Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anatomical changes in the emerging adult brain: A voxel‐based morphometry study

Research has consistently confirmed changes occur in brain morphometry between adolescence and adulthood. The purpose of the present study was to explore anatomical change during a specific environmental transition. High‐resolution T1‐weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were acquired from 19 participants (mean age at initial scan = 18.6 years) during their freshman year. Scans were completed during the fall term and 6 months later before the conclusion of the school year. Voxel‐based morphometry was used to assess within‐subject change. Significant intensity increases were observed along the right midcingulate, inferior anterior cingulate gyrus, right caudate head, right posterior insula, and bilateral claustrum. Regional changes were not observed in two control groups; one controlling for method and another controlling for age‐specific change over time. The results suggest that significant age‐related changes in brain structure continue after the age of 18 and may represent dynamic changes related to new environmental challenges. Findings from the regions of change are discussed in the context of specific environmental demands during a period of normative maturation. Hum Brain Mapp, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
In X uence of galvanic vestibular stimulation on egocentric and object-based mental transformations

The vestibular system analyses angular and linear accelerations of the head that are important information for perceiving the location of one’s own body in space. Vestibular stimulation and in particular galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) that allow a systematic modi W cation of vestibular signals has so far mainly been used to investigate vestibular in X uence on sensori-motor integration in eye movements and postural control. Comparatively, only a few behavioural and imaging studies have investigated how cognition of space and body may depend on vestibular processing. This study was designed to di V erentiate the in X u-ence of left versus right anodal GVS compared to sham stimulation on object-based versus egocentric mental transformations. While GVS was applied, subjects made left-right judgments about pictures of a plant or a human body presented at di V erent orientations in the roll plane. All subjects reported illusory sensations of body self-motion and/ or visual W eld motion during GVS. Response times in the mental transformation task were increased during right but not left anodal GVS for the more di Y cult stimuli and the larger angles of rotation. Post-hoc analyses suggested that the interfering e V ect of right anodal GVS was only present in subjects who reported having imagined turning themselves to solve the mental transformation task (egocentric transformation) as compared to those subjects having imag-ined turning the picture in space (object-based mental transformation). We suggest that this e V ect relies on shared functional and cortical mechanisms in the posterior parietal cortex associated with both right anodal GVS and mental imagery.
Discrete Layer Solution to Free Vibrations of Functionally Graded Magneto-Electro-Elastic Plates

Natural frequencies of orthotropic magneto-electro-elastic graded composite plates are determined using a discrete layer model with two different approaches. In the first, the functions describing the gradation of the materials properties through the thickness of the plate are incorporated into the governing equations. In the second approach, the plate is divided into a finite number of homogeneous layers. The model is validated by comparing the natural frequencies of a simply supported Al/ZrO2 graded square plate with the exact solution. Excellent agreement is obtained. Rectangular plates with different boundary conditions, aspect ratios, and made of different types of composite materials are also considered: Al/ZrO2 and BaTiO3/CoFe2O4 plates for which the volume fraction of the phases change as a function of the z coordinate, graphite/epoxy plates with the orientation of the fibers changing through the thickness of the plate, and plates having an exponential variation of the material properties. Applicability of the proposed model is not limited to specific boundary conditions and gradation functions.
Comments of Journalism Mentors on News Stories: Classification and Epistemic Status of Mentor Contributions

We identified the speech act categories and clusters of discourse comments of journalism mentors who interact with students editing news stories. Two important speech act categories are evaluations and suggestions. Latent semantic analysis and principal components analyses helped us discover clusters of comments involving evaluations and suggestions. The comments of mentors were also significantly aligned with epistemic frame elements that motivate the comments at a deeper level of discourse and pedagogy. Such alignments were validated by logistic regression analyses on a sample of handcoded judgments of the frame elements. There was some modest transfer from a journalism practicum corpus to a game corpus. These analyses provide an important first step in building a virtual AutoMentor for multiparty epistemic games.
Recent Progress and Application of Bainite Steels for High Strength Linepipe up to X120

For the constant transmission of gas through a pipeline, steel weight decreases linearly with an increase in the strength of the linepipe irrespective of pipe size and internal pressure. Thus, high-strength large-diameter linepipe up to X120 has been developed and is now being applied to reduce pipe costs, transportation costs and construction costs. To meet the excellent weldability and low production costs required for the linepipe application of bainite produced through using Thermo-Mechanical Control Processing (TMCP) from low carbon chemistry is essential. Dual phase steel made by means of the introduction of ferrite in the bainite matrix mitigates the inferior properties of bainite. Herein, the production parameters affecting the microstructure and the properties are overviewed.
Public Reporting of Hospital Patient Satisfaction: The Rhode Island Experience

