Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A quick and robust method for measurement of signal-to-noise ratio in MRI

A novel method is proposed for the measurement of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the purpose of quality assurance (QA) in MRI. A boxcar filtering technique is applied which allows estimation of signal and noise from a single image. The method has been used to estimate SNR in a large set of images acquired in a consistent manner using various scanner models, coils and phantoms. Performance is evaluated by comparison with the double-image subtraction technique incorporating temporal instability correction. The limits of agreement between the techniques are comparable to typical variability in daily SNR, and significantly superior to the performance of other single-image methods published to date. Single-image methods are preferable as they halve the image acquisition time of the recommended double-image approach. Major inaccuracies are identified in methods of SNR measurement currently used for QA in MRI.
Movement Disorders Following Cerebrovascular Lesions in Cerebellar Circuits

Cerebellar circuitry is important to controlling and modifying motor activity. It conducts the coordination and correction of errors in muscle contractions during active movements. Therefore, cerebrovascular lesions of the cerebellum or its pathways can cause diverse movement disorders, such as action tremor, Holmes’ tremor, palatal tremor, asterixis, and dystonia. The pathophysiology of abnormal movements after stroke remains poorly understood. However, due to the current advances in functional neuroimaging, it has recently been described as changes in functional brain networks. This review describes the clinical features and pathophysiological mechanisms in different types of movement disorders following cerebrovascular lesions in the cerebellar circuits.
Executive Pay Disparity and the Cost of Equity Capital

Abstract Executive pay disparity, as measured by chief executive officer (CEO) pay slice (CPS), is positively associated with the implied cost of equity, even after controlling for other determinants of the cost of equity. The difference in the cost of equity can explain 43% of the difference in the valuation effect attributable to CPS reported by Bebchuk, Cremers, and Peyer (2011). Further analysis shows that the positive association is stronger when agency problems of free cash flow are more severe and when CEO succession planning is more important. Our evidence suggests that a large CPS is associated with CEO entrenchment and high succession risk.
An Investigative Study of Early Developmental Factors in Children with Motor/Learning Difficulties

The work reported here is part of a wider study initiated to explore through parental interviews the psychosocial and physiological development of children with motor/learning difficulties attending an occupational therapy department at a children's hospital. A basic profile of the children (age, sex, social class, type of dysfunction, IQ, education and marital status of parents and family size) is provided. In addition, the children's developmental histories from birth, including data on milestones, are presented and discussed.
Leisure Research by Canadians and Americans: One Community or Two Solitudes?

Recent empirical reviews of published research in North American leisure studies have argued that the field is intellectually and geographically isolated. The present article examines this contention by identifying similarities and differences in patterns of research dissemination between Canadian and American leisure researchers, with a view to investigating whether the two communities are distinct entities or part of an integrated and international community. The data were derived from a comprehensive record of refereed publication activity in leisure research journals and conference proceedings. From the standpoint of overall activities and productivity, Canadians and Americans were essentially the same, a conclusion substantiated in patterns of data related to general indicators of the level, timing, and longevity of research and publication activity. However, with respect to preferences for publishing articles in specific journals or presenting papers at specific conferences, Canadians and Americans diverged sharply: the majority tended to favor research dissemination in their own country's outlets. The results suggest that there are indeed “two solitudes” in North American leisure studies, at least among the majority of the community and in particular among Americans, less so among Canadians.
Antigen-initiated B-lymphocyte differentiation. VIII. Sedimentation velocity and buoyant density characterization of virgin antibody- forming cell progenitors in the adoptive immune response of unprimed CBA mice to 4-hydroxy-3-iodo-5-nitrophenylacetic acid-polymerized bacterial flagellin antigen

The characteristics of antibody-forming cell (AFC) progenitors lacking previous contact with specific antigen (virgin AFC progenitors) has been studied using sedimentation velocity and buoyant density separation for the investigation of physically distinct B-cell subpopulations. Functional characterization of isolated subsets was made using a quantitative adoptive immune assay for the IgM AFC progenitors responding to the antigen 4-hydroxy-3-iodo-5- nitrophenylacetic acid conjugated polymerized bacterial flagellin. Extensive heterogeneity is present among B lymphocytes, only some subpopulations of which exhibit AFC progenitor function. In the spleen of adult conventional CBA mice, atypically fast sedimenting cells of low buoyant density are active, while typical small B lymphocytes do not appear to be progenitors of IgM AFC. Spleen of adult specific pathogen-free (SPF), germfree, and athymic nude mice give similar results, although a minor population of typical slowly sedimenting dense cells are active in the latter two sources. Adult conventional bone marrow cells are as physically and functionally heterogeneous as splenic B cells, and although a significant proportion of AFC progenitor activity is found among dense, slowly sedimenting cells, most of the activity is among low density, faster sedimenting cells. In contrast to this situation in adult animals, where most of the unprimed AFC progenitors are large, atypical B cells, the spleens of neonatal mice provide a site where virgin AFC progenitors with the physical properties of typical small B lymphocytes are found. While being present in conventional and SPF neonatal spleens, these virgin cells are predominant in 7-day-old germfree mouse spleen. These findings suggest that the newborn virgin B cell is a typical small lymphocyte. However, few cells of this type are found in the adult animal. The unprimed AFC-progenitor population in the adult consists of large, fast sedimenting, low buoyant density, adherent cells, the physical properties of which are characteristic of activated B lymphocytes. It is suggested that these atypical cells are derived from the small newborn virgin B cell by the nonspecific effects of environmental antigenic stimuli.
Factors Associated With Left Atrial Remodeling in the General Population

