Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immersive multi-projector display on hybrid screens with human-scale haptic and locomotion interfaces

Many immersive displays developed in previous researches are strongly influenced by the design concept of the CAVE which is the origin of the immersive displays. We propose a novel multiprojector display for immersive virtual environments. Our system named "D-vision'' has a hybrid curved screen which consist of differently shaped surface elements that are partial surfaces of such objects as planes, spheres, cylinders and tori. 24 PCs and projectors generate high-quality stereoscopic images. Our rendering algorithm using our original image processing hardware and commodity 3D graphics hardware realizes seamless and nondistorted projection on the hybrid screen. The D-vision also has a human-scale haptic and locomotion interface by which the users of the D-vision can walk with their own foot and interact with virtual objects through their own hands. We show an overview of the D-vision and technologies used for the human-scale haptic- and locomotion interfaces.
Paths to Successful Development: Social production function (SPF) theory as an heuristic for understanding developmental trajectories and outcomes

Introduction This chapter will try to convince you that Social Production Function (SPF) theory provides heuristics that may help the study of developmental trajectories and outcomes. In order to examine social phenomena, such as the dynamics of divorce rates and female labor market participation, as consequences at the collective level of individual behaviors, Lindenberg (1986, 1991) synthesized basic economic, psychological and social insights into what he called Social Production Function theory. SPF theory combines a theory of individual behavior with a theory of goals. In the 1990s the development of SPF theory continued (Lindenberg 1996; Ormel, Lindenberg, Steverink and Verbrugge 1999) and conceptual applications to quality of life and successful aging were developed (Ormel, Lindenberg, Steverink and Von Korff, 1997; Steverink, Lindenberg, and Ormel, 1998). In the same period the first empirical studies guided by the heuristics of SPF theory were undertaken on bereavement (Nieboer, 1998), giving up independent living (Steverink, 1996) and time-spending patterns (Van Eyk, 1997). These experiences have shaped my belief that SPF heuristics are promising for understanding developmental trajectories and outcomes, both at the individual and collective level. Social Production Function (SPF) theory integrates strengths of relevant psychological theories and economic consumer/household production theories, without their limitations (namely, tradeoffs between satisfaction of different needs are not satisfactorily dealt with in the first, and goals or needs are not in the second).
Vulnerable sexualities: Constructions of youth sexuality in South African newspaper articles aimed at an adult readership

abstract This Article aims to problematise the way in which youth sexualities are constructed through South African newspaper articles written for adults. Using an adaption of discourse analysis the article identifies and critically explores the way in which several discourses work interdependently to construct a dominant narrative of black South African youth sexuality as vulnerable, problematic and in need of the surveillance and intervention of experts. It is argued that such an analysis can be used to create spaces in which those working with youth can interrogate their own internalised constructions of youth sexuality. Unless these normative constructions are challenged there is a risk that interventions may be inappropriately designed and facilitated according to these problematic representations of youth and youth sexuality.
Fronto-Central Theta Oscillations Are Related to Oscillations in Saccadic Response Times (SRT): An EEG and Behavioral Data Analysis

The phase reset hypothesis states that the phase of an ongoing neural oscillation, reflecting periodic fluctuations in neural activity between states of high and low excitability, can be shifted by the occurrence of a sensory stimulus so that the phase value become highly constant across trials (Schroeder et al., 2008). From EEG/MEG studies it has been hypothesized that coupled oscillatory activity in primary sensory cortices regulates multi sensory processing (Senkowski et al. 2008). We follow up on a study in which evidence of phase reset was found using a purely behavioral paradigm by including also EEG measures. In this paradigm, presentation of an auditory accessory stimulus was followed by a visual target with a stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) across a range from 0 to 404 ms in steps of 4 ms. This fine-grained stimulus presentation allowed us to do a spectral analysis on the mean SRT as a function of the SOA, which revealed distinct peak spectral components within a frequency range of 6 to 11 Hz with a modus of 7 Hz. The EEG analysis showed that the auditory stimulus caused a phase reset in 7-Hz brain oscillations in a widespread set of channels. Moreover, there was a significant difference in the average phase at which the visual target stimulus appeared between slow and fast SRT trials. This effect was evident in three different analyses, and occurred primarily in frontal and central electrodes.
Structural and Functional Studies of the Density Enhanced Receptor-Like Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Dep-1

