Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Becoming a Face Expert

Expertise in recognizing facial identity, and, in particular, sensitivity to subtle differences in the spacing among facial features, improves into adolescence. To assess the influence of experience, we tested adults and 8-year-olds with faces differing only in the spacing of facial features. Stimuli were human adult, human 8-year-old, and monkey faces. We show that adults' expertise is shaped by experience: They were 9% more accurate in seeing differences in the spacing of features in upright human faces than in upright monkey faces. Eight-year-olds were 14% less accurate than adults for both human and monkey faces (Experiment 1), and their accuracy for human faces was not higher for children's faces than for adults'faces (Experiment 2). The results indicate that improvements in face recognition after age 8 are not related to experience with human faces and may be related to general improvements in memory or in perception (e.g., hyperacuity and spatial integration).
Performance Analysis of Adaptive Rate Mechanism for IEEE 802.11p in DSRC for Road Safety Application in Vehicular Networks

Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) designed to be built in to every vehicle for safety and commercial non-safety application, is a robust technology that is supported by IEEE 802.11p standard due to the mobility of vehicle that cannot be avoidable. High data rate is one of the requirements for devices operating in this category. As with such, there is need for vehicles to change data rate depending on channel condition. In this paper, we have present a detailed simulation on two popular rate algorithms, Onoe and AARF in an infrastructure wireless network, and evaluation of results for different metrics is carried out.
Associations of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and IGF-binding protein-3 with HIV disease progression in women.

BACKGROUND The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis has been hypothesized to influence the rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression. This premise is based largely on laboratory models showing that IGF-I stimulates thymic growth and increases lymphocyte numbers and that IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-3 has an opposing effect, inhibiting hematopoietic stem cell development. METHODS We studied 1422 HIV-infected women enrolled in a large cohort that entailed semiannual follow-up (initiated in 1994). Baseline serum samples were tested for IGF-I and IGFBP-3 to determine their associations with incident clinical acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and CD4+ T cell count decline prior to April 1996 (before the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy [HAART]). RESULTS Low IGF-I levels (Ptrend= .02) and high IGFBP-3 levels (Ptrend= .02) were associated with rapid CD4+ T cell count decline. Only IGFBP-3, however, was significantly associated with AIDS incidence (hazard ratio for highest vs. lowest quartile, 2.65 [95% confidence interval, 1.30-5.42]; Ptrend= .02) in multivariable models. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that serum levels of IGFBP-3 (and possibly IGF-I) are associated with the rate of HIV disease progression in women and, more broadly, that interindividual heterogeneity in the IGF axis may influence HIV pathogenesis. If correct, the IGF axis could be a target for interventions to slow HIV disease progression and extend the time before use of HAART becomes necessary.
KONUS-WIND OBSERVATIONS OF THE NEW SOFT GAMMA-RAY REPEATER SGR 0501+4516

In 2008 August, the new soft gamma-ray repeater SGR 0501+4516 was discovered by Swift. The source was soon confirmed by several groups in space- and ground-based multi-wavelength observations. In this Letter, we report the analysis of five short bursts from the recently discovered soft gamma-ray repeater (SGR), detected with the Konus–Wind gamma-ray burst spectrometer. Properties of the time histories of the observed events, as well as results of multichannel spectral analysis, both in the 20–300 keV energy range, show, that the source exhibits itself as a typical SGR. The bursts durations are ≲0.75 s and their spectra above 20 keV can be fitted by an optically thin thermal bremsstrahlung (OTTB) model with kTOTTB of 20–40 keV. The spectral evolution is observed, which resembles the SGR 1627−41 bursts, where a strong hardness–intensity correlation was noticed in the earlier Konus–Wind observations. The peak energy fluxes of all five events are comparable to the highest of those for known SGRs, so a less distant source is implied, consistent with the determined Galactic anticenter direction. Supposing the young supernova remnant HB9 (at the distance of 1.5 kpc) as a natal environment of the source, the peak luminosities of the bursts are estimated to be (2–5)×1040 erg s−1. The values of the total energy release, given the same assumptions, amount to (0.6–6)×1039 erg. These estimations of both parameters are typical for short SGR bursts.
Traffic scheduling simulation and assignment for area-wide evacuation

Large-scale evacuation is called for when a natural or man-made extreme event strikes a populated area so that the population is exposed to immediate or foreseeable life-threatening danger. Evacuating a large population is an extremely complicated and difficult task, which primarily relies on efficient utilization of transportation systems, and effective evacuation schemes. This paper presents research that is aimed at developing an emergency evacuation modeling capability, which entails a careful integration of an optimal evacuation time and route choice model, as well as a traffic simulation model. Experiment results demonstrate the proposed methodology's operational planning capability for large-scale emergency evacuation management.
A Study of Distributed Parallel Processing for Queen Ant Strategy in Ant Colony Optimization

