Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The physiology and anatomy of long ranging afferent fibres within the spinal cord.

The caudal extent of the terminal arborizations of dorsal root afferents was determined in adult cats. The method used micro‐electrode stimulation within the dorsal horn and the recording on a distant dorsal root filament of the antidromic action potentials evoked by the stimulation of axons within the spinal cord. 2. It was found that all filaments examined in the L2, 3 and 4 dorsal roots contained axons which projected at least as far as the S1 segment. The axons descended in or near the dorsal columns and from there penetrated into the grey matter. 3. The course of single fibres was followed to their apparent terminals. Thresholds, latencies and relative and absolute refractory periods were measured for single axons. These measurements confirmed that continuous axons ran from dorsal roots to distant segments and that the action potentials recorded were not dorsal root reflexes. 4. The majority of fibres with long range central arborizations were shown to have normal receptive fields in the dermatome of their parent dorsal root. They were not aberrant fibres leaving the spinal cord. 5. The long range afferents exist in substantial numbers since fifteen of eighty axons isolated by micro‐electrode recording in the L2 dorsal root sent their axons as far as the S1 segment. The presence of these afferents from five segments away does not fit the data published on the inhibitory and excitatory receptive fields or dorsal horn cells which appear adequately explained by afferents arriving over nearby dorsal roots up to two segments away.
Impact of Organizational Commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior on Turnover Intentions of Call Center Personnel in Pakistan

This paper investigates the impact of organizational commitment and citizenship behavior on the turnover intentions of call center personnel in Pakistan. Data from 114 respondents was used to measure the impact of two factors on turnover intentions . Correlation and regression has been used to analyze the relationship of turnover intention with organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. The results of the study showed that turnover intentions of call center personnel depend on the organizational commitment of the employees but citizenship behavior does not have a significant impact on the turnover intentions of call center personnel. Results have been discussed with specific reference to collectivist culture of Pakistan and policy implications for managers have been suggested.
Assessment of adherence and competence in cognitive therapy: Comparing session segments with entire sessions

Abstract The aim of the study was to compare the reliability and validity of adherence and competence judgments of four raters, based on session segments on the one hand and on entire sessions on the other. The global adherence/competence judgments based on the middle section of 34 therapy sessions demonstrated satisfactory interrater reliability (ICC=.81/.71) and the highest correlations with therapy outcome (r=.55/.45). These results were comparable with judgments based on entire therapy sessions. However, the reliability of specific aspects of adherence and competence was higher when judgments were based on the entire session. The implications of these results are important in terms of reducing time and costs associated with the judgment process.
Assessments of Subjective Video Quality on HEVC-Encoded 4K-UHD Video for Beyond-HDTV Broadcasting Services

In this paper, we present the experimental results with analysis for subjective quality assessment on 4K-ultra-high definition (UHD) video encoded by high efficiency video coding (HEVC) to investigate its feasibility for 4K-UHD TV broadcasting services. The subjective quality assessment on the HEVC-encoded (impaired) 4K-UHD video is conducted for the three target bitrates of 18, 23, and 36 Mb/s, the two color formats of YUV420 and YUV444, and the two viewing distances of 0.75 times the height of a display screen (H) and 1.5 H. The subjective quality assessment experiments on 4K-UHD test sequences show that the HEVC-encoded (impaired) YUV420 4K-UHD video even at the target bit of 18 Mb/s yields perceptual similar visual quality: 1) with MOS of 4.7 and 4.8 in 0.75 H and 1.5 H viewing distances, respectively, compared to the original YUV420 4K-UHD test video; and 2) with MOS of 4.8 in 1.5 H viewing distance, compared to the original YUV444 4K-UHD test video. This implies that the HEVC-encoded YUV420 4K-UHD video at the target bit rate of 18 Mb/s is perceptually good enough in the usage of legacy DTV broadcasting systems with single channel bandwidths of 6 MHz. It is also shown that the HEVC-encoded 4K-UHD test sequences mostly yield higher perceptual quality in the 420 YUV color format than in the YUV444 color format at the same target bitrates.
Awareness, Integration and Interconnectedness

Contemplative practices support transformative learning processes but can be difficult to identify in a higher education environment. Advocates of contemplative approaches to education see this void as a concern. When topics like these are ignored, especially when desired by students, staff, and faculty, the holistic, transformative, and deep learning needs of students are unfulfilled. Attention needs to be brought to the connections between contemplative practices and the pursuit of transformative education. In this qualitative study, 17 higher education professionals were asked how they integrate contemplative practices into their work and personal lives. In analyzing the data, three themes emerged, namely, awareness, integration, and interconnectedness. These themes, with accompanying stories, highlight the value and benefits of incorporating contemplative practices into a higher education setting. Using an inductive approach, suggestions for implementing practices were identified and are offered here.
CD11c/CD18 Signals Very Late Antigen-4 Activation To Initiate Foamy Monocyte Recruitment during the Onset of Hypercholesterolemia

