Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparing the Hyperplane Approximation and Gradient-based Optical Flow Methodologies applied to Global Image Motion

The hyperplane approximation technique is a recent popular approach to motion estimation applied to a range of computer vision techniques such as active appearance models and template matching. Simply, the method learns a linear relationship between artificially applied parametric motion perturbations and the consequent induced pixel greylevel differences. Once trained, solving for any new motion is equivalent to solving a set of linear equations in a multi-dimensional space, and, unlike the gradient-based approach, the hyperplane approximation avoids the need for extracting the grey-level gradients. Common to both the gradient-based and the hyperplane approximation technique, the motion field can be modeled parametrically. As the hyperplane approximation approach is both an approximation and potentially computationally expensive to train, this article will comparatively evaluate the approach against the traditional gradient-based optical flow methodology.
IN VIVO UTILIZATION OF GLUCOSE BY HEART AND LOCOMOTORY MUSCLES OF EXERCISING RAINBOW TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS MYKISS)

In vivo rates of glucose utilization were estimated in red muscle and heart of rainbow trout using the radiolabeled glucose analogue, [14C]-2-deoxyglucose ([14C]-2-DG). The 2-DG ‘lumped constant’ (LC), representing the uptake ratio between 2-DG and glucose for each tissue, was determined in vitro using tissue slices. For both red muscle and heart, the LC was approximately 0.40. In addition, changes in circulatory glucose utilization induced in an isolated trout heart preparation had no effect on the LC. The LC was applied to calculations of in vivo rates of circulatory glucose disposal in muscle tissue of resting and swimming trout. Utilization was estimated at 0.87+/−0.15 and 5.31+/−1.04 nmol g-1 min-1 in red muscle and heart of resting fish, respectively. In trout swimming at 80 % Ucrit, glucose utilization in heart was unchanged compared to resting controls, while red muscle utilization increased by 28-fold. Estimates of the oxidative demand of heart and locomotory muscle of swimming trout indicate that glucose utilization accounted for less than 10 % of the energy production in both tissues. In trout heart, in vitro measures of glucose flux suggest an apparent excess capacity to use circulatory glucose. Preference for other intra- and extramuscular fuels may partially explain limited glucose utilization, but it remains unclear to what degree, and under what conditions, glucose utilization may be increased in vivo.
Ownership of Stocks and Mutual Funds: A Panel Data Analysis

This paper analyzes the ownership dynamics of stocks and mutual funds, using representative household panel data, the Dutch CentER Savings Survey 19931998. A bivariate dynamic binary-choice model is introduced, allowing for interactions between the two types of assets. We find that unobserved heterogeneity and state dependence play a large role for both types of assets. The positive relation between ownership of one type in one period and the other type in the next period is explained by correlated unobserved heterogeneity. A negative state-dependence effect of lagged ownership of stocks on ownership of mutual funds is found, which can be explained by the costs of shifting funds across the two forms of stockholding.
Personalized collaborative filtering: a neighborhood model based on contextual constraints

In this paper, we propose a recommender system approach which considers contextual information from users and items in order to improve the accuracy of a neighborhood-based collaborative filtering algorithm. One advantage of our model is the possibility to bias the users' similarity computation according to a contextual constraint, such as the group of individuals who share the same demographic information, or the set of users with whom the user is interacting at the moment. The proposal represents the first steps towards the development of a group recommender system model. We provide an evaluation of our method with the MovieLens dataset, and compare our approach against other known techniques reported in the literature.
Insights into the complexity of behaviours: the MOAB framework

Purpose This paper aims to integrate existing thinking and provide new insights into the complexity of behaviours to improve understanding of the nature of these behaviours. This paper expands social marketing theory by introducing the Motivation–Opportunity–Ability–Behaviour (MOAB) framework to assist in understanding the nature of social marketing behaviours by extending the Motivation–Opportunity–Ability (MOA) framework. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper that proposes the MOAB framework to understand the complexity of behaviours. Findings This new tool will provide social marketers with an improved understanding of the differences between behaviours targeted by social marketers. Specifically, it provides a definition and application of complexity in social marketing that will facilitate the development of consumer insights and subsequent social marketing programs that more sufficiently account for the complexity of target behaviours. Research limitations/implications This proposed MOAB framework offers a foundation for future research to expand upon. Further research is recommended to empirically test the proposed framework. Originality/value This paper seeks to advance the theoretical base of social marketing by providing new insights to understand the nature of the behaviour in social marketing to assist social marketers to move beyond attempts to treat all behaviours as if they are the same.
Cord Plasma Concentrations of Visfatin, Adiponectin and Insulin in Healthy Term Neonates: Positive Correlation with Birthweight

