Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Self Touch to Touch Others : Designing the Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch

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WHYRE: a context-aware wearable computer for museums and archaeological sites

WHYRE is a hands-free, sensory augmented, wearable computer designed to turn museums and archaeological sites into communicating machines. It offers a unified interface to multiple format contents, including interactive 3D, sensors driven QTVRs, and streamed animations. It is based on an IA32 mobile platform with a 3D graphics accelerator. Its operating system is Windows XP Embedded. WHYRE is being demonstrated in two primary Italian Museums. This paper reviews WHYRE requirements and features, and summarizes its evaluation process.
Miniaturization and packaging of implantable wireless sensor nodes for animals monitoring

This paper reports the development and evaluation of a ultra-small and ultra-light wireless sensor node for real time monitoring of biological information of animals. Power consumption of the sensor node was decreased dramatically by improving efficiency of the MCU and irradiation power of the RFIC, which enables a few months life time when using SR416SW batteries. Various configurations of the antenna were investigated for the pursuit of small package size, while maintain an enough communication distance of a few meters. The implant experiments were carried out to investigate performances of the sensor node as well as practicability of the package. Moreover, the feasibility study of a wireless power transmission module as the power source was performed and discussed herein.
Flexibility in Problem Solving and Tool Use of Kea and New Caledonian Crows in a Multi Access Box Paradigm

Parrots and corvids show outstanding innovative and flexible behaviour. In particular, kea and New Caledonian crows are often singled out as being exceptionally sophisticated in physical cognition, so that comparing them in this respect is particularly interesting. However, comparing cognitive mechanisms among species requires consideration of non-cognitive behavioural propensities and morphological characteristics evolved from different ancestry and adapted to fit different ecological niches. We used a novel experimental approach based on a Multi-Access-Box (MAB). Food could be extracted by four different techniques, two of them involving tools. Initially all four options were available to the subjects. Once they reached criterion for mastering one option, this task was blocked, until the subjects became proficient in another solution. The exploratory behaviour differed considerably. Only one (of six) kea and one (of five) NCC mastered all four options, including a first report of innovative stick tool use in kea. The crows were more efficient in using the stick tool, the kea the ball tool. The kea were haptically more explorative than the NCC, discovered two or three solutions within the first ten trials (against a mean of 0.75 discoveries by the crows) and switched more quickly to new solutions when the previous one was blocked. Differences in exploration technique, neophobia and object manipulation are likely to explain differential performance across the set of tasks. Our study further underlines the need to use a diversity of tasks when comparing cognitive traits between members of different species. Extension of a similar method to other taxa could help developing a comparative cognition research program.
Reduced Risk of Human Lung Cancer by Selective Cyclooxygenase 2 (Cox-2) Blockade: Results of a Case Control Study

We conducted a case control study of selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) blocking agents and lung cancer. A total of 492 newly diagnosed lung cancer cases were ascertained during January 1, 2002 to September 30, 2004, at The Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio. All cases were confirmed by examination of the pathology report. Healthy population controls without cancer were ascertained during the same time period. Controls were frequency matched at a rate of 2:1 to the cases by age, gender, and county of residence. We collected information on type, frequency, and duration of use of selective COX-2 inhibitors (primarily celecoxib or rofecoxib) and nonselective NSAIDs such as ibuprofen and aspirin. Estimates of odds ratios (OR) were obtained with adjustment for cigarette smoking, age and other potential confounders using logistic regression analysis. Odds Ratios for selective COX-2 inhibitors were adjusted for past use of other NSAIDs. Use of any selective COX-2 inhibitor for more than one year produced a significant (60%) reduction in the risk of lung cancer (OR=0.40, 95% CI=0.19-0.81). Observed risk reductions were consistent for men (OR=0.26, 95% CI=0.10-0.62) and women (OR=0.52, 95% CI=0.24-1.13) and for individual COX-2 inhibitors (OR=0.28, 95% CI=-0.12-0.67, for celecoxib and OR=0.55, 95% CI=0.19-1.56, for rofecoxib). Intake of ibuprofen or aspirin also produced significant risk reductions (OR=0.40, 95% CI=0.23-0.73 and OR=0.53, 95% CI=0.34-0.82, respectively), whereas acetaminophen, an analgesic with negligible COX-2 activity, had no effect on the risk (OR=1.36, 95% CI=0.53-3.37). This investigation demonstrates for the first time that selective COX-2 blocking agents have strong potential for the chemoprevention of human lung cancer.
Diagnosis of DiGeorge and Williams syndromes using FISH analysis of peripheral blood smears.

