Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human brain structure predicts individual differences in preconscious evaluation of facial dominance and trustworthiness

Social cues conveyed by the human face, such as eye gaze direction, are evaluated even before they are consciously perceived. While there is substantial individual variability in such evaluation, its neural basis is unknown. Here we asked whether individual differences in preconscious evaluation of social face traits were associated with local variability in brain structure. Adult human participants (n = 36) monocularly viewed faces varying in dominance and trustworthiness, which were suppressed from awareness by a dynamic noise pattern shown to the other eye. The time taken for faces to emerge from suppression and become visible (t2e) was used as a measure of potency in competing for visual awareness. Both dominant and untrustworthy faces resulted in slower t2e than neutral faces, with substantial individual variability in these effects. Individual differences in t2e were correlated with gray matter volume in right insula for dominant faces, and with gray matter volume in medial prefrontal cortex, right temporoparietal junction and bilateral fusiform face area for untrustworthy faces. Thus, individual differences in preconscious social processing can be predicted from local brain structure, and separable correlates for facial dominance and untrustworthiness suggest distinct mechanisms of preconscious processing.
Tobacco exposure-related alterations in DNA methylation and gene expression in human monocytes: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)

ABSTRACT Alterations in DNA methylation and gene expression in blood leukocytes are potential biomarkers of harm and mediators of the deleterious effects of tobacco exposure. However, methodological issues, including the use of self-reported smoking status and mixed cell types have made previously identified alterations in DNA methylation and gene expression difficult to interpret. In this study, we examined associations of tobacco exposure with DNA methylation and gene expression, utilizing a biomarker of tobacco exposure (urine cotinine) and CD14+ purified monocyte samples from 934 participants of the community-based Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Urine cotinine levels were measured using an immunoassay. DNA methylation and gene expression were measured with microarrays. Multivariate linear regression was used to test for associations adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, and study site. Urine cotinine levels were associated with methylation of 176 CpGs [false discovery rate (FDR)<0.01]. Four CpGs not previously identified by studies of non-purified blood samples nominally replicated (P value<0.05) with plasma cotinine-associated methylation in 128 independent monocyte samples. Urine cotinine levels associated with expression of 12 genes (FDR<0.01), including increased expression of P2RY6 (Beta ± standard error = 0.078 ± 0.008, P = 1.99 × 10−22), a gene previously identified to be involved in the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. No cotinine-associated (FDR<0.01) methylation profiles significantly (FDR<0.01) correlated with cotinine-associated (FDR<0.01) gene expression profiles. In conclusion, our findings i) identify potential monocyte-specific smoking-associated methylation patterns and ii) suggest that alterations in methylation may not be a main mechanism regulating gene expression in monocytes in response to cigarette smoking.
Corpus-Based Natural Language Processing : a Practical

This paper presents the basic ideas and the results of a corpus-based venture: based on an empirical study of deenite descriptions in written English texts, we developed heuristic algorithms for resolving anaphoric deenite descriptions and for identifying novel ones. We evaluated these algorithms by comparing their results with the analysis made by human subjects. The study, the algorithms, and the evaluation of the system are presented. sistemas s~ ao descritos no artigo.
Strategic framework to achieve carbon-efficient construction and maintenance of railway infrastructure systems

Sakdirat Kaewunruen*, Joseph M. Sussman and Herbert H. Einstein 1 Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education, School of Civil Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK 2 High Speed Rail Research Group, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA 3 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA *Correspondence: sakdirat@hotmail.com; s.kaewunruen@bham.ac. uk
Major Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Latin America: A Comparison with the United States. The Latin American Consortium of Studies in Obesity (LASO)

Background Limited knowledge on the prevalence and distribution of risk factors impairs the planning and implementation of cardiovascular prevention programs in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. Methods and Findings Prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, abnormal lipoprotein levels, obesity, and smoking were estimated from individual-level patient data pooled from population-based surveys (1998–2007, n = 31,009) from eight LAC countries and from a national survey of the United States (US) population (1999–2004) Age and gender specific prevalence were estimated and age-gender adjusted comparisons between both populations were conducted. Prevalence of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol in LAC were 5% (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 3.4, 7.9), 20.2% (95% CI: 12.5, 31), and 53.3% (95% CI: 47, 63.4), respectively. Compared to LAC region’s average, the prevalence of each risk factor tended to be lower in Peru and higher in Chile. LAC women had higher prevalence of obesity and low HDL-cholesterol than men. Obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertriglyceridemia were more prevalent in the US population than in LAC population (31 vs. 16.1%, 16.8 vs. 8.9%, and 36.2 vs. 26.5%, respectively). However, the prevalence of low HDL-cholesterol was higher in LAC than in the US (53.3 vs. 33.7%). Conclusions Major cardiovascular risk factors are highly prevalent in LAC region, in particular low HDL-cholesterol. In addition, marked differences do exist in this prevalence profile between LAC and the US. The observed patterns of obesity-related risk factors and their current and future impact on the burden of cardiovascular diseases remain to be explained.
MDA and Semantic Web Technologies for Assessment Systems

