Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Redes de Neuronas Artificiales versus Análisis de Conglomerados: un estudio comparativo en una muestra de niños con espina bífida

The use of ANN in the data analysis in Psychology is not very frequent. The prevalence of multivariate statistical techniques is evident although the majority of these techniques can be implemented in different architectures of ANN. In this work, we have compared the profiles of the clusters obtained using a non-hierarchical classification algorithm (k-means) and those obtained by means of a competitive net. These two analysis procedures have been applied to a sample of children with spinal bifida and who are undergoing treatment at the "Virgin del Rocio" Children's Hospital of Seville.
The Shāndωng Highwayman: Mechanisms of Inclusion and Resistance and the Predication of Cantonese Identity Through Cantonese Opera

In March 1987, during the course of extensive interviewing among members of the Cantonese opera community in the southern Chinese city of Guăngzhoū,2 I listened with considerable amazement while Chàhn Keìhyàhn, the director of the Guăngdōng Cantonese Opera Institute, recounted an experience he had while staging a local Cantonese opera version of one of the “model operas” of the Cultural Revolution period. My fascination was only secondarily with the details of the story itself; of greater significance was what transpired on a linguistic, and even physical, level as this man related his story.
Aspects of Cache Memory and Instruction

Techniques are developed in this dissertation to efficiently evaluate direct-mapped and set-associative caches for single-chip RISC microprocessors. This research is motivated in general by the importance of cache memories to computer performance, and more specifically by work done to design the caches in SPUR, a multiprocessor workstation designed at U. C. Berkeley. The studies focus not only on abstract measures of performance such as miss ratios, but also include, when appropriate, detailed implementation factors, such as access times and gate delays. The simulation algorithms developed compute miss ratios for numerous alternative caches with one pass through an address trace, provided all caches have the same block size, and use demand fetching and LRU replacement. One algorithm (forest simulation) simulates direct-mapped caches by relying on inclusion, a property that all larger caches contain a superset of the data in smaller caches. The other algorithm (all associativity simulation) simulates a broader class of direct-mapped and set-associative caches than could previously be studies with a one-pass algorithm, although somewhat less efficiently than forest simulation, since inclusion does not hold. The analysis of set-associative caches yields two major results. First, constant factors are obtained which relate the miss ratios for set-associative caches to miss ratios for other set-associative caches. Then those results are combined with sample cache implementations to show that above certain cache sizes, direct mapped caches have lower effective access times than set-associative caches, despite having higher miss ratios. Finally, instruction buffers and target instruction buffers are examined as organizations for instruction memory on single-chip microprocessors. The analysis focuses closely on implementation considerations, including the interaction between instruction fetches, instruction prefetches and data references, and uses the SPUR RISC design as the case study. Results show the effects of varying numerous design parameters, suggest some superior designs, and demonstrate that instruction buffers will be preferred to target instruction buffers in future RISC microprocessors implemented on single CMOS chips.
Speech production and second language acquisition

Contents: Series Editor's Preface. Introduction: Issues in L2 Speech Production Research. Part I: An Overview of Theories of First Language Speech Production. Issues in First Language Speech Production Research. Theories of Automaticity and Their Relation to Speech Production Models. Part II: Lexical Encoding and the Bilingual Lexicon. Syntactic and Phonological Encoding. Monitoring. Problem-Solving Mechanisms in L2 Speech. Fluency and Automaticity in L2 Speech Production. Conclusion: Toward an Integrated Model of L2 Speech Production.
Object modeling for user-centered development and user interface design: the wisdom approach

ion Presentation Control PAC Aplication Conceptual Interface (ACI) Instantiation of a User Interface System Functional core Output Input User User Functional core Figure II.23 Conceptual Architectural Models for User-interface Objects In the late 1980s and early 1990s several approaches of implementation architectural models for interactive systems emerged. Unlike conceptual models, implementation models organize the interactive system as a set of software components and aim at practical software engineering considerations like reusability, maintainability, and performance. The Seeheim model [Bass, 1992] proposes a simple three-layer model (application, dialogue and presentation) of an interactive system, roughly coupling the semantic, syntactic and lexical functionality’s of the user interface. The application component models the domain-specific components, the dialogue component defines the structure of the dialogue between the user and the application and, finally, the presentation component is responsible for the external to internal mapping of basic symbols. The Seeheim model is considered a correct and useful model for specification of interactive systems [Duce et al., 1991]. However, its support for distribution, concurrency, resource management and performance is recognized to be insufficient. Background: A Brief Survey of Usability Engineering and Object Modeling 58 The Arch model [Pfaff and Haguen, 1985] is a revision of the Seeheim model aimed at providing a framework for understanding of the engineering tradeoffs, specifically, in what concerns evaluating candidate run-time architectures. The Arch model proposes a five-layer approach balanced around the dialogue component. The components of the Arch model are: • The interaction toolkit component implements the physical interaction with the end-user; • The presentation component provides a set of toolkit independent objects; • The dialogue component is responsible for task-level sequencing, providing multiple view consistency, and mapping the between domain specific and user interface specific formalisms; • The domain adapter component implements domain related tasks required but not available in the domain specific component; • The domain specific component controls, manipulates and retrieves domain data and performs other domain related functions. Application Dialogue Presentation Seeheim Model
Tomatoes, Lycopene Intake, and Digestive Tract and Female Hormone-Related Neoplasms

