Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrating the spatial profile of the N200 speller for asynchronous brain-computer interfaces

The N200 speller is a novel brain-computer interface (BCI) paradigm utilizing the overt attention effects on motion onset visual evoked potentials (mVEP). However, the asynchronous performance of the N200 BCI has not been fully explored. In this paper, a novel algorithm was proposed, integrating the spatial profile of the visual speller to provide a more precise description of the mVEP responses. Most importantly, only control state data were used in the algorithm to train a classifier which can detect the non-control state effectively. Using offline recorded data, the asynchronous performance of the proposed algorithm was shown to be significantly better than that of a similar algorithm without using the spatial information. The proposed algorithm can be used for developing a practical, asynchronous N200 BCI system.
Beyond Collective Efficacy: New Brief Measures to Assess the Outer Layers of the Social Ecology

Introduction: Community support can be a valuable interpersonal resource anywhere, yet past research has largely been focused on adults in urban neighborhoods. Because communities are no longer solely defined by a shared physicality, we offer psychometric data on three new measures to assess other communal resources: informal community support, support for community youth, and workplace integration. Methods: Participants (N=1706) from a largely rural, low-income Southern region completed a computer-assisted questionnaire as part of a larger study on character development and personal strength. Ages range from 11 to 70 years old (M=29.3 years; SD=12.3 years); 63% of participants are female. Results: Internal consistency was good for our 3 new measures, . 70 to . 86 and each scale comprised a single factor in exploratory factor analyses. Correlations with collective efficacy (convergent validity) were all positive and significant and range from . 18 to . 57. Correlations with measures of subjective well-being range from . 21 to . 29, and correlations with mental and physical health outcomes ranged from . 14 to . 23. Implications: Studying communities in addition to individuals and families can potentially shed light on the variety of ways in which community ties can foster well-being and resilience. The three new measures presented here assess important but understudied aspects of communities.
The Rectal Cancer Female Sexuality Score: Development and Validation of a Scoring System for Female Sexual Function After Rectal Cancer Surgery

BACKGROUND: Sexual dysfunction and impaired quality of life is a potential side effect to rectal cancer treatment. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to develop and validate a simple scoring system intended to evaluate sexual function in women treated for rectal cancer. DESIGN: This is a population-based cross-sectional study. SETTINGS: Female patients diagnosed with rectal cancer between 2001 and 2014 were identified by using the Danish Colorectal Cancer Group’s database. Participants filled in the validated Sexual Function Vaginal Changes questionnaire. Women declared to be sexually active at follow-up were randomly assigned to 2 groups: one for development and one for validation. Logistic regression analyses identified items for the score, and multivariate analysis established a weighted-score value allocated to each item, adding up to the total score. The validity of the score was tested in the validation group. PATIENTS: Female patients with rectal cancer above the age of 18 who underwent abdominoperineal resection, Hartmann procedure, or total/partial mesorectal excision were selected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome measured was the quality of life that was negatively affected because of sexual problems. RESULTS: A total of 466 sexually active women responded. The score includes 7 items with a range of 0 to 29 points. Score ≥9 indicates sexual dysfunction. The score has a sensitivity/specificity of 76%/75% detecting patients bothered by sexual dysfunction with a negative impact on quality of life. LIMITATIONS: This study was limited by the large amount of nonresponders. CONCLUSIONS: Living up to our demands for a short and easy-to-use validated tool, we have developed the Rectal Cancer Female Sexuality score. It captures, with high sensitivity, the essential problems of female sexuality seen from the perspective of a surviving rectal cancer patient. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww. com/DCR/A576.
Life Course Socioeconomic Status, Daily Stressors, and Daily Well-Being: Examining Chain of Risk Models

Objectives This article models the chain of risk that links life course socioeconomic status (SES), daily stressor exposure and severity, and daily well-being. Method Data from the main survey and the daily diary project of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Refresher study were combined, resulting in 782 participants (55.6% female; age 25-74, Mage = 47.9) who reported on 5,849 days of information on daily stressors and daily well-being. Data were measured at both person and day levels. Between-person predictor variables include childhood SES, education, and adult SES. Within-person daily variables assessed exposure to daily stressors, severity of daily stressors, positive affect, negative affect, and daily physical symptoms. We contrasted hypothesized models, the chain of risk trigger effect model versus the additive model within a multilevel structural equation modeling framework. Results The influences of life course SES and daily stressor exposure and severity on daily well-being were better described by the chain of risk additive model than the chain of risk trigger effect model. Childhood SES was directly and indirectly (through education, adult SES, and daily stressor exposure and severity) associated with daily well-being (in between-person level), especially daily physical symptoms and daily negative affect. Discussion Childhood may be a sensitive period that has salient implications for day-to-day well-being later in life.
Irritability, Externalizing, and Internalizing Psychopathology in Adolescence: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations and Moderation by Sex

