Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altered neural substrates of cognitive control in childhood ADHD: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging.

OBJECTIVE The study compared the neural bases of two cognitive control operations, interference suppression and response inhibition, between children with and children without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHOD Ten children (7-11 years of age) with combined-type ADHD and 10 comparison subjects matched for age and gender underwent rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during performance of a modified flanker task. Functional maps were generated through group averaging and performance-based correlational analyses. RESULTS Interference suppression in ADHD subjects was characterized by reduced engagement of a frontal-striatal-temporal-parietal network that subserved healthy performance. In contrast, response inhibition performance relied upon different regions in the two groups, frontal-striatal in comparison subjects but right superior temporal in ADHD children. CONCLUSIONS Alteration in the neural basis of two cognitive control operations in childhood ADHD was characterized by distinct, rather than unitary, patterns of functional abnormality. Greater between-group overlap in the neural network activated for interference suppression than in response inhibition suggests that components of cognitive control are differentially sensitive to ADHD. The ADHD children's inability to activate the caudate nucleus constitutes a core abnormality in ADHD. Observed functional abnormalities did not result from prolonged stimulant exposure, since most children were medication naive.
Fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes

The classical stationary Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process can be obtained in two different ways. On the one hand, it is a stationary solution of the Langevin equation with Brownian motion noise. On the other hand, it can be obtained from Brownian motion by the so called Lamperti transformation. We show that the Langevin equation with fractional Brownian motion noise also has a stationary solution and that the decay of its auto-covariance function is like that of a power function. Contrary to that, the stationary process obtained from fractional Brownian motion by the Lamperti transformation has an auto-covariance function that decays exponentially.
Influence of Distributed Reporting of Terror Violence on Implicit Associations of Individuals

Influence of Distributed Reporting of Terror Violence on Implicit Associations of Individuals by M. Carter Matherly MS, Walden University, 2016 MA, American Public University, 2013 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Psychology Walden University May 2018 Abstract Following the 9/11 terror attacks, many Americans experienced some form of habit or mood-altering stress though, most had received their impressions of the violence via distributed media reporting rather than firsthand exposure. Researchers have found that the propagating effects of media broadcasting can exasperate the effects of terror. However, little is known of how reports of terror violence affect group dynamics inFollowing the 9/11 terror attacks, many Americans experienced some form of habit or mood-altering stress though, most had received their impressions of the violence via distributed media reporting rather than firsthand exposure. Researchers have found that the propagating effects of media broadcasting can exasperate the effects of terror. However, little is known of how reports of terror violence affect group dynamics in geographically distant nations. The purpose of this study, following terror management theory, was to understand if terrorist violence influences cognitive and implicit racial evaluations in a culturally similar, but geographically distant, population. The study’s design was a quantitative natural experiment. Time of completing the assessment, either before or after the 2015 Paris Bataclan terror attack, comprised the 2-level independent variable; the dependent variables were the Race Implicit Association Test (IAT) and a cognitive evaluation of racial anxiety. Age and religiosity served as covariates. The target population included White citizen residents of the United States over the age of 18; 263 participants were derived from archival data. Comparisons of raw IAT scores showed an 8% increase in negative implicit racial evaluations following the attack; however, the MANCOVA failed to achieve multivariate significance (p > .05). Despite the lack of statistical significance, important details on implicit racial attitudes were uncovered. Results of this study have the potential to foster positive social change by informing individuals on how their implicit associations might be affected following exposure to reports of terrorist violence. Additionally, these findings may guide national security and intelligence professional’s development of post-attack response measures and task forces. Influence of Distributed Reporting of Terror Violence on Implicit Associations of Individuals by M. Carter Matherly MS, Walden University, 2016 MA, American Public University, 2013 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Detection of Motion-Incoherent Components in Video Streams

Motion coherency has recently been identified as a desirable property for watermarks embedded within video streams in order to withstand temporal frame averaging along the motion axis. Nevertheless, no tool has been proposed to easily evaluate the motion coherency of a given watermarking system. Today, this assessment relies on a computationally expensive procedure, namely, (1) embed a watermark, (2) perform temporal frame averaging, and (3) check for the presence of the watermark. In this article, a novel oracle is designed to detect whether a video stream contains any motion-incoherent component or not. Since such incoherence can be introduced by nonmotion-coherent watermarking algorithms, this tool has proven to be most valuable to distinguish watermarked from nonwatermarked content. The oracle relies on some features extracted from error frames after motion compensation. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method with uncompressed and compressed video streams.
Conditioning of the Stable, Discrete-Time Lyapunov Operator

