Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental dynamics between young adults’ life satisfaction and engagement with studies and work

The present five-wave longitudinal study investigated the cross-lagged associations between young adults’ life satisfaction and study/work engagement over the transition from post-comprehensive studies to higher education or work during the second and third decades of life. Gender, educational track, academic performance and family socioeconomic status were also examined. The study is part of the longitudinal Finnish Educational Transitions (FinEdu) study, and used data from secondary education onwards, following 821 participants from age 17 to 25. The developmental dynamics showed that, in particular, young adults’ life satisfaction predicted their study/work engagement both during their post-comprehensive education and after the transition to higher education or work. Moreover, study/work engagement positively predicted young adults’ life satisfaction during their third decade of life. In addition, high initial life satisfaction was more typical among males. However, no differences related to gender or academic track were observed in the developmental dynamics of life satisfaction and study/work engagement. These results suggested that general wellbeing spills over to study/work domain-specific characteristics of wellbeing and promotes positive personal development and adjustment to study/work transitions during the third decade of life.
University of Huddersfield Repository Investigating perceptions of the academic educational environment across six undergraduate health care courses in the United Kingdom

: Aim: To compare how health care professional students perceive their academic learning environment in one Higher Education Institution (HEI). Method: The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM), a scale that measures students' perceptions of their academic classroom learning environments, and demographic items were completed by 673 undergraduate students enrolled in health professional courses at the University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom. Respondent scores, partitioned by demographic variables, were obtained on the total DREEM scale and on the individual sub-scales. Analysis of variance techniques were utilized to investigate associations between demographic variables on the total DREEM score and sub-scale scores. Results: All students from all year levels reported total DREEM scores between 101 - 150, indicating a more positive than negative perception of their academic learning environments. Both profession and year of study were found to be significantly associated with total DREEM scores, with occupational therapists, physiotherapists and nurses scoring higher than operating department practice students; and first year students scoring higher than third year students. A significant interaction between these two factors was found to exist, indicating that the impact of the year of study does not apply equally over the different professional groups of students. Conclusions: Students in this study reported positive perceptions about their academic classroom learning environments and teaching delivered. Further interrogation of the DREEM sub-scale dimensions at a programme/cohort level may offer course teams' further information to inform continuous quality improvement. presents and explores results of a study Dundee The paper aims to identify factors that are associated with the academic learning environment and the perceptions of undergraduate healthcare students perceptions of the quality of teaching delivered.
Connecting Neurons to a Mobile Robot: An In Vitro Bidirectional Neural Interface

One of the key properties of intelligent behaviors is the capability to learn and adapt to changing environmental conditions. These features are the result of the continuous and intense interaction of the brain with the external world, mediated by the body. For this reason “embodiment” represents an innovative and very suitable experimental paradigm when studying the neural processes underlying learning new behaviors and adapting to unpredicted situations. To this purpose, we developed a novel bidirectional neural interface. We interconnected in vitro neurons, extracted from rat embryos and plated on a microelectrode array (MEA), to external devices, thus allowing real-time closed-loop interaction. The novelty of this experimental approach entails the necessity to explore different computational schemes and experimental hypotheses. In this paper, we present an open, scalable architecture, which allows fast prototyping of different modules and where coding and decoding schemes and different experimental configurations can be tested. This hybrid system can be used for studying the computational properties and information coding in biological neuronal networks with far-reaching implications for the future development of advanced neuroprostheses.
Citation for Published Item: Use Policy Randomized Diffusion for Indivisible Loads

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Abstract We present a new randomized diffusion-based algorithm for balancing indivisible tasks (tokens) on a network. Our aim is to minimize the discrepancy between the maximum and minimum load. The algorithm works as follows. Every vertex distributes its tokens as evenly as possible among its neighbors and itself. If this is not possible without splitting some tokens, the vertex redistributes its excess tokens among all its neighbors randomly (without replacement). In this paper we prove several upper bounds on the load discrepancy for general networks. These bounds depend on some expansion properties of the network, that is, the second largest eigenvalue, and a novel measure which we refer to as refined local divergence. We then apply these general bounds to obtain results for some specific networks. For constant-degree expanders and torus graphs, these yield exponential improvements on the discrepancy bounds compared to the algorithm of Rabani, Sinclair, and Wanka [14]. For hypercubes we obtain a polynomial improvement. In contrast to previous papers, our algorithm is vertex-based and not edge-based. This means excess tokens are assigned to vertices instead to edges, and the vertex reallocates all of its excess tokens by itself. This approach avoids nodes having " negative loads " (like in [8, 10]), but causes additional dependencies for the analysis.
HybCAST: Rich Content Dissemination in Hybrid Cellular and 802.11 Ad Hoc Networks

