Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of adaptive refinement techniques for elliptic problems

Adaptive refinement has proved to be a useful tool for reducing the size of the linear system of equations obtained by discretizing partial differential equations. We consider techniques for the adaptive refinement of triangulations used with the finite element method with piecewise linear functions. Several such techniques that differ mainly in the method for dividing triangles and the method for indicating which triangles have the largest error have been developed. We describe four methods for dividing triangles and eight methods for indicating errors. Angle bounds for the triangle division methods are compared. All combinations of triangle divisions and error indicators are compared in a numerical experiment using a population of eight test problems with a variety of difficulties (peaks, boundary layers, singularities, etc.). The comparison is based on the L-infinity norm of the error versus the number of vertices. It is found that all of the methods produce asymptotically optimal grids and that the number of vertices needed for a given error rarely differs by more than a factor of two.
Cognitive and Behavioral Leadership Coordination: Linking Shared Leadership to High Performance in Global Teams

The ability of a single leader to exert direct influence on globally distributed teams diminishes when members are scattered across boundaries. Shared leadership may be necessary to lead such teams more effectively. Earlier research has found contradicting effects of shared leadership on team performance, suggesting the possibility that there may be some interaction effects at play. In this study we use Grounded Theory to explore these effects, such as whether and how shared leadership interacts with global team boundaries and team coordination. We interviewed 58 team members and leaders from 6 teams and found that shared leadership's influence on team performance is moderated by leadership coordination, such that shared leadership has a stronger effect when the distributed leadership activity is effectively coordinated, both cognitively and behaviorally. We also found that team leadership coordination needs to vary depending on the global boundaries spanned by the team.
P300-Based BCI Mouse With Genetically-Optimized Analogue Control

In this paper we propose a brain-computer interface (BCI) mouse based on P300 waves in electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The system is analogue in that at no point a binary decision is made as to whether or not a P300 was actually produced in response to the stimuli. Instead, the 2D motion of the pointer on the screen, using a novel BCI paradigm, is controlled by directly combining the amplitudes of the output produced by a filter in the presence of different stimuli. This filter and the features to be combined within it are optimised by an evolutionary algorithm.
Primary Carnitine Deficiency and Cardiomyopathy

Carnitine is essential for the transfer of long-chain fatty acids from the cytosol into mitochondria for subsequent β-oxidation. A lack of carnitine results in impaired energy production from long-chain fatty acids, especially during periods of fasting or stress. Primary carnitine deficiency (PCD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of mitochondrial β-oxidation resulting from defective carnitine transport and is one of the rare treatable etiologies of metabolic cardiomyopathies. Patients affected with the disease may present with acute metabolic decompensation during infancy or with severe cardiomyopathy in childhood. Early recognition of the disease and treatment with L-carnitine may be life-saving. In this review article, the pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of PCD are discussed, with a focus on cardiac involvements.
The Relationship between Multiple Intelligences and Reading Proficiency of Iranian EFL Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between multiple intelligences (MI) and reading proficiency of Iranian EFL pre-university students and to look into the role that gender plays. To find out the relationships among the naturally occurring variables, the researcher employed a descriptive and ex post facto design. The participants were 128 randomly selected pre-university students. The researcher utilized three instruments, namely: 1) a demographic questionnaire; 2) the Persian version of Mckenzie's MI Inventory; and 3) a standardized reading proficiency test retrieved from paper-based TOEFL® tests. Analyzing the data using t-test, it was found that there was a statistically significant difference in the mean of musical-rhyth mic intelligence scores of the low achievers and the high achievers which was positive and stronger among the low achievers. Accordingly, it seems that the high achievers may have lower musical intelligence, which also indicates that better readers may be less intelligent 'musically'. A statistically significant difference was also found between the mean bodily-kinesthetic intelligence scores of the two genders which was positive and stronger among the females. No significant difference was found between the male and female students in their reading proficiency scores.
Cold stress proteins induced in Listeria monocytogenes in response to temperature downshock and growth at low temperatures

Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne pathogen with the ability to grow at refrigerator temperatures. Twelve cold shock proteins (Csps) with apparent M(r)s of 48,600, 41,000, 21,800, 21,100, 19,700, 19,200, 18,800, 18,800, 17,200, 15,500, 14,500, and 14,400 were induced by cold shocking L. monocytogenes 10403S from 37 to 5 degrees C, as revealed by labeling with L-[35S]methionine followed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Strain SLCC53 showed a similar response. Cold acclimation proteins were observed in cultures of strain 10403S growing at 5 degrees C, and four of these proteins, with apparent M(r)s 48,000, 21,100, 19,700, and 18,800, were also Csps. Two cold-sensitive transposon-induced mutants were labeled less efficiently than the parent strain, but the Csp response of the mutant examined was very similar to that of the parent strain.
Advances in Brief Neoplastic Transformation of Immortalized Human Keratinocytes by 2 , 3 , 7 , 8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-/ >-dioxin

2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) is the most powerful car cinogen ever tested in animals. Recent epidemiolÃ3gica! studies have suggested its carcinogenic potential in humans. In the present study, nontumorigenic human epidermal keratinocytes immortalized by adenovirus 12-simian virus 40 (Adl2-SV40) were transformed by exposures of TCDD equal to or greater than 0.1 nM for 2 wk. These transformed cells showed morphological alterations and induced carcinomas when trans planted into nude mice, whereas no such transformation phenotypes were observed with exposures of less than 0.1 mi for 2 wk. Primary human epithelial keratinocytes exposed to various concentrations of TCDD failed to show any evidence of transformation. Induction of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase activity was dose dependent, as was transformation. Thus, the carcinogenicity of TCDD in this human cell system appears to be an Ah receptor-mediated process. The present study represents the first evidence of neoplastic conversion of human cells exposed to this environ mentally important chemical.
Assessment of water pollution in the Brazilian Pampa biome by means of stress biomarkers in tadpoles of the leaf frog Phyllomedusa iheringii (Anura: Hylidae)

The Brazilian Pampa biome is currently under constant threat due to increase of agriculture and improper management of urban effluents. Studies with a focus on the assessment of impacts caused by human activities in this biome are scarce. In the present study, we measured stress-related biomarkers in tadpoles of the leaf frog Phyllomedusa iheringii, an endemic species to the Pampa biome, and tested its suitability as a bioindicator for the assessment of potential aquatic contamination in selected ponds (S1 and S2) nearby agricultural areas in comparison to a reference site. A significant decrease in acetylcholinesterase activity was observed in S2 when compared to S1 and reference. The levels of total-hydroperoxides were increased in S2 site. In parallel, increased activity of the antioxidant enzymes catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione S-transferase were observed in S2 when compared to S1 and reference. Further studies are necessary in order to correlate the changes observed here with different chemical stressors in water, as well as to elucidate mechanisms of toxicity induced by pesticides in amphibian species endemic to the Pampa biome. Nevertheless, our study validates Phyllomedusa iheringii as a valuable bioindicator in environmental studies.
Illumination of deformation by bending stresses and slab pull within the Southern Hikurangi Double Benioff Zone

ABSTRACT Double Benioff Zones (DBZ) are ubiquitous in subduction systems worldwide, but the stress systems that give rise to them are not well known. We characterise stress orientations in the upper and lower bands of a DBZ in the dipping subducted Pacific plate beneath the southern Hikurangi margin, New Zealand. Stress orientations were calculated from focal mechanisms with 10 or more polarity picks, using a Bayesian stress inversion technique. The stress orientations in the upper band of seismicity are consistent with a down-dip extensional stress regime, whereas stress orientations within the lower band of seismicity are consistent with a down-dip compressional stress regime. This demonstrates that bending stresses are dominant within the Pacific plate beneath the southern North Island, possibly due to subduction beneath thickened mantle lithosphere of the Australian plate.
Error Management Theory : A New Perspective on Biases in Cross-Sex Mind Reading

