Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Research on grammatical gender and thought in early and emergent bilinguals

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: This article reviews recent research on how speaking a language that marks gender grammatically might affect thinking, and on the relationship between grammatical gender knowledge of more than one language, and thinking, in both early and emergent bilinguals. Design/methodology/approach: The paper provides a comprehensive review of previous research, as well as an introduction to, and an evaluation of, the articles in this special issue. Findings/conclusions: Several themes emerge in the research on grammatical gender and thinking in bilinguals. First, knowledge of more than one language could reduce the effects of grammatical gender on thinking. Second, these effects may depend on the combination of languages being acquired. Third, researchers are starting to identify other variables that might affect when and how grammatical gender influences thinking, including proficiency and the choice of tasks. Originality: This manuscript synthesises the previously scattered research on grammatical gender and thinking in bilinguals. Significance/implications: This is the first full-length overview paper about the relationship between grammatical gender and thinking in speakers of more than one language.
Something in the Air? Creativity, culture and community

This paper analyses the contribution to creativity, culture and community of disabled children provided by the work of the theatre company Oily Cart and their production Something in the Air? In the paper, we present a radical humanist conception of disability and creativity. In order to explore disability and creativity we focus on a case study of the performance Something in the Air? which positions to the work of Oily Cart, a theatre company, with disabled children. Using ethnographic data collected during the production of Something in the Air? , we analyse the extent to which this project promoted disabled children's well-being, participation, imagination and identity. We suggest that the potentiality of disabled children can be released through the engagement with performing artists who combine creativity with a commitment to challenging disablism in the lives of those children.
Haematological values from a Gambian cohort – possible reference range for a West African population

The objective of this study was to establish haematological reference ranges for the West African subregion using a Gambian cohort. We analysed full blood counts from 1279 subjects aged ≥1 year. Anthropometric and body composition measurements were performed. Haematological mean values, medians and 90% reference values were calculated and related to malnutrition in children and thinness and/or obesity in adults. Haemoglobin (Hb) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) significantly increased with age (P < 0.00001). There were gender‐related changes in Hb from 15 years of age (P = 0.001) and for MCV only in adults (P = 0.0002). Hb was significantly reduced in underweight and stunted children (P = 0.0001 and 0.0002, respectively) but was unaffected by thinness or obesity in adults. White blood cell (WBC) and platelet counts were highest under 5 years and declined significantly with age (P < 0.0001 and 0.0001). While, there were no gender‐related differences with WBC, there were higher WBC counts in underweight (P = 0.0001) and stunted (P < 0.0001) children. Adult females had significantly higher mean platelet counts compared with males (P = 0.006). The mean and median values of haematological parameters in The Gambia are similar to other standards but the 90% reference range for each parameter encompasses lower values when compared with Western standards.
Endogenous prion protein conversion is required for prion‐induced neuritic alterations and neuronal death

Prions cause fatal neurodegenerative conditions and result from the conversion of host‐encoded cellular prion protein (PrPC) into abnormally folded scrapie PrP (PrPSc). Prions can propagate both in neurons and astrocytes, yet neurotoxicity mechanisms remain unclear. Recently, PrPC was proposed to mediate neurotoxic signaling of β‐sheet‐rich PrP and non‐PrP conformers independently of conversion. To investigate the role of astrocytes and neuronal PrPC in prion‐induced neurodegeneration, we set up neuron and astrocyte primary cocultures derived from PrP transgenic mice. In this system, prion‐infected astrocytes delivered ovine PrPSc to neurons lacking PrPC (prion‐resistant), or expressing a PrPC convertible (sheep) or not (mouse, human). We show that interaction between neuronal PrPC and exogenous PrPSc was not sufficient to induce neuronal death but that efficient PrPC conversion was required for prion‐associated neurotoxicity. Prion‐infected astrocytes markedly accelerated neurodegeneration in homologous cocultures compared to infected single neuronal cultures, despite no detectable neurotoxin release. Finally, PrPSc accumulation in neurons led to neuritic damages and cell death, both potentiated by glutamate and reactive oxygen species. Thus, conversion of neuronal PrPC rather than PrPC‐mediated neurotoxic signaling appears as the main culprit in prion‐induced neurodegeneration. We suggest that active prion replication in neurons sensitizes them to environmental stress regulated by neighboring cells, including astrocytes. — Cronier, S. , Carimalo, J., Schaeffer, B. , Jaumain, E. , Béringue, V. , Miquel, M. ‐C. , Laude, H. , Peyrin, J.‐M. Endogenous prion protein conversion is required for prion‐induced neuritic alterations and neuronal death. FASEB J. 26, 3854–3861 (2012). www.fasebj. org
Functionally distinct Gata3/Chd4 complexes coordinately establish T helper 2 (Th2) cell identity

