Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wavelet Convolutional Neural Networks

Spatial and spectral approaches are two major approaches for image processing tasks such as image classification and object recognition. Among many such algorithms, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have recently achieved significant performance improvement in many challenging tasks. Since CNNs process images directly in the spatial domain, they are essentially spatial approaches. Given that spatial and spectral approaches are known to have different characteristics, it will be interesting to incorporate a spectral approach into CNNs. We propose a novel CNN architecture, wavelet CNNs, which combines a multiresolution analysis and CNNs into one model. Our insight is that a CNN can be viewed as a limited form of a multiresolution analysis. Based on this insight, we supplement missing parts of the multiresolution analysis via wavelet transform and integrate them as additional components in the entire architecture. Wavelet CNNs allow us to utilize spectral information which is mostly lost in conventional CNNs but useful in most image processing tasks. We evaluate the practical performance of wavelet CNNs on texture classification and image annotation. The experiments show that wavelet CNNs can achieve better accuracy in both tasks than existing models while having significantly fewer parameters than conventional CNNs.
Hybrid-meson properties in lattice QCD and flux-tube models

Flux-tube model predictions for hybrid-meson decays are beginning to be confronted by Lattice QCD. We compare the two approaches for the S-wave decay of the exotic 1{sup -+}, and find excellent agreement. Results suggest that in Strong QCD qq creation occurs with S=1.
Lactobacillus reuteri strains protect epithelial barrier integrity of IPEC‐J2 monolayers from the detrimental effect of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

Lactobacillus reuteri is an inhabitant of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of mammals and birds and several strains of this species are known to be effective probiotics. The mechanisms by which L. reuteri confers its health‐promoting effects are far from being fully understood, but protection of the mucosal barrier is thought to be important. Leaky gut is a state of abnormal intestinal permeability with implications for the pathophysiology of various gastrointestinal disorders. Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) can invade the intestinal mucosa and induce changes in barrier function by producing enterotoxin or by direct invasion of the intestinal epithelium. Our hypothesis was that L. reuteri can protect the mucosal barrier, and the goal of the study was to challenge this hypothesis by monitoring the protective effect of L. reuteri strains on epithelial dysfunction caused by ETEC. Using an infection model based on the porcine intestinal cell line IPEC‐J2, it was demonstrated that pretreatment of the cells with human‐derived L. reuteri strains (ATCC PTA 6475, DSM 17938 and 1563F) and a rat strain (R2LC) reduced the detrimental effect of ETEC in a dose‐dependent manner, as monitored by permeability of FITC‐dextran and transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER). Moreover, the results revealed that ETEC upregulated proinflammatory cytokines IL‐6 and TNFα and decreased expression of the shorter isoform of ZO‐1 (187 kDa) and E‐cadherin. In contrast, pretreatment with L. reuteri DSM 17938 and 1563F downregulated expression of IL‐6 and TNFα, and led to an increase in production of the longer isoform of ZO‐1 (195 kDa) and maintained E‐cadherin expression. Interestingly, expression of ZO‐1 (187 kDa) was preserved only when the infected cells were pretreated with strain 1563F. These findings demonstrate that L. reuteri strains exert a protective effect against ETEC‐induced mucosal integrity disruption.
Adolescents’ Subtypes of Attachment Security with Fathers and Mothers and Self-Perceptions of Socioemotional Adjustment

The study examined adolescents’ secure attachment with both versus one parent, for deeper understanding of adolescents’ perceptions of their socioemotional adjustment. Specifically, the current study aimed to identify different attachment profiles with father and mother among 203 adolescents aged 15 - 17 years and to examine whether these profiles associated differently with their self-rated peer-network loneliness and peer-dyadic loneliness, positive and negative affect, and internalizing behavior problems. Descriptive statistics demonstrated that more adolescents were classified as securely attached to mothers than to fathers. No significant associations emerged between adolescents’ sex and attachment classification distributions with mothers or fathers. Using k-means clustering methods, four distinct clusters emerged: secure attachment to both parents/to neither/to only father/to only mother. Tukey HSD and Scheffe procedures validated the attachment clusters, revealing significant inter-cluster differences on all of the adolescents’ socioemotional measures. The current results also highlighted that the group of adolescents who felt securely attached to both parents was least vulnerable to experiencing socioemotional difficulties. In addition, secure attachment only to one's mother and not to one's father did not seem to act as a protective factor for these adolescents, with the exception of protection from peer-dyadic loneliness. Discussion focused on understanding the possible contribution of parent-adolescent secure attachment among these subgroups of typically developing adolescents.
Land Reforms: Prospects and Strategies

