Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online shopping, the standard learning hierarchy, and consumers' internet expertise: An American-Spanish comparison

Purpose – First, to theoretically justify and empirically test the sequence of effects based on the standard learning hierarchy to explain consumers' online buying‐related responses. Second, to analyse the moderating role that consumers' internet expertise can play on the formation of both their affective and buying‐related responses towards this medium.Design/methodology/approach – This study poses a conceptual model which is tested by means of LISREL. The data used come from a questionnaire applied to American and Spanish internet users. These two countries have been selected taking into account their differences regarding their degree of internet expertise.Findings – The modelling approach appears to be adequate to explain online consumer behaviour. Moreover, different levels of consumers' internet expertise determines, in general, the predominance of the central or the peripheral route within the formation of their affective and behavioural responses to this medium.Research limitations/implications – .
The Bar — Cross — Ellipse Illusion: Alternating Percepts of Rigid and Nonrigid Motion Based on Contour Ownership and Trackable Feature Assignment

We present a new multistable stimulus generated by continuously rotating an ellipse behind four fixed occluders. Despite the stimulus remaining constant, observers can alternate between one of four percepts: (1) a continuously morphing cross; (2) two independent perpen-dicular bars oscillating in depth; (3) a rigidly rotating ellipse observed behind the occluders; (4) a fixed cross observed through a continuously rotating, elliptical aperture. Interestingly, the initial percept naive observers tend to see is percept 1, which is the only nonrigid motion percept. This appears to be a violation of the hypothesized ‘rigidity heuristic’ in which rigid motion percepts tend to be perceived over retinally equivalent nonrigid ones. Here, we describe the relationships between each of the percepts and the assignment of contour ownership and figure/ground segmentation.
Model-Dependent Effects of the Gap Junction Conduction–Enhancing Antiarrhythmic Peptide Rotigaptide (ZP123) on Experimental Atrial Fibrillation in Dogs

Background— Abnormal intercellular communication caused by connexin dysfunction may be involved in atrial fibrillation (AF). The present study assessed the effect of the gap junctional conduction–enhancing peptide rotigaptide on AF maintenance in substrates that result from congestive heart failure induced by 2-week ventricular tachypacing (240 bpm), atrial tachypacing (ATP; 400 bpm for 3 to 6 weeks), and isolated atrial myocardial ischemia. Methods and Results— Electrophysiological study and epicardial mapping were performed before and after rotigaptide administration in dogs with ATP and congestive heart failure, as well as in similarly instrumented sham dogs that were not tachypaced. For atrial myocardial ischemia, dogs administered rotigaptide before myocardial ischemia were compared with no-drug myocardial ischemia controls. ATP significantly shortened the atrial effective refractory period (P=0.003) and increased AF duration (P=0.008), with AF lasting >3 hours in all 6-week ATP animals. Rotigaptide increased conduction velocity in ATP dogs slightly but significantly (P=0.04) and did not affect the effective refractory period, AF duration, or atrial vulnerability. In dogs with congestive heart failure, rotigaptide also slightly increased conduction velocity (P=0.046) but failed to prevent AF promotion. Rotigaptide had no statistically significant effects in sham dogs. Myocardial ischemia alone increased AF duration and impaired conduction (based on conduction velocity across the ischemic border and indices of conduction heterogeneity). Rotigaptide prevented myocardial ischemia–induced conduction slowing and AF duration increases. Conclusions— Rotigaptide improves conduction in various AF models but suppresses AF only for the acute ischemia substrate. These results define the atrial antiarrhythmic profile of a mechanistically novel antiarrhythmic drug and suggest that gap junction dysfunction may be more important in ischemic AF than in ATP remodeling or congestive heart failure substrates.
A clinical assessment tool for ultrasound‐guided axillary brachial plexus block

Competency in anesthesia traditionally has been determined subjectively in practice. Optimal training in procedural skills requires valid and reliable forms of assessment. The objective was to examine a procedure‐specific clinical assessment tool for ultrasound‐guided axillary brachial plexus block for inter‐rater reliability and construct validity in a clinical setting.
Determination of 16 mycotoxins in vegetable oils using a QuEChERS method combined with high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

