Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intersubjective comparisons are possible with an accurate use of the Borg CR scales.

We recently read the interesting commentary of Lambert and Borresen, 1 which discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the various measures of training load in sports. This commentary addressed an important issue in sport science. As a further contribution, we would like to clarify some arguments presented in the commentary, particularly on the determination of the training load using the RPE and the session-RPE method. Lambert and Borresen 1 reported in the abstract that because the session-RPE method depends on subjective assessment, the intersubject comparisons may be inaccurate. We believe it is important to clarify that this should not be the case, since by choosing Borg's category ratio scales (CR10 and CR100) for subjective assessment such systematic variance is minimized in agreement with modern psychophysical theory. Indeed, these scales are level-anchored, semi-ratio scales that combine the advantages of a ratio scale with those of a labeled category scale according to the Borg's range model. 2-5 This model asserts that the subjective range of intensity (from minimal to maximal) is equal between individuals, and evidence accumulated during the last 40 y has provided support to this theory. 3-7 This is why the Borg scales are valid for prescribing and evaluating exercise intensity in both the clinical and sport setting. Failure in intersubject comparisons usually arises from using of scales that (1) have not been developed following the appropriate psychophysical procedures (ie, not valid) and (2) have been modified so that the original properties of the scale are lost or changed (eg, self-translation, modification of the numbers and anchors, and similar), or by (3) correlating the perceived exertion with exercise intensity indicators under different contexts (eg, indicators not ranging from minimum to maximum, such as the percentage of anaerobic threshold 8). Another crucial point for intersubject comparisons is the use of the correct instructions and administration procedures, including a valid interindividual reference point (the so-called fixed star). 3 Furthermore, the appropriate instructions are also important because the CR scales are general intensity scales and the instructions define the domains measured. 7 This underlines the importance of using appropriately validated psychophysical instruments that comprise both the scale and the relative instructions. Accordingly, when using the session-RPE method, the original CR10 (or CR100) scale should be used. Another point raised in the commentary requiring further discussion was the suggestion that the session-RPE method may be not suitable for quantifying training load in sports such …
Semi-supervised adaptation of acoustic models for large-volume dictation

Using a Large-Vocabulary, Continuous Speech Recognizer in a high-volume application such as a commercial transcription service presents a different set of challenges and constraints than in a laboratory setting. We examine these differences with regard to acoustic model adaptation and find serious shortcomings in both the supervised and unsupervised approaches. We then examine a new method, semi-supervised adaptation, which overcomes the limitations of the other methods and can reduce recognition error rates by as much as 15% more than the reduction obtained through unsupervised adaptation.
Framing Vision: An Examination of Framing, Sensegiving, and Sensemaking During a Change Initiative

ABSTRACT The purpose of this short article is to review the findings from an instrumental case study that examines how a college president used what this article refers to as “frame alignment processes” to mobilize internal and external support for a college initiative—one that achieved success under the current president. Specifically, I explored the social construction processes by which understanding of change come about, focusing on the use of “frames” as the central mechanism through which a leader’s vision is transformed into meaning and action. This article draws on the sociological definitions of framing, as well as recent research on the use of framing methods and alignment processes. An analysis of qualitative data obtained via an interview with one college president reveals that there are at least three types of frames—or framing methods—that can be employed by college leaders to mobilize the support of stakeholders. This study builds on previous studies that examined how leaders on college campuses communicate their visions for change, and supports the notion that leaders can strategically manage their messages to their stakeholders.
Why be Moral in Business? A Rawlsian Approach to Moral Motivation

Abstract: This article puts forth the thesis that the contractualist account of moral justification affords a powerful reply in business contexts to the question why a business person should put ethics above immediate business interests. A brief survey of traditional theories of business ethics and their approaches to moral motivation is presented. These approaches are criticized. A contractualist conception of ethics in the business world is developed, based on the work of John Rawls and Thomas Scanlon. The desire to justify our choices in terms that others can be reasonably expected to accept, or at least in terms that others cannot reasonably reject, is identified and differentiated from other accounts of motivation. It is this desire that constitutes the core motive to be moral in business on the contractualist conception. Implications of this contractualist conception for the theory and practice of business ethics are then discussed.
Using Gaussian-Uniform Mixture Models for Robust Time-Interval Measurement

