Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How Can We Determine if the Sense of Presence Affects Task Performance?

The question of whether the sense of presence in virtual environments (or telepresence with respect to teleoperator systems) is causally related to task performance remains unanswered because the appropriate studies have yet to be carried out. In this brief report, the author describes a strategy for resolving this issue and the results of a pilot study in which this strategy was implemented.
Social Structure and Criminal Victimization

Using victimization data from 57 neighborhoods, this article examines the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and rates of violent crime and burglary. We argue that Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory provides a meaningful point of departure for examining the uneven distribution of criminal victimization across social units. Measures of three central theoretical elements in Shaw and McKay's social disorganization perspective (poverty, residential mobility, and racial heterogeneity), and variables from the subculture of violence, social control, and opportunity perspectives are included in this research. Results indicate that core components of Shaw and McKay's theory are important in explaining neighborhood victimization rates, although their influence is more conditional than direct and varies by type of crime. Evidence also emerges that supports social control models of aggregate criminal activity. Additionally, we examine whether parameters of macromodels of criminal activity vary across levels of urbanization. The implications of our findings for macrotheories of criminal activity are discussed.
Penalized Cox regression analysis in the high-dimensional and low-sample size settings, with applications to microarray gene expression data

MOTIVATION An important application of microarray technology is to relate gene expression profiles to various clinical phenotypes of patients. Success has been demonstrated in molecular classification of cancer in which the gene expression data serve as predictors and different types of cancer serve as a categorical outcome variable. However, there has been less research in linking gene expression profiles to the censored survival data such as patients' overall survival time or time to cancer relapse. It would be desirable to have models with good prediction accuracy and parsimony property. RESULTS We propose to use the L(1) penalized estimation for the Cox model to select genes that are relevant to patients' survival and to build a predictive model for future prediction. The computational difficulty associated with the estimation in the high-dimensional and low-sample size settings can be efficiently solved by using the recently developed least-angle regression (LARS) method. Our simulation studies and application to real datasets on predicting survival after chemotherapy for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma demonstrate that the proposed procedure, which we call the LARS-Cox procedure, can be used for identifying important genes that are related to time to death due to cancer and for building a parsimonious model for predicting the survival of future patients. The LARS-Cox regression gives better predictive performance than the L(2) penalized regression and a few other dimension-reduction based methods. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that the proposed LARS-Cox procedure can be very useful in identifying genes relevant to survival phenotypes and in building a parsimonious predictive model that can be used for classifying future patients into clinically relevant high- and low-risk groups based on the gene expression profile and survival times of previous patients.
Effect of 1‐aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid on N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate‐stimulated [3H]‐noradrenaline release in rat hippocampal synaptosomes

1 The effect of 1‐aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid (ACPC), a partial agonist at the glycine site of the N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor complex that exhibits neuroprotective, anxiolytic and antidepressant‐like actions, was investigated in a functional assay for presynaptic NMDA receptors. 2 NMDA (100 μm) produced a 36% increase of tritium efflux above basal efflux in rat hippocampal synaptosomes preincubated with [3H]‐noradrenaline ([3H]‐NA), reflecting a release of tritiated noradrenaline. This effect was prevented by 10 μm 7‐chlorokynurenic acid, an antagonist of the glycine site of the NMDA receptor. 3 Glycine enhanced the effect of NMDA with Emax and EC50 values of 84 ± 11% and 1.82 ± 0.04 μm, respectively. ACPC potentiated the effect of NMDA on tritium overflow with a lower EC50 (43 ± 6 nM) and a lower maximal effect (Emax = 40 ± 9%) than glycine. Furthermore, ACPC (0.1 μm) shifted the EC50 of glycine from 1.82 μm to ≥ 3 mM. 4 These results show that ACPC can reduce the potentiation by glycine of NMDA‐evoked [3H]‐NA release and hence, may act as an antagonist at the glycine site of presynaptic hippocampal NMDA receptors when the concentration of glycine is high.
Multichannel transfer function with dimensionality reduction

The design of transfer functions for volume rendering is a difficult task. This is particularly true for multichannel data sets, where multiple data values exist for each voxel. In this paper, we propose a new method for transfer function design. Our new method provides a framework to combine multiple approaches and pushes the boundary of gradient-based transfer functions to multiple channels, while still keeping the dimensionality of transfer functions to a manageable level, i.e., a maximum of three dimensions, which can be displayed visually in a straightforward way. Our approach utilizes channel intensity, gradient, curvature and texture properties of each voxel. The high-dimensional data of the domain is reduced by applying recently developed nonlinear dimensionality reduction algorithms. In this paper, we used Isomap as well as a traditional algorithm, Principle Component Analysis (PCA). Our results show that these dimensionality reduction algorithms significantly improve the transfer function design process without compromising visualization accuracy. In this publication we report on the impact of the dimensionality reduction algorithms on transfer function design for confocal microscopy data.
Inflation Persistence and the Taylor Principle

