Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An evaluation of techniques for measuring stereopsis in infants and young children

Demonstrating stereopsis is valuable in vision screening of infants and toddlers, since its presence rules out the possibility of profound visual deficits. We assessed the performance of 55 infants and young children on three clinically available tests, the Lang, the Frisby and the TNO. The results were compared with those found using a computerized dynamic random dot stereogram.
A Norovirus Protease Structure Provides Insights into Active and Substrate Binding Site Integrity

ABSTRACT Norovirus 3C-like proteases are crucial to proteolytic processing of norovirus polyproteins. We determined the crystal structure of the 3C-like protease from Chiba virus, a norovirus, at 2.8-Å resolution. An active site including Cys139 and His30 is present, as is a hydrogen bond network that stabilizes the active site conformation. In the oxyanion hole backbone, a structural difference was observed probably upon substrate binding. A peptide substrate/enzyme model shows that several interactions between the two components are critical for substrate binding and that the S1 and S2 sites appropriately accommodate the substrate P1 and P2 residues, respectively. Knowledge of the structure and a previous mutagenesis study allow us to correlate proteolysis and structure.
SPARK2: Top-k Keyword Query in Relational Databases

With the increasing amount of text data stored in relational databases, there is a demand for RDBMS to support keyword queries over text data. As a search result is often assembled from multiple relational tables, traditional IR-style ranking and query evaluation methods cannot be applied directly. In this paper, we study the effectiveness and the efficiency issues of answering top-k keyword query in relational database systems. We propose a new ranking formula by adapting existing IR techniques based on a natural notion of virtual document. We also propose several efficient query processing methods for the new ranking method. We have conducted extensive experiments on large-scale real databases using two popular RDBMSs. The experimental results demonstrate significant improvement to the alternative approaches in terms of retrieval effectiveness and efficiency.
COMPARATIVE STUDIES BETWEEN PATHOGENESIS OF STREET AND FIXED RABIES INFECTION

Comparative neuropathology of Ammon's horn caused by both the street and fixed rabies infection was studied by combined light and electron microscopy. Neurons containing Negri bodies appeared comparatively little damaged. In striking contrast, in the case of fixed virus infection, neurons showed the following variety of degeneration. Lightly damaged neurons showed an increase in the number of small vesicles throughout the cytoplasm. A considerable number of lysosomes were also encountered within these nerve cells. Severe necrotic alteration involving the nucleus as well as the cytoplasm was found in the nerve cell band. The characteristic homogeneous foci (matrices) were discernible within these neurons. It appears that the matrix is morphologically identical with the ground substance of the Negri body, though its size is smaller than that of the Negri body. This evidence suggests a possibility that fixed virus injures neurons so extensively that they cannot bring about the full development of the characteristic matrix of the Negri body recognizable by the light microscope. Selective vulnerability was demonstrated among different groups of neurons in respect of cytopathogenesis of both street and fixed virus infection.
Pattern classification predicts individuals’ responses to affective stimuli

Since the successful demonstration of “brain reading” of fMRI BOLD signals using multivoxel pattern classification (MVPA) techniques, the neuroimaging community has made vigorous attempts to exploit the technique in order to identify the signature patterns of brain activities associated with different cognitive processes or mental states. In the current study, we tested whether the valence and arousal dimensions of the affective information could be used to successfully predict individual’s active affective states. Using a whole-brain MVPA approach, together with feature elimination procedures, we are able to discriminate between brain activation patterns associated with the processing of positive or negative valence and cross validate the discriminant function with an independent data set. Arousal information, on the other hand, failed to provide such discriminating power. With an independent sample, we test further whether the MVPA identified brain network could be used for inter-individual classification. Although the inter-subject classification success was only marginal, we found correlations with individual differences in affective processing. We discuss the implications of our findings for future attempts to classify patients based on their responses to affective stimuli.
A comprehensive, holistic people integration process for mergers and acquisitions

Orientation: Mergers and Acquisitions (MA these views were compared against the available literature. Finally, practioners were asked to critique the final model from a practice perspective. The utility of the final model was assessed against two mergers and acquisitions case studies. Main findings: A comprehensive, holistic people integration process model for mergers and acquisitions was developed and validated. However, this model will only significantly enhance mergers and acquisitions value realisation if it is applied from the appropriate vantage point. Practical/managerial implications: The proposed approach will increase the probability of a successful MA practically , guidelines for successful people integration; organisationally , significantly enhancing the chances of MA and community wise , the reduction of the negative effects of M&A failure on communities.
Esencialismo, su Impacto en la Percepción de Similitud y el Uso de Diferente Tipo de Información en la Formación de Impresión

