Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Disparities in Access to Basic Amenities Across Caste, Ethnicity and Classes in Rural and Urban India

This paper examines the changesin access to basic amenities like drinking water, sanitation, electricity and drainage arrangement in Rural and Urban Indiausing datasets from Census of India,2001 and 2011 and National Sample Survey Housing Condition Round for 1993and 2008/9, with special focus on disparities across caste and ethnicgroups and consumption expenditure classes. With respect to all the indicators of basic amenities, an improvement in access by householdswas observed in percentage terms between 2001 and 2011 as per Census data and between 1993 and 2008/9 by NSS data, with acceleration during 2002 and 2008/9. However, Census data also showed an increase in the absolute number of deprived households in case of drinking water, latrine facility, and closed drainage connectivity for waste water outlet in the premise in both Rural and Urban India. Results highlight the need of immediate action towards access to basic amenities, with attention towards rural India and of bringing in inclusive policy measures (to reduce the increasing disparities) for weaker sections (socio-economic) of the society for raising the overall standard of life and well-being of the people, and attaining the objective of India’s Twelfth Five Year Plan, i.e. inclusive growth.
The brain dynamics of linguistic computation

Neural oscillations at distinct frequencies are increasingly being related to a number of basic and higher cognitive faculties. Oscillations enable the construction of coherently organized neuronal assemblies through establishing transitory temporal correlations. By exploring the elementary operations of the language faculty—labeling, concatenation, cyclic transfer—alongside neural dynamics, a new model of linguistic computation is proposed. It is argued that the universality of language, and the true biological source of Universal Grammar, is not to be found purely in the genome as has long been suggested, but more specifically within the extraordinarily preserved nature of mammalian brain rhythms employed in the computation of linguistic structures. Computational-representational theories are used as a guide in investigating the neurobiological foundations of the human “cognome”—the set of computations performed by the nervous system—and new directions are suggested for how the dynamics of the brain (the “dynome”) operate and execute linguistic operations. The extent to which brain rhythms are the suitable neuronal processes which can capture the computational properties of the human language faculty is considered against a backdrop of existing cartographic research into the localization of linguistic interpretation. Particular focus is placed on labeling, the operation elsewhere argued to be species-specific. A Basic Label model of the human cognome-dynome is proposed, leading to clear, causally-addressable empirical predictions, to be investigated by a suggested research program, Dynamic Cognomics. In addition, a distinction between minimal and maximal degrees of explanation is introduced to differentiate between the depth of analysis provided by cartographic, rhythmic, neurochemical, and other approaches to computation.
An efficient subdivision inversion for wavemesh-based progressive compression of 3D triangle meshes

Wavemesh is a powerful scheme for 3D triangular mesh processing. In sharp contrast with other approaches using wavelets for mesh compression which apply only to meshes having subdivision connectivity, wavemesh can simplify, approximate, and compress meshes even if they do not respect this constraint. Results clearly indicate that wavemesh outperforms the other approaches in terms of progressive lossless compression. We propose in this paper an improvement for our scheme : higher efficiency for meshes with large subdivision connectivity sets, as shown by experimental results. Also, in some cases, the enhanced wavemesh can even perform better than monoresolution approaches in terms of connectivity compression.
EFFECTS OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC FERTILIZATION ON RICE CROP PERFORMANCE, SOIL ANIMAL POPULATION AND MICROBIAL DIVERSITY IN ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL SOILS

