Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Literacy and comprehension in school-aged children: Studies on autism and other developmental disabilities

Asberg, J. (2009). Literacy and comprehension in school-aged children: Studies on autism and other developmental disabilities. Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The present thesis consists of five studies and addresses literacy and comprehension skills in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD, including Asperger’s disorder) and, to a lesser extent, attention disorders (eg. Attention Deficits Hyperactivity Disorder; ADHD). Although a completely clean and coherent picture of the abilities of these groups was not attained in the studies, the findings indicate that difficulties in reading comprehension and/or listening comprehension of connected discourse are common in children with ASD and children with ADHD at the group level (Study I, II and/or III). For children with ADHD, such difficulties often co-occurred with word decoding and spelling difficulties (Study II). Word decoding skills were more variable for students with ASD, yet typically unimpaired. These findings are broadly consistent with previous research. When difficulties in word decoding were observed in children with ASD, such difficulties appeared to conform to a ‘normal pattern’ in terms of underlying cognitive and psycholinguistic abilities (e.g. poor phonological awareness and rapid naming) (Study IV). Finally, for children with ASD, discourse-level comprehension appeared to be more difficult than what one would expect from non-verbal cognitive level and basic language comprehension skills (study III). However, there were also initial indications that the discourse comprehension skills in ASD were amenable of positive change through educational intervention in collaboration with school staff (Study V). The results presented in the thesis are of importance for professionals who are concerned with understanding and supporting literacy and comprehension development in all children.
Current Mode Logic Testing of XOR/XNOR Circuit: A Case Study

This paper investigates the issue of testing Current Mode Logic (CML) gates. A three-bit parity checker is used as a case study. It is first shown that, as expected, the stuck-at fault model is not appropriate for testing CML gates. It is then proved that switching the order in which inputs are applied to a gate will affect the minimum test set; this is not the case in conventional voltage mode gates. Both the circuit output and its inverse have to be monitored to reduce the size of the test set.
Formulae for the singularities at infinity of plane algebraic curves.

This paper collects together formulae concerning singularities at infinity of plane algebraic curves. For every polynomial f : C → C with isolated critical points we consider the well known topological invariants μ(f) (the global Milnor number) and λ(f) (the sum of all the “jumps” in the Milnor number at infinity). We prove new estimations for μ(f) + λ(f) and show that the number of critical values at infinity of f is less than or equal to ((d−1)−μ(f)−λ(f))/d where d is the degree of f . We give also some estimations for the Łojasiewicz exponent at infinity. Introduction. The aim of this paper is to present some old and new results concerning the invariants at infinity of plane algebraic curves. Our intention is to complete the collection of formulae given by Pham in the appendix to his article [34]. We base our considerations on the properties of intersection numbers (see [6, Appendix D.3]) and on a variant of the Riemann-Hurwitz formula. If f , g ∈ C[X,Y ] and p = (a, b) ∈ C2 then (f, g)p = dimCOp/(f, g) where Op is the local ring of C2 at p and (f, g) is the ideal generated by f and g in Op. Let (f, g)C2 = ∑ p∈C2(f, g)p. Then (f, g)C2 < +∞ if and only if the system of equations f = g = 0 has finite number of solutions in C2. We put μp(f) = ( ∂f ∂X , ∂f ∂Y ) p , rp(f) = the number of irreducible factors of f(a+X, b+ Y ) in the ring of formal power series C[[X,Y ]], and ordp f = inf{k ∈ N : dkf(p) 6= 0}. Let us recall Teissier’s lemma: (f, ∂f ∂Y )p = μp(f)+ (f,X − a)p− 1 for every point p = (a, b) of the reduced curve f(X,Y ) = 0 such that the line X = a 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. 32S55.
Uma Análise das Técnicas de Conservação de Energia em Redes Ad Hoc