The paper is in two parts. The first part tries to understand the case for redistributive land reforms. We argue that there is relatively persuasive evidence showing that redistributing land may promote equity as well as efficiency. We then suggest that it is, nevertheless, unclear, given that all forms of redistribution cost money as well as bureaucratic and political capital, that redistributing land is the best way to redistribute. The second part of the paper takes as given that we want to redistribute land, and discusses strategies for achieving such redistribution. We argue that, for the most part, redistribution should be based on a uniform land ceiling and not discriminate between different types of landlords but violations of the land ceiling may be permitted if the buyer is willing to pay a high enough price. We also argue that land reform programs should be accompanied by agricultural extension programs and emergency income support programs. We argue in favor of allowing renting out redistributed land but restricting sales of such land. Finally we argue that market-assisted land reforms and tenancy reforms are possible alternative strategies where more traditional (coercive) land reform is not an option, but have significant disadvantages which should be taken seriously.
Perception of Attitudinal Meaning in Interrogative Sentences of Brazilian Portuguese

We present here a perceptual analysis of Brazilian Portuguese prosody expressing eleven different attitudes using an interrogative mode. The attitudes are separated between 6 social, and 4 propositional expressions plus a neutral expression, and are performed by two native speakers (a female and a male). An earlier work studied the declarative mode. The aim of the current study is to perceptually evaluate whether the mode (e.g., declarative or interrogative) influences the perception of attitudes. The multimodal perception of the attitudes is compared across modalities. Our results show higher scores for the propositional attitudes, particularly in the audio modality, while visual information is more important for social expressions, regardless of whether the attitudes are performed in the interrogative or declarative mode.
CAD of Waveguide Components for Space Applications Based on Hybrid MMFE Techniques

A hybrid MMFE (Mode Matching Finite Elements) computed aided design technique is presented and its application to the analysis of several space waveguide components is discussed. The novelty of the formulation consists on the expansion of transversal electric and magnetic fields using edge elements. The hybrid approach is the key for an accurate characterization of arbitrary cross-section waveguides, where modal expansions cannot be computed analytically. The results of the analysis of a septum polariser, a square to circular transition and a stepped twist are shown: in all the cases considered the technique proposed has lead to a good agreement between numerical and experimental results with a moderate amount of computing resources.
The effects of respiratory muscle training in highly-trained rowers

Respiratory muscle training has been proposed as a beneficial means of improving respiratory muscle function and performance in athletes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effects of a 6-wk specific respiratory muscle training program on the performance and respiratory muscle function in highly-trained rowers. Sixteen national representative rowers (8 males and 8 females) were assigned to either an experimental (RMT) or control (CON) group for 6-wks of respiratory muscle training. RMT consisted of 30 breaths (inspiratory and expiratory = 1 breath), twice daily using a commercially available respiratory muscle training device. Athletes performed a series of pulmonary function tests and an incremental VO2 max test prior to and following the experimental period. There were no statistically significant differences in any of the physiological, performance, perceptual or pulmonary function measures between RMT and CON following the training period (P>0.05). However, when comparing RMT to CON using magnitude based inferences, there was a "likely benefit" to perceived dyspnea (mean ±90%CL: -1.4 ±1.4 arbitrary units), mean heart rate (-4.1 ±4.7%) and maximum minute ventilation (-5.6 ±6.3%) during exercise. The results suggest that respiratory muscle training had little effect on exercise performance or pulmonary function in highly-trained rowers despite trends toward improvements in the perception of dyspnea and a decrease in maximum ventilation and mean heart rate during exercise.
effect of fruit juices and pomace extracts on the growth of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria

Extracts and juices of cultivated and wild fruits belonging to the families Rosaceae, Grossulariaceae, Moraceae, Berberidaceae, Polygonaceae, Caprifoliaceae and Cornaceae were examined for their growth reducing activity on four bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, B. cereus var. mycoides, Escherichia coli and Serratia marcescens). In vitro antibacterial activities were evaluated by microdilution plate assays. Black currant (Ribes nigrum), cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) and European rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) had the highest growth inhibition capacity.
The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Commitment of Pakistani University Librarians

Despite the growing literature advocating the significance and importance of emotional intelligence, empirical studies on the topic about Pakistani university librarians are unavailable. Drawing upon this gap, the article reports the findings of a study investigating emotional intelligence and organizational commitment among Pakistani university librarians. It used survey research method involving 225 randomly selected librarians from a population of 670 university librarians in Pakistan. The survey response rate was 82%. The results suggest that three dimensions of emotional intelligence, namely self-assessment, optimism and service orientation significantly predict organizational commitment. However, teamwork and collaboration, despite being correlated significantly with organizational commitment, was not a predictor of organizational commitment among Pakistani university librarians. The findings showed the importance and contributions of emotional intelligence towards organizational commitment.
Evaluation of a green leafy vegetable intervention in Ghanaian postpartum mothers.

