Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On-Board Format-Independent Security of Functional Magnetic Resonance Images

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides an effective and noninvasive tool for researchers to understand cerebral functions and correlate them with brain activities. In addition, with the ever-increasing diffusion of the Internet, such images may be exchanged in several ways, allowing new research and medical services. On the other hand, ensuring the security of exchanged fMRI data becomes a main concern due to their special characteristics arising from strict ethics and legislative and diagnostic implications. Again, the risks increase when dealing with open environments like the Internet. For this reason, security mechanisms that ensure protection of such data are strongly required. However, we remark that the mechanisms commonly employed for data protection are doomed to fail when dealing with imaging data. In this article, we propose a novel watermarking scheme explicitly addressed for this type of imaging. Such a scheme can be used for several purposes, particularly to ensure authenticity and integrity. Moreover, we show how to integrate our scheme within commercial off-the-shelf fMRI system. Finally, the validity and the efficiency of our scheme has been assessed through testing.
What Drives US Foreign Borrowing? Evidence on External Adjustment to Transitory and Permanent Shocks

The joint dynamics of US net output, consumption, and (valuation-adjusted) foreign assets and liabilities, characterized empirically following Lettau and Ludvigson [2004], is shown to be strikingly consistent with current account theory. While US consumption is virtually insulated from transitory shocks, these contribute considerably to the variation in net output and, even more so, in gross foreign positions, arguably smoothing temporary variations in returns. A single permanent shock – naturally interpreted as a productivity shock – raises consumption swiftly while causing net output to adjust only gradually. This leads to persistent, procyclical external deficits but, interestingly, moves gross assets and liabilities in the same direction.
Molecular Interactions of CCR5 with Major Classes of Small-Molecule Anti-HIV CCR5 Antagonists

In addition to being an important receptor in leukocyte activation and mobilization, CCR5 is the essential coreceptor for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A large number of small-molecule CCR5 antagonists have been reported that show potent activities in blocking chemokine function and HIV entry. To facilitate the design and development of next generation CCR5 antagonists, docking models for major classes of CCR5 antagonists were created by using site-directed mutagenesis and CCR5 homology modeling. Five clinical candidates: maraviroc, vicriviroc, aplaviroc, TAK-779, and TAK-220 were used to establish the nature of the binding pocket in CCR5. Although the five antagonists are very different in structure, shape, and electrostatic potential, they were able to fit in the same binding pocket formed by the transmembrane (TM) domains of CCR5. It is noteworthy that each antagonist displayed a unique interaction profile with amino acids lining the pocket. Except for TAK-779, all antagonists showed strong interaction with Glu283 in TM 7 via their central basic nitrogen. The fully mapped binding pocket of CCR5 is being used for structure-based design and lead optimization of novel anti-HIV CCR5 inhibitors with improved potency and better resistance profile.
Generating object lifetime traces with Merlin

Programmers are writing a rapidly growing number of programs in object-oriented languages, such as Java and C#, that require garbage collection. Garbage collection traces and simulation speed up research by enabling deeper understandings of object lifetime behavior and quick exploration and design of new garbage collection algorithms. When generating perfect traces, the brute-force method of computing object lifetimes requires a whole-heap garbage collection at every potential collection point in the program. Because this process is prohibitively expensive, researchers often use granulated traces by collecting only periodically, for example, every 32 KB of allocation.We extend the state of the art for simulating garbage collection algorithms in two ways. First, we develop a systematic methodology for simulation studies of copying garbage collection and present results showing the effects of trace granularity on these simulations. We show that trace granularity often distorts simulated garbage collection results compared with perfect traces. Second, we present and measure the performance of a new algorithm called Merlin for computing object lifetimes. Merlin timestamps objects and later uses the timestamps of dead objects to reconstruct when they died. The Merlin algorithm piggybacks on garbage collections performed by the base system. Experimental results show that Merlin can generate traces over two orders of magnitude faster than the brute-force method which collects after every object allocation. We also use Merlin to produce visualizations of heap behavior that expose new object lifetime behaviors.
A step counter service for Java-enabled devices using a built-in accelerometer

The presence of 3D acceleration sensors in mobile devices has already raised a new range of context-aware applications, in particular in the sports and wellness sector. In this paper, we present an accelerometer-based step counter middleware for J2ME-enabled smartphones to simplify the development of activity aware applications, creating an abstraction layer between the client and the signal processing algorithms and raw sensor access. The service provides information about the step count, stop detection and changes in the phone's orientation, independently of the phone's location on the human body. The software package runs natively on Symbian S60 phones, providing an interface to J2ME applications and has been validated experimentally on a Nokia's N95 smartphone.
Is Decentralized Iron Fortification a Feasible Option to Fight Anemia Among the Poorest

