Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Mass Communication

Mr. Halloran's working paper prompted me to look up the record of that seminal conference on "Popular Culture and Personal Responsibility" which the National Union of Teachers organised five years ago, to see whether much progress has been made since. Stanley Reed, of the British Film Institute, said then that it was amazing how little we know about the psychology of people watching moving pictures. We still need to know more as communicators, as educationists, and as sociologists; we ought especially to know more about the effects of the mass media on the mental health of children and adults. Mr. Reed said: "We need research into the effects of cinema, the effects of television, the effects of mass media generally. We need this over a long time, backed with adequate money and done at a proper professional level. " We 277
Development of a simulator for modelling of electrical and mechanical properties of nanocomposite materials and sensors

A simulator is developed to estimate the electrical conductivity of polymer/nanotube composite layers as well as the change in their resistances under an applied strain. Simulation results are verified using experimental data on SU-8/Multiwall Carbon NanoTube composites. The model is based on conduction through a polymer body due to percolation between the conductive nanotubes. The simulator predicts the nanocomposite conductivity normalized by contact resistance between different filler concentrations. Several devices with different filler concentrations were fabricated on silicon substrates and studied. Experimental results agree with the performance trend that is predicted by the simulator as filler concentration and applied strains were varied independently. The simulator is capable of accounting for nanotube dimensions, polymer physical properties, conduction channel shape, and unevenly distributed forces in the polymer body.
DC islanding detection algorithm using injection current perturbation technique for photovoltaic converters in DC distribution

This paper proposes a new islanding detection algorithm for photovoltaic (PV) converters interfaced with a DC distribution system. Islanding detection is a key requirement for electrical safety and equipment protection. Because DC distribution systems lack frequency and phase, which have been utilized in islanding detection algorithms in AC systems, new methods are required for system reliability. The proposed algorithm consists of an active detection method with positive feedback which not only ensures fast detection response but is also more effective at detecting islanding compared to passive methods. The operating principle and mathematical analysis of the proposed algorithm are detailed. A prototype converter employing the designed algorithm is implemented. Experimental results verify the performance of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm shows fast response; less than 0.2 s to detect the islanding condition. In addition, the experimental result shows the average MPPT accuracy is 99.7% in normal conditions, and is minimally affected by the islanding detection method.
Indicators to assess goat welfare on-farm in the semiarid region of Brazilian Northeast

EnglishIn 2015, AWIN Goat Protocol was published in Europe, with indicators that identify welfare level of lactating dairy goats; however, there are no welfare protocols for meat goat. Therefore, the objective of this study was to select animal and resource-based indicators to assess welfare in meat goat in different types of grazing systems in Brazilian semiarid Northeast. Eighteen indicators were selected to evaluate the welfare of meat goat. The knowledge of the welfare degree of these animals is the best way to make improvements and promote a better quality of life to meat goat. Key words: animal welfare; animal-based measures; quality of life; parameter; protocol portuguesEm 2015, o Protocolo AWIN para cabras foi publicado na Europa, com indicadores que identificam o nivel de bem-estar das cabras leiteiras em lactacao, no entanto nao existem protocolos de bem-estar para cabras de corte. Portanto, o objetivo deste estudo foi selecionar indicadores baseados nos animais e recursos para avaliar o bem-estar em cabras de corte em diferentes tipos de sistemas de pastejo no semiarido do Nordeste brasileiro. Dezoito indicadores foram selecionados para avaliar o bem-estar de cabras. O conhecimento do grau de bem-estar destes animais e o melhor caminho de realizar melhorias e promover uma melhor qualidade de vida para cabras de corte. Palavras-chave: bem-estar animal; medidas baseadas em animais; qualidade de vida; parâmetro; protocolo
The significance of the carbonyl group and ether oxygen in the reaction of acetylcholine with receptor substance.

In order to determine whether or not the carbonyl group and ether oxygen of acetylcholine are of special significance in the formation of a complex with the acetyicholine receptor protein of the Venus heart a number of analogues have been prepared and tested on this organ. Certain substitutions and changes in position of the carbonyl group result in marked losses in biological activity. It is concluded that a carbonyl group at a maximum distance of 7 A from a quaternary nitrogen is an important linking group with the receptor protein of the Venus heart. It is suggested that a bond forms between the carbonyl carbon or ketone oxygen and an appropriate group in the protein molecule.
Large diurnal variation in CD4 cell count and T‐cell function among drug users: implications for clinical practice and epidemiological studies

