Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mapping Deforestation and Forest Degradation Patterns in Western Himalaya, Pakistan

The Himalayan mountain forest ecosystem has been degrading since the British ruled the area in the 1850s. Local understanding of the patterns and processes of degradation is desperately required to devise management strategies to halt this degradation and provide long-term sustainability. This work comprises a satellite image based study in combination with national expert validation to generate sub-district level statistics for forest cover over the Western Himalaya, Pakistan, which accounts for approximately 67% of the total forest cover of the country. The time series of forest cover maps (1990, 2000, 2010) reveal extensive deforestation in the area. Indeed, approximately 170,684 ha of forest has been lost, which amounts to 0.38% per year clear cut or severely degraded during the last 20 years. A significant increase in the rate of deforestation is observed in the second half of the study period, where much of the loss occurs at the western borders along with Afghanistan. The current study is the first systematic and comprehensive effort to map changes to forest cover in Northern Pakistan. Deforestation hotspots identified at the sub-district level provide important insight into deforestation patterns, which may facilitate the development of appropriate forest conservation and management strategies in the country.
Toxin-Induced and Genetic Animal Models of Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common progressive neurodegenerative disorder. The major pathological hallmarks of PD are the selective loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons and the presence of intraneuronal aggregates termed Lewy bodies (LBs), but the pathophysiological mechanisms are not fully understood. Epidemiologically, environmental neurotoxins such as pesticides are promising candidates for causative factors of PD. Oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction induced by these toxins could contribute to the progression of PD. While most cases of PD are sporadic, specific mutations in genes that cause familial forms of PD have led to provide new insights into its pathogenesis. This paper focuses on animal models of both toxin-induced and genetically determined PD that have provided significant insight for understanding this disease. We also discuss the validity, benefits, and limitations of representative models.
SPOKE: Scalable Knowledge Collection and Attack Surface Analysis of Access Control Policy for Security Enhanced Android

SEAndroid is a mandatory access control (MAC) framework that can confine faulty applications on Android. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of SEAndroid enforcement depends on the employed policy. The growing complexity of Android makes it difficult for policy engineers to have complete domain knowledge on every system functionality. As a result, policy engineers sometimes craft over-permissive and ineffective policy rules, which unfortunately increased the attack surface of the Android system and have allowed multiple real-world privilege escalation attacks. We propose SPOKE, an SEAndroid Policy Knowledge Engine, that systematically extracts domain knowledge from rich-semantic functional tests and further uses the knowledge for characterizing the attack surface of SEAndroid policy rules. Our attack surface analysis is achieved by two steps: 1) It reveals policy rules that cannot be justified by the collected domain knowledge. 2) It identifies potentially over-permissive access patterns allowed by those unjustified rules as the attack surface. We evaluate SPOKE using 665 functional tests targeting 28 different categories of functionalities developed by Samsung Android Team. SPOKE successfully collected 12,491 access patterns for the 28 categories as domain knowledge, and used the knowledge to reveal 320 unjustified policy rules and 210 over-permissive access patterns defined by those rules, including one related to the notorious libstagefright vulnerability. These findings have been confirmed by policy engineers.
The Effects of Academically Productive Talk in Group Discourse in a Virtual Internship for Engineering

Engineering Education; Skill Development; Mixed Methods Research; Network Analysis; Epistemology; Learning Processes; Outcomes of Education; Educational Games; Educational Simulations; Communities of Practice; Cognitive Development; Student Attitudes; Discourse Analysis; Conversational Analysis; Collaborative Problem Solving; Thinking Skills; Science Education; Learning Strategies; Computer Supported Collaborative Learning; Educational Assessment; Collaboration
CEO Turnover After Acquisitions: Do Bad Bidders Get Fired?

Previous research has documented that the external control market disciplines managers who make valuereducing acquisitions. This paper finds that internal control mechanisms also discipline managers who make value-destroying acquisitions. We find a strong inverse relation between the returns to acquiring firms and the likelihood that their CEOs are subsequently fired. No significant relation exists between the probability that “bad bidders” get fired and various corporate governance characteristics, including the size and structure of boards. The results indicate that internal governance mechanisms discipline managers who stray from value-maximization. It also suggests that firms “choose” these mechanisms optimally such that no empirical relation exists between governance structure and the probability that bad bidders are fired. Classification code: G34.
Neuronal network pharmacodynamics of GABAergic modulation in the human cortex determined using pharmaco‐magnetoencephalography