Time-interval measurement systems using threshold detectors experience severe performance degradation in the presence of noise and interference. This paper describes an approach to robust measurement of time intervals in the presence of interference. This approach is based on modeling the distribution of the measurement results as a Gaussian-uniform mixture. A batch maximum-likelihood and a recursive particle filtering estimator are implemented, which incorporate the above model. The accuracy and robustness of the approach are evaluated by numerical simulations and by comparison with the Cramér-Rao lower bound. Finally, as a case study, the approach is applied to the experimental data obtained from an in-house developed ultrawideband time-interval measurement system.
Activities of NXL104 Combinations with Ceftazidime and Aztreonam against Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacteriaceae

ABSTRACT Combinations of NXL104 with ceftazidime and aztreonam were tested against carbapenem-resistant members of the Enterobacteriaceae. Ceftazidime-NXL104 was active against strains with the OXA-48 enzyme or with combinations of impermeability and an extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) or AmpC enzyme and also against most Klebsiella spp. with the KPC enzyme, but metallo-β-lactamase producers were resistant. Aztreonam-NXL104 was active against all carbapenemase producers at 4 and 4 μg/ml, including those with metallo-β-lactamases.
The role of the cell surface in social and adventurous behaviour of myxobacteria

The myxobacteria are an unusually social group of prokaryotic organisms that form fruiting bodies containing dormant myxospores in response to nutritional stress. Social behaviour is controlled by a multigene system known as ‘S’ and by a series of intercellular signals that are released during development. The genes controlling these communication systems have been identified by mutational analysis and current research is directed toward examining the functions of these genes. S− mutants are generally nondevelopmental and noncohesive. They lack pili, a Congo red receptor, and 50‐nm‐wide fibrils which extend outward from the ceil surface. Changes in the architecture of the cell surface have been studied by means of surface labelling and with monoclonal antibodies directed against cell‐surface antigens. The cell surface undergoes dramatic changes during the course of development. Most vegetative antigens decrease in concentration or disappear completely while new development‐specific antigens appear.
Profiling Pedestrian Distribution and Anomaly Detection in a Dynamic Environment

Pedestrians movements have a major impact on the dynamics of cities and provide valuable guidance to city planners. In this paper we model the normal behaviours of pedestrian flows and detect anomalous events from pedestrian counting data of the City of Melbourne. Since the data spans an extended period, and pedestrian activities can change intermittently (e.g., activities in winter vs. summer), we applied an Ensemble Switching Model, which is a dynamic anomaly detection technique that can accommodate systems that switch between different states. The results are compared with those produced by a static clustering model (HyCARCE) and also cross-validated with known events. We found that the results from the Ensemble Switching Model are valid and more accurate than HyCARCE.
Elemental and Configural Encoding of the Conditioned Stimulus

Five experiments explored the effect of conditioning AB and CD compounds on responding to transfer AD and BC compounds and to elements. These experiments used several conditioning procedures: flavour aversion and instrumental discriminative learning in rats and autoshaping in pigeons. All of the experiments found greater responding to the trained AB and CD than to the transfer AD and BC compounds, a result that agrees with some configural models, but not with an elemental model. All experiments also found greater responding to the transfer AD and BC compounds than to the elements, a result that agrees with elemental, but not configural, models.
Multi-path Routing for Mesh/Torus-Based NoCs

In networks-on-chip (NoC) designs, delay variations and crosstalk noise have become a serious issue with the continuously shrinking geometry of semiconductor devices and the increasing switching speed. The crosstalk between adjacent lines causes data dependent signal delay and noise, thus finally makes the communication channel unreliable. The crosstalk problem can be mitigated by wide spacing of serial lines, however, the wider spacing of serial lines will reduce the number of the lines, thus reduce the data throughput. In this paper, we propose a multi-path routing scheme to maximize the data throughput by utilizing multiple paths for concurrent data transmission. For the proposed multi-path routing scheme, we consider two transport models: the multi-path full bitbank transport model and the multi-path half bitbank transport model. Through theoretical analysis, we show that the proposed multi-path scheme achieves significant improvement in data throughput under both transport models
Suprachoroidal delivery in a rabbit ex vivo eye model: influence of drug properties, regional differences in delivery, and comparison with intravitreal and intracameral routes