Tyrosine phosphorylation is a central mechanism in cellular signalling leading to proliferation, migration or differentiation. Protein tyrosine phosphorylation is regulated by the coordinated actions of protein tyrosine kinases and protein tyrosine phosphatases. This thesis investigates the involvement of tyrosine phosphatases in contact-induced growth inhibition of cells. Furthermore, it describes the structure and function of the extracellular domain of the receptor-like tyrosine phosphatase DEP- 1. Tyrosine phosphatases, negatively regulating tyrosine kinases, have been suggested being involved in contact-induced growth inhibition of cells. Both endogenous EGF-receptors and transfected PDGF receptors showed a decreased ligand-induced tyrosine phosphorylation in cells of dense cultures. This difference was found to be due to increased receptor-directed tyrosine phosphatase activity in dense cultures. Density enhanced tyrosine phosphatase-1 (DEP-1) is a receptor-like tyrosine phosphatase. It was found that DEP-1 contains chondroitin sulfate chains, thus identifying DEP-1 as a proteoglycan. Furthermore, DEP-1 was found to interact with a heparan sulfate proteoglycan. No ligands have been identified for DEP-1. We have established a biacore-based assay for the identification of molecules interacting with the extracellular domain of DEP-1. A library of cell conditioned media was screened with the biacore assay. One of the samples was found to contain DEP-1 interacting molecules. Purification of the ligand has been initiated. In an attempt to identify modulators of DEP-1 activity, Matrigell™ , a preparation of extracellular matrix was investigated. Stimulation with Matrigel™ was found to increase the specific activity of DEP-1 through interactions between the extracellular domain of DEP-1 and Matrigel™ component(s).
Inhibition of HIV‐2 Protease by HIV‐1 Protease Inhibitors in Clinical Use

Over the past 10 years, protease inhibitors have been a key component in antiretroviral therapies for HIV/AIDS. While the vast majority of HIV/AIDS cases in the world are due to HIV‐1, HIV‐2 infection must also be addressed. HIV‐2 is endemic to Western Africa, and has also appeared in European countries such as Portugal, Spain, and Estonia. Current protease inhibitors have not been optimized for treatment of HIV‐2 infection; therefore, it is important to assess the effectiveness of currently FDA‐approved protease inhibitors against the HIV‐2 protease, which shares only 50% sequence identity with the HIV‐1 protease. Kinetic inhibition assays were performed to measure the inhibition constants (Ki) of the HIV‐1 protease inhibitors indinavir, nelfinavir, saquinavir, ritonavir, amprenavir, lopinavir, atazanavir, tipranavir, and darunavir against the HIV‐2 protease. Lopinavir, saquinavir, tipranavir, and darunavir exhibit the highest potency with Ki values of 0.7, 0.6, 0.45, and 0.17 nm, respectively. These Ki values are 84, 2, 24, and 17 times weaker than the corresponding values against the HIV‐1 protease. In general, inhibitors show Ki ratios ranging between 2 and 80 for the HIV‐2 and HIV‐1 proteases. The relative drop in potency is proportional to the affinity of the inhibitor against the HIV‐1 protease and is related to specific structural characteristics of the inhibitors. In particular, the potency drop is high when the maximum cap size of the inhibitors consists of very few atoms. Caps are groups located at the periphery of the molecule that are added to core structures to increase the specificity of the inhibitor to its target. The caps positioned on the HIV‐1 protease inhibitors affect selectivity through interactions with distinct regions of the binding pocket. The flexibility and adaptability imparted by the higher number of rotatable bonds in large caps enables an inhibitor to accommodate changes in binding pocket geometry between HIV‐1 and HIV‐2 protease.
A dual challenge facing management education: Simulation‐based learning and learning about CSR

