Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Topic-Focus Articulation in PDT: Prosodic Characteristics of Contrastive Topic

This contribution (which was a basis for the poster Some Observations on Contrastive Topic in Czech Spontaneous Speech presented by the authors at CIL 17; the abstract of the poster is published in the volume of Abstracts of CIL17, Prague 2003, p. 361) is a preliminary, draft version of a more detailed and modified paper prepared for submission for Interspeech ICLSP 2004. We are most grateful to Julia Hirschberg for her detailed comments on the first draft of this paper, which have helped considerably to the readability of this contribution; some of her substantial remarks and suggestions will be embodied in the final version.
Distributed Simulation of Large-Scale Individual Oriented Models

The distributed simulation for high performance models has been carried-out into a very useful and low-cost tool. In the present work their application to an individual oriented model (Fish Schools) is analyzed. To do this, it was analyzed different alternatives for this type of simulation and their application to obtain performance and model scalability using different implementation. Thus, two distributed simulator have been developed based on PVM and MPI communication libraries. This paper resumes the advantages and drawbacks of each implementation and some conclusions about the distributed simulation for this type of models are extracted. Moreover, visualization aspects and the developed infrastructure based on OpenGl are described.
Accuracy of using 30-minute post-dialysis BUN to determine equilibrated Kt/V.

BACKGROUND The equilibrated Kt/V (eKt/V), a clinical index of hemodialysis adequacy, can be calculated by several means. The commonly used methods are second generation of natural logarithm by Daugirdas and rate adjustment methods. However these two methods used immediate post-dialysis blood urea nitrogen (BUN) (C0). The authors investigated the accuracy of 30-minute post-dialysis BUN (C30), equilibrated BUN at the end of urea rebound time, to determine the eKt/V MATERIAL AND METHOD: We measured 7 values of eKt/V in 30 hemodialysis sessions by using the 5 following methods: 1). Empirical method (Emp) 2). Smye method (Sm) 3). Daugirdas method using C0 and C30 (Dau0, Dau30) 4). Rate adjustment method using C0 and C30 (Rate0, Rate30) 5). Double Pool urea kinetic model (DP), and compared with the gold standard values calculated by the modified Direct Dialysate Quantitative method (mDDQ). RESULTS All patients had adequate hemodialysis with eKt/V (mDDQ) = 1.80 + 0.22. Compared with mDDQ, the median of absolute difference of eKt/V were Rate30 (0.10); Dau30 (0.11), Rate0 (0.11), Sm (0.11); Emp (0.13); DP (0.15); Dau0 (0.35) while the correlation coefficient (r2) were 0.926, 0.948, 0.785, 0.629, 0.551, 0.833,and 0.806 respectively. CONCLUSION By using 30-minute post-dialysis BUN to calculate, the values of eKt/V by Daugirdas and rate adjustment methods were associated with better accuracy and correlation than immediate post-dialysis BUN. In the demand of the accurate eKt/V measurement, the Dau30 and Rate30 may be the suitable method to determine the eKt/V in clinical hemodialysis.
Reading is a BLAST! Inside an Innovative Literacy Collaboration Between Public Schools and the Public Library

Public libraries have long supported the literacy goals of public schools in their communities by providing access to printed and electronic resources that enhance learning and teaching. This article describes an ongoing collaboration between the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s BLAST outreach program and the Pittsburgh Public Schools that has positively impacted thousands of students by increasing access to library resources while also emphasizing vocabulary, text-based discussion, and writing using both fiction and informational texts. This program can serve as a model for similar community partnerships that have the potential to enrich the literacy lives of students. Reading is a Blast! • 73 READING IS A BLAST! INSIDE AN INNOVATIVE LITERACY COLLABORATION BETWEEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
A Low-Power Integrated x86–64 and Graphics Processor for Mobile Computing Devices

