Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How do people with autism process multisensory information

How do people with autism process multisensory information? Daniel Poole, the University of Manchester For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 30 September, 2015 Our experience of the world is based on information received from multiple sensory sources. To create a coherent representation of our environment, information from the different senses is combined to maximise the reliability of the combined percept. Furthermore, only stimuli occurring together in time and space will typically interact. Ineffective multisensory processing has been proposed as a possible explanation for the sensory differences experienced by many people with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). However, studies to date have produced mixed findings and have generally focused on the interaction between the visual and auditory modalities. The aim of the work presented in this thesis was to improve the characterisation of multisensory processing in adults with ASC, exploring the interaction between vision and touch for the first time. Specifically, we compared the temporal and spatial limits of multisensory processing, and the optimal combination of multisensory cues between participants with ASC and matched controls. In Experiment 1, performance on a visualhaptic size judgement task was compared to predictions from a statistically optimal model in which unisensory cues are combined additively with the weight of each cue determined by its reliability. For both participants with ASC and controls, multisensory performance differed from the predictions of this optimal model, but was similar to a non-optimal model in which participants switch stochastically between cues from trial-to-trial. The commonly used crossmodal congruency task was adapted for exploring individual differences in visual-tactile interactions. This task was used to explore the temporal modulation of visual distractors on tactile judgements (Experiment 4). Similar to controls, participants with ASC exhibited interactions only for simultaneous stimuli. Experiment 6 further explored uni and multisensory temporal sensitivity across vision, touch and hearing. No between group differences were observed, suggesting that the temporal processing of crossmodal stimuli is typical in adults with ASC. The spatial limits of visualtactile interactions were also investigated. A visual distractor positioned far from the stimulated hand influenced tactile judgements in the group with ASC, but not in controls (Experiments 5 and 8). However, this reduced spatial modulation was not observed for purely visual judgements (Experiment 9), and both groups of participants benefited from spatial separation in an alternate visual-tactile task (Experiment 7). These findings suggest that visualtactile selective attention is affected in ASC. This work has improved the characterisation of multisensory processing in ASC including a number of previously unexplored processes. It is hoped that work of this nature might ultimately lead to the development of effective sensory interventions for people with ASC.
Global Portfolio Diversification for Long-Horizon Investors

This paper conducts a theoretical and empirical investigation of global portfolio diversification for long-horizon investors in the presence of permanent cash flow shocks and transitory discount rate shocks to asset prices and returns. An increase in the cross-country correlations of cash flow shocks raises the risk of a globally diversified portfolio at all horizons. By contrast, an increase in the cross-country correlations of discount rate shocks has a muted effect on portfolio risk at long horizons and does not diminish the benefits of global portfolio diversification to long-term investors. Empirically, we find that increased correlations of discount rate shocks resulting from financial globalization appear to be the main driver of an estimated secular increase in the cross-country correlations of both stock and bond returns since the late 1990’s. Increased correlations of inflation shocks are also an important source of the shift in bond correlations. By contrast, we don’t find evidence of an increase in the cross-country correlations of equity cash flow news or stock market volatility shocks. Our findings imply that the benefits of global equity diversification have not declined for long horizon investors despite the secular increase in global stock correlations, while the benefits of global bond diversification have declined.
Strain, ethnic competition, and power devaluation: white supremacist protest in the U.S., 1948–1997

Abstract Many Western democracies have seen an increase in extreme right mobilization over the past several decades but extreme right mobilization is not a new phenomenon when we look historically. In this paper, we examine fifty years of white supremacist protest in the United States to help shed light on the factors that explain variation in levels of right-wing mobilization. Using annual time-series analysis, we find that traditional strain explanations do not explain these protests but that threats to the traditional economic, political, and social power of whites were critical. Ethnic competition associated with black population growth and political threats stemming from the political power of northern Democrats, a divided federal government, and civil rights protest stimulated this mobilization. These findings support a broadened ethnic competition/power devaluation model of right-wing mobilization that emphasizes the mobilizing effects of economic and political threats to a relatively advantaged group.
Protein Bioinformatics Infrastructure for the Integration and Analysis of Multiple High-Throughput “omics” Data