Purpose – In anticipation of the demands of its constituents, management schools have to deal with the dual challenge facing management education: the challenge of relevance, in particular to integrate the subject of corporate social responsibility (CSR) into the management curriculum, and the challenge to develop and implement innovative learning methods for educating students. This article seeks to expound on these challenges.Design/methodology/approach – The authors first reflect on the imminent and essential need to pay attention to CSR, as driven by general trends and developments in the corporate context as well as by recent business scandals. The uses, roles and functions of simulations are then reviewed, followed by a report of a project at Rotterdam University/HES, a Dutch university of professional education, that aimed to counter both identified challenges. This project involved two simulations in the field of CSR.Findings – Recognizing the changes in this environment, opines that the school ha.
Climbing Robots in Natural Terrain

This paper presents a general framework for planning the quasi-static motion of climbing robots. The framework is instantiated to compute climbing motions of a three-limbed robot in vertical natural terrain. An example resulting path through a large simulated environment is presented. The planning problem is one of five fundamental challenges to the development of real robotic systems able to climb real natural terrain. Each of the four other areas—hardware design, control, sensing, and grasping—is also discussed.
Escalas de Bienestar Infantil de Magura y Moses. Un primer estudio para la validación de la versión española

El objetivo de la presente investigacion fue realizar una serie de estudios preliminares para la validacion de las Escalas de Bienestar Infantil (Child Well-being Scales, Magura y Moses, 1986). Las Escalas fueron elaboradas con el objetivo de ayudar a los profesionales de los Servicios de Proteccion Infantil en la evaluacion del nivel de satisfaccion de las necesidades basicas de los ninos / as en su familia. En la presente investigacion, se aplicaron las Escalas a una muestra de 91 familias con problemas de desproteccion infantil (236 hijos / as menores de edad) que participaron en un Programa Especializado de Tratamiento. Las diferentes tipologias de maltrato / abandono infantil intrafamiliar estan representados en esta muestra, a excepcion del abuso sexual. Los analisis factoriales permitieron identificar tres dimensiones con un contenido similar a las dimensiones de la version original. La consistencia interna fue adecuada para la Puntuacion Total y para las tres dimensiones. Se presentan las puntuaciones totales de las Escalas y de las tres dimensiones para las diferentes tipologias de maltrato / abandono infantil, y para las familias con diferentes caracteristicas sociodemograficas. Asimismo, se presentan las puntuaciones que las familias obtuvieron al inicio y al final de su participacion en el Programa de Tratamiento, de 24 meses de duracion.
Clozapine, diabetes mellitus, weight gain, and lipid abnormalities: A five-year naturalistic study.

OBJECTIVE The goal of this 5-year naturalistic study of patients treated with clozapine was to examine the incidence of treatment-emergent diabetes mellitus in relation to other factors, including weight gain, lipid abnormalities, age, clozapine dose, and treatment with valproate. METHOD Data on age, gender, race, diagnosis, family history of diabetes, and age at clozapine initiation were collected from medical records of 82 outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Clozapine dose, data on use of valproate, and laboratory test results were recorded at 6-month intervals. RESULTS The mean age at the time of clozapine initiation of the 82 patients was 36.4 years; 26.8% of the patients were women, and 91.5% were Caucasian. The mean baseline weight was 175.5 lb, and the mean body mass index was 26.9 kg/m(2). Thirty patients (36.6%) were diagnosed with diabetes during the 5-year follow-up. Weight gain, use of valproate, and total daily dose of clozapine were not significant risk factors for developing diabetes mellitus. Patients experienced significant weight gain that continued until approximately month 46 from initiation of clozapine. There was a nonsignificant increase in total serum cholesterol and a significant increase in serum triglycerides level. CONCLUSIONS The results support the hypotheses that patients treated with clozapine experience significant weight gain and lipid abnormalities and appear to be at increased risk for developing diabetes.
Use of Standardized Patients During a Psychiatry Clerkship