A new theory of cognitive biases, called error management theory (EMT), proposes that psychological mechanisms are designed to be predictably biased when the costs of false-positive and false-negative errors were asymmetrical over evolutionary history. This theory explains known phenomena such as men's overperception of women's sexual intent, and it predicts new biases in social inference such as women's underestimation of men's commitment. In Study 1 (N = 217), the authors documented the commitment underperception effect predicted by EMT. In Study 2 (N = 289), the authors replicated the commitment bias and documented a condition in which men's sexual overperception bias is corrected. Discussion contrasts EMT with the heuristics and biases approach and suggests additional testable hypotheses based on EMT.
Presynaptic Long-Term Depression at the Hippocampal Mossy Fiber--CA3 Synapse

Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) of synaptic strength may underlie learning and memory in the brain. The induction of LTP occurs in postsynaptic cells in the hippocampal CA1 region but is presynaptic in CA3. LTD is also well characterized in CA1 but not in CA3. Low-frequency stimulation of mouse hippocampal slices caused homosynaptic LTD at the mossy fiber—CA3 synapse, which may be induced presynaptically by activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors. Thus, the efficacy of mossy fiber—CA3 synapses can be regulated bidirectionally, which may contribute to neuronal information processing.
First- and Second-language Phonological Representations in the Mental Lexicon

Performance-based studies on the psychological nature of linguistic competence can conceal significant differences in the brain processes that underlie native versus nonnative knowledge of language. Here we report results from the brain activity of very proficient early bilinguals making a lexical decision task that illustrates this point. Two groups of Spanish-Catalan early bilinguals (Spanish-dominant and Catalan-dominant) were asked to decide whether a given form was a Catalan word or not. The nonwords were based on real words, with one vowel changed. In the experimental stimuli, the vowel change involved a Catalan-specific contrast that previous research had shown to be difficult for Spanish natives to perceive. In the control stimuli, the vowel switch involved contrasts common to Spanish and Catalan. The results indicated that the groups of bilinguals did not differ in their behavioral and event-related brain potential measurements for the control stimuli; both groups made very few errors and showed a larger N400 component for control nonwords than for control words. However, significant differences were observed for the experimental stimuli across groups: Specifically, Spanish-dominant bilinguals showed great difficulty in rejecting experimental nonwords. Indeed, these participants not only showed very high error rates for these stimuli, but also did not show an error-related negativity effect in their erroneous nonword decisions. However, both groups of bilinguals showed a larger correct-related negativity when making correct decisions about the experimental nonwords. The results suggest that although some aspects of a second language system may show a remarkable lack of plasticity (like the acquisition of some foreign contrasts), first-language representations seem to be more dynamic in their capacity of adapting and incorporating new information.
Electromagnetic Modeling of a Damaged Ferromagnetic Metal Tube by a Volume Integral Equation Formulation

We propose a volume integral equation formulation for eddy-current nondestructive evaluation of ferromagnetic tubes affected by volumetric defects. We solve the system of integral equations (introduced into the model by application of Green's theorem) by the method of moments for both fictitious electric and magnetic currents within the defects, and calculate variations of impedance of the probes by the reciprocity theorem. We have made thorough comparisons of our results with finite-element-method simulations and with experimental data as well.
Boosting face recognition on a large-scale database

The performance of many state-of-the-art face recognition (FR) methods deteriorates rapidly when large databases are considered. We propose a novel clustering method based on a linear discriminant analysis methodology which deals with the problem of FR on a large-scale database. Contrary to traditional clustering methods such as K-means, which are based on certain "similarity criteria", the proposed method uses a novel "separability criterion" to partition a training set from the large database into a set of K smaller and simpler subsets or maximal-separability clusters (MSCs). Based on these MSCs, a novel two-stage hierarchical classification framework is proposed. Under the framework, the complex FR problem on a large database is decomposed into a set of simpler ones, where traditional methods can be successfully applied. Experiments with a database containing 1654 face images of 157 subjects indicate that the error rate performance of a traditional method under the proposed framework can be greatly improved without significantly increasing computational complexity.
Exposure to blood among mortuary workers in teaching hospitals in south-west Nigeria

