Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection, multichannel SVD based filtering and characterization of trigeminal somatosensory evoked potentials

The very weak and noisy trigeminal somatosensory evoked potentials (TSEPs) are considered, which are evoked by electrical stimulation of an endosseous oral implant. The aim is to make the tactile sensation through endosseous implants objective. Although a lot of nerves are damaged by extraction of teeth, it has been reported from psychophysical tests [11] that a patient rehabilitated with an osseointegrated implant seems to have a subjectively improved ability to feel through his prosthesis and the anchoring implant in the bone. We want to find an objective and non-invasive measuring method for the investigation of the trigeminal nerve and try to explain this feedback mechanism. The TSEPs will be applied for this purpose, but these are very noisy and weak signals. Subsequently, a methodology is designed for statistically detecting the transient signal (TSEP) in the biological noise and a multichannel SVD (singular value decomposition) based filtering method is described in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the recorded signals and to estimate the very diffuse TSEP waveform. Furthermore, as this filtering has the ability to investigate several channels simultaneously, the correlation between the channels can be exploited, which is appropriate for the determination of the characteristic components of the TSEPs, which are the peak latencies and amplitudes. Keywords— evoked potential, multichannel SVD based filtering, correlation coefficient, peak identification
Maximal discharge rate of motor units determines the maximal rate of force development during ballistic contractions in human

The magnitude of the neural activation, and hence the force produced by a muscle, depend on the number of motor units activated (recruitment) and the rates at which motor neurons discharge action potentials (rate coding). Although the recruitment order of motor units (size principle) is similar for contractions during which the force is gradually increased (ramp contraction) and those during which the force is produced as fast as possible (see Duchateau and Enoka, 2011), rate coding differs between the two types of contractions (Desmedt and Godaux, 1977a,b; Bawa and Calancie, 1983). Motor unit discharge rate increases progressively during slow ramp contractions (Milner-Brown et al., 1973) whereas fast contractions involve high instantaneous discharge rate that decreases thereafter (Desmedt and Godaux, 1977a; Van Cutsem et al., 1998). Maximal discharge rate during slow isometric ramp contractions usually reaches values of 20–50 Hz whereas it can attain much higher values (>100 Hz), albeit briefly, during fast contractions (for reviews, see Enoka and Fuglevand, 2001; Duchateau and Enoka, 2011) Fast isometric contractions can be performed in different ways. A first possibility is to increase force as quickly as possible up to a certain level and to maintain this force for a few seconds (step and hold contraction). An alternative way is to produce force as fast as possible but to relax the muscle immediately after the target force is reached. Such impulse-like contractions have been termed ballistic contractions (Desmedt and Godaux, 1977a). Although both contractions involved reaching a target force as fast as possible, results from our laboratory indicate that the maximal rate of torque development is ~16% greater for ballistic than step and hold contractions (465.2 ± 17.4 vs. 400.5 ± 20 Nm/s; mean ± SD) performed with the ankle dorsiflexor muscles. Considering the difference in motor unit discharge rate between slow and fast contractions, these data suggest that ballistic contractions could be used to assess the maximal discharge rate of motor neurons in humans.
The Low and Narrow: A Preliminary Test of the Association Between Depressive Symptoms and Deficits in Producing Divergent Inferences

Depression is associated with biased interpretations and beliefs that are resistant to change. This kind of cognitive rigidity may depend on two distinct factors—a reduced ability for processing information that conflicts with these interpretations and beliefs and a reduced ability for generating alternative representations. Although depressive symptoms are typically not associated with deficits in common divergent thinking tasks, these tasks may not be sensitive or specific enough to detect the rigid cognition associated with depression. Accordingly, a novel task was developed to assess divergent thinking in line with the level of construal and thematic contents typical of depressive cognition (the Divergent Inference Task—DIT). In a preliminary investigation using a nonclinical sample, depressive symptoms were correlated with deficits in producing divergent interpretations for realistic scenarios using the DIT. This finding may represent an important psychological mechanism that contributes to the persistence of biased interpretations and beliefs in depression.
Aerial manipulation using a quadrotor with a two DOF robotic arm

This paper presents aerial manipulation using a quadrotor with a two-DOF robot arm. By considering a quadrotor and robot arm as a combined system, the kinematic and dynamic models are developed, and an adaptive sliding mode controller is designed. With the controller, an autonomous flight experiment is conducted including picking up and delivering an object, which requires accurate control of a quadrotor and robot arm. Overall result shows that the proposed approach demonstrates satisfactory performance as a potential platform which can be utilized in various applications such as inspection, manipulation, or transportation in remote places.
Identification of Multiple Subsets of Ventral Interneurons and Differential Distribution along the Rostrocaudal Axis of the Developing Spinal Cord

