Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptation of the revised Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-R) to Uruguayan adults in Montevideo: preliminary results

In recent years important there have been important developments in the models and theories on mental health (the DSM-5, the CIE-11 and the proposals of the NIMH are good examples). A central feature in this process is the incorporation of the neuroscientific approach, with the psychobiological model of R. C. Cloninger and colleagues being a salient example. For this reason, Latin American researchers and professionals should have instruments adequate for this new paradigm at their disposal. The TCI-R is a scale developed by Cloninger and colleagues for the assessment of the personality dimensions he proposed. This paper presents the preliminary results of the adaptation process of this scale in a sample of Montevidean adults,and is the first in Spanish-speaking South America.
Mindfulness as an Antecedent of Work Engagement

Today, many organizations look for more loyal, committed, and engaged employees. Employee engagement has two dimensions, which are work engagement and organizational engagement. In this chapter, the moderating effect of demographic variables in the relationship between mindfulness and work engagement is examined. Mindfulness is a concept which has its roots in Buddhism. Mindfulness is defined as a state of mind that enables an individual to be here and now with his/her full potential. This study aims to find the impact of demographic factors (gender, age, educational background, income, marital status) in the relationship between mindfulness and work engagement. Thus, the research question of this study is, Does the relationship between mindfulness and work engagement differ according to demographic factors such as sex, age, educational status, marital status, income level? In this study, quantitative research methodology will be used. In order to answer the research question, survey tool is applied to 142 white collar employees working in Istanbul at different sectors.
Soft pneumatic gelatin actuator for edible robotics

We present a fully edible pneumatic actuator based on gelatin-glycerol material. The actuator is monolithic, fabricated via a molding process, and measures 90 mm in length, 20 mm in width, and 17 mm in thickness. Thanks to the material mechanical characteristics similar to those of silicone elastomers, the actuator exhibits a bending angle of 170.3 ° and a blocked force of 0.34 N at the applied pressure of 25 kPa. These values are comparable to elastomer based pneumatic actuators. As a validation example, two actuators are integrated to form a gripper capable of handling various objects, highlighting the high performance and applicability of the edible actuator. These edible actuators, combined with other recent edible materials and electronics, could lay the foundation for a new type of edible robots.
Il-18 Binding Protein (Il-18bp) And Antibodies In Inflammatory Diseases

The present invention provides means and methods for treating Interleukin 18 (IL-18)-associated diseases and disorders, in particular, the present invention discloses antibodies specific for free IL-18 and IL-18 Binding Protein (IL-18BP) for use in such treatments and for the diagnosis of the diseases and disorders.
Generalized support vector machines

Most Support Vector (SV) methods proposed in the recent literature can be viewed in a uni(cid:12)ed framework with great (cid:13)exibility in terms of the choice of the basis functions. We show that all these problems can be solved within a unique approach if we are equipped with a robust method for (cid:12)nding a sparse solution of a linear system. Moreover, for such a purpose, we propose an iterative algorithm that can be simply implemented. This allows us to generalize the classical SV method to a generic choice of the basis functions.
JAVELIN I and II Systems at TREC 2005

The JAVELIN team at Carnegie Mellon University submitted three question-answering runs for the TREC 2005 evaluation. The JAVELIN I system was used to generate a single submission to the main track, and the JAVELIN II system was used to generate two submissions to the relationship track. In the sections that follow, we separately describe each system and the submission(s) it produced, and conclude with a brief summary.
Modelling populations of the stalk-borer Eldana saccharina, based on the conditions of sugarcane as a host plant.

Eldana saccharina Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) has caused high yield losses in KwaZulu-Natal sugarcane. Early cutting is one of a number of methods being used to reduce losses due to E. saccharina infestations. A cohort based age-structured mathematical model was developed to enable sugarcane growers to simulate the effect of various seasonal conditions on E. saccharina infestation levels. The model takes into account the contribution of the condition of sugarcane (determined from the CANGRO model) to population dynamics of E. saccharina and calculates a crop damage index on each day of the simulation. Temperature dependence of the duration of each stage in the E. saccharina life cycle is an added parameter of the model. By running CANEGRO and E. saccharina models together, insight is gained on cutting cycle length determinations.
A very unusual complication of amniocentesis

The uses of amniocentesis are numerous, including determination of chromosomal abnormalities, lung maturity, and infections. A common complication of amniocentesis is loss of the pregnancy, but rare complications should be considered. The role of patient history and clinical observation of uncommon presentations are critical in the management of the patient.
Induction motor drive using fuzzy logic

