Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring steganography: Seeing the unseen

Steganography is the art of hiding information in ways that prevent the detection of hidden messages. It includes a vast array of secret communications methods that conceal the message's very existence. These methods include invisible inks, microdots, character arrangement, digital signatures, covert channels, and spread spectrum communications. Steganography and cryptography are cousins in the spycraft family: cryptography scrambles a message so it cannot be understood while steganography hides the message so it cannot be seen. In this article the authors discuss image files and how to hide information in them, and discuss results obtained from evaluating available steganographic software. They argue that steganography by itself does not ensure secrecy, but neither does simple encryption. If these methods are combined, however, stronger encryption methods result. If an encrypted message is intercepted, the interceptor knows the text is an encrypted message. But with steganography, the interceptor may not know that a hidden message even exists. For a brief look at how steganography evolved, there is included a sidebar titled "Steganography: Some History. "
How Do You Foster Deeper Disciplinary Learning with the "Flipped" Classroom?.

In his book, The One World School House, Salman Khan (2012) describes how he created the Khan Academy, a series of free online tutorials, which began simply as attempts to help his niece learn algebra. Significantly, Khan had no teaching background and no allegiance to any specific educational theory. Instead, he worked inductively, first conducting his tutorials on the phone and then later posting short videos on YouTube where he was limited to ten-minute lessons. What he discovered is that students best absorb content when it is delivered in small sections (eighteen minutes is optimal, according to Middendorf and Kalish’s 1996 study of college students’ attention spans), that they learn better if the lesson can be self-paced (Tullis and Benjamin 2011), and that contact time is best spent on guided coaching (Knight 2007) rather than lecture. Initially, Khan’s success was mostly anecdotal—and based on the increased numbers of students viewing his YouTube videos; however, when the Khan Academy partnered with middle schools in Los Altos, California, students’ math scores improved (Gallagher 2012; Sinha 2011). These are not new ideas but their application to teaching and learning in college courses has only recently gained momentum, largely as a result of the growing availability of instructional technologies and the popularity and convenience of online and hybrid courses. When considering the benefits that are associated with online approaches to teaching and learning such as learning games, convenience, and ease of use (Flynn 2013), many have now raised questions about what the face-to-face classroom delivers that online learning cannot (Bowen 2012). More faculty from across disciplines are turning to the “flipped” classroom as a pedagogical strategy that offers the best of both worlds. The flipped classroom allows for content coverage to take place outside of the classroom, thereby freeing face-to-face classroom time for the involvement of students in active learning strategies that allow them to engage in and
Does the route of administration for estrogen hormone therapy impact the risk of venous thromboembolism? Estradiol transdermal system versus oral estrogen-only hormone therapy

Objective:The aim of this study was to quantify the magnitude of risk reduction for venous thromboembolism events associated with an estradiol transdermal system relative to oral estrogen-only hormone therapy agents. Methods:A claims analysis was conducted using the Thomson Reuters MarketScan database from January 2002 to October 2009. Participants 35 years or older who were newly using an estradiol transdermal system or an oral estrogen-only hormone therapy with two or more dispensings were analyzed. Venous thromboembolism was defined as one or more diagnosis codes for deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism. Cohorts of estradiol transdermal system and oral estrogen-only hormone therapy were matched 1:1 based on both exact factor and propensity score matching, and an incidence rate ratio was used to compare the rates of venous thromboembolism between the matched cohorts. Remaining baseline imbalances from matching were included as covariates in multivariate adjustments. Results:Among the matched estradiol transdermal system and oral estrogen-only hormone therapy users (27,018 women in each group), the mean age of the cohorts was 48.9 years; in each cohort, 6,044 (22.4%) and 1,788 (6.6%) participants had a hysterectomy and an oophorectomy at baseline, respectively. A total of 115 estradiol transdermal system users developed venous thromboembolism, compared with 164 women in the estrogen-only hormone therapy cohort (unadjusted incidence rate ratio, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.57-0.91; P = 0.006). After adjustment for confounding factors, the incidence of venous thromboembolism remained significantly lower for estradiol transdermal system users than for estrogen-only hormone therapy users. Conclusions:This large population-based study suggests that participants receiving an estradiol transdermal system have a significantly lower incidence of venous thromboembolism than do participants receiving oral estrogen-only hormone therapy.
Level Mapping Characterizations of Selector Generated Models for Logic Programs

