Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
University of Groningen Cerebral Activations Related to Audition-Driven Performance Imagery in Professional

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to study the activation of cerebral motor networks during auditory perception of music in professional keyboard musicians (n = 12). The activation paradigm implied that subjects listened to two-part polyphonic music, while either critically appraising the performance or imagining they were performing themselves. Two-part polyphonic audition and bimanual motor imagery circumvented a hemisphere bias associated with the convention of playing the melody with the right hand. Both tasks activated ventral premotor and auditory cortices, bilaterally, and the right anterior parietal cortex, when contrasted to 12 musically unskilled controls. Although left ventral premotor activation was increased during imagery (compared to judgment), bilateral dorsal premotor and right posteriorsuperior parietal activations were quite unique to motor imagery. The latter suggests that musicians not only recruited their manual motor repertoire but also performed a spatial transformation from the vertically perceived pitch axis (high and low sound) to the horizontal axis of the keyboard. Imagery-specific activations in controls were seen in left dorsal parietalpremotor and supplementary motor cortices. Although these activations were less strong compared to musicians, this overlapping distribution indicated the recruitment of a general ‘mirror-neuron’ circuitry. These two levels of sensori-motor transformations point towards common principles by which the brain organizes audition-driven music performance and visually guided task performance. Citation: Harris R, de Jong BM (2014) Cerebral Activations Related to Audition-Driven Performance Imagery in Professional Musicians. PLoS ONE 9(4): e93681. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0093681 Editor: Maurice Ptito, University of Montreal, Canada Received October 16, 2013; Accepted March 10, 2014; Published April 8, 2014 Copyright: 2014 Harris, de Jong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: Financial support was obtained from The Gratama Foundation, Harlingen (NL), the Hanze University, Prince Claus Conservatoire, and the Lectorate Lifelong Learning in Music, Groningen (NL). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: b.m. de.jong@umcg.nl
Towards improving user interfaces: A proposal for integrating functionality and usability since early phases

Traditionally, in the practice developers separate usability from functionality. Usability aspects are implemented at the end of the development process; sometimes achieving little usability, resulting in a bad user experience. This paper presents a proposal to integrate the implementation of usability in conjunction with functionality since early phases. This proposal is centered in the sub-phases of user and tasks analysis, combining techniques from software engineering, usability engineering, and human computer interaction. We present a practical guide to derive a software architecture considering both user-interface and user-profile aspects.
Assessment of oil palm plantation and tropical peat swamp forest water quality by multivariate statistical analysis.

This study reports the spatio-temporal changes in river and canal water quality of peat swamp forest and oil palm plantation sites of Sarawak, Malaysia. To investigate temporal changes, 192 water samples were collected at four stations of BatangIgan, an oil palm plantation site of Sarawak, during July-November in 2009 and April-July in 2010. Nine water quality parameters including Electrical Conductivity (EC), pH, Turbidity (TER), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Temperature (TEMP), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), five-day Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), ammonia-Nitrogen (NH3-N), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) were analysed. To investigate spatial changes, 432water samples were collected from six different sites including BatangIgan during June-August 2010. Six water quality parameters including pH, DO, COD, BOD5, NH3-N and TSS were analysed to see the spatial variations. Most significant parameters which contributed in spatio-temporal variations were assessed by statistical techniques such as Hierarchical Agglomerative Cluster Analysis (HACA), Factor Analysis/Principal Components Analysis (FA/PCA) and Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA). HACA identified three different classes of sites: Relatively Unimpaired, Impaired and Less Impaired Regions on the basis of similarity among different physicochemical characteristics and pollutant level between the sampling sites. DFA produced the best results for identification of main variables for temporal analysis and separated parameters (EC, TER, COD) and identified three parameters for spatial analysis (pH, NH3-N and BOD5). The results signify that parameters identified by statistical analyses were responsible for water quality change and suggest the possibility the agricultural and oil palm plantation activities as a source of pollutants. The results suggest dire need for proper watershed management measures to restore the water quality of this tributary for a healthy and promising terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem.
A dataflow/von Neumann hybrid architecture

