Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of Blood Mercury Levels in Older Urban Residents

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the distribution and predictors of blood mercury levels in an adult population. Methods: This was a cross-sectional analysis of first-visit data (2001–2002) on a random sample of 474 subjects from the Baltimore Memory Study. Results: After adjustment for race/ethnicity, education, assets, and diabetes, persons in the highest quartile of fish consumption had median mercury levels 1.82 times above the levels in the lowest quartile, while those in the highest education category had median mercury levels 1.57 times higher than levels in the lowest category. Nine percent of subjects were above the reference dose recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is high compared with that found by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in women of childbearing age. Conclusions: These findings offer guidance for targeted education and possible new insights regarding the kinetics of mercury.
Channel estimation for OFDM systems

This thesis focuses on advanced signal processing techniques for multicarrier modulation, in particular, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). OFDM promises a substantial increase in data rate and robustness against the frequency selectivity of multipath channels. For coherent detection, channel estimation is essential for receiver design. In this thesis, we will present a receiver design where the channel estimator exploits the sparse nature of the physical channel. We present the most popular subspace algorithm from the array processing literature, namely rootMUSIC, recent sparse identification algorithms in the form of orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) and basis pursuit (BP), and a hybrid method called path identification (PI) algorithm which is the main contribution of this thesis. We also compare the performance of these estimators with that of the conventional estimators such as least-squares (LS) estimator and linear minimum-mean-squares estimator (LMMSE).
The Union of Concerned Scientists on the Uncertainty of Climate Change: A Study of Synecdochic Form

This essay examines the function of synecdochic form in the rhetoric of the Union of Concerned Scientists that first exposes the construction of uncertainty about the reality of global climate change sustained by the Bush Administration, and then builds an opposing view based on a scientific consensus of certainty instead. Previous research on synecdoche in environmental communication has focused on the ways in which it fosters conflict among competing groups through representations of irreconcilable world views that can become ironic to outside observers. However, this essay argues that synecdoche in the discourse over climate change can serve as the master of tropes to overcome irony by stressing interconnectedness as a key to understanding the construction of uncertainty and promoting alternatives to it.
Face Recognition and Verification Using Photometric Stereo: The Photoface Database and a Comprehensive Evaluation

This paper presents a new database suitable for both 2-D and 3-D face recognition based on photometric stereo (PS): the Photoface database. The database was collected using a custom-made four-source PS device designed to enable data capture with minimal interaction necessary from the subjects. The device, which automatically detects the presence of a subject using ultrasound, was placed at the entrance to a busy workplace and captured 1839 sessions of face images with natural pose and expression. This meant that the acquired data is more realistic for everyday use than existing databases and is, therefore, an invaluable test bed for state-of-the-art recognition algorithms. The paper also presents experiments of various face recognition and verification algorithms using the albedo, surface normals, and recovered depth maps. Finally, we have conducted experiments in order to demonstrate how different methods in the pipeline of PS (i.e., normal field computation and depth map reconstruction) affect recognition and verification performance. These experiments help to 1) demonstrate the usefulness of PS, and our device in particular, for minimal-interaction face recognition, and 2) highlight the optimal reconstruction and recognition algorithms for use with natural-expression PS data. The database can be downloaded from http://www.uwe. ac.uk/research/Photoface.
Genome-wide profiling of DNA methylation and gene expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Previous studies have suggested that DNA methylation involved in the development of ESCC. However, the precise mechanisms underlying the regulation and maintenance of the methylome as well as their relationship with ESCC remain poorly understood. Herein, we used methylated DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeDIP-Seq) and RNA-Seq to investigate whole-genome DNA methylation patterns and the genome expression profiles in ESCC samples. The results of MeDIP-Seq analyses identified differentially methylated regions (DMRs) covering almost the entire genome with sufficient depth and high resolution. The gene ontology (GO) analysis showed that the DMRs related genes belonged to several different ontological domains, such as cell cycle, adhesion, proliferation and apoptosis. The RNA-Seq analysis identified a total of 6150 differentially expressed genes (3423 up-regulated and 2727 down-regulated). The significant GO terms showed that these genes belonged to several molecular functions and biological pathways. Moreover, the bisulfite-sequencing of genes MLH1, CDH5, TWIST1 and CDX1 confirmed the methylation status identified by MeDIP-Seq. And the mRNA expression levels of MLH1, TWIST1 and CDX1 were consistent with their DNA methylation profiles. The DMR region of MLH1 was found to correlate with survival. The identification of whole-genome DNA methylation patterns and gene expression profiles in ESCC provides new insight into the carcinogenesis of ESCC and represents a promising avenue through which to investigate novel therapeutic targets.
A rock engraving made by Neanderthals in Gibraltar