The first AMD Fusion™ accelerated processing unit (APU), code-named “Zacate,” incorporates a pair of Bobcat x86 processors, a 1 MB L2 cache, an AMD Radeon™ 6310 DirectX<sup>®</sup>11 GPU with 80 stream processors, a media accelerator, an integrated NorthBridge (NB), integrated DisplayPort, LVDS, and VGA display interfaces, a PCIe<sup>®</sup> Gen1 or Gen2 I/O interface, and a single 64-bit memory channel at up to DDR3-1066 on a single die implemented in a 40 nm bulk CMOS process.
The Effect of Stress Presentation Mode on Stress Acquisition Among Advanced Learners of Russian

The Effect of Stress Presentation Mode on Stress Acquisition Among Advanced Learners of Russian Alexandra Brattos Center for Language Studies, BYU Master of Arts The purpose of this research was to test the effect of stress presentation mode on stress acquisition of advanced learners of Russian. The study attempted to determine if advanced learners of Russian are able to place stress more correctly on words in specific texts after receiving various treatments or receiving no treatment. Participants were Brigham Young University students studying Russian as a second language at the thirdyear level or higher. They were randomly assigned into three groups: a group that received no treatment, a treatment group that read words with graphically marked stress, and a treatment group that heard texts read by a native speaker. All participants completed a pretest, a treatment (in the second and third groups), and a posttest. The pretest and the posttest consisted of a reading task: the participants read 12 sentences taken from 12 different texts. The same words from the texts were used in the treatment to expose the participants to the sentences again in order to determine if the treatment made a difference in the acquisition of correct stress. The treatment was different for each group. Group 1 (A) read texts marked with stress, Group 2 (B) read the same texts but without stress marked; rather, they heard a native speaker of Russian read the texts on a recording, and Group 3 (C) read the same texts but without stress marked graphically or hearing a native speaker. The results of the research reject the hypothesis that aural presentation of stress as opposed to a visual only presentation leads to improved acquisition of stress. However, based on the analyses of the data, overall findings rendered some interesting and unexpected results and observations. First, although the treatment for group A appears to be more effective than that for groups B and C, all groups showed improvement after completing the treatment. This strongly suggests that reading, whatever form it takes, can be a useful tool in facilitating control of stress. Second, group A had more participants that fell into the “fast” reading category, and fast readers scored significantly higher than slow or medium speed readers. This suggests that the faster one reads the better one controls stress, or the better one controls stress the faster one reads.
Stretching for Prevention of Achilles Tendon Injuries: A Review of the Literature

Professional and recreational athletes commonly perform preexercise stretching to prevent musculoskeletal injuries. Little definitive evidence exists that clearly demonstrates the efficacy of stretching in reducing injury. Achilles tendon injuries are among the most common injuries affecting active individuals in the United States today. Clinicians commonly recommend stretching the Achilles tendon without concrete scientific evidence to support such a claim. Few studies have addressed the effect of stretching in Achilles tendon injuries, and it is unclear if the conclusions made for musculoskeletal injuries can be applied to the Achilles tendon. Biomechanical studies of the Achilles tendon and measurements of the tendon's reflex activity have demonstrated possible mechanisms for the potential benefit of stretching, including load-induced hypertrophy and increased tendon tensile strength. Recent prospective studies have contended that reductions in plantarflexor strength and increases in ankle dorsiflexion range of motion from stretching the Achilles tendon may increase the risk of injury. Studies examining stretching in injury prevention, the biomechanical properties of injuries to the Achilles tendon were compiled and reviewed. Although many theories have been published regarding the potential benefits and limitations of stretching, few studies have been able to definitively demonstrate its utility in injury prevention.
Word segmentation in handwritten Korean text lines based on gap clustering techniques

We propose a word segmentation method for handwritten Korean text lines. It uses gap information to separate a text line into word units, where the gap is defined as a white-run obtained after a vertical projection of the line image. Each gap is classified into a between-word gap or a within-word gap using a clustering technique. We take up three gap metrics - the bounding box (BB), run-length/Euclidean (RLE) and convex hull (CH) distances - which are known to have superior performance in Roman-style word segmentation, and three clustering techniques - the average linkage method, the modified MAX method and sequential clustering. An experiment with 498 text-line images extracted from live mail pieces has shown that the best performance is obtained by the sequential clustering technique using all three gap metrics.
In-Situ Measurement of Total Ionising Dose Induced Changes in Threshold Voltage and Temperature Coefficients of RADFETs

