Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prosodic contex-based analysis of disfluencies

This work explores prosodic cues of disfluencies in a corpus of university lectures. Results show three significant (p < 0.001) trends: pitch and energy slopes are significantly different between the disfluency and the onset of fluency; those features are also relevant to disfluency type differentiation; and they do not seem to be a speakereffect. The best combination of linguistic features one can use to better predict the onset of fluency are pitch and energy resets as well as the presence of a silent pause immediately before a repair. Our results, thus, point out to a strategy of prosodic contrast rather than of parallelism. With this work we hope to contribute to the analysis of the prosodic behaviors in the production of the so called disfluencies and in the fluency repair in European Portuguese.
Oxytocin Enhances Cranial Visceral Afferent Synaptic Transmission to the Solitary Tract Nucleus

Cranial visceral afferents travel via the solitary tract (ST) to contact neurons within the ST nucleus (NTS) and activate homeostatic reflexes. Hypothalamic projections from the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) release oxytocin (OT) to modulate visceral afferent communication with NTS neurons. However, the cellular mechanisms through which OT acts are poorly understood. Here, we electrophysiologically identified second-order NTS neurons in horizontal brainstem slices by their low-jitter, ST-evoked glutamatergic EPSCs. OT increased the frequency of miniature EPSCs in half of the NTS second-order neurons (13/24) but did not alter event kinetics or amplitudes. These actions were blocked by a selective OT receptor antagonist. OT increased the amplitude of ST-evoked EPSCs with no effect on event kinetics. Variance–mean analysis of ST-evoked EPSCs indicated OT selectively increased the release probability of glutamate from the ST afferent terminals. In OT-sensitive neurons, OT evoked an inward holding current and increased input resistance. The OT-sensitive current reversed at the K+ equilibrium potential. In in vivo studies, NTS neurons excited by vagal cardiopulmonary afferents were juxtacellularly labeled with Neurobiotin and sections were stained to show filled neurons and OT-immunoreactive axons. Half of these physiologically characterized neurons (5/10) showed close appositions by OT fibers consistent with synaptic contacts. Electron microscopy of medial NTS found immunoreactive OT within synaptic boutons. Together, these findings suggest that OT released from PVN axons acts on a subset of second-order neurons within medial NTS to enhance visceral afferent transmission via presynaptic and postsynaptic mechanisms.
Word recognition using fuzzy logic

This paper presents an offline word-recognition system based on structural information in the unconstrained written word. Oriented features in the word are extracted with the Gabor filters. We estimate the Gabor filter parameters from the grayscale images. A two-dimensional fuzzy word classification system is developed where the spatial location and shape of the membership functions are derived from the training words. The system achieves an average recognition rate of 74% for the word being correctly classified in the top position and an average of 96% for the word being correctly classified within the top five positions.
The Antipsychotic Olanzapine Interacts with the Gut Microbiome to Cause Weight Gain in Mouse

The second-generation antipsychotic olanzapine is effective in reducing psychotic symptoms but can cause extreme weight gain in human patients. We investigated the role of the gut microbiota in this adverse drug effect using a mouse model. First, we used germ-free C57BL/6J mice to demonstrate that gut bacteria are necessary and sufficient for weight gain caused by oral delivery of olanzapine. Second, we surveyed fecal microbiota before, during, and after treatment and found that olanzapine potentiated a shift towards an “obesogenic” bacterial profile. Finally, we demonstrated that olanzapine has antimicrobial activity in vitro against resident enteric bacterial strains. These results collectively provide strong evidence for a mechanism underlying olanzapine-induced weight gain in mouse and a hypothesis for clinical translation in human patients.
Interplay of motivation and self-regulation throughout the development of elite athletes

