Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feeling bad about feeling good? how avengers and observers evaluate the hedonic pleasure of taking revenge

Four pre-registered experiments (N total = 2,039) investigated how people morally evaluate avengers who experience hedonic pleasure (vs. displeasure) after taking revenge and whether avengers themselves pick up on these moral evaluations by third parties. Victims who took revenge were judged as more immoral than victims who did not take revenge, especially when they felt pleasure from doing so (Study 1). Conversely, participants anticipated that others would perceive them as more competent (but not less moral) when imagining them showing visible signs of pleasure (vs. displeasure) about taking revenge (Study 2). Furthermore, showing signs of pleasure from taking revenge was attributed to greater competence than showing signs of displeasure from taking revenge (Study 3). On the other hand, feeling good about revenge was attributed to lower morality than feeling bad about taking revenge (Study 4).
Accurate and efficient SLA compliance monitoring

Service level agreements (SLAs) define performance guarantees made by service providers, e.g, in terms of packet loss, delay, delay variation, and network availability. In this paper, we describe a new active measurement methodology to accurately monitor whether measured network path characteristics are in compliance with performance targets specified in SLAs. Specifically, (1) we describe a new methodology for estimating packet loss rate that significantly improves accuracy over existing approaches; (2) we introduce a new methodology for measuring mean delay along a path that improves accuracy over existing methodologies, and propose a method for obtaining confidence intervals on quantiles of the empirical delay distribution without making any assumption about the true distribution of delay; (3) we introduce a new methodology for measuring delay variation that is more robust than prior techniques; and (4) we extend existing work in network performance tomography to infer lower bounds on the quantiles of a distribution of performance measures along an unmeasured path given measurements from a subset of paths. We unify active measurements for these metrics in a discrete time-based tool called SLAM. The unified probe stream from SLAM consumes lower overall bandwidth than if individual streams are used to measure path properties. We demonstrate the accuracy and convergence properties of SLAM in a controlled laboratory environment using a range of background traffic scenarios and in one- and two-hop settings, and examine its accuracy improvements over existing standard techniques.
MicroRNAs in Cervical Cancer: Evidences for a miRNA Profile Deregulated by HPV and Its Impact on Radio-Resistance

Cervical carcinoma (CC) is one of the most common cancers and a leading cause of mortality in women worldwide. Epidemiologic and experimental data have clearly demonstrated a causal role of high-risk Human Papillomavirus (HR-HPV) types in CC initiation and progression, affecting the cellular processes by targeting and inactivating p53 and pRB host proteins. HR-HPV E5, E6 and E7 oncoproteins have the ability to deregulate several cellular processes, mostly apoptosis, cell cycle control, migration, immune evasion, and induction of genetic instability, which promote the accumulation of mutations and aneuploidy. In this scenario, genomic profiles have shown that aberrant expression of cellular oncogenic and tumor suppressive miRNAs have an important role in CC carcinogenesis. It has been stated that HPV infection and E6/E7 expression are essential but not sufficient to lead to CC development; hence other genetic and epigenetic factors have to be involved in this complex disease. Recent evidence suggests an important level of interaction among E6/E7 viral proteins and cellular miRNA, and other noncoding RNAs. The aim of the current review is to analyze recent data that mainly describe the interaction between HR-HPV established infections and specific cellular miRNAs; moreover, to understand how those interactions could affect radio-therapeutic response in tumor cells.
Mapping Change Detection of LULC on the Cameroonian Shores of Lake Chad and its Hinterland through an Inter-Seasonal and Multisensor Approach

