Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A systematic review of non-motor rTMS induced motor cortex plasticity

Motor cortex excitability can be measured by single- and paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can induce neuroplastic effects in stimulated and in functionally connected cortical regions. Due to its ability to non-invasively modulate cortical activity, rTMS has been investigated for the treatment of various neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, such studies revealed a high variability of both clinical and neuronal effects induced by rTMS. In order to better elucidate this meta-plasticity, rTMS-induced changes in motor cortex excitability have been monitored in various studies in a pre-post stimulation design. Here, we give a literature review of studies investigating motor cortex excitability changes as a neuronal marker for rTMS effects over non-motor cortical areas. A systematic literature review in April 2014 resulted in 29 articles in which motor cortex excitability was assessed before and after rTMS over non-motor areas. The majority of the studies focused on the stimulation of one of three separate cortical areas: the prefrontal area (17 studies), the cerebellum (8 studies), or the temporal cortex (3 studies). One study assessed the effects of multi-site rTMS. Most studies investigated healthy controls but some also stimulated patients with neuropsychiatric conditions (e.g., affective disorders, tinnitus). Methods and findings of the identified studies were highly variable showing no clear systematic pattern of interaction of non-motor rTMS with measures of motor cortex excitability. Based on the available literature, the measurement of motor cortex excitability changes before and after non-motor rTMS has only limited value in the investigation of rTMS related meta-plasticity as a neuronal state or as a trait marker for neuropsychiatric diseases. Our results do not suggest that there are systematic alterations of cortical excitability changes during rTMS treatment, which calls into question the practice of re-adjusting the stimulation intensity according to the motor threshold over the course of the treatment.
Covert channel for local area network

There exist many TCP/IP covert channels in WAN for network hidden communication in last decades. However, there are few covert channels designed for the LAN while existing WAN covert channels could not be adapted for the LAN applications. In this paper we proposed a novel covert channel based on ARP broadcasting packets for LAN. In our method we employed the normal ARP request packets as the carrier which could escape feature-based detections. In addition, our method would not lead to abnormal network traffic. Experimental results show that our covert channel has great resistance to not only the feature-based detections but also the network traffic detections.
Crystal structure, conformation and morphology of solution-spun poly(L-lactide) fibers

Depending on the spinning and drawing conditions, two crystal structures for solution-spun poly(L-lactide) are obtained. The pseudoorthorhombic α structure (a = 10.6, b = 6.1, and c = 28.8 A) contains two chains in the unit cell and is found at relatively low drawing temperatures and/or low hot-draw ratios. At higher drawing temperatures and/or higher hot-draw ratios a second so-called β structure appears. For this structure an orthorhombic unit cell is proposed (a = 10.31, b = 18.21, and c = 9.00 A) containing six chains. The chain conformations of the α and β structure are left-handed 10/3 and 3/1 helices, respectively. Calculations show that both conformations have approximately the same energy. Therefore, the preference for one of the two structures is determined by packing considerations. In fibers containing a mixture of α and β structure, the latter seems to bear most of the load during stress-strain experiments. Meridional small-angle X-ray scattering experiments yield a maximum for fibers containing only α structure pointing to a lamellar folded-chain morphology. The β structure on the other hand seems to correspond to a fibrillar morphology. Differential scanning calorimetry on unconstrained fibers shows that the β structure melts at a lower temperature than the α structure. The large shift of the peak melting temperature to higher temperatures in melting experiments on constrained fibers indicates that both lamellae and fibrils contribute to the strength of the fibers. This points to a considerable amount of interconnections/ entanglements between adjacent lamellae.
A nature-inspired evolutionary algorithm based on spiral movements

In this paper, we present a nature-inspired evolutionary algorithm which is capable of solving real-valued optimization problems. The novel algorithm employs attraction and mutation. Attraction, based on the observation of spiral movements encountered in nature and the universe, is implemented using a dynamic system model. The proposed operator incorporating with the dynamic mutation works with the population-based technique to iteratively evolve into better and better solutions. To demonstrate its efficiency and accuracy, the proposed algorithm is evaluated on a variety of real-valued benchmark functions.
Behavior of transformational leader, organization culture, and subbordinate's working behavior toward working performance of small and medium enterprises: Reconceptualization and modeling

