Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Progressive resistance exercise training and changes in resting-state functional connectivity of the caudate in persons with multiple sclerosis and severe fatigue: A proof-of-concept study

ABSTRACT Fatigue is one of the most disabling symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). While progressive resistance training (PRT) has been shown to reduce fatigue in persons with MS, it is not clear why these reductions occur. One hypothesis is that PRT may induce functional changes to the caudate, a region highly implicated in MS fatigue. The aim of the current study was to study the effects of PRT on overall fatigue impact and resting-state functional connectivity of the caudate in persons with MS reporting severe fatigue. Participants were semi-randomly assigned to either a 16-week home-based PRT (n = 5) or stretching control (n = 5) condition. Both groups demonstrated reductions in overall fatigue impact (main effect of time: F = .84, d = .65). Significant group × time interactions were found, with the PRT group demonstrating post-training increases in functional connectivity between the caudate and left inferior parietal (F = 66.0, p < .001), bilateral frontal (both p < .001), and right insula (F = 21.8, p = .002) regions compared to the stretching group. Furthermore, greater post-training increases in functional connectivity between the caudate and left inferior parietal region were associated with greater decreases in cognitive fatigue (r = −.52) specifically. This study provides initial evidence for the caudate as a potential neural substrate for the beneficial effects of PRT on fatigue in persons with MS.
A probabilistic, distributed, recursive mechanism for decision-making in the brain

Decision formation recruits many brain regions, but the procedure they jointly execute is unknown. Here we characterize its essential composition, using as a framework a novel recursive Bayesian algorithm that makes decisions based on spike-trains with the statistics of those in sensory cortex (MT). Using it to simulate the random-dot-motion task, we demonstrate it quantitatively replicates the choice behaviour of monkeys, whilst predicting losses of otherwise usable information from MT. Its architecture maps to the recurrent cortico-basal-ganglia-thalamo-cortical loops, whose components are all implicated in decision-making. We show that the dynamics of its mapped computations match those of neural activity in the sensorimotor cortex and striatum during decisions, and forecast those of basal ganglia output and thalamus. This also predicts which aspects of neural dynamics are and are not part of inference. Our single-equation algorithm is probabilistic, distributed, recursive, and parallel. Its success at capturing anatomy, behaviour, and electrophysiology suggests that the mechanism implemented by the brain has these same characteristics.
Use of Selected Lactic Acid Bacteria and Quinoa Flour for Manufacturing Novel Yogurt-Like Beverages

This study aimed at investigating the suitability of quinoa for making yogurt-like beverages. After the selection of the adequate technological parameters, the fermentation was carried out by using different lactic acid bacteria strains: a probiotic (Lactobacillus rhamnosus SP1), an exopolysaccharides (EPS)-producing (Weissella confusa DSM 20194), and one isolated from quinoa (Lactobacillus plantarum T6B10). During the 20 h of fermentation, W. confusa caused the highest viscosity increase. All the strains had improved concentration of free amino acids and γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA), polyphenols availability, antioxidant activity (up to 54%), and protein digestibility. The nutritional index (NI) was the highest when L. rhamnosus SP1 was used. The starch hydrolysis index in vitro ranged from 52 to 60. During storage at 4 °C, viscosity and water holding capacity decreased with the exception of the beverage fermented with W. confusa, while all the nutritional characteristics remained stable or slightly increased. Sensory analyses showed that beverages had good textural and organoleptic profiles. Besides the well-known positive properties of the raw matrix, fermentation allowed the obtainment of beverages with different features. Due to the nutritional and functional characteristics conferred to the quinoa beverages, the use of the probiotic and EPS-producing strains showed adequate potential for the industrial application.
Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopy of the Balmer lines in Sirius B

