Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Challenges and dilemmas facing community development corporations in the United States

In the United States, Community Development Corporations (CDCs) are one of the prime vehicles for delivering housing to low-income households. Beyond the difficulties involved with securing the needed resources to develop, rehabilitate and manage housing, CDCs are facing a series of challenges and dilemmas that could threaten their viability. This article discusses some of the key challenges and dilemmas facing CDCs and offers a number of suggestions for how they might be best confronted.
Towards multi-core expert system

There is growing interest in integrating rule based reasoning with other resolution paradigm, including constraint programming. This paper proposes three hybrid techniques which reinforce standard reasoning technique of rule based system with constraint satisfaction techniques. Firstly, we describe general principles of our multi-core expert system. Furthermore, we explain the various manners for communication or collaboration between a CSP solver and an inference engine of expert system. Secondly, we present the hybrid inference mechanism, and we give the principle of these approaches. Then, we analyze these approaches emphasizing the properties of each one.
Scalable and robust internetwork routing for mobile hosts

This paper describes a new protocol for transparently routing packets to mobile hosts operating in a large internetwork. The protocol, called the Mobile Host Routing Protocol (MHRP), allows any host to become mobile at any time, yet there is no penalty for a host being "mobile capable", since the protocol automatically uses only the standard internetwork routing mechanisms and adds no overhead when a mobile host is currently connected to its home network. The paper concentrates on the design of MHRP as it applies to the Internet using IP. Mobile hosts use only their "home" IP addresses, regardless of their current location in the Internet. No changes are required in stationary hosts that communicate with mobile hosts, and no changes are required in mobile hosts above the IP level. MHRP introduces several new features to provide better robustness for routing to mobile hosts, and provides better scalability to very large numbers of mobile hosts than previous mobile host protocols. <<ETX>>
Rapid quantitative detection of Aeromonas hydrophila strains associated with disease outbreaks in catfish aquaculture

A new strain of Aeromonas hydrophila has been implicated in significant losses in farm-raised catfish. Outbreaks attributable to this new strain began in Alabama in the summer of 2009 and have spread to Arkansas and Mississippi in subsequent years. These outbreaks mostly afflicted market-sized fish and resulted in considerable losses in short periods of time. The present research was designed to develop an expeditious diagnostic procedure to detect the new strains of A. hydrophila due to the rapid onset and biosecurity concerns associated with this new disease. A discriminatory quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay was developed using gene sequences unique to the virulent strains identified in a related comparative genomic study. Using this assay, suspect colonies on a culture plate can be positively identified as the new strain within 2 hr. The assay is repeatable and reproducible with a linear dynamic range covering 8 orders of magnitude and a sensitivity of approximately 7 copies of target DNA in a 15-µl reaction. In addition, the assay is able to detect and quantify the virulent strain from catfish tissues (0.025 g), pond water (40 ml), and sediments (0.25 g) with a sensitivity limit of approximately 100 bacteria in a sample. This assay provides rapid discrimination between the new virulent strain and more common A. hydrophila and is useful for epidemiological studies involving the detection and quantification of the virulent strain in environmental samples and fish tissues.
The state of cardiac troponin assays: looking bright and moving in the right direction.

Cardiac troponin assays have evolved substantially over 20 years, owing to the efforts of manufacturers to make them more precise and sensitive. These enhancements have led to high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays, which ideally would give measureable values above the limit of detection (LoD)4 for 100% of healthy individuals and demonstrate an imprecision (CV) of ≤10% at the 99th percentile. Complete integration and proper use of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays into clinical practice will be an important step forward for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction and will allow cardiologists to use cardiac troponin as a prognostic indicator for risk-based outcomes assessment. As laboratorians, we wish to comment on the recently published “ACCF 2012 Expert Consensus Document on Practical Clinical Considerations in the Implementation of Troponin Elevations” (1). Our purpose is to address 8 analytical issues that we believe have the potential to cause confusion and that therefore deserve clarification. Input from the field of laboratory medicine is important for emphasizing our role as analytical-content experts in the process of strengthening our collaborative relationships with various clinical societies. Since the initial publications by the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB) in 1999 and by the European Society of Cardiology/American College of Cardiology in 2000, when both organizations endorsed cardiac troponin I (cTnI) or cTnT as the preferred biomarker for the detection of myocardial infaction, numerous other organizations have followed suit and promoted the sole use of cardiac troponin in this clinical application. The American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF) 2012 Expert Consensus Document (1) summarizes the recently published 2012 Third Universal Definition of Myocardial Infarction by the Global Task Force (2), thus providing some practical recommendations on the use and interpretation of cardiac troponin in clinical practice. The integration and acceptance of cardiac troponin testing over the past 13 years has …
CONTINUOUS OPINIONS AND DISCRETE ACTIONS IN OPINION DYNAMICS PROBLEMS

