Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Negative Blood Oxygen Level Dependence in the Rat:A Model for Investigating the Role of Suppression in Neurovascular Coupling

Modern neuroimaging techniques rely on neurovascular coupling to show regions of increased brain activation. However, little is known of the neurovascular coupling relationships that exist for inhibitory signals. To address this issue directly we developed a preparation to investigate the signal sources of one of these proposed inhibitory neurovascular signals, the negative blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response (NBR), in rat somatosensory cortex. We found a reliable NBR measured in rat somatosensory cortex in response to unilateral electrical whisker stimulation, which was located in deeper cortical layers relative to the positive BOLD response. Separate optical measurements (two-dimensional optical imaging spectroscopy and laser Doppler flowmetry) revealed that the NBR was a result of decreased blood volume and flow and increased levels of deoxyhemoglobin. Neural activity in the NBR region, measured by multichannel electrodes, varied considerably as a function of cortical depth. There was a decrease in neuronal activity in deep cortical laminae. After cessation of whisker stimulation there was a large increase in neural activity above baseline. Both the decrease in neuronal activity and increase above baseline after stimulation cessation correlated well with the simultaneous measurement of blood flow suggesting that the NBR is related to decreases in neural activity in deep cortical layers. Interestingly, the magnitude of the neural decrease was largest in regions showing stimulus-evoked positive BOLD responses. Since a similar type of neural suppression in surround regions was associated with a negative BOLD signal, the increased levels of suppression in positive BOLD regions could importantly moderate the size of the observed BOLD response.
Analysis of O3 formation during a stagnation episode in central Tennessee in summer 1995

O3 production in the Nashville urban plume during the O3 episode that occurred on July 11–July 13 1995, is examined to characterize the factors that control the ozone production rate and efficiency, and to examine the relative importance of natural and anthropogenic sources of hydrocarbons to ozone production in the urban center and outlying areas. The analysis focuses on data collected during aircraft flights on July 11 when the Nashville area was sampled more or less continuously from about 1000 to 1800 LT. The instantaneous ozone production rate P(O3) in the downtown area from late morning through midafternoon on July 11 ranged between 10 and greater than 30 ppbv/h depending on location. After 1700 local time, production rates dropped to a few ppbv/h owing to the diminished solar intensity. Instantaneous production efficiencies with respect to NOx in the downtown area ranged between 2.5 and 8, linearly depending on the ratio of the hydrocarbon to NOx, OH reactivity. Integral O3 production efficiencies corrected for NOz losses ranged between 1.5 and 4. The lowest efficiency was observed in the downtown area in the morning where NOx concentrations were high and hydrocarbon to NOx reactivity ratios were the lowest. Throughout the day, P(O3) in the downtown area was limited by the availability of hydrocarbons. Anthropogenic hydrocarbons and CO contributed about 66% of the total hydrocarbon OH reactivity in the downtown area. In the mature urban plume downwind of Nashville, P(O3) dropped to 6–9 ppbv/h at midafternoon and was controlled by the availability of NOx. Integral O3 production efficiencies in the mature urban plume ranged between 3.5 and 4. When present in large quantities (1–3 ppbv), isoprene significantly increased both the rate and efficiency of ozone production as long as the photochemical system was not strongly NOx-limited.
Title IX and the Evolution of High School Sports

The passage of Title IX, the 1972 Education Amendments to the Civil Rights Act, expanded high school athletic opportunities to include girls, revolutionizing mass sports participation in the United States. This paper analyzes high school athletic participation in the United States and how sports offerings for boys and girls changed subsequent to the passage of this legislation. Girls’ sports participation rose dramatically both following the enactment of Title IX and subsequent to enhancements to its enforcement. Approximately half of all girls currently participate in sports during high school; however, there remains a substantial gap between girls and boys participation in many states. States’ average education level and social attitudes regarding Title IX and women’s rights are correlated with this remaining gender gap. Examining individual high school students, sports participation is seen more frequently among those with a privileged background: white students with married, wealthy, educated parents are more likely to play sports. This finding points to an overlooked fact—while Title IX benefited girls by increasing the opportunity to play sports, these benefits were disproportionately reaped by those at the top of the income distribution. (JEL J16, J18, J24, I2)
The 3D marching lines algorithm and its application to crest lines extraction

This paper presents a powerful and general purpose tool designed to extract characteristic lines from 3D images. The algorithm, called Marching Lines, is inspired from the Marching Cubes algorithm which is used to extract iso-value surfaces out of 3D images. The Marching Lines extracts with sub-pixel accuracy the 3D lines corresponding to the intersection of two iso-surfaces coming from two different 3D images. We show how to implement this algorithm to ensure that the reconstructed 3D lines have good topological properties mainly that they are continuous and closed. We present also a new method to compute the differential characteristics of iso-surfaces and show an application to the extraction of crest lines in 3D images. We explain that a crest line can be locally defined as the intersection of two surfaces one corresponding to an iso-value in the image and the other one to a crest surface which we define in this paper and whose implicit equation can be directly computed from the voxel values of the 3D image. At last, some experimental results for the 3D image of the skull are presented where crest lines are extracted and used to compute automatically the geometric transform between two 3D scanner images of the same subject taken in two different positions.
Male students' perceptions about gender imbalances in a speech-language pathology and audiology training programme of a South African institution of higher education.