A pot of experiment was conducted undergreenhouse to determine the crop performance and the effects of compost on soil animals and microorganisms in two lowland rice soils. The two soils were: (a) organic lowland soil that had been applied with carabao manure for about 12 years, and (b) conventional lowland soil that had been applied with chemical fertilizers for many years. The aim of the study was to determine the short-term effects of organic and chemical fertilizers application on rice crop performance, soil animal population and microbial diversity. The fertilizers used were decomposed commercial composts at 4.5 t ha-1 and chemical fertilizers at recommended NPK level of 90-30-30 kg ha-1 with a control and the experiment was laid out as completely randomized design. The compost used as organic fertilizer in this experiment was as effective as the commercial chemical fertilizer on crop growth and yield. The average crop yields per hill were not significantly different at 47.4 g hill-1 and 41.1 g hill-1 for the chemical fertilizer and compost, respectively. Moreover, the organic soil had higher diversity, number of soil animals and microbe counts than the conventional soil. There were gradual changes in microbial population during the three crop growth stages (initial, active to maximum tillering, and harvest). Application of organic materials stimulated the population of soil organisms, plant growth and development in both organic and conventional soils. The results indicate the potential of organic fertilizers in improving degraded conventional lowland rice soils.
Multi-Step Forecast Model Selection

This paper examines model selection and combination in the context of multi-step linear forecasting. We start by investigating multi-step mean squared forecast error (MSFE). We derive the bias of the in-sample sum of squared residuals as an estimator of the MSFE. We …nd that the bias is not generically a scale of the number of parameters, in contrast to the one-step-ahead forecasting case. Instead, the bias depends on the long-run variance of the forecast model in analogy to the covariance matrix of multi-step forecast regressions, as found by Hansen and Hodrick (1980). In consequence, standard information criterion (Akaike, FPE, Mallows and leave-one-out cross-validation) are biased estimators of the MSFE in multi-step forecast models. These criteria are generally under-penalizing for over-parameterization and this discrepancy is increasing in the forecast horizon. In contrast, we show that the leave-h-out cross validation criterion is an approximately unbiased estimator of the MSFE and is thus a suitable criterion for model selection. Leave-h-out is also suitable for selection of model weights for forecast combination.
Performance problem localization in self-healing, service-oriented systems using Bayesian networks

In distributed, service-oriented environments, performance problem localization is required to provide self-healing capabilities and deliver the desired quality of service (QoS). This paper presents an automated approach to identifying system elements causing performance problems. Applying probabilistic inference to collected response time and elapsed time data, the approach 1) infers elapsed time for services where data is missing, 2) estimates the response time degradation caused by different services using the duration, abnormality and response time correlation of their elapsed times, and 3) identifies the services that are the most important causes of slow response time and yield the most benefit if recovered. The approach has been used to localize a performance problem on the test bed of a real-world service-oriented Grid. Evaluation using simulations shows that the approach consistently achieves better accuracy than traditional techniques in various service-oriented settings.
That Is Not My House? Household Renters’ Flood Preparedness Intention in the East Coast Region of Malaysia

By integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Health Belief Model (HBM), this study examines factors influencing flood preparedness intention among household renters in the East Coast Region of Malaysia. The study utilized purposive sampling, involving the collection of data from 150 household renters residing in the East Coast Region of Malaysia through an online survey. The collected data were then analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with Smart Partial Least Squares (SmartPLS). The results revealed that past experience (PE) was positively associated with both perceived severity (SEV) and susceptibility (SUC). However, both SEV and SUC were not correlated with attitude (ATT). Among the three determinants originating from TPB, only ATT was found to be correlated with flood preparedness intention (INT). It is worthy to notify that trust in public protection (TPP) played a moderating effect on the relationship between ATT and INT. The findings will offer valuable insights for policymakers, renters, landlords, and community organizations to develop targeted interventions and bolster flood preparedness among household renters in the East Coast region, ultimately fostering resilience and mitigating the impact of future flood events. Besides that, this study provides firsthand information on the predictors of flood preparedness behavior among household renters in the East Coast Region, Peninsular Malaysia.
Integration of Exogenous Input into a Dynamic Salience Map Revealed by Perturbing Attention

