Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new brain-computer interface design using fuzzy ARTMAP

This paper proposes a new brain-computer interface (BCI) design using fuzzy ARTMAP (FA) neural network, as well as an application of the design. The objective of this BCI-FA design is to classify the best three of the five available mental tasks for each subject using power spectral density (PSD) values of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. These PSD values are extracted using the Wiener-Khinchine and autoregressive methods. Ten experiments employing different triplets of mental tasks are studied for each subject. The findings show that the average BCI-FA out- puts for four subjects gave less than 6% of error using the best triplets of mental tasks identified from the classification performances of FA. This implies that the BCI-FA can be successfully used with a tri-state switching device. As an application, a proposed tri-state Morse code scheme could be utilized to translate the outputs of this BCI-FA design into English letters. In this scheme, the three BCI-FA outputs correspond to a dot and a dash, which are the two basic Morse code alphabets and a space to denote the end (or beginning) of a dot or a dash. The construction of English letters using this tri-state Morse code scheme is determined only by the sequence of mental tasks and is independent of the time duration of each mental task. This is especially useful for constructing letters that are represented as multiple dots or dashes. This combination of BCI-FA design and the tri-state Morse code scheme could be developed as a communication system for paralyzed patients.
RhG-CSF-mobilized CD34+ peripheral blood progenitors are myeloperoxidase-negative and noncycling irrespective of CD33 or CD13 coexpression.

Cycling status, myeloperoxidase expression, informative surface markers, and proliferative potential of peripheral blood hemopoietic progenitors (PBHP) were evaluated by flow cytometry in 10 patients affected by resistant lymphoma, and submitted to stem cell mobilization with combination chemotherapy (MiCMA) followed by recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF, 5 micrograms/kg/day). CD34+ PBHP coexpressed myeloid-associated and activation antigens, i.e., CD33 (96%, range 85-99), CD13 (99.5%, range 99.4-99.8), HLA-DR (99%, range 96.5-99.8), and CD38 (98%, range 90-100), lacked intracytoplasmic myeloperoxidase (MPO, < 3%), and resided in the Gzero/G1 phase of the cell cycle (96.5%, range 81-99.5, compared with 70%, range 49-78 bone marrow HP; p = 0.0007), independently of surface membrane phenotype; S-phase percentages of sorted CD34+ CD33(+)/-, CD34+CD38(+)/-, CD34+HLA-DR(+)/-, CD34+CD45RA(+)/-, CD34+CD45RO(+)/-, and CD34+CD41a(+)/- subpopulations were always negligible. In colony assays, 5-week-old long-term cultures seeded with CD34+CD33- cells yielded as many colonies as did CD34+CD33+ cells. In conclusion, rhG-CSF-mobilized CD34+ PBHPs contain noncycling, highly immature progenitors in which the expression of myeloid-associated antigens, i.e., CD33 or CD13, might not be indicative of myeloid commitment.
Mitochondrial DNA from El Mirador Cave (Atapuerca, Spain) Reveals the Heterogeneity of Chalcolithic Populations

Previous mitochondrial DNA analyses on ancient European remains have suggested that the current distribution of haplogroup H was modeled by the expansion of the Bell Beaker culture (ca 4,500–4,050 years BP) out of Iberia during the Chalcolithic period. However, little is known on the genetic composition of contemporaneous Iberian populations that do not carry the archaeological tool kit defining this culture. Here we have retrieved mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from 19 individuals from a Chalcolithic sample from El Mirador cave in Spain, dated to 4,760–4,200 years BP and we have analyzed the haplogroup composition in the context of modern and ancient populations. Regarding extant African, Asian and European populations, El Mirador shows affinities with Near Eastern groups. In different analyses with other ancient samples, El Mirador clusters with Middle and Late Neolithic populations from Germany, belonging to the Rössen, the Salzmünde and the Baalberge archaeological cultures but not with contemporaneous Bell Beakers. Our analyses support the existence of a common genetic signal between Western and Central Europe during the Middle and Late Neolithic and points to a heterogeneous genetic landscape among Chalcolithic groups.
Stereotypes Possess Heterogeneous Directionality: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration of Stereotype Structure and Content

We advance a theory-driven approach to stereotype structure, informed by connectionist theories of cognition. Whereas traditional models define or tacitly assume that stereotypes possess inherently Group → Attribute activation directionality (e.g., Black activates criminal), our model predicts heterogeneous stereotype directionality. Alongside the classically studied Group → Attribute stereotypes, some stereotypes should be bidirectional (i.e., Group ⇄ Attribute) and others should have Attribute → Group unidirectionality (e.g., fashionable activates gay). We tested this prediction in several large-scale studies with human participants (NCombined = 4,817), assessing stereotypic inferences among various groups and attributes. Supporting predictions, we found heterogeneous directionality both among the stereotype links related to a given social group and also between the links of different social groups. These efforts yield rich datasets that map the networks of stereotype links related to several social groups. We make these datasets publicly available, enabling other researchers to explore a number of questions related to stereotypes and stereotyping. Stereotype directionality is an understudied feature of stereotypes and stereotyping with widespread implications for the development, measurement, maintenance, expression, and change of stereotypes, stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.
IL‐8 and mortality prediction in post‐surgical septic shock