Vitamin A deficiency is a major public health problem in many developing countries and women of childbearing age and children are most affected. Low dietary intakes and increased requirements during different life stages contribute to inadequate vitamin A liver reserves and hence the importance of assessing vitamin A status to determine population groups at risk of deficiency. This study was a community-based, exploratory intervention trial of postpartum mothers selected from villages in Ejisu/Juabeng District of the Ashanti Region in Ghana. The objective was to determine the improvement in vitamin A status of postpartum Ghanaian mothers fed daily with African eggplant leaves using the modified-relative-ose-response (MRDR) test for indirect assessment of liver vitamin A stores. Potential mothers were visited at home by trained field workers 7-10 days after their delivery and recruited into the trial. Baseline MRDR tests were performed for all the women (n = 61). The women were randomly assigned into control (n =10) and intervention (n =51) groups and invited back each month for follow-up MRDR assessment over period of three months. A daily portion of 200 g (2.6 mg of Beta-carotene) of African eggplant leaves were given to mothers in the intervention groups for three months while those in the control group did not receive any additional vegetables. The baseline mean serum retinol concentration and MRDR value were 1.5 ± 0.6 µmol/l and 0.09 ± 0.05 respectively indicating a marginal vitamin A status. Serum retinol concentrations did not differ between (p = 0.47) and within the two groups by time point (p= 0.41). The African eggplant leaves were well accepted and there was a significant improvement in the vitamin A status as assessed by MRDR test within the intervention group over the three months period (P = 0.0001). Vitamin A status also improved in the control group but there was loss of statistical power due to number of dropouts. Dietary modification and nutrition education to women of childbearing age to include natural food sources rich in provitamin A may provide the long-term solution to prevent vitamin A deficiency in developing countries because indigenous leafy vegetables can be easily cultivated in our communities making them sustainable and cheaper compared to periodic oral dosing with vitamin A.
Design and optimization of inerter layouts for a multi-layers building model

The paper applies inerters to a five-layer building model, and discusses the benefits of different inerter layouts. First, we construct a five-layers building model, and verify the model by two methods. Second, we consider four suspension layouts for the building model, including the spring-damper, the parallel inerter, the serial inerter, and the mechatronic inerter. We use the historical Kobe earthquake data to discuss the improvement of suspension performance. The results shows that inerters can significantly improve suspension performance of building systems, especially using the mechatronic networks, which has the potential of adjusting parameters for different earthquakes.
Eliminating Pilot Contamination Using Dual Pilot Sequences in Massive MIMO

The uplink transmission in a Massive MIMO system is studied. Pilot contamination during the uplink training is the main inherent limitation that degrades the performance of Massive MIMO. Current approaches are using the same pilot sequences for every cell, leading to the so-called inter-cell interference. In this paper, a novel method that employs dual pilot sequences is proposed where different cells are assigned with different pilot sequences (called them cells' IDs). In particular, each cell has the same set of orthogonal pilot sequences together with a unique pilot sequence (cell's ID). This dual structure mitigates pilot contamination, achieving better channel estimation at various signal-to-noise ratios.
Making the Implicit Explicit: Music Listening, Blended Delivery and the Representational Redescription Model

Close listening, perhaps the most important skill in music education is seldom practiced in the 21 st century. The ability to listen, understand, communicate, and interpret what you hear is central to education in general and transferable to many life situations and modes of communication. For this reason, listening is the primary focus of most first year post-secondary music history courses. It is also one of the most challenging skills to teach in large classroom formats. To address these challenges, we developed a blended delivery approach to support recognition, comprehension, and communication of musical materials. Based on the literature on music cognition and Karmiloff-Smith’s (1992) Representational Redescription Model (RR Model) of knowledge acquisition, we designed a cognitive framework to support the design of enhanced listening models. This paper describes the results of a pilot project which presented the students with selfpaced on-line listening activities followed by a virtual listening/discussion session with peers. Both activities were well-received by the students and level of music experience was not associated with students’ perceived value of the activities, indicating that students with varied backgrounds found the activities useful. The results support our cognitive framework as a foundation for technologicallyenhanced listening activities for postsecondary music courses.
COEFFICIENT OF CONSOLIDATION AND ITS CORRELATION WITH INDEX PROPERTIES OF REMOLDED SOILS