High-throughput “omics” technologies bring new opportunities for biological and biomedical researchers to ask complex questions and gain new scientific insights. However, the voluminous, complex, and context-dependent data being maintained in heterogeneous and distributed environments plus the lack of well-defined data standard and standardized nomenclature imposes a major challenge which requires advanced computational methods and bioinformatics infrastructures for integration, mining, visualization, and comparative analysis to facilitate data-driven hypothesis generation and biological knowledge discovery. In this paper, we present the challenges in high-throughput “omics” data integration and analysis, introduce a protein-centric approach for systems integration of large and heterogeneous high-throughput “omics” data including microarray, mass spectrometry, protein sequence, protein structure, and protein interaction data, and use scientific case study to illustrate how one can use varied “omics” data from different laboratories to make useful connections that could lead to new biological knowledge.
Gene medicine for cancer treatment: Commercially available medicine and accumulated clinical data in China

Loss of p53 function compromises genetic homeostasis, which induces deregulated DNA replication, damages DNA, and subsequently results in increased resistance to anticancer agents. Pharmacological approaches using recombinant adenoviruses (Ad) have been developed to restore the p53 functions. Another approach for gene medicine is to modify Ad replication in a tumor-specific manner, which induces tumor cell death without damaging normal tissues in the vicinity. The Ad-derived gene medicines, Ad expressing the wild-type p53 gene and replication-competent Ad defective of the E1B-55kDa gene, have been tested for their clinical feasibility and became commercially available in China. These agents demonstrated their antitumor activities as a monotherapy and in combination with conventional chemotherapeutic agents. In this article, we summarize the outcomes of clinical trials in China, most of which have been published in domestic Chinese journals, and discuss potential directions of cancer gene therapy with these agents.
RUNT DISEASE INDUCED IN NEONATAL MICE BY STERILE BACTERIAL VACCINES

A form of runt disease has been produced in neonatal CF-1 and ICR mice by the repeated injection of 109 washed, autoclaved, saline-suspended staphylococci or streptococci. The most severely affected animals showed a marked decrease in lymphoid tissues and resembled grossly and microscopically animals suffering from the classical runt or wasting disease described by others. The timing of the initial antigenic stimulation was of importance, and animals started on their course of injections at an age of 48 hours or older showed no effect. There was a considerable variation in the severity of the disease within litters and from one litter to another. This variation could not be ascribed to a difference in susceptibility between sexes, since both male and female mice were observed to runt under appropriate conditions. Germ-free ICR mice were much more resistant to the runting phenomenon than conventional animals of the same strain, but could be induced to runt by injection of the staphylococcal vaccine suspended in homologous antiserum. The relationship of the runting phenomenon described here and classical runt disease or runting by adrenal hormones is discussed.
Post 9/11 Veterans With Service-Connected Disabilities and their Transition to the Civilian Workforce

The problem More than five million U.S. veterans are expected to return to our communities and the civilian workforce by the year 2020. The vast majority of Americans have little understanding of military service or the impact service may have on civilian employment outcomes. Connection to the labor force provides the swiftest means for a successful transition back home, yet almost half of post 9/11 veterans indicate finding a job is their biggest challenge. An exploratory literature review was conducted to examine if and how the career transition of post 9/11 veterans with service-connected disabilities is presented in the human resource development (HRD) literature. The solution Based on the results of this exploratory literature review, three solutions are proposed: (a) examine what is working at work for veterans with disabilities in an effort to change the research conversation from problems to solutions, (b) understand and begin to deconstruct the veteran–civilian career identity conflict, and (c) explore the lived experiences of veterans with service-connected disabilities and their employers. The Stakeholders HRD researchers, HRD scholarly practitioners, and HRD professionals with an interest in the complexity of career transition and return-to-work issues facing veterans and people with disabilities.
A multi-start path-relinking algorithm for the flexible job-shop scheduling problem

