Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On-scalp MEG system utilizing an actively shielded array of optically-pumped magnetometers

The spatial resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG) can be increased from that of conventional SQUID-based systems by employing on-scalp sensor arrays of e.g. optically-pumped magnetometers (OPMs). However, OPMs reach sufficient sensitivity for neuromagnetic measurements only when operated in a very low absolute magnetic field of few nanoteslas or less, usually not reached in a typical magnetically shielded room constructed for SQUID-based MEG. Moreover, field drifts affect the calibration of OPMs. Static and dynamic control of the ambient field is thus necessary for good-quality neuromagnetic measurements with OPMs. Here, we describe an on-scalp MEG system that utilizes OPMs and external compensation coils that provide static and dynamic shielding against ambient fields. In a conventional two-layer magnetically shielded room, our coil system reduced the maximum remanent DC-field component within an 8-channel OPM array from 70 to less than 1 nT, enabling the sensors to operate in the sensitive spin exchange relaxation-free regime. When compensating field drifts below 4 Hz, a low-frequency shielding factor of 22 dB was achieved, which reduced the peak-to-peak drift from 1.3 to 0.4 nT and thereby the standard deviation of the sensor calibration from 1.6% to 0.4%. Without band-limiting the field that is compensated, a low-frequency shielding factor of 43 dB was achieved. We validated the system by measuring brain responses to electric stimulation of the median nerve. With dynamic shielding and digital interference suppression methods, single-trial somatosensory evoked responses could be detected. Our results advance the deployment of OPM-based on-scalp MEG in lighter magnetic shields.
Chronicle of a Soil Bacterium: Paenibacillus polymyxa E681 as a Tiny Guardian of Plant and Human Health

The Gram-positive rhizosphere bacterium Paenibacillus polymyxa promotes plant growth and produces various antibiotics. Herein, we review research on this species over the past two and a half decades, and focus on the mechanisms of P. polymyxa strain E681, isolated from barley roots in the South Korea in 1995. Strain E681 has outstanding growth-promoting effects on barley, cucumber, pepper, sesame, and Arabidopsis thaliana and produces antimicrobial compounds that protect plants against pathogenic fungi, oomycetes, and bacteria. Induced systemic resistance elicited by treating seeds or roots with strain E681 is a possible mechanism for protecting systemic plant tissues from biotic and other environmental stresses. Genome sequencing has broadened our horizons for antibiotic development and other industrial applications beyond agricultural use. At least six gene clusters for the biosynthesis of antibiotics have been discovered, including polymyxin (pmx), which was recently re-instated as an antibiotic of last resort against Gram-negative drug-resistant bacteria. Three groups of antibiotic synthetases include the gene clusters that encode one for the non-ribosomal peptide polymyxin, fusaricidin, and tridecaptin, another for the lantibiotic paenilan, and the third for a polyketide. We successfully introduced the pmx gene cluster into the surrogate host Bacillus subtilis and created polymyxin derivatives by domain swapping. Furthermore, various E681 derivatives, including a high fusaricidin producer and strains lacking multi-antibiotics production, have been constructed by random mutagenesis and genome engineering. Thus, E681 is an important bacterium that contributes to both plant and human health.
Detailed Mapping of Hydrothermal Vent Fauna: A 3D Reconstruction Approach Based on Video Imagery

Active hydrothermal vent fields are complex, small-scale habitats hosting endemic fauna that changes at scales of centimeters, influenced by topographical variables. In previous studies, it has been shown that the distance to hydrothermal fluids is also a major structuring factor. Imagery analysis based on two dimensional photo stitching revealed insights to the vent field zonation around fluid exits and a basic knowledge of faunal assemblages within hydrothermal vent fields. However, complex three dimensional surfaces could not be adequately replicated in those studies, and the assemblage structure, as well as their relation to abiotic terrain variables, is often only descriptive. In this study we use ROV video imagery of a hydrothermal vent field on the southeastern Indian Ridge in the Indian Ocean. Structure from Motion photogrammetry was applied to build a high resolution 3D reconstruction model of one side of a newly discovered active hydrothermal chimney complex, allowing for the quantification of abundances. Likewise, the reconstruction was used to infer terrain variables at a scale important for megabenthic specimens, which were related to the abundances of the faunal assemblages. Based on the terrain variables, applied random forest model predicted the faunal assemblage distribution with an accuracy of 84.97 %. The most important structuring variables were the distances to diffuse- and black fluid exits, as well as the height of the chimney complex. This novel approach enabled us to classify quantified abundances of megabenthic taxa to distinct faunal assemblages and relate terrain variables to their distribution. The successful prediction of faunal assemblage occurrences further supports the importance of abiotic terrain variables as key structuring factors in hydrothermal systems and offers the possibility to detect suitable areas for Marine Protected areas on larger spatial scales. This technique works for any kind of video imagery, regardless of its initial purpose and can be implemented in marine monitoring and management.
Psychometric Characteristics of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) in Postpartum Mothers with Histories of Childhood Maltreatment

