Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Afternoon Nap Deprivation on Adult Habitual Nappers' Inhibition Functions

Multiple studies have established the effects of afternoon naps on cognition. However, relatively few studies have investigated the domain of executive functions. Moreover, the effects of napping on inhibition are far from conclusive. The present study employed adult habitual nappers to investigate the effects of afternoon nap deprivation on response-based inhibition assessed by a Go/No-go task and stimulus-based inhibition assessed by a Flanker task and on alertness assessed by a psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) and the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS). The results showed that afternoon nap deprivation significantly decreased participants' accuracy and reaction speed for the Go/No-go task but not for the Flanker task. In addition, participants' alertness was significantly impaired after nap deprivation in terms of increased subjective sleepiness and worse PVT performance. Task-specific effects of napping on inhibition were demonstrated. The implications of the results are discussed.
Behavioral Analysis of Kinetic Telepresence for Small Symmetric Group-to-Group Meetings

Nonverbal behavior analysis revealed the effect of <italic>MMSpace</italic>, a kinetic telepresence developed for social telepresence, on small symmetric group-to-group conversations. <italic>MMSpace</italic> consists of kinetic avatars, equipped with flat projection screen panels as faces, that can change their pose and position automatically to mirror the remote user's head motions. The advantage is the realistic kinetic expression of human head movements, which form gestures like nodding and indicate the focus of visual attention, through the use of four degree-of-freedom low-latency precision actuators. Another feature is the support of eye contact among remote participants, which is made possible by the avatar's kinetic pose changes and by adaptive camera selection for orienting the user's face toward the remote addressee. Its limitation is its room-scale infrastructure and restricted participant positions. Targeting a symmetric 2 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$ </tex-math></inline-formula> 2 setting, participants’ nonverbal behaviors, including gaze directions and head gestures, were compared among three conditions, <italic>MMSpace</italic> with/without physical motions and face-to-face settings. There was a significant difference between the conditions in terms of the duration of glance/mutual glances, total gaze transition time, amount of head gesturing, and co-occurrences of head gestures in the remote participants. The results indicate that the avatar's physical motion can elicit longer (mutual) glances with a shorter total transition time and more (co-)occurrences of head gestures, and it makes <italic>MMSpace </italic>-based conversations closer, in terms of these nonverbal statistics, to face-to-face ones compared with those of a static version of <italic>MMSpace</italic> without physical motion.
Analysis of Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Recent advances in wireless sensor networks have led to many new protocols specifically designed for sensor networks where energy awareness is an essential consideration. Most of the attention, however, has been given to the routing protocols since they might differ depending on the application and network architecture. This paper surveys recent routing protocols for sensor networks and presents a classification for the various approaches pursued. The three main categories explained in this paper are flat, hierarchical and location based. Each routing protocol is described and discussed under the appropriate category. Moreover, advantages and performance issues of each routing techniques are also described.
Reactive oxygen species associated with water-soluble PM 2.5 in the southeastern United States: spatiotemporal trends and source apportionment

Abstract. We assess the potential of the water-soluble fraction of atmospheric fine aerosols in the southeastern United States to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) and identify major ROS-associated emission sources. ROS-generation potential of particles was quantified by the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay and involved analysis of fine particulate matter (PM) extracted from high-volume quartz filters (23 h integrated samples) collected at various sites in different environmental settings in the southeast, including three urban-Atlanta sites, in addition to a rural site. Paired sampling was conducted with one fixed site in Atlanta (Jefferson Street), representative of the urban environment, with the others rotating among different sites, for ~250 days between June 2012 and September 2013 (N=483). A simple linear regression between the DTT activity and aerosol chemical components revealed strong associations between PM ROS-generation potential and secondary organic aerosol (WSOC – water-soluble organic carbon) in summer, and biomass burning markers in winter. Redox-active metals were also somewhat correlated with the DTT activity, but mostly at urban and roadside sites. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was applied to apportion the relative contribution of various sources to the ROS-generation potential of water-soluble PM2.5 in urban Atlanta. PMF showed that vehicular emissions contribute uniformly throughout the year (12–25%), while secondary oxidation processes dominated the DTT activity in summer (46%) and biomass burning in winter (47%). Road dust was significant only during drier periods (~12% in summer and fall). Source apportionment by chemical mass balance (CMB) was reasonably consistent with PMF, but with higher contribution from vehicular emissions (32%). Given the spatially large data set of PM sampled over an extended period, the study reconciles the results from previous work that showed only region- or season-specific aerosol components or sources contributing to PM ROS activity, possibly due to smaller sample sizes. The ubiquitous nature of the major sources of PM-associated ROS suggests widespread population exposures to aerosol components that have the ability to catalyze the production of oxidants in vivo.
Learning analytics: A glance of evolution, status, and trends according to a proposed taxonomy