ABSTRACT Recent development in the understanding of human motivation has highlighted the crucial and reciprocal role of motivation on cognitive processes. In elite sport settings, athletes are subject to external forces that do not necessarily correspond with their inherent drives. However, they seem to develop cognitive competencies to cope with external forces, when planning, monitoring, and reflecting on their high-level achievements. The current study aims to explore likely interactions between motivation and cognitive processes as athletes develop from novice to elite levels. Five female Olympic and World Championship medallists were interviewed. A thematic analysis revealed how motivation and self-regulation competencies interchangeably influenced athletes’ career trajectories asynchronously. Chronologically, four themes emerged: 1) Motivational shifts evoked planning and self-control competencies, 2) The external control constrained athletes’ self-regulation, 3) Self-control and reflection in extrinsically driven athletes, and 4) Elite athletes’ multidimensional motivation and self-regulation profile. Initially, intrinsic motivation prompted athletes’ participation, but the competitive nature of sport activities led to a shift toward more external forms of motivation. This motivational shift was accompanied by changes in self-regulation competencies, particularly planning and self-control, rather than self-reflection. Over time, athletes’ increased sport-specific self-confidence contributed to further refinement of self-regulation competencies and integrated motivational regulations. Rather than exploring motivation and cognitive competencies individually, current study findings highlight dynamic interactions between these concepts that influences athletes’ ongoing development to elite level performances.
Nutritional and Unhealthy Behaviors in Women With and Without Breast Cancer

Background: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. Global statistics indicate increasing rates of this cancer. Nutrition, diet, and healthy behaviors are among influential factors in prevalence of breast cancer, and possibly affect its incidence through inflammatory and immune system responses. Objectives: This study was designed to compare nutritional and unhealthy behaviors in women with and without breast cancer referred to Mahdieh Imaging Center in Hamadan in 2013. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study is conducted on 232 women with r and without breast cancer referred to Mahdieh Imaging Center of Hamadan, Iran) in 2013 using random sampling method. Data were collected using nutritional and unhealthy behaviors questionnaires, and analyzed with SPSS-17 software using descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney, independent t, and chi-square tests. Results: The mean scores of feeding type in the patients with and without breast cancer was 56.14 and 66.25, respectively. Results obtained from data analysis showed that there was statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of nutrition (P < 0.001), but no relationship was observed between breast cancer and unhealthy behaviors. Conclusions: Given the results, improving skills, training and awareness is necessary for women and emphasis on modified diet is recommended as a non-medical option for prevention of breast cancer.
Assessment of Containment Equipment Using a Novel Test to Determine the Effect of Containment on Laboratory Accuracy

A newly developed test of operator manual dexterity in containment equipment more closely replicates standard laboratory techniques than previously used commercial pegboard dexterity tests. The test measures pipetting accuracy and has been developed and fully validated to assess the effect of containment equipment on laboratory techniques. Intra-assay variation had a mean of 1.4%; inter-assay variation had a mean of 3% within day and 3.6% between days. The test retest coefficient, using Pearson's correlation, was 0.898, (p=0.001). The test was then used to measure pipetting accuracy in class II and III biological safety cabinets (BSCs). When experienced users took the tests in the two types of BSCs, their accuracy did not differ significantly. External factors (age, experience, glove size, gender) did not influence technical accuracy within the BSCs. The participants' level of pipetting accuracy is an inherent ability not influenced significantly by the factors measured, including the type of BSC used. Operators did; however, take significantly longer to complete tasks in the class III BSC.
Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of Lifestyle Modification versus Metformin Therapy for the Prevention of Diabetes in Singapore

Background In Singapore, as diabetes is an increasingly important public health issue, the cost-effectiveness of pursuing lifestyle modification programs and/or alternative prevention strategies is of critical importance for policymakers. While the US Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) compared weight loss through lifestyle modification with oral treatment of diabetes drug metformin to prevent/delay the onset of type 2 diabetes in pre-diabetic subjects, no data on either the actual or potential cost effectiveness of such a program is available for East or South-east Asian populations. This study estimates the 3-year cost-effectiveness of lifestyle modification and metformin among pre-diabetic subjects from a Singapore health system and societal perspective. Methodology Cost effectiveness was analysed from 2010–2012 using a decision-based model to estimate the rates of getting diabetes, healthcare costs and health-related quality of life. Cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) was estimated using costs relevant to the time horizon of the study from Singapore. All costs are expressed in 2012 US dollars. Principal Findings The total economic cost for non-diabetic subjects from the societal perspective was US$25,867, US$28,108 and US$26,177 for placebo, lifestyle modification and metformin intervention respectively. For diabetic patients, the total economic cost from the societal perspective was US$32,921, US$35,163 and US$33,232 for placebo, lifestyle modification and metformin intervention respectively. Lifestyle modification relative to placebo is likely to be associated with an incremental cost per QALY gained at US$36,663 while that of metformin intervention is likely to be US$6,367 from a societal perspective. Conclusion Based on adaptation of the DPP data to local conditions, both lifestyle modification and metformin intervention are likely to be cost-effective and worth implementing in Singapore to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. However, the cost of lifestyle modification from the societal perspective would have to be reduced in order to match the cost-effectiveness of metformin intervention.
APPENDIX 1: Making sense out of Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC): its use and interpretation in model selection and inference from ecological data

