Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing Health Care Facilities And Services Europe Sees Mixed Results From Public-Private Partnerships For Building And

Prompted in part by constrained national budgets, European governments are increasingly partnering with the private sector to underwrite the costs of constructing and operating public hospitals and other health care facilities and delivering services. Through such publicprivate partnerships, governments hope to avoid up-front capital expenditure and to harness private-sector efficiencies, while private-sector partners aim for a return on investment. Our research indicates that to date, experience with these partnerships has been mixed. Early models of these partnerships—for example, in which a private firm builds a hospital and carries out building maintenance, which we term an “accommodation-only” model—arguably have not met expectations for achieving greater efficiencies at lower costs. Newer models described in this article offer greater opportunities for efficiency gains but are administratively harder to set up and manage. Given the shortages in public capital for new infrastructure, it seems likely that the attractiveness of these partnerships to European governments will grow. T he use of private finance for key public infrastructure projects, especially in transportation and utilities, grew almost fourfold globally from the early to the late 2000s. These partnerships have also been a growing part of health care infrastructure investment, particularly across Europe. Variants of public-private partnerships have usedprivate finance and for-profit organizations to design, finance, build, and maintain infrastructure, and occasionally to provide operational services. A typical project might be the reconstruction of an outdated public hospital by a private company with private funding. In the United Kingdom alone there have beenmore than 100 such projects, ranging from a private finance commitment for US$15 million for a small communityhospital tomore thanUS$2billion for the redevelopment of the Royal London and St. Bartholomew’s Hospitals in London. In this article we discuss lessons for policy makers and health care providers from the use of public-private partnerships in Europe to develop and deliver health care infrastructure— buildings, large technology systems, and associated services. We suggest that the continuing economic crisis, with its consequent fiscal constraints, is likely to stimulate European countries to increase the use of these partnerships. Major investment in Europe’s health care infrastructure is needed, particularly in European Union countries and candidate countries with health infrastructure inherited from the former Soviet era. Typical of this situation is Slovakia, where an analysis indicates that hospitals are “unsatisfactory and old fashioned, which leads to their ineffective management. ” Similarly, Western European countries with more modern infrastructure need to redevelop hospitals as health care service models change and the need for inpatient beds declines. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2011. 1223
Comparison of the role of dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline genes in ADHD, ODD and conduct disorder: multivariate regression analysis of 20 genes

The present study is based on the proposal that complex disorders resulting from the effects of multiple genes are best investigated by simultaneously examining multiple candidate genes in the same group of subjects. We have examined the effect of 20 genes for dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenergic metabolism on a quantitative score for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 336 unrelated Caucasian subjects. The genotypes of each gene were assigned a score from 0 to 2, based on results from the literature or studies in an independent set of subjects (literature‐based scoring), or results based on analysis of variance for the sample (optimized gene scoring). Multivariate linear regression analysis with backward elimination was used to determine which genes contributed most to the phenotype for both coding methods. For optimized gene scoring, three dopamine genes contributed to 2.3% of the variance, p=0.052; three serotonin genes contributed to 3%, p=0.015; and six adrenergic genes contributed to 6.9%, p=0.0006. For all genes combined, 12 genes contributed to 11.6% of the variance, p=0.0001. These results indicate that the adrenergic genes play a greater role in ADHD than either the dopaminergic or serotonergic genes combined. The results using literature‐based gene scoring were similar. An examination of two additional comorbid phenotypes, conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), indicated they shared genes with ADHD. For ODD different genotypes of the same genes were often used. These results support the value of the simultaneous examination of multiple candidate genes.
A Standards Framework For Digital Library Programmes

This paper describes a layered approach to selection and use of open standards which is being developed for digital library development work within the UK. This approach reflects the diversity of the technical environment, the service provider's environment, the user requirements and maturity of standards by separating contextual aspects; technical and non-technical policies; the selection of appropriate solutions and the compliance layer. To place the layered approach in a working context, case studies are provided of the types of environments in which the standards framework could be implemented, from an established standards-based service, to a new service in the process of selecting and implementing metadata standards. These examples serve to illustrate the need for such frameworks.
Svms for Histogram-based Image Classiication List of Figures