This paper analyses the theoretical limits of the gains achievable by different power-saving techniques in IEEE 802.11 ad hoc networks. The analyzed techniques are: energy-aware routing, transmission power control, and transition to sleeping state. The results show that the energy-aware routing technique can achieve a lifetime gain as large as 30%, and significant results are obtained even if a few alternative paths are used to balance the load. The transmission power control technique analysis shows that the use of two-hop instead of direct transmission, when possible, reduces the total packettransmission cost up to 50%, due to the smaller number of overhearing nodes. Furthermore, our results show that a PAMAS-like energy-saving scheme, which exploits the transition to sleeping state, increases the node lifetime up to 48%. Keywords— Energy Conservation, Wireless Communication, Ad Hoc Networks.
Non-Linear Synthesis Problems for Plane Radiating Systems According to the Prescribed Power Directivity Pattern

A variational formulation of the synthesis problem for plane radiating systems according to the prescribed power directivity pattern (DP) is considered. The function representing the mean-square deviation of the prescribed and synthesized power DPs and containing the additional term with squared norm of the current or field in the antenna aperture is considered as the criterion of optimization. Freedom to choose the phase DP is used to improve the proximity of the prescribed and synthesized DPs. In such formulation, the classes of non-linear problems, for which the non-uniqueness of solutions, their branching and bifurcation are characteristic, arise. The properties of solutions depend on the electric size of radiating system and prescribed power DP. From a practical point of view, the existence of different solutions creating the same or similar DPs, gives the opportunity to choose the solution that has a simpler implementation. The synthesis problems for plane radiating systems and plane arrays are considered.
Selection Pressure, Shifting Populations, and Herbicide Resistance and Tolerance

Author(s): Hanson, Brad; Fischer, Albert; Shrestha, Anil; Jasieniuk, Marie; Peachey, Ed; Boydston, Rick; Miller, Tim; Al-Khatib, Kassim | Abstract: A good herbicide will control the current population of weeds, but also create a powerful “selection pressure”: any weeds that survive its effects will go on to thrive, immune to any further applications. Learn how to keep selection pressure in check.
Antioxidant Potential and Storage Stability of Broiler Leg Meat Fed on Extruded Flaxseed and α­ tocopherol Acetate

RESEARCH ARTICLE Antioxidant Potential and Storage Stability of Broiler Leg Meat Fed on Extruded Flaxseed and α­ tocopherol Acetate Rashida Parveen 1 * , Muhammad Issa Khan 1 , Faqir Muhammad Anjum and Munir Ahmad Sheikh 2 National Inst i tu te of Food Science and Technology, Universi ty of Agricul ture, Faisalabad, Pakis tan Depar tment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Universi ty of Agricul ture , Faisalabad, Pakistan
One-Step Preparation of Poly-Lactic-Co-Glycolic-Acid Microparticles to Prevent the Initial Burst Release of Encapsulated Water-Soluble Proteins

An initial burst is often observed during the release of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from poly-lactic-coglycolic-acid (PLGA) microparticles (MPs) which have been prepared by the emulsion-solvent evaporation method. Herein, we describe the development of a simple one-step coating method that suppresses the initial burst release process. This new method involves coating the PLGA-MPs with PLGA, with the coating process being performed through the phase separation of PLGA on the surface of PLGA-MPs using the emulsion-solvent evaporation method. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was encapsulated in the PLGA-MPs as a model API. The coated MPs were spherical in shape with no pores on their smooth surface, whereas the non-coated PLGA-MPs had porous surfaces. An in vitro release study showed that the residual levels of BSA in the coated and non-coated PLGA-MPs after 1 h were about 99% and 16% of the original loads, respectively. The one-step coating method therefore represents a useful method for preparing PLGA-MPs that do not give an initial burst release of proteinaceous APIs.
Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination VII: Synchrotron X‐ray fluorescence analysis of six Stardust interstellar candidates measured with the Advanced Photon Source 2‐ID‐D microprobe