Background: There is increased awareness that resilience serves as a protective factor against adverse psychophysiological sequelae in the context of stress. However, there are few instruments to assess this construct in adult populations. The Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC) has been developed to assess adaptation following stress exposure. While this instrument has previously demonstrated impressive reliability and construct validity, prior research has not supported the consistency of the originally described factor structure. There is also limited evidence regarding the measurement of resilience in the context of cumulative stress exposure. Objectives: This research explores the psychometric properties of the CD-RISC in mothers with childhood histories of maltreatment Materials and Methods: Postpartum women who endorsed a history of childhood abuse or neglect (N = 141) completed the CD-RISC, the childhood trauma questionnaire and other surveys measuring positive and negative health and functioning. We calculated descriptive statistics with percentage counts and means as appropriate. Internal reliability was evaluated by Cronbach’s alpha and the calculation of item-to-total score correlations. Parallel analysis (PA) was utilized to derive the number of retained factors. Results: A recent parenting transition concomitant with a history of maltreatment was associated with lower CD-RISC scores. Internal reliability and concurrent validity analyses were satisfactory and consistent with predicted hypotheses. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) supported a four-factor model of resilience with this population. Conclusions: This research offers further evidence of the reliability and validity of the CD-RISC. Further, the results of the EFA with parallel analysis offer an empirically-driven derivation of factors for this population.
Finding the Way Through The Trees: Shining Light on Young Children’s Play Dates with Nature

Nature-based play environments offer children an important source of interactions and engagement with nature. This research in a local context, adds to a growing body of research and accumulating evidence on the influences of nature play. In responding to the question: In what ways does nature-based play enhance children’s learning opportunities in New Zealand early childhood settings, the aim was to shed light on play dates in nature within these particular settings. Qualitative descriptive data was gathered to address how these regular play dates with nature influence children’s learning. The tools of storytelling, narrative, interpretation and poetry were chosen to illuminate the findings of this research. These stories and poems unfurled in parks, gardens, farmland, woods, reserves, neighbourhoods and communities that are distinctly New Zealand. The evolving research story looked at finding the way through common worlds of play and learning, children and adults, flora and fauna, nature and nature-based settings. The research findings expose five key ‘F’ words as recurring conceptual themes in the multi-site case study. The key factors are children looking at nature through ‘fresh eyes’, when given ‘frequent’ access to ‘familiar’ natural places. The ‘freedom’ to explore the natural world of ‘flora and fauna’, with time and space and adults as significant others, compels us towards new understandings of these experiences. These important factors of nature play have been observed as having a positive influence on learning. Strong links to the principles, strands and goals of Te Whāriki, the New Zealand early childhood curriculum place further value on nature experiences in early childhood settings. This research story concludes that children need to have regular access to diverse natural elements, whether in small natural settings, large naturalised play spaces or anything natural in between. Natural elements and multi-sensory natural environments are the key factor in igniting children’s curiosity, wonder, fascination and exploration that enhances and enriches developing learning.
Expansionary Austerity and Reverse Causality: A Critique of the Conventional Approach

In this paper we methodologically review and criticize a broad literature of empirical work on the effects of fiscal policy (the ‘conventional approach’). Beyond previous critiques of this approach, we show that the cyclical adjustment strategy as used in this literature entails erroneous assumptions that necessarily produce flawed results in support of expansionary austerity. Specifically, the cyclically-adjusted primary balance (CAPB) strategy this literature employs fails to correct for cyclical effects in the expenditure-GDP-ratio, so that the estimates of the results of expansionary fiscal consolidation are affected by reverse causality, i.e. increasing GDP causally decreases expenditure-GDP-ratios, rather than vice versa. We provide suggestions on how to fix this incomplete cyclical adjustment problem with a new approach. After replicating two famous articles of the conventional literature and controlling for this bias, the expansionary effects of fiscal adjustments disappear or turn into their opposites.
A Framework for Information Accessibility in Large Video Repositories

Online videos are a medium of choice for young adults to access or receive information, and recent work has highlighted that it is a particularly effective medium for adults with intellectual disability, by its visual nature. Reflecting on a case study presenting fieldwork observations of how adults with intellectual disability engage with videos on the Youtube platform, we propose a framework to define and evaluate the accessibility of such large video repositories, from an informational perspective. The proposed framework nuances the concept of information accessibility from that of the accessibility of information access interfaces themselves (generally catered for under web accessibility guidelines), or that of the documents (generally covered in general accessibility guidelines). It also includes a notion of search (or browsing) accessibility, which reflects the ability to reach the document containing the information. In the context of large information repositories, this concept goes beyond how the documents are organized into how automated processes (browsing or searching) can support users. In addition to the framework we also detail specifics of document accessibility for videos. The framework suggests a multi-dimensional approach to information accessibility evaluation which includes both cognitive and sensory aspects. This framework can serve as a basis for practitioners when designing video information repositories accessible to people with intellectual disability, and extends on the information presentation guidelines such as suggested by the WCAG.
Interactions of multi-scale heterogeneity in the lithosphere: Australia