Tomato consumption showed a consistent inverse relation with the risk of digestive tract neoplasms in Italy in an integrated series of studies conducted in the 1980s. Another series of case-control studies was conducted between 1992 and 1999 in different areas of Italy. Cases were patients below age 80 with incident, histologically confirmed cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx (n = 754), esophagus (n = 304), colorectum (n = 1953), breast (n = 2529), and ovary (n = 1031). The comparison group involved, overall, over 5000 patients below age 80 with acute, non-neoplastic, nonhormone-related diseases, unrelated to long-term diet modifications and admitted to the same network of hospitals. Information was collected in hospital by trained interviewers using a validated food frequency questionnaire, including 78 foods or groups of foods, various alcoholic beverage, and fat-intake pattern. The multivariate relative risk (RR) of oral, pharyngeal, and esophageal cancer decreased across subsequent levels of lycopene intake to reach 0.7 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.4–1.0) for oral and pharyngeal, and 0.7 (95% CI 0.4–1.1) for esophageal cancer in the highest quintile of intake. Both trends in risk were of borderline statistical significance. With reference to colorectal, breast, and ovarian cancer, although no consistent association was observed for lycopene (RR = 1.0 for colorectal, 1.2 for breast, and 1.1 for ovary in the highest quintile), tomato Intake was inversely and significantly related with colorectal cancer (RR = 0.8). The inverse relation between lycopene and upper digestive tract neoplasms was not explained by alcohol or tobacco, sociodemographic factors, or total energy Intake. The interpretation of such an inverse relation, however, remains open to discussion because it may be related to an effect of lycopene due to its antioxidant effect and/or a potential role of lycopene in decreasing Insulin growth factor I, which is a promoter in the process of carcinogenesis.
Exercise training regulation of extracellular matrix and remodeling in the aging rat heart

Exercise Training Regulation of Extracellular Matrix and Remodeling in the Aging Rat Heart. (May 2008) Hyo Bum Kwak, B.Ed., Seoul National University; M.Ed., Seoul National University; M.S., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. John M. Lawler Aging is characterized by a progressive impairment of cardiac structure and function. The cardiac remodeling involves loss of cardiac myocytes, reactive hypertrophy of the remaining cells, and increased extracellular matrix (ECM) and fibrosis in the aging heart. In contrast, exercise training not only improves cardiac function, but also reduces the risk of heart disease. However, the ability of exercise training to modulate ECM and remodeling in the aging heart remains unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of exercise training on ECM remodeling in the aging heart. We hypothesized that (1) exercise training would attenuate age-related changes in left ventricle morphology including extramyocyte space and collagen contents, and (2) exercise training would ameliorate age-induced changes in ECM-related factors including MMPs, TIMPs, TNF-α, TGF-β1, and α-SMA in the heart. Three and 31 month old Fischer 344 × Brown Norway F1 hybrid rats were assigned to four groups: young sedentary (YS), young exercise-trained (YE), old
A nonlinear model predictive control scheme using second order Volterra models

A model predictive control algorithm based on the second order Volterra model is proposed, and simulation results for the control of two isothermal continuous stirred tank reactors are presented. The responses of both reactors controlled with a linear MPC scheme and the second order Volterra MPC scheme are compared to a desired, linear reference trajectory. In the majority of the cases examined, the response obtained by the Volterra controller followed the reference trajectory more closely.
Conducta antisocial y uso de drogas en una muestra nacional de estudiantes mexicanos