We describe the use of a FISH protocol for detecting chromosome microdeletions in peripheral blood smear leukocytes. This method has the advantage of a smaller sample requirement than classical metaphase chromosome analysis and the potential for analysis of a larger number of chromosome microdeletions using a routine blood smear. A selected series of 10 DiGeorge syndrome (DGS) and 12 Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) patients were correctly diagnosed by this method confirming results obtained by molecular cytogenetic metaphases. These results support effectiveness of interphase FISH analysis on peripheral blood smears as a focused, single-step method for the detection of chromosome microdeletions.
Outcomes of living donor liver transplantation for patients with preoperative type 1 hepatorenal syndrome and acute hepatic decompensation

This study investigated the outcomes of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) for patients with preoperative type 1 hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) and acute hepatic decompensation. Prospectively collected data for 104 patients who had fulminant hepatic failure, acute decompensation of cirrhosis, or an acute flare of chronic hepatitis B were analyzed. Thirty‐three patients (31.7%) had HRS (the HRS group), and 71 patients (68.3%) did not (the non‐HRS group). The median follow‐up period was 60 months. The HRS group had significantly more preoperative intensive care unit (ICU) admissions (84.8% versus 60.6%, P = 0.01), worse preoperative blood test results (creatinine, 248 versus 88 μmol/L, P < 0.001; total bilirubin, 630 versus 555 μmol/L, P = 0.001), more hemodialysis (48.5% versus 0%, P < 0.001), more blood transfusions (9 versus 4 U, P < 0.001), longer postoperative ICU stays (8 versus 4 days, P < 0.001), worse postoperative blood test results (creatinine at 1 year, 108 versus 96 μmol/L, P = 0.006), and poorer overall survival (P < 0.001). In a multivariate analysis, only HRS was associated with poorer overall survival (hazard ratio = 8.592, 95% confidence interval = 1.782‐41.431, P = 0.007). In conclusion, HRS patients had worse postoperative renal function and overall survival than non‐HRS patients. However, their 5‐year overall survival rate was still nearly 80%, which is satisfactory. Therefore, LDLT can be considered for patients who have acute hepatic decompensation with or without HRS. Liver Transpl, 2012. © 2012 AASLD.
Research-to-Practice in Inclusive Early Childhood Education

Hazel A. Jones Mary Jane K. Rapport E arly childhood education is changing. Inclusion is expanding the roles of both general and special educators in meeting the needs of all young children (Wolery et aI., 1993). Fortunately, over the past several years, researchers have provided helpful information for practitioners on including children with disabilities in inclusive early childhood programs. But are educators making use of this research? As Fullan &Stiegelbaur (I991) noted, translating research knowledge into classroom practice is rare in any area of education (Fullan, 1991). This article provides links from research to practice in several key areas of inclusive early childhood education: teachers' knowledge base and beliefs; comm u nica tion, physical environment, activities and materials, social interactions, and curriculum and instruction.
A review of educational strategies to improve nurses' roles in recognizing and responding to deteriorating patients.

BACKGROUND Physiological instability leading to clinical deterioration often precedes cardiopulmonary arrest. Nurses, who have the most frequent patient contact and responsibility for ongoing monitoring of patients, play a crucial role in recognizing and responding to clinical deterioration. The importance of education in supporting such a role has been addressed in numerous studies. AIM This study aimed to identify nurses' educational needs and explore educational strategies to enhance their ability in recognizing and managing wards with deteriorating patients. METHODS A literature search from databases (2000-2010) was undertaken to include papers that identified the educational needs of ward nurses and existing educational programmes related to the care of deteriorating patients. FINDINGS Twenty-six papers were included in this review. Findings identified the educational need to empower nurses with the appropriate knowledge and skills in recognizing, reporting and responding to patient deterioration. The review of existing educational programmes and their outcomes identified valuable teaching information and strategies, and areas that could be improved in meeting nurses' educational needs. CONCLUSION The review has highlighted important aspects of patient safety in clinical deterioration that could be further addressed by educational strategies targeting the role of ward nurses. These strategies include: utilizing clinical decision-making models to develop nurses' decision making skills; developing a standardized tool for systematic nursing assessment and management of clinical deterioration; incorporating training in clinical deterioration as a core competence of pre-registered nursing education; providing vital signs training to nursing assistants; and conducting more rigorous studies to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational programmes.
From revenue to value added taxes: welfare and fiscal efficiency effects in Brazil

This paper presents an evaluation of the economic impacts from the taxation reform of PIS/PASEP and COFINS that started to be collected by two regimes (cumulative and non-cumulative) associated to domestic flows and to levy imports. The evaluation made with a computable general equilibrium model adapted to new fiscal system characteristics indicates that the effects of this reform would have deteriorated macroeconomic, labor market and welfare indicators.
Effectiveness of and Adherence to Dietary and Lifestyle Counselling: Effect on metabolic control in type 2 diabetic Omani patients.

