Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global scene layout modulates contextual learning in change detection

Change in the visual scene often goes unnoticed – a phenomenon referred to as “change blindness. ” This study examined whether the hierarchical structure, i.e., the global–local layout of a scene can influence performance in a one-shot change detection paradigm. To this end, natural scenes of a laid breakfast table were presented, and observers were asked to locate the onset of a new local object. Importantly, the global structure of the scene was manipulated by varying the relations among objects in the scene layouts. The very same items were either presented as global-congruent (typical) layouts or as global-incongruent (random) arrangements. Change blindness was less severe for congruent than for incongruent displays, and this congruency benefit increased with the duration of the experiment. These findings show that global layouts are learned, supporting detection of local changes with enhanced efficiency. However, performance was not affected by scene congruency in a subsequent control experiment that required observers to localize a static discontinuity (i.e., an object that was missing from the repeated layouts). Our results thus show that learning of the global layout is particularly linked to the local objects. Taken together, our results reveal an effect of “global precedence” in natural scenes. We suggest that relational properties within the hierarchy of a natural scene are governed, in particular, by global image analysis, reducing change blindness for local objects through scene learning.
Plant DNA barcodes and assessment of phylogenetic community structure of a tropical mixed dipterocarp forest in Brunei Darussalam (Borneo)

DNA barcoding is a fast and reliable tool to assess and monitor biodiversity and, via community phylogenetics, to investigate ecological and evolutionary processes that may be responsible for the community structure of forests. In this study, DNA barcodes for the two widely used plastid coding regions rbcL and matK are used to contribute to identification of morphologically undetermined individuals, as well as to investigate phylogenetic structure of tree communities in 70 subplots (10 × 10m) of a 25-ha forest-dynamics plot in Brunei (Borneo, Southeast Asia). The combined matrix (rbcL + matK) comprised 555 haplotypes (from ≥154 genera, 68 families and 25 orders sensu APG, Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, 2016), making a substantial contribution to tree barcode sequences from Southeast Asia. Barcode sequences were used to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships using maximum likelihood, both with and without constraining the topology of taxonomic orders to match that proposed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. A third phylogenetic tree was reconstructed using the program Phylomatic to investigate the influence of phylogenetic resolution on results. Detection of non-random patterns of community assembly was determined by net relatedness index (NRI) and nearest taxon index (NTI). In most cases, community assembly was either random or phylogenetically clustered, which likely indicates the importance to community structure of habitat filtering based on phylogenetically correlated traits in determining community structure. Different phylogenetic trees gave similar overall results, but the Phylomatic tree produced greater variation across plots for NRI and NTI values, presumably due to noise introduced by using an unresolved phylogenetic tree. Our results suggest that using a DNA barcode tree has benefits over the traditionally used Phylomatic approach by increasing precision and accuracy and allowing the incorporation of taxonomically unidentified individuals into analyses.
Concurrency control based on role concept

A Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) model is used to make a system secure. In addition to keeping systems secure, objects have to be consistent in the presence of multiple transactions. Traditional locking protocols and timestamp ordering schedulers are based on 'first-comer-winner' and 'timestamp order' principles to make multiple conflicting transactions serialisable, respectively. In this paper, we discuss concurrency control algorithms based on the significance of roles. We discuss a Role Ordering (RO) scheduler so that multiple conflicting transactions are serialisable in a significant dominant relation of roles. We evaluate the RO scheduler as compared with the Two-Phase Locking (2PL) protocol.
Arabidopsis Cuticular Wax Biosynthesis Is Negatively Regulated by the DEWAX Gene Encoding an AP2/ERF-Type Transcription Factor[W][OPEN]