Neuronal network oscillations are a unifying phenomenon in neuroscience research, with comparable measurements across scales and species. Cortical oscillations are of central importance in the characterization of neuronal network function in health and disease and are influential in effective drug development. Whilst animal in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology is able to characterize pharmacologically induced modulations in neuronal activity, present human counterparts have spatial and temporal limitations. Consequently, the potential applications for a human equivalent are extensive. Here, we demonstrate a novel implementation of contemporary neuroimaging methods called pharmaco‐magnetoencephalography. This approach determines the spatial profile of neuronal network oscillatory power change across the cortex following drug administration and reconstructs the time course of these modulations at focal regions of interest. As a proof of concept, we characterize the nonspecific GABAergic modulator diazepam, which has a broad range of therapeutic applications. We demonstrate that diazepam variously modulates θ (4–7 Hz), α (7–14 Hz), β (15–25 Hz), and γ (30–80 Hz) frequency oscillations in specific regions of the cortex, with a pharmacodynamic profile consistent with that of drug uptake. We examine the relevance of these results with regard to the spatial and temporal observations from other modalities and the various therapeutic consequences of diazepam and discuss the potential applications of such an approach in terms of drug development and translational neuroscience. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Analgesia Accompanying Food Consumption Requires Ingestion of Hedonic Foods

Animals eat rather than react to moderate pain. Here, we examined the behavioral, hedonic, and neural requirements for ingestion analgesia in ad libitum fed rats. Noxious heat-evoked withdrawals were similarly suppressed during self-initiated chocolate eating and ingestion of intraorally infused water, sucrose, or saccharin, demonstrating that ingestion analgesia does not require feeding motivation, self-initiated food procurement, sucrose, or calories. Rather, food hedonics is important because neither salt ingestion nor quinine rejection elicited analgesia. During quinine-induced nausea and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced illness, conditions when chocolate eating was presumably less pleasurable, analgesia accompanying chocolate consumption was attenuated, yet analgesia during water ingestion was preserved in LPS-injected rats who showed enhanced palatability for water within this context. The dependence of ingestion analgesia on the positive hedonics of an ingestate was confirmed in rats with a conditioned taste aversion to sucrose: after paired exposure to sucrose and LPS, rats no longer showed analgesia during sucrose ingestion but continued to show analgesia during chocolate consumption. Eating pauses tended to occur less often and for shorter durations in the presence of ingestion analgesia than in its absence. Therefore, we propose that ingestion analgesia functions to defend eating from ending. Muscimol inactivation of the medullary raphe magnus blocked the analgesia normally observed during water ingestion, showing the involvement of brainstem endogenous pain inhibitory mechanisms in ingestion analgesia. Brainstem-mediated defense of the consumption of palatable foods may explain, at least in part, why overeating tasty foods is so irresistible even in the face of opposing cognitive and motivational forces.
Single Synapse Information Coding in Intraburst Spike Patterns of Central Pattern Generator Motor Neurons

Burst firing is ubiquitous in nervous systems and has been intensively studied in central pattern generators (CPGs). Previous works have described subtle intraburst spike patterns (IBSPs) that, despite being traditionally neglected for their lack of relation to CPG motor function, were shown to be cell-type specific and sensitive to CPG connectivity. Here we address this matter by investigating how a bursting motor neuron expresses information about other neurons in the network. We performed experiments on the crustacean stomatogastric pyloric CPG, both in control conditions and interacting in real-time with computer model neurons. The sensitivity of postsynaptic to presynaptic IBSPs was inferred by computing their average mutual information along each neuron burst. We found that details of input patterns are nonlinearly and inhomogeneously coded through a single synapse into the fine IBSPs structure of the postsynaptic neuron following burst. In this way, motor neurons are able to use different time scales to convey two types of information simultaneously: muscle contraction (related to bursting rhythm) and the behavior of other CPG neurons (at a much shorter timescale by using IBSPs as information carriers). Moreover, the analysis revealed that the coding mechanism described takes part in a previously unsuspected information pathway from a CPG motor neuron to a nerve that projects to sensory brain areas, thus providing evidence of the general physiological role of information coding through IBSPs in the regulation of neuronal firing patterns in remote circuits by the CNS.
VARIATION IN THE GROUP-SPECIFIC CARBOHYDRATE OF GROUP A STREPTOCOCCI

Soil organisms have been isolated which elaborate induced enzymes capable of attacking group A and variant (V) streptococcal carbohydrates. The V enzyme hydrolyzes V carbohydrate extensively to dialyzable split products with resultant total loss of precipitating activity with homologous antisera. The split products inhibit the reaction between intact V carbohydrate and its antiserum: evidence is presented which indicates that rhamnose oligosaccharides are responsible for the inhibitory effect. The serological specificity of the V carbohydrate thus appears to be primarily dependent on a rhamnose-rhamnose linkage. The effect of the A enzyme on A carbohydrate is characterized by the removal of 50 to 70 per cent of the total glucosamine in the form of free N-acetyl-glucosamine. As a result of this treatment, the residual carbohydrate loses its reactivity with specific group A antisera and at the same time develops markedly increased cross-reactivity with V antisera. This cross-reactivity is in turn eliminated by treatment with V enzyme. The evidence suggests that the specificity of group A carbohydrate is determined to a large extent by side chains of N-acetyl-glucosamine which also serve to mask underlying rhamnose-rhamnose linkages with V specificity.
Using the Model Statement to Elicit Information and Cues to Deceit from Native Speakers, Non‐native Speakers and Those Talking Through an Interpreter

