Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Music in the treatment of affective disorders: An exploratory investigation of a new method for music-therapeutic research

MUSIC LISTENING AND MAKING ACTIVATES A multitude of brain structures, the engagement of which is likely to have beneficial effects on the psychological and physiological health of individuals. We first briefly review functional neuroimaging experiments on music and emotion, showing that music-evoked emotions can change activity in virtually all core areas of emotional processing.We then enumerate social functions that are automatically and effortlessly engaged when humans make music. Engagement in these social functions fulfils basic human needs, is part of what makes us human, and is an important source for pleasure and happiness. Finally, we present a new method for music therapy, including an exploratory empirical study on effects of music making. Results show that the music making increased the mood of individuals compared to a control group. This music therapy method is promising in encouraging further development for the treatment of affective disorders, and can be used in both single- and double-blinded studies for empirical, evidence-based medical research.
Progress and perspectives in digital holographic microscopy applied to life sciences

Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is a technique that allows obtaining, from a single recorded hologram, quantitative phase image of living cell with interferometric accuracy. Specifically the optical phase shift induced by the specimen on the transmitted wave front can be regarded as a powerful endogenous contrast agent, depending on both the thickness and the refractive index of the sample. The quantitative phase images allow the derivation of highly relevant cell parameters, including dry mass density and spatial distribution. Thanks to a decoupling procedure, cell thickness and intracellular refractive index can be measured separately. Consequently, cell morphology, shape as well as cell membrane fluctuations can be accurately monitor. As far as red blood cell are considered, Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), two highly relevant clinical parameters, have been measured non-invasively at a single cell level. The DHM nanometric axial and microsecond temporal sensitivities have permitted to measure the red blood cell membrane fluctuations (CMF) over the whole cell surface. In addition, the development of live-cell multimodality microscope combining fluorescence with digital holographic microscopy is presented. The biophysical cell parameters derived from the quantitative phase information in combination with the numerous different specific fluorescent cellular probes allow to this multimodality microscope to address various important issues in cell biology.
On the Edge of Reason: Planning and Urban Futures in Africa

The shift in planning theory from technical-instrumental to relational conceptions of rationality is helpful in relating to urban environments in Africa that are characterised by the intersection of multiple rationalities and also by spatially extensive and shifting networks of economic and social transaction. However, the relevance of contemporary planning theory is limited by its origins within the intellectual traditions and experiences of the West. If we are to engage effectively with the multiple rationalities that are shaping the cities of the world-cities that are increasingly centred in the global South-then we must bring Western intellectual tradition into a critical relationship with the epistemologies, rationalities and value-based traditions of the non-Occidental world. This paper argues that post-colonial literature and theory may provide some of the intellectual resources needed to sustain such an engagement, as post-colonial thought directs attention to the hybrid intellectual formations and practices that emerge in the on-going interaction between colonised and coloniser. By using Johannesburg as the prism through which to look at cities and at planning, this paper provides some thoughts on how to construct an 'other way' of thinking that is situated both within and outside dominant representations.
Optimization of Thermosyphon Solar Water Heaters Using TRNSYS . Part 2 : Parametric Study Using a Modified TRNSYS Model

M.J.R. Abdunnabi , and D.L. Loveday 2 Center for Solar Energy Research and Studies, Tajoura, P.O. Box 12932 Tripoli Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK Abstract. This paper is concerned with the use of TRNSYS to study the effect on performance of the design parameters of a direct thermosyphon solar water heater. Changing some design parameters in the current version of the Type45 model in TRNSYS16 without incorporating the accompanied changes in the main collector and tank characteristics performance ( τα R F , L RU F , t UA ) will probably led to inaccurate or incorrect results. In this study, a validated modified TRNSYS model that takes into account the changes in the collector and tank performance characteristics when changing some related design parameters is used. The study has shown that the modified TRNSYS model gives wider choices for conducting system parametric studies than is possible with the original TRNSYS model. The modified version is capable of use as a tool for optimizing the design of thermosyphon solar water heaters.
The Interorganizational Field as a Focus for Investigation

This paper takes the context of interorganizational behavior as an interorganizational field, within which specific interactions occur. An example of organizational interaction within such a field is presented by the numerous community decision organizations, such as urban renewal authorities, chambers of commerce, welfare councils, and antipoverty organizations, operating in American metropolitan communities. A typology of contexts for inclusive decision making derived from a preliminary study in three cities is used in analyzing interaction among these organizations. In the heuristic model developed, such organizations are considered the community's vehicles for the attemped maximization of specific values which become incompatible, however, when pressed beyond a certain threshold. Based on the analysis of this interorganizational field, suggestions are made for improving the "mix" of realized values which these organizations accomplish in their interaction. Roland L. Warren is professor of community theory at the Florence Heller Graduate School, Brandeis University.
Issues in determining factors influencing bacterial attachment: a review using the attachment of Escherichia coli to abiotic surfaces as an example