To the Editor: We read with interest the article entitled ‘Multiplex cytokine profiling in patients with sepsis’, by Mera S and col (1). In this article, the authors simultaneously measured in 30 septic patients 17 cytokines during the first 7 days following admission. The authors found in the multivariate logistical regression analysis that the initial levels of interleukin (IL)-8 were the most predictive for fatal outcome. Although the presence of septic shock in the Mera and col cohort was limited to 9 of 30 patients, we actually tried to evaluate the prognostic role of the same cytokines in a cohort of patients with a more severe form of the disease. This way, we recruited 38 patients with post-surgical septic shock. Patients were prospectively recruited from our Intensive Care Unit from January to December 2011. Recommendations of the American College of Chest Physicians/Society of Critical Care Medicine Consensus Conference were followed to define septic shock (2). Approval for the study protocol for both the scientific and the ethical aspects was obtained from the Scientific Committee for Clinical Research of our Hospital. Informed consent was obtained directly from the patients‘legal representative before enrolment. A 5 mL Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) tube was collected in the 24 first hours following diagnosis of Septic Shock. Twelve patients had suffered a cardiac surgery, whereas 26 had suffered an abdominal surgery. Fifteen patients died during hospitalization at the ICU. A positive bacterial or fungal infection was found in 27 patients in blood and/or local culture. Six cases had an exclusive infection by a gram-positive bacteria; 10 cases had an exclusive infection by a gram-negative bacteria; an exclusive fungal infection was found in one patient; six patients had a combined infection by gram-positive + gram-negative bacteria; two patients had a combined infection by gram-negative bacteria + fungi; three patients had a combined infection by grampositive, gram-negative bacteria and fungi. Sixteen healthy volunteers working at our hospital of similar age were recruited as controls for comparison purposes. The multiplex cytokine kit was also a 17 plex kit purchased from BioRad (Hercules, CA, USA), including [IL-1b, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-10, IL12, IL-13, IL-17, interferon-c, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor, monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP-1), macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1b and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-a]. Mann–Whitney U-test evidenced that patients with septic shock had higher plasma levels of IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-13, MCP-1 and MIP-1b than controls, independently of their final outcome (data not shown). Patients who died had significant higher levels of IL-8 and MCP-1 at the moment of diagnosis than those who survived [median, interquartile rank (pg/ mL) in survivors and fatal cases]: IL-8 [(80.8, 172.4); (158.6, 217.9)] (Fig. 1); MCP-1 [(148.4, 441.7); (346.8, 1347.7)] (p < 0.05). Patients
End-member modeling of the grain-size record of Sikouzi fine sediments in Ningxia (China) and implications for temperature control of Neogene evolution of East Asian winter monsoon

The Late Cenozoic East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) enhancement has been attributed to several factors, such as uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, retreat of the Paratethys Sea, and global cooling related to polar ice volume increment. However, the fundamental forcing factors remain enigmatic due to the absence of long and continuous climate records and sensitive indicators. Here we reanalyzed the published grain-size record of Sikouzi fine sediments in the western Chinese Loess Plateau through end-member (EM) modeling. The results indicate that EM 2 with grain-size peaks between 10–100 μm decreased in content from 20.1 to 17 Ma and stepwise increased from 17 to 0.07 Ma during the following six stages (17–15 Ma, 15–12 Ma, 12–8 Ma, 8–6 Ma, 6–4 Ma and 4–0 Ma). Such varying trends can be successively correlated in seven stages with the integrated benthic δ18O record, implying that global warming weakened the EAWM from 20.1 to 17 Ma and global cooling has stepwise strengthened the EAWM since 17 Ma. Therefore, we conclude that global temperature change played a major role on the evolution of EAWM during the Neogene period. By contrast, Late Cenozoic palaeogeographic reorganization caused by uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and retreat of the Paratethys Sea contributed less to the evolutionary evolution of EAWM. Spectral analysis of the EM 2 data first provided direct evidence of orbitally influenced deposition in the study area and thus the EAWM variations during the Neogene period. The 100-kyr period became weak since ~10 Ma, possibly due to the decrease in sensitivity of a more stable, continental-scale ice sheet in Antarctica to local insolation forcing, deserving further investigation.
Geochemistry of Platinum Group Elements in Chromitites from The Rhodope Massif (Bulgaria)

