Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Acute Stress on Emotion Recognition of Bodily Movements

THE EFFECTS OF ACUTE STRESS ON EMOTION RECOGNITION OF BODILY MOVEMENTS Devi Jayan Marquette University, 2018 Lack of understanding of the mental state of others may govern poor social interactions and, the etiology and maintenance of several mental health conditions. In everyday situations, verbal and non-verbal affective stimuli are often processed under conditions of acute stress. Acute stress is associated with changes in cognition, affect, behavior and neural functioning; however, previous research has not sufficiently identified the role of acute stress on emotion recognition (ER) from body movements. The current study explored the effects of acute stress and related physiological responses on ER of dynamic body movements. Eighty-Four participants were exposed to an acute stress procedure or a control condition before they were administered an ER task with angry, happy and neutral emotional stimuli to recognize. In addition, physiological measures such as cortisol and skin conductance were collected during baseline, exposure and post-stress conditions. Based on cortisol response 20 minutes after stress induction participants were categorized into cortisol responders (15.5% or more increase in cortisol values from baseline to exposure) and non-responders (less than 15.5% increase). The hypothesis that angry stimuli would be more accurately recognized under acute stress was only partially supported as a statistical trend. There are no significant difference in the ER for happy or neutral emotions between the stress groups. Cortisol responder status was associated with a decline in ER accuracy specific to neutral stimuli, which may highlight the existence of overlapping neural mechanisms involved in stress and ER. In addition, female cortisol responders misattributed neutral stimuli as happy significantly more than controls and non-responders. These results provide preliminary evidence for hypothesis that stress and physiological stress responses influence ER in varying degrees based on the properties of the emotions. Implications and future directions are discussed.
The end of the end of ideology.

The "end of ideology" was declared by social scientists in the aftermath of World War II. They argued that (a) ordinary citizens' political attitudes lack the kind of stability, consistency, and constraint that ideology requires; (b) ideological constructs such as liberalism and conservatism lack motivational potency and behavioral significance; (c) there are no major differences in content (or substance) between liberal and conservative points of view; and (d) there are few important differences in psychological processes (or styles) that underlie liberal versus conservative orientations. The end-of-ideologists were so influential that researchers ignored the topic of ideology for many years. However, current political realities, recent data from the American National Election Studies, and results from an emerging psychological paradigm provide strong grounds for returning to the study of ideology. Studies reveal that there are indeed meaningful political and psychological differences that covary with ideological self-placement. Situational variables--including system threat and mortality salience--and dispositional variables--including openness and conscientiousness--affect the degree to which an individual is drawn to liberal versus conservative leaders, parties, and opinions. A psychological analysis is also useful for understanding the political divide between "red states" and "blue states. "
Geometry of the Poisson Boolean model on a region of logarithmic width in the plane

Consider the region L = {(x, y): 0 ≤ y ≤ Clog(1 + x), x > 0} for a constant C > 0. We study the percolation and coverage properties of this region. For the coverage properties, we place a Poisson point process of intensity λ on the entire half space R + x R and associated with each Poisson point we place a box of a random side length ρ. Depending on the tail behaviour of the random variable ρ we exhibit a phase transition in the intensity for the eventual coverage of the region L. For the percolation properties, we place a Poisson point process of intensity λ on the region R 2. At each point of the process we centre a box of a random side length ρ. In the case ρ ≤ R for some fixed R > 0 we study the critical intensity λc of the percolation on L.
Spatial patterns of linear and nonparametric long-term trends in Baltic sea-level variability

The study of long-term trends in tide gauge data is important for understanding the present and future risk of changes in sea-level variability for coastal zones, particularly with respect to the ongoing debate on climate change im- pacts. Traditionally, most corresponding analyses have ex- clusively focused on trends in mean sea-level. However, such studies are not able to provide sufficient information about changes in the full probability distribution (especially in the more extreme quantiles). As an alternative, in this paper we apply quantile regression (QR) for studying changes in arbi- trary quantiles of sea-level variability. For this purpose, we chose two different QR approaches and discuss the advan- tages and disadvantages of different settings. In particular, traditional linear QR poses very restrictive assumptions that are often not met in reality. For monthly data from 47 tide gauges from along the Baltic Sea coast, the spatial patterns of quantile trends obtained in linear and nonparametric (spline- based) frameworks display marked differences, which need to be understood in order to fully assess the impact of fu- ture changes in sea-level variability on coastal areas. In gen- eral, QR demonstrates that the general variability of Baltic sea-level has increased over the last decades. Linear quan- tile trends estimated for sliding windows in time reveal a wide-spread acceleration of trends in the median, but only localised changes in the rates of changes in the lower and up- per quantiles.
The prevalence of stress among teachers in medium-sized mixed comprehensive schools