Background: The professions of speech-language pathology and audiology (SLPA) are characterised by occupational gender segregation. Reasons given by men are a lack of awareness of SLPA; a perception of poor salaries; a perception of poor working conditions; a stereotype that the profession is a female occupation; and a perception that working with children is feminine. Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the perceptions of male students in a specific SLPA training programme regarding gender imbalances. The objectives were to describe the influences of gender on the career orientation of students, the factors shaping students’ career choices and the experiences of students during their undergraduate training. Method: This study followed a quantitative descriptive survey design. Thirty-one conveniently sampled male SLPA students, across different years of study, completed a self-administered questionnaire. Results: Participants indicated that they did not believe in the gendered nature of occupations and that SLPA are not ‘female only’ professions. They (65%) recorded that they considered salary and career prospects for choosing a career, and 74% specified that they chose SLPA because of a desire to help people. The perception of male students regarding their training appears to be positive as participants are comfortable with the clinical (71%) and learning (77%) activities. However, barriers were reported and some lecture information may be more obvious or applicable to female students. A need was identified to address the issue of working alone with paediatric clients and pertains to the societal awareness regarding sexual harassment of children, which may impact spontaneity in engagements. Conclusion: The recruitment of male students should be prioritised to better reflect the client population served by the professions. Recommendations include career counselling in rural schools, recruitment campaigns to identify interested students, public awareness regarding the professions and guidance regarding working with paediatric clients.
The Limit in the Mean Field Bipartite Travelling Salesman Problem

The edges of the complete bipartite graph Kn,n are assigned independent lengths from uniform distribution on the interval [0,1]. Let Ln be the length of the minimum travelling salesman tour. We prove that as n tends to infinity, Ln converges in probability to a certain number, approximately 4.0831. This number is characterized as the area of the region
Rethinking Lurking: Invisible Leading and Following in a Knowledge Transfer Ecosystem

© 2015, Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved. The term lurker connotes a low-value role in online communities. Despite making up the majority of members, these invisible individuals are often cast as peripheral players who should be encouraged to participate more fully. We argue that the lurker concept is problematic and that online communities, and the roles associated with them, need to be reconceptualized. We report on a study of online communities in a New Zealand professional development program. We found that two knowledge broker types played key roles in transferring knowledge: connector-leaders, who had a strong online presence, and follower-feeders, who communicated largely invisibly, via side-channels. Despite their different online profiles, both brokers used “lurking” purposively to perform two sets of invisible online activities: managing the knowledge agenda, and mentoring/being mentored. These activities supported their roles as leaders and followers, and sustained a symbiotic relationship. Decisions to “lurk” arose from the need for these brokers to negotiate diverse boundaries: the boundaries of micro-culture associated with communication contexts, the theory-practice boundary, role boundaries, and the online-offline boundary. Combining the concept of polycontextuality with boundary spanning theory, we propose an alternative way of understanding both lurking and online communities: the three-tier knowledge transfer ecosystem (KTE), a system of engagement spaces comprising diverse online and offline contexts in which individuals make continual decisions to cross between less- or more-visible settings. The study illustrates how key phenomena may remain invisible without a shift in level of analysis, and how using an anachronistic concept to frame a study can unintentionally constrain its value.
Multi label classification based on logistic regression (MLC-LR)

Numerous class labels associated with each data instance is the main feature of any multi-label classification (MLC) problem. Correct prediction of class labels related to any test data is a big challenge in this domain. MLC can be applied in many fields such as personality prediction, cancer prognosis prediction, image annotation etc. In this paper(MLC-LR), we have employed problem transformation method for solving MLC. The proposed method uses initially clustering in the feature space. It is then followed by FP-growth algorithm for finding the relationship between labels. Once the desired clusters are obtained, then normalization of data associated with each cluster is performed. Also logistic regression is then applied over the normalized data for each particular cluster pertaining to all labels. When a new instance arrives in the testing phase, immediately the nearby cluster is identified by means of Euclidean distance metric as the measure. Rules related to label space for the nearby cluster is extracted to check for hypothesis of each antecedent label. If the calculated value is higher than a predefined threshold, it is assumed that both antecedent and consequent labels as the estimated labels for that test instance.
Biological Heart Rate Reduction Through Genetic Suppression of Gαs Protein in the Sinoatrial Node

