Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Affect recognition using EEG signal

Emotion states greatly influence many areas in our daily lives, such as: learning, decision making and interaction with others. Therefore, the ability to detect and recognize one's emotional states is essential in intelligence Human Machine Interaction (HMI). The aim of this study was to develop a new system that can sense and communicate emotion changes expressed by the Central Nervous System (CNS) through the use of EEG signals. More specifically, this study was carried out to develop an EEG-based subject-dependent affect recognition system to quantitatively measure and categorize three affect states: Positively excited, neutral and negatively excited. In this paper, we discussed implementation issues associated with each key stage of a fully automated affect recognition system: emotion elicitation protocol, feature extraction and classification. EEG recordings from 5 subjects with IAPS images as stimuli from the eNTERFACE06 database were used for simulation purposes. Discriminating features were extracted in both time and frequency domains (statistical, narrow-band, HOC, and wavelet entropy) to better understand the oscillatory nature of the brain waves. Through the use of k Nearest Neighbor classifier (kNN), we obtained mean correct classification rates of 90.77% on the three emotion classes when K equals 5. This demonstrated the feasibility of brain waves as a mean to categorize a user's emotion state. Secondly, we also assessed the suitability of commercially available EEG headsets such as Emotive Epoc for emotion recognition applications. This study was carried out by comparing the sensor location, signal integrity with those of Biosemi Active II. A new set of recognition performance was presented with reduced number of channels.
Alterações de fala em escolares na cidade de

Purpose: To describe speech disorders in students from 1st to 4th grades, and to investigate possible associations between these disorders and stomatognathic system and auditory processing disorders. Methods: Cross-sectional study with stratified random sample composed of 288 students, calculated based on an universe of 1,189 children enrolled in public schools from the area covered by a health center in Belo Horizonte. The median age was 8.9 years, and 49.7% were male. Assessment used a stomatognathic system protocol adapted from the Myofunctional Evaluation Guidelines, the Phonology task of the ABFW – Child Language Test, and a simplified auditory processing evaluation. Data were statistically analyzed. Results: From the subjects studied, 31.9% had speech disorder. From these, 18% presented phonetic deviation, 9.7% phonological deviation, and 4.2% phonetic and phonological deviation. Linguistic variation was observed in 38.5% of the children. There was a higher proportion of children with phonetic deviation in 1st grade, and a higher proportion of children younger than 8 years old with both phonetic and phonological deviations. Phonetic deviation was associated to stomatognathic system disorder, and phonological deviation was associated to auditory processing disorder. Conclusion: The prevalence of speech disorders in 1st to 4th grade students is considered high. Moreover, these disorders are associated to other Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology alterations, which suggest that one disorder may be a consequence of the other, indicating the need for early diagnosis and intervention.
Chiral Fermions from Manifolds Of G 2 Holonomy

M-theory compactification on a manifold X of $G_2$ holonomy can give chiral fermions in four dimensions only if X is singular. A number of examples of conical singularities that give chiral fermions are known; the present paper is devoted to describing some additional examples. In some of them, the physics can be determined but the metric is not known explicitly, while in others the metric can be described explicitly but the physics is more challenging to understand.
Don’t forget the fish – towards an archaeology of the Abydos Plain, Pilbara, Western Australia

Abstract The archaeology of the arid and apparently inhospitable spinifex plains of today’s inland Pilbara, Western Australia, is dominated by sites with bedrock grinding patches. These range from single and sometimes barely visible areas of ground granite to sites with more than a hundred flat, slightly concave or sometimes deeply grooved ground patches. Sometimes a solitary feature, sometimes associated with engravings or scattered stone artefacts, these sites contribute to the story of the movement of people through this arid landscape. But what do they tell us? Using ethnohistorical, ethnographic and experimental studies, this paper evaluates data collected from sites with bedrock grinding patches recorded on the Abydos Plain. Our results highlight the need for ‘grinding’ patches to be reconsidered as more than ‘grinding’ patches, for better modelling of freshwater ecology and inland fishing, and for the potential of spinifex fibre technology to be actively incorporated into reconstructions of hunter gatherer lifeways in arid landscapes.
Improved survival outcomes with the incidental use of beta-blockers among patients with non-small-cell lung cancer treated with definitive radiation therapy.