Scheduling is a well-known NP-hard problem. The flexible job-shop scheduling problem (FJSP) is an extention of the classical job-shop scheduling problem(JSP). FJSP allows an operation of each job to be performed by any machine out of a set of available machines. FJSP consists two sub-problems which are assigning each operation to a machine out of a set of capable machines and sequencing the assigned operations on the machines. This paper proposes a path-relinking(PR) algorithm that solves the FJSP to minimize makespan. Also, a GRASP method has been used for creating the initial solutions. The proposed algorithm is evaluated by testing on a set of 15 benchmark problems. The computational results show that the proposed algorithm is an effective approach to solve the FJSP.
Social and emotional learning through a teaching personal and social responsibility based after-school program for disengaged middle-school boys

© 2016 Human Kinetics, Inc. This study examined a long-term afterschool leadership program situated in a Midwestern university town in the US. The activity-based program for boys considered to be disengaged with school and at risk for dropping out of education, was based on the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model. The program curriculum was strongly aligned with the social and emotional learning (SEL) theoretical framework. The study sought to identify the learning(s) that occurred and the impact of participation for participants. The key findings were that 1) the pedagogical approach and strategies of TPSR when implemented with a high level of fidelity align strongly with the SEL framework; 2) the structure and design of this TPSR based program was an important ingredient in the school's overall approach to supporting SEL among students, and 3) a number of SEL outcomes were identified as a result of participation in this program.
Ocean Wave Parameters Retrieval from TerraSAR-X Images Validated against Buoy Measurements and Model Results

An ocean surface wave retrieval algorithm, Parameterized First-guess Spectrum Method (PFSM), which was initially developed for C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), is modified to extract wave parameters from X-band TerraSAR-X (TS-X) images. Wave parameters, including significant wave height (SWH) and mean wave period (MWP) were extracted from nine TS-X HH-polarization images and were compared to in situ buoy measurements. The range of these wave retrievals is from 1 to 5 m of SWH and from 2 to 10 s of MWP. The retrieval accuracy could reach 80%. After that, a total of 16 collected TS-X HH-polarization images were used to invert wave parameters and then the retrieval results were compared to the operational WAVEWATCH-III wave model results. The SAR and in situ buoy wave comparison shows a 0.26 m Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE) of SWH and a 19.8% of Scatter Index (SI). The SAR and WAVEWATCH-III model comparison yields slightly worse results with an RMSE of 0.43 m of SWH and a 32.8% of SI. For MWP, the SAR and buoy comparison shows the RMSE is 0.45 s with an SI of 26%, which is better than the results from the SAR and WAVEWATCH-III model comparison. Our results show that the PFSM algorithm is suitable to estimate wave parameters from X-band TS-X data.
HUBUNGAN KADAR HEMOGLOBIN DENGAN KEJADIAN DISMENORE PADA SISWI KELAS XI SMA NEGERI 1 WONOSARI KLATEN