Although it is widely accepted that exogenous and voluntary factors jointly determine the locus of attention, the rules governing the integration of these factors are poorly understood. We investigated neural responses in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) to transient, distracting visual perturbations presented during task performance. Monkeys performed a covert search task in which they discriminated the orientation of a target embedded among distractors, and brief visual perturbations were presented at various moments and locations during task performance. LIP neurons responded to perturbations consisting of the appearance of new objects, as well as to abrupt changes in the color, luminance, or position of existing objects. The LIP response correlated with the bottom-up behavioral effects of different perturbation types. In addition, neurons showed two types of top-down modulations. One modulation was a context-specific multiplicative gain that affected perturbation, target, and distractor activity in a spatially nonspecific manner. Gain was higher in blocks of trials in which perturbations directly marked target location than in blocks in which they invariably appeared opposite the target, thus encoding a behavioral context defined by the statistical contingency between target and perturbation location. A second modulation reflected local competitive interactions with search-related activity, resulting in the converse effect: weaker perturbation-evoked responses if perturbations appeared at the location of the target than if they appeared opposite the target. Thus, LIP encodes an abstract dimension of salience, which is shaped by local and global top-down mechanisms. These interacting mechanisms regulate responsiveness to external input as a function of behavioral context and momentary task demands.
Syntaxin 13 Mediates Cycling of Plasma Membrane Proteins via Tubulovesicular Recycling Endosomes

Endocytosis-mediated recycling of plasma membrane is a critical vesicle trafficking step important in diverse biological processes. The membrane trafficking decisions and sorting events take place in a series of heterogeneous and highly dynamic organelles, the endosomes. Syntaxin 13, a recently discovered member of the syntaxin family, has been suggested to play a role in mediating endosomal trafficking. To better understand the function of syntaxin 13 we examined its intracellular distribution in nonpolarized cells. By confocal immunofluorescence and electron microscopy, syntaxin 13 is primarily found in tubular early and recycling endosomes, where it colocalizes with transferrin receptor. Additional labeling is also present in endosomal vacuoles, where it is often found in clathrin-coated membrane areas. Furthermore, anti-syntaxin 13 antibody inhibits transferrin receptor recycling in permeabilized PC12 cells. Immunoprecipitation of syntaxin 13 revealed that, in Triton X-100 extracts, syntaxin 13 is present in a complex(es) comprised of βSNAP, VAMP 2/3, and SNAP-25. This complex(es) binds exogenously added αSNAP and NSF and dissociates in the presence of ATP, but not ATPγS. These results support a role for syntaxin 13 in membrane fusion events during the recycling of plasma membrane proteins.
CpG motif‐independent activation of TLR9 upon endosomal translocation of “natural” phosphodiester DNA

Endosomally translocated host (self) DNA activates Toll‐like receptor 9 (TLR9), while extracellular self‐DNA does not. This inconsistency reflects poor endosomal DNA translocation but also implies that host DNA contains DNA sequences that function as ligands for TLR9. Herein we report that contrary to phosphorothioate (PS)‐stabilized oligonucleotides (ODN), “natural” phosphodiester (PD) ODN lacking CpG motifs activate TLR9. CpG motif‐independent TLR9 activation of Flt3‐L‐induced dendritic cells (DC) was dependent on enforced endosomal translocation and triggered upregulation of CD40 and CD69 as well as production of IL‐6 and IFN‐α. Binding studies utilizing surface plasmon resonance technology (Biacore) revealed low TLR9 binding to single‐stranded (ss) PD‐ODN lacking CpG motifs. At higher concentrations their TLR9 binding activity compared well with TLR9 binding of canonical ss PD CpG‐ODN. These results imply that both the chemical modification of the DNA backbone as well as the amount of endosomally translocated DNA represent determining factors that allow CpG motif‐independent activation of TLR9 by ss PD‐DNA.
Effects of Lutein and Zeaxanthin on LPS-Induced Secretion of IL-8 by Uveal Melanocytes and Relevant Signal Pathways