Sirius B is the nearest and brightest of all white dwarfs, but it is very difficult to observe at visible wavelengths due to the overwhelming scattered light contribution from Sirius A. However, from space we can take advantage of the superb spatial resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to resolve the A and B components. Since the closest approach in 1993, the separation between the two stars has become increasingly favourable and we have recently been able to obtain a spectrum of the complete Balmer line series for Sirius B using the HST Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). The quality of the STIS spectra greatly exceeds that of previous ground-based spectra, and can be used to provide an important determination of the stellar temperature (T eff = 25 193 K) and gravity (log g = 8.556), In addition, we have obtained a new, more accurate, gravitational redshift of 80.42 ± 4.83 km s -1 for Sirius B. Combining these results with the photometric data and the Hipparcos parallax, we obtain new determinations of the stellar mass for comparison with the theoretical mass-radius relation. However, there are some disparities between the results obtained independently from log g and the gravitational redshift which may arise from flux losses in the narrow 50 x 0.2 arcsec 2 slit. Combining our measurements of Ten and log g with the Wood evolutionary mass-radius relation, we obtain a best estimate for the white dwarf mass of 0.978 M ○. Within the overall uncertainties, this is in agreement with a mass of 1.02 M ○. obtained by matching our new gravitational redshift to the theoretical mass-radius relation.
Birkbeck ePrints : an open access repository of the research output of Birkbeck College

The present paper considers the perceived emotional weight of the phrase I love you in multilinguals’ different languages. The sample consists of 1459 adult multilinguals speaking a total of 77 different first languages. They filled out an on-line questionnaire with open and closed questions linked to language behavior and emotions. Feedback on the open question related to perceived emotional weight of the phrase I love you in the multilinguals’ different languages was recoded in three categories: it being strongest in (1) the first language (L1), (2) the first language and a foreign language, and (3) a foreign language (LX). A majority of speakers felt I love you was strongest in their L1. Participants offered various explanations for their perception. Statistical analyses revealed that the perception of weight of the phrase I love you was associated with self-perceived language dominance, context of acquisition of the L2, age of onset of learning the L2, degree of socialization in the L2, nature of the network of interlocutors in the L2, and self-perceived oral proficiency in the L2.
Whole Genomic Analysis of Human G12P[6] and G12P[8] Rotavirus Strains that Have Emerged in Myanmar

G12 rotaviruses are emerging rotavirus strains causing severe diarrhea in infants and young children worldwide. However, the whole genomes of only a few G12 strains have been fully sequenced and analyzed. In this study, we sequenced and characterized the complete genomes of six G12 strains (RVA/Human-tc/MMR/A14/2011/G12P[8], RVA/Human-tc/MMR/A23/2011/G12P[6], RVA/Human-tc/MMR/A25/2011/G12P[8], RVA/Human-tc/MMR/P02/2011/G12P[8], RVA/Human-tc/MMR/P39/2011/G12P[8], and RVA/Human-tc/MMR/P43/2011/G12P[8]) detected in six stool samples from children with acute gastroenteritis in Myanmar. On whole genomic analysis, all six Myanmarese G12 strains were found to have a Wa-like genetic backbone: G12-P[8]-I1-R1-C1-M1-A1-N1-T1-E1-H1 for strains A14, A25, P02, P39, and P43, and G12-P[6]-I1-R1-C1-M1-A1-N1-T1-E1-H1 for strain A23. Phylogenetic analysis showed that most genes of the six strains examined in this study were genetically related to globally circulating human G1, G3, G9, and G12 strains. Of note is that the NSP4 gene of strain A23 exhibited the closest relationship with the cognate genes of human-like bovine strains as well as human strains, suggesting the occurrence of reassortment between human and bovine strains. Furthermore, strains A14, A25, P02, P39, and P43 were very closely related to one another in all the 11 gene segments, indicating derivation of the five strains from a common origin. On the other hand, strain A23 consistently formed distinct clusters as to all the 11 gene segments, indicating a distinct origin of strain A23 from that of strains A14, A25, P02, P39, and P43. To our knowledge, this is the first report on whole genome-based characterization of G12 strains that have emerged in Myanmar. Our observations will provide important insights into the evolutionary dynamics of spreading G12 rotaviruses in Asia.
Unsupervised Semantic-Based Aggregation of Deep Convolutional Features