Irritability is a common feature of many psychiatric disorders, including both externalizing and internalizing disorders. There is little research, however, examining associations between irritability and these symptom domains, particularly during the important developmental period of adolescence, characterized by sex differences in the prevalence of disorders. We examined the cross-sectional associations between irritability, measured with the Affective Reactivity Index, and symptoms of externalizing and internalizing domains of psychopathology, measured with the Youth Self Report, in a volunteer community sample (N = 183) of 9- to 13-year-old (M = 11.39, SD = 1.07) boys and girls (37% White/Caucasian, 8% Asian, 11% Hispanic, 8% African American, 2% Native American, 2% Pacific Islander, 28% Other, and 3% not reported). A subset of the sample (n = 112) provided data at a 2-year follow-up, used to extend these associations. There were no sex differences in levels of irritability; however, the associations between irritability and symptom domains were moderated by sex. Specifically, in girls, irritability was associated equally with externalizing and internalizing symptoms. In contrast, in boys, irritability was associated more strongly with externalizing symptoms than with internalizing symptoms. Thus, across both sexes, irritability was moderately associated with externalizing symptoms, but the association between irritability and internalizing symptoms was stronger in girls than in boys. At follow-up, sex moderated the association between baseline irritability and later externalizing and internalizing symptoms. These findings indicate that irritability is associated with both externalizing and internalizing symptoms in early adolescence and that irritability is associated with internalizing symptoms more strongly in girls than in boys.
Dense limit of the Dawid–Skene model for crowdsourcing and regions of sub-optimality of message passing algorithms

Crowdsourcing is a strategy to categorize data through the contribution of many individuals. A wide range of theoretical and algorithmic contributions are based on the model of Dawid and Skene. Recently it was shown in the work of Ok et al that, in certain regimes, belief propagation is optimal for data generated from the Dawid–Skene model. This paper is motivated by this recent progress. We analyze a noisy dense limit of the Dawid–Skene model that has so long remained open. It is shown that it belongs to a larger class of low-rank matrix estimation problems for which it is possible to express the Bayes-optimal performance for large system sizes in a simple closed form. In the dense limit the mapping to a low-rank matrix estimation problem provides an approximate message passing algorithm that solves the problem algorithmically. We identify the regions where the algorithm efficiently computes the Bayes-optimal estimates. Our analysis further refines the results of Ok et al about optimality of message passing algorithms by characterizing regions of parameters where these algorithms do not match the Bayes-optimal performance. Besides, we study numerically the performance of approximate message passing, derived in the dense limit, on sparse instances and carry out experiments on a real world dataset.
Efficient (nonrandom) construction and decoding of non-adaptive group testing

The task of non-adaptive group testing is to identify up to $d$ defective items from $N$ items, where a test is positive if it contains at least one defective item, and negative otherwise. If there are $t$ tests, they can be represented as a $t \times N$ measurement matrix. We have answered the question of whether there exists a scheme such that a larger measurement matrix, built from a given $t\times N$ measurement matrix, can be used to identify up to $d$ defective items in time $O(t \log_2{N})$. In the meantime, a $t \times N$ nonrandom measurement matrix with $t = O \left(\frac{d^2 \log_2^2{N}}{(\log_2(d\log_2{N}) - \log_2{\log_2(d\log_2{N})})^2} \right)$ can be obtained to identify up to $d$ defective items in time $\mathrm{poly}(t)$. This is much better than the best well-known bound, $t = O \left( d^2 \log_2^2{N} \right)$. For the special case $d = 2$, there exists an efficient nonrandom construction in which at most two defective items can be identified in time $4\log_2^2{N}$ using $t = 4\log_2^2{N}$ tests. Numerical results show that our proposed scheme is more practical than existing ones, and experimental results confirm our theoretical analysis. In particular, up to $2^{7} = 128$ defective items can be identified in less than $16$s even for $N = 2^{100}$.
Empirical attributes and limitations of methodologies for predicting the degradability of ruminal protein

