Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE ANCILLARY HEALTH BENEFITS AND COSTS OF GHG MITIGATION : SCOPE , SCALE , AND CREDIBILITY

Climate change mitigation policies will bring with them ancillary or secondary benefits and costs in addition to those directly associated with avoided temperature changes. The ancillary public health effects of air pollutant emission changes (such as in reductions in particulate matter (PM)) have been the focus of some research attention. However, none of the major economic models of climate impacts has incorporated these ancillary impacts into their analyses. The extent and scale of ancillary impacts will vary with the particular Greenhouse Gas (GHG) mitigation policy chosen. The consideration of ancillary benefits can be of critical importance for devising optimal mitigation strategies. To assist in the assessment of ancillary benefits, this paper examines literature relevant to the assessment of ancillary benefits for public health of GHG policies and offers criteria for evaluating this work.
Multi-modal Variational Encoder-Decoders

Recent advances in neural variational inference have facilitated efficient training of powerful directed graphical models with continuous latent variables, such as variational autoencoders. However, these models usually assume simple, uni-modal priors — such as the multivariate Gaussian distribution — yet many real-world data distributions are highly complex and multi-modal. Examples of complex and multi-modal distributions range from topics in newswire text to conversational dialogue responses. When such latent variable models are applied to these domains, the restriction of the simple, uni-modal prior hinders the overall expressivity of the learned model as it cannot possibly capture more complex aspects of the data distribution. To overcome this critical restriction, we propose a flexible, simple prior distribution which can be learned efficiently and potentially capture an exponential number of modes of a target distribution. We develop the multi-modal variational encoder-decoder framework and investigate the effectiveness of the proposed prior in several natural language processing modeling tasks, including document modeling and dialogue modeling.
Callitrichines The Role of Competition in Cooperatively Breeding Species

Indication for facultative polygamy in free-ranging Tarsius spectrum, supported by morpho-metric data. In: International Primatological Society Abstracts. The G banded karotype of Tarsius bancanus and its implications for primate phylogeny. Am. development and parental care patterns in western tarsiers, Tarsius bancanus in captivity: evidence for a slow life history and non-monogamous mating system. Int. Habitat use, foraging behavior and activity patterns in reproducing western tarsiers, Tarsius bancanus, in captivity: a management synthesis. Litter sizes and mammary numbers of naked mole-rats: breaking the one-half rule.
Probabilistic decision-making under uncertainty for autonomous driving using continuous POMDPs

This paper presents a generic approach for tactical decision-making under uncertainty in the context of driving. The complexity of this task mainly stems from the fact that rational decision-making in this context must consider several sources of uncertainty: The temporal evolution of situations cannot be predicted without uncertainty because other road users behave stochastically and their goals and plans cannot be measured. Even more important, road users are only able to perceive a tiny part of the current situation with their sensors because measurements are noisy and most of the environment is occluded. In order to anticipate the consequences of decisions a probabilistic approach, considering both forms of uncertainty, is necessary. We address this by formulating the task of driving as a continuous Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) that can be automatically optimized for different scenarios. As driving is a continuous-space problem, the belief space is infinite-dimensional. We do not use a symbolic representation or discretize the state space a priori because there is no representation of the state space that is optimal for every situation. Instead, we employ a continuous POMDP solver that learns a good representation of the specific situation.
A Data-Driven Investigation of Gray Matter–Function Correlations in Schizophrenia during a Working Memory Task

The brain is a vastly interconnected organ and methods are needed to investigate its long range structure(S)–function(F) associations to better understand disorders such as schizophrenia that are hypothesized to be due to distributed disconnected brain regions. In previous work we introduced a methodology to reduce the whole brain S–F correlations to a histogram and here we reduce the correlations to brain clusters. The application of our approach to sMRI [gray matter (GM) concentration maps] and functional magnetic resonance imaging data (general linear model activation maps during Encode and Probe epochs of a working memory task) from patients with schizophrenia (SZ, n = 100) and healthy controls (HC, n = 100) presented the following results. In HC the whole brain correlation histograms for GM–Encode and GM–Probe overlap for Low and Medium loads and at High the histograms separate, but in SZ the histograms do not overlap for any of the load levels and Medium load shows the maximum difference. We computed GM–F differential correlation clusters using activation for Probe Medium, and they included regions in the left and right superior temporal gyri, anterior cingulate, cuneus, middle temporal gyrus, and the cerebellum. Inter-cluster GM–Probe correlations for Medium load were positive in HC but negative in SZ. Within group inter-cluster GM–Encode and GM–Probe correlation comparisons show no differences in HC but in SZ differences are evident in the same clusters where HC vs. SZ differences occurred for Probe Medium, indicating that the S–F integrity during Probe is aberrant in SZ. Through a data-driven whole brain analysis approach we find novel brain clusters and show how the S–F differential correlation changes during Probe and Encode at three memory load levels. Structural and functional anomalies have been extensively reported in schizophrenia and here we provide evidences to suggest that evaluating S–F associations can provide important additional information.
Does a virtual networking laboratory result in similar student achievement and satisfaction?