The low working performance of small and medium enterprises can not be separated from behavior of transformational leader and organization culture which can form subordinate’s working behavior. These factors are very important to be concerned, especially for an entrepreneur who lives with full of uncertainty and continually speculation. Based on the mentioned things, the research is conducted with a purpose to form measurement model of organization’s working performance through behavior of transformational leader and organization culture in forming behavior of subordinate’s duty on knitting industry in the Binong Jati kinitting center, Bandung. The method used is descriptive survey and explanatory survey, with 120 researched samples from 412 knitting entrepreneurs with simple randomized sample method.The analysis method was structural equation model (SEM) analysis method using LISREL software.The important finding of this research result shows that behavior of transformational leader is classified in fair category, while their organization culture is classified in low category.Furthermore, behavior of subordinate’s duty is classified in fair category, while organization working performance is still classified in low category.The analysis result proves that transformational leader and organization culture can form behavior of subordinate’s duty which finally can form organization working performance.
Standardization of Syndrome Differentiation Defined by Traditional Chinese Medicine in Operative Breast Cancer: A Modified Delphi Study

Objective. The aim of this study was to establish the standardization of syndrome differentiation of operative breast cancer treated with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by the modified Delphi method. Method. A literature search for standardization of syndrome differentiation of operative breast cancer was conducted and eligible articles were identified in indexed databases from 1982 to 2013. We carried out two rounds of investigation between March and October 2013 and organized 20 experts who focused on TCM or integrative medicine in breast cancer research. Experts' judgments were collected via posted questionnaires or e-mail. A final evaluation was carried out after the end of both rounds. Result. The response ratio of the 1st round investigation reached 100%, and two experts were excluded due to the uncompleted questionnaire. The 2nd round investigation was completed by 18 experts in the 1st round panel board. In both rounds, the experts agreed that the stage of breast cancer defined by TCM could be divided into the perioperation period, the perichemotherapy period, the periradiotherapy period, and the consolidation period. Conclusion. We identified the feasibility and reasonability to establish the standardization of syndrome differentiation of operative breast cancer. According to the suggestions from experts in our Delphi study, we preliminarily established the TCM standard of syndrome differentiation based on different treatment stages of operative breast cancer.
Enterovirus 75 Encephalitis in Children, Southern India

Recent outbreaks of enterovirus in Southeast Asia emphasize difficulties in diagnosis of this infection. To address this issue, we report 5 (4.7%) children infected with enterovirus 75 among 106 children with acute encephalitis syndrome during 2005–2007 in southern India. Throat swab specimens may be useful for diagnosis of enterovirus 75 infection.
Toward the training of feed-forward neural networks with the D-optimum input sequence

The problem under consideration is to obtain a measurement schedule for training neural networks. This task is perceived as an experimental design in a given design space that is obtained in such a way as to minimize the difference between the neural network and the system being considered. This difference can be expressed in many different ways and one of them, namely, the D-optimality criterion is used in this paper. In particular, the paper presents a unified and comprehensive treatment of this problem by discussing the existing and previously unpublished properties of the optimum experimental design (OED) for neural networks. The consequences of the above properties are discussed as well. A hybrid algorithm that can be used for both the training and data development of neural networks is another important contribution of this paper. A careful analysis of the algorithm is presented and its comprehensive convergence analysis with the help of the Lyapunov method are given. The paper contains a number of numerical examples that justify the application of the OED theory for neural networks. Moreover, an industrial application example is given that deals with the valve actuator.
Conscience and Corporate Culture

List of Figures. Foreword by Thomas E. Holloran. Preface. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Part I Conscience: Response to a Pathology: 1. Teleopathy: The Unbalanced Pursuit of Purpose. 2. Mindsets and Culture. 3. Conscience as a Mindset: Personal and Organizational. 4. Challenges to the Very Idea. Part II: The Moral Agenda of Leadership: 5. Orienting Corporate Conscience. 6. Institutionalizing Corporate Conscience. 7. Sustaining Corporate Conscience. 8. Conscience and Three Academies. Epilogue. Notes. Index.
A switched Ethernet protocol for hard real-time embedded system applications

This paper presents a protocol to support traffic for hard real-time applications over non real-time LAN technology, with a switched Ethernet based network concept without any modifications of existing Ethernet hardware. Simulation results demonstrate the proposed Ethernet protocol has better real-time performances, higher bandwidth and a larger data frame, and meets the requirements of reliability for hard real-time systems.
A Wide Range, 4.2 ps(rms) Precision CMOS TDC With Cyclic Interpolators Based on Switched-Frequency Ring Oscillators