This article describes a collaborative process for legislatively mandated public reporting of health care performance in Rhode Island that began with hospital patient satisfaction. The goals of the report were both quality improvement and public accountability. Key features addressed include: the legislative context for public reporting; widespread participation of stakeholders; the structure for decisionmaking; and the use of formative testing with cognitive interviews to get responses of consumers and others about the report's readability and comprehensibility. This experience and the lessons learned can guide other States considering public reporting on health care performance.
In Vitro Random Mutagenesis of the D1 Protein of the Photosystem II Reaction Center Confers Phototolerance on the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803*

The D1 protein of the photosystem II reaction center is thought to be the most light-sensitive component of the photosynthetic machinery. To understand the mechanisms underlying the light sensitivity of D1, we performed in vitro random mutagenesis of the psbA gene that codes for D1, transformed the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 with mutated psbA, and selected phototolerant transformants that did not bleach in high intensity light. A region ofpsbA2 coding for 178 amino acids of the carboxyl-terminal portion of the peptide was subjected to random mutagenesis by low fidelity polymerase chain reaction amplification or by hydroxylamine treatment. This region contains the binding sites for QB, D2 (through Fe), and P680. Eighteen phototolerant mutants with single and multiple amino acid substitutions were selected from a half million transformants exposed to white light at 320 μmol m−2s−1. A strain transformed with non-mutagenizedpsbA2 became bleached under the same conditions. Site-directed mutagenesis has confirmed that one or more substitutions of amino acids at residues 234, 254, 260, 267, 322, 326, and 328 confers phototolerance. The rate of degradation of D1 protein was not appreciably affected by the mutations. Reduced bleaching of mutant cyanobacterial cells may result from continued buildup of photosynthetic pigment systems caused by changes in redox signals originating from D1.
Psychological correlates of idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

BACKGROUND Idiopathic intracranial hypertension, also known as pseudotumor cerebri, is a relatively rare disorder of increased intracranial pressure >250 mm water, with a normal neuroimaging and normal cerebrospinal fluid content. OBJECTIVES To examine whether hostility, anxiety and autobiographical memory (a correlate of depression) are associated with IIH. METHODS Using a case-control cross sectional design, 20 patients with IIH were compared with 9 healthy controls of similar age, weight and height, and 11 headache controls. Patients were assessed for hostility and anxiety. The Autobiographical Memory Test was used to assess episodic memories. RESULTS The IIH group reported significantly more anxiety and more general episodic memories than the healthy controls, but not the headache control group. The headache control patients reported more general memories than did the healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS Patients with headaches, whether of general origin or related to IIH, have a poor psychosocial profile. While the study design does not permit any conclusions regarding causality, our results support the need to consider psychological factors in evaluating and treating IIH and headache patients.
A unified test architecture for on-line and off-line delay fault detections

This paper proposes a unified delay test architecture, in which the design resources for on-line delay fault detection can be reused to support off-line delay testing. A stability checker, which has low hardware overhead, is presented to monitor the stability violation from each critical combinational output. A global error generator, which is shared among stability checkers, can produce a global error signal from individual stability checkers to indicate whether a delay fault appears. A local scan enable generator is incorporated into the scan chain to support scan-based off-line delay testing. Experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Improving aerially deployed sensor networks using cooperative communications

Deploying wireless sensor networks (WSNs) from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can reduce the cost of large rollouts and make it safer to deploy sensors in disaster areas. However, aerial deployment can lead to nodes with arbitrary orientations and, thus, to misaligned antennas. While this problem was observed during experiments, it has not been systematically studied so far. This paper considers an aerially deployed network that utilizes routing designed to minimize latency and improve reliability. A new antenna model is used to demonstrate the performance degradation caused by aerial deployment. By mitigating a large share of this degradation, cooperative relaying substantially reduces the energy consumption of the network.
The Effect of Lesions of the Basolateral Amygdala on Instrumental Conditioning

In three experiments, we assessed the effect of lesions of the amygdala basolateral complex (BLA) on instrumental conditioning in rats. In experiment 1, the lesion had no effect on the acquisition of either lever pressing or chain pulling in food-deprived rats whether these actions earned food pellets or a maltodextrin solution. The lesion did attenuate, however, the impact of outcome devaluation, induced by sensory-specific satiety, on instrumental performance both when assessed in extinction and when reward was delivered contingent on instrumental performance. In experiment 2, evidence was found to suggest that the lesioned rats differed from shams in their ability to encode the specific action-outcome contingencies to which they were exposed during training: lesioned rats failed to adjust their performance appropriately when the action-outcome contingency was degraded. These effects were not caused by an inability of BLA lesioned rats to discriminate the two instrumental actions; these rats were similar to shams in their acquisition of a heterogeneous instrumental chain involving lever pressing and chain pulling (experiment 3). In experiment 4, however, lesions of the BLA were found to produce a deficit in the ability of rats to use the specific properties of the instrumental outcomes used in the previous experiments to discriminate rewarded from unrewarded actions in a free operant discrimination situation. Together these results suggest that in instrumental conditioning, the BLA mediates outcome encoding, specifically relating the sensory features of nutritive commodities to the emotional consequences induced by their consumption.
Gene conversion, recombination nodules, and the initiation of meiotic synapsis.