The Schatten p-norm condition of the discrete-time Lyapunov operator $\A$ defined on matrices $P \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times n}$ by $\A P \equiv P -A P A ^{T}$ is studied for stable matrices $A \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times n}$. Bounds are obtained for the norm of $\A$ and its inverse that depend on the spectrum, singular values, and radius of stability of A. Since the solution P of the discrete-time algebraic Lyapunov equation (DALE) $\A P = Q$ can be ill-conditioned only when either $\A$ or Q is ill-conditioned, these bounds are useful in determining whether P admits a low-rank approximation, which is important in the numerical solution of the DALE for large n.
OF THE USE OF ETHYL ESTERS OF CASTOR SEED OIL AND RUBBER SEED OIL AS CORROSION INHIBITORS

The inhibitive effect of the ethyl esters of rubber seed oil and castor seed oil have been studied in order to evaluate their effect on the corrosion of mild steel in HCl and petroleum water mixtures at 303 and 333K in this work. The inhibition efficiency of the two inhibitors increased with an increase in concentration of inhibitor and decreased with temperature at all concentrations. Results obtained in this work showed that the adsorption of the ethyl esters on mild steel is by physical adsorption. At all concentrations of inhibitor and studied temperatures, the ethyl ester of rubber seed oil was found to have higher inhibition efficiency than the ethyl ester of castor seed oil. The negative effect of the reaction time from the 2 fractional factorial design was attributed to the reduction in the effectiveness of the catalyst with time due to deactivation catalyst weight. The polynomial model obtained using regression analysis was deemed adequate for the description of the conversion of castor seed oil and rubber seed oil to the respective ethyl esters.
The Trust Alternative

We substantiate the feasibility of a market mechanism that addresses ratings shopping, ratings ination, and encourages competition over rating accuracy among credit rating agencies (CRAs). An issuer strategically delegates the task to acquire ratings, from CRAs, to a pass-through non-monitoring platform (the \trust"). The trust operates as a commitment mechanism for the issuer and pays outcome-contingent fees, a large portion of which is paid upfront. In turn, high credit rating accuracy assures investors’ participation in the market, creating the surplus that guarantees voluntary participation of CRAs and issuers. Overall, the mechanism creates a Pareto-improving equilibrium that requires minimal regulatory intervention.
A Truly Concurrent View of Linda Interprocess Communication

Linda is a coordination language which provides communication by means of primitives allowing the insertion, reading and withdrawal of elements to and from a shared data space. This communication mechanism is referred to as generative communication and it has been used in many other recent concurrent languages (e.g. Shared-Prolog, LO, Gamma). We first introduce a process calculus which embeds all the Linda coordination primitives, even the inp and readp operation which have not been considered by other papers on the semantics of Linda. Moreover, we introduce a truly concurrent semantics for Linda by providing our calculus with a net semantics based on contextual P/T nets. Such a kind of nets allows to model a high level of true concurrency because they embed the notion of "reading without consuming" on which the read operation of Linda is based. For example, in our approach the parallel-read (i.e. the simultaneous reading of the same message) is modeled.
EARTHQUAKES AND PEBBLE BED REACTORS: TIME-DEPENDENT DENSIFICATION

The neutronics behavior of a pebble bed reactor depends on the packing fraction of the pebbles. During the course of an earthquake, the packing fraction could increase because of the shaking of the reactor. In the absence of thermal feedback, the effective neutron multiplication constant (keff) could increase and hence create a criticality issue that needs to be examined. This paper presents the first half of such an examination: the densification of the pebble bed is modeled and quantified. A discrete element method-based recently developed code is used to simulate the position of pebbles over the course of an earthquake. The code is used to calculate the evolution of the packing fraction during the earthquake. The methodology was applied to modeling the evolution of the packing fraction for the entire course of the earthquake for a PBMR-400 reactor model hypothetically sited at the Idaho National Laboratory.
Democracy and the limits of political realism

ABSTRACT This article explores the recent resurgence of realism in the political sciences, questioning its relevance for democratic theory. Starting from a critical review of recent works in the field, the article calls into question the relevance of empirical investigations of political reality for normative theorizing, and contends that some of the normative conclusions advanced in this literature are not warranted. More precisely, the article questions the reliability of studies of political behavior and of political opinion as a sound basis on which to draw normative inferences about democratic legitimacy. It contends that the kind of epistemic realism their authors promote cannot deliver what it promises. The article concludes by proposing an alternative interpretation of the democratic principle as a practical postulate of political reason that reconciles empirical evidence about political behavior with the classical interpretation of democratic legitimacy.
Eye Movements during Silent and Oral Reading in a Regular Orthography: Basic Characteristics and Correlations with Childhood Cognitive Abilities and Adolescent Reading Skills

