Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved recognition of error related potentials through the use of brain connectivity features

Brain error processing plays a key role in goal-directed behavior and learning in human brain. Directed transfer function (DTF) on EEG signal brings unique features for discrimination between correct and error cases in brain-computer interface (BCI) system. We describe the first application of brain connectivity features for recognizing error-related signals in non-invasive BCI. EEG signal were recorded from 16 human subjects when they monitored stimuli moving in either correct or erroneous direction. Classification performance using waveform features, brain connectivity features and their combination were compared. The result of combined features yielded highest classification accuracy, 0:85. In addition, we also show that brain connectivity at theta band around 200ms after stimuli carry highly discriminant information between error and correct trials. This paper provides evidence that the use of connectivity features improve the performance of an EEG based BCI.
Is Mind Wandering the Mechanism Responsible for Life Stress Induced Impairments in Working Memory Capacity

The relationship between life stress and working memory capacity (WMC) has been documented in college students and older adults. It has been proposed that intrusive thoughts about life stress are the mechanism responsible for the impairments seen in WMC. To examine the mechanism responsible for these impairments the current study attempted to induce intrusive thoughts about personal events. The current study allowed for a test of predictions made by two theories of mind wandering regarding the impact of these intrusive thoughts on WMC task performance. One hundred fifty undergraduates were assigned to a control group, positive event group, or negative event group. Participants in the positive and negative event groups completed a short emotional disclosure about an imagined future positive or negative event, respectively, to induce positive or negative intrusive thoughts. WMC measures were completed prior to and following the emotional writing. Results indicated a significant relationship between WMC and mind wandering, however the writing manipulation did not result in any consistent changes in intrusive thoughts or WMC. The results suggest a causal relationship between WMC and mind wandering. The emotional valence of the intrusive thought altered the impact on WMC. No relationship was seen between the measures of stress and WMC. The results of the current study suggest that negative intrusive thoughts result in impaired WMC task performance but other types of off-task thoughts may not result in similar impairments.
The effect of trauma on expressive language impairment in borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a disorder with known expressive language impairments that may be activated in treatment through interpersonal cues to the trauma memory system of these patients. However, there are few BPD studies investigating this phenomenon empirically. Our previous research is the first known investigation revealing expressive language deficits using clinically relevant trauma-salient stimuli; the current study extends this to compare specific expressive language deficits on a neutral and emotive stimulus and relationships with trauma history. BPD and matched control (N = 24) verbalizations were analysed by computerized measures of language impairment and pause profiles. BPD subjects evidenced greater overall language impairment and reduced syntactic complexity, but not semantic complexity compared with controls. No such differences were found between the two groups on the neutral condition. BPD subjects utilized significantly higher proportions of pauses for both the emotive and neutral condition. BPD subjects used significantly greater proportions of pauses when generating adjectives related to early relationship with mother, not father. Presence of physical abuse history and PTSD related to some expressive language deficits. These results support neuroimaging findings demonstrating reduced activation of the pre-frontal cortex or anterior cingulate, alongside increased bilateral activation of the amygdala, during exposure to trauma-salient stimuli. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pipelines or pipe dreams? PhD production and other matters in a South African dental research institute 1954-2006

This retrospective study documents the Masters and PhD training of 131 Dental Research Institute (DRI) postgraduates (1954-2006) to establish demographics, throughput and research outcomes for future PhD pipeline strategies using the DRI database. Descriptive statistics show four degree-based groups of postgraduates: 18 PhDs; 55 MScs; 42 MDents and 16 dropouts. Postgraduate activity peaked in1981. Pipeline conversion from Masters to PhD was below 20% with MScs more likely to embark on a PhD than MDents. Nearly half of all postgraduates had prior published research experience before embarking on the degree. Acquired skills were predominantly thesis publication, teaching and conference presentation. Higher degrees were done for personal betterment (40%), specialist training (34%) or academic betterment (20%). The DRI intellectual climate and 50-hour research techniques course contributed to the 87% postgraduate completion rate. There is no incentive for DRI clinical researchers to complete a PhD unless on an academic career path.
Stress and Depression in Students: The Mediating Role of Stress Management Self-efficacy

Background:The prevalence of mental health issues appears to be increasing. Stress that leads to depression may be mediated if people believe that they have the wherewithal to manage it. Objective:The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which the relationship between adverse stress and depression is mediated by university students’ perceived ability to manage their stress. Method:Students were sampled randomly at a Canadian university in 2006 (n = 2,147) and 2008 (n = 2,292). Data about students’ stress (1 item), depression (4 items), stress management self-efficacy (4 items), and their demographics were obtained via the online National College Health Assessment survey and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and latent variable mediation modeling. Results:Greater stress management self-efficacy was associated with lower depression scores for students whose stress impeded their academic performance, irrespective oftheir gender and age (total R2depression = 41%). The relationship between stress and depression was mediated partially by stress management self-efficacy (37% to 55% mediation, depending on the severity of stress). Conclusions:Identifying students with limited stress management self-efficacy and providing them with appropriate supportive services may help them to manage stress and prevent depression.
Video denoising using 2D and 3D dual-tree complex wavelet transforms

