Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New and Old Wars : Organized Violence in a Global Era

Mary Kaldor's New and Old Wars has fundamentally changed the way both scholars and policy-makers understand contemporary war and conflict. In the context of globalization, this path-breaking book has shown that what we think of as war - that is to say, war between states in which the aim is to inflict maximum violence - is becoming an anachronism. In its place is a new type of organized violence or 'new wars', which could be described as a mixture of war, organized crime and massive violations of human rights. The actors are both global and local, public and private. The wars are fought for particularistic political goals using tactics of terror and destabilization that are theoretically outlawed by the rules of modern warfare. Kaldor's analysis offers a basis for a cosmopolitan political response to these wars, in which the monopoly of legitimate organized violence is reconstructed on a transnational basis and international peacekeeping is reconceptualized as cosmopolitan law enforcement. This approach also has implications for the reconstruction of civil society, political institutions, and economic and social relations. This third edition has been fully revised and updated. Kaldor has added an afterword answering the critics of the New Wars argument and, in a new chapter, Kaldor shows how old war thinking in Afghanistan and Iraq greatly exacerbated what turned out to be, in many ways, archetypal new wars - characterised by identity politics, a criminalised war economy and civilians as the main victims. Like its predecessors, the third edition of New and Old Wars will be essential reading for students of international relations, politics and conflict studies as well as to all those interested in the changing nature and prospect of warfare.
Sensory Characteristics in ASD

In this paper, we review evidence regarding differences in the types of sensory experiences of persons with ASD with respect to both unisensory and multisensory processing. We discuss selfreports, carer questionnaires as well as perceptual processing differences found in the laboratory. Incoming information is processed through one or more of our senses and fundamental differences in the processing of information from any sensory modality or combination of sensory modalities are likely to have cascading effects on the way individuals with ASD experience the world around them, effects that can have both positive and negative impact on a individual with ASD’s quality of life.
Effect of Selected Recruiting Strategies on Beginning Instrumentalists' Participation Decisions

The purpose of the study was to explore the effect of aptitude, two methods of introducing wind and string instruments, and the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on fourth-grade students' attitude toward playing an instrument. Students (N = 531) in nine different elementary schools were divided into two experimental groups (recorder and demonstration) and a control group. Students in the recorder group were taught to play the recorder, whereas the demonstration group encountered the instruments via films and live student performances. After 10 weeks of instruction, students completed an attitude assessment questionnaire. When low aptitude/attitude correlations were found, ANCOVA procedures were abandoned, and ANOVA procedures revealed a statistically significant interaction among the three groups and three SES levels. Simple main effects analyses indicated that the type of recruiting strategy does not significantly affect low-SES stuents' attitudes, but significant differences in both the middle- and high-SES classifications were examined using the Tukey-Kramer test.
Wireless Measurement and Analysis on HPWREN

As networks grow faster everyday, net- work measurement and analysis becomes more im- portant. This paper gives a brief description of the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN) Measurement and Analysis In- frastructure. We then discuss three case studies in which measurements provided a key component in determining specific problems related to radio fre- quency filters, weather conditions, and interference.
Involvement of DkTGA1 Transcription Factor in Anaerobic Response Leading to Persimmon Fruit Postharvest De-Astringency

Persimmon fruit are unique in accumulating proanthocyanidins (tannins) during development, which cause astringency in mature fruit. In ‘Mopanshi’ persimmon, astringency can be removed by treatment with 95% CO2, which increases the concentrations of ethanol and acetaldehyde by glycolysis, and precipitates the soluble tannin. A TGA transcription factor, DkTGA1, belonging to the bZIP super family, was isolated from an RNA-seq database and real-time quantitative PCR indicated that DkTGA1 was up-regulated by CO2 treatment, in concert with the removal of astringency from persimmon fruit. Dual-luciferase assay revealed that DkTGA1 had a small (less than 2-fold), but significant effect on the promoters of de-astringency-related genes DkADH1, DkPDC2 and DkPDC3, which encode enzymes catalyzing formation of acetaldehyde and ethanol. A combination of DkTGA1 and a second transcription factor, DkERF9, shown previously to be related to de-astringency, showed additive effects on the activation of the DkPDC2 promoter. Yeast one-hybrid assay showed that DkERF9, but not DkTGA1, could bind to the DkPDC2 promoter. Thus, although DkTGA1 expression is positively associated with persimmon fruit de-astringency, trans-activation analyses with DkPDC2 indicates it is likely to act by binding indirectly DkPDC2 promoter, might with helps of DkERF9.
SHAPE DISCRIMINATION BY RATS: SQUARES AND RECTANGLES