The aim of this study is to assess the land use/land cover (LULC) inter-seasonal changes along the Cameroonian shores of Lake Chad and its hinterland using the four generations of Landsat sensors images of MSS, TM, ETM+ and OLI. Identification of land use/land cover inter-seasonal changes is based on classification by Support Vector Machines (SVMs) algorithm. Three major spatial classes of objects are identified: open water, vegetation and marshlands, and bare soils. The results show that, bare soils class has the higher rate, and can reach 67.57% of the study area extent. Moreover, land use/land cover change from one season to another or from one decade to another can be closely linked to evolution of climate conditions. Then open water areas vary little with rate of 1.94% and 7.6% for inter-seasonal changes, and rate of 5.62% and 63.05% for inter-annual changes. Compared to open water, vegetation and marshlands has the most important variation, that is 583.59%. In addition, proportions of bare soils that vary are different between dry seasons and rainy seasons, with a lower and a higher rate of 5.38% and 82.8%. This leads to the conclusion that occupation in the study area is dominated by bare soils principally; occupation class that is most affected by changes is vegetation and marshlands followed by bare soils and then open water and marshlands.
Towards Pain Monitoring: Facial Expression, Head Pose, a new Database, an Automatic System and Remaining

Pain is what the patient says it is. But what about these who cannot utter? Automatic pain monitoring opens up prospects for better treatment, but accurate assessment of pain is challenging due to the subjective nature of pain. To facilitate advances, we contribute a new dataset, the BioVid Heat Pain Database which contains videos and physiological data of 90 persons subjected to well-defined pain stimuli of 4 intensities. We propose a fully automatic recognition system utilizing facial expression, head pose information and their dynamics. The approach is evaluated with the task of pain detection on the new dataset, also outlining open challenges for pain monitoring in general. Additionally, we analyze the relevance of head pose information for pain recognition and compare person-specific and general classification models.
QRS Slopes for Detection and Characterization of Myocardial Ischemia

In this study, the upward (IUS) and downward (IDS) slopes of the QRS complex are proposed as indices for quantifying ischemia-induced electrocardiogram (ECG) changes. Using ECG recordings acquired before and during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), it is found that the QRS slopes are considerably less steep during artery occlusion, in particular for IDS. With respect to ischemia detection, the slope indices outperform the often used high-frequency index (defined as the root mean square (rms) of the bandpass-filtered QRS signal for the frequency band 150-250 Hz) as the mean relative factors of change are much larger for IUS and IDS than for the high-frequency index (6.9 and 7.3 versus 3.7). The superior performance of the slope indices is equally valid when other frequency bands of the high-frequency index are investigated (the optimum one is found to be 125-175 Hz). Employing a simulation model in which the slopes of a template QRS are altered by different techniques, it is found that the slope changes observed during PTCA are mostly due to a widening of the QRS complex or a decrease of its amplitudes, but not a reduction of its high-frequency content or a combination of this and the previous effects. It is concluded that QRS slope information can be used as an adjunct to the conventional ST segment analysis in the monitoring of myocardial ischemia.
Wheelchair-based game design for older adults

Few leisure activities are accessible to institutionalized older adults using wheelchairs; in consequence, they experience lower levels of perceived health than able-bodied peers. Video games have been shown to be an engaging leisure activity for older adults. In our work, we address the design of wheelchair-accessible motion-based games. We present KINECTWheels, a toolkit designed to integrate wheelchair movements into motion-based games, and Cupcake Heaven, a wheelchair-based video game designed for older adults using wheelchairs. Results of two studies show that KINECTWheels can be applied to make motion-based games wheelchair-accessible, and that wheelchair-based games engage older adults. Through the application of the wheelchair as an enabling technology in play, our work has the potential of encouraging older adults to develop a positive relationship with their wheelchair.
Freshening of the Intermediate Waters in the Northern South China Sea over the Past Six Decades