Variable speed drives are growing and varying. Drives expanse depend on progress in different part of science like power system, microelectronic, control methods, and so on. Artificial intelligent contains hard computation and soft computation. Artificial intelligent has found high application in most nonlinear systems same as motors drive. Because artificial intelligent techniques can use as controller for any system without requirement to system mathematical model, it has been used in electrical drive control. With this manner, efficiency and reliability of drives increase and volume, weight and cost of them decrease. Due to the improved operating characteristics they give to the equipment control, electronic motor soft starters are increasingly widely applied. Escalators, pumps, elevators and conveyor belts all operate more effectively if they are soft started. However, it is not simply the ergonomics of an airport, process plant or shopping mall that are improved by soft starters. A major factor in the growth in popularity of soft starters is the reduced wear and tear that they place on motors and their associated drive systems. In turn, this reduces maintenance, conserves energy and plays a significant part in improving plant performance and operating costs.
Visual hemispatial neglect, re-assessed

Increased computer use in clinical settings offers an opportunity to develop new neuropsychological tests that exploit the control computers have over stimulus dimensions and timing. However, before adopting new tools, empirical validation is necessary. In the current study, our aims were twofold: to describe a computerized adaptive procedure with broad potential for neuropsychological investigations, and to demonstrate its implementation in testing for visual hemispatial neglect. Visual search results from adaptive psychophysical procedures are reported from 12 healthy individuals and 23 individuals with unilateral brain injury. Healthy individuals reveal spatially symmetric performance on adaptive search measures. In patients, psychophysical outcomes (as well as those from standard paper-and-pencil search tasks) reveal visual hemispatial neglect. Consistent with previous empirical studies of hemispatial neglect, lateralized impairments in adaptive conjunction search are greater than in adaptive feature search tasks. Furthermore, those with right hemisphere damage show greater lateralized deficits in conjunction search than do those with left hemisphere damage. We argue that adaptive tests, which automatically adjust to each individual's performance level, are efficient methods for both clinical evaluations and neuropsychological investigations and have the potential to detect subtle deficits even in chronic stages, when flagrant clinical signs have frequently resolved. (JINS, 2008, 14, 243–256.)
L-Carnosine Affects the Growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a Metabolism-Dependent Manner

The dipeptide L-carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine) has been described as enigmatic: it inhibits growth of cancer cells but delays senescence in cultured human fibroblasts and extends the lifespan of male fruit flies. In an attempt to understand these observations, the effects of L-carnosine on the model eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, were examined on account of its unique metabolic properties; S. cerevisiae can respire aerobically, but like some tumor cells, it can also exhibit a metabolism in which aerobic respiration is down regulated. L-Carnosine exhibited both inhibitory and stimulatory effects on yeast cells, dependent upon the carbon source in the growth medium. When yeast cells were not reliant on oxidative phosphorylation for energy generation (e.g. when grown on a fermentable carbon source such as 2% glucose), 10–30 mM L-carnosine slowed growth rates in a dose-dependent manner and increased cell death by up to 17%. In contrast, in media containing a non-fermentable carbon source in which yeast are dependent on aerobic respiration (e.g. 2% glycerol), L-carnosine did not provoke cell death. This latter observation was confirmed in the respiratory yeast, Pichia pastoris. Moreover, when deletion strains in the yeast nutrient-sensing pathway were treated with L-carnosine, the cells showed resistance to its inhibitory effects. These findings suggest that L-carnosine affects cells in a metabolism-dependent manner and provide a rationale for its effects on different cell types.
EXPERIMENTAL VS. THEORETICAL DESIGN APPROACHES FOR THIN-WALLED COLD-FORMED STEEL BEAM-COLUMNS

The response of thin-walled cold-formed (TWCF) members is significantly influenced by local and distortional buckling phenomena as well as by their interactions with overall instability. Furthermore, because of the frequent use of monosymmetric cross-section members, their design is often complex and laborious engineering calculations are required, independently of the adopted provisions. With reference to the European (EU) and United States (US) design standards, which are the most commonly adopted worldwide, different alternatives can currently be used: a direct comparison between the predicted load carrying capacities should hence be of great interest for structural engineers and manufacturing technicians. This issue is discussed in the paper, which is focused on isolated TWCF beam-columns. In particular, 5 EU and 2 US alternatives have been discussed focusing attention on the pure theoretical approaches to evaluate the member performance. The applicative part proposes a direct comparison between the associated axial force bending-moment domains investigating the influence of the member slenderness as well as of the moment distribution. Furthermore, these alternatives have been applied to predict the strength of members tested in laboratory for which the behavior of an adequate number of nominally identical specimens has been thoroughly investigated. The proposed statistical re -elaboration of test data, which is comprised of 8 practical cases differing for cross-section sizes, materials and length, for a total of 112 compression tests, allows for defining the experimental design performance to be directly compared with the corresponding one associated with the considered design approaches. Received: Revised: Accepted: 03 October 2017 20 December 2017 23 December 2017
Estimating Software Rejuvenation Schedules in High-Assurance Systems