Dunham (1976) has drawn attention to the prevalence of stress among schoolteachers. Dunham argued that the results of his survey, which included reports from 658 teachers in infant, junior and secondary schools, indicated that more teachers are experiencing stress, and that severe stress is being experienced by more teachers. However, a review of the research on 'Teacher Stress' by Kyriacou and Sutcliffe (1977) revealed that very few studies have attempted to measure the extent to which teachers feel they are experiencing stress. The present study was thus designed to investigate the extent to which a sample of teachers in some medium -sized (about 1, 000 pupils) mixed comprehensive schools in England feel that they are experiencing stress. In addition, the present study sought to investigate the relationship between teacher stress (as measured) and various biographical characteristics of the teachers. The biographical characteristics investigated were sex, qualification, age, teaching experience, and position held in the school.
Corporate Litigation and Board Restructuring

This paper examines restructuring of boards of directors following lawsuit filings against US publicly-listed companies. Litigation can stimulate increases in the proportion of outside directors, due to agency concerns (to strengthen board monitoring) or legitimacy concerns (to restore corporate reputations). Following lawsuit filings, empirical evidence indicates increased board independence and a lower rate of increase in board size, especially following securities and contractual lawsuits. Increased independence is significantly determined by economic magnitudes, but not legal merits, of lawsuits. Uniquely, this paper examines responses to a broad spectrum of lawsuits, providing new insights into the factors motivating changes to board composition.
Resale price maintenance and collusion

The paper revisits the conventional wisdom according to which vertical restrictions on retail prices help upstream firms to collude. We analyse the scope for collusion with and without resale price maintenance (RPM) when retailers observe local shocks on demand or retail costs. In the absence of RPM, retail prices react to retailers' information and deviations from collusive behaviour are thus difficult to detect. By eliminating retail price flexibility, RPM facilitates the detection of deviations but reduces profits and increases the short-run gains from a deviation. Overall, RPM can facilitate collusion and it reduces total welfare whenever firms choose to adopt it.
Rehabilitation outcomes in patients with early and two-stage reconstruction of flexor tendon injuries

[Purpose] The primary aim of this study was to assess rehabilitation outcomes for early and two-stage repair of hand flexor tendon injuries. The secondary purpose of this study was to compare the findings between treatment groups. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-three patients were included in this study. Early repair (n=14) and two-stage repair (n=9) groups were included in a rehabilitation program that used hand splints. This retrospective evaluated patients according to their demographic characteristics, including age, gender, injured hand, dominant hand, cause of injury, zone of injury, number of affected fingers, and accompanying injuries. Pain, range of motion, and grip strength were evaluated using a visual analog scale, goniometer, and dynamometer, respectively. [Results] Both groups showed significant improvements in pain and finger flexion after treatment compared with baseline measurements. However, no significant differences were observed between the two treatment groups. Similar results were obtained for grip strength and pinch grip, whereas gross grip was better in the early tendon repair group. [Conclusion] Early and two-stage reconstruction of patients with flexor tendon injuries can be performed with similarly favorable responses and effective rehabilitation programs.
The Newly Isolated Endophytic Fungus Paraconiothyrium sp. LK1 Produces Ascotoxin

We have isolated five endophytic fungi from the roots of Capsicum annuum, Cucumis sativus and Glycine max. The culture filtrates (CF) of these endophytes were screened on dwarf mutant rice (Waito-C) and normal rice (Dongjin-byeo). Endophyte CAC-1A significantly inhibited the growth of Waito-C and Dongjin-byeo. Endophyte CAC-1A was identified as Paraconiothyrium sp. by sequencing the ITS rDNA region and phylogenetic analysis. The ethyl acetate fraction of Paraconiothyrium sp. suppressed the germination of Lactuca sativa and Echinochloa crus-galli seeds. The ethyl acetate fraction of the endophyte was subjected to bioassay-guided isolation and we obtained the phytotoxic compound ascotoxin (1) which was characterized through NMR and GC/MS techniques. Ascotoxin revealed 100% inhibitory effects on seed germination of Echinochloa crus-galli. Compound (1) was isolated for the first time from Paraconiothyrium sp.
CellFast: Interactive Unstructured Volume Rendering

Shirley and Tuchman’s projected tetrahedra approach is a fast algorithm for unstructured volume visualization, because it generates triangles that may be rendered by hardware acceleration. In this paper, I explore optimizations using OpenGL triangle fans, customized quicksort, memory organization for cache efficiency, display lists, and tetrahedral culling. The optimizations improve the performance of projected tetrahedra rendering to provide 1 frame/second for 240,122 tetrahedral cells, 3 frames/second for 70,125 tetrahedral cells, and 15 frames/second for 12,936 tetrahedral cells. Resolutions of 3840x1024 were rendered by using the HP-Visualize Center at full frame rates.
Aging and Domain Growth in the Two-Dimensional Ising Spin Glass Model

