Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deep 1D-Convnet for accurate Parkinson disease detection from gait

Diagnosing Parkinson's disease is a complex task that requires the evaluation of several motor and non-motor symptoms. During diagnosis, gait abnormalities are among the important symptoms that physicians should consider. However, gait evaluation is challenging and relies on the expertise and subjectivity of clinicians. In this context, the use of an intelligent gait analysis algorithm may assist physicians in order to facilitate the diagnosis process. This paper proposes a novel intelligent Parkinson detection system based on deep learning techniques to analyze gait information. We used 1D convolutional neural network (1D-Convnet) to build a Deep Neural Network (DNN) classifier. The proposed model processes 18 1D-signals coming from foot sensors measuring the vertical ground reaction force (VGRF). The first part of the network consists of 18 parallel 1D-Convnet corresponding to system inputs. The second part is a fully connected network that connects the concatenated outputs of the 1D-Convnets to obtain a final classification. We tested our algorithm in Parkinson's detection and in the prediction of the severity of the disease with the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Our experiments demonstrate the high efficiency of the proposed method in the detection of Parkinson disease based on gait data. The proposed algorithm achieved an accuracy of 98.7 %. To our knowledge, this is the state-of-the-start performance in Parkinson's gait recognition. Furthermore, we achieved an accuracy of 85.3 % in Parkinson's severity prediction. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first algorithm to perform a severity prediction based on the UPDRS. Our results show that the model is able to learn intrinsic characteristics from gait data and to generalize to unseen subjects, which could be helpful in a clinical diagnosis.
THE IMPACT OF DIFFERENT LOADS OF INVOLVEMENT ON EFL STUDENTS’ INCIDENTAL LEARNING OF IDIOMS

Idioms are essential parts of any language learning that indicate second language proficiency of learners in their communication. However, there is no doubt that idioms are more difficult to learn and comprehend than usual words of phrases. The present study investigated the possible effects of providing different task types with involvement loads on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL students' learning of idiom. A total number of 60 EFL students were selected based on their performance on Quick Placement Test and idiom familiarity test. The participants were randomly divided into three groups each containing 20 students. The data gathered through conducting pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest of L2 idioms were analyzed through descriptive statistics and inferential statistics of one way ANOVA and paired samples t test. The findings revealed that tasks with higher involvement load led to better performance of students both in initial learning and the retention of idioms. The findings would hopefully encourage teachers and learners to use tasks and with deeper cognitive processing and higher involvement load to have more effective learning of English idioms.
Family C G-Protein-Coupled Receptors in Alzheimer’s Disease and Therapeutic Implications

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), particularly its sporadic or late-onset form (SAD/LOAD), is the most prevalent (96–98% of cases) neurodegenerative dementia in aged people. AD’s neuropathology hallmarks are intrabrain accumulation of amyloid-β peptides (Aβs) and of hyperphosphorylated Tau (p-Tau) proteins, diffuse neuroinflammation, and progressive death of neurons and oligodendrocytes. Mounting evidences suggest that family C G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which include γ-aminobutyric acid B receptors (GABABRs), metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR1-8), and the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR), are involved in many neurotransmitter systems that dysfunction in AD. This review updates the available knowledge about the roles of GPCRs, particularly but not exclusively those expressed by brain astrocytes, in SAD/LOAD onset and progression, taking stock of their respective mechanisms of action and of their potential as anti-AD therapeutic targets. In particular, GABABRs prevent Aβs synthesis and neuronal hyperexcitability and group I mGluRs play important pathogenetic roles in transgenic AD-model animals. Moreover, the specific binding of Aβs to the CaSRs of human cortical astrocytes and neurons cultured in vitro engenders a pathological signaling that crucially promotes the surplus synthesis and release of Aβs and hyperphosphorylated Tau proteins, and also of nitric oxide, vascular endothelial growth factor-A, and proinflammatory agents. Concurrently, Aβs•CaSR signaling hinders the release of soluble (s)APP-α peptide, a neurotrophic agent and GABABR1a agonist. Altogether these effects progressively kill human cortical neurons in vitro and likely also in vivo. Several CaSR’s negative allosteric modulators suppress all the noxious effects elicited by Aβs•CaSR signaling in human cortical astrocytes and neurons thus safeguarding neurons’ viability in vitro and raising hopes about their potential therapeutic benefits in AD patients. Further basic and clinical investigations on these hot topics are needed taking always heed that activation of the several brain family C GPCRs may elicit divergent upshots according to the models studied.
Fast Projective Skinning

