Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preattentive Extraction of Abstract Auditory Rules in Speech Sound Stream: A Mismatch Negativity Study Using Lexical Tones

Background Extraction of linguistically relevant auditory features is critical for speech comprehension in complex auditory environments, in which the relationships between acoustic stimuli are often abstract and constant while the stimuli per se are varying. These relationships are referred to as the abstract auditory rule in speech and have been investigated for their underlying neural mechanisms at an attentive stage. However, the issue of whether or not there is a sensory intelligence that enables one to automatically encode abstract auditory rules in speech at a preattentive stage has not yet been thoroughly addressed. Methodology/Principal Findings We chose Chinese lexical tones for the current study because they help to define word meaning and hence facilitate the fabrication of an abstract auditory rule in a speech sound stream. We continuously presented native Chinese speakers with Chinese vowels differing in formant, intensity, and level of pitch to construct a complex and varying auditory stream. In this stream, most of the sounds shared flat lexical tones to form an embedded abstract auditory rule. Occasionally the rule was randomly violated by those with a rising or falling lexical tone. The results showed that the violation of the abstract auditory rule of lexical tones evoked a robust preattentive auditory response, as revealed by whole-head electrical recordings of the mismatch negativity (MMN), though none of the subjects acquired explicit knowledge of the rule or became aware of the violation. Conclusions/Significance Our results demonstrate that there is an auditory sensory intelligence in the perception of Chinese lexical tones. The existence of this intelligence suggests that the humans can automatically extract abstract auditory rules in speech at a preattentive stage to ensure speech communication in complex and noisy auditory environments without drawing on conscious resources.
Facts of Critical Thinking Skills? What NAEP Results Say.

In the past 30 years, policymakers and educators have debated whether schooling should emphasize facts or critical thinking skills. Proponents of the first view argue that students need to know when the Civil War happened before they can accurately interpret its causes. Proponents of the second view counter that students will soon forget the exact dates of the Battle of Chancellorsville, but they will probably remember the insights that they gain from studying this battle's causes, leadership, military reasoning, and human costs.
SLIP running with an articulated robotic leg

SLIP models are generally known as one of the best and simplest abstractions describing the spring-like leg behavior found in human and animal running, and have thus been subject to exhaustive investigation. To exploit these findings in real robots, we utilize an operational space controller that projects the behavior of the SLIP model onto the dynamics of an actual segmented robotic leg. Additionally, we introduce a method to compensate for the energetic losses at the impact collisions, which are not accounted for in the simplified SLIP assumptions. This allows the direct application of existing dead-beat control strategies to arbitrary robotic legs, for which we can show that the collision and compensation effects in the actual leg enlarge the regions of stable running and reduce the minimally required locomotion speed. The necessary joint torque profiles can be generated in large part passively, for example by using high compliance series elastic actuators.
New Media Use and Rural Youth Substance Use

NEW MEDIA USE AND RURAL YOUTH SUBSTANCE USE by William Meub University of New Hampshire, December, 2011 Data from the Coos county youth survey is used to examine new media use habits and explore the relationship between new media use and substance use among two cohorts of rural youth (N= 657). Specifically, I present descriptive information on new media usage, examine whether new media use is related to substance use and explore a possible moderation relationship between substance use and negative substance-use-related behavioral outcomes. Older adolescents reported more new media use than younger adolescents but there was no evidence of sex differences in usage. Greater new media use was found to be related to greater substance use, but not negative substance-userelated behavioral outcomes. This could reflect increased communication with family members and positive peer groups, often considered a protective factor against substance use. Finally, new media use did not moderate the relationship between substance use and negative substance-use-related behavioral outcomes.
On strong regular stabilizability for linear neutral type systems

For a large class of linear neutral type systems the problem of stabilizing feedback is studied. The proposed feedback is regular, in this sense that it does not contain the derivative of delayed state as it is usually considered. This allows to maintain the system in the same class. The obtained closed loop system is asymptotically stable but not exponentially stable
Parenting at Midnight: Measuring Parents' Thoughts and Strategies to Help Young Children Sleep Through the Night