This paper proposes a distributed parallel processing of Queen Ant Strategy named "ASqueen" which imitated an ant society where a queen ant governs. It is noted that the proposed processing method achieves "shortening of average time for search" and "improvement of searching ability" at the same time in seventy-six cities’ configuration of traveling salesman problem.
Bad Company—Neighborhoods in Neural Embedding Spaces Considered Harmful

We assess the reliability and accuracy of (neural) word embeddings for both modern and historical English and German. Our research provides deeper insights into the empirically justified choice of optimal training methods and parameters. The overall low reliability we observe, nevertheless, casts doubt on the suitability of word neighborhoods in embedding spaces as a basis for qualitative conclusions on synchronic and diachronic lexico-semantic matters, an issue currently high up in the agenda of Digital Humanities.
Organization of the olfactory pathway and odor processing in the antennal lobe of the ant Camponotus floridanus

Ants rely heavily on olfaction for communication and orientation. Here we provide the first detailed structure–function analyses within an ant's central olfactory system asking whether in the carpenter ant, Camponotus floridanus, the olfactory pathway exhibits adaptations to processing many pheromonal and general odors. Using fluorescent tracing, confocal microscopy, and 3D‐analyses we demonstrate that the antennal lobe (AL) contains up to ≈460 olfactory glomeruli organized in seven distinct clusters innervated via seven antennal sensory tracts. The AL is divided into two hemispheres regarding innervation of glomeruli by either projection neurons (PNs) with axons leaving via the medial (m) or lateral (l) antennocerebral tract (ACT). M‐ and l‐ACT PNs differ in their target areas in the mushroom‐body calyx and lateral horn. Three additional ACTs project to the lateral protocerebrum only. We analyzed odor processing in AL glomeruli by retrograde loading of PNs with Fura‐2 dextran and fluorimetric calcium imaging. Odor responses were reproducible and comparable across individuals. Calcium responses to pheromonal and nonpheromonal odors were very sensitive (10−11 dilution) and patterns were partly overlapping, indicating that processing of both odor classes is not spatially segregated within the AL. Response patterns to the main trail‐pheromone component nerolic acid remained stable over a wide range of intensities (7–8 log units), while response durations increased indicating that odor quality is maintained by a stable pattern and intensity is mainly encoded in response durations. The structure–function analyses contribute new insights into important aspects of odor processing in a highly advanced insect olfactory system. J. Comp. Neurol. 506:425–441, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Analytical Investigation of the Magnetic-Field Distribution in an Axial Magnetic-Field-Modulated Brushless Double-Rotor Machine

The axial magnetic-field-modulated brushless double-rotor machine (MFM-BDRM) is a novel possible alternative power-split device for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). This paper proposes a two-dimensional (2-D) analytical method to predict the performance of the axial MFM-BDRM to reduce computing time. The computation is based on the solution of Laplace’s or Poisson’s equation with boundary conditions for each elementary rectangular region. By taking account of the existence of modulating ring and the stator slotting effect, the proposed model is able to calculate magnetic-field distribution with high accuracy. In order to assess the proposed method, the 2-D analytical and three-dimensional (3-D) finite element analysis (FEA) results have been compared, and good agreements have been achieved. As the analytical computation is much faster and more flexible, the proposed method can be used in the preliminary design process of the axial MFM-BDRM.
From the Alleys to City Hall

From September 2013 to April 2014, an independent collection of homeless men and women planted their own tent city, Whoville in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Over these 8 months, they fought with the city for more housing for Eugene’s growing homeless population, initiating a citywide dialogue on the marginalization of the homeless. The purpose of this study is to analyze how the homeless tenants of the Whoville community used participatory communication to achieve their long-term goals in sustaining a working camp and also carrying on with their plans after the government intervened. Drawing on seven interviews with camp tenants, highly involved volunteers, board members, and articles from the Eugene Register Guard, I examine the dynamic of participatory communication in sustaining this movement. What components of participatory communication helped these activists form a community and then mobilize the surrounding community? I argue that two key strategies, applicable to other situations of homeless resistance, emerge from the themes found in these interviews: (a) Whoville’s strategy to unite as a physical community, forming a public, collective identity in the greater Eugene community and (b) invoking a collective vision for better housing which mobilized both Whoville and citizens at large to rally to this vision.
Population Growth and Natural‐Resource Scarcity: Long‐Run Development Under Seemingly Unfavorable Conditions

The paper considers an economy which is constrained by natural resource use and driven by knowledge accumulation. Resources are essential inputs in all the sectors. It is shown that population growth and poor input substitution are not detrimental but, on the contrary, even necessary for obtaining a sustainable consumption level. We find a new type of Hartwick rule defining the conditions for a constant innovation rate. The rule does not apply to capital but to labour growth, the crucial input in research. Furthermore, it relates to the sectoral structure of the economy and to demographic transition. The results continue to hold with a backstop technology and are extended for the case of minimum resource constraints.
Eurobonds : Is There a Difference in Value-at-Risk ?