Significance The production of purposely made painted or engraved designs on cave walls is recognized as a major cognitive step in human evolution, considered exclusive to modern humans. Here we present the first known example of an abstract pattern engraved by Neanderthals, from Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar. It consists of a deeply impressed cross-hatching carved into the bedrock of the cave older than 39 cal kyr. The engraving was made before the accumulation of Mousterian layer IV. Most of the lines composing the design were made by repeatedly and carefully passing a pointed lithic tool into the grooves, excluding the possibility of an unintentional or utilitarian origin. This discovery demonstrates the Neanderthals’ capacity for abstract thought and expression. The production of purposely made painted or engraved designs on cave walls—a means of recording and transmitting symbolic codes in a durable manner—is recognized as a major cognitive step in human evolution. Considered exclusive to modern humans, this behavior has been used to argue in favor of significant cognitive differences between our direct ancestors and contemporary archaic hominins, including the Neanderthals. Here we present the first known example of an abstract pattern engraved by Neanderthals, from Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar. It consists of a deeply impressed cross-hatching carved into the bedrock of the cave that has remained covered by an undisturbed archaeological level containing Mousterian artifacts made by Neanderthals and is older than 39 cal kyr BP. Geochemical analysis of the epigenetic coating over the engravings and experimental replication show that the engraving was made before accumulation of the archaeological layers, and that most of the lines composing the design were made by repeatedly and carefully passing a pointed lithic tool into the grooves, excluding the possibility of an unintentional or utilitarian origin (e.g., food or fur processing). This discovery demonstrates the capacity of the Neanderthals for abstract thought and expression through the use of geometric forms.
Frequency representation in auditory cortex of the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus jacchus)

The location and characteristics of the primary auditory cortex of the common marmoset, Callithrix jacchus jacchus, were determined in five anesthetized male adult animals by mapping the responses of cortical units and unit clusters to pure tone stimuli presented to the contralateral ear. The primary auditory cortex lies largely ventral to the lateral sulcus, the only major fissure on the lateral cortex of this smooth‐brained primate, but in some animals it may extend significantly down the ventral bank of this sulcus. Responses are distributed such that low best frequencies are found rostroventrally whereas high best frequencies occur caudally. The disposition of frequency‐band contours is fan‐shaped, with contours separating low‐frequency octaves nearly parallel to the lateral sulcus and high‐frequency (>8 kHz) contours perpendicular to that sulcus. Best frequencies range from 0.6 to 30 kHz across the primary field, but there is a disproportionate representation of the three octaves between 2 and 16 kHz. The most sensitive thresholds (as low as −2 dB SPL) are found between 7 and 9 kHz. The primary auditory cortex is similar in cytoarchitecture to that reported for the cat, showing a blurring of lamination in the middle layers (II–IV) and a preponderance of small cells in these merged layers, giving a highly granular appearance. The accessiblity of the cochlear representation on the gyral surface makes the marmoset an attractive animal for studies of primate auditory cortex.
International technology di ¤ usion , geography and cross-country dependence . A panel data analysis

This paper provides an examination of geographic R&D spillovers with a speci c focus on the issue of cross-country dependence. Applying  rst generation and second generationunit roots tests we nd strong evidence against the unit root hypothesis. Based on this result, we adopt estimation techniques suitable for stationary variables and, in particular, we compare the estimates obtained from three complementary approaches focusing respectively on the nonparametric covariance matrix estimation, generalised spatial auto-regression and unobserved common correlated factors. This allows shedding some new light on the relative importance of various mechanisms by which technology spillovers across countries may occur. JEL classi cation: C23; C5; F0; O3.
Parents’ Perspectives on Inclusive Schools for Children with Autism Spectrum Conditions

Children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) increasingly participate in inclusive education. The present study reviewed studies of children with ASC for parents’ perceptions of aspects they believed contributed to inclusive mainstream school settings. Understanding the parental perspective on the facilitators for inclusion of their child with ASC in mainstream schools is likely to improve inclusive practice. Twenty-eight empirical articles revealed that parents perceived teachers as playing a vital role in the inclusion of their children with ASC. The school was considered important in creating an environment that enabled inclusion, particularly through positive peer relations, prevention of bullying and help from support staff. At the societal level, funding and legislative policies were considered important. By understanding these aspects, policy-makers, teachers, school administrators and therapists may better be able to address parents’ inclusion concerns and thereby develop strategies to improve inclusion in mainstream schools.
Hazardous measures: an interpretive textual analysis of quantitative sensemaking during crises