This work identifies a negative transcriptional regulator, DEWAX, that represses the expression of genes involved in Arabidopsis cuticular wax biosynthesis. The results suggest that DEWAX-mediated negative regulation of the wax biosynthetic genes might be involved in determining the total wax loads produced in Arabidopsis during daily dark and light cycles. The aerial parts of plants are protected from desiccation and other stress by surface cuticular waxes. The total cuticular wax loads and the expression of wax biosynthetic genes are significantly downregulated in Arabidopsis thaliana under dark conditions. We isolated Decrease Wax Biosynthesis (DEWAX), which encodes an AP2/ERF-type transcription factor that is preferentially expressed in the epidermis and induced by darkness. Disruption of DEWAX leads to an increase in total leaf and stem wax loads, and the excess wax phenotype of dewax was restored to wild type levels in complementation lines. Moreover, overexpression of DEWAX resulted in a reduction in total wax loads in leaves and stems compared with the wild type and altered the ultrastructure of cuticular layers. DEWAX negatively regulates the expression of alkane-forming enzyme, long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase, ATP citrate lyase A subunit, enoyl-CoA reductase, and fatty acyl-CoA reductase, and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis suggested that DEWAX directly interacts with the promoters of wax biosynthesis genes. Cuticular wax biosynthesis is negatively regulated twice a day by the expression of DEWAX, throughout the night and at stomata closing. Significantly higher levels (10- to 100-fold) of DEWAX transcripts were found in leaves than in stems, suggesting that DEWAX-mediated transcriptional repression may be an additional mechanism contributing to the different total wax loads in leaves and stems.
Using Error-Annotated ESL Data to Develop an ESL Error Correction System

This paper presents research on building a model of grammatical error correction, for preposition errors in particular, in English text produced by language learners. Unlike most previous work which trains a statistical classiﬁer exclusively on well-formed text written by native speakers, we train a classiﬁer on a large-scale, error-tagged corpus of English essays, relying on contextual and grammatical features surrounding preposition usage. First, we show that such a model can achieve high performance values: 93.3% precision and 14.8% recall for error detection and 81.7% precision and 13.2% recall for error detection and correction when tested on preposition replacement errors. Second, we show that this model outperforms models trained on well-edited text produced by native speakers of English. We discuss the implications of our approach in the area of language error modeling and the issues stemming from working with a noisy data set whose error annotations are not exhaustive.
Relational Behavior of Leaders

Organizational researchers widely acknowledge that positive relational behavior is associated with leadership effectiveness. In this exploratory study, we seek to extend previous research examining contextual factors that influence leadership style based on the characteristics of person–vocation fit. Using information derived from a 360° assessment that included one’s top managers, peers, and subordinates (N = 934), we find that leaders working in settings that attract Holland’s Social (S) types demonstrate more positive relational behavior than those who work in Realistic (R) type work settings. Our research also indicates that the relationship between leadership style and perceived effectiveness varies based on the work interests shared by individuals who are attracted to different vocational settings. One style of leadership does not fit all work contexts, and the person–vocation fit framework can help explain what comprises effective leadership style in different contexts.
Auditory masking: need for improved conceptual structure.

Even in simpler times, some people (e.g., Tanner) found it useful to ask "What is masking? " Independent of the extent to which this question was adequately answered even in those times, it is clear that the current expanded interest in central auditory processing has raised this question anew. In this note, comments are made about masking-related issues that illustrate the kinds of questions that need to be considered in attempting to develop a conceptual structure that can be effectively used to define, classify, study, and model auditory masking.
Gender-based violence in 140 characters or fewer: a #BigData case study of Twitter