The object of the present review is to analyze the methodologies that are commonly used to estimate protein degradability in the rumen, focusing on their attributes and limitations to offer suggestions for improving their use. This information is essential for selecting food types when formulating feed diets. A reliable prediction of the digestibility of ruminal proteins is basic information necessary for optimizing the use of nitrogenous sources because digestibility can translate, on the one hand, into higher yields of milk, milk protein, meat or wool and, on the other hand, into lower excretion of nitrogenous compounds into the environment; it also has an impact on animal health and welfare. Traditionally, the digestibility of feed proteins in the rumen has been predicted by in vivo , in situ and in vitro methods, but other techniques based on infrared spectroscopy have been developed, notably the NIRS and FTIR methods. All of these techniques present limitations, such as a disturbance factor or a source of error, that may result in inaccurate predictions. The in situ and in vitro methods, which use enzyme extracts of ruminal origin, and FTIR probably have the greatest advantages, but they need to be perfected through further research. El objetivo de esta revision es analizar las metodologias comunmente usadas para estimar la degradabilidad de las proteinas en el rumen, resaltando sus atributos y limitaciones en orden a ofrecer algunas sugerencias para mejorar su utilizacion. Esta informacion es esencial para seleccionar los tipos de alimentos cuando se formulan las dietas alimenticias. Una confiable prediccion de la digestibilidad de las proteinas en el rumen constituye una informacion basica para optimizar el uso de los recursos nitrogenados, pudiendo por un lado traducirse en una mayor produccion de leche, proteina lactea, carne o lana, y por otro, en una menor excrecion de compuestos nitrogenados al ambiente; esta mayor eficiencia tambien tiene un impacto sobre la salud y el bienestar animal. Tradicionalmente, la digestibilidad ruminal de las proteinas de los alimentos ha sido predicha a traves de metodos in vivo , in situ e in vitro . Sin embargo, otras tecnicas han sido desarrolladas, basadas sobre espectroscopia infraroja, destacando los metodos NIRS y FTIR. Todas estas tecnicas presentan limitaciones, factores perturbadores o fuentes de error, las cuales podrian generar predicciones sesgadas e inseguras. Los metodos in situ e in vitro , utilizando extractos enzimaticos de origen ruminal, y FTIR, probablemente poseen las mayores ventajas, no obstante, estas tecnicas requieren ser perfeccionadas a traves de futuras investigaciones.
Negative 11C-PIB PET Predicts Lack of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology in Postmortem Examination

Our aim was to assess whether in vivo 11C-PIB negative memory-impaired subjects may nonetheless exhibit brain Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. We re-evaluated the PET images and systematically characterized the postmortem neuropathology of six individuals who had undergone clinically indicated amyloid PET. The single case with negligible amyloid-β (Aβ) pathology had Lewy body disease, where concomitant AD changes are often seen. Further, the subject’s plaques were predominantly diffuse. The predictive value of a negative 11C-PIB scan appears to be good, even in memory-impaired populations. Our results suggest that considerable neuritic Aβ plaque pathology in the absence of specific/cortical 11C-PIB binding upon PET is unlikely.
Enhancing Person Re-Identification Based on Recurrent Feature Aggregation Network

This paper proposes a method for video-based person re-identification. Motivated by the capacity of Recurrent Feature Aggregation Network (RFA-Net) that allows to aggregate the image-level features over time-steps and to yield a sequence level feature. Our work improves the person re- identification performance by (1) proposing to use Gaussian of Gaussian (GOG) - a more powerful feature at image level instead of LBP-Color as in the original work and (2) applying metric learning techniques for person matching. To analyze the role of image feature and metric learning, we have performed extensive experiments on two public benchmark datasets including PRID 2011 and iLIDS- VID. The proposed solution obtains impressive results on the PRID 2011 dataset. The matching rate at rank 1 is increased by 16.8% compared to that of original method. For the iLID-SVID dataset, the matching rate at rank 1 of proposed method is increased 1.1% whereas these values at the latter ranks are higher than those of the original method by approximately 4%. In additional, the mean and standard deviation of the rank where the correct matching is found of the proposed method on the PRID 2011 and the iLIDS-VID are 2.32, 4.33 and 4.61, 7.67 while those of the original work are 3.50, 5.42 and 8.03, 17.52, respectively. These obtained results emphasize the robustness of the proposed method compared to the original one.
Comparison of Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional Echocardiography in Determination of Left Ventricle Volumes and Ejection Fraction in Adult Population