Abstract : Sixteen rats were trained to discriminate between a square and a rectangle: both shapes were presented in different orientations to different animals. All animals were trained in succession with positive shape only, positive and negative shapes presented simultaneously, positive and negative shapes presented successively; finally they were given tests with 18 transfer shapes presented singly. Although the rats showed a strong preference for the square early in training, they later responded more accurately to the rectangle presented on its own than to the square. There was no tendency to transfer from a rectangle in one orientation to rectangles in other orientations, and indeed when a horizontal rectangle was substituted for a vertical or vice versa negative transfer resulted. The rats (unlike octopuses) showed complete transfer to outline shapes. The transfer test results are discussed in relation to recent physiological discoveries about retinal receptive fields. (Author)
Boundary Objects, Zones of Indeterminacy, and the Formation of Irish and Jewish Transnational Socio-Financial Networks

The concept of boundary object helps in understanding how members of different communities of practice can cooperate without sharing a consensus on their goals or even on precisely what they are doing. Sometimes, however, scholars treat boundary objects as a shorthand explanation for successful cooperation across boundaries. Instead of tracing the network of associations within which boundary objects are nestled, it is assumed that some properties inherent to particular objects secure cooperation. To offset this tendency, this article examines the Irish and Israeli governments’ attempts to raise funds in the United States through the sale of quasi-philanthropic bonds in the 1920s and 1950s, respectively. In the Israeli case, the bond served as a boundary object. In the Irish case, in contrast, a similar bond intensified disagreements between the Irish government and key Irish American organizations. The analysis highlights the importance of the entire socio-technical network within which boundary objects are nestled. It points to the importance of creating a zone of indeterminacy wherein boundary objects can maintain interpretive flexibility and facilitate cooperation. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the importance of temporal framing in the construction of boundary objects.
Flexible Secure Multicasting in Active Networks

In this paper we describe an alternative, flexible approach to multicast security in active networks. Traditional schemes for securing multicast communication have key management and scalability problems for many typical applications. In addition, traditional mechanisms are not capable of expressing flexible, situational security policies for multicast sessions and participants. Our scheme exploits the computational power of active networks to provide dynamic, flexible security for multicast applications. One of the main advantages of our scheme is the low communication and key distribution overhead associated with multicast group management. Our approach is based on the Seraphim security architecture implementation, which uses active capabilities for access control. Seraphim is an extensible, reconfigurable security architecture that is flexible and accommodates a wide variety of security policies and mechanisms. It also provides applications and users the ability to create dynamically and enforce highly customized and situational policies. Using these policies we have developed several secure multicast applications that demonstrate the flexible nature and low overheads associated with our architecture.
Generation of spatial filters by ICA for detecting motor-related oscillatory EEG

To detect the imagined limb movement from EEG for the use in BCI, the increase (ERS) and decrease (ERD) of the band power of the EEG originated from the sensorimotor cortex are commonly used. A spatial filter using neighboring channels is generally applied to the measured EEG for detecting such brain activity related to the motor imagery. However, the configuration and location of the spatial filter have been selected by the empirical method on trial-and-error basis. In this study, we recorded the EEG during motor imagery of left hand, right hand and feet from five subjects, and the ICA (independent component analysis) was applied to discover the spatial filters for extracting event-related EEG components of the motor imagery. It was suggested that the application of ICA might offer the experimenters appropriate local spatial filters, or at least, the “initial guess” for designing or selecting custom local spatial filters.
Transfer learning for EEG based BCI using LEARN++.NSE and mutual information

In this paper, the use of mutual information and the Learn++. NSE algorithm is proposed to create an EEG SSVEP BCI system that can select and utilize data sets originating from a group of users. In typical BCI systems, the nonstationarity in the EEG prevents the system from blindly applying training data from other users to the incoming data. Mutual information is introduced to select previous data sets that provide the most information about current random variables. A signed rank test was employed to show that this configuration outperformed both normal Learn++. NSE ensembles and LDA classifiers. This indicates that mutual information and ensemble learning techniques may prove useful in improving user transferability in SSVEP systems with low computational requirements.
Health status indicators among community-dwelling elders with arthritis: the Bambuí health and aging study.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the association of arthritis with health status indicators among elders living in Bambuí, Brazil. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1606 elders using baseline data from the Bambuí Health and Aging Study, a population based cohort study of older adults. Arthritis was self-reported and defined as a physician diagnosis of arthritis or rheumatism, and/or chronic hand and knee symptoms. Health status indicators, defined a priori as the main independent variables, were self-rated health, psychological distress (based on the General Health Questionnaire), report of sleep complaints, disability in activities of daily living (ADL), "2-week" disability, mobility disability, and 2 composite indexes of mental health problems and physical disability problems. Logistic regression compared health status indicators among elders reporting arthritis (N = 833) and non-arthritis subjects. RESULTS After controlling for sociodemographics and chronic conditions, all measures were found to be associated with arthritis: sleep complaints (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.43-1.92), fair (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.62-2.90) and poor self-rated health (OR 3.48, 95% CI 2.46-4.94), ADL disability (OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.02-2.87), mobility disability (OR 2.65, 95% CI 2.06-3.41), 2-week disability (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.35-2.57), 2 mental health problems (OR 2.25, 95% CI 1.67-3.04), and one (OR 2.46, 95% CI 1.91-3.16) and 2 physical disability problems (OR 4.19, 95% CI 2.02-8.59). CONCLUSION Considering the paucity of similar studies addressing the impact of arthritis in developing nations, these findings may be applied to similar communities and support better planning of resource allocations to minimize the effects of arthritis among the elderly.
Time‐Dependent Increase in Release of Arachidonic Acid Following Passive Avoidance Training in the Day‐Old Chick