This work presents results of a total ionising dose experiment, during which p-channel RADFETs were irradiated and measured under different gate bias conditions using an in-situ technique. The measurement system allowed threshold voltage shifts and temperature sensitivity of the shift to be measured during irradiation to 60 krad(Si) and the subsequent 55 day period of annealing. The experimental results obtained allow improved insight into temperature sensitivity related problems of RADFET based dosimetry systems for space and terrestrial applications. The results show that the radiation-induced decrease in mobility, caused by the interface trap build-up, has a predominant effect on RADFET temperature coefficients.
[Effects of simvastatin only or in combination with continuous combined hormone replacement therapy on lipid levels in hypercholesterolemic women].

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of simvastatin only or combined with continuous transdermal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on the serum lipid profile in hypercholesterolaemic women. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study population consisted of 75 women after menopause, ranging in age from 45 to 62. The patients were divided into five groups: group I--women receiving HRT (Systen Sequi, Cilag); group II--HRT + statin (Systen Sequi, Cilag + Zocor, MSD); group III--HRT (Systen Conti, Cilag); group IV--HRT + statin (Systen Conti, Cilag + Zocor, MSD) and group V--statin only (Zocor, MSD). Before and after 3 and 6 months therapy serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) was measured. RESULTS The combination of simvastatin + HRT or simvastatin only decreased significantly TC and LDL-C, and increased HDL-C levels at 3 months (groups II, IV and V). A comparative analysis revealed that HRT effect on TC, LDL-C and HDL-C was significantly observed after 6 months (group I and III). TG levels significantly decreased after 6 months of therapy (simvastatin + HRT) in groups II and IV. CONCLUSIONS The combination of simvastatin and HRT seems to be more effective than simvastatin only in the treatment of hypercholesterolaemia in women.
Differential survival of leukocyte subsets mediated by synovial, bone marrow, and skin fibroblasts: site-specific versus activation-dependent survival of T cells and neutrophils.

OBJECTIVE Synovial fibroblasts share a number of phenotype markers with fibroblasts derived from bone marrow. In this study we investigated the role of matched fibroblasts obtained from 3 different sources (bone marrow, synovium, and skin) to test the hypothesis that synovial fibroblasts share similarities with bone marrow-derived fibroblasts in terms of their ability to support survival of T cells and neutrophils. METHODS Matched synovial, bone marrow, and skin fibroblasts were established from 8 different patients with rheumatoid arthritis who were undergoing knee or hip surgery. Resting or activated fibroblasts were cocultured with either CD4 T cells or neutrophils, and the degree of leukocyte survival, apoptosis, and proliferation were measured. RESULTS Fibroblasts derived from all 3 sites supported increased survival of CD4 T cells, mediated principally by interferon-beta. However, synovial and bone marrow fibroblasts shared an enhanced site-specific ability to maintain CD4 T cell survival in the absence of proliferation, an effect that was independent of fibroblast activation or proliferation but required direct T cell-fibroblast cell contact. In contrast, fibroblast-mediated neutrophil survival was less efficient, being independent of the site of origin of the fibroblast but dependent on prior fibroblast activation, and mediated solely by soluble factors, principally granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. CONCLUSION These results suggest an important functional role for fibroblasts in the differential accumulation of leukocyte subsets in a variety of tissue microenvironments. The findings also provide a potential explanation for site-specific differences in the pattern of T cell and neutrophil accumulation observed in chronic inflammatory diseases.
Accurate photometric redshift probability density estimation – method comparison and application

