Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spontaneous Action Representation in Smokers when Watching Movie Characters Smoke

Do smokers simulate smoking when they see someone else smoke? For regular smokers, smoking is such a highly practiced motor skill that it often occurs automatically, without conscious awareness. Research on the brain basis of action observation has delineated a frontoparietal network that is commonly recruited when people observe, plan, or imitate actions. Here, we investigated whether this action observation network would be preferentially recruited in smokers when viewing complex smoking cues, such as those occurring in motion pictures. Seventeen right-handed smokers and 17 nonsmokers watched a popular movie while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Using a natural stimulus, such as a movie, allowed us to keep both smoking and nonsmoking participants naive to the goals of the experiment. Brain activity evoked by movie scenes of smoking was contrasted with nonsmoking control scenes that were matched for frequency and duration. Compared with nonsmokers, smokers showed greater activity in left anterior intraparietal sulcus and inferior frontal gyrus, regions involved in the simulation of contralateral hand-based gestures, when viewing smoking versus control scenes. These results demonstrate that smokers spontaneously represent the action of smoking when viewing others smoke, the consequence of which may make it more difficult to abstain from smoking.
Inter-rater reliability of the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START)

ABSTRACT Empirical evidence supports the reliability and validity of the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START) completed in the context of research studies as well as field implementation. However, one limitation is that the body of literature is not fully representative of the range of services where the tool is applied, highlighting the paucity of UK-based research into the START. The primary aim of this study was to assess the inter-rater reliability (IRR) of the START and to examine whether IRR varies across professional disciplines who routinely complete the assessments as part of the integrated multi-disciplinary teams in the field of male mental health within an independent provider of healthcare services. Further aims were to look at the internal consistency of IRR and the test re-test reliability. Findings overall indicated better IRR for START items, between disciplines, across different cases and time, than for risk estimates. Therefore, outcomes are discussed in relation to applied practice for professionals within the service, but also the implications this may have for general risk management based on risk estimation.
Effect of view distance and movement scale on haptic-based teleoperation of industrial robots in complex environments

This paper presents the study on the effect of view distance and movement scale on performance of haptic based teleoperation of a sandblasting robot in complex steel bridge maintenance environments. The operational performance, measured by the Index of Performance (IP), is defined based on the speed and the control accuracy of the manipulator. View distance (i.e. the distance between a display space and an object movement space) and movement scale between hand movement and manipulator movement, which are normally selected empirically, have significant effect the performance. In this paper, an experimental approach is used for determining view distance and movement scale. The sandblasting robotic system is used as an example industrial application in the experiments. Results of the experiments show a range of the view distance and the movement scale that can improve the performance of haptic-based teleoperation of industrial robots in complex environments.
Depth Map Generation Algorithm for Multiview Video

In this paper, we propose a new approach to depth map generation for multiview video system. Our goal is to improve 3D scene representation consistency by exchanging spatial information between all depth maps in multiview video. The presented algorithm mainly adopts Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and jointly disparity and disparity estimation technique. This algorithm first uses the SIFT to get the SIFT descriptors, and then uses Markov random field (MRF) to generate depth map according to the relationship of the SIFT descriptors in different views. This method can reduce computational complexity and adaptively narrow search ranges considering the reliability of each SIFT descriptors. Simulation results show that this algorithm greatly improves the computational accuracy of depth map generation for the multiview video system.
Supersymmetric 4D rotating black holes from 5D black rings

We present supersymmetric solutions describing black holes with non-vanishing angular momentum in four dimensional asymptotically flat space. The solutions are obtained by Kaluza-Klein reduction of five-dimensional supersymmetric black rings wrapped on the fiber of a Taub-NUT space. We show that in the four-dimensional description the singularity of the nut can be hidden behind a regular black hole event horizon and thereby obtain an explicit example of a non-static multi-black hole solution in four asymptotically flat dimensions.
Improvement of multisensor fusion in speed limit determination by quantifying navigation reliability