Iron deficiency anemia is prevalent in the developing world, and is thought to cause reduced productivity, increased susceptibility to illness, and cognitive difficulties in childhood. This paper reports on a randomized evaluation of an experimental community-level iron fortification program in Udaipur district, Rajasthan. The program was designed to provide the option for iron supplementation for households who do not buy processed food (including flour), and can therefore not be targeted by centralized fortification. Local millers were trained and supplied with simple equipment to fortify flour in a safe and easily implemented way. Flour was fortified between 30 and 40 part per million, which was estimating to bring between 25% and 50% of the recommended daily intake of iron for people who consumed about 300g of fortified flour per day. Program take up increased steeply over the first 6 months, but subsequently declined. Ultimately take up was quite low (around 30% of flour was fortified). The program was effective in reducing anemia as long as the take up was high enough, but ineffective when and where take up was low. It also reduced symptoms of fatigue when take up was sufficiently high. It did not lead to other improvement in health, or to increases in labor supply. Perhaps as a consequence, willingness to pay for the program appears to be low: the drop of take up was faster among people whose nearest miller was not fortifying flour as well as for those who had to walk more than 1.5 kilometers to find a fortifying miller.
Disclosure Quality, Cost of Capital, and Investor Welfare

There is provided a bearing sealing device capable of substantially completely preventing a leak of grease. A taper end portion of an axial extension of the bearing sealing device has an opposite surface and a rake face that forms a specified rake angle with the opposite surface. The opposite surface forms a narrow passage between the opposite surface and an outer peripheral surface of an inner ring. The narrow passage allows air to pass easily, but it allows grease to hardly pass therethrough. Further, the axial extension includes part of a core metal that extends axially and has its foremost end located axially inside an axial outermost end of the outer peripheral surface of the inner ring. Grease moving axially outwardly on the outer peripheral surface is moved along the rake face of the taper end portion and then guided along a cover portion of the bearing sealing device to an outer ring. The part of the core metal prevents the axial extension from being bent radially outwardly by a centrifugal force.
Enhanced Blocking Probability Evaluation Method for Circuit-Switched Trunk Reservation Networks

We consider the problem of estimating steady-state blocking probability for circuit-switched networks that allow alternate routing with particular emphasis on networks protected by trunk reservation. We use a recently proposed blocking probability estimate, the Overflow Priority Classification Approximation (OPCA) as an alternative to the currently used Erlang's Fixed-Point Approximation (EFPA). We demonstrate empirically that OPCA provides a better blocking estimate than EFPA for circuit-switched networks with alternate routing, that are reasonably protected by trunk reservation.
Rapid and Quantitative Detection of Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli in Sugarcane Stalk Juice Using a Real-Time Fluorescent (TaqMan) PCR Assay

Ratoon stunting disease (RSD) of sugarcane, one of the most important diseases seriously affecting the productivity of sugarcane crops, was caused by the bacterial agent Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli (Lxx). A TaqMan probe-based real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay was established in this study for the quantification of Lxx detection in sugarcane stalk juice. A pair of PCR primers (Pat1-QF/Pat1-QR) and a fluorogenic probe (Pat1-QP) targeting the Part1 gene of Lxx were used for the qPCR assay. The assay had a detection limit of 100 copies of plasmid DNA and 100 fg of Lxx genomic DNA, which was 100-fold more sensitive than the conventional PCR. Fifty (28.7%) of 174 stalk juice samples from two field trials were tested to be positive by qPCR assay, whereas, by conventional PCR, only 12.1% (21/174) were tested to be positive with a published primer pair CxxITSf#5/CxxITSr#5 and 15.5% (27/174) were tested to be positive with a newly designed primer pair Pat1-F2/Pat1-R2. The new qPCR assay can be used as an alternative to current diagnostic methods for Lxx, especially when dealing with certificating a large number of healthy cane seedlings and determining disease incidence accurately in commercial fields.
Diffusion-Weighted Imaging in Fetuses with Severe Congenital Heart Defects

SUMMARY: Fetal diffusion MR imaging was performed in 3 fetuses with CHD. ADC values in the periatrial WM, thalamus, and basal ganglia were compared with those in a control population of fetuses. Diffusivity in the periatrial WM and thalamus was higher for the fetuses with CHD compared with controls. These observations support the finding of abnormal in utero brain development in fetuses with CHD.
Collective behavior of interacting self-propelled particles Andr as

We discuss biologically inspired, inherently non-equilibrium models of self-propelled particles, in which the particles interact with their neighbors by choosing at each time step the local average direction of motion. We summarize some of the results of large-scale simulations and theoretical approaches about the eeects of noise and dimensionality on the scaling behavior of such systems.
Contrasting responses to drought of forest floor CO2 efflux in a Loblolly pine plantation and a nearby Oak‐Hickory forest

