Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complete posterior rectus sheath and total extra-peritoneal hernioplasty

Introduction: Variations in rectus sheath formation have been reported with little realization of its importance to the laparoscopic surgeons doing total extra-peritoneal preperitoneal (TEPP) hernioplasty. Observation of complete rectus sheath during laparoscopic mesh hernioplasty for inguinal hernia through TEP approach and its surgical implication are presented here. Materials and Methods: Setting - Elective. Location for the study - J. N. Medical College and Hospital, A. M. U. , Aligarh. Study design - Prospective with effective from April 2010 to August 2013. Study population - Adults (≥18 years). Data collection - Instant documentation and video recording. Method of analysis - All data were computed through on-line calculators (www.graphpad.com/quickcalcs/and http://epitools.ausvet.com.au/). Results: Thirty-five TEPP hernioplasties were carried out in a period of 3 years. All patients were males, with an overall mean age of 48.7 ± 13.4 years. Posterior rectus sheath (PRS) was found complete in four patients with a mean age of 47.28 ± 09.74, and was associated with significantly increased surgical difficulties during the procedure. On Visual Analog Score, endoscopic vision was 4.3 ± 0.6 (4.0-5.5), and the ease of the procedure was 4.5 ± 0.8 (4.0-6.0) that is, both were less than satisfactory. Operating time was 3.1 ± 0.7 h (3.25-4.0). Out of four patients, peritoneal injury occurred in three patients, surgical emphysema in one patient, and postoperative seroma in one patient. Conclusions: PRS was complete in 11.43% of cases studied that was associated with an increased level of surgical difficulties and a higher rate of complications.
Smartphones and BLE Services: Empirical Insights

Driven by the rapid market growth of sensors and beacons that offer Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) based connectivity, this paper empirically investigates the performance characteristics of the BLE interface on multiple Android smartphones, and the consequent impact on a proposed BLE-based service: continuous indoor location. We first use extensive measurement studies with multiple Android devices to establish that the BLE interface on current smartphones is not as "low-energy" as nominally expected, and establish that continuous use of such a BLE interface is not feasible unless we choose a moderately large scan interval and a low duty cycle. We then explore the implications of such constraints, on the parameters of a smart phone's BLE stack, on the accuracy of a BLE-based indoor localization techniques. We show that while RF-based indoor location can be highly accurate (80% of estimates have errors less than or equal to 4 meters) for stationary users only if the density of beacons is high, the combination of (large scan interval, low duty cycle) causes the location error to degrade significantly for moving users. These results provide practical insights into the use cases and limitations for future BLE-based mobile services.
Agreement on the Perception of Moral Character

This study tested for inter-judge agreement on moral character. A sample of students and community members rated their own moral character using a measure that tapped six moral character traits. Friends, family members, and/or acquaintances rated these targets on the same traits. Self/other and inter-informant agreement was found at the trait level for both a general character factor and for residual variance explained by individual moral character traits, as well as at the individual level (judges agreed on targets’ “moral character profiles”). Observed inter-judge agreement constitutes evidence for the existence of moral character, and raises questions about the nature of moral character traits.
Gender Differences in Responses to Moral Dilemmas

The principle of deontology states that the morality of an action depends on its consistency with moral norms; the principle of utilitarianism implies that the morality of an action depends on its consequences. Previous research suggests that deontological judgments are shaped by affective processes, whereas utilitarian judgments are guided by cognitive processes. The current research used process dissociation (PD) to independently assess deontological and utilitarian inclinations in women and men. A meta-analytic re-analysis of 40 studies with 6,100 participants indicated that men showed a stronger preference for utilitarian over deontological judgments than women when the two principles implied conflicting decisions (d = 0.52). PD further revealed that women exhibited stronger deontological inclinations than men (d = 0.57), while men exhibited only slightly stronger utilitarian inclinations than women (d = 0.10). The findings suggest that gender differences in moral dilemma judgments are due to differences in affective responses to harm rather than cognitive evaluations of outcomes.
Implicit Theories of Change and Stability Moderate Effects of Subjective Distance on the Remembered Self

Temporal self-appraisal theory suggests that people can regulate current self-view by recalling former selves in ways that flatter present identity. People critique their subjectively distant (but not recent) former selves, creating the illusion of improvement over time. However, this revisionist strategy might not apply to everyone: People with fixed (entity) beliefs may not benefit from critiquing even distant selves. In three studies, we found that implicit theories of change and stability moderate the effects of subjective distance on the remembered self. In all studies, participants rated past selves portrayed as subjectively close or distant (controlling calendar time). Incremental theorists (but not entity theorists) were more critical of their subjectively distant (but not recent) past attributes. We found the same pattern when measuring existing implicit theories (Studies 1, 2) or manipulating them (Study 3). The present research is the first to integrate temporal self-appraisal theory and the implicit theories literature.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Motivational Affordance and Risk-taking across Decision Domains