Speed limit determination is a complex task that may be solved by fusing data from GIS (Geographical Information System) and camera sensor. Among the existing data fusion models the Dempster-Shafer Belief Theory is found to be the most appropriate in this application. A confidence measure weights each source output, namely speed limit present on road sign and driving situation. Using the discounting scheme of Dempster-Shafer, we propose a new way of computing the navigation confidence measure by taking into account the reliability of the GIS. Preliminary tests showed that our method achieves promising results and solves conflicts between vision- and navigation-based system.
LVQ Approach Using AA Indices for Protein Subcellular Localisation Prediction

Knowledge of subcellular localisation of proteins is important in determining their function and involvement in different pathways. A wide variety of methods has been proposed over the recent years in order to predict the subcellular localisation of proteins, mainly based on amino acid composition or single sequence inputs. We propose a Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) method for protein subcellular localisation prediction based on N-terminal sorting signals by using the information derived from Amino Acid (AA) index database. The LVQ approach achieved overall prediction accuracies of 84.7% for 2427 eukaryotic protein sequences on Reinhardt and Hubbard dataset and upto 86.8% on the non-plant (eukaryotes) dataset of 2738 sequences from the TargetP website, which are comparable or better than the results of existing prediction methods.
Determining Differences in Self-Efficacy Between Male and Female Cadets at the University of North Georgia

The Corps of Cadets is a diverse group of individuals with different motivations for pursuing a college degree while participating in a Senior Military College ROTC program. The purpose of this study was to determine if gender, contracted status, or a combination of both influenced cadet self-efficacy levels. Selfefficacy levels were determined by surveying a company of cadets using an ROTC specific experience measure and behavior models measure, as well as Eisengerger’s abbreviated perceived organizational support scale, the Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule, and the Big Five Inventory. The hypothesis was that overall there would be a significant difference between males and females with males having higher levels of the self-efficacy antecedents measured. Additionally, it was hypothesized that in general contracted cadets would have overall higher efficacy levels.
Generic calibration of an integral imaging camera and its applications on 2D integral image reconstruction and 3D scene reconstruction

A lens-array-based integral imaging camera is studied in this work, which consists of a lens array, a main lens and a CCD camera. The lens array is placed on the object side of the main lens, thus can provide wider stereo baseline than other lens-array-based integral imaging cameras where the lens array is usually placed on the sensor side. However, the image captured by this system presents severe non-linear and discontinuous geometrical distortions, which are difficult to model by conventional pin-hole camera models or their direct variants. In this work, we propose a generic calibration method to calibrate the geometry of this integral imaging camera. Using a LCD panel as an active calibration object, correspondences between 2D image locations and 3D light rays captured by the camera are automatically established in high density. The obtained calibration results are applied in 2D reconstruction of integral images and 3D scene reconstruction. Experiments with real images show that 2D integral images can be reconstructed with accurate geometrical property from highly distorted raw images. In a 3D test environment, with only one raw image captured by the integral imaging camera, 3D structure of objects at different depth can be correctly reconstructed.
Size-fractionated phytoplankton biomass and production in the tropical Atlantic

SUMMARY: Two meridional transects were conducted in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic to describe (i) the spatial variability of total and size-fractionated (picophytoplankton and phytoplankton >2 mm) chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration and primary production, (ii) the relative contribution of each phytoplankton size fraction to total biomass and carbon fixation, and (iii) the spatial variability of size-fractionated phytoplankton growth rate (P/B) and assimilation number (P/chl a) in the ocean. The highest chl a for both size fractions was observed in the Western Tropical Atlantic province (WTRA), while the lowest chl a was found in the upper mixed layer (UML) of the South Atlantic Tropical gyre (SATL). A similar pattern was found for carbon fixation. Within the SATL, the highest picophytoplankton contribution to total production was recorded at the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum (DCM), while the contribution of phytoplankton >2 mm was higher in the UML. Additionally, the relative contribution of large phytoplankton to total integrated primary production was higher than its contribution to total biomass. Both size fractions depicted maximum P/B and P/chl a in WTRA surface waters. In the SATL province, phytoplankton >2 mm showed the highest P/B and P/chl a along the UML, while picophytoplankton P/B and P/chl a peaked around the DCM. We suggest that the differential impact of light on small and large phytoplankton may help to explain the contrasting dynamics of the two size classes.
Developments in perturbative QCD

