Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Playful interactive mirroring to support bonding between parents and children with Down Syndrome

This paper presents the ongoing design research and preliminary results in the field of family-centered healthcare, in particular directed to families with children at the age of 0-2 years with Down Syndrome. A central concern of these families is parent-child bonding, as bonding is often disrupted due to a lack of feedback from infants. We designed for parent-child bonding following a multi-stakeholder inquiry, in our case a family, a developmental and child psychologist, a physiotherapist specialized in child-care, and a family therapist. Based on an inquiry we argue that parent-child bonding can be supported through playful interactive mirroring. We designed a prototype to promote mirroring through multimodal stimuli, such as light and sound. As a first evaluated prototype resulted in enthusiasm and a sense of pride for the parents, we propose further explorations on the notion of playful interactive mirroring and future studies with the designed platform.
Cyclin Partners Determine Pho85 Protein Kinase Substrate Specificity In Vitro and In Vivo: Control of Glycogen Biosynthesis by Pcl8 and Pcl10

ABSTRACT In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, PHO85 encodes a cyclin-dependent protein kinase (Cdk) with multiple roles in cell cycle and metabolic controls. In association with the cyclin Pho80, Pho85 controls acid phosphatase gene expression through phosphorylation of the transcription factor Pho4. Pho85 has also been implicated as a kinase that phosphorylates and negatively regulates glycogen synthase (Gsy2), and deletion of PHO85 causes glycogen overaccumulation. We report that the Pcl8/Pcl10 subgroup of cyclins directs Pho85 to phosphorylate glycogen synthase both in vivo and in vitro. Disruption of PCL8 and PCL10 caused hyperaccumulation of glycogen, activation of glycogen synthase, and a reduction in glycogen synthase kinase activity in vivo. However, unlikepho85 mutants, pcl8 pcl10 cells had normal morphologies, grew on glycerol, and showed proper regulation of acid phosphatase gene expression. In vitro, Pho80-Pho85 complexes effectively phosphorylated Pho4 but had much lower activity toward Gsy2. In contrast, Pcl10-Pho85 complexes phosphorylated Gsy2 at Ser-654 and Thr-667, two physiologically relevant sites, but only poorly phosphorylated Pho4. Thus, both the in vitro and in vivo substrate specificity of Pho85 is determined by the cyclin partner. Mutation ofPHO85 suppressed the glycogen storage deficiency ofsnf1 or glc7-1 mutants in which glycogen synthase is locked in an inactive state. Deletion of PCL8and PCL10 corrected the deficit in glycogen synthase activity in both the snf1 and glc7-1 mutants, but glycogen synthesis was restored only in the glc7-1mutant strain. This genetic result suggests an additional role for Pho85 in the negative regulation of glycogen accumulation that is independent of Pcl8 and Pcl10.
A Vectorized Scan-Line Z-Buffer Rendering Algorithm

as the size of the array is increased. Pipelining involves breaking an operation into a sequence of micro-operations (components), which taken together form a pipe. Values are accepted at one end of the pipe and the results are available at the other end after the entire operation. For example, Norrie gives an example describing the multiply instruction broken into five components. " 1. Compare exponents. 2. Align operands accordingly. 3. Add exponents and multiply mantissas. 4. Determine the normalization factor. 5. Normalize the result. A pipeline can be constructed for these five components which allows the operands to be loaded into one end of the pipeline and serially processed by each component. When the first component completes its processing, the results are sent to the second unit. This process continues until the result is available some five clock cycles later. The key to vector processing comes with the realization that once the first processing component completes its function and passes the result to the next processor, it is free to accept another operand. Therefore, once the pipe is loaded, a new result can be made available each clock cycle. Saturation of the pipeline is best achieved with a sequence of contiguous values which can be loaded each cycle. The term vector processor comes from this need to have contiguous vectors of data available for processing. The time required by a vector processor to complete the sample loop given above can be determined from the number of components of the vector instructions in the loop as well as some additional setup costs. There is a fixed startup cost and a cost to initially saturate the pipe (which is dependent upon the number of components required to perform the desired operation). Once the startup ofthe pipe is completed, new results can be made available with each cycle. Vectorization exhibits its greatest advantage over scalar execution when the number of iterations is large (since the startup and saturation costs will be negligible). Each machine has a threshold at which the initial cost overwhelms the vector speedup, and loops smaller than this value are typically done in scalar mode On the Convex, this "minimum loop count" is about seven. Vector chaining further exploits this architecture by allowing the results of one vector calculation to feed the next calculation. In effect, results made available at the end of one pipeline are fed to the input of …
Nearly monodisperse fluids. I. Monte Carlo simulations of Lennard‐Jones particles in a semigrand ensemble

