Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PERCEIVING ROUGHNESS VIA A RIGID PROBE: PSYCHOPHYSICAL EFFECTS OF EXPLORATION SPEED AND MODE OF TOUCH

Two experiments investigated the psychophysical consequences for roughness perception of altering the speed of motion with which real textured surfaces are explored using a rigid probe. Two speed ranges were used: a 10-fold change (Experiment 1) and a 4-fold change (Experiment 2). Relative motion was altered both by moving the probe actively over a stationary surface (active mode) and by moving the surfaces under the stationary probe (passive mode). Substantial effects of speed were obtained relative to previous studies. The results are examined both in terms of the complex effects of speed on the psychophysical roughness functions and in terms of an increase in the size of the maximum speed effect as the range of speeds explored was reduced. We also consider how best to minimize potentially negative effects of speed on the haptic exploration of simulated textures. Two operatortraining procedures are proposed to achieve effective haptic exploration strategies.
Planning future studies based on the conditional power of a meta-analysis

Systematic reviews often provide recommendations for further research. When meta‐analyses are inconclusive, such recommendations typically argue for further studies to be conducted. However, the nature and amount of future research should depend on the nature and amount of the existing research. We propose a method based on conditional power to make these recommendations more specific. Assuming a random‐effects meta‐analysis model, we evaluate the influence of the number of additional studies, of their information sizes and of the heterogeneity anticipated among them on the ability of an updated meta‐analysis to detect a prespecified effect size. The conditional powers of possible design alternatives can be summarized in a simple graph which can also be the basis for decision making. We use three examples from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to demonstrate our strategy. We demonstrate that if heterogeneity is anticipated, it might not be possible for a single study to reach the desirable power no matter how large it is. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Incorporation of texture in multispectral synthetic image generation tools

The digital imaging and remote sensing synthetic image generation (DIRSIG) model emphasizes quantitative prediction of the radiance reaching sensors with bandpass values between 0.28 and 20.0 micrometers . The model embodies a rigorous end-to-end spectral modeling of radiation propagation, absorption and scattering, target temperatures based on meteorological history, extensive directional target-background interactions, and detector responsivities. This paper describes texture quantification, the spectral-spatial correlation of textures, texture collection and generation methods. Finally, we describe how DIRSIG generates texture on a pixel by pixel basis and maintains the spectral correlation of targets between bands.
Stochastic comparisons for a static routing problem with resequencing

In communication networks, packets from the same source-destination pair may be routed along several paths and arrive at their receiver out of order. This often necessitates the use of a resequencing buffer at the destination. We consider such a network of parallel links with a general packet arrival and service processes, and resequencing. We establish stochastic comparisons for the end-to-end delay (including the time at the resequencing buffer) in the heavy and light traffic regimes, between two different static scheduling mechanisms, namely Bernoulli and round-robin routing. The results show that round-robin outperforms Bernoulli routing, as yet another instance of the folk theorem that "determinism minimizes delays".
High-Redshift Galaxies: Their Predicted Size and Surface Brightness Distributions and Their Gravitational Lensing Probability

Direct observations of the first generation of luminous objects will likely become feasible over the next decade. The advent of the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) will allow imaging of numerous galaxies and mini-quasars at redshifts z ≳ 5. We apply semianalytic models of structure formation to estimate the rate of multiple imaging of these sources by intervening gravitational lenses. Popular cold dark matter (CDM) models for galaxy formation yield a lensing optical depth of ∼1% for sources at z ∼ 10. The expected slope of the luminosity function of the early sources implies an additional magnification bias of ∼5, bringing the fraction of lensed sources at z = 10 to ∼5%. We estimate the angular size distribution of high-redshift disk galaxies and find that most of them are more extended than the resolution limit of NGST, ∼0. ″06. We also show that there is only a modest redshift evolution in the observed mean surface brightness of galaxies at z ≳ 2. The expected increase by 1-2 orders of magnitude in the number of resolved sources on the sky, due to observations with NGST, will dramatically improve upon the statistical significance of existing weak-lensing measurements. We show that despite this increase in the density of sources, confusion noise from z > 2 galaxies is expected to be small for NGST observations.
Fuzzy Mixed Integer Optimization Model for Regression Approach

Mixed Integer Optimization has been a topic of active research in past decades. It has been used to solve Statistical problems of classification and regression involving massive data. However, there is an inherent degree of vagueness present in huge real life data. This impreciseness is handled by Fuzzy Sets. In this Paper, Fuzzy Mixed Integer Optimization Method (FMIOM) is used to find solution to Regression problem. The methodology exploits discrete character of problem. In this way large scale problems are solved within practical limits. The data points are separated into different polyhedral regions and each region has its own distinct regression coefficients. In this attempt, an attention is drawn to Statistics and Data Mining community that Integer Optimization can be significantly used to revisit different Statistical problems. Computational experimentations with generated and real data sets show that FMIOM is comparable to and often outperforms current leading methods. The results illustrate potential for significant impact of Fuzzy Integer Optimization methods on Computational Statistics and Data Mining.
Immigrant acculturation and mental health of Portuguese women living in South Africa