The denoising of video data should take into account both temporal and spatial dimensions, however, true 3D transforms are rarely used for video denoising. Separable 3-D transforms have artifacts that degrade their performance in applications. This paper describes the design and application of the non-separable oriented 3-D dual-tree wavelet transform for video denoising. This transform gives a motion-based multi-scale decomposition for video - it isolates in its subbands motion along different directions. In addition, we investigate the denoising of video using the 2-D and 3-D dual-tree oriented wavelet transforms, where the 2-D transform is applied to each frame individually.
Research Paper: The Effects of Creating Psychological Ownership on Physicians' Acceptance of Clinical Information Systems

OBJECTIVE Motivated by the need to push further our understanding of physicians' acceptance of clinical information systems, we propose a relatively new construct, namely, psychological ownership. We situated the construct within a nomological net using a prevailing and dominant information technology adoption behavior model as a logical starting point. DESIGN A mail survey was sent to the population of users of a regional physician order entry (POE) system aimed at speeding up the transmission of clinical data, mainly laboratory tests and radiology examinations, within a community health network. MEASUREMENTS All scales, but one, were measured using previously validated instruments. For its part, the psychological ownership scale was developed using a multistage iterative procedure. RESULTS Ninety-one questionnaires were returned to the researchers, for a response rate of 72.8%. Our findings reveal that, in order to foster physicians' adoption of a clinical information system, it is important to encourage and cultivate a positive attitude toward using the new system. In this connection, positive perception of the technology's usefulness is crucial. Second, results demonstrate that psychological ownership of a POE system is positively associated with physicians' perceptions of system utility and system user friendliness. Last, through their active involvement and participation, physicians feel they have greater influence on the development process, thereby developing feelings of ownership toward the clinical system. CONCLUSION Psychological ownership's highly significant associations with user participation and crucial beliefs driving technology acceptance behaviors among physicians affirm the value of this construct in extending our understanding of POE adoption.
Small Learning Communities: Extending and Improving Practice.

T he term that is used to refer to the practice of organizing secondary schools into smaller units has undergone many changes during the last four decades. Ho u s e s and s c h o o l s w i t h i n s c h o o l s a p p e a red in the 1960s; magnet pro g rams, career academies, and m i n i s c h o o l s , in the 1970s; c h a rt e r s , in the late 1980s and 1990s; and small learning communities, t o d a y. The evolution in terms parallels the development in thinking about the important ingredients of effective education. The earlier terms emphasized small stru c t u re and curricular specialization and choice. Both elements are key to improved teaching, yet do not tell the complete story. Small learning commun i t y ( S LC), in contrast, encompasses these elements as well as a focus on the learner and learning, and in part i c u l a r, the active and collaborative nature of teachers’ and students’ work. C o n c u r rent with the reorganization of compre h e n s i ve schools into small learning communities are i n i t i a t i ves to create new small schools. The small schools networks emphasize the importance of autonomy and flexibility in functioning within large, rigid education bureaucracies (Cotton, 2001). T h e small schools movement, howe ve r, also speaks to student-centered curriculum and instruction and collaboration among all members of the community (Fine & So m e rville, 1998; Wa s l e y, et al., 2000).
Short communication. SNP analyses of the 5HT1R and STAT genes in Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei

La industria de la produccion de camaron es una de las industrias acuicolas que se encuentra en mas crecimiento en la actualidad. Los estudios para encontrar marcadores geneticos son muy efectivos para la mejora de sus propiedades y de gran interes para los productores de camaron. En este trabajo se utilizaron seis individuos de una poblacion de Litopenaeus vannamei, donde se encontraron cuatro polimorfismos de nucleotido unico (SNPs) en el gen 5HT1R (5-hidroxitriptamina receptor1) y un SNP en el gen STAT (transductor de senal y activador de la transcripcion). Sin embargo, el polimorfismo en el gen STAT resulto ser homocigoto en una poblacion diferente utilizada para analisis de asociacion. Los presentes analisis revelaron que el alelo C, en dos polimorfismos SNP (C109T y C395G) del gen 5HT1R, tiende a estar asociado con el aumento del peso corporal. Consideramos que hay necesidad de hacer nuevos estudios utilizando una muestra mas amplia y diversa de la poblacion en cuestion.
Comparative Analysis of the Omics Technologies Used to Study Antimonial, Amphotericin B, and Pentamidine Resistance in Leishmania