ObjectiveStandardized patients are used in teaching medical students and evaluating their clinical skills during the psychiatric clerkship. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the addition of a Psychiatry Clinical Standardized Patient Examination (PCX) during the third-year clerkship improved students’ performances on the psychiatry component of the Clinical Competency Examination (CCX) that is used at our institution to prepare fourth-year students for the National Board of Medical Examiners Step 2 Clinical Skills Exam (Step 2 CSA). MethodScores on the CCX were analyzed by two-by-two tables (yes/no response to each clinical competency item versus took/did not take PCX) using Fisher’s exact test.ResultsOf the 469 students who took the CCX between 2002 and 2004, 246 students also took the PCX. Compared to students who did not take the exam students who took the PCX were significantly more likely (p>0.05) to receive positive ratings on the CCX items for professionalism, addressingpatients’ stressors at work and home and inquiring about thoughts of harm to self or others.ConclusionsThe implementation of the PCX during the psychiatry clerkship significantly improved student performance on several important components of the CCX, which is used to prepare students for the Step 2 CSA. This suggests that the use of standardized patients during the clerkship may help students improve their interviewing and interpersonal skills.
Collective action as an agreeable N-prisoners''dilemma

The problem of collective action to produce a group collective good is analyzed as the game of Individual vs. Collective and then as an n-person game to show that, under the constraints of Mancur Olson's analysis, it is an n-prisoners' dilemma in the cases of latent and intermediate groups. The usual analysis according to which noncooperation is considered the rational strategy for classical 2-prisoners' dilemma is logically similar to Olson's analysis, which suggests that rational members of a latent group should not contribute toward the purchase of the group collective good. However, in the game analysis it is clear that the latent and intermediate groups are not logically different, but rather are distinguishable only statistically. Some prisoners' dilemma experimental results are used to suggest how the difference might arise and how the vast prisoners' dilemma literature can be related to the problem of collective action. The game of collective action is then analyzed not from the view of strategies but of outcomes. There is presented a theorem which states that the outcome in which all player-members of a group pay and all benefit is a Condorcet choice from the set of realizable outcomes for the game. Hence the cooperative outcome in such a game would prevail in election against all other outcomes.
Real-time reverse transcription-PCR expression profiling of the complete human ATP-binding cassette transporter superfamily in various tissues.

BACKGROUND ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are involved in many physiologic processes, such as lipid transport, sterol homeostasis, immune mechanisms, and drug transport, and cause various human inherited diseases. Thus, the analysis of ABC transporter mRNA expression profiles for basic research, especially in the field of lipid metabolism, for clinical diagnosis, and for monitoring of drug effects is of great interest. METHODS We have developed a rapid, accurate, and highly sensitive real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) method for detection and quantification of all 47 currently known members of the ABC transporter superfamily. Our expression analysis is based on relative quantification using a calibration curve method. With our assay, expression monitoring of a large number of RNA samples in a 384-well format with only 50 ng of total RNA is possible. RESULTS In contrast to previous expression analyses of single ABC genes, our method allows the rapid and complete analysis of all ABC transporters in given RNA samples. We used our newly established expression panel to study the gene expression of all human ABC transporters in 20 different human tissues. As a result, we identified tissues with high transcriptional activity for ABC transporters. These organs are mainly involved in secretory function (adrenal gland), metabolic function (liver), barrier function (lung, trachea, small intestine), and tropic function (placenta, uterus). CONCLUSIONS Our RT-PCR assay allows rapid, high-throughput transcriptional profiling of the complete ABC transporter superfamily and thus provides a new enabling tool for research, clinical diagnosis of disease, and drug testing and development.
A Novel Mechanism, Linked to Cell Density, Largely Controls Cell Division in Synechocystis1[OPEN]