Background Mortuary workers like other health workers are exposed to blood borne pathogens at work. A baseline assessment is important to plan for programmes to safeguard the health of workers. The aim of this study is to determine exposure rates to blood among mortuary workers in teaching hospitals in South West Nigeria. Methods A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out between March and May 2008. All mortuary workers working in six (6) teaching hospitals, 80 in total were included in the study. Data was collected with the aid of a 15- item self administered questionnaire. Data was analysed with the aid of EPI-INFO 2002. Statistical associations were explored using odds ratio and confidence intervals. Results A total of 76 respondents completed questionnaire giving a response rate of 95%; 3 males and 1 female declined to participate, the mean age of respondents was 38.2 years, 48(72.6%), 53(85.5%) and 50(73.5%) of the workers had been exposed to blood through cuts, blood splash and needle stick injury. Duration at work was significantly associated with blood splash. Workers who had worked 5years and above were 0.10 times (95% confidence interval 0.00–.0.78) as likely to experience blood splash compared to those who had worked under 5 years. Only 5(10.4%) of workers with needle stick injury had completed three doses of Hepatitis B vaccine. The specific confirmation by antibody titre was however not done in this study. Conclusion Exposure to blood was very common with blood splash emerging as the most common route of exposure. There is a need for vaccination of all mortuary workers with three doses of Hepatitis B Vaccine to protect their health. In addition, education of workers on risks and institution of standard operating procedure are crucial to safeguard the health of mortuary workers.
Effect of frequency of semen collection, dilution rate and insemination dose on semen characteristics and fertility of Domyati ducks.

This study was carried out to determine the optimum frequency of semen collections, dilution rate , and artificial insemination dose of Domyati duck semen in order to set up the commercial semen quality which could be applied to the conservation of genetic resources, breeding, and commercial production in Domyati ducks. In experiment 1, the three levels of the frequency of semen collections (once, twice and three times weekly) and dilution rates (raw, 1:1 and 1:2) were studied to determine efficacy of these variables on semen quality, fertility percentage and relative weights of thyroid gland, testis and liver as well as some blood plasma hormones were determined at the end of semen collection period. Experiment 2, was conducted to determine the effects of using different artificial insemination dose (10, 20, and 50 million spermatozoa) on fertility percentage as well as economic efficiency. Results showed that the ejaculate volume and sperm concentration were significantly decreased in the thrice semen collections weekly as compared to the once and twice collection. Coiled , clumping and dead sperm percentages were significantly decreased in the twice semen collections weekly and dilution rate 1 : 1 as compared with other treatments, whereas, sperm advanced motility values were significantly increased. Fertility percentage was significantly improved due to interaction between frequency of semen collection twice weekly and dilution rate 1:1, also, it was significantly improved for the groups inseminated by dose containing 20 and 50 million spermatozoa as compared to that contained 10 million sperm. In addition it was significantly improved for the group inseminated
Bifocal left ventricular stimulation or the optimal left ventricular stimulation site in cardiac resynchronization therapy: a pressure-volume loop study.