ABSTRACT A simple and efficient method for determining multiple mycotoxins was developed using a QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe)-based extraction procedure in vegetable oils. High-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was used for the quantification and confirmation of 16 chemically diversified mycotoxins. Different extraction procedures were studied and optimised by spiking 16 analytes into blank matrix, and the extraction with 85% MeCN solution and C18 as cleaning sorbent allowed an efficient recovery of 72.8–105.8% with RSDs less than 7%. The limit of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.04 to 2.9 ng g–1. The developed method was finally applied to screen mycotoxins in 62 vegetable oil samples. Zearalenone (ZEN), aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), aflatoxin G1 (AFG1) and α-zearalenol (α-ZOL) were detected, with maximum concentrations of 0.59 (AFG1)–42.5 (ZEN) ng g–1. The method developed has the advantages of high sensitivity, accuracy and selectivity, and it can be applied to the target screening of mycotoxins in real samples.
Multiple View Geometry and the -norm

This paper presents a new framework for solving geometric structure and motion problems based on -norm. Instead of using the common sum-of-squares cost-function, that is, the -norm, the model-fitting errors are measured using the -norm. Unlike traditional methods based on , our framework allows for efficient computation of global estimates. We show that a variety of structure and motion problems, for example, triangulation, camera resectioning and homography estimation can be recast as a quasi-convex optimization problem within this framework. These problems can be efficiently solved using Second Order Cone Programming (SOCP) which is a standard technique in convex optimization. The proposed solutions have been validated on real data in different settings with small and large dimensions and with excellent performance.
Pose Maker: A Pose Recommendation System for Person in the Landscape Photographing

To pose like a fashion model and to take professional grade photo are always two challenging tasks, especially for novice users. Pose Maker, an innovative system for pose and photo composition recommendation and synthesis, is developed in this work. Given a user-provided clothing color and gender, this system shall not only offer some suitable poses, but also assist users to take high visual quality photos by generating the visual effect of person in the landscape pictures. To recommend poses, we first propose a view specific professional learning model to help users select several compatible poses for a given image. Based on selection results, a hierarchical pose image synthesis module is designed to synthesize the selected poses along with the scene to be captured in the most suitable position and size taking into consideration several important factors in picture composition, including aesthetic photography principles, color harmony and focal length parameters. Extensive experimental evaluations and analysis on test images of various conditions demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system.
Evaluation of Bacterial Contamination in a Clinical Environment

Background: Although the contamination of the dental environment and personnel through aerosol contamination is a definite source of cross contamination; there is little data on the microbial involvement of the dental environment. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 samples were taken from various inanimate surfaces in the clinical dental setting were collected aseptically by rotating sterile swabs moistened with peptone water over the surfaces of the samples and then inoculated into brain heart infusion broth and incubated at 37°C aerobically overnight. Subcultures were made on 5% sheep blood agar and MacConkey agar plates and incubated at 37°C for 24 h. Growth in the plates was observed. Results: Out of the 100 samples screened in this study, a bacterial agent was observed in 38 samples, and 62 samples showed no growth. A higher percentage of contamination was seen on the dental chair light handles, suction tips and the pens used by the dental health care personnel’s, followed by the instruments and the laboratory equipment. Conclusion: Establishing an effective preventive strategies for well-practiced infection control is essential to prevent nosocomial infections and promote a safe environment in the dental clinics.
Contribution au diagnostic et à la commande de la pile à combustible de type PEM