Anemia merupakan kelainan yang sangat sering dijumpai baik di klinik maupun di lapangan. Jenis anemia yang terbanyak dan paling sering terdapat di negara berkembang adalah anemia defisiensi besi atau disebut anemia gizi. Di Indonesia prevalensi anemia pada remaja putri tahun 2009, yaitu 28%. Anemia defisiensi zat besi adalah penurunan jumlah sel darah merah dalam darah yang disebabkan oleh zat besi yang terlalu sedikit. Bagi remaja yang memiliki aktifitas tinggi maka anemia dapat mempengaruhi masa haid remaja misalnya dismenorea. Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mengetahui hubungan kadar hemoglobin dengan kejadian dismenore pada siswi kelas XI SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari, Klaten. Metode penelitian ini adalah deskriptif kolerasional bersifat analitik, dengan pendekatan waktu cross sectional. Populasi penelitian ini adalah siswi kelas XI SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari, Klaten sebanyak 40 orang, teknik sampling yang digunkan adalah quota sampling. Instrumen menggunakan lembar kuesioner, analisa yang dipakai dengan uji statistik chi square dengan taraf signifikan 0,05. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa sebagian besar responden mempunyai kadar hemoglobin rendah dan mengalami dismenore sebanyak 11 responden (27,5%) dan yang tidak dismenore 1 responden (2,5%) dan yang memiliki kadar hemoglobin tinggi dengan dismenore sebanyak 4 responden (10,0%) dan yang tidak dismenore 2 responden (5,0%). Hasil analisis bivariat dengan menggunkan chi square didapatkan bahwa x2 hitung sebesar 0,99 sedangkan nilai p adalah 0,012 berarti (p<0,05). Maka menunjukkan hubungan yang signifikan antara kadar hemoglobin dengan kejadian dismenore pada siswi kelas XI SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari Klaten. Saran dari penelitian ini adalah bagi siswi yang memiliki kadar hemoglobin rendah perlu meningkatkan asupan gizi terutama zat besi, karena kadar hemoglobin yang rendah menyebabkan anemia, dan anemia dapat mempengaruhi terjadinya dismenore pada saat menstruasi. Kata Kunci : Kadar hemoglobin.Kejadian dismenore
Public priorities and expectations of climate change impacts in the United Kingdom

Abstract Irrespective of the success of climate mitigation efforts, societies worldwide face the challenge of adapting to a changing climate. In this paper, we examine UK residents’ expectations of future threats and opportunities associated with climate change impacts, along with willingness to prioritise different climate change impacts for investment. Using a national survey (n = 2007), we report on three main findings. First, UK residents tend to expect threats related to flooding and wet weather to be more likely and concerning than heat extremes or opportunities. Second, UK residents’ expectations of climate change impacts do not align with expert assessments, especially showing lower estimates of heat-related threats as compared to experts. Third, willingness to allocate resources to potential climate change impacts tends to be more strongly associated with anticipated concern should they occur than climate change belief or the expected likelihood of them occurring. We discuss the implications of our findings for policies and communications about climate change adaptation in the UK and elsewhere.
Automatic sperm motility measurement

Sperm quality can be measured by sperm count, vitality, morphology, motility, etc. Unfortunately, it is very hard to assess sperm quality manually especially sperm motility. To overcome this, researchers developed Computer-Aided Sperm Analysis (CASA). This device was still an expensive one so that only big medical laboratories used it. Small medical laboratories were still using manual assessment. Therefore, it was needed an alternative CASA system that can be built with low cost and gives a satisfying result. In this paper, we proposed a method to measure sperm motility automatically from a video taken from multimedia microscope using three CASA parameters which were VCL, VSL, and LIN. The experiment results showed that the proposed method achieved average percentage difference 7.0% compared to manual assessment by medical laboratory technician.
Clopidogrel, a Platelet P2Y12 Receptor Inhibitor, Reduces Vascular Inflammation and Angiotensin II Induced-Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Progression

Medial degeneration and inflammation are features of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs). However, the early inflammatory event initiating aneurysm formation remains to be identified. Activated platelets release abundant proinflammatory cytokines and are involved in initial inflammation in various vascular diseases. We investigated the role of platelets in progression of AAA in vivo and in vitro. Histological studies of tissues of patients with AAA revealed that the number of platelets was increased in aneurysm sites along with the increased infiltration of T lymphocytes and augmented angiogenesis. In a murine model of AAA, apolipoprotein E-knockout mice infused with 1,000 ng/kg/min angiotensin II, treatment with clopidogrel, an inhibitor of platelets, significantly suppressed aneurysm formation (47% decrease, P<0.05). The clopidogrel also suppressed changes in aortic expansion, elastic lamina degradation and inflammatory cytokine expression. Moreover, the infiltration of macrophages and production of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) were also significantly reduced by clopidogrel treatment. In vitro incubation of macrophages with isolated platelets stimulated MMP activity by 45%. These results demonstrate a critical role for platelets in vascular inflammation and AAA progression.
NK Cells Are Not Required for Spontaneous Autoimmune Diabetes in NOD Mice