Purpose First, to determine the influence of drug lipophilicity (using eight beta-blockers) and molecular weight (using 4 kDa and 40 kDa fluoroscein isothiocyanate [FITC]-dextrans) on suprachoroidal delivery to the posterior segment of the eye by using a rabbit ex vivo eye model. Second, to determine whether drug distribution differs between the dosed and undosed side of the eye following suprachoroidal delivery. Third, to compare the suprachoroidal delivery of sodium fluorescein (NaF) with the intracameral and intravitreal routes by using noninvasive fluorophotometry. Methods Using a small hypodermic 26G needle (3/8”) with a short bevel (250 µm), location of the suprachoroidal injection in an ex vivo New Zealand white rabbit eye model was confirmed with India ink. Ocular tissue distribution of NaF (25 µl of 1.5 µg/ml) at 37 °C was monitored noninvasively using the Fluorotron MasterTM at 0, 1, and 3 h following suprachoroidal, intravitreal, or intracameral injections in ex vivo rabbit eyes. For assessing the influence of lipophilicity and molecular size, 25 µl of a mixture of eight beta-blockers (250 µg/ml each) or FITC-dextran (4 kDa and 40 kDa, 30 mg/ml) was injected into the suprachoroidal space of excised rabbit eyes and incubated at 37 °C. Eyes were incubated for 1 and 3 h, and frozen at the end of incubation. Ocular tissues were isolated in frozen condition. Beta-blocker and FITC-dextran levels in excised ocular tissue were measured by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and spectrofluorometry, respectively. Results Histological sections of India ink-injected albino rabbit eye showed the localization of dye as a black line in the suprachoroidal space. Suprachoroidal injection of NaF showed signal localization to the choroid and retina at 1 and 3 h post injection when compared with intravitreal and intracameral injections. Drug delivery to the vitreous after suprachoroidal injection decreased with an increase in solute lipophilicity and molecular weight. With an increase in drug lipophilicity, drug levels in the choroid–retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and retina generally increased with some exceptions. Beta-blockers and FITC-dextrans were localized more to the dosed side when compared to the opposite side of the sclera, choroid–RPE, retina, and vitreous. These differences were greater for FITC-dextrans as compared to the beta-blockers. Conclusions The suprachoroidal route of injection allows localized delivery to the choroid–RPE and retina for small as well as large molecules. Suprachoroidal drug delivery to the vitreous declines with an increase in drug lipophilicity and molecular weight. Drug delivery differs between the dosed and opposite sides following suprachoroidal injection, at least up to 3 h.
Full-Color Stereoscopic Imaging With a Single-Pixel Photodetector

We present an optical system for stereoscopic color imaging by using a single-pixel detector. The system works by illuminating the input scene with a sequence of microstructured light patterns generated by a color digital light projector (DLP). A single monochromatic photodiode, synchronized with the DLP, measures the light scattered by the object for each pattern. The image is recovered computationally by applying compressive sensing techniques. The RGB chromatic components of the image are discriminated by exploiting the time-multiplexed color codification of the DLP. The stereoscopic pair is obtained by splitting the light field generated by the DLP and projecting microstructured light patterns onto the sample from two different directions. The experimental setup is configured by simple optical components, a commercial photodiode and an off-the-shelf DLP projector. Color stereoscopic images of a 3-D scene obtained with this system are shown.
Explorer Physiological Signal Variability in hMT + Reflects Performance on a Direction Discrimination Task

This is an open-access article subject to a non-exclusive license between the authors and Frontiers Media SA, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and other Frontiers conditions are complied with. General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact openaccess@ed.ac. uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Motion perception in humans critically depends on area hMT+ (also known as V5, for a review see Born and Bradley, 2005). Extensive research on its equivalent in monkeys (MT) has shown that neurons in this region are selective for the direction and speed of moving stimuli. Direction sensitive neurons show columnar organization, with columns of smoothly changing preferred directions abutting columns of the opposite preferred direction (Born and Bradley, 2005). Relating neuronal characteristics to behavior, neurometric functions of single-neurons were shown to correlate with psychometric functions in a direction discrimination task (Britten et al., 1992). More evidence for a direct link between MT neuronal properties and perception comes from studies which show that microstimulation can considerably bias performance (Cohen and Newsome, 2004) and that deteriorated neuronal speed and direction selectivity accompanies aging (Yang et al., 2009; Liang et al., 2010). In humans, hMT+ lies in an anatomically variable region and shows variation in histological and functional anatomy across individuals (Dumoulin et al.
A Parallel Genetic Algorithm Applied to an Inverse Heat Conduction Problem