OBJECTIVES The Nutritional Advice Protocol, established by the Department of Health to combat diabetes, has been implemented in primary health care throughout Oman since 2003. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of dietary and lifestyle advice and determine the perception and attitudes of Omani adults with type 2 diabetes to diabetes management. METHODS A cross-sectional epidemiological survey was conducted on 98 patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in Al-Buraimi Governorate, Oman. Metabolic parameters, dietary intake and exercise levels were evaluated in 2005 and re-evaluated in 2008. RESULTS A total of 43% of the patients (male = 16, female = 27) had received no formal education. A significant reduction in fasting glucose and enhanced high density lipoprotein cholesterol were achieved in both male and female patients. However, in men, no changes were noted, other than in anthropometric and metabolic measurements and macronutrient intake. Conversely, women's macronutrient intakes reduced significantly leading to considerable improvement in body weight, body mass index, blood glucose and total cholesterol levels. Eleven patients (11.6%) admitted that they did not adhere at all to the diet advised by the dietician; 63.2% (n = 62) reported they followed their diet sometimes, and 25.2% (n = 25) stated they strictly followed the diet. CONCLUSION Counselling largely illiterate diabetic patients about the impact of food, nutrition and exercise on diabetes shifted the patients from "Poor" to "Good" control in terms of metabolic outcome (glycosylated haemoglobin, fasting glucose and total cholesterol). This minor improvement could be further enhanced by more health education.
Analyse des performances bancaires : application au contrôle de gestion d'une banque régionale

Cette these porte sur la legitimite et la necessite d'analyser les performances d'une banque regionale dans le cadre d'un service de controle de gestion. La premiere partie developpe les outils de proceder a l'analyse des performances d'une firme bancaire. Cesoutils peuvent etre de nature comptable et financiere, ou faire appel a des techniques statistiques et econometriques elaborees. Elle aborde egalement les problemes methodologiques sous-jacent lies al'elaboration d'une methodologie de decomposition du profit dans le cadre d'une evaluation des performances par l'analyse des soldes intermediaires de gestion. La deuxieme partie traite de l'apport des modeles theoriques et de leur application au cas concret d'une banque regionale. Tout d'abord l'approche micro-economique est utilisee en presentant differents modeles theoriques de maximisation du profit sous contraintes. Puis, les modeles appliquant la theorie du portefeuille a la banque seront developpes. Enfin, l'approche strategie sera prise en compte, les performances seront alors expliquees et sanctionnees par les choix de politique commerciale et de positionnement strategique.
THOSE WHO DISCOURAGE CRIME

Even by their simple presence, people can discourage crime from happening at specijic times and places. Such direct-contact discouragement can occur when "guardians" keep an eye on potential crime targets (Cohen and Felson, 1979), or when "handlers" do the same for potential offenders (Felson, 1986). Eck (1994) adds a third type of discouragement role: "managers" who monitor places. Eck presents the routine activity approach as two triplets, with potential offenders, targets, and places monitored by guardians, handlers, and managers, respectively. Clarke (1992) notes the varying degrees of responsibility for discouraging crime. His ideas are adapted to current purposes, listing four steps of crime discouragement. Personal discouragement is exerted by family andfriends; assigned discouragement, by those so employed; diffuse discouragement, by those employed but not assigned to that specific task; and general discouragement, by unpaid persons lacking a personal tie or occupational responsibility. The multiplication of these four steps by Eck's triplets gives us 12 types of discouragement against crime. These types help us also to think about other aspects of crime prevention. A case can be made that the offender is not the most important actor for explaining crime. From the perspective of the routine activity approach (Cohen and Felson, 1979; Felson, 1994; see also work on lifestyles by Hindelang et al., 1978), those who interfere with offenders, however inadvertently, play an even more central role in crime and its prevention. The "capable guardian" against crime serves by simple presence to prevent crime, and by absence to make crime more likely. For example, a retired person at home might well discourage daytime burglary of his or her own home or even the home next door. Conversely, someone working away from home during the day contributes by that absence to a greater risk of burglary. Two persons walking down the street might serve as effective Address correspondence to: Marcus Felson. School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, 15 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102.
APPLICATION OF A DAMPED LOCALLY OPTIMIZED COMBINATION OF IMAGES METHOD TO THE SPECTRAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FAINT COMPANIONS USING AN INTEGRAL FIELD SPECTROGRAPH