BACKGROUND Preclinical studies have shown that norepinephrine can directly stimulate tumor cell migration and that this effect is mediated by the beta-adrenergic receptor. PATIENTS AND METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 722 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received definitive radiotherapy (RT). A Cox proportional hazard model was utilized to determine the association between beta-blocker intake and locoregional progression-free survival (LRPFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS). RESULTS In univariate analysis, patients taking beta-blockers (n = 155) had improved DMFS (P < 0.01), DFS (P < 0.01), and OS (P = 0.01), but not LRPFS (P = 0.33) compared with patients not taking beta-blockers (n = 567). In multivariate analysis, beta-blocker intake was associated with a significantly better DMFS [hazard ratio (HR), 0.67; P = 0.01], DFS (HR, 0.74; P = 0.02), and OS (HR, 0.78; P = 0.02) with adjustment for age, Karnofsky performance score, stage, histology type, concurrent chemotherapy, radiation dose, gross tumor volume, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the use of aspirin. There was no association of beta-blocker use with LRPFS (HR = 0.91, P = 0.63). CONCLUSION Beta-blocker use is associated with improved DMFS, DFS, and OS in this large cohort of NSCLC patients. Future prospective trials can validate these retrospective findings and determine whether the length and timing of beta-blocker use influence survival outcomes.
Structured Graphics for Distributed Systems

One of the most important functions of an intelligent workstation is to provide a state-of-the-art user interface to distributed resources. One aspect of such an interface is virtual terminal support for both local and remote applications with a range of requirements, including graphics. To ensure good response for remote applications, in particular, the bulk of user interaction must be handled local to the workstation. Therefore, the terminal management software on the workstation must provide object modeling as well as viewing facilities, in contrast to most contemporary graphics systems. One way of doing this is to support structured display files. It is equally important to support simultaneous access to multiple applications; thus the terminal management software must provide window system Lscilities. Lastly, since the terminal management software should present a common interface to both local and remote applications, the workstation itself should be regarded as a multifunction component of the distributed system and not strictly as a terminal or a personal computer. This paper presents the system architecture and protocols necessary to achieve these goals and evaluates an existing implementation.
Alan Turing y los orígenes de la eliminación gaussiana moderna

The solution of a system of linear equations is by far the most important problem in Applied Mathematics. It is important both in itself and because it is an intermediate step in many other important problems. Gaussian elimination is nowadays the standard method for solving this problem numerically on a computer and it was the first numerical algorithm to be subjected to rounding error analysis. In 1948, Alan Turing published a remarkable paper on this topic: “Rounding-off errors in matrix processes” (Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 1, pp. 287-308). In this paper, Turing formulated Gaussian elimination as the matrix LU factorization and introduced the “condition number of a matrix”, both of them fundamental notions of modern Numerical Analysis. In addition, Turing presented an error analysis of Gaussian elimination for general matrices that deeply influenced the spirit of the definitive analysis developed by James Wilkinson in 1961. Alan Turing’s work on Gaussian elimination appears in a fascinating period for modern Numerical Analysis. Other giants of Mathematics, as John von Neumann, Herman Goldstine, and Harold Hotelling were also working in the mid-1940s on Gaussian elimination. The goal of these researchers was to find an efficient and reliable method for solving systems of linear equations in modern “automatic computers”. At that time, it was not clear at all whether Gaussian elimination was a right choice or not. The purpose of this paper is to revise, at an introductory level, the contributions of Alan Turing and other authors to the error analysis of Gaussian elimination, the historical context of these contributions, and their influence on modern Numerical Analysis.
Experiences with 0–36-h Explicit Convective Forecasts with the WRF-ARW Model

Abstract Herein, a summary of the authors’ experiences with 36-h real-time explicit (4 km) convective forecasts with the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF-ARW) during the 2003–05 spring and summer seasons is presented. These forecasts are compared to guidance obtained from the 12-km operational Eta Model, which employed convective parameterization (e.g., Betts–Miller–Janjic). The results suggest significant value added for the high-resolution forecasts in representing the convective system mode (e.g., for squall lines, bow echoes, mesoscale convective vortices) as well as in representing the diurnal convective cycle. However, no improvement could be documented in the overall guidance as to the timing and location of significant convective outbreaks. Perhaps the most notable result is the overall strong correspondence between the Eta and WRF-ARW guidance, for both good and bad forecasts, suggesting the overriding influence of larger scales of forcing on convective development in.
Perlocutionary effects and relevance theory

The paper adopts and modifies Austin�s (1962) notion of perlocutionary effects and argues for recognizing the significance of such effects in communication. I draw a parallel between persuasion, which has received much attention in RT and is believed to be intrinsically linked to comprehension, and other effects, such as amusement or taking offence. I hypothesise that the latter occur not merely as consequences of interpretations consisting in an explicature and a set of implicatures, but that they may also have some impact on the inferential path and ultimately on the outcome of the comprehension process. To support this view, I refer to selected psychological findings on the inseparability of cognition and affect in stimuli processing.
Blended Learning or E-Learning?

