Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MODELING THE PRODUCTION OF COVERBAL ICONIC GESTURES BY LEARNING BAYESIAN DECISION NETWORKS

Expressing spatial information with iconic gestures is abundant in human communication and requires transforming information about a referent into resembling gestural form. This transformation is barely understood and hard to model for expressive virtual agents because it is influenced by the visuospatial features of the referent and the overall discourse context or concomitant speech and its outcome varies considerably across different speakers. We use Bayesian decision networks (BDN) to achieve such a model. Different machine learning techniques are applied to a data corpus of speech and gesture use in a spatial domain to investigate how to learn such networks. Modeling results from an implemented generation system are presented and evaluated against the original corpus data to find out how BDNs can be applied to human gesture formation and which structure learning algorithm performs best.
Simple construction of biased distribution

biased distribution has many applications in practice, including universal hashing computation. In this paper we will improve an existing -biased distribution construction due to Alon et al. [2] that requires to uniformly and efficiently sample irreducible polynomials of a large degree, e.g. between 80 and 160. To remove the need for such a sampling which can be computationally expensive, we will replace the irreducible polynomials by random monic polynomials of higher degree, i.e. every degree r monic polynomial whether irreducible or reducible is selected with the same probability 2−r. To analyse the security of the scheme, we need to find the maximum number of degree r polynomials that divide a degree n polynomial where n > r. We end this paper by pointing out another use of our result in the fundamental problems of identity polynomial and primality testing in number theory
Novel Insider Threat Techniques: Automation and Generation of Ad Hoc Digital Evidence

It is well-known that in today's information systems the vast majority of threats are coming from outside. In order to mitigate the effects of those threats several countermeasures have been proposed. Conversely, the same approach has not been adopted against insider threats, since such menaces come from the inside. Indeed, insiders are not considered enemies and so less attention have been focused on them. Also, what is worst is that who acts from the inside have remarkably more access rights to information if compared to the external attackers. In this work we show how to perform some actions on behalf of someone else that is unaware of the actions are being carried out. If those actions are illicit or illegal, this can become a serious problem that can result in the indictment of who will be considered responsible. Moreover, in order to validate our proposal, we consider the adoption of two different techniques. The first one is to automate as much as possible the actions to be performed by an insider. The second one is to prepare ad hoc digital evidence to thwart an investigation aimed at establishing the dynamics of the malicious activity. Clearly, the combination of these two techniques will amplify and magnify the effects of the nasty activity and will result also in a more difficult identification of the guilty party. Finally, this paper illustrates some typical scenarios where the proposed approach can be easily adopted and shows that recent technologies and devices can be more and more powerful tools in the hands of malicious insiders.
Design of a Novel Power-on-Reset Circuit Based on Power Supply Detector

A Power-on-Reset circuit of novel simple structure and high reliability is proposed. The circuit has been designed in 0.5um Bipolar CMOS technology. The simulation was performed with 0.5um CSMC process model and Cadence Spectre and the results show that the circuit has a stable and reliable performance. With the differences of supply voltage’s ramp rate, temperature and process, the change of threshold voltage is in small distribution.
Commodity Demands and Female Labour-Supply over the Life-Cycle

This paper outlines a methodology to identify the preference parameters that characterize household behaviour over the life-cycle, through the specification and estimation of a model of individual behaviour. The focus of this research is directed towards commodity demands, female labour supply and the intertemporal allocation of lifetime wealth. Empirical estimates of the parameters of interest are reported at the end of this paper.
Natural killer cells trigger osteoclastogenesis and bone destruction in arthritis

Osteoclasts are bone-eroding cells that develop from monocytic precursor cells in the presence of receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL) and macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF). Osteoclasts are essential for physiological bone remodeling, but localized excessive osteoclast activity is responsible for the periarticular bone destruction that characteristically occurs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The origin of osteoclasts at sites of bone erosion in RA is unknown. Natural killer (NK) cells, as well as monocytes, are abundant in the inflamed joints of patients with RA. We show here that such NK cells express both RANKL and M-CSF and are frequently associated with CD14+ monocytes in the RA synovium. Moreover, when synovial NK cells are cocultured with monocytes in vitro, they trigger their differentiation into osteoclasts, a process dependent on RANKL and M-CSF. As in RA, NK cells in the joints of mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) express RANKL. Depletion of NK cells from mice before the induction of CIA reduces the severity of subsequent arthritis and almost completely prevents bone erosion. These results suggest that NK cells may play an important role in the destruction of bone associated with inflammatory arthritis.
Monetary Policy with Endogenous Money and Liquidity Preference: A Nondualistic Treatment