Traditional classiication approaches generalize poorly on image classiication tasks, because of the high dimensionality of the feature space. This paper shows that Support Vector Machines (SVM) can generalize well on diicult image classiication problems where the only features are high dimensional histograms. Heavy-tailed RBF kernels of the form K(x; y) = e ? P i jx a i ? y a i j b with a 1 and b 2 are evaluated on the classiication of images extracted from the Corel Stock Photo Collection and shown to far outperform traditional polynomial or Gaussian RBF kernels. Moreover, we observed that a simple remapping of the input x i ! x a i improves the performance of linear SVMs to such an extend that it makes them, for this problem, a valid alternative to RBF kernels. IV Average error rates on Corel14. Each columns corresponds to a diierent kernel. The rst line reports the average number of support vectors required for the full recognizer (i.e. 14 \one against the others" SVM classiiers). The next lines report the error rates using nonlinear input remappings (exponentiation by a). VII Class-confusion matrix for a = 0:25 and b = 1:0. For example, row (1) indicates that on the 386 images of the Airplanes category, 341 have been correctly classiied, 22 have been classiied
Medical image classification with multiple kernel learning

Nowadays, medical images are generated by hospitals and medical centers rapidly. The large volume of medical image data produces a strong need to effective medical image retrieval. The visual characteristic of medical image, such as modality, anatomical region etc., are important information and can be used to improve the retrieval process. Even though some of the information is contained in the DICOM headers, it has been reported that DICOM headers contain a relatively high rate of errors. And for on-line medical collection, these metadata can be lost when medical images are compressed. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for medical image classification according to their visual content. Our method uses multiple kernel learning (MKL) to combine different visual features, and learn the optimal mixing weights for each class adaptively. This method is evaluated on a medical image dataset with 1400 images, and the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.
Complex Learning Resources Integrated with Emerging Forms of E-assessment: An Empirical Study

The emergence of Web 2.0 and the influence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have fostered e-education to be more interactive, challenging, and situated. As a result, learners felt empowered when they are engaged in collaborative learning activities and self-directed learning. New forms of integrated assessment to support students when it comes to use complex-learning resources (CLR) within learning activities have become highly required. This paper discusses an empirical study about emerging forms of assessment such as, automated assessment, peer-assessment, and group-assessment integrated with CLRs in self-directed and collaborative learning. The first findings show that students were intrinsically motivated towards this approach. Moreover, automatic and peer-assessment supported the students to achieve their learning goals.
An Exact Resource Constrained-Scheduler using Graph Coloring technique

Scheduling is an important technique in high-level synthesis to match application computations and hardware resources. Scheduling a whole program is not possible as too many constraints and objectives interact. We decompose high-level scheduling in three steps. Step 1: Coarse-grain scheduling tries to exploit parallelism and locality of the whole program (in particular in loops, possibly imperfectly nested) with a rough view of the target architecture. This produces a sequence of logical steps, each of which contains a pool of macro-tasks (with no loops). Step 2: Fine-grain scheduling refines each logical step by scheduling all its macro-tasks. Between both steps a resource assignation is done by mapping each macro-task independently. We uniformly expressed the data dependences and resource constraints. As most scheduling problems, scheduling tasks under resources constraints to minimize the total duration is NP-complete. Our goal here is to design strategy for reaching optimal solutions in reasonable time. Our algorithmic contribution is an exact branch-and-bound algorithm, where each evaluation is accelerated by both maximal and greedy clique computation. The effectiveness and efficiency of the approach are good, which is illustrated by means of some practical benchmarks.
Central auditory plasticity: Implications for auditory rehabilitation

Page Ten January 2003 • Vol. 56 • No. 1 It’s January again, and time to put 2002 behind us. As usual, the past year introduced us to some new and interesting personalities. We now know that Vin Diesel is a person, not a truck, SpongeBob could be a sponge, the Rally Monkey probably is a monkey, and Anna Nicole is. Well, we’re still working on that one. In their own ways, our Page Ten personalities for 2002 were equally interesting. My thanks to Ruth Bentler, Theresa Ching, Greg Flamme, Carol Flexer, Richard Gans, Linda Hood, Bob Keith, George Lindley, Brad Stach, and Rick Talbott for their excellent contributions. While the 2002 team will be tough to beat, you’ll be glad to hear that we have another impressive array of guest authors lined up for the new year. We’re leading off 2003 with Kelly Tremblay, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and director of the Brain and Behavior Laboratory. You’re probably familiar with Dr. Tremblay’s noted work over the past several years in the area of auditoryrelated brain behavior. Her publication on central auditory plasticity was named Ear and Hearing’s outstanding article of 2001, and her name comes up frequently in The Hearing Journal’s annual Best of Audiology section recognizing exceptional articles from the previous year. She is a regular contributor to Audiology Today, and serves as editorial assistant for several other audiology journals. When she isn’t collecting data, Kelly says she enjoys the outdoors. If you think this simply means a Saturday morning bike ride to the neighborhood Starbucks, think again. One of her recent “outings” was a trek in the Himalayas of Nepal! In her Page Ten article, Dr. Tremblay reviews much of the latest research on central auditory plasticity, and she lends us important insights into the potential clinical applications of this research. Through tests such as the late cortical AEPs, we know that peripheral auditory pathologies can cause changes in brain function. How does this relate to early intervention? To cochlear implant use? To hearing aid use? To hearing aid benefit? Can we use this information to help structure (and individualize) our auditory rehabilitative strategies? Kelly addresses all these questions and more. I think you’ll find this intriguing article an excellent way to start off your audiologic new year!
A highly reconfigurable computing array: DSP plane of a 3D heterogeneous SoC