This paper discusses how Semantic Web-based knowledge representation and Model Driven Architecture can be brought together in designing an assessment system. The proposed system is based on the IMS Question and Test Interoperability standard. The central idea is to use Description Logic reasoning techniques for intelligent analysis of students’ solutions of simple choice questions problems during assessment sessions with the system.
A region based stereo matching algorithm using cooperative optimization

This paper presents a new stereo matching algorithm based on inter-regional cooperative optimization. The proposed algorithm uses regions as matching primitives and defines the corresponding region energy functional for matching by utilizing the color statistics of regions and the constraints on smoothness and occlusion between adjacent regions. In order to obtain a more reasonable disparity map, a cooperative optimization procedure has been employed to minimize the matching costs of all regions by introducing the cooperative and competitive mechanism between regions. Firstly, a color based segmentation method is used to segment the reference image into regions with homogeneous color. Secondly, a local window-based matching method is used to determine the initial disparity estimate of each image pixel. And then, a voting based plane fitting technique is applied to obtain the parameters of disparity plane corresponding to each image region. Finally, the disparity plane parameters of all regions are iteratively optimized by an inter-regional cooperative optimization procedure until a reasonable disparity map is obtained. The experimental results on Middlebury test set and real stereo images indicate that the performance of our method is competitive with the best stereo matching algorithms and the disparity maps recovered are close to the ground truth data.
Telescoping of caregiver report on the Autism Diagnostic Interview--Revised.

BACKGROUND Delays in development are a fundamental feature in diagnosing autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Age of language acquisition, usually obtained through retrospective caregiver report, is currently used to distinguish between categories within ASD. Research has shown that caregivers often report children as having acquired developmental milestones earlier or later than they were actually achieved. The current study examines the extent to which this phenomenon, referred to as 'telescoping,' impacts retrospective reports provided by caregivers of children with ASD. METHODS Participants were 127 caregivers of children referred for possible ASD or non-spectrum developmental delay. Caregivers were interviewed when children were 2, 3, 5, and 9 years of age. Caregiver-reported ages of first concern, language and non-diagnostic developmental milestones and interviewer-estimated age of onset were compared over time using linear models. RESULTS Significant telescoping of language milestones resulted in more children meeting language delay criteria as they grew older, in spite of original reports that their language was not delayed. There was little evidence of consistent telescoping of caregiver-reported ages of first concern, daytime bladder control, and independent walking. With time, the interviewers' judged ages of symptom onset increased, but remained prior to age three. CONCLUSIONS Telescoping of caregiver-reported ages of language acquisition has implications for both clinical diagnosis and genetic studies using these milestones to increase homogeneity of samples. Results support proposals to remove specific age-based criteria in the diagnosis of ASD. Telescoping should be considered when working with any clinical population in which retrospectively recalled events are used in diagnosis.
Microbleed topography, leukoaraiosis, and cognition in probable Alzheimer disease from the Sunnybrook dementia study.

BACKGROUND Microbleeds are hemosiderin deposits around small vessels and are well visualized with T2*-weighted gradient-recalled echo (GRE) imaging. OBJECTIVES To determine frequency and topography of microbleeds in Alzheimer disease (AD) and to assess their association with leukoaraiosis and cognition. DESIGN Case-control cross-sectional analysis. Microbleeds were counted using GRE imaging. Leukoaraiosis was rated on T2-weighted and proton density-weighted scans using the Age-Related White Matter Changes Rating Scale (ARWMC). Neuropsychological tests indexed cognition. SETTING The Cognitive Neurology Clinic, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. PATIENTS Individuals with probable AD (n = 80) and healthy controls (n = 25) from a longitudinal cohort with GRE sequences as part of standard imaging protocol (2002-2006). RESULTS Microbleeds occurred in 29% of patients with AD and 12% of controls and were multiple (> 1) in 48% of patients with AD and 33% of controls. There was lobar (vs centrencephalic) predominance in 92% of AD patients, with occipital lobes accounting for 57% of these microbleeds. The ARWMC scores (P < .005) were significantly higher in AD patients with microbleeds than in those without, and microbleeds correlated with total (r = 0.39, P = .01) and parietooccipital (r = 0.28, P < .01) ARWMC scores. We were unable to demonstrate an association between microbleeds (or leukoaraiosis) and cognitive performance. CONCLUSIONS Occipital predominance of microbleeds with corresponding parietooccipital leukoaraiosis has not been well described in prior imaging studies of AD. Microbleeds were frequent, often multiple, and predicted greater leukoaraiosis. These findings illustrate the complexity of AD vasculopathy and the need for additional studies in dementia and stroke populations.
RADIO RECOMBINATION LINES TOWARD THE GALACTIC CENTER LOBE