The spinal cord contains neuronal circuits termed Central Pattern Generators (CPGs) that coordinate rhythmic motor activities. CPG circuits consist of motor neurons and multiple interneuron cell types, many of which are derived from four distinct cardinal classes of ventral interneurons, called V0, V1, V2 and V3. While significant progress has been made on elucidating the molecular and genetic mechanisms that control ventral interneuron differentiation, little is known about their distribution along the antero-posterior axis of the spinal cord and their diversification. Here, we report that V0, V1 and V2 interneurons exhibit distinct organizational patterns at brachial, thoracic and lumbar levels of the developing spinal cord. In addition, we demonstrate that each cardinal class of ventral interneurons can be subdivided into several subsets according to the combinatorial expression of different sets of transcription factors, and that these subsets are differentially distributed along the rostrocaudal axis of the spinal cord. This comprehensive molecular profiling of ventral interneurons provides an important resource for investigating neuronal diversification in the developing spinal cord and for understanding the contribution of specific interneuron subsets on CPG circuits and motor control.
Beta Decays and the Inner Structures of the Neutrino in a NLHV Design

A novel conceptual theory is developed for the beta decay and electron capture processes, based on the specific non-local hidden-variable (NLHV) design provided by the Cordus theory. A new mechanics is sketched out for the interactions of particules through their discrete forces, and is a deeper level representation of Feynman diagrams. The new mechanics is able to correctly predict the outcomes of the decay processes, beta minus, beta plus, electron capture. It predicts specific NLHV structures for the neutrino and antineutrino. The velocity and unique spins of the neutrino species may then be explained as a consequence of the hidden structures.
A P2P approach for membership management and resource discovery in grids

As deployed grids increase from tens to thousands of nodes, peer-to-peer (P2P) techniques and protocols can be used to implement scalable services and application in grids. This paper proposes a P2P approach for handling two key services in grid environments: membership management and resource discovery. The membership management service exploits the use of "contact nodes", i.e. of nodes elected within virtual organizations to facilitate the assignment of neighbours and the construction of interconnections between grid nodes. The resource discovery service uses these interconnections to give grid nodes the opportunity to explore the grid and discover available resources. The paper analyzes the performance of the resource discovery service on grid networks with different sizes.
A Confining Strong First-Order Electroweak Phase Transition

In the Randall-Sundrum model where the radion is stabilized by a Goldberger-Wise (GW) potential there is a supercooled transition from a deconfined to a confined phase at temperatures orders of magnitude below the typical Standard Model critical temperature. When the Higgs is localized at the IR brane the electroweak phase transition is delayed and becomes a strong first-order one where the Universe expands by a few e-folds. This generates the possibility of having the out-of-equilibrium condition required by electroweak baryogenesis in the electroweak phase transition. We have studied numerically the region of the GW parameter space where the theory is consistent and the latter possibility is realized. We have found that in most of the parameter space the nucleation temperature is so low that sphalerons are totally inactive inside the bubbles. The condition for sphalerons to be inactive after reheating imposes an upper bound on the reheating temperature that is weaker for heavy Higgs bosons so that the out-of-equilibrium condition seems to favor heavy over light Higgses. The condition for sphalerons to be active outside the bubbles puts an upper bound on the number of e-folds at the phase transition, roughly consistent with the critical value required by low-scale inflation to solve the cosmological horizon problem.
Compact Model Parameter Extraction Using Bayesian Inference, Incomplete New Measurements, and Optimal Bias Selection

In this paper, we propose a novel MOSFET parameter extraction method to enable early technology evaluation. The distinguishing feature of the proposed method is that it enables the extraction of MOSFET model parameters using limited and incomplete current–voltage measurements from on-chip monitor circuits. An important step in this method is the use of maximum a posteriori estimation where past measurements of transistors from various technologies are used to learn a prior distribution and its uncertainty matrix for the parameters of the target technology. The framework then utilizes Bayesian inference to facilitate extraction using a very small set of additional measurements. The proposed method is validated using various past technologies and post-silicon measurements for a commercial 28-nm process. The proposed extraction can be used to characterize the statistical variations of MOSFETs with the significant benefit that the restrictions imposed by the backward propagation of variance algorithm are relaxed. We also study the lower bound requirement for the number of transistor measurements needed to extract a full set of parameters for a compact model. Finally, we propose an efficient algorithm for selecting the optimal transistor biases by minimizing a cost function derived from information-theoretic concept of average marginal information gain.
Cultures of Caste and Rural Development in the Social Network of a South Indian Village

Cultures of caste in much of rural India have become entangled with institutions of rural development. In community-driven development, emphasis on “local resource persons” and “community spokespersons” has created new opportunities for brokerage and patronage within some villages, which interact with existing forms of authority and community afforded by caste identity and intra-caste headmanship. In this article, we study how these entangled cultures of caste and development translate into social network structures using data on friendship ties from a south Indian village. We find that although caste continues to be important in shaping community structures and leadership in the village’s network, its influence varies across different communities. This fluidity of caste’s influence on community network structures is argued to be the result of multiple distinct yet partially overlapping cultural-political forces, which include sharedness afforded by caste identity and new forms of difference and inequality effected through rural development.
Target-Distractor Phase and Selective Attention: Idle Resources do the Devil’s Work?