We design, implement, and evaluate a middleware system, HybCAST, that leverages a hybrid cellular and ad hoc network to disseminate rich contents from a source to all mobile devices in a predetermined region. HybCAST targets information dissemination over a range of scenarios (e.g., military operations, crisis alerting, and popular sporting events) in which high reliability and low latency are critical and existing fixed infrastructures such as wired networks, 802.11 access points are heavily loaded or partially destroyed. HybCAST implements a suite of protocols that: (i) structures the hybrid network into a hierarchy of two-level ad hoc clusters for better scalability, (ii) employ both data push and pull mechanisms for high reliability and low latency dissemination of rich content, and (iii) implement a near-optimal gateway selection algorithm to minimize the transmission redundancy. To demonstrate its practicality and efficiency, we have implemented and deployed the HybCAST middleware on several Android smart phones and an in-network Linux machine that acts as a dissemination server. The system is evaluated via real experiments using a UMTS network and extensive packet-level simulations. Our experimental results from a live network show that HybCAST achieves 100% reliability with shorter latencies and lower overall energy consumption. Simulation results confirm that HybCAST outperforms other state-of-the-art systems in the literature. For example, HybCAST exhibits a 5 times reduction in the dissemination latencies as compared to other hybrid dissemination protocols, while its energy consumption is a third of a cellular-only dissemination system. Furthermore, the simulation results demonstrate that HybCAST scales well and maintains good performance under varying numbers of mobile devices, diverse content sizes, and device mobility.
Patient-driven control of FES-supported standing up: a simulation study.

To control movements aided by functional electrical stimulation (FES) in paraplegic patients, stimulation of the paralyzed lower limbs might be adjusted in response to voluntary upper body effort. Recently, Donaldson and Yu proposed a theoretical approach, called "control by handle reactions of leg muscle stimulation" (CHRELMS), in which stimulation of the lower limbs depends on upper body effort, i.e., body posture and recorded hand reactions, and is aimed to minimize arm forces during standing up and standing. An alternative strategy is presented in this paper, which accounts for voluntary upper body effort as well, but does not require estimation of hand reactions. The objective of this study is to test both strategies by applying them to a generic two-dimensional (2-D) neuromusculoskeletal model. The model takes into account the major properties of muscle and segmental dynamics during FES-supported standing-up movements of a paraplegic patient. In comparison to standing up without FES-support, both closed-loop strategies yield satisfying standing-up movements although no reference information (e.g., a desired trajectory) is required. Arm forces can be significantly reduced. Using the model to optimize the controller, time-consuming and strenuous trial-and-error experimentation could be avoided. However, final experimental studies are planned to verify the presented strategies.
Herschel -ATLAS/GAMA: a census of dust in optically selected galaxies from stacking at submillimetre wavelengths

We use the Herschel-ATLAS survey to conduct the first large-scale statistical study of the submillimetre properties of optically selected galaxies. Using ∼80 000 r-band selected galaxies from 126 deg2 of the GAMA survey, we stack into submillimetre imaging at 250, 350 and 500 μ m to gain unprecedented statistics on the dust emission from galaxies at z < 0.35. We find that low-redshift galaxies account for 5 per cent of the cosmic 250-μm background (4 per cent at 350 μ m; 3 per cent at 500 μ m), of which approximately 60 per cent comes from ‘blue’ and 20 per cent from ‘red’ galaxies (rest-frame g−r). We compare the dust properties of different galaxy populations by dividing the sample into bins of optical luminosity, stellar mass, colour and redshift. In blue galaxies we find that dust temperature and luminosity correlate strongly with stellar mass at a fixed redshift, but red galaxies do not follow these correlations and overall have lower luminosities and temperatures. We make reasonable assumptions to account for the contaminating flux from lensing by red-sequence galaxies and conclude that galaxies with different optical colours have fundamentally different dust emission properties. Results indicate that while blue galaxies are more luminous than red galaxies due to higher temperatures, the dust masses of the two samples are relatively similar. Dust mass is shown to correlate with stellar mass, although the dust-to-stellar mass ratio is much higher for low stellar mass galaxies, consistent with the lowest mass galaxies having the highest specific star formation rates. We stack the 250 μ m-to-NUV luminosity ratio, finding results consistent with greater obscuration of star formation at lower stellar mass and higher redshift. Submillimetre luminosities and dust masses of all galaxies are shown to evolve strongly with redshift, indicating a fall in the amount of obscured star formation in ordinary galaxies over the last four billion years.
Isosurface Ambient Occlusion and Soft Shadows with Filterable Occlusion Maps

