Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Sociolinguistic analysis of address forms in Yoruba

ABSTRACT This article provides a descriptive analysis of the entire system of address forms in Yoruba, a Defoid language of the Niger-Congo phylum, spoken principally in the western part of Nigeria and to a lesser extent in the Republics of Benin and Togo. With data from short radio and TV plays, unobtrusive observation of actual usage, and introspection, it was discovered that the choices made by interlocutors are guided by the perceived social relationship that exists between them. The principal indices of this among the Yoruba are age, social status, and kinship. Nevertheless, certain peculiarities are noticeable. For instance, the dichotomy of power vs. solidarity (Brown & Gilman 1960) becomes blurred with respect to Yoruba kinship terms of address; thus solidarity does not necessarily imply equality among the Yoruba. (Politeness, address, kinship, Africa, Yoruba)
Preditores da Carreira Proteana: Um Estudo com Universitários

Predictors of protean career: A study with undergraduate students This study aimed to analyze predictors of Protean career dimensions (self-management and values-driven) among university students. Therefore, socio-demographic variables, personality and locus of control were considered. With a quantitative methodological framework, this research had 525 participants who were students aged between 18 and 30 years old. The results indicated that aspects such as openness and conscientiousness and internal locus of control are predictors of self-management, while socialization and openness are predictors of values-driven. Humanities Sciences students denoted more characteristics of values-driven when compared to the Exact Sciences ones, with no significant differences for self-management. The results show relevant data for university career guidance. It requires, however, further studies to investigate other variables in the prediction of Protean dimensions.
Being mortal. Medicine and what matters in the end

Atul Gawande’s background as an American surgeon with Indian medical émigré parents and his early immersion in Democrat politics are important factors in his writing. He excels at communicating and connecting with his audiences using, to great effect, his own experiences with both patients and members of his extended family. The events about people he knows, or knew, are woven into the narrative and revealed sequentially engaging the reader with both the human drama and the broader picture about the particular issue being discussed. While his findings are from his interrogation of others and their work, his skill lies in recognising the important information to use and re-package with his own experiences to develop a very readable whole. He describes himself as being in the disturbance business and being interested in the attitudes, systems and behaviours of the way people practice medicine. His BBC Reith lectures (Gawande, 2014) include some of the material in this book, particularly in his third lecture ‘The Problem of Hubris’, where he discusses the problems of ageing and death that doctors cannot fix. The medical schools he, and this reviewer, attended did not place any emphasis on learning about ageing and death because modern medicine would cure everything we would encounter. In the last 70 years, mortality has been medicalised so that now 80% of people die in institutions compared to 80% dying at home in the 1940s. This medicalisation and the realisation by clinicians that sustaining the very sick forever is not tenable has led to the disturbing current duality of either ‘doing everything’ or euthanasia/death with dignity. Gawande’s response to this black-and-white picture of end of life care was to interview everyone he could find who had alternative answers. His discovery of the benefits of good geriatric medicine and palliative care should benefit his older patients, but is a revelation of how medicine is practiced in silos and how these topics are not covered in medical school. The book is in two halves, the first deals with the issues of providing appropriate care to older people who need either physical, emotional or psychological support due to medical conditions and ageing. He paints a bleak picture of the current provision of care for such people in the US. There has been a decrease in the numbers of geriatricians and trainees in recent years with geriatric units closing. Nursing homes providing long-term care for frail older people were not initially designed for this role and are now run to maximise the profits for their owners through increased regimentation of the inmates. The story has some upsides as he discovers enthusiasts developing better care at home and homelike care systems for older people, but their numbers are few and the financial organisation of American medicine seems to preclude a roll out of either more person-centred care or an increase in formal geriatric medical care in the near future. Mortality, 2015
RSSI variability characterization and calibration method in wireless sensor network

Positioning is a fundamental issue for wireless sensor network operation. The Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) of a radio channel provides a feasible way of estimating distance between sensor nodes as they need not any additional hardware but a radio transceiver. The main drawback of using RSSI is its instability and interference susceptibleness noticed in real environments. There has been a lack of comprehensive characterization of fundamental factors contributing to RSSI variability from the radio irregularity constraint of RSSI localization algorithms. Base on SKLTT sensor nodes designed by our research group, a characterization description is provided about radio signal strength properties of the CC2420 communication chip by using a monopole antenna in the paper. The RSSI variability is modeled and analyzed from node consistency and non-isotropic signal propagates, and subsequently the corresponding calibration measures are given. Some experiments are shown that RSSI can work well about the localization variability performance for specially instrumented scenarios, such as an ideal open, outdoor environment, after strict selection of sensor nodes and calibration. The results show that RSSI calibration measurements can be successfully applied to localization in sensor networks.
Careering alone: Careers and social capital in the financial services and television industries