This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. This paper assesses the impact of bonds issued according to Islamic principles (Sukuk), on the cost and risk structure of investment portfolios by using the Value-at-Risk (VaR) framework. The market for Sukuk has grown tremendously in recent years at about 45 percent a year. Sukuk provide sovereign governments and corporations with access to the huge and growing Islamic liquidity pool, in addition to the conventional investor base. The paper analyzes whether secondary market behavior of Eurobonds and Sukuk issued by the same issuer are significantly different to provide gains from diversification. The analysis, employing the delta-normal as well as Monte-Carlo simulation methods, implies such gains are present and in certain cases very significant. JEL Classification Numbers: G11, G15, G32, G39.
Fractionated Stereotactic Gamma Knife Radiosurgery for Medial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: A Case Report

An 18-year-old left-handed male harbored intractable medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) underwent fractionated gamma knife surgery (GKS) instead of open surgery, considering the mental retardation and diffuse cerebral dysfunction. GKS treatment parameters were: target volume, 8.8 cm3; total marginal dose, 24 Gy in 3 fractionations at the 50% isodose line. The patient has been free from seizures since 9 months after GKS, with notable improvement in cognitive outcome. Fractionated GKS could be considered as a safe tool for seizure control and neuropsychological improvement in patients with MTLE.
A preliminary study of empathy, emotional intelligence and examination performance in MBChB students

Context There is considerable interest in the attributes other than cognitive ability that medical students need in order to be professionally successful, with a particular focus on empathy and emotional intelligence (EI). Selection considerations have also motivated interest in such attributes as predictors of academic success. There are reports of declines in empathy in US medical students, but no comparative information is available for UK students.
Finding event, temporal and causal structure in text: a machine learning approach

Humans often describe their experiences through the event, temporal and causal structures they perceive. These structures are often expressed in textual forms, for example in timelines, where text is summarized by aligning events with the times at which they occurred. These same sorts of temporal-causal structures are also useful for a variety of computational tasks, like summarization and question answering. However, to reason over such structures they must first be extracted from their textual representations and organized into a machine readable form. This work demonstrates that various important parts of the event, temporal and causal structure of a text can be extracted automatically using machine learning methods. Events, which serve as the basic anchors of temporal and causal relations, can be extracted with F-measures in the 70s and 80s using a word-chunking approach. Temporal relations between adjacent events in some common syntactic constructions can be identified with almost 90% accuracy using pair-wise classification. Causal relations are much more difficult, but initial work suggests that even this task may become tractable to machine learning methods. Analyses of the various tasks lead to several conclusions about how best to approach the automatic extraction of temporal-causal structure. Tasks with little linguistic motivation had low agreement between humans and low machine learning model performance. Tasks with clear annotation guidelines based on known linguistic constructions had much higher inter-annotator agreement and much better model performance. Thus, future progress will depend on careful task selection guided by linguistic knowledge about how event, temporal and causal relations are expressed in text.
Appraisal of Clinical, Psychosocial, and Environmental Health of Elderly in Saudi Arabia: A Household Survey

This was a cross-sectional national survey of the elderly population of Saudi Arabia conducted between January 1994 and December 1995. The participants' physical, mental, social, and environmental health status were assessed in a personal interview during which a structured data form was completed by a trained research team. Data on 6,139 elderly participants have been analyzed: 64.2 percent were males mean age: 69.2 ± 7.8 years which was higher than females 68.0 ± 7.6 years (P < 0.0001). The widowhood (46.7%) status was also higher than the widowerhood (4.1%) and 9.3 percent of the participants were never married. The proportion of female illiterates (95.8%) was higher than the males (71.4%). The proportion of participants with definite psychopathology was 33.8 percent and this increased with age and higher among females than males. Overall, 18.8 percent were dependent on others for ADL. Other clinical findings included visual impairment (46.1%) and difficulty in hearing (19.9%). However, a sizeable majority (72.2%) enjoyed good health. Only 3.7 percent lived alone. The proportion of the elderly taking part in any recreational exercise was 14.7 percent and only 4.3 percent had any experience of physical therapy. There were no special hospital wards for the elderly patients, and they were treated by general internists. There is a need for a national cost-effective program for the care of the elderly. The present widespread primary health care centers can be upgraded to coordinate the proposed services.
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Fertilization Rate Does Not Depend on the Proportion of Round-headed Sperm, Small-acrosomal Sperm, or Morphologically Normal Sperm in Patients with Partial Globozoospermia

