Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BBNVISER : BBN VISER TRECVID 2012 Multimedia Event Detection and Multimedia Event Recounting Systems

We describe the Raytheon BBN Technologies (BBN) led VISER system for the TRECVID 2012 Multimedia Event Detection (MED) and Recounting (MER) tasks. We present a comprehensive analysis of the different modules in our evaluation system that includes: (1) a large suite of visual, audio and multimodal low-level features, (2) modules to detect semantic scene/action/object concepts over the entire video and within short temporal spans, (3) automatic speech recognition (ASR), and (4) videotext detection and recognition (OCR). For the low-level features we used multiple static, motion, color, and audio features previously considered in literature as well as a set of novel, fast kernel based feature descriptors developed recently by BBN. For the semantic concept detection systems, we leveraged BBN's natural language processing (NLP) technologies to automatically analyze and identify salient concepts from short textual descriptions of videos and frames. Then, we trained detectors for these concepts using visual and audio features. The semantic concept based systems enable rich description of video content for event recounting (MER). The video level concepts have the most coverage and can provide robust concept detections on most videos. Segment level concepts are less robust, but can provide sequence information that enriches recounting. Object detection, ASR and OCR are sporadic in occurrence but have high precision and improves quality of the recounting. For the MED task, we combined these different streams using multiple early/feature level and late/score level fusion strategies. We present a rigorous analysis of each of these subsystems and the impact of different fusion strategies. In particular, we present a thorough study of different semantic feature based systems compared to low-level feature based systems considered in most MED systems. Consistent with previous MED evaluations, low-level features exhibit strong performance. Further, semantic feature based systems have comparable performance to the low-level system, and produce gains in fusion. Overall, BBN's primary submission has an average missed detection rate of 29.6% with a false alarm rate of 2.6%. One of BBN's contrastive runs has <50% missed detection and <4% false alarm rates for all twenty events.
Wave attenuations in solids with perfectly aligned cracks

The theory of wave propagation and scattering in cracked media is applied to study the wave attenuations in an isotropic solid medium containing perfectly aligned penny-shaped microcracks. The unit normals of all cracks are assumed parallel to a given direction. The wave scattering model is formulated using an anisotropic Green’s dyadic approach. Explicit expressions are derived for attenuations of the three wave modes in terms of the microcrack density. Numerical results are presented and discussed. In particular, comparisons of the attenuation results presented in this letter with previous results for the Rayleigh limit are given.
Risperidone, negative symptoms and cognitive deficit in schizophrenia: an open study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a new antipsychotic compound on negative symptoms and cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. Psychiatric symptoms and cognition were assessed in 25 patients with schizophrenia, at baseline and after they had taken risperidone for 4 weeks. The Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and two WAIS sub‐tests were used to assess the patients. After the study period, both negative and positive symptoms and also measures of cognitive performance improved significantly. The WCST results correlated with negative symptom scores before and after treatment. This suggests that negative symptoms and cognitive deficit have a common underlying substrate which is the target of the risperidone treatment. Our data show that risperidone may have a substantial effect on complex cognitive functions in schizophrenia, and they suggest that certain cognitive deficits are relatively dependent on the negative symptoms of this disorder.
Eyewitness identification tests

When investigating crimes police frequently use eyewitness identification tests such as lineups in an attempt to establish the culprit's identity. It is now well documented that witnesses commonly make mistakes, sometimes identifying innocent suspects or failing to identify the culprit. Lineup administrators also make mistakes in the sense that they use procedures that increase the likelihood of eyewitness error. Eyewitness memory research has provided a basis for many useful guidelines regarding the conduct of identification tests. Here, we review the relevant research underpinning effective procedures for lineup construction, lineup presentation, recording the witness's decision, and providing feedback to the witness. The systematic implementation of these guidelines is likely to reduce significantly the extent of eyewitness errors at the identification test and improve the probative value of courtroom testimony about identity. However, further significant advances may well require the development of novel procedures for accessing witnesses' memories.
Intranasal Application of S. epidermidis Prevents Colonization by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Mice

Methicillin-resistant S. aureus emerged in recent decades to become a leading cause of infection worldwide. Colonization with MRSA predisposes to infection and facilitates transmission of the pathogen; however, available regimens are ineffective at preventing MRSA colonization. Studies of human nasal flora suggest that resident bacteria play a critical role in limiting S. aureus growth, and prompted us to query whether application of commensal resident bacteria could prevent nasal colonization with MRSA. We established a murine model system to study this question, and showed that mice nasally pre-colonized with S. epidermidis became more resistant to colonization with MRSA. Our study suggests that application of commensal bacteria with antibiotics could represent a more effective strategy to prevent MRSA colonization.
Residues of Tim44 Involved in both Association with the Translocon of the Inner Mitochondrial Membrane and Regulation of Mitochondrial Hsp70 Tethering