Abstract : This report examines the spectrum of architectures from von Neumann to dataflow by proposing a new architecture which is a hybrid of the two paradigms. The analysis attempts to discover those features of the dataflow architecture, lacking in a von Neumann machine, which are essential for tolerating latency and synchronization costs. These features are captured in the concept of a parallel machine language wherein the units of scheduling, called scheduling quanta, are bound at compile time rather than at instruction set design time. It is shown that the combination of dataflow-style explicit synchronization and von Neumann-style implicit synchronization results in an architectural synergism. Using an instruction set which is strictly less powerful than that of the MIT Tagged-Token Dataflow (TTDA), the hybrid architecture can exploit the same kinds of parallelism while executing fewer instructions, demonstrating the power of passing state implicitly between program-counter sequenced instructions. Keywords: Multiprocessors.
A recent trends in software defined networking (SDN) security

Software defined networking (SDN) has established a new method for creating and administering networks. It is a new architecture which has been designed to enable more agile and cost effective networks. It promotes separation of data plane and control plane. Thereby enabling network switches in the data plane to act as packet forwarding devices. It also uses logical centralized software to control the entire network behavior. SDN introduces new vulnerabilities that are not present in traditional networks such as communication bottlenecks between control plane and data plane. Current research in SDN follows several identifiable trends that are related to the state of deployment of SDN technologies. In this paper, SDN architecture, its salient features along with recent security aspects have been highlighted.
Etude et réalisation de micro-actionneurs intégrés à base d'alliage à mémoire de forme

Ce travail de recherche traite des alliages a memoire de forme (AMF) utilises en tant qu'actionneurs dans les microrobots et les microsystemes. Parmi les AMF, l'alliage de nickel-titane (NiTi) est notamment un tres bon candidat au micro-actionnement, car il est capable de developper un travail mecanique tres important, en comparaison avec d'autres materiaux actifs. Cependant, la temperature etant sa grandeur de commande, le temps de reponse de l'AMF est grand. De plus, il est difficile de controler precisement ses deplacements, car il reste tres sensible aux conditions thermiques exterieures. Aussi, ce travail presente une etude thermique detaillee, fondee sur le modele physique de comportement d'un AMF, des deux principaux moyens de chauffage et de refroidissement du materiau : l'effet Joule et l'effet Peltier. Cette etude a abouti a la realisation d'un micro-actionneur a effet Peltier integre (nomme module $\Omega$ Peltier). Cet actionneur original a la particularite de rendre l'AMF moins sensible aux variations de la temperature exterieure et peut donc fonctionner en milieu confine, ce qui est impossible avec un actionneur a effet Joule. Un simulateur numerique, mis au point dans cette etude, permet de comprendre et de predire le comportement thermomecanique du module $\Omega$.
Topotecan: Weekly intravenous (IV) schedule similar to standard 5-day IV schedule as second-line therapy for relapsed small cell lung cancer (SCLC)-A Minnie Pearl Cancer Research Network phase II trial.