Knowledge of the rate at which the compression of the soil layer takes place is essential from design considerations. This can be achieved by determining the value of the coefficient of consolidation, cv. To obtain cv, it is essential to conduct a routine one-dimensional consolidation test. With the obtained time-compression data, and using any one of the several available curve-fitting procedures, cv can be evaluated. This is a time-consuming process. Also, the fact that many curve-fitting procedures are available in the literature suggests that none of them are completely satisfactory in evaluating cv and, hence, the large variation in the evaluated values by different procedures. Hence, it is desirable to predict the value of cv by any correlation equation relating with some simple index property. This will be quite satisfactory, especially so for preliminary assessment purposes. From the present experimental study on remolded soils, it is found that cv has a better correlation with the shrinkage index, which is the difference between liquid limit and shrinkage limit.
Is heart rate variability related to cognitive performance in visuospatial working memory

In the current study, we investigated the relation between cognitive performance and heart rate variability in visuospatial working memory. We used a visuospatial working memory paradigm involving simultaneous encoding, maintenance, active manipulation and retrieval to simulate routine daily activities. Subjects performed the visuospatial working memory paradigm which had 3 memory loads and simultaneous ECG recording was acquired for measuring heart rate variability. Based on the performance in the visuospatial working memory task, subjects were segregated into two groups: Good performers and poor performers. Two major findings emerged in this study. First, the heart rate variability decreased with an increase in the working memory load. Second, good performers had relatively higher heart rate variability compared to poor performers while performing the visuospatial working memory task. Our results highlighted the influence of cognitive performance on heart rate variability. In summary, the current study indicates that the heart rate variability during the visuospatial working memory task could predict the qualitative differences in the cognitive performance between the individuals.
Non-linear MHD modeling of edge localized mode cycles and mitigation by resonant magnetic perturbations

The dynamics of a multi-edge localized mode (ELM) cycle as well as the ELM mitigation by resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) are modeled in realistic tokamak X-point geometry with the non-linear reduced MHD code JOREK. The diamagnetic rotation is found to be a key parameter enabling us to reproduce the cyclical dynamics of the plasma relaxations and to model the near-symmetric ELM power deposition on the inner and outer divertor target plates consistently with experimental measurements. Moreover, the non-linear coupling of the RMPs with unstable modes are found to modify the edge magnetic topology and induce a continuous MHD activity in place of a large ELM crash, resulting in the mitigation of the ELMs. At larger diamagnetic rotation, a bifurcation from unmitigated ELMs—at low RMP current—towards fully suppressed ELMs—at large RMP current—is obtained.
Self-enhancement and Self-protection Motivation: From the Laboratory to an Evolutionary Context

Existing data suggest that the self-enhancement and self-protection motivations (which elevate or protect the positive self-concept) exert a pivotal influence on self-evaluation and behavior. Moreover, these motivations are more potent than the self-assessment motivation (which works to increase the accuracy of the self-concept) or the self-verification motivation (which works to confirm the self-concept). The data also suggest that the self-enhancement and self-protection motivations serve crucial mental health functions and that these functions are apparent across different cultures. This article relates these findings to the possible evolutionary utility of these motivations. It is argued that self-enhancement and self-protection motivations were evolutionarily selected, because they offered personal, relational, and group-rank advantages to species members who possessed these traits.
Study of Hot-Carrier-Induced Traps in Nanoscale UTBB FD-SOI MOSFETs by Low-Frequency Noise Measurements

The hot carrier (HC)-induced traps in nanoscale fully depleted ultrathin body and buried oxide nMOSFETs are investigated by low-frequency noise (LFN) measurements in the frequency and time domains. The measured noise spectra are composed of 1/f and Lorentzian-type components. The Lorentzian noise is due to either generation-recombination noise or random telegraph noise (RTN). Based on the LFN results, the effect of the HC stress on fully depleted silicon-on-insulator MOSFETs is investigated after short- and long-time stress. The capture and emission time constants responsible for the RTN noise were calculated as the average duration time of the high/low drain current state, respectively. Analysis of RTN traps detected in fresh and HC-stressed devices indicates that the RTN amplitude is uncorrelated to the trap time constants, i.e., the impact of the trap depth from the interface is masked by that of the trap location over the channel. The overall results lead to an analytical expression for the RTN amplitude, enabling to predict the RTN changes from the subthreshold to the above-threshold region.