Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceived Image Quality of Printed Images and Their Relation to Paper Properties

In printing the final color image reproduction quality depends on the quality of the digital image as well as the properties of the printing system and the paper used. Although it is well known that the paper has a large influence on the print result it is seldom specified according to image quality attributes. Computer screens, digital cameras and printers are all technically specified with respect to resolution (number of pixels and dots per inch), gradation (bit depths) and primary color channels. The technical specification of paper on the other hand mainly includes properties of the unprinted paper that provide limited information about the appearance of the printed image. However, the characterization of paper is not as straight forward as the performance is not only related to the paper properties but also to a high extent to its interaction with the printing system. One way to indicate the color reproduction quality of images is to determine the modular transfer function (MTF). Several studies have derived the MTF of paper for certain printing situations (Bouzit 2002, Koopipat 2000 and Rogers 2000) and stated the influenced of not only the physical properties of the paper but also by the interaction between paper and ink. The most decisive properties found on paper MTF are ink penetration, ink spreading and the optical properties of the paper. Moreover, these paper properties can be associated to color rendering attribute associated with image quality such as color gradation, color gamut volume and image sharpness. In this study, these three attributes have been varied prior to printing in two sets of test images representing office paper and photo inkjet paper respectively. Color gamut volume, color gradation and sharpness were varied simultaneously according to a statistical experimental design thus producing a subset of modified versions for each image in the test set. Furthermore, a visual assessment study was carried out in order to study the effect of the modifications on the perceived impression of the printed images. Finally, the data from the visual assessment study was analyzed in order to reveal how the different attributes influenced the perceived color rendition. The results from the study showed that small changes in the varied attributes produces large response on the perceived color rendering quality and that the most important parameter is color gamut volume.
Codon‐specific missense errors in vivo.

We have developed a simple method for measuring the missense substitution of amino acids at specified positions in proteins synthesized in vivo. We find that the frequency of cysteine substitution for the single arginine in Escherichia coli ribosomal protein L7/L12 is close to 10(‐3) for wild‐type bacteria, decreases to 4 x 10(‐4) in streptomycin‐resistant bacteria containing mutant S12 (rpsL), and is virtually unchanged in Ram bacteria containing mutant S4 (rpsD). We have also found that the frequency of the cysteine substitution for the single tryptophan in E. coli ribosomal protein S6 is 3‐4 x 10(‐3) for wild‐type bacteria, decreases to 6 x 10(‐4) in streptomycin‐resistant bacteria and is elevated to nearly 10(‐2) in Ram bacteria.
Isolating the impact of North American and European anthropogenic aerosol emissions since the early instrumental period

Anthropogenic aerosols have been identified as an important driver of global and regional climate. Globally, aerosols are estimated to have offset much of the positive forcing due to greenhouse gases; regionally, their effect can be dominating, and can potentially drive climate anomalies far from the emission sources due to changes in the atmospheric circulation. Aerosols emitted from North America (NA) and Europe (EU) dominated the global aerosol loading until the late twentieth century. Despite recent progress, our knowledge of the climate imprint of NA and EU aerosols is still incomplete, especially regarding the decades before the mid-twentieth century, in which emissions were still lower and did not yet change as rapidly as later, but might have been more effective due to non-linearities in the aerosol-cloud interactions. The overarching goal of this work is thus to determine robust features of the impact of NA and EU aerosols on regional and large-scale climate and to advance current understanding of the underlying mechanisms, compared to those generated by other forcing agents as well as aerosols from other geographical regions. The study focuses mainly on the period of increasing sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions -precursor of sulphate aerosols, the most abundant anthropogenic aerosol speciesfrom NA and EU sources (1850-1975), and on identifying the aerosol impact over the Atlantic and Eurasian domain, where North American and European aerosols are presumed to have relevant impact. Along with observations, existing historical simulations from a range of coupled climate models are studied and complementary experiments performed and analysed.
Decomposability in Knowledge Structures and Its Impact on the Usefulness of Inventions and Knowledge-base Malleability

