Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Micro-accelerometer based hardware interfaces for wearable computer mixed reality applications

Human interaction with wearable computers is an important research issue, especially when combined with mixed reality (MR) applications. Natural and non-obtrusive means of interaction calls for new devices, which should be simple to use. This paper considers the design of new interaction hardware, such as a wearable computer pen, a tilt pad, a wand, and a gesture pad designed using accelerometers for such scenarios. The very difficult problem of noise in small hardware accelerometers (in the form of random bias drifts), which seriously impedes it's application in position measurement is also examined in detail. Kalman filtering has resulted in improved results, which are presented herewith. The application of accelerometers to design interfaces for use in mixed reality environments is also explained.
Value‐added is of little value

Published indicators of school ‘performance’, such as those shown annually in league tables in England, have been controversial since their inception. Raw‐score figures for school outcomes are heavily dependent on the prior attainment and family background of the students. Policy‐makers in Wales have reacted to this fundamental flaw by withdrawing the publication of school results. In England, on the other hand, they have reacted by asking for more information to be added to tables, in the form of student context such as the percentage with a special educational need, and ‘value‐added’ figures. In 2004, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) value‐added figures for England were based on student progress from Key Stage 2 at the end of primary education to GCSE at the end of compulsory secondary education. For 2005, at time of writing, the DfES plan to use context information in their model as well. This paper re‐analyses the 2004 value‐added figures and shows that they contain the same flaw as the original raw‐score tables. The purported value‐added scores turn out to be a proxy for the overall level of attainment in the school, and almost entirely independent of any differential progress made by the students. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these findings, if accepted, for policies based on identifying schools that are clearly more or less effective, and for the field of school effectiveness and improvement research.
A Compact Dual-Band Rectenna Using Slot-Loaded Dual Band Folded Dipole Antenna

A compact dual-band rectenna operating at 915 MHz and 2.45 GHz is presented. The rectenna consists of a slot-loaded dual-band folded dipole antenna and a dual-band rectifier. The length of the proposed antenna is only 36.6% of the half-wavelength <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$(\lambda_{0}/2)$</tex> </formula> dipole antenna at 915 MHz while keeping dual-band property at 915 MHz and 2.45 GHz. The rectifier circuit is optimized for low input power densities using harmonic balance (HB) simulation. The efficiencies of the rectifier are evaluated with both single- and dual-frequency input signals. The measured results show an efficiency of 37% and 30% at 915 MHz and at 2.45 GHz when illuminated by a microwave signal of available power of <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$-$</tex> </formula>9 dBm for a load resistor of 2.2 k<formula formulatype="inline"> <tex Notation="TeX">$\Omega$</tex></formula>.
Biomarkers of Asthma: Recent Patents from 2009-2011

This review informs on current literature on patents for biomarkers for asthma from 2009 to 2011. Variable air- flow obstruction in asthma is generally triggered by gene-environment interactions that can lead to key symptoms of cough, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and wheezing. The episodic and variable degrees of airway hyper- responsiveness arise from a variety of inflammatory pathways that can make diagnosis and management difficult. Stan- dard pulmonary function tests used for the diagnosis of asthma may fail to predict individual responses to the standard bronchodilator and corticosteroid therapies. Phenotypic predispositions can alter the severity of the asthmatic condition and treatment response. Biomarkers from sputum, exhaled gases, exhaled breath condensates, urine, serum, and broncheo- laveolar fluid lavage proteins are currently explored to provide objective metrics for identifying individuals at risk, pro- vide therapy guidance, monitor disease progression and evaluate response to therapy, as a supplement to standard pulmo- nary function tests. Updates on the refinement of technologies, inherent limitations and benefits of these biomarkers are discussed to provide insights on how current understanding of pathologic mechanisms has been applied to provide infor- mation for addressing gaps in the diagnosis and management of asthma.
Channel estimation for MIMO-OFDM systems in fixed broadband wireless applications

Systems employing multiple transmit and receive antennas, known as multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems can be used with OFDM to improve the resistance to channel impairments. Thus the technologies of OFDM and MIMO are equipped in fixed wireless applications with attractive features, including high data rates and robust performance. However, since different signals are transmitted from different antennas simultaneously, the received signal is the superposition of these signals, which implies new challenges for channel estimation. In this paper we propose a time domain MMSE based channel estimation approach for MIMO-OFDM systems. The proposed approach employs a convenient representation of the discrete multipath fading channel based on the Karhunen-Loeve (KL) orthogonal expansion and finds MMSE estimates of the uncorrelated KL series expansion coefficients. Based on such an expansion, no matrix inversion is required in the proposed MMSE estimator. Also the performance of the proposed approach is studied through the evaluation of minimum Bayesian MSE.
SIMULTANEOUS STRUCTURAL EQUATIONS IN LEISURE RESEARCH