In this paper, we propose a simple but effective semantic-based aggregation (SBA) method. The proposed SBA utilizes the discriminative filters of deep convolutional layers as semantic detectors. Moreover, we propose the effective unsupervised strategy to select some semantic detectors to generate the “soft region proposals,” which highlight certain discriminative pattern of objects and suppress the noise of background. The final global SBA representation could then be acquired by aggregating the regional representations weighted by the selected “soft region proposals” corresponding to various semantic content. Our unsupervised SBA is easy to generalize and achieves excellent performance on various tasks. We conduct comprehensive experiments and show that our unsupervised SBA outperforms the state-of-the-art unsupervised and supervised aggregation methods on image retrieval, place recognition, and cloud classification.
Combining One-Class Classifiers for Mobile-User Substitution Detection

Modern personal mobile devices, as mobile phones, smartphones, and communicators can be easily lost or stolen. Due to the functional abilities of these devices, their use by an unintended person may result in a severe security incident concerning private or corporate data and services. The means of user substitution detection are needed to be able to detect situations when a device is used by a non-legitimate user. In this paper, the problem of user substitution detection is considered as a one-class classification problem where the current user behavior is classified as the one of the legitimate user or of another person. Different behavioral characteristics are to be analyzed independently by dedicated one-class classifiers. In order to combine the classifications produced by these classifiers, a new combining rule is proposed. This rule is applied in a way that makes the outputs of dedicated classifiers independent on the dimensionality of underlying behavioral characteristics. As a result, the overall classification accuracy may improve significantly as illustrated in the simulated experiments presented.
Effects of Corn Processing Methodand Protein Concentration inFinishing Diets Containing WetCorn Gluten Feed on CattlePerformance

Abstract Three hundred twenty crossbred steer calves (308 kg) were used to determine the effects of corn processing and addition of urea on performance with diets containing wet corn gluten feed (WCGF). The treatment design was a 5 x 2 factorial with factors of corn processing (dry-rolled, DRC; fine-ground, FGC; rolled high-moisture, RHMC; ground high-moisture, GHMC; or steam-flaked corn, SFC) and CP concentration (14 or 15%) with 4 pens per treatment and 8 steers per pen. The final diet contained 60% corn, 25% WCGF, 10% corn silage, and 5% supplement (DM basis). No significant protein x grain processing interactions occurred for feedlot performance or carcass variables. Steers fed DRC and FGC had similar DMI, but greater (P
Dissection of a bug dataset: Anatomy of 395 patches from Defects4J

Well-designed and publicly available datasets of bugs are an invaluable asset to advance research fields such as fault localization and program repair as they allow directly and fairly comparison between competing techniques and also the replication of experiments. These datasets need to be deeply understood by researchers: the answer for questions like "which bugs can my technique handle? " and "for which bugs is my technique effective? " depends on the comprehension of properties related to bugs and their patches. However, such properties are usually not included in the datasets, and there is still no widely adopted methodology for characterizing bugs and patches. In this work, we deeply study 395 patches of the Defects4J dataset. Quantitative properties (patch size and spreading) were automatically extracted, whereas qualitative ones (repair actions and patterns) were manually extracted using a thematic analysis-based approach. We found that 1) the median size of Defects4J patches is four lines, and almost 30% of the patches contain only addition of lines; 2) 92% of the patches change only one file, and 38% has no spreading at all; 3) the top-3 most applied repair actions are addition of method calls, conditionals, and assignments, occurring in 77% of the patches; and 4) nine repair patterns were found for 95% of the patches, where the most prevalent, appearing in 43% of the patches, is on conditional blocks. These results are useful for researchers to perform advanced analysis on their techniques' results based on Defects4J. Moreover, our set of properties can be used to characterize and compare different bug datasets.
Further studies with the fluorescent treponemal antibody-absorption double-staining procedure