Delivery of content in networking and system administration curricula involves significant hands-on laboratory experience supplementing traditional classroom instruction at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Providing the resources necessary in the traditional physical laboratory setting is challenged by increasing budgetary and space constraints. Delivery of laboratory instruction in a distance virtual format is a potential cost-effective solution to the problem, at the same time it presents technical challenges 3, 5. The blend of face-to-face and online instruction offers the opportunity not only to solve the resource issue, but also to sustain contact beyond the borders of the classroom and extend the learning environment. This paper presents the results of an action research study conducted to investigate the impact on student achievement and student satisfaction of delivering laboratory instruction in a distance delivered virtual laboratory, and discusses some of the challenges encountered in offering this virtual experience.
Angioinvasive mucormycosis and paradoxical stroke: a case report

Introduction: Rhizopus typically results in acute, aggressive and angioinvasive infection, particularly in immunosuppressed individuals. Risk factors include immunosuppression in haematologic malignancy, uncontrolled hyperglycemia, iron overload states, and older chelator agents such as deferoxamine. Case Presentation: We describe a case of a 33-year-old female with transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia who was started on intravenous deferiprone therapy and subsequently presented with a retropharyngeal abscess. Despite intravenous broad spectrum antibiotics, she continued to deteriorate and developed aphasia. A CT scan of her head showed multiple hypodensities. Blood cultures grew Rhizopus species and a subsequent transesophageal echocardiogram showed a mass in the right atrium with a patent foramen ovale. Conclusion: Although deferiprone, a newer iron chelator agent, has antifungal properties in vivo, this case illustrates that angioinvasive Rhizopus infections can occur in patients treated with deferiprone.
Regular Aerobic Exercise Prevents and Restores Age-Related Declines in Endothelium-Dependent Vasodilation in Healthy Men

BackgroundIn sedentary humans endothelium-dependent vasodilation is impaired with advancing age contributing to their increased cardiovascular risk, whereas endurance-trained adults demonstrate lower age-related risk. We determined the influence of regular aerobic exercise on the age-related decline in endothelium-dependent vasodilation. Methods and ResultsIn a cross-sectional study, 68 healthy men 22 to 35 or 50 to 76 years of age who were either sedentary or endurance exercise–trained were studied. Forearm blood flow (FBF) responses to intra-arterial infusions of acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside were measured by strain-gauge plethysmography. Among the sedentary men, the maximum FBF response to acetylcholine was 25% lower in the middle aged and older compared with the young group (P <0.01). In contrast, there was no age-related difference in the vasodilatory response to acetylcholine among the endurance-trained men. FBF at the highest acetylcholine dose was almost identical in the middle aged and older (17.3±1.3 mL/100 mL tissue per minute) and young (17.7±1.4 mL/100 mL tissue per minute) endurance-trained groups. There were no differences in the FBF responses to sodium nitroprusside among the sedentary and endurance- trained groups. In an exercise intervention study, 13 previously sedentary middle aged and older healthy men completed a 3-month, home-based aerobic exercise intervention (primarily walking). After the exercise intervention, acetylcholine-mediated vasodilation increased ≈30% (P <0.01) to levels similar to those in young adults and middle aged and older endurance-trained men. ConclusionsOur results indicate that regular aerobic exercise can prevent the age-associated loss in endothelium-dependent vasodilation and restore levels in previously sedentary middle aged and older healthy men. This may represent an important mechanism by which regular aerobic exercise lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease in this population.
Mapping Infrared Enhancements in Closely Interacting Spiral-Spiral Pairs. I. ISO CAM and ISO SWS Observations