Although the persistence of inflation is a central concern of macroeconomics, there is no consensus regarding whether or not inflation is stationary or has a unit root. We show that, in the context of a “textbook” macroeconomic model, inflation is stationary if and only if the Taylor rule obeys the Taylor principle, so that the real interest rate is increased when inflation rises above the target inflation rate. We estimate Markov switching models for both inflation and real-time forward looking Taylor rules. Inflation appears to have a unit root for most of the 1967 – 1981 period, and is stationary before 1967 and after 1981. We find that the Fed’s response to inflation is also regime dependent, with both the pre and post-Volcker samples containing monetary regimes where the Fed both did and did not follow the Taylor principle. This contrasts to recent research that suggests the Fed’s response to inflation has been time invariant, and that changes in monetary policy only occurred with respect to the output gap.
Relationship Between Stress Burden and Perceived Support Among Elderly Male Spousal Caregivers

Relationship Between Stress Burden and Perceived Support Among Elderly Male Spousal Caregivers by Stephanie Fitzsimmons Sexton MSN, Seton Hall University, 1985 BSN, College Misericordia, 1976 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University October 2015
To Transfer is to Transform: The Circulation of Safety Knowledge

Organizational knowing is fundamentally a collective endeavour through which heterogeneous materials and entities, such as ideas, concepts, artifacts, texts, persons, norms, and traditions are mobilized, modified, translated, distorted, exposed, used, ignored or hidden in view of some practical accomplishment, such as safety in a construction site. Safety as a form of organizational expertise is therefore situated in the system of ongoing practices, has both explicit and tacit dimensions, is relational and mediated by artifacts, that is, it is material as well as mental and representational. Using examples derived from the observation data we will discuss how safety-related knowledge is constituted, institutionalized, and continually redefined and renegotiated within the organizing process through the interplay between action and reflexivity.
Complex Events Initiated by Individual Spikes in the Human Cerebral Cortex

Synaptic interactions between neurons of the human cerebral cortex were not directly studied to date. We recorded the first dataset, to our knowledge, on the synaptic effect of identified human pyramidal cells on various types of postsynaptic neurons and reveal complex events triggered by individual action potentials in the human neocortical network. Brain slices were prepared from nonpathological samples of cortex that had to be removed for the surgical treatment of brain areas beneath association cortices of 58 patients aged 18 to 73 y. Simultaneous triple and quadruple whole-cell patch clamp recordings were performed testing mono- and polysynaptic potentials in target neurons following a single action potential fired by layer 2/3 pyramidal cells, and the temporal structure of events and underlying mechanisms were analyzed. In addition to monosynaptic postsynaptic potentials, individual action potentials in presynaptic pyramidal cells initiated long-lasting (37 ± 17 ms) sequences of events in the network lasting an order of magnitude longer than detected previously in other species. These event series were composed of specifically alternating glutamatergic and GABAergic postsynaptic potentials and required selective spike-to-spike coupling from pyramidal cells to GABAergic interneurons producing concomitant inhibitory as well as excitatory feed-forward action of GABA. Single action potentials of human neurons are sufficient to recruit Hebbian-like neuronal assemblies that are proposed to participate in cognitive processes.
Detailed analysis of the surface-plasmon waves guided by a thin metal film based in the transverse resonance method

In this paper, a detailed analysis of the surface plasmon waves guided by a thin metal film is presented. The method used is the transverse resonance method that groups, in one equation, the solutions of all modes that propagate in the structure. The structure analyzed is constituted by a thin metal film surrounded by media with dielectric constants /spl epsi//sub 1/ and /spl epsi//sub 2/. For symmetric structures (/spl epsi//sub 1/ = /spl epsi//sub 2/), there are two solutions, both related to the bounded modes, symmetric (s/sub b/) and asymmetric (a/sub b/). For asymmetric structures (/spl epsi//sub 1/ /spl ne/ /spl epsi//sub 2/), there are four solutions, two related to the bounded modes [s/sub b/, a/sub b/] and other two related to the leaky modes [s/sub 1//, a/sub 1/]. The symmetric bounded mode (s/sub b/) has a cut off point and bellow it the mode changes and behaves like an unusual mode called growing mode.
Contingent and Noncontingent Reinforcement With Maternal Vocal Imitation and Motherese Speech: Effects on Infant Vocalizations