Public institutions are increasingly reliant on data from social media sites to measure public attitude and provide timely public engagement. Such reliance includes the exploration of public views on important social issues such as gender-based violence (GBV). In this study, we examine big (social) data consisting of nearly 14 million tweets collected from Twitter over a period of 10 months to analyze public opinion regarding GBV, highlighting the nature of tweeting practices by geographical location and gender. We demonstrate the utility of computational social science to mine insight from the corpus while accounting for the influence of both transient events and sociocultural factors. We reveal public awareness regarding GBV tolerance and suggest opportunities for intervention and the measurement of intervention effectiveness assisting both governmental and non-governmental organizations in policy development.
Low Energy Availability In New Zealand Recreational Athletes

s from this study were presented at two New Zealand conferences in 2014. Slater J, Black, K, Cooke R, Brown R. Low energy availability amongst New Zealand Athletes (LEANZ) study – Proposed methods. Postgraduate & Early Career Nutrition Conference, 2014. Slater J, Black, K, Cooke R, Brown R. Low energy availability amongst New Zealand Athletes (LEANZ) study: Proposed methods. Nutrition Society of New Zealand Conference, Abstract 23, 2014. The abstract presented at the Nutrition Society of New Zealand Conference, was published in Nutrients (Slater et al., 2014). The candidate’s supervisors Dr Katherine Black, Rebecca Cooke and Dr Rachel Brown developed the study concept and obtained ethical approval. The candidate was responsible for:  The design of the LEANZ questionnaire – In conjunction with the candidate’s supervisors Dr Katherine Black, Rebecca Cooke and Dr Rachel Brown.  Obtaining ethical approval In conjunction with the candidate’s supervisors Dr Katherine Black, Rebecca Cooke and Dr Rachel Brown.  Consulting with the University of Otago librarians to obtain the EDI-3 resource.  Development of the online LEANZ questionnaire.  Recruitment of study participants Contacting gyms and fitness centres throughout New Zealand and emailing and delivering advertising posters and information sheets to those that agreed to advertise the LEANZ study (Appendix B).  Designing the nutrition tip sheet participants received for participating in the LEANZ study (Appendix C).  Pretested the LEANZ questionnaire to determine the estimated time to complete.
A Derivation of the Source-Channel Error Exponent Using Nonidentical Product Distributions

This paper studies the random-coding exponent of joint source-channel coding for a scheme where source messages are assigned to disjoint subsets (referred to as classes), and codewords are independently generated according to a distribution that depends on the class index of the source message. For discrete memoryless systems, two optimally chosen classes and product distributions are found to be sufficient to attain the sphere-packing exponent in those cases where it is tight.
Allele-Specific Amplification in Cancer Revealed by SNP Array Analysis

Amplification, deletion, and loss of heterozygosity of genomic DNA are hallmarks of cancer. In recent years a variety of studies have emerged measuring total chromosomal copy number at increasingly high resolution. Similarly, loss-of-heterozygosity events have been finely mapped using high-throughput genotyping technologies. We have developed a probe-level allele-specific quantitation procedure that extracts both copy number and allelotype information from single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array data to arrive at allele-specific copy number across the genome. Our approach applies an expectation-maximization algorithm to a model derived from a novel classification of SNP array probes. This method is the first to our knowledge that is able to (a) determine the generalized genotype of aberrant samples at each SNP site (e.g., CCCCT at an amplified site), and (b) infer the copy number of each parental chromosome across the genome. With this method, we are able to determine not just where amplifications and deletions occur, but also the haplotype of the region being amplified or deleted. The merit of our model and general approach is demonstrated by very precise genotyping of normal samples, and our allele-specific copy number inferences are validated using PCR experiments. Applying our method to a collection of lung cancer samples, we are able to conclude that amplification is essentially monoallelic, as would be expected under the mechanisms currently believed responsible for gene amplification. This suggests that a specific parental chromosome may be targeted for amplification, whether because of germ line or somatic variation. An R software package containing the methods described in this paper is freely available at http://genome.dfci. harvard.edu/~tlaframb/PLASQ.
ASSESSMENT OF THE STRESS AND STRAIN LEVELS AT GEOMETRICAL DISCONTINUITIES UNDER ELASTOPLASTIC CONDITIONS : A CASE STUDY

