Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neural Responses to Central and Peripheral Objects in the Lateral Occipital Cortex

Human object recognition and classification depend on the retinal location where the object is presented and decrease as eccentricity increases. The lateral occipital complex (LOC) is thought to be preferentially involved in the processing of objects, and its neural responses exhibit category biases to objects presented in the central visual field. However, the nature of LOC neural responses to central and peripheral objects remains largely unclear. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a wide-view presentation system to investigate neural responses to four categories of objects (faces, houses, animals, and cars) in the primary visual cortex (V1) and the lateral visual cortex, including the LOC and the retinotopic areas LO-1 and LO-2. In these regions, the neural responses to objects decreased as the distance between the location of presentation and center fixation increased, which is consistent with the diminished perceptual ability that was found for peripherally presented images. The LOC and LO-2 exhibited significantly positive neural responses to all eccentricities (0–55°), but LO-1 exhibited significantly positive responses only to central eccentricities (0–22°). By measuring the ratio relative to V1 (RRV1), we further demonstrated that eccentricity, category and the interaction between them significantly affected neural processing in these regions. LOC, LO-1, and LO-2 exhibited larger RRV1s when stimuli were presented at an eccentricity of 0° compared to when they were presented at the greater eccentricities. In LOC and LO-2, the RRV1s for images of faces, animals and cars showed an increasing trend when the images were presented at eccentricities of 11 to 33°. However, the RRV1s for houses showed a decreasing trend in LO-1 and no difference in the LOC and LO-2. We hypothesize, that when houses and the images in the other categories were presented in the peripheral visual field, they were processed via different strategies in the lateral visual cortex.
Linking Pornography Consumption to Support for Adolescents' Access to Birth Control: Cumulative Results from Multiple Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal National Surveys

ABSTRACT This article reports the results of three meta-samples investigating U.S. adults' pornography consumption, attitudes toward teen sex, and support for teen access to birth control. Findings were based on multiple independent samples totaling more than 11,000 people. Pragmatic motivations included examining what public health advocacy groups would consider a positive public opinion effect of pornography at a potentially pivotal time for U.S. policy makers. Theoretical motivations included probing key tenets from the sexual script acquisition, activation, application model (3AM) of sexual media socialization and the reinforcing spirals model (RSM) of media uses and effects. Consistent with the 3AM, path and mediation analyses of both cross-sectional and longitudinal data suggested that pornography consumption may increase support for teens' birth control access through a shift in perspective on teen sex. In alignment with the RSM, participants' prior beliefs and attitudes were prospectively predictive of their likelihood of future pornography consumption.
Polycrystalline Si thin films and devices: I. Seed selection through ion channeling II. Thin-film transistors

Part I of this thesis investigates the . "seed selection through ion channeling" process, employed to modify the grain size and crystallographic texture of polycrystalline Si thin films deposited on SiO 2. In each of the three experiments, polycrystalline Si films prepared by the low-pressure chemical-vapor deposition technique were used as the starting material. Si self-implantation, at a fixed angle and energy (normal incidence and 200 keV, or 600 from normal incidence and 350 keV) but with variable doses (1-20x 1014 cn 2 ), was then used to selectively amorphize the material. Ideally, the implantation step should amorphize a major fraction of the film and preserve only those crystallites that are properly oriented for ion channeling. A low-temperature furnace anneal, at 6000C for 48 h in an N2 ambient, was then carried out to crystallize the film. Ideally, the crystallization should proceed due entirely to the growth of the surviving crystallites, and should exclude any effect due to spontaneous nucleation. The overall results obtained demonstrate that, by optimizing the implant dose, one can produce strong fiber-textured polycrystalline Si films on Si0 2. The production of restricted-fiber-textured films, on the other hand, will have to await the availability of more sophisticated implantation and annealing equipment. Part II of this thesis investigates the metal-oxide-semiconductor thin-film transistors fabricated on the modified polycrystalline Si films. For transistors fabricated with a maximum processing temperature of 600*C, with deposited gate oxide, it was shown that the grain-size enlargement (achieved through amorphization-crystallization) can lead to significant improvements in the device characteristics. For transistors fabricated with a maximum processing temperature of 800*C, with thermally grown gate oxide, it was shown that both the grain size and grain orientation can be important parameters in determining the device performance; for grain sizes of the order of 1-2 yim, a stronger {110} texture can, in fact, lead to better devices than a larger average grain size. These results demonstrate how the surface effects, in addition to the grain-boundary effects, can limit the performance of polycrystalline Si thin-film transistors. Thesis Supervisor: Rafael Reif Associate Professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The effect of a teacher education program on affect: the case of Teresa and PFCM