Recruitment of foamy monocytes to inflamed endothelium expressing VCAM-1 contributes to the development of plaque during atherogenesis. Foamy CD11c+ monocytes arise in the circulation during the onset of hypercholesterolemia and recruit to nascent plaque, but the mechanism of CD11c/CD18 and very late Ag-4 (VLA-4) activation and cooperation in shear-resistant cell arrest on VCAM-1 are ill defined. Within 1 wk of the onset of a Western high-fat diet (WD) in apolipoprotein E–deficient mice, an inflammatory subset of foamy monocytes emerged that made up one fourth of the circulating population. These cells expressed ∼3-fold more CD11c/CD18 and 50% higher chemokine receptors than nonfoamy monocytes. Recruitment from blood to a VCAM-1 substrate under shear stress was assessed ex vivo using a unique artery-on-a-chip microfluidic assay. It revealed that foamy monocytes from mice on a WD increased their adhesiveness over 5 wk, rising to twice that of mice on a normal diet or CD11c−/− mice fed a WD. Shear-resistant capture of foamy human or mouse monocytes was initiated by high-affinity CD11c, which directly activated VLA-4 adhesion via phosphorylated spleen tyrosine kinase and paxillin within focal adhesion complexes. Lipid uptake and activation of CD11c are early and critical events in signaling VLA-4 adhesive function on foamy monocytes competent to recruit to VCAM-1 on inflamed arterial endothelium.
Structure Formation

The straight spermatic and highly convoluted testicular arteries were studied by light microscopy in adult and aging normotensive (NT) and spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rats. Inyounger rats, on the internal part of bends of the testicular artery, areas lacking the media similar to classical cerebral arterial medial defects were observed. At the same location, in other bends, structurally defective areas (SDA) constituted by or including medial defects but also lacking the internal elastic lamina and which in some cases evaginated, were present. Structurally defective areas were less numerous in SHR than in NT rats at 6 months, suggesting that intrinsic differences may exist between rat strains. In contrast, in old rats, the number ofSDA was higher in hypertensive than in normotensive rats, supporting the role ofhemodynamics in SDA formation With age, SDA enlarged in both rat strains, and most of them became structurally similar to aneurysms, ie, lacking the internal elastic lamina and medial cells and with a dilated lumen, supporting the view that medial defects are sites ofaneurysmal structure development. In hypertensive rats fibrin and lipid deposits occurred within these aneurysmal-like structures. In the straightpart of the spermatic artery no such structural modifications occurred, suggesting that either hemodynamics and/or structural development, both dependent on arterial geometry, are determinant in SDAformation. The results are discussed in view of the use of the rat testicular artery as apossible model of theformation of spontaneous aneurysmal-like structures relevant to cerebral aneurysms. (AmJPathol 1992, 141:10531061)
A Performance Management Solution: Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System (ProMES)

Pulakos, Mueller Hanson, Arad, and Moye (2015) have stated that performance management (PM) best practices have resulted in the dissatisfaction of employees and managers with PM reviews and systems. The authors have suggested that the focus should be on driving critical PM behaviors that have been shown to increase engagement and performance. Corporate Leadership Council (2004) research demonstrated that increased engagement takes place when PM behaviors such as setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, and helping employees develop and succeed occur. In addition, effective PM happens when employees are contributing to the process as well.
Outcomes After Auro Keratoprosthesis Implantation: A Low-Cost Design Based on the Boston Keratoprosthesis

Purpose: To evaluate outcomes after Auro keratoprosthesis (kpro) implantation. Methods: Retrospective observational case series. The records of all patients who were implanted with Auro kpro from December 2012 to August 2015 at a single institute were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate preoperative characteristics, postoperative outcomes, and complications. Results: Fifteen cases were included in the study. Failed graft was the most common indication for the surgery (n = 14; 93.3%). The mean BCVA (Log MAR) improved from 2.20 ± 0.43 in the preoperative period to 1.46 ± 1.12 (P = 0.0247) at the mean final follow-up of 13.5 months. The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) improved to 20/200 or better in 9 patients (60%) at the final follow-up. Postoperative complications included retroprosthetic membrane formation (n = 7; 46.7 %), graft infection (n = 4; 26.7%), sterile corneal melt (n = 3; 20%), and spontaneous optic extrusion (n = 1; 6.7%). Eleven patients retained prosthesis at the final follow-up (retention rate = 73.3%). Conclusions: Auro kpro seems to be effective in treating end-stage corneal diseases. The outcomes are comparable to Boston kpro in terms of visual acuity, postoperative complications, and retention rates.
Prevalence of Anti–Adeno-Associated Virus Serotype 8 Neutralizing Antibodies and Arylsulfatase B Cross-Reactive Immunologic Material in Mucopolysaccharidosis VI Patient Candidates for a Gene Therapy Trial