Understanding the complex heterogeneity of the continental lithosphere involves a wide variety of spatial scales and the synthesis of multiple classes of information. Seismic surface waves and multiply reflected body waves provide the main constraints on broad-scale structure, and bounds on the extent of the lithosphere-asthenosphere transition (LAT) can be found from the vertical gradients of S wavespeed. Information on finer-scale structures comes through body wave studies, including detailed seismic tomography and P-wave reflectivity extracted from stacked autocorrelograms of continuous component records. With the inclusion of deterministic large-scale structure and realistic medium-scale stochastic features fine-scale variations are subdued. The resulting multi-scale heterogeneity model for the Australian region gives a good representation of the character of observed seismograms and their geographic variations and matches the observations of P-wave reflectivity. P reflections in the 0.5–3.0 Hz band in the uppermost mantle suggest variations on vertical scales of a few hundred metres with amplitudes of the order of 1%. Interference of waves reflected or converted at sequences of such modest variations in physical properties produce relatively simple behaviour for lower frequencies, which can suggest simpler structures than are actually present. Vertical changes in the character of fine-scale heterogeneity can produce apparent discontinuities. In Central Australia a ‘mid-lithospheric discontinuity’ can be tracked via changes in frequency content of station reflectivity, with links to the broad-scale pattern of wavespeed gradients and, in particular, the gradients of radial anisotropy. Comparisons with xenolith results from southeastern Australia indicate a strong tie between geochemical stratification and P-wave reflectivity. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A permanent , asymmetric dust cloud around the

Carroll, N. Hood, S. Hsu,, S. Kempf, P. Pokorny, Z. Sternovsky, J. Szalay, X. Wang, Institute for Modeling Plasmas, Atmospheres, and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT), U. of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA, 2 Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), U. of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., USA, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA, 5 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
Business Cycles Charactehttp://www.luc.edu/orgs/meea/volume6/Gallegati.pdfristics of the Mediterranean Area Countries

In this paper we investigate the characteristics of business cycles fluctuations in the countries of the Mediterranean region by applying the Christiano-Fitzgerald bandpass filter to the output series of 12 Mediterranean countries over the period 1950-1998. The main properties of business cycle fluctuations (persistence, volatility, asymmetry and synchronization) are computed with reference to the deviation or growth cycle definition of the business cycle. Overall, the results of our analysis suggest, as expected, the existence of important differences in the characteristics of business cycle fluctuations among countries belonging to different economic level of development. Moreover, the average reduction of the degree of synchronization among Mediterranean countries seems to suggest a weakening of the economic links among Mediterranean countries, and thus a reduction of the economic importance of the links in this area in comparison to the European continental area.
CHAPTER 4 CONVENTIONAL LIQUID- LIQUID EXTRACTION METHOD FOR BDO SEPARATION

The commercial benefits of BDO can be realized by developing efficient downstream processes. Chapter 2 provided rapid solvent screening experiments wherein C4-C6 alcohols (1-butanol, in particular) showed good promise for the extraction of BDO from the aqueous fermentation broth [1]. Chapter 3 illustrated the prospects of repulsive extraction (salting-out effect) to enhance the separation of BDO from aqueous fermentation broth [2]. This chapter provides further scale-up strategy for continuous extraction of BDO from fermentation broth. Although considerable amount of liquidliquid equilibrium data are available in the literature for BDO [3-10], there are only few studies concerned with the continuous mode of operation for the extraction of BDO. In 1945, Othmer et al. [11] reported extraction feasibility of BDO from the fermented broth solution. Recently, Vishwakarma et al [12, 13] reported countercurrent liquid-liquid extraction of BDO from aqueous solution using 3-methyl-1-butanol as extracting solvent after addition of 10 wt% sodium carbonate salt in the aqueous stream. In both these studies, the BDO feed was concenfrated in the range of 10-20 wt% solids prior to the solvent extraction step. In addition, some preliminary freatment to the fermented broth was carried out to remove colored impurities. The studies of Othmer et al [11] as well as Vishwakanna et al [13] concluded that countercurrent liquid-liquid extraction operation is essential for the large-scale recovery and separation of BDO.
Trade openness and CO2 emissions nexus in Oman

Trade Openness (TO) has a strong role in the development of an economy but its impact on the overall environmental profile of a country is debatable. This analysis is focused to test how trade openness affects CO2 emissions in Oman. Unit root tests are conducted and ARDL model is employed using data from 1972-2014. The results of the study suggested that both Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and trade openness seem to have the positive impact on CO2 emissions. It means that a higher GDP per capita and trade openness destructs the environment in the country. The results leave space for Oman’s government to consider the environment while devising its trade policies.
Standard and innovative therapy of inflammatory bowel diseases.

