Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Simple Yet Effective User Controllable Mesh Simplification

Mesh simplification has become a key ingredient for real-time graphics applications. However, practitioners have found that automatic simplification methods usually fail to produce satisfactory result when models of very low polygon count are desired. This is due to the fact that existing methods take no semantic or functional metric into account, and moreover, each error metric proposed previously has its own strength and weakness. In this paper, we propose a user-controllable mesh simplification framework that allows users to achieve a predictable resolution improvement in selected regions of a simplified mesh derived by using any error metric. The framework consists of two stages. The first stage employs weighting schemes that allow users to refine unsatisfactory regions to a user-expected resolution. The second stage is a local refinement aiming to provide a user-guided fine-tune to recover local sharp features. Two weighting schemes, namely uniform weighting and nonuniform weighting, are proposed. In uniform weighting scheme, a weight value is applied to all original mesh vertices in a selected region, resulting in a uniform improvement on vertex resolution in the region, while in the nonuniform weighting scheme varying weights are applied to vertices in a selected region and obtain a nonuniform resolution improvement in the region. Different from the previous user-assisted simplification methods that reorder the collapsing sequence indirectly by weighting the collapsing cost of edges, the two proposed weighting schemes directly reorder the edge collapsing sequence, ensuring a predictable resolution improvement in the selected regions. Moreover, the proposed weighting schemes are independent on error metric used for simplification and ensure the same resolution improvement when a weighting value is applied to simplified meshes with different resolutions.
Attentional Modulation of the Inner Ear: A Combined Otoacoustic Emission and EEG Study

Attending to a single stimulus in a complex multisensory environment requires the ability to select relevant information while ignoring distracting input. The underlying mechanism and involved neuronal levels of this attentional gain control are still a matter of debate. Here, we investigated the influence of intermodal attention on different levels of auditory processing in humans. It is known that the activity of the cochlear amplifier can be modulated by efferent neurons of the medial olivocochlear complex. We used distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) measurements to monitor cochlear activity during an intermodal cueing paradigm. Simultaneously, central auditory processing was assessed by electroencephalography (EEG) with a steady-state paradigm targeting early cortical responses and analysis of alpha oscillations reflecting higher cognitive control of attentional modulation. We found effects of selective attention at all measured levels of the auditory processing: DPOAE levels differed significantly between periods of visual and auditory attention, showing a reduction during visual attention, but no change during auditory attention. Primary auditory cortex activity, as measured by the auditory steady-state response (ASSR), differed between conditions, with higher ASSRs during auditory than visual attention. Furthermore, the analysis of cortical oscillatory activity revealed increased alpha power over occipitoparietal and frontal regions during auditory compared with visual attention, putatively reflecting suppression of visual processing. In conclusion, this study showed both enhanced processing of attended acoustic stimuli in early sensory cortex and reduced processing of distracting input, both at higher cortical levels and at the most peripheral level of the hearing system, the cochlea.
Dropouts: In High School and After School

In 1960 Project TALENT tested approximately 440,000 students attending over 1,300 public and private high schools in all parts of the country. The second phase of this large-scale longitudinal study of American youth was the collection of follow-up data from the same young people tested in 1960. Using data collected from one of the grades participating in the original testing, the ninth grade, Project TALENT has identified students who did not complete high school. These boys and girls who dropped out of school after grade nine are the topic of this study. Although numerous studies of dropouts have already been reported in the education literature, the particular combination of characteristics of this study make it somewhat unique in comparison with other efforts. First of all, it is longitudinal in nature; the initial measurements were made when the subjects were in ninth grade in 1960, with a follow-up in 1964. Secondly, the sample of subjects is a probability sample of the entire national ninthgrade population. Therefore, it is possible to estimate parameters of the dropout population which could not be estimated previously. Also, the TALENT test battery covers a broad spectrum of attributes. Thus, not only "IQ," but differential aptitudes and abilities, interests, self-perceptions, socioeconomic environment, school
Performance of dual-microphone in-the-ear hearing aids.