Interrupted aging in the two-dimensional Ising spin glass model with Gaussian couplings is established and investigated via extensive Monte Carlo simulations. The spin autocorrelation function scales with t/τ(tw), where tw is the waiting time and τ is equal to tw for waiting times smaller than the equilibration time τeq. The spatial correlations scale with r/ξ(tw), where the correlation length ξ gives information about the averaged domain size in the system. Our results are better compatible with an algebraic growth law for ξ(tw), although it can also nicely be fitted to (log tw)1/ψ with ψ ≈ 0.63.
Fundamental Basis, Informational Meaning and Data Analysis of Multifrequency Reoencephalography

A long historical experience of monofrequency rheoencephalography (REG) showed its limited capabilities. The new approach is presented – multifrequency REG that is REG recording simultaneously at three frequencies - 16, 100 and 200 kHz. The different brain impedances received were analyzed on the base of equivalent electrical circuits of brain tissue. First, this enables to calculate intra-extracellular electrical component for evaluation of brain tissue hydration state by means of an original computational method. Second, dynamic cooperative analysis of multi-REG and transcranial Doppler pulsations provides the indices of intracranial CSF mobility (CSFm) and cranial compliance (CCe). Third, spectral analysis of processes recorded provides the new valuable information about regulatory processes and brain metabolism involved, and this enables to evaluate indirectly brain cognitive capabilities. Fourth, comparison of spectrum diagrams of slow intracranial volume fluctuations in ranges 0 – 0.3 Hz demonstrates their similarity both in healthy human and in awake rabbits, notwithstanding their rates differences of heart pulsations and respiratory chest movements. The application of this new approach to investigation of intracranial circulation in healthy humans of different ages and in neurosurgical patients showed its promising efficacy.
Validation of a large area land cover product using purpose-1 acquired airborne video 2 3

The PDF document is a copy of the final version of this manuscript that was subsequently 30 accepted by the journal for publication. The paper has been through peer review, but it 31 has not been subject to any additional copy-editing or journal specific formatting (so will 32 look different from the final version of record, which may be accessed following the DOI 33 above depending on your access situation). 34
Consensus and dissention: a new measure of agreement

This paper introduces a new measure of ordinal scales, specifically that of the Likert scale. An overview of the Likert scale is given and a set of requirements is presented that should be satisfied to assure a proper meaning of consensus within the confines of the Likert scale. Illustrations compare the consensus measure with entropy and other statistical measures. The consensus measure also serves as an effective measure of dispersion.
A limit to the capability of feedback

Feedback is ubiquitous and is a basic concept in the area of control, where it is used primarily for reducing internal or external uncertainties, or both. In this paper, we study the capability of feedback in dealing with both internal and external uncertainties for a class of pth-order nonlinear autoregressive control systems. The size of the uncertainty is described by the Lipschitz constant (L) of the uncertain nonlinear function under consideration. It is shown that, if p and L satisfy the following relationship: L+ 1/2 /spl ges//sup (1+p)//spl radic/(pL)(1+1/p), where pL>1, then there exists no globally stabilizing feedback for the corresponding class of uncertain systems, and we thus find a quantitative limit to the capability of the feedback mechanism in dealing with structural uncertainties.
Prions ( bovine spongiform encephalopathy )

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. It is caused by proteinaceous infectious particles known as prions. BSE is the only transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of animals that is known to be infectious to humans through the consumption of contaminated meat. The human form of the disease is known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (vCJD) disease. Description of the infective agent BSE and other TSEs are caused by a mis-folded isoform of the prion protein (PrP), a widely expressed glycoprotein. PrP is a normal constituent of cell membranes in vertebrates, and is encoded by the prion protein gene PRNP. The mis-folded pathogenic isoform protein is often referred to as a 'prion', a term made up from the contraction of the words 'proteinaceous' and 'infectious' (Prusiner 1982). By convention, the normal cellular isoform of PrP is represented as PrP C. The C superscript refers to the cellular form. The prion form has the same amino acid sequence as the normal form and is represented as PrP Sc. The Sc superscript is a reference to scrapie, a disease of sheep that is the prototypical animal prion disease. The prions replicate themselves by binding to the normal PrP C protein and acting as a template that coerces the PrP C molecule to refold into the abnormal PrP Sc form (Gains and LeBlanc 2007; Cobb and Surewicz 2009). PrP C has been identified in mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and yeasts. In mammals, the protein is expressed in a wide variety of tissues including spleen, lymph nodes, kidney, pancreas, salivary gland, adrenal gland, liver, thymus, and bone marrow; and is highly expressed in the nervous system (Gains and LeBlanc 2007; Linden et al. 2008; Brown and Mastrianni 2010). However, the physiological function of PrP C remains obscure and a number of strains of mice bred not to express PrP C show only subtle, non-lethal differences in physiologic and locomotor activity when compared to wild-type mice (Cobb Within some prion diseases, including BSE and scrapie, strains exist which exhibit distinct disease phenotypes. Differences between strains include patterns of protein deposition in the brain and lymphoid tissues, incubation times after experimental infection of animals, histopathology and clinical manifestation. For example, with scrapie some strains preferentially propagate in the central nervous system while others are characterised by substantial infectivity in lymphoid organs (Aguzzi and Calella 2009). There are three strains of BSE which have been …
Genome-Wide Association Study of White Blood Cell Count in 16,388 African Americans: the Continental Origins and Genetic Epidemiology Network (COGENT)