Volumetric data sets are often examined by displaying isosurfaces, surfaces where the data or function takes on a given value. We propose a new method for rendering isosurfaces at interactive rates while supporting dynamic ambient occlusion and/or soft shadows and requiring minimal pre-computation time. By approximating the occlusion in a region as the percentage of occluding voxels in that region, we reduce the ambient occlusion problem to the same problem faced in soft shadow mapping algorithms. In order to quickly extract the number of occluding voxels in an image region, we propose representing distributions using filterable representations such as variance shadow maps or convolution shadow maps. By choosing different sampling patterns from these maps we can dynamically approximate ambient occlusion and/or soft shadows.
Evaluation of the Effects of Atorvastatin on the Treatment of Secondary Pulmonary Hypertension due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Since pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) causes poor prognosis and inflammatory process involved in PH, it is supposed that Statins with anti-inflammatory effects might be useful in the treatment of PH. Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of Atorvastatin on the treatment of pulmonary hypertension in patients with COPD. Patients and Methods A registered (IRCT201108257411N1), triple-blind, randomized controlled trial was performed in Rasoule Akram hospital, Tehran, from 2009 to 2011. Forty five patients with secondary pulmonary hypertension due to COPD were recruited and randomized to two groups receiving either Atorvastatin 40 mg/d or placebo in addition to their current treatment for 6 months. The outcomes including systolic pulmonary arterial hypertension (SPAH), cardiac output (CO), right ventricular size (RVS), CRP, 6 min walk distance test (6MWD), and spirometry parameters were measured after 6 months. Results Baseline characteristics were similar in both groups. After 6 months, pulmonary hypertension changed from 48.5 ± 6.9 to 42.9 ± 9.3 mmHg for Atorvastatin users and from 49.7 ± 11.4 to 48.2 ± 14.6 mmHg for Placebo users (P = 0.19, CI - 13.57 - 2.89), 6MWD after 6 months was 339 ± 155 meters in case group versus 340 ± 106 meters in control group (P = 0.98, CI - 92.58 - 91.15). There were no significant changes in other outcomes including CRP, RVS, CO and spirometry parameters. Conclusions Although we found a trend towards decreasing SPAH and improving 6MWD, no statistically significant shift were detected in our outcomes due to inadequate sample size.
Efficient recognition of event-related potentials in high-density MEG recordings

In brain-computer interfacing (BCI), the recognition of task-specific event-related potentials such as P300 responses is an established approach to regaining communication in severely paralyzed people. However, a reliable detection of single trial potentials is challenging, because they are strongly affected by noise. Furthermore, potentials with their subcomponents are often distributed over several channels. With high density sensor arrays, a hypothesis-driven selection of channels, as often performed in BCIs based on electroencephalography (EEG), is challenging. We present a new data-driven approach that constructs spatio-temporal filters, considerably reducing the number of channels, reducing noise, and simultaneously determining the underlying brain dynamics. The extracted signals can be easily used to recognize the event sequence on which users focus their attention, without applying multivariate classification. We evaluated the approach using high density magnetoencephalography (MEG) data, recorded during a BCI experiment based on P300 responses. Compared to the subject's performance achieved with the initial decoding approach, the recognition rate increased significantly from 74.1% (std: 14.8%) to 95.1% (std: 4.9%) correct detections, which implies an information transfer rate improvement from 6.9 bit/min to 13.1 bit/min on average over 17 subjects.
Nonlinear parabolic problems on manifolds, and a nonexistence result for the noncompact Yamabe problem