ABSTRACT Translocation of proteins from the cytosol across the mitochondrial inner membrane is driven by the action of the import motor, which is associated with the translocon on the matrix side of the membrane. It is well established that an essential peripheral membrane protein, Tim44, tethers mitochondrial Hsp70 (mtHsp70), the core of the import motor, to the translocon. This Tim44-mtHsp70 interaction, which can be recapitulated in vitro, is destabilized by binding of mtHsp70 to a substrate polypeptide. Here we report that the N-terminal 167-amino-acid segment of mature Tim44 is sufficient for both interaction with mtHsp70 and destabilization of a Tim44-mtHsp70 complex caused by client protein binding. Amino acid alterations within a 30-amino-acid segment affected both the release of mtHsp70 upon peptide binding and the interaction of Tim44 with the translocon. Our results support the idea that Tim44 plays multiple roles in mitochondrial protein import by recruiting Ssc1 and its J protein cochaperone to the translocon and coordinating their interactions to promote efficient protein translocation in vivo.
Trade-offs in seedling growth and survival within and across tropical forest microhabitats

For niche differences to maintain coexistence of sympatric species, each species must grow and/or survive better than each of the others in at least one set of conditions (i.e., performance trade-offs). However, the extent of niche differentiation in tropical forests remains highly debated. We present the first test of performance trade-offs for wild seedlings in a tropical forest. We measured seedling relative growth rate (RGR) and survival of four common native woody species across 18 light, substrate, and topography microhabitats over 2.5 years within Hawaiian montane wet forest, an ideal location due to its low species diversity and strong species habitat associations. All six species pairs exhibited significant performance trade-offs across microhabitats and for RGR versus survival within microhabitats. We also found some evidence of performance equivalence, with species pairs having similar performance in 26% of comparisons across microhabitats. Across species, survival under low light was generally positively associated with RGR under high light. When averaged over all species, topography (slope, aspect, and elevation) explained most of the variation in RGR attributable to microhabitat variables (51–53%) followed by substrate type (35–37%) and light (11–12%). However, the relative effects of microhabitat differed among species and RGR metric (i.e., RGR for height, biomass, or leaf area). These findings indicate that performance trade-offs among species during regeneration are common in low-diversity tropical forest, although other mechanisms may better explain the coexistence of species with small performance differences.
Targeted Gene Silencing in the Model Mushroom Coprinopsis cinerea (Coprinus cinereus) by Expression of Homologous Hairpin RNAs

ABSTRACT The ink cap Coprinopsis cinerea is a model organism for studying fruiting body (mushroom) formation in homobasidiomycetes. Mutant screens and expression studies have implicated a number of genes in this developmental process. Functional analysis of these genes, however, is hampered by the lack of reliable reverse genetics tools for C. cinerea. Here, we report the applicability of gene targeting by RNA silencing for this organism. Efficient silencing of both an introduced GFP expression cassette and the endogenous cgl1 and cgl2 isogenes was achieved by expression of homologous hairpin RNAs. In latter case, silencing was the result of a hairpin construct containing solely cgl2 sequences, demonstrating the possibility of simultaneous silencing of whole gene families by a single construct. Expression of the hairpin RNAs reduced the mRNA levels of the target genes by at least 90%, as determined by quantitative real-time PCR. The reduced mRNA levels were accompanied by cytosine methylation of transcribed and nontranscribed DNA at both silencing and target loci in the case of constitutive high-level expression of the hairpin RNA but not in the case of transient expression. These results suggest the presence of both posttranscriptional and transcriptional gene silencing mechanisms in C. cinerea and demonstrate the applicability of targeted gene silencing as a powerful reverse genetics approach in this organism.
Dynamic Factor Analysis of Industry Sector Default Rates and Implication for Portfolio Credit Risk Modelling

In this paper we use a reduced form model for the analysis of Portfolio Credit Risk. For this purpose, we fit a Dynamic Factor model, DF, to a large dataset of default rates proxies and macro-variables for Italy. Multi step ahead density and probability forecasts are obtained by employing both the direct and indirect method of prediction together with stochastic simulation of the DF model. We, first, find that the direct method is the best performer regarding the out of sample projection of financial distressful events. In a second stage of the analysis, the direct method of forecasting through principal components is shown to provide the least sensitive measures of Portfolio Credit Risk to various multifactor model specifications. Finally, the simulation results suggest that the benefits in terms of credit risk diversification tend to diminish with an increasing number of factors, especially when using the indirect method of forecasting.
A Comparison of the Psychosocial Aspects of AIDS and Cancer-Related Bereavement