The Galactic center (GC) lobe is a degree-tall shell seen in radio continuum images of the GC region. If it is actually located in the GC region, formation models would require massive energy input (e.g., starburst or jet) to create it. At present, observations have not strongly constrained the location or physical conditions of the GC lobe. This paper describes the analysis of new and archival single-dish observations of radio recombination lines toward this enigmatic object. The observations find that the ionized gas has a morphology similar to the radio continuum emission, suggesting that they are associated. We study averages of several transitions from H106α to H191ϵ and find that the line ratios are most consistent with gas in local thermodynamic equilibrium. The radio recombination line widths are remarkably narrow, constraining the typical electron temperature to be less than about 4000 K. These observations also find evidence of pressure broadening in the higher electronic states, implying a gas density of ne = 910+310−450 cm−3. The electron temperature, gas pressure, and morphology are all consistent with the idea that the GC lobe is located in the GC region. If so, the ionized gas appears to form a shell surrounding the central 100 parsecs of the galaxy with a mass of roughly 105 M☉, similar to ionized outflows seen in dwarf starbursts.
The Measurement of Organizational Innovation Climate and Its Moderating Effect in the Relationship between Employees' Innovation Ability and Innovation Performance

In the west,organizational innovation climate is a very important field in the literature pertaining to organizational behavior. However,there has been few studies on OIC (short for organizational innovation climate),and especially there is a lack of researches on measurement of OIC in the Chinese culture. The present paper attempts to get findings about the structure and measurement of COIC (short for Chinese organizational innovation climate),and tries to better understand how OIC exerts effect on the relationship between employees' innovation ability and innovation performance. Firstly,through a content analysis of data collected from 46 MBA students (using open questionnaire); the primary COIC Questionnaire is established in China. Then,data collected from a diverse sample of 483 subjects is used to explore the primary questionnaire's reliability and validity by EFA. Lastly,using item analysis and CFA,data from another sample of 413 subjects is used to confirm the validity and reliability of the formal COIC Questionnaire. Meanwhile,we conducted another analysis on the moderating effect of OIC on employees' innovation ability and innovation performance. In the Chinese context,the results indicate that COIC contains seven dimensions which are Incentive Mechanism,Leader Exemplar Behaviors,Team Collaboration,Superior Supports,Resources Guarantee,Organizational Promotion,and Autonomous Work. CFA further confirmed COIC's factorial validity. The range of Cronbach α of the seven factors is from 0.843 to 0.881,and Cronbach α of the entire COIC Questionnaire is 0.916. After controlling demographic variables,the predictor's standardized regression coefficients of interpersonal quality are positive and significant. In this study,we found that seven dimensions of the COIC have rationality,and COIC has proper reliability and high validity. With comparison to similar studies,the result shows similarity as well as Chinese cultural uniqueness. Meanwhile,the OIC moderated the relationship between the employees' innovation ability and innovation performance.
LIRA: A new key deployment scheme for Wireless Body Area Networks

A rapid development of the Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has become very important for applications in telemedicine and m-health. However, there is still a need to ensure a reliable and secure communication in these systems. In this paper we present a novel multi-channel key deployment scheme for wireless body sensor networks. The proposed key deployment scheme requires no public key cryptography and therefore is suitable for CPU-constrained sensor nodes. The solution is implemented on commercially available wireless sensor nodes while the performance of the system is shown through the experiments with users.
Using Stochastic Models to Predict User Response in Social Media

User response to contributed content in online social media depends on many factors. These include how the site lays out new content, how frequently the user visits the site, how many friends the user follows, how active these friends are, as well as how interesting or useful the content is to the user. We present a stochastic modeling framework that relates a user's behavior to details of the site's user interface and user activity and describe a procedure for estimating model parameters from available data. We apply the model to study discussions of controversial topics on Twitter, specifically, to predict how followers of an advocate for a topic respond to the advocate's posts. We show that a model of user behavior that explicitly accounts for a user discovering the advocate's post by scanning through a list of newer posts, better predicts response than models that do not.
Profound Desensitization by Ambient GABA Limits Activation of δ-Containing GABAA Receptors during Spillover