The relationship between career and social capital is an important but relatively unexplored research topic. In this article, we draw on the literatures on social capital and careers, and on empirical studies of the shifting nature of careers in financial services and television production firms, to argue that, in labour markets where key skills are in short supply, the concept of social capital constitutes a rich resource for understanding the implications of changing forms of organization. We argue that social capital has a particularly important impact on an organization’s ability to leverage knowledge and is, thus, of strategic significance. The ability to manage social capital might, therefore, prove to be a major management competence. Use of the social capital concept gives us an important insight into the changing nature of careers and organizations.
A High-Gain, Low-Noise, +6dBm PA in 90nm CMOS for 60-GHz Radio

A 60-GHz power amplifier with 14 dB gain, 5 dB simulated noise figure, and a saturated output power of +6 dBm was fabricated in a 90 nm GP process with a 9-metal digital back end. The amplifier employs two cascode stages and a common-source output stage with inductive degeneration. It has a power-added-efficiency of 6% while consuming 45 mW from a 1.5-V supply. The robustness and repeatability of the small signal and large signal performance were characterized across dies, power supply voltage, and over temperature up to 125degC. The design was also scaled to 85 GHz in 65 nm CMOS with +5 dBm Psat.
Probabilistic Modeling of Action Potential Generation by Neurons Student : Bobby Sena under the direction of Professors

The function of many cells and organs in the body is absolutely dependent on their ability to generate an electrical signal termed an action potential. The action potential represents a temporal sequence of changes in the electrical potential across a local domain of a cell’s plasma membrane, and results from a carefully coordinated sequence of changes in membrane conductance for sodium and potassium ions. We present a model of the dynamical behavior of the gated sodium ion channel, which is determines the event of an action potential. Our model is based on the electrical properties of parallel RC circuits, but improves on most current models because it incorporates timeand membrane-potential dependent probabilities that the gated sodium ion channel is in one of three states: closed, open, or inactive. More importantly, our model accounts for the so-called membrane threshold, which is the membrane potential at which the sequence of changes in conductance commences.
Deficiency of SPAG16L Causes Male Infertility Associated with Impaired Sperm Motility1

Abstract The axonemes of cilia and flagella contain a “9+2” structure of microtubules and associated proteins. Proteins associated with the central doublet pair have been identified in Chlamydomonas that result in motility defects when mutated. The murine orthologue of the Chlamydomonas PF20 gene, sperm-associated antigen 16 (Spag16), encodes two proteins of Mr ∼71 × 103 (SPAG16L) and Mr ∼35 × 103 (SPAG16S). In sperm, SPAG16L is found in the central apparatus of the axoneme. To determine the function of SPAG16L, gene targeting was used to generate mice lacking this protein but still expressing SPAG16S. Mutant animals were viable and showed no evidence of hydrocephalus, lateralization defects, sinusitis, bronchial infection, or cystic kidneys—symptoms typically associated with ciliary defects. However, males were infertile with a lower than normal sperm count. The sperm had marked motility defects, even though ultrastructural abnormalities of the axoneme were not evident. In addition, the testes of some nullizygous animals showed a spermatogenetic defect, which consisted of degenerated germ cells in the seminiferous tubules. We conclude that SPAG16L is essential for sperm flagellar function. The sperm defect is consistent with the motility phenotype of the Pf20 mutants of Chlamydomonas, but morphologically different in that the mutant algal axoneme lacks the central apparatus.
Prévision de la détresse financière par les algorithmes génétiques et les réseaux de neurones (Prediction of Financial Distress Using the Genetic Algorithms and Neural Networks)

French Abstract:Cet article propose trois modeles de prevision de la detresse financiere bases sur les reseaux de neurones et les algorithmes genetiques. La situation financiere d’une entreprise est appreciee par les probabilites risque neutre de defaut determinees par le modele d’evaluation des options de Geske (1977). Les resultats revelent que l’endettement, la liquide et l’equilibre financier occupent une place centrale dans la prevision de detresse financiere.English Abstract:This paper suggests three financial distress predictive models, based on artificial neural network and genetic algorithm. Firm financial health is appreciated with risk neutral probability of default determined according to Geske (1977) formula. Results reveal that indebtedness, liquidity and financial equilibrium participate strongly to predict firm financial distress.
Sensitization of Clostridium perfringens spores to heat by gamma radiation