ABSTRACT Most of the research done in leisure involves only a single equation, with one dependent variable, and several independent variables. The interpretation of these single equations is that the coefficients estimate the direct effects of each independent variable on the dependent variable while the values for the other independent variables are held constant. But, what about the indirect effects? In both theory and reality is it not likely that the behavior of the dependent variable may also be due to the indirect effects of independent variables affecting other independent variables? The purpose of this paper is to theoretically introduce those equations that are designed to account for indirect effects. The paper discusses simultaneous structural equations. Initially, the function of these equations and the procedure for their estimation are presented utilizing examples from leisure research. The paper concludes by offering a critique of the suitability of these equations for leisure research.
Robust ℋ∞ filtering of discrete-time networked nonlinear systems approximated by Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy technique

In this paper, we investigate the ℋ∞ filtering problem of discrete-time Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems in a network environment. Different from the well used assumption that the normalized fuzzy weighting function for each subsystem is available at the filter node, we consider a practical case in which not only the measurement but also the normalized fuzzy weighting functions are transmitted via the network medium to the filter node. For the network characteristics, we consider the multiple packet dropouts which are described by using a Markov chain.We aim to design mode-dependent and fuzzy-basis-dependent T-S fuzzy filter by using the transmitted packet subject to the described network issue. With the augmentation technique, we obtain a stochastic filtering error system in which the filter parameters and the Markovian jumping variable are all involved. A sufficient condition which guarantees the stochastic stability and the ℋ∞ performance is derived with the Lyapunov method. Based on the sufficient condition, we propose the filter design method and the filter parameters can be determined by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). A tunnel-diode circuit in a network environment is presented to show the effectiveness and the advantage of the proposed design approach.
ORF3 Protein of Hepatitis E Virus Is Not Required for Replication, Virion Assembly, or Infection of Hepatoma Cells In Vitro

ABSTRACT A subclone of Huh-7 cells that could be relatively efficiently transfected and infected with hepatitis E virus was identified. Following transfection, infectious virus was produced but remained predominantly cell associated. Intracellular virus, recovered by lysis of transfected cells, infected naïve cells. This in vitro-produced virus appeared to be antigenically identical to virus isolated from clinical samples. Lysates from cells transfected with mutant viral genomes unable to synthesize ORF3 protein contained infectious virions that were similar in number, thermostability, and sedimentation characteristics to those in lysates transfected with wild-type viral genomes. Therefore, in contrast to its requirement in vivo, ORF3 protein is not required for infection of Huh-7 cells or production of infectious virus in vitro.
Pain interference in youth with neurofibromatosis type 1 and plexiform neurofibromas and relation to disease severity, social‐emotional functioning, and quality of life

The physical manifestations of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) can cause chronic pain. This study investigated the impact of pain in youth with NF1 and plexiform neurofibromas (PNs) and its relationship to disease factors, social‐emotional functioning, and quality of life (QOL) within a biopsychosocial framework. Caregivers of 59 children and adolescents with NF1 and PNs (6–18 years), and 41 of these youth (10–18 years), completed questionnaires assessing social‐emotional functioning and QOL, including an item on pain interference. Measures of disease severity included total PN volume by percent body weight and number of disease complications. Both caregiver (73%) and self‐report (59%) ratings indicated that pain interferes with the child's daily functioning despite 33% taking pain medication. Based on caregivers’ behavior ratings, more symptoms of anxiety and larger tumor volumes predicted greater pain interference, while greater pain interference, worse depressive symptoms, and more disease complications predicted poorer QOL. As rated by adolescents, more symptoms of anxiety predicted greater pain interference, while greater pain interference and social stress predicted poorer QOL. Further, social‐emotional problems mediate the relationship between pain interference and QOL. Thus, pain interferes with daily functioning in the majority of youth with NF1 and PNs even when using pain medication. The impact of pain interference, disease severity, and particularly social‐emotional problems on QOL highlights the interaction between physical and psychological states in NF1. Future research and treatment of pain in this population should utilize a biopsychosocial approach and involve multidisciplinary therapies including psychological interventions that target social‐emotional functioning. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Psychological strain in urgent indications for living donor liver transplantation