Consideration of structural failures caused by initiation and growth of cracks at stress concentration points are extremely important for safe design of structural component which will avoid accidents that may cause life and financial losses. At notch roots if the stress level exceed the yield stress the strain will become the dominant factor to control the cracking initiation process and an elastoplastic analysis will be necessary in order to determine the actual stress and strain values. In the present work the finite element analysis and the models proposed by Neuber(1961) and Glinka(1985) were used to assess the validity of the local strain approach in the estimation of the stress and strain levels on a plate with a central hole subjected to uniform axial loading. Specimens made of Al alloy 7050 T7451 and MAN-TEN steel were used to study possible effects of stress-strain curve behaviour on the stress distribution. The theoretical stress concentration factor of the hole was determined using photoelastic and numerical methods. The applicability of the models proposed by Neuber and Glinka was assessed comparing the results obtained with both methods and the results from the finite element analysis. The results show that Neuber and Glinka models may underestimate the stress values for plane stress while may overestimate the strain levels depending on the model adopted and state of stress.
Ability of the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph to Detect Early Glaucomatous Visual Field Loss

PurposeThe Heidleberg Retina Tomograph provides rapid, reproducible measurements of optic disc topography as well as calculations of disc parameters. We used a stepwise discriminant analysis to determine which parameters were most useful in detecting individuals with early glaucomatous visual field loss. MethodsWe studied one eye in each of 45 normal individuals and one eye in each of 46 individuals with early glaucomatous visual field loss. The appearance of the optic disc was not used for classification purposes so as not to bias the diagnostic determination obtained by the instrument. The data were analyzed using the reference plane of the software version 1.10 and using a method incorporating the height of the papillomacular bundle as reference level with and without age correction. ResultsWe obtained an 89% sensitivity and 78% specificity for the detection of early visual field loss using the standard reference level. The jackknife classification revealed lower sensitivity of 87% and an unchanged specificity of 78%. With the method incorporating the height of the papillomacular bundle as reference level, the sensitivity was 87% and the specificity was 84% for detecting early visual field loss. The jackknife classification revealed a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 82%. With the age correction, the sensitivity was 87%, specificity 84% with regular and jackknife classification. With the standard reference level, the important parameters were the third moment and the maximum depth, with the papillomacular bundle reference level volume above reference level added as important, and with age correction, height variation in contour replaced maximum depth in the analysis. ConclusionThree significant shape parameters of the optic disc can be used to detect early glaucomatous visual field loss.
Low mode volume slotted photonic crystal single nanobeam cavity in silicon

We demonstrate a low mode volume slotted photonic crystal single nanobeam cavity in silicon. Ultra-small effective mode volumes, ~0.025(λ/n)<sup>3</sup>, an order of magnitude smaller than traditional nanobeam cavities, are achieved while maintaining Q-factors near 10<sup>4</sup>.
Lexica and corpora for speech-to-speech translation: a trilingual approach

Creation of lexica and corpora for Catalan, Spanish and US-English is described. A lexicon is being created for speech recognition and synthesis including relevant information. The lexicon contains 50K common words selected to achieve a wide coverage on the chosen domains, and 50K additional entries including special application words, and proper nouns. Furthermore, a large trilingual spontaneous speech corpus has been created. These corpora, together with other available US-Englishdata, have been translated into their counterpart languages. This is being used to investigate the language resources requirements for statistical machine translation.
XB130 Mediates Cancer Cell Proliferation and Survival through Multiple Signaling Events Downstream of Akt