A hybrid, semigrand ensemble is applied to the simulation of mixtures of very many components. The independent variables are temperature, density, and the distribution of activity ratios. The system samples different compositions, with particles changing species identities during the simulation. Thus, the method is particularly well suited for applications to polydisperse mixtures. Results are presented for the simulation of mixtures of Lennard‐Jones particles continuously varying in size and energy parameters. Four system sizes are used: 108, 216, 343, and 512 particles. The effect of degree of polydispersity is investigated by varying the width of the imposed distribution of activity ratios, which is Gaussian. It is found that very large systems are needed to describe wide distributions, due to the presence of ever‐larger particles. A limit on sizes eventually arises from the competition of energetic and entropic effects. Methods for determining phase equilibrium for these mixtures are also discussed.
Tracing Stakeholder Terminology Then and Now: Convergence and New Pathways

Over the past four decades, stakeholder research has united a chorus of voices from different disciplines using different terminology for different audiences all related to a seemingly similar topic: those that affect and are affected by business. By juxtaposing a comprehensive review of the early years of stakeholder research against more recent stakeholder research, we identify areas of common convergence (a focus on relationships and Freeman's definition of a stakeholder) as well as emergent scholarship (mechanisms underlying stakeholder relationships and solutions-oriented impacts). We develop an organizing framework consisting of three stakeholder-related themes: who or what is a stakeholder; mechanisms underlying stakeholder relationships; and outcomes-oriented stakeholder research. Future research opportunities include: simultaneously examining multiple stakeholders at multiple levels; multiplier effects along the value chain and across geographies; and net impacts (examining whether net positive benefits inclusive of negative outcomes exist). We conclude by identifying how stakeholder research can “move the needle” on important business issues such as: income inequality and CEO pay; human rights and building community inclusion; disease alleviation; and food security in firms’ continuous quest to create value.
Differentially Private Trajectory Data Publication

With the increasing prevalence of location-aware devices, trajectory data has been generated and collected in various application domains. Trajectory data carries rich in- formation that is useful for many data analysis tasks. Yet, improper publishing and use of trajectory data could jeopardize individual privacy. However, it has been shown that existing privacy-preserving trajectory data publishing methods derived from partition-based privacy models, for example k-anonymity, are unable to provide sufficient privacy protection. In this paper, motivated by the data publishing scenario at the Societe de transport de Montreal (STM), the public transit agency in Montreal area, we study the problem of publishing trajectory data under the rigorous differential privacy model. We propose an efficient data-dependent yet differentially private sanitization algorithm, which is applicable to different types of trajectory data. The efficiency of our approach comes from adaptively narrowing down the output domain by building a noisy prefix tree based on the underlying data. Moreover, as a post-processing step, we make use of the inherent constraints of a prefix tree t o conduct constrained inferences, which lead to better utility. This is the first paper to introduce a practical solution for publi shing large volume of trajectory data under differential privacy. We examine the utility of sanitized data in terms of count queries and frequent sequential pattern mining. Extensive experiments on real-life trajectory data from the STM demonstrate that our approach maintains high utility and is scalable to large trajectory datasets.
Correlations between spray properties and heat transfer dynamics during cryogen spray cooling

Cryogen spray cooling (CSC) has been used along with pulsed lasers for nearly a decade to irreversibly photocoagulate a variety of vascular lesions. However, the fundamental mechanisms that take place at the skin surface are still incompletely understood. In this work, we built a fast-response temperature sensor with the objective to determine the time in which liquid cryogen remains on the skin surface during and after a short spurt of cryogen—the residence time (tr ). Measurements are conducted systematically at various distances from the nozzle (z) and various spurt durations (Δt) for two nozzles that produce completely different spray characteristics. It was found that for each nozzle, there is a critical spray distance (zc ) where an abrupt increase in tr occurs and another critical distance (zmax ) that can be related to maximal cryogen deposition. Furthermore, using experimentally measured average droplet diameter (d) and velocity (v) for sprays produced by each nozzle, we defined a spray characteristic time τ(z) as the ratio of d to v. This parameter allows us to represent our experimental data on a single curve for each nozzle, by plotting the dimensionless residence time (tr /τ) and a function of the product of dimensionless spurt duration (Δt/τ) and a dimensionless factor (m/mmax ). The factor m/mmax is envisioned as an effective mass deposition which, due to the evaporation of cryogen droplets in-flight and the spray-surface interactions, is a strong function of z. These results represent a step towards a more complete understanding and quantification of the physics involved in CSC. © 2003 ASME
Determinantes da Qualidade da Informação Contábil em Grandes Companhias Abertas Listadas na BM&FBOVESPA