Mid-infrared (MIR) imaging and spectroscopic observations are presented for a well-defined sample of eight closely interacting (CLO) pairs of spiral galaxies that have overlapping disks and show enhanced far-infrared (FIR) emission. The goal is to study the star formation distribution in CLO pairs, with special emphasis on the role of "overlap starbursts. " Observations were made with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) using the CAM and SWS instruments. The ISO CAM maps, tracing the MIR emission of warm dust heated by young massive stars, are compared to new ground-based Hα and R-band images. We identify three possible subgroups in the sample, classified according to the star formation morphology: (1) advanced mergers (Arp 157, Arp 244, and Arp 299), (2) severely disturbed systems (Arp 81 and Arp 278), and (3) less disturbed systems (Arp 276, KPG 347, and KPG 426). Localized starbursts are detected in the overlap regions in all five pairs of subgroups (1) and (2), suggesting that they are a common property in colliding systems. Except for Arp 244, the "overlap starburst" is usually fainter than the major nuclear starburst in CLO pairs. Star formation in "less disturbed systems" is often distributed throughout the disks of both galaxies with no "overlap starburst" detected in any of them. These systems also show less enhanced FIR emission, suggesting that they are in an earlier interaction stage when the direct disk collisions have probably not yet occurred.
Military Integration, Demobilization, and the Recurrence of Civil War

ABSTRACT Peace agreements often include provisions for the military integration of the conflict parties, involving an increase in government forces, and at the same time requesting demobilization and thus a reduction of military personnel. Depending on the modalities and magnitude both can be strong signals of a commitment to the peace process. However, tensions between these two concepts can also endanger post-conflict stability. The empirical analyses of 77 post-conflict societies show that civil war is more likely to recur if rebel forces are kept separate during the military integration process and if the military plays an important role in post-conflict economies.
ow does the topic of conversation affect verbal exchange and eye gaze ? comparison between typical development and high-functioning autism

Conversation is a primary area of difficultly for individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) although they have unimpaired formal language abilities. This likely stems from the unstructured nature of faceto-face conversation as well as the need to coordinate other modes of communication (e.g. eye gaze) with speech. We conducted a quantitative analysis of both verbal exchange and gaze data obtained from conversations between children with HFA and an adult, compared with those of typically developing children matched on language level. We examined a new question: how does speaking about a topic of interest affect reciprocity of verbal exchange and eye gaze? Conversations on generic topics were compared with those on individuals’ circumscribed interests, particularly intense interests characteristic of HFA. Two opposing hypotheses were evaluated. Speaking about a topic of interest may improve reciprocity in conversation by increasing participants’ motivation and engagement. Alternatively, it could engender more one-sided interaction, given the engrossing nature of circumscribed interests. In their verbal exchanges HFA participants demonstrated decreased reciprocity during the interest topic, evidenced by fewer contingent utterances and more monologue-style speech. Moreover, a measure of stereotyped behaviour and restricted interest symptoms was inversely related to reciprocal verbal exchange. However, both the HFA and comparison groups looked significantly more to their partner’s face during the interest than generic topic. Our interpretation of results across modalities is that circumscribed interests led HFA participants to be less adaptive to their partner verbally, but speaking about a highly practiced topic allowed for increased gaze to the partner. The function of this increased gaze to partner may differ for the HFA and comparison groups. Conversation is an area of substantial difficulty for individuls with high-functioning autism although they have relatively nimpaired formal language. This decoupling of conversational bilities and formal language (e.g. phonology and syntax) is lso observed developmentally. Whereas conversational skills mprove alongside indices of formal language ability such as MLU mean length of utterance) in both typically developing chilren and children with developmental delays other than autism, his is not the case for children with autism (Tager-Flusberg & nderson, 1991). In fact, in individuals with autism atypical and ff-topic utterances that impede the flow of reciprocal conversaion actually increase with formal language ability (Volden & Lord, 991). ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: aparna.nadig@mcgill.ca (A. Nadig). 028-3932/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. oi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia. 2010.05. 020 © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The Inorganic Components of Cementum- and Enamel-related Dentin in the Rat Incisor

