Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of line length feature before and after brain electrical stimulation in epileptic patients

This study aims to determine whether there are any statistically significant effects in the intracranial EEG signal due to brain electrical stimulation that can be quantified by comparing the line length value computed in windows positioned before and after stimulated abnormal events versus windows before and after non-stimulated abnormal events. The line length feature has been previously demonstrated to preserve waveform dimensionality changes as the ones estimated by Katz's fractal dimension and is a measure sensitive to variations in signal amplitude and frequency, equivalent in some ways to Teager's energy. Brief stimulation bursts of 200 Hz were delivered in response to some detections of abnormal electrographic activity. A total of 35 epileptic patients were analyzed including 15,938 electrographic events, of which 4,584 were electrically stimulated events. The ratio and difference of the post-stimulation versus the pre-stimulation line length values were computed as comparison measures. The average line length ratios in stimulated events versus those in non-stimulated events were lower in 23 out of 35 patients, suggesting that stimulation may have had an effect on electrographic activity. Statistical analysis based on a permutation test indicated the probability of finding this difference by random chance was 5.21%, further suggesting that the line length ratio differences are most likely due to the stimulation effects on the brain that manifest in the electrographic activity.
An Examination of Construct Validity for the EARLI Numeracy Skill Measures

ABSTRACT The purpose of the current study was to examine dimensionality and concurrent validity evidence of the EARLI numeracy measures (DiPerna, Morgan, & Lei, 2007), which were developed to assess key skills such as number identification, counting, and basic arithmetic. Two methods (NOHARM with approximate chi-square test and DIMTEST with DETECT classifications) were used to examine the dimensionality of each of the dichotomously scored measures. Both indicated unidimensionality for four of the EARLI measures (Counting Aloud, Counting Object, Measurement, and Pattern Recognition); however, results were discrepant for Numbers and Shapes. For the polytomously scored measure (Grouping), exploratory factor analysis indicated essential unidimensionality. In addition, the majority of the EARLI numeracy items did not appear to function differently by demographic variables, and scores from the EARLI numeracy measures demonstrated adequate concurrent relationships with scores from the WJ-III mathematics subtests.
Losing your Head: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Effects of Body Inversion

The present study aimed to further explore the mechanisms underlying the perception of human body shapes. Behavioral and electrophysiological inversion effects were studied for human bodies with and without heads and for animal bodies (cats, dogs, and birds). Recognition of human bodies (with heads) was adversely affected by stimulus inversion, and the N170 had longer latencies and higher amplitudes for inverted compared to upright human bodies. Human body shapes presented without heads yielded the opposite result pattern. The data for animal bodies did not yield consistent effects. Taken together, the present findings suggest that human bodies might be processed by specialized cortical mechanisms which are at least partly dissociable from mechanisms involved in object or face processing.
The star formation efficiency and its relation to variations in the initial mass function

We investigate how the dynamical state of a turbulently supported, 1000 M⊙, molecular cloud affects the properties of the cluster it forms, focusing our discussion on the star formation efficiency (SFE) and the initial mass function (IMF). A variety of initial energy states are examined in this paper, ranging from clouds with |Egrav| = 0.1 Ekin to clouds with |Egrav| = 10 Ekin, and for both isothermal and piece-wise polytropic equations of state (similar to that suggested by Larson). It is found that arbitrary SFEs are possible, with strongly unbound clouds yielding very low SFEs. We suggest that the low SFE in the Maddelena cloud may be a consequence of the relatively unbound state of its internal structure. It is also found that competitive accretion results in the observed IMF when the clouds have initial energy states of |Egrav| ≥Ekin. We show that under such conditions the shape of the IMF is independent of time in the calculations. This demonstrates that the global accretion process can be terminated at any stage in the cluster's evolution, while still yielding a distribution of stellar masses that is consistent with the observed IMF. As the clouds become progressively more unbound, competitive accretion is less important and the protostellar mass function flattens. These results predict that molecular clouds should be permeated with a distributed population of stars that follow a flatter than Salpeter IMF.
The renal tubular response to amino acid loading.