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that exclusion of irrelevant stimuli is more effective when attentional resources are engaged in processing taskrelevant stimuli than when they are idle. Subjects (university students) attended to a series of target words while attempting to ignore distractor words and then recalled the targets. Distractors were presented either in phase with targets (when attentional resources are presumably occupied with target processing) or out of phase (when resources are relatively idle). When distractors occurred in the same modality as targets (auditory in Experiment 1, visual in Experiment 2), recall accuracy was lower with out-of-phase distractors, consistent with the hypothesis. However, when distractors occurred in a different modality than targets (auditory distractors with visual targets in Experiment 3, vice versa in Experiment 4), there was no difference between the phase conditions, although both were inferior to the no-distractor control condition. The interaction between phase and modality is consistent with largely modality-specific processing resources.
Pointwise shape-adaptive DCT for high-quality deblocking of compressed color images

We present an high-quality image deblocking algorithm based on the shape-adaptive DCT (SA-DCT). The SA-DCT is a low-complexity transform which can be computed on a support of arbitrary shape. This transform has been adopted by the MPEG-4 standard and it is found implemented in modern video hardware. The use of this shape-adaptive transform for denoising and deblurring has been recently proposed, showing a remarkable performance. In this paper we discuss and analyze the use of this approach for the deblocking of block-DCT compressed images. Particular emphasis is given to the deblocking of highly-compressed color images. Extensive simulation experiments attest the advanced performance of the proposed filtering method. The visual quality of the estimates is high, with sharp detail preservation, clean edges. Blocking and ringing artifacts are suppressed while salient image features are preserved. The SA-DCT filtering used for the chrominance channels allows to faithfully reconstruct the missing structural information of the chrominances, thus correcting color-bleeding artifacts.
The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives

"Statistical significance," a technique that dominates medicine, economics, psychology, and many other scientific fields, has been a huge mistake. The outcome is a case study in bad science - how it originates and how it grows. These sciences, from agronomy to zoology, the authors find, engage "testing" that doesn't test and "estimating" that doesn't estimate. Heedless of magnitude and of a genuine engagement with alternative hypotheses, they "testimate. " "Null hypothesis significance testing" is in other words a scientific train-wreck, about which a small group of statisticians have been warning for a century.Ziliak and McCloskey's book shows field by field how the wreck happened, reports on the fatalities, and offers a quantitative way forward. The facts will startle the outside reader: how could a group of brilliant scientists wander so far away from scientific magnitudes? And it will inspirit the scientists who seek conscious interpretations of "oomph" rather than arbitrary columns of t-tests: how can the statistical sciences get back on track, and fulfill their quantitative promise? Ziliak and McCloskey measure the disaster in their home field of economics, and in psychology, epidemiology, and medical science. They touch as well on law, biology, psychiatry, pharmacology, sociology, political science, education, forensics, and other fields in the grip of "significance. " The book shows for the first time how wide the disaster is, and how bad for science, and it traces the problem to its historical, sociological, and philosophical roots. Many statisticians have complained about it before, but have complained science-by-science.
Biological Screening of Newly Synthesized BIAN N-Heterocyclic Gold Carbene Complexes in Zebrafish Embryos

N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) metal complexes possess diverse biological activities but have yet to be extensively explored as potential chemotherapeutic agents. We have previously reported the synthesis of a new class of NHC metal complexes N-heterocyclic with acetate [IPr(BIAN)AuOAc] and chloride [IPr(BIAN)AuCl] ligands. In the experiments reported herein, the zebrafish embryos were exposed to serial dilutions of each of these complexes for 10–12 h. One hundred percent mortality was observed at concentrations ≥50 µM. At sub-lethal concentrations (10–30 µM), both compounds influenced zebrafish embryonic development. However, quite diverse categories of abnormalities were found in exposed embryos with each compound. Severe brain deformation and notochord degeneration were evident in the case of [IPr(BIAN)AuOAc]. The zebrafish embryos treated with [IPr(BIAN)AuCl] exhibited stunted growth and consequently had smaller body sizes. A depletion of 30%–40% glutathione was detected in the treated embryos, which could account for one of the possible mechanism of neurotoxicity. The fact that these compounds are capable of both affecting the growth and also compromising antioxidant systems by elevating intracellular ROS production implies that they could play an important role as a new breed of therapeutic molecules.
On the geometry of spheres with positive curvature

