Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ideation and ability: when actions speak louder than words

We present an approach and examples of design artefacts from on-going work on how children with profound disabilities can participate in formative design processes. It involves the pedagogical use of digitally interactive multisensory environments. Rather than mimic participatory design from more symmetrical contexts, we address potentials in the situation at hand as well as the key issues of voice by proxy and thinking in deficits. Our design artefacts draw on the rich heritage of tangible design experiments cherishing the generative qualities embodied in human actions. The inspiring actions of the children take centre stage in cross disciplinary design efforts by means of a) long term involvement, where b) designerly understandings of qualities emerge through 'questioning' by series of truly interactive yet deliberately basic tangible design artefacts, c) staging extensive video coverage of the children's action as the pivotal point of ideation, and d) an open mind-set thinking in potentials and working by wonderings rather than fixed judgments.
Exploring the Responsiveness of Public and Private Hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria

According to the World Health Report 2000, health system responsiveness is proposed as one of the three key objectives of any health system. This multi-domain concept describes how well a health system responds to the expectations of their users concerning the non-health enhancing aspects of care. In this study we aim to compare the levels of responsiveness experienced by users of private and publicly managed hospitals in Nigeria, and through these insights, to propose recommendations on how to improve performance on this measure. This quantitative, cross-sectional study uses a questionnaire that is adapted from two responsiveness surveys designed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Researchers collected responses from 520 respondents from four hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria. Analysis of the data using statistical techniques found that significant differences exist between the performance of public and private hospitals on certain domains of responsiveness, with privately operated hospitals performing better where differences exist. Users of private hospitals also reported a higher level of overall satisfaction. Private hospitals were found to perform particularly better on the domains of dignity, waiting times, and travel times. These findings have implications for the management of public hospitals in focusing their efforts on improving their performance in low scoring domains. Performance in these hospitals can be improved by emphasis on staff training and demand management.
Challenges Confronting Risk Analysis of Potential Thyroid Toxicants

Screening and testing for potential thyroid toxicants using endpoints of thyroid function, including circulating levels of thyroid hormones and thyrotropin, will not capture toxicants that directly interfere with thyroid hormone action at the receptor. The goals of the present review are to provide a critique of the literature focused on thyroid hormone and brain development as it relates to testing and evaluating thyroid toxicants, and to propose possible solutions to this perceived dilemma.
Confidence Level and Sensitivity Limits in High-Contrast Imaging

In long adaptive optics corrected exposures, exoplanet detections are currently limited by speckle noise originating from the telescope and instrument optics, and it is expected that such noise will also limit future high-contrast imaging instruments for both ground- and space-based telescopes. Previous theoretical analyses have shown that the time intensity variations of a single speckle follow a modified Rician. It is first demonstrated here that for a circular pupil, this temporal intensity distribution also represents the speckle spatial intensity distribution at a fixed separation from the point-spread function center; this fact is demonstrated using numerical simulations for coronagraphic and noncoronagraphic data. The real statistical distribution of the noise needs to be taken into account explicitly when selecting a detection threshold appropriate for some desired confidence level (CL). In this paper, a technique is described to obtain the pixel intensity distribution of an image and its corresponding CL as a function of the detection threshold. Using numerical simulations, it is shown that in the presence of speckle noise, a detection threshold up to 3 times higher is required to obtain a CL equivalent to that at 5 σ for Gaussian noise. The technique is then tested on data acquired by simultaneous spectral differential imaging with TRIDENT and by angular differential imaging with NIRI. It is found that the angular differential imaging technique produces quasi-Gaussian residuals, a remarkable result compared to classical adaptive optic imaging. Finally, a power law is derived to predict the 1 − 3 × 10−7 CL detection threshold when averaging a partially correlated non-Gaussian noise.
Creating an MHOST Table for MNET An Implementation

This paper discusses details and implementation techniques for an ongoing project called MNET. First, an example socket application is presented and the difficulties of the sockets API is addressed. Then we go into detail as to how MNET is built and how it is added as a linux kernel module with ease. Finally we show other projects that are related to what MNET is trying to fix.
A Machine Learning Approach to “Revisit” Specialization and Sampling in Institutionalized Practice