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . iii TABLE OF CONTENTS . iv LIST OF TABLES . viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 Background and rationale of the study . 1 1.2 Research problem. 2 1.3 Purpose of the study . 3 1.4 Objectives of the study. 5 1.5 Research Questions . 5 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW . 6 2.1 Brief history of Portugal . 6 2.2 Immigration waves of the Portuguese into South Africa . 7 2.3 Immigration into South Africa during Apartheid . 8 2.4 Theories informing the research study . 9 2.4. 1 Bowlby’s process of mourning . 9 2.4. 2 Migration and identity . 10 2.4. 3 Acculturation. 15
SmartRescue: Architecture for Fire Crisis Assessment and Prediction

In case of indoor fire hazards, firefighters face difficulties at assessing the fire situation and evacuating trapped victim inside the building, especially when the fire is big, and the building is unknown to them. On the other hand, modern sensor technologies in smartphone are becoming more advanced, widespread, and can be exploited for helping the firefighting operation. This paper proposes using smartphones as a distributed sensing and computing platform, for supporting firefighters to conduct their mission. The developed solution is based on collecting sensor data from smartphones. A Bayesian network then uses this data to generate a picture of the fire and predict its development. The additional indoor positioning feature make this proposed solution a promising tool to make the firefighter intervention more efficient and fast in order to save more lives.
An Intense Terminal Epoch of Widespread Fluvial Activity on Early Mars: 2. Increased Runoff and Paleolake Development

[1] To explain the much higher denudation rates and valley network development on early Mars (>∼3.6 Gyr ago), most investigators have invoked either steady state warm/wet (Earthlike) or cold/dry (modern Mars) end-member paleoclimates. Here we discuss evidence that highland gradation was prolonged, but generally slow and possibly ephemeral during the Noachian Period, and that the immature valley networks entrenched during a brief terminal epoch of more erosive fluvial activity in the late Noachian to early Hesperian. Observational support for this interpretation includes (1) late-stage breaching of some enclosed basins that had previously been extensively modified, but only by internal erosion and deposition; (2) deposition of pristine deltas and fans during a late stage of contributing valley entrenchment; (3) a brief, erosive response to base level decline (which was imparted as fretted terrain developed by a suite of processes unrelated to surface runoff) in fluvial valleys that crosscut the highland-lowland boundary scarp; and (4) width/contributing area relationships of interior channels within valley networks, which record significant late-stage runoff production with no evidence of recovery to lower-flow conditions. This erosion appears to have ended abruptly, as depositional landforms generally were not entrenched with declining base level in crater lakes. A possible planetwide synchronicity and common cause to the late-stage fluvial activity are possible but remain uncertain. This increased activity of valley networks is offered as a possible explanation for diverse features of highland drainage basins, which were previously cited to support competing warm, wet and cold, dry paleoclimate scenarios.
A Quasi-Zero-Stiffness-Based Sensor System in Vibration Measurement

Quasi-zero-stiffness (QZS) systems have been extensively studied and used as a useful vibration isolation device. In this paper, the feasibility of the application of a QZS system for vibration measurement is investigated. The structural parameters of the QZS system are first analyzed to ensure that the system is staying at stable equilibriums. Comparisons of the absolute motion of a general and typical vibration platform (e.g., a moving vehicle body) and the motion signal measured from the QZS system attached are then conducted to show the effectiveness of the method under different base excitations. Moreover, the case under which the QZS-based sensor system may not behave well is also studied and potential solutions are discussed. The QZS vibration system is shown to be a useful device for absolute displacement measurement in vibration control systems particularly for moving platforms compared with the exciting methods and would benefit a wide range of engineering practices.
“Self-Cognition” in the Construction of Digital Museums—A Study Based on the “Collection of Famous Paintings in the Palace Museum”

This case study of the “Collection of Famous Paintings in the Palace Museum” examines digital museum visiting from a classic Technology Acceptance Model perspective. The impact of college students’ self-cognition on their use of the collection was investigated to study the acceptance behavior of digital museum users, thus providing a useful reference for the construction of “user-oriented” digital museums in the future. The individual innovativeness results show that: 1) the basic variables relating to “self-cognition” have a positive impact on the visitors’ perceived ease of use; 2) the perceived ease of use has a significant positive impact on usage intention; and 3) self-efficacy and individual innovativeness can indirectly impact the intended use of digital collections such as the “Collection of Famous Paintings in the Palace Museum” by college students through their positive impact on the perceived ease of use.
SPATIAL AND VERBAL COMPONENTS OF THE ACT OF RECALL *