Objective: This study compares the psychological symptoms and bereavement distress of individuals bereaved by AIDS with a group bereaved by a cancer death, and addresses the question of whether an AIDS death is associated with a higher rate of adverse psychosocial factors that may increase risk of psychological morbidity in the bereaved individuals. Method: AIDS (n = 28) and cancer (n = 30) bereaved individuals (all within 3 months of the bereavement) completed measures of psychological morbidity and measures addressing a range of other adverse factors, e.g., number of losses, levels of social support and stigma. Results: The cancer and AIDS bereaved were essentially similar on all psychological symptom measures. The AIDS group reported lower levels of social support in response to the bereavement than cancer bereaved individuals; a greater number of bereavements, were more likely to conceal the cause of death from significant others including their own family and perceived, in some instances, a greater level of rejection from others. The AIDS group reported higher levels of social support from friends than from family. Conclusions: At three months following bereavement, AIDS and cancer bereaved were similar in levels of distress. While this may change with the progress of grief over time, it suggests essentially similar early bereavement responses. Those bereaved by AIDS reported a range of other adverse factors such as a greater number of losses, lower social support, stigma, and less open disclosure of the cause of death.
Explaining the School Performance of African-American Adolescents

This study examined the hypothesis that African-American adolescents' school achievement is detrimentally influenced by their perception of a discriminatory "job ceiling" affecting their employment opportunities. As a consequence of these perceptions, African-American adolescents allegedly: (a) devalue the importance of educational achievements (b) perceive that they have low academic ability, and (c) develop a social or racial identity at odds with academic achievement. These predictions were examined in a sample of 344 African-American and White students attending public and Catholic high schools. Results consistent with the model revealed that the more aware of discrimination the African-American adolescents were, the less important they perceived academic achievement to be, and the less engaged they were in their school work. However, the adolescents' awareness of discrimination was unrelated to their serf-perceptions of their own academic abilities and their ethnic identity. Indeed, adolescents' ethn.
Perturbation Growth and Structure in Time-Dependent Flows

Asymptotic linear stability of time-dependent flows is examined by extending to nonautonomous systems methods of nonnormal analysis that were recently developed for studying the stability of autonomous systems. In the case of either an autonomous or a nonautonomous operator, singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis of the propagator leads to identification of a complete set of optimal perturbations ordered according to the extent of growth over a chosen time interval as measured in a chosen inner product generated norm. The longtime asymptotic structure in the case of an autonomous operator is the norm-independent, most rapidly growing normal mode while in the case of the nonautonomous operator it is the first Lyapunov vector that grows at the norm independent mean rate of the first Lyapunov exponent. While information about the first normal mode such as its structure, energetics, vorticity budget, and growth rate are easily accessible through eigenanalysis of the dynamical operator, analogous information about the first Lyapunov vector is less easily obtained. In this work the stability of time-dependent deterministic and stochastic dynamical operators is examined in order to obtain a better understanding of the asymptotic stability of time-dependent systems and the nature of the first Lyapunov vector. Among the results are a mechanistic physical understanding of the time-dependent instability process, necessary conditions on the time dependence of an operator in order for destabilization to occur, understanding of why the Rayleigh theorem does not constrain the stability of time-dependent flows, the dependence of the first Lyapunov exponent on quantities characterizing the dynamical system, and identification of dynamical processes determining the time-dependent structure of the first Lyapunov vector.
Professionals in search of professionalism: Journalists' dilemma in four Maghreb states

This qualitative field study examines the major educational and training programs in journalism in Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia and difficulties posed by the political, legal and media structural factors in the application of professional skills acquired through journalism education. Interviews with journalists, academics, students and media administrators in North Africa reveal that a variety of constraints are adversely affecting professionalism in journalism and contributing to the disillusionment of an increasing number of professional journalists. Implications for journalism education are considered.
The role of emotional responding and childhood maltreatment in the development and maintenance of deliberate self-harm among male undergraduates.

Despite recent findings indicating comparable rates of deliberate self-harm across gender (Gratz, Conrad, & Roemer, 2002; Klonsky, Oltmanns, & Turkheimer, 2003; Muehlenkamp & Gutierrez, 2004; Zoroglu et al., 2003), little research has examined the pathogenesis of self-harm among men. Thus, the prese
Making a Statement: An exploratory study of barriers facing women with an intellectual disability when making a statement about sexual assault to police

Many women with intellectual disability become the victims of sexual assault. Despite this, anecdotal evidence suggests that few cases are prosecuted. This qualitative study looks at the barriers that arise at the crucial first step toward the prosecution of a complaint - making a statement to the police. In this study, sexual assault workers and members of the New South Wales police service in the greater Sydney area, Australia, were interviewed to identify the barriers that arise when women with intellectual disability decide to make a statement to police following sexual assault. The study's findings demonstrate a need for greater awareness within the police service of police policies and procedures, and legislation, as well as greater co-operation between the police service and other organisations, which have an impact on the lives of women with intellectual disability.
5-HT(7) receptors activate the mitogen activated protein kinase extracellular signal related kinase in cultured rat hippocampal neurons.