The nature of the relationship between the two types of meiotic recombination outcomes, exchange (crossing-over) and simple gene conversion, has been debated for years. I here propose that these two types of events are not necessarily causally related and hypothesize that the primary role of events detected as simple gene conversion is in the recognition of homology during synapsis.
A Novel Multilevel-SVD Method to Improve Multistep Ahead Forecasting in Traffic Accidents Domain

Here is proposed a novel method for decomposing a nonstationary time series in components of low and high frequency. The method is based on Multilevel Singular Value Decomposition (MSVD) of a Hankel matrix. The decomposition is used to improve the forecasting accuracy of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) linear and nonlinear models. Three time series coming from traffic accidents domain are used. They represent the number of persons with injuries in traffic accidents of Santiago, Chile. The data were continuously collected by the Chilean Police and were weekly sampled from 2000:1 to 2014:12. The performance of MSVD is compared with the decomposition in components of low and high frequency of a commonly accepted method based on Stationary Wavelet Transform (SWT). SWT in conjunction with the Autoregressive model (SWT + MIMO-AR) and SWT in conjunction with an Autoregressive Neural Network (SWT + MIMO-ANN) were evaluated. The empirical results have shown that the best accuracy was achieved by the forecasting model based on the proposed decomposition method MSVD, in comparison with the forecasting models based on SWT.
SINR-Based MCS Level Adaptation in CSMA/CA Wireless Networks to Embrace IoT Devices

This paper presents an automatic modulation and coding scheme (MCS) level adaptation algorithm to embrace Internet of Things (IoT) devices by improving the area spectral efficiency of carrier-sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) wireless networks. In the proposed algorithm, senders of CSMA/CA wireless networks use the signal to interference plus noise ratio of acknowledgment frames from their receivers to estimate channel statuses between the senders and the receivers. Using the estimated channel status of each receiver, senders control sending rates of traffic by adjusting MCS levels of packets destined for each receiver. We use Poisson point processes (PPPs) to model the locations of participating nodes (i.e., access points and wireless devices) in a given area. We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm using an event-driven ns-2 simulator for various PPP densities of access points and wireless devices.
Body-Condition Indices Are Repeatable across Short, but Not Long, Time Periods in Crimson Finches Neochmia phaeton

It is common in evolutionary ecology to interpret body-condition indices as indicators of individual quality, but this hypothesized relationship has been questioned and remains poorly validated. Here, we test one of the fundamental predictions of this condition-quality hypothesis, that relative-condition indices are repeatable within individuals, that is, that the index score of an individual relative to others is consistent over time. We sampled crimson finches (Neochmia phaeton) for seven commonly used condition indices and tested whether individual condition relative to conspecifics in the same context (e.g., breeding stage) was repeatable. We calculated the relative indices’ repeatability across several temporal scales, from short (within breeding season) to long (more than 2 yr) time periods, as well as without consideration of timescale. Most relative-condition indices were repeatable when sampled without consideration of timescale, all were repeatable within a short time period, and none were repeatable over the longest time period. This provides only partial support for the condition-quality hypothesis, because although relative-condition indices were generally repeatable, this was primarily attributed to short-term, instead of long-term, repeatability. Condition indices may be meaningful indicators of short-term survival or fitness potential, but our findings are inconsistent with the idea that condition indices are indicators of inherent individual quality.
Constructing a MoS2 QDs/CdS Core/Shell Flowerlike Nanosphere Hierarchical Heterostructure for the Enhanced Stability and Photocatalytic Activity

MoS2 quantum dots (QDs)/CdS core/shell nanospheres with a hierarchical heterostructure have been prepared by a simple microwave hydrothermal method. The as-prepared samples are characterized by XRD, TEM, SEM, UV-VIS diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) and N2-sorption in detail. The photocatalytic activities of the samples are evaluated by water splitting into hydrogen. Results show that the as-prepared MoS2 QDs/CdS core/shell nanospheres with a diameter of about 300 nm are composed of the shell of CdS nanorods and the core of MoS2 QDs. For the photocatalytic reaction, the samples exhibit a high stability of the photocatalytic activity and a much higher hydrogen evolution rate than the pure CdS, the composite prepared by a physical mixture, and the Pt-loaded CdS sample. In addition, the stability of CdS has also been greatly enhanced. The effect of the reaction time on the formations of nanospheres, the photoelectric properties and the photocatalytic activities of the samples has been investigated. Finally, a possible photocatalytic reaction process has also been proposed.
Interactions of actin, myosin, and an actin-binding protein of rabbit pulmonary macrophages. III. Effects of cytochalasin B

