Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Civic Engagement for Men’s Health and Well Being in Norway—A Contribution to Public Health

Objectives: Using the example of older men volunteering on teams that restore historic ships, this article examines the effects of volunteering on the well-being of older adults. We consider particularly how volunteering impacts levels of social engagement and explore how the men’s reminiscences as they bond with their fellows in highly skilled work helps integrate their life experiences. Methods: Data are based on 14 in-depth interviews with volunteers working on historic vessels in Norway. Self-rated health, functional dependency, and well-being measures were collected using semi-structured questionnaire. Results: Volunteering in a context of skilled, group-bonded, culturally prestigious activity adds considerably to social capital among elderly men in Norway. Respondents explain their involvement in terms of prior relationships and current social benefits. They spoke of the value of maintaining past personal connections to a particular ship, shipping company, or local community. These were reinforced by current social benefits, such as the experience of companionship, unity, and the feeling of making an important contribution to the society. The group dynamics and strong collective aspect of these voluntary associations maintains internal cohesion, and members only leave when forced by increasing age, poor health, or insufficient financial resources. Conclusions: This article illuminates a case study of gender-specific engagement of older adults in volunteer roles returning high benefits both to participants and society, and adds knowledge to public-health programs and policies in the volunteer- and cultural-heritage sector.
A cyclo-dissipativity condition for power factor improvement in electrical circuits

The main contribution of this paper is identifying the key role played by cyclo-dissipativity in the solution of the power factor compensation problem for electrical circuits. Namely, we prove that a necessary condition for a (shunt) compensator to improve the power transfer is that the overall system satisfies a given cyclo-dissipativity property, which naturally leads to a formulation of the compensation problem as one of cyclo-dissipasivation. Cyclo-dissipative systems exhibit a net absorption of (abstract) energy only along closed paths, while a dissipative system cannot create energy for all trajectories, henceforth, this concept generalizes the one of passivation
The Autonomy of Lexical Orthography

Do we need to access the spoken form of a word in order to retrieve the word's spelling or in order to understand the meaning of its written form? In this paper we focus on the relationship between lexical phonology and orthography specifically in production and we present the case of a neurologically impaired individual who is often unable to provide the correct spoken name of an object although he may be able to write its name correctly. We argue that this evidence is seriously problematic for the hypothesis of obligatory phonological mediation and conclude that orthographic lexical forms can indeed be independently accessed for production without the mediating role of phonology.
Targeted Disruption of the 3p12 Gene, Dutt1/Robo1, Predisposes Mice to Lung Adenocarcinomas and Lymphomas with Methylation of the Gene Promoter

The DUTT1 gene is located on human chromosome 3, band p12, within a region of nested homozygous deletions in breast and lung tumors. It is therefore a candidate tumor suppressor gene in humans and is the homologue (ROBO1) of the Drosophila axonal guidance receptor gene, Roundabout. We have shown previously that mice with a targeted homozygous deletion within the Dutt1/Robo1 gene generally die at birth due to incomplete lung development: survivors die within the first year of life with epithelial bronchial hyperplasia as a common feature. Because Dutt1/Robo1 heterozygous mice develop normally, we have determined their tumor susceptibility. Mice with a targeted deletion within one Dutt1/Robo1 allele spontaneously develop lymphomas and carcinomas in their second year of life with a 3-fold increase in incidence compared with controls: invasive lung adenocarcinomas are by far the predominant carcinoma. In addition to the mutant allele, loss of heterozygosity analysis indicates that these tumors retain the structurally normal allele but with substantial methylation of the gene’s promoter. Substantial reduction of Dutt1/Robo1 protein expression in tumors is observed by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. This suggests that Dutt1/Robo1 is a classic tumor suppressor gene requiring inactivation of both alleles to elicit tumorigenesis in these mice.
The Open University ’ s repository of research publications and other research outputs Grounding semantic web services with rules Conference Item

Semantic web services achieve effects in the world through web services, so the connection to those services—the grounding—is of paramount importance. The established technique is to use XML-based translations between ontologies and the SOAP message formats of the services, but these mappings cannot address the growing number of non-SOAP services, and step outside the ontological world to describe the mapping. We present an approach which draws the service’s interface into the ontology: we define ontology objects which represent the whole HTTP message, and use backward-chaining rules to translate between semantic service invocation instances and the HTTP messages passed to and from the service. We present a case study using Amazon’s popular Simple Storage Service.
Burst mode non-causal decision-feedback equalisation and blind MLSE