GATA binding protein 3 (Gata3) is a GATA family transcription factor that controls differentiation of naïve CD4 T cells into T helper 2 (Th2) cells. However, it is unknown how Gata3 simultaneously activates Th2-specific genes while repressing those of other Th lineages. Here we show that chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 4 (Chd4) forms a complex with Gata3 in Th2 cells that both activates Th2 cytokine transcription and represses the Th1 cytokine IFN-γ. We define a Gata3/Chd4/p300 transcriptional activation complex at the Th2 cytokine loci and a Gata3/Chd4–nucleosome remodeling histone deacetylase repression complex at the Tbx21 locus in Th2 cells. We also demonstrate a physiological role for Chd4 in Th2-dependent inflammation in an in vivo model of asthmatic inflammation. Thus, Gata3/Chd4 forms functionally distinct complexes, which mediate both positive and negative gene regulation to facilitate Th2 cell differentiation.
Retrieving and smoothing fundamental waves from noise corrupted ECG beat using Gaussian functions

ECG denoising is a prerequisite for modeling, detecting various artifacts, measuring component waveforms and for almost all computational analysis of ECG signal. Gaussian waveform is a good candidate for ECG modeling due to its similarity with the characteristic waves of ECG beat. This paper presents a novel method for denoising and smoothing ECG signal using Gaussian functions. The advantage of Gaussian modeling is that by fitting Gaussian waveforms it inherently extracts the fundamental waveforms from the noisy signal, removes wrinkles and makes the signal sufficiently smooth for accurate detection and measurement of the on-set and off-set of the characteristic waves. Sixteen Gaussian waves are used to model each noisy ECG beat. The proposed algorithm has been applied on ECG signals with different SNR values. The results show significant improvement in the output SNR.
Tunable routing solutions for multi-robot navigation via the assignment problem: A 3D representation of the matching graph

In scenarios in which new robots and tasks are added to a network of already deployed, interchangeable robots, a trade-off arises in minimizing the cost to execute the tasks and the level of disruption to the system. This paper considers a navigation-oriented variant of this problem and proposes a parametrizable method to adjust the optimization criterion: from minimizing global travel time (or energy, or distance), to minimizing interruption (i.e., obtaining the fewest number of robot reassignments), and mixtures in-between. Paths are computed by a task-allocation formulation in which the destinations of newly deployed robots are added to an existing allocation. We adapt the graph matching variant of the Hungarian algorithm-originally designed to solve the optimal assignment problem in complete graphs-to construct routing paths by showing that there is an interpretation of the sparse Hungarian bipartite graph in three dimensions. When new agent-task pairs are inserted, the assignment is reallocated in an incremental fashion in linear time (assuming traversal choices are limited in number). The algorithm is studied systematically in simulation and also validated with physical robots.
Method-level bug prediction

Researchers proposed a wide range of approaches to build effective bug prediction models that take into account multiple aspects of the software development process. Such models achieved good prediction performance, guiding developers towards those parts of their system where a large share of bugs can be expected. However, most of those approaches predict bugs on file-level. This often leaves developers with a considerable amount of effort to examine all methods of a file until a bug is located. This particular problem is reinforced by the fact that large files are typically predicted as the most bug-prone. In this paper, we present bug prediction models at the level of individual methods rather than at file-level. This increases the granularity of the prediction and thus reduces manual inspection efforts for developers. The models are based on change metrics and source code metrics that are typically used in bug prediction. Our experiments-performed on 21 Java open-source (sub-)systems-show that our prediction models reach a precision and recall of 84% and 88%, respectively. Furthermore, the results indicate that change metrics significantly outperform source code metrics.
Lógicas Institucionais e Formação da Governança de Recursos Hídricos: Análise do Caso Brasileiro

Este artigo analisa a influência das lógicas institucionais de Comunidade, Mercado e Estado na estruturação da governança de recursos hídricos no Brasil. À luz do institucionalismo sociológico, foco é dado ao sistema de recursos hídricos, entendido como campo organizacional, e à interferência de lógicas institucionais societárias na configuração de quadros de referências locais para o comportamento dos atores sociais. Por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas e análise documental, foram coletados dados sobre a codificação de significados e normas no arranjo de lógicas locais que, manifestadas na forma de diretrizes e práticas, influenciaram a estruturação da governança de recursos hídricos. O estudo é de natureza descritivo-qualitativa e abrangeu três décadas a contar da primeira conferência mundial sobre gestão de recursos hídricos em 1977. Os resultados evidenciaram que a consistência institucional, no contexto de regulação brasileiro, apresentou ambiguidade legal e homogeneidade entre legislações federal e estaduais. Entretanto, constatou-se que o modelo, centralizado no nível federativo, favorece o formalismo e provoca dificuldades na implementação da proposta integradora e participativa de gestão entre os Estados. Os resultados também apontaram que configurações de lógicas institucionais societais, ao nível do campo, interagiram com princípios locais, explicando em grande medida a variação nos modelos de governança. Como conclusão, duas proposições analíticas são apresentadas: (i) pressões isomórficas em nível mundial, sob influência dos arranjos de lógicas institucionais em nível societal, tendem a provocar heterogeneidade das estruturas de governança; (ii) lógicas institucionais em nível societal permeiam o campo organizacional, configurando ordens locais e moldando o discurso e identidade dos atores sociais.
How to Combine Requirements Engineering and Interaction Design?