Abstract Introduction: Left ventricle (LV) volumes and ejection fraction (EF) determined with two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) and three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) show significant differences.The aim of this study is to determine the agreement of the measurements of LV volumes and EF with 2DE and 3DE in the general adult population, with preserved LV systolic function. Material and methods: In 52 subjects, older than 65 years, LV end-diastolic volume index (EDVi), end-systolic volume index (ESVi) and EF were measured with 2DE and 3DE according to the official recommendations, and reproducibility of both methods and their agreement were determined. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficient for intra-observer reproducibility in the measurement of EDVi, ESVi and EF with 2DE was 0.861, 0.891 and 0.917 respectively, whereas with 3DE 0.854, 0.893 and 0.913, respectively. The difference in the measurement of EDVi and ESVi was significant (p<0.001) whereas the measurement of EF was insignificant (p=0.153). The mean difference value EDVi and ESVi determined with 2DE and 3DE was 5.6+/-5.21 and 3.01+/-2.69 ml/m2 (p<0.001), and of EF 0.306+/-1.475%. Spearman’s correlation coefficient for EDV was 0.693, for ESV 0.763 and for EF 0.97. Conclusion: Larger LV volumes were measured in the adult population using 3DE compared to 2DE, but identical values for EF were obtained. This difference in the measured values could not be attributed to the largeness of the LV volume and EF itself. 3DE demonstrated better intra-observer reproducibility for LV volumes and EF as a major parameter in many clinical decisions.
MIMO radar beampattern optimization with ripple control using sum-of-squares representation

In this paper, we introduce a MIMO radar transmit beam-pattern optimization method in which the peak sidelobe level and the ripple of the focus region can be controlled. Using the sum-of-squares representation of trigonometric polynomials, the beampattern optimization can be done without discretizing the angle domain. The disadvantage of this method is that the desired beampattern has to be a piece-wise trigonometric polynomial or piece-wise constant. Given that the actual beampattern is a trigonometric polynomial, this constraint on the desired beampattern does not incur a loss of performance. It is shown that considerable reduction in computational complexity with equal or smaller approximation error compared to the discretized optimization approach can be achieved when optimizing two-dimensional beampatterns.
Using Implementation Intentions to Prevent Relapse after Psychological Treatment for Depression - the SMArT Intervention.

BACKGROUND It is recognized that a significant proportion of people with depression are prone to relapse, even after successful treatment, and that self-management interventions should be developed and provided. There is evidence that implementation intentions (IMPS) can be successfully applied to health-related behaviours but their application to self-management of mental health problems has been limited. AIMS This paper describes the design and initial evaluation of a Self-Management After Therapy (SMArT) intervention, which incorporated IMPS and followed psychological therapy for depression. We sought to assess the feasibility and acceptability of SMArT. METHOD The SMArT intervention was designed with reference to the MRC guidance on developing and evaluating complex interventions and co-designed with and implemented in a UK Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service. Eleven patients who were in remission following treatment for depression received the SMArT intervention, provided by Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs). The evaluation used routine IAPT outcome measures at each session, feedback from patients and PWPs, and analysis of the type of IMPS identified and their fidelity with the model. Six patients provided brief feedback about the intervention to an independent researcher. RESULTS Feedback from patients and PWPs suggested that the intervention was feasible, acceptable and could potentially help patients to stay well after therapy. Patients confirmed the value of setting their own goals in the form of IMPS, receiving support from PWPs and in some cases from partners, friends and family members. CONCLUSIONS Implementation intentions are a promising approach to support the self-management of depression.
Evaluating the Effects of Treebank Size in a Practical Application for Parsing

Natural language processing modules such as part-of-speech taggers, named-entity recognizers and syntactic parsers are commonly evaluated in isolation, under the assumption that artificial evaluation metrics for individual parts are predictive of practical performance of more complex language technology systems that perform practical tasks. Although this is an important issue in the design and engineering of systems that use natural language input, it is often unclear how the accuracy of an end-user application is affected by parameters that affect individual NLP modules. We explore this issue in the context of a specific task by examining the relationship between the accuracy of a syntactic parser and the overall performance of an information extraction system for biomedical text that includes the parser as one of its components. We present an empirical investigation of the relationship between factors that affect the accuracy of syntactic analysis, and how the difference in parse accuracy affects the overall system.
An Organizational View of Metaheuristics

This paper presents AMF, an Agent Metaheuristic Framework that aims at supporting the design and hybridization of metaheuristics. The introduction of an agent-oriented approach allows to deal with ﬂexibility, robustness and modularity in metaheuristics. This framework is based on an organizational model which describes a metaheuristic in terms of roles. These roles correspond to the main components or tasks in a metaheuristic: intensiﬁcation, diversiﬁcation, memory and adaptation or self-adaptation. Starting from this organizational model of metaheuristic, some guidelines allow to obtain a multiagent system that correspond to a particular metaheuristic. In addition, we introduce an original metaheuristic called Coalition-Based Metaheuristic (CBM) to illustrate the use of AMF. Eﬃciency of CBM is illustrated thanks to its application to the Vehicle Routing Problem.