7083 Background: Topotecan IV weekly produces significantly less myelotoxicity than the standard 5-day IV schedule and appears as active as the 5-day schedule in patients (pts) with relapsed ovarian cancer. Topotecan 5-day IV schedule is the standard for second-line therapy for sensitive relapse SCLC. METHODS The primary endpoints of this phase II trial were to determine the response rate and toxicity of topotecan IV weekly as second-line therapy in patients with sensitive relapse (SR) and resistant relapse (RR) SCLC. Topotecan 4mg/m2 IV over 30 minutes for 12 consecutive weeks was planned. Dose modifications were made based on toxicity. Pts were evaluated for response after 4 weeks; at least 3 weekly treatments were required to be evaluable. RESULTS A total of 103 pts (59 SR; 44 RR) were enrolled: 56 men, 48 women; age range 42-86 (median 65); performance status 0=18, 1=69, 2=16, 3=1. 47 pts with SR and 34 pts with RR were evaluable for response by WHO criteria. For SR, 3 pts had partial response (6.4%, 95% CI 1.3%-17.5%), 17 pts had stable disease (7 had minor responses with tumor shrinkage of 39%, 27%, 21%, 20%, 20%, 7%, and 3%, respectively). Using RECIST criteria 5 pts had PR (13%, 95% CI 6%-25%). For RR, 1 pt had a CR (3%, 95% CI 0.1%-15.3%), 6 pts had stable disease (2 had minor responses with 36%, 5% tumor shrinkage). Grade 3/4 neutropenia/thrombocytopenia was seen in 17 and 22pts, grade 3 infection 6 pts; grade 3/4 fatigue 16 pts. There was 1 treatment-related death. Median and 1-year survival for all patients was 4.5 months (SR = 5.6 months; RR 3.2 months, p = 0.05) and 19% (SR = 22%; RR = 10%). There was no difference in survival for PR versus stable pts, and PR/stable had 1-year survival of 46% compared to PD of 9% (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Topotecan IV weekly has similar activity to the standard 5-day IV schedule in SR SCLC, and considerably less myelotoxicity. These data support the weekly schedule for standard therapy of SR SCLC, and further study of weekly topotecan as a component of combination therapy for SCLC. [Table: see text].
Antimicrobial Activity of Crude Extract Obtained from the Root of Plumbago zeylanica

Ethanolic extract of Plumbago zeylanica root was investigated for its antimicrobial activities against 11 human pathogenic bacteria and 6 phytopathogenic fungi using disc diffusion method and poisoned food technique respectively. The extract exhibited good antibacterial and antifungal activities against the test organisms. Among the test bacteria, Vibrio cholerae was found to be the most sensitive to the extract showing the highest diameter of zone of inhibition and lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value (200 I¼g/ml). The extract was also very effective against Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa showing MIC value of 250 I¼g/ml. Among the phytopathogenic fungi tested, Curvularia lunata exhibited the highest sensitivity to the extract with an MIC value of 150 I¼g/ml, which was followed next by Colletotrichum corchori and Fusarium equiseti (MIC value 250 I¼g/ml). The root extract from P. zeylanica seems promising since it showed both antibacterial and antifungal activities. Keywords: Antimicrobial activity, Plumbago zeylanica , Ethanolic extract, Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/bjm.v24i1. 1244 Bangladesh J Microbiol, Volume 24, Number 1, June 2007, pp73-75
Genetic Diversity and Metabolites Production of Root-Nodule Bacteria Isolated from Medicinal Legumes Indigofera tinctoria, Pueraria mirifica and Derris elliptica Benth. Grown in Different Geographic Origins Across Thailand

2 Abstract: A total of 215 root-nodule bacteria were isolated from 3 medicinal legumes including Indigofera tinctoria, Pueraria mirifica and Derris elliptica Benth. naturally grown in 16 provinces of Thailand. The isolates were evaluated for DNA polymorphism using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. Isolates generated 92 identical RAPD profiles, indicating highly significant genetic diversity among isolates from distinct geographic areas. The genetic diversity among root-nodule bacteria was affected slightly by the host plants rather than the geographic origins. The total 56 representative strains were characterized by small plasmid and megaplasmid profiles as well as production of acyl homoserine lactone (AHLs)-like quorum sensing molecules, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and melanin. Three Rhizobium-like strains nodulating P. mirifica and D. elliptica Benth. harbor the same profile with 2 small plasmids. One Sinorhizobium-like strain and 4 Rhizobium-like strains nodulating I. tinctoria and D. elliptica Benth. harbor the same profile with 4 megaplasmids. The strains varied in their ability to produce AHLs-like molecules and IAA. Melanin production was observed in the only one of Pseudoalteromonas-like strain.
Endothelial IL-33 Expression Is Augmented by Adenoviral Activation of the DNA Damage Machinery