XB130, a novel adaptor protein, mediates RET/PTC chromosome rearrangement-related thyroid cancer cell proliferation and survival through phosphatidyl-inositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway. Recently, XB130 was found in different cancer cells in the absence of RET/PTC. To determine whether RET/PTC is required of XB130-related cancer cell proliferation and survival, WRO thyroid cancer cells (with RET/PTC mutation) and A549 lung cancer cells (without RET/PTC) were treated with XB130 siRNA, and multiple Akt down-stream signals were examined. Knocking-down of XB130 inhibited G1-S phase progression, and induced spontaneous apoptosis and enhanced intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic stimulus-induced cell death. Knocking-down of XB130 reduced phosphorylation of p21Cip1/WAF1, p27Kip1, FOXO3a and GSK3β, increased p21Cip1/WAF1protein levels and cleavages of caspase-8 and-9. However, the phosphorylation of FOXO1 and the protein levels of p53 were not affected by XB130 siRNA. We also found XB130 can be phosphorylated by multiple protein tyrosine kinases. These results indicate that XB130 is a substrate of multiple protein tyrosine kinases, and it can regulate cell proliferation and survival through modulating selected down-stream signals of PI3K/Akt pathway. XB130 could be involved in growth and survival of different cancer cells.
Neurosteroid allopregnanolone regulates EAAC1‐mediated glutamate uptake and triggers actin changes in Schwann cells

Recent evidence shows that neurotransmitters (e.g., GABA, Ach, adenosine, glutamate) are active on Schwann cells, which form myelin sheaths in the peripheral nervous system under different pathophysiologic conditions. Glutamate, the most important excitatory neurotransmitter, has been recently involved in peripheral neuropathies, thus prevention of its toxic effect is desirable to preserve the integrity of peripheral nervous system and Schwann cells physiology. Removal of glutamate from the extracellular space is accomplished by the high affinity glutamate transporters, so we address our studies to analyze their functional presence in Schwann cells. We first demonstrate that Schwann cells express the EAAC1 transporter in the plasma membrane and in intracellular vesicular compartments of the endocytic recycling pathways. Uptake experiments confirm its presence and functional activity in Schwann cells. Secondly, we demonstrate that the EAAC1 activity can be modulated by exposure to the neurosteroid allopregnanolone 10 nM (a progesterone metabolite proved to support Schwann cells). Transporter up‐regulation by allopregnanolone is rapid, does not involve protein neo‐synthesis and is prevented by actin depolymerization. Allopregnanolone modulation involves GABA‐A receptor and PKC activation, promotes the exocytosis of the EAAC1 transporter from intracellular stores to the Schwann cell membrane, in actin‐rich cell tips, and modifies the morphology of cell processes. Finally, we provide evidence that glutamate transporters control the allopregnanolone‐mediated effects on cell proliferation. Our findings are the first to demonstrate the presence of a functional glutamate uptake system, which can be dynamically modulated by allopregnanolone in Schwann cells. Glutamate transporters may represent a potential therapeutic target to control Schwann cell physiology. J. Cell. Physiol. 227: 1740–1751, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Cosmed K4 Telemetry System as an Accurate Device for Oxygen Uptake Measurements during Exercise

The purpose of this study was to test the accuracy of oxygen uptake (VO2) measurements using the Cosmed K4 portable telemetry system. This system of higher technology than the original Cosmed K2 device, contains a CO2 electrode allowing measurements alternatively by either the Cosmed K4 system (K4) or the CPX Medical Graphics (CPX) during a maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) ergocycle test, at rest and during several submaximal exercises (25, 50 and 75% of maximal work rate) in seven subjects. Heart rate values were comparable for exercise at the same work stage during gas collection using the two systems, indicating that the physiological stresses were similar. The VO2 values did not significantly differ at rest (4.40+/-0.83 vs 4.16+/-0.58ml x min(-1) x kg[-1]), at 25% Wmax (20.97+/-1.31 vs 21.32+/-2.54 ml x min(-1) x kg[-1]), at 50% Wmax (33.32+/-3.92 vs 33.50+/-3.51 ml x min(-1) x kg[-1]), at 75% Wmax (47.01+/-7.51 vs 47.49+/-7.11 ml x min(-1) kg[-1]) and at maximal intensities (62.07+/-8.48 vs 62.84+/-11.31 ml x min(-1) kg[-1]) using K4 and CPX devices, respectively. The results of this study indicated that the K4 system was accurate for all oxygen uptake measurements from rest to maximum exercise levels.