Genetic algorithms are efficient search methods based in natural and genetic selection of population being inherently parallel [1]. It is proposed a parallel implementation of a genetic algorithm to solve the one-dimensional inverse heat conduction problem of determining the initial temperature distribution (time ti) from the transient temperature noisy profile at a given time tf , considering insulated boundary conditions. This ill-posed problem requires the use of a regularization technique for its solution and the Tikhonov 0th order was chosen [2]. The solution is given by the candidate function which minimizes the functional given by the square differences between the experimental and simulated temperatures at time tf , plus the regularization term weighted by a regularization parameter. Therefore, this inverse problem is formulated as an optimization problem, which is solved by a parallel implementation of a specifically developed genetic algorithm method. This proposed method is based on individuals with genotypes formed by a set of real numbers [3]. The parallel code was generated using calls to the message passing communication library MPI (Message Passing Interface) [4]. Usually, parallel genetic algorithms work with sub-populations (demes) which are placed on each processor and it was used the migration policy given by the island model [5], In such model, individuals are free to migrate to any other processor, subjected to specific rules. For instance, in the stepping stones model individuals can only migrate to neighbor processors. The inversions were accomplished for two different population sizes (336 and 1008), being the individuals equally distributed among the processors. Number of processors was 2 to 16, and processing times show efficiencies between 0.9 and 1.14 for the 1008 individuals and between 0.83 and 0.89 for 336 individuals. This was expected as a bigger population causes a larger granularity and thus a better efficiency.
Energy Balanced Clustering Algorithm in Large Scope WSN Based on Cooperative Transmission Technology

In this paper, a clustering algorithm based on the cooperative transmission technology is proposed with respect to uneven energy consumption in large scope wireless sensor network. In this algorithm, to ensure the even distribution of the cluster head nodes in large scope wireless sensor network which has even clusters, the cooperative transmission technology is applied in data transmission among the clusters. System performance is improved by virtual multi-antenna system which is constituted through cooperative transmission between the sensor nodes. The experimental results show that the energy consumption is balanced and the network lifetime is extended.
Application of polynomial vector (pv) processing to improve the estimation performance of bio diesel in variable compression ratio diesel engine

This paper presents the implementation of polynomial vector back propagation algorithm (PVBPA) for estimating the power, torque, specific fuel consumption and presence of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons in the emission of a direct injection diesel engine. Experimental readings were obtained using the biodiesel prepared form the waste low quality cooking oil collected from the canteen of Sri Sairam Engineering College, India. This waste cooking oil was due to the preparation of varieties of food (vegetables fried and non vegetarian). Over more than a week, trans esterification was done in chemical lab and the biodiesel was obtained. The biodiesel was mixed in proportions of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% with remaining combinations of the diesel supplied by the Indian government. Variable compression ratio (VCR) diesel engine with single cylinder, four stroke diesel type was used. The outputs of the engine as power, torque and specific fuel consumption were obtained from the computational facility attached to the engine. The data collected for different input conditions of the engine was further used to train (PVBPA). The trained PVBPA network was further used to predict the power, torque and brake specific fuel consumption (SFC) for different speed, biodiesel and diesel combinations and full load condition. The estimation performance of the PVBPA network is discussed.
Fascia-to-fascia closure with abdominal topical negative pressure for severe abdominal infections: preliminary results in a department of general surgery and intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND Vacuum-assisted fascial closure (VAFC-KCI(®)) of an open abdomen is one of the latest methods. METHODS A prospective observational study was performed with medical records of nine patients who had been treated by abdominal VAFC-KCI(®) from March 2006 to October 2007 in the Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Insubria. The mean Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment scores were 22.62 and 10.62, respectively. All patients had abdominal compartment syndrome and a sepsis source that was difficult to control. RESULTS All patients survived. The mean duration of open abdomen was 22.7 days (range, 3-50 days). Primary fascial closure was possible in six patients (66%), with a closure rate of 100% when early control of the infectious source was possible (Group A) but only 40% in patients with difficult and delayed control of infection (Group B). The mean durations of open abdomen in the two groups were statistically different: 8.5 days for Group A vs. 34.2 days for Group B (p < 0.005; Student t-test). CONCLUSIONS In our brief experience, VAFC-KCI(®) seems to be associated with a high fascial closure rate. The complexity of the management of abdominal source control has a role in the success of primary fascial closure. The VAFC-KCI(®) system seems to contribute positively in fascia-to-fascia abdominal closure in cases of severe abdominal infection, in particular when early surgical source control is obtained.
On the Gaseous Exchange of Ammonia between Leaves and the Environment: Determination of the Ammonia Compensation Point.

Whole shoots of Phaseolus vulgaris L. and other species were exposed to a range of partial pressures of gaseous ammonia in air and the resulting fluxes were measured. Net uptake is linear with partial pressure in the range 5 to 50 nanobars and is zero at a finite partial pressure, termed the ammonia compensation point. Below the compensation point, ammonia (or possibly other volatile amines) is evolved by the leaves. The compensation points in several species are near the low partial pressures found in unpolluted air and approximate to the K(m) of glutamine synthetase in vitro. In P. vulgaris L. , the compensation point increases with temperature.