High-affinity extrasynaptic GABAA receptors (GABAARs) are a prominent feature of cerebellar granule neurons and thalamic relay neurons. In both cell types, the presence of synaptic glomeruli would be expected to promote activation of these GABAARs, contributing to phasic spillover-mediated currents and tonic inhibition. However, the precise role of different receptor subtypes in these two phenomena is unclear. To address this question, we made recordings from neurons in acute brain slices from mice, and from tsA201 cells expressing recombinant GABAARs. We found that δ subunit-containing GABAARs of both cerebellar granule neurons and thalamic relay neurons of the lateral geniculate nucleus contributed to tonic conductance caused by ambient GABA but not to spillover-mediated currents. In the presence of a low “ambient” GABA concentration, recombinant “extrasynaptic” δ subunit-containing GABAARs exhibited profound desensitization, rendering them insensitive to brief synaptic- or spillover-like GABA transients. Together, our results demonstrate that phasic spillover and tonic inhibition reflect the activation of distinct receptor populations.
Screening for cryptococcal antigenemia in patients accessing an antiretroviral treatment program in South Africa.

BACKGROUND Cryptococcal meningitis is a leading cause of death in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and contributes substantially to the high early mortality in antiretroviral treatment (ART) programs in low-resource settings. Screening for cryptococcal antigen in patients who enroll in ART programs may identify those at risk of cryptococcal meningitis and permit targeted use of preemptive therapy. METHODS In this retrospective study, cryptococcal antigen was measured in stored plasma samples obtained from patients when they enrolled in a well-characterized ART cohort in South Africa. The predictive value of screening for cryptococcal antigen before initiation of ART for development of microbiologically confirmed cryptococcal meningitis or death during the first year of follow-up was determined. RESULTS Of 707 participants with a baseline median CD4 cell count of 97 cells/microL (interquartile range, 46-157 cells/microL), 46 (7%) were positive for cryptococcal antigen. Antigenemia was 100% sensitive for predicting development of cryptococcal meningitis during the first year of ART, and in multivariate analysis, it was an independent predictor of mortality (adjusted hazard ratio, 3.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.5-6.6). Most cases (92%) of cryptococcal meningitis developed in patients with a CD4 cell count <or= 100 cells/microL. In this subset of patients, a cryptococcal antigen titer >or 1:8 was 100% sensitive and 96% specific for predicting incident cryptococcal meningitis during the first year of ART in those with no history of the disease. CONCLUSIONS Cryptococcal antigen screening before initiation of ART in patients with a CD4 cell count <or=100 cells/microL is highly effective for identifying those at risk of cryptococcal meningitis and death and might permit implementation of a targeted preemptive treatment strategy.
On the Equivalence of Specific Control Flow and Data Flow Patterns with Use Cases

Although many of workflow languages use workflow patterns in various aspects such as control or data, the implementation of these patterns are quite different, which makes the workflow language interoperability really difficult. This paper introduces compositions of specific data and control patterns and then proves their equivalence, which benefits that control structures can be replaced by data patterns and vice versa, independently from the implementation itself. To confirm the necessity of our results we introduce use cases based on community workflows that apply data patterns to trigger control structures. As WS-PGRADE/gUSE workflow management system became a commonly used general framework for workflow development by various scientific communities, the use cases are created in there, to facilitate using our solutions in other workflows.
THE ETHICS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Summary There are many ethical questions relating the issue of developing an intelligent system. There is strong and increasing pressure to raise capabilities of the artificial intelligence at least to the human levelled intelligence as the ultimate goal. This essay describes possible paths of development of the artificial intelligence. It is discussed how this changes will affect our society and challenges that humanity will have to face. Principles, guideways and modern viewpoints are presented and confirmed with the statements of the renowned scientists and experts in the field of the artificial intelligence ethics.
Synchronous Rhythmic Interaction Enhances Children’s Perceived Similarity and Closeness towards Each Other

Inter-personal synchronization is important for performing many cooperative tasks. Notably, synchrony has also been shown to have considerable positive social influences, possibly mediated by synchrony-induced changes in social attitude such as an increased sense of similarity and affiliation between interacting individuals. This effect has been demonstrated in adults, but it is unknown whether synchrony might have a similar impact on the social attitudes of children. We thus set to directly examine the influence of synchronous rhythmic interaction on perceived similarity and closeness in pairs of 8–9 year old children. We found that children who had participated in a synchronous interaction regarded their interacting partner as more similar and closer to themselves than children who had not interacted at all or who had taken part in an asynchronous interaction. These findings reveal that synchronous interaction can positively alter social attitudes between interacting children, suggesting a potential mechanism by which synchrony may enhance positive social interaction through attitudinal shift.