Research presented in this paper shows that while a person is recalling a line diagram he can more readily signal information about that diagram by speaking than by spatially monitored output (e.g., pointing to correct items in a column of symbols). When recalling a sentence, he can more readily signal information about that sentence by spatially monitored output than by speaking. These results suggest that spatial and verbal information is recalled and processed in a modality-specific manner. Recall of verbal information is most readily disrupted by concurrent vocal activity; recall of spatial information is most readily disrupted by concurrent spatially monitored activity. This differential conflict occurs even though the concurrent activity is a recoding of the information that is being recalled. A PEBSON is asked to describe from memory a diagram such as a map or floor plan, he is likely to say that he generated a mental representation of the diagram and then derived his description from that. Even in the absence of vivid mental imagery, there is a clear impression that some underlying visual or spatial process is involved in this type of performance. In contrast, the process involved in recalling a specific sentence seems to have more to do with speech than with vision or spatial movements. If there is a visualized component in sentence recall, it appears to be less crucial than in the recall of spatial relationships. This paper will present performance data to support the subjectively plausible notion that verbal and spatial information are handled in distinct, modality-specific manners. These data are obtained from experiments which induce conflict between overt responding and the act of recall. Subjects are asked to recall memorized material (sentences or line diagrams) and to simultaneously signal information about that material. If making signals in one modality (for example, speaking) uniquely disrupts recall of one of these types of material, then it will be assumed that the recall of that material is accomplished in a modalityspecific manner. If a different modality of response (for example, pointing to a sequence of symbols) provides the strongest conflict when the •This research was supported by N.R. C. grant A.P.A. 210. I would like to thank Mrs. Wilma Clarke and Miss Rosemary Squire for their assistance in running subjects and tabulating and analyzing the data of these experiments. {Present address: Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.
Creating annotated resources for polarity classification in Czech

This paper presents the first steps towards reliable polarity classification based on Czech data. We describe a method for annotating Czech evaluative structures and build a standard unigram-based Naive Bayes classifier on three different types of annotated texts. Furthermore, we analyze existing results for both manual and automatic annotation, some of which are promising and close to the state-of-the-art performance, see Cui (2006).
Ghrelin: a step forward in the understanding of somatotroph cell function and growth regulation.

the releaseof growth hormone (GH) from pituitary cells, althoughtheir potency was rather weak (1). Further studiesbased on conformational energy calculations in con-junction with peptide chemistry modiﬁcations andbiological activity testing, led in 1984 to the develop-ment of several more potent peptides, including growthhormone-releasing peptide-6 (GHRP-6) (2). This hexa-peptide was shown to be a potent releaser of GH both
A comparative study of visual fixation of Uygur and Han 5- to 6-year-olds in reading picture books within a Chinese reading context: Evidence from eye movement

Abstract In this study, 80 Uygur children and Han children aged 5 to 6 years within a Chinese reading context were tested by using an SMI portable eye tracker to record their eye movements in picture and text fixation during picture book reading. The findings are as follows. First, Uygur children aged 5 to 6 years primarily focus on pictures in the process of reading picture books. Their level of fixation of key picture information (main characters) is constantly increasing. An important reading characteristic for Uygur children at this age is to understand picture books through capturing key picture information, whereas Han children at this age show signs of shifting from reading the key picture information to overall information processing, such as obtaining information from the picture details, background information, and text information about their relationship with the key pictures. Second, 5- to 6-year-old Uygur children’s fixation on text begins to have elementary development with age, but their text fixation level significantly lags behind Han children, and their fixation of Chinese characters is still in the elementary stage. Third, 5- to 6-year-old Uygur children’s reading direction is potentially affected by their habit of reading their native language, but this age period is also an important stage for the early development of Uygur children’s second language (Chinese).
Mapping translocation breakpoints using a wheat microarray

