Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Suppressive and enhancing effects in early visual cortex during illusory shape perception: A comment on Kok and de Lange (2014)

In a recent functional magnetic resonance imaging study, Kok and de Lange (2014) observed that BOLD activity for a Kanizsa illusory shape stimulus, in which pacmen-like inducers elicit an illusory shape percept, was either enhanced or suppressed relative to a nonillusory control configuration depending on whether the spatial profile of BOLD activity in early visual cortex was related to the illusory shape or the inducers, respectively. The authors argued that these findings fit well with the predictive coding framework, because top-down predictions related to the illusory shape are not met with bottom-up sensory input and hence the feedforward error signal is enhanced. Conversely, for the inducing elements, there is a match between top-down predictions and input, leading to a decrease in error. Rather than invoking predictive coding as the explanatory framework, the suppressive effect related to the inducers might be caused by neural adaptation to perceptually stable input due to the trial sequence used in the experiment.
Exploration of classification using NBTree for predicting students' performance

The growth of academic data size in higher education institutions increases rapidly. This huge volume of data collection from many years contains hidden knowledge, which can assist the improvement of education quality and students performance. Students' performance is affected by many factors. In this study, the data used for data mining were students' personal data, education data, admission data, and academic data. NBTree classification technique, one of data mining methods, was adopted to predict the performance of students. Several experiments were performed to discover a prediction model for students' performance. The class labels of students' performance were students' status in study, graduates predicates, and length of study. The experiments were conducted with two-level classification, the university level and faculty level. The resulted model indicated that some attributes had significant influence over students' performance.
Customer Adoption of Internet Banking: An Integration of TAM with Trust, Perceived Risk, and Quality

Even though internet banking service provides advantages for both customers and the bank, there is still a large group of customers refusing to use this service. So there is a need to identify the factors that determine customer acceptance of Internet banking service. This study based on the TAM, integrating trust perception and perceived risk to predict the user intention. And this study extended the adoption model by focusing on quality’s effects on customers’ perception about the internet banking. A comprehensive research model was developed and empirically examined. Results of the data analysis strongly support the model as well as 14 of the 16 proposed hypotheses.
Optimal energy transition and taxation of non-renewable resources

This paper investigates the optimal taxation path of a non-renewable resource in the presence of an imperfect substitute renewable resource. We present an optimal growth model and characterize the social optimum and the decentralized equilibrium. We show that the economy gradually reduces the share of non-renewable resource and converges to a steady state in which it uses only the renewable resource. The decentralized economy converges to the same steady state as the social optimum in terms of capital stock and consumption whether there is a regulator intervention or not. What matters for welfare, however, is the speed at which the economy approaches the clean state - the energy transition, which determines the level of environmental damages. We obtain the optimal taxation rule and show that its time profile can be either always increasing, decreasing or U-shaped depending on the initial state of the economy. Finally we provide some simulation results to illustrate these theoretical findings.
A Hubble Space Telescope Census of Nuclear Star Clusters in Late-Type Spiral Galaxies. II. Cluster Sizes and Structural Parameter Correlations

We investigate the structural properties of nuclear star clusters in late-type spiral galaxies. More specifically, we fit analytical models to Hubble Space Telescope images of 39 nuclear clusters in order to determine their effective radii after correction for the instrumental point-spread function. We use the results of this analysis to compare the luminosities and sizes of nuclear star clusters to those of other ellipsoidal stellar systems, in particular the Milky Way globular clusters. Our nuclear clusters have a median effective radius of e = 3.5 pc, with 50% of the sample falling in the range 2.4 pc ≤ re ≤ 5.0 pc. This narrow size distribution is statistically indistinguishable from that of Galactic globular clusters, even though the nuclear clusters are, on average, 4 mag brighter than the old globular clusters. We discuss some possible interpretations of this result. From a comparison of nuclear cluster luminosities with various properties of their host galaxies, we confirm that more luminous galaxies harbor more luminous nuclear clusters. It remains unclear whether this correlation mainly reflects the influence of galaxy size, mass, and/or star formation rate. Since the brighter galaxies in our sample typically have stellar disks with a higher central surface brightness, nuclear cluster luminosity also correlates with this property of their hosts. On the other hand, we find no evidence for a correlation between the presence of a nuclear star cluster and the presence of a large-scale stellar bar.
Meta-Analysis of a Complex Network of Non-Pharmacological Interventions: The Example of Femoral Neck Fracture