A model where agents show discrete behavior regarding their actions, but have continuous opinions that are updated by interacting with other agents is presented. This new updating rule is applied to both the voter and Sznajd models for interaction between neighbors, and its consequences are discussed. The appearance of extremists is naturally observed and it seems to be a characteristic of this model.
Real-time programmable shading

One of the main techniques used by software renderers to produce stunningly realistic images is programmable shading—executing an arbitrarily complex program to compute the color at each pixel. Thus far, programmable shading has only been available on software rendering systems that run on general-purpose computers. Rendering each image can take from minutes to hours. Parallel rendering engines, on the other hand, have steadily increased in generality and in performance. We believe that they are nearing the point where they will be able to perform moderately complex shading at real-time rates. Some of the obstacles to this are imposed by hardware, such as limited amounts of frame-buffer memory and the enormous computational resources that are needed to shade in real time. Other obstacles are imposed by software. For example, users generally are not granted access to the hardware at the level required for programmable shading. This paper first explores the capabilities that are needed to perform programmable shading in real times. We then describe the design issues and algorithms for a prototype shading architecture on PixelFlow, an experimental graphics engine under construction. We demonstrate through examples and simulation that PixelFlow will be able to perform high-quality programmable shading at real-time (30 to 60 Hz) rates. We hope that our experience will be useful to shading implementors on other hardware graphics systems.
A conversation analytic perspective on teaching English pronunciation: The case of speech rhythm

Recent decades have seen an ongoing debate over the implications of English as a global lingua franca for English teaching methodologies and curricula, particularly regarding pronunciation. The two opposing perspectives are native-like accuracy on the one hand, and international intelligibility on the other. This paper suggests a third approach, which starts from an interactional perspective on phonetics and prosody, and asks, first, what the interactional relevance of individual pronunciation features may be, and, second, how non-native speakers would benefit from acquiring them. Taking speech rhythm as an example, the paper argues that as long as non-native speakers are able to accomplish the interactional projects they set out to accomplish, non-native features of their accent variety need not be made prominent in pronunciation teaching. Seit einigen Jahrzehnten werden in der angewandten Sprachwissenschaft Auswirkungen des globalen Gebrauchs des Englischen als Lingua Franca auf Lehrmethodologie und Lehrplane fur Englisch als Fremdsprache diskutiert, besonders im Bereich des Ausspracheunterrichts. Zwei gegensatzliche Perspektiven werden von Befurwortern quasi-muttersprachlicher Korrektheit einerseits, und internationaler Verstandlichkeit andererseits vertreten. In diesem Artikel wird ein dritter Ansatz angeboten, der von einer interaktionalen Perspektive auf Phonetik und Prosodie ausgeht. Hier wird zuerst nach der interaktionalen Relevanz einzelner Aussprachemerkmale gefragt, und dann untersucht, ob, und inwieweit Nicht-Muttersprachlerinnen vom Erlernen dieser Merkmale profitieren. Der Artikel verwendet Sprechrhythmus als Beispiel, und argumentiert, dass wenn Nicht-Muttersprachlerinnen in der Lage sind ihre interaktionalen Ziele erfolgreich zu verwirklichen, ihre nicht-muttersprachlichen Aussprachevarianten keine bedeutende Stellung im Ausspracheunterricht einnehmen mussen.
Experiencing Conversations: Bridging the Gap between Discourse and Activity

The article introduces the Vygotskian tradition in the realist theoretical discussion of the structure-agency problem. Archer's concept of internal conversation is discussed in terms of internalization and externalization of conversational dynamics. The article addresses in particular the methodological issue of observing how external events trigger internal use of language, and how these internal dynamics are externalized. The experience of talk is proposed as a conceptual key to the understanding of internal conversations and of the relation between structured activity and agency. The experience of talk is defined with the help of the notions of emotional experience, personal sense and inner speech, as they are conceptualized in activity theory and in particular in the works of L.S. Vygotsky and A.N. Leont’ev. Students’ experiences of critical conversational events with teachers are analyzed on the basis of written autobiographical accounts. The experience of talk emerges from the analysis as a form of emotional experience in which the horizon of the individual's subjective view relates to specific circumstances external to the individual. Autobiographical accounts of critical conversations are suggested as a type of data which allows access to the experience of talk.
The management of absence: why it matters: An analysis of absence management issues, with a case study based in a UK academic library

