Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cerebellar Volume in Musicians 1 Cerebellar Volume in Musicians

Animal experiments have found microstructural changes in the cerebellum in response to long-term motor skill activity that include an increase in the number of synapses per neuron, glial cell volume, and capillary density. The sum of those microstructural changes were reported to lead to regional volume changes. We investigated whether professional keyboard players, who learn specialized motor skills early in life and practice them intensely throughout life, have larger cerebellar volumes than matched non-musicians. Total brain volumes and cerebellar volumes were measured using high-resolution T1-weighted MR images from a large prospectively acquired database of musicians and non-musicians, selecting all right-handed professional keyboard players (n = 56, 28:26 male:female) and age, gender and height matched non-musicians. To correct for intersubject variability, absolute cerebellar volume (aCV) was related to total brain volume (tBV), after demonstration of a strong correlation between these variables (r=0.686, p < 0.001), as the relative cerebellar volume (rCV where rCV = aCV/tBV %). A highly significant effect of gender was found for all variables: males having significantly greater tBV and aCV but females having significantly greater rCV, therefore the male and female groups were analyzed separately. A significant difference in rCV (p<0.025) was found between the musicians (10.38%, SD 0.64) and non-musicians (9.96%, SD 0.71) in the male group. A significant positive correlation (r 2 = 0.545, p = 0.003, two-tailed) was found between intensity of practice (average hours/day of practice over lifetime of training) and rCV in the male musician group. In the female group, there was no significant difference noted in rCV and aCV between musicians and non-musicians, however there was a strong trend in tBV difference (p=0.082) with the female musicians having greater mean tBV than the female non-musicians. Although self-section for musicianship by individuals with innate brain structural differences cannot be completely ruled out, finding an association between rCV and greater intensity of practice in male musicians might indicate structural adaptation to long-term motor activity in the human cerebellum. The absence of an effect of musicianship on cerebellar volume in the female group may be explained by a possible ceiling effect in the female group as it is demonstrated that females in general have relatively larger cerebellar volumes than males. An effect of musicianship may be present in other brain regions in the female group considering the strong trend for a difference in absolute brain volume between the female musicians and non-musicians.
Empirical Evaluation of Mixed-Project Defect Prediction Models

Defect prediction research mostly focus on optimizing the performance of models that are constructed for isolated projects. On the other hand, recent studies try to utilize data across projects for building defect prediction models. We combine both approaches and investigate the effects of using mixed (i.e. within and cross) project data on defect prediction performance, which has not been addressed in previous studies. We conduct experiments to analyze models learned from mixed project data using ten proprietary projects from two different organizations. We observe that code metric based mixed project models yield only minor improvements in the prediction performance for a limited number of cases that are difficult to characterize. Based on existing studies and our results, we conclude that using cross project data for defect prediction is still an open challenge that should only be considered in environments where there is no local data collection activity, and using data from other projects in addition to a project's own data does not pay off in terms of performance.
Raised serum interleukin 15 levels in Kawasaki disease

Background: Interleukin (IL)15 is a novel cytokine that induces T cell proliferation, B cell maturation, natural killer cell cytotoxicity, and may have a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disease, acting upstream from tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα). Kawasaki disease (KD) is an inflammatory disease, in which serum levels of inflammatory cytokines such as TNFα and IL6 are increased. Objective: To examine the serum levels of IL15 in KD and to evaluate the role of IL15 in estimating the severity of inflammation in KD. Results and conclusion: There was a significant increase in the mean (SD) serum levels of IL15 measured in the acute stage of KD (11.5 (5.8) pg/ml) compared with those in the subacute stage (1.3 (0.9) pg/ml) (p<0.01) and normal controls (0.9 (1.0) pg/ml) (p<0.01). The increase in IL15 correlated with the increase in TNFα (rs=0.66, p<0.01); however it did not correlate with the levels of erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C reactive protein, suggesting that IL15 may not be a useful marker in estimating the severity of inflammation in KD.
Compositionof Serum Very-Low-Densityand High-DensityLipoproteinsin Diabetes

We examined the cholesterol/protein ratio and the apoprotein Composition of serum lipoproteins in a randomly selected population of maturity-onset diabetics and in a group of nondiabetics of similar age. We found no differences in cholesterol distribution between the groups as a whole, but diabetics with above-normal low-density Iipoproteins (LDL) had decreased concentrations of highdensity lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. In the diabetics as a whole, there was an increase in the cholesterol/protein ratio in HDL, a negative correlation between the amounts of LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol, an increase in the proportion of apolipoprotein C in very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), and a decrease in the proportion of the apolipoprotein Al component of HDL. In diabetic subjects with increased VLDL, there was an increase in the relative amount of apolipoprotein CIII, and a consequent decrease in the ratio of apolipoprotein CIl/apolipoprotein CIII in the VLDL. In both diabetic and control subjects, apolipoprotein E and cholesterol content of VLDL were linearly related.
On the action spectrum for closed symplectically aspherical manifolds Pacific J