We propose a motivational affordance account to explain both stability and variability in risk-taking propensity in major decision domains. We draw on regulatory focus theory to differentiate two types of motivation (prevention, promotion) that play a key role in predicting risk-taking. Study 1 demonstrated that prevention motivation is negatively associated with risk-taking across six key decision domains, including health/safety, ethics, recreation, gambling, investment, and social. In contrast, promotion motivation is positively associated with risk-taking in the social and investment domains. Study 2 replicated the same pattern and provided direct evidence that promotion motivation is a strong predictor of risk-taking only in domains where there is true potential for gains. Study 3 manipulated promotion (versus prevention) motivation experimentally to demonstrate that motivational affordance is a critical mechanism for understanding risk-taking behaviors.
Usability and performance-informed selection of personalized mental tasks for an online near-infrared spectroscopy brain-computer interface

Abstract. Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) allow individuals to use only cognitive activities to interact with their environment. The widespread use of BCIs is limited, due in part to their lack of user-friendliness. The main goal of this work was to develop a more user-centered BCI and determine if: (1) individuals can acquire control of an online near-infrared spectroscopy BCI via usability and performance-informed selection of mental tasks without compromising classification accuracy and (2) the combination of usability and performance-informed selection of mental tasks yields subjective ease-of-use ratings that exceed those attainable with prescribed mental tasks. Twenty able-bodied participants were recruited. Half of the participants served as a control group, using the state-of-the-art prescribed mental strategies. The other half of the participants comprised the study group, choosing their own personalized mental strategies out of eleven possible tasks. It was concluded that users were, in fact, able to acquire control of the more user-centered BCI without a significant change in accuracy compared to the prescribed task BCI. Furthermore, the personalized BCI yielded higher subjective ease-of-use ratings than the prescribed BCI. Average online accuracies of 77±12.9% and 73±12.9% were achieved by the personalized and prescribed mental task groups, respectively.
Projection of Romantic and Sexual Desire in Opposite-Sex Friendships

In two studies, the authors examined the projection of romantic and sexual desire in opposite-sex friendships. In both studies, perceivers who strongly desired their friends projected this desire onto their friends, believing that their desire was more reciprocated than was actually the case. In turn, projection of desire appeared to motivate perceivers into enacting relationship initiation behaviors, which predicted changes in targets’ romantic and sexual desires over time (Study 2). Projection was elevated for perceivers who saw themselves as high in mate value, and targets appeared to be influenced by perceivers’ overtures primarily when they believed perceivers were high in mate value. This research suggests that, for perceivers high in mate value, romantic and sexual desire creates biased perceptions that initiate self-fulfilling prophecies.
Variações no conhecimento e nas opiniões dos ginecologistas e obstetras brasileiros sobre o aborto legal, entre 2003 e 2005

PURPOSE: to evaluate and compare the knowledge and the opinion of gynecologists and obstetricians regarding termination of pregnancy, in 2003 and 2005. METHODS: a structured and pre-tested questionnaire was sent to all the members of the Brazilian Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (FEBRASGO). They were asked to answer the questions, anonymously, and return the questionnaire in a stamped envelope provided. They were asked about their knowledge of and opinion on Brazilian legislation related to abortion. RESULTS: in both surveys the percentage of doctors who knew under which circumstances abortion was not penalized was over 80%. However, there was a significant reduction in the percentage of doctors who knew that abortion was legal if the womans life was at risk. The participants who knew that abortion because of a severe congenital malformation of the fetus was not currently permitted by law increased by a third. The percentage of doctors in favor of allowing abortion increased consistently for the various circumstances presented. The proportion of those who thought that abortion should not be permitted in any circumstances decreased. The percentage of those who judged that the legal consents should not be modified decreased. There was an increase in the proportion of those who considered that abortion should not be considered a crime under any circumstance. CONCLUSIONS: in general, it seems that people have been thinking more about induced abortion during the time elapsed between the two surveys. Nevertheless, there is the need to correctly inform Brazilian gynecologists and obstetricians on the laws and norms that regulate the practice of legal abortion in the country, so as to ensure that women who need one have, in fact, access to this right.
Prosody Modification of Standard Arabic Speech Using Combining Synchronous Overlap and Add With Fixed-Synthesis Algorithm and Multi Level Discrete Wavelet Transform