Throughout the night, brief periods of arousal are common and not necessarily indicative of problematic sleep. Awakening without an easy return to sleep (“night-waking”), however, can be problematic for parents and children alike. Approximately 30% of preschool-aged children wake at least once per night and require parental intervention (“help or assistance”). Although parents’ responses to children’s night-waking (i.e., parents’ night-waking strategies) can determine the course of night-waking over time, very little is known about night-waking strategy use among parents of preschool-aged children. The purpose of the present dissertation was to lay the foundation upon which a better understanding of the relationship of parenting to night-waking among preschool-aged children can be built. In order to accomplish this goal, four measures were created: the Children’s Night-waking Behaviour Scale (CNBS), the Night-waking Vignettes Scale (NVS), the Parents’ Night-waking Thoughts and Affect Questionnaire (PNTQ), and the Night-waking Strategies Scale (NSS). Rigorous measurement development protocols were followed. These measures, as well as parent-report measures of children’s night-waking and questionnaires used to assess construct validity, were completed by a sample of 203 mothers (M age = 32.4 years, SD =5.1) of preschool-aged children (M age = 3.4 years, SD = 1.0). All four measures displayed adequate to good reliability and promising evidence of convergent validity was observed. Significant associations between the measures and children’s night-waking were also observed. Following measurement development and validation, a series of multiple regressions were conducted to explore associations among the measures and identify areas for further research. In these regressions, mothers’ night-waking strategies (as measured by the NSS) were significantly predicted by children’s behaviour during night-wakings (as measured by the CNBS), mothers’ agreement with night-waking strategies (as measured by the NVS), and mothers’ thoughts and affect during night-waking episodes (as measured by the PNTQ). Clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed.
Sample Value Adjustment Improves Phasor Estimation at Off-Nominal Frequencies

This paper presents an algorithm for better phasor estimation at off-nominal frequencies. The sampling rate remains unchanged, but instead the amplitude of the sample values within a buffer is altered in order to give a signal of the same amplitude but different frequency. The re-calculation of the samples is done by second order spline interpolation. The effect is that the signal frequency appears to be changed to nominal. The algorithm requires knowledge of the frequency, which has to be determined by other means. It can only be used for filters with a finite window length, such as finite-impulse response filters. The proposed algorithm gives a maximum magnitude error of less than 0.1% for frequency deviations up to 10% from nominal. The proposed algorithm does not need any over-sampling and re-sampling to a lower sampling rate. It helps preserve the desired frequency characteristics of filters at off-nominal frequencies. This paper presents a simulation example, which uses an off-nominal test signal of 55 Hz with a 10% second harmonic. The result indicates that this test signal might cause problems for some phasor algorithms, but the proposed sample value adjustment algorithm handles this test case efficiently and complies with Level 1 of IEEE Standard C37.118-2005.
Cold Rolling Effects on Material Properties in Pallet Rack Uprights

Abstract: Pallet rack structures are usually made up of thin walled cold formed steel sections. The cold rolling process changes the material properties, increasing the yield strength and tensile strength across the section. According to EN1993-1-3, an equivalent yielding strength is allowed to be considered in design to account for the changes in material properties. It has to be mentioned that this approach does not take into account the residual stresses that arise following the forming process. The current paper presents the experimental evidence of residual stresses as result cold rolling process for two pallet rack upright sections. Based on experimental findings, a series of numerical models were created in order investigate the influence of residual stresses onto the load bearing capacity of pallet rack uprights. The experimental program was developed within the CEMSIG Research Centre (http://cemsig.ct.upt.ro) of “Politehnica” University of Timisoara. The increase of yield strength and tensile strength across the crosssection was also experimentally determined.
Reelin function in neural stem cell biology

In the adult brain, neural stem cells (NSC) must migrate to express their neuroplastic potential. The addition of recombinant reelin to human NSC (HNSC) cultures facilitates neuronal retraction in the neurospheroid. Because we detected reelin, α3-integrin receptor subunits, and disabled-1 immunoreactivity in HNSC cultures, it is possible that integrin-mediated reelin signal transduction is operative in these cultures. To investigate whether reelin is important in the regulation of NSC migration, we injected HNSCs into the lateral ventricle of null reeler and wild-type mice. Four weeks after transplantation, we detected symmetrical migration and extensive neuronal and glial differentiation of transplanted HNSCs in wild-type, but not in reeler mice. In reeler mice, most of the injected HNSCs failed to migrate or to display the typical differentiation pattern. However, a subpopulation of transplanted HNSCs expressing reelin did show a pattern of chain migration in the reeler mouse cortex. We also analyzed the endogenous NSC population in the reeler mouse using bromodeoxyuridine injections. In reeler mice, the endogenous NSC population in the hippocampus and olfactory bulb was significantly reduced compared with wild-type mice; in contrast, endogenous NSCs expressed in the subventricular zonewere preserved. Hence, it seems likely that the lack of endogenous reelin may have disrupted the migration of the NSCs that had proliferated in the SVZ. We suggest that a possible inhibition of NSC migration in psychiatric patients with a reelin deficit may be a potential problem in successful NSC transplantation in these patients.
Integrin-Linked Kinase Expression in Myeloid Cells Promotes Inflammatory Signaling during Experimental Colitis