El presente estudio examina el impacto del esencialismo psicologico (Medin, 1989) en la percepcion de similitud y en el uso diferencial de informacion para formarse una impresion de ejemplares y categorias sociales. Noventa magallanicos (edad M = 21,6; 68,7% mujeres), elegidos accidentalmente, fueron medidos en esencialismo para luego solicitarles inferencias sobre grupos y personas (del endo y el exogrupo), evaluando la similitud percibida y teniendo la opcion de utilizar su propia informacion (proyeccion) o informacion tipica (estereotipo) para describirlos. El diseno utilizado fue no experimental, transversal, correlacional y mixto, con variables intragrupo (similitud, tipo de informacion) e intergrupo (esencialismo), que fueron medidas mediante las escalas de esencialismo psicologico, percepcion de similitud y proyeccion social y la utilizacion de informacion estereotipica. Los resultados apoyan la existencia de diferencias entre los esencialistas en la direccion de percibir mayor similitud y en el uso de proyeccion social hacia el endogrupo, mientras que no se observaron diferencias en el uso de la informacion estereotipica.
An inter-ethnic study of gender differentiation and innovativeness among women entrepreneurs in Malaysia

Researchers have generally established the connection between innovativeness and cultural values. However, in these studies men are typically the majority of respondents. There is also no effort in these studies to treat women as a distinct cultural entity although there is evidence suggesting that social conditioning, particularly in masculine societies, induces gender-differentiated behaviors. This paper addresses these issues via a quantitative study examining the effect of masculinity (Hofstede, 1980) on the innovativeness of Malay and Chinese women entrepreneurs in the Malaysian peninsula. Results strongly suggest that for women entrepreneurs, masculinity should not be treated as a single-construct dimension. Rather it should be split into two sub-constructs: ego orientation and gender differentiation. When the construct of masculinity is divided in this way, path analysis reveals that the Malay sample of women entrepreneurs is more innovative than the Chinese even though the latter has a higher index of ego orientation. This may be explained by the former's lower index of gender differentiation.
Evolving Hexapod Gaits Using a Cyclic Genetic Algorithm

Gait generation is an integral part of a legged robot control. Hexapod gaits require the coordination of the simultaneous movement of all six legs in a cycle of activations. The problem is compounded when working with actual robots due to the variability in their capabilities. A learning algorithm that can optimize with the differences between and within robots would greatly reduce engineering calculations and increase robot adaptability. To be effective for the simplest of robot controllers, these algorithms should produce sequences of activations that can be used directly on the robot. Evolutionary computation would be ideal for this learning algorithm although few of its forms have a structure that conforms naturally to the cyclic nature of gaits. In previous work, we developed Cyclic Genetic Algorithms (CGAs), which are a variation on the basis genetic algorithm. Tests on robot simulations showed that these algorithms could rapidly converge to evolve the optimal tripod gait. In this paper, we successfully apply CGAs to an actual robot that is not only more complicated then the original simulation, but also has the increased variability innate in actual robots.
Machine Translation Evaluation: N-grams to the Rescue

Human judges weigh many subtle aspects of translation quality. But human evaluations are very expensive. Developers of Machine Translation systems need to evaluate quality constantly. Automatic methods that approximate human judgment are therefore very useful. The main difficulty in automatic evaluation is that there are many correct translations that differ in choice and order of words. There is no single gold standard to compare a translation with. The closer a machine translation is to professional human translations, the better it is. We borrow precision and recall concepts from Information Retrieval to measure closeness. The precision measure is used on variablelength n-grams. Unigram matches between machine translation and the professional reference translations account for adequacy. Longer n-gram matches account for fluency. The n-gram precisions are aggregated across sentences and averaged. A multiplicative brevity penalty prevents cheating. The resulting metric correlates highly with human judgments of translation quality. This method is tested for robustness across language families and across the spectrum of translation quality. We discuss BLEU, an automatic method to evaluate translation quality that is cheap, fast, and good.
A practical external sort for shared disk MPPs

An external sort has been implemented and analyzed for a shared disk MPP computer system. In this implementation, we have considered many real world constraints. Decision support functionality in database systems, for instance, often requires that external sorting be done in place on disk, support variable length records, and be restartable from any point of interruption with no loss of data. These three constraints, along with the more standard requirements of speed and stability, affect the choice and implementation of the external sorting algorithm. The implementation of the sample sort algorithm described here meets these requirements. Although written using high level file processing directives, the implementation sorts a 10 GB file in 1.5 h on a 64 processor Connection Machine CM-5 with a DataVault disk system.
Adapting Practices of Science Journalism to Foster Science Literacy