Summary The current paper presents a computer-supported approach to the interpretive analysis of organizational texts and documents. Computer-supported interpretive textual analysis, as presented here, is a qualitative research approach which seeks to provide insights into members' meanings and interpretations. It uses four analytical processes: theoretical sampling, computer software supported text analysis, expansion analysis, and producing textual statistics. Interpretive textual analysis contrasts with quantitative content analysis methods which compose variables from qualitative data and use these variables to test existent theories using inferential statistics. The present paper uses computer supported textual analysis to investigate quantitative sensemaking during a public inquiry into a well blow-out involving hydrogen sulphide gas. I address three research questions relevant to crisis sensemaking. First, what quantitative practices and terms were used in sensemaking about the crisis, and how were these used? Second, how were quantitative practices relevant to the management of risks and hazards? And third, how did sensemaking vary among stakeholder groups, and what were the implications of the variations for organizational action? The results and findings from the computersupported textual analysis show that quantitative practices and terms played an important role in inquiry sensemaking. The two theoretically meaningful groups involved in the incident used different vocabularies and logics for sensemaking. The government group used a 'step logic' to emphasize formal steps in the management of the hazard. This required the precise measurement of the hazards as a basis for initiatingrule governed actions to control the hazards. In contrast, the operator company used a logic of local safeguarding to interpret the hazards and measurements of the hazards. The paper concludes by discussing the general methodological and theoretical implications which interpretive textual analysis has for studies of sensemaking in organizational behavior research. 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evaluating feature set performance using the f-ratio and j-measures

Several methods of measuring the class separability in a feature space used to model speech sounds are described. A simple one-dimensional feature space is considered ﬁrst where class discrimination is measured using the F-ratio. Using a conventional feature set comprising static, velocity and acceleration MFCCs a ranking of the discriminative ability of each coefﬁ-cient is made for both a digit and alphabet vocabulary. These rankings are shown to be quite similar for the two vocabularies. Discrimination measures are extended to multi-dimensional feature spaces using the J-measures. It is postulated that high correlation exists between feature sets which have a good measured class discrimination and those which give good recognition accuracy. Experiments are presented which measure this correlation and use it to predict recognition accuracy for a given set of features. These estimates are shown to be accurate for previously unseen combinations of features. A brief analysis of the effect linear discriminant analysis on the feature space is made using these measures of separability. It is shown that LDA and separability measures are closely linked.
Diet and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders: A Population-Based Case—Control Study

BACKGROUND:Diet has been implicated to play a role in functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID) in clinic-based studies. No population-based data comparing food and nutrient consumption between individuals with FGID and without gastrointestinal symptoms are available.OBJECTIVES:The purpose of this study was to compare the dietary consumption of specific food items and nutrients between individuals with FGID and without symptoms in a population-based sample.METHODS:A validated self-report Bowel Disease Questionnaire was mailed to an age- and gender-stratified random sample of participants aged 20–50 yr from Olmsted County, Minnesota. All patients who reported either FGID symptoms (irritable bowel or dyspepsia) or no gastrointestinal symptoms were invited to undergo a blinded physician interview and physical exam and to complete a validated Harvard Food Frequency Questionnaire. Wilcoxon rank sum tests and logistic regression were used for statistical analysis.RESULTS:In total, 222 of the 260 eligible (85%) subjects participated and 218 provided diet data: 99 were FGID cases and 119 were healthy controls. Cases and controls consumed similar number of servings per week of wheat-containing foods, lactose-containing foods, caffeinated drinks, and fructose-sweetened beverages. Cases were slightly more likely to consume ≥7 servings per week of norepinephrine- and epinephrine-containing foods (57% vs 45%, p = 0.10), but not serotonin- or tryptophan-containing foods. No differences were observed for amount of intake of calories, fiber, protein, iron, calcium, niacin, and vitamins C, D, E, niacin, B1, B2, B6, and B12. Cases reported consuming more fat (median, 33% vs 31%) and less carbohydrates (median, 49% vs 52%) than controls.CONCLUSIONS:No differences were seen in the consumption of frequently suspected “culprit” foods between community residents with and without FGID symptoms. While symptoms may be due to food sensitivity rather than altered diet composition, the role of fat and perhaps norepinephrine and epinephrine in foods in gut symptoms needs to be studied further.
Skin detection based on image color segmentation with histogram and K-means clustering