Abstract: We have investigated the role of arachidonic acid, a putative retrograde messenger, in a one‐trial aversive learning task in the day‐old chick. The left and right intermediate medial hyperstriatum ventrale (IMHV) in the chick forebrain have previously been implicated in the formation of memory for this task. Using an ex vivo technique we have determined the concentrations of various fatty acids liberated from prisms prepared from these brain regions at different time points up to 24 h following passive avoidance training. At 30, 60, and 75 min post‐training the concentration of arachidonic acid, but not of other fatty acids, in prisms prepared from the left IMHV, but not the right IMHV, was enhanced compared with that in chicks trained on a nonaversive water‐coated bead. To test whether arachidonic acid liberation from the left IMHV was receptor‐stimulated we showed that (a) liberation of endogenous arachidonic acid from homogenate prepared from the left and right IMHV of untrained chicks was stimulated by depolarization with KCl (50 mM) and that (b) glutamate agonists of the NMDA and metabotropic subtypes of glutamate receptor stimulated release of preloaded [14C]arachidonic acid from prisms prepared from the left IMHV but not the right IMHV. These results indicate that arachidonic acid is liberated from the left IMHV following passive avoidance training in the day‐old chick and may play a role as a retrograde messenger in this memory task.
Child Pornography and the Internet: Policing and Treatment Issues

Arecent increase in the number of referrals for individuals who have accessed child pornography over the Internet has led to a need for clinicians to familiarise themselves with the language and concepts associated with this type of sexual offence. A brief review of the area highlights the legal dilemmas posed by the nature of the Internet. While definitional issues are a primary focus in legal processes, a demonstrated sexual arousal to children is more relevant in therapy. Modifications of traditional treatment approaches are suggested to facilitate therapeutic progress for this population. Discussion focuses on the early motivation for treatment, cognitive distortions, victim impact and cycles of offending behaviour. This work is offered as an early intervention to prevent potential future progression to hands-on sexual offending against children.
Channel and energy analysis on magnetic induction-based wireless sensor networks in oil reservoirs

The networks of micro-sized wireless sensors will enable the in-situ monitoring in the challenging oil reservoir environments, which can significantly increase the current recovery factor of crude oil and natural gas. However, due to the micro device size defined by the environmental structure and the harsh wireless channel in the complicated dense media, traditional wireless communication and networking solutions do not work in oil reservoirs. To address the problems, in this paper, the system architecture and operational framework of a Magnetic Induction (MI)-based wireless sensor network is proposed, where both the wireless energy transfer and the wireless communications in the oil reservoir environments are realized by the magnetic induction technique. More importantly, the wireless channel model and the energy transfer/consumption model of such networks are analytically developed to validate the feasibility of the proposed system architecture and operational framework.
Condom Use, Condom Refusal, and Substituted Sexual Behaviors Among Youth at Higher and Lower Risk for HIV Infection

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to describe sexual behaviors that youth substitute for protected intercourse when a partner refuses to use a condom or a condom is not used. Participants included: (a) 120 adolescents (mean age 17.2 years) undergoing substance abuse treatment and (b) 171 university students (mean age 21.3 years). The treatment sample reported significantly higher levels of discrete risk factors for HIV exposure. While only a small proportion of each sample experienced outright refusals by partners to use condoms, the majority of participants in each sample used condoms inconsistently with main partners. The university sample reported more substituted behaviors (lower risk and total) when partners did not want to use condoms. Yet, substantial proportions of participants in each sample engaged in unprotected intercourse. Implications for social work and health promotion efforts directed toward youth at risk for HIV/STD exposures are discussed.
Study on Dynamic Modeling and Simulation for a Air-Based Three-Axis ISP System

