Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social competence and the need for approval and life satisfaction of women with excess body weight and women of normal weight- preliminary report

Abstract The purpose of the present study is to examine the life satisfaction levels in two groups of women - with excess body weight and normal weight and the relationship between life satisfaction and the level of social competences The study involved 70 women (35 with excess body weight and 35 with normal weight). The Life Satisfaction Questionnaire, Social Competence Questionnaire and Social Approval Questionnaire were used in the study. The study revealed no significant differences in terms of overall life satisfaction among women with excess weight and normal weight and a number of other relationships between the variables (like the importance of the need for social approval for the assessment of life satisfaction in those who have excess body weight).
Allonemobius shalontaki, a New Cryptic Species of Ground Cricket (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Nemobiinae) from the Southwestern United States

Abstract A new species of ground cricket in the genus Allonemobius (Hebard) is described from the southwestern United States. Like many singing Orthoptera, this species is morphologically cryptic and most easily distinguished from related species by using molecular characters and male calling song traits. We describe Allonemobius shalontaki as a new species and present data suggesting its reproductive isolation from congeneric species. Allonemobius shalontaki exhibits a unique male calling song and possesses a distinct allozyme genotype. Additionally, we present an electrophoretic key to the genus and propose phylogenetic relationships among species.
Geometric Combination of Multiple Terrestrial Network Solutions

Terrestrial network solutions prepared by different institutes and/or at different epochs imply different reference frame definitions, since various reference stations and processing strategies may be involved. A combination procedure, utilizing a time-variant similarity transformation model, enables a geometric integration of multiple solutions into a common reference frame definition. Additional benefits, including an elimination of systematic bias and a cross check on the quality of each individual network solution, could also be achieved. In this study, a combination approach which takes into account complete geometric interrelations between multiple solutions is developed. With the observable dependency analysis procedure, the proposed approach guarantees a self-consistent, more meaningful, combination solution regardless of the choice of a reference solution. Numerical tests have been performed on actual International Global Navigation Satellite System (GNNS) Service (IGS) and National Geodetic Surv.
'Unstable threads' kernel interface for minimizing the overhead of thread switching

The performance of threads is limited primarily by the overhead of two kinds of switching: vertical switching (user/kernel domain switching) and horizontal switching (context switching between threads). Although these switchings are indispensable in some situations, existing thread mechanisms involve unnecessary switchings on multiprogrammed systems, because of inappropriate interfaces between the operating system kernel and user-level programs. This paper presents a set of interfaces between the kernel and user-level programs that minimizes the overhead of the two kinds of switchings. The kernel provides 'unstable threads,' which are controlled solely by the kernel, while each user-level program monitors them and gives suggestions on their activities to the kernel through a shared memory area between the kernel and user address spaces. This new way of separating thread management minimizes the overhead of vertical and horizontal switchings. <<ETX>>
CSP Design Model and Tool Support

The CSP paradigm is known as a powerful concept for designing and analysing the architectural and behavioural parts of concurrent software. Although the theory of CSP is useful for mathematicians, the programming language occam has been derived from CSP that is useful for any engineering practice. Nowadays, the concept of occam/CSP can be used for almost every object-oriented programming language. This paper describes a tree-based description model and prototype tool that elevates the use of occam/CSP concepts at the design level and performs code generation to Java, C, C++, and machine-readable CSP for the level of implementation. The tree-based description model can be used to browse through the generated source code. The tool is a kind of browser that is able to assist modern workbenches (like Borland Builder, Microsoft Visual C++ and 20-SIM) with coding concurrency. The tool will guide the user through the design trajectory using support messages and several semantic and syntax rule checks. The machine-readable CSP can be read by FDR, enabling more advanced analysis on the design. Early experiments with the prototype tool show that the browser concept, combined with the tree-based description model, enables a user-friendly way to create a design using the CSP concepts and benefits. The design tool is available from our URL, http://www.rt. el.utwente. nl/javapp.
CXCL12/CXCR4 Axis Regulates Aggrecanase Activation and Cartilage Degradation in a Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis Rat Model

