Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simulation of pneumatic hand crane type power assist system

In this study, a simulation of a pneumatic hand crane for work support is developed for a system design. The mathematical model of the hand crane consists of a pneumatic cylinder model, a link model of the crane and a controller which includes a human model to enable the hand crane to be operated passively by the operation force. The human model consists of an inverse system that learns by using a neural network. The validity of the simulation was examined by comparison with measurements results from the operation force and acceleration, and thus the performance of the hand crane was evaluated.
Psychopathologische Auffälligkeiten und Komorbidität bei Bulimia nervosa

Comorbidity in Bulimia nervosa Introduction: It is still unclear whether patients with bulimia nervosa differ according to additional comorbid diagnoses from other patient groups, e.g. from patients with anxiety problems. Method: The present study examines whether a group of women with bulimia (n = 106) suffer from additional comorbid diseases. To evaluate how typical the comorbid diseases are for bulimia nervosa, a control group of healthy women (n = 106) as well as a group of women with panic disorder with agoraphobia (n = 95) were recruited. A standardized clinical interview (DIPS; Diagnostic Interview for Psychiatric Disorders) was used for the DSM-III-R diagnoses. Moreover, we analyzed whether bulimic patients with no comorbid diseases suffer from severe psychopathological symptoms, such as depressive or obsessive-compulsive symptoms, although they do not fulfil the criteria for a disorder. Results: The results suggest that the two clinical groups are comparable with regard to the kind and number of comorbid diagnoses. However, women suffering from bulimia nervosa showed significant more subclinical symptoms, such as obsessive-compulsive symptoms and symptoms of social anxieties as well as alcohol abuse than women with panic disorder with agoraphobia symptomatology. Discussion: Comorbid diagnoses seem to be relevant for the therapy of patients with bulimia nervosa as well as for the therapy of patients suffering from panic disorder.
The strengths of families in supporting mentally-ill family members

Background Although families caring for a mentally-ill family member may experience challenges, some of these families may display strengths that help them to overcome difficulties and grow even stronger in caring for their family member. In cases where these families are unable to cope, the mentally-ill family member tends to relapse. This indicated the need to explore the strengths of families that cope with caring for mentally-ill family members. Objective The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the strengths of families in supporting mentally-ill family members in Potchefstroom in the North-West Province. Method A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual design was employed, with purposive sampling and unstructured individual interviews with nine participants. Tesch's eight steps of thematic content analysis were used. Results Twelve themes emerged from the data. This involved strengths such as obtaining treatment, utilising external resources, faith, social support, supervision, calming techniques, keeping the mentally-ill family member busy, protecting the mentally-ill family member from negative outside influences, creative communication, praise and acceptance. Conclusion Families utilise external strengths as well as internal strengths in supporting their mentally-ill family member. Recommendations for nursing practice, nursing education and for further research could be formulated. Psychiatric nurses should acknowledge families’ strengths and, together with families, build on these strengths, as well as empower families further through psycho-education and support.
The relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease and its complications with Barrett's esophagus.

BACKGROUND Barrett's esophagus is a condition in which the stratified squamous epithelium of the esophagus is replaced by a columnar epithelium with malignant potential. Chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is accepted as the primary risk factor for the development of Barrett's esophagus, but only a small fraction of individuals with GERD develop Barrett's esophagus. We sought to identify factors that increase the risk of Barrett's esophagus in those with GERD. OBJECTIVE The objective of this matched case-control study was to investigate possible clinical risk factors for Barrett's esophagus. METHODS The study was based on 79 case patients with Barrett's esophagus and 180 control patients. Each case patient was matched to one control patient whose indication for endoscopy was GERD and one control patient who underwent endoscopy for other indications. The case and control patients were matched for age, gender, and race. All patients underwent endoscopy at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, between July 1992 and August 1994. RESULTS On average, patients with Barrett's esophagus developed reflux symptoms at an earlier age than age- and gender-matched control patients and also had a longer duration of symptoms. Complications of reflux, including esophagitis, stricture, and ulceration, were reported significantly more frequently in the group of case patients than either group of control patients. CONCLUSIONS The results of this pilot study indicate that age of onset, duration of symptoms, and complications of GERD may be markers of increased risk of Barrett's esophagus.
A peer-to-peer system to share ontology in the semantic web