Three-Axis Inertial Stable Platform (ISP) is an important component in an aerial remote sensing system, which is used for separating the influences of various disturbances on imaging sensors. In this paper, we focus on the research on dynamic modeling techniques for a 3-axis ISP system. On the basis of systematic analysis on the mechanism characteristic and operating principle, the dynamic equations of the rolling, pitching and yawing frameworks are established respectively. To validate the reliability of model, the simulation was then carried out by using Matlab Simulink. The results show that the model can effectively describe the dynamic characteristics of the ISP under real condition.
Carotid Intima Media Thickness and Plaques Can Predict the Occurrence of Ischemic Cerebrovascular Events

Background and Purpose— The clinical usefulness of noninvasive measurement of carotid intima media thickness and plaque visualization in the general population is still uncertain. Methods— We evaluated the age-specific incidence rates of cerebrovascular events in a cohort of 1348 subjects randomly taken from the census list of San Daniele Township and followed for a mean period of 12.7 years. The association among common carotid intima media thickness, measured at baseline, arterial risk factors, and incidence of ischemic cerebrovascular events was modeled using Poisson regression. The predictive ability of common carotid intima media thickness over arterial risk factors (summarized in the Framingham Stroke Risk Score) was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results— During the follow-up, 115 subjects developed nonfatal ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attack, or vascular death, which were the predefined study end points. After adjustment for age and sex, hypertension, diabetes, common carotid intima media thickness above 1 mm, and carotid plaques were all independent risk factors for development of vascular events. Inclusion of carotid findings (presence of common carotid intima media thickness above 1 mm or carotid plaques) resulted in a predictive power higher than Framingham Stroke Risk Score alone only on for those subjects with a Framingham Stroke Risk Score over 20%. Conclusions— Although common carotid intima media thickness and presence of carotid plaques are known to be risk factors for the development of vascular events and to be independent from the conventional risk factors summarized in the Framingham Stroke Risk Score, their contribution to individual risk prediction is limited. Further studies will be required to address the role of carotid ultrasonography in the primary prevention of high-risk subjects.
Automatic Resource Provisioning: A Machine Learning Based Proactive Approach

This paper concerns dynamic provisioning of cloud resources performed by an intermediary enterprise that provides a private cloud (also referred to as a virtual private cloud) for a single client enterprise using resources acquired on demand from a public cloud. A new proactive technique for auto-scaling of resources that changes the number of resources for the private cloud dynamically based on system load is proposed. The technique that supports both on-demand and advance reservation requests uses machine learning to predict future workload based on past workload. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique can effectively lead to a profit for the intermediary enterprise as well as a reduction of cost for the client enterprise.
Prevention of adverse drug events and cost savings associated with PharmD interventions in an academic Level I trauma center: An evidence-based approach

BACKGROUND The financial benefit of an established clinical pharmacy service in the trauma intensive care unit has not been well-described. This study was conducted to identify adverse drug events prevented by the clinical pharmacy team and to determine the net cost savings associated with their input on a multidisciplinary trauma service. METHODS Between July 2010 and June 2011, we conducted a retrospective analysis of clinical pharmacy activities and interventions on our 31-bed trauma unit managed by a multidisciplinary team. At the initiation of the study, a Web-based pharmacy documentation system was officially integrated into the trauma pharmacy work process. Based on this system, the type of intervention and a value of cost savings ($0–$6,000) were assigned to each activity. Cost-saving values for interventions were calculated from the literature describing the costs of adverse drug events and average drug costs. RESULTS Over the year, a total of 2,574 pharmacy activity entries were documented in the Quantifi system. The total conservative estimate of cost savings associated with clinical pharmacy interventions amounted to $565,664. Considering the mean US hospital pharmacist salary and the highest quoted cost associated with the Quantifi program, the net cost savings associated with our clinical pharmacist interventions on the trauma service was $428,327. Most of the interventions (53%) fell under the category of pharmacotherapy improvement, with 21% in the category of quality/safety improvement and 18% as antibiotic stewardship. Prevention of 34 serious adverse drug events was documented. Antibiotic changes and discontinuing medications were other common interventions. Antimicrobial medications (668), anticoagulants (270), and gastrointestinal medications (231) were the most common medication classes involved in pharmacy interventions. CONCLUSION Using a Web-based pharmacy documentation system, we were able to demonstrate prevention of serious adverse drug events and a significant cost savings by including clinical pharmacy in a multidisciplinary approach to caring for the seriously injured. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Economic analysis, level III; therapeutic study, level IV.