We examined how the presence of an interpreter during an interview affects eliciting information and cues to deceit, whilst using a method that encourages interviewees to provide more detail (model statement, MS). Sixty native English speakers were interviewed in English, and 186 non-native English speakers were interviewed in English or through an interpreter. Interviewees either lied or told the truth about a mock security meeting, which they reported twice: in an initial free recall and after listening to the MS. The MS resulted in the native English speakers and those interviewed with an interpreter providing more reminiscences (additional detail) than the non-native English speakers interviewed without an interpreter. As a result, those interviewed through an interpreter provided more detail than the non-native English speakers, but only after the MS. Native English participants were most detailed in both recalls. No difference was found in the amount of reminiscences provided by liars and truth tellers.
The Integration of Heterogeneous Wireless Networks (IEEE 802.11/IEEE 802.16) and its QoS Analysis

Due to the needs of many demanding users in wireless networks, the transmission distance and bandwidth o f IEEE 802.11 has become inadequate to satisfy their requirements . Therefore, the next generation of wireless network IEEE 802.16 sta ndard has been developed. The latter has a higher bandwidth to cov er a wider area of communication with lower costs in deployment and maintenance, and it also supports quality of service (QoS) in im plementation. This paper discusses how to integrate the heterogeneous environments of IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.16 as well as the design of a QoS mapping mechanism in order to meet the requirements of real-time services by using the allocated bandwidth allocated to a subscriber station. A simulation experiment was conducted to e valuate the efficiency of this mechanism.
Supply chain risk management: review, classification and future research directions

In order to be more efficient, firms have adopted strategies such as outsourcing, global partnerships and lean practices. Although such strategies have tremendous abilities to improve the efficiencies but simultaneously they make the firms vulnerable to market uncertainties, dependencies and disruptions. Moreover, natural calamities and manmade crises have also put negative impact on strategic, operational and tactical performance of supply chains. These factors have triggered the interest of academia and industry to consider the risk issues as prime concerns. To capture the more fine-grained elements of diversified risk issues related to the supply chain we employ a multi-layered top town taxonomy to classify and codify the literature and put forward the probable dimensions for future research. We further study the pool of SCRM literature focusing on coordination, decision making and sector-wise SCRM implementation issues and derive relevant propositions.
PENGARUH LOKASI, TINGKAT SUKU BUNGA DAN KUALITAS PELAYANAN TERHADAP KEPUTUSAN PENGAMBILAN KREDIT (Studi Empiris Pada BPR Arthanugraha Makmursejahtera)

Banking world today is very relying on strategic business location, competitive rates and provide good service quality. Business banking services is a service business that is based on the principle of trust so that the factors that determine the success of this business. This study aims to determine how much influence organizational culture, leadership, motivation and organizational commitment on organizational commitment. To determine the influence of organizational commitment to employee performance The population in this study is all credit customers as much as 1992 BPR Arthanugraha Makmursejahtera customers. Samples taken a number of 95 people and the techniques used are simple random sampling. Statistical analysis was conducted on the multiple linear regression and hypothesis testing. Based on the results of data analysis can be concluded; There is a significant positive influence on the decision-making between the location of loan Arthanugraha Makmursejahtera, this is evidenced in the statistical analysis where the value t (2.790)> t table (1,661) or t sig 0.006 t table (1,661) or sig t (0.000) t table (1,661) or sig t (0.009) F table (2.705) or sig F (0,000 ) <0.05. The coefficient of determination is equal to 0.739, which means the variation changes decision-making of loan Arthanugraha Makmursejahtera affected location, interest rates and quality of service equal to 73.9%, while the remaining 26.1% is influenced by other factors beyond the research Keywords: Locations, Interest Rate, Quality of Service, Decision Making Loans
Combining unit-level symbolic execution and system-level concrete execution for testing nasa software

We describe an approach to testing complex safety critical software that combines unit-level symbolic execution and system-level concrete execution for generating test cases that satisfy user-specified testing criteria. We have developed Symbolic Java PathFinder, a symbolic execution framework that implements a non-standard bytecode interpreter on top of the Java PathFinder model checking tool. The framework propagates the symbolic information via attributes associated with the program data. Furthermore, we use two techniques that leverage system-level concrete program executions to gather information about a unit's input to improve the precision of the unit-level test case generation. We applied our approach to testing a prototype NASA flight software component. Our analysis helped discover a serious bug that resulted in design changes to the software. Although we give our presentation in the context of a NASA project, we believe that our work is relevant for other critical systems that require thorough testing.
Phase III study of nilotinib versus best supportive care with or without a TKI in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors resistant to or intolerant of imatinib and sunitinib.