La pile a combustible (PaC) est un dispositif qui transforme l'energie chimique en energie electrique. Ce dispositif necessite un certain nombre d’auxiliaires pour son fonctionnement. Afin d'assurer des performances en termes de securite, de fiabilite et de duree de vie de la PaC, des systemes de diagnostic et de commande adequats sont indispensables. Ainsi, cette these est une contribution au probleme du diagnostic de defauts et a la commande de la PaC de type PEM. Le premier volet de ce travail est consacre au developpement de methodes de diagnostic appliquees a la PaC. Pour ce faire, deux approches ont ete proposees. La premiere concerne la synthese d’un filtre H-/H∞ permettant la detection de defauts capteurs et actionneurs tout en assurant un niveau de robustesse vis-a-vis d'eventuelles perturbations. En tenant compte des caracteristiques du systeme de la PaC, les conditions d'existence et de stabilite du filtre sont donnees sous la forme de LMI. La seconde approche traite le probleme de la detection des defauts parametriques. Pour cet objectif, un observateur adaptatif a ete propose, ce dernier permet d'estimer la valeur du parametre susceptible de presenter une defaillance. Cette methode donne la possibilite d'estimer simultanement les defauts parametriques et les etats non mesures du systeme. Le deuxieme volet de la these est dedie a la commande du systeme PaC. Le but est de synthetiser une loi de commande par retroaction qui permet de repondre a la sollicitation de la charge tout en respectant une contrainte de fonctionnement nominal de la PaC. La synthese de cette loi de commande a ete realisee en prenant compte tout le caractere non lineaire du systeme
The Arithmetical Hierarchy of Real Numbers

A real number is computable if it is the limit of an effectively converging computable sequence of rational numbers, and left (right) computable if it is the supremum (infimum) of a computable sequence of rational numbers. By applying the operations "sup" and "inf" alternately n times to computable (multiple) sequences of rational numbers we introduce a non-collapsing hierajchy {Σn,IIn,Δn : n Ɛ N} of real numbers. We characterize the classes Σ2,II2 and Δ2 in various ways and give several interesting examples.
Multi-Objective Design Optimization of a Shape Memory Alloy Flexural Actuator

This paper presents a computational model and design optimization strategy for shape memory alloy (SMA) flexural actuators. These actuators consist of curved SMA wires embedded within elastic structures; one potential application is positioning microcatheters inside blood vessels during clinical treatments. Each SMA wire is shape-set to an initial curvature and inserted along the neutral axis of a straight elastic member (cast polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS). The elastic structure preloads the SMA, reducing the equilibrium curvature of the composite actuator. Temperature-induced phase transformations in the SMA are achieved via Joule heating, enabling strain recovery and increased bending (increased curvature) in the actuator. Actuator behavior is modeled using the homogenized energy framework, and the effects of two critical design parameters (initial SMA curvature and flexural rigidity of the elastic sleeve) on activation curvature are investigated. Finally, a multi-objective genetic algorithm is utilized to optimize actuator performance and generate a Pareto frontier, which is subsequently experimentally validated.
On the Probability that a Random Subgraph Contains a Circuit

Let μ>2 and ε>0 . We show that, if G is a sufficiently large simple graph of average degree at least μ, and H is a random spanning subgraph of G formed by including each edge independently with probability p≥1μ−1+ε , then H contains a cycle with probability at least 1−ε .
Effects of Age on the Clinical Features of Men with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Background: There is little information on the differences in polysomnographic findings in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) between elderly and young or middle-aged adults. Objectives: The aim of this study was to elucidate the clinical characteristics of elderly patients compared to young or middle-aged patients with OSAS. Methods: A total of 757 male patients who were found to have OSAS (apnea-hypopnea index, AHI ≥ 5) were enrolled. After nocturnal polysomnography, patients also completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Results: The patients were divided into three groups: ages 20–44 (n = 254), ages 45–64 (n = 373), and ages 65–86 (n = 130). Body mass index (BMI) and the proportion of overweight patients (BMI ≥25) were lower in the elderly group (ages 65–84) than in the other age groups (all p < 0.01). However, in the elderly group, there was a significant correlation between AHI and BMI (r = 0.28, p < 0.01), and BMI was a significant determinant of AHI (β = 0.30, p < 0.01). In addition, the elderly group showed a high percentage of apneas among apneas and hypopneas ( p = 0.02) and increased duration of apnea-hypopnea (p < 0.01) compared to the other age groups. Conclusions: Despite the occurrence of OSAS in the elderly with low BMI, the influence of body weight on the severity of OSAS was still significant in elderly patients. Age-related high collapsibility of the upper airways could explain the higher percentage of apneas and longer duration of apnea-hypopnea in the elderly compared to young or middle-aged patients with OSAS.
Conscious Control over Action

