Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optogenetic and Pharmacologic Dissection of Feedforward Inhibition in Drosophila Motion Vision

Visual systems extract directional motion information from spatiotemporal luminance changes on the retina. An algorithmic model, the Reichardt detector, accounts for this by multiplying adjacent inputs after asymmetric temporal filtering. The outputs of two mirror-symmetrical units tuned to opposite directions are thought to be subtracted on the dendrites of wide-field motion-sensitive lobula plate tangential cells by antagonistic transmitter systems. In Drosophila, small-field T4/T5 cells carry visual motion information to the tangential cells that are depolarized during preferred and hyperpolarized during null direction motion. While preferred direction input is likely provided by excitation from T4/T5 terminals, the origin of null direction inhibition is unclear. Probing the connectivity between T4/T5 and tangential cells in Drosophila using a combination of optogenetics, electrophysiology, and pharmacology, we found a direct excitatory as well as an indirect inhibitory component. This suggests that the null direction response is caused by feedforward inhibition via yet unidentified neurons.
Contextual leadership : leadership practices of successful school principals in Malaysia

Recent studies of the practices of successful school principals in more than twenty countries have revealed that leadership practices are more complex in nature, are heavily dependent upon the context and that there is no ‘one size fits all’ model for leadership. In the absence of similar studies conducted in Malaysia, this qualitative case study of one urban and one rural school attempts to identify the school contexts under which the two successful principals operate and how they enact their core leadership practices in response to their own contexts. The study utilizes interviews, observation notes and scanning of school documents for data collection. The principals of the two schools, three teachers, three students, three parents and one senior administrator from each of the two schools were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol. Both the schools were visited several times for observations, data scanning and collection of additional data from the respondents. Individual case analysis of the two schools revealed a set of seven core practices for the principal of the first school while a set of five core practices were identified for the principal of the second school. The findings also revealed specific context-based enactment of these core practices by the two principals. A subsequent in-depth cross-case analysis revealed that the core practices of the two principals fell within five distinct dimensions which are well supported by educational leadership literature. These five dimensions are (a) Strategic; (b) Pedagogic; (c) Administrative; ( d) Humanistic; (e) Collaborative. While first three dimensions are well supported by the literature on the practices of successful school principals, the humanistic and collaborative dimensions have little reference and thus are new findings. The findings are discussed in the light of current school leadership literature and have significance for the principals, policymakers and school leadership training institutes. The limitations of the study and recommendations for further research are also included.
The Role of Perception for Computer Graphics

Traditionally, computer graphics strived to achieve the technically best representation of the scenario or scene. For rendering, this lead to the preeminence of representations based on the physics of light interacting with different media and materials. Research in virtual reality has focussed on interactivity and therefore on real-time rendering techniques that improve the immersion of users in the virtual environments. In contrast, visualization has focused on representations that that maximizes the information content. In most cases, such representations are not physically-based, requiring instead more abstract approaches. Recently, the increasing integration of the extensive knowledge and methods from perception research into computer graphics has fundamentally altered both ﬁelds, offering not only new research questions, but also new ways of solving existing issues. Against this backdrop of an increasing importance of perceptual research in all areas related to computer-generated imagery, we discuss the state of the art of perception in computer graphics.
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HERRINGBONE TECHNIQUE TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN COMPREHENDING NARRATIVE TEXT OF THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS AT MTSN TAKENGON II, ACEH TENGAH, ACEH

Abstract: This study was aimed at finding out differences between students who were taught with and without Herringbone technique and the effectiveness of applying the technique to enhance students’ ability in comprehending narrative text Herringbone technique (Deegan, 2006) is a technique that helps students grow their comprehension of the main idea by scheming who, what, when, where, why, and how question on a visual diagram of a fish skeleton. The methodology used in this research was quantitative approach by experimental method. The subjects of this study were 26 students in experimental class and 26 students in control class of MTSN Takengon II, Aceh Tengah, Aceh. In collecting data, the researchers used tests and questionnaire. The data were analyzed by non-parametric statistic, Mc. Nemar test and Chi-square for two independent samples. Result of the data reveals result of Mc. Nemar test by which the Chi-Square observedin experimental classwas higher than Chi Square table and Chi Square obtained in control class (21,05 > 3,814 < 12) and using Chi-square for two independent samples showed that the perceived scorewas higher than score of Chi-Square table (4,857>3,814). Moreover, based on the data from questionnaire, the students stated that Herringbone technique was fun to help them understand the materials and the time used was more useful. Hence, the result of Mc. Nemar revealed that there was significant differences between the students taught with and without Herringbone technique and Chi Square for two independent samples proved that Herringbone technique was effective to enhance students’ ability in comprehending narrative test. Keywords: Effectiveness, Herringbone Technique, Comprehension, Narrative Text.
Quality assessment of Wikipedia articles without feature engineering