Background Elevated heart rate represents an independent risk factor for cardiovascular outcome in patients with heart disease. In the sinoatrial node, rate increase is mediated by β1 adrenoceptor mediated activation of the Gαs pathway. We hypothesized that genetic inactivation of the stimulatory Gαs protein in the sinoatrial node would provide sinus rate control and would prevent inappropriate heart rate acceleration during β-adrenergic activation. Methods and Results Domestic pigs (n=10) were evenly assigned to receive either Ad-small interfering RNA (siRNA)-Gαs gene therapy to inactivate Gαs or adenovirus encoding for green fluorescent protein (Ad-GFP) as control. Adenoviruses were applied through virus injection into the sinoatrial node followed by epicardial electroporation, and heart rates were evaluated for 7 days. Genetic inhibition of Gαs protein significantly reduced mean heart rates on day 7 by 16.5% compared with control animals (110±8.8 vs 131±9.4 beats per minute; P<0.01). On β-adrenergic stimulation with isoproterenol, we observed a tendency toward diminished rate response in the Ad-siRNA-Gαs group (Ad-siRNA-Gαs, +79.3%; Ad-GFP, +61.7%; n=3 animals per group; P= 0.294). Adverse effects of gene transfer on left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were not detected following treatment (LVEFAd-siRNA-Gαs, 66%; LVEFAd-GFP, 60%). Conclusions In this preclinical proof-of-concept study targeted Ad-siRNA-Gαs gene therapy reduced heart rates during normal sinus rhythm compared with Ad-GFP treatment and prevented inappropriate rate increase after β-adrenergic stimulation. Gene therapy may provide an additional therapeutic option for heart rate reduction in cardiac disease. (J Am Heart Assoc. 2012;1:jah3-e000372 doi: 10.1161/JAHA.111.000372)
A Randomized Controlled Neurophysiological Study of a Chinese Chan-Based Mind-Body Intervention in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

Our previous studies have reported the therapeutic effects of 10-session Chinese Chan-based Dejian mind-body interventions (DMBI) in reducing the intake of antidepressants, improving depressive symptoms, and enhancing the attentional abilities of patients with depression. This study aims to explore the possible neuroelectrophysiological mechanisms underlying the previously reported treatment effects of DMBI in comparison with those of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Seventy-five age-, gender-, and education-matched participants with depression were randomly assigned to receive either CBT or DMBI or placed on a waitlist. Eyes-closed resting EEG data were obtained individually before and after 10 weeks. After intervention, the DMBI group demonstrated significantly enhanced frontal alpha asymmetry (an index of positive mood) and intra- and interhemispheric theta coherence in frontoposterior and posterior brain regions (an index of attention). In contrast, neither the CBT nor the waitlist group showed significant changes in EEG activity patterns. Furthermore, the asymmetry and coherence indices of the DMBI group were correlated with self-reported depression severity levels and performance on an attention test, respectively. The present findings provide support for the effects of a Chinese Chan-based mind-body intervention in fostering human brain states that can facilitate positive mood and an attentive mind.
Viral Factors Associated With the High Mortality Related to Human Infections With Clade 2.1 Influenza A/H5N1 Virus in Indonesia

Abstract Background Since their emergence in Indonesia in 2005, 200 human infections with clade 2.1 highly pathogenic avian influenza A/H5N1 virus have been reported, associated with exceptionally high mortality (84%) compared to regions affected by other genetic clades of this virus. To provide potential clues towards understanding this high mortality, detailed clinical virological analyses were performed in specimens from 180 H5N1 patients, representing 90% of all Indonesian patients and 20% of reported H5N1-infected patients globally. Methods H5N1 RNA was quantified in available upper- and lower-respiratory tract specimens as well as fecal and blood samples from 180 patients with confirmed infection between 2005 and 2017. Mutations in the neuraminidase and M2 genes that confer resistance to oseltamivir and adamantanes were assessed. Fatal and nonfatal cases were compared. Results High viral RNA loads in nasal and pharyngeal specimens were associated with fatal outcome. Mortality increased over time during the study period, which correlated with increasing viral RNA loads on admission. Furthermore, the prevalence of amantadine resistance–conferring M2 mutations increased over time, and viral loads were higher in patients infected with viruses that harbored these mutations. Compared to observations from other regions, viral RNA was detected more frequently in feces (80%) and particularly in blood (85%), and antiviral responses to oseltamivir appeared less pronounced. Conclusions These observations confirm the association of viral load with outcome of human H5N1 infections and suggest potential differences in virulence and antiviral responses to oseltamivir that may explain the exceptionally high mortality related to clade 2.1 H5N1 infections in Indonesia.
Longshore Transport Variability of Beach Face Grain Size: Implications for Dune Evolution