Ophiolite chromitites are usually enriched in platinum-group elements (PGE) with respect to other mantle rocks. The origin of such enrichment is still controversial, and not completely understood. It is widely accepted that concentration of PGE depends on the degree of partial melting, the nature of the source rock, and the sulphur content of the parent partial melt. All these parameters are closely linked to the geotectonic setting where chromitite forms. Thus, Cr-rich chromitites formed in suprasubduction zones are rich in PGE, while Al-rich chromitites formed in spreading zones are usually poor in PGE (Prichard et al., 1986; Proenza et al., 1999; Ahmed & Arai 2002, 2003; Proenza et al., 2004; Gervilla et al., 2005). Furthermore, some mechanisms, such as hydrothermal activity (Prichard et al., 1986), serpentinization (Thalhammer et al., 1990), metamorphism (Zaccarini et al., 2005), or weathering (Augé & Legendre 1994) can modify the concentration of PGE in chromitites.
Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Electron Beam Welded and Heat-Treated Niobium for Tesla

The design accelerating gradient for Tesla SRF cavities is 25 MV/m. For achieving such high accelerating gradients both the field emission and thermal quench limitations have to be eliminated. Post purification of the niobium sheets, cells or the completed cavities is likely to achieve the required gradients. However, such treatments are bound to reduce the mechanical properties of the accelerating structure. In this paper, thermal and mechanical properties of electron beam welded and heat treated high RRR niobium are presented.
Artifactual log‐periodicity in finite size data: Relevance for earthquake aftershocks

The recently proposed discrete scale invariance and its associated log-periodicity are an elaboration of the concept of scale invariance in which the system is scale invariant only under powers of specific values of the magnification factor. We report on the discovery of a novel mechanism for such log-periodicity relying solely on the manipulation of data. This “synthetic” scenario for log-periodicity relies on two steps: (1) the fact that approximately logarithmic sampling in time corresponds to uniform sampling in the logarithm of time; and (2) a low-pass-filtering step, as occurs in constructing cumulative functions, in maximum likelihood estimations, and in de-trending, reddens the noise and, in a finite sample, creates a maximum in the spectrum leading to a most probable frequency in the logarithm of time. We explore in detail this mechanism and present extensive numerical simulations. We use this insight to analyze the 27 best aftershock sequences studied by Kisslinger and Jones [1991] to search for traces of genuine log-periodic corrections to Omori's law, which states that the earthquake rate decays approximately as the inverse of the time since the last main shock. The observed log-periodicity is shown to almost entirely result from the “synthetic scenario” owing to the data analysis. From a statistical point of view, resolving the issue of the possible existence of log-periodicity in aftershocks will be very difficult as Omori's law describes a point process with a uniform sampling in the logarithm of the time. By construction, strong log-periodic fluctuations are thus created by this logarithmic sampling.
Health risk appraisal in older people 3: prevalence, impact, and context of pain and their implications for GPs.

BACKGROUND Pain is a common experience in later life. There is conflicting evidence of the prevalence, impact, and context of pain in older people. GPs are criticised for underestimating and under-treating pain. AIM To assess the extent to which older people experience pain, and to explore relationships between self-reported pain and functional ability and depression. DESIGN OF STUDY Secondary analysis of baseline data from a randomised controlled trial of health risk appraisal. SETTING A total of 1090 community-dwelling non-disabled people aged 65 years and over were included in the study from three group practices in suburban London. METHOD Main outcome measures were pain in the last 4 weeks and the impact of pain, measured using the 24-item Geriatric Pain Measure; depression symptoms captured using the 5-item Mental Health Inventory; social relationships measured using the 6-item Lubben Social Network Scale; Basic and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living and self-reported symptoms. RESULTS Forty-five per cent of women and 34% of men reported pain in the previous 4 weeks. Pain experience appeared to be less in the 'oldest old': 27.5% of those aged 85 years and over reported pain compared with 38-53% of the 'younger old'. Those with arthritis were four times more likely to report pain. Pain had a profound impact on activities of daily living, but most of those reporting pain described their health as good or excellent. Although there was a significant association between the experience of pain and depressed mood, the majority of those reporting pain did not have depressed mood. CONCLUSION A multidimensional approach to assessing pain is appropriate. Primary care practitioners should also assess the impact of pain on activities of daily living.
Explicit MPC with output feedback using self-optimizing control