A large component of ecology consists of observational studies where the goal is to explain a pattern, such as the number of individuals in a patch, with a series of explanatory (i.e., independent) variables. To do so, ecologists have long relied on hypothesis testing to include or exclude variables in models, although the conclusions often depend on the approach used (e.g., forward, backward, stepwise). In the mid 1970’s, the advent of methods based on information theory, also known as information-theoretic approaches, has changed the way we look at model selection and inference. A few decades later, measures of information, such as the Akaike information criteria (AIC) and http://www.theses. ulaval.ca/2004/21842/apa.html (1 de 13)23/02/2007 8:33:09 APPENDIX 1: Making sense out of Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC): it.and interpretation in model selection and inference from ecological data associated measures of model uncertainty, have begun to surface in the ecological disciplines. Though still underutilized, these approaches provide a new framework on which to base both model selection and inference from ecological data, and are far superior to traditional hypothesis testing. In this paper, I illustrate the use of such approaches as well as the interpretation of results analysed in this framework. Hypothesis-testing is still useful in controlled experiments with very few parameters, but attention should strive away from mere declarations of significance and instead focus on the estimation of the effect and its precision. However, information-theoretic approaches, given their ease of use and interpretation, as well as their flexibility, should be readily adopted by ecologists in any exploratory data analysis, especially in issues of model selection.
Automatic vehicle counting method based on principal component pursuit background modeling

Estimating the number of vehicles present in traffic video sequences is a common task in applications such as active traffic management and automated route planning. There exist several vehicle counting methods such as Particle Filtering or Headlight Detection, among others. Although Principal Component Pursuit (PCP) is considered to be the state-of-the-art for video background modeling, it has not been previously exploited for this task. This is mainly because most of the existing PCP algorithms are batch methods and have a high computational cost that makes them unsuitable for real-time vehicle counting. In this paper, we propose to use a novel incremental PCP-based algorithm to estimate the number of vehicles present in top-view traffic video sequences in real-time. We test our method against several challenging datasets, achieving results that compare favorably with state-of-the-art methods in performance and speed: an average accuracy of 98% when counting vehicles passing through a virtual door, 91% when estimating the total number of vehicles present in the scene, and up to 26 fps in processing time.
‘Free to Do What I Want’? Exploring the ambivalent effects of liberating leadership

This study examines the phenomenon of ‘liberating leadership’, an emerging trend promising self-mastery and collective unity, resonating with the literature on post-heroic leadership. We evaluate the claims of liberating leadership from a psychodynamic perspective, using a Lacanian approach. We examine how post-heroic forms of leadership reconfigure symbolic and imaginary aspects of follower identification, with ambivalent effects. Drawing empirically on the case of a Belgian banking department, we trace how a ‘liberating’ leader was able to garner intense psychological attachment among followers, accompanied by the ‘dark sides’ of personal exhaustion and breakdown, normative pressure to be overly happy, and the scapegoating of contrarian managers representing symbolic prohibition.
The effect of ARIAS learning model on the learning outcomes about continental food processing in Bogor 3 State Vocational Schools from creativity of students

This study aims to obtain information about: (1) differences in learning outcomes between students who study using the ARIAS learning model and students who learn using direct learning (DL); (2) differences in learning outcomes between students who have high creativity and students who have low creativity; and (3) whether the relationship between the use of learning models and learning outcomes in continental food processing is influenced by students' creativity. This experimental study was conducted using a 2 x 2 factorial design, with the moderator variable being students' creativity. In the experiment, the separation of the level of student creativity was not carried out significantly. Students are called to have high creativity, if they have a score higher or equal to the median group (ian median), while students are called to have low creativity, if they have a score less than or below the median (<median) group. The study was conducted in class XI Hospitality 1 by applying the ARIAS learning model, and class XI Hospitality 2 by applying DL. The study found that: (1) students who studied using the ARIAS learning model obtained significantly higher cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning outcomes than students who studied using DL; (2) students who have high creativity, obtain significantly higher cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning outcomes than students who have low creativity; and (3) the relationship between the use of learning models and learning outcomes in continental food processing is influenced by student creativity.
Altered Pulmonary Lymphatic Development in Infants with Chronic Lung Disease