This study investigates grain-size sorting through longshore transport processes and how it influences dune evolution.The analysis is based on a data set of 58 sediment samples distributed alongshore over a 6.5-km-long sandy beach in Angelholm, Sweden. Grain size differs significantly from north to south, where median grain size varies from about 0.4–0.15 mm. The long-term coastal evolution is derived from shoreline change analysis of a series of aerial photos from the1940s until today and from longshore sediment transport rates calculated on the basis of wave data simulated by the SWAN wave model employed in the Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC) formula. The results show an almost unidirectional longshore transport from north to south; the beach is eroding in the northern part and accreting in thesouthern part. The McLaren model, a grain size–based model to predict transport direction, was tested against the grainsize data. The test indicated transport in the opposite direction. This result supports previous studies suggesting that the McLaren model has limited applicability for sandy beaches with a dominant longshore transport. The sediment sampleswere collected at the mid–beach face position in an area where sediment is supplied to the beach during accreting conditions. Sediment in the appropriate grain size to build dunes—at this beach, 0.2–0.3 mm—was found in the parts ofthe beach where the dunes are growing. In the eroding parts, the sediment was coarser, suggesting that the longshore transport influences the supply of sediment for aeolian transport. The gradients in longshore transport rate were also found to affect dune morphology; the dunes were higher in the eroding and stable parts of the beach and lower in the accreting parts.
Opposite evolution in incidence of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in Northern France (1988–1999)

Background: Northern France was characterised by a high incidence of Crohn’s disease (CD) and a low incidence of ulcerative colitis (UC) according to the first inquiry undertaken in the late 1980s. Aims: To assess the trends in the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) over a 12 year period (1988–1999) in the same area of Northern France. Patients: Patients living in Northern France (Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, and Seine Maritime—total of 5 790 526 inhabitants) between 1988 and 1999 were included in the study. Case ascertainment was established according to methodology previously described. Methods: Trends in incidence were studied using a Poisson regression model in four three year periods (1988–90, 1991–93, 1994–96, and 1997–99) adjusted for age at diagnosis and sex. Incidence rates were standardised for age with the European standard population. Results: During 1988–99, 7066 cases of IBD were recorded (56.8% CD, 37.7% UC, and 5.5% indeterminate colitis). Mean annual incidence rate of CD increased from 5.2/100 000 inhabitants in 1988–90 to 6.4 in 1997–99 (adjusted p for trend <0.001). In contrast, the incidence of UC decreased from 4.2 to 3.5 (adjusted p for trend <0.001). The ileocolonic subtype of CD increased by 25% even though median age at diagnosis and frequency of digestive investigations were not different. Conclusions: Contrary to what has been reported in other countries in Northern Europe, the incidence of CD increased by 23% in 12 years in Northern France while that of UC decreased by 17% during the same period. This indicates that some factors which influence IBD frequency (in both directions) are still at work in this area of Europe, and that further studies aimed at identifying these should be performed. The rising incidence of CD could enhance the burden of this disease on the public health system in France.
Non-Isotopic Symplectic Surfaces in Products of Riemann Surfaces

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract Let Σ g be a closed Riemann surface of genus g. Generalizing Ivan Smith's construction, for each g ≥ 1 and h ≥ 0 we construct an infinite set of infinite families of homotopic but pairwise non-isotopic symplectic surfaces inside the product symplectic manifold Σ g × Σ h. In particular, we achieve all positive gen-era from these families, providing first examples of infinite families of homotopic but pairwise non-isotopic symplectic surfaces of even genera inside Σ g × Σ h. iii Acknowledgements
Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success

This paper reviews the recent literature on measuring and boosting cognitive and noncognitive skills. The literature establishes that achievement tests do not adequately capture character skills|personality traits, goals, motivations, and preferences that are valued in the labor market, in school, and in many other domains. Their predictive power rivals that of cognitive skills. Reliable measures of character have been developed. All measures of character and cognition are measures of performance on some task. In order to reliably estimate skills from tasks, it is necessary to standardize for incentives, effort, and other skills when measuring any particular skill. Character is a skill, not a trait. At any age, character skills are stable across different tasks, but skills can change over the life cycle. Character is shaped by families, schools, and social environments. Skill development is a dynamic process, in which the early years lay the foundation for successful investment in later years. High-quality early childhood and elementary school programs improve character skills in a lasting and cost-effective way. Many of them beneficially affect later-life outcomes without improving cognition. There are fewer long-term evaluations of adolescent interventions, but workplace-based programs that teach character skills are promising. The common feature of successful interventions across all stages of the life cycle through adulthood is that they promote attachment and provide a secure base for exploration and learning for the child. Successful interventions emulate the mentoring environments offered by successful families.