As Wikipedia became the largest human knowledge repository, quality measurement of its articles received a lot of attention during the last decade. Most research efforts focused on classification of Wikipedia articles quality by using a different feature set. However, so far, no “golden feature set” was proposed. In this paper, we present a novel approach for classifying Wikipedia articles by analysing their content rather than by considering a feature set. Our approach uses recent techniques in natural language processing and deep learning, and achieved a comparable result with the state-of-the-art.
Viewpoint: challenging the new conventional wisdom of net commerce strategies

A fter years of hype, significant confusion exists among scholars and practitioners regarding expectations for e-commerce market development and the selection of effective Internet commerce strategies. Adding to this confusion is the realization that several assertions in the early stages of Internet commerce have not materialized as predicted. Lessons from the several billion dollars in Internet commerce that have taken place provide the hindsight necessary to challenge a number of popular assertions—the new conventional wisdom— regarding business strategy and its relationship to e-commerce.
Haematuria: An Imaging Guide

This paper discusses the current status of imaging in the investigation of patients with haematuria. The physician must rationalize imaging so that serious causes such as malignancy are promptly diagnosed while at the same time not exposing patients to unnecessary investigations. There is currently no universal agreement about the optimal imaging work up of haematuria. The choice of modality to image the urinary tract will depend on individual patient factors such as age, the presence of risk factors for malignancy, renal function, a history of calculus disease and pregnancy, and other factors, such as local policy and practice, cost effectiveness and availability of resources. The role of all modalities, including conventional radiography, intravenous urography/excretory urography, ultrasonography, retrograde pyelography, multidetector computed tomography urography (MDCTU), and magnetic resonance urography, is discussed. This paper highlights the pivotal role of MDCTU in the imaging of the patient with haematuria and discusses issues specific to this modality including protocol design, imaging of the urothelium, and radiation dose. Examination protocols should be tailored to the patient while all the while optimizing radiation dose.
The symptom checklist-27-plus (SCL-27-plus): a modern conceptualization of a traditional screening instrument

Background: The symptom checklist SCL-27-plus is a short, multidimensional screening instrument for mental health problems. It contains five scales on current symptoms: depressive, vegetative, agoraphobic, and sociophobic symptoms and pain; a global severity index (GSI-27); a lifetime assessment for depressive symptoms; and a screening question for suicidality. Method: A reformulated version of screening items constituted a survey of n=374 students. Therefore, a total of 76 items was formulated and presented to the students within a questionnaire booklet, that could be filled out at home. Results: All scales of the SCL-27-plus showed good to satisfactory reliability (i.e. .90 ≥ Cronbach’s a ≥ .70). The distributions of the scales were less skewed than in older versions of the symptom checklists and scale inter-correlations were lower. The scale “symptoms of mistrust” could not be retained. Conclusion: The SCL-27-plus demonstrates a clear improvement over the SCL-27. Test-statistical properties were improved. In addition, the supplementation by a lifetime scale for depression and a screener for suicidality shall help the clinician as well as the epidemiologist.
Triangulation in Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods Can Really Be Mixed

For those who teach methodology within social science departments, notably sociology, the mixing of quantitative and qualitative methods presents an ongoing problem. Recent developments in the philosophy of science have argued that the two traditions should not have a separate-but-equal status, and should instead interact. By reviewing three positions about this issue ('empiricist', constructionist, and realist) the chapter offers a review of the sociological approach now known as triangulation. The chapter refers to several empirical examples that illustrate the realist position and its strengths. The conclusion of the chapter is a more abstract review of the debate over pluralism in methodology. Triangulation, I argue, is not aimed merely at validation but at deepening and widening one's understanding. As a research aim, this one can be achieved either by a person or by a research team or group. Triangulation and pluralism both tend to support interdisciplinary research rather than a strongly bounded discipline of sociology.
When Small Children Play: How adults dramatise and children create meaning