Assigning semantics to logic programs via selector generated models (Schwarz 2002/2003) extends several semantics, like the stable, the inflationary, and the stable generated semantics, to programs with arbitrary formulae in rule heads and bodies. We study this approach by means of a unifying framework for characterizing different logic programming semantics using level mappings (Hitzler and Wendt 200x, Hitzler 2003), thereby supporting the claim that this framework is very flexible and applicable to very diversely defined semantics.
Reply to Watt: Epistemic Humility, Objective Validity, Logical Derivability

Robert Watt has provided an excellent précis of the main theme of my book, namely Kant’s radical subjectivism, for which I am extremely thankful. I could not have written a more succinct summary that captures the essence, give or take a few details, of what I take to be Kant’s metaphilosophical stance in the Transcendental Deduction (henceforth simply ‘the Deduction’). So I’m not going to repeat here in my own words what Watt wrote. Rather, what I am going to do is respond to the lingering questions that Watt has, in particular, as to (1) how I see the issue of “epistemic humility” and how this ties in with my thesis of radical subjectivism, and (2) why I think objective validity is not a feature of intuitions, making my position on nonconceptualism vulnerable, in Watt’s view, to being nothing more than a closet conceptualism. Another issue that Watt raises concerns what is probably the most controversial aspect of my reading of the Deduction: namely (3) the contentious claim, which I defended at length in my previous book (Schulting 2012, henceforth KDA), that the categories are all a priori derived from the principle of apperception. Despite Watt’s serious reservations and Corey Dyck’s and Andrew Stephenson’s earlier misgivings, as well as Thomas Land’s doubts about this claim (Dyck 2014; Stephenson 2014; Land 2018; cf. by contrast Quarfood 2014), I remain firmly committed to it as what is in my view the only way to explain the systematicity claim that Kant makes with respect to the two tables, as well as the only way to understand what I call the reciprocity claim that is central to the Deduction (following Henry Allison). I realise I’m perhaps a lone voice in this in current Kant scholarship, but I take comfort in the knowledge of being in the august company of Klaus Reich and Michael Wolff, who both defend the idea.
An approach to rural suicide.

Suicide rates have been relatively constant in Australia for over a hundred years, albeit peaking in 1997 and since returning towards historically average levels. Suicide now represents the commonest cause of violent deaths and exceeds deaths from motor vehicle accidents and armed conflict. There have been a number of national programs following the lead of Finland in the 1980s. Modern research has clearly demonstrated many of the risk factors, but they lack specificity in terms of prediction, and therefore the numbers needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of any intervention are particularly daunting. This makes research problematic and it is probably impossible to ever get Level 1 evidence because of the large numbers and expense required. Therefore many research studies are either epidemiologically oriented or directed to crisis care and treatment algorithms. Rural suicide presents particular challenges because of the increasing numbers of young and elderly men who take their lives, the lack of services available locally and the paucity of research in rural societies, with it usually being confined to examining risk factors and comparing them with urban populations. This thesis describes an approach to rural suicide which, whilst cognisant of the broad range of risk factors, was more directed to tackling poor mental health on a community
Evaluation of Corneal Endothelium in Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Purpose. To evaluate the systemic and local factors that contribute to the damage of endothelial cells in diabetic patients and to compare the endothelial structure of the cornea in diabetic and nondiabetic patients. Materials and Methods. The endothelial cell density (ECD) and central corneal thickness (CCT) were investigated in 123 eyes of type 1 diabetic patients and in 124 eyes of nondiabetic patients. The mean diabetic patients age was 15.34 ± 3.06 years versus 14.58 ± 2.01 years in the control group. The mean duration of diabetes was 8.02 ± 3.9 years. The corneal endothelium was imaged by the Topcon SP-2000P. Results. The mean ECD in diabetic eyes was 2435.55 ± 443.43 cells/mm2 and was significantly lower than in control group (2970.75 ± 270.1 cells/mm2). The mean CCT was 0.55 ± 0.03 mm in diabetic group versus 0.53 ± 0.033 mm in control group. ECD and CCT significantly correlated only with duration of diabetes. There was no correlation between ECD and CCT and patient age, sex, HbA1C level, and plasma creatinine level. Conclusions. ECD is decreased and CCT is increased in children and adolescents with diabetes mellitus. Duration of diabetes is the factor that affects ECD and CCT.
Measuring the Performance of Banks: Theory, Practice, Evidence, and Some Policy Implications