The present study aimed to define differences between silent and oral reading with respect to spatial and temporal eye movement parameters. Eye movements of 22 German-speaking adolescents (14 females; mean age = 13;6 years;months) were recorded while reading an age-appropriate text silently and orally. Preschool cognitive abilities were assessed at the participants’ age of 5;7 (years;months) using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. The participants’ reading speed and reading comprehension at the age of 13;6 (years;months) were determined using a standardized inventory to evaluate silent reading skills in German readers (Lesegeschwindigkeits- und -verständnistest für Klassen 6–12). The results show that (i) reading mode significantly influenced both spatial and temporal characteristics of eye movement patterns; (ii) articulation decreased the consistency of intraindividual reading performances with regard to a significant number of eye movement parameters; (iii) reading skills predicted the majority of eye movement parameters during silent reading, but influenced only a restricted number of eye movement parameters when reading orally; (iv) differences with respect to a subset of eye movement parameters increased with reading skills; (v) an overall preschool cognitive performance score predicted reading skills at the age of 13;6 (years;months), but not eye movement patterns during either silent or oral reading. However, we found a few significant correlations between preschool performances on subscales of sequential and simultaneous processing and eye movement parameters for both reading modes. Overall, the findings suggest that eye movement patterns depend on the reading mode. Preschool cognitive abilities were more closely related to eye movement patterns of oral than silent reading, while reading skills predicted eye movement patterns during silent reading, but less so during oral reading.
Mindfulness and gender differences in ethical beliefs

Purpose This paper aims to examine the ethical beliefs of consumers with regards to their levels of mindfulness. Furthermore, it aims to investigate if mindfulness is related to gender differences among respondents in their ethical beliefs about consumer unethical practices. Design/methodology/approach University students in India were surveyed with self-administered questionnaires comprising the consumer ethics scale and mindfulness attention awareness scale. Mediation analysis was conducted to test whether gender differences in ethical judgements are due to the different levels of mindfulness. Findings The results indicate that mindfulness is not only a predictor of ethical beliefs but also a mediator of the relationship between gender and ethical beliefs. Individuals with greater mindfulness reported greater acceptance towards the five dimensions of consumer ethics scale. Indian male participants were found to be more mindful and lenient in ethical judgements than female participants. Originality/value The present work is a novel attempt in examining the effect of mindfulness on the relationship between gender and ethical beliefs of consumers. The results of this study can have positive implications for organizations, managers, public policy makers and consumers.
JNK Controls the Onset of Mitosis in Planarian Stem Cells and Triggers Apoptotic Cell Death Required for Regeneration and Remodeling

Regeneration of lost tissues depends on the precise interpretation of molecular signals that control and coordinate the onset of proliferation, cellular differentiation and cell death. However, the nature of those molecular signals and the mechanisms that integrate the cellular responses remain largely unknown. The planarian flatworm is a unique model in which regeneration and tissue renewal can be comprehensively studied in vivo. The presence of a population of adult pluripotent stem cells combined with the ability to decode signaling after wounding enable planarians to regenerate a complete, correctly proportioned animal within a few days after any kind of amputation, and to adapt their size to nutritional changes without compromising functionality. Here, we demonstrate that the stress-activated c-jun–NH2–kinase (JNK) links wound-induced apoptosis to the stem cell response during planarian regeneration. We show that JNK modulates the expression of wound-related genes, triggers apoptosis and attenuates the onset of mitosis in stem cells specifically after tissue loss. Furthermore, in pre-existing body regions, JNK activity is required to establish a positive balance between cell death and stem cell proliferation to enable tissue renewal, remodeling and the maintenance of proportionality. During homeostatic degrowth, JNK RNAi blocks apoptosis, resulting in impaired organ remodeling and rescaling. Our findings indicate that JNK-dependent apoptotic cell death is crucial to coordinate tissue renewal and remodeling required to regenerate and to maintain a correctly proportioned animal. Hence, JNK might act as a hub, translating wound signals into apoptotic cell death, controlled stem cell proliferation and differentiation, all of which are required to coordinate regeneration and tissue renewal.
Identification of the ligand-binding domains of CD22, a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily that uniquely binds a sialic acid-dependent ligand