Abstract Recombinant vectors based on adeno-associated virus serotype 8 (AAV8) have been successfully used in the clinic and hold great promise for liver-directed gene therapy. Preexisting immunity against AAV8 or the development of antibodies against the therapeutic transgene product might negatively affect the outcomes of gene therapy. In the prospect of an AAV8-mediated, liver-directed gene therapy clinical trial for mucopolysaccharidosis VI (MPS VI), a lysosomal storage disorder caused by arylsulfatase B (ARSB) deficiency, we investigated in a multiethnic cohort of MPS VI patients the prevalence of neutralizing antibodies (Nab) to AAV8 and the presence of ARSB cross-reactive immunologic material (CRIM), which will either affect the efficacy of gene transfer or the duration of phenotypic correction. Thirty-six MPS VI subjects included in the study harbored 45 (62.5%) missense, 13 (18%) nonsense, 9 (12.5%) frameshift (2 insertions and 7 deletions), and 5 (7%) splicing ARSB mutations. The detection of ARSB protein in 24 patients out of 34 (71%) was predicted by the type of mutations. Preexisting Nab to AAV8 were undetectable in 19/33 (58%) analyzed patients. Twelve out of 31 patients (39%) tested were both negative for Nab to AAV8 and CRIM-positive. In conclusion, this study allows estimating the number of MPS VI patients eligible for a gene therapy trial by intravenous injections of AAV8.
Detecting malicious URLs using machine learning techniques

The World Wide Web supports a wide range of criminal activities such as spam-advertised e-commerce, financial fraud and malware dissemination. Although the precise motivations behind these schemes may differ, the common denominator lies in the fact that unsuspecting users visit their sites. These visits can be driven by email, web search results or links from other web pages. In all cases, however, the user is required to take some action, such as clicking on a desired Uniform Resource Locator (URL). In order to identify these malicious sites, the web security community has developed blacklisting services. These blacklists are in turn constructed by an array of techniques including manual reporting, honeypots, and web crawlers combined with site analysis heuristics. Inevitably, many malicious sites are not blacklisted either because they are too recent or were never or incorrectly evaluated. In this paper, we address the detection of malicious URLs as a binary classification problem and study the performance of several well-known classifiers, namely Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machines, Multi-Layer Perceptron, Decision Trees, Random Forest and k-Nearest Neighbors. Furthermore, we adopted a public dataset comprising 2.4 million URLs (instances) and 3.2 million features. The numerical simulations have shown that most classification methods achieve acceptable prediction rates without requiring either advanced feature selection techniques or the involvement of a domain expert. In particular, Random Forest and Multi-Layer Perceptron attain the highest accuracy.
Vulnerability Black Markets: Empirical Evidence and Scenario Simulation

This paper discusses the manifest characteristics of online Vulnerability Black Markets (VBM), insider actors, interactions and mechanisms, obtained from masked observation. Because VBM transactions are hidden from general view, we trace their precursors as secondary evidence of their development and activity. More general attributes of VBMs and the exploits they discuss are identified. Finally, we introduce a simulation model that captures how vulnerability discoveries may be placed in a dual legal-black market context. We perform simulations and find that if legal markets expose vulnerabilities that go unresolved, the security and quality of software may suffer more than in the absence of a legal market. Thus the problem scope expands beyond vulnerability trading to one that requires active participation and reaction by software vendors.
Raised IgE levels in beta-thalassaemia: correlation with splenectomy and hepatitis B virus infection.

IgE values obtained in 117 beta-thalassaemia patients were significantly higher than in age matched normal subjects. In 31 patients (26.5%) IgE levels were above 2 s.d. of normal values for age, but the frequency of IgE with reaginic activity was lower in patients (5.1%) than in controls (11.9%). The highest values were observed in splenectomized patients who were also positive for one or more serological markers of hepatitis B virus infection. The increase of IgE levels was directly correlated with the number of years after splenectomy, and patients with biopsy proven chronic liver disease had higher IgE levels than those without evidence of liver damage. On the other hand, IgE levels were not correlated with the number of transfusions, age, IgG, IgA, IgM levels or T cell subsets and mitogen responsiveness. These results show that beta-thalassaemia patients develop elevated IgE levels to which splenectomy and hepatitis B virus infection contribute in a synergistic manner.
Bureau of the Census Statistical Research Division Report Series Empirical Comparisons of Seasonal Arima and Arima Component (structural) Time Series Models Empirical Comparisons of Seasonal Arima and Arima Component (structural) Time Series Models