Spores of Clostridium perfringens, type A, were given separate or sequential treatments of gamma radiation (0 to 0.7 Mrad) and/or high temperature (93 to 103 degrees C). Prior heating, sufficient to inactivate 40 to 99% of the viable spores, had no effect on the subsequent radiation inactivation rate. Prior irradiation had a sensitizing effect on subsequently heated spores. The degree of sensitization to heat, as measured by thermal inactivation rate, increased with increased radiation pretreatment dose.
Affective and cognitive empathy as mediators of gender differences in cyber and traditional bullying

Gender differences in bullying behavior among adolescents have been observed, but the reasons for the discrepancy in males’ and females’ bullying experiences has been the focus of few studies. This study examined the role of the cognitive and affective empathy in explaining gender differences in bullying through multiple mediation analysis. The participants of the study were 795 Turkish adolescents (455 females, 340 males) ranging in age from 13- to 18-years-old. The Revised Cyber Bullying Inventory, Traditional Bullying Questionnaire and Basic Empathy Scale were utilized to gather data from participants. Findings revealed that the total effect of cognitive and affective empathy mediated the gender differences in traditional bullying in addition to the unique effect of affective empathy. However, only the combined effect of affective and cognitive empathy mediated the gender differences in cyberbullying. The findings are discussed in the light of the related literature and implications for practice.
Does the Intrusiveness of an Online Advertisement Influence User Recall and Recognition

Summary: This study investigated the effect of the type (banner ad, pop-up ad and floating ad) and state (animated and non-animated) of online advertisements on recall and recognition of the advertisements. It was hypothesized that floating ads, pop-up ads, and animated ads would be easier to recall due to their intrusive nature. Results showed that participants in the pop-up ad and floating ad condition had better recall of the presence of the ad as well as better recognition. Animation did not significantly influence any of these measures.
The Effect of Educating Users on Passwords: a Preliminary Study

Passwords are a basic authentication method for most information systems. Despite their widespread use, passwords still suffer from a number of problems. Users and their passwords are the Achille’s heel (the weakest link) of security, because they still tend to create passwords that are weak, easy to remember and contain words that a familiar to them. They also tend to trade security for memorability. Users’ lack of security consciousness and their behaviour can be influenced by information security training. This paper presents the preliminary results of our research in progress. Our research explores the effect of password security training on strength of the passwords chosen by the users and their consciousness about security and the importance of creating strong and hard-to-guess passwords. We collected the data by means of an online questionnaire, performed among undergraduate students from the Faculty of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Maribor. Overall, the results show that, despite our lectures and recommendations, users still lack of security knowledge regarding password change and password write-down and need to be further educated in this direction.
On flash A/D-converters with low-precision comparators

Flash analog-to-digital converters can be built using small (and fast) low-precision comparators with unpredictable thresholds followed by a digital look-up table to correct the output. The look-up table should store digital codes with higher precision than the nominal resolution of the converter. The effective resolution of such a scheme with N comparators is roughly log2(N) - 1 bits. The concept is demonstrated by a chip that achieves almost 7 bit resolution with 256 low-precision comparators
Novel Machine Learning Methods for ERP Analysis: A Validation From Research on Infants at Risk for Autism

Machine learning and other computer intensive pattern recognition methods are successfully applied to a variety of fields that deal with high-dimensional data and often small sample sizes such as genetic microarray, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and, more recently, electroencephalogram (EEG) data. The aim of this article is to discuss the use of machine learning and discrimination methods and their possible application to the analysis of infant event-related potential (ERP) data. The usefulness of two methods, regularized discriminant function analyses and support vector machines, will be demonstrated by reanalyzing an ERP dataset from infants (Elsabbagh et al., 2009). Using cross-validation, both methods successfully discriminated above chance between groups of infants at high and low risk of a later diagnosis of autism. The suitability of machine learning methods for the use of single trial or averaged ERP data is discussed.
Fuzzy Image Retrieval: A Selection of Recent Advances

A cartridge dispenser for razor blade cartridges including latches that retain cartridges in predetermined positions permitting connection to a handle connecting structure on a handle as the handle is moved toward the cartridge, each latch having a latch camming structure that is shaped and positioned to interact with corresponding handle camming structure so as to cause the latch to be deflected and to unlatch a cartridge as the handle is moved toward and connected to cartridge connecting structure of a cartridge. The dispenser also has blade unit dividers that extend from the base, are substantially perpendicular to the base, and define blade unit regions in which the blade units are received, and angled dividers that extend from the ends of respective blade unit dividers at acute angles with the base and define angled regions through which the blade units pass in delivery to and removal from the blade unit regions and in which the cartridge connecting structure is received.
The modular organization of projections from areas V1 and V2 to areas V4 and TEO in macaques