Fifty subjects with mild to moderate-severe sensorineural hearing loss and prior experience with binaural amplification were evaluated at two sites (25 subjects at each site). Signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) were measured using the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) after each subject wore binaural in-the-ear hearing aids programmed for omnidirectional and dual-microphone performance, for 4 weeks. Both microphone conditions were evaluated under "ideal" (signal at 0 degrees; noise at 180 degrees) and "diffuse" (signal at 0 degrees; correlated noise at 45 , 135 degrees, 225 degrees, and 315 degrees) listening conditions. Results revealed statistically significant mean improvements in SNRs between 3.7 and 3.5 dB at Site I and 3.2 and 2.7 dB at Site II for the ideal and diffuse listening conditions, respectively, for the dual-microphones in comparison to the performance provided by the omnidirectional microphone.
STABLE ISOTOPE ANALYSES OF TOOTH ANNULI REVEAL TEMPORAL DIETARY RECORDS: AN EXAMPLE USING STELLER SEA LIONS

Stable isotope analysis of teeth of marine mammals can provide valuable information on trophic level and source of feeding. However, the isotopic analysis of whole teeth presents only an average dietary estimate for individuals across the period of growth of that tooth. While such analyses can be valuable, particularly in the case of fossil material, in contrast, isotopic analysis of individual annuli of teeth can provide dietary information for each year of tooth growth, in some cases representing the whole of the animal's life. We measured stable-carbon isotope ratios (13C/12C) in the inorganic (hydroxyapatite) and stable-nitrogen isotope ratios (15N/14N) in the organic (primarily collagenous) components of individual tooth annuli of 18 male Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) obtained from archived collections from the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska and from single northern fur seals (Callorbinus ursinus) and northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) from the central Aleutian Islands and eastern Gulf of Alaska, respectively. In several individuals, we detected considerable variation in stable isotope values among annuli, up to 6.1%O for δ15N and 5.1%O for δ13C values. Enrichment in δ15N and depletion of δ13C values in the first annulus may correspond to dietary inputs from mother's milk during the period of suckling. Other variations among years may be caused by dietary changes or movements of individuals between regions differing in isotopic signatures of foodweb primary production. Our study indicates that the isotopic signatures of foodweb primary production. Our study indicates that the isotopic analysis of individual tooth annuli represents a fine-seale tool for dietary reconstructions involving marine mammals, and cautions against the use of whole-tooth material averaged over several annuli.
Spatial integration in perception and cognition: An empirical approach to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia

Abstract Evidence for a dysfunction in cognitive coordination in schizophrenia is emerging, but it is not specific enough to prove (or disprove) this long-standing hypothesis. Many aspects of the external world are spatially mapped in the brain. A comprehensive internal representation relies on integration of information across space. Focus on spatial integration in the perceptual and cognitive processes will generate empirical data that shed light on the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
Workplace influences on Chinese TEFL academics’ development as researchers: a study of two Chinese higher education institutions

Workplace influences on Chinese Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) academics’ development as researchers were examined in two Chinese higher education institutions in this qualitative collective case study. Data sources included research documentation and interviews with 12 Chinese TEFL academics. Both institutions were keen on research capacity building, but they accorded different attention to TEFL academics’ research.
Development and validation of Children’s Responsible Environmental Behavior Scale

Though environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) has been a focus of many studies in the field of environmental education, very few scales have been developed to assess children’s ERB. In this regard, this article focuses on the development and validation of Children’s Responsible Environmental Behavior Scale (CREBS) and also reports the psychometric properties of this scale. The items in the CREBS were developed initially from the responses to four open-ended items by 229 fourth and fifth grade students. This initial form was pilot tested with 673 fourth and fifth graders and then subjected to exploratory factor analysis. Later, the revised version of the scale was administrated to 2412 fifth graders, and those results were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis. CREBS consists of 23 items measured using a seven-point Likert-type scale, which have been organized into four sub-scales: political action (six items, α = .92); eco-management (six items, α = .70); consumer and economic action (five items, α = .70); and Individual and Public Persuasion (six items, α = .80). Study results indicate that CREBS can be used for exploring the extent to which elementary school students in Turkey demonstrate four types of behavior to help prevent and resolve environmental problems and issues.
A green new deal: why green, how new, and what is the deal?

For nearly two decades, a few thinkers and movements, which are regarded as being ‘progressive’, or even on the traditional ‘left-wing’, in the US, have gravitated toward visions of an ‘eco-socialism’ and/or ‘green statism’ in their policy thinking. In fact, some groups accept these ideological formulae as action programs for answering the serious policy challenges of many contemporary environmental crises first identified during the 1950s and 1960s. Since the neoliberal 1990s, many more voices also have been touting the merits of a ‘green’ or ‘natural’ capitalism. The 2000s have seen quite a few politicians and environmentalists casting it as a one size-fits-all panacea for ‘breaking through’ an older dead environmentalism to develop workable policy solutions for today's environmental crisis. These voices frequently ask policy-makers to revisit the New Deal years in the US for the inspiration to launch a Green New Deal during the twenty-first century. How can we explain this ‘green’ turn, and what are the limits and possibilities for the policy responses implied by working towards a Green New Deal in the current political context?
A Method for Proving Observational Equivalence