The unique capital structure of commercial banking – funding production with demandable debt that participates in the economy’s payments system – affects various aspects of banking. It shapes banks’ comparative advantage in providing financial products and services to informationally opaque customers, their ability to diversify credit and liquidity risk, and how they are regulated, including the need to obtain a charter to operate and explicit and implicit federal guarantees of bank liabilities to reduce the probability of bank runs. These aspects of banking affect a bank’s choice of risk vs. expected return, which, in turn, affects bank performance. Banks have an incentive to reduce risk to protect the valuable charter from episodes of financial distress and they also have an incentive to increase risk to exploit the cost-of-funds subsidy of mispriced deposit insurance. These are contrasting incentives tied to bank size. Measuring the performance of banks and its relationship to size requires untangling cost and profit from decisions about risk versus expected-return because both cost and profit are functions of endogenous risk-taking. This chapter gives an overview of two general empirical approaches to measuring bank performance and discusses some of the applications of these approaches found in the literature. One application explains how better diversification available at a larger scale of operations generates scale economies that are obscured by higher levels of risk-taking. Studies of banking cost that ignore endogenous risk-taking find little evidence of scale economies at the largest banks while those that control for this risk-taking find large scale economies at the largest banks – evidence with important implications for regulation.
Examining the Behavior of "Reverse Directional" Items in the TIMSS 2011 Context Questionnaire Scales

The TIMSS and PIRLS context questionnaire scales are robust cross-country measures of important aspects of the educational context. While the 2011 context questionnaire scales were very successful, this investigation delves into the question of the effectiveness of using reverse directional items in such scales. Through an exploration of extreme response sets, Rasch fit statistics, and confirmatory factor analysis, this study assesses the relationship between reverse directional items and response patterns in data from the fourth grade and eighth grade Students Confident in Mathematics scale. The results suggest that extreme response patterns appear to be rare. In addition, the results of the Rasch fit statistics and the confirmatory factor analysis suggest that the reverse directional items have different psychometric properties than the straightforward items. This analysis recommends further research on whether these patterns of fit of the reverse directional items are manifest through the other TIMSS and PIRLS scales, and whether they may be linked to student reading ability.
Experiences of engaging in Archetypal Dreamwork

This study describes the experiences of six participants who engaged in the process of Archetypal Dreamwork. The purpose of this study is to contribute to that body of knowledge which pertains to working with dreams in therapy, from the perspective of the participants. Through thematic analysis, interviews with the six participants yielded two main themes and five sub-themes. The findings indicate that engagement in Archetypal Dreamwork for the participants in this study feels safe and is effective for most in generating insights, acceptance, and understanding of oneself and others, which manifest as changes in how one relates to the self and others. The findings are consistent with other research which indicates a role for working with dreams in the context of therapy. --Leaf ii.
Culture, distress, and oxytocin receptor polymorphism (OXTR) interact to influence emotional support seeking

Research has demonstrated that certain genotypes are expressed in different forms, depending on input from the social environment. To examine sensitivity to cultural norms regarding emotional support seeking as a type of social environment, we explored the behavioral expression of oxytocin receptor polymorphism (OXTR) rs53576, a gene previously related to socio-emotional sensitivity. Seeking emotional support in times of distress is normative in American culture but not in Korean culture. Consequently, we predicted a three-way interaction of culture, distress, and OXTR genotype on emotional support seeking. Korean and American participants (n = 274) completed assessments of psychological distress and emotional support seeking and were genotyped for OXTR. We found the predicted three-way interaction: among distressed American participants, those with the GG/AG genotypes reported seeking more emotional social support, compared with those with the AA genotype, whereas Korean participants did not differ significantly by genotype; under conditions of low distress, OXTR groups did not differ significantly in either cultural group. These findings suggest that OXTR rs53576 is sensitive to input from the social environment, specifically cultural norms regarding emotional social support seeking. These findings also indicate that psychological distress and culture are important moderators that shape behavioral outcomes associated with OXTR genotypes.
Spatial, polarization, and pattern diversity for wireless handheld terminals

This paper examines the antenna diversity configurations that improve the performance in handheld radios. Experiments using spatial, polarization, and pattern diversity were conducted for both line-of-sight (LOS) and obstructed outdoor and indoor multipath channels that experienced Ricean fading. Antenna separation, polarization, and pattern were varied independently to the extent possible. Envelope correlation, power imbalance, and diversity gain were calculated from the measurements. Diversity performance is measured by diversity gain, which is the difference in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) between the output of a diversity combiner and the signal on a single branch, measured at a given probability level. Diversity gain increases with decreasing envelope correlation between the antenna diversity branches. However, diversity gain decreases as the power imbalance between diversity branches increases because a branch that has a weak signal has only a small contribution to the combined signal. Diversity gain values of 7-9 dB at the 99% reliability level were achieved in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) channels for all diversity configurations even with very small antenna spacings. The use of polarization diversity reduced polarization mismatches, improving SNR by up to 12 dB even in LOS channels.
A Novel Functionally Distinct Subtype of Striatal Neuropeptide Y Interneuron