IL-33, required for viral clearance by cytotoxic T cells, is generally expressed in vascular endothelial cells in healthy human tissues. We discovered that endothelial IL-33 expression was stimulated as a response to adenoviral transduction. This response was dependent on MRE11, a sensor of DNA damage that can also be activated by adenoviral DNA, and on IRF1, a transcriptional regulator of cellular responses to viral invasion and DNA damage. Accordingly, we observed that endothelial cells responded to adenoviral DNA by phosphorylation of ATM and CHK2 and that depletion or inhibition of MRE11, but not depletion of ATM, abrogated IL-33 stimulation. In conclusion, we show that adenoviral transduction stimulates IL-33 expression in endothelial cells in a manner that is dependent on the DNA-binding protein MRE11 and the antiviral factor IRF1 but not on downstream DNA damage response signaling.
Chemistry and biochemistry of lipid peroxidation products

Abstract Oxidative stress and resulting lipid peroxidation is involved in various and numerous pathological states including inflammation, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. This review is focused on recent advances concerning the formation, metabolism and reactivity towards macromolecules of lipid peroxidation breakdown products, some of which being considered as ‘second messengers’ of oxidative stress. This review relates also new advances regarding apoptosis induction, survival/proliferation processes and autophagy regulated by 4-hydroxynonenal, a major product of omega-6 fatty acid peroxidation, in relationship with detoxication mechanisms. The use of these lipid peroxidation products as oxidative stress/lipid peroxidation biomarkers is also addressed.
General Design Rules for the Synthesis of Dispersion and Dispersion Slope Compensation FIR and IIR Filters With Reduced Complexity

Chromatic dispersion is one of the main transmission impairments in optical systems with high bit rates, because the dispersion limit scales with the square of the data rate. Optical delay-line filters can be used to compensate dispersion and dispersion slope. They can be designed as feedforward finite-impulse response filters or as all-pass infinite-impulse response filters. Due to the time-variant property of the dispersion, those filters have to be adaptive, which requires fast and reliable calculation of the filter coefficients. In this paper, a new approach to calculate filter coefficients by applying analytical methods is presented. Design examples are given, and the filter performance is discussed.
Posterior Capsule Rupture following Closed Globe Injury: Scheimpflug Imaging, Pathogenesis, and Management

Purpose To report the Scheimpflug and clinical findings in a case of pediatric posterior capsule rupture due to blunt ocular trauma. Methods Interventional case report. Analysis of Scheimpflug findings and review of literature. Results An 11-year-old boy presented 2 days after blunt trauma to the left eye with a slingshot. On examination his best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 20/20 in the right eye and 20/400 in the left. Slitlamp examination (left eye) revealed a Vossius ring, traumatic cataract, and traumatic posterior capsular rupture (TPCR). The contour of the posterior bulge corresponded to the edges of the TPCR. Scheimpflug imaging (Pentacam 70700: Oculus, Wetzlar, Germany) confirmed traumatic cataract in region of TPCR evidenced by increased lens density at cortex-vitreous interface, absence of vitreous prolapse into the anterior chamber, and the amount of residual nucleus. The extent of the TPCR in the greatest and least dimensions was documented before and after intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. Intraoperatively, TPCR was evident and phacoemulsification with IOL implant was performed. Postoperatively, his BCVA improved to 20/20 in the left eye with a well-centered in-the-bag IOL as found on slit lamp and Scheimpflug images. Conclusions This report highlights the use of Scheimpflug imaging in isolated posterior capsule rupture following closed globe injury, to visualize and quantify the size of posterior capsule rupture and its role in management.
High Frequency Transformer Designs for Improving Cross Regulation in Multiple-Output Flyback Converters

The cross regulation in multiple-output flyback converters is affected by leakage inductances of the transformers. The suitable winding arrangements of the transformers will lead to the improvement of cross regulation. This paper presents the comparative study of various winding arrangements in the three winding flyback transformers. The cross regulation model is considered in form of the resistance matrix related to the leakage inductance parameters. The design guidelines for the transformer for improving cross regulation are given based on the experimental results.
Superresolución y reconstrucción bayesiana de imágenes a partir de imágenes de baja resolución rotadas y desplazadas. Combinación de modelos