A time-to-digital (TDC) converter based on cyclic interpolators has been designed. The TDC is designed to be used in a pulsed time-of-flight laser radar, where a long measurement range is required. The TDC's two interpolators provide a picosecond level resolution, which is combined with a main reference clock counter to give a measurement range of 327 μs. The interpolators measure time intervals with a switched-frequency ring oscillator. The frequency switching is used as a mechanism to amplify the quantization error in the cyclic interpolator. A digital calibration scheme is used for radix extraction. The interpolators' worst case INL is ±4.5 ps. Due to the interpolator's INL, the TDC's RMS precision is about 4.2 ps, while the worst and best case single-shot precisions are 5.5 ps and 1.7 ps, respectively. The overall accuracy of the TDC is better than 5 ps in a temperature range of -30 C to 70 C. The TDC is designed in 0.35 μm CMOS technology and consumes 80 mW at 0.8 MHz measurement rate.
A Dynamic Bandwidth Prediction and Provisioning Scheme in Cloud Networks

Effective resource provisioning for collocated cloud applications each with unique traffic patterns is a challenging task. Furthermore, resource requirements cannot be adequately determined a priori to deployment while traffic generated and received during application communication lifecycles is subject to fluctuations that exacerbate provisioning. Given this volatility, we analyzed traces from production cloud infrastructure mindful of the nonstationarity that presents challenges to Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning. Henceforth we developed a forecasting model that enables current predictive solutions widely applied in the cloud to adapt to a range of diverse operating conditions often observable as time-of-day load surges, traffic bursts and flash crowds resulting from sudden website popularity. We foster robustness in current methods by augmentation with a class of estimators adaptable to traffic volatility while providing a tradeoff between complexity and performance. The developed forecasting model avails itself of the Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model enhanced by a general class of Adaptive Conditional Score Models (ACS). The latter is able to adapt efficiently to load fluctuations observed variously as time-of-day traffic surges, flash-crowds and DoS episodes. The model offers between 10 & 15 % improved accuracy over existing models. We have realized a novel algorithm which has been adapted as a rate based solution applicable at integral points in the cloud network. The analysis and experimentation with our methods suggest a 25% reduction in Average Flow Completion Time (AFCT) when compared with current rate based methods of XCP & RCP while offering a 60% reduction in comparison to TCP.
Dielectrophoresis of DNA: time- and frequency-dependent collections on microelectrodes

This paper reports measurements that characterize the collection of DNA onto interdigitated microelectrodes by high-frequency dielectrophoresis. Measurements of time-dependent collection of 12 kilobase pair plasmid DNA onto microelectrodes by dielectrophoresis show significant reduction in the response as the frequency increases from 100 kHz to 20 MHz. Collection time profiles are quantitatively measured using fluorescence microscopy over the range 100 kHz to 5 MHz and are represented in terms of two parameters: the initial dielectrophoretic collection rate, and the initial to steady-state collection transition. Measured values for both parameters are consistent with trends in the frequency-dependent real part of the effective polarizability measured for the same plasmid DNA using dielectric spectroscopy. The experimentally measured parameters are qualitatively compared with trends predicted by theory that takes into account dielectrophoretic particle movement and diffusion. The differences between experiment and theory are discussed with suggested improvements to theoretical models, for example, including the effects of electrohydrodynamically driven fluid motion
Mutations in the 5′ Trailer Region of a Respiratory Syncytial Virus Minigenome Which Limit RNA Replication to One Step

ABSTRACT The 3′ termini of the genomic and antigenomic RNAs of human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are identical at 10 of the first 11 nucleotide positions and 21 of the first 26 positions. These conserved 3′-terminal sequences are thought to contain the genomic and antigenomic promoters. Furthermore, the complement of each conserved sequence (i.e., the 5′ end of the RNA it encodes) might contain an encapsidation signal. Using an RSV minigenome system, we individually mutated each of the last seven nucleotides in the 5′ trailer region of the genome. We analyzed effects of these mutations on encapsidation of the T7 polymerase-transcribed negative-sense genome, its ability to function as a template for RSV-driven synthesis of positive-sense antigenome and mRNA, and the ability of this antigenome to be encapsidated and to function as template for the synthesis of more genome. As a technical complication, mutations in the last five nucleotides of the trailer region were found to affect the efficiency of the adjoining T7 promoter over more than a 10-fold range, even though three nonviral G residues had been included between the core promoter and the trailer to maximize the efficiency of promoter activity. This was controlled in all experiments by monitoring the levels of total and encapsidated genome. The efficiency of encapsidation of the T7 polymerase-transcribed genome was not affected by any of the trailer mutations. Furthermore, neither the efficiency of positive-sense RNA synthesis from the genome nor the efficiency of encapsidation of the encoded antigenome was affected by the mutations. However, nucleotide substitution at positions 2, 3, 6, or 7 relative to the 5′ end of the trailer blocked the production of progeny genome, whereas substitution at positions 1 and 5 allowed a low level of genome production and substitutions at position 4 were tolerated. Position 4 is the only one of the seven positions examined that is not conserved between the 3′ ends of genomic and antigenomic RNA. The mutations that blocked the synthesis of progeny genome thus limited RNA replication to one step, namely, the synthesis and encapsidation of antigenome. Restoration of terminal complementarity for one of the trailer mutants by making a compensatory mutation in the leader region did not restore synthesis of genomic RNA, confirming that its loss was not due to reduced terminal complementarity. Interestingly, this leader mutation appeared to prevent antigenome synthesis with only a slight effect on mRNA synthesis, apparently providing a dissociation between these two synthetic activities. Genomes in which the terminal 24 or 325 nucleotides of the trailer have been deleted were competent for encapsidation and the synthesis of mRNA and antigenomic RNA, further confirming that terminal complementarity was not required for these functions.
A Theoretical Basis for Entropy-Scaling Effects in Human Mobility Patterns