1,092,776. Plastics valve bags. REIFENH€USER G.m. b.H. July 9, 1965 [Feb. 1, 1965], No. 29247/65. Heading B8K. [Also in Division B5] A plastics valve bag, Fig. 10, is made from tubular plastics foil by first deforming part of the tube to the shape of a pocket 28, which is subsequently punctured, and then making transverse welds 27 to define each bag. Alternatively a double width pocket (32), Fig. 11, (not shown, may be made in the tubing, welds (31) subsequently formed defining each bag and dividing each pocket. Holes, through which air can escape when the bag is filled, may be made round the circumference of each pocket.
Strategies for discontinuation of proton pump inhibitors: a systematic review.

PURPOSE Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are considered to be overprescribed. Consensus on how to attempt discontinuation is, however, lacking. We therefore conducted a systematic review of clinical studies on discontinuation of PPIs. METHODS Systematic review based on clinical studies investigating discontinuation strategies and discontinuation rates for users of antisecretory medication judged eligible for withdrawal. The databases Medline, Embase and Cochrane Library were searched to December 2013 using the terms antisecretory, anti-ulcer, PPI, acid suppressant, discontinuation, step-down, step down, cessation, tapering, withdrawal and withhold. Search terms were used either singularly or in combination. Papers written in English or Scandinavian were included. Concurrent hand searching was undertaken to pursue references of references. The website ClinicalTrials.gov was searched for unpublished results and ongoing studies. A total of 371 abstracts were scrutinized to determine relevancy. RESULTS The thorough search resulted in six clinical studies on strategies for discontinuation of PPIs. All discontinuation regimens used in the studies differed, and several interventions have been tested in order to decrease use of PPIs. Discontinuations were reported across all studies ranging from 14% to 64% without deteriorating symptom control. Tapering seems to be a more effective discontinuation strategy than abrupt discontinuation. CONCLUSION Discontinuation of PPIs is feasible in a clinical setting, and a substantial number of the patients treated without a clear indication can safely reduce or discontinue treatment. Tapering seems to be the most effective way of doing this.
Non-Violence and Civilian Agency in Communal War: Evidence from Jos, Nigeria

Communal violence is one of the deadliest forms of political violence in Nigeria. Research has yet to identify and explain the variation in spread and intensity of violence ‘within’ communal conflicts. This article analyses violence and non-violence in two almost contiguous neighbourhoods located in the city of Jos in central Nigeria that share ethnic, religious, and socio-economic similarities. It shows that structural factors such as geography, demography, or intervention by security forces do not predict non-violence. Rather, preventing killings during communal conflicts was contingent on civilian agency such as leadership, social control over internal youth, and refusal to collaborate with external armed groups. Drawing on narrative interviews, the article explores motivations for violence prevention and finds that knowledge concerning the organization of violence and lived experience in conflict zones were important factors that gave leaders the ability and confidence to persuade mobilized men not to start killings. These findings have important implications for the protection of civilians in communal conflicts.
SAR-Related Stress Variability in the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer (MABL) (High Resolution ARI)

Abstract : By stressing the sea surface, the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) can alter the sea surface wave field and so can produce discernible signatures on SAR images of the ocean (e.g. Visecky and Stewart 1982). Among the resulting signatures, the quasi-linear and cellular microscale patterns still require adequate explanation. The ubiquitous MABL two- and three-dimensional convective circulations provide promising candidates for the forcing phenomena producing these signatures. These microscale circulations have horizontal wavelengths on the order of 1 to 10 times the boundary layer depth, or approximately 1 to 10 km, and temporal scales on the order of 1 to 10 hours. Thus, they produce stress variations on the spatial and temporal scales of the quasi-linear and cellular SAR signatures.
On ergodic fading Gaussian interference channels with statistical CSIT

This paper studies sub-classes of two-user fast fading Gaussian interference channels (GIC) with ergodic strong/very strong interference, for which channel state information (CSI) is only available at the receivers. Under this setting, the ergodic capacity region is open. In this work we derive a sufficient condition for ergodic strong/very strong GIC to achieve the ergodic capacity regions by stochastic ordering with same marginal property. We also illustrate examples to show the usage scenarios of the derived conditions.
Development of size hierarchies prior to the onset of density-dependent mortality in irrigated and fertilized loblolly pine stands