Background— Although contributors to remodeling of the left ventricle (LV) have been well studied in general population cohorts, few data are available describing factors influencing changes in left atrial (LA) structure. Methods and Results— Maximum LA volume was determined by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging among 748 participants in the Dallas Heart Study at 2 visits a mean of 8 years apart. Associations of changes in LA volume (&Dgr;LAV) with traditional risk factors, biomarkers, LV geometry, and remodeling by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and detailed measurements of global and regional adiposity (by magnetic resonance imaging and dual-energy x ray absorptiometry) were assessed using multivariable linear regression. Greater &Dgr;LAV was independently associated with black and Hispanic race/ethnicity, change in systolic blood pressure, LV mass and &Dgr;LV mass, N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide and change in N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide, and body mass index (P<0.05 for each). In subanalyses, the associations of &Dgr;LAV with LV mass parameters were driven by associations with baseline and &Dgr;LV end diastolic volume (P<0.0001 for each) and not wall thickness (P=0.21). Associations of &Dgr;LAV with body mass index were explained exclusively by associations with visceral fat mass (P=0.002), with no association seen between &Dgr;LAV and subcutaneous abdominal fat (P=0.47) or lower body fat (P=0.30). Conclusions— Left atrial dilatation in the population is more common in black and Hispanic than in white individuals and is associated with parallel changes in the LV. LA dilatation may be mediated by blood pressure control and the development of visceral adiposity.
Which better predicts conduct problems? The relationship of trajectories of conduct problems with ODD and ADHD symptoms from childhood into adolescence.

BACKGROUND To assess the co-occurrence in deviant trajectories of parent-rated symptoms of conduct disorder (CD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from age 4 to 18 years old in a general population sample of Dutch children. METHODS Developmental trajectories of CD, ODD, and ADHD were estimated in a sample of 1,016 males and 1,060 females. Children's disruptive problem behaviors were rated at 5 time-points. The co-occurrence patterns between the deviant CD trajectory, and the high ODD and high ADHD trajectory were studied for males and females separately. RESULTS Four percent of males and 2% of females followed a deviant CD trajectory. Six percent of the sample followed a high ODD trajectory, and 5% a high ADHD trajectory. Engagement in the deviant CD trajectory was predicted by ODD and ADHD in females, but only by ODD in males. CONCLUSIONS Although ADHD co-occurs with CD, the association between ADHD and CD is largely accounted for by accompanying ODD. Gender differences should be taken into account in understanding the onset of CD.
Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in growth hormone-secreting pituitary adenomas: special reference to the octreotide treatment

Abstract Objective: The present study was designed to investigate the localization of VEGF in GH-secreting pituitary adenomas and to evaluate the characteristic differences of VEGF expression in relation to the clinical effect of preoperative treatment with octreotide. Methods: Fifty-six cases of GH-secreting adenomas, which were divided into three groups and three normal pituitary glands, were studied using immunohistochemistry for expression of VEGF. The octreotide group consisted of 33 patients who received the octreotide before the surgery. The bromocriptine group consisted of 11 patients who received bromocriptine orally. The control groups consisted of 12 patients who were not treated with octreotide or bromocriptine pre-operatively. VEGF staining patterns for each specimen were examined under light microscopy and graded in a scale. These findings were correlated with clinical characteristics. Results: VEGF was displayed in a diffuse cytoplasmic pattern in all cases. VEGF staining was strongly seen in the cytoplasm in normal pituitary glands. Moderately positive staining with VEGF appeared in six of 33 (18%) cases of the octreotide group, and in eight of 12 (67%) cases of the control group. In contrast, weakly positive staining was observed in 25 of 33 (76%) cases of the octreotide group, and in three of 12 (25%) cases of the control group. The staining pattern differs statistically between the octreotide and control group, typically in densely granulated GH cell adenomas. Weak staining with VEGF appeared in all ten cases in which the tumor had shrunk. Age, gender, tumor size, tumor invasiveness and adenoma type did not influence VEGF expression. Conclusion: We conclude that octreotide may inhibit the angiogenesis through down-regulation of VEGF.
Trends in Methodological Quality in Controlled Trials of Psychological and Social Interventions