A description of the way in which children's play develops is often based on children's physical environment. Another standard assumption is that small children progress from playing with objects to taking part in role-play. This study focuses on the cultural aspect of play and its aim is to investigate how small children create meaning in their play in dialogue with adults. The study is an educational experiment in which the pedagogic process is staged, followed and analysed. The theme 'Deep in the Nooks and Crannies' was tested in two classes for toddlers at a preschool in Karlstad. The inspiration came from several well-known Swedish children's books. The result shows that the cultural context has a positive influence on children's quest for meaningful action. A child's imagination is not captured by an object itself, but by the story which gives the object and the actions their meaning. When adults play roles and dramatise a chain of events, they open a door to a play world which the children can enter.
Analysis of Feature Extraction and Channel Compensation in a GMM Speaker Recognition System

In this paper, several feature extraction and channel compensation techniques found in state-of-the-art speaker verification systems are analyzed and discussed. For the NIST SRE 2006 submission, cepstral mean subtraction, feature warping, RelAtive SpecTrAl (RASTA) filtering, heteroscedastic linear discriminant analysis (HLDA), feature mapping, and eigenchannel adaptation were incrementally added to minimize the system's error rate. This paper deals with eigenchannel adaptation in more detail and includes its theoretical background and implementation issues. The key part of the paper is, however, the post-evaluation analysis, undermining a common myth that ldquothe more boxes in the scheme, the better the system.rdquo All results are presented on NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation (SRE) 2005 and 2006 data.
Moderating Role of Well-Being on the Relation between Psychological Contract and Intention to Leave

This study aims to determine the relationship between psychological contract, psychological well-being and the intention to leave. The sample of this study consists of 118 teachers in 10 schools that were selected randomly with clustered sampling methods from the schools in Osmaniye province in the 2015-2016 academic year. Data were analyzed using a hierarchical multiple linear regression method with SPSS 22; a modgraph was used to moderate tests. The results of the moderator tests showed that psychological well-being was a moderator of the relationship between the short-term relations component of the psychological contract and teachers’ intention to leave levels. This study also indicated that transactional psychological contracts (short-term relations) had a negative effect on teachers’ intention to leave levels, and psychological well-being had a positive effect on teachers’ intention to leave levels. In the light of the findings, to create more positive educational environments, it would be beneficial for policy makers and top managers to take psychological constructs into consideration at all stages of management. However, future researchers should focus on the different dimensions of psychological contracts and psychological well-being that may also be related to the intention of teachers to leave.
Randomness and dependencies extraction via polarization

The basic polarization phenomenon for i.i. d. sources is extended to a framework allowing dependencies within and between multiple sources. In particular, it is shown that taking the polar transform of a random matrix with i.i. d. columns of arbitrary (correlated) distribution allows to extract the randomness and dependencies. This result is the used to develop polar coding schemes (having low complexity) for: (1) distributed data compression, i.e., Slepian-Wolf coding (without decomposing the problem into single-user problems), (2) compression of sources with memory, (3) compression of sources on finite fields, extending the polarization phenomenon for alphabets of prime cardinality to powers of primes.
OGLE-II high proper motion stars towards the Galactic Centre

The photometry data base of the second phase of the OGLE microlensing experiment, OGLE-II, is a rich source of information about the kinematics and structure of the Galaxy. In this work we use the OGLE-II proper motion catalogue to identify candidate stars which have high proper motions. 521 stars with proper motion � > 50 masyr 1 in the OGLE-II proper motion catalogue (Sumi et al. 2004) were cross-identified with stars in the MACHO high proper motion catalogue, and the DENIS and 2MASS infra-red photometry catalogues. Photometric distances were computed for stars with colours consistent with G/K and M type stars. 6 stars were newly identified as possible nearby (< 50 pc) M dwarfs.
Sources of Immunity to Error Through Misidentification