Nine years of growth and stand development were investigated in a 2 × 2 nutrient and water factorial experiment with four replications. The study was located on an infertile, excessively drained sandy site in Scotland County, North Carolina, U.S.A. The hypothesis tested was that increased growth following irrigation and fertilization would increase the rate at which size hierarchies develop. The hypothesis was investigated by comparing the coefficient of variation (CV) of stem volume over time and examining the stem volume relative growth rate (RGR) of trees of different initial size in control and irrigated + fertilized stands. Even though there were no statistically significant differences in CV among treatments, there was a tendency for increased CV over time in the control stands, whereas CV initially increased, then decreased, and became constant in the irrigated + fertilized plots. The lack of increase in CV in the irrigated + fertilized plots was explained by unusually low variation in RGR across t.
Non-Cognitive Abilities and Financial Delinquency: The Role of Self-Efficacy in Avoiding Financial Distress

We investigate a novel determinant of household financial delinquency, namely, people’s subjective expectations regarding the cost-benefit trade-off in default decisions. These expectations are determined by individuals’ self-efficacy, which is a non-cognitive ability that measures how strongly people believe that their effort will influence future outcomes. Using longitudinal household survey data, we show that people with higher self-efficacy, measured earlier in life, are less likely to be financially delinquent later on and to face consequences such as losing assets or access to traditional credit markets, are more likely to prepare for dealing with potential adverse shocks such as a job loss or a health event, and when faced with such shocks, are less likely to become financially delinquent. Complementing prior findings regarding the effects of cognitive abilities, financial literacy and education on economic behavior, our evidence suggests that non-cognitive abilities have an important role in household financial decision making.
Time-varying/Sign-switching Risk Perception on Foreign Exchange Markets

In this paper we analyse the consequences of considering risk-augmented specifications of the relationship between spot and forward rates. Previous parametric specifications such as the GARCH-M provided disappointing results possibly due to the high degree of persistence of the estimated process for conditional volatility. We propose a more flexible semiparametric approach where a nonparametric estimator of the conditional volatility is used as an instrumental variable, and we apply it on six major currencies vis-a-vis the Deutsche Mark (monthly data). An interesting picture of shifting risk perception arises when an indicator of market sentiment in the form of trading signals to purchase or sell a currency is inserted in the model. Copyright @ 1998 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. All rights reserved.
Decision Making Based on Somatic Markers

Human decision making is a complex process. In the field of Artificial Intelligence, decision making is considered an essential aspect of autonomous agents. Research of human decision behaviour shows that emotions play a decisive role. We present a computational model for creating an emotional memory and an algorithm for decision making based on the collected information in the memory. We concentrate on simulating human behaviour as there is not always one perfect way to reach a goal but alternatives that are more advantageous. For evaluation purposes a gambling task, performed by real subjects, was created for the modelled agent. The results show that the decision behaviour of the modelled agent is comparable with real subjects.
Compiler directed write-mode selection for high performance low power volatile PCM

Micro-Controller Units (MCUs) are widely adopted ubiquitous computing devices. Due to tight cost and energy constraints, MCUs often integrate very limited internal RAM memory on top of Flash storage, which exposes Flash to heavy write traffic and results in short system lifetime. Architecting emerging Phase Change Memory (PCM) is a promising approach for MCUs due to its fast read speed and long write endurance. However, PCM, especially multi-level cell (MLC) PCM, has long write latency and requires large write energy, which diminishes the benefits of its replacement of traditional Flash. By studying MLC PCM write operations, we observe that writing MLC PCM can take advantages of two write modes --- fast write leaves cells in volatile state, and slow write leaves cells in non-volatile state. In this paper, we propose a compiler directed dual-write (CDDW) scheme that selects the best write mode for each write operation to maximize the overall performance and energy efficiency. Our experimental results show that CDDW reduces dynamic energy by 32.4%(33.8%) and improves performance by 6.3%(35.9%) compared with an all fast(slow) write approach.
Shape modeling of a concentric-tube continuum robot

Concentric-tube continuum robots feature with simple and compact structures and have a great potential in medical applications. The paper is concerned with the shape modeling of a type of concentric-tube continuum robot built with a collection of super-elastic NiTiNol tubes. The mechanics is modeled on the basis of energy approach for both the in-plane and out-plane cases. The torsional influences on the shape of the concentric-tube robots are considered. An experimental device was build for the model validation. The results of simulation and experiments are included and analyzed.
Food security and sustainable resource management Citation

The projected growth in global food demand until mid-century will challenge our ability to continue recent increases in crop yield and will have a significant impact on natural resources. The water and land requirements of current agriculture are significantly less than global reserves but local shortages are common and have serious impacts on food security. Recent increases in global trade have mitigated some of the effects of spatial and temporal variability. However, trade has a limited impact on low-income populations who remain dependent on subsistence agriculture and local resources. Potential adverse environmental impacts of increased agricultural production include unsustainable depletion of water and soil resources, major changes in the global nitrogen and phosphorous cycles, human health problems related to excessive nutrient and pesticide use, and loss of habitats that contribute to agricultural productivity. Some typical case studies from China illustrate the connections between the need for increased food production and environmental stress. Sustainable options for decreasing food demand and for increasing production include reduction of food losses on both the producer and consumer ends, elimination of unsustainable practices such as prolonged groundwater overdraft, closing of yield gaps with controlled expansions of fertilizer application, increases in crop yield and pest resistance through advances in biotechnology, and moderate expansion of rain fed and irrigated cropland. Calculations based on reasonable assumptions suggest that such measures could meet the food needs of an increasing global population while protecting the environment.
Chiral description and physical limit of pseudoscalar decay constants with four dynamical quarks and applicability of quasi-Monte Carlo for lattice systems