Nutrient limitation, self-shading, and quorum sensing are not major limiting factors for the growth of Synechocystis in batch cultures. Many studies have investigated the various genetic and environmental factors regulating cyanobacterial growth. Here, we investigated the growth and metabolism of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 under different nitrogen sources, light intensities, and CO2 concentrations. Cells grown on urea showed the highest growth rates. However, for all conditions tested, the daily growth rates in batch cultures decreased steadily over time, and stationary phase was obtained with similar cell densities. Unexpectedly, metabolic and physiological analyses showed that growth rates during log phase were not controlled primarily by the availability of photoassimilates. Further physiological investigations indicated that nutrient limitation, quorum sensing, light quality, and light intensity (self-shading) were not the main factors responsible for the decrease in the growth rate and the onset of the stationary phase. Moreover, cell division rates in fed-batch cultures were positively correlated with the dilution rates. Hence, not only light, CO2, and nutrients can affect growth but also a cell-cell interaction. Accordingly, we propose that cell-cell interaction may be a factor responsible for the gradual decrease of growth rates in batch cultures during log phase, culminating with the onset of stationary phase.
Mechanisms of plasticity in a Caenorhabditis elegans mechanosensory circuit

Despite having a small nervous system (302 neurons) and relatively short lifespan (14–21 days), the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has a substantial ability to change its behavior in response to experience. The behavior discussed here is the tap withdrawal response, whereby the worm crawls backwards a brief distance in response to a non-localized mechanosensory stimulus from a tap to the side of the Petri plate within which it lives. The neural circuit that underlies this behavior is primarily made up of five sensory neurons and four pairs of interneurons. In this review we describe two classes of mechanosensory plasticity: adult learning and memory and experience dependent changes during development. As worms develop through young adult and adult stages there is a shift toward deeper habituation of response probability that is likely the result of changes in sensitivity to stimulus intensity. Adult worms show short- intermediate- and long-term habituation as well as context dependent habituation. Short-term habituation requires glutamate signaling and auto-phosphorylation of voltage-dependent potassium channels and is modulated by dopamine signaling in the mechanosensory neurons. Long-term memory (LTM) for habituation is mediated by down-regulation of expression of an AMPA-type glutamate receptor subunit. Intermediate memory involves an increase in release of an inhibitory neuropeptide. Depriving larval worms of mechanosensory stimulation early in development leads to fewer synaptic vesicles in the mechanosensory neurons and lower levels of an AMPA-type glutamate receptor subunit in the interneurons. Overall, the mechanosensory system of C. elegans shows a great deal of experience dependent plasticity both during development and as an adult. The simplest form of learning, habituation, is not so simple and is mediated and/or modulated by a number of different processes, some of which we are beginning to understand.
Government Programme as a Strategy—The Finnish Experience

This article uses strategy metaphors consisting of a plan, a home and a game to study government programme formation in Finland. The strategy approach both contradicts and complements the traditional political science approach to government formation. The government programme has been strategic in the sense of separating the formulation and implementation parts of the strategy. The most important function of the metaphor of plan is to hold coalition parties together. The adopted austerity policy provides a meagre contribution to the expansion of services and the increase in government spending. Consequently, the home metaphor in the government programme appears in the distant future and in combating external threats. The game metaphor is apparent in the goal of making contracts with social partners. The vocabulary change from politics to strategy alters the government programme’s position in terms of catering to the needs of civil servants, citizens and stakeholders. The strategy perspective might be instrumental in shifting open democratic debates to closed and secretive policy formations.
ECG compressed sensing based on classification in compressed space and specified dictionaries

An electrocardiographic signal (ECG) compressed sensing (CS) method, its reconstruction using specific dictionaries of cardiac pathologies and method evaluation testing using classical measures as well as by classification error of the reconstructed patterns based on the K-Nearest Neighbour classifier (KNN) are presented. For compressed sensing, a random matrix with standard normal distribution was used, followed by a classification of compressed signals in one of eight possible pathological classes. For each class a specific dictionary was created, and the signals were reconstructed using the Basis Pursuit algorithm according to the result of the classification.