: The properties of salinity in the South China Sea (SCS), a significant marginal sea connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, are greatly influenced by the transport of fresh water flux between the two oceans. However, the long-term changes in the intermediate water in the SCS have not been thoroughly studied due to limited data, particularly in relation to its thermodynamic variations. This study utilized reanalysis data products to identify a 60-year trend of freshening in the intermediate waters of the northern South China Sea (NSCS), accompanied by an expansion of low-salinity water. The study also constructed salinity budget terms, including advection and entrainment processes, and conducted an analysis of the salinity budget to understand the impacts of external and internal dynamic processes on the freshening trend of the intermediate water in the NSCS. The analysis revealed that the freshening in the northwest Pacific Ocean and the intensification of intrusion through the Luzon Strait at intermediate levels are the primary drivers of the salinity changes in the NSCS. Additionally, a weakened trend in the intensity of vertical entrainment also contributes to the freshening in the NSCS. This study offers new insights into the understanding of regional deep sea changes in response to variations in both thermodynamics and oceanic dynamic processes.
Semantic Effects of Nouns on Tone Merger: The Ikema Dialect of Miyako Ryukyuan

The Ikema dialect of Miyako, Southern Ryukyuan, has a three-pattern accent system in which three tone classes (Types A, B, and C) are lexically contrastive, although the Type A nouns are fewer. The biased distribution of tone classes is a consequence of a diachronic change whereby Types A and B merged together. This study aims to confirm that the original three-pattern system in Ikema retains the proto-Ryukyuan system and to demonstrate that a set of words that are originally of Type A and share specific meanings are not merged into Type B.
VALUE OF HUMAN AFFECTION FOR PET IN FILM HACHIKO A DOG’S TALE BY LASSE HALLSTROM

: The purposes of this study were to describe the values and acts of human affection for their pets in the film Hachiko a Dog's Tale by Lasse Hallstom in order to create an attachment relationship between humans and pets through the main characters Parker and Cate. This study used a qualitative descriptive method to describe the value of human affection for pets. This study focused on the film Hachiko a Dog's Tale as the object of analysis, and as the subject of analysis focused on the main characters Parker and Cate. The results of this study indicate that the value of human affection (Parker and Cate) for pets (Hachi) is love and affection, kinship, concern and sacrifice. Acts of affection are playing together, cuddling, feeding, caring for and searching. Maintaining affection for pets can be used as a means of recreation by playing with pets, filling free time by bathing or taking pets for walks.
Adaptive Range-Based Power Control for Collision Avoidance in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

The paper analyzes the relationships among the transmission range, carrier sensing range, and interference range in case that power control is adopted and proposes an adaptive range-based power control (ARPC) MAC protocol for wireless ad hoc networks to avoid collisions. Based on the analysis results, four mechanisms, STRC, RTRC, SCRC, and RCRC are proposed to prevent from collisions. The paper further analyzes the superiority of each mechanism under certain situations and proposes the ARPC MAC protocol to make use of the advantages of the four mechanisms to avoid collisions. The proposed protocol can not only reduce energy consumption of STAs, but also prevent from collisions. Simulation results also verify the advantages of the proposed protocol.
Rapid and accurate HPLC assay for plasma total homocysteine and cysteine in a clinical laboratory setting.

Although several approaches for measuring plasma total homocysteine by HPLC have been described during the last few years (1)(2)(3)(4), none combines all the desired features for a rapid, user-friendly, and robust assay: (a) a stable, efficient, and nonhazardous reducing agent; (b) incorporation of a suitable internal standard; and (c) rapid, isocratic separation of the thiols of interest, using a mobile phase of mild pH. We have therefore modified the method of Vester and Rasmussen (5) by using tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP), a newer stable, water-soluble phosphine derivative introduced by Gilfix et al. (6), as the reducing agent, cystamine as the internalnd isocratic separation of the thiols extracted from only 50 μL of pla standard, asma within 6 min. A mixture of 50 μL of plasma, 25 μL of internal standard, and 25 μL of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.4) was incubated with 10 μL of 100 g/L TCEP (Pierce Chemical Co.) for 30 min at room temperature to reduce and release protein-bound thiols, after which 90 μL of 100 g/L trichloroacetic acid containing 1 mmol/L EDTA was added for deproteinization. After the sample was centrifuged for 10 min at 13000 g , 50 μL of the supernatant was added to an autosampler vial containing 10 μL of 1.55 mol/L NaOH; 125 μL of 0.125 mol/L borate buffer containing 4 mmol/L EDTA, pH 9.5; and 50 μL of 1 g/L SBD-F (Wako Chemicals) in the borate buffer. The sample was then incubated for 60 min at 60 °C. HPLC was carried out on a 2690 Alliance solvent delivery system …
Multi-step prediction of physiological tremor for robotics applications

