preferences or affective states is an important step towards this type of game personalization. In this paper we analyse the relationship between level design parameters of platform games and player experience. We introduce a method to extract the most useful information about game content from short game sessions by investigating the size of game session that yields the highest accuracy in predicting players' preferences, and by defining the smallest game session size for which the model can still predict reported emotion with acceptable accuracy. Neuroevolutionary preference learning is used to approximate the function from game content to reported emotional preferences. The experiments are based on a modified version of the classic Super Mario Bros game. We investigate two types of features extracted from game levels; statistical level design parameters and extracted frequent sequences of level elements. Results indicate that decreasing the size of the feature window lowers prediction accuracy, and that the models built on selected features derived from the whole set of extracted features (combining the two types of features) outperforms other models constructed on partial information about game content.
Generalization of Otsu's binarization into recursive colour image segmentation

In this paper we study ways to generalise Otsu's binarization method towards reduction of colour levels in colour images. Colour defines a multi-dimensional property vector at each pixel location, and this can be further generalised towards considering arbitrarily finite-dimensional property vectors at pixel locations. Otsu's binarization method, originally already briefly discussed by Otsu for multi-thresholding, was efficiently mapped earlier into a segmentation method for grey-level images by recursively applying the original binarization method. We generalise further by proposing a recursive algorithm for finite-dimensional property vectors at pixel locations. Experimental results demonstrate colour-level reduction by our method.
General and specific paraphrases of semantic relations between nouns

Abstract Many English noun pairs suggest an almost limitless array of semantic interpretation. A fruit bowl might be described as a bowl for fruit, a bowl that contains fruit, a bowl for holding fruit, or even (perhaps in a modern sculpture class), a bowl made out of fruit. These interpretations vary in syntax, semantic denotation, plausibility, and level of semantic detail. For example, a headache pill is usually a pill for preventing headaches, but might, perhaps in the context of a list of side effects, be a pill that can cause headaches (Levi, J. N. 1978. The Syntax and Semantics of Complex Nominals. New York: Academic Press.). In addition to lexical ambiguity, both relational ambiguity and relational vagueness make automatic semantic interpretation of these combinations difficult. While humans parse these possibilities with ease, computational systems are only recently gaining the ability to deal with the complexity of lexical expressions of semantic relations. In this paper, we describe techniques for paraphrasing the semantic relations that can hold between nouns in a noun compound, using a semi-supervised probabilistic method to rank candidate paraphrases of semantic relations, and describing a new method for selecting plausible relational paraphrases at arbitrary levels of semantic specification. These methods are motivated by the observation that existing semantic relation classification schemes often exhibit a highly skewed class distribution, and that lexical paraphrases of semantic relations vary widely in semantic precision.