NK cells have been shown to either promote or protect from autoimmune diseases. Several studies have examined the role of receptors preferentially expressed by NK cells in the spontaneous disease of NOD mice or the direct role of NK cells in acute induced disease models of diabetes. Yet, the role of NK cells in spontaneous diabetes has not been directly addressed. Here, we used the NOD.NK1. 1 congenic mouse model to examine the role of NK cells in spontaneous diabetes. Significant numbers of NK cells were only seen in the pancreas of mice with disease. Pancreatic NK cells displayed an activated surface phenotype and proliferated more than NK cells from other tissues in the diseased mice. Nonetheless, depletion of NK cells had no effect on dendritic cell maturation or T cell proliferation. In spontaneous disease, the deletion of NK cells had no significant impact on disease onset. NK cells were also not required to promote disease induced by adoptively transferred pathogenic CD4+ T cells. Thus, NK cells are not required for spontaneous autoimmune diabetes in NOD mice.
Comparing Life Satisfaction

This paper analyzes the determinants of global life satisfaction in two countries (The Netherlands and the U.S.), by using both self-reports and responses to a battery of vignette questions. The authors find global life satisfaction of happiness is well-described by four domains: job or daily activities, social contacts and family, health, and income. Among the four domains, social contacts and family have the highest impact on global life satisfaction, followed by job and daily activities and health. Income has the lowest impact. As in other work, they find that American response styles differ from the Dutch in that Americans are more likely to use the extremes of the scale (either very satisfied or very dissatisfied) than the Dutch, who are more inclined to stay in the middle of the scale. Although for both Americans and the Dutch, income is the least important determinant of global life satisfaction, it is more important in the U.S. than in The Netherlands. Indeed life satisfaction varies substantially more with income in the U.S. than in The Netherlands.
Response to Naomi Murakawa’s and Amy E. Lerman and Vesla M. Weaver’s reviews of Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics

List of Figures xi List of Abbreviations xiii Chapter 1 Introduction The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics 1 Part I The Political Economy of Penal Reform 23 Chapter 2 Show Me the Money, The Great Recession and the Great Confinement 25 Chapter 3 Squaring the Political Circle, The New Political Economy of the Carceral State 48 Chapter 4 What Second Chance? , Reentry and Penal Reform 79 Chapter 5 Caught Again, Justice Reinvestment and Recidivism 98 Part II The Politics of Race and Penal Reform 117 Chapter 6 Is Mass Incarceration the "New Jim Crow"? Racial Disparities and the Carceral State 119 Chapter 7 What's Race Got to Do with It? , Bolstering and Challenging the Carceral State 139 Part III The Metastasizing Carceral State 163 Chapter 8 Split Verdict, The Non, Non, Nons and the "Worst of the Worst" 165 Chapter 9 The New Untouchables, The War on Sex Offenders 196 Chapter 10 Catch and Keep, The Criminalization of Immigrants 215 Chapter 11 The Prison beyond the Prison, The Carceral State and Growing Political and Economic Inequalities in the United States 241 Chapter 12 Bring It On, The Future of Penal Reform, the Carceral State, and American Politics 258 Acknowledgments 283 Notes 285 Select Bibliography 411 Index 439
The Threshold and Inclusive Approaches to Determining “Best Available Evidence”

Most evaluators have embraced the goal of evidence-based practice (EBP). Yet, many have criticized EBP review systems that prioritize randomized control trials and use various criteria to limit the studies examined. They suggest this could produce policy recommendations based on small, unrepresentative segments of the literature and recommend a more traditional, inclusive approach. This article reports two empirical studies assessing this criticism, focusing on the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). An examination of outcomes of 252 WWC reports on literacy interventions found that 6% or fewer of the available studies were selected for review. Half of all intervention reports were based on only one study of a program. Data from 131 studies of a reading curriculum were used to compare conclusions using WWC procedures and more inclusive procedures. Effect estimates from the inclusive approach were more precise and closer to those of other reviews. Implications are discussed.