The question which nature and scope of developmental participation patterns lead to international senior-level success has been controversially discussed in the literature for many years. The present article aimed to extend existing literature in two respects. First, we reviewed studies comparing developmental sport activities of international-level and national-level athletes. The results indicated that comparisons among the highest success levels are infrequent, findings partly varied across studies, while the practice volume in other sports, but not in the athlete’s main sport, mostly distinguished international-level from national-level athletes. Second, a new methodical approach combining decision trees and gradient boosting (conducted under the R environment) was applied to data from a previously published study. It allowed for multivariate, interactive, and nonlinear analysis and was promising to achieve relatively better explanation than earlier, traditional procedures. The results indicate that some formerly found differences between international and national-level athletes in the volume of main-sport and other-sports practice may represent artifacts of uncontrolled age effects, rather than variables factually differentiating success. In the context of the specialization–diversification debate, the present findings suggest that the debate addresses a “production function,” the structure of which is still unknown. Practice-related recommendations on developmental participation patterns are apparently expressions of highly rationalized myths, rather than evidence-based efficient norms.
A legibility scale for early primary handwriting: Authentic task and cognitive load influences

This study set out to examine the range of legibility demonstrated by Western Australian students required to handwrite tasks of increasing intrinsic cognitive load. A representative sample of students in Years 1, 2 and 3 (N=437) was recruited for a cross sectional study and teachers administered handwriting tasks. Year 1 students were administered easier tasks (copying from the board and dictation), and Year 3 students were administered more difficult tasks (dictation and composition), whilst students in Year 2 were administered all three tasks. A rubric was then constructed for six aspects of legibility from selected participant exemplars: letter formation, size, space in word, space between words, line placement, and slant, providing 18 items for analysis (3 tasks x 6 aspects). The rubric demonstrated acceptable interand intra-reliability. Scores were assigned following pairwise comparisons; a Rasch model (RM) analysis was applied to scores. Fit to the RM was confirmed to permit a more accurate assessment of legibility. The study substantiates many assumptions about handwriting in the extant literature, and more specifically reveals how cognitive load governs legibility when students are learning to handwrite. Implications for practice are discussed.
Use of Fuzzy Sets in Semantic Nets for Providing On-Line Assistance to User of Technological Systems

The main objective of this paper is to develop a ne w semantic Network structure, based on the fuzzy sets theory, used in Artificial Intelligent system in order to provide effective on-line assist ance to users of new technological systems. This Semantic Networks is us ed to describe the knowledge of an "ideal" expert while fuzzy sets are used both to describe the approximate and uncertain knowledge of novice users who intervene to match fuzzy labels of a query with categories from an "id eal" expert. The technical system we consider is a word processor software, wi th Objects such as "Word" and Goals such as "Cut" or "Copy". We suggest to consider the set of the system's Goals as a set of linguistic variables to which corresponds a set of possible linguistic values based on the fuzzy set. We consider, therefore, a set of interpretation's levels for these possible values t o which corresponds a set of membership functions. We also propose a method to measure the similarity degree between different fuzzy linguistic variables for the partition of the semantic network in class of similar objects to mak e easy the diagnosis of the user's fuzzy queries.
A Three-Moment International Asset-Pricing Model: Theory and Evidence

We develop a three-moment international asset-pricing model (TM-IAPM) that prices coskewness and embeds the standard IAPMs as special cases. We use the model to investigate the time-series behavior of market, size, value, and momentum premiums in the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom equity markets. We find that the model explains most of the variation of these premiums during the 1980s and 1990s and that the coskewness risk is more important than covariance risk.
Natural Co-Occurrence of Mycotoxins in Foods and Feeds and Their in vitro Combined Toxicological Effects

Some foods and feeds are often contaminated by numerous mycotoxins, but most studies have focused on the occurrence and toxicology of a single mycotoxin. Regulations throughout the world do not consider the combined effects of mycotoxins. However, several surveys have reported the natural co-occurrence of mycotoxins from all over the world. Most of the published data has concerned the major mycotoxins aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEA), fumonisins (FUM) and trichothecenes (TCTs), especially deoxynivalenol (DON). Concerning cereals and derived cereal product samples, among the 127 mycotoxin combinations described in the literature, AFs+FUM, DON+ZEA, AFs+OTA, and FUM+ZEA are the most observed. However, only a few studies specified the number of co-occurring mycotoxins with the percentage of the co-contaminated samples, as well as the main combinations found. Studies of mycotoxin combination toxicity showed antagonist, additive or synergic effects depending on the tested species, cell model or mixture, and were not necessarily time- or dose-dependent. This review summarizes the findings on mycotoxins and their co-occurrence in various foods and feeds from all over the world as well as in vitro experimental data on their combined toxicity.
Multidimensional SDE with anticipating initial process and reflection

In this paper, the strong solutions (X,L) of multidimensional stochastic differential equations with reflecting boundary and possible anticipating initial random variables is established. The key is to obtain some substitution formula for Stratonovich integrals via a uniform convergence of the corresponding Riemann sums and to prove continuity of functionals of (X,L). MSC(2000): Primary 60H07, 60H10, 60J60; Secondary 60J55, 60J50.
Nonlinear growth of dynamical overstabilities in blast waves. [effects on supernova remnants]