Background Surgical interventions raise specific methodological issues in network meta-analysis (NMA). They are usually multi-component interventions resulting in complex networks of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), with multiple groups and sparse connections. Purpose To illustrate the applicability of the NMA in a complex network of surgical interventions and to prioritize the available interventions according to a clinically relevant outcome. Methods We considered RCTs of treatments for femoral neck fracture in adults. We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE and ClinicalTrials.gov up to November 2015. Two reviewers independently selected trials, extracted data and used the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing the risk of bias. A group of orthopedic surgeons grouped similar but not identical interventions under the same node. We synthesized the network using a Bayesian network meta-analysis model. We derived posterior odds ratios (ORs) and 95% credible intervals (95% CrIs) for all possible pairwise comparisons. The primary outcome was all-cause revision surgery. Results Data from 27 trials were combined, for 4,186 participants (72% women, mean age 80 years, 95% displaced fractures). The median follow-up was 2 years. With hemiarthroplasty (HA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA) as a comparison, risk of surgical revision was significantly higher with the treatments unthreaded cervical osteosynthesis (OR 8.0 [95% CrI 3.6–15.5] and 5.9 [2.4–12.0], respectively), screw (9.4 [6.0–16.5] and 6.7 [3.9–13.6]) and plate (12.5 [5.8–23.8] and 7.8 [3.8–19.4]). Conclusions In older women with displaced femoral neck fractures, arthroplasty (HA and THA) is the most effective treatment in terms of risk of revision surgery. Systematic Review Registration PROSPERO no. CRD42013004218. Level of Evidence Network Meta-Analysis, Level 1.
High performance evanescent edge coupled waveguide unitraveling-carrier photodiodes for >40-gb/s optical receivers

We have demonstrated a low-cost high-bandwidth and high-responsivity evanescent waveguide unitravelling-carrier photodiode (PD) fabricated using all 2-in InP processing including on-wafer mirrors and coating. Optimization of the optical input waveguide was made using the method of the genetic algorithm associated with a beam propagation method. Optical fiber coupling to the PD is based on a diluted multimode waveguide allowing simple material epitaxial growth. The fabricated PDs exhibit simultaneously 0.76-A/W responsivity at 1.55 /spl mu/m, >50-GHz bandwidth, and more than 22-mA average saturation photocurrent at 50 GHz. The light polarization dependence is less than 0.1 dB.
of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Title Individual differences in anchoring : numerical ability , education and experience

Anchoring is a well-known effect leading to bias in estimation in various decision-making contexts. A question, however, is whether individuals with greater numerical and academic ability would be less prone to this effect than others because of greater ability to discern the value being estimated. In light of growing interest in the role of individual differences in bias susceptibility, anchoring was examined in a simulated pokerlike card game, using people with varying levels of academic achievement and psychometric reasoning scores. The results showed that anchoring susceptibility was unrelated to education levels, but negatively associated with numerical reasoning and cognitive reflection scores. This result, however, was mediated by task expertise because participants with higher cognitive abilities were those more likely to display improvements in anchoring performance over the course of the experiment.
The Effects of High Stakes High School Achievement Awards: Evidence from a Randomized Trial

The Israeli matriculation certificate is a prerequisite for most postsecondary schooling. In a randomized trial, we attempted to increase certification rates among low-achievers with cash incentives. The experiment used a school-based randomization design offering awards to all who passed their exams in treated schools. This led to a substantial increase in certification rates for girls but had no effect on boys. Affected girls had a relatively high ex ante chance of certification. The increase in girls' matriculation rates translated into an increased likelihood of college attendance. Female matriculation rates increased partly because treated girls devoted extra time to exam preparation. (JEL I21, I28, J16)
Adaptation to Low Salinity Promotes Genomic Divergence in Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua L.)

How genomic selection enables species to adapt to divergent environments is a fundamental question in ecology and evolution. We investigated the genomic signatures of local adaptation in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) along a natural salinity gradient, ranging from 35‰ in the North Sea to 7‰ within the Baltic Sea. By utilizing a 12 K SNPchip, we simultaneously assessed neutral and adaptive genetic divergence across the Atlantic cod genome. Combining outlier analyses with a landscape genomic approach, we identified a set of directionally selected loci that are strongly correlated with habitat differences in salinity, oxygen, and temperature. Our results show that discrete regions within the Atlantic cod genome are subject to directional selection and associated with adaptation to the local environmental conditions in the Baltic- and the North Sea, indicating divergence hitchhiking and the presence of genomic islands of divergence. We report a suite of outlier single nucleotide polymorphisms within or closely located to genes associated with osmoregulation, as well as genes known to play important roles in the hydration and development of oocytes. These genes are likely to have key functions within a general osmoregulatory framework and are important for the survival of eggs and larvae, contributing to the buildup of reproductive isolation between the low-salinity adapted Baltic cod and the adjacent cod populations. Hence, our data suggest that adaptive responses to the environmental conditions in the Baltic Sea may contribute to a strong and effective reproductive barrier, and that Baltic cod can be viewed as an example of ongoing speciation.
Rate of Convergence of the Gibbs Sampler byGaussian