We use patent data from the worldwide semiconductor industry from 1984 to 1994 to study the effect of the structure of organizational knowledge bases, or the patterns of coupling between their elements of technical knowledge, on the usefulness of inventions and knowledge-base malleability. We argue that organizational variations in coupling patterns between knowledge elements can be reflected in a spectrum of knowledge-base structures—varying from fully decomposable (the knowledge base is composed of distinct clusters of knowledge elements coupled together with no significant ties between clusters) through nearly decomposable (knowledge clusters are discernable but are connected through cross-cluster couplings) to non-decomposable (no knowledge clusters emerge, as the couplings are pervasively distributed)—and that organizations may differ in the way they use their knowledge because of variations in their knowledge-base structure, rather than because of differences in the knowledge elements themselves. Results show that a nearly decomposable knowledge base increases the usefulness of the inventions generated from it, as measured by patent citations, and also the knowledge base's malleability or capacity for change.
Cultural distance and foreign direct investment: the moderating effect of vicarious experience

Building on the actions of other enterprises that share some common features, such as the same country of origin, multinational enterprises (MNEs) develop vicarious experience that allow them to identify opportunities, acquire knowledge, gain legitimacy and increase the opportunities of collaboration with other compatriot firms. The present study analyses the moderating effect of vicarious experience on the individual negative influence of six cultural distance dimensions on foreign direct investment (FDI). The results obtained show that the presence of a greater number of companies from the same home country in the host country reduces the negative impact of the cultural distance in the dimensions of power distance, individualism, masculinity, and pragmatism. Vicarious experience even nullifies the negative impact of dimensions of uncertainty avoidance and indulgence. Furthermore, and contrary to earlier studies, the results indicate that both same-sector and different-sector vicarious experiences are relevant for MNEs, without any substitution effect between them.
What Is Energy For? Social Practice and Energy Demand

Energy has an ambivalent status in social theory, variously figuring as a driver or an outcome of social and institutional change, or as something that is woven into the fabric of society itself. In this article the authors consider the underlying models on which different approaches depend. One common strategy is to view energy as a resource base, the management and organization of which depends on various intersecting systems: political, economic and technological. This is not the only route to take. The authors develop an alternative approach, viewing energy supply and energy demand as part of the ongoing reproduction of bundles and complexes of social practice. In articulating and comparing these two positions they show how social-theoretical commitments influence the ways in which problems like those of reducing carbon emissions are framed and addressed. Whereas theories of practice highlight basic questions about what energy is for, these issues are routinely and perhaps necessarily obscured by those who see energy as an abstract resource that structures or that is structured by a range of interlocking social systems.
A Simple Generic Attack on Text Captchas

Text-based Captchas have been widely deployed across the Internet to defend against undesirable or malicious bot programs. Many attacks have been proposed; these fine prior art advanced the scientific understanding of Captcha robustness, but most of them have a limited applicability. In this paper, we report a simple, low-cost but powerful attack that effectively breaks a wide range of text Captchas with distinct design features, including those deployed by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! , Amazon and other Internet giants. For all the schemes, our attack achieved a success rate ranging from 5% to 77%, and achieved an average speed of solving a puzzle in less than 15 seconds on a standard desktop computer (with a 3.3GHz Intel Core i3 CPU and 2 GB RAM). This is to date the simplest generic attack on text Captchas. Our attack is based on Log-Gabor filters; a famed application of Gabor filters in computer security is John Daugman’s iris recognition algorithm. Our work is the first to apply Gabor filters for breaking Captchas.
Sentence processing without empty categories

Abstract Theories of sentence processing have standardly made use of grammatical theories with empty categories, and have therefore postulated a process known as “gap-filling”. In contrast, this paper provides evidence that the processing of unbounded dependencies does not make use of empty categories. We propose instead that there is a direct association between the extracted element and its subcategoriser. To show that gap-filling cannot take place, we consider a number of examples where there is material separating the assumed empty category and the subcategoriser, and then present a formal argument, based on patterns of dependencies in sentences involving multiple cases of extraction. We then sketch a linguistic account of unbounded dependencies that does not use empty categories, and which can serve as the basis of a processing model. We conclude that empty categories are not psychologically real.
Association of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease with Subclinical Cardiovascular Changes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

In the last 20 years, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide, primarily as a result of the epidemic of obesity. NAFLD is strongly associated with insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and dyslipidemia and is currently regarded as the liver manifestation of the metabolic syndrome, a highly atherogenic condition even at a very early age. Patients with NAFLD including pediatric subjects have a higher prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis, as shown by impaired flow-mediated vasodilation, increased carotid artery intima-media thickness, and arterial stiffness, which are independent of obesity and other established risk factors. More recent work has identified NAFLD as a risk factor not only for premature coronary heart disease and cardiovascular events, but also for early subclinical abnormalities in myocardial structure and function. Thus, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to test the hypothesis that NAFLD is associated with evidence of subclinical cardiac structural and functional abnormalities.
Role of the Unfolded Protein Response in β Cell Compensation and Failure during Diabetes

