Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Visual Experience on the Human MT+ Functional Connectivity Networks: An fMRI Study of Motion Perception in Sighted and Congenitally Blind Individuals

Human middle temporal complex (hMT+) responds also to the perception of non-visual motion in both sighted and early blind individuals, indicating a supramodal organization. Visual experience, however, leads to a segregation of hMT+ into a more anterior subregion, involved in the supramodal representation of motion, and a posterior subregion that processes visual motion only. In contrast, in congenitally blind subjects tactile motion activates the full extent of hMT+. Here, we used fMRI to investigate brain areas functionally connected with the two hMT+ subregions (seeds) during visual and tactile motion in sighted and blind individuals. A common functional connectivity network for motion processing, including bilateral ventral and dorsal extrastriate, inferior frontal, middle and inferior temporal areas, correlated with the two hMT+ seeds both in sighted and blind individuals during either visual or tactile motion, independently from the sensory modality through which the information was acquired. Moreover, ventral premotor, somatosensory, and posterior parietal areas correlated only with the anterior but not with the posterior portion of hMT+ in sighted subjects, and with both hMT+ seeds in blind subjects. Furthermore, a correlation between middle temporal and occipital areas with primary somatosensory seeds was demonstrated across conditions in both sighted and blind individuals, suggesting a cortico-cortical pathway that conveys non-visual information from somatosensory cortex, through posterior parietal regions, to ventral extrastriate cortex. These findings expand our knowledge about the development of the functional organization within hMT+ by showing that distinct patterns of brain functional correlations originate from the anterior and posterior hMT+ subregions as a result of visual experience.
What will the Energy Transformation Cost?

The transformation of the energy system in Germany is a declared political goal of the federal government. By 2050, greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by at least 80 percent under 1990 levels. This necessitates a massive reduction in energy-related CO2 emissions, forcing a fundamental restructuring of the present energy system towards a largely carbon-free energy supply. The transformation requires major investments and will not happen of its own accord. Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE now presented a study which investigates the system and cost developments of the German energy system transformation in line with meeting the declared climate targets. The study covers the period starting from today up to 2050. The model-based study considers all relevant energy sectors and energy carriers to provide a detailed analysis on how Germany can achieve its climate goals through efficient energy use and renewable energy. Considering various scenarios, simulations show different, cost-optimized pathways for achieving the energy transformation.
Pulmonary Inflammatory Mediators After Sevoflurane Anaesthesia in Tobacco Smoking and Non-Smoking Patients

Purpose: Volatile anaesthetics modify pulmonary immune and inflammatory reactions per se and in smokers anaesthetics appear to suppress the immune and inflammatory responses. Our hypothesis was that a more reduced amount of inflammatory responses would be observed in the smoking patients than in the non-smoking patients during surgery under sevoflurane anaesthesia. Methods: We compared pulmonary inflammatory responses in 20 non-smokers and 9 smokers during prostatectomy under sevoflurane anaesthesia. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids were collected after anaesthesia induction and at the end of the surgery. Results: Non-smokers demonstrated higher BAL LTC4 concentrations than smokers postoperatively. Smokers had a ten- dency to have increased IL-6 and IL-8 concentrations after surgery whereas the opposite was observed in non-smokers, contradicting our hypothesis. Conclusion: Pulmonary inflammatory mediators differ slightly between smokers and non-smokers during surgery under sevoflurane anaesthesia. Most likely these mediators have minor relevance to the postoperative pulmonary complications in smokers.
Empiricism and Theorizing in Epidemiology and Social Network Analysis

The connection between theory and data is an iterative one. In principle, each is informed by the other: data provide the basis for theory that in turn generates the need for new information. This circularity is reflected in the notion of abduction, a concept that focuses on the space between induction (generating theory from data) and deduction (testing theory with data). Einstein, in the 1920s, placed scientific creativity in that space. In the field of social network analysis, some remarkable theory has been developed, accompanied by sophisticated tools to develop, extend, and test the theory. At the same time, important empirical data have been generated that provide insight into transmission dynamics. Unfortunately, the connection between them is often tenuous and the iterative loop is frayed. This circumstance may arise both from data deficiencies and from the ease with which data can be created by simulation. But for whatever reason, theory and empirical data often occupy different orbits. Fortunately, the relationship, while frayed, is not broken, to which several recent analyses merging theory and extant data will attest. Their further rapprochement in the field of social network analysis could provide the field with a more creative approach to experimentation and inference.
Analysis of the inter-relationship between students’ first year results andtheir final graduating grades