Purpose – This paper seeks to give an overview of some ongoing research into absence management practices in a UK university library. The aim of the research in question is to evaluate the effectiveness of current management practices.Design/methodology/approach – The research collected quantitative data over time and the present paper presents a summary of findings and recommendations to practitioners in the same field.Findings – The research findings indicate that the use of return to work interviews after each absence through illness contributes to the reduction in absence levels. The research recommends that firm guidelines be used to ensure consistency in approach; that employee awareness is increased of their own responsibility to attend for work wherever possible. Where a culture of absenteeism exists, it is suggested that appropriate management strategies can produce a culture of attendance. Within academic libraries, this is possible where there is an involvement of human resource departments, wi.
Dermatophytosis on the eyelid caused by Microsporum gypseum

We report a case of tinea on the eyelid in a woman with psoriasis. Due to the history of psoriasis and clinical aspect of the lesion the diagnosis of psoriasis was suggested in the first place; however, laboratory examination revealed Microsporum gypseum. The patient was treated with oral itraconazole resulting in clinical and mycological cure. We emphasize the uncommon location of tinea caused by M. gypseum and the importance of searching for fungal infection on scaly lesions.
Musical Grammar and the Study of Cognitive Processes of Composition

The concept of “grammar” is at the basis both of listening to and of composing music. Music grammar includes morphology and syntax, the former being defined as the identification of different categories of musical structures, the latter as that of rules connecting morphological unities. In listening to music morphology corresponds to “categorical” perception and syntax to “structural” perception. In composing and in music analysis, the intuitive procedures of perceptions must be transformed in explicitly rational knowledge: morphology corresponds to a clear definition of musical concepts and syntax to that of musical rules. According to the theory, morphology and syntax correspond to actual cognitive processes; however a distinction is made between a grammar, and its uses, that is, its applications in composing and listening activities. Some critical remarks on this point are made in respect of the tradition of cognitive studies. A further aspect of grammar is then underlined: the distinction between syntactic and semantic rules. The aim of both of these is to build expressive structures which can be understood and interpreted by means of socially legitimated hermeneutic conventions. In this sense grammar is to be conceived of not only as a psychic, but also as a social instrument. In order to understand the mental procedures of composition, all the methods so far proposed risk remaining at the surface of the problems to which they are applied unless they are integrated into amore accurate and adequate consideration of grammatical thinking.
‘The Work You Want, The Help You Need’: Constructing the Customer in Jobcentre Plus

In this article we explore the concept of the customer and its application within the contemporary public sector. While the centrality of the customer ideal to ‘the new public management’ is clear, the nature, appropriateness and implications of its use are less so. Debates on these issues turn on meanings ascribed to the customer role. In the first part of the article we consider shifting conceptions of the customer appearing in literatures on consumption, organization and the new public management. The second part of the article explores the representation of the customer in an organization emblematic of the new public management in Britain. Jobcentre Plus is an emerging organization charged with delivery of the government’s work-focused welfare agenda. The agency is involved in constructing customers from what once were benefit claimants and/or the unemployed. Through analysis of internal and public documents and observation of six sites, we explore the explicit and implicit meanings of the customer as conveyed through language and labelling, operational practices and features of the physical environment. We find a complex interaction of narratives of customer sovereignty and control. In the final part of the article we consider how this case may be read according to the academic narratives previously outlined.
Associative Learning of Standard Regularizing Operators in Early Vision

Standard regularization methods can be used to solve satisfactorily several problems in early vision, including edge detection, surface reconstruction, the computation of motion and the recovery of color. In this paper, we suggest (a) that the quadratic variational principles corresponding to standard regularization methods are equivalent to a linear regularizing operator acting on the data and (b) that this operator can be synthesized through associative learning. The synthesis of the regularizing operator involves the computation of the pseudoinverse of the data. The pseudoinverse can be computed by iterative methods, that can be implemented in analog networks. Possible implications for biological visual systems are also discussed. @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984 A.I. Laboratory Working Papers are produced for internal circulation, and may contain information that is, for example, too preliminary or too detailed for formal publication. It is not intended that they should be considered papers to which reference can be made in the literature. Rather, they provide a medium for self-expression for those who wish to see their names in print but who are too shy to submit their work to journals.
Some explicit solutions to the Riemann-Hilbert problem