SUMMARY In this article we approximate the rate of convergence of the Gibbs sampler by a normal approximation of the target distribution. Based on this approximation, we consider many implementational issues for the Gibbs sampler, e.g., updating strategy, parameterization and blocking. We give theoretical results to justify our approximation and illustrate our methods in a number of realistic examples.
Many lncRNAs, 5’UTRs, and pseudogenes are translated and some are likely to express functional proteins

Using a new bioinformatic method to analyze ribosome profiling data, we show that 40% of lncRNAs and pseudogene RNAs expressed in human cells are translated. In addition, ~35% of mRNA coding genes are translated upstream of the primary protein-coding region (uORFs) and 4% are translated downstream (dORFs). Translated lncRNAs preferentially localize in the cytoplasm, whereas untranslated lncRNAs preferentially localize in the nucleus. The translation efficiency of cytoplasmic lncRNAs is nearly comparable to that of mRNAs, suggesting that cytoplasmic lncRNAs are engaged by the ribosome and translated. While most peptides generated from lncRNAs may be highly unstable byproducts without function, ~9% of the peptides are conserved in ORFs in mouse transcripts, as are 74% of pseudogene peptides, 24% of uORF peptides and 32% of dORF peptides. Analyses of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitution rates of these conserved peptides show that some are under stabilizing selection, suggesting potential functional importance. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.08890. 001
Design of a Text Detection System via Hypothesis Generation and Verication

Text-detection is a well-established topic within the document recognition domain, but detecting text in natural scenes has proved to be considerably harder due to the large variability of text appearances, and due to dominating clutter. In this paper, we begin with a practical model for text appearance and use it to motivate the design of a text detection system consisting of two stages: a hypothesis generation stage and a hypothesis verification stage. For hypothesis generation, we adapt the Maximally Stable Extremal Regions (MSER) algorithm for the task of text detection by a combination of judicious parameter selection and a computationally efficient multi-scale analysis of MSER regions. For hypothesis verification, we design simple and fast image operations that produce features highly discriminative of text, which require minimal training, whose performance bounds can be specified, and which can be tuned in terms of intuitively understandable properties of text such as font, stroke-width, spacing, etc. Our final contribution is a new dataset of images of urban scenes annotated for text. The annotations include not only bounding boxes but also a richer set of text attributes. There are about 6000 text items in the dataset making it to our knowledge, the largest, most challenging, and most detailed text dataset for urban scenes. We show improved performance than state-of-the-art on the well-known ICDAR datasets and results on our new dataset.
‘One Person’s Evidence Is Another Person’s Nonsense’: Why Police Organizations Resist Evidence-Based Practices

Despite the noted importance of evidence-based policing (EBP) strategies, police organizations have been slow to adopt them. The present study aims to identify internal and external organizational factors that lead to resistance towards EBP. Qualitative data were obtained through in-depth interviews with 38 executive level police officers and members of police research organizations across Canada. Results reveal that resistance towards EBP is mainly due to organizational factors that arise from within the organization as well as external factors that are political in nature. Although the findings would be helpful for police organizations to reduce resistance to EBP, they must be interpreted with caution given the limited sample size preventing the generalization of results.
The Incidence of Epstein-Barr Virus Primary Infection Among Suspected Patients Referred to Namazi Hospital of Shiraz, Iran

Background: Many children become infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) during their childhood. Since the clinical profile of EBV primary infection is challenging, it is important to use the best diagnostic clinical means. Detection of IgM against viral capsid antigen (VCA) by ELISA has been shown to be a reliable method. Objectives: This study was conducted to demonstrate the incidence of EBV primary infection, among suspected patients referred to Namazi hospital, Shiraz, Iran. Patients and Methods: The sample included 346 patients with an age range of 0 to 20 years (6.31 ± 4.66: 10.97 years). A volume of 5 mL of blood was collected from each case. The patients were divided to four age groups. The sera were tested for the presence of VCA-IgM by commercially available Anti-EBV-VCA ELISA kit. Results: The results indicated that 104 (30.0%) of the patients were EBV VCA IgM positive, with no significant difference in the incidence of EBV primary infection between males and females. However, the incidence of infection was significantly different between age group I (0 - 5 years) and III (11 - 15 years), and also between age group I (0 - 5 years) and IV (16 - 20 years) (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Considering the results, accurate and on time diagnosis of EBV primary infection in both children and adolescents will help prevent unnecessary hospitalization, medication and incorrect medical decisions. In addition, this will decrease further treatment costs and related medical procedures.
Using mortuary statistics in the development of an injury surveillance system in Ghana.