Pancreatic β cell failure leads to diabetes development. During disease progression, β cells adapt their secretory capacity to compensate the elevated glycaemia and the peripheral insulin resistance. This compensatory mechanism involves a fine-tuned regulation to modulate the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) capacity and quality control to prevent unfolded proinsulin accumulation, a major protein synthetized within the β cell. These signalling pathways are collectively termed unfolded protein response (UPR). The UPR machinery is required to preserve ER homeostasis and β cell integrity. Moreover, UPR actors play a key role by regulating ER folding capacity, increasing the degradation of misfolded proteins, and limiting the mRNA translation rate. Recent genetic and biochemical studies on mouse models and human UPR sensor mutations demonstrate a clear requirement of the UPR machinery to prevent β cell failure and increase β cell mass and adaptation throughout the progression of diabetes. In this review we will highlight the specific role of UPR actors in β cell compensation and failure during diabetes.
Exploring the Relation between Two Levels of Scheduling Using a Novel Simulation Approach

Modern high performance computing (HPC) systems exhibit a rapid growth in size, both “horizontally” in the number of nodes, as well as “vertically” in the number of cores per node. As such, they offer additional levels of hardware parallelism. Each level requires and employs algorithms for appropriately scheduling the computational work at the respective level. The present work explores the relation between two scheduling levels: batch and application. To understand and explore this relation, a novel simulation approach is presented that bridges two existing simulators from the two scheduling levels. A novel two-level simulator that implements the proposed approach is introduced. The two-level simulator is used to simulate all combinations of three batch scheduling and four application scheduling algorithms from the literature. These combinations are considered for allocating resources and executing the parallel jobs from a workload of a production HPC system. The results of the scheduling experiments reveal the strong relation between decisions taken at the two scheduling levels and their mutual influence. Complementing the simulations, the two-level simulator produces abstract parallel execution traces, which can visually be examined and illustrate the execution of different jobs and, for each job, the execution of its tasks at node and core levels, respectively.
Genome‐wide association studies of pigmentation and skin cancer: a review and meta‐analysis

Recent genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) identified genetic loci associated with pigmentation, nevi, and skin cancer. We performed a review and meta‐analysis of GWAS results, grouping them into four categories: (i) loci associated with pigmentation (hair, eye, and/or skin color), cutaneous UV‐response (sun sensitivity and/or freckling), and skin cancer; (ii) loci associated with nevi and melanoma; (iii) loci associated with pigmentation and/or cutaneous UV‐response but not skin cancer; and (iv) loci associated distinctly with skin cancer, mostly basal cell carcinoma, but not pigmentation or cutaneous UV‐response. These findings suggest at least two pathways for melanoma development (via pigmentation and via nevi), and two pathways for basal cell carcinoma development (via pigmentation and independent of pigmentation). However, further work is necessary to separate the association with skin cancer from the association with pigmentation. As with any GWAS, the identified loci may not include the causal variants and may need confirmation by direct genome sequencing.
Quantified Volumes of Temporal Lobe Structures in Patients with Epilepsy

The T1‐weighted volumetric magnetic resonance images of 31 patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy, and 13 control subjects matched for age and sex, were subjected to semiautomated threshold analysis. The method used proved to be relatively fast and reliable. An index of temporal lobe interhemispheric asymmetry was extracted by thresholding high‐signal (white matter) pixels. Patients had significantly more asymmetrical indices for white matter and hippocampal volumes than did control subjects, and the two indices were significantly correlated, providing evidence for the validity of the white matter index. Differences in both indices were consistent with decreased tissue on the side of the focus. In classification analyses a combination of these two indices correctly predicted the side of focus at a greater rate than did either used alone. Findings provide support for the hypothesis that seizure activity is associated with atrophy in both mesial and lateral temporal lobe structures.
The complete design in the composite face paradigm: role of response bias, target certainty, and feedback