Leishmaniasis is a serious threat in developing countries due to its endemic nature and debilitating symptoms. Extensive research and investigations have been carried out to learn about the mechanism of drug resistance in Leishmania but results obtained in the laboratory are not in agreement with those obtained from the field. Also the lack of knowledge about the mode of action for a number of drugs makes the study of drug resistance more complex. A major concern in recent times has been regarding the role of parasitic virulence in drug resistance for Leishmania. Researchers have employed various techniques to unravel the facts about resistance and virulence in Leishmania. With advent of advanced and more specific means of detection, further hints about probable mechanisms of conferring resistance are expected. This review aims to provide a consolidated picture along with a comparative account of the work done so far to study the mechanism of antimony, amphotericin B, and pentamidine resistance using various techniques.
Parameterizations for Clouds and Precipitation Based on the Kinetic Potential Theory for Drizzle Formation

Effects from turbulence-induced fluctuations in water vapor saturation on the growth of cloud droplets are examined using a Brownian-like diffusion model to represent the condensation growth/evaporation of droplets along the coordinate of droplet size. The model predicts a diffusive broadening of the droplet size distribution with time, tempered by enhanced evaporation-induced drift of droplets to smaller size from vapor depletion, and approach to a stationary size distribution determined by the balance between size-space diffusion and drift. This balance between diffusion and drift is shown to yield simple analytic expressions for the size distribution that are in good agreement with observed size distributions. Monte Carlo simulations of the approach to the stationary limit and of the distribution itself are presented. A key turbulence parameter required by the kinetic potential theory of drizzle formation (McGraw and Liu 2003, 2004) is estimated using the new results.
FATOU¡¯S LEMMA FOR UNBOUNDED GELFAND INTEGRABLE MAPPINGS

It is shown that, in the framework of Gelfand integrable mappings, the Fatou-type lemma for integrably bounded mappings, due to Cornet? Medecin [14] and the Fatou-type lemma for uniformly integrable mappings due to Balder [9], can be generalized to mean norm bounded integrable mappings
Antenna development and a stepped-frequency GPR system for landmine detection

A project for developing a compact size GPR system for landmine detection was started. It will be based on stepped-frequency radar system for wider application in various kinds of soil conditions. We have developed a prototype stepped-frequency for fundamental evaluation of the system. This system uses a broadband Vivalidi antenna and operates at 2-6 GHz. The system was tested in laboratory and could be used for imaging buried mine-like targets by high resolution. Series of tests were carried out by using sand with rough surface and inhomogeneous soil. We discuss the ability of GPR for landmine detection.
The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems

This article defines and discusses one of these qualitative methods - the case research strategy. Suggestions are provided for researchers who wish to undertake research employing this approach. Criteria for the evaluation of case research are established and several characteristics useful for categorizing the studies are identified. A sample of papers drawn from information systems journals is reviewed. The paper concludes with examples of research areas that are particularly well-suited to investigation using the case research approach.
The archipelago of intervention : governing the awkward citizen

This doctoral thesis examines the changing ways in which the neoliberal state looks to engage with populations of marginalised, excluded and ‘awkward citizens’. Whilst some have argued that the neoliberal state has abandoned and/or adopted a punitive and revanchist stance towards ‘awkward citizens’, this thesis demonstrates that an ‘archipelago of intervention’ has developed which is dirigiste in nature and represents a manifold of assistive and regressive techniques of government. Targeting individuals defined as ‘problematic’ (those with ‘chaotic lifestyles’: substance misuse issues, offending behaviour, vulnerably housed males) the archipelago of intervention represents a spatially expansive, ideationally disparate and operationally intense project of marginal social welfare. In order to more closely analyse these evolving practices of intervention, three case studies are examined through the lens of Foucauldian governmentality: one-to-one case working aimed at those with chaotic lifestyles; two ‘Supported Accommodation’ projects for vulnerably housed males; and the ‘Unpaid Work’/Community Payback order delivered by the Probation Service. Using interviews with service users, staff and managers combined with ethnographies undertaken in Supported Accommodation projects and Visible Unpaid Work sites, the thesis demonstrates how these interventions share a commitment to working with individuals through consent rather than coercion. Located at the cutting edge of ‘roll out’ neoliberal social policy, the thesis shows how these techniques of government operate to reform the subjectivities of their target population through the application of ‘psy’ techniques, contractual governance, embodied discipline and re-worked ideas about the rehabilitation of offenders. Drawing on Lefebvre, space and time emerge as central problematics in attempts to govern awkward citizens. Each case study intervention is shown to carve out re-worked spatio-temporalities which are held to be generative of behavioural and attitudinal reform. Thus, the thesis makes an important contribution to debates on the unfolding neoliberalisation of the state and social policy by pointing to the complex assemblages of power and multiple practices through which the state governs problematic populations. Moreover, the PhD also contributes to theoretical debates around the idea of ‘governmentality’ by arguing for a geographically sensitive and materially open approach to systems of governance.
Neuropilin-1 and the Positions of Glomeruli in the Mouse Olfactory Bulb