Explicit solutions to the Riemann-Hilbert problem will be found realising some irreducible non-rigid local systems. The relation to isomonodromy and the sixth Painleve equation will be described. Keywords: Riemann-Hilbert problem, Painleve equations, algebraic solutions, Heun equations, tetrahedral/octahedral group, triangle groups, Belyi maps.
The genetic architecture of leaf number and its genetic relationship to flowering time in maize

Summary The number of leaves and their distributions on plants are critical factors determining plant architecture in maize (Zea mays), and leaf number is frequently used as a measure of flowering time, a trait that is key to local environmental adaptation. Here, using a large set of 866 maize‐teosinte BC 2S3 recombinant inbred lines genotyped by using 19 838 single nucleotide polymorphism markers, we conducted a comprehensive genetic dissection to assess the genetic architecture of leaf number and its genetic relationship to flowering time. We demonstrated that the two components of total leaf number, the number of leaves above (LA) and below (LB) the primary ear, were under relatively independent genetic control and might be subject to differential directional selection during maize domestication and improvement. Furthermore, we revealed that flowering time and leaf number are commonly regulated at a moderate level. The pleiotropy of the genes ZCN8, dlf1 and ZmCCT on leaf number and flowering time were validated by near‐isogenic line analysis. Through fine mapping, qLA1‐1, a major‐effect locus that specifically affects LA, was delimited to a region with severe recombination suppression derived from teosinte. This study provides important insights into the genetic basis of traits affecting plant architecture and adaptation. The genetic independence of LA from LB enables the optimization of leaf number for ideal plant architecture breeding in maize.
Intensive care unit antimicrobial resistance and the role of the pharmacist

Over the past 20 yrs, pharmacists have successfully integrated their services and expertise to gain acceptance as full members of pediatric, surgical, medical, and intensive care unit (ICU) patient care teams. The pharmacists’ training in pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacoeconomics complements the expertise of other members of the patient care team. Generally, a strong background in infectious diseases and critical care also provides a focal point for clinical pharmacy service intervention. Although practitioners often focus on issues exclusively related to their specific hospital or ICU, the issues surrounding antibiotic resistance are more global and societal in nature. Medical, surgical, and pharmaceutical practices inside the hospital and ICU extend their influence into the community. Customs and practices of daily living in our society coupled with use of agents capable of altering microbial flora impact our hospital and ICU when patients from the community are admitted. The misuse of antibiotics and the lack of effective infection control programs are often identified as key components in the perpetuation of these phenomena. The focus for the pharmacist and the ICU team must be on the optimization of antibiotic use and infection control guidelines. This review will address the many issues that surround the appropriate use of antibiotics and what role the pharmacist can play in ensuring the optimal use of infection control measures in the ICU and hospital.
Correlation Between Resistivity Index , Capillary Pressure and Relative Permeability

It is known that the three important parameters: resistivity, capillary pressure, and relative permeability, are all a function of fluid saturation in a porous medium. This implies that there may be a correlation among the three parameters. The models representing such relationships show that capillary pressure and relative permeability could be inferred from resistivity data using the analytical mathematical models derived theoretically. In fact the other two could be inferred using these models if one of the three parameters (capillary pressure, relative permeability, and resistivity) is known. Using this approach, it would be possible to quickly obtain a distribution of capillary pressure and relative permeability characteristics as a function of depth and location across an entire reservoir.
Audience responses to a live orchestral concert

Abstract A sample of concertgoers attending a concert of orchestral music was asked to give ratings of the performance during the interval. Analysis of the data suggested that listeners with higher levels of formal musical training gave lower ratings than those without such training, but that otherwise the pattern of ratings was essentially similar. Liking for the piece itself was correlated with enjoyment of the performance; however, no relationship was observed between prior familiarity with the piece and enjoyment of the performance. Affective response to the performance was shown to be a markedly better predictor of enjoyment than the perceived quality of the performance, and it was suggested that most listeners were, on the whole, able to separate their judgements of the quality of the performance from their affective responses to it. Non-musical variables (such as satisfaction with the concert hall itself) were shown to make a small but statistically significant contribution to listeners' overall enjoyment of the concert. The findings are discussed in the light of previous research, and suggestions made for future investigations of naturalistic, “real world” performance evaluation.
. . . from the 39th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Abstracts from the conference highlight research in several areas. Topics include effects highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), viral rebound after stopping HAART, reasons for treatment failures, and data on protease inhibitors and non-protease regimens. In addition, several presentations on lipodystrophy followed patients on protease inhibitor therapies, and found that such metabolic changes are caused by numerous factors. Additional presentations covered nutritional supplements for people experiencing side effects such as diarrhea, regimens for treating anemia, and treatment failure predictions.