In addition to the major anatomical pathways from V1 into the temporal lobe, there are other smaller, “bypass” routes that are poorly understood. To investigate the direct projection from V1 to V4 (bypassing V2) and from V2 to TEO (bypassing V4), we injected the foveal and parafoveal representations of V4 and TEO with different retrograde tracers in five hemispheres of four macaques and analyzed the distributions of labeled neurons in V1 and V2 using flattened preparations of the cortex. In V1, labeled neurons were seen after injections in V4 but not TEO. The V4-projecting neurons were located in the foveal representation of V1, in both cytochrome oxidase (CO)-rich blobs and CO-poor interblob regions. In V2, TEO-projecting neurons were intermingled with V4-projecting neurons, although the former were far sparser than the latter. Across the cases, 6–19% of the TEO-projecting neurons were double labeled, that is, also projected to area V4. Both V4- and TEO-projecting neurons formed bands that ran orthogonal to the V1/V2 border, and both were located in CO-rich thin stripes and CO-poor interstripe regions. In some cases, a continuous band of V4-projecting neurons was also found along the V1/V2 border in the foveal representation of V2. The results indicate that the pathways from V1 to V4 and from V2 to TEO involve anatomical subcompartments thought to be concerned with both color and form. These “bypass” routes may allow coarse information about color and form to arrive rapidly in the temporal lobe. The bypass route from V2 to TEO might explain the partial sparing of color and form vision that is seen after lesions of V4. By analogy, given the bypass route from the foveal representation of V1 to V4, lesions of V2 affecting the foveal visual field would also be insufficient to block color and form vision.
Real-Time Illustration of Vascular Structures

We present real-time vascular visualization methods, which extend on illustrative rendering techniques to particularly accentuate spatial depth and to improve the perceptive separation of important vascular properties such as branching level and supply area. The resulting visualization can and has already been used for direct projection on a patient's organ in the operation theater where the varying absorption and reflection characteristics of the surface limit the use of color. The important contributions of our work are a GPU-based hatching algorithm for complex tubular structures that emphasizes shape and depth as well as GPU-accelerated shadow-like depth indicators, which enable reliable comparisons of depth distances in a static monoscopic 3D visualization. In addition, we verify the expressiveness of our illustration methods in a large, quantitative study with 160 subjects
Phylogenetic relationships in Epidendroideae (Orchidaceae), one of the great flowering plant radiations: progressive specialization and diversification.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The largest subfamily of orchids, Epidendroideae, represents one of the most significant diversifications among flowering plants in terms of pollination strategy, vegetative adaptation and number of species. Although many groups in the subfamily have been resolved, significant relationships in the tree remain unclear, limiting conclusions about diversification and creating uncertainty in the classification. This study brings together DNA sequences from nuclear, plastid and mitochrondrial genomes in order to clarify relationships, to test associations of key characters with diversification and to improve the classification. METHODS Sequences from seven loci were concatenated in a supermatrix analysis for 312 genera representing most of epidendroid diversity. Maximum-likelihood and parsimony analyses were performed on this matrix and on subsets of the data to generate trees and to investigate the effect of missing values. Statistical character-associated diversification analyses were performed. KEY RESULTS Likelihood and parsimony analyses yielded highly resolved trees that are in strong agreement and show significant support for many key clades. Many previously proposed relationships among tribes and subtribes are supported, and some new relationships are revealed. Analyses of subsets of the data suggest that the relatively high number of missing data for the full analysis is not problematic. Diversification analyses show that epiphytism is most strongly associated with diversification among epidendroids, followed by expansion into the New World and anther characters that are involved with pollinator specificity, namely early anther inflexion, cellular pollinium stalks and the superposed pollinium arrangement. CONCLUSIONS All tested characters show significant association with speciation in Epidendroideae, suggesting that no single character accounts for the success of this group. Rather, it appears that a succession of key features appeared that have contributed to diversification, sometimes in parallel.
Restorative urban open space: Exploring the spatial configuration of human emotional fulfilment in urban open space

Abstract The capacity of outdoor settings to benefit human well being is well established by research. Examples of restorative settings can be found throughout history and are still applied today in health-care facilities, as healing or restorative gardens for the sick, but their wider significance in the urban public realm remains insufficiently explored. A conceptual framework for restorative urban open space based on mosaics of linked and nested spaces woven into the urban fabric is presented. The concept synthesizes the theory of centres, pioneered in the 1970s and refined in recent work by architectural theorist Christopher Alexander, with material relating to social and ecological dimensions of outdoor spatial configuration. The concept argues for fundamental properties of order, as integrations of locational, directional and transitional spatial experience, which are present in the natural and cultural world and associated with human psychological benefit. This spatial arrangement may offer potential to resurrect people's connection with intuitively preferred forms and strengthen beneficial relations between human functioning and the spatial environment.