The ethical soundness of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) in urgent indications is still under discussion. The aim of the survey was to investigate the psychological distress of donors in cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or acute liver failure (ALF). In a prospective multicenter study (n = 123), health‐related quality of life (QOL), anxiety, and depression were measured. The psychological distress of donors was correlated to the degree of urgency of the recipients' indication, which was classified as nonurgent, HCC, or ALF. During the donor evaluation prior to LDLT, the donors with recipients for HCC and ALF demonstrated significantly reduced mental QOL in comparison to donors for a nonurgent indication and to the German normative sample. Compared to healthy controls, anxiety and depression were significantly increased in donors for ALF. Three months after the transplantation, scores for mental QOL as well as for anxiety and depression improved and were within the normal range for the whole group as well as for the ALF donors. In conclusion, the psychological burden was temporary in nature. Our findings can be considered as arguments for the current practice to address family members as donors in cases of HCC and ALF. Liver Transpl 13:886–895, 2007. © 2007 AASLD.
Finding Sequence Clusters: A Shared Near Neighbors Approach

Sequence clustering is one of most fundamental topics which can be applied in various research field. Most of previous work on sequence clustering is dedicated to the single- label clustering in which the whole similarity of equal-length sequence is considered and measured by Euclidean distance function. However, intrinsic properties behind sequence demand the multi-label clustering. In addition, the Euclidean distance in the high dimensional space introduce the problem of dimensionality curse. Therefore, in this paper, we employ the concept of shared near neighbors (SNN), for sequence similarity, which will be integrated in the multi-label clustering process. Given a set of sequences, in our approach, we first apply the sliding window technique and the DCT mapping on sequences to obtain feature vectors. Those feature vectors, associated with the SNN similarity, are further grouped by applying the graph-based clustering and the hierarchical clustering, respectively. We also design a validity measure and perform experiments to show the efficiency and effectiveness of our approach. Meanwhile, those feature vectors are also approximated by the minimum bounding rectangles (MBR). Due to the less amount of MBRs, compared to all feature vectors, the computational complexity can be reduced accordingly without compromising clustering validity.
Linked Unsupervised Based Advanced Feature Selection Framework with Artificial Bee Colony for Social Media Data

The explosive usage of social media produces large amount of unlabeled and high-dimensional data. Feature selection has been proven to be effective in dealing with high-dimensional data for efficient learning and data mining. Unsupervised feature selection remains a challenging task due to the absence of label information based on which feature relevance is often assessed. Existing work investigates a novel problem of feature selection for social media data in an unsupervised scenario. Initially the work analyzes the differences between social media data and traditional attribute value data. Further it investigates how the relations are extracted from linked data which can be exploited to help in selection of relevant features using LUAFS. in LUAFS, social media networks have the availability of various link formations which leads to networks have the availability of various link formations which leads to networks with relationships of different strengths i.e., weak links and strong links that are often mixed together. Since strong links indicate strong correlations among instances, treating all links with an equal weight will increase the level of noise in the learned models and leads to degradation of learning performance. To overcome this issue, Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm has been introduced. A novel LUAFS-ABC has been proposed for linked data in social media to exploit linked information of selected features. To exploit the individual and group behaviors of linked instances two approaches: graph regularization and Social Dimension Regularization (SDR) have been developed. The experimental results of the data set from real-world social media websites shows that the proposed method can effectively exploit link information in comparison with the state-of-the–art unsupervised feature selection methods
The role of left atrial function in diastolic heart failure.

New heart failure affects 500 000 Americans yearly. Nearly 50% of these patients have a normal left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) or so-called diastolic heart failure (DHF). New onset symptomatic DHF is a lethal disease with a 5-year mortality that approaches 50%. 1 Echo-Doppler techniques use LV filling patterns and tissue Doppler imaging of the mitral annulus to help identify and classify the degree of LV diastolic dysfunction, but work best in symptomatic patients with advanced disease.2 Therefore, the diagnosis of early diastolic dysfunction, when asymptomatic and most treatable, remains problematic. A detailed causality-based, mechanistic understanding of what causes DHF, and how to most easily detect it, remains one of the most important unsolved problems in cardiovascular physiology and clinical cardiology.3 Article see p 10 Segmental LV deformation analysis for calculating contractile parameters such as strain and strain rate is now possible using noninvasive echo-Doppler techniques.2 It has been reported that LA systolic and diastolic function can also be assessed using these Doppler strain techniques.4–6 Although LA enlargement increases with the severity of diastolic dysfunction,7 the ability of LA volume measurements to discriminate asymptomatic LV diastolic dysfunction from early DHF heart failure has not been possible. However, the concept that an alteration in LA function or stiffness may indicate this change is appealing. To that end in this issue Kurt et al8 seek to advance our knowledge of additional clinical, anatomic and physiological correlates of DHF, with a particular focus on LA “diastolic function” and LA stiffness. They report clinical and echo-Doppler data on 64 subjects undergoing right heart catheterization with simultaneous echocardiography, and a control group of 27 control subjects. The 64 subjects included 25 with systolic heart failure (LVEF<50%), 20 with DHF and normal LVEF and 19 with LV hypertrophy from hypertension, …
A preliminary evaluation of software inspection tools, with the DESMET method