Background:Generally, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) may be the preferable method to treat partial globozoospermia, but whether there exist some correlations between ICSI fertilization rate and the proportion of round-headed sperm or morphologically normal sperm remains open. This study was to explore the correlation between ICSI fertilization rate and the sperm morphology in patients with partial globozoospermia. Methods:Thirty-four patients diagnosed with partial globozoospermia accepted the following assisted fertilization treatments – 2 cases accepted in-vitro fertilization (IVF) alone, 26 cases accepted ICSI alone, and 6 accepted split IVF/ICSI. Detailed morphological characteristics were described using Diff-Quik rapid staining. Sixty cases accepting IVF or ICSI treatment in our reproductive center were considered as the control group after being matched by relevant criteria. Fertilization rate, embryo quality, embryo implantation rate and clinical pregnancy rate were calculated. Results:Besides very high proportion of round-headed sperm, partial globozoospermia also showed very high proportion of small-acrosomal sperm and very low proportion of morphologically normal sperm. Fertilization rate of IVF (IVF alone plus split IVF) was very low in partial globozoospermia (25.4% ± 17.4%), but ICSI (ICSI alone plus split ICSI) achieved satisfying fertilization rate compared with the control group (66.2% ± 22.5% vs. 68.8% ± 29.4%, P > 0.05). In patients with partial globozoospermia, there were no correlations between ICSI fertilization rate and the proportion of round-headed sperm, small-acrosomal sperm, or morphologically normal sperm. Conclusions:There was high proportion of small-acrosomal sperm in partial globozoospermia. For patients with partial globozoospermia, ICSI is more preferable than IVF. ICSI fertilization rate does not depend on the proportion of round-headed sperm, small-acrosomal sperm, or morphologically normal sperm.
Non-linear modelling and chaotic neural networks

Proposes a simple methodology to construct an iterative neural network which mimics a given chaotic time series. The methodology uses the Gamma test to identify a suitable (possibly irregular) embedding of the chaotic time series from which a one step predictive model may be constructed. This model is then iterated to produce a close approximation to the original chaotic dynamics. Having constructed such networks we show how the chaotic dynamics may be stabilised using time-delayed feedback, which is a plausible method for stabilisation in biological neural systems. Using delayed feedback control, which is activated in the presence of a stimulus, such networks can behave as an associative memory, in which the act of recognition corresponds to stabilisation onto an unstable periodic orbit. We briefly illustrate how two identical dynamically independent copies of such a chaotic iterative network may be synchronised using the delayed feedback method. Although less biologically plausible, these techniques may have interesting applications in secure communications.
Strategic Intent, Contract Duration, and Performance: Evidence from Micro-Outsourcing

Micro-outsourcing is the process of sourcing work to smaller firms or individuals using online sites. Several websites provide a platform to match clients and vendors for sourcing jobs. A typical issue with micro-sourcing is information asymmetry regarding the actual expertise of vendors. Online platforms bridge this gap using vendors’ prior histories and client evaluations. In this study, we examine how the strategic intents of vendors as captured by the platform play a moderating role on the relationship between project contract duration and client evaluation of vendor performance. Our empirical analysis uses project level data of over 6000 completed micro-outsourcing IT projects obtained from a leading micro-sourcing IT platform. We find that competency-focused strategic intent and goal-focused strategic intent positively moderate the relationship between project contract duration and client evaluation of vendor performance; whereas cost-focused strategic intent negatively moderates this relationship. Contributions and implications for research and practice are discussed.
On tachyons, gauged linear sigma models, and flip transitions

We study systems of multiple localized closed string tachyons and the phenomena associated with their condensation, in 3/N nonsupersymmetric noncompact orbifold singularities using gauged linear sigma model constructions, following hep-th/0406039. Our study reveals close connections between the combinatorics of nonsupersymmetric flip transitions (between topologically distinct resolutions of the original singularity), the physics of tachyons of different degrees of relevance and the singularity structure of the corresponding residual endpoint geometries. This in turn can be used to study the stability of the phases of gauged linear sigma models and gain qualitative insight into the closed string tachyon potential.
Normalized channel features for accurate pedestrian detection

Pedestrian detection is one of the most challenging problems in the field of the computer vision. To improve the detection accuracy several schemes have been proposed by many researchers but sufficient accuracy has not been achieved yet. One of the most accurate schemes is integral channel features proposed by Dollár et al., whose miss rate is about 20% at 10-1 false positive per image for the INRIA dataset. In this paper, to improve the detection accuracy of the integral channel features, we propose a novel scheme that normalizes extracted features according to characteristics of them. The Experimental result using the INRIA dataset shows that the miss rate by the proposed scheme becomes about 15% at 10-1 false positive per image that is higher than other leading edge schemes.