We introduce an ordinal classification algorithm for photometric redshift estimation, which significantly improves the reconstruction of photometric redshift probability density functions (PDFs) for individual galaxies and galaxy samples. As a use case we apply our method to CFHTLS galaxies. The ordinal classification algorithm treats distinct redshift bins as ordered values, which improves the quality of photometric redshift PDFs, compared with non-ordinal classification architectures. We also propose a new single value point estimate of the galaxy redshift,whichcan beusedtoestimatethefullredshiftPDFofagalaxy sample.Thismethod is competitive in terms of accuracy with contemporary algorithms, which stack the full redshift PDFs of all galaxies in the sample, but requires orders of magnitude less storage space. The methods described in this paper greatly improve the log-likelihood of individual object redshift PDFs, when compared with a popular neural network code (ANNZ). In our use case, this improvement reaches 50percent for high-redshift objects (z ≥ 0.75). We show that using these more accurate photometric redshift PDFs will lead to a reduction in the systematic biases by up to a factor of 4, when compared with less accurate PDFs obtained from commonly used
Pituitary Function in the Acute Phase of Traumatic Brain Injury and Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Background: Pituitary insufficiencies after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and subarachnoid haem-orrhage (SAH) have been reported with very varying frequencies. The aim of this study was to describe the pituitary function in the acute phase after TBI and SAH in a cohort of adults and relate the results to injury variables. Methods: Adults admitted to the neurointensive care unit in our hospital after moderate and severe TBI or SAH were included prospectively. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, including ACTH stimulation test, and radiological data were collected. Results: A total of 130 adults, 84 (19 women/65 men) with TBI and 46 (38 women/8 men) with SAH were included. Nine patients with TBI and six patients with SAH responded insufficiently to ACTH stimulation; 14 patients with TBI and 9 patients with SAH had low fT4 and low-normal TSH levels. No relations were seen between hormonal levels and injury variables. Conclusions: Pituitary deficiencies occur after TBI and SAH, and a continuous endocrine evaluation of these patients is important. Our study could not define a marker for increased risk for pituitary deficiency. The long-term clinical outcome of the pathological hormone levels in the early phase after TBI and SAH is not known in detail and further studies to elucidate this are needed.
TO BE FOLLOWED EXACTLY IN PREPARING SCRIPTS AN APPROACH FOR DESIGNING REAL-TIME EMBEDDED SYSTEMS FROM RT-UML

The current work presents an API based on the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) that optimizes real-time embedded systems development. Using this API it is possible to state non-functional specifications, like time constraints, and guarantee its implementation in the selected platform. Moreover, it discusses how real-time requirements derived from the RT-UML standard can be mapped to the elements from the proposed API. An integrated toolset is used to support the intermediate steps of this mapping process. The paper illustrates the mapping mechanism by means of a case study that implements the control system of an automated wheelchair. Copyright © 2005 IFAC
Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation

Foreword. Acknowledgments. The Authors. Introduction. PART ONE: Transformation, Crisis, and Opportunity. 1. A Profession Transformed. 2. Teaching and Learning in Clinical Situations. 3. Teaching and Learning in the Classroom and Skills Lab. 4. A New Approach to Nursing Education. PART TWO: Teaching for a Sense of Salience. 5. Paradigm Case: Diane Pestolesi, Practitioner and Teacher. 6. Strategies for Teaching for a Sense of Salience. PART THREE: Integrative Teaching for Clinical Imagination. 7. Paradigm Case: Lisa Day, Classroom and Clinical Instructor. 8. Developing a Clinical Imagination. 9. Connecting Classroom and Clinical Through Integrative Teaching and Learning. PART FOUR: Teaching for Moral Imagination. 10. Paradigm Case: Sarah Shannon, Nurse Ethicist. 11. Being a Nurse. 12. Formation from a Critical Stance. PART FIVE: A Call for Radical Transformation. 13. Improving Nursing Education at the Program Level. Appendix: Methods for the Carnegie National Nursing Education Study. References. Index.
The use of Optic Flow within Background Subtraction