The pathology of inflammatory bowel diseases is driven by the inflammatory signaling pathways associated with mucosal epithelial damage. Myeloid cells are known to play an essential role in mediating epithelial inflammatory responses during injury. However, the precise role of these cells in stimulating intestinal inflammation and the subsequent tissue damage is unclear. In this article, we show that expression of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) in myeloid cells is critical for the epithelial inflammatory signaling during colitis induced by dextran sodium sulfate. Myeloid ILK (M-ILK) deficiency significantly ameliorates the pathology of experimental colitis. In response to dextran sodium sulfate, colonic infiltration of neutrophils and inflammatory cytokine production are impaired in M-ILK–deficient mice, and activation of epithelial NF-κB and PI3K signaling pathways are restricted by the M-ILK deficiency. In contrast, reduced epithelial damage in M-ILK–deficient mice is correlated with elevated levels of epithelial Stat3 activation and proliferation. Moreover, M-ILK–dependent inflammatory signaling in the mucosal epithelium can be therapeutically targeted by the pharmacological inhibition of ILK during experimental colitis. Collectively, these findings identify M-ILK as a critical regulator of epithelial inflammatory signaling pathways during colitis and, as a consequence, targeting M-ILK could provide therapeutic benefit.
Qualitative and Quantitative Detection of Aflatoxin M1 Residues in White Soft Cheese

A total of 50random samples of locally manufactured Egyptian soft cheese including (25 each of Damietta and fresh kariesh cheese) were collected from different markets and shopkeepers in Mansoura city, Egypt. Each sample was divided under complete hygienic measures with a clean sterile, knife into two parts; the first part was prepared for estimation by qualitative lateral flow test (strip test) and the second one was subjected to quantitative estimation test by (Immune Affinity Column with Flurometric Assay). The obtained results for qualitative detection of Aflatoxin M1 revealed that 8 (32%) of Kariesh cheese samples were contaminated by Aflatoxin M1 and 12 (48%) of Damietta cheese were contaminated byAflatoxin M1. Concerning the concentration of Aflatoxin M1 in examined fresh Kariesh cheese and Damietta cheese samples for the minimum was 1.95 and 1.54, the maximum were 6,11 and 14.73 with a mean value 3.6 and 6.7 ppb, respectively. It had been emphasized that all results of this study exceeded the Egyptian regulations, European commission (EC) regulations and US regulations which recommend that cheese sample must be free from Aflatoxin M1, do not exceed 250 ng/L, and do not exceed 5 µg/kg in milk, respectively. It was concluded that the qualitative method of detection of mycotoxin has great benefit in minimizing cost of regulations and monitoring and give a chance to easily set regulation for quality control . Also, quantitative methods with highly detectable limits give accurate results to estimate the level of impact.
Thymidylate Synthase and Excision Repair Cross-Complementing Group-1 as Predictors of Responsiveness in Mesothelioma Patients Treated with Pemetrexed/Carboplatin

Purpose: The pemetrexed/platinum agent combination represents the standard of care in first-line treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). However, there are no established indicators of responsiveness that can be used to optimize the treatment. This retrospective study aimed to assess the role of excision repair cross-complementing group-1 (ERCC1) and thymidylate synthase (TS) in tumors, and correlate expression levels and polymorphisms of these key determinants of drug activity with the outcome of MPM patients treated with carboplatin/pemetrexed in first-line setting. Experimental design: Analysis of TS and ERCC1 polymorphisms, mRNA and protein expression was done by PCR and immunohistochemistry [with the H-score (histologic score)] in tumor specimens from 126 MPM patients, including 99 carboplatin-/pemetrexed-treated patients. Results: A significant correlation between low TS protein expression and disease control (DC) to carboplatin/pemetrexed therapy (P = 0.027), longer progression-free survival (PFS; P = 0.017), and longer overall survival (OS; P = 0.022) was found when patients were categorized according to median H-score. However, patients with the higher tertile of TS mRNA expression correlated with higher risk of developing progressive disease (P = 0.022), shorter PFS (P < 0.001), and shorter OS (P < 0.001). At multivariate analysis, the higher tertile of TS mRNA level and TS H-score confirmed their independent prognostic role for DC, PFS, and OS. No significant associations were found among ERCC1 protein expression, TS and ERCC1 polymorphisms, and clinical outcome. Conclusions: In our series of carboplatin-/pemetrexed-treated MPM patients, low TS protein and mRNA levels were significantly associated to DC, improved PFS, and OS. Prospective trials for the validation of the prognostic/predictive role of TS in MPM patients treated with pemetrexed-based regimens are warranted. Clin Cancer Res; 17(8); 2581–90. ©2011 AACR.
Information-Theoretic Considerations in Batch Reinforcement Learning

Value-function approximation methods that operate in batch mode have foundational importance to reinforcement learning (RL). Finite sample guarantees for these methods often crucially rely on two types of assumptions: (1) mild distribution shift, and (2) representation conditions that are stronger than realizability. However, the necessity ("why do we need them? ") and the naturalness ("when do they hold? ") of such assumptions have largely eluded the literature. In this paper, we revisit these assumptions and provide theoretical results towards answering the above questions, and make steps towards a deeper understanding of value-function approximation.
Providing interactive access to architectural floorplans for blind people