ObjectiveTo measure diurnal variation in the CD4 cell count and T-cell reactivity of drug users. DesignA prospective epidemiological study among HIV-infected and non-infected drug users attending the Municipal Health Service of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. PatientsEleven HIV-infected and seven non-infected drug users. Main outcome measuresCD4 cell counts and T-cell reactivity three times a day. T-cell subsets and T-cell reactivity were determined from blinded samples within 2 hours. ResultsThe number of CD4 cells increased by 130 $$ 106/I (P < 0.05) in HIV-infected intravenous drug users over 8 hours. Following stimulation with anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies, the T-cell reactivity of HIV-infected drug users rose from 118 to 221 c.p.m. (P < 0.01) over 8 hours. CD4 cell counts of the total study population increased by 37% and T-cell reactivity by 93%. The increase in the number of CD4 cells was more marked among active drug users than among drug users who had not used drugs recently. ConclusionVariation in the CD4 cell count and in T-cell reactivity is large among drug users.
Inverter Power Control Based on DC-Link Voltage Regulation for IPMSM Drives Without Electrolytic Capacitors

DC-link electrolytic capacitor critically affects the lifetime of the motor drive system. This paper proposes an inverter power control strategy based on dc-link voltage regulation for the electrolytic capacitor-less interior permanent magnet synchronous motor drive system. The dc-link electrolytic capacitor is replaced by a small film capacitor and the power factor correction circuit is also eliminated. Hence, the inverter power should be regulated effectively to achieve high input power factor and low grid current harmonics. The inverter power control loop based on proportional resonant (PR) controller is established to regulate the inverter power into sinusoidal wave. The PR controller can be designed to achieve a high gain at the desired frequency and the parameters are easy to design due to the simple structure. In addition, a power compensation method based on the dc-link voltage regulation is used to diminish the error of inverter power control, which does not depend on the precise calculation and is easy to realize. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by the experimental results on an air conditioner. The input power factor can reach 0.992 and the harmonics of grid current are considerably lower than the requirement of EN61000-3-2 standard.
Social exclusion induces early-stage perceptual and behavioral changes in response to social cues

Social exclusion is so aversive that it causes broad cognitive and behavioral changes to regulate the individual’s belonging status. The present study examined whether such changes also occur at early neural or automatic behavioral levels in response to social cues. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and facial electromyograms (EMGs) were recorded during a task in which participants viewed smiling, disgusted, and neutral faces after experiencing social exclusion or inclusion. Social exclusion was manipulated using a simple ball-tossing game (Cyberball), and need threat was assessed after the game. We found that zygomaticus major muscle activity, which reflects facial mimicry, was larger in response to smiling faces after exclusion than after inclusion. In addition, P1 amplitude, which reflects visual attention, was larger for disgusted faces than for neutral faces following social exclusion. N170 amplitude, which reflects structural encoding of the face, was correlated with heightened need threat. These findings demonstrate that social exclusion induces immediate and rapid changes in attention, perception, and automatic behavior. These findings reflect the rapid and primary regulation of belonging.
Concept Learning from Natural Language Interactions

Humans can efficiently learn about new concepts using natural language communications. For example, a human can learn the concept of a phishing email from natural language explanations such as ‘phishing emails often request your bank account number’. On the other hand, purely inductive learning systems typically require a large collection of labeled data for learning such a concept. If we wish to make computer learning as efficient as human learning, we need to develop methods that can learn from natural language interactions. Learning from language presents two key challenges. The first is that of learning from interpretations, which refers to the mechanisms through which interpretations of language statements can be used to solve learning tasks in the environment. The second is the basic problem of learning to interpret language, which refers to an agent’s ability to map natural language explanations in pedagogical contexts to formal semantic representations that computers can process and reason over. We address aspects of both these problems, and provide an interface for guiding concept learning methods using language. For learning from interpretation, we focus on concept learning (binary classification) tasks. We demonstrate that language can formulate concept learning tasks by defining rich and expressive features (e.g., ‘Does the email ask me to click a hyper-link? ’), and show that methods for concept learning can benefit substantially from such explanations. We propose to address assimilation of language cues that implicitly constrain models for concept learning (e.g., ‘Most emails are not phishing emails’ ). In particular, we focus on quantifier expressions (such as usually, never, etc.) that reflect generality of specific observations, and can be incorporated into training of classification models. We also propose to explore the use of natural language to interactively engage with a teacher in a mixedinitiative setting to reduce the sample complexity of concept learning. Apart from developing computational machinery that uses interpretations of language advice to guide concept learning, we develop complementary algorithms for learning to interpret language by incorporating different types of situational context, including conversational history and sensory observations. We show that environmental context can enrich models of semantic interpretation by not only providing discriminative features, but also reducing the need for expensive labeled data used for training them.
Using the detectability index to predict P300 speller performance