There is a tendency for students to lose focus in tertiary institutions because of change in environment and peer pressure (among several others); hence, a need to monitor and study the trend of students’ performance in the tertiary institution. This article, therefore, seeks to know the correlation between the first year results and in particular, the final graduating grade of students in a leading Nigerian University. Test of normality was performed for the final graduating results and multiple linear regression models were fitted to the data; this enables us to predict what a student can graduate with having known a previous result (or first year result). All the analyses were performed using Minitab software. The result established that there are strong linear relationships between the GPAs as a student progresses in his/her academic journey.
The Mediating Relationship Between Maladaptive Behaviours, Cognitive Factors, and Generalised Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

Cognitive theories of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) posit that cognitive and behavioural factors maintain the disorder. This study examined whether avoidance and safety behaviours mediated the relationship between cognitive factors and GAD symptoms. We also examined the reverse mediation model; that is, whether cognitive factors mediated the relationship between maladaptive behaviours and GAD symptoms. Undergraduate psychology students (N = 125 and N = 292) completed the Worry Behaviours Inventory (a recently developed measure of maladaptive behaviours associated with GAD), in addition to measures of intolerance of uncertainty, cognitive avoidance, metacognitive beliefs, and symptoms of GAD and depression. Analyses supported the reliability and validity of the WBI. We consistently found that engagement in maladaptive behaviours significantly mediated the relationship between cognitive factors and symptoms of GAD. The reverse mediation model was also supported. Our results are consistent with the contention that cognitive and behavioural factors contribute to GAD symptom severity.
“Beyond Cultural Sensitivity”: Service Providers’ Perspectives on Muslim Women Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence

This qualitative study examined frontline service providers’ perspectives on Muslim women’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV). Participants shared their knowledge and practical experiences in working with Muslim women IPV survivors. Themes emerged in discussions with service providers included: Immigration, Collectivist and Authoritarian Culture, Patriarchy, Honour and Shame, and Faith. These findings revealed the multiple cultural elements that mutually intersect and interact within the broader cultural values that drive IPV resources. These results add to the body of research in support of infusing additional crosscultural training in service providers’ education and developing culturally informed inter-
A Chain-Based Relocation Approach to Maintain Connectivity with a Center of Interest

Mobile nodes within Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) open up new challenges such as improved energy efficiency, coverage, target tracking, and fault tolerance. We propose a novel Chain-Based Relocation Approach (CBRA) to relocate mobile sensor nodes from their initial positions within a Region Of Interest (ROI) to cover a particular event happening outside the initial deployment zone called Center a Of Interest (COI). CBRA uses a grid quorum-based solution to propagate the redundant nodes present within the ROI. We propose an energy-based redundant node selection procedure to ensure a balanced energy consumption among the redundant nodes regardless of the location of the redundant nodes with respect to the COI. We evaluate the performance of the CBRA solution using the WSNet simulator. Simulation results show that the network energy consumption and the relocation time increase as the distance separating the COI from the ROI increases. Moreover, the whole network energy consumption improves with the network density while the relocation time decreases with increasing speed of sensor nodes.
Consumer acceptance of online banking: an extension of the technology acceptance model

Advances in electronic banking technology have created novel ways of handling daily banking affairs, especially via the online banking channel. The acceptance of online banking services has been rapid in many parts of the world, and in the leading e‐banking countries the number of e‐banking contracts has exceeded 50 percent. Investigates online banking acceptance in the light of the traditional technology acceptance model (TAM), which is leveraged into the online environment. On the basis of a focus group interview with banking professionals, TAM literature and e‐banking studies, we develop a model indicating online‐banking acceptance among private banking customers in Finland. The model was tested with a survey sample (n=268). The findings of the study indicate that perceived usefulness and information on online banking on the Web site were the main factors influencing online‐banking acceptance.
Ergonomic factors that cause the presence of pain muscle in students of dentistry.