A 3D heterogeneous system on a chip using a stack of planes has recently been proposed. While the sensors are located on the top plane, the other planes provide for analog processing, digital signal processing, and wireless communication. This paper focuses on a reconfigurable computing array for its DSP plane. The advantages of such an approach are high performance, small area and low power compared to FPGAs, and greater flexibility over ASICs. The authors presented the reconfigurable J-platform, which employs coarse-grain VLSI cells with high functionality, performance, and reconfigurability. These include a universal nonlinear (UNL) cell, an extended multiply accumulate (MA/spl I.bar/PLUS) cell, and a data-fabric (DF) cell. The coarse-grain approach has the benefits of reduced external interconnect, much reduced design time, and manageable testability. The paper discusses these cells, including a new concept, namely multi-granularity. The methodology for mapping algorithms is illustrated by two important examples, FIR filtering of signals and images and the independent component analysis (ICA) algorithm. Finally, the paper discusses the issue of defect tolerance, which is critical in attaining reasonable yields making chip manufacture feasible.
Distribution, Collection and Quantification: A Type-Logical Account of Plurality

In this paper, we argue that an adequate approach to plural noun phrases is best formulated logically. We claim that the logical perspective on linguistic syntax and semantics is enlightening from both an empirical and a theoretical standpoint. Our goal is to show how a type-theoretic logic based on categorial grammar captures a broad range of signiicant syntactic and semantic generalizations in an elegant and precise manner. We propose a type-logical categorial grammar to capture the distribution, collection and scoping of plural noun phrases in English. We assume that: 1. groups are kinds of individuals 2. (ordinary) singular and plural verbs are interpreted as relations among individuals 3. (referential) singular noun phrases denote individuals 4. (referential) plural noun phrases denote sets of individuals and quantiied plural noun phrases (including bare plurals) denote quantiiers over sets of individuals 5. bare plurals are introduced by an empty existential quantiier over sets 6. distribution and collection introduce quantiiers from noun phrases denoting sets: (a) distribution is universal quantiication over the set (b) collection is existential quantiication over groupings of the set members We demonstrate how this naturally typed, noun-phrase centered semantics, when coupled with a deductive categorial grammar, generalizes to arbitrary syntactic positions the plural type shifting schemes stipulated in the literature. In this short paper, we only touch on the basics of plural scope. In other work (Carpenter 1994; in press), we extend our basic framework to handle partitives, Our point of departure is the following collection of simple sentences involving a single plural noun phrase. a. Three kids carried the box. b. Three kids sneezed. c. Three kids gathered. d. Three committees met. (1) For sentences (1)a through (1)c to be used truthfully, there must exist a set of three kids. In general, we analyze plural noun phrases as introducing sets, such as the sets of three kids introduced by these examples, as noted by Russell 1903].
Moral emotions and prosocial behaviour: It may be time to change our view of shame and guilt

From the eighteenth century onwards, moral emotions are perceived as a specific group of emotions that generate prosocial behaviours. Yet, a stream of recent empirical research demonstrates that moral emotions may not always have positive interpersonal consequences. The current chapter focuses upon two exemplary moral emotions, namely shame and guilt, to question the definition of moral emotions. In emotion literature, shame has been understood as a negative feeling with negative interpersonal consequences such as withdrawal and avoidance behaviour. This negative view of shame seems in direct contrast with the view of shame as a moral emotion that motivates prosocial behaviour, and with empirical findings. I present a new view of shame, one in which this moral emotion is focused upon dealing with a damaged self. As a consequence, shame motivates performance and approach behaviours to restore this damaged self, and withdrawal or avoidance behaviour when it is too risky or too dangerous to restore the damaged self. The existing image of guilt in emotion literature is one of a negative emotion with very positive interpersonal consequences. On the contrary, with empirical studies I demonstrate that guilt can have many negative interpersonal consequences, such as promoting prosocial behaviour towards the victim of one’s actions at the expense of others around, and withdrawal behaviour. Together, these findings reveal that, even for such exemplary moral emotions as shame and guilt, subsequent behaviours can vary from antisocial to prosocial. Therefore, there might be nothing intrinsically moral about moral emotions.
Comparative evaluation of multi-loop control schemes for a high-bandwidth AC power source with a two-stage LC output filter