Objective: There is substantial evidence that poorly designed and reported research can mislead decision making in clinical care. This review investigates the methodological quality of Swedish trials of a wide array of psychological and social interventions. Method: The review includes 302 articles published in peer-reviewed journals during 1990–2014, which evaluated a psychological or social intervention; included a randomized or nonrandomized control group with a pre–post- or pre-follow-up design; and targeted individuals in order to prevent or rehabilitate from physical, psychological, or social problems. The results are based on the information reported in the articles. Results: Overall, methodological quality increased with time. However, more recent studies contained methodological deficits. For example, few had used blinded data collectors, reported power analyses, or searched for adverse events. Conclusion: The results indicate a potential risk of biased results in both older and newer trials. Possible implications for practice and research are discussed.
Correlation Coefficients: Appropriate Use and Interpretation

Correlation in the broadest sense is a measure of an association between variables. In correlated data, the change in the magnitude of 1 variable is associated with a change in the magnitude of another variable, either in the same (positive correlation) or in the opposite (negative correlation) direction. Most often, the term correlation is used in the context of a linear relationship between 2 continuous variables and expressed as Pearson product-moment correlation. The Pearson correlation coefficient is typically used for jointly normally distributed data (data that follow a bivariate normal distribution). For nonnormally distributed continuous data, for ordinal data, or for data with relevant outliers, a Spearman rank correlation can be used as a measure of a monotonic association. Both correlation coefficients are scaled such that they range from –1 to +1, where 0 indicates that there is no linear or monotonic association, and the relationship gets stronger and ultimately approaches a straight line (Pearson correlation) or a constantly increasing or decreasing curve (Spearman correlation) as the coefficient approaches an absolute value of 1. Hypothesis tests and confidence intervals can be used to address the statistical significance of the results and to estimate the strength of the relationship in the population from which the data were sampled. The aim of this tutorial is to guide researchers and clinicians in the appropriate use and interpretation of correlation coefficients.
A Magnetoresistive Tactile Sensor for Harsh Environment Applications

A magnetoresistive tactile sensor is reported, which is capable of working in high temperatures up to 140 °C. Hair-like bioinspired structures, known as cilia, made out of permanent magnetic nanocomposite material on top of spin-valve giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors are used for tactile sensing at high temperatures. The magnetic nanocomposite, consisting of iron nanowires incorporated into the polymer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), is very flexible, biocompatible, has high remanence, and is also resilient to antagonistic sensing ambient. When the cilia come in contact with a surface, they deflect in compliance with the surface topology. This yields a change of the GMR sensor signal, enabling the detection of extremely fine features. The spin-valve is covered with a passivation layer, which enables adequate performance in spite of harsh environmental conditions, as demonstrated in this paper for high temperature.
Predicting the Maximum Earthquake Magnitude from Seismic Data in Israel and Its Neighboring Countries

This paper explores several data mining and time series analysis methods for predicting the magnitude of the largest seismic event in the next year based on the previously recorded seismic events in the same region. The methods are evaluated on a catalog of 9,042 earthquake events, which took place between 01/01/1983 and 31/12/2010 in the area of Israel and its neighboring countries. The data was obtained from the Geophysical Institute of Israel. Each earthquake record in the catalog is associated with one of 33 seismic regions. The data was cleaned by removing foreshocks and aftershocks. In our study, we have focused on ten most active regions, which account for more than 80% of the total number of earthquakes in the area. The goal is to predict whether the maximum earthquake magnitude in the following year will exceed the median of maximum yearly magnitudes in the same region. Since the analyzed catalog includes only 28 years of complete data, the last five annual records of each region (referring to the years 2006–2010) are kept for testing while using the previous annual records for training. The predictive features are based on the Gutenberg-Richter Ratio as well as on some new seismic indicators based on the moving averages of the number of earthquakes in each area. The new predictive features prove to be much more useful than the indicators traditionally used in the earthquake prediction literature. The most accurate result (AUC = 0.698) is reached by the Multi-Objective Info-Fuzzy Network (M-IFN) algorithm, which takes into account the association between two target variables: the number of earthquakes and the maximum earthquake magnitude during the same year.
Common or Redundant Neural Circuits for Duration Processing across Audition and Touch