In previous studies from this laboratory (1) it was shown that renal tubular reabsorption of filtered amino acids was virtually complete in the fasting state. However, when a solution of amino acids was administered intravenously and the load filtered by the kidney thus increased, both the amounts of amino acids reabsorbed and those excreted were increased. In quantitative terms the more noteworthy event was the increase in amount reabsorbed. Considerable selectivity was exhibited in the reabsorption of individual amino acids and evidence was obtained which was interpreted as indicating a "competition" for reabsorption between cystine and one or more other amino acids. In the present studies the solution of amino acids used for loading was administered at a faster rate than in the previously reported experiments and it was supplemented with additional glycine to test the effects of a further increase in the filtered load of amino acids. In separate studies glycine was administered alone and, in terms of amounts reabsorbed and excreted, the results were compared with those obtained when glycine was given as part of the amino acid mixture and comparable filtered loads were achieved.
Subplate Neurons Promote Spindle Bursts and Thalamocortical Patterning in the Neonatal Rat Somatosensory Cortex

Patterned neuronal activity such as spindle bursts in the neonatal cortex is likely to promote the maturation of cortical synapses and neuronal circuits. Previous work on cats has shown that removal of subplate neurons, a transient neuronal population in the immature cortex, prevents the functional maturation of thalamocortical and intracortical connectivity. Here we studied the effect of subplate removal in the neonatal rat primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Using intracortical EEG we show that after selective removal of subplate neurons in the limb region of S1, endogenous and sensory evoked spindle burst activity is largely abolished. Consistent with the reduced in vivo activity in the S1 limb region, we find by in vitro recordings that thalamocortical inputs to layer 4 neurons are weak. In addition, we find that removal of subplate neurons in the S1 barrel region prevents the development of the characteristic histological barrel-like appearance. Thus, subplate neurons are crucially involved in the generation of particular types of early network activity in the neonatal cortex, which are an important feature of cortical development. The altered EEG pattern following subplate damage could be applicable in the neurological assessment of human neonates.
El proceso de Toma de Decisiones en pacientes con Demencia tipo Alzheimer

Making decisions is common in our daily lives and contributes to the adaptation to our environment. That is why is relevant to know the decisions-making processes and the possible dysfunctions due to the deterioration of these processes. The patients with Alzheimer dementia (AD) can have alterations in decisions-making in early stages, particularly in situations of uncertainty. These processes have been analyzed from different theories, although the somatic marker hypothesis, as well as the related IGT, is one of the most used. The aim of this study is to analyze the process of making decisions in AD patients, and evaluate the types of choices made under situations of uncertainty using a modified IGT, as well as check if the AD group’s responses are risk trends or not, and the relation between the performance of this group and the cognitive status in each of the areas evaluated with the cognitive mini-exam, the clock drawing test (TRC-TRO), and the Isaacs' Set Test of Verbal Fluency. Our results show that the performance of the AD group is not optimal, nor in the overall score or in the analysis of each sets of the test, and suggest a random strategy in the process of choose cards, suggest a tendency to risk, although the performances show some ability to learn along the sets.
The role of the right dorsal premotor cortex in visuomotor learning: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study

To study the role of the right dorsal premotor cortex in visuomotor association learning (association of four visual stimuli to four buttons), transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied to this area to interfere with the ongoing learning processes. Two transcranial magnetic stimulation pulses to the right dorsal premotor cortex at 150 and 200 ms after onset of the imperative stimulus resulted in the abolishing of reaction time decreases during learning. Transcranial magnetic stimulation applied to a control region revealed no influence on reaction time decreases. During both conditions, however, there were similar increases of accuracy scores. We conclude that the right dorsal premotor cortex is not directly involved in associating visual with motor cues. We suggest that this area is intimately involved in selection and preparation of forthcoming movements.
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

This writer who has warned us of the “ideological” function of both the oeuvre and the author as unquestioned forms of discursive organization has gone quite far in constituting for both these “fictitious unities” the name (with all the problems of such a designation) Michel Foucault. One text under review, La Volonté de Savoir, is the methodological introduction of a projected five-volume history of sexuality. It will apparently circle back over that material which seems to have a special fascination for Foucault: the gradual emergence of medicine as an institution, the birth of political economy, demography and linguistics as “human sciences,” the invention of incarceration and confinement for the control of the “other” in society (the mad, the libertine, the criminal) and that special violence that lurks beneath the power to control discourse.
Utilisation of distillery effluent in coastal sandy soil to improve soil fertility and yield of sugarcane