Some years ago an improved design (the “complete design”) was proposed to assess the composite face effect in terms of a congruency effect, defined as the performance difference for congruent and incongruent target to no-target relationships (Cheung et al., 2008). In a recent paper Rossion (2013) questioned whether the congruency effect was a valid hallmark of perceptual integration, because it may contain confounds with face-unspecific interference effects. Here we argue that the complete design is well-balanced and allows one to separate face-specific from face-unspecific effects. We used the complete design for a same/different composite stimulus matching task with face and non-face objects (watches). Subjects performed the task with and without trial-by-trial feedback, and with low and high certainty about the target half. Results showed large congruency effects for faces, particularly when subjects were informed late in the trial about which face halves had to be matched. Analysis of response bias revealed that subjects preferred the “different” response in incongruent trials, which is expected when upper and lower face halves are integrated perceptually at the encoding stage. The results pattern was observed in the absence of feedback, while providing feedback generally attenuated the congruency effect, and led to an avoidance of response bias. For watches no or marginal congruency effects and a moderate global “same” bias were observed. We conclude that the congruency effect, when complemented by an evaluation of response bias, is a valid hallmark of feature integration that allows one to separate faces from non-face objects.
Trusting the process? Anxiety-provoking situations as challenges to the symbolization and processing of experience in person-centered groups

The person-centered approach lacks a coherent theory of groups. Drawing on Rogers’ theories of personality and therapy and his writing on group work, as well as on the works of Gendlin, Warner and others, this paper examines the group facilitator’s task in relation to the members’ symbolization and processing of experience. Groups can present anxiety-provoking situations where members may feel temporarily overwhelmed in the face of feedback and confrontation which challenges their self-concept, resulting in confusion, stress, flooding or shutdown. In these situations their normal capacities for processing may falter and members can experience a degree of “fragile process. ” The facilitator’s responsibility, it is suggested, is to actively support the development of a cohesive group climate characterized by the core conditions wherein members will engage with one another in a constructive and facilitative manner, to assist (when needed) in affect regulation, and to help provide an optimal reflective environment in which members can symbolize and process their experiencing optimally.
Brain Gray Matter Abnormalities in First-Episode, Treatment-Naive Children with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Although several magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have been conducted in children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the brain structural abnormalities in OCD, especially in children, are not yet well characterized. We aimed to identify gray matter (GM) abnormalities in the early stage of pediatric OCD and examine the relationship between these structural abnormalities with clinical characteristics. Examinations of 30 first-episode, treatment-naive pediatric OCD patients without any comorbidities and 30 matched healthy controls (HCs) were performed with 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) following Diffeomorphic Anatomical Registration using Exponentiated Lie algebra (DARTEL) was used to conduct voxel-wise tests for group differences in regional gray matter volume (GMV). Compared to HCs, the patient group exhibited more GMV in the bilateral putamen and left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and less GMV in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL). The GMV alternation in the right putamen of OCD patients was positively correlated with Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) scores, while the GMV alternation in the left IPL exhibited a trend to negatively correlate with HAM-A scores. Our current results suggest that the GM abnormalities were defined in the early stage of pediatric OCD. Moreover, these findings provided further evidence of brain GM abnormalities that are not only present in the classical fronto–striatal–thalamic circuit but also in the default mode network (DMN), which may represent the interaction of abnormally functional organization of both network in pediatric OCD.
Multiculturalism and Immigrant Integration in Australia

Australia has been a major immigration nation for over six decades, with immigration central to nation building in Australia. In the past two decades, the character of the Australian immigration intake has changed considerably while the issues of immigration and multiculturalism have been controversial at the level of public opinion and national politics. But what has happened to immigrants themselves in Australia? This article draws on a range of primary and secondary research to review the objective and subjective evidence on immigrant integration in Australia across a wide range of indicators. The central research question of this article is: to what extent are immigrants integrated into economic, social, cultural and political life in Australia and how successful has Australian multiculturalism been in achieving the objective of immigrant integration? Taking Kymlicka’s (2012) conceptualization of, and comparative measurement of, immigrant integration as a point of departure, this article argues that despite the fact that Kymlicka’s conceptualization of integration is constrained by a focus on the policy and institutional structures of immigrant integration rather than on the outcomes and experiences of immigrant settlers in these societies, his overall conclusion about the relative success of Australian immigrant integration and the central role of multiculturalism to that outcome is well supported by the evidence.