Characterizing how people move through space has been an important component of many disciplines. With the advent of automated data collection through GPS and other location sensing systems, researchers have the opportunity to examine human mobility at spatio-temporal resolution heretofore impossible. However, the copious and complex data collected through these logging systems can be difficult for humans to fully exploit, leading many researchers to propose novel metrics for encapsulating movement patterns in succinct and useful ways. A particularly salient proposed metric is the mobility entropy rate of the string representing the sequence of locations visited by an individual. However, mobility entropy rate is not scale invariant: entropy rate calculations based on measurements of the same trajectory at varying spatial or temporal granularity do not yield the same value, limiting the utility of mobility entropy rate as a metric by confounding inter-experimental comparisons. In this paper, we derive a scaling relationship for mobility entropy rate of non-repeating straight line paths from the definition of Lempel-Ziv compression. We show that the resulting formulation predicts the scaling behavior of simulated mobility traces, and provides an upper bound on mobility entropy rate under certain assumptions. We further show that this formulation has a maximum value for a particular sampling rate, implying that optimal sampling rates for particular movement patterns exist.
Scientific American: Dependable Software by Design

An architectural marvel when it opened 11 years ago, the new Denver International Airport's high-tech jewel was to be its automated baggage handler. It would autonomously route luggage around 26 miles of conveyors for rapid, seamless delivery to planes and passengers. But software problems dogged the system, delaying the airport's opening by 16 months and adding hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns. Despite years of tweaking, it never ran reliably. Last summer airport managers finally pulled the plug--reverting to traditional manually loaded baggage carts and tugs with human drivers. The mechanized handler's designer, BAE Automated Systems, was liquidated, and United Airlines, its principal user, slipped into bankruptcy, in part because of the mess.
Program Adherence and Effectiveness of a Commercial Nutrition Program: The Metabolic Balance Study

Objective. To assess the effectiveness of a commercial nutrition program in improving weight, blood lipids, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Methods. Prospective observational study with followup after 1, 3, 6, and 12 months with data from questionnaires and blood samples. Subjects. After 12 months, we had data from 524 subjects (= 60.6% of the initial samples). 84.1% of the subjects were women. The average BMI at baseline was 30.3 (SD = 5.7). Results. After 12 months, the average weight loss was 6.8 kg (SD = 7.1 kg). Program adherence declined over time but was still high after 12 months and showed a positive linear correlation with weight loss. Relevant blood parameters as well as HRQOL improved significantly. Conclusion. After 12 months, nearly two thirds of the samples had achieved >5% reduction of their initial weights. The high degree of program adherence is probably due to personal counseling and individually designed nutrition plans provided by the program.
Response to Intervention and Effects on Retention

Little research exists pertaining to the affect of the Response to Intervention model on student grade retention. This study was designed to determine a relationship between the frequency of students retained in grades kindergarten through third prior to and following the implementation of the Response to Intervention model. A five member cohort group conducted a longitudinal study of grades kindergarten through third grade in eleven pilot schools in the state of West Virginia. A Chi-Square test was chosen to examine the variables in an attempt to identify whether the implementation of the Response to Intervention model had an affect upon student grade retention. Results indicated that the frequency of students retained was not significantly different when comparing student retention before and after the implementation of The Response to Intervention model for kindergarten, first, and third grades. However, frequencies of students retained were significantly different when comparing student retention before and after the program implementation for second grade. When comparing total frequencies for kindergarten, first, second, and third grades in the pilot schools, frequency of students retained was not significantly different when comparing student retention before and after the implementation of the Response to Intervention model. RTI and Retention iii