In this panel, we propose to figure out how requirements engineering and interaction design can be usefully combined. In particular, some people argue that scenarios/ use cases should be concrete, as in story-telling. Others argue for use of "essential" use cases as a methodological approach to interaction and user-interface design. Somewhat in the middle, it is argued that use cases should help acquiring the requirements in the first place. What should the practitioner believe and, in particular, do, in order to develop useful and usable software and systems? Software development and interaction design require different skills and different methods and are typically done by different people. Still, scenario-based design is proposed for several activities relevant for both tasks, such as requirements elicitation, software design, and interaction design. Symbolic modeling in this spirit is actually common to various fields. However, scenario-based approaches vary, especially with regard to their use, e.g., employing abstract use cases or integrating scenarios with functions and goals in a systematic design process. So, the key issue to be raised at the panel is how to combine different approaches, e.g., in scenario-based development, so that the interaction design as well as the development of the user interface and of the software internally result in an overall useful and useable system.
An Opportunistic Pervasive Networking Paradigm: Multi‐Hop Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive radio networks enable ubiquitous communications both in frequency and time domain, and hence enable opportunistic pervasive communications. Multi-hop cognitive radio networks are appealing to the researchers due to their wide range of application potential in commercial, emergency communication, and military tactical networks. However, the multi-hop nature of the network coupled with the varying spectrum availability owing to the opportunistic spectrum access introduce many design challenges. Medium access control (MAC) layer in multi-hop cognitive radio networks needs to make distributed spectrum sensing and accessing decisions without disturbing the communications of the licensed users, while at the same time determining the communication frequency with the neighboring unlicensed users. Various MAC protocols for multi-hop cognitive radio networks have hitherto been proposed in the literature. In this chapter, we first outline the design challenges for the MAC layer protocols. Subsequently, we describe several MAC protocols proposed for multi-hop cognitive radio networks, emphasizing their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, we point out open research issues with regard to the MAC design of these networks.
Exploring the Relationship between Body Composition and Eating Behavior Using the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) in Young New Zealand Women

Obesity is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, yet is preventable. This study aimed to investigate associations between body mass index, body fat percentage and obesity-related eating behaviors. Women (n = 116; 18–44 years) were measured for height, weight and body fat using air displacement plethysmography (BodPod). Women completed the validated Three Factor Eating Questionnaire to assess their eating behaviors using Restraint, Disinhibition and Hunger eating factor categories and sub-categories. The eating behavior data were analyzed for associations with body mass index and body fat percentage, and comparisons across body mass index and body fat percentage categories (< vs. ≥25 kg/m2; < vs. ≥30%, respectively). Women had a mean (standard deviation) body mass index of 23.4 (3.5) kg/m2, and body fat percentage of 30.5 (7.6)%. Disinhibition was positively associated with both body mass index (p < 0.001) and body fat percentage (p < 0.001). Emotional Disinhibition was positively associated with body fat percentage (p < 0.028). Women with low Restraint and high Disinhibition had significantly higher body mass index and body fat percentage than women with high Restraint and low Disinhibition. Disinhibition seems likely to be an important contributor to obesity. Tailored intervention strategies focused on counteracting Disinhibition should be a key target area for managing weight/fat gain.
Changing indications and techniques for corneal transplantations at a tertiary referral center in Turkey, from 1995 to 2014