Affective factors are strictly intertwined and have a strong influence on teachers’ professional practices. Literature underlines that primary teachers often have a negative attitude towards mathematics. For these reasons it is fundamental that professional development programs in primary mathematics teaching consider affective issues. In this study we analyze – describing the case study of Teresa, an experienced primary teacher with negative attitude towards mathematics the effect of a Portuguese in-service program in mathematics and its teaching for primary teachers that includes, among its goals, the development of a positive attitude towards mathematics and its teaching.
Measuring Creative Capacity in Gifted Students: Comparing Teacher Ratings and Student Products

Creativity and giftedness are frequently associated, and schools may use measures of creativity for identifying gifted and talented students. The researchers examined three aspects of elementary student creativity: (a) the relationship between a teacher’s rating of student creativity and rubric-scored student writing samples, (b) group differences regarding creativity between identified gifted and general education students, and (c) potential gender differences evident in teacher ratings of creativity as well as creative products. Participants in the study were 155 Grade 4 students in an urban district in a southwestern state. Teacher ratings on three different scales were related to student creative products, yielding Pearson correlations ranging from r = . 20 to r = . 27. Identified gifted students scored higher than general education students in both teacher ratings of creativity (d = 0.83) and written products (d = 0.53). Female students scored higher than male students in both teacher ratings of creativity (d = 0.22) and written products (d = 0.57). These findings suggest that teacher ratings moderately predict creative student products. Identified gifted students scored consistently higher than general education students in creativity, and females scored slightly higher than males on creativity measures.
Type Ia Supernovae in a Hierarchical Galaxy Formation Model: The Milky Way

We investigate chemical evolution in Milky Way-like galaxies based on the cold dark matter model in which cosmic structures form via hierarchical merging. We introduce chemical enrichment due to Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) into the Mitaka semianalytic galaxy formation model developed by Nagashima & Yoshii. For the first time we derive distributions of stellar metallicities and their ratios in Milky Way-like galaxies treating chemical enrichment due to SNe Ia in a hierarchical galaxy formation model self-consistently. As a first attempt, we assume all SNe Ia to have the same lifetime and assume instantaneous recycling for Type II supernovae (SNe II). We find that our model reproduces well the metal abundance ratio [O/Fe] against [Fe/H] and the iron metallicity distribution function in the solar neighborhood. This means that the so-called G dwarf problem is resolved by the hierarchical formation of galaxies, and a gas infall term introduced in traditional monolithic collapse models to solve this problem is well explained by the mixture of some physical processes such as hierarchical merging of dark halos, gas cooling, energy feedback, and injection of gas and metals into hot gas due to supernovae. We also discuss how physical processes affect the metal abundance ratio by varying the lifetime of SNe Ia, the star formation timescale, and the strength of supernova feedback. We find that the supernova feedback plays a key role among them, and therefore there is no one-to-one correspondence between star formation histories and stellar metallicity ratio distributions.
An Analysis of Adaptive Recursive Smoothing with Applications to Noise PSD Estimation

First-order recursive smoothing filters using a fixed smoothing constant are in general unbiased estimators of the mean of a random process. Due to their efficiency in terms of memory consumption and computational complexity, they are of high practical relevance and are also often used to track the first-order moment of nonstationary random processes. However, in single-channel speech-enhancement applications, e.g., for the estimation of the noise power spectral density, an adaptively changing smoothing factor is often employed. Here, the adaptivity is used to avoid speech leakage by raising the smoothing factor when speech is likely to be present. In this paper, we investigate the properties of adaptive first-order recursive smoothing factors applied to noise power spectral density estimators. We show that in contrast to a smoothing with fixed smoothing factors, adaptive smoothing is in general biased. We propose different methods to quantify and to compensate for the bias. We demonstrate that the proposed correction methods reduce the estimation error and increases the perceptual evaluation of speech quality scores in a speech enhancement framework.
A Comprehensive NGS Data Analysis of Differentially Regulated miRNAs, piRNAs, lncRNAs and sn/snoRNAs in Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and is a major public health concern worldwide. Basic, clinical and epidemiological research is leading to improved cancer detection, prevention, and outcomes. Recent technological advances have allowed unbiased and comprehensive screening of genome-wide gene expression. Small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) have been shown to play an important role in biological processes and could serve as a diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic biomarker for specific diseases. Recent findings have begun to reveal and enhance our understanding of the complex architecture of sncRNA expression including miRNAs, piRNAs, lncRNAs, sn/snoRNAs and their relationships with biological systems. We used publicly available small RNA sequencing data that was derived from 24 triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) and 14 adjacent normal tissue samples to remap various types of sncRNAs. We found a total of 55 miRNAs were aberrantly expressed (p<0.005) in TNBC samples (8 miRNAs upregulated; 47 downregulated) compared to adjacent normal tissues whereas the original study reported only 25 novel miRs. In this study, we used pathway analysis of differentially expressed miRNAs which revealed TGF-beta signaling pathways to be profoundly affected in the TNBC samples. Furthermore, our comprehensive re-mapping strategy allowed us to discover a number of other differentially expressed sncRNAs including piRNAs, lncRNAs, sn/snoRNAs, rRNAs, miscRNAs and nonsense-mediated decay RNAs. We believe that our sncRNA analysis workflow is extremely comprehensive and suitable for discovery of novel sncRNAs changes, which may lead to the development of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic tools for TNBC.
What is the nature and extent of mate crime offending against disabled people and how effective are institutional responses