Objective. The P300 speller is a popular brain–computer interface (BCI) system that has been investigated as a potential communication alternative for individuals with severe neuromuscular limitations. To achieve acceptable accuracy levels for communication, the system requires repeated data measurements in a given signal condition to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of elicited brain responses. These elicited brain responses, which are used as control signals, are embedded in noisy electroencephalography (EEG) data. The discriminability between target and non-target EEG responses defines a user’s performance with the system. A previous P300 speller model has been proposed to estimate system accuracy given a certain amount of data collection. However, the approach was limited to a static stopping algorithm, i.e. averaging over a fixed number of measurements, and the row-column paradigm. A generalized method that is also applicable to dynamic stopping (DS) algorithms and other stimulus paradigms is desirable. Approach. We developed a new probabilistic model-based approach to predicting BCI performance, where performance functions can be derived analytically or via Monte Carlo methods. Within this framework, we introduce a new model for the P300 speller with the Bayesian DS algorithm, by simplifying a multi-hypothesis to a binary hypothesis problem using the likelihood ratio test. Under a normality assumption, the performance functions for the Bayesian algorithm can be parameterized with the detectability index, a measure which quantifies the discriminability between target and non-target EEG responses. Main results. Simulations with synthetic and empirical data provided initial verification of the proposed method of estimating performance with Bayesian DS using the detectability index. Analysis of results from previous online studies validated the proposed method. Significance. The proposed method could serve as a useful tool to initially assess BCI performance without extensive online testing, in order to estimate the amount of data required to achieve a desired accuracy level.
THE ROLE OF IMAGISTIC INVESTIGATIONS IN DIAGNOSING ACUTE COMPLICATED DIVERTICULITIS

Recent progress in medical imaging allowed higher accuracy in diagnosis of acute diverticulitis. Contrast enhanced Computed Tomography (CT) has a high sensitivity and specificity, reaching a diagnostic accuracy over 95%. Although abdominal X-ray and ultrasonography are still used, their utility is limited in this pathology. Retrospective study including patients admitted for acute diverticulitis in the Surgery Clinic of Bucharest Clinical Emergency Hospital between January 2012 and July 2014. From the total number of 29508 admissions, 156 patients were diagnosed with acute diverticulitis staged Hinchey I to IV. The imagistic investigations on admission were plain abdominal X-ray (128 cases), which identified 6 cases of pneumoperitoneum; abdominal ultrasound (112 cases) which identified colonic wall thickening and/or free peritoneal fluid in 29.4% cases. Contrast enhanced CT was performed in 97 cases, successfully establishing the diagnostic in 80% of cases. The mean waiting time interval until CT scan was under 24 hours for the patients with acute complicated diverticulitis. Patients with acute diverticulitis staged Hinchey II-III needed CT reevaluation both for monitoring the response to conservative treatment and identification of postoperative complications. Due to its high diagnostic accuracy and short waiting interval, in the studied cohort, contrast enhanced CT represents the investigation of choice in diagnosing acute diverticulitis. Abdominal ultrasound remains an alternative only in cases where CT scan is unavailable or contraindicated, having a lower accuracy in diagnosis and evaluation of diverticular disease complications
Regional and developmental heterogeneity in splicing of the rat brain NMDAR1 mRNA

Developmental and regional alternative splicing of the NMDAR1 subunit gene transcript was examined by in situ hybridization in the developing and adult rat brain. NMDAR1 mRNA, barely detectable at embryonic day 14, increased gradually during development until the third postnatal week, after which it declined slightly to adult levels, when it was detected in every examined neuronal type. Each splice form of the primary NMDAR1 gene transcript was found to follow a parallel profile of abundance in the brain, but marked regional differences were observed in splicing at both 5′ and 3′ sequences. The individual regional distributions of splice forms appeared to be established around birth, with little change thereafter, except in the overall abundance. The NMDAR1-a and NMDAR1–2 splice forms occurred extensively and approximately homogeneously throughout brain gray matter. The NMDAR1-b variant was found primarily in the sensorimotor cortex, neonatal lateral caudate, thalamus, hippocampal CA3 field, and cerebellar granule cells, but was absent from adult caudate. The NMDAR1–1 and -4 splice forms were detected in almost complementary patterns; the former was concentrated in more rostral structures such as cortex, caudate, and hippocampus, while the latter was principally in more caudal regions such as thalamus, colliculi, and cerebellum. These two splice forms accounted for a greater proportion of the adult NMDAR1 mRNA than that of the neonate. The NMDAR1–3 mRNA variant was scarce, being detected only at very low levels in postnatal cortex and hippocampus. The different splice forms may generate regional differences in NMDA receptor properties during development and in the adult CNS.
Procoagulant activity in bronchoalveolar lavage in the adult respiratory distress syndrome. Contribution of tissue factor associated with factor VII.