Software rejuvenation is a preventive maintenance technique that has been extensively studied in recent literature. In this paper, we extend the classical result by Huang et al. (1995), and in addition propose a modified stochastic model to generate the software rejuvenation schedule. More precisely, the software rejuvenation models are formulated via the semi-Markov reward process, and the optimal software rejuvenation schedules are derived analytically in terms of the reward rate. In particular, we consider the two special cases: steady-state availability and expected cost per unit time in the steady state. Further, we develop non-parametric algorithms to estimate the optimal software rejuvenation schedules, provided that the statistically complete (unsensored) sample data of failure time is given. In numerical examples, we compare two models from the viewpoints of system availability and economic justification, and examine asymptotic properties for the statistical estimation algorithms.
Gestures Everywhere: A Multimodal Sensor Fusion and Analysis Framework for Pervasive Displays

Gestures Everywhere is a dynamic framework for multimodal sensor fusion, pervasive analytics and gesture recognition. Our framework aggregates the real-time data from approximately 100 sensors that include RFID readers, depth cameras and RGB cameras distributed across 30 interactive displays that are located in key public areas of the MIT Media Lab. Gestures Everywhere fuses the multimodal sensor data using radial basis function particle filters and performs real-time analysis on the aggregated data. This includes key spatio-temporal properties such as presence, location and identity; in addition to higher-level analysis including social clustering and gesture recognition. We describe the algorithms and architecture of our system and discuss the lessons learned from the systems deployment.
Metabolite essentiality elucidates robustness of Escherichia coli metabolism

Complex biological systems are very robust to genetic and environmental changes at all levels of organization. Many biological functions of Escherichia coli metabolism can be sustained against single-gene or even multiple-gene mutations by using redundant or alternative pathways. Thus, only a limited number of genes have been identified to be lethal to the cell. In this regard, the reaction-centric gene deletion study has a limitation in understanding the metabolic robustness. Here, we report the use of flux-sum, which is the summation of all incoming or outgoing fluxes around a particular metabolite under pseudo-steady state conditions, as a good conserved property for elucidating such robustness of E. coli from the metabolite point of view. The functional behavior, as well as the structural and evolutionary properties of metabolites essential to the cell survival, was investigated by means of a constraints-based flux analysis under perturbed conditions. The essential metabolites are capable of maintaining a steady flux-sum even against severe perturbation by actively redistributing the relevant fluxes. Disrupting the flux-sum maintenance was found to suppress cell growth. This approach of analyzing metabolite essentiality provides insight into cellular robustness and concomitant fragility, which can be used for several applications, including the development of new drugs for treating pathogens.
Switched dynamic structural equation models for tracking social network topologies

Contagions such as the spread of popular news stories, or infectious diseases, propagate in cascades over dynamic networks with unobservable topologies. However, "social signals" such as product purchase time, or blog entry timestamps are measurable, and implicitly depend on the underlying topology, making it possible to track it over time. Interestingly, network topologies often "jump" between discrete states that may account for sudden changes in the observed signals. The present paper advocates a switched dynamic structural equation model to capture the topology-dependent cascade evolution, as well as the discrete states driving the underlying topologies. Leveraging the edge sparsity inherent to social networks, a recursive ℓ1-norm regularized least-squares estimator is put forth to jointly track the states and network topologies. A first-order proximal-gradient algorithm is developed to solve the resulting optimization problem, and numerical tests on synthetic data corroborate its efficacy.
Unveiling the multi-wavelength phenomenology of Anomalous X-ray Pulsars

During 2002-2003 the number of IR-identified counterparts to the Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) has grown to four (4U0142+614, 2E2259+584, 1E 1048-59 and 1RXS J170849-400910) out of the six assessed objects of this class, plus two candidates. More importantly, some new common observational characteristics have been identified, such as the IR variability, the IR flattening in the broad band energy spectrum, the X-ray spectral variability as a function of pulse phase (which are not predicted by the magnetar model), and the SGR-like bursts (which can not be explained in terms of standard accretion models). We present the results obtained from an extensive multi-wavelength observational campaign carried out collecting data from the NTT, CFHT for the optical/IR bands, and XMM, Chandra (plus BeppoSAX archival data) in the X-rays. Based on these results and those reported in the literature, the IR-to-X-ray band emission of AXPs has been compared and studied.
A Malaysian vehicle license plate localization and recognition system

Technological intelligence is a highly sought after commodity even in traffic-based systems. These intelligent systems do not only help in traffic monitoring but also in commuter safety, law enforcement and commercial applications. In this paper, a license plate localization and recognition system for vehicles in Malaysia is proposed. This system is developed based on digital images and can be easily applied to commercial car park systems for the use of documenting access of parking services, secure usage of parking houses and also to prevent car theft issues. The proposed license plate localization algorithm is based on a combination of morphological processes with a modified Hough Transform approach and the recognition of the license plates is achieved by the implementation of the feed-forward backpropagation artificial neural network. Experimental results show an average of 95% successful license plate localization and recognition in a total of 589 images captured from a complex outdoor environment.
Initial physical education students’ beliefs about sport teaching