Mate crimes are said to occur when disabled people are victimised by people purporting to be their friends. Cases can escalate and several murders of disabled people have been attributed as mate crimes. Although under-researched, mate crime has been construed as a form of hate crime and its understanding has also been informed by contributions from disability studies. This study sought to explore the nature and extent of mate crime and how institutions were responding to it. To achieve this, a mixture of methods was used, including a survey of all police forces in England and Wales, a case study of police records and a series of interviews with key stakeholders, including representatives of disabled people. The research revealed that mate crimes are typically perpetrated against disabled people living alone in deprived areas. Often incidents involve groups of local people repeatedly targeting victims in their own homes. Perception of offending can often be blurred or obscured by the presence of familiarity. From a theoretical perspective, the evidence suggested that victims may be targeted not just because they are different, but also because of perceived relational disadvantages connected with their impairments. In common with previous research into disability hate crimes, this study indicated an inadequate institutional response to mate crime. The suggestion of ineffectiveness was apparent not just in the police and other criminal justice responses, but also in the response of multi-agency Safeguarding Adult services. It seemed that this may be due to inadequate institutional data, a tendency to attribute abuse to a victim’s impairment and a misplaced focus on vulnerability. The results of the study were interpreted by reference to a model of the course of mate crime which incorporates references to hate crime as well as disability studies. Recommendations for an improved response to mate crime are also provided.
Mapping oxygen concentration in the awake mouse brain

Although critical for brain function, the physiological values of cerebral oxygen concentration have remained elusive because high-resolution measurements have only been performed during anesthesia, which affects two major parameters modulating tissue oxygenation: neuronal activity and blood flow. Using measurements of capillary erythrocyte-associated transients, fluctuations of oxygen partial pressure (Po2) associated with individual erythrocytes, to infer Po2 in the nearby neuropil, we report the first non-invasive micron-scale mapping of cerebral Po2 in awake, resting mice. Interstitial Po2 has similar values in the olfactory bulb glomerular layer and the somatosensory cortex, whereas there are large capillary hematocrit and erythrocyte flux differences. Awake tissue Po2 is about half that under isoflurane anesthesia, and within the cortex, vascular and interstitial Po2 values display layer-specific differences which dramatically contrast with those recorded under anesthesia. Our findings emphasize the importance of measuring energy parameters non-invasively in physiological conditions to precisely quantify and model brain metabolism. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.12024. 001
Embracing African languages as indispensable resources through the promotion of multilingualism

This paper seeks to explore the potential significance of additive multilingualism in South Africa’s multilingual society. Additive multilingualism treasures the principle of equality among all 11 official languages. Therefore, our point of departure is the South African Constitution and various policy provisions that advocate for a multilingual mode of operation. The paper is premised upon the potential value of multilingualism that encompasses indigenous African languages and the view of language as a resource. This concurs with the language policy of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), which seeks to promote a multilingual society. Perceptions and experiences of a group of part- time LLB students regarding the learning of isiZulu as an additional language at UKZN were solicited in this study. The ‘ language as a resource’ framework was employed as the theoretical approach of the study. The study established an acknowledgement of the resourcefulness of isiZulu as instrumental in fostering social cohesion, breaking communication barriers , and dispelling misconceptions about the value of these languages.
Suppression Substractive Hybridization and NGS Reveal Differential Transcriptome Expression Profiles in Wayfaring Tree (Viburnum lantana L.) Treated with Ozone