The extensive involvement of nonconscious processes in human behaviour has led some to suggest that consciousness is much less important for the control of action than we might think. In this article I push against this trend, developing an understanding of conscious control that is sensitive to our best models of overt (that is, bodily) action control. Further, I assess the cogency of various zombie challenges—challenges that seek to demote the importance of conscious control for human agency. I argue that though nonconscious contributions to action control are evidently robust, these challenges are overblown.
Pilot study of a moderate dose multivitamin/mineral supplement for children with autistic spectrum disorder.

OBJECTIVE Determine the effect of a moderate dose multivitamin/mineral supplement on children with autistic spectrum disorder. DESIGN Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 3-month study. SUBJECTS Twenty (20) children with autistic spectrum disorder, ages 3-8 years. RESULTS A Global Impressions parental questionnaire found that the supplement group reported statistically significant improvements in sleep and gastrointestinal problems compared to the placebo group. An evaluation of vitamin B(6) levels prior to the study found that the autistic children had substantially elevated levels of B6 compared to a control group of typical children (75% higher, p < 0.0000001). Vitamin C levels were measured at the end of the study, and the placebo group had levels that were significantly below average for typical children, whereas the supplement group had near-average levels. DISCUSSION The finding of high vitamin B(6) levels is consistent with recent reports of low levels of pyridoxal-5-phosphate and low activity of pyridoxal kinase (i.e., pyridoxal is only poorly converted to pyridoxal-5-phosphate, the enzymatically active form). This may explain the functional need for high-dose vitamin B(6) supplementation in many children and adults with autism.
Cartesian impedance control for a variable stiffness robot arm

The variable stiffness actuation (VSA) technology has been recently developed and applied in robotic arms. Mechanism robustness, high peak torque and velocity, and stiffness adjustment flexibility are key benefits of VSA joints. However, the achievable Cartesian stiffness by uncoupled VSA joints is limited. Therefore we suggest and analyze the use of an active impedance controller in combination with the passive joints to further increase the stiffness range. An algorithm to optimize the passive and active Cartesian stiffness is proposed to achieve a desired Cartesian stiffness as precise as possible. The algorithm was implemented and tested on the VSA robot DLR Hand Arm System. Experimental results and measurements of the active/passive impedance algorithm are shown.
Diagnostic performance of various cephalometric parameters for the assessment of vertical growth pattern

ABSTRACT Introduction: Multiple cephalometric analyses are used to diagnose vertical skeletal facial discrepancy. A multitude of times, these parameters show conflicting results, and a specific diagnosis is hard to reach. Objective: Hence, this study aimed to identify the skeletal analysis that performs best for the identification of vertical skeletal pattern in borderline cases. Methods: The sample consisted of 161 subjects (71 males and 90 females; mean age = 23.6 ± 4.6 years). Y-axis, Sella-Nasion to mandibular plane angle (SN.MP), maxillary plane to mandibular plane angle (MMA), Sella-Nasion to Gonion-Gnathion angle (SN.GoGn), Frankfort to mandibular plane angle (FMA), R-angle and facial height ratio (LAFH.TAFH) were used to evaluate vertical growth pattern on lateral cephalograms. The subjects were divided into three groups (hypodivergent, normodivergent and hyperdivergent groups), as indicated by the diagnostic results of the majority of parameters. Kappa statistics was applied to compare the diagnostic accuracy of various analyses. To further validate the results, sensitivity and positive predictive values (PPV) for each parameter were also calculated. Results: SN.GoGn showed a substantial interclass agreement (k = 0.850). In the hypodivergent group, MMA showed the highest sensitivity (0.934), whereas FMA showed the highest PPV (0.964). In the normodivergent group, FMA showed the highest sensitivity (0.909) and SN.GoGn had the highest PPV (0.903). SN.GoGn showed the highest sensitivity (0.980) and PPV (0.87) in the hyperdivergent group. Conclusions: SN.GoGn and FMA were found to be the most reliable indicators, whereas LAFH.TAFH is the least reliable indicator in assessing facial vertical growth pattern. Hence, the cephalometric analyses may be limited to fewer analyses of higher diagnostic performance.
An Environment for Merging and Testing Large Ontologies