Certain features of objects or events can be represented by more than a single sensory system, such as roughness of a surface (sight, sound, and touch), the location of a speaker (audition and sight), and the rhythm or duration of an event (by all three major sensory systems). Thus, these properties can be said to be sensory-independent or amodal. A key question is whether common multisensory cortical regions process these amodal features, or does each sensory system contain its own specialized region(s) for processing common features? We tackled this issue by investigating simple duration-detection mechanisms across audition and touch; these systems were chosen because fine duration discriminations are possible in both. The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the human event-related potential provides a sensitive metric of duration processing and has been elicited independently during both auditory and somatosensory investigations. Employing high-density electroencephalographic recordings in conjunction with intracranial subdural recordings, we asked whether fine duration discriminations, represented by the MMN, were generated in the same cortical regions regardless of the sensory modality being probed. Scalp recordings pointed to statistically distinct MMN topographies across senses, implying differential underlying cortical generator configurations. Intracranial recordings confirmed these noninvasive findings, showing generators of the auditory MMN along the superior temporal gyrus with no evidence of a somatosensory MMN in this region, whereas a robust somatosensory MMN was recorded from postcentral gyrus in the absence of an auditory MMN. The current data clearly argue against a common circuitry account for amodal duration processing.
Consistency and Producer-Consumer Locking : Efficiently Distributing Updates to Web Servers Using a File System

For low-latency access and scalability, Web site replication with a distributed file system has advantages over proxy caching. In particular, file systems encapsulate data consistency and recovery from failure behind a simple interface so that Web servers and Internet applications can operate as if they were on a single system. However, distributing content changes to many Web servers using a file system can heavily load the network between the servers, resulting in added latency. Poor performance arises in this environment because the Web-serving workload differs radically from the assumed file system workload. To address this shortcoming of file systems, we introduce the publish cache consistency model well suited to the Web-serving workload, which relaxes cache-consistency constraints slightly in order to enhance performance. We implement publish consistency in the producer-consumer locking protocol, in which the file system pushes content updates to Web servers. A comparison of this protocol against other file system protocols by simulation shows that producer-consumer locking removes almost all latency due to protocol overhead and significantly reduces network load. The work of this author was performed while a Visiting Scientist at the IBM Almaden Research Center.
The Voice of the Teacher in Syllabus Design

If curriculum is to reflect the goals of a nation and the needs of its students, it makes sense for teachers to participate in its creation. In fact, curriculum design has long been associated with the idea of teacher contribution. Thepresent effort tries to prove that Saudi EFL teachers can be active participantsrather than passive recipients. They can convey vital information to curriculum designers instead of being blindly subjected to ahighly centralized educational system. The study also provides a consideration of role requirements and the competencies of teachers as curriculum leaders. The data collected from semi-structured interviews indicate that teachersareneither involvednor informed in the process ofcurriculum design and that theirengagement is merelywithin their own classrooms walls. Although they play a central role in the process of education, yet they miss the passion of belongingas little attention, if any, is given totheir voices.
Adding an Equivalence Relation to the Interval Logic ABB: Complexity and Expressiveness

Interval temporal logics provide a general framework for temporal representation and reasoning, where classical (point-based) linear temporal logics can be recovered as special cases. In this paper, we study the effects of the addition of an equivalence relation to one of the most representative interval temporal logics, namely, the logic ABB̅ of Allen's relations meets, begun by, and begins. We first prove that the satisfiability problem for the resulting logic ABB̅ ℕ remains decidable over finite linear orders, but it becomes nonprimitive recursive, while decidability is lost over N. We also show that decidability over can be recovered by restricting to a suitable subset of models. Then, we show that ABB̅ ℕ is expressive enough to define ωS-regular languages, thus establishing a promising connection between interval temporal logics and extended ω-regular languages.
Global Guarantees for Enforcing Deep Generative Priors by Empirical Risk

We examine the theoretical properties of enforcing priors provided by generative deep neural networks via empirical risk minimization. In particular we consider two models, one in which the task is to invert a generative neural network given access to its last layer and another in which the task is to invert a generative neural network given only compressive linear observations of its last layer. We establish that in both cases, in suitable regimes of network layer sizes and a randomness assumption on the network weights, that the non-convex objective function given by empirical risk minimization does not have any spurious stationary points. That is, we establish that with high probability, at any point away from small neighborhoods around two scalar multiples of the desired solution, there is a descent direction. Hence, there are no local minima, saddle points, or other stationary points outside these neighborhoods. These results constitute the first theoretical guarantees which establish the favorable global geometry of these non-convex optimization problems, and they bridge the gap between the empirical success of enforcing deep generative priors and a rigorous understanding of non-linear inverse problems.