Abstract: This paper builds on a synthesis of endogenous money and liquidity preference theory to address the mechanisms by which monetary policy takes effect. We focus on the United Kingdom, under a range of institutional arrangements. Rather than operating solely by means of “the” exogenous interest rate, we consider the real process by which the central bank exerts its influence on the banking system, and how that is transmitted to the credit market and the money market. The focus is on process rather than equilibrium, and on the state of expectations, departing from the usual dualism between the interest rate and the money supply.
The Effect of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations on Academics’ Entrepreneurial Intention

This work investigates entrepreneurial intentions among academic scientists. Drawing from the literature on entrepreneurial behavior, it contributes to delineate the differences in motivations that are correlated with entrepreneurial intention to those that are considered to be linked to entrepreneurial behaviors. By disentangling the concept of motivations in its ultimately basic constructs of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, we investigate how these two different types of motivations are related to the formation of entrepreneurial intention at the level of academic scientists. Through a survey conducted at the University of Ferrara—one of the leading universities in Italy in terms of technology transfer and scientific production—findings reveal that while academic entrepreneurial intention seems to be mostly driven by intrinsic motivations, the effect of extrinsic motivations, which are regarded as a main antecedent of entrepreneurial behavior among scientists, are largely mediated by academic positions, work environment and different combinations of these two factors. This work therefore highlights the importance of social norms in the investigation of entrepreneurial intention in academia.
Is RX J1856.5–3754 a Quark Star?

Deep Chandra Low Energy Transmission Grating and High Resolution Camera spectroscopic observations of the isolated neutron star candidate RX J1856.5-3754 have been analyzed to search for metallic and resonance cyclotron spectral features and for pulsation behavior. As found from earlier observations, the X-ray spectrum is well represented by an ~60 eV (7 × 105 K) blackbody. No unequivocal evidence of spectral line or edge features has been found, arguing against metal-dominated models. The data contain no evidence for pulsation, and we place a 99% confidence upper limit of 2.7% on the unaccelerated pulse fraction over a wide frequency range from 10-4 to 100 Hz. We argue that the derived interstellar medium neutral hydrogen column density of 8 × 1019 cm-2 ≤ NH ≤ 1.1 × 1020 cm-2 favors the larger distance from two recent Hubble Space Telescope parallax analyses, placing RX J1856.5-3754 at ~140 pc instead of ~60 pc and in the outskirts of the R CrA dark molecular cloud. That such a comparatively rare region of high interstellar matter (ISM) density is precisely where an isolated neutron star reheated by accretion of ISM would be expected is either entirely coincidental or current theoretical arguments excluding this scenario for RX J1856.5-3754 are premature. Taken at face value, the combined observational evidence—a lack of spectral and temporal features and an implied radius of R∞ = 3.8-8.2 km that is too small for current neutron star models—points to a more compact object, such as allowed for quark matter equations of state.
Ubiquitous fall detection through wireless channel state information

Falls have always been source of injuries and fatalities. There can be various reasons for falls from medical conditions to loss of balance. Fall detection in the labs is based on video recordings while ubiquitous methods utilize inertial sensors. These methods require a lot of data processing consequently much power is utilized. In this paper, we propose a fall detection method which does not require inertial sensing nodes thus reduces computation and power requirements. Previous methods have either used received signal strength as monitoring parameter which is quite unstable or uses ambient monitoring points sensing through which remains disturbed by environmental noise and obstacles. We are proposing a novel ubiquitous wireless nodes deployment on the subject's body to minimize noise interferences. Fall has been detected using wireless sensing physical layer channel state information (CSI). The human body acts as an obstacle for the wireless signals generating unique signature with respect to the activity performed which can be estimated using CSI. This CSI information is available in new 802.11n WLAN NICs. We argue that this signature should be best observed when both the sender and receiver nodes are deployed on the body due to minimum environmental interference. We have trained the system to identify these signatures and detect falls. We have also been able to differentiate falls from fall like activities such as squatting and sitting on chair with sufficient accuracy.
Which Behavior Is Best in a Fire Evacuation: Simulation with the Metro Supermarket of Hanoi

A problem arises in many fire evacuations, especially in a public site like a supermarket: what is better, following the one's own path, following the crowd, or following the evacuation signs which indicate the evacuation direction? This paper presents a model and simulations of these three behaviors in the realistic environment of the Metro supermarket of Hanoi. The simulations indicate that in case of a fire evacuation of the Metro supermarket of Hanoi: the average time to escape in case of following the evacuation signs is shorter and the power lost is lower than following the own path or following the crowd. Additionally, in the general view, following the evacuation signs got higher the % of survivals and lower the % of death than following the one's own path or following the crowd.
A Mechanism of Co-Existence of Bursting and Silent Regimes of Activities of a Neuron