We report mapping of translocation breakpoints using a microarray. We used complex RNA to compare normal hexaploid wheat (17 000 Mb genome) to a ditelosomic stock missing the short arm of chromosome 1B (1BS) and wheat-rye translocations that replace portions of 1BS with rye 1RS. Transcripts detected by a probe set can come from all three Triticeae genomes in ABD hexaploid wheat, and sequences of homoeologous genes on 1AS, 1BS and 1DS often differ from each other. Absence or replacement of 1BS therefore must sometimes result in patterns within a probe set that deviate from hexaploid wheat. We termed these ‘high variance probe sets’ (HVPs) and examined the extent to which HVPs associated with 1BS aneuploidy are related to rice genes on syntenic rice chromosome 5 short arm (5S). We observed an enrichment of such probe sets to 15–20% of all HVPs, while 1BS represents ∼2% of the total genome. In total 257 HVPs constitute wheat 1BS markers. Two wheat-rye translocations subdivided 1BS HVPs into three groups, allocating translocation breakpoints to narrow intervals defined by rice 5S coordinates. This approach could be extended to the entire wheat genome or any organism with suitable aneuploid or translocation stocks.
Prevalence of pilus genes in pneumococci isolated from healthy preschool children in Iceland: association with vaccine serotypes and antibiotic resistance.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of pilus islets [pilus islet 1 (PI-1) and pilus islet 2 (PI-2)] in pneumococcal isolates from healthy Icelandic preschool children attending day care centres, prior to the introduction of conjugated pneumococcal vaccine, and the association of the pilus islets with vaccine serotypes and antibiotic resistance. METHODS Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from 516 healthy children attending day care centres in Reykjavik in March and April 2009. Infant vaccination was started in 2011, thus the great majority of the children were unvaccinated. Pneumococci were cultured selectively, tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and serotyped. The presence of PI-1 and PI-2 was detected using PCR. RESULTS A total of 398 viable isolates were obtained of which 134 (33.7%) showed the presence of PI-1. PI-1-positive isolates were most often seen in serotype 19F [30/31 (96.8%)] and were of clade I, and in 6B [48/58 (82.8%)] of clade II. PI-2-positive isolates were most common in serotype 19F [27/31 (87.1%)]; all of them were also PI-1 positive. Of the PI-1-positive and PI-2-positive isolates, 118 (88.1%) and 31 (81.6%), respectively, were of vaccine serotypes. Both PI-1 and PI-2 were more often present in penicillin-non-susceptible pneumococci (PNSP) than in penicillin-susceptible pneumococci [PI-1 in 41/58 (70.7%) and 93/340 (27.4%), respectively, and PI-2 in 28/58 (48.3%) and 10/340 (2.9%), respectively]. CONCLUSIONS Genes for PI-1 and/or PI-2 in pneumococci isolated from healthy Icelandic children are mainly found in isolates of vaccine serotypes and in PNSP isolates belonging to multiresistant international clones that have been endemic in the country.
Sampled-data H ∞ control and filtering : Nonuniform uncertain sampling

Sampled-data H∞ control of linear systems is considered. The measured output is sampled and the only restriction on the sampling is that the distance between sequel sampling times does not exceed a given bound. A novel performance index is introduced which takes into account the sampling rates of the measurement and it is thus related to the energy of the measurement noise. Three types of controllers are designed: a continuous-time controller, a sample and hold controller (synchronized with the sampling of the measurement), and an unsynchronized sampled and hold controller. A novel structure is adopted for these controllers where the dynamics of the controller is affected by the continuous-time state vector and the sampled value of this vector. A new approach, which was recently introduced to sampled-data stabilization is developed: the system is modeled as a continuous-time one, where the measurement output has a piecewise-continuous delay. A simple solution to the H∞ control problem is derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). This solution is based on a new bounded real lemma (BRL) with state and disturbance delays. The results that are obtained for the output-feedback controller are readily applied to the problem of robust sampled-data H∞ filtering with time-varying uncertain sampling rate. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Steady-state performance analyses for sliding window max-correlation matching adaptive algorithms

This paper presents the sliding exponential window max-correlation matching (SEWMCM) adaptive algorithm and the sliding rectangular window max-correlation matching (SRWMCM) adaptive algorithm for finding the maximum correlation of two different signal vectors. A unified approach to the steady-state excess mean square error (MSE) performance analyses for proposed algorithms is developed, including several general close-form analytical expressions based on the non-stationary system identification model. It is conclusively shown by numerical simulations that the SEWMCM algorithm converges faster than the SRWMCM algorithm, whereas the estimation accuracy and the steady-state performance of the SRWMCM outperform those of the SEWMCM and the conventional exponentially-weighted RLS (EWRLS).
Syllable classification using articulatory-acoustic features

This paper investigates the use of articulatory-acoustic features for the classiﬁcation of syllables in TIMIT. The main moti-vation for this study is to circumvent the “beads-on-a-string” problem, i.e. the assumption that words can be described as a simple concatenation of phones. Posterior probabilities for articulatory-acoustic features are obtained from artiﬁcial neural nets and are used to classify speech within the scope of syllables instead of phones. This gives the opportunity to account for asynchronous feature changes, exploiting the strengths of the articulatory-acoustic features, instead of losing the potential by reverting to phones.