OBJECTIVE To identify the ergonomic factors and the presence of muscular pain in dental students of VIII, IX, X semesters presently practicing at the clinics of the College of Dentistry of university of Cartagena, Colombia, South America. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a descriptive study carried out in dental students of the VIII, IX, and X semesters which were undergoing clinical practice at the College of Dentistry of University of Cartagena. A convenience sample of 83 students who met the inclusion criteria was taken and those who agreed to participate signed an informed consent. Data collection was obtained by means of a structured questionnaire for ergonomic factors and the presence of pain was identified palpating the muscles object of the study by a physical therapist. The variables evaluated were: presence of pain, affected muscles, affected zones, gender, postures and work environment. RESULTS The adoption of inadequate postures such as exaggerated flexions or cervical torsions could generate a higher frequency of muscular pain in dental students. The approximating muscle of the thumb showed 11% frequency of pain. The presence of muscular pain was higher for the female group participating in this study. CONCLUSIONS Dentists are prone, since the beginning of their clinical practice as students, to lesions of the skeletal muscle system due to the clinical exercise of the profession, being the most common, muscle pain in the back, neck, shoulders and hands. This would imply initiating an occupational health program promoting healthy lifestyles in their academic environment and their future professional life, at the beginning of their clinical practice in dental school.
Inflammatory Cytokines Interleukin-1β and Tumour Necrosis Factor-α - Novel Biomarkers for the Detection of Periodontal Diseases: a Literature Review

ABSTRACT Objectives The article aims to discuss the IL-1β and TNF-α potential use as salivary biomarkers of periodontal diseases pathogenesis and progression. Material and Methods This literature review has been registered in PROSPERO database with following number: CRD42016035729. Data investigation was performed on PubMed database as the main source of studies. The following search terms were used: “salivary biomarkers”, “periodontal diseases”, “TNF-alpha”, “Interleukin-1 beta”. Clinical trials and animal experimental models of periodontal disease were included in the discussion. In regards to inclusive dates, published studies from January 2006 to December 2015 were considered in this review along with the mentioned inclusion criteria. Results IL-1β and TNF-α salivary levels increased in diseased groups, they were associated with onset and disease severity, and their levels reduced in response to periodontal therapy. IL-1β and TNF-α could be promising biomarkers in the detection of periodontal diseases. Conclusions The use of a salivary cytokine-based diagnosis appears to be a screening method capable of diagnosing periodontal diseases in an early fashion, establishing an era of individualized clinical decisions.
Different Types of Resistant Starch Elicit Different Glucose Reponses in Humans

The purpose of this study was to determine whether different types of resistant starch (RS) elicited different glycemic responses. Eleven healthy subjects consumed solutions containing 30 g of either dextrose (DEX), resistant starch type 2 (RS2), or cross-linked resistant wheat starch type 4 (RS4XL) on three separate occasions, which were assigned randomly. Finger stick blood samples were collected before and over the following two hours and measured for glucose. The incremental area under the curve (iAUC) for the glucose response was calculated for all trials. The two types of resistant starch significantly (P < .05) decreased iAUC compared with DEX. The response with RS4XL was significantly decreased compared with the RS2 trial. These data demonstrate that different types of resistant starch elicit significantly different glycemic responses.
Deeper Spoken Language Understanding for Man-Machine Dialogue on Broader Application Domains: A Logical Alternative to Concept Spotting

LOGUS is a French-speaking spoken language understanding (SLU) system which carries out a deeper analysis than those achieved by standard concept spotters. It is designed for multi-domain conversational systems or for systems that are working on complex application domains. Based on a logical approach, the system adapts the ideas of incremental robust parsing to the issue of SLU. The paper provides a detailed description of the system as well as results from two evaluation campaigns that concerned all of current French-speaking SLU systems. The observed error rates suggest that our logical approach can stand comparison with concept spotters on restricted application domains, but also that its behaviour is promising for larger domains. The question of the generality of the approach is precisely addressed by our current investigations on a new task: SLU for an emotional robot companion for young hospital patents.
Farmers’ Cohort for Agricultural Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (FARM) Study: Study Design, Methods, and Baseline Characteristics of Enrolled Subjects