To reliably classify parts of an image sequence as foreground or background is an important part in many computer vision systems, such as for video surveillance, tracking, and robotics. It can also be important in applications where one can not transfer large amounts of data, such as video conferencing. Independent foreground motion is an attractive source of information for this task, and with static cameras background subtraction is a particulary popular type of approach. The idea behind background subtraction is to compare the current image with a reference image of the background, and from there decide what is background and what is not by looking for change in the image, pixel by pixel. The problem is to get the reference image to work with, especially when large parts of the background are occluded by moving foreground objects and parts of the background are never seen. In this thesis a method using optic flow to reason about if the background has been seen or not is presented. This information is used in an existing background subtraction framework to segment foreground and background.
FRAMEWORKS FOR EVALUATING POLICY APPROACHES TO ADDRESS THE COMPETITIVENESS CONCERNS OF MITIGATING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

Domestic carbon pricing policies may impose adverse competitiveness risks on energy-intensive firms competing with foreign firms that may bear a lower carbon price. The risks of competitiveness effects include adverse economic and environmental outcomes, which can undermine political support for carbon pricing. Competitiveness policies, such as border tax adjustments, output-based tax credits, and related policies, also carry potential risks: unfavorable distributional outcomes, less cost-effective, and harming international trade and climate negotiations. This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical research on competitiveness risks and the risks posed by competitiveness policies, and presents two alternative frameworks for evaluating competitiveness policy options.
The steady-state mosaic of disturbance and succession across an old-growth Central Amazon forest landscape

Old-growth forest ecosystems comprise a mosaic of patches in different successional stages, with the fraction of the landscape in any particular state relatively constant over large temporal and spatial scales. The size distribution and return frequency of disturbance events, and subsequent recovery processes, determine to a large extent the spatial scale over which this old-growth steady state develops. Here, we characterize this mosaic for a Central Amazon forest by integrating field plot data, remote sensing disturbance probability distribution functions, and individual-based simulation modeling. Results demonstrate that a steady state of patches of varying successional age occurs over a relatively large spatial scale, with important implications for detecting temporal trends on plots that sample a small fraction of the landscape. Long highly significant stochastic runs averaging 1.0 Mg biomass⋅ha−1⋅y−1 were often punctuated by episodic disturbance events, resulting in a sawtooth time series of hectare-scale tree biomass. To maximize the detection of temporal trends for this Central Amazon site (e.g., driven by CO2 fertilization), plots larger than 10 ha would provide the greatest sensitivity. A model-based analysis of fractional mortality across all gap sizes demonstrated that 9.1–16.9% of tree mortality was missing from plot-based approaches, underscoring the need to combine plot and remote-sensing methods for estimating net landscape carbon balance. Old-growth tropical forests can exhibit complex large-scale structure driven by disturbance and recovery cycles, with ecosystem and community attributes of hectare-scale plots exhibiting continuous dynamic departures from a steady-state condition.
What are the benefits of adaptation when applied in the domain of child-robot interaction?

There is great potential for robotic devices when being applied with children. They can be used from play to assistive applications. We develop robotic devices for a diverse range of children that differ in age, gender and ability, which includes children that are diagnosed with cognitive difficulties such as autism. Every child is an individual and they vary in their personalities and styles of interaction. Therefore, being able to adjust the robot's behaviour to the type of interaction it is receiving was believed to be essential. In this abstract we examine a series of trials which investigated how adaptation (through changes in motion and sound) on a fully autonomous rolling robot could help gain and sustain the interest of five different children. We discovered surprising benefits to having adaptation on-board Roball.
Detection of sign-language content in video through polar motion profiles

Locating sign language (SL) videos on video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube) is challenging because search engines generally do not use the visual content of videos for indexing. Instead, indexing is done solely based on textual content (e.g., title, description, metadata). As a result, untagged SL videos do not appear in the search results. In this paper, we present and evaluate a classification approach to detect SL videos based on their visual content. The approach uses an ensemble of Haar-based face detectors to define regions of interest (ROI), and a background model to segment movements in the ROI. The two-dimensional (2D) distribution of foreground pixels in the ROI is then reduced to two 1D polar motion profiles by means of a polar-coordinate transformation, and then classified by means of an SVM. When evaluated on a dataset of user-contributed YouTube videos, the approach achieves 81% precision and 94% recall.