Formal methods have proved their usefulness for analyzing the security of protocols. Most existing results focus on trace properties like secrecy (expressed as a reachability property) or authentication. There are however several security properties, which cannot be defined (or cannot be naturally defined) as trace properties and require the notion of observational equivalence. Typical examples are anonymity, privacy related properties or statements closer to security properties used in cryptography.In this paper, we consider the applied pi calculus and we show that for determinate processes, observational equivalence actually coincides with trace equivalence, a notion simpler to reason with.We exhibit a large class of determinate processes, called simple processes, that capture most existing protocols and cryptographic primitives. Then, for simple processes without replication nor else branch,we reduce the decidability of trace equivalence to deciding an equivalence relation introduced by M. Baudet. Altogether, this yields the first decidability result of observational equivalence for a general class of equational theories.
Photon-counting chip for avalanche detectors

We present a microelectronic chip that can replace bulky and expensive single-photon-counting boards in many applications. The chip can be assembled with the detector into a microscopic detection head and communicates straight to a host computer. The chip includes an active quenching and active reset circuit for driving a single-photon avalanche diode, acquisition electronics for collecting the photon counts, control logic for timing the measurement windows, and serial communication for remote control and data uploading. The circuit is designed to operate avalanche photodiodes from 6 up to 50 V above breakdown, in order to detect single photons. After each ignition, the chip quenches and resets the detector with fast well-defined transitions of few nanoseconds and holds it off for an adjustable duration up to 1 /spl mu/s. Measurement time slots are internally generated and are adjustable from 1 to 20 ms, with steps of 70 /spl mu/s. Free-running and gated-detector operation are provided, with a saturated photon-counting rate of 20 Mcounts/s.
Coaching as a means for enhancing English‐language teachers’ professional development: a case study

This paper describes the use of coaching as a means to enhance professional development of English‐language teachers in a school involved in a partnership project in Hong Kong, which is characterised in terms of three phases. While the rationale for bringing in coaches into the school is on creating effective professional development environments for teachers—that is, providing ongoing supports and forming a community of practice focused on instructional methods, curriculum innovation, and new formats for instructional delivery—after 18 months of the partnership project it was found that the teacher/coach relationship is more complicated than expected. The paper will end with suggestions on how the three key stakeholders, namely the teachers, principal and teacher educators, can co‐construct effective professional development environments.
The dominance of mechanistic behaviour : A critical study of emergency exercises

In this paper, the focus is on emergency exercises between the police, rescue services and ambulance. By practising, it is assumed that the conditions improve for a quick normalisation after an incident. The purpose of this paper is to identify whether the exercises are designed after organic action logic and therefore can be assumed to strengthen the ability to handle emergencies. Data have been collected at two large, regional, full-scale exercises (2008 and 2012). Data collection has been done through observations and document studies. The study shows that mechanistic behaviour is quite prevalent in the two studied exercises. They are time consuming and put little emphasis on practising organic behaviour. Too complex exercise scenarios contribute to a low tempo, long waiting periods and slow implementation. To succeed, the exercises need to have a non-linear time sequence and limited scenarios that invite participants to focus on organisational interfaces.
Task complexity as a moderator of goal effects: A meta-analysis.

Much evidence exists that supports the use of goal setting as a motivational technique for enhancing task performance; howevei; little attention has been given to the role of task characteristics as potential moderating conditions of goal effects. Meta-analysis procedures were used to assess the moderator effects of task complexity for goal-setting studies conducted from 1966 to 1985 (n = 125). The reliability ofthe task complexity ratings was . 92. Three sets of analyses were conducted: for goaldifficulty results (hard vs. easy), for goal specificity-difficulty (specific difficult goals vs. do-best or no goal), and for all studies collapsed across goal difficulty and goal specificity-difficulty. It was generally found that goal-setting effects were strongest for easy tasks (reaction time, brainstorming), d = . 76, and weakest for more complex tasks (business game simulations, scientific and engineering work, faculty research productivity), d = . 42. Implications for future research on goal setting and the validity of generalizing results are discussed.
Suicide risk among Thai illicit drug users with and without mental/alcohol use disorders