Objective: The aims of this study were to examine the relationships between adiponectin, insulin, visfatin and weight at birth in healthy term infants. Design and methods: Anthropometric parameters including weight, length were measured and plasma lipid profiles, insulin, visfatin and adiponectin concentrations in cord blood samples from 50 LGA and 50 AGA singleton infants born at term after uncomplicated pregnancies were assayed. Results: Mean visfatin and adiponectin levels were significantly higher in the LGA group than AGA group (11.8 ± 8 vs. 6.3 ± 5.5 ng/ml, p<0.001; 28.4 ± 3.9 vs. 25.7 ± 3.6 μg/ml, p=0.001; respectively). Insulin, triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels did not differ significantly between LGA and AGA infants. Cord plasma adiponectin, visfatin and insulin levels correlated significantly and positively with birthweight (p=0.01, p<0.001, p<0.001; respectively) and with birthlength (p=0.01, p<0.001, p=0.01; respectively). Cord plasma adiponectin concentration correlated positively with visfatin level (p=0.005), but not with insulin level (p=0.8), and cord plasma visfatin concentration correlated positively with insulin level (p<0.001). Conclusion: High adiponectin and visfatin levels are present in the cord blood in LGA group. Cord plasma adiponectin and visfatin levels are positively correlated with birthweight. This suggests that adiponectin and visfatin may be involved in regulating fetal growth.
On gender dysphoria

Gender identity refers to an innate and deeply felt psychological identification as a female, male, or some other non-binary gender. Gender identity may be congruent or incongruent with the sex assigned at birth. Gender dysphoria refers to the discomfort or distress that gender incongruence may cause. If the distress is clinically significant, the individual may need gender-affirming treatment. The literature is sparse with respect to the etiology, prevalence, and long-term outcomes. The overall aim of this thesis is to further our understanding of gender dysphoria regarding neurobiological characteristics, epidemiology, and health following gender-affirming treatment. Study I explored the hypothesis that cerebral activation in hormone-naïve transgender women (assigned males at birth) on exposure to odorous steroids would be in line with their gender identity, and thus similar to cisgender women but different to cisgender men. Gender dysphoric transgender women demonstrated a cerebral activation pattern that corresponded predominately to that of cisgender females, but also some cisgender male characteristics. Study II described the prevalence and changes in incidence of applications for change of legal gender and applications to reverse the procedure during 19602010. The incidence of gender dysphoria increased three times for individuals assigned male at birth, and two and half time times for individuals assigned female at birth. The increase accelerated after 2001. The rate of reversal applications was 2.2% with a significant decline over the study period. Study III explored long-term mortality and psychiatric morbidity after sex reassignment in a nation-wide cohort study (1973-2003). The overall mortality rate was higher in individuals who had undergone legal and medical transition compared with the general population for the whole period, but not for the period 1989-2003. Probands had more psychiatric inpatient care and suicide attempts compared with controls for the whole period as well as the period 1989-2003 (with the exception of suicide attempts). This study cannot determine the effectiveness of gender-affirming medical intervention, but the results highlight the need for better health care following gender transition. Study IV examined outcomes following legal and surgical gender transition, mean (SD) follow-up time 7.2 (7.3) years, by means of individual interviews with 16 men (assigned female at birth) and 49 women (assigned male at birth). The vast majority of the participants felt gender congruent and global clinically improved, but the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and suicide attempts was high. Childhood adversities and adult stressful life events were common. Being born abroad, childhood adversities, and not being accepted by others in assigned gender predicted current psychiatric morbidity.
Protein insertions and deletions enabled by neutral roaming in sequence space.

Backbone modifications via insertions and deletions (InDels) may exert dramatic effects, for better (mediating new functions) and for worse (causing loss of structure and/or function). However, contrary to point mutations (substitutions), our knowledge of the evolution and structural-functional effects of InDels is limited and so is our capability to engineer them. We sought to assess how deleterious InDels are relative to point mutations and understand the mechanisms that mediate their acceptance. Analysis of the evolution of InDels in orthologous protein phylogenies indicated that their rate of purging is 9- to 100-fold higher than for point mutations. In yeast, for example, the substitutions-to-InDels ratio is approximately 14-fold higher in protein coding than in noncoding regions. The incorporation of InDels relative to substitutions is not only slow but also nonlinear. On average, ≥50 substitutions accumulate before the appearance of the first InDel. We also found enriched substitutions in sequential and spatial proximity to InDels, suggesting that certain substitutions are correlated with InDels. As indicated by the lag in InDels accumulation, some of these correlated substitutions may have occurred first, as apparently neutral mutations, and later enabled the accumulation of InDels that would be otherwise purged. Thus, compensatory substitutions may follow InDels in an "adaptive walk" as traditionally assumed, but might also accumulate first, by "neutral roaming. " The dynamics of InDels accumulation also depends on their genomic frequencies-InDels in flies are 4-fold more frequent than in yeast and tend to be compensated rather than enabled.
Bioelectricity and microcurrent therapy for tissue healing – a narrative review