Forest floor CO2 efflux (Fff) depends on vegetation type, climate, and soil physical properties. We assessed the effects of biological factors on Fff by comparing a maturing pine plantation (PP) and a nearby mature Oak‐Hickory‐type hardwood forest (HW). Fff was measured continuously with soil chambers connected to an IRGA during 2001–2002. At both sites, Fff depended on soil temperature at 5 cm (T5) when soil was moist (soil moisture, θ>0.20 m3 m−3), and on both T5 and θ when soil was drier. A model (Fff (T5, θ)) explained 92% of the variation in the daily mean Fff at both sites. Higher radiation reaching the ground during the leafless period, and a thinner litter layer because of faster decomposition, probably caused higher soil temperature at HW compared with PP. The annual Fff was estimated at 1330 and 1464 g C m−2 yr−1 for a year with mild drought (2001) at PP and HW, respectively, and 1231 and 1557 g C m−2 yr−1 for a year with severe drought (2002). In the wetter year, higher soil temperature and moisture at HW compared with PP compensated for the negative effect on Fff of the response to these variables resulting in similar annual Fff at both stands. In the drier year, however, the response to soil temperature and moisture was more similar at the two stands causing the difference in the state variables to impel a higher Fff at HW. A simple mass balance indicated that in the wetter year, C in the litter–soil system was at steady state at HW, and was accruing at PP. However, HW was probably losing C from the mineral soil during the severe drought year of 2002, while PP was accumulating C at a lower rate because of a loss of C from the litter layer. Such contrasting behavior of two forest types in close proximity might frustrate attempts to estimate regional carbon (C) fluxes and net C exchange.
Transmission of Government Spending Shocks in the Euro Area: Time Variation and Driving Forces

This paper provides new evidence on the effects of government spending shocks and the fiscal transmission mechanism in the euro area for the period 1980-2008. Our contribution is two-fold. First, we investigate changes in the macroeconomic impact of government spending shocks using time-varying structural VAR techniques. The results show that the short-run effectiveness of government spending in stabilizing real GDP and private consumption has increased until the end-1980s but it has decreased thereafter. Moreover, government spending multipliers at longer horizons have declined substantially over the sample period. We also observe a weaker response of real wages and a stronger response of the nominal interest rate to spending shocks. Second, we provide econometric evidence on the driving forces behind the observed time variation of spending multipliers. We find that a higher ratio of credit to households over GDP, a smaller share of government investment and a larger share of public wages over total government spending have led to decreasing contemporaneous multipliers. At the same time, our results indicate that higher government debt-to-GDP ratios have negatively affected long-term multipliers.
Toward Understanding EHR Use in Small Physician Practices

This article presents insights into the use of electronic health records (EHRs) by small physician practices participating in a CMS pay-for-performance demonstration. Site visits to four States reveal slow movement toward improved EHR use. Factors facilitating use of EHRs include customization of EHR products and being owned by a larger organization. Factors limiting use of EHRs include system limitations, cost, and lack of strong incentives to improve. Practices in one State were moving more vigorously toward improved EHR use than those in the other States. Many practices also increased use of medical assistants after implementing EHRs.
The Changing Distribution Of Earnings In OECD Countries

This book is about how much people earn and why the distribution of earnings has been changing over time. The gap between the top and bottom in the United States has widened significantly since 1980. Why has this happened? Is it due to new technologies? What is the role of globalisation? Are there historical precedents? The book begins with the "race" between technology and education, and shows that continuing technical progress does not necessarily imply a continuing rise in dispersion. It then examines the experience of 20 OECD countries over the twentieth century, material presented in the form of 20 country case studies. The book breaks new ground in assembling data on the distribution of individual earnings covering much of the twentieth century and drawing on a variety of under-exploited sources. The findings overturn a number of widely-held beliefs. It is not the earnings of the low paid that have been most affected by the recent changes; widening is largely due to what is happening at the top. The recent rise in earnings dispersion is not unprecedented, but should be seen as part of a longer-run history of successive compression and expansion of earnings differences.
Environmental Influences on Pigeonpea-Fusarium udum Interactions and Stability of Genotypes to Fusarium Wilt