The NASA Stardust spacecraft exposed an aerogel collector to the interstellar dust passing through the solar system. We performed X‐ray fluorescence element mapping and abundance measurements, for elements 19 ≤ Z ≤ 30, on six “interstellar candidates,” potential interstellar impacts identified by Stardust@Home and extracted for analyses in picokeystones. One, I1044,3,33, showed no element hot‐spots within the designated search area. However, we identified a nearby surface feature, consistent with the impact of a weak, high‐speed particle having an approximately chondritic (CI) element abundance pattern, except for factor‐of‐ten enrichments in K and Zn and an S depletion. This hot‐spot, containing approximately 10 fg of Fe, corresponds to an approximately 350 nm chondritic particle, small enough to be missed by Stardust@Home, indicating that other techniques may be necessary to identify all interstellar candidates. Only one interstellar candidate, I1004,1,2, showed a track. The terminal particle has large enrichments in S, Ti, Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, and Zn relative to Fe‐normalized CI values. It has high Al/Fe, but does not match the Ni/Fe range measured for samples of Al‐deck material from the Stardust sample return capsule, which was within the field‐of‐view of the interstellar collector. A third interstellar candidate, I1075,1,25, showed an Al‐rich surface feature that has a composition generally consistent with the Al‐deck material, suggesting that it is a secondary particle. The other three interstellar candidates, I1001,1,16, I1001,2,17, and I1044,2,32, showed no impact features or tracks, but allowed assessment of submicron contamination in this aerogel, including Fe hot‐spots having CI‐like Ni/Fe ratios, complicating the search for CI‐like interstellar/interplanetary dust.
Particle Filters for Robot Navigation

Autonomous navigation is an essential capability for mobile robots. In order to operate robustly, a robot needs to know what the environment looks like, where it is in its environment, and how to navigate in it. This works summarizes approaches that address these three problems and that use particle filters as their main underlying model for representing beliefs. We illustrate that these filters are powerful tools that can robustly estimate the state of the robot and its environment and that it is also well-suited to make decisions about how to navigate in order to minimize its uncertainty of the joint belief about its own position and the state of the environment.
Assessment of Pollutant Exposure and Nitrogen Enrichment Experienced at the University of Michigan Biological Station in 2007 REU student: Dayani Waas

The chemical composition of the air is influenced by meteorological conditions, emissions, and climate change. Atmospheric composition can have detrimental impacts on tree physiology that can lower productivity, but can also have positive nutrient enriching impacts that can increase productivity. Hourly ambient values of SO2, NO2, and O3 for Pellston, MI were used to calculate the number of times each pollutant separately and together would exceed critical levels set by the World Health Organization European Air Quality Guidelines (WHO Air Quality, 2000). Hourly ambient values of these pollutants were also converted to weekly and monthly (24 hour day and daylight day) to analyze whether the suite of pollutants of SO2, NO2, and O3 would have a significant influence on the residual variance of NEE and GPP after the primary drivers of photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD), vapor pressure deficit (VPD), soil moisture, air temperature, and humidity are taken into account. After running the data in the SPSS statistical package, it was found that the suite of pollutants did not cover the residual variability for either NEE or GPP, but that AT1.5(NO2) (among all the pollutants) was found to be significant the greatest number of times out of the 24 trial runs. Out of all the trial runs tested, it was found that the pollutants were significant a greater number of times in monthly, daylight hours, for NEE.
GENETIC CHARACTERIZATION OF U.S. HONEY BEE POPULATIONS

By Deborah A. Delaney, Ph.D. Washington State University August 2008 Chair: Walter S. Sheppard The genetic composition of 692 feral honey bee nests collected in the United States between 1980 and 1992 was analyzed by assessing variation in the COI-COII intergenic spacer region of the mitochondrial DNA and 10 microsatellite loci. The genetic diversity and population structure of these pooled populations were compared to that of managed breeding populations in the southeastern and western U.S. The mtDNA analysis revealed that 28% of the feral samples had haplotype patterns representative of the subspecies Apis mellifera mellifera or Apis mellifera iberiensis. Of the samples collected from Arizona, over 50% showed a haplotype pattern characteristic of honey bees found in Spain and/or Italy (M7). A subset of samples from the feral population with the M7 haplotype were sequenced and shown to be previously unknown variants of M7. These variants differed from the M7a and M7b variants known from Spain and Italy, respectively, leaving their origin unknown. Haplotype patterns characteristic of the European races most commonly used by commercial queen breeders were found in 66% of the feral samples.
Loss, Grief, and the Search for Significance: Toward a Model of Meaning Reconstruction in Bereavement