The problem of defining efficient techniques for knowledge representation (KR) is becoming more and more a challenging topic in both academic and industrial community. The Semantic Web needs of formal knowledge representations for implementing useful services and put in common the different views between man and machines. In this framework, we assume that new approaches for knowledge definition and representation may be useful, in particular the ones based on the concept of ontology. In this paper we propose novel techniques and tools for ontology definition and management. In particular, we propose a suitable model for representing knowledge and a system based on peer-to-peer (P2P) paradigm to share general and domain knowledge. The network knowledge is exposed using a Web Service and it can be used by intelligent Web agents.
Secondary warm-up following stretching on vertical jumping, change of direction, and straight line speed

Abstract The aim of this study was to build on previous conflicting research on performance following stretching and secondary activity post-stretching. Using a randomized, cross-over design, 15 male participants completed a 5-min warm-up jog, followed by a maximal vertical jump (VJ1) and a repetitive five-repetition jump (VJ5) on a force mat, an intervention (static stretching, dynamic range of movement stretching, or no-stretching control), then a second maximal vertical jump and repetitive five-repetition jump, followed by a change of direction test (505 test) and a straight line sprint (20-m). Two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures showed significant time and group × time interaction effects for both mean maximal VJ1 and VJ5 jump heights (P<0.001). Time course changes showed VJ1 jump height following static stretching was significantly reduced (7%) compared with the dynamic and control conditions, which improved by 5.0% and 3.9% (P = 0.02 and P = 0.04) respectively. Following the second bout of movement activity, VJ1 jump height had improved, but was not significantly different from baseline value (P = 0.11). Similarly, VJ5 jump height following static stretching was significantly reduced (6.2%) compared with the dynamic and control conditions, which showed improvements of 6.7% and 7.5% (P = 0.04 and P = 0.01) respectively. After the second bout of movement activity, mean VJ5 jump height for the static stretching group returned to baseline values (P = 0.84), while further improvements were observed in the dynamic (3.2%) and control groups (2.2%) (P = 0.01 and P = 0.04 respectively). Significant improvements in the 505 test were observed in the dynamic and control conditions, in both legs (range 2.45–3.67%; P<0.001), compared with the static stretching condition. Although sprint time improved following the second bout of movement activity, no differences were observed in the 20-m sprint between conditions. The results of this study confirm previous findings that static stretching reduces vertical jump height that is not reversed with follow-up movement activity. Moreover, the results show that activities requiring rapid changes of direction and speed may also be affected if preceded by a bout of static stretching, and is not reversed with follow-up movement activities.
Glutathione S-transferase T1- and M1-null genotypes and coronary artery disease risk in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

INTRODUCTION Since long-term exposure to oxidative stress is strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications, polymorphic genes of detoxifying enzymes must be involved in the development of coronary artery disease (CAD). We assessed the potential glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene-gene (GSTM1(null)-GSTT1(null)) and gene-smoking interactions on the development of CAD in patients with Type 2 diabetes. MATERIALS & METHODS In a case-only design, we enrolled 231 patients with Type 2 diabetes (147 male, 66.1 +/- 9.7 years) referred to our institute for coronary angiography investigation. CAD was diagnosed if there was over 50% obstruction of one or more major vessels. RESULTS Coronary angiography revealed significant CAD in 184 patients (80%). Male gender (p < 0.001), smoking habits (p = 0.003) and GSTT1(null) genotype (p = 0.003) were significantly correlated with the increasing extent of the coronary atherosclerosis. Case-only analysis revealed that patients with both M(null)-T(null) genotypes had the highest risk for 3-vessel CAD compared with patients who express both GST genes (odds ratio: 3.1; 95% confidence interval: 1.0-10.3, p = 0.04). A nearly threefold interaction existed between cigarette smoking and M(null)-T(null) genotypes (odds ratio: 2.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.7-7.8, p = 0.03). A significant interaction between M(null)-T(null) genotypes and smoking was also observed on the increasing number of coronary vessels that were diseased (chi(2) = 14.0; p = 0.03). CONCLUSION These data suggest that polymorphisms in GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes are risk factors for CAD in Type 2 diabetic patients, especially among smokers. These genetic markers may permit the targeting of preventive and early intervention on high-risk patients to reduce their cardiovascular risk.
From Semantic Properties to Surface Text: the Generation of Domain Object Descriptions

At both semantic and syntactic levels, the generation of referring expressions (REG) involves far more than simply producing 'correct' output strings and, accordingly, remains central to the study and development of Natural Language Generation (NLG) systems. In particular, REG algorithms have to pay regard to humanlikeness, an issue that lies at the very heart of the classic denition of Articial Intelligence as, e.g., motivated by the Turing test. In this work we present an end-to-end approach to REG that takes humanlikeness into account, addressing both the issues of semantic content determination and surface realisation as natural language.
Low-Complexity Iterative Receiver for Interleaved FDMA (IFDMA) with Cyclic Delay Diversity