We evaluated the role of the CXCL12/CXCR4 (C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 12/C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4) axis in aggrecanase-mediated cartilage degradation, and explored the underlying mechanism in a post-traumatic osteoarthritis rat model. Expression of CXCL12/CXCR4 and ADAMTS-5 was analyzed in the knees of osteoarthritic and non-arthritic rats using Western blot, ELISA, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence. Rodent studies were performed using Sprague-Dawley rats, with animals divided into three groups: Destabilization of the medial meniscus/AMD3100-treated (DMM/AMD3100-treated), DMM/PBS-treated, and sham controls. Rats were sacrificed after eight weeks, and samples were collected for histology and immunohistochemistry analyses. IL-1-pretreated primary chondrocytes were cultured with untreated control, CXCL12a, siNC + CXCL12a, or siRNA CXCR4 + CXCL12a, and analyzed for expression of relevant markers and cellular pathways. Higher levels of CXCL12 were detected in the knee fluid of osteoarthritic subjects, with strong staining for CXCR4 in chondrocytes and CXCL12 in synoviocytes together with enhanced expression of ADAMTS-5. DMM/AMD3100-treated rats showed a significantly reduced immunological response, with minimal evidence of pathology in both histological and immunohistochemical analyses. Treatment with CXCL12a increased the expression of ACAN, RUNX-2, and ADAMTS-4/5 in IL-1-pretreated primary chondrocytes, together with a decrease in the expression of SOX-9. Molecular analyses revealed strong induction of NF-κB activation, along with phosphorylation of MAPKs, and activation of canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling. In conclusion, inhibition of SDF-1α/CXCR4 signaling axis was able to inhibit aggrecanase expression and lessen cartilage degeneration in post-traumatic osteoarthritis rats.
An improved spectral subtraction speech enhancement algorithm under non-stationary noise

The main limitation of conventional spectral subtraction algorithm is that it is based on stationary noise assumption. However, the majority of the common noise types encountered in real world are non-stationary. Moreover, the method requires a voice activity detector that might not work well under very low signal-to-noise ratio conditions. In this paper, we proposed an improved spectral subtraction algorithm for speech enhancement in non-stationary noise conditions. The proposed algorithm contains two steps. Firstly, the priori information about the spectrum of speech and noise is modeled using autoregressive model and the speech and noise codebooks are constructed. Secondly, the speech and noise are estimated in each time frame by solving a log-spectral distortion minimization problem. Consequently, the proposed algorithm can adapt to varying levels of noise even while speech is present. On the other hand, autoregressive modeling results in smooth frequency spectrums and thus reduces musical noise. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional spectral subtraction algorithm and multiband spectral subtraction algorithm.
Developmental psychopathology: Pathways to the future

This article highlights the defining principles, progress and future directions in developmental psychopathology in relation to this special section. Six fundamental principles of developmental psychopathology are identified and the pervasive impact of this integrative framework on research, theory, and practice in behavioral health fields over the past three decades is described. This special section reflects the increasing influence of developmental systems theory, the growing focus on change, intensifying interest in translational research, and the increasingly complex and differentiated nature of research on pathways toward and away from psychopathology. A new era in developmental psychopathology is dawning, with exciting frontiers in brain development and plasticity, gene-environment interaction, resilience and recovery, multilevel dynamics, interdisciplinary research and training, and methodologies for assessing and analyzing change over time within and across individual systems and their contexts.
A Pattern-Based Architecture for Dynamically Adapting Business Processes

The need to adapt a business process in applications has been a topic of interest in the recent years. Several approaches offer solutions to it. But, a limitation of most existing ones is the tight coupling of the adaptation logic with the execution one inside the engine implementation. In addition, they use the adaptation of business process only in the implementation phase (at runtime). To address these problems, we propose an architecture to develop a business process adaptation system. This architecture introduces modularity with an approach based on design patterns. We use some patterns to separate the adaptation logic and the functional one, and to address the adaptation at both the design phase and the implementation one. We show the feasibility of the proposed approach through the TRAP/BPEL
Modeling the Effects of Naturally Occurring Organic Carbon on Chlorinated Ethene Transport to a Public Supply Well†