The coexistence of bursting activity and silence is a common property of various neuronal models. We describe a novel mechanism explaining the coexistence of and the transition between these two regimes. It is based on the specific homoclinic and Andronov-Hopf bifurcations of the hyper-and depolarized steady states that determine the coexistence domain in the parameter space of the leech heart interneuron models: canonical and simplified. We found that a sub-critical Andronov-Hopf bifurcation of the hyperpolarized steady state gives rise to small amplitude sub-threshold oscillations terminating through the secondary homoclinic bifurcation. Near the corresponding boundary the system can exhibit long transition from bursting oscillations into silence, as well as the bi-stability where the observed regime is determined by the initial state of the neuron. The mechanism found is shown to be generic for the simplified 4D and the original 14D leech heart interneuron models.
Cross-correlation between the soft x-ray background and SZ Sky

While both X-ray emission and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) temperature fluctuations are generated by the warm-hot gas in dark matter halos, the two observables have different dependence on the underlying physical properties, including the gas distribution. A cross-correlation between the soft X-ray background (SXRB) and the SZ sky may allow an additional probe on the distribution of warm-hot gas at intermediate angular scales and redshifts complementing studies involving clustering within SXRB and SZ separately. Using a halo approach, we investigate this cross-correlation analytically. The two contributions are correlated mildly with a correlation coefficient of ∼0.3, and this relatively low correlation presents a significant challenge for its detection. The correlation, at small angular scales, is affected by the presence of radiative cooling or preheating and provides a probe on the thermal history of the hot gas in dark halos. While the correlation remains undetectable with CMB data from the WMAP satellite and X-ray background data from existing catalogs, upcoming observations with CMB missions such as Planck, for the SZ side, and an improved X-ray map of the large scale structure, such as the one planned with DUET mission, may provide a first opportunity for a reliable detection of this cross-correlation.
Enforcement Actions and Auditor Changes

Abstract In this paper, we examine whether the uncovering of erroneous financial statements by German enforcement agencies is related to subsequent auditor changes. We argue that enforcement actions are likely to reveal information about the client or its auditor, which might affect auditor choice by initiating an update of mutual expectations. Our empirical findings indicate that firms with erroneous financial statements indeed have an increased probability of subsequent auditor changes. Firms also tend to change from a non-Big4 auditor to a Big4 auditor in this situation, suggesting that clients increasingly seek the reputation and services of Big4 auditors. Big4 auditors in turn do not appear to refrain from taking over error-firms as new clients in the German setting, which is characterized by limited auditor liability. Additionally, auditor changes are more likely to occur before the public announcement of an error, indicating that firms take action as soon as the uncovering of an accounting error becomes sufficiently certain.
Reframing Success and Failure of Information Systems: A Performative Perspective

The paper questions common assumptions in the dominant representational framings of information systems success and failure and proposes a performative perspective that conceives IS success and failure as relational effects performed by sociomaterial practices of IS project actor-networks of developers, managers, technologies, project documents, methodologies, and other actors. Drawing from a controversial case of a highly innovative information system in an insurance company--considered a success and failure at the same time-- the paper reveals the inherent indeterminacy of IS success and failure and describes the mechanisms by which success and failure become performed and thus determined by sociomaterial practices. This is explained by exposing ontological politics in the reconfiguration and decomposition of the IS project actor-network and the emergence of different agencies of assessment that performed both different IS realities and competing IS assessments. The analysis shows that the IS project and the implemented system as objects of assessment are not given and fixed, but are performed by the agencies of assessment together with the assessment outcomes of success and failure. The paper demonstrates that by reframing IS success and failure, the performative perspective provides some novel and surprising insights that have a potential to change conversations on IS assessments in both the IS literature and IS practice.
Dimension Reduction and Classification Methods for Object Recognition in Vision

This paper addresses the challenging task of recognizing and locating objects in natural images. In computer vision, many successful approaches to object recognition use local image descriptors. Such descriptors do not require segmentation, in addition they are robust to partial occlusion and invariant to image transformations (particularly scale changes). Among the existing descriptors, a recent comparison [4] showed that the SIFT descriptor [2] was particularly robust. However, the SIFT descriptor is high-dimensional (typically 128-dimensional) and this penalizes classification. In this paper, we propose to use statistical dimension reduction techniques to obtain a more discriminant representation of data, in order to increase recognition results. We will first describe the two stages of the recognition process (See Fig. 1), learning and recognition, then we will present experimental results obtained on motorbikes images.
Patients' Perceptions of Nurses' Behaviour That Influence Patient Participation in Nursing Care: A Critical Incident Study

Patient participation is an important basis for nursing care and medical treatment and is a legal right in many Western countries. Studies have established that patients consider participation to be both obvious and important, but there are also findings showing the opposite and patients often prefer a passive recipient role. Knowledge of what may influence patients' participation is thus of great importance. The aim was to identify incidents and nurses' behaviours that influence patients' participation in nursing care based on patients' experiences from inpatient somatic care. The Critical Incident Technique (CIT) was employed. Interviews were performed with patients (n = 17), recruited from somatic inpatient care at an internal medical clinic in West Sweden. This study provided a picture of incidents, nurses' behaviours that stimulate or inhibit patients' participation, and patient reactions on nurses' behaviours. Incidents took place during medical ward round, nursing ward round, information session, nursing documentation, drug administration, and meal.
Hyperpolarization-activated inward current in ventricular myocytes from normal and failing human hearts.