Interleaved frequency division multiple access (IFDMA) assigns to each user a set of sub-carriers that are orthogonal to each other. Thus, there is no multiple access interference (MAI) arises during transmission. However, the cost to avoid MAI is to allow for inter-symbol interference (ISI). Thus, the block-iterative generalized decision feedback equalizer (BI-GDFE) can be used as an interference canceller that effectively improves the performance if the frequency selective channel contains rich multi-path components. In order to increase the frequency diversity of the system, cyclic delay diversity (CDD) is applied at the transmitter side. Thus, the performance improvement by BI-GDFE receiver can be enhanced. The computer simulations are performed to compare the BER performance improvement by deploying CDD at the transmitter and using BI-GDFE receiver for an IFDMA system
Unsynchronized Fault Location Based on the Negative-Sequence Voltage Magnitude for Double-Circuit Transmission Lines

This paper describes a new approach to fault location for double-circuit transmission lines based on only the voltage data of both ends of the faulted circuit. The ratio between the magnitudes of negative-sequence voltages measured at both ends of the faulted circuit is utilized to estimate the fault location. Since only the magnitudes are used, the data of both ends are not required to be synchronized, which removes any concern about data synchronization. Moreover, since only the voltage data are required, the errors caused by current transformers can be avoided. The proposed method can effectively locate the single-phase-to-ground, double-phase-to-ground, and phase-to-phase faults disregarding the fault resistance and prefault conditions and without any need for fault classification and phase selection. Unlike the iterative methods, the proposed method is fully analytical and does not cause much computing burden to the line relays. The accuracy and practicality of the proposed method make it an attractive function to implement in numerical relays.
Cloud-of-Clouds Storage Made Efficient: A Pipeline-Based Approach

Cloud-of-clouds storage is a recent approach to improve the security and reliability of data storage for online applications. It encrypts and encodes the user data, and disperses the results to multiple clouds. Thus, the data can tolerate cloud failures, while cannot be inferred even when some clouds are compromised. However, efficiency is a well-known challenge to such a paradigm, since its data storing process (also known as the dispersal process) is time-consuming involving encryptions, encoding, and transmissions, posing a barrier to its wide application. How to speed up the dispersal process is yet to be well addressed. We observe that the dispersal process consists of two types of operations: calculation and transmission. We find that they can execute simultaneously. Hence, the process can be optimized with a pipelined architecture. To this end, we propose the pipelined versions of two state-of-the-art cloud-of-clouds storage approaches, i.e., AONT-RS and CAONT-RS. We implement both proposals and release them open-source online. To verify their effectiveness, extensive experiments are conducted on a prototype storage system with real-world traces. The results show that the pipelined architecture can improve the performance of the dispersal process.
Corruption and Referee Bias in Football: The Case of Calciopoli

Based on the Calciopoli scandal, which uncovered widespread corruption in Italian football, this paper quantifies the effect of referee bias on the performance of football teams. The impartiality of referees is often distorted by external factors which exert some emotional pressure in order to influence their decisions. On the other hand, corrupt referees consciously and deliberately try to distort the results of the sport contest, in order to favor the corrupting teams. Building on the implications of a model where performance in a sport contest depends on both effort and bribing, our results highlight the different effects of these two forms of bias, and help to shed light on several aspects of the corruption scandal.
Cline loses two NIH grants.

To the surprise of some observers, the National Institutes of Health recently issued a second set of sanctions against Martin Cline for violating its regulations governing recombinant DNA research and human experimentation. Cline is the UCLA professor who prematurely conducted the first gene therapy experiments in humans in July 1980. Acting NIH director Thomas Malone accepted the recommendations of the advisory councils of the three institutes funding Cline: the Heart Institute terminated its grant to Cline; the Arthritis Institute decided to continue funding him for nonclinical research; and the Cancer Institute terminated one of Cline's two grants.
Evaluating multi-class learning strategies in a hierarchical framework for object detection

Multi-class object learning and detection is a challenging problem due to the large number of object classes and their high visual variability. Specialized detectors usually excel in performance, while joint representations optimize sharing and reduce inference time — but are complex to train. Conveniently, sequential class learning cuts down training time by transferring existing knowledge to novel classes, but cannot fully exploit the shareability of features among object classes and might depend on ordering of classes during learning. In hierarchical frameworks these issues have been little explored. In this paper, we provide a rigorous experimental analysis of various multiple object class learning strategies within a generative hierarchical framework. Specifically, we propose, evaluate and compare three important types of multi-class learning: 1. ) independent training of individual categories, 2. ) joint training of classes, and 3. ) sequential learning of classes. We explore and compare their computational behavior (space and time) and detection performance as a function of the number of learned object classes on several recognition datasets. We show that sequential training achieves the best trade-off between inference and training times at a comparable detection performance and could thus be used to learn the classes on a larger scale.
Built-In Self-Heating Thermal Testing of FPGAs