Skin detection is a crucial pre-processing step for finding human faces in images. The challenging task is to find a reliable, yet efficient method for detection of skin region(s). In this paper, we proposed a new, simple and efficient method for skin detection based on image segmentation of different color spaces, and simple clustering technique (K-means) for clustering similar pixels on an image. Three K-means input features are used : a) two components from two different color spaces (Hue, Cr, Cb), b) positions of pixels on an image and c) rough estimation of skin pixels obtained from skin-color based detection. Our approach showed promising results on human images from different ethnicities, with simple background and high illumination. The computational cost of the method has been very low, since no training data is required. Results indicate that the method is suitable as a pre-processing step for some supervised method for advanced human skin segmentation and detection.
Toward a Personal Identity Argument to Combine Potentially Conflicting Social Identities

Despite the boom in research on identity in economics, the question of how to depict personal identity in a fashion that combines potentially conflicting social identities has so far been largely ignored. This paper introduces a framework that relies on the structure of the social realm that is exogenous to the individual in order to depict investment decisions as per social identities. The structure of the environment is identified using organizational boundaries and identity production functions are used to combine social identities. The inclusion of the various social spaces that are relevant to personal identity strategies enables one to simultaneously study identification strategies and individuation strategies. It also allows the depiction of social identities that may be conflicting, due to different social commitments and/or norm valuations. This externalist conception of identity helps discuss the limitations of internalist conceptions of identity and accounts for the heterogeneity of identity strategies across individuals.
Religion and Environmentally Protective Behaviour in Australia

Les donnees de la partie australienne du Sondage sur les Valeurs Mondiales de 1995-1996 indiquent que les gens qui se disent chretiens sont legerement moins enclins a s'engager dans un comportement de protection de l'environnement que les agnostiques et les personnes qui se disent non-religieuses, specialement en ce qui concerne la contribution aux organisations ecologistes et la participation au militantisme politique sur les questions environnementales. Par ailleurs, les personnes qui assistent frequemment a des services religieux ont un peu plus de chances de s'engager dans des comportements de protection de l'environnement que les personnes qui n'assistent que rarement ou jamais a de tels services. Toutefois, le fait d'etre membre d'une organisation environnementale, le degre d'interet pour la politique, le fait de se dire de droite ou de gauche, l'orientation a l'egard de la domination de la nature, le revenu familial, et le niveau d'education expliquent une plus grande partie de la variance concernant le comportement de protection de l'environnement que n'importe laquelle des autres variables qui ont ete analysees.
Cost-effectiveness of ticagrelor versus clopidogrel in patients with acute coronary syndromes in Canada

Background Ticagrelor demonstrated a significant reduction in major cardiac events in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) compared with clopidogrel in the Platelet Inhibition and Patient Outcomes (PLATO) trial. The objective of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of ticagrelor compared with clopidogrel in ACS patients from the perspective of the Canadian publicly funded health care system. Methods A two-part model was developed consisting of a 1-year decision tree and a lifetime Markov model. Within the decision tree, patients remained event-free, experienced a nonfatal myocardial infarction, a nonfatal stroke, or death due to vascular or nonvascular related causes based on data from the PLATO trial. The lifetime Markov model followed these patients and allowed for subsequent myocardial infarction, stroke, and death. Patient utility and resource use were derived from the PLATO trial. Transition probabilities and specific Canadian unit costs were derived from published sources. Univariate and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted. Results In the base case lifetime analysis, treatment with ticagrelor resulted in more years of life per person (0.097), more quality-adjusted life years per person (QALYs, 0.084), and an incremental cost per QALY gained of $9,745 (Canadian$), assuming a generic cost for clopidogrel. A probabilistic sensitivity analysis demonstrated the robustness of the base case analysis, with a 93% probability of being below $20,000 per QALY gained and a 99% probability of being below $30,000 per QALY gained. Conclusion Ticagrelor is a clinically superior and cost-effective option for the prevention of thrombotic events among ACS patients in Canada.
Spoon Feeding Leads to Regurgitation: a better diet can result in more digestible learning outcomes

Abstract It is common to hear teachers claim that their students expect to be spoon fed and are only capable of regurgitating information they have been fed. Their curricula reflect this belief and the outcome is a self‐fulfilling prophecy—the students dutifully regurgitate to the best of their ability to fulfill assessment requirements. We present a case study of a course based upon this belief, but provide evidence to show that the assumption was not true at all. When an alternative curriculum stressing independent learning and student‐centred approaches was developed, the students were not only capable of more meaningful learning approaches, they actually preferred them—even if they did at times work harder. We discuss the aspects of course design which contributed to encouraging students to use a deep approach to learning.