BACKGROUND The hyperpolarization-activated inward current (I[f]) was found to be overexpressed in hypertrophied rat ventricular myocytes, indicating that I(f) might favor arrhythmias in hypertrophied or failing ventricular myocardium. In the present study, we evaluated whether I(f) is expressed in human ventricular myocardium, if it may be increased in human heart failure, and if its autonomic modulation may be altered. METHODS AND RESULTS The whole-cell patch-clamp technique was used to record I(f) in isolated ventricular myocytes from 34 failing (dilated [DCM] or ischemic [ICM] cardiomyopathy) and 13 donor hearts (NF). I(f) was observed in all myocytes showing typical current properties, ie, time and voltage dependence, block by [Cs+]o, permeability for K+ and Na+, and current increase with raising [K+]o. There was a trend toward larger current densities in myopathic (at -130 mV in [K+]o 25 mmol/L; DCM: -1.37 +/- 0.12 pA/pF, n = 50; ICM: -1.39 +/- 0.24 pA/pF, n = 30) than in nonfailing cells (-1.18 +/- 0.21 pA/pF, n = 24), although this difference did not reach statistical significance (P=.23). Boltzmann distributions yielded an activation threshold of -80 mV and half-maximal activation at -110.96 +/- 0.06 mV in myopathic and normal myocytes. Isoproterenol (10(-5) mol/L) shifted the current activation by 10 mV (31 myopathic, 5 NF). Carbachol and adenosine had no direct effect on I(f) (6 and 12 myopathic, 3 and 3 NF, respectively) but reversibly antagonized beta-adrenergic stimulation (5 and 7 myopathic, 2 and 2 NF, respectively). Autonomic modulation was similar in failing and nonfailing cells. CONCLUSIONS In end-stage heart failure, no significant change of I(f) could be found, although there was a trend toward increased I(f). Together with an elevated plasma norepinephrine concentration and a previously reported reduction in I(K1) in human heart failure, I(f) might favor diastolic depolarization in individual myopathic cells.
Early career teachers' perceptions of their preparation for and initial experiences in co-taught classrooms

Many general education and special education teachers report being unprepared for the challenges of serving students with disabilities in the general education classroom (Kloo & Zigmond, 2008; Rea & Connell, 2005) and lacking skills necessary for co-teaching and collaborating within the school community (Grant & Gillette, 2006; Little & Theiker, 2009). The purpose of this study was to survey general and special education teachers (N=149), who were recent graduates of one teacher education program in the southeastern Unites States, on their perceptions of the effectiveness of their teacher education program in preparing them to co-teach. Variables included area of certification, years of experience, co-teaching experience and personal demographics along with descriptions of the extent that co-teaching was perceived to have been discussed, modeled, observed, and coached during the teacher education program and later practiced in classroom settings. Most participants were female, taught at the elementary level, held a bachelor's degree, and had three or less years of teaching experience. Results indicated many graduates had some orientation to co-teaching and perceived the teacher education program as relatively effective in preparing them to co-teach. However, data suggests variation in the amount of exposure to co-teaching preparation, field experiences, and subsequent skill attainment for co-teaching across the program. Additionally, implementation of co-teaching practices varied among participants, as did experiences and satisfaction with the co-teaching model. These findings may inform the teacher education program in future decision making to benefit future teacher candidates by providing enhanced course content and field experiences that focus more directly on acquisition of co-teaching knowledge and skills.
Epidemiology of Burkholderia cepacia Complex in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis, Canada

The Burkholderia cepacia complex is an important group of pathogens in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Although evidence for patient-to-patient spread is clear, microbial factors facilitating transmission are poorly understood. To identify microbial clones with enhanced transmissibility, we evaluated B. cepacia complex isolates from patients with CF from throughout Canada. A total of 905 isolates from the B. cepacia complex were recovered from 447 patients in 8 of the 10 provinces; 369 (83%) of these patients had genomovar III and 43 (9.6%) had B. multivorans (genomovar II). Infection prevalence differed substantially by region (22% of patients in Ontario vs. 5% in Quebec). Results of typing by random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis or pulsed-field gel electrophoresis indicated that strains of B. cepacia complex from genomovar III are the most potentially transmissible and that the B. cepacia epidemic strain marker is a robust marker for transmissibility.