This paper examines the reinforcing effects of two maternal vocal topographies on infant vocalizations. Two groups of 3- to 8-month-old infants underwent a probe multi-element design with noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) as control condition, and two forms of contingent reinforcement (CR) as treatment: contingent maternal vocal imitation for the first group (n = 19), and contingent motherese speech for the second group (n = 16). Condition sequence was comprised of a baseline phase with no programmed consequences followed by CR1-NCR1-CR2-NCR2. Results revealed that both maternal vocal imitation and motherese speech reinforced infant vocalizations. For the imitation group, frequency of infant vocalizations during NCR1 was lower than CR1 in all but 5 participants and infant vocalization during NCR2 was lower than CR2 in all but 7 participants. For the motherese speech group, frequency of infant vocalizations during NCR1 was lower than CR1 in all but 8 participants and infant vocalizations during NCR2 was lower than CR2 in all but 4 participants. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated that infant vocal responding was significantly higher during CR as opposed to NCR in both groups. Effect magnitudes ranged from moderate to high (Cohen’s d = 0.33-0.99). Although maternal vocalization may have an eliciting effect on infant vocalization, the results of this study support the view that specific forms of contingent maternal vocal stimulation can reinforce early infant vocalizations effectively. These findings may provide a basis for early language acquisition programs in infants with and without delays.
The impact of fossil data on annelid phylogeny inferred from discrete morphological characters

As a result of their plastic body plan, the relationships of the annelid worms and even the taxonomic makeup of the phylum have long been contentious. Morphological cladistic analyses have typically recovered a monophyletic Polychaeta, with the simple-bodied forms assigned to an early-diverging clade or grade. This is in stark contrast to molecular trees, in which polychaetes are paraphyletic and include clitellates, echiurans and sipunculans. Cambrian stem group annelid body fossils are complex-bodied polychaetes that possess well-developed parapodia and paired head appendages (palps), suggesting that the root of annelids is misplaced in morphological trees. We present a reinvestigation of the morphology of key fossil taxa and include them in a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of annelids. Analyses using probabilistic methods and both equal- and implied-weights parsimony recover paraphyletic polychaetes and support the conclusion that echiurans and clitellates are derived polychaetes. Morphological trees including fossils depict two main clades of crown-group annelids that are similar, but not identical, to Errantia and Sedentaria, the fundamental groupings in transcriptomic analyses. Removing fossils yields trees that are often less resolved and/or root the tree in greater conflict with molecular topologies. While there are many topological similarities between the analyses herein and recent phylogenomic hypotheses, differences include the exclusion of Sipuncula from Annelida and the taxa forming the deepest crown-group divergences.
Follow-up whole-body assessment of adipose tissue compartments during a lifestyle intervention in a large cohort at increased risk for type 2 diabetes.

PURPOSE To assess adipose body compartments with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and MR spectroscopy during a lifestyle intervention program that included optimized nutrition and controlled physical activity in subjects at increased risk for type 2 diabetes to determine factors that may help predict an increase in insulin sensitivity following the intervention. MATERIALS AND METHODS This prospective study was approved by the local review board. All participants gave written informed consent. MR imaging and MR spectroscopy were performed in 243 subjects (99 men and 144 women) before and 9 months after enrollment in a lifestyle intervention program. The results of whole-body MR imaging were used to calculate tissue profiles, differentiating between adipose tissue--especially visceral adipose tissue--and lean tissue. The concentration of hepatic lipids and intramyocellular lipids in the anterior tibial and soleus muscles was determined with MR spectroscopy, and insulin sensitivity was estimated by using an oral glucose tolerance test. The Student t test was used to assess differences between groups, and multivariate regression models were used to assess the value of adipose tissue compartments in the prediction of insulin sensitivity. RESULTS Compared with women, men had almost twice the amount of visceral adipose tissue and a smaller amount of total adipose tissue (25.9% for men and 36.9% for women) at baseline. In addition, their insulin sensitivity was significantly lower than that of women. The most pronounced changes in adipose tissue were detected for visceral adipose tissue (from 4.9 L to 4.1 L [ie, -15.1%] in men and from 2.3 L to 1.9 L [ie, -15.8%] in women) and hepatic lipids (from 8.6% to 5.4% [ie, -36.8%] in men and from 5.1% to 4.3% [ie, -16.5%] in women). The mean insulin sensitivity improved significantly (from 11.3 arbitrary units [au] to 14.6 au [ie, +29.9%] in men and from 13.6 au to 14.6 au [ie, +7.5%] in women), with 70 of the 99 men (71%) and 84 of 144 women (58%) showing an increase in insulin sensitivity. In men, low concentrations of visceral adipose tissue, hepatic lipids, and abdominal subcutaneous fat at baseline were predictive of successful intervention in terms of changes in insulin sensitivity; in women, only low hepatic lipid levels were significantly predictive of successful intervention. CONCLUSION Visceral adipose tissue and hepatic lipids, as assessed with MR imaging and MR spectroscopy, can be significantly reduced during lifestyle intervention. Their baseline values emerged as predictive factors for an improvement of insulin sensitivity.
Colonic transit time and rectoanal videomanometry in Parkinson’s disease