Blast waves have been shown by Vishniac to be subject to an oscillating instability, with growth occurring when the blast wave is thin enough. The nonlinear development of this overstability has not yet been determined. We directly model the overstability using the numerical gas dynamics code ZEUS-2D. We confirm the linear analysis by perturbing a blast wave with a low-amplitude eigenfunction of the overstability. We then increase the amplitude of the perturbations to determine the nonlinear behavior of the overstability. We find that the overstability saturates due to weak transverse shocks in the shell. Transverse velocities in the dense shell reach the postshock sound speed, and high-density regions with sizes of order the shell thickness form
Development of a Low Cost Assistive Listening System for Hearing-Impaired Student Classroom

This paper describes the design, development, and tests of a low cost ALS. It was designed for hearing-impaired student classrooms. It utilised digital wireless technology and was aimed to be an alternative to a popular FM ALS. Key specifications include transmitting in 2.4 GHz ISM band with eight selectable transmission channels, battery operated and chargeable, pocket size, and ranged up to thirty metres. Audio characteristics and user tests show that it is comparable to a commercial system, currently employed in our partner school. The results also show that wearing an ALS clearly improves hearing of hearing-impaired students. Long-term usage by school children will be monitored to evaluate the system robustness and durability.
Do Maternal Knowledge and Attitudes towards Childhood Immunizations in Rural Uganda Correlate with Complete Childhood Vaccination?

Improving childhood vaccination coverage and timeliness is a key health policy objective in many developing countries such as Uganda. Of the many factors known to influence uptake of childhood immunizations in under resourced settings, parents’ understanding and perception of childhood immunizations has largely been overlooked. The aims of this study were to survey mothers’ knowledge and attitudes towards childhood immunizations and then determine if these variables correlate with the timely vaccination coverage of their children. From September to December 2013, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 1,000 parous women in rural Sheema district in southwest Uganda. The survey collected socio-demographic data and knowledge and attitudes towards childhood immunizations. For the women with at least one child between the age of one month and five years who also had a vaccination card available for the child (N = 302), the vaccination status of this child was assessed. 88% of these children received age-appropriate, on-time immunizations. 93.5% of the women were able to state that childhood immunizations protect children from diseases. The women not able to point this out were significantly more likely to have an under-vaccinated child (PR 1.354: 95% CI 1.018–1.802). When asked why vaccination rates may be low in their community, the two most common responses were “fearful of side effects” and “ignorance/disinterest/laziness” (44% each). The factors influencing caregivers’ demand for childhood immunizations vary widely between, and also within, developing countries. Research that elucidates local knowledge and attitudes, like this study, allows for decisions and policy pertaining to vaccination programs to be more effective at improving child vaccination rates.
The ontology of organisation and management studies

This collection is motivated by two beliefs: one positive and the other negative. The positive belief is that critical realism, and especially its ontology, has much to offer in the analysis of organisation and management. Evidence for this is provided not only in the following chapters where contributors have rooted their theoretical and empirical work in critical realism to good effect, but also in the growing number of critical realist inspired articles found in the organisation and management studies literature. 1 The negative belief is that much current organisation and management study is committed to one of two mistaken ontological positions: the empirical realist ontology in which positivist orientated analysis is rooted; and the social constructionist ontology in which postmodernist or poststructuralist orientated analysis is rooted. Despite contributions that postmodernism and poststructuralism have to offer, the recoil from (correctly) abandoning positivism appears to have „catapulted‟ postmodernists and poststructuralists into substituting one mistaken ontology for another. If unchecked, this could easily take organisation and management studies down an alley as blind as the positivist one from which it has struggled to escape. This would be tragic given that critical realism can provide a viable ontology of organisations and management, allowing positivism and its empirical realist ontology to be abandoned without having to accept a social constructionist ontology. 2
Spatiotemporal and Functional Characterisation of the Plasmodium falciparum cGMP-Dependent Protein Kinase