A brief review of key recent developments and ongoing projects in perturbative QCD theory, with emphasis on conceptual advances that have the potential for impact on LHC studies. Topics covered include: twistors and new recursive calculational techniques; automation of one-loop predictions; developments concerning NNLO calculations; the status of Monte Carlo event generators and progress in matching to fixed order; analytical resummation including the push to NNLL, automation and gap between jets processes; and progress in the understanding of saturation at small x.
Hardware for Exploiting Data Level Parallelism Written Preliminary Examination II

Current trends in performance improvement favor increasing parallelism over increasing the clock rate for a variety of reasons. Although many forms of parallelism exist, Data Level Parallelism (DLP) is one form which scales well and is particularly useful in scientific as well as media applications. This paper examines four modern architectures for exploiting DLP in media applications: VIRAM, Scale, Imagine, and Cell, with focus on the architectures’ approaches to dealing with the problems of increasing memory latency, capabilities to handle code which is partially data parallel, programmability and applicability to other domains.
The Effect of Erythropoietin in Acute Pancreatitis: An Experimental Study

Background: Although the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis is not clearly known, the most frequently mentioned factors are proinflammatory cytokines and nitric oxide (NO), which is stimulated by bacterial endotoxins. The relationship of erythropoietin (EPO), which is an erythroid line growth hormone, with proinflammatory cytokines and NO is also not clear. EPO has a well-known general tissue protective effect, yet its role in an inflammatory presentation like that of acute pancreatitis has not been investigated and documented. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of EPO in acute pancreatitis. Materials and Methods: 60 Wistar Albino rats were divided into 4 groups as follows: laparotomy (I), pancreatitis (II), pancreatitis + simultaneous application of EPO (III) and finally pancreatitis + administration of EPO after 3 hours (IV). The groups were further separated to subgroups by sacrificing the animals at 3, 6 and 24 hours. Pancreatitis was induced by injecting 4.5% sodium (Na)-taurocholate (0.1 ml / 100 g) into the pancreatic canal. Leukocyte counts and serum amylase and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were measured. Histopathological changes of the pancreas were evaluated according to Spormann scores. Results: EPO was shown to increase leukocyte counts in the early phase (P 0.05), moderate pancreatitis developed in the group receiving EPO. Conclusions: The results we have obtained demonstrate that more controlled models (employing low rates of sodium taurocholate or edematous pancreatitis) are necessary to better investigate the efficacy of EPO.
The face inversion effect in opponent-stimulus rivalry

The face inversion effect is regarded as a hallmark of face-specific processing, and can be observed in a large variety of visual tasks. Face inversion effects are also reported in binocular rivalry. However, it is unclear whether these effects are face-specific, and distinct from the general tendency of visual awareness to privilege upright objects. We studied continuous rivalry across more than 600 dominance epochs for each observer, having faces and houses rival against their inverted counterparts, and letting faces rival against houses in both upright and inverted orientation. We found strong inversion effects for faces and houses in both the frequency of dominance epochs and their duration. Inversion effects for faces, however, were substantially larger, reaching a 70:30 distribution of dominance times for upright versus inverted faces, while a 60:40 distribution was obtained for upright versus inverted houses. Inversion effects for faces reached a Cohen's d of 0.85, compared to a value of 0.33 for houses. Dominance times for rivalry of faces against houses had a 60:40 distribution in favor of faces, independent of the orientation of the objects. These results confirm the general tendency of visual awareness to prefer upright objects, and demonstrate the outstanding role of faces. Since effect size measures clearly distinguish face stimuli in opponent-stimulus rivalry, the method is highly recommended for testing the effects of face manipulations against non-face reference objects.