Humboldt-University Berlin, Department of MathematicsUnter den Linden 6, D-10099 Berlin, GermanyE-mail: Andreas.Ammon@desy.de, tobias.hartung@kcl.ac. uk,Karl.Jansen@desy.de, leovey@math.hu-berlin.de,griewank@math.hu-berlin.de, mmp@physik.hu-berlin.deThis project investigates the applicability of quasi-Monte Carlo methods to Euclidean lattice sys-tems in order to improve the asymptotic error scaling of observables for such theories. The error ofan observable calculated by averaging over random observations generated from ordinary MonteCarlo simulations scales like N
The Effect of Competition on Wages and Productivity: Evidence from the UK

This paper examines the impact of competition on wages and productivity using a panel data set of UK manufacturing industries over 1954-1973. The introduction of cartel law in the UK in the late 1950s caused an intensification of price competition in previously cartelized manufacturing industries, but it did not affect those industries which were not cartelized. The econometric results from a comparison of the two groups of industries before and after the introduction of cartel law provide strong evidence of a negative effect of collusion on labour productivity growth. There is no evidence of any effect of collusion on wages. These results are robust to controlling for the potential endogeneity of collusion and are further strengthened by a comparison with US data.
Comparing Behavioral Profiles for Autism Spectrum Disorders and Intellectual Disabilities Using the BASC-2 Parent Rating Scales–Preschool Form

We contrasted Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition–Parent Rating Scales–Preschool Form (BASC-2 PRS-P) parent ratings for 242 (52% African American; 39% White) preschool-aged children from three diagnostic groups: autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID), and ASD and ID (ASD/ID). Across diagnostic groups, atypical behavior, attention, and adaptive functioning were rated as problematic; Developmental Social Disorders (DSD) scores were elevated across diagnostic groups and did not differ. Several BASC-2 clinical and adaptive scales differed across diagnostic groups, with parent-rated aggression higher for the ID group, parent-rated social withdrawal higher for the ASD group, and parent-rated social skills lower for the ASD/ID group. No differences in BASC-2 scores were found across African American and White preschoolers. The BASC-2 identified problem areas in a preschool clinical sample that were consistent with those of preschoolers with developmental disabilities. However, findings did not support use of the DSD as an ASD-specific screening measure.
Axonal Translation of β-Catenin Regulates Synaptic Vesicle Dynamics

Many presynaptic transcripts have been observed in axons, yet their role in synapse development remains unknown. Using visually and pharmacologically isolated presynaptic terminals from dissociated rat hippocampal neurons, we found that ribosomes and β-catenin mRNA preferentially localize to recently formed boutons. Locally translated β-catenin accumulates at presynaptic terminals, where it regulates synaptic vesicle release dynamics. Thus, local translation of β-catenin is a newly described mechanism for axons to independently functionalize nerve terminals at great distances from cellular somata.
Design Issues in Small-Area Studies of Environment and Health

Background Small-area studies are part of the tradition of spatial epidemiology, which is concerned with the analysis of geographic patterns of disease with respect to environmental, demographic, socioeconomic, and other factors. We focus on etiologic research, where the aim is to make inferences about spatially varying environmental factors influencing the risk of disease. Methods and results We illustrate the approach through three exemplars: a) magnetic fields from overhead electric power lines and the occurrence of childhood leukemia, which illustrates the use of geographic information systems to focus on areas with high exposure prevalence; b) drinking-water disinfection by-products and reproductive outcomes, taking advantage of large between- to within-area variability in exposures from the water supply; and c) chronic exposure to air pollutants and cardiorespiratory health, where issues of socioeconomic confounding are particularly important. Discussion The small-area epidemiologic approach assigns exposure estimates to individuals based on location of residence or other geographic variables such as workplace or school. In this way, large populations can be studied, increasing the ability to investigate rare exposures or rare diseases. The approach is most effective when there is well-defined exposure variation across geographic units, limited within-area variation, and good control for potential confounding across areas. Conclusions In conjunction with traditional individual-based approaches, small-area studies offer a valuable addition to the armamentarium of the environmental epidemiologist. Modeling of exposure patterns coupled with collection of individual-level data on subsamples of the population should lead to improved risk estimates (i.e., less potential for bias) and help strengthen etiologic inference.