The performance of surgical robotic devices in real-time mainly depends on phase-delay in sensors and filtering process. A phase delay of 16-20 ms is unavoidable in these robotics procedures due to the presence of hardware low pass filter in sensors and pre-filtering required in later stages of cancellation. To overcome this phase delay, we employ multi-step prediction with band limited multiple Fourier linear combiner (BMFLC) and Autoregressive (AR) methods. Results show that the overall accuracy is improved by 60% for tremor estimation compared to single-step prediction methods in the presence of phase delay. Experimental results with the proposed methods for 1-DOF tremor estimation highlight the improvement.
A study of the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on white matter microstructural integrity at birth

Background Neuroimaging studies have indicated that prenatal alcohol exposure is associated with alterations in the structure of specific brain regions in children. However, the temporal and regional specificity of such changes and their behavioural consequences are less known. Here we explore the integrity of regional white matter microstructure in infants with in utero exposure to alcohol, shortly after birth. Methods Twenty-eight alcohol-exposed and 28 healthy unexposed infants were imaged using diffusion tensor imaging sequences to evaluate white matter integrity using validated tract-based spatial statistics analysis methods. Second, diffusion values were extracted for group comparisons by regions of interest. Differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity were compared between groups and associations with measures from the Dubowitz neonatal neurobehavioural assessment were examined. Results Lower AD values (p<0.05) were observed in alcohol-exposed infants in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus compared with non-exposed infants. Altered FA and MD values in alcohol-exposed neonates in the right inferior cerebellar were associated with abnormal neonatal neurobehaviour. Conclusion These exploratory data suggest that prenatal alcohol exposure is associated with reduced white matter microstructural integrity even early in the neonatal period. The association with clinical measures reinforces the likely clinical significance of this finding. The location of the findings is remarkably consistent with previously reported studies of white matter structural deficits in older children with a diagnosis of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
Illusory Displacement of Equiluminous Kinetic Edges

A stationary window was cut out of a stationary random-dot pattern. When a field of dots was moved continuously behind the window (a) the window appeared to move in the same direction even though it was stationary, (b) the position of the ‘kinetic edges’ defining the window was also displaced along the direction of dot motion, and (c) the edges of the window tended to fade on steady fixation even though the dots were still clearly visible. The illusory displacement was enhanced considerably if the kinetic edge was equiluminous and if the ‘window’ region was seen as ‘figure’ rather than ‘ground’. Since the extraction of kinetic edges probably involves the use of direction-selective cells, the illusion may provide insights into how the visual system uses the output of these cells to localize the kinetic edges.
Genetic diversity and differentiation among Lagopus lagopus populations in Scandinavia and Scotland: evolutionary significant units confirmed by SNP markers

Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in four Scandinavian populations of willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus) and two Scottish populations of red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scoticus) were assessed at 13 protein‐coding loci. We found high levels of diversity, with one substitution every 55 bp as an average and a total of 76 unlinked parsimony informative SNPs. Different estimators of genetic diversity such as: number of synonymous and non‐synonymous sites, average number of alleles, number and percentage of polymorphic loci, mean nucleotide diversity (πs, πa) and gene diversity at synonymous and non‐synonymous sites showed higher diversity in the northern populations compared to southern ones. Strong levels of purifying selection found in all the populations together with neutrality tests conforming to neutral expectations agree with large effective population sizes. Assignment tests reported a clear distinction between Scandinavian and Scottish grouse suggesting the existence of two different evolutionary significant units. The divergence time between willow and red grouse ranging between 12 500 and 125 000 years, in conjunction with the presence of ‘specific’ markers for each subspecies prompt a reassessment of the taxonomical status of the Scottish red grouse.
Online Distributed Scheduling on a Fault-prone Parallel System