CD22 is a B cell-restricted member of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily that functions as an adhesion receptor for leukocytes and erythrocytes. CD22 is unique among members of the Ig superfamily in that it has been suggested to bind a series of sialic acid-dependent ligands, potentially through different functional domains expressed by different splice variants of CD22. In this study, the epitopes identified by a large panel of function-blocking and non-function- blocking CD22 monoclonal antibodies were localized to specific Ig-like domains, revealing that all function-blocking monoclonal antibodies bound to the first and/or second Ig-like domains. Consistent with a single ligand-binding region, the two amino-terminal domains were the functional unit that mediated CD22 adhesion with lymphocytes, neutrophils, monocytes, and erythrocytes. The predominant cell surface species of CD22 was a full length 140,000 relative molecular mass seven Ig-like domain glycoprotein and a minor 130,000 relative molecular mass form lacking the fourth domain. While the two amino-terminal Ig-like domains of CD22 are structurally similar to those found in other members of the Ig superfamily involved in cell adhesion and containing an amino acid sequence motif associated with integrin recognition, site- directed mutagenesis of critical residues surrounding this motif did not disrupt CD22-mediated adhesion. These results demonstrate that the unique ligand-binding properties of CD22 are distinct from those of other members of the Ig superfamily involved in integrin-mediated cell adhesion.
A surface-micromachined shear stress imager

A new MEMS shear stress sensor imager has been developed and its capability of imaging surface shear stress distribution has been demonstrated. The imager consists of multi-rows of vacuum-insulated shear stress sensors with a 300 /spl mu/m pitch. This small spacing allows it to detect surface flow patterns that could not be directly measured before. The high frequency response (30 kHz) of the sensor under constant temperature bias mode also allows it to be used in high Reynolds number turbulent flow studies. The measurement results in a fully developed turbulent flow agree well with the numerical and experimental results previously published.
Communications in Mathematical Physics Scarred Eigenstates for Quantum Cat Maps of Minimal Periods

In this paper we construct a sequence of eigenfunctions of the “quantum Arnold’s cat map” that, in the semiclassical limit, shows a strong scarring phenomenon on the periodic orbits of the dynamics. More precisely, those states have a semiclassical limit measure that is the sum of 1/2 the normalized Lebesgue measure on the torus plus 1/2 the normalized Dirac measure concentrated on any a priori given periodic orbit of the dynamics. It is known (the Schnirelman theorem) that “most” sequences of eigenfunctions equidistribute on the torus. The sequences we construct therefore provide an example of an exception to this general rule. Our method of construction and proof exploits the existence of special values of for which the quantum period of the map is relatively “short”, and a sharp control on the evolution of coherent states up to this time scale. We also provide a pointwise description of these states in phase space, which uncovers their “hyperbolic” structure in the vicinity of the fixed points and yields more precise localization estimates.
Dissolution Enhancement of Rosuvastatin Calcium by Liquisolid Compact Technique

In present investigation liquisolid compact technique is investigated as a tool for enhanced dissolution of poorly water-soluble drug Rosuvastatin calcium (RVT). The model drug RVT, a HMG-Co A reductase inhibitor was formulated in form of directly compressed tablets and liquisolid compacts; and studied for in-vitro release characteristics at different dissolution conditions. In this technique, liquid medications of water insoluble drugs in non-volatile liquid vehicles can be converted into acceptably flowing and compressible powders. Formulated systems were assessed for precompression parameters like flow properties of liquisolid system, Fourior transform infra red spectra (FTIR) analysis, X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and post compression parameters like content uniformity, weight variation, hardness and friability, disintegration test, wetting time, in vitro dissolution studies, effect of dissolution volume on drug release rate, and estimation of fraction of molecularly dispersed drug in liquid medication. As liquisolid compacts demonstrated significantly higher drug release rates, we lead to conclusion that it could be a promising strategy in improving the dissolution of poor water soluble drugs and formulating immediate release solid dosage forms.
Thermo-Responsive Hydrogels for Stimuli-Responsive Membranes

Composite membranes with stimuli-responsive properties can be made by coating a thermo-responsive hydrogel onto a micro- or macroporous support. These hydrogels undergo a temperature induced volume-phase transition, which contributes towards the composite membrane’s stimuli-responsive properties. This paper reviews research done on complimentary forms of temperature responsive “thermophilic” hydrogels, those exhibiting positive volume-phase transitions in aqueous solvent. The influences of intermolecular forces on the mechanism of phase-transition are discussed along with case examples of typical thermophilic hydrogels.