Signalling by 3′–5′-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) exists in virtually all eukaryotes. In the apicomplexan parasite Plasmodium, the cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) has previously been reported to play a critical role in four key stages of the life cycle. The Plasmodium falciparum isoform (PfPKG) is essential for the initiation of gametogenesis and for blood stage schizont rupture and work on the orthologue from the rodent malaria parasite P. berghei (PbPKG) has shown additional roles in ookinete differentiation and motility as well as liver stage schizont development. In the present study, PfPKG expression and subcellular location in asexual blood stages was investigated using transgenic epitope-tagged PfPKG-expressing P. falciparum parasites. In Western blotting experiments and immunofluorescence analysis (IFA), maximal PfPKG expression was detected at the late schizont stage. While IFA suggested a cytosolic location, a degree of overlap with markers of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) was found and subcellular fractionation showed some association with the peripheral membrane fraction. This broad localisation is consistent with the notion that PfPKG, as with the mammalian orthologue, has numerous cellular substrates. This idea is further supported by the global protein phosphorylation pattern of schizonts which was substantially changed following PfPKG inhibition, suggesting a complex role for PfPKG during schizogony.
St Gallen molecular subtypes in screening‐detected and symptomatic breast cancer in a prospective cohort with long‐term follow‐up

Diagnosis by screening mammography is considered an independent positive prognostic factor, although the data are not fully in agreement. The aim of the study was to explore whether the mode of detection (screening‐detected versus symptomatic) adds prognostic information to the St Gallen molecular subtypes of primary breast cancer, in terms of 10‐year cumulative breast cancer mortality (BCM).
A vocabulary of program slicing-based techniques

This article surveys previous work on program slicing-based techniques. For each technique, we describe its features, its main applications, and a common example of slicing using such a technique. After discussing each technique separately, all of them are compared in order to clarify and establish the relations between them. This comparison gives rise to a classification of techniques which can help to guide future research directions in this field.
Co-expression Pattern Analysis of miR-17-92 Target Genes in Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulators that regulate gene expression by binding to the 3′ untranslated region of target mRNAs. Mature miRNAs transcribed from the miR-17-92 cluster have an oncogenic activity, which are overexpressed in chronic-phase chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients compared with normal individuals. Besides, the tyrosine kinase activity of BCR-ABL oncoprotein from the Philadelphia chromosome in CML can affect this miRNA cluster. Genes with similar mRNA expression profiles are likely to be regulated by the same regulators. We hypothesize that target genes regulated by the same miRNA are co-expressed. In this study, we aim to explore the difference in the co-expression patterns of those genes potentially regulated by miR-17-92 cluster between the normal and the CML groups. We applied a statistical method for gene pair classification by identifying a disease-specific cutoff point that classified the co-expressed gene pairs into strong and weak co-expression classes. The method effectively identified the differences in the co-expression patterns from the overall structure. Functional annotation for co-expressed gene pairs showed that genes involved in the metabolism processes were more likely to be co-expressed in the normal group compared to the CML group. Our method can identify the co-expression pattern difference from the overall structure between two different distributions using the distribution-based statistical method. Functional annotation further provides the biological support. The co-expression pattern in the normal group is regarded as the inter-gene linkages, which represents the healthy pathological balance. Dysregulation of metabolism may be related to CML pathology. Our findings will provide useful information for investigating the novel CML mechanism and treatment.
An Overview of Uncertainty and Vagueness in Description Logics for the Semantic Web an Overview of Uncertainty and Vagueness in Description Logics for the Semantic Web

Ontologies play a crucial role in the development of the Sema ntic Web as a means for defining shared terms in Web resources. They are formulated i n web ontology languages, which are based on expressive description logics. Significant res ea ch efforts are recently directed towards representing and reasoning with uncertainty and vagueness i ontologies for the Semantic Web. In this paper, we give an overview of probabilistic uncertaint y, possibilistic uncertainty, and vagueness in expressive description logics for the Semantic Web. 1Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica, Universit à di Roma “La Sapienza”, Via Salaria 113, I-00198 Rome, Italy; e-mail: lukasiewicz@dis.uniroma1. it. Institut f ür Informationssysteme, Technische Universit ät Wien, Favoritenstraße 9-11, A-1040 Vienna, Austria; e-mail: lukasiewicz@ kr.tuwien. ac.at. 2ISTI-CNR, Via G. Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa, Italy; e-mail: str accia@isti.cnr. it. Acknowledgements: This work has been partially supported by a Heisenberg Prof ess rship of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Copyright c © 2006 by the authors INFSYS RR 1843-06-07 I
Hyperbolic Behavior Of Occupation Measures Between Neighboring Policies In CMDP s

We study the change in the steady state probabilities as the controller of a Markov Decision Process (MDP) shifts from one deterministic policy to another by gradually changing the selected action in a single state. We prove that the steady state probability for each state-action pair is a hyperbolic Möbius transformation. In particular, this implies that the change is monotone. The same holds also for the cost function in the discounted cost and expected average cost models. We extend this result also to constrained MDPs with an arbitrary number of constraints.