In this paper I wish to draw attention to a feature of judgments expressible using indexical terms such as I, here and now and the significance this feature has for discussions of Immunity to Error through Misidentification (IEM). The feature in question is this: consider a subject who sincerely expresses a belief using an utterance of the form 'λ is F', where 'λ' is an indexical term. Suppose 'λ' refers to some object O (where an 'object' could be a place, time, or person as well as a physical object). Then the subject believes, of O, that it has the property F. Call this the stated belief. But the use of the indexical term 'λ' indicates that the subject also believes something else about O; something associated with the use of that indexical term. Call this the manifested belief. Someone who believes that the race starts now, for example, believes, of time t, that the race starts at t; but their use of 'now' indicates that they believe something else about t. Let U be the utterance of the race starts now. Then the subject also believes, of t, that t is simultaneous with U. For any indexical term there will be some such belief concerning the relation between the reference and the utterance token. As Prior (1959) pointed out, however, this would not account for the significance, for action, of believing that the race starts now; for one can correctly believe, at any time t', that t is simultaneous with U, without this having any special significance for one's immediate actions. So perhaps the subject must also believe something else about t; most plausibly, something we might express by saying that t is present. It is the latter kind of manifested belief that will be of interest to us. Similarly, someone who sincerely states that the race starts here believes, of a place p, that the race starts at p; but also believes that p is where I am (though I shall suggest below that this belief can take an unarticulated form, analogous to believing that a place is near or far). At any rate, I shall take it as a working hypothesis that all singular indexical judgments (other than those expressed
COMPUTER SIMULATIONS OF TRANSPORT THROUGH MEMBRANES: PASSIVE DIFFUSION, PORES, CHANNELS AND TRANSPORTERS

1 A key function of biological membranes is to provide mechanisms for the controlled transport of ions, nutrients, metabolites, peptides and proteins between a cell and its environment. 2 We are using computer simulations to study several processes involved in transport. 3 In model membranes, the distribution of small molecules can be accurately calculated; we are making progress towards understanding the factors that determine the partitioning behaviour in the inhomogeneous lipid environment, with implications for drug distribution, membrane protein folding and the energetics of voltage gating. 4 Lipid bilayers can be simulated at a scale that is sufficiently large to study significant defects, such as those caused by electroporation. 5 Computer simulations of complex membrane proteins, such as potassium channels and ATP‐binding cassette (ABC) transporters, can give detailed information about the atomistic dynamics that form the basis of ion transport, selectivity, conformational change and the molecular mechanism of ATP‐driven transport. 6 This is illustrated in the present review with recent simulation studies of the voltage‐gated potassium channel KvAP and the ABC transporter BtuCD.
To persist or not to persist

Ecological vector fields u xi = xifi(x) on the non-negative cone R n on R n are often used to describe the dynamics of n interacting species. These vector fields are called permanent (or uniformly persistent) if the boundary ∂R n of the nonnegative cone is repelling. We construct an open set of ecological vector fields containing a dense subset of permanent vector fields and containing a dense subset of vector fields with attractors on ∂R n +. In particular, this construction implies that robustly permanent vector fields are not dense in the space of permanent vector fields. Hence, verifying robust permanence is important. We illustrate this result with ecological vector fields involving five species that admit a heteroclinic cycle between two equilibria and the Hastings–Powell teacup attractor.
The Synthesis of α-MoO3 by Ethylene Glycol

This study investigated the use of ethylene glycol to form α-MoO3 (molybdenum trioxide) from ammonium molybdate tetrahydrate at various sintering temperatures for 1 h. During the sintering process, the morphologies of the constituents were observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to explain the reaction process. In this work, the results obtained using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XRD) demonstrated that, when the molybdenum trioxide powder was treated thermally at 300 °C, the material exhibited crystallinity. The peaks were indexed to correspond with the (110), (040), (021), (111), and (060) crystallographic planes, and the lattice parameters of a, b, and c were about 3.961, 13.876, and 3.969 Å. Using these observations, we confirmed that orthorhombic α-MoO3 was formed for sintering temperatures from 300 to 700 °C. Pattern images were obtained by the selected area electron diffraction pattern (SAED) technique, and the d distance of the high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images were almost 0.39 and 0.36 nm, and the Mo 3d5/2, Mo 3d3/2, and O 1s of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were located at 233.76, 237.03, and 532.19 eV, which also demonstrated that α-MoO3 powder had been synthesized.