Medications that selectively increase 5-hydroxytryptamine are currently the most commonly prescribed antidepressants. However, it is not known which receptors for 5-hydroxytryptamine, nor which post-receptor cellular signals, mediate the antidepressant actions of 5-hydroxytryptamine. The hippocampus is highly innervated by serotonergic neurons and appears to be an ideal region of the brain for studying the antidepressant role of 5-hydroxytryptamine. Treatment with antidepressants has been shown to cause increased expression of proteins in the hippocampus that appear to be protective against stress-induced atrophy. This suggests a role for pathways, such as mitogen-activated protein kinase, that regulate protein synthesis. In the present study we found that 5-HT(7) receptors, expressed by cultured rat hippocampal neurons, couple to stimulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase extracellular signal-regulated kinases ERK1 and ERK2. The 5-HT(1/7) receptor-selective agonist 5-carboxamidotryptamine maleate (5-CT) as well as the 5-HT(1A/7) receptor-selective agonists 8-hydroxy-N,N-dipropyl-aminotetralin (8-OH-DPAT) and N,N-dipropyl-5-carboxamidotryptamine maleate (dipropyl-5-CT) were found to activate extracellular signal-regulated kinase with equal efficacy to 5-HT. However, the EC(50) for 8-OH-DPAT was approximately 200-fold greater than that of 5-HT, a difference in potency consistent with the pharmacology of 5-HT(7), but not 5-HT(1A), receptors. Additionally, pretreatment with pertussis toxin, which would be expected to block the actions of 5-HT(1,) but not 5-HT(7,) receptors caused no inhibition. 4-Iodo-N-[2-[4-(methoxyphenyl)-1-piperazinyl]ethyl]N-2-pyridinyl-benzamide hydrochloride (p-MPPI) and N-[2-[4-(2-Methoxyphenyl)-1-piperazinyl]ethyl]-N-2-pyridinyl-cyclohexanecarb oxamide maleate (WAY-100635), antagonists selective for 5-HT(1A) receptors, similarly caused no inhibition of the activity of 5-HT.In summary, these studies are the first to demonstrate that 5-hydroxytryptamine activates the mitogen-activated protein kinase ERK in primary neuronal cultures. That 5-HT(7) receptors couple to activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase in hippocampal neurons suggests a possible role for 5-HT(7) receptors in mediating some of the actions of antidepressants that increase 5-hydroxytryptamine.
Effects of Preexamination Disclosure of Essay Topics

To determine the effects on test performance and test validity of releasing essay topics before a writing examination, researchers asked 300 prospective graduate students to write 2 essays, 1 on a previously unseen topic and 1 on a topic that was made available about 2 weeks before the test. Although for each of the 4 essay topics studied, performance was slightly better when a topic had been disclosed, overall analyses did not reveal any statistically significant effect of disclosure on test performance. Consequently, there was no detectable effect of disclosure on the relation of test performance to several independent indicators of writing skill. Limitations of the study are discussed in terms of its generalizability to a high-stakes testing situation and the extent to which it addressed both the positive and the negative effects of disclosure.
Are the self-employed really that poor? Income poverty and living standard among self-employed in Sweden

Small enterprises are often highlighted by politicians as important engines of economic growth and job creation. However, previous research suggests that self-employment might not be equally beneficial for individuals in terms of their income compared to regular employment. Several studies have in fact found that the self-employed may face a substantially higher poverty risk than do regular employees. The aim of the present study is to investigate to what extent income poverty is a good predictor of actual living standards among the self-employed. Is the relationship between income poverty and living standards different for self-employed compared to the regularly employed? To investigate this question we use a unique Swedish survey dataset including regularly employed (n=2,642) as well as self-employed (over-sampled, n=2,483). Income poverty is defined as living in a household with less than 60% of the median household income. Living standards are measured with a deprivation index based on 29 consumption indicators. The results show that even though income poverty is more prevalent among the self-employed than among the regularly employed, no evidence can be found suggesting that the self-employed have a lower standard of living than the regularly employed. Furthermore, when specifically comparing income poor self-employed with income poor regularly employed, we find that the income poor self-employed score significantly lower on the deprivation index even after the compositional characteristics of both groups are taken into account. The conclusion is that poverty measures based on income data underestimate the actual living standard of the self-employed.