This paper presents a comparative evaluation of four different multi-loop control schemes for a high-bandwidth AC power source. The power source considered in this work is based on a three-level T-type inverter with a two-stage LC output filter. The control schemes evaluated in this paper have an output voltage controller in the outer loop. For the inner control loop the following options are evaluated: capacitor current feedbacks, proportional-integral and proportional inverter output current control in combination with reference voltage and load current feedforward, and first LC stage capacitor voltage and inverter output current feedback.
Characterization of an Artificial Swine-Origin Influenza Virus with the Same Gene Combination as H1N1/2009 Virus: A Genesis Clue of Pandemic Strain

Pandemic H1N1/2009 influenza virus, derived from a reassortment of avian, human, and swine influenza viruses, possesses a unique gene segment combination that had not been detected previously in animal and human populations. Whether such a gene combination could result in the pathogenicity and transmission as H1N1/2009 virus remains unclear. In the present study, we used reverse genetics to construct a reassortant virus (rH1N1) with the same gene combination as H1N1/2009 virus (NA and M genes from a Eurasian avian-like H1N1 swine virus and another six genes from a North American triple-reassortant H1N2 swine virus). Characterization of rH1N1 in mice showed that this virus had higher replicability and pathogenicity than those of the seasonal human H1N1 and Eurasian avian-like swine H1N1 viruses, but was similar to the H1N1/2009 and triple-reassortant H1N2 viruses. Experiments performed on guinea pigs showed that rH1N1 was not transmissible, whereas pandemic H1N1/2009 displayed efficient transmissibility. To further determine which gene segment played a key role in transmissibility, we constructed a series of reassortants derived from rH1N1 and H1N1/2009 viruses. Direct contact transmission studies demonstrated that the HA and NS genes contributed to the transmission of H1N1/2009 virus. Second, the HA gene of H1N1/2009 virus, when combined with the H1N1/2009 NA gene, conferred efficient contact transmission among guinea pigs. The present results reveal that not only gene segment reassortment but also amino acid mutation were needed for the generation of the pandemic influenza virus.
Colors of primate pelage and skin: Objective assessment of conspicuousness

We present a quantitative means of assessing the conspicuousness of animal coats or other objects in terms of the color vision of each possible observer. We measured reflectance spectra from the fur and skin of many primate species in order to provide an objective survey of the possibilities of pelage coloration found in extant primates. We show that the orange coloration displayed by many platyrrhine and some strepsirhine primates, while being conspicuous to humans, would be cryptic amongst foliage to all males and many females of their own species. In relation to this finding, we briefly review what is known of the color vision of birds that prey on primates, and assess how conspicuous the orange pelage would be to these predators. Am. J. Primatol. 59:67–91, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Local Path Planning Based on New Repulsive Potential Functions with Angle Distributions

New repulsive potential functions (RPFs) for point robot path planning are presented, where the RPF for path planning has a different magnitude at each direction of a RPF based on the angle between a goal and an obstacle, unlike a conventional RPF in which the same magnitude at each direction is obtained. In doing so the RPF attempts to overcome some of the typical problems that may pose to the conventional RPF. In particular, this paper presents a set of analysis for designing potential functions to avoid local minima for a number of representative scenarios. Specifically the following cases are addressed: a non-reachable goal problem (a case that the potential of the goal is overwhelmed by the potential of an obstacle), an obstacle collision problem (a case that the potential of the obstacle is overwhelmed by the potential of the goal), and a narrow passage problem (a case that the potential of the goal is overwhelmed by the potential of two obstacles). The proposed RPF scheme eliminates the non-feasible area for the three cases by the help of angle varying magnitude between a goal and an obstacle
Chapter 5 Plane Graphs and the DCEL

So far we have been talking about geometric structures such as triangulations of polygons and arrangements of line segments without paying much attention to how to represent these structures. This will change now. As all of these structures can be regarded as plane graphs, we start by reviewing a bit of terminology from (planar) graph theory. We assume that this is—at least somewhat—familiar ground for you. If you would like to see more details and examples, please refer to any standard textbook on graph theory, such as Bondy and Murty [2], Diestel [3], or West [10]. A (simple undirected) graph is a pair G = (V,E) where V is a finite set of vertices and E is the set of edges, E ⊆ (
An algebraic approach to transactional processes

Abstract We present a set of operators in order to simplify the modelling of transactional behaviour of processes using process algebra. We give an axiomatic semantics of the operators presented. Apart from that, we give their operational semantics using Plotkin-style deduction rules. Our goal is to give formal speci¯cations of Internet applications using process algebra, for which transactional behaviour should be modelled.