Background The ongoing Farmers’ Cohort for Agricultural Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (FARM) study was developed to evaluate health status and related factors in farmers. Methods Farmers in Kangwon Province, South Korea, were recruited. Baseline characteristics were determined using questionnaires about sociodemographic and health characteristics and agricultural work-related factors. In addition, laboratory examinations (lumbar spinal radiography and serologic testing) were conducted. Results The FARM study covers eight rural areas and recruited 1013 subjects (534 women; mean [standard deviation {SD}] age, 57.2 [7.5] years). Musculoskeletal pain in multiple areas was reported by 925 subjects (91.3%), and low back pain (63.8%) was the most frequent site of pain. Farmer’s Stress Inventory (mean [SD], 77.7 [10.2]; range, 28–112] and subjective stress index (mean [SD], 5.3 [2.4]; range, 0–10) were above median scale values, reflecting a stressful condition, while the EuroQol-5D-3L index and the EuroQol-Visual Analog Scale scores were high (mean [SD], 0.9 [0.1]; range −0.171–1 and mean [SD], 67.7 [18.7]; range 0–100, respectively), reflecting good life quality. In total, 53% of participants had worked in farming for more than 30 years, and workers involved in dry-field farming comprised the largest subgroup (41.5%). Most participants (94.3%) had no more than a high school education, and families with annual income below 20 million won constituted the largest subgroup (36.3%). Conclusions The FARM study may provide data on the current health status and related sociodemographic and agricultural work-related risk factors in Korean farmers, with the goal of providing a scientific basis for developing coping interventions and preventive strategies.
An Empirical Evaluation of Set Similarity Join Techniques

Set similarity joins compute all pairs of similar sets from two collections of sets. We conduct extensive experiments on seven state-of-the-art algorithms for set similarity joins. These algorithms adopt a filter-verification approach. Our analysis shows that verification has not received enough attention in previous works. In practice, efficient verification inspects only a small, constant number of set elements and is faster than some of the more sophisticated filter techniques. Although we can identify three winners, we find that most algorithms show very similar performance. The key technique is the prefix filter, and AllPairs, the first algorithm adopting this techniques is still a relevant competitor. We repeat experiments from previous work and discuss diverging results. All our claims are supported by a detailed analysis of the factors that determine the overall runtime.
Temperature and humidity dependence of secondary organic aerosol yield from the ozonolysis of β-pinene

Abstract. The temperature dependence of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from ozonolysis of β-pinene was studied in a flow reactor at 263 K–303 K and 1007 hPa under dry and humid conditions (0% and 26%–68% relative humidity, respectively). The observed SOA yields reached maximum values of 0.18–0.39 at high particle mass concentrations ( M o ). Under dry conditions, the measurement data showed an overall increase in SOA yield with inverse temperature, but significant oscillatory deviations from the predicted linear increase with inverse temperature (up to 50% at high M o ) was observed. Under humid conditions the SOA yield exhibited a linear decrease with inverse temperature. For the atmospherically relevant concentration level of M o =10 μg m −3 and temperature range 263 K–293 K, the results from humid experiments in this study indicate that the SOA yield of β-pinene ozonolysis may be well represented by an average value of 0.15 with an uncertainty estimate of ±0.05. When fitting the measurement data with a two-product model, both the partitioning coefficients ( K om,i ) and the stoichiometric yields (α i ) of the low-volatile and semi-volatile model species were found to vary with temperature. The results indicate that not only the reaction product vapour pressures but also the relative contributions of different gas-phase or multiphase reaction channels are strongly dependent on temperature and the presence of water vapour. In fact, the oscillatory positive temperature dependence observed under dry conditions and the negative temperature dependence observed under humid conditions indicate that the SOA yield is governed much more by the temperature and humidity dependence of the involved chemical reactions than by vapour pressure temperature dependencies. We suggest that the elucidation and modelling of SOA formation need to take into account the effects of temperature and humidity on the pathways and kinetics of the involved chemical reactions as well as on the gas-particle partitioning of the reaction products.
Characterizing Protein Conformation Space

In this work, we propose a radical approach for exploring the space of all possible protein structures. We present techniques to explore the clash-free conformation space, which comprises all protein structures whose atoms are not in selfcollision. Unlike energy based methods, this approach allows efficient exploration and remains general – the benefits of characterization of the space apply to all proteins. We hypothesize that this conformation space branches into many small funnels as we sample compact conformations. We develop a compact representation the conformation space, and give experimental results that support our hypothesis. Potential applications of our method include protein folding as well as observing structural relationships between proteins.