We investigated the properties of neostriatal neuropeptide Y (NPY)-expressing interneurons in transgenic GFP (green fluorescent protein)-NPY reporter mice. In vitro whole-cell recordings and biocytin staining demonstrated the existence of a novel class of neostriatal NPY-expressing GABAergic interneurons that exhibit electrophysiological, neurochemical, and morphological properties strikingly different from those of previously described NPY-containing, plateau-depolarization low-threshold spike (NPY–PLTS) interneurons. The novel NPY interneuron type (NPY–neurogliaform) differed from previously described NPY–PLTS interneurons by exhibiting a significantly lower input resistance and hyperpolarized membrane potential, regular, nonaccommodating spiking in response to depolarizing current injections, and an absence of plateau depolarizations or low-threshold spikes. NPY–neurogliaform interneurons were also easily distinguished morphologically by their dense, compact, and highly branched dendritic and local axonal arborizations that contrasted sharply with the sparse and extended axonal and dendritic arborizations of NPY–PLTS interneurons. Furthermore, NPY–neurogliaform interneurons did not express immunofluorescence for somatostatin or nitric oxide synthase that was ubiquitous in NPY–PLTS interneurons. IPSP/Cs could only rarely be elicited in spiny projection neurons (SPNs) in paired recordings with NPY–PLTS interneurons. In contrast, the probability of SPN innervation by NPY–neurogliaform interneurons was extremely high, the synapse very reliable (no failures were observed), and the resulting postsynaptic response was a slow, GABAA receptor-mediated IPSC that has not been previously described in striatum but that has been elicited from NPY–GABAergic neurogliaform interneurons in cortex and hippocampus. These properties suggest unique and distinctive roles for NPY–PLTS and NPY–neurogliaform interneurons in the integrative properties of the neostriatum.
Effects of high grade bentonite on performance, organ weights and serum biochemistry during aflatoxicosis in broilers

Aim: To evaluate the effect of different levels of High Bentonite on growth performance, organ weight and serum biochemistry in broiler fed on diets containing aflatoxin. Materials and Methods: A total of 360 day-old commercial broiler chicks were divided at random into 8 dietary treatment groups of 42 chicks each having 3 replicates. Dietary levels of aflatoxin (0.5 ppm) and High-grade bentonite (0.5, 0.75 and 1.00%) were tested in a completely randomized design manner, forming a total of 8 dietary treatments each with three replicates. Body weight and feed intake were recorded weekly. At 5 wk, six birds from each treatment were sacrificed and liver, kidney, gizzard, pancreas, spleen, bursa of Fabricius and thymus were extracted and weighed. The serum samples were analyzed for total proteins, uric acid, serum albumin, serum globulin and the activities of gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT), alanine amino transferase (ALT) and for antibody titers against Newcastle disease (ND) and infectious bursal disease (IBD) using ELISA technique. Results: A significant (P<0.05) decrease in body weight, feed consumption, relative weights of bursa, thymus, serum protein, anti body titers against NDV and IBDV, and increase in FCR, mortality, relative weight of liver, kidney, and the activity of Gamma Glutamyl Transferase (GGT) was observed. However, the relative weights of gizzard, pancreas, spleen, serum albumin, uric acid and the activity of Alanine Amino Transferase (ALT) were not influenced by inclusion of AF or HGB. Conclusion: The addition of HGB restored the harmful effects of AF on body weight, feed consumption, FCR, mortality, relative weight of liver, kidney, serum protein, IBDV and NDV. Supplementation of high grade bentonite at 1.0 per cent level was found to be beneficial in ameliorating the adverse effects of aflatoxin (AF) in broiler chickens.
Feature Selection and Model Design through GA Applied to Handwritten Digit Recognition from Historical Document Images

This paper presents a genetic algorithm-based approach that integrates a radial basis function kernel support vector machine applied to pattern recognition. The proposed approach performs feature selection on handwritten digits from historical document images and model design on the adopted support vector machine in order to obtain the best possible recognition performance with the minimum possible feature selection subset. The results generated by this research display that the proposed approach is efficient in finding the parameter set of the support vector machine and the feature selection subset that optimize the pattern distinction into their respective classes. Additionally, this method produces solutions that achieve rate of correct digit classification of 95.10% on average and obtain a pattern representation with approximately 50% reduction in dimensionality regarding the original representation. This paper contributes to the preservation and diffusion of historical documents. Our goal is to recognize handwritten dates in documents for indexing purposes.