En esta tesis se estudia el problema de la obtencion de imagenes de alta resolucion a partir de conjuntos de imagenes observadas de baja resolucion desplazadas y rotadas, desde un enfoque Bayesiano variacional. Al proceso de obtener imagenes de alta resolucion a partir de imagenes de baja resolucion se le denomina Superresolucion. La calidad de las imagenes de alta resolucion, obtenidas mediante los metodos Bayesianos de superresolucion, depende de los valores seleccionados para los parametros de las distribuciones de probabilidad, de la precision del registrado y del modelo a priori de la imagen de alta resolucion adoptado, de ahi el interes de los metodos, como los propuestos en esta tesis, que aborden la estimacion conjunta de los parametros de las distribuciones y los del movimiento. La busqueda de modelos a priori, que se adecuen a las caracteristicas de la imagen de alta resolucion, sigue siendo un problema abierto y en la literatura especializada aparecen muchos modelos. En esta memoria se propone, por un lado, un metodo de superresolucion Bayesiano variacional que utiliza un modelo a priori basado en la norma l1 sobre los gradientes horizontales y verticales. Por otra parte, tambien se propone el uso de combinaciones de diversos modelos a priori, que sean capaces de recoger las distintas caracteristicas que pueden confluir en cada imagen. El marco teorico Bayesiano Variacional propuesto permite la estimacion conjunta de la imagen de alta resolucion, los parametros de las distribuciones de probabilidad y los parametros del registrado, utilizando combinaciones lineales de modelos a priori de la imagenes de alta resolucion. Este marco teorico se ha aplicado a la obtencion de metodos de superresolucion para combinaciones de modelos a priori sparse, como el modelo TV o el modelo a priori basado en la norma l1 sobre el gradiente horizontal y vertical, con modelos a priori no sparse como el modelo autorregresivo SAR. La evaluacion de los distintos parametros, dentro de los metodos propuestos, debe afrontar arduos problemas de inversion de matrices. Para ello, en esta tesis, se propone una aproximacion circulante a las inversas de esas matrices. La tesis ha permitido obtener una aplicacion software de libre disposicion, con la correspondiente documentacion, que implementa todos metodos propuestos en la misma.
A biologically inspired approach to real-valued average consensus over quantized channels with arbitrary deterministic accuracy

This paper concerns the average consensus problem with the constraint of quantized communication between nodes. A broad class of algorithms is analyzed, in which the transmission strategy, which decides what value to communicate to the neighbours, can include various kinds of rounding, probabilistic quantization, and bounded noise. The arbitrariness of the transmission strategy is compensated by a feedback mechanism using a self-inhibitory action; this is inspired by various neuronal models. Using these algorithms, the average of the nodes state is not conserved across iterations, and the nodes do not converge to an equilibrium; however, we show that both kinds of errors can be made as small as desired. Bounds on these quantities involve the spectral properties of the graph and can be proved by employing elementary techniques of LTI systems analysis.
A Ka-Band Reflectarray Implemented With a Single-Layer Perforated Dielectric Substrate

The design and implementation of a reflectarray with a single-layer perforated dielectric substrate is presented. The perforated dielectric layer, used as the reflecting surface of the proposed antenna, is realized by drilling air holes with different diameters on the dielectric substrate. Thus, the effective permittivity of the dielectric substrate is altered by drilling holes with different diameters, and then the substrate is equivalent to an inhomogeneous dielectric layer that can be controlled by these holes to collimate the reflected waves in the special direction. The reflectarray is composed of 29 × 29 elements, and it covers an area of 24.65 × 24.65 cm2. Varying the hole's diameter can lead to 360 phase shift. The reflectarray is offset fed by a linearly polarized pyramidal horn antenna. Full-wave analysis software CST Microwave Studio, which is based on finite integration technique, is applied. The results are validated by measured results. The 3-dB beamwidth is 2.7°. A peak gain of 35.5 dB is predicted at 30 GHz. The reflectarray can cover Ka-band with sidelobe level below -20 dB for both E-plane and H-plane.