Objetivo: Identificar os fatores que influenciam na qualidade da informacao contabil das maiores empresas listadas na BM&Bovespa. Metodo: Pesquisa realizada em uma amostra composta por 100 companhias abertas. A qualidade da informacao foi analisada por meio de um indice desenvolvido por Fathi (2013), composto por 78 itens e que contemplam informacoes obrigatorias e voluntarias. Os fatores determinantes observados foram governanca corporativa, empresa de auditoria, existencia de comite de auditoria, concentracao acionaria, investidores institucionais e internacionalizacao da empresa. Resultados: Os resultados revelaram um indice medio de evidenciacao equivalente a 78%. A maioria das companhias estavam listadas em niveis diferenciados de governanca; eram auditadas por big four e possuiam Comite de Auditoria. O percentual medio de concentracao acionaria foi 41,37%; em 44% delas havia investidores institucionais no quadro acionario; e apenas 19% negociavam acoes em bolsa americana. Em relacao aos fatores determinantes, verificou-se que o fato de a empresa ser auditada por big four; possuir Comite de Auditoria; possuir participacao acionaria de investidores institucionais; e negociar acoes em bolsa americana reflete-se em informacoes divulgadas de melhor qualidade. Contribuicoes: Os achados fornecem evidencias adicionais para a literatura existente, alem de serem relevantes para os diversos usuarios das informacoes contabeis, tais como analistas e investidores.
Addressing Cognitive Decline: Evaluating the Effects of a Cognitive Training Program for Individuals with Mild to Moderate Cognitive Impairment

Cognitive training offers a nonpharmacological method for increasing or stabilizing cognitive functioning through the use of guided practice on a set of tasks designed to reflect particular cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, language, or executive function. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of a cognitive training program for individuals with mild to moderate cognitive impairment. Six participants who displayed mild to moderate cognitive impairment were recruited at a local care facility and participated in a cognitive training program that consisted of 24 sessions conducted over 12 weeks. At the request of the facility’s activities staff, the program was repeated in its entirety a second time. Thus, participants were evaluated with a battery of neuropsychological assessments in a pre-post-secondary-post manner. Effect size data indicates that the cognitive training program offers promise for improvement or stabilization on a number of cognitive domains, although patterns are variable. Results of this study suggest that this cognitive training program may be a useful tool for individuals with mild cognitive impairment. COGNTIVE TRAINING FOR COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT Table of
String Field Theory Vertices for Fermions of Integral Weight

We construct Witten-type string field theory vertices for a fermionic first order system with conformal weights (0,1) in the operator formulation using delta-function overlap conditions as well as the Neumann function method. The identity, the reflector and the interaction vertex are treated in detail paying attention to the zero mode conditions and the U(1) charge anomaly. The Neumann coefficients for the interaction vertex are shown to be intimately connected with the coefficients for bosons allowing a simple proof that the reparametrization anomaly of the fermionic first order system cancels the contribution of two real bosons. This agrees with their contribution c=-2 to the central charge. The overlap equations for the interaction vertex are shown to hold. Our results have applications in N=2 string field theory, Berkovits' hybrid formalism for superstring field theory, the \eta\xi-system and the twisted bc-system used in bosonic vacuum string field theory.
Moduli dynamics of AdS3 strings

We construct a general class of solutions for a classical string in AdS3 spacetime. The construction is based on a Pohlmeyer type reduction, with the sinh-Gordon model providing the general N-soliton solutions. The corresponding exact spiky string configurations are then reconstructed through the inverse scattering method. It is shown that the string moduli are determined entirely by those of the solitons.
Uptake, Accuracy, Safety, and Linkage into Care over Two Years of Promoting Annual Self-Testing for HIV in Blantyre, Malawi: A Community-Based Prospective Study