Abstract It is known since 1996 that mouse odorant receptors (ORs) are involved in determining the positions of the sites of coalescence of axons of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs)—the thousands of glomeruli in the olfactory bulb. But the molecular and cellular mechanisms of OR-mediated axonal coalescence into glomeruli remain unclear. A model was proposed in 2006–2009 whereby OR-derived cAMP signals, rather than direct action of OR molecules, determine the target destinations (glomeruli) of OSNs in the bulb. This model hypothesizes that OR-derived cAMP signals determine the expression levels of neuropilin 1 (Nrp1) in OSN axon termini; that levels of Nrp1 in glomeruli form a gradient from anterior-low to posterior-high throughout the bulb; and that these Nrp1 levels mechanistically determine anterior-posterior patterning of glomeruli. Here, we describe the first independent evaluation of the Nrp1 model since it was formulated a decade ago. We tested the model for the well-characterized mouse OR M71 using our gene-targeted mouse strains, which are publicly available. In contradiction to the model, we observed a variety of configurations for the M71 glomeruli in the conditional Nrp1 knockout. We then reassessed the model for the original OR transgene with which the model was developed, using the same publicly available mouse strains. We discovered that glomerular positions do not undergo the simple anterior shift that has been reported in the conditional Nrp1 knockout for this OR transgene. Taken together, our findings do not support the Nrp1 model for the anterior-posterior patterning of glomerular positions in the olfactory bulb.
Comparison of native high-resolution 3D and contrast-enhanced MR angiography for assessing the thoracic aorta.

AIMS To omit risks of contrast agent administration, native magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is desired for assessing the thoracic aorta. The aim was to evaluate a native steady-state free precession (SSFP) three-dimensional (3D) MRA in comparison with contrast-enhanced MRA as the gold standard. METHODS AND RESULTS Seventy-six prospective patients with known or suspicion of thoracic aortic disease underwent MRA at 1.5 T using (i) native 3D SSFP MRA with ECG and navigator gating and high isotropic spatial resolution (1.3 × 1.3 × 1.3 mm(3)) and (ii) conventional contrast-enhanced ECG-gated gradient-echo 3D MRA (1.3 × 0.8 × 1.8 mm(3)). Datasets were compared at nine aortic levels regarding image quality (score 0-3: 0 = poor, 3 = excellent) and aortic diameters, as well as observer dependency and final diagnosis. Statistical tests included paired t-test, correlation analysis, and Bland-Altman analysis. Native 3D MRA was acquired successfully in 70 of 76 subjects (mean acquisition time 8.6 ± 2.7 min), while irregular breathing excluded 6 of 76 subjects. Aortic diameters agreed close between both methods at all aortic levels (r = 0.99; bias ± SD -0.12 ± 1.2 mm) with low intra- and inter-observer dependency (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.99). Native MRA studies resulted in the same final diagnosis as the contrast-enhanced MRA. The mean image quality score was superior with native compared with contrast-enhanced MRA (2.4 ± 0.6 vs. 1.6 ± 0.5; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Accuracy of aortic size measurements, certainty in defining the diagnosis and benefits in image quality at the aortic root, underscore the use of the tested high-resolution native 3D SSFP MRA as an appropriate alternative to contrast-enhanced MRA to assess the thoracic aorta.
Sideband Radiation Level Suppression in Time-Modulated Array by Nonuniform Period Modulation

A novel sideband radiation (SR) level suppression method for the time-modulated array (TMA) is proposed. By modulating their front-end RF switches with nonuniform periods, the SR level of the TMA can be remarkably suppressed, compared to using uniform periods. Numeric simulations are brought out to examine the performance of the proposed approach, and the comparison to the existing SR level suppression methods is provided. A simple S-band eight-element linear TMA is constructed and tested to verify its effectiveness.
A Single-Phase Multilevel Inverter Using Switched Series/Parallel DC Voltage Sources

A novel multilevel inverter with a small number of switching devices is proposed. It consists of an H-bridge and an inverter which outputs multilevel voltage by switching the dc voltage sources in series and in parallel. The proposed inverter can output more numbers of voltage levels in the same number of switching devices by using this conversion. The number of gate driving circuits is reduced, which leads to the reduction of the size and power consumption in the driving circuits. The total harmonic of the output waveform is also reduced. The proposed inverter is driven by the hybrid modulation method. In this paper, the circuit configuration, theoretical operation, Fourier analysis, simulation results with MATLAB/SIMULINK, and experimental results are shown. The experimental results accorded with the simulation results.