Background It is not yet known if the increased risk of suicide in substance abusers is caused by the causal and/or coexisting relationship between substance use and psychiatric disorders. This study was designed to estimate the suicide risk among individuals with illicit drug use alone, illicit drug users with mental disorders, and illicit drug users with alcohol use disorders. Methods Subjects were participants of the 2008 Thai National Mental Health Survey. They were asked for their illicit drug use in the past year. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), current suicidality (1 month prior to assessment), mood episodes, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, and alcohol use disorders were used for assessing mental/alcohol use disorders. A score of 1 or more for the MINI–Suicidality module was defined as the presence of suicide risk. Results Of the total 17,140 respondents, 537 currently used illicit drugs, while 1,194 respondents had a suicide risk. Common illicit drugs were kratom (59%) and (meth)amphetamine (24%). Compared with 16,603 Thais without illicit drug use, the illicit drug users with or without mental/alcohol use disorders (n=537) had an increased risk of suicide (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 95% confidence interval [CI] =2.09, 1.55–2.81). While those who used illicit drugs alone (no mental/alcohol use disorder) (n=348) had no increased risk of suicide (adjusted OR, 95% CI =1.04, 0.66–1.65), the illicit drug users with mental or alcohol use disorders (n=27 and n=162, respectively) had significantly increased risk of suicide (adjusted ORs, 95% CIs =14.06, 6.50–30.3 and 3.14, 1.98–4.99, respectively). Conclusion A key limitation of this study was the combined suicidal behaviors as a suicidality risk. Mental or alcohol use disorders found in this population actually increased the suicide risk. These findings support the coexisting relationship that mental and alcohol use disorders play a vital role in increasing the suicide risk in illicit drug users.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae Histone H2A Ser122 Facilitates DNA Repair

DNA repair takes place in the context of chromatin. Recently, it has become apparent that proteins that make up and modulate chromatin structure are involved in the detection and repair of DNA lesions. We previously demonstrated that Ser129 in the carboxyl-terminal tail of yeast histone H2A is important for double-strand-break responses. By undertaking a systematic site-directed mutagenesis approach, we identified another histone H2A serine residue (Ser122) that is important for survival in the presence of DNA-damaging agents. We show that mutation of this residue does not affect DNA damage-dependent Rad53 phosphorylation or G2/M checkpoint responses. Interestingly, we find that yeast lacking H2A S122 are defective in their ability to sporulate. Finally, we demonstrate that H2A S122 provides a function distinct from that of H2A S129. These data demonstrate a role for H2A S122 in facilitating survival in the presence of DNA damage and suggest a potential role in mediating homologous recombination. The distinct roles of H2A S122 and S129 in mediating these responses suggest that chromatin components can provide specialized functions for distinct DNA repair and survival mechanisms and point toward the possibility of a complex DNA damage responsive histone code.
HiCoDG: A Hierarchical Data-Gathering Scheme Using Cooperative Multiple Mobile Elements †

In this paper, we study mobile element (ME)-based data-gathering schemes in wireless sensor networks. Due to the physical speed limits of mobile elements, the existing data-gathering schemes that use mobile elements can suffer from high data-gathering latency. In order to address this problem, this paper proposes a new hierarchical and cooperative data-gathering (HiCoDG) scheme that enables multiple mobile elements to cooperate with each other to collect and relay data. In HiCoDG, two types of mobile elements are used: the mobile collector (MC) and the mobile relay (MR). MCs collect data from sensors and forward them to the MR, which will deliver them to the sink. In this work, we also formulated an integer linear programming (ILP) optimization problem to find the optimal trajectories for MCs and the MR, such that the traveling distance of MEs is minimized. Two variants of HiCoDG, intermediate station (IS)-based and cooperative movement scheduling (CMS)-based, are proposed to facilitate cooperative data forwarding from MCs to the MR. An analytical model for estimating the average data-gathering latency in HiCoDG was also designed. Simulations were performed to compare the performance of the IS and CMS variants, as well as a multiple traveling salesman problem (mTSP)-based approach. The simulation results show that HiCoDG outperforms mTSP in terms of latency. The results also show that CMS can achieve the lowest latency with low energy consumption.
Computationally Efficient Energy Optimization for Cloud Radio Access Networks With CSI Uncertainty

This paper studies robust energy optimization for the cloud radio access network (C-RAN). The objective of this paper is to jointly minimize network power consumption through optimizing the base station (BS) mode, multi-user (MU)-BS association, and beamforming vectors given imperfect channel state information (CSI). To solve this non-trivial problem, we first transform the problem to a semi-definite programming (SDP) one using the S-lemma with the aid of the semi-definite relaxation technique, and then propose a SDP-based group sparse beamforming approach to solve it iteratively. Since the computational complexity of solving SDP problems is intractable, we propose to translate the uncertainty in the CSI to the uncertainty in its covariance matrix, and then recast the original problem as a mixed-integer second-order cone programming problem. We further propose a two-stage rank selection framework to determine the BS mode and MU-BS association separately and successively. Simulation results demonstrate the convergence of our proposed algorithms, and validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms in minimizing the network power consumption of the C-RAN.