A double-staining procedure for the fluorescent treponemal antibody-absorption test, using fluorescein isothiocyanate as a label for the class-specific anti-human globulin and tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate as a label for a counterstain reagent, has been described. This method requires the addition of a KP560 barrier filter, with a microscope equipped with vertical illumination, to exclude the rhodamine emission in reading the fluorescein fluorescence. The present study evaluated reversing the dye label for each conjugate in the double-staining procedure, thus eliminating the need for the KP560 filter. It also considered the possibility of shortening the counterstaining time and compared various methods for preparing antigen slides in an attempt to establish a method that increases the number of treponemes per microscopic field. The results indicate that a rhodamine-labeled class-specific anti-human globulin as a primary stain, and a fluorescein-labeled anti-treponemal globulin as a counterstain, provide an acceptable method for performing the fluorescent treponemal antibody-absorption double-staining procedure. Nonfixed antigen slides were held for 16 days in a desiccator or stored in plastic bags with silica gel for 3 weeks; then, with methanol fixation, they were used satisfactorily in the double-staining procedure. A shortened incubation time for the counterstain allowed more rapid slide processing.
Antibacterial properties of silk fabric treated with Aloe Vera and silver nanoparticles

Silk is one of the important textile fibres used in apparel application. Since it is hygroscopic proteinous fibre, it is affected by microbes during usage and storage. Hence, antimicrobial treatment is desired to contain with this problem. Antimicrobial treatment is done using natural and synthetic agents. Nanoparticles have been added as antimicrobial agent for the application. In the present work, composite treatment of silk with Aloe Vera– a natural product and silver nanoparticles is done through crosslinking of 1,2,3,4-butane tetra carboxylic acid (BTCA) with silk in the presence of sodium hypophosphite (SHP). Effect of varying the concentration of BTCA, Aloe Vera and silver nanoparticles has been investigated. Untreated and treated silk fabrics have been characterized by FTIR, SEM and XRD to elucidate the effect of the treatment in terms of binding of Aloe Vera and silver nanoparticles, morphological changes and degree of crystallinity. Mechanical properties have been evaluated and analysed to illustrate the effect of the treatment. Further, the antimicrobial properties of the treated samples were evaluated against S. aureus (gram positive) and K. pneumoniae (gram negative) bacteria and the antimicrobial activity is found to be excellent. In order to assess the durability of the treatment, dry-cleaning has been done and subsequently antimicrobial properties have been assessed. Treated silk fabric samples after dry-cleaning upto 5 cycles exhibited satisfactory antimicrobial activity indicating that the treatment is durable in all the recipes. It is inferred that Aloe Vera chemically binds with silk through BTCA crosslinking while silver nanoparticles get adhesively bound or entrapped in the fibre matrix resulting in durable antimicrobial activity.
Fabrication of antistatic fibers with core/sheath and segmented-pie configurations

Artificial antistatic fibers due to their low cost as well as providing desirable properties based on their constitutive components, have attracted considerable interests. In the present study, bicomponent antistatic fibers with various cross-sectional configurations (i.e. core/sheath and segmented-pie structures) were produced using the mixture of carbon black/dispersing agent/PBT and polyethylene terephthalate. To investigate their practical application, woven fabrics were produced and then examined upon their antistatic characteristics as well their thermal properties, wash durability and breaking strength and elongation. Moreover, the effect of dispersing agent during fiber spinning was examined. Among the produced fibers with different structural configuration, it was concluded that the core/sheath antistatic fibers exhibited higher breaking strength and elongation, as well as lower electrical resistivity. Rheological investigations based on the pressure tests indicated that the homogeneous distribution of the fillers (e.g. carbon black) within the polyester pellets is required for manufacturing the uniform fibers. Moreover, it was determined that surface resistivity of the fabrics could be kept unchangeable even after 20 times of washing, revealing their reliable wash durability. Finally, it was found out that the mixture of carbon black/dispersing agent/PBT provides such desirable conductivity; also, the fabrics comprised of fibers with core/sheath configuration could be a good candidate for antistatic applications within the textile industry.
Strength Gains by Motor Imagery with Different Ratios of Physical to Mental Practice