Alveolar fibrin deposition commonly occurs in the lungs of patients with the adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from patients with ARDS, control patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD), congestive heart failure, or exposure to hyperoxia, and normal healthy subjects was studied to determine whether local alterations in procoagulant activity favor alveolar fibrin deposition in the lungs in ARDS. Procoagulant activity capable of shortening the recalcification time of plasma deficient in either factor VII or factor VIII was observed in unconcentrated BAL of all patients, but was significantly greater in BAL from patients with ARDS when compared with that of control subjects (p less than 0.001). Unconcentrated BAL from patients with ARDS shortened the recalcification time of plasma deficient in factor X, but no functional thrombin was detectable. BAL procoagulant from patients with ARDS was inhibited by concanavalin A, an inhibitor of tissue factor. The hydrolysis of purified human factor X by BAL from the ARDS and other patient groups was determined by measuring the amidolytic activity of generated factor Xa on its N-benzoyl-L-isoleucyl-L-glutamyl-glycyl-L-arginine-p-nitroanilide substrate. The procoagulant activity of BAL was associated with the development of amidolytic activity, indicating activation of factor X. BAL from patients with ARDS contained more factor X activating activity than did BAL from control groups (p less than 0.001). This activity was calcium dependent and was maximal at 1 mM ionized calcium. The BAL factor X activating activity was most active at neutral pH and was sedimented by ultracentrifugation at 100,000 x g. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Enalapril Does Not Alter Adhesion Molecule Levels in Human Endotoxemia

The angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) enalapril has been shown to lower elevated levels of circulating adhesion molecules (cAM) in critically ill patients. To delineate the mechanisms of this possibly beneficial effect of enalapril, we studied the acute effects of enalapril in a well-defined model of endotoxin-triggered, cytokine-mediated cAM up-regulation. In a randomized, controlled trial, 30 healthy male volunteers received 2 ng/kg lipopolysaccharide (LPS) after pretreatment with placebo or 20 mg/day enalapril for 5 days or with a single dose of 20 mg of enalapril 2 h before LPS infusion. LPS infusion increased TNF levels 300-fold above normal, circulating (c) E-selectin levels by 425% (CI, 359%–492%), and P-selectin, VCAM-1, ICAM-1, and von Willebrand factor levels by 47%–74%. LPS infusion also enhanced ICAM-1 and CD11b expression 2- to 3-fold on monocytes. However, no differences were seen between treatment groups (P > 0.05), despite 95% inhibition of ACE activity by enalapril. Inhibition of ACE activity by enalapril does not influence plasma indices of endothelial activation after endotoxin infusion in healthy individuals. Our results do not support the concept of a beneficial clinical effect of enalaprilat in septicemia.
Evolution and development of neural controllers for locomotion, gradient-following, and obstacle-avoidance in artificial insects

This paper describes how the SGOCE paradigm has been used to evolve developmental programs capable of generating recurrent neural networks that control the behavior of simulated insects. This paradigm is characterized by an encoding scheme, by an evolutionary algorithm, by syntactic constraints, and by an incremental strategy that are described in turn. The additional use of an insect model equipped with six legs and two antennae made it possible to generate control modules that allowed it to successively add gradient-following and obstacle-avoidance capacities to walking behavior. The advantages of this evolutionary approach, together with directions for future work, are discussed.
Prediction of new clinical vertebral fractures in elderly men using finite element analysis of CT scans

Vertebral strength, as estimated by finite element analysis of computed tomography (CT) scans, has not yet been compared against areal bone mineral density (BMD) by dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) for prospectively assessing the risk of new clinical vertebral fractures. To do so, we conducted a case‐cohort analysis of 306 men aged 65 years and older, which included 63 men who developed new clinically‐identified vertebral fractures and 243 men who did not, all observed over an average of 6.5 years. Nonlinear finite element analysis was performed on the baseline CT scans, blinded to fracture status, to estimate L1 vertebral compressive strength and a load‐to‐strength ratio. Volumetric BMD by quantitative CT and areal BMD by DXA were also evaluated. We found that, for the risk of new clinical vertebral fracture, the age‐adjusted hazard ratio per standard deviation change for areal BMD (3.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.0–5.2) was significantly lower (p < 0.005) than for strength (7.2; 95% CI, 3.6–14.1), numerically lower than for volumetric BMD (5.7; 95% CI, 3.1–10.3), and similar for the load‐to‐strength ratio (3.0; 95% CI, 2.1–4.3). After also adjusting for race, body mass index (BMI), clinical center, and areal BMD, all these hazard ratios remained highly statistically significant, particularly those for strength (8.5; 95% CI, 3.6–20.1) and volumetric BMD (9.4; 95% CI, 4.1–21.6). The area‐under‐the‐curve for areal BMD (AUC = 0.76) was significantly lower than for strength (AUC = 0.83, p = 0.02), volumetric BMD (AUC = 0.82, p = 0.05), and the load‐to‐strength ratio (AUC = 0.82, p = 0.05). We conclude that, compared to areal BMD by DXA, vertebral compressive strength and volumetric BMD consistently improved vertebral fracture risk assessment in this cohort of elderly men. © 2012 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.