Before the emergence of computer‐based educational systems (CBES) whose aims of providing teaching and learning experiences to hundreds even thousands of users, an explosion of information (e.g., students' log data) demands sophisticated methods to gather, analyze, and interpret learners' traces to regulate and enhance education. Thus, learning analytics (LA) arises as a knowledge discovery paradigm that provides valuable findings and facilitates stakeholders to understand the learning process and its implications. Therefore, a landscape of the LA nature, its underlying factors, and applications achieved is outlined in this paper according to a suggested LA Taxonomy that classifies the LA duty from a functional perspective. The aim is to provide an idea of the LA toil, its research lines, and trends to inspire the development of novel approaches for improving teaching and learning practices. Furthermore, the scope of this review covers recently published papers in prestigious journals and conferences, where the works dated from 2016 are summarized and those corresponding to 2014–2015 are cited according to the proposed LA taxonomy. A glimpse is sketched of LA, where underlying elements frame the field foundations to ground the approaches. Moreover, LA strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and risks are highlighted to advice how the LA arena could be enhanced and empowered. In addition, this review offers an insight of the recent LA labor, as well as motivates readers to enrich the LA achievements. This work promotes the LA practice giving an account of the job being achieved and reported in literature, as well as a reflection of the state‐of‐the‐art and an acumens vision to inspire future labor.
Winning Hearts and Minds? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Afghanistan

Recent experience out of Iraq and Afghanistan has seen the use of development programs as a tool for counterinsurgency. This population-centric strategy presumes a legitimate government which can sway the population away from the insurgency provided it can guarantee the reliable delivery of goods and services in its embattled periphery. We test this founding presumption of the US counterinsurgency manual in the context of Afghanistan. Specifically, using a randomized field experiment, which spans 500 villages across 10 districts in six Afghan provinces, we examine the effect of the National Solidarity Program—the largest development program in the country—on villagers’ attitudes towards their well-being and their government. We also look at the effects of this community driven development program on local security. We find that the introduction of this program has led to a significant improvement in villagers’ perception of their economic wellbeing as well as in their attitudes towards the government—be it on the local or central level. However, we do not find any notable effects on the security situation in and around villages. 1 We would like to thank Chad Hazlett for excellent research assistance and Jason Lyall for generously sharing the data on security incidents. Department of Government, Harvard University (beath@fas.harvard.edu) † Department of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (cfotini@mit.edu) ‡ New Economic School (REnikolopov@nes.ru)
Episodic memory and the medial temporal lobe: not all it seems. Evidence from the temporal variants of frontotemporal dementia

Background Disproportionate medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA) is an early finding in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Episodic memory impairment in AD is associated with the degree of MTA. Episodic memory impairment and MTA are also found in semantic dementia (SD) and in right temporal lobe atrophy (RTLA), the temporal variants of frontotemporal dementia, but their relationship is unclear. Objective To compare episodic memory impairment among patients with these temporal variants of frontotemporal dementia with that of patients with AD with the same degree of MTA. Methods Episodic memory was tested with the visual association test, and semantic memory (SM) with animal fluency and the visual association naming test. MTA was measured using a visual rating scale. Each patient with SD or RTLA was matched for MTA with two patients with AD. Comparisons of episodic memory and SM were made for patients with SD versus matched patients with AD; patients with RTLA versus matched patients with AD and for SD, RTLA and all patients with AD. Results 27 patients with SD and 11 with RTLA were matched with 54 and 22 patients with AD, respectively. Episodic memory was less impaired in patients with SD than in those with AD (8 versus 2; p<0.001) and in patients with RTLA than in those with AD (10 versus 4.5; p=0.009). Semantic memory was more affected in patients with SD than in those with AD, and the Mini Mental State Examination score was higher in patients with RTLA than in those with AD. Comparison of the three diagnostic groups showed that episodic memory was most impaired in AD, whereas SM was most impaired in SD. Conclusion Since episodic memory impairment is more severe in AD than in SD and RTLA, despite a comparable degree of MTA, atrophy of the medial temporal lobe alone cannot account for episodic memory dysfunction.
Diminished heart rate complexity in adolescent girls: a sign of vulnerability to anxiety disorders?