ICT or Information and Communication Technology has pervaded the fields of education. In recent years the term “e-learning” has emerged as a result of the integration of ICT in the education fields. Following the application this technology into teaching, some pitfalls have been identified and this have led to the “Blended learning” phenomenon. However, the preference on this new method has been debated quite extensively. The aim of this paper is to investigate the advantages of blended learning over face-to-face instruction through reviews of related literature. The present survey revealed that blended learning is more favorable than pure e-learning and offers many advantages for learners like producing a sense of community or belonging. This study concludes that blended learning can be considered as an efficient approach of distance learning in terms of students’ learning experience, student-student interaction as well as student-instructor interaction and is likely to emerge as the predominant education model in the future.
Update of the Follow-Up of Mortality and Cancer Incidence among European Workers Employed in the Vinyl Chloride Industry

Although vinyl chloride is an established cause of liver angiosarcoma, the evidence is inconclusive on whether it also causes other neoplastic and nonneoplastic chronic liver diseases as well as neoplasms in other organs. Furthermore, the shape of the dose-response relation for angiosarcoma is uncertain. We have extended for approximately 8 years the mortality and cancer incidence follow-up of 12,700 male workers in the vinyl chloride industry in four European countries. All-cause mortality was lower than expected, whereas cancer mortality was close to expected. A total of 53 deaths from primary liver cancer (standardized mortality ratio 2.40, 95% confidence interval = 1.80–3.14) and 18 incident cases of liver cancer were identified, including 37 angiosarcomas, 10 hepatocellular carcinomas, and 24 liver cancers of other and unknown histology. In Poisson regression analyses we observed a marked exposure response for all liver cancers, angiosarcoma, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The exposure-response trend estimated for liver cancer in analyses restricted to cohort members with cumulative exposures of <1,500 parts per million-years was close to that estimated for the full cohort (relative risk of 2.0 per logarithmic unit of cumulative dose). No strong relation was observed between cumulative vinyl chloride exposure and other cancers. Although cirrhosis mortality was decreased overall, there was a trend with cumulative exposure.
Prediction of Genetic Values of Quantitative Traits in Plant Breeding Using Pedigree and Molecular Markers

The availability of dense molecular markers has made possible the use of genomic selection (GS) for plant breeding. However, the evaluation of models for GS in real plant populations is very limited. This article evaluates the performance of parametric and semiparametric models for GS using wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and maize (Zea mays) data in which different traits were measured in several environmental conditions. The findings, based on extensive cross-validations, indicate that models including marker information had higher predictive ability than pedigree-based models. In the wheat data set, and relative to a pedigree model, gains in predictive ability due to inclusion of markers ranged from 7.7 to 35.7%. Correlation between observed and predictive values in the maize data set achieved values up to 0.79. Estimates of marker effects were different across environmental conditions, indicating that genotype × environment interaction is an important component of genetic variability. These results indicate that GS in plant breeding can be an effective strategy for selecting among lines whose phenotypes have yet to be observed.
Power allocation in a transmit diversity system with mean channel gain information

We study the power allocation problem in a transmit diversity wireless system with mean channel gain information. In Rayleigh fading for a given set of mean channel gains and nodes, we seek to find the power allocation that minimizes the outage probability subject to a total power constraint. The optimal solution is shown to be computationally intensive when the number of channels is large. Instead, we derive a simple solution based on the upper bound to the outage probability which can be summarized as equal power allocation with channel selection. Numerical results show that the proposed solution is near-optimal over a wide range of parameter values. The problem addressed and the solution are relevant to a decode-and-forward cooperative relaying system with only partial channel information available to the relays.
Soft and Hard Textured Wheat Differ in Starch Properties as Indicated by Trimodal Distribution, Morphology, Thermal and Crystalline Properties