Problem statement: The objective of prosody modification is to change the amplitude, duration and pitch (F0) of speech segments without altering their spectral envelop. Applications are numerous, including, Text-To-Speech synthesis, transformation of voice characteristics and foreign language learning. Several approaches have been developed in the literature to achieve this goal. The main restrictions of these latter are in the modification range, the synthesized speech quality and naturalness of spoken language. The latest research studies provide evidence that the first Formant (F1) and F0 are dependent; suggesting that in order to preserve high quality and naturalness of the speech signal, any change to one of these parameters must be accompanied by a suitable modification of the other. Approach: This study introduced a prosody modification method using combining Synchronous Overlap and Add with Fixed-Synthesis (SOLAFS) algorithm and a multi level decomposition based on Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) to overcome the limitations cited above. It used Standard Arabic (SA) sounds. For a purpose of comparison, two techniques based on frame by frame processing were proposed. The first one consists in a pitch synchronous processing of the mth approximation level time segments used in SOLAFS algorithm. It was aimed to modify the prosody of the input speech without affecting the spectral envelop. The second one explores the correlation between F1 and F0 in the corresponding approximation level of SA sounded and modified duration and both F0 and F1 scales. It was based on a re-sampling method using FFT interpolation. The use of multi level analysis was aimed to provide independent control over the spectral envelope. In both techniques, the decomposition level depends on the chosen sampling Frequency (FS). F0 marking was based on multi level peaks comparison. Both techniques use an automatic speech classification algorithm based on modified version of the Johnson algorithm. Results: The performances of The performances of the proposed techniques were evaluated by listening tests using sentences in SA language sampled at an FS of 16 kHz. It was found that manipulation in the third approximation level of F0 in conjunction with the local F1 improved significantly the naturalness of the modified speech compared to the classical prosody modification. Conclusion: This improvement was most suitable for high F0 scales from the fact that speaker generally increases F1 as they increase their F0. Further, the technique can be used in the manipulation of the remained formant structure.
NeuroCa: integrated framework for systematic analysis of spatiotemporal neuronal activity patterns from large-scale optical recording data

Abstract. Optical recording facilitates monitoring the activity of a large neural network at the cellular scale, but the analysis and interpretation of the collected data remain challenging. Here, we present a MATLAB-based toolbox, named NeuroCa, for the automated processing and quantitative analysis of large-scale calcium imaging data. Our tool includes several computational algorithms to extract the calcium spike trains of individual neurons from the calcium imaging data in an automatic fashion. Two algorithms were developed to decompose the imaging data into the activity of individual cells and subsequently detect calcium spikes from each neuronal signal. Applying our method to dense networks in dissociated cultures, we were able to obtain the calcium spike trains of ∼1000 neurons in a few minutes. Further analyses using these data permitted the quantification of neuronal responses to chemical stimuli as well as functional mapping of spatiotemporal patterns in neuronal firing within the spontaneous, synchronous activity of a large network. These results demonstrate that our method not only automates time-consuming, labor-intensive tasks in the analysis of neural data obtained using optical recording techniques but also provides a systematic way to visualize and quantify the collective dynamics of a network in terms of its cellular elements.
Self-Expression on Social Media

Self-expression values are at an all-time high, and people are increasingly relying upon social media platforms to express themselves positively and accurately. We examined whether self-expression on the social media platform Twitter elicits positive and accurate social perceptions. Eleven perceivers rated 128 individuals (targets; total dyadic impressions = 1,408) on their impulsivity, self-esteem, and attachment style, based solely on the information provided in targets’ 10 most recent tweets. Targets were on average perceived normatively and with distinctive self-other agreement, indicating both positive and accurate social perceptions. There were also individual differences in how positively and accurately targets were perceived, which exploratory analyses indicated may be partially driven by differential word usage, such as the use of positive emotion words and self- versus other-focus. This study demonstrates that self-expression on social media can elicit both positive and accurate perceptions and begins to shed light on how to curate such perceptions.
Not By Success Alone

Because of stereotypes that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields do not fulfill communal goals, communally oriented individuals may select out of STEM. One potential route to engaging and promoting communally oriented individuals in STEM fields is through interactions with advisors or role models in STEM. We first demonstrate the perceived difficulty of finding role models who enact communal behaviors in STEM relative to other fields (Preliminary Study). Communally oriented students reported higher likelihood of observing admired others in math or science (i.e., investigative vicarious learning) over time (Study 1). Individuals preferred hypothetical STEM advisors who enacted communal workplace behaviors (Studies 2a-2b). Finally, individuals’ communal orientation predicted how important they found the communal behaviors of actual role models (Studies 3a-3b). These findings provide further support for the goal congruity prediction that contexts—whether relational or occupational—that offer the pursuit of valued goals will be preferred.
Attachment and Self-Regulation