Abstract Model predictive control (MPC) is a favored method for handling constrained linear control problems. Normally, the MPC optimization problem is solved on-line, but in ‘explicit MPC’ an explicit precomputed feedback law is used for each region of active constraints (Bemporad et al., 2002). In this paper we make a link between this and the ‘self-optimizing control’ idea of finding simple policies for implementing optimal operation. The ‘nullspace’ method (Alstad and Skogestad, 2007) generates optimal variable combinations, c = u – Kx , which for the case with perfect state measurements are equivalent to the explicit MPC feedback laws, where K is the optimal state feedback matrix in a given region. More importantly, this link makes it possible to derive explicit feedback laws for cases with (1) state measurement error included and (2) measurement (rather than state) feedback. We further show how to generate optimal low-order controllers for unconstrained optimal control, also in the presence of noise.
Time‐varying magnetic fields: Effects of orientation on chondrocyte proliferation

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of orientation of pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) on cellular proliferation and extracellular matrix synthesis. Bovine articular chondrocytes were cultured in PEMFs (repetitive pulse at 72 Hz) generated using Helmholtz coils oriented either parallel (horizontal) or perpendicular (vertical) to the plane of cell adhesion. Dissipation of signal energy in the form of heat increased the temperature of the PEMF coils by 2°C and the tissue culture medium by 1°C. Therefore, control coils, which emitted no PEMFs, were heated to the temperature of PEMF coils by circulating water. Chondrocytes were cultured in 16‐mm‐well culture plates, and the data for individual wells were pooled as triplicates. Although not observed by microscopic examination of individual wells, positionally dependent electric field effects may be minimized by this approach. PEMFs generated by coils oriented vertically significantly decreased chondrocyte proliferation. The effect was dependent on the concentration of serum in the culture media. At 3% serum concentration, the total cell number attained after 10 days of culture was reduced by 50% in stimulated cultures when compared with controls. At 5% serum concentration, there was no effect. PEMFs applied by coils oriented horizontally did not alter proliferation of articular chondrocytes. PEMFs had no effect on synthesis of extracellular matrix by chondrocytes plated at high density, irrespective of orientation.
Cadmium-Induced Effects on Bone in a Population-Based Study of Women

High cadmium exposure is known to cause bone damage, but the association between low-level cadmium exposure and osteoporosis remains to be clarified. Using a population-based women’s health survey in southern Sweden [Women’s Health in the Lund Area (WHILA)] with no known historical cadmium contamination, we investigated cadmium-related effects on bone in 820 women (53–64 years of age). We measured cadmium in blood and urine and lead in blood, an array of markers of bone metabolism, and forearm bone mineral density (BMD). Associations were evaluated in multiple linear regression analysis including information on the possible confounders or effect modifiers: weight, menopausal status, use of hormone replacement therapy, age at menarche, alcohol consumption, smoking history, and physical activity. Median urinary cadmium was 0.52 μg/L adjusted to density (0.67 μg/g creatinine). After multivariate adjustment, BMD, parathyroid hormone, and urinary deoxypyridinoline (U-DPD) were adversely associated with concentrations of urinary cadmium (p < 0.05) in all subjects. These associations persisted in the group of never-smokers, which had the lowest cadmium exposure (mainly dietary). For U-DPD, there was a significant interaction between cadmium and menopause (p = 0.022). Our results suggest negative effects of low-level cadmium exposure on bone, possibly exerted via increased bone resorption, which seemed to be intensified after menopause. Based on the prevalence of osteoporosis and the low level of exposure, the observed effects, although slight, should be considered as early signals of potentially more adverse health effects.
A Review of Self-regulated Learning: Six Models and Four Directions for Research

Self-regulated learning (SRL) includes the cognitive, metacognitive, behavioral, motivational, and emotional/affective aspects of learning. It is, therefore, an extraordinary umbrella under which a considerable number of variables that influence learning (e.g., self-efficacy, volition, cognitive strategies) are studied within a comprehensive and holistic approach. For that reason, SRL has become one of the most important areas of research within educational psychology. In this paper, six models of SRL are analyzed and compared; that is, Zimmerman; Boekaerts; Winne and Hadwin; Pintrich; Efklides; and Hadwin, Järvelä and Miller. First, each model is explored in detail in the following aspects: (a) history and development, (b) description of the model (including the model figures), (c) empirical support, and (d) instruments constructed based on the model. Then, the models are compared in a number of aspects: (a) citations, (b) phases and subprocesses, (c) how they conceptualize (meta)cognition, motivation and emotion, (d) top–down/bottom–up, (e) automaticity, and (f) context. In the discussion, the empirical evidence from the existing SRL meta-analyses is examined and implications for education are extracted. Further, four future lines of research are proposed. The review reaches two main conclusions. First, the SRL models form an integrative and coherent framework from which to conduct research and on which students can be taught to be more strategic and successful. Second, based on the available meta-analytic evidence, there are differential effects of SRL models in light of differences in students’ developmental stages or educational levels. Thus, scholars and teachers need to start applying these differential effects of the SRL models and theories to enhance students’ learning and SRL skills.