Coastal sandy soil is characterised by low fertility and poor physical properties. Distillery effluent, a liquid waste from the distillery industry contains large quantities of soluble organic matter and plant nutrients. It does not contain any toxic elements / compounds. In order to improve the physical properties and fertility of the coastal soil by utilising the distillery effluent, field experiment was conducted at Sugarcane Research Station, Cuddalore using sugarcane as test crop. The distillery effluent was applied at different doses (0, 1.25, 2.5, 3.75, 5.0 and 6.25 lakh litres ha) along with different combinations of NPK fertilizers (no NPK, N alone, NP and NPK). The distillery effluent was applied 40 days before planting and thoroughly mixed with soil. The results of the post harvest soil analysis indicated that application increasing doses of distillery effluent progressively increased the organic carbon, available N, P, K, Ca, Mg and micronutrient content in the soil. Application of distillery effluent improved the physical properties of the soil by reducing the bulk density and increasing the water holding capacity. Application of graded doses of distillery effluent significantly increased the cane yield of sugarcane up to 3.75 lakh litres ha and there after the yield increase was not significant. In distillery effluent applied plots, NP and NPK gave comparable yields which indicated that K fertilizer could be skipped off when distillery effluent is applied. It was interesting to note that application of distillery effluent even upto 6.25 lakh litres per hectare did not produce any deleterious effect on soil as well as crop growth.
From Columbus to ConAgra: The Globalization of Agriculture and Food.

The Chinese gooseberry was a minor fruit until New Zealanders, tagging it with a catchier name, began an aggressive global marketing campaign. Soon, transplanted to Italy, France, Spain, Chile, and California, the fuzzy little fruit with the bright green interior was known the world round and the kiwi production war was on. Globalization of food is not a new phenomenon. Columbus and his contemporaries helped open worldwide trade routes for the distribution of all types of goods. Yet over the last two decades, globalization has completely revolutionized the commercial production and marketing of kiwifruit and countless other consumer goods. Combining current theory on globalization with revealing case studies, the authors of this insightful collection tackle fundamental questions about the changing agricultural and food system in the era of ConAgra and other large transnational corporations. They look at the structure and operations of these new corporate giants, the state's influence in the global system, innovations in scientific research and technology, the roles of producers and consumers, and regional development. In the process, they take a look at why the winners and losers countries, regions and even ethnic groups that ebb and flow within a vacillating global system are constantly changing. Without question, globalization has become a hotly contested topic, as evidenced by the recent NAFTA debates and by a growing body of critical literature produced by economists, sociologists, historians, and geographers. The authors of From Columbus to ConAgra, writing at the cutting edge of these debates, suggest an emerging consensus to guide future research. Globalization, they conclude, will likely continue its expansion within the context of a new multinational division of labor that may drastically alter the main axes of international power. In an increasingly interdependent world, such shifts will affect life in every society and, for that reason, must be better understood. This book offers an important first step toward that goal. "
A Study of Complaint Speech Acts in Turkish Learners of English İngilizce Öğrenen Türklerin Şikâyet Söz Eylemi Üzerine bir Çalişma

The current study investigates whether or how Turkish learners of English (TLEs) transfer pragmatic knowledge from their native language into English when performing the speech act of complaining. A total of 3000 written responses collected from TLEs and native speakers of both English (ENSs) and Turkish (TNSs) via a ten-item discourse completion task were analyzed. The study points to diverse results: it reveals that (1) requests, hints, and annoyance are the most commonly-used strategies by all three groups. (2) TLEs use the strategies hints, ill consequences, direct accusation, and threats/warnings at frequencies that are closer to the ENSs’ frequencies, (3) the TLEs, ENSs and TNSs are statistically indistinguishable in their use of annoyance, blame (behavior), and blame (person), and finally (4) the TLEs use modified blame at an intermediate level with respect to the ENSs and the TNSs, reflecting weak negative pragmatic transfer.
An Information Rationale for the Power of Special Interests

Political decisions are often biased in favor of special interests at the expense of the general public, and they are frequently inefficient in the sense that the losses incurred by the majority exceed the gains enjoyed by the minority. This article explains the bias in terms of information asymmetries and the free-rider problem. First, incumbents increase their reelection prospects by biasing policy toward groups that are better able to monitor their activities. Second, because smaller groups are better able to overcome the free-rider problem of costly monitoring, policy will be biased in their favor. Third, the effect of asymmetric monitoring on voter welfare is ambiguous. The inefficiencies created by the policy bias are offset by a positively valued selection bias: Incumbents of above-average quality are more likely to survive voter scrutiny than are low-quality types.
Full-Contact Practice and Injuries in College Football