Starch and proteins are major components in the wheat endosperm that affect its end product quality. Between the two textural classes of wheat i.e. hard and soft, starch granules are loosely bound with the lipids and proteins in soft wheat due to higher expression of interfering grain softness proteins. It might have impact on starch granules properties. In this work for the first time the physiochemical and structural properties of different sized starch granules (A-, B- and C-granules) were studied to understand the differences in starches with respect to soft and hard wheat. A-, B- and C-type granules were separated with >95% purity. Average number and proportion of A-, B-, and C-type granules was 18%, 56%, 26% and 76%, 19%, 5% respectively. All had symmetrical birefringence pattern with varied intensity. All displayed typical A-type crystallites. A-type granules also showed V-type crystallinity that is indicative of starch complexes with lipids and proteins. Granules differing in gelatinization temperature (ΔH) and transition temperature (ΔT), showed different enthalpy changes during heating. Substitution analysis indicated differences in relative substitution pattern of different starch granules. Birefringence, percentage crystallinity, transmittance, gelatinization enthalpy and substitution decreased in order of A>B>C being higher in hard wheat than soft wheat. Amylose content decreased in order of A>B>C being higher in soft wheat than hard wheat. Reconstitution experiment showed that starch properties could be manipulated by changing the composition of starch granules. Addition of A-granules to total starch significantly affected its thermal properties. Effect of A-granule addition was higher than B- and C-granules. Transmittance of the starch granules paste showed that starch granules of hard wheat formed clear paste. These results suggested that in addition to differences in protein concentration, hard and soft wheat lines have differences in starch composition also.
Was Hayek an Ace?

In order to address the question whether Hayek might have been an Agent-based Computational Economist (ACE) avant-la-lettre, we consider an ACE model concerning the phenomenon of information contagion. Alongside increasing returns, network externalities, and information cascades, information contagion has been presented in the literature as an explanation for particular patterns of macrobehavior that may seem at odds with the underlying micromotives. But whereas these other explanations have been shown to have a proper microfoundation, information contagion has remained a phenomenon that seemed to occur only when certain ad hoc rules of thumb for individual behavior are assumed. We show how information-contagious behavior can emerge in a coevolutionary process of interacting adaptive agents, how this is related to various Hayekian themes, and how ACE research in general is an application of Hayek's methodological insights.
Comparing Three Data Mining Methods to Predict Kidney Transplant Survival

Introduction: One of the most important complications of post-transplant is rejection. Analyzing survival is one of the areas of medical prognosis and data mining, as an effective approach, has the capacity of analyzing and estimating outcomes in advance through discovering appropriate models among data. The present study aims at comparing the effectiveness of C5.0 algorithms, neural network and C&RTree to predict kidney transplant survival before transplant. Method: To detect factors effective in predicting transplant survival, information needs analysis was performed via a researcher-made questionnaire. A checklist was prepared and data of 513 kidney disease patient files were extracted from Sina Urology Research Center. Following CRISP methodology for data mining, IBM SPSS Modeler 14.2, C5.0, C&RTree algorithms and neural network were used. Results: Body Mass Index (BMI), cause of renal dysfunction and duration of dialysis were evaluated in all three models as the most effective factors in transplant survival. C5.0 algorithm with the highest validity (96.77%) was the first in estimating kidney transplant survival in patients followed by C&RTree (83.7%) and neural network (79.5%) models. Conclusion: Among the three models, C5.0 algorithm was the top model with high validity that confirms its strength in predicting survival. The most effective kidney transplant survival factors were detected in this study; therefore, duration of transplant survival (year) can be determined considering the regulations set for a new sample with specific characteristics.
Stress in parents of children born very preterm is predicted by child externalising behaviour and parent coping at age 7 years

Objective To examine factors which predict parenting stress in a longitudinal cohort of children born very preterm, and seen at age 7 years. Methods We recruited 100 very preterm (≤32 weeks gestational age) child-parent dyads and a control group of 50 term-born dyads born between 2001 and 2004 with follow-up at 7 years. Parents completed the Parenting Stress Index, Ways of Coping Questionnaire, Child Behavior Check List, Beck Depression Inventory and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaires. Child IQ was assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale-IV. Results After controlling for maternal education, parents of preterm children (95% CI 111.1 to 121.4) scored higher (p=0.027) on the Parenting Stress Index than term-born controls (95% CI 97.8 to 113.2). Regression analyses showed that child externalising behaviour, sex and parent escape/avoidance coping style, predicted higher parenting stress in the preterm group. Parents of preterm girls expressed higher levels of stress than those of boys. Conclusions Maladaptive coping strategies contribute to greater stress in parents of very preterm children. Our findings suggest that these parents need support for many years after birth of a very preterm infant.
Continuity of Halfspace Depth Contours and Maximum Depth Estimators: Diagnostics of Depth-Related Methods

Continuity of procedures based on the halfspace (Tukey) depth (location and regression setting) is investigated in the framework of continuity concepts from set-valued analysis. Investigated procedures are depth contours (upper level sets) and maximum depth estimators. Continuity is studied both as the pointwise continuity of data-analytic functions, and the weak continuity of statistical functionals--the latter having relevance for qualitative robustness. After a real-data example, some general criteria and counterexamples are given, as well as positive results holding for "typical" data. Finally, some consequences for diagnostics and practical use of the depth-based techniques are drawn.