Total white blood cell (WBC) and neutrophil counts are lower among individuals of African descent due to the common African-derived “null” variant of the Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines (DARC) gene. Additional common genetic polymorphisms were recently associated with total WBC and WBC sub-type levels in European and Japanese populations. No additional loci that account for WBC variability have been identified in African Americans. In order to address this, we performed a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) of total WBC and cell subtype counts in 16,388 African-American participants from 7 population-based cohorts available in the Continental Origins and Genetic Epidemiology Network. In addition to the DARC locus on chromosome 1q23, we identified two other regions (chromosomes 4q13 and 16q22) associated with WBC in African Americans (P<2.5×10−8). The lead SNP (rs9131) on chromosome 4q13 is located in the CXCL2 gene, which encodes a chemotactic cytokine for polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Independent evidence of the novel CXCL2 association with WBC was present in 3,551 Hispanic Americans, 14,767 Japanese, and 19,509 European Americans. The index SNP (rs12149261) on chromosome 16q22 associated with WBC count is located in a large inter-chromosomal segmental duplication encompassing part of the hydrocephalus inducing homolog (HYDIN) gene. We demonstrate that the chromosome 16q22 association finding is most likely due to a genotyping artifact as a consequence of sequence similarity between duplicated regions on chromosomes 16q22 and 1q21. Among the WBC loci recently identified in European or Japanese populations, replication was observed in our African-American meta-analysis for rs445 of CDK6 on chromosome 7q21 and rs4065321 of PSMD3-CSF3 region on chromosome 17q21. In summary, the CXCL2, CDK6, and PSMD3-CSF3 regions are associated with WBC count in African American and other populations. We also demonstrate that large inter-chromosomal duplications can result in false positive associations in GWAS.
Activation, Impaired Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Production, and Deficiency of Circulating Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cells in Patients with Scrub Typhus

Background Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells contribute to protection against certain microorganism infections. However, little is known about the role of MAIT cells in Orientia tsutsugamushi infection. Hence, the aims of this study were to examine the level and function of MAIT cells in patients with scrub typhus and to evaluate the clinical relevance of MAIT cell levels. Methodology/Principal Findings Thirty-eight patients with scrub typhus and 53 health control subjects were enrolled in the study. The patients were further divided into subgroups according to disease severity. MAIT cell level and function in the peripheral blood were measured by flow cytometry. Circulating MAIT cell levels were found to be significantly reduced in scrub typhus patients. MAIT cell deficiency reflects a variety of clinical conditions. In particular, MAT cell levels reflect disease severity. MAIT cells in scrub typhus patients displayed impaired tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α production, which was restored during the remission phase. In addition, the impaired production of TNF-α by MAIT cells was associated with elevated CD69 expression. Conclusions This study shows that circulating MAIT cells are activated, numerically deficient, and functionally impaired in TNF-α production in patients with scrub typhus. These abnormalities possibly contribute to immune system dysregulation in scrub typhus infection.
EROS 2 photometry of probable R Coronae Borealis stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud

EROS 2 (Experience de Recherche d'Objets Sombres) conducted a survey of the SMC between July 1996 and February 2003 in two EROS broad-band colours, V_E and R_E. The photometric data of 4.2 million stars have been searched for behaviour typical of R Coronae Borealis (RCB) candidates such as drastic changes in magnitude. Five objects have been found, four of them being catalogued in the Simbad database as RAW 21, RAW 233, RAW 476, and [MH95] 431 with confirmed carbon-rich atmospheres, characteristic of RCB. From the EROS 2 light curve of RAW 21 and its spectrum reported by Morgan et al. (2003), we confirm that it is the first RCB to be found in the SMC. The other objects are new RCB candidates with absolute luminosity and colour close to those found for RCBs in the LMC. We propose that 2 of them are DY Per-like RCBs.