This paper presents the results of a national survey of Mexican High School students, The research instrument was a selfapplied questionnaire. This paper only presents the results of the section on consumption of drugs and antisocial behavior during the previous year. The purpose of this research was 10 define the relationship between the consumplion of drugs and the tendency lo gel involved in antisocial acts. The results indicate that the heavy consumers of drugs tend lo participate in a significantly higher number of violent acts that the students that do not consume or that are light consumers of drugs. The consumers of alcohol, marihuana, inhalants, amph et amines and cocaine showed important correlations with the delincuency seale. The paper also inc/udes a discussion on the meaning of these results and the importance of using the social model view of the problems in regard 10 preventive measures, and not only the legal and health models.
Ethics, Computing, and Medicine: Informatics and the Transformation of Health Care

From the Publisher: As those in medicine increasingly depend on computers and other intelligent machines, the intersection of ethics, computing and the health professions grows much more complex and significant. This book attempts to systematically identify and address the full range of ethical issues that arise when intelligent machines are used in medicine, nursing, psychology, and allied health professions. It is appropriate for professionals and students in the fields of bioethics and medical informatics.
ON ALLEN FORTE'S THEORY OF CHORDS

A theory of harmony may reasonably be considered as one whose analytical units are unordered sets of notes, or "chords," under octave-equivalence and transpositional equivalence. Classical harmonic theory enriches this definition by assigning special meanings to certain notes of these sets on contextual or theoretical grounds: the bass and the root, for instance. It also provides valuable extensions of this basic material in its use of "functional" descriptions, which relate realizations of given chords to a reference note, the tonic or local tonic, and of harmonic "progressions," which describe commonly-used sequences of chords. The classical theory is limited, however, in the kinds of chords it can describe. Configurations which cannot be construed in terms of chords "built up in thirds" must have some elements explained in contrapuntal terms, as "non-harmonic tones" of certain specified types, or in some other heuristic way. This century has seen the growth of a repertoire which has yielded to this theory only with difficulty, if at all: that of so-called "atonal" music. For this music a new theory certainly seems to be called for, one in which any set of notes whatsoever can be given an objective harmonic description. In his recent book, The Structure of Atonal Music [1973], Allen Forte gives us the outcome of a number of years' work on this problem. What he presents is a more-or-less systematic description of all possible sets of notes under octave-equivalence and transpositional equivalence, adding the relations of enharmonic and, surprisingly, inversional equivalence. He does not use any of the apparatus of the "functional" description, as is quite natural. As means of relating sets of notes, he uses similarity of interval content, common tones (which he calls "invariants") and abstract inclusion relationships. The choice of musical examples and the word "atonal" in the title make it clear that Forte is trying to construct a harmonic theory specifically for music which cannot reasonably be treated with the classical theory on one hand and is free, on the other
Cyclic Commit Protocol Specifications

A novel cyclic commit protocol uses extra metadata fields to implement transactional semantics without needing an explicit commit record. We describe and present specifications of two versions of cyclic commit: Simple Cyclic Commit (SCC) and BackPointer Cyclic Commit (BPCC). The specifications are written in TLA+ and checked with the TLC model checker.
A Multiple Autonomous Agent System for Negotiating Valued Information Exchange on the Web.

i Declaration I, the undersigned, declare this work has not previously been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other University, and that, unless otherwise stated, it is entirely my own work. I, the undersigned, agree that the Trinity College Library may lend and/or copy this dissertation upon request. Many thanks are due to my supervisor Mr Padraig Cunningham for his help, humour and feedback throughout the project. Also, to my friends, family and fellow NDS classmates, thanks for your support and encouragement. iii Summary. The amount of detailed personal information being recorded electronically about individuals is growing rapidly. The increasing commercial pervasiveness of the Internet is a major factor in this growth. This information has a significant economic value yet it is only relatively recently that data subjects have begun to expect and receive some reward for the surrender and/or use of their information. It is considered likely that this trend will continue, producing a growing uneasiness over the erosion of personal privacy. In time, legislation or acceptable practice may oblige data users who wish to gather consumer information, to pay data subjects to provide that information. The mechanics and logistics of data subjects supplying their own information to data users necessitates an automated system to carry out the transactions. Any such system has to be able to cope with the widest variety possible of data formats and quantities. It should allow the data sellers to specify at a very fine-grained level which information should be sold as what price. It should allow data users to stipulate what type of 'souls' they are seeking, how many and how much they want to spend. This dissertation describes a system called the Soul Seller System that attempts to provide such facilities. The system is based on mobile agent technology called Aglets. Data subjects provide information about themselves via a web page. This data is passed to a selling Aglet (a 'soul seller') that then represents the data subject in transactions with the 'soul buyers', other Aglets who each represent a data user seeking information. When initially created, both types of Aglets dispatch themselves to a central Aglet server, the 'marketplace' where soul buyers and sellers can meet each other. A conversation is initiated where soul buyers tell soul sellers what information they are seeking. The soul sellers respond with the price this information would cost. If the …
Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt for palliative treatment of portal hypertension secondary to portal vein tumor thrombosis