We propose a decision-aided equalizer that uses past symbol decisions, like classical decision-feedback equalizers, but also future decisions, hence the name non-causal decision-feedback equalizer (NCDFE). Its derivation is done in a burst processing and multichannel context, using maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE). The forward filter of the NCDFE is proportional to the channel matched filter and the feedback filter is the cascade of the channel and the forward filter (without the central coefficient). This NCDFE corresponds to the unbiased MMSE solution. Blind MLSE is usually solved using alternating minimizations. We propose to replace the repeated use of the Viterbi algorithm with the much less complex NCDFE. Finally, some simulation results are presented.
A Model-Based Approach for RFID Application Testing

A new approach for testing Radio Frequency Identification applications is presented in this paper. Therefore, a set based semantics is introduced to describe RFID applications. The approach uses UML to model the characteristics of the system under test. The combination of three different model-types, which consist of a Domain Model, a Movement Model and Process Models, allows for the extraction of test cases and the evaluation of functional aspects of the application under test. This model-based test approach is validated on an example case study, of processes in a retail clothing shop.
Instances selection for NN with fuzzy rough technique

The NN algorithm is a simple and well-known supervised learning scheme which classifies an unseen instance by finding its closest neighbor in training set. The main drawback of NN is that the whole training set must be stored in the computer to classify an unseen instance. In order to deal with this problem, P. Hart proposed the condensed nearest neighbor (CNN) algorithm. However, CNN select the important instances from the whole training set, which suffers from the problem of large memory requirement same as NN. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to select instances from the border region with fuzzy rough technique. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
What's in a genome? The C-value enigma and the evolution of eukaryotic genome content

Some notable exceptions aside, eukaryotic genomes are distinguished from those of Bacteria and Archaea in a number of ways, including chromosome structure and number, repetitive DNA content, and the presence of introns in protein-coding regions. One of the most notable differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes is in size. Unlike their prokaryotic counterparts, eukaryotes exhibit enormous (more than 60 000-fold) variability in genome size which is not explained by differences in gene number. Genome size is known to correlate with cell size and division rate, and by extension with numerous organism-level traits such as metabolism, developmental rate or body size. Less well described are the relationships between genome size and other properties of the genome, such as gene content, transposable element content, base pair composition and related features. The rapid expansion of ‘complete’ genome sequencing projects has, for the first time, made it possible to examine these relationships across a wide range of eukaryotes in order to shed new light on the causes and correlates of genome size diversity. This study presents the results of phylogenetically informed comparisons of genome data for more than 500 species of eukaryotes. Several relationships are described between genome size and other genomic parameters, and some recommendations are presented for how these insights can be extended even more broadly in the future.
Effects of Cortex Peptidoglycan Structure and Cortex Hydrolysis on the Kinetics of Ca2+-Dipicolinic Acid Release during Bacillus subtilis Spore Germination

ABSTRACT The kinetic parameters of the release of Ca2+-dipicolinic acid (CaDPA) during germination of spore populations and multiple individual spores of Bacillus subtilis strains with major alterations in the structure of the spore peptidoglycan (PG) cortex or lacking one or both of the two redundant enzymes involved in cortex hydrolysis (cortex-lytic enzymes [CLEs]) were determined. The lack of the CLE CwlJ greatly slowed CaDPA release with a germinant receptor (GR)-dependent germinant, l-valine, or a non-GR-dependent germinant, dodecylamine. The absence of the cortex-specific PG modification muramic acid–δ-lactam also increased the time needed for full CaDPA release during germination with both types of germinants. In contrast, increased cortex PG cross-linking was associated with faster times for initiation of CaDPA release with both l-valine and dodecylamine but not with faster CaDPA release once this release had been initiated. These data suggest that the precise structure of the spore cortex plays a significant role in determining the timing and the rate of CaDPA release during B. subtilis spore germination and, further, that this effect is independent of effects of GRs.
Assessment of dietary bovine lactoferrin in enhancement of immune function and disease resistance in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

2. Dept. of Clinical Pathology, Fac Vet. Med., El-Mansoura University. Abstract Lctoferrin (LF) is an iron-binding glycoprotein plays an important role in the nonspecific immune system in fish and mammals. Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) was fed bovine LF supplemented diets (0, 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg diet) for 4 weeks. The effect of dietary LF on immune function and resistance to Aeromonas hydrophilla challenge was determined. The level of LF in diet had a significant force on survival following A. hydrophilla challenge with fish fed the 600 mg/kg LF diet having significantly superior survival than control fish. There was increase in activity of non-specific and specific immune parameters (lymphocytes count, macrophage oxidative burst, serum lysozyme and bactericidal activities against A. hydrophilla) with addition of LF to diets. While there was not a corresponding increase in activity of total leukocytic count and neutrophil adhesion test. The increased resistance to A. hydrophilla with increasing dietary concentration of LF seemed to correspond with an enhancement of non-specific immune functions. In conclusion, dietary LF supplementation could be enhances the non-specific immunity and diseases resistance in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).
A novel miniature antenna for Ka band applications at 33 GHz