An understanding of the mechanisms which facilitate the attachment of Escherichia coli and other bacterial species to abiotic surfaces is desired by numerous industries including the food and medical industries. Numerous studies have attempted to explain bacterial attachment as a function of bacterial properties such as cellular surface charge, hydrophobicity and outer membrane proteins amongst others. Conflicting evidence in the literature both for and against a positive relationship may arise from the nature of the test methods used to measure them. A handful of recent studies utilizing technologies such as atomic force microscopy have begun to look at bacterial attachment at a single cell and molecular level. These studies may provide the information required to fully understand the underlying factors which influence bacterial cell attachment to abiotic surfaces. A number of issues in determining the influential factors of bacterial attachment have been identified from the literature: a lack of standardization and sensitivity of methods, as well as the value of measuring bulk properties of a number of cells rather than the behaviour of single cells which may overlook key interactions at a molecular level. These issues will need to be addressed in future studies in this area.
Read This Article, but Don’t Print It

This article contributes to the growing research interest on sustainability-directed citizenship behaviors by helping to develop the construct of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) toward the environment, defined as voluntary behavior not specified in official job descriptions that, through the combined efforts of individual employees, help to make the organization and/or society more sustainable. Hypotheses predict the extent to which employees’ beliefs about their organization and about sustainability in general will be associated with OCBs toward the environment. The hypotheses are tested via a field survey of 733 employees working in a variety of occupations. Regression results indicated that OCBs toward the environment were related to, yet distinct from, OCBs in general, perceived organizational support (POS), affective commitment (AC), and beliefs that sustainability is important both in general and for one’s current organization. The article concludes with theoretical implications for research on sustainability and extra-role behaviors as well as the practical implications for managers wishing to foster sustainability in their organization.
Intracellular metabolite profiling of Saccharomyces cerevisiae evolved under furfural

Furfural, one of the most common inhibitors in pre‐treatment hydrolysates, reduces the cell growth and ethanol production of yeast. Evolutionary engineering has been used as a selection scheme to obtain yeast strains that exhibit furfural tolerance. However, the response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to furfural at the metabolite level during evolution remains unknown. In this study, evolutionary engineering and metabolomic analyses were applied to determine the effects of furfural on yeasts and their metabolic response to continuous exposure to furfural. After 50 serial transfers of cultures in the presence of furfural, the evolved strains acquired the ability to stably manage its physiological status under the furfural stress. A total of 98 metabolites were identified, and their abundance profiles implied that yeast metabolism was globally regulated. Under the furfural stress, stress‐protective molecules and cofactor‐related mechanisms were mainly induced in the parental strain. However, during evolution under the furfural stress, S. cerevisiae underwent global metabolic allocations to quickly overcome the stress, particularly by maintaining higher levels of metabolites related to energy generation, cofactor regeneration and recovery from cellular damage. Mapping the mechanisms of furfural tolerance conferred by evolutionary engineering in the present study will be led to rational design of metabolically engineered yeasts.
Understanding the mechanisms of infant respiratory distress and chronic lung disease.

Respiratory distress syndrome in newborn infants (IRDS) is the most frequent respiratory cause of death and morbidity in children � 1 yr of age (1). Therapy for IRDS has been increasingly effective in reducing mortality at the expense of an increasing number of preterm survivors with chronic lung disease. This is particularly evident in extremely low birth weight (0.5‐1.0 kg) infants, born between 24 and 28 wk (2). The lungs of these infants are structurally immature, often surfactant-deficient, fluid filled, and not supported by a stiff chest wall (3), which enhances their susceptibility to lung injury. Recent pathology of chronic lung disease (CLD) differs from that described previously by Northway and colleagues (4) in that the lungs are more uniformly inflated and have minimal airway injury, but demonstrate alveolar hypoplasia (5). CLD is a heterogeneous condition, with a variety of spectra; however, a cardinal event, which appears to be common to all types of CLD, is an inflammatory response. Inflammation can interfere with normal anatomic development of the airways and alveoli, and can lead to lung tissue damage. This tissue damage is exacerbated by the fact that the healing process is generally abnormal in the premature infant due to immaturity. Consequently, excessive inflammation and abnormal healing can result in dysplasia and metaplasia of the respiratory system. Genetic Risk of Developing IRDS
Aktywność zawodowa studentów jako przykład pozaakademickiej działalności młodych ludzi

This article is about student’s professional activity apart from academical duties. The key goal of research was to discover the reasons why young people commit their free time to work while studying. It also was to find out how mentioned activity influence their future plans towards professional carrier. First part of this work contains explanation of basics connected to peoples aspirations which is present in every human life. Second part is based on methodological assumption, defines the aim and goal of research and therefore it contains the results of research. The results let to define certain conclusions. There is variety of reasons why youth undertake work while studying. Some want to identify their professional aspirations and some got another causes which are not connected with the career.
Finding Needles in Large-Scale Multivariate Data Haystacks

In this article, the author describe issues of scale that arise at all stages of the visual exploration process and give examples of some solutions to these problems that his group at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have experimented with over the past several years. While the work has predominantly focused on nonspatial multivariate data analysis, he feels that many of the concepts and approaches described are relevant to the visualization of other types of data and information.
Parenting for Cognitive Development from 1950 to 2000

Over the second half of the twentieth century, changes occurred in parent reports of their engagement in cognitive activities with their young children in the United States. This article argues that the growing trend of parenting for cognitive development in young children in the latter half of the twentieth century is associated with the institutionalization of mass schooling and the legitimization of cognitive development as a central feature of early childhood. The results show that all parents increasingly spent more time engaging in activities related to cognitive development so that by 1991, it was normative behavior. In addition, the results show that mothers’ education became an increasingly better predictor of parenting for cognitive development over the second half of the twentieth century but in the last decade of the twentieth century, the association with mothers’ education remained constant or diminished slightly as all families increasingly engaged in cognitive development activities.
Professional Musicians' Approaches to the Learning and Interpretation of Music

The purpose of this study was to investigate the approaches of professional musicians to the learning and interpretation of music. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 practising freelance musicians spanning a wide range of age and experience and encompassing most of the traditional orchestral instruments. The findings were considered in relation to current psychological models of adult learning and intellectual development. Pask's (1976) model of learning provided appropriate categorisations for many of the statements made by the musicians, although intuitive and analytic approaches were also identified. In addition, considerable individual diversity was identified in the level of spontaneity or planning considered acceptable in relation to performance. The intellectual developmental scheme proposed by Perry (1970) also provided an appropriate basis for considering differential levels of musical development. Educational implications and criteria for the formulation of future models to account for the learning and interpretation of music are discussed.
Pleural effusion as a significant prognostic factor in non-small cell lung cancer.

UNLABELLED In non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), pleural effusion is a frequently observed complication, and often provides a treatment difficulties. The aim of this study is to evaluate prognostic significance of pleural effusion in patients with NSCLC. MATERIALS AND METHODS Seven hundred and eight untreated patients with NSCLC who were consecutively admitted to our department over a 20 year period up to December 1996, were analyzed using uni- and multivariate analyses. RESULTS Univariate analysis showed pleural effusion to be a significant prognostic factor for NSCLC, in addition to gender, stage, performance status(PS). Multivariate analysis proved pleural effusion to be one of the significant prognostic factors, especially in patients with poor PS. CONCLUSION Adequate palliative care to provide prolonged quality survival remains the primary goal of therapy for patients with poor performance status and pleural effusion until better treatments are developed.
Architecture Alignment in a Large Government Organization: A Case Study

In this paper we view IT architecture as the structures present in the entire information technology support used by an organization. Research into IT architecture either is of a strategic nature, yielding no operational guidelines for the practicing IT-architect, or it is part of software engineering, yielding no guidelines that related software architecture to the business environment. In this paper we report on a detailed case study of an operational IT architecture process, in which we investigated the relationship between IT architecture and business context. We analyze this process in terms of a conceptual framework for IT architecture presented earlier. The major findings are that in this case study there is a close relationship between IT architecture and the structure of the IT department, which makes IT architecture design also a problem of organizational design; that application architecture is designed by aligning applications to the business process structure; and that IT infrastructure architecture is designed by aligning it to technological trends rather than to business goals and problems. This paper reports about a single case study done in a series of case studies. We discuss the generalizability of the findings from this case study, and discuss topics for further research.
Image Detail Enhancement Techniques-A Brief Review

Image enhancement is required to improve the image quality so that the resultant image is better than the original image for a specific application or set of objectives. Image enhancement is the task of applying certain alterations to an input image like as to obtain a more visually pleasing image. Many images such as medical images, remote sensing images, electron microscopy images and even real life photographic pictures, suffer from poor contrast. Therefore it is necessary to enhance the contrast. The purpose of image enhancement methods is to increase image visibility and details. Two major classifications of image enhancement techniques are spatial domain enhancement and frequency domain enhancement. However, these techniques bring about tonal changes in the images and can also generate unwanted artifacts in many cases, as it is not possible to enhance all parts of the image in balanced manner. I.INTRODUCTION Image Enhancement is one of the most important and difficult techniques in image research. The aim of image enhancement is to improve the visual appearance of an image, or to provide a “better transform representation for future automated image processing. The detail enhancement technique is really an extensively used image editing tool. Active detail enhancement algorithms provide edge-reserving decomposition algorithms. Any source image is initially decomposed in a base layer which usually is by means of homogeneous areas together with well-defined ends and a depth level which usually is made up of great information or even structure with the edgepreserving decomposition algorithm, after which a new detail-enhanced image is manufactured by amplifying the
Relationship among plasma amino acids, C-reactive protein, illness severity, and outcome in critically ill dogs.

BACKGROUND Alterations in circulating amino acids have been documented in animal models and in critically ill people but have not been evaluated in dogs with spontaneously occurring disease. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES To compare amino acid concentrations in critically ill dogs and healthy controls and to investigate potential relationships among amino acids, markers of inflammation, illness severity, and clinical outcome. ANIMALS Forty-eight critically ill dogs and 24 healthy control dogs. METHODS Plasma was analyzed for amino acids and C-reactive protein (CRP) was measured in serum. The Fischer ratio (the molar ratio of branched chain amino acids [BCAA] to aromatic amino acids [AAA]) and survival prediction index (SPI2) were calculated. RESULTS Median CRP concentrations were significantly higher in the critically ill dogs compared with controls (P < .001). Critically ill dogs had significantly lower concentrations of alanine (P= .001), arginine (P < .001), citrulline (P < .001), glycine (P < .001), methionine (P < .001), proline (P < .001), and serine (P= .001) but significantly higher concentrations of lysine (P= .02) and phenylalanine (P < .001; Table 1). This pattern resulted in a significantly lower Fischer ratio (P= .001) in the critically ill group. Median SPI2 score was significantly higher in dogs that survived (P= .03). Concentrations of arginine (P= .02), isoleucine (P= .01), leucine (P= .04), serine (P= .04), valine (P= .04), total BCAA (P= .03), and the Fischer ratio (P= .03) were significantly higher in survivors compared with nonsurvivors. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE Critically ill dogs have altered amino acid profiles and additional research to investigate potential benefits of amino acid supplementation is warranted.
Sensing-Based Spectrum Sharing in Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper, a new spectrum-sharing model called sensing-based spectrum sharing is proposed for cognitive radio networks. This model consists of two phases: In the first phase, the secondary user (SU) listens to the spectrum allocated to the primary user (PU) to detect the state of the PU; in the second phase, the SU adapts its transit power based on the sensing results. If the PU is inactive, the SU allocates the transmit power based on its own benefit. However, if the PU is active, the interference power constraint is imposed to protect the PU. Under this new model, the evaluation of the ergodic capacity of the SU is formulated as an optimization problem over the transmit power and the sensing time. Due to the complexity of this problem, two simplified versions, which are referred to as the perfect sensing case and the imperfect sensing case, are studied in this paper. For the perfect sensing case, the Lagrange dual decomposition is applied to derive the optimal power allocation policy to achieve the ergodic capacity. For the imperfect sensing case, an iterative algorithm is developed to obtain the optimal sensing time and the corresponding power allocation strategy. Finally, numerical results are presented to validate the proposed studies. It is shown that the SU can achieve a significant capacity gain under the proposed model, compared with that under the opportunistic spectrum access or the conventional spectrum sharing model.
Machine Learning Models of the Tongue Shape during Speech

Abstract. We describe our ongoing work on data-driven models of the tong ue shape. Recording techniques such as EMA and X-ray microbeam track the position of 3–4 pellets on the tongue. Our models allow a realis tic reconstruction of the full shape of the tongue with submillimetric accuracy f rom the location of these pellets, and rapid adaptation of an existing model t rained with lots of data from one speaker to a new speaker for which little data is a vail ble. These reconstruction models are useful in several applications, such as to display the tongue in a talking head animation, to visualise the vocal tr act in speech production, therapy and learning, to track more robustly a signal ( such as the speech or the ultrasound image), or in articulatory inversion and s ynthesis.