AIM: To evaluate the palliative therapeutic effects of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) in portal vein tumor thrombosis (Pv-n-) complicated by portal hypertension.METHODS: We performed TIPS for 14 patients with PVTT due to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Of the 14 patients,8 patients had complete occlusion of the main portal vein,6 patients had incomplete thrombosis, and 5 patients had portal vein cavernous transformation. Clinical characteristics and average survial time of 14 patients were analysed.Portal vein pressure, ascites, diarrohea, and variceal bleeding and circumference of abdomen were assessed before and after TIPS.PESULTS: TIPS was successful in 10 cases, and the successful rate was about 71%. The mean portal vein pressure was reduced from 37.2 mmHg to 18.2 mmHg. After TIPS, the ascites decreased, hemorrhage stopped and the clinical symptoms disappeared in the 10 cases. The average survial time was 132.3 d. The procedure failed in 4 cases because of cavernous transformation in portal vein and severecirrhosis.CONCLUSION: TIPS is an effective palliative treatment to control hemorrhage and ascites due to HCC complicated by PVTT.
Job satisfaction in rural and remote nursing : comparison of registered nurses in nurse practitioner vs. non-nurse practitioner roles

In Canada, the nursing shortage and high turnover rate of nurses are expected to worsen over the next ten years, making the recruitment and retention of nurses a priority for health care. Previous research has indicated that job satisfaction influences the recruitment and retention of nurses. Most of the research on job satisfaction, thus far, has focused on nurses practicing in urban, acute-care settings. There has been little research on job satisfaction of nurses practicing in rural and remote settings in Canada, and even less on nurses practicing in advanced nursing practice (ANP) roles, specifically nurse practitioner (NP) roles. A secondary analysis of data from the national survey The Nature of Nursing Practice in Rural and Remote Canada was conducted with a group of 327 RNs practicing in NP roles and 1,151 RNs practicing in non-NP roles. The objectives of the present study were to describe similarities and differences between RNs in NP versus non-NP practice roles in rural and remote settings in Canada in relation to: (1) demographic profile, (2) job satisfaction, and (3) community satisfaction. The final objective of the study was to explore what the most important work-related attributes for RNs whose practice roles were categorized as NP. A modified version of Stamp’s (1997) Index of Work Satisfaction (IWS) was used to measure job satisfaction and the Community Satisfaction Scale (Henderson-Betkus & MacLeod, 2003) was used to operationalize community satisfaction. The study found that the reported overall level of job satisfaction was higher for RNs practicing in NP roles versus non-NP roles. Further findings suggested that the reported level of intrinsic job satisfaction factors was higher for RNs practicing in NP roles versus non-NP roles. The themes that were identified during the content analysis of NPs’ responses to the open-ended survey question related to the most important work-related attributes included: the nature of advanced nursing practice in rural and remote areas, work life, personal and professional development, practice philosophy, and the community. The findings of the present study provide useful information for health care administrators and policy makers on factors associated with job satisfaction of nurses practicing in NP and non-NP roles in rural and remote settings in Canada.
The improvement of conditional sum adder for low power applications

The authors describe a new conditional-sum rule for low power applications. This conditional sum adder is especially attractive for implementing high-speed arithmetic systems. The new conditional sum addition rule can reduce the internal nodes and multiplexer numbers of the adder design. Various supply voltages and circuit structures are used to implement the new conditional sum adders. It is shown that about 10% to 25% power-delay product is saved.
Nurses' responses to work-related aggression

The incidence of work-related aggression as experienced by professional nurses has been extensively researched. The majority of studies reported have been conducted in nursing speciality areas includuig psychiatric hospitals, emergency departments,nursing homes, intensive care units and operating theatres. These studies have focused primarily on psychological and emotional outcomes, ignoring professional outcomes and have not identified reporting behaviours of nurses and interventions which may reduce the impact of aggressive behaviour experienced in hospital settings. The present study adopted the cognitive appraisal model of Lazams and Folkman (1984) as a theoretical framework from which to examine the moderating effect of institutional social support on work-related aggression as it impacts upon the perceived professional competence of registered muses.