In this paper, the authors describe how the practices of expert science journalists enable them to act as “competent outsiders” to science. We assert that selected science journalism practices can be used to design reform-based science instruction; these practices not only foster science literacy that is useful in daily life, but also complement practices of scientists that already have been incorporated into science education. We describe and illustrate science journalism practices for educational activities that can be adapted and used. We argue that such experiences enable students to better use science information for personal decision-making and help them contribute meaningfully to public discourse long after high school graduation. Finally, we describe the design of a learning environment that facilitates research and development based on this model.
The causal influence of emotional interference in working memory on depressive symptoms

There is a strong interest in working memory training as a new intervention for depression. Provided the cognitive and neuropsychological impairments observed in depression, working memory training may be a promising tool in remediating attentional and memory problems to subsequently improve mood. We first consider the state-of-the-art on working memory impairments in relation to different stages of depression (at-risk, sub-clinical, clinical and remitted). Then, we review the current empirical literature on the effect of working memory training on working memory efficiency, emotion processing and depressive symptoms. Finally, we discuss some of the current pitfalls of this research and provide avenues for future research. 1 Based on Koster, E.H. W. , Onraedt, T. , Owens, M. , & Derakshan, N. (2014). Working memory training as intervention in depression? Promises and pitfalls. Manuscript in preparation. 1 CHAPTER
Database in depth - relational theory for practitioners

This book sheds light on the principles behind the relational model, which is fundamental to all database-backed applications--and, consequently, most of the work that goes on in the computing world today. Database in Depth: The Relational Model for Practitioners goes beyond the hype and gets to the heart of how relational databases actually work. Ideal for experienced database developers and designers, this concise guide gives you a clear view of the technology--a view that's not influenced by any vendor or product. Featuring an extensive set of exercises, it will help you: understand why and how the relational model is still directly relevant to modern database technology (and will remain so for the foreseeable future)see why and how the SQL standard is seriously deficientuse the best current theoretical knowledge in the design of their databases and database applicationsmake informed decisions in their daily database professional activities Database in Depth will appeal not only to database developers and designers, but also to a diverse field of professionals and academics, including database administrators (DBAs), information modelers, database consultants, and more. Virtually everyone who deals with relational databases should have at least a passing understanding of the fundamentals of working with relational models. Author C.J. Date has been involved with the relational model from its earliest days. An exceptionally clear-thinking writer, Date lays out principle and theory in a manner that is easily understood. Few others can speak as authoritatively the topic of relational databases as Date can.
Projective-Inventory: An Indigenous Approach to Personality Assessment

The paper aims to present a theoretical model of projective-inventory (P-I) method of personality assessment and provide empirical findings in the area. This method integrates the positive psychometric aspects of both projective and self-report inventories to achieve scoring objectivity and greater reliability and validity of trait scales (Puhan, 1982). Accordingly, real-life episodes are presented to the subjects as structured projective stimulus situations with three or four interacting characters who may be placed at differentpoints on the trait continuum . Each episode is followed by a number of statements relating to the activities of the characters which are "Agreed" or "Disagreed" by the subjects to ensure objectivity in scoring. The P-I method is satisfactorily evaluated against the requirements of convergent and discriminant validity and has been used to develop a nu mber of personality scales. The paper also presents data of several empirical studies indicating minimal influence of social desirability on projective-inventory scores. The P-I method is described as a trait-in-state approach to personality assessment as it samples situations from a wide range of possibilities and accommodates the trait-state controversies in the area. Besides, it is argued that the utilisation of real-life episodes in the P-I method brings the context back to the testing situation through its narratives to which Indians are quite accustomed. Considering its origin from an Indian anecdote and su itabilityfor India npop ulatio n where social desirabilityposes fargreater challenges for inventory scores, the P-I is described as an indigenous method of personality assessment. Thepaper also calls for the development of scales to measure different contemporary Indian traits utilising the P-I method.
Realising nondeterministic I / O in the Glasgow Haskell Compiler Technical Report Frank-17

In this paper we demonstrate how to relate the semantics given by the nondeterministic call-by-need calculus FUNDIO [SS03] to Haskell. After introducing new correct program transformations for FUNDIO, we translate the core language used in the Glasgow Haskell Compiler into the FUNDIO language, where the IO construct of FUNDIO corresponds to direct-call IO-actions in Haskell. We sketch the investigations of [Sab03b] where a lot of program transformations performed by the compiler have been shown to be correct w.r. t. the FUNDIO semantics. This enabled us to achieve a FUNDIO-compatible Haskell-compiler, by turning off not yet investigated transformations and the small set of incompatible transformations. With this compiler, Haskell programs which use the extension unsafePerformIO in arbitrary contexts, can be compiled in a ’safe’ manner.
Bayesian Forecasting of an Inhomogeneous Poisson Process With Applications to Call Center Data