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are designed and fabricated using the most advanced CMOS technology nodes to meet performance and power demands. This makes them susceptible to many manufacturing and reliability challenges. Increasing chip temperature is a major reliability concern since various failure mechanisms are accelerated at high chip temperature, which require thermal-aware testing to detect them. External devices like thermal chambers are usually used to heat up the chip to a desired temperature in order to apply the test. However, there are many limitations for these external devices, which make the thermal-aware testing of the FPGA a challenging process. In this paper, thermal-aware testing of FPGAs using built-in self-heating is presented, in which the internal resources of FPGA are used to build controlled self-heating elements (SHEs). These controlled SHEs are distributed across the FPGA and integrated with the test scheme to generate the required temperature profile for testing, and thus no external devices for heating up the FPGA are needed. We present two different categories of SHEs integration techniques for different testing purposes. The first one is for built-in self-test, and the second one is for application-dependent testing. The techniques are applied on representative test cases. The experimental results show that a wide range of maximum chip temperatures can be achieved (from 50 °C up to 125 °C on Virtex-5 FPGA) with a high accuracy (±1 °C).
Medium-duration modulation cepstral feature for robust speech recognition

Studies have shown that the performance of state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems significantly deteriorate with increased noise levels and channel degradations, when compared to human speech recognition capability. Traditionally, noise-robust acoustic features are deployed to improve speech recognition performance under varying background conditions to compensate for the performance degradations. In this paper, we present the Modulation of Medium Duration Speech Amplitude (MMeDuSA) feature, which is a composite feature capturing subband speech modulations and a summary modulation. We analyze MMeDuSA's speech recognition performance using SRI International's DECIPHER® large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) system, on noise and channel degraded Levantine Arabic speech distributed through the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robust Automatic Speech Transcription (RATS) program. We also analyzed MMeDuSA's performance against the Aurora-4 noise-and-channel degraded English corpus. Our results from all these experiments suggest that the proposed MMeDuSA feature improved recognition performance under both noisy and channel degraded conditions in almost all the recognition tasks.
The Pivotal Role of Semantic Memory in Remembering the Past and Imagining the Future

Episodic memory refers to a complex and multifaceted process which enables the retrieval of richly detailed evocative memories from the past. In contrast, semantic memory is conceptualized as the retrieval of general conceptual knowledge divested of a specific spatiotemporal context. The neural substrates of the episodic and semantic memory systems have been dissociated in healthy individuals during functional imaging studies, and in clinical cohorts, leading to the prevailing view that episodic and semantic memory represent functionally distinct systems subtended by discrete neurobiological substrates. Importantly, however, converging evidence focusing on widespread neural networks now points to significant overlap between those regions essential for retrieval of autobiographical memories, episodic learning, and semantic processing. Here we review recent advances in episodic memory research focusing on neurodegenerative populations which has proved revelatory for our understanding of the complex interplay between episodic and semantic memory. Whereas episodic memory research has traditionally focused on retrieval of autobiographical events from the past, we also include evidence from the recent paradigm shift in which episodic memory is viewed as an adaptive and constructive process which facilitates the imagining of possible events in the future. We examine the available evidence which converges to highlight the pivotal role of semantic memory in providing schemas and meaning whether one is engaged in autobiographical retrieval for the past, or indeed, is endeavoring to construct a plausible scenario of an event in the future. It therefore seems plausible to contend that semantic processing may underlie most, if not all, forms of episodic memory, irrespective of temporal condition.
Smart workplace — Using iBeacon

The Smart Workplace is an iOS application intended to make a workplace automated and smart. The features of the application are implemented using iBeacons. The application acts as a link between the reminders on phone and Beacons in the real world. A beacon is a device that can notify apps of exact device proximity and location awareness that was never possible before. The application was introduced as a solution to the inability of time based reminder apps to ensure task completion by the user and the shortcomings of manual and other automated systems like biometric scans for employee time tracking. The app implements a location based alert system which senses user proximity using the iBeacon to notify the user of incomplete and upcoming tasks. Another feature provided by the application is employee time tracking. When the user reaches the desk iBeacon detects proximity of user, app makes log of entry, fed in tasks are displayed. Exit log is made when the user leaves proximity. The application intends to enhance efficiency of the employee via implementation of these features.