We present a novel physics-based character skinning approach that improves the recent Projective Skinning in terms of animation quality and computational performance. Our method provides physically plausible animations, dynamic secondary motion effects, and global collision handling in a real-time skinning simulation. We achieve this through a custom-tailored GPU implementation of the underlying projective dynamics simulation and a high-quality upsampling from the simulation mesh to the high-resolution visualization mesh based on quadratic moving least squares.
Weaving Accessibility Through an Undergraduate Degree

Globally, increasing numbers of people experience accessibility issues related to technology use. At the University ofDundee, we have developed a degree programme that aims to graduate socially-aware computing scientists who can develop for a range of access needs. To achieve this, we engage our students on a supported pathway of exploration, empathy and understanding. Students collaborate with user groups of older adults, adults with aphasia, and users of Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC). This practical experience leads to an understanding of the needs of the end-user and the need to develop for 'people who are not like me'
The Influence of Step Length to Step Frequency Ratio on the Perception of Virtual Walking Motions

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. The Influence of Step Length to Step Frequency Ratio on the Perception of Virtual Walking Motions Benjamin Niay, Anne-Hélène Olivier, Julien Pettré, Ludovic Hoyet
shapeCAD: An Accessible 3D Modelling Workflow for the Blind and Visually-Impaired Via 2.5D Shape Displays

Affordable rapid 3D printing technologies have become key enablers of the Maker Movement by giving individuals the ability to create physical finished products. However, existing computer-aided design (CAD) tools that allow authoring and editing of 3D models are mostly visually reliant and limit access to people with blindness and visual impairment (BVI). Through a series of co-design sessions with three blind users of mixed programming ability, we identify accessibility challenges in existing 3D modelling scripting tools and design interactions to support dynamic feedback of scripts using a 2.5D tactile shape display. With these insights, we implement shapeCAD. Interacting with shapeCAD, BVI users are able to leverage the low resolution output from a 2.5D shape display to complement programming of 3D models. shapeCAD allows users to haptically explore and modify existing models, and to author new models. We further validate usability and user experience through an evaluation with five BVI programmers. In a short period of time, novices were able to design a range of new objects. BVI users can bring a valuable perspective to design and it is imperative to increase accessibility in tools that enable this community to also participate as designers.
GraVVITAS 2.0: A Framework For Digital Accessible Content Provision

Access to information is a fundamental problem for people with vision impairment (PVI). Textual information are considerably more accessible with the use of screen readers that work on desktop and mobile devices. However, access to graphical information is still a challenging problem. There are different technologies to present graphics to PVI, but almost all of them suffer from practicality and portability. This paper describes the GraVVITAS (Graphics Viewer using Vibration Interactive Touch and Speech) framework which aims to be a complementary system for other assistive technologies; a solution that can be carried in one's pocket.
A Wearable Input Mechanism for Blind Users of Computers Based on Mental Mapping of Thumb-To-Phalanx Distances

As computers become common in different work environments, more accessible forms of interaction are required so that blind people may cost-effectively perform computer-based tasks requiring precise input. The human hand has 14 digital bones called phalanges. We propose an affordable mechanism for entering input into a computer which maps individual keys to the phalanges of each finger but the thumb. Our study shows that this mechanism can be used as a plausible input method in workspaces. We show that participants can achieve entry rates of up to 6.0 Words Per Minute (WPM) and have an average Character Error Rate of 3.58% with up to 100 minutes of practice.
Remoción de nutrientes en aguas residuales de un matadero de reses usando un reactor biológico secuencial

Simultaneous removal of organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus in slaughterhouse wastewater was evaluated using a sequential batch reactor (SBR) at laboratory scale. The study was carried out using wastewater from an abattoir located in the Zulia state, Venezuela. The experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design, a cell retention time of 25 days, an anaerobic-aerobic-anoxic sequence, and two hydraulic retention times of 11 and 15 hours. Parameters were measured at the beginning, during and at the end of each cycle, and those were chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), ammonia nitrogen (N-NH4+), nitrite (N-NO2-), nitrates (N-NO3-), pH, alkalinity, total phosphorus (TP). The results of the removal of variables were compared using analysis of variance and mean separation by Tukey's test, using the statistical program Statistix 9.0. The two treatments applied to slaughterhouse wastewater in reactor allowed the simultaneous removal of nutrients and organic matter, due to the flexibility of the reactor to suit different operating conditions, obtaining removal of 95 % for COD , 69 % for TN and 29 % for TP.
Research and Prevention Perspectives on Smoking in Romania