This series contains research reports, written by or in cooperation with staff members of the Statistical Research Division, whose content may be of interest to the general statistical research community. The views reflected in these reports are not necessarily those of the Census Bureau nor do they necessarily represent Census Bureau statistical policy or practice. Abstract (1970 This paper compares seasonal ARIMA models as presented in Box and Jenkins I mode s with ARIMA component (structural) models as presented in Harvey (1989). Both are augmented as appropriate with the same regression variables to account for calendar effects, level shifts, and additive outliers. The models are compared on a set of 40 Census Bureau monthly time series in regard to fit using AIC and related statistics. Bell and Pu h (1990) made similar comparisons of ARIMA models with the basic structural model BSM). This paper extends their work by also considering ARIMA component k models with trigonometric seasonal components. For the 40 time series considered, AIC and the other model comparison statistics express a strong overall preference for the ARIMA models over the ARIMA component models. Disclaimer. This paper reports the general results of research undertaken by Census Bureau staff. The views are attributable to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Census Bureau.
Security of Biometric Authentication Systems

Biometric based authentication, the science of using physical or behavioral characteristics for identity verification is becoming a security mainstay in many areas. Their utilization as an authentication technology has become widespread from door access to e-commerce especially after the September 11 terrorist attacks. This paper examines the major forms of known attacks against biometric systems such as Spoofing, Replay attacks and Biometric template database attacks. Biometric systems that use face, fingerprints, iris and retina are used for the study. A literature study of the attack points in each of the biometric system and the various methods to combat the attacks at these points is conducted and analyzed in this paper. The methods covered are Liveness detection mechanisms, Challenge-Response systems, Steganographic and Watermarking techniques, Multimodal biometrics, Soft biometrics and Cancelable biometrics. Each mechanism is explained in detail. Potentials and weaknesses of the methods are shown and discussed. The effectiveness of the solutions is measured in terms of the various security metrics like cost, amount of effort, practicality, etc. The results of the study indicate that spoofing attacks are a still a major threat to the biometric systems. Liveness detection mechanisms are easily defeated in the case of face and fingerprints, while iris and retina systems are very resistant to spoofing attacks. The systems that use watermarking techniques suffer from the lack of algorithms to deal with image degradation introduced by the watermarks. Although soft biometrics like gender, age color, race etc can be used to improve the speed of biometric matching through efficient filtering of the database for candidate templates, there exists no real accepted mechanisms for automatic extraction of soft biometric characteristics.
Comparison of the Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) with radiometric and solid culture for recovery of acid-fast bacilli

In a multicenter study involving three reference centers for mycobacteria, the rate of recovery of acid-fast bacilli (AFB) and the mean time to their detection from clinical specimens was determined by using the Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT). These parameters were compared to those assessed by the radiometric BACTEC 460 TB system and by cultivation on solid media. Clinical specimens (n = 1,500) were pretreated with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NALC)-NaOH. The contamination rates for MGITs were 2.0% (center 1), 13.8% (center 2), and 6.1% (center 3). A total of 180 mycobacterial isolates were detected (M. tuberculosis complex, n = 113; nontuberculous mycobacteria [NTM], n = 67). When using a combination of liquid and solid media (the current "gold standard" for culture), MGIT plus solid media detected 156 (86.7%) of the isolates, whereas BACTEC plus solid media recovered 168 (93.3%) of all AFB. Between these two gold standards there was no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05). The combination of MGIT plus BACTEC detected 171 (95.0%) of all isolates (compared with MGIT plus solid media, P < 0.01; compared with BACTEC plus solid media, P > 0.05). Considering the efficacies of the different media separately, MGIT was superior to solid media (although not significantly; P > 0.05) in detecting AFB but was inferior to the BACTEC system (P < 0.01). The mean time to the detection of M. tuberculosis complex was 9.9 days with MGIT, 9.7 days with BACTEC, and 20.2 days with solid media. NTM needed, on average, 11.9, 13.0, and 22.2 days to appear by the three methods, respectively. In conclusion, MGIT proved to be a valuable alternative to the radiometric cultivation system.
Out of the Pits: Traders and Technology from Chicago to London

amine women and material hardship after job loss. Recent research has called for broader definitions of poverty and wealth to include assets owned, debts owed, and in-kind gifts provided—even if irregularly—by other household members, children’s fathers, or governmental and non-governmental agencies. Especially in combination with the final chapter by Tamara Ohler and Nancy Folbre on “spendable” income, these chapters make an important contribution to that literature. Women, Work, and Poverty: Women Centered Research for Policy Change makes a valuable contribution to the study of inequalities affecting women, race, socioeconomic class, and policy. The book holds together as a volume with its short index and brief introduction, and the consistency in tone and argument among the chapters. More importantly, and most in keeping with the stated aim of the book, each chapter in Women, Work, and Poverty makes a specific policy recommendation for all of us who are concerned with how we may use our efforts to improve conditions for women.