AIMS Several implantation strategies have been proposed to improve response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), including bifocal left ventricular (LV) stimulation and optimal single-LV lead placement. This study aimed to compare these two strategies during invasive pressure-volume (PV) loop measurements. METHODS AND RESULTS Thirty-three patients eligible for CRT were included [21 (64%) men, 20 (61%) ischaemic aetiology, QRS 155 ± 23 ms], and underwent cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging and invasive PV loop measurements. Left ventricular pump function was characterized by stroke work (SW) and dP/dtmax (5.1 ± 3.4 L mmHg and 856 ± 190 mmHg/s, respectively). Haemodynamic response was assessed during stimulation at single-LV sites and during bifocal LV [anterolateral and posterolateral (PL)] stimulation. Response during bifocal LV stimulation was not significantly higher compared with standard PL pacing (SW; β = 9.4 ± 5.4, P = 0.080; dP/dtmax, β = 0.2 ± 1.9, P = 0.922). However, mean pump function improvement was significantly higher during stimulation at the optimal LV site compared with bifocal LV stimulation (SW; β = 12.7 ± 5.1, P = 0.012; dP/dtmax, β = 3.3 ± 1.2, P = 0.020). Myocardial tissue properties were assessed by CMR tissue tagging. Mechanical activation at the optimal LV site was significantly more delayed compared with the worst LV site (431 ± 93 ms vs. 326 ± 127 ms; P = 0.004). CONCLUSION Stimulation at the optimal LV site showed a significantly higher pump function improvement compared with bifocal LV stimulation. Mechanical activation at the optimal LV site was significantly more delayed compared with the non-optimal LV site. In general, these results suggest that implantation of a second LV lead yields no additional benefit over implantation of one optimally placed LV lead. However, a bifocal approach might be beneficial in the individual patient.
BEYOND MEAN-VARIANCE: RISK AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES FOR PORTFOLIOS WITH NONSYMMETRIC RETURN DISTRIBUTIONS

Most practitioners measure investment performance based on the CAPM, determining portfolio "alphas" or Sharpe Ratios. But the validity of this analysis rests on the validity of the CAPM, which assumes either normally distributed (and therefore symmetric) returns, or mean-variance preferences. Both assumptions are suspect: even if asset returns were normally distributed, the returns of options or dynamic strategies would not be. And investors distinguish upside from downside risks, implying skewness preference. This has led to the adoption of ad hoc criteria for measuring risk and performance, such as "Value at Risk" and the "Sortino Ratio. " We consider a world in which the market portfolio (but not necessarily individual securities) has identically and independently distributed (i.i.d.) returns. In this world the market portfolio will be mean-variance inefficient and the CAPM alpha will mismeasure the value added by investment managers. The problem is particularly severe for portfolios using options or dynamic strategies. Strategies purchasing (writing) fairly-priced options will be falsely accorded inferior (superior) performance using the CAPM alpha measure. We show how a simple modification of the CAPM beta can lead to correct risk measurement for portfolios with arbitrary return distributions, and the resulting alphas of all fairly-priced options and/or dynamic strategies will be zero. We discuss extensions when the market portfolio is not assumed to be i.i. d. BEYOND MEAN-VARIANCE: RISK AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES FOR PORTFOLIOS WITH NONSYMMETRIC RETURN DISTRIBUTIONS
Fault diagnosis in industrial systems based on blind source separation techniques using one single vibration sensor

In the field of structural health monitoring or machine condition monitoring, most vibration based methods reported in the literature require to measure responses at several locations on the structure. In machine condition monitoring, the number of available vibration sensors is often small and it is not unusual that only one single sensor is used to monitor a machine. The aim of this paper is to propose an extension of fault detection techniques that may be used when a reduced set of sensors or even one single sensor is available. Fault detection techniques considered here are based on output-only methods coming from the Blind Source Separation (BSS) family, namely Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Second Order Blind Identification (SOBI). The advantages of PCA or SOBI rely on their rapidity of use and their reliability. Based on these methods, subspace identification may be performed by using the concept of block Hankel matrices which make possible the use of only one single measurement signal. Thus, the problem of fault detection in mechanical systems can be solved by using subspaces built from active principal components or modal vectors. It consists in comparing subspace features between the reference (undamaged) state and a current state. The angular coherence between subspaces is a good indicator of a dynamic change in the system due to the occurrence of faults or damages. The robustness of the methods is illustrated on industrial examples.