The purpose of this training study was to determine the magnitude of strength gains following a high-intensity resistance training (i.e., improvement of neuromuscular coordination) that can be achieved by imagery of the respective muscle contraction imagined maximal isometric contraction (IMC training). Prior to the experimental intervention, subjects completed a 4-week standardized strength training program. 3 groups with different combinations of real maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) and mental (IMC) strength training (M75, M50, M25; numbers indicate percentages of mental trials) were compared to a MVC-only training group (M0) and a control condition without strength training (CO). Training sessions (altogether 12) consisted of four sets of two maximal 5-s isometric contractions with 10 s rest between sets of either MVC or IMC training. Task-specific effects of IMC training were tested in four strength exercises commonly used in practical settings (bench pressing, leg pressing, triceps extension, and calf raising). Maximum isometric voluntary contraction force (MVC) was measured before and after the experimental training intervention and again 1 week after cessation of the program. IMC groups (M25, M50, M75) showed slightly smaller increases in MVC (3.0% to 4.2%) than M0 (5.1%), but significantly stronger improvements than CO (−0.2%). Compared to further strength gains in M0 after 1 week (9.4% altogether), IMC groups showed no “delayed” improvement, but the attained training effects remained stable. It is concluded that high-intensity strength training sessions can be partly replaced by IMC training sessions without any considerable reduction of strength gains.
What is the True Rate of Social Mobility ? Surnames and Social Mobility in England , 1800-2012

Using rare surnames we follow the socio-economic status of initial groups of rich, middling, and poor in England from 1800 until 2012. We measure social status through wealth, education, occupation, membership in political elites, and average age at death. Mobility rates are much lower than conventionally estimated, including for the most recent generations. There is considerable persistence of status, even after 200 years. Surprisingly the arrival of mass publicly funded education, and universal suffrage, does not improve mobility. Finally we show why mobility rates measured in this way provide better estimates of long run, social group, and generalized social mobility than conventional estimates.
Brass fillers in friction composite materials: Tribological and brake squeal characterization for suitable effect evaluation

In this paper, brake pad performance of two organic matrix composites namely, Sample 1 (contains no brass filler) and Sample 2 (contains 1.5% brass filler), is studied based on tribological and squeal noise behavior. In the first stage, a pin-on-disc tribometer is used to evaluate the frictional behavior of the two pads. On the following stage, these pads are tested on squeal noise occurrence using a drag-type brake dynamometer. From the two type of tests, the results show that; (i) brass fillers play a dual role; firstly as reinforcing element of the brake pad providing primary contact sites, and secondly as solid lubricant by contributing to the formation of a layer of granular material providing velocity accommodation between the pad and the disc; (ii) brass fillers contribute to friction force stabilization and smooth sliding behavior; (iii) the presence of small weight quantity of brass filler strongly contributes to squeal occurrences; (iv) there is close correlation between pin-on-disc tribometer and brake dynamometer tests in terms of tribological aspect.
E-Portfolio Web-based for Students’ Internship Program Activities

Internship program is an important part in vocational education process to improve the quality of competent graduates. The complete work documentation process in electronic portfolio (e-Portfolio) platform will facilitate students in reporting the results of their work to both university and industry supervisor. The purpose of this research is to create a more easily accessed e-Portfolio which is appropriate for students and supervisors' need in documenting their work and monitoring process. The method used in this research is fundamental research. This research is focused on the implementation of internship e-Portfolio features by demonstrating them to students who have conducted internship program. The result of this research is to create a proper web-based e-Portfolio which can be used to facilitate students in documenting the results of their work and aid supervisors in monitoring process during internship.