Let M be an n-dimensional complete connected Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature bigger than or equal to 1 and diameter bigger than p/2, and N be a closed connected totally geodesic submanifold. In this paper we show that N is homeomorphic to a sphere if there exist a point x in N with rad(x) in M bigger than p/2. If we further assume that the radius of M is bigger than p/2, we give a two-dimensional example to show that the antipodal map A of M restricted to a complete totally geodesic submanifold may not agree with that of M.
Relationship of squat one repetition maximum to weight throw performance among elite and collegiate athletes

Weight room 1 repetition maximums (1RM) have been shown to be associated with performance in the throwing events. The purpose of this study was to investigate the primary variables that contributed to maximum throwing distance in the indoor weight throw event in track and field. A survey instrument was developed to collect data regarding national level collegiate weight throwers in the United States. Bivariate correlations for weight throw personal best and squat 1RM revealed significant correlations for both the male (r=0.642, p<0.001) and female participants (r=0.799, p<0.001). The height of the female athletes was also significantly correlated to weight throw personal best (r=0.710, p<0.001); however, height was not significantly correlated to personal best among male participants (r=0.173, p=0.361). Furthermore, the results may provide some insight into the obstacles and barriers limiting the development of US weight throwers.
A Cross-Cultural Comparison of U.S. and Chinese Computer Security Awareness

Despite the recent increased attention afforded malware by the popular press, there appears to be a dearth in user awareness and understanding of certain aspects of the security paradigm. This article presents a comparison of user awareness levels of rootkits, spyware, and viruses between U.S. and Chinese users. The results of a survey of 210 U.S. respondents and 278 Chinese respondents indicate that respondentsâ€™ awareness and knowledge of rootkits is well below that of spyware and viruses. Data analysis further reveals that there are significant differences in Chinese and U.S. user perceptions with regard to spyware and computer viruses. However, there is no difference in cross-cultural awareness with regard to rootkits. Due to the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, rootkits and other malware do not yield at transnational borders. An important step to mitigate the threats posed by malware, such as rootkits, is to raise awareness levels of users worldwide.
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Design and implementation of ShiCo: Visualising shifting concepts over time

In diﬀerent times, people use diﬀerent words to describe concepts. Change and stability in word usage are possible indicators of wider socio-cultural changes. To gain insight into how people perceive concepts, it is valuable to trace how the words denoting a certain concept change over time. Existing tools for exploring historical concepts, such as keyword searching or topic modeling, are ill-suited for the task; they are either too top-down or too rigid for an iterative exploration of historical concepts in large data sets. In this article, we present ShiCo: a graphical interface for visualising concepts over time by monitoring shifts in word usage in a document corpus. As the dimension of time plays a crucial role in ShiCo, this article demonstrates ShiCo on a large corpus of newspaper articles spanning several decades. We describe the design choices made during the development of ShiCo and the key parameters that control the tool’s behaviour. Lastly, as ShiCo is meant to be used by the broader community, we describe the steps required for running ShiCo on a novel data set.
Social cognition profile in amnestic MCI

Background: Social Cognition was defined by Fiske, 1993 1 as the means by which we make sense of ourselves in relation to others and the environment in which we live. Decades later, Forbes & Grafman, 2010 2 demonstrated that social cognition includes any cognitive process that is utilized to understand or interpret the self in relation to others. For years, disturbance of social cognition was considered as an early feature of schizophrenia and autism. Recently, it has been studied in many neurodegenerative diseases, and included as one of the six key domains of cognitive function defined by DSMV 3 . According to DSM-V 3 , social cognition has 3 subdomains which include recognition of emotions, theory of mind, and insight. Theory of Mind (ToM) is the main subdomain of social cognition. It is the ability we attribute mental states (beliefs, intentions, or knowledge) to ourselves and others 4 . ToM capacity can be assessed by different tests including the firstand second-order false belief tasks, the Faux Pas Recognition (FPR) test, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test and Ekman’s Facial Emotion Recognition Test. 5
Reporting Internal Control Deficiencies in the Post-Sarbanes-Oxley Era: The Role of Auditors and Corporate Governance

This study addresses the role of audit committees and auditors in the reporting of internal control deficiencies after the passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX). We find that a higher number of meetings of the audit committee, lesser proportion of "financial experts" in the audit committee, and more auditor changes characterize firms that report weaknesses in their internal controls compared to firms with no weaknesses. Prior restatements of financial statements are also higher for firms not reporting such weaknesses. The results are robust to controlling for a variety of firm characteristics such as complexity of operations, profitability, and growth. Our results underscore the importance of governance characteristics beyond general firm characteristics in examining the reporting of internal control weaknesses.