Pulmonary lymphatic development in chronic lung disease (CLD) has not been investigated, and anatomy of lymphatics in human infant lungs is not well defined. Hypothesis. Pulmonary lymphatic hypoplasia is present in CLD. Method. Autopsy lung tissues of eighteen subjects gestational ages 22 to 40 weeks with and without history of respiratory morbidity were stained with monoclonal antipodoplanin and reviewed under light microscopy. Percentage of parenchyma podoplanin stained at the acinar level was determined using computerized image analysis; 9 CLD and 4 control subjects gestational ages 27 to 36 weeks were suitable for the analysis. Results. Distinct, lymphatic-specific staining with respect to other vascular structures was appreciated in all gestations. Infants with and without respiratory morbidity had comparable lymphatic distribution which extended to the alveolar ductal level. Podoplanin staining per parenchyma was increased and statistically significant in the CLD group versus controls at the alveolar ductal level (0.06% ± 0.02% versus 0.04% ± 0.01%, 95% CI −0.04% to −0.002%, P < 0.03). Conclusion. Contrary to our hypothesis, the findings show that there is an increase in alveolar lymphatics in CLD. It is suggested that the findings, by expanding current knowledge of CLD pathology, may offer insight into the development of more effective therapies to tackle CLD.
A comparative evaluation of heuristic-based usability inspection methods

Given that heuristic evaluation (HE) is a popular evaluation method among practitioners despite criticisms surrounding its performance and reliability, there is a need to improve the method's performance. Several studies have shown HE-Plus, an emerging variant of HE, to outperform HE in both effectiveness and reliability. HE-Plus uses the same set of heuristics as HE; the only difference between these two methods is the 'usability problems profile' element in HE-Plus. This paper reports our attempt to verify the original profile employed in HE-Plus based on usability problem classification in the User Action Framework and an experiment evaluating its outcome by comparing HE with two HE variants using a profile (HE-Plus and HE++) and a control group. Our results confirmed the role of the 'usability problems profiles' on improving the performance and reliability of heuristic evaluation: both HE-Plus and HE++ outperformed HE in terms of effectiveness as well as reliability.
Discovering disciplinary differences: blending data sources to explore the student online behaviors in a University English course

Purpose This study aims to explore disciplinary differences in completing blended learning tasks in an academic literacy course and the feasibility of adopting a blended learning analytics approach to explore disciplinary differences. Design/methodology/approach Following a learning analytics approach, this study blends data from the learning management system and timetabling arrangements. Findings Results suggest that online behaviors of design students and accounting students are different in terms of starting day and completion rate. Blending data sources also provides a new perspective to our learning analytics study. Originality/value This study is an important contribution to the field because studies on learning analytics with multiple data sources are rare, and most disciplinary studies rely on survey data; students’ actual behaviors are under-explored.
Toward a neuropsychological theory of antidepressant drug action: increase in positive emotional bias after potentiation of norepinephrine activity.

OBJECTIVE Antidepressants that increase serotonin or norepinephrine in the brain are effective in treating depression, but there is no neuropsychological account of how these changes relieve depressive states. Cognitive theories suggest that biases in information processing lead depressed patients to make unrealistically negative judgments about themselves and the world. METHOD A single dose of the noradrenergic antidepressant reboxetine or placebo was administered to 24 healthy volunteers. Effects on emotional processing were assessed through facial expression recognition, emotional categorization, and emotional memory. RESULTS On the three measures, reboxetine biased perception toward positive, rather than negative, information in the absence of changes in nonemotional performance or mood. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that a single dose of an antidepressant can increase the processing of positively valenced material in nondepressed volunteers. Antidepressants may therefore work in a manner similar to that of psychological treatments that aim to redress negative biases in information processing.
Antioxidant metabolism induced by quinic acid. increased urinary excretion of tryptophan and nicotinamide

For over 50 years, hippuric/quinic acids were believed to have no biological efficacy. Here data are presented to support the hypothesis that quinic acid is not responsible for any efficacy, but rather that quinic acid nutritionally supports the synthesis of tryptophan and nicotinamide in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and that this in turn leads to DNA repair enhancement and NF‐kB inhibition via increased nicotinamide and tryptophan production.