During last years, treatment of IBD evolved from a non-specific suppression of the mucosal immunological response to a more specific intervention in the immunocascade. While corticosteroids and aminosalicylates remain the mainstay of treatment, more potent immunosuppressors like azathioprine, methotrexate and cyclosporine are used in corticodependent or resistant patients. Safety profiles of these drugs become better established. The successful introduction of biological therapies such as a chimeric monoclonal antibody against TNFalpha, opened a new field of research and possibilities. New humanized agents interfering at several levels in the production of cytokines are in development. Moreover, other pathways are focused like signal transduction, adhesion of cells to tissue, modulation of tissue architecture, bacterial flora . Challenges for the next future remain the development of more effective and safe drugs, the identification of target populations for every drug, the study of the influence of biological therapies on natural history of the disease and finally the definite cure of the patient. An updated review from current and future treatment modalities is given.
FUNCTIONAL ANALYTIC PROPERTIES OF SOME BANACH ALGEBRAS RELATED TO THE FOURIER ALGEBRA

This is a survey of some functional analytic properties of the Banach algebras Ap(G) = Ap ∩ Lr(G) for locally compact groups G obtained in [18, 19, 20, 21]. These include Arens regularity, strict containment for fixed p and increasing r, the RNP and optimisation in Ap(G), weak sequential completeness, spectral synthesis, etc. It is found that A r p(G) behaves very differently from Ap(G), if r < ∞. The results are new even if G = R or G = Z, the real line or the additive integers.
Payment Mechanisms and Antipoverty Programs: Evidence from a Mobile Money Cash Transfer Experiment in Niger

Conditional and unconditional cash transfers have become an increasingly common component of social protection policies in both developed and developing countries (Fiszbein and Schady 2009; Arnold, Conway, and Greenslade 2011). As of 2013, 119 developing countries had some type of cash transfer program in place (Gentilini, Honorati, and Yemtsov 2014). In higherand middle-income countries, such programs are often implemented electronically, via either bank transfers or prepaid debit cards. Yet in developing countries with limited financial infrastructure, cash transfer programs often require physically distributing cash in small denominations to remote rural areas. This can result in substantial costs for both the implementing agency and program recipients, thereby affecting the potential effectiveness of cash transfers as com-
Exploring Healthcare Simulation Facilitators’ Conceptions of Teaching and Learning

This study aimed to investigate healthcare simulation facilitators’ conceptions of teaching and learning because they influence the approaches and strategies used in teaching and learning and ultimately influence learning outcomes. The study was conducted using a phenomenographic methodology to identify the variation in conceptions. This study included 37 healthcare simulation facilitators. The data were collected using both thematic and semi-structured individual and paired interviews. The iterative phenomenographic data analysis process revealed four categories of conceptions of learning: 1) learning as acquiring and reproducing knowledge and skills, 2) learning as applying and advancing knowledge and skills, 3) learning as transformation of individual thinking and behaviour and 4) learning as co-constructing knowledge and skills. Three categories of conceptions of teaching were also revealed: 1) teaching as transmission of knowledge, 2) teaching as development of students’ professional skills and 3) teaching as facilitation of learning. Based on the results of this study, we argue that, by changing teaching conditions, we may also affect the underlying conceptions of teaching and learning as well as approaches to teaching and ultimately learning outcomes. The results of this study can also be used to develop healthcare educators’ pedagogical training. However, approaches to teaching and learning are not necessarily aligned; therefore, in future studies, our aim will be to continue the research by investigating how these self-perceived conceptions are related to approaches to teaching and learning within actual educational practices.
The use of tiltmeters to study the dynamics of Antarctic ice-shelf grounding lines

New tiltmeter data are presented from Doake Ice Rumples on Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica. Five sites which showed a tidal ice-shelf flexure have been analysed using an elastic beam model to investigate the variation of flexure amplitude with distance from the grounding line. An earlier study on Rutford Ice Stream which also used an elastic model required an ice thickness much less than that observed. Reworking the Rutford Ice Stream data suggests that this grea tly reduced ice thickness is not required, given the current sparse data coverage. The clastic model is used to improve the estimated grounding-line position on Rutford Ice Stream . Some of the difficulties in modelling ice-shelf flexure and locating grounding lines are discussed .