Software inspections are established means of ensuring quality in software engineering. The traditional paper-based inspections are considered too laborious for widespread usage, and thus tool support for inspection has evolved. In parallel, generic document-processing tools such as Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat have developed support for features that can be utilized in inspections. This study aims to evaluate these two categories of tools with respect to their abilities to support software inspections. For this evaluation, the DESMET method will be employed, and a feature analysis of the tools will be conducted. The results of the evaluation show that the generic document producing tools provide many features applicable to inspections that even the dedicated tools lack. On the other hand, some features, such as support for metrics-based process improvement, are more effectively applied in the tools especially designed to support inspections.
The Other in Education

By means of an investigation into the school education of the Dai people in Dehong, Yunnan province, this article expounds on the interactive relationship between modern education and local culture and the problems of cultural adaptation among ethnic minority students. School education, as a symbol of state power, always endeavors to transform internal Others into modern citizens. It devises a closed venue and separates students from everyday life situations to place them in a system of abstract knowledge. In local culture, however, students form practical knowledge in the course of enculturation. Due to the sustained expansion of modernity, an unequal power relationship is formed between abstract knowledge and practical knowledge. Meanwhile, school education is subject to constant parental queries, causing difficulties in cultural adaptation for Dai students. The article points out in conclusion that ethnic education should avoid creating doubly marginalized persons.
By Appointment: governance, markets and managerialism in further education

Abstract This article examines the changing conditions of governance in the post‐incorporated further education (FE) sector. Six years on from the incorporation of colleges in 1993 (Further and Higher Education Act, 1992), the article considers the various ways in which FE governance finds expression in market and managerial reform in this expanding £4bn sector recovering from industrial conflict, low morale, mismanagement and, in some cases, sleaze. In this article the authors analyse the wider policy impact of corporate managerialism on forms of governance at college level, which mirror what, elsewhere, has been described as a crisis of standards in public life. Drawing on data from an Economic and Social Research Council [ESRC] funded project 1997‐99 [R000236713] undertaken at Keele, the article analyses the meaning of governance as it is interpreted by chairs of governors interviewed in the study. This article connects with wider findings from the Keele Study regarding the work of lecturers, senior an.
The Civic Control of Architecture

In the robust days of the mediaeval schoolnien, when the newly awakened passion for learning swept students to the University centers by tens of thousands, a sturdy custom maintained which was known as the defense of the thesis. In accordance with this tradition-such was the democracy of those republics of letters-any student, whether native or foreign, to a university, whether known or uncouth, might challenge any of its doctors to debate. In coming before you to advocate a somewhat drastic reform in the present status of architecture I feel something of the embarrassment that those scholastic novitiates of long ago must have felt when they found themselves, with timid theses, face to face with specialists of authority and repute. As you well know, it is the practice of the English gentry in laying out the grounds of a country estate so to arrange the approaches to the manor that the visitor will receive his first impression from the most favorable point of view. For like reasons I choose to approach my thesis somewhat circuitously, even though the path advance through the shady groves of philosophy. Despite the later teachings of Ruskin, and the expressive testimony of the whole arts-and-crafts movement, the academic distinction between the fine and the useful arts, inherited by the Renaissance from the Greek philosophy, is still accepted as orthodox by the majority of students. According to this venerable dictum, the fine arts are those which are of solely intrinsic value-giving that pure pleasure which comes from the perception of beauty-which serve no ulterior end, which are not blemished by any taint of subserviency to practical life; whereas
Compra compulsiva e a influência do cartão de crédito

This article examines the influence of credit cards on young adults’ compulsive buying behavior. Compulsive buying is an uncontrollable state that tends to soften negative feelings. In this context, credit cards can stimulate impulse buying giving rise to problems such as debts and relationship problems. This study is based on a field work and it analysis this behavior on university students. The results reveal that young students with propensity to be compulsive buyers use credit card intensely. It is suggested that organizations involved in this matter should not neglect the compulsive buying behavior and that a discussion about their responsibility be made.