Background Indications for corneal transplantation in developed and developing nations differ according to the different spectrum of corneal disease in each country. Objective The purpose of this study is to analyze the changing indications and surgical techniques for corneal transplantation over the past 20 years at a tertiary referral center in Turkey. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the records of patients who underwent keratoplasty from January 1995 to December 2014 (between 1995 and 2004, period 1, and between 2005 and 2014, period 2). Patients’ demographic data, indications for corneal transplantation, and the type of surgery were recorded. Results The number of keratoplasties performed ranged from 548 in period 1 to 782 in period 2. Between 1995 and 2004, the leading indications were keratoconus (34.1%), bullous keratopathy (17%), and non-herpetic corneal scar (13.3%), and between 2005 and 2014, they were keratoconus (33.8%), corneal stromal dystrophy (14.2%), and bullous keratopathy (12.7%). All the keratoplasties performed in the 1995–2004 period were penetrating keratoplasty (PKP). During the period 2005–2014, PKP accounted for 93%, automated lamellar keratoplasty 5.8%, and deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty 1.2% of all corneal transplantations. Conclusion Keratoconus was the leading indication for keratoplasty in both periods. In the 2005–2014 period, corneal stromal dystrophy increased significantly. All the keratoplasties performed in period 1 and 93% of all keratoplasties performed in period 2 were PKP.
Innovative Second-Generation Wavelets Construction With Recurrent Neural Networks for Solar Radiation Forecasting

Solar radiation prediction is an important challenge for the electrical engineer because it is used to estimate the power developed by commercial photovoltaic modules. This paper deals with the problem of solar radiation prediction based on observed meteorological data. A 2-day forecast is obtained by using novel wavelet recurrent neural networks (WRNNs). In fact, these WRNNS are used to exploit the correlation between solar radiation and timescale-related variations of wind speed, humidity, and temperature. The input to the selected WRNN is provided by timescale-related bands of wavelet coefficients obtained from meteorological time series. The experimental setup available at the University of Catania, Italy, provided this information. The novelty of this approach is that the proposed WRNN performs the prediction in the wavelet domain and, in addition, also performs the inverse wavelet transform, giving the predicted signal as output. The obtained simulation results show a very low root-mean-square error compared to the results of the solar radiation prediction approaches obtained by hybrid neural networks reported in the recent literature.
Investigating User Comprehension and Risk Perception of Apple's Touch ID Technology

Apple's Touch ID serves as an alternative to PIN/password for unlocking Apple devices, signing into third party iOS applications, and authorizing purchases on the iTunes Store by simply tapping a registered finger on the home button. This paper investigates the user comprehension and risk perception of Apple's Touch ID technology. We conducted two user studies to assess user perceptions in three domains: 1) Touch ID authentication process for third party applications; 2) fingerprint access and storage; and 3) ease of circumventing Touch ID. We first conducted an in-person study with 30 participants and then validated our findings through an online study over Amazon Turk on a larger sample of 125 participants. Our findings show that Touch ID users are unaware of the Touch ID authentication process for signing into applications, and have incorrect perceptions regarding the storage/access of their registered fingerprint before and after Touch ID authentication.
Type of Music Associated with Relaxation Based on EEG Signal Analysis

Music is the science and the art of tones, or the musical sounds. Music is also the art of combining tones in a manner to please the ear. Music therapy is the planned and creative use of music to attain and maintain health and well–being. There are a lot of experimental efforts to understand musical processing in the brain using electroencephalogram (EEG). It is accepted that listening to music increases the theta and alpha bands power that is associated to increase relaxation. In this study, we are interested to find the type of music that can produce such state of mind by analysing the EEG power spectrum in those frequency bands. 4 types of music were investigated, i.e. sound of instrumental piano, sound of wave, sound of birds and sound of nature. As the result, 71.4% of subjects were able to achieved highest power spectral density in theta and alpha frequency bands while listening to sound of instrumental piano and sound of nature while only 28.6–42.9% of subjects were able to produce the same while listening to sound of wave and sound of bird. From the finding, it can be concluded that sound of instrumental piano and sound of nature increase relaxation as indicated by the increase of PSD in the theta/alpha frequency bands compared to the sound of wave and sound of bird.
STUDY OF ELECTRON-ELECTRON (e-e) AND ELECTRON-HOLE (e-h) INTERACTIONS IN GRAPHENE ON SIO2/SI INTERFACES USING SPECTROSCOPY ELLIPSOMETRY

Graphene is a two-dimensional carbon honeycomb structure that gained popularity due to its excellent electronic properties, such as the ballistic electron transport and outstanding optical and mechanical properties [1]. In this thesis, we study the optical properties of graphene on SiO2/Si using spectroscopic ellipsometry. Our results show that many body effects, in particular the electron-electron (e-e) and electron-hole (e-h) interactions manifest themselves in the graph of optical conductivity of graphene. The strong e-h interactions is observed and it is prominent from the asymmetric resonance peak at 4.65eV. This observed excitonic resonance can be explained by the Fano model, which describes the residing of a discrete excitonic state in the band continuum. Comparing our experimental results with the theoretical calculations of the optical conductivity of a free-standing graphene, we found that the spectrum for graphene on SiO2/Si blue shifted and is less asymmetric. This could be due to an inaccurate optical model used or it could suggest a screening of e-h interactions due to the graphene-SiO2 interaction.