Recently, we have shown that, in rodent incisors, the crown- and root-analogue dentin (enamel- and cementum-related dentin) show differences in mineralization rates (Beertsen and Niehof, 1986) and composition of the organic matrices (Steinfort et al. , 1989). It was the aim of the present study to determine whether these differences were accompanied by differences in the inorganic components. Rat incisors were analyzed by means of hardness measurements, microradiography, and the determination of Ca, Mg, and PO4 content. The outer circumpulpal dentin layer of the enamel-related dentin (ERD) was considerably harder and denser than the comparable layer of the cementum-related dentin (CRD). Concomitantly, a higher Ca and P04 content was found for the ERD than for the CRD, while the reverse occurred with respect to Mg. From the apical end of the incisor toward the incisal edge, the Ca/PO4 ratio tended to decrease for both ERD and CRD, while the Mg/PO4 ratio increased. All differences appeared to be statistically significant. It is concluded that differences in the non-collagenous organic matrix were accompanied by differences in the inorganic components. More specifically, a relatively high content of highly phosphorylated phosphoproteins (ERD) was associated with a higher Ca and a lower Mg content.
Leadership in self-managing virtual teams

In this paper, we present a theory of leadership in self-managing virtual teams. We are particularly interested in self-managing virtual teams because self-management seems to be a common phenomenon in teams that interact primarily through information technology (so-called virtual teams). Building on leadership theory and structuration theory, the theory describes leadership as a process that results in the reinforcement, creation and evolution of ongoing structures and distinguishes between two types of leadership. We identify first-order leadership as leadership that works within and reinforces existing structures to elicit and guide group contributions. We define second-order leadership as behavior that effects changes in the structure that guides group action. We argue that second-order leadership is enabled by first-order leadership, is therefore action embedded, and is grounded in processes that define the social identity of the team. We propose that effective self-managing virtual teams will exhibit a paradoxical combination of shared, distributed first-order leadership complemented by strong, concentrated, and centralized second-order leadership. We conclude by presenting a set of research questions and suggestions for future research.
Hedging Your Bets: Intermediate Movements as Optimal Behavior in the Context of an Incomplete Decision

Existing theories of movement planning suggest that it takes time to select and prepare the actions required to achieve a given goal. These theories often appeal to circumstances where planning apparently goes awry. For instance, if reaction times are forced to be very low, movement trajectories are often directed between two potential targets. These intermediate movements are generally interpreted as errors of movement planning, arising either from planning being incomplete or from parallel movement plans interfering with one another. Here we present an alternative view: that intermediate movements reflect uncertainty about movement goals. We show how intermediate movements are predicted by an optimal feedback control model that incorporates an ongoing decision about movement goals. According to this view, intermediate movements reflect an exploitation of compatibility between goals. Consequently, reducing the compatibility between goals should reduce the incidence of intermediate movements. In human subjects, we varied the compatibility between potential movement goals in two distinct ways: by varying the spatial separation between targets and by introducing a virtual barrier constraining trajectories to the target and penalizing intermediate movements. In both cases we found that decreasing goal compatibility led to a decreasing incidence of intermediate movements. Our results and theory suggest a more integrated view of decision-making and movement planning in which the primary bottleneck to generating a movement is deciding upon task goals. Determining how to move to achieve a given goal is rapid and automatic.
A New Forward Secure Signature Scheme

In this paper, we present two forward secure signature schemes based on gap DiffieHellman groups and prove these schemes to be secure in the sense of slightly stronger security notion than that by Bellare and Miner in the random oracle model. Both schemes use the same key update strategy as the encryption scheme presented by Canetti, Halevi and Katz. Hence, our schemes outperform the previous tree-based forward secure signature scheme by Bellare and Miner in the key generation and key update time, which are only constant in the number of time periods. Specifically, we describe a straightforward scheme following from the encryption scheme, and then improve its efficiency for signature verification algorithm which needs only 3 pairing computations independent of the total time periods.
Mercury Removal Using Fe – Fe Electrodes by Electrocoagulation

The performance of electrocoagulation is a promising electrochemical technique with iron scarified anode for waste water treatment on laboratory scale was done. Several parameters like initial metal concentration, pH, voltage, agitation and electrolyte concentration at different time were investigated to achieve a higher removal rate of mercury. Experiments were carried out with different initial metal concentration ranging from 30 ppm , 50 ppm and 100 ppm, pH ranging from 2.5 pH, 4.5 pH and 7.0 pH, Voltage vary from 6V, 9V and 12V, electrolyte concentration changes from 0.6667 g/lit. , 1.333 g/lit. and 2.0 g/lit. , agitation vary from 200 rpm, 400 rpm and 600 rpm with a constant spacing between two electrodes is 1.0 cm. Maximum mercury removal was achieved at the end of 40 minute operation. Total operating cost also calculated from the power cost and cost of electrode material. The method was found to be highly efficient and relatively fast compared to conventional existing techniques.