OBJECTIVE To develop, in a mortuary setting, a pilot programme for improving the accuracy of records of deaths caused by injury. METHODS The recording of injury-related deaths was upgraded at the mortuary of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana, in 1996 through the creation of a prospectively gathered database. FINDINGS There was an increase in the number of deaths reported annually as attributable to injury from 72 before 1995 to 633 in 1996-99. Injuries accounted for 8.6% of all deaths recorded in the mortuary and for 12% of deaths in the age range 15-59 years; 80% of deaths caused by injury occurred outside the hospital and thus would not have been indicated in hospital statistics; 88% of injury-related deaths were associated with transport, and 50% of these involved injuries to pedestrians. CONCLUSIONS Injury was a significant cause of mortality in this urban African setting, especially among adults of working age. The reporting of injury-related deaths in a mortuary was made more complete and accurate by means of simple inexpensive methods. This source of data could make a significant contribution to an injury surveillance system, along with hospital records and police accident reports.
Diagnosis and Antiviral Intervention Strategies for Mitigating an Influenza Epidemic

Background Many countries have amassed antiviral stockpiles for pandemic preparedness. Despite extensive trial data and modelling studies, it remains unclear how to make optimal use of antiviral stockpiles within the constraints of healthcare infrastructure. Modelling studies informed recommendations for liberal antiviral distribution in the pandemic phase, primarily to prevent infection, but failed to account for logistical constraints clearly evident during the 2009 H1N1 outbreaks. Here we identify optimal delivery strategies for antiviral interventions accounting for logistical constraints, and so determine how to improve a strategy's impact. Methods and Findings We extend an existing SEIR model to incorporate finite diagnostic and antiviral distribution capacities. We evaluate the impact of using different diagnostic strategies to decide to whom antivirals are delivered. We then determine what additional capacity is required to achieve optimal impact. We identify the importance of sensitive and specific case ascertainment in the early phase of a pandemic response, when the proportion of false-positive presentations may be high. Once a substantial percentage of ILI presentations are caused by the pandemic strain, identification of cases for treatment on syndromic grounds alone results in a greater potential impact than a laboratory-dependent strategy. Our findings reinforce the need for a decentralised system capable of providing timely prophylaxis. Conclusions We address specific real-world issues that must be considered in order to improve pandemic preparedness policy in a practical and methodologically sound way. Provision of antivirals on the scale proposed for an effective response is infeasible using traditional public health outbreak management and contact tracing approaches. The results indicate to change the transmission dynamics of an influenza epidemic with an antiviral intervention, a decentralised system is required for contact identification and prophylaxis delivery, utilising a range of existing services and infrastructure in a “whole of society” response.
Optimized Production of Xylitol from Xylose Using a Hyper-Acidophilic Candida tropicalis

The yeast Candida tropicalis DSM 7524 produces xylitol, a natural, low-calorie sweetener, by fermentation of xylose. In order to increase xylitol production rate during the submerged fermentation process, some parameters-substrate (xylose) concentration, pH, aeration rate, temperature and fermentation strategy-have been optimized. The maximum xylitol yield reached at 60–80 g/L initial xylose concentration, pH 5.5 at 37 °C was 83.66% (w/w) on consumed xylose in microaerophilic conditions (kLa = 2·h−1). Scaling up on 3 L fermenter, with a fed-batch strategy, the best xylitol yield was 86.84% (w/w), against a 90% of theoretical yield. The hyper-acidophilic behaviour of C. tropicalis makes this strain particularly promising for industrial application, due to the possibility to work in non-sterile conditions.
A comparison of Pedestrian Dead-Reckoning algorithms using a low-cost MEMS IMU

Human localization is a very valuable information for smart environments. State-of-the-art Local Positioning Systems (LPS) require a complex sensor-network infrastructure to locate with enough accuracy and coverage. Alternatively, Inertial Measuring Units (IMU) can be used to estimate the movement of a person, by detecting steps, estimating stride lengths and the directions of motion; a methodology that is called Pedestrian Dead-Reckoning (PDR). In this paper, we use low-performance Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS) inertial sensors attached to the foot of a person. This sensor has triaxial orthogonal accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers. We describe, implement and compare several of the most relevant algorithms for step detection, stride length, heading and position estimation. The challenge using MEMS is to provide location estimations with enough accuracy and a limited drift. Several tests were conducted outdoors and indoors, and we found that the stride length estimation errors were about 1%. The positioning errors were almost always below 5% of the total travelled distance. The main source of positioning errors are the absolute orientation estimation.