Smoking reduces the lifetime and is responsible for the death of ten thousand persons daily. In spite of the harmful effects of tobacco use, in Europe the number of smoked cigarettes is about two thousand cigarettes per year per person, while the smoking-related statistics are unfavourable in women and children.The high prevalence of active and secondhand smoking in Romania, the high number of daily smoked cigarettes, the increasing percentage of cessation attempts with a limited success stresses the importance of tobacco research, preventive activities and cessation interventions.Davidson College (USA) and University of Medicine and Pharmacy from Tirgu-Mure? have just launched a five-year common project in order to study tobacco concerns specific to Romania and to build the local capacity for tobacco research in Romania.
Prescription for change : medical undergraduates' perceptions of learning in traditional and problem-based courses

Recent recommendations for radical change in medical education have proposed that undergraduate courses need to reduce the factual `load' on students, encouraging instead critical thinking skills (e. g., independent enquiry, evaluation of information) necessary for self-directed lifelong learning. This study explored the perceptions of learning of two cohorts of medical students at Glasgow University, one following a traditional lecture-based course, the other its successor, a problem-based curriculum, specifically designed in response to the GMC's call for change. The aims of the study were to determine i) the extent to which students in both courses changed their perceptions, largely during first year, with regard to the student's role, the role of staff, the student's task in exam/assessment situations, and the nature of knowledge, in ways that might be more consistent with a critical, independent approach to learning; ii) the extent to which students in the traditional and problem-based courses reported different views of their learning experience and different degrees of change, if any, and iii) whether a critical independent approach to learning was associated with personality factors. Data were collected from students during their first two undergraduate years, by way of self-report questionnaires and individual interviews. After an apparently similar starting-point, many significant differences between the two cohorts, in their perceptions of learning, became evident as early as first term and appeared to have increased by the end of first year. There was also a significant positive correlation between the personality factor, openness to experience, and a critical independent approach to learning for students in both courses. Generally, it seems that the intentions of the course are being fulfilled, in terms of the above features of the learning environment, but with a few reservations on the part of students, mainly concerning extent of in-depth knowledge required, degree of staff involvement, and how best to self-monitor without regular exams.
Impact and economic assessment of assistive technology in care homes in Norfolk, UK

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether new installed assistive technology (AT) systems in care homes for elderly residents, reduced the number of falls and demands for formal health services.Design/methodology/approach – The project collected retrospective data about incidence of falls before and after AT systems were installed from two care homes in the county of Norfolk, UK. Two care homes were selected purposefully because a recent assessment determined the need for upgrading their call system, but with different resident profiles regarding prevalence of dementia. The data were collected from standard incident report forms from ten months before the upgrades to ten months after in Care Home 1 and from six months before the upgrade to six months afterwards in Care Home 2.Findings – In both care homes there were 314 falls reported during the course of the study. The number of falls overall reduced from 202 falls before the introduction of AT, to 112 after the introduction of AT. The me.
Restorative and Compensatory Changes in the Brain During Early Motor Recovery from Hemiparetic Stroke: a Functional MRI Study