A call center is a centralized hub where customer and other telephone calls are handled by an organization. In today's economy, call centers have become the primary points of contact between customers and businesses. Thus accurate predictions of call arrival rates are indispensable to help call center practitioners staff their call centers efficiently and cost-effectively. This article proposes a multiplicative model for modeling and forecasting within-day arrival rates to a U.S. commercial bank's call center. Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling methods are used to estimate both latent states and model parameters. One-day-ahead density forecasts for the rates and counts are provided. The calibration of these predictive distributions is evaluated through probability integral transforms. Furthermore, 1-day-ahead forecasts comparisons with classical statistical models are given. Our predictions show significant improvements of up to 25% over these standards. A sequential Monte Carlo algorithm is also proposed for sequential estimation and forecasts of the model parameters and rates.
RMIT @ TREC 2016 Dynamic Domain Track: Exploiting Passage Representation for Retrieval and Relevance Feedback

The TREC Dynamic Domain search task addresses search scenarios where users engage interactively with search systems to tackle domain speciﬁc information needs. In our participation, we focused on utilizing passage-based representations in document retrieval and user feedback processing. In addition, we submitted a baseline retrieval method and a manual run that considers only relevant documents in the top 1000 retrieved documents. Results show that the passage based representation is inferior to the baseline method but diﬀerences are not statistically significant in terms of the Cube Test and the Average Cube Test metrics
Expression of Prostasin and Protease Nexin-1 in Rhesus Monkey (Macaca mulatta) Endometrium and Placenta During Early Pregnancy

Serine proteases have been documented to play key roles in uterine matrix turnover and trophoblastic invasion during implantation. Roles of prostasin serine protease in these processes, however, are currently unclear. The present study was first conducted to investigate the colocalization of prostasin and its cognate serpin, protease nexin-1 (PN-1), in rhesus monkey endometrium and placenta on days 12, 18, and 26 of pregnancy by using in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunohistochemistry. With ISH, expression of prostasin mRNA was intensely localized in the glandular epithelium on days 12 and 18 and in the placental villi, trophoblastic column, trophoblastic shell, and fetal-maternal border on days 18 and 26. With the progress of pregnancy, expression level in the glandular epithelium was significantly decreased, and the accumulation in the placental compartments was further increased. In addition, the stroma and arterioles exhibited modest levels of prostasin signals. However, expression level of PN-1 in these compartments on adjacent sections in the three stages of early pregnancy was weak or below the level of detection. Prostasin protein expression in the endometrium was found to be consistent with the distribution patterns revealed in the ISH experiments. It may be suggested from these results that prostasin is involved in endometrial epithelial morphology establishment, tissue remodeling, and trophoblastic invasion during early pregnancy. The cognate serpin PN-1 was not coordinately expressed along with prostasin, creating a tissue environment favorable for proteolytic activities of prostasin during early pregnancy events.
Feature Selection and Classification in Brain Computer Interfaces by a Genetic Algorithm

In this paper we explore the use of evolutionary algorithms in a wrapper-based selection of features and the classification of P300 signals in Brain Computer Interfaces. In particular we focus on a paradigm that uses the P300 potential associated to particular visual stimuli for hands free text entering. In our experiments the GA has found new ways to process and combine EEG signals to improve P300 detection accuracy.
Multiple Reference Frames in Cortical Oscillatory Activity during Tactile Remapping for Saccades

Single-unit recordings have shown that the brain uses multiple reference frames in spatial processing. The brain could use this neural architecture to implicitly create multiple modes of representation at the population level, with each reference frame weighted as a function of task demands. Using magnetoencephalography, we tested this hypothesis by studying the reference frames in rhythmic neuronal synchronization—a population measure—during tactile remapping for saccades. Human subjects fixated either to the left or right of the body midline, while a tactile stimulus was applied to an invisible fingertip, located either left or right of fixation. After a variable delay, they looked at the remembered stimulus location. Results show a transient body-centered, stimulus-induced gamma-band response (70–90 Hz) in somatosensory areas, contralateral to the stimulated hand. Concurrently, a gamma-band response occurred in posterior parietal cortex (PPC), contralateral to the gaze-centered location of the stimulus, even though the stimulus was not seen. The temporal overlap of these early representations suggests that there is a fast bottom-up sensory-induced remapping in PPC, taking into account the relative positions of eyes and hand. The gaze-centered representation in PPC was sustained in a high gamma range (85–115 Hz) and increased in power closer to the initiation of the saccade. Lower-frequency rhythms (alpha, beta) showed body-centered power modulations in somatosensory areas in anticipation of the stimulus and a mixture of reference frames in PPC after stimulus presentation. We conclude that oscillatory activity reflects the time-varying coding of information in body- and gaze-centered reference frames during tactile remapping for saccades.