Large-scale ontologies are becoming an essential component of many applications including standard search (such as Yahoo and Lycos), ecommerce (such as Amazon and eBay), configuration (such as Dell and PC-Order), and government intelligence (such as DARPA’s High Performance Knowledge Base (HPKB) program). The ontologies are becoming so large that it is not uncommon for distributed teams of people with broad ranges of training to be in charge of the ontology development, design, and maintenance. Standard ontologies (such as UNSPSC) are emerging as well which need to be integrated into large application ontologies, sometimes by people who do not have much training in knowledge representation. This process has generated needs for tools that support broad ranges of users in (1) merging of ontological terms from varied sources, (2) diagnosis of coverage and correctness of ontologies, and (3) maintaining ontologies over time. In this paper, we present a new merging and diagnostic ontology environment called Chimaera, which was developed to address these issues in the context of HPKB. We also report on some initial tests of its effectiveness in merging tasks.
Pointer analysis for Java programs: novel techniques and applications

This dissertation presents a pointer analysis for Java programs, together with several practical analysis applications. For each program point, the analysis is able to construct a points-to graph that describes how local variables and object fields point to objects. Each points-to graph also contains escape information that identifies the objects that are reachable from outside the analysis scope. Our pointer analysis can extract correct information by analyzing only parts of a whole program. First, our analysis analyzes a method without requiring information about its calling context. Instead, our analysis computes parameterized results that are later instantiated for each relevant call site. Second, our analysis correctly handles calls to unanalyzable methods (e.g., native methods). Hence, our analysis can trade precision for speed without sacrificing correctness: if the analysis of a call to a specific callee requires too much time, the analysis can treat that callee as unanalyzable. The results of our analysis enable standard program optimizations like the stack allocation of local objects. More interestingly, this dissertation explains how to extend the analysis to detect pure methods. Our analysis supports a flexible definition of method purity: a method is pure if it does not mutate any object that exists in the program state before the start of the method. Therefore, our analysis allows pure methods to allocate and mutate temporary objects (e.g., iterators) and/or construct complex object structures and return them as a result.
Degradation of fuel components

In the environment, soil and groundwater contamination often occurs due to anthropogenic activity. Accidental spills, leaking storage tanks or waste disposal have polluted the environment with inorganic and organic compounds, the latter including aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons. These chemicals pose a risk to the health of the environment, animals and humans. Therefore remediation technologies are needed to clean up contaminated locations. Bioremediation is considered cost effective, sustainable and can accelerate the natural biodegradation of organic pollution. This thesis describes the biodegradation of fuel components, including methyl tert-butyl ether (MtBE), ethyl tert-butyl ether (EtBE), tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) and benzene. This thesis provides insight in the ecology and physiology of microorganisms important in the degradation of MtBE, EtBE, TBA and benzene, setting the scene for the development and implementation of innovative microbial remediation strategies.
Generalized Log‐Rank Tests for Partly Interval‐Censored Failure Time Data

In this paper, we consider incomplete survival data: partly interval‐censored failure time data where observed data include both exact and interval‐censored observations on the survival time of interest. We present a class of generalized log‐rank tests for this type of survival data and establish their asymptotic properties. The method is evaluated using simulation studies and illustrated by a set of real data from a diabetes study. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)