The vulnerability of public supply wells to chlorinated ethene (CE) contamination in part depends on the availability of naturally occurring organic carbon to consume dissolved oxygen (DO) and initiate reductive dechlorination. This was quantified by building a mass balance model of the Kirkwood‐Cohansey aquifer, which is widely used for public water supply in New Jersey. This model was built by telescoping a calibrated regional three‐dimensional (3D) MODFLOW model to the approximate capture zone of a single public supply well that has a history of CE contamination. This local model was then used to compute a mass balance between dissolved organic carbon (DOC), particulate organic carbon (POC), and adsorbed organic carbon (AOC) that act as electron donors and DO, CEs, ferric iron, and sulfate that act as electron acceptors (EAs) using the Sequential Electron Acceptor Model in three dimensions (SEAM3D) code. SEAM3D was constrained by varying concentrations of DO and DOC entering the aquifer via recharge, varying the bioavailable fraction of POC in aquifer sediments, and comparing observed and simulated vertical concentration profiles of DO and DOC. This procedure suggests that approximately 15% of the POC present in aquifer materials is readily bioavailable. Model simulations indicate that transport of perchloroethene (PCE) and its daughter products trichloroethene (TCE), cis‐dichloroethene (cis‐DCE), and vinyl chloride (VC) to the public supply well is highly sensitive to the assumed bioavailable fraction of POC, concentrations of DO entering the aquifer with recharge, and the position of simulated PCE source areas in the flow field. The results are less sensitive to assumed concentrations of DOC in aquifer recharge. The mass balance approach used in this study also indicates that hydrodynamic processes such as advective mixing, dispersion, and sorption account for a significant amount of the observed natural attenuation in this system.
Design of a humanoid robot head for studying human-robot interaction

The paper presents the development of a humanoid robot head that is intended to be used in social interaction studies. In this study a set of solutions for reproducing the human head movement and part of the sensorial capabilities are developed and analyzed. For implementing the robot control and computer vision functions a set of applications were developed using Matlab. The obtained experimental results are also presented in the end of the paper.
Protein Structure Prediction Based on Profile HMM and DMQPSO

—Protein structure prediction is a challenging field strongly associated with protein function and evolution determination, which is crucial for biologists and the pharmaceutical industry. Despite significant process made in recent years, protein structure prediction maintains its status as one of the prime unsolved problems in computational biology. In this study, we have developed a method for protein structure prediction based on profile Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization (QPSO) with diversity-maintained algorithm (DMQPSO). The profile HMM can reduce the number of states using secondary structure information about proteins for each fold, which is called a 7-state HMM. The DMQPSO is an efficient optimization algorithm which is used to train profile HMM. Experiment results show that the proposed method is reasonable and the accuracy of protein secondary structure prediction is increased.
Low-complexity, efficient 9/7 wavelet filters implementation

This paper proposes a novel low-complexity, efficient 9/7 wavelet filters implementation for image compression applications. The 9/7 wavelet filters are widely used in different image compression schemes, such as the JPEG2000 image coding standard. Thus the implementation of efficient codecs is of great concern. The performance of a hardware implementation of the 9/7 filter bank depends on the accuracy with which filter coefficients are represented. However the greatest part of current implementations consider filters taps as numbers to be implemented. The aim of this work is to show that great complexity reduction can be achieved going through the derivation of the 9/7 taps values.
Reading preference and performance of K1 students for Chinese text presented on PDA interface

This study investigates the reading preference and performance of young learners for Chinese text presented in either a horizontal format or a vertical format on PDA screens. In assessing the reading performance, the reading speed is taken as the performance evaluation criterion. The thirty participants in the current investigation are K1 students studying in the first grade of an elementary school. The ANOVA results indicate that both the screen orientation and the document format exert a significant influence on the reading preference and reading performance of the young students. Specifically, it is found that a horizontal screen with a vertical text format is the preferred choice of the K1 students. This particular treatment of the screen and document factors results in the shortest reading time. The results of this study can be applied to develop PDA-based educational software which not only satisfies the reading preferences of young learners, but also enhances their reading performance.
A nonmonotone spectral projected gradient method for large-scale topology optimization problems

An efficient gradient-based method to solve the volume constrained topology optimization problems is presented. Each iterate of this algorithm is obtained by the projection of a Barzilai-Borwein step onto the feasible set consisting of box and one linear constraints (volume constraint). To ensure the global convergence, an adaptive nonmonotone line search is performed along the direction that is given by the current and projection point. The adaptive cyclic reuse of the Barzilai-Borwein step is applied as the initial stepsize. The minimum memory requirement, the guaranteed convergence property, and almost only one function and gradient evaluations per iteration make this new method very attractive within common alternative methods to solve large-scale optimal design problems. Efficiency and feasibility of the presented method are supported by numerical experiments.
Cointegration Analysis in the Presence of Outliers