Constructivist theories recently have begun to inform understandings of grief, emphasizing the role of meaning making in adaptation to bereavement. In this article we review empirical studies using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, investigating how three activities of meaning reconstruction are involved in the grieving process: sense making, benefit finding, and identity change. In particular, we consider how critical processes have been operationally defined and how study methods and designs have constrained what can be concluded from this burgeoning field of research. We conclude by positing an integrated model of meaning reconstruction pathways as a heuristic guide to further research and briefly note the implications of this model for clinical practice.
OCCLUSION MODEL FROM HUMAN INTERACTION ANALYSIS FOR TRACKING MULTIPLE PEOPLE

In this work we investigate the problem of tracking multiple interacting people under uncontrolled stationary environments for intelligent surveillance applications. This domain is very challenging since the clothing appearance changes of the people over time make difficult the temporal association of their identities. The problem is emphasized when individuals move close to each other, are occluded, or abruptly change their trajectories. We propose a tracking graph that models spatial and temporal relationships among people in order to predict and resolve partial and total occlusions. When a total occlusion event occurs, the model generates three possible hypotheses about the location of the occluded person according to a human interaction analysis. This model is able to detect false positives and false negatives in the detection measurements and it can also estimate the location of missing or occluded people. Our approach was evaluated on benchmark sequences and results show how it outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms even in the presence of long periods of occlusion.
PATTERNS AND RELATIONSHIPS OF PLANT TRAITS, COMMUNITY STRUCTURAL ATTRIBUTES, AND ECO-HYDROLOGICAL FUNCTIONS DURING A SUBTROPICAL SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN CENTRAL YUNNAN (SOUTHWEST CHINA)

Human-induced changes in land use lead to major changes in plant community composition and structure which have strong effects on eco-hydrological processes and functions. We here tested the hypothesis that changes in traits of living plants have resulted in changes in structural attributes of the community that influenced eco-hydrological functions by altering eco-hydrological processes. This was done in the context of a subtropical secondary forest suc- cession following land abandonment in Central Yunnan (Southwest China). During the succession, species with high specific leaf area (SLA), high leaf nitrogen concentration (LNC), high specific root length (SRL), and low leaf dry matter content (LDMC) were progressively replaced by species with the opposite characteristics. The obtained results of cor- relation analyses were as follows: (1) Correlations were significant between community-aggregated SLA, LNC, and the leaf area index (LAI). Significant correlations were detected between LAI, canopy interception and stemflow, and surface runoff and soil erosion. (2) Significant correlations were also found between community-aggregated SLA, LNC, LDMC, and accumulated litter biomass. High accumulated litter biomass strongly increases the maximum water-retaining capac- ity of litter. However, significant correlations were not found between the maximum water-retaining capacity of litter and surface runoff and soil erosion. (3) Correlations were significant between community-aggregated SLA, LNC, and fine root biomass. Fine root biomass was not significantly related to the maximum water-retaining capacity of the soil, but was significantly related to surface runoff and soil erosion. These results suggest that canopy characteristics play a more important role in control of runoff and soil erosion at the studied site. It follows that plant functional traits are closely linked with canopy characteristics, which should be used as a standard for selecting species in restoration and revegeta- tion for water and soil conservation.
Information and Knowledge Flows in the Network of the Education through Work for Family Health Program