Low concentrations (greater than or equal to 10(-7) M) of cytochalasin B reversibly inhibit the temperature-dependent gelation of actin by an actin-binding protein. The cytochalasin B concentrations which maximally inhibit actin gel formation are 10-fold lower than the concentrations which maximally impair phagocytosis by intact macrophages. Cytochalasin B also prevents the polymerization of monomeric actin in sucrose extracts of macrophages in the absence but not the presence of 0.1 M CKl. 10(-6) M cytochalasin B dissolves macrophage extract gels and gels comprised of purified actin and actin- binding protein by dissociating actin-binding protein from actin filaments. This concentration of cytochalasin B, however, does not depolymerize the actin filatments.
The Formation of 2,2,4-Trimethyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,5-Benzodiazepine from 1,2-Diaminobenzene in the Presence of Acetone

In an attempt to synthesize a 2-substituted benzimidazole from the reaction of o-phenylenediamine and isophthalic acid in the presence of acetone and ethanol under microwave irradiation, a salt of the isophthalate ion and 2,2,4-trimethyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,5-benzodiazepin-5-ium ion was obtained. The condensation of two moles of acetone with the amine groups resulted in the formation of the benzodiazepine which crystallized as an iminium cation forming a salt with the isophthalate anion. The formation of benzodiazepine was also confirmed by performing the reaction of o-phenylenediamine with excess acetone in ethanol under conventional heating conditions. The compounds were characterized by NMR, FTIR, HRMS and microanalysis as well as X-ray crystallography. The reaction mechanism leading to the formation of benzodiazepine is also discussed.
Morphology development of LDPE-PS blend compatibilization

LDPE-polystyrene (PS) blends were compatibilized using three PS-hydrogenated polybutadiene-PS and one PS-hydrogenated polybutadiene block copolymers. The blends were prepared by corotating twin-screw extrusion, then were injection-molded. During processing, the morphology evolution of the blends was studied using SEM and image-analyzing techniques. Different screw profiles were used for extrusion. Under the extrusion conditions and when all the blend constituents had melted, the use of one kneading-disc section resulted in a high mixing effect. The addition of other kneading-disc sections did not increase the dispersion. The flow of the blend, through the extruder die or in the injection mold, induced heterogeneous skin-core structures. The analysis of the evolution of the structure of these blends during processing showed that the addition of a compatibilizer increased their stability. Going from LDPE-rich to PS-rich blends, the morphology evolves from a nodular dispersion of PS in LDPE to a cocontinuous structure. With the addition of a copolymer to a 25–75 wt % LDPE-PS blend, the structure changes from a cocontinuous to a nodular one. Comparing the effect of the different copolymers on the blend morphology, the diblock copolymer results in the most homogeneous and finest dispersions. The stabilization of increasing potential values of the interface surface of these blends requires increasing concentrations of the copolymers. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Estimate of herpetofauna depredation by a population of wild pigs

Abstract Herpetofauna populations are decreasing worldwide, and the range of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) is expanding. Depredation of threatened reptile and amphibian populations by wild pigs could be substantial. By understanding depredation characteristics and rates, more resources can be directed toward controlling populations of wild pigs coincident with threatened or endangered herpetofauna populations. From April 2005 to March 2006 we used firearms to collect wild pigs (n = 68) and examined stomach content for reptiles and amphibians. We found 64 individual reptiles and amphibians, composed of 5 different species, that were consumed by wild pigs during an estimated 254 hours of foraging. Primarily arboreal species (e.g., Anolis carolinensis) became more vulnerable to depredation when temperatures were low and they sought thermal shelter. Other species (e.g., Scaphiopus holbrookii) that exhibit mass terrestrial migrations during the breeding season also faced increased vulnerability to depredation by wild pigs. Results suggest that wild pigs are opportunistic consumers that can exploit and potentially have a negative impact on species with particular life-history characteristics.
Nd3+-doped tellurite glass microsphere laser

The authors have successfully demonstrated continuous-wave oscillation in a Nd-doped tellurite glass microsphere laser at 1.06 μm for the first time. Microspheres with diameters of 50 to a few hundred micrometres are fabricated by melting using an electric heater. Emission spectra reveal that the devices exhibit resonances corresponding to whispering gallery modes. Lasing threshold of pump power was about 5 mW.