We study the Cauchy problem for the semilinear parabolic equations ∆u−Ru+ up − ut = 0 on Mn × (0,∞) with initial value u0 ≥ 0, where Mn is a Riemannian manifold including the ones with nonnegative Ricci curvature. In the Euclidean case and when R = 0, it is well known that 1 + 2 n is the critical exponent, i.e., if p > 1+ 2 n and u0 is smaller than a small Gaussian, then the Cauchy problem has global positive solutions, and if p < 1 + 2 n , then all positive solutions blow up in finite time. In this paper, we show that on certain Riemannian manifolds, the above equation with certain conditions on R also has a critical exponent. More importantly, we reveal an explicit relation between the size of the critical exponent and geometric properties such as the growth rate of geodesic balls. To achieve the results we introduce a new estimate for related heat kernels. As an application, we show that the well-known noncompact Yamabe problem (of prescribing constant positive scalar curvature) on a manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature cannot be solved if the existing scalar curvature decays “too fast” and the volume of geodesic balls does not increase “fast enough”. We also find some complete manifolds with positive scalar curvature, which are conformal to complete manifolds with positive constant and with zero scalar curvatures. This is a new phenomenon which does not happen in the compact case.
Electrophysiological indices of the violence inhibition mechanism and their associations with physical agression, callous-unemotional traits, and dietary omega-3

Each year, aggressive behaviour contributes to a substantial number of criminal offenses - resulting in severe personal, social, and financial ramifications. As such, there is importance for understanding the underlying mechanisms of aggression and how it might best be managed. The violence inhibition mechanism, thought to be dysfunctional in individuals characterised by aggressive behaviour and associated callous-unemotional traits, is used to explain how the perception of facial distress might inhibit an ongoing aggressive act. Despite a sizeable literature characterising the violence inhibition mechanism, to date, empirical research has overlooked this investigation on an electrophysiological level. This thesis developed a novel facial-affect stopping task in order to tease apart the distinct stages of face processing and distress-induced motor extinction using electroencephalography. Results suggested that whilst callous-unemotional traits, specifically uncaring traits, were associated with electrophysiological indices of structural/featural face processing (N170, P200), aggressive traits, specifically physical aggression, were associated with electrophysiological indices of distressinduced motor extinction (stop-N200, stop-P300). Furthermore, in light of a growing literature suggesting a benefit of omega-3 dietary intake for both aggressive and callous-unemotional traits, correlational analysis suggested an association between omega-3 and physical aggression/distress-induced motor extinction, but not callous-unemotional traits/face processing. These results have theoretical implications for understanding and investigating the violence inhibition mechanism on an electrophysiological level, as well as practical utility for better understanding how omega-3 might benefit aggressive traits and motor extinction. Specifically, the importance of distinguishing between both [1] aggressive and callous-unemotional traits and [2] face processing and motor extinction ability, when investigating the violence inhibition mechanism.
Multi-scale retinex for color image enhancement

The retinex is a human perception-based image processing algorithm which provides color constancy and dynamic range compression. We have previously reported on a single-scale retinex (SSR) and shown that it can either achieve color/lightness rendition or dynamic range compression, but not both simultaneously. We now present a multi-scale retinex (MSR) which overcomes this limitation for most scenes. Both color rendition and dynamic range compression are successfully accomplished except for some "pathological" scenes that have very strong spectral characteristics in a single band.
Metadata-based understanding of impostor pair score variations

Metadata about a given face image can include information such as the subject's year of birth, subject gender, and date of acquisition. By determining the degree of metadata matches between the gallery and probe images (such as two subjects having the same gender) we hypothesize that more metadata values that match for an impostor image pair increases the likelihood of a false match. In this work, we explore year of birth, gender, date of acquisition, and expression in an attempt to understand variations in match scores produced by impostor image pairs. Impostor pairs that fall in the weak partition as identified by the previously developed SNoW technique have a slightly larger number of matching metadata values. However, there is little to no statistically significant difference in the scores produced by image pairs with more matching metadata between strong and weak impostor pairs.
Cognitive Consequences of Working Memory Training on a Typically Developed Population

by Bradley Allan Dobrzenski Recent studies have demonstrated that cognitive enhancement training methods directed at working memory can improve the symptoms of disorders characterized by deficits in executive functioning such as Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder. Although additional studies have explored the effects of training on other populations such as the older adults and those who have experienced a stroke, they have not extensively examined whether or not training can improve working memory for typically developed populations. Additionally, the underlying mechanisms impacted by the training have not been elaborated on. Two studies seek to address whether or not working memory can be trained in a population of college students, by examining how three constructs of working memory: interference control, the focus and scope of attention, and cue dependent retrieval, are impacted by working memory training.