Close relationships and self-regulation are inextricably intertwined, yet many of the details regarding how interpersonal processes influence self-regulation are not well understood. To gain a better understanding of this link, we investigated the association between attachment styles and self-regulatory mode orientations. According to regulatory mode theory, locomotors are concerned with initiating goal-directed movement, whereas assessors are concerned with appraising potential means and goals. We predicted that the presence of an attachment figure with whom one has an anxious attachment would be associated with higher assessment tendencies. In addition, we predicted that the presence of an attachment figure with whom one has an avoidant attachment would be associated with lower locomotion tendencies. Five studies (N = 1,434) supported our predictions, and demonstrated that attachment styles and self-regulatory mode orientations covary across interaction partners.
Strategies to Curb Risk Behaviors in Adolescent Athletes

THIS PAPER LOOKS AT TWO PROGRAMS, ATLAS AND ATHENA, WHICH HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN REDUCING RISK BEHAVIORS SUCH AS THE USE OF STEROIDS, ALCOHOL, AND OTHER ILLICIT DRUGS IN ADOLESCENT ATHLETES. THE PROGRAMS UTILIZE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL DYNAMIC APPROACHES THAT INVOLVE MENTORS WHO SURROUND THE ATHLETE. THE ATHLETE LEARNS FACTS ABOUT PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT SUBSTANCES, PROPER RESISTANCE TRAINING TECHNIQUES, AND COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING CONCERNING BODY WEIGHT AND IMAGE. AS MENTORS, STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING PRACTITIONERS MAY SPEND CONSIDERABLE TIME WITH ATHLETES AND ARE IN A POSITION TO ENCOURAGE APPROPRIATE DECISIONS RELATING TO ETHICAL SPORTS PERFORMANCE IN ADOLESCENT ATHLETES.
Proposal of auxiliary diagnosis index for autism spectrum disorder using near-infrared spectroscopy

Abstract. Lack of a diagnostic index is a problem that needs to be overcome in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), because this problem prevents an objective assessment based on biomarkers. This paper describes the development of a diagnostic index for ASD using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). We investigated continuous prefrontal hemodynamic changes depending on reciprocal disposition of working memory and nonworking memory tasks using two-channel NIRS. NIRS signals in the prefrontal cortex were compared between high-functioning ASD subjects (n=11) and typically developed (TD) subjects (n=21). The brain activities of the TD subjects were related to experimental design. These results were not confirmed in brain activities of ASD subjects, although the task performance rate was almost equivalent. The brain activities of TD subjects and ASD subjects were evaluated using a weighted separability (WS) index obtained from the feature phase of oxy-hemoglobin and its differential value. Calculation of the t-test (TD subject versus ASD subject) confirmed that WS was significant. This result showed that the proposed index was useful for evaluation of the brain activity of ASD subjects.
Media Violence and Other Aggression Risk Factors in Seven Nations

Cultural generality versus specificity of media violence effects on aggression was examined in seven countries (Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Japan, Romania, the United States). Participants reported aggressive behaviors, media use habits, and several other known risk and protective factors for aggression. Across nations, exposure to violent screen media was positively associated with aggression. This effect was partially mediated by aggressive cognitions and empathy. The media violence effect on aggression remained significant even after statistically controlling a number of relevant risk and protective factors (e.g., abusive parenting, peer delinquency), and was similar in magnitude to effects of other risk factors. In support of the cumulative risk model, joint effects of different risk factors on aggressive behavior in each culture were larger than effects of any individual risk factor.
Effect of fatigue level on rate of force development by the grip-flexor muscles.

: Fifteen college-age males were tested for maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) of the grip flexors and were then subjected to five trials in which their strength levels were degraded to either 80%, 60%, or 40% MVC. Immediately following the fatigue bout, the subject released his grip and upon command attempted to squeeze as rapidly and forcefully as possible. Testing was also administered under a non-fatigued state (1.00 MVC); every subject was tested under each condition with the order of administration assigned at random. The data were analyzed based upon the amount of force generated at 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and 512 ms following the initial deflection from the baseline. All values were normalized by dividing the force expressed by the maximum force developed under that condition at 512 ms. The data analysis revealed that for each fatigue level the pattern of force uptake was sigmoidal; however, differences in normalized force were observed among fatigue levels at 64 and 128 ms. In general, at those time intervals there was an inverse relationship between fatigue level and expressed force. Analysis of the force velocities revealed that during the period from 8 to 64 ms, the rate of tension uptake was adversely affected as the level of fatigue was increased.