Background: Constipation is a prominent lower gastrointestinal tract dysfunction that occurs frequently in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Objective: To investigate colonic transport and dynamic rectoanal behaviour during filling and defecation in patients with PD. Methods: Colonic transit time (CTT) and rectoanal videomanometry analyses were performed in 12 patients with PD (10 men and 2 women; mean age, 68 years, mean duration of disease, five years; mean Hoehn and Yahr grade, 3; decreased stool frequency (<3 times a week) in six, difficulty in stool expulsion in eight) and 10 age matched normal control subjects (7 men and 3 women; mean age, 62 years; decreased stool frequency in two, difficulty in stool expulsion in two). Results: In the PD patients, CTT was significantly prolonged in the rectosigmoid segment (p<0.05) and total colon (p<0.01) compared with the control subjects. At the resting state, anal closure and squeeze pressures of PD patients were lower than those in control subjects, though not statistically significant. However, the PD patients showed a smaller increase in abdominal pressure on coughing (p<0.01) and straining (p<0.01). The sphincter motor unit potentials of the patients were normal. During filling, PD patients showed normal rectal volumes at first sensation and maximum desire to defecate, and normal rectal compliance. However, they showed smaller amplitude in phasic rectal contraction (p<0.05), which was accompanied by an increase in anal pressure that normally decreased, together with leaking in two patients. During defecation, most PD patients could not defecate completely with larger post-defecation residuals (p<0.01). PD patients had weak abdominal strain and smaller rectal contraction on defecation than those in control subjects, though these differences were not statistically significant. However, the PD patients had larger anal contraction on defecation (p<0.05), evidence of paradoxical sphincter contraction on defecation (PSD). Conclusions: Slow colonic transit, decreased phasic rectal contraction, weak abdominal strain, and PSD were all features in our PD patients with frequent constipation.
THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY AND AGGRESSIVENESS IN PRISONERS AND ATHLETES

The study examined the type of relationship between the trait of aggressiveness and the dimensions of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality on samples of prisoners (N=106) and athletes (N=109). The relationship between the five factors of personality and six measures of aggressiveness was determined by the Pearson’ s correlation coefficient, whereas multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relations between the five personality factors and the total measure of aggressiveness separately for each sample. In the prisoners it was found that aggressiveness is significantly correlated with agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability, whereas in the athletes a significant correlation was found between aggressiveness and extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability. Multiple regression analysis showed that all the factors, except agreeableness, were significant predictors of aggressiveness in the prisoners, whereas in the athletes only emotional stability was a significant predictor.
Mixed cationic/anionic surfactants for semipermanent wall coatings in capillary electrophoresis

Mixtures of the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) with the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) form more stable coatings in fused‐silica capillaries than CTAB alone. The reversed electroosmotic flow (EOF) generated by CTAB/SDS mixtures remains stable for over 80 min after removal of the surfactants from the buffer. Enhanced stability (relative to CTAB alone) was found even when the ratio of SDS to CTAB was as low as 1%. This greater coating stability is attributed to the structural transition from adsorbed micelle to bilayer, which is induced by addition of SDS. Separation of a mixture of basic proteins yielded efficiencies of 364 000–562 000 plates/m and recoveries ranging from 85% to 98%. Migration time reproducibility was less than 0.9% relative standard deviation (RSD) from run to run and less than 2.6% RSD from day to day.
A multi-perspective examination of stress in later life

by Stacey B. Scott The broad objectives of this study were to document the nature of stress in the lives of older adults and to examine how stress is related to clinical depression in later life. Although considerable research links stress and depression, the term stress has been used to refer to the presence of a life event (i.e., a stressor), a psychological appraisal (i.e., perceiving an experience as stressful), or a physiological response (e.g., activation of stress hormones, allostatic load). In order to understand the relationship between stress and depression, each of these different definitions was considered. The extensive literature on stress can be grouped into three broad traditions: environmental, psychological, and biological. The environmental tradition focuses on the idea of stress as life events that affect the individual or important members of family or friends. The psychological tradition focuses on individuals’ subjective appraisals of events and their own resources to cope with the stressor. The biological tradition defines stress as stimulus that activates specific physiological responses. Each of these theoretical perspectives conceptualizes links between stress and mental health differently, emphasizing the influence of their particular view of stress (i.e., occurrence of a severe life event, the individual’s psychological appraisal, cumulative adaptational wear-and-tear on the body, respectively) on the outcome. At the conceptual level, investigators from each domain mention potential contributions