Stroke is a leading cause of disability in the elderly, and a considerable number of stroke patients suffer from residual motor deficits, particularly hemiparesis. There is a wide range of motor functional recovery after stroke, depending on the site, size and nature of the brain lesion (Duncan et al., 1992). Full recovery of hemiparesis is often observed when it is mild, and considerable recovery is not exceptional even after initial severe deficit. Functional recovery after stroke may be caused by resolution of acute effects of stroke, such as low blood flow, diaschisis and brain edema. However, functional gains may be prolonged past the period of this acute tissue response and its resolution. Stroke rehabilitation is introduced in order to promote brain plasticity and facilitate motor recovery. Understanding the mechanism of motor functional recovery after stroke is important because it may provide scientific basis for rehabilitation strategies. Recent advances in non-invasive functional neuroimaging techniques, such as positron emission tomography (PET), functional MRI (fMRI) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), have enabled us to study directly the brain activity in humans after stroke (Herholz & Heiss, 2000; Calautti & Baron 2003; Rossini et al., 2003; Obrig & Villringer, 2003). Initial cross-sectional studies at chronic stages of stroke have demonstrated that the pattern of brain activation is different between paretic and normal hand movements, and suggested that long-term recovery is facilitated by compensation, recruitment and reorganization of cortical motor function in both damaged and non-damaged hemispheres (Chollet et al., 1991; Weiller et al., 1992; Cramer et al., 1997; Cao et al., 1998; Ward et al., 2003a). Subsequent longitudinal studies from subacute to chronic stages (before and after rehabilitation) have revealed a dynamic, bihemispheric reorganization of motor network, and emphasized the necessity of successive studies (Marshall et al., 2000; Calautti et al., 2001; Feydy et al., 2002; Ward et al, 2003b). However, only limited data are available relating poststroke motor recovery to dynamic changes in cerebral cortical reorganization at the acute stage of stroke. We therefore measured the changes in cortical activation using fMRI during paretic hand movement both 7
The Leeuwenhoek Lecture, 1963 The size of small organisms

Leeuwenhoek’s letters are good reading. They show us a man who was busily inquisitive about everything, with firm opinions and an emphatic way of expressing them. When he found that Hooke had printed part of one of his letters in a book, he commented pointedly that people had asked him to write a book himself but that he preferred not to (2, 361). When told that people in Paris could not see the globules he described in many materials, he said he was absolutely unconcerned and advised them to come to Holland and be shown (1, 279). He saw the comic aspects of some of his work; the editors explain that in Dutch his reference to a recent letter on lice as ‘my last lousy observations’ has the same connotations as in English (2, 195). Nevertheless, he was conditioned by his time. He called in two Lutheran pastors to attest the truth of his observations (2, 257) and was at pains to emphasize that his studies on human sperm were made ‘zonder eenige zondige bezoedeling van mij zelf’. Of more direct relevance to the theme of this lecture is his mechanical approach to the interpretation of nature. Repeatedly he tries to explain the pungency of pepper or ginger by postulating pointed particles in them that pricked the tongue, and he suggested that in purgatives the spikes are long enough to penetrate the layer of mucus on the gut wall. He assumed that these particles were too small to be resolved by his microscopes and so was delighted when he saw (2, 243) what he took to be narrow rods in eel blood; for he attributed to these the blood’s ability to irritate the eye. He clearly postulated a micro-anatomy in what he saw and attributed physiological significance to it. It is fortunate that he was not a well-read and educated man. Had he been so he would have known the prolix confusion of Athanasius Kircher’s microscopical observations and deductions and might have become a victim of what Charles Singer aptly calls the ‘ vermicular obsession ’ that, by the end of the seventeenth century, made people see worms in most diseased and many healthy organisms. Leeuwenhoek did not know what he was supposed to be seeing and was content to record what he saw.
A charity fostering scientific research into the biology and cultivation of the Australian flora

Current predictions of environmental change threaten to outpace developmental, genetic and demographic capacities of plants. Phenotypic plasticity is a mechanism by which plants may persist under rapidly changing environments. However, many crucial questions remain, including: (1) what functional traits exhibit plasticity? (2) does the degree of plasticity differ within and between species? and, most importantly, (3) does phenotypic plasticity in plant functional traits correlate with plant fitness? To try to answer these questions, phenotypic plasticity in key functional traits was estimated for 36 species spanning semi-arid, alpine and coastal habitats. Each of the three habitats were represented within Australia, six species per habitat, and once within each of the overseas countries; Spain: semi-arid, Germany: alpine, and the United States: coastal, with six species each. Two years of observational data revealed
The Age of Information in Situation Awareness Networks

In this paper we derive analytical distributions up to a bounding box of the age of information in situation awareness networks. Two special cases of these networks are studied which leads to the derivation of two algorithms. We find that each node in a tree structured network has a generalized negative binomial marginal distribution. Finally, we consider two branches of nodes leading from source to a sink and design an algorithm (using the previous algorithms) that is capable of obtaining joint and marginal distributions of these nodes. The algorithm iteratively computes segments of the total joint distribution and therefore keeps time and memory usage manageable.