Background: Despite recent restrictions being placed on practice in college football, there are little data to correlate such changes with injuries. Hypothesis: Football injuries will correlate with a team’s exposure to full-contact practice, total practice, and total games. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiological study. Methods: All injuries and athlete injury exposures (AE × Min = athletes exposed × activity duration in minutes) were recorded for an intercollegiate football team over 4 consecutive fall seasons. Weekly injuries and injury rates (injuries per athletic injury exposure) were correlated with the weekly exposures to full-contact practices, total practices, formal scrimmages, and games. Results: The preseason practice injury rate was over twice the in-season practice injury rate (P < 0.001). For preseason, injury exposures were higher for full-contact practice (P = 0.0166), total practices (P = 0.015), and scrimmages/games (P = 0.034) compared with in-season. Preseason and in-season practice injuries correlated with exposure to full-contact practice combined with scrimmages for preseason (P < 0.008) and full-contact practice combined with games for in-season (P = 0.0325). The game injury rate was over 6 times greater than the practice injury rate (P < 0.0001). Concussions constituted 14.5% of all injuries, and the incidence of concussions correlated with the incidence of all injuries (P = 0.0001). Strength training did not correlate with injuries. Conclusion: Decreased exposure to full-contact practice may decrease the incidence of practice injuries and practice concussions. However, the game injury rate was over 6 times greater than the practice injury rate and had an inverse correlation with full-contact practice.
Immunohistochemical and Clinical Evaluation of p53 in Canine Cutaneous Mast Cell Tumors

One hundred twenty-six cutaneous mast cell tumors obtained by excisional biopsy from 106 dogs were evaluated using immunohistochemical staining for the presence of p53 protein. A standard avidin–biotin immunohistochemical protocol was used incorporating a polyclonal antibody of rabbit origin (CM-1) as the primary antibody. Histopathologic grading of tumors was performed on hemotoxylin and eosin–stained samples. There was a significant difference in the percentage of cells staining positive for p53 for the histopathologic grades (P = 0.0005). Grade III tumors had a significantly greater p53 content than did grade I or II tumors (P < 0.05). Clinical data obtained retrospectively was available for 54 dogs. Tumor recurred in 19 of 54 (35.2%) dogs. Twenty-nine dogs died by the end of the study; 9 of 29 (31.0%) died of mast cell tumor disease. Histopathologic grade showed a significant negative association with survival time. Both clinical stage and histopathologic grade showed a significant negative association with time to recurrence. The percentage of cells staining positive for p53 did not significantly improve the forward analysis. Immunohistochemical detection of p53 did not appear useful in characterizing the clinical association between cutaneous mast cell tumor cellular features and survival time or time to tumor recurrence in dogs.
Semi-partitioned Scheduling of Sporadic Task Systems on Multiprocessors

This paper presents a new algorithm for scheduling of sporadic task systems with arbitrary deadlines on identical multiprocessor platforms. The algorithm is based on the concept of semi-partitioned scheduling, in which most tasks are fixed to specific processors, while a few tasks migrate across processors. Particularly, we design the algorithm so that tasks are qualified to migrate only if a task set cannot be partitioned any more, and such migratory tasks migrate from one processor to another processor only once in each period. The scheduling policy is then subject to Earliest Deadline First. Simulation results show that the algorithm delivers competitive scheduling performance to the state-of-the-art, with a smaller number of context switches.
Identification of novel Xanthomonas euvesicatoria type III effector proteins by a machine-learning approach.

The Gram-negative bacterium Xanthomonas euvesicatoria (Xcv) is the causal agent of bacterial spot disease in pepper and tomato. Xcv pathogenicity depends on a type III secretion (T3S) system that delivers effector proteins into host cells to suppress plant immunity and promote disease. The pool of known Xcv effectors includes approximately 30 proteins, most identified in the 85-10 strain by various experimental and computational techniques. To identify additional Xcv 85-10 effectors, we applied a genome-wide machine-learning approach, in which all open reading frames (ORFs) were scored according to their propensity to encode effectors. Scoring was based on a large set of features, including genomic organization, taxonomic dispersion, hypersensitive response and pathogenicity (hrp)-dependent expression, 5' regulatory sequences, amino acid composition bias and GC content. Thirty-six predicted effectors were tested for translocation into plant cells using the hypersensitive response (HR)-inducing domain of AvrBs2 as a reporter. Seven proteins (XopAU, XopAV, XopAW, XopAP, XopAX, XopAK and XopAD) harboured a functional translocation signal and their translocation relied on the HrpF translocon, indicating that they are bona fide T3S effectors. Remarkably, four belong to novel effector families. Inactivation of the xopAP gene reduced the severity of disease symptoms in infected plants. A decrease in cell death and chlorophyll content was observed in pepper leaves inoculated with the xopAP mutant when compared with the wild-type strain. However, populations of the xopAP mutant in infected leaves were similar in size to those of wild-type bacteria, suggesting that the reduction in virulence was not caused by impaired bacterial growth.