When microwave frequencies are discussed, each has its own applications in different fields and talking in specific about the Ka band of operation, it is used for a variety of applications namely; satellite, police radar and many other millimeter wave applications. For all these applications we require an antenna resonating at the specific frequency with a small size preferably, good bandwidth, lesser losses that is with a good impedance match and lesser complexity which means ease of fabrication and installation. Here in this work we present a simple rectangular microstrip line printed antenna on a FR4 (loss free) substrate with μ as 4.9 which resonates at 33.8GHz, offers a bandwidth of 5 GHz at a VSWR of &#60; 2. This is a omnidirectional broadside radiator with a 3dB beam width of around 43 degrees, a side lobe level of −1.1dB and a radiation efficiency of −19dBand a gain of −12dB.
Heuristic ray shooting algorithms

Global illumination researchaimingat thephoto-realisticimagesynthesispushesforward researchin computergraphicsasa whole. The computationof visually plausibleimagesis time-consumingand far from beingrealtimeat present.A significantpartof computationin global illumination algorithms involvesrepetitive computingof visibility queries. In thethesis,we describeour resultsin ray shooting,which is a well-known problemin thefield of visibility. Theproblemis difficult in spiteof its simpledefinition:For agivenorientedhalf-lineandaset of objects,find out thefirst objectintersectedby thehalf-line if suchanobjectexists.A näıvealgorithm hasthe time complexity N , whereN is the numberof objects. The näıve algorithmis practically inapplicablein global illumination applicationsfor a scenewith ahigh numberof objects,dueits huge time requirements.In this thesiswe deal with heuristicray shootingalgorithmsthat useadditional spatialdatastructures.Weputstressonaverage-casecomplexity andweparticularlyinvestigatetheray shootingalgorithmsbasedon spatialhierarchies.In thethesiswe dealwith two majortopics. In thefirst partof thethesis,weintroducearayshootingcomputationmodelandperformancemodel. Basedon thesetwo modelswe developa methodologyfor comparingvariousray shootingalgorithms for a setof experimentsperformedon a setof scenes.Consecuti vely, we comparecommonheuristic ray shootingalgorithmsbasedon BSPtrees,kd-trees,octrees,boundingvolumehierarchies,uniform grids,andthreetypesof hierarchicalgridsusingasetof 30scenesfrom StandardProcedural Database. We show that for this setof scenesthe ray shootingalgorithmsbasedon the kd-tree is the winning candidateamongall testedray shootingalgorithms. Thesecondandmajorpartof thethesispresentsseveraltechniquesfor decreasingthetimeandspace complexity for ray shootingalgorithmsbasedon kd-tree. We dealwith bothkd-treeconstructionand ray traversalalgorithms.In thecontext of kd-treeconstruction,we presentnew methodsfor adapti ve constructionof thekd-treeusingemptyspatialregionsin thescene,terminationcriteria,generalcost modelfor thekd-tree,andmodifiedsurfaceareaheuristicsfor a restrictedsetof rays. Further , we describea new versionof the recursi ve ray traversalalgorithm. In context of the recursi ve ray traversal algorithmbasedon thekd-tree,wedeveloptheconceptof thelargestcommontraversalsequence. This reducesthenumberof hierarchicaltraversalstepsin thekd-treefor certainray sets.We alsodescribe onetechniquecloselyrelatedto computerarchitecture,namelymappingkd-treenodesto memoryto increasethe cachehit ratio for processorswith a large cacheline. Most of the techniquesproposed in the thesiscanbeusedin combination.In practice,theaveragetime complexity of theray shooting algorithmsbasedon thekd-tree,aspresentedin this thesis,is about logN , wherethehiddenmultiplicative factordependson the input data. However, at presentit is not known to have beenproved theoreticallyfor sceneswith generaldistributionof objects.For thesereasonsourfindingsaresupported by asetof experimentsfor theabove-mentionedsetof 30scenes.
The relative importance analysis for the study of the family: Accepting the challenge of correlated predictors

Family researchers are often interested in the importance of variables to be included in the prediction of some outcome, and have traditionally used multiple regression analysis (MR) to study variable importance. However, given the non-independence of family data, multicollinearity can be a pervasive phenomenon in this field of research and MR may produce poor or confusing results in the case of highly correlated predictors. In this article I present two alternative techniques of analysis — relative weight analysis (RWA; Johnson, 2000) and dominance analysis (DA; Budescu, 1993) — both of which address questions pertaining to predictor comparisons and are able to provide a plausible assessment of importance among multiple correlated predictors. Examples of application of RWA and DA to address specific questions about family relationships are discussed.
Developing optimal non-linear scoring function for protein design