The objective of this study was to analyze the beliefs of undergraduates about the strategies for teaching sports at the beginning of their Bachelors degree in Physical Education at a public university in Southern Brazil. A qualitative, descriptive and interpretive research approach was adopted through multiple case studies. Eight bachelor students in Physical Education participated in the study. To collect the data, we used a combination of structured and semi-structured interview procedures, systematic observation, and memory stimulation. Content analysis was used from categories determined a priori. The results indicated that the students have beliefs that favor strategies focused on analytical learning tasks, verbal management interventions, prescriptive pedagogical feedbacks, and positive evaluations. These beliefs were developed mainly through personal practical experiences in competitive sports as well as through observation of coaches or teachers and verbal orientations received from coaches and peers. The undergraduates’ beliefs about teaching strategies represent a particular conceptual model, with structures similar to directive teaching models. Thus, we conclude that the prolonged contact of the undergraduates with various learning situations in sports contributed to the memorization of concepts, values, and teaching behaviors, which enabled and conditioned the construction of one own model of teaching sports.
Language in India Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow Nature of Sentence Intonation in Kannada, Tulu and Konkani

Intonation is one parameter of prosody that gives information on the production aspects of linguistic prosody. The aim of this study was to understand the terminal intonation patterns of different types of sentences in three languages Kannada, Tulu and Konkani. Four simple sentences, one for each sentence type namely, declaratives, exclamatory, interrogatives, and imperatives were taken and recorded in Motor Speech Profile software, by native speakers of the three languages. F0 patterns were plotted using the PHH model of intonation. The results showed that declaratives and imperatives had falling contours in all languages. Exclamatory sentences had raising contours in Kannada and Konkani, but falling contour in Tulu. Interrogatives had raising patterns across all languages, except for males in Kannada. The production of sentences in Kannada, Konkani and Tulu indicated that there are differences in the terminal F0 pattern across the different sentence types.
A Potent Anti-HB-EGF Monoclonal Antibody Inhibits Cancer Cell Proliferation and Multiple Angiogenic Activities of HB-EGF

Heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF) is a member of the epidermal growth factor family and has a variety of physiological and pathological functions. Modulation of HB-EGF activity might have a therapeutic potential in the oncology area. We explored the therapeutic possibilities by characterizing the in vitro biological activity of anti-HB-EGF monoclonal antibody Y-142. EGF receptor (EGFR) ligand and species specificities of Y-142 were tested. Neutralizing activities of Y-142 against HB-EGF were evaluated in EGFR and ERBB4 signaling. Biological activities of Y-142 were assessed in cancer cell proliferation and angiogenesis assays and compared with the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab, the HB-EGF inhibitor CRM197, and the anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) antibody bevacizumab. The binding epitope was determined with alanine scanning. Y-142 recognized HB-EGF as well as the EGFR ligand amphiregulin, and bound specifically to human HB-EGF, but not to rodent HB-EGF. In addition, Y-142 neutralized HB-EGF-induced phosphorylation of EGFR and ERBB4, and blocked their downstream ERK1/2 and AKT signaling. We also found that Y-142 inhibited HB-EGF-induced cancer cell proliferation, endothelial cell proliferation, tube formation, and VEGF production more effectively than cetuximab and CRM197 and that Y-142 was superior to bevacizumab in the inhibition of HB-EGF-induced tube formation. Six amino acids in the EGF-like domain were identified as the Y-142 binding epitope. Among the six amino acids, the combination of F115 and Y123 determined the amphiregulin cross-reactivity and that F115 accounted for the species selectivity. Furthermore, it was suggested that the potent neutralizing activity of Y-142 was derived from its recognition of R142 and Y123 and its high affinity to HB-EGF. Y-142 has a potent HB-EGF neutralizing activity that modulates multiple biological activities of HB-EGF including cancer cell proliferation and angiogenic activities. Y-142 may have a potential to be developed into a therapeutic agent for the treatment of HB-EGF-dependent cancers.
A Coding Theorem for Multiterminal Estimation

In this paper a coding theorem for multiterminal estimation is presented. The theorem is a generalization of the distributed coding theorem first proved by Slepian and Wolf (1973), where the goal is to estimate the joint probability distribution of correlated sources, rather than to reconstruct them at the receiver. For this, it is shown first that the joint-type of the received sequences is a sufficient statistic for estimation. Then, it is proved that for sufficiently large sequences, only a sum-rate lower bounded by the mutual information of the correlated sources is "sufficient" to perfectly reconstruct the sufficient statistic at the receiver. Simulation results for the special case of estimation with side information at the receiver is provided