ABSTRACT Background and Objectives: Diminished heart rate variability has been found to be associated with high anxiety symptomatology. Since adolescence is the period of onset for many anxiety disorders, this study aimed to determine sex- and anxiety-related differences in heart rate variability and complexity in adolescents. Methods: We created four groups according to sex and anxiety symptomatology: high-anxiety girls (n = 24) and boys (n = 25), and low-anxiety girls (n = 22) and boys (n = 24) and recorded their cardiac function while they performed regular school activities. A series of two-way (sex and anxiety) MANOVAs were performed on time domain variability, frequency domain variability, and non-linear complexity. Results: We obtained no multivariate interaction effects between sex and anxiety, but highly anxious participants had lower heart rate variability than the low-anxiety group. Regarding sex, girls showed lower heart rate variability and complexity than boys. Conclusions: The results suggest that adolescent girls have a less flexible cardiac system that could be a marker of the girls’ vulnerability to developing anxiety disorders.
Data Protection Using Virtual Identity and Modified RSA

This is a new system for protecting user data using integrated fingerprint template, virtual identity and modified RSA. In the process of fingerprint enrolment, two different fingerprints are used. The minutiae positions from one fingerprint, orientation from the other one and reference points from both fingers are used. Using unique coding technique an integrated minutiae template is generated from these two different fingerprints and stored in the database. This makes it more secure in case of a theft, it will be difficult for the attacker to distinguish the integrated template from the original template since their topology is similar. In the authentication process, system requires two query fingerprints from the same fingers which are used for the enrolment. Multi-stage fingerprint matching is proposed for matching the query fingerprints with the integrated minutiae template. We are selecting the fingerprints randomly and because of the altering to the integrated template we will be able to create a better new virtual identity. Features of the generated virtual identity is used to implement the modified RSA algorithm for the data protection. We can make the data protection technique unique for each and every user since the encryption and decryption of data is done using their fingerprint identity. This technique can be used for protecting various user data.
Adapting Serious Game for Fallacious Argumentation to German: Pitfalls, Insights, and Best Practices

As argumentation about controversies is culture- and language-dependent, porting a serious game that deals with daily argumentation to another language requires substantial adaptation. This article presents a study of deploying Argotario (serious game for learning argumentation fallacies) into the German context. We examine all steps that are necessary to end up with a successful serious game platform, such as topic selection, initial data creation, or effective campaigns. Moreover, we analyze users’ behavior and in-game created data in order to assess the dissemination strategies and qualitative aspects of the resulting corpus. We also report on classification experiments based on neural networks and feature-based models.
The trypanosome-specific protein CIF3 cooperates with the CIF1 protein to promote cytokinesis in Trypanosoma brucei

Cytokinesis, the terminal step in cell division, in the protist human pathogen Trypanosoma brucei occurs along the longitudinal axis from the anterior tip of the new flagellum attachment zone (FAZ) toward the posterior cell tip. This process is regulated by a signaling cascade composed of the Polo-like kinase homolog TbPLK, the Aurora B kinase homolog TbAUK1, and the trypanosome-specific CIF1–CIF2 protein complex. However, the regulatory mechanism and the signaling pathway for this unusual mode of cytokinesis remain poorly understood. Here, we report another trypanosome-specific protein assembly, the CIF1–CIF3 complex, and its essential role in cytokinesis initiation. Through biochemical and genetic approaches, we demonstrate that CIF3 interacts with CIF1 in a TbPLK-dependent manner and maintains CIF1 localization at the new FAZ tip. Conversely, CIF1 maintains CIF3 stability at the new FAZ tip. We further show that TbPLK is required for CIF3 localization and that CIF3 is necessary for targeting TbAUK1 to the new FAZ tip during anaphase. These results suggest that two trypanosome-specific CIF1-containing protein complexes cooperate with the evolutionarily conserved Polo-like kinase and Aurora B kinase to promote cytokinesis in T. brucei.
The TCE-RBV Framework for Information Systems Outsourcing: Empirical Testing using Survey Data in Japan

This paper investigates the factors that influence the motives of make-or-buy decisions on information systems from the viewpoints of Transaction cost economics (TCE) and the resource-based view (RBV). Using our original questionnaire survey data carried out in 2007 targeting Japanese firms, we analyze the relationships between the recognition related to the role of their information systems and the pattern of their make-or-buy decisions. As a result, we make it clear that there are two cases in which TCE-motive and RBV-motive are complement or contradictory each other. And in latter case, TCE-motive tends to dominate over RBV-motive. Finally, the implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Leave or Stay as a Risky Choice: Effects of Salary Reference Points and Anchors on Turnover Intention

Within a risky choice framework, we examine how multiple reference points and anchors regulate pay perception and turnover intentions in real organizational contexts with actual employees. