Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tense as a clinical marker in English L2 acquisition with language delay/impairment

This study examines the use of tense- and non-tense-marking morphology over time by a group of English L2 children with typical language development and two English L2 children with language delay/impairment. The aim was to ascertain whether the Extended Optional Infinitive (EOI) account characterized the acquisition patterns displayed by the affected children, suggesting that tense functions as a clinical marker in impaired L2 as well as L1 English. Results showed that the two children with language delay/impairment displayed a hybrid pattern between typical child L2 English and L1-based EOI characteristics. The difference in age of English acquisition onset between L1 and L2 is put forward as a potential explanation for the dissimilar patterns between L1 and L2 impaired acquisition.
Range‐wide movement patterns of Hawaiian monk seals

THEA C. JOHANOS, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1601 Kapiolani Boulevard, Honolulu, Hawaii 96814, U.S.A. ; ALBERT L. HARTING, Harting Biological Consulting, 8898 Sandy Creek Lane, Bozeman, Montana 59715, U.S.A. ; TRACY A. WURTH, Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, U.S.A. ; JASON D. BAKER, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1601 Kapiolani Boulevard, Honolulu, Hawaii 96814, U.S.A.
Opening the Black Box of Communication Policy-Making: Analysing Policy Change Through the Lenses of Networks and Discourse

The paper adds a new perspective to the existing research on communication policy by proposing a methodological framework for the study of policy-making processes and the role of discourse within policy debates. The focus is on the creation of policy discourse on communication issues taking place in intergovernmental settings. In order to compare or evaluate policy initiatives, we need to understand how initiatives come about in the complex and highly politicized settings of international organizations that have the particularity of regrouping actors with very diverse backgrounds and interests. But instead of analyzing the interests, ideas and power relations of the individual and organizational actors involved, the paper proposes to look at policy ideas as the outcome of discursive struggles among networks of actors. It not simply asks which ideas are taken up in policy debates, but questions how it comes that certain ideas come to be adopted as the dominant thinking in intergovernmental policy-making bodies. Based on a critical review of Foucault’s notions of discourse, knowledge and power, the paper elaborates a methodological approach that combines Argumentative Discourse Analysis (ADA) ­­– initiated as Argumentative Policy Analysis by Frank Fischer and John Forester and further developed by Marteen Hajer – with the conceptual ideas of Actor-Network Theory (ANT), as developed by Michel Callon, Bruno Latour and John Law. While the first approach is used to assess the argumentative structures and narratives constituting the discourses behind main policy ideas, the later is chosen in order to describe the actors, processes and practices leading to these ideas.
Graph-based representation for multiview image coding

In this paper, we propose a new representation for multiview image sets. Our approach relies on graphs to describe geometry information in a compact and controllable way. The links of the graph connect pixels in different images and describe the proximity between pixels in the 3D space. These connections are dependent on the geometry of the scene and provide the right amount of information that is necessary for coding and reconstructing multiple views. This multiview image representation is very compact and adapts the transmitted geometry information as a function of the complexity of the prediction performed at the decoder side. To achieve this, our GBR adapts the accuracy of the geometry representation, in contrast with depth coding, which directly compresses with losses the original geometry signal. We present the principles of this graph-based representation (GBR) and we build a complete prototype coding scheme for multiview images. Experimental results demonstrate the potential of this new representation as compared to a depth-based approach. GBR can achieve a gain of 2 dB in reconstructed quality over depth-based schemes operating at similar rates.
A Particle Filtering Approach for On-Line Failure Prognosis in a Planetary Carrier Plate

This paper introduces an on-line particle-filtering-based framework for failure prognosis in nonlinear, non-Gaussian systems. This framework uses a nonlinear state-space model of the plant (with unknown time-varying parameters) and a particle filtering (PF) algorithm to estimate the probability density function (pdf) of the state in real-time. The state pdf estimate is then used to predict the evolution in time of the fault indicator, obtaining as a result the pdf of the remaining useful life (RUL) for the faulty subsystem. This approach provides information about the precision and accuracy of long-term predictions, RUL expectations, and 95% confidence intervals for the condition under study. Data from a seeded fault test for a UH-60 planetary carrier plate are used to validate the proposed methodology.
New supernova candidates from the SDSS-DR7 spectral survey

This letter presents 25 supernova candidates discovered from SDSS-DR7 by using our dedicated method, called Sample Decrease. Ten of them have been confirmed by other research groups, while the remaining 15, including 14 Type Ia and one Type II, are first discovered based on Supernova Identification analysis. The results demonstrate that our method is reliable. The description of the method and some detailed spectral analysis procedures are also presented.
Effects of 22 years of re-vegetation on soil quality in the semi-arid area of the Loess Plateau

Re-vegetation is an important practice for eco-environmental rebuilding of degraded environments. Accordingly, re-vegetation has been widely used to reduce erosion and protect soils against degradation in the Loess Plateau. However, little research has been conducted to study the effects of long-term re-vegetation on soil properties, which is essential to reveal corresponding changes in soil quality. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the influence of 22 years of re-vegetation on soil quality in a semi-arid area. Soil samples were collected from a bare slope, a re-vegetated northern slope and a re-vegetated southern slope. The soil properties were then determined and the soil quality indices were calculated. The results showed that long-term re-vegetation significantly improved soil properties in the Loess Plateau, but that the effects of re-vegetation varied with slope aspect, slope position and soil depth. The greatest improvement in soil properties was observed in topsoil, on northern slopes and in lower positions of the slopes. Significant correlations were observed among soil chemical properties (including organic matter and total N contents) and soil enzymatic activities. Total nitrogen and organic matter content, activities of urease, invertase and alkaline-phosphatase could all be combined into one factor to indicate soil quality and characterize the distribution of soil properties along slopes. The resulting soil quality index (SQI) can effectively reflect the changes in soil quality in response to 22 years of re-vegetation in the Loess Plateau.
Object Classification in a High-Level Sensor Data Fusion Architecture for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

Reliable estimation of an object's type is an important aspect of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving applications. A type-specific ADAS reaction or object prediction can therefore be realized, improving the performance of the system. Object detection research usually focuses strongly on the state and existence estimation of detected objects. In this paper, an approach is presented for estimating an the class type of an object within the framework of a high-level sensor data fusion architecture. A novel classification fusion approach using the Dempster-Shafer evidence theory is presented. The performance of the algorithms are evaluated using a test vehicle with 12 sensors for surround environment perception in an overtaking scenario on a closed test track and on the highway in real traffic.
Using NAND Flash memory to improve the performance of HDDs

Recently the Hard Disk Driver (HDD) manufacturers have begun using the Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) as cache memory to improve the HDD performance. In this paper we use an additional NAND Flash memory as a second level cache memory for that purpose. The NAND Flash memories have some advantages over both the HDD and the DRAM cache, such as faster access time, smaller size and larger capacity. First, we design a Solid State Disk (SSD) by using the NAND Flash memory. The SSD is connected to a PC system by means of the Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) bus. Then, by using software, we combine the HDD and the SSD into one storage device of the PC. The Operating System (OS) will save files to the different storage devices according to the sizes and uses of the files. When the user wants to open the frequently used programs, the system reads data from the SSD in order to avoid any HDD mechanical access head delay. We utilize this mixed architecture to improve the performance of the whole PC system.
Agents on the Web: Benevolent Agents

Some agents roaming the Web these days are benevolent-for example, they may clean up stalled or failed database transactions, or share query results that may have cost substantial resources to acquire and might consume more to share. The Agent Behavior Testbed is a tool for studying the economics of agent altruism. As more agents hit the Internet, benevolence and cooperation will help with overall efficiency and productivity. The paper discusses benevolent agents on the Web.
Hybrid System to Moving Object Identification in Digital Video Clip

— Digital video has become very important form of information technology and is now used in many different areas, such as teleconferencing, mobile telephone, surveillance, and entertainment. Therefore, in this paper, we attempt propose a hybrid system to moving object identification in digital video clip. That system include four stages: the first stage is opening Audio/ Video Interleaved file (AVI) Video file which is called RIFF. AVI, second stage is segmented one of video frames using segmentation techniques presented in Thresholding technique. While the third stage used Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), The role of transform is to make the frame's energy as compact as possible, which means making just small number of transformed coefficients with large values while the magnitude of most of the rest coefficient is quite small, or zero. It should be noted that transform itself does not produce any compression, instead, its task is to produce a format, then extraction features from wavelet transform Coefficients includes (Momentum Features) and we used these features as inputs to training neural network. The fourth stage which is used to identify the moving object in digital video clip using Radial Basis Function (RBF) Network.
Ductal Injection Does Not Increase the Islet Yield or Function after Cold Storage in a Vascular Perfusion Model

Several studies have reported that pancreatic ductal preservation greatly improved the islet yield and function after cold storage. However, these studies were devoid of appropriate controls, such as vascular perfusion, which is routinely performed to preserve organs in the clinical setting. In this study, we created a vascular perfusion model using inbred rats, and investigated the effect of ductal injection on the islet yield and function after cold storage. Rat pancreases after 10 h cold ischemia were classified as follows: without ductal/vascular perfusion; with ductal injection; with vascular perfusion; and with ductal/vascular perfusion. The islet yield, function, viability, release of inflammatory mediators, and pathological changes in the exocrine tissues were assessed in the Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS) model. The islet yield was also assesed by introducing University of Wisconsin Solution (UWS) and Histidine-Tryptophan-Ketoglutarate solution (HTK), which are the standard clinical preservation solutions. In the HBSS model, ductal injection and vascular perfusion significantly improved the islet yield compared with the control group. However, ductal injection showed no additional effects on the islet yield, function, viability and suppressing the release of inflammatory mediators when vascular perfusion was performed. Although ductal injection significantly decreased the apoptosis of exocrine cells, no beneficial effect on vacuolation was observed. In contrast, vascular perfusion significantly suppressed vacuolation in the exocrine tissues. Likewise, in the UWS and HTK model, ductal injection and vascular perfusion improved the islet yield compared with the control group. Nevertheless, the combination group showed no additional effects. These data suggest that ductal injection has no additional effect on islet yield and function after cold storage in a vascular perfusion model. We propose that ductal injection can be an effective and simple alternative for vascular perfusion prior to pancreas harvest, but is not necessary in most cases, since vascular perfusion is routinely performed.
Emergence of cyclic guanosine 3':5'-monophosphate-dependent protein kinase immunoreactivity in developing rhesus monkey cerebellum: correlative immunocytochemical and electron microscopic analysis

The appearance of cyclic guanosine 3′:5′-monophosphate-dependent protein kinase (cGK), an enzyme that may be involved in the regulation of various aspects of neuronal function and that is highly concentrated in cerebellar Purkinje cells, was studied in the developing and adult monkey cerebellum by indirect immunofluorescent staining. The appearance and distribution of cGK immunoreactivity were then correlated with the stages of Purkinje cell differentiation and with the establishment of synaptic inputs to Purkinje cells as revealed by electron microscopy and by the presence of synapsin I, a specific nerve terminal marker. In the adult monkey, in analogy with previous observations in the adult rat, cGK immunoreactivity was detected throughout the cytoplasm of all Purkinje cells and was not seen in other neurons. During ontogenesis, cGK immunoreactivity appeared for the first time in Purkinje cells at the 97th embryonic day (E97). On this day it was detectable in Purkinje cells situated in the posterior lobe concurrently with the emergence of synapsin I immunoreactivity surrounding their somata. The cGK-positive cells had entered the phase of rapid dendritic growth and had begun establishing axosomatic synapses. By E102, Purkinje cells in the posterior lobe and in most of the anterior lobe were cGK positive. By E125, all Purkinje cells had received synaptic contacts and had become cGK positive. In addition to typical Purkinje cells situated in the cortex, we found another population of cGK-positive neurons present transiently in the prospective cerebellar white matter. These neurons, which were observed only during the second half of gestation, had morphological similarities to Purkinje cells. The emergence of cGK in these neurons also coincided with their dendritic proliferation and with the appearance of synapsin I immunoreactivity around their cell bodies. Subcortical cGK-positive cells were not observed in postnatal animals. Such neurons may be Purkinje cells which, failing to reach the cortical plate, subsequently degenerate. The close temporal correlation between appearance of cGK immunoreactivity, onset of synaptic inputs, and dendritic proliferation, both in typical Purkinje cells and in the Purkinje cell-like cells in subcortical areas, suggests that expression of high levels of cGK may be an important aspect of the neuronal differentiation of these cells.
Promoter Methylation of SFRP3 Is Frequent in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Oncogenic activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is common in human cancers. The secreted frizzled-related proteins (SFRPs) function as negative regulators of Wnt signaling and have important implications in carcinogenesis. Because there have been no reports about the role of SFRP3 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we investigated the level of methylation and transcription of SFRP3. Four HCC cell lines, 60 HCCs, 23 cirrhosis livers, 37 chronic hepatitis livers, and 30 control livers were prescreened for SFRP3 promoter methylation by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MS-PCR) and bisulfite sequencing. SFRP3 promoter methylation was observed in 100%, 60%, 39.1%, 16.2%, and 0% in HCC cell lines, primary HCCs, cirrhosis livers, chronic hepatitis livers, and control livers, respectively. Demethylation treatment with 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine in HCC cells restored or increased the SFRP3 mRNA expression. We next used quantitative MS-PCR (QMSP) to analyze the methylation level of SFRP3 in 60 HCCs and their corresponding nontumor tissues. Methylation of SFRP3 promoter region in HCCs increased significantly compared with control tissues. There is a positive correlation between promoter hypermethylation and SFRP3 mRNA downregulation. Our data suggest that promoter hypermethylation of SFRP3 is a common event in HCCs and plays an important role in regulation of SFRP3 mRNA expression.
Perfusion MRI Derived Indices of Microvascular Shunting and Flow Control Correlate with Tumor Grade and Outcome in Patients with Cerebral Glioma

Objectives Deficient microvascular blood flow control is thought to cause tumor hypoxia and increase resistance to therapy. In glioma patients, we tested whether perfusion-weighted MRI (PWI) based indices of microvascular flow control provide more information on tumor grade and patient outcome than does the established PWI angiogenesis marker, cerebral blood volume (CBV). Material and Methods Seventy-two glioma patients (sixty high-grade, twelve low-grade gliomas) were included. Capillary transit time heterogeneity (CTH) and the coefficient of variation (COV), its ratio to blood mean transit time, provide indices of microvascular flow control and the extent to which oxygen can be extracted by tumor tissue. The ability of these parameters and CBV to differentiate tumor grade were assessed by receiver operating characteristic curves and logistic regression. Their ability to predict time to progression and overall survival was examined by the Cox proportional-hazards regression model, and by survival curves using log-rank tests. Results The best prediction of grade (AUC = 0.876; p < 0.05) was achieved by combining knowledge of CBV and CTH in the enhancing tumor and peri-focal edema, and patients with glioblastoma multiforme were identified best by CTH (AUC = 0.763; p<0.001). CTH outperformed CBV and COV in predicting time to progression and survival in all gliomas and in a subgroup consisting of only high-grade gliomas. Conclusion Our study confirms the importance of microvascular flow control in tumor growth by demonstrating that determining CTH improves tumor grading and outcome prediction in glioma patients compared to CBV alone.
Routing approach in CarTALK 2000 project

This invention consists of a strip of covered feather-boning having a plurality of snap fasteners or the like adapted to secure the aforesaid strip to the underside of a strip of tape that is secured to that part of a sleeveless dress from which the arm of a lady extends. A plurality of plastic rings are secured by any desired means in longitudinal spaced relation to one another to the underside of the aforesaid featherboning.
Halving lines and measure concentration in the plane

Given a set P of n points in the plane and a collection of k halving lines of P l<sub>1</sub>, . , l<sub>k</sub>, indexed according to the increasing order of their slopes, we denote by d(l<sub>j</sub>,l<sub>j+1</sub>) the number of points in P that lie above l<sub>j+1</sub> and below l<sub>j</sub>. We prove an upper bound of 3nk<sup>1/3</sup> for the sum sum<sub>j=1</sub><sup>k-1</sup>d(l<sub>j</sub>,l<sub>j+1</sub>). We show how this problem is related to the halving lines problem and provide several consequences about measure concentration in R<sup>2</sup>.
Women managing women: An holistic relational approach to managing relationships at work

Abstract With women representing nearly half of the workforce in Western countries, it is likely that a woman will have a woman manager and/or employees at some point during her working life. In our research, we worked collaboratively with 13 New Zealand women to develop personal and organisational responses when hierarchical relationships between women become strained. We identified four interlinked strategies at the personal and organisational level: developing awareness of the existence and nature of the conflict, enhancing personal and relational skills such as confidence and communication, building support networks within and outside the organisation, and finding acceptance when change is needed. Taking a gendered relational perspective, we propose that responses to a strained relationship need to be considered within the broader personal, organisational, societal and temporal context within which the relationship is situated. Therefore, we propose a more holistic relational and context-focussed framework to create an environment more conducive to understanding and positive change.
A POLYLOGARITHMIC BOUND FORAN ITERATIVE SUBSTRUCTURING METHODFOR SPECTRAL ELEMENTS IN THREE DIMENSIONSLUCA

Iterative substructuring methods form an important family of domain decomposition algorithms for elliptic nite element problems. A p-version nite element method based on continuous, piecewise Q p functions is considered for second order elliptic problems in three dimensions; this special method can also be viewed as a conforming spectral element method. An iterative method is designed for which the condition number of the relevant operator grows only in proportion to (1 + log p) 2 : This bound is independent of jumps in the coeecient of the elliptic problem across the interfaces between the subregions. Numerical results are also reported which support the theory. The iterative substructuring methods form an important family of domain decomposition methods for elliptic problems. They are based on a decomposition of the given region into nonoverlapping subregions and, as all other domain decomposition methods, provide preconditioners for conjugate gradient type methods. The preconditioners are constructed from solvers for local problems and, in addition, a solver of a coarse problem similar to that used in a multi-grid algorithm. However, the global, coarse problem can be quite exotic; see, e.g., Dryja, Smith, and Widlund 20] and Widlund 52]. When an iterative substructuring method is used, data is only exchanged between neighboring local problems through their boundary values. In this they diier from the Schwarz methods that use overlapping subregions; see, e.g., Dryja and Widlund 23, 24] for a discussion of recent work on this other major family of methods. We also note that similar results, for higher order methods and both two and three dimensions, are given in Pavarino 43, 42]. All these iterative methods are thus two-level methods and convincing arguments have been put forward supporting the opinion that they are particularly well suited for the large, relatively loosely coupled computing systems that are becoming increasingly common; cf. Gropp 29]. The best of these algorithms have proven quite powerful and very large and very ill-conditioned systems of linear algebraic equations, arising when elliptic problems are discretized by nite elements and nite diierences, have