The effects of lutein and zeaxanthin on lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced secretion of IL-8 by uveal melanocytes (UM) were tested in cultured human UM. MTT assay revealed that LPS (0.01–1 μg/mL) and lutein and zeaxanthin (1–10 μM) did not influence the cell viability of cultured UM. LPS caused a dose-dependent increase of secretion of IL-8 by cultured UM. Lutein and zeaxanthin did not affect the constitutive secretion of IL-8. However, lutein and zeaxanthin decreased LPS-induced secretion of IL-8 in cultured UM in a dose-dependent manner. LPS significantly increased NF-κB levels in cell nuclear extracts and p-JNK levels in the cell lysates from UM, but not p-p38 MAPK and p-ERG. Lutein or zeaxanthin significantly reduced LPS-induced increase of NF-κB and p-JNK levels, but not p38 MAPK and ERG levels. The present study demonstrated that lutein and zeaxanthin inhibited LPS-induced secretion of IL-8 in cultured UM via JNK and NF-κB signal pathways. The anti-inflammatory effects of lutein and zeaxanthin might be explored as a therapeutic approach in the management of uveitis and other inflammatory diseases of the eye.
Crowdsourced Multilingual Speech Intelligibility Testing

With the advent of generative audio features, there is an increasing need for rapid evaluation of their impact on speech intelligibility. Beyond the existing laboratory measures, which are expensive and do not scale well, there has been comparatively little work on crowdsourced assessment of intelligibility. Standards and recommendations are yet to be defined, and publicly available multilingual test materials are lacking. In response to this challenge, we propose an approach for a crowdsourced intelligibility assessment. We detail the test design, the collection and public release of the multilingual speech data, and the results of our early experiments.
Transgenic rhesus monkeys produced by gene transfer into early-cleavage–stage embryos using a simian immunodeficiency virus-based vector

The development of transgenic technologies in monkeys is important for creating valuable animal models of human physiology so that the etiology of diseases can be studied and potential therapies for their amelioration may be developed. However, the efficiency of producing transgenic primate animals is presently very low, and there are few reports of success. We have developed an improved methodology for the production of transgenic rhesus monkeys, making use of a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-based vector that encodes EGFP and a protocol for infection of early-cleavage–stage embryos. We show that infection does not alter embryo development. Moreover, the timing of infection, either before or during embryonic genome activation, has no observable effect on the level and stability of transgene expression. Of 70 embryos injected with concentrated virus at the one- to two-cell stage or the four- to eight-cell stage and showing fluorescence, 30 were transferred to surrogate mothers. One transgenic fetus was obtained from a fraternal triple pregnancy. Four infant monkeys were produced from four singleton pregnancies, of which two expressed EGFP throughout the whole body. These results demonstrate the usefulness of SIV-based lentiviral vectors for the generation of transgenic monkeys and improve the efficiency of transgenic technology in nonhuman primates.
Machine translation and Welsh: analysing free statistical machine translation for the professional translation of an under-researched language pair

This article reports on a key-logging study carried out to test the benefits of post-editing Machine Translation (MT) for the professional translator within a hypothetico-deductive framework, contrasting the outcomes of a number of variables which are inextricably linked to the professional translation process. Given the current trend of allowing the professional translator to connect to Google Translate services within the main Translation Memory (TM) systems via an API, a between-groups design is utilized in which cognitive, technical and temporal effort are gauged between translation and post-editing the statistical MT engine Google Translate. The language pair investigated is English and Welsh. Results show no statistical difference between post-editing and translation in terms of processing time. Using a novel measure of cognitive effort focused on pauses, the cognitive effort exerted by post-editors and translators was also found to be statistically different. Results also show however that a complex relationship exists between post-editing, translation and technical effort, in that aspects of text production processes were seen to be eased by post-editing. Finally, a bilingual review by two different translators found little difference in quality between the translated and post-edited texts, and that both sets of texts were acceptable according to accuracy and fidelity.
Mental Health Services

employment, quality of peer relationships, goal orientation, types of successful experiences, number and types of stressful experiences, and use of mental health and other services. HE TRANSITION FROM ADOLESCENCE to adulthood usually involves many -~lifestyle changes, including moving out of the parents’ home, completing school, starting a job or career, managing one’s own finances, forming an intimate relationship with a partner, and raising a family. Prior to the transitional period, functioning can be judged according to developmental standards for acquisition of skills, progress in school, and relationships with family and peers. In the
DUST IN THE POLAR REGION AS A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO THE INFRARED EMISSION OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI

Dust around active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is distributed over a wide range of spatial scales and can be observed in the infrared (IR). It is generally assumed that the distribution on parsec scales forms a geometrically and optically thick entity in the equatorial plane around the accretion disk and broad-line region—dubbed “dust torus”—that emits the bulk of the subarcsecond-scale IR emission and gives rise to orientation-dependent obscuration. However, recent IR interferometry studies with unprecedented position angle (P.A.) and baseline coverage on these small scales in two obscured (type 2) AGNs have revealed that the majority of the mid-IR emission in these objects is elongated in the polar direction. These observations are difficult to reconcile with the standard interpretation that most of the parsec-scale mid-IR emission in AGNs originate from the torus and challenges the justification of using simple torus models to model the broadband IR emission. Here, we report detailed interferometry observations of the unobscured (type 1) AGN in NGC 3783 that allow us to constrain the size, elongation, and direction of the mid-IR emission with high accuracy. The mid-IR emission is characterized by a strong elongation toward position angle P.A. −52°, closely aligned with the polar axis (P.A. −45°). We determine half-light radii along the major and minor axes at 12.5 μm of (20.0 ± 3.0) mas × (6.7 ± 1.0) mas or (4.23 ± 0.63) pc × (1.42 ± 0.21) pc, which corresponds to intrinsically scaled sizes of (69.4 ± 10.8) rin × (23.3 ± 3.5) rin for the inner dust radius of rin = 0.061 pc as inferred from near-IR reverberation mapping. This implies an axis ratio of 3:1, with about 60%–90% of the 8–13 μm emission associated with the polar-elongated component. It is quite likely that the hot-dust emission as recently resolved by near-IR interferometry is misaligned with the mid-IR emitting source, which also finds a correspondence in the two distinct 3–5 μm and 20 μm bumps seen in the high angular resolution spectral energy distribution (SED). Based on this SED, we determine covering factors for the hot and warm dust components of and , respectively. We conclude that these observations support a scenario where the majority of the mid-IR emission in Seyfert AGNs originate from a dusty wind in the polar region of the AGN.
Marine Mammal Brucella Reference Strains Are Attenuated in a BALB/c Mouse Model

Brucellosis is a zoonosis of worldwide distribution with numerous animal host species. Since the novel isolation of Brucella spp. from marine mammals in 1994 the bacteria have been isolated from various marine mammal hosts. The marine mammal reference strains Brucella pinnipedialis 12890 (harbour seal, Phoca vitulina) and Brucella ceti 12891 (harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena) were included in genus Brucella in 2007, however, their pathogenicity in the mouse model is pending. Herein this is evaluated in BALB/c mice with Brucella suis 1330 as a control. Both marine mammal strains were attenuated, however, B. ceti was present at higher levels than B. pinnipedialis in blood, spleen and liver throughout the infection, in addition B. suis and B. ceti were isolated from brains and faeces at times with high levels of bacteraemia. In B. suis-infected mice serum cytokines peaked at day 7. In B. pinnipedialis-infected mice, levels were similar, but peaked predominantly at day 3 and an earlier peak in spleen weight likewise implied an earlier response. The inflammatory response induced pathology in the spleen and liver. In B. ceti-infected mice, most serum cytokine levels were comparable to those in uninfected mice, consistent with a limited inflammatory response, which also was indicated by restricted spleen and liver pathology. Specific immune responses against all three strains were detected in vitro after stimulation of splenocytes from infected mice with the homologous heat-killed brucellae. Antibody responses in vivo were also induced by the three brucellae. The immunological pattern of B. ceti in combination with persistence in organs and limited pathology has heretofore not been described for other brucellae. These two marine mammal wildtype strains show an attenuated pattern in BALB/c mice only previously described for Brucella neotomea.