BACKGROUND This phase III open-label trial investigated the efficacy of nilotinib in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors following prior imatinib and sunitinib failure. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients were randomized 2:1 to nilotinib 400 mg b.i. d. or best supportive care (BSC; BSC without tyrosine kinase inhibitor, BSC+imatinib, or BSC+sunitinib). Primary efficacy end point was progression-free survival (PFS) based on blinded central radiology review (CRR). Patients progressing on BSC could cross over to nilotinib. RESULTS Two hundred and forty-eight patients enrolled. Median PFS was similar between arms (nilotinib 109 days, BSC 111 days; P=0.56). Local investigator-based intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis showed a significantly longer median PFS with nilotinib (119 versus 70 days; P=0.0007). A trend in longer median overall survival (OS) was noted with nilotinib (332 versus 280 days; P=0.29). Post hoc subset analyses in patients with progression and only one prior regimen each of imatinib and sunitinib revealed a significant difference in median OS of >4 months in favor of nilotinib (405 versus 280 days; P=0.02). Nilotinib was well tolerated. CONCLUSION In the ITT analysis, no significant difference in PFS was observed between treatment arms based on CRR. In the post hoc subset analyses, nilotinib provided significantly longer median OS.
Educational functioning of children of parents with chronic physical illness: A systematic review

A systematic review of the literature was performed to answer the question: What are the effects of parental chronic physical illness on children’s educational functioning? Thirteen studies that met the inclusion criteria for the purpose of this review were identified, indicating the paucity of research on the topic. The results found that children and adolescents of chronically ill parents missed more school days than their peers of healthy parents and were at a higher risk for lower academic performance. Parent’s physical impairments due to chronic illness and demands of parental illness impinging on parenting and social and financial resources in the family may indirectly affect children’s educational functioning. Implications for school psychology practice and research are provided.
Improved QRD-QLD Algorithm for Low Complexity MIMO Decoding

In this paper we present a decoding algorithm for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications. The algorithm is based on the QRD-QLD algorithm (see, e.g., Radosavljevic et al. 2012), proposes an improved path metric computation, and achieves a low probability of error which is close to the single tree search sphere decoder, at low implementation complexity. The proposed improved path metric computation increases the reliability of combining the results of the partial searches into sequences representing the maximum likelihood (ML) and the counter ML hypotheses in soft input MIMO decoding. The excellent performance of the improved algorithm are demonstrated via numerical simulations.
On the Approximation of Submodular Functions

Submodular functions are a fundamental object of study in combinatorial optimization, economics, machine learning, etc. and exhibit a rich combinatorial structure. Many subclasses of submodular functions have also been well studied and these subclasses widely vary in their complexity. Our motivation is to understand the relative complexity of these classes of functions. Towards this, we consider the question of how well can one class of submodular functions be approximated by another (simpler) class of submodular functions. Such approximations naturally allow algorithms designed for the simpler class to be applied to the bigger class of functions. We prove both upper and lower bounds on such approximations. Our main results are: 1. General submodular functions can be approximated by cut functions of directed graphs to a factor of $n^2/4$, which is tight. 2. General symmetric submodular functions$^{1}$ can be approximated by cut functions of undirected graphs to a factor of $n-1$, which is tight up to a constant. 3. Budgeted additive functions can be approximated by coverage functions to a factor of $e/(e-1)$, which is tight. Here $n$ is the size of the ground set on which the submodular function is defined. We also observe that prior works imply that monotone submodular functions can be approximated by coverage functions with a factor between $O(\sqrt{n} \log n)$ and $\Omega(n^{1/3} /\log^2 n) $.
Brief Report: Induced After-Death Communication: An Update

Abstract: Seventy-one clients (50 females, 21 males) who were treated with Induced After-Death Communication (IADC) therapy completed the author-developed Grief Symptom Questionnaire (GSQ) before and after the two-session treatment protocol and at six months post-treatment. Factor analyses revealed three factors - Depression, Anger, and Positive Coping - underlying nine GSQ items. Seventy-nine percent of the sample reported experiencing an IADC during treatment - an experience of communication with a deceased loved one they were grieving. In comparison with pre-treatment, at post-treatment participants reported statistically significant improvements in their grief symptoms, an increase in belief in an afterlife, an improvement in Positive Coping, and decreased Anger and Depression. Implications of the findings and methodological limitations are discussed.