Fusarium wilt (Fusarium udum Butler) is an important biotic constraint to pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.) production worldwide. Breeding for fusarium wilt resistance continues to be an integral part of genetic improvement of pigeonpea. Therefore, the study was aimed at identifying and validating resistant genotypes to fusarium wilt and determining the magnitude of genotype × environment (G × E) interactions through multi-environment and multi-year screening. A total of 976 genotypes including germplasm and breeding lines were screened against wilt using wilt sick plot at Patancheru, India. Ninety two genotypes resistant to wilt were tested for a further two years using wilt sick plot at Patancheru. A Pigeonpea Wilt Nursery (PWN) comprising of 29 genotypes was then established. PWN was evaluated at nine locations representing different agro-climatic zones of India for wilt resistance during two crop seasons 2007/08 and 2008/09. Genotypes (G), environment (E), and G × E interactions were examined by biplot which partitioned the main effect into G, E, and G × E interactions with significant levels (p ≤ 0.001) being obtained for wilt incidence. The genotype contributed 36.51% of resistance variation followed by the environment (29.32%). A GGE biplot integrated with a boxplot and multiple comparison tests enabled us to identify seven stable genotypes (ICPL 20109, ICPL 20096, ICPL 20115, ICPL 20116, ICPL 20102, ICPL 20106, and ICPL 20094) based on their performance across diverse environments. These genotypes have broad based resistance and can be exploited in pigeonpea breeding programs.
Exploratory Data Analysis of Acceleration Signals to Select Light-Weight and Accurate Features for Real-Time Activity Recognition on Smartphones

Smartphone-based activity recognition (SP-AR) recognizes users' activities using the embedded accelerometer sensor. Only a small number of previous works can be classified as online systems, i.e., the whole process (pre-processing, feature extraction, and classification) is performed on the device. Most of these online systems use either a high sampling rate (SR) or long data-window (DW) to achieve high accuracy, resulting in short battery life or delayed system response, respectively. This paper introduces a real-time/online SP-AR system that solves this problem. Exploratory data analysis was performed on acceleration signals of 6 activities, collected from 30 subjects, to show that these signals are generated by an autoregressive (AR) process, and an accurate AR-model in this case can be built using a low SR (20 Hz) and a small DW (3 s). The high within class variance resulting from placing the phone at different positions was reduced using kernel discriminant analysis to achieve position-independent recognition. Neural networks were used as classifiers. Unlike previous works, true subject-independent evaluation was performed, where 10 new subjects evaluated the system at their homes for 1 week. The results show that our features outperformed three commonly used features by 40% in terms of accuracy for the given SR and DW.
Effectiveness of Workshop on â€œStress reducing techniques among the Researchers of Uttarakhandâ€

Stress is an emotional and bodily reaction to physical, psychological or emotional demands. Todayâ€™s students are suffering from Stress problem. High Competition, Peer conflict, Poor results from Research Work, Late Job, Unsatisfied from Grade, Financial hazards, Problems in Married Life are some of the reasons of frustration among the Ph.D. students. Past researches have shown that majority of Ph.D. students were frustrated due to some reasons. Keeping the above fact in mind, a study was undertaken during 2017-18 at Golden Jubilee Hostel (Ph.D. students) of GBPUA&T, Pantnagar with the objective to study the socio-economic characteristics of students, to assess the stress level of students and to organize stress reducing workshop in the Hostel. Data was collected through well semi-structured interview schedule developed for the purpose from 50 randomly selected students. Results indicated that all the respondents reported that most of the days they felt that they have less interest or pleasure in doing things followed by felt down, depressed and hopeless. More than half per cent students reported that they have trouble in sleep followed by poor appetite or overeating. Total 44 per cent respondents reported that they were feeling bad about yourself due to high level of frustration and stress. Total 40 per cent respondents reported that they felt emotional distress, anxiety, depression, unmanageable anger followed by isolation and difficulty in adjustment. Total 30 per cent respondents were feeling high stress level and excessive worrying followed by elevated or decreased mood. Less than half per cent of the respondents were feeling peer conflict followed by fatigue or social withdrawal. Total 26 per cent respondents were feeling threatening/aggressive behaviour to self or others. Total 14 per cent respondents have inability to care for self. On the basis of these results a workshop on stress management was organized in the Hostel. The result showed that students stress was reduced at some extent after attending the workshop.
A Theory of the Banking Firm

Attempts to provide a theory of the commercial banking firm have been few. This is because the commercial bank is an institution whose "output" is difficult to define. Commercial banks, it is felt, provide "output" when they acquire liabilities by issuing time and demand deposits, and also when they acquire assets by granting loans and pur chasing securities. To date there have been three attempts at de veloping a theory of the banking firm [1] [2] [3]. They all, however, suffer because of two funda mental weaknesses. First, the unrealistic assump tion is made in all three models that the marginal cost of credit, or asset, extension by banks is inde pendent of the credit mix. Instead it is made a function only of the total volume of credit extended. This reasoning ignores the fact that different types of assets entail different costs. Secondly, an equilib rium for banking firm has only been established in the asset market. No general equilibrium, i.e., equilibrium in both the asset market and the li ability market, has yet to be developed. The purpose of this paper is to overcome these omissions from earlier theories by developing a theoretical model that assumes marginal cost is indeed a function of the asset mix and establishing equilibrium in both the asset and liability markets. The framework for the analysis will be to briefly describe, and criticize, the three earlier theories and then to present the more inclusive model of this paper.