The Education through Work for Family Health Program (PET Saude, in Portuguese) created by the Ministries of Education and Health is a proposal to integrate service, learning and community. The goal of PET Saude is to foster the formation of learning groups within the Family Health Strategy scope. While being studied at the city of Feira de Santana, the program was structured with one coordinator and eleven tutorial groups, distributed in 27 family health offices, which constituted a social network where the construction and knowledge diffusion occur. This article proposes the analysis of the information and knowledge flows of this network through the social networks analysis. This study highlights the play of PET Saude’s coordinator in the processes of organization and articulation as central vertex of the network, and some scholars in the articulation of different tutorial groups. The results show a fragmentation in the PET Saude network when the coordinator vertex is removed, whereas 5 components are generated where 4 tutorial groups appear isolated.
TASS 2014 - Workshop on Sentiment Analysis at SEPLN: Overview

espanolEste articulo describe el desarrollo de TASS 2014, la tercera edicion del taller de evaluacion experimental en el contexto de la SEPLN para fomentar la investigacion en el campo del analisis de la opinion en los medios sociales, especificamente centrado en el idioma espanol. El principal objetivo es promover el diseno de nuevas tecnicas y algoritmos y la aplicacion de los ya existentes para la implementacion de sistemas complejos capaces de realizar un analisis de opiniones basados en opiniones de textos cortos extraidos de medios sociales (concretamente Twitter). Este articulo describe las tareas propuestas en la edicion de 2014, el contenido de los corpus generados, la lista de participantes y los resultados generales obtenidos. EnglishThis paper describes TASS 2014, the third edition of an experimental evaluation workshop within SEPLN to foster the research in the field of sentiment analysis in social media, specifically focused on Spanish language. The main objective is to promote the application of existing state-of-the-art algorithms and techniques and the design of new ones for the implementation of complex systems able to perform a sentiment analysis based on short text opinions extracted from social media messages (specifically Twitter). The paper presents the proposed tasks in the 2014 edition, the contents of the generated corpora, the participant groups and the overall results achieved.
Photoluminescence and electrical study of fluctuating potentials in Cu2ZnSnS4-based thin films

J. P. Leitao,1,* N. M. Santos,1 P. A. Fernandes,1,2 P. M. P. Salome,1 A. F. da Cunha,1 J. C. Gonzalez,3 G. M. Ribeiro,3 and F. M. Matinaga3 1Departamento de Fisica, Instituto de Nanoestruturas, Nanomodelacao e Nanofabricacao, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitario de Santiago, P-3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal 2Departamento de Fisica, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politecnico do Porto, Rua Dr. Antonio Bernardino de Almeida, 431, P-4200-072 Porto, Portugal 3Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 30123-970 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil (Received 31 August 2010; published 29 July 2011)
Gossip Algorithms

Unlike the Telephone network or the Internet, many of the next generation networks are not engineered for the purpose of providing efficient communication between various networked entities. Examples abound: sensor networks, peer-to-peer networks, mobile networks of vehicles and social networks. Indeed, these emerging networks do require algorithms for communication, computation, or merely spreading information. For example, estimation algorithms in sensor networks, broadcasting news through a peer-to-peer network, or viral advertising in a social network. These networks lack infrastructure; they exhibit unpredictable dynamics and they face stringent resource constraints. Therefore, algorithms operating within them need to be extremely simple, distributed, robust against networks dynamics, and efficient in resource utilization. Gossip algorithms, as the name suggests, are built upon a gossip or rumor style unreliable, asynchronous information exchange protocol. Due to their immense simplicity and wide applicability, this class of algorithms has emerged as a canonical architectural solution for the next generation networks. This has led to exciting recent progress to understand the applicability as well as limitations of the Gossip algorithms. In this review, we provide a systematic survey of many of these recent results on Gossip network algorithms. The algorithmic results described here utilize interdisciplinary tools from Markov chain theory, Optimization, Percolation, Random graphs, Spectral graph theory, and Coding.
Gold nanorods and nanospheroids for enhancing spontaneous emission

We compute the radiative decay rate and the quantum efficiency for an emitter coupled to gold nanorods and nanospheroids using the body-of-revolution finite-difference time-domain method. We study these quantities as a function of the nanoparticle aspect ratio and volume, showing that large enhancements can be achieved with realistic parameters. Moreover, we find that nanospheroids exhibit better performances than nanorods for applications in the visible and near-infrared spectral range.