Abstract Background: Microcurrent therapy (MCT) uses electric currents similar to those produced by the body during tissue healing. It may be a particularly beneficial where endogenous healing has failed. Aim: To review evidence regarding microcurrent in tissue healing and the application of MCT. Methods: All peer-reviewed studies concerning microcurrent and MCT were sought, and representative literature was synthesised to indicate the scope and weight of current evidence. Results: Microcurrent appears to play a significant role in the healing process, and MCT can promote healing in a variety of bone and skin lesions. The evidence for other tissues is encouraging but presently scant. Conclusion: MCT may have unrealised potential in the treatment of dysfunctional tissue healing and deserves greater attention by researchers and clinicians.
Varying pose face recognition using combination of discrete cosine & wavelet transforms

Requirement for a person to face a camera for face identification process may no longer be necessary if the face recognition system is robust against variation of facial pose. In this paper, we proposed a face recognition method which remains reliable even in very large head pose variations. In this method, feature from local regions of face are extracted after employing both discrete cosine transform and discrete wavelet transform. Learning strategy is then applied to infer the relationship between face in a given pose and its frontal view. Results we obtained are very promising considering that our proposed method solely relies on a single gallery image. We also demonstrated the high performance of our method in a condition whereby the face images are of low-resolution quality.
Construction of Vietnamese SentiWordNet by using Vietnamese Dictionary

SentiWordNet is an important lexical resource supporting sentiment analysis in opinion mining applications. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to construct a Vietnamese SentiWordNet (VSWN). SentiWordNet is typically generated from WordNet in which each synset has numerical scores to indicate its opinion polarities. Many previous studies obtained these scores by applying a machine learning method to WordNet. However, Vietnamese WordNet is not available unfortunately by the time of this paper. Therefore, we propose a method to construct VSWN from a Vietnamese dictionary, not from WordNet. We show the effectiveness of the proposed method by generating a VSWN with 39,561 synsets automatically. The method is experimentally tested with 266 synsets with aspect of positivity and negativity. It attains a competitive result compared with English SentiWordNet that is 0.066 and 0.052 differences for positivity and negativity sets respectively.
Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback Revisited: A Critique and an Improved Model

Abstract Giving feedback on the students' grammatical errors of their written assignments is an issue that received a lengthy debate. Several studies were conducted and produced contradictory results. A model was proposed (Hartshorn, et al, 2010) to overcome the theoretical and practical obstacles. This model is called Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback (DWCF). This paper introduces a critique of the DWCF model and it shows that DWCF has two main problems that make it unsuitable for the ESL classroom. These problems are related to its authenticity and practicality. Furthermore this paper presents a modified model of DWCF to overcome these problems. The modified model integrates two aspects; Peer feedback and Automated Essay Evaluation systems (AES) –s or so called Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE). The proposal is that peer feedback and AES will work as a filtration system that can solve the issues of authenticity and practicality that the original model has suffered from
Can galaxy outflows and re-accretion produce a downsizing in the specific star-formation rate of late-type galaxies?

An increasing amount of recent observational evidence shows that the less massive galaxies are, the higher on average their specific star-formation rates (SSFR = SFR/M ∗, where M ∗ is the stellar mass). Such a trend, called the 'SSFR downsizing' (SSFR-DS) phenomenon, is seen for local and high-redshift (back to z ∼ 1-2) galaxy samples. We use observational data related only to disc galaxies and explore how the average SSFR changes with z for different masses. For all masses in the range ∼10 9.5 -10 10.5 M� , the SSFR increases with (1 + z )t o a power that seems not to depend on M ∗, and at all redshifts smaller galaxies always have higher SSFRs; galaxies less massive than M ∗ ∼ 10 10 Mare now forming stars at a greater rate than in the past, assuming constant SFRs over a Hubble time to build stellar mass. We show that these features strongly disagree with theCold Dark Matter (� CDM) halo hierarchical mass accretion rates. Further, by means of self-consistent models of disc galaxy evolution inside growingCDM haloes, the effects of disc-feedback-driven outflows and gas re-accretion on galaxy SSFR histories are explored. The parameters of the outflow and re-accretion schemes are tuned to reproduce the present-day M h-M ∗ relation (where Mh is the halo mass) inferred from the observationally based M ∗ function of disc galaxies. In the case of outflows only, the SSFR of individual model galaxies increases with z roughly as (1 + z) 2.2 for all masses (somewhat shallower than observations) with a normalization factor that depends on mass as M 0.1 ∗ , i.e more massive galaxies have slightly larger SSFRs, contrary to the observed strong SSFR-DS trend. For the re-accretion cases, the dependence on z remains approximately the same as without gas re-infall, but the correlation with mass increases even for the most reasonable values of the model parameters. The comparison of models and observations in the SSFR-M ∗ plane at z ∼ 0 (where the data are more reliable) clearly shows the divergent trend in SSFR when the masses are lower (upsizing versus downsizing). We explain why our models show the reported trends, and conclude that the SSFR-DS phenomenon for low-mass galaxies poses a sharp challenge forCDM-based disc galaxy evolution models.
Giftedness and Overexcitability