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is a global air pollutant that causes high economic damages by decreasing plant productivity. It enters the leaves through the stomata, generates reactive oxygen species, which subsequent decrease in photosynthesis, plant growth, and biomass accumulation. In order to identify genes that are important for conferring O3 tolerance or sensitivity to plants, a suppression subtractive hybridization analysis was performed on the very sensitive woody shrub, Viburnum lantana, exposed to chronic O3 treatment (60 ppb, 5 h d−1 for 45 consecutive days). Transcript profiling and relative expression assessment were carried out in asymptomatic leaves, after 15 days of O3 exposure. At the end of the experiment symptoms were observed on all treated leaves and plants, with an injured leaf area per plant accounting for 16.7% of the total surface. Cloned genes were sequenced by 454-pyrosequencing and transcript profiling and relative expression assessment were carried out on sequenced reads. A total of 38,800 and 12,495 high quality reads obtained in control and O3-treated libraries, respectively (average length of 319 ± 156.7 and 255 ± 107.4 bp). The Ensembl transcriptome yielded a total of 1241 unigenes with a total sequence length of 389,126 bp and an average length size of 389 bp (guanine-cytosine content = 49.9%). mRNA abundance was measured by reads per kilobase per million and 41 and 37 ensembl unigenes showed up- and down-regulation respectively. Unigenes functionally associated to photosynthesis and carbon utilization were repressed, demonstrating the deleterious effect of O3 exposure. Unigenes functionally associated to heat-shock proteins and glutathione were concurrently induced, suggesting the role of thylakoid-localized proteins and antioxidant-detoxification pathways as an effective strategy for responding to O3. Gene Ontology analysis documented a differential expression of co-regulated transcripts for several functional categories, including specific transcription factors (MYB and WRKY). This study demonstrates that a complex sequence of events takes place in the cells at intracellular and membrane level following O3 exposure and elucidates the effects of this oxidative stress on the transcriptional machinery of the non-model plant species V. lantana, with the final aim to provide the molecular supportive knowledge for the use of this plant as O3-bioindicator.
Real time error concealment in H.264 video decoder for embedded devices

Transmission of compressed video over unreliable network is an interesting topic of research. As compression is inversely proportional to data redundancy. Highly compressed data are hence more susceptible to errors. This paper discusses error recovery and concealment techniques for H.264/AVC baseline profile decoder, where bandwidth, decoder performance and memory are critical constraints for real time implementation. This paper proposes a technique which gives improved perceptual concealment without affecting the decoder performance and its memory requirement. The technique is based on novel algorithm which uses the available features in H.264 standard to perform concealment, with minimal pre-processing. Comparison of the novel algorithm has been made with the error concealment capability of JM 13.2 reference software.
Efficacy and safety of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma as first-line therapy

Background/Aims Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) with 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin for intractable advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may have survival benefits. We aimed to determine the efficacy and safety of HAIC for advanced HCC as first-line therapy. Methods A total of 54 patients who received only HAIC with 5-fluorouracil (750 mg/m2 on days 1-4) and cisplatin (25 mg/m2 on days 1-4) for advanced HCC from Jan. 2009 to Dec. 2011 were selected. According to Child-Pugh class, the overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and adverse events after HAIC were investigated retrospectively. Results Median OS and PFS between the Child-Pugh A group (n=24) and the Child-Pugh B/C group (n=30) were 8.7 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.7-12.7) vs. 3.7 months (95% CI: 2.0-5.3), and 7.1 (95% CI: 3.8-10.4) vs. 3.6 months (95% CI: 2.0-5.2), respectively. Although median OS and PFS were not statistically significant between the two groups (P=0.079, P=0.196), the Child-Pugh class B/C tended to influence poor OS. Serious adverse events ≥ grade 3 occurred frequently in both groups (83.3 vs. 96.7%, P=0.159). Responders (22.2%, complete or partial response) significantly differed in median OS, compared to non-responders (13.1 vs. 4.4 months, P=0.019). Achievement of complete or partial response was an independent prognostic factor of OS (hazard ratio: 0.4, 95% CI: 0.2-0.8, P=0.011). Conclusions Achievement of response after HAIC provide a survival benefit in patients with advanced HCC, but HAIC should be administered cautiously in patients with Child-Pugh class B/C, because of a relatively low survival and high incidence of serious adverse events.