High-contrast imaging instruments are now being equipped with integral field spectrographs (IFSs) to facilitate the detection and characterization of faint substellar companions. Algorithms currently envisioned to handle IFS data, such as the Locally Optimized Combination of Images (LOCI) algorithm, rely on aggressive point-spread function (PSF) subtraction, which is ideal for initially identifying companions but results in significantly biased photometry and spectroscopy owing to unwanted mixing with residual starlight. This spectrophotometric issue is further complicated by the fact that algorithmic color response is a function of the companion's spectrum, making it difficult to calibrate the effects of the reduction without using iterations involving a series of injected synthetic companions. In this paper, we introduce a new PSF calibration method, which we call “damped LOCI,” that seeks to alleviate these concerns. By modifying the cost function that determines the weighting coefficients used to construct PSF reference images, and also forcing those coefficients to be positive, it is possible to extract companion spectra with a precision that is set by calibration of the instrument response and transmission of the atmosphere, and not by post-processing. We demonstrate the utility of this approach using on-sky data obtained with the Project 1640 IFS at Palomar. Damped LOCI does not require any iterations on the underlying spectral type of the companion, nor does it rely on priors involving the chromatic and statistical properties of speckles. It is a general technique that can readily be applied to other current and planned instruments that employ IFSs.
Music, health, and well-being: A review

The relationship between arts participation and health is currently very topical. Motivated by a desire to investigate innovative, non-invasive, and economically viable interventions that embrace contemporary definitions of health, practitioners and researchers across the world have been developing and researching arts inventions. One of the key drivers in this vigorous research milieu is the growth of qualitative research within health care contexts and researchers interested in exploring the potential benefits of musical participation have fully embraced the advances that have taken place in health-related qualitative research. The following article presents a number of different types of qualitative research projects focused on exploring the process and outcomes of music interventions. It also presents a new conceptual model for music, health and well-being. This new model develops on a previous version of MacDonald, Kreutz, and Mitchell (2012b) by incorporating new elements and contextualization and providing detailed experimental examples to support the various components.
Extended stimulated parotid and submandibular secretion in a healthy young and old population.

BACKGROUND Previous morphological studies have shown that both the human parotid and submandibular glands display age-related reductions in the proportion of fluid secreting acinar cells. In contrast, short-term functional studies of fluid secretion do not show such a consistent disparity among different-aged persons. This study compared the ability of a population of healthy young and old individuals to secret saliva from the parotid and submandibular glands for an extended period of time under conditions of intense gustatory stimulation. METHODS Saliva was collected over 30 minutes from 30 healthy, unmedicated individuals using 10% citric acid as a gustatory stimulus. Of the 30 subjects, 15 were young (age range 27-40 years) and 15 were old (age range 60-97 years). Parotid salivary flow rates were determined every minute, and submandibular flow rates were determined at 2, 10, 20, and 30 minutes. A comparison was made between the slopes of the two groups. The slopes were derived from the average salivary flow rate at each time point. RESULTS There was no difference in the ability of the parotid glands of young and old individuals to secrete saliva. In contrast, the submandibular glands of the elderly individuals did not show the same pattern of secretion when compared to their younger counterparts, who demonstrated increasing flow rates over the test period. CONCLUSIONS The parotid glands of young and old persons are able to maintain high secretory ability under the stress of intense stimulation for an extended period of time. Conversely, the submandibular gland demonstrates an age-related, statistically significant difference in the pattern of fluid secretion with an intense gustatory stimulus.
Content as Community Regulator: The Recursive Relationship Between Consumption and Contribution in Open Collaboration Communities

Companies increasingly rely on open collaboration communities to create knowledge and organize work. Open collaboration communities are unique in that every consumer of the content created by the community is also a potential contributor. We show that consumption and contribution in open collaboration communities positively reinforce each other, but that the state of the content regulates that feedback loop. As content becomes more developed, it attracts more consumers, but these consumers are less likely to become future contributors. We exploit the abundant data available in our research setting to investigate the heterogeneity in these factors across different types of open collaboration communities. Our results have implications for both researchers and practitioners by suggesting that the feedback between consumption and contribution in an open collaboration community changes over its life span, that the productive life span of these communities may be finite, and that the type and state of the content the community creates may partly determine that life span.