We consider a parallel system of $m$ identical machines prone to unpredictable crashes and restarts, trying to cope with the continuous arrival of tasks to be executed. Tasks have different computational requirements (i.e., processing time or size). The flow of tasks, their size, and the crash and restart of the machines are assumed to be controlled by an adversary. Then, we focus on the study of online distributed algorithms for the efficient scheduling of the tasks. We use competitive analysis, considering as efficiency metric the completed-load, i.e., the aggregated size of the completed tasks. We first present optimal completed-load competitiveness algorithms when the number of different task sizes that can be injected by the adversary is bounded. (It is known that, if it is not bounded, competitiveness is not achievable.) We first consider only two different task sizes, and then proceed to $k$ different ones, showing in both cases that the optimal completed-load competitiveness can be achieved. Then, we consider the possibility of having some form of resource augmentation, allowing the scheduling algorithm to run with a speedup $s \geq 1$. In this case, we show that the competitiveness of all work-conserving scheduling algorithms can be increased by using a large enough speedup.
Guaranteed scheduling for switches with configuration overhead

We present three algorithms that provide- performance guarantees for scheduling switches, such as optical switches, with configuration overhead. Each algorithm emulates an unconstrained (zero overhead) switch by accumulating a batch of configuration requests and generating a corresponding schedule for a constrained switch. Speedup is required both to cover the configuration overhead of the switch and to compensate for empty slots left by the scheduling algorithm. Scheduling algorithms are characterized by the number of configurations, N/sub s/, they require to cover a batch of requests, and the speedup required to compensate for empty slots, S/sub min/. We show that a well known exact matching algorithm, EXACT, leaves no empty slots (i.e. S/sub min/=1), but requires N/sub s//spl ap/N/sup 2/ configurations for an N-port switch leading to high overhead or large batches and hence high delay. We present two new algorithms that reduce the number of configurations required substantially. MIN covers a batch of requests in the minimum possible number of configurations, N/sub s/=N, but at the expense of many empty slots, S/sub min//spl ap/4log/sub 2/ N. DOUBLE strikes a balance, requiring twice as many configurations, N/sub s/=2N, while reducing the number of empty slots so that S/sub min/=2. We show that DOUBLE offers the lowest required speedup to emulate an unconstrained switch across a wide range of port count and delay.
Semantic segmentation using regions in natural scenes

By introducing an over-segmentation algorithm into the conditional model (CM), we propose a new region-based CM model (R-CM), and investigate its performance on semantic segmentation of images. In order to incorporate structure information of objects, we segment an image into regions by using an over-segmentation algorithm. Based on the results of CM model, we first consider assigning all pixels in one region with the same label, and then other feature potentials are included to counteract the influence of false over-segmentation. We compare our results to related work on the Olive & Torralba database and show that aside from improved accuracy of the whole database, our model obtains a perceptual improvement, with boundary of different objects correctly labeled.
Ameliorative Effect of Areca Nut Polyphenols on Adverse Effects Induced by Lipopolysaccharides in RAW264.7 Cells

In Asian regions, areca nuts are tropical fruits that are extensively consumed. The areca nut contains a lot of polyphenols and its safety is unknown. In this research, we investigated the effects of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and areca nut polyphenols (ANP) on normal RAW264.7 cells. The results showed that LPS stimulated adverse effects in normal cells by affecting cytokine production. The GO analysis results mainly affected DNA repair, cell division, and enzyme activities. In the KEGG analysis results, the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, which is related to NF-κB, MAPK, and the pro-inflammatory cytokines, is the most significant. In the protein–protein interaction network (PPI) results, significant sub-networks in all three groups were shown to be related to cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction. Collectively, our findings showed a comprehensive understanding of LPS-induced toxicity and the protective effects of ANP by RNA sequencing.