UNLABELLED Motivation. Protein design aims to identify sequences compatible with a given protein fold but incompatible to any alternative folds. To select the correct sequences and to guide the search process, a design scoring function is critically important. Such a scoring function should be able to characterize the global fitness landscape of many proteins simultaneously. RESULTS To find optimal design scoring functions, we introduce two geometric views and propose a formulation using a mixture of non-linear Gaussian kernel functions. We aim to solve a simplified protein sequence design problem. Our goal is to distinguish each native sequence for a major portion of representative protein structures from a large number of alternative decoy sequences, each a fragment from proteins of different folds. Our scoring function discriminates perfectly a set of 440 native proteins from 14 million sequence decoys. We show that no linear scoring function can succeed in this task. In a blind test of unrelated proteins, our scoring function misclassfies only 13 native proteins out of 194. This compares favorably with about three-four times more misclassifications when optimal linear functions reported in the literature are used. We also discuss how to develop protein folding scoring function.
E-team: forming a viable group on Internet

This paper describes a case study in working as a virtual team. It is not a standard “industrial>’ case. but an account of a team distributed across the planet whose common interest was to explore the possibilities of remo{e working. It concentrates on the “pottnership between people” aspect of the team’s experience. includlng the task and process aspects of a virtual team: the role of side channel communications; the need for trust: and the need to allow for the different viewpoints of the people imolved in the team. The main learning points ~vhich emerge rocus on four issues: the relevance of having a (ask. commitment from Permission to make digital/hard copies of all or part of this material for personal or classroom use. is granted withoul fee provided thaL tie copies are not made or distributed for pro~t or commercial advantage, lhe copyn.ght notice, the title . of the pub~catlon and its date appear, and notice is gwen that copyright M by pernmmon of the ACM, Inc. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires specific permission and/or fee. SIGCPR/ SIGMIS ’96, Denver Colorado USA USA team tnembers: how the team organizes itselfl and the roles of the individuals in the team.
HABILIDADES MULTICULTURALES EN VOLUNTARIOS INTEGRANTES DE OPERACIONES DE PAZ.

MUTICULTURAL ABILITIES IN PEACE OPERATIONS MILITARIES MEMBERS. Multiculturalism is the expression of the cultural pluralism and the presence in the same society of groups with different cultural codes, that promotes no discrimination and the recognition of the cultural difference and the right to it. Multiculturalism and favorable attitudes to cultural differences are associated with groups of present values in people. According to Schwartz (2001), groups and individuals transform the inherent needs of human existence to adapt to reality in a social context and they are expressed in the language of speciic values on which they can be communicated. Current paper has the objective of exploring the differences in multicultural skills (emotional intelligence, values, intercultural leadership) in 233 military volunteers (oficers, NCOs and soldiers), members of a peacekeeping mission under UN mandate. It was veriied the predominance of self-transcendence values the predominance of openness to change and conservation oficers and non-commissioned oficers. The most prominent values are Benevolence, Tradition and Universalism. The less prominent values are Power and Achievement. No differences were found in the perception of the skills to lead groups in different cultural contexts or in the dimensions of emotional intelligence scale among the three categories comprising the sample.
The organization of projections from the olfactory bulb to the piriform cortex and olfactory tubercle in the rat

The organization of the projection of olfactory bulb output cells was studied in the rat by injection of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) into the piriform cortex or olfactory tubercle. We made single HRP injections into small cuts in the fiber layer of the projection areas in order to enhance uptake by axons and to confine the region of HRP uptake. Following most of these injections, HRP‐labeled axons could be traced in discrete fascicles through the fiber layer of the cortex or tubercle. These observations indicate that axons innervating the piriform cortex do not emit many long collaterals after they leave the lateral olfactory bulb, but there were regions of greater density of labeled that differed in the various brains. The differences among the distributions of labeled mitral and tufted cells were analyzed statistically in 39 brains to test whether they varied systematically with injection site. In these analyses, the olfactory bulb was divided into 30 standard regions, and the labeled cells in each regions were counted.
Recognizing Activities and Spatial Context Using Wearable Sensors

We introduce a new dynamic model with the capability of recognizing both activities that an individual is performing as well as where that individual is located. Our approach is novel in that it utilizes a dynamic graphical model to jointly estimate both activity and spatial context over time based on the simultaneous use of asynchronous observations consisting of GPS measurements, and a small mountable sensor board. Joint inference is quite desirable as it has the ability to improve accuracy of the model and consistency of the location and activity estimates. The parameters of our model are trained on partially labeled data. We apply virtual evidence to improve data annotation, giving the user high flexibility when labeling training data. We present results indicating the performance gains achieved by virtual evidence for data annotation and the joint inference performed by our system.