Background Home-based HIV testing and counselling (HTC) achieves high uptake, but is difficult and expensive to implement and sustain. We investigated a novel alternative based on HIV self-testing (HIVST). The aim was to evaluate the uptake of testing, accuracy, linkage into care, and health outcomes when highly convenient and flexible but supported access to HIVST kits was provided to a well-defined and closely monitored population. Methods and Findings Following enumeration of 14 neighbourhoods in urban Blantyre, Malawi, trained resident volunteer-counsellors offered oral HIVST kits (OraQuick ADVANCE Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody Test) to adult (≥16 y old) residents (n = 16,660) and reported community events, with all deaths investigated by verbal autopsy. Written and demonstrated instructions, pre- and post-test counselling, and facilitated HIV care assessment were provided, with a request to return kits and a self-completed questionnaire. Accuracy, residency, and a study-imposed requirement to limit HIVST to one test per year were monitored by home visits in a systematic quality assurance (QA) sample. Overall, 14,004 (crude uptake 83.8%, revised to 76.5% to account for population turnover) residents self-tested during months 1–12, with adolescents (16–19 y) most likely to test. 10,614/14,004 (75.8%) participants shared results with volunteer-counsellors. Of 1,257 (11.8%) HIV-positive participants, 26.0% were already on antiretroviral therapy, and 524 (linkage 56.3%) newly accessed care with a median CD4 count of 250 cells/μl (interquartile range 159–426). HIVST uptake in months 13–24 was more rapid (70.9% uptake by 6 mo), with fewer (7.3%, 95% CI 6.8%–7.8%) positive participants. Being “forced to test”, usually by a main partner, was reported by 2.9% (95% CI 2.6%–3.2%) of 10,017 questionnaire respondents in months 1–12, but satisfaction with HIVST (94.4%) remained high. No HIVST-related partner violence or suicides were reported. HIVST and repeat HTC results agreed in 1,639/1,649 systematically selected (1 in 20) QA participants (99.4%), giving a sensitivity of 93.6% (95% CI 88.2%–97.0%) and a specificity of 99.9% (95% CI 99.6%–100%). Key limitations included use of aggregate data to report uptake of HIVST and being unable to adjust for population turnover. Conclusions Community-based HIVST achieved high coverage in two successive years and was safe, accurate, and acceptable. Proactive HIVST strategies, supported and monitored by communities, could substantially complement existing approaches to providing early HIV diagnosis and periodic repeat testing to adolescents and adults in high-HIV settings.
Effective action of β-deformed N=4 SYM theory and AdS/CFT

We compute the one-loop effective action in N=1 superconformal SU(N) gauge theory which is an exactly marginal deformation of the N=4 SYM. We consider an Abelian background of constant N=1 gauge field and single chiral scalar. While for finite N the effective action depends nontrivially on the deformation parameter q=e{sup i{pi}}{sup {beta}}, this dependence disappears in the large N limit if the parameter {beta} is real. This conclusion matches the strong-coupling prediction coming from the form of a D3-brane probe action in the dual supergravity background: for the simplest choice of the D3-brane position the probe action happens to be the same as for a D3-brane in AdS{sub 5}xS{sup 5} placed parallel to the boundary of AdS{sub 5}. This suggests that in the real {beta} deformation case there exists a large N nonrenormalization theorem for the F{sup 4} term in the action.
The Space of Rational Maps on P

The set of morphisms φ : P → P of degree d is parametrized by an affine open subset Ratd of P . We consider the action of SL2 on Ratd induced by the conjugation action of SL2 on rational maps; that is, f ∈ SL2 acts on φ via φ = f ◦ φ ◦ f . The quotient space Md = Ratd/SL2 arises very naturally in the study of discrete dynamical systems on P. We prove that Md exists as an affine integral scheme over Z, that M2 is isomorphic to A2Z, and that the natural completion of M2 obtained using geometric invariant theory is isomorphic to P2Z. These results, which generalize results of Milnor over C, should be useful for studying the arithmetic properties of dynamical systems.
Distributed Design Process Coordination based on a Service Event Notification Model

Due to the complexity and uncertainties, the distributed design process requires dynamic collaborations among the heterogeneous systems and human interactions. In order to coordinate different system applications and humans, an event notification model is required. In this article, we propose a service event notification model based on grid service. The model takes advantage of the grid infrastructure and reduces the need for ad hoc development of middleware for supporting process coordination. In this model, an event notification server composed of a group of grid services can capture events from other grid services and generate process events. When an event occurs, event notification server decides to whom it should send the event according to an awareness model that keeps the states of the underlying coordination policies and business rules. The awareness model and the methodology for building an event notification system, together with the infrastructure of the notification server are presented in the article. An example in applying the model to a vehicle design project coordination scenario is presented to illustrate the potential application of the event notification model.
An evolutionary approach for the clustering data problem

The clustering problem consists in the discovery of interesting groups in a dataset. Such task is very important and widely tackled in the literature. In this paper, we propose an evolutionary method in order to obtain well formed and spatially separated clusters. The proposed algorithm uses a complete solution representation, each partition is represented by a length-variable chromosome. The variation operators were chosen to facilitate the exchange of clustering information between individuals. We have put two complementary clustering criteria together in the fitness function, so that the method can find clusters with arbitrary shapes. The k-means algorithm was the basis of the local search operator, such operator might refine the clustering solutions. The population diversity was an important issue for the algorithm, so a diversity maintenance scheme was employed. Differently from other existing clustering algorithms, our algorithm does not need the setting of the number of clusters in advance. We evaluated the method in different contexts, using both real and simulated data.