Current textbooks, websites, research articles, and popular resources have stated that gifted individuals have longer and more pronounced responses to stimuli than the general population. This overexcitable nature of gifted persons has provided a commonly used lens to conceptualize, identify, and understand giftedness and gifted persons’ behaviors. Yet there are reasons to be skeptical about the evidence demonstrating that the gifted population is more overexcitable than the nongifted population. A meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the existence and strength of the giftedness–overexcitability (OE) relationship as presented in a number of studies comparing the OE scores of intellectually gifted and nongifted samples. Gifted samples were found to have higher mean OE scores than nongifted samples. However, the effect size for psychomotor OE was not statistically significant, while the effect sizes for the emotional and sensual OEs were small. Calculated effect sizes for intellectual and imaginational OEs were medium. A number of important limitations and implications exist.
Determinants of Young Sri Lankan Individuals’ Intention to Engage in Viral Marketing

Despite the prolific growth of viral marketing, factors that determine successful viral marketing campaigns remain largely unknown. Since the extant literature postulates that individual who pass along messages play a vital role in viral marketing, this paper examines the factors that determine the individuals’ message pass along intention in light of the behavioural theory proposed by Ajzen, namely, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and the interpersonal relations theory proposed by Schutz, namely, Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO). The data collected from 391 young undergraduates in Sri Lanka were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling method. The results revealed that perceived behavioural control, attitude towards viral marketing, subjective norms, and need for affection and need for control are influential in determining the intention among young individuals to engage in viral marketing. Thus, the findings reveal that ﬁrms may need to develop different strategies to manipulate those critical factors that affect one’s intention to engage in viral marketing so as to enhance the effectiveness of viral marketing campaigns.
Topological invariants of piecewise hereditary algebras

We investigate the Galois coverings of piecewise algebras and more particularly their behaviour under derived equivalences. Under a technical assumption which is satisfied if the algebra is derived equivalent to a hereditary algebra, we prove that there exists a universal Galois covering whose group of automorphisms is free and depends only on the derived category of the algebra. As a corollary, we prove that the algebra is simply connected if and only if its first Hochschild cohomology vanishes.
Bayesian Analyses of the Effect of Metacognitive Training on Social Cognition Deficits and Overconfidence in Errors

Social cognition (SC) impairments in schizophrenia predict interpersonal problems and low functional outcome, which might be aggravated by low (meta-) cognitive awareness of individual symptoms and cognitive biases. Metacognitive Training (MCT) aims to raise patients' awareness of cognitive biases, for example overconfidence in errors. We examined whether MCT reduces high-confident false mental state perceptions and tried to identify possible underlying mechanisms of SC impairments. A total of 150 patients were enrolled in a randomized clinical trial comparing the MCT with cognitive remediation (CogPack®) as the active control. Participants were assessed at baseline and at four weeks (post) and further six months (follow-up) later with the Reading the Eyes in the Mind-test also measuring the patients' response confidence. We found that compared to CogPack® MCT reliably reduced the amount of overconfident SC errors by approximately 40% at follow-up. Additionally, we were able to link several symptomatic features and neuropsychological parameters to SC impairments and overconfidence herein.
Effective interventions to strengthen early language and literacy skills in low-income countries: comparison of a family-focused approach and a pre-primary programme in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Globally, governments as well as international and donor organizations are increasingly emphasizing the need for investment in effective early childhood programmes that can provide an equitable start for all children. Research is scant, however, on the effectiveness of different interventions supporting early language as well as broader school readiness skills in low-income countries. This paper aims to contribute to the literature by comparing the impact of two interventions with high potential for scale-up in Ethiopia: (1) a one-year pre-primary classroom-based model run by the government and (2) a family-based model that engages parents and caregivers in bolstering early language and overall school-readiness skills at home through simple games, in lieu of a standard centre-based programme. No significant differences were found between the gains made by children in the family-based program and the children in the standard pre-primary classes in terms of early literacy, early math, socio-emotional development as well as overall school readiness.