The TeDUB system is a new method for providing access to graphic information for blind people, using synthetic speech, sounds and forcefeedback information from a joystick. Currently certain types of visual diagram, such as architectural floorplans, can be automated by the TeDUB system and presented to the user. A variety of features to allow users to navigate through the diagram (Text View, Map View, Spatial Navigation View, Walkthrough) and explore the information have been developed. This article presents an overview of the TeDUB system, some of the work carried out in developing the user requirements for the system, and an evaluation with 34 blind participants of the floorplan prototype of the system.
Decoupling functional mechanisms of adaptive encoding

In a natural setting, adaptive mechanisms constantly modulate the encoding properties of sensory neurons in response to changes in the external environment. Recent experiments have revealed that adaptation affects both the spatiotemporal integration properties and baseline membrane potential of sensory neurons. However, the precise functional role of adaptation remains an open question, due in part to contradictory experimental results. Here, we develop a framework to characterize adaptive encoding, including a cascade model with a time-varying receptive field (reflecting spatiotemporal integration properties) and offset (reflecting baseline membrane potential), and a recursive technique for tracking changes in the model parameters during a single stimulus/response trial. Simulated and experimental responses from retinal neurons are used to track adaptive changes in receptive field structure and offset during nonstationary stimulation. Due to the nonlinear nature of spiking neurons, the parameters of the receptive field and offset must be estimated simultaneously, or changes in the offset (or even in the statistical distribution of the stimulus) can mask, confound, or create the illusion of adaptive changes in the receptive field. Our analysis suggests that these confounding effects may be at the root of the inconsistency in the literature and shows that seemingly conflicting experimental results can be reconciled within our framework.
Actions of Testosterone in Prepubertal and Postpubertal Male Hamsters: Dissociation of Effects on Reproductive Behavior and Brain Androgen Receptor Immunoreactivity

This study was conducted to determine whether there is a increase in responsiveness to the activating effects of testosterone on male reproductive behavior during puberty in male golden hamsters and whether responsiveness to behavioral actions of testosterone is correlated with the ability of testosterone to upregulate brain androgen receptor immunoreactivity (AR-ir). Sexually naive male hamsters were castrated at 21 or 42 days of age and implanted subcutaneously with a pellet containing 0, 2.5, or 5 mg of testosterone. One week later, males were given a 10-min mating test with a receptive female. Animals were euthanized 1 hr after the behavioral test, and blood samples and brains were collected. Plasma testosterone levels were equivalent in prepubertal and adult males that had been administered the same dose of testosterone. However, adult males exhibited more mounts, intromissions, and ejaculations than prepubertal males, demonstrating that postpubertal males are more responsive than prepubertal males to the effects of testosterone on sexual behavior. In both age groups, testosterone increased the number of AR-ir cells per unit area in several brain regions involved in male sexual behavior, including the medial preoptic nucleus (MPN), medial amygdala, posteromedial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and magnocellular preoptic nucleus (MPNmag). Surprisingly, testosterone increased AR-ir in the latter three regions to a greater extent in prepubertal males than in adults. Thus, prepubertal males are more responsive to the effects of testosterone on AR-ir in these regions. In a separate experiment, a pubertal increase in the number of AR-ir cells per unit area was found in both the MPN and MPNmag of intact male hamsters. These results indicate that a testosterone-dependent increase in brain AR during puberty may be necessary, but is not sufficient, to induce an increase in behavioral responsiveness to testosterone.
Youth work, racist behaviour and young people Education or blame?

This paper explores the issue of racist behaviour by young people, particularly White young people and the response of youth workers and other educators to that racism. In particular, it argues that anti-racism is simply not working with the young people it really needs to work with. The paper provides evidence that youth workers have been disempowered by understandings of anti-racist policy and practice, and that the same policies may well, unintentionally, be having a negative affect on the most marginalised white young people. The paper argues that this may well be due to ‘deficit’ understandings of such white young people, understandings close to ‘underclass’ pathology. The paper was conceived before the events of summer 2001, which saw violent clashes involving white and Asian young people, and the Police, in several towns in the North of England, and violent incidents directed at Asylum Seekers across the UK, culminating in a racist murder in Sighthill, Glasgow. However, these events can be viewed as all too predictable. They pose fundamental questions of theory and practice for Youth Workers and other educators already working with young people who may support, or even perpetrate, such acts of racist violence. This paper aims to debate these questions by focussing in particular on the findings and lessons of an action research project carried out by the University of Huddersfield, material from which has since been published by the Commission for Racial Equality as ‘Open Talk, Open Minds’ (CRE, 1999). The methodology and findings of this research are discussed below.