The effects of innovational outliers and additive outliers in cointegrated vector autoregressive models are examined and it is analyzed how outliers can be modelled with dummy variables. A Monte Carlo simulation illustrates that additive outliers are more distortionary than innovational outliers, and misspecified dummies may distort inference on the cointegration rank in finite samples. These findings question the common practice in applied cointegration analyses of including unrestricted dummy variables to account for large residuals. Instead it is suggested to focus on additive outliers, or to test the adequacy of a particular specification of dummies prior to testing for the cointegration rank. The points are illustrated on a UK money demand data set. Copyright Royal Economic Socciety 2004
A standardized method to determine the concentration of extracellular vesicles using tunable resistive pulse sensing

Background Understanding the pathogenic role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in disease and their potential diagnostic and therapeutic utility is extremely reliant on in-depth quantification, measurement and identification of EV sub-populations. Quantification of EVs has presented several challenges, predominantly due to the small size of vesicles such as exosomes and the availability of various technologies to measure nanosized particles, each technology having its own limitations. Materials and Methods A standardized methodology to measure the concentration of extracellular vesicles (EVs) has been developed and tested. The method is based on measuring the EV concentration as a function of a defined size range. Blood plasma EVs are isolated and purified using size exclusion columns (qEV) and consecutively measured with tunable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS). Six independent research groups measured liposome and EV samples with the aim to evaluate the developed methodology. Each group measured identical samples using up to 5 nanopores with 3 repeat measurements per pore. Descriptive statistics and unsupervised multivariate data analysis with principal component analysis (PCA) were used to evaluate reproducibility across the groups and to explore and visualise possible patterns and outliers in EV and liposome data sets. Results PCA revealed good reproducibility within and between laboratories, with few minor outlying samples. Measured mean liposome (not filtered with qEV) and EV (filtered with qEV) concentrations had coefficients of variance of 23.9% and 52.5%, respectively. The increased variance of the EV concentration measurements could be attributed to the use of qEVs and the polydisperse nature of EVs. Conclusion The results of this study demonstrate the feasibility of this standardized methodology to facilitate comparable and reproducible EV concentration measurements.
LAPACK WORKING NOTE 194 : A REFINED REPRESENTATION TREE FOR MRRR

In order to compute orthogonal eigenvectors of a symmetric tridiagonal matrix without Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization, the MRRR algorithm finds a shifted LDL T factorization (representation) for each eigenvalue such that the local eigenvalue is a singleton, that is defined to high relative accuracy and has a large relative gap. MRRR's representation tree describes how, by successive shifting and refinement, each eigenvalue becomes relatively isolated. Its shape plays a crucial role for complexity: deeper trees are associated with more eigenvalue refinement to resolve clustering of eigenvalues. Motivated by recently observed deteriorating complexity of the LAPACK 3.1 MRRR kernels for certain matrices of large dimension, we here reexamine and refine the representation tree concept. We first describe the discovery of what we call a spectrum peeling problem: even though the matrix at hand might not have a spectrum with clusters within clusters, the representation tree might still contain a long chain of large nodes. We then formulate a refined proposal for the representation tree that aims at avoiding the unwarranted work while preserving tight accuracy bounds where possible. The trade-off between performance and accuracy in our solution is discussed by practical examples. 1. Introduction. In 2006, a technical report [23] comparing several parallel algorithms for the symmetric eigenvalue problem showed surprisingly poor performance of a ScaLAPACK prototype [2] of the algorithm of Multiple Relatively Robust Representations, MRRR or MR on certain large matrices from electronic structure calculations. An additional remarkable finding was that an earlier implementation of parallel MRRR [3] did not exhibit the same kind of problem. Interested in shedding light on this mystery, we investigated the behavior of the ScaLAPACK code on these matrices and were surprised to find the root cause for its poor performance to be beyond a parallelization issue. As we show in this paper, design decisions aimed at achieving greater accuracy of the LAPACK 3.1 version [17] of MRRR, which were adapted in the parallel code, can 'backfire' for certain large matrices and result in an artificially 'bloated' representation tree involving a huge amount of unwarranted computations. In order to address this problem, we propose here a refined formulation of the representation tree that allows us to reap accuracy benefits without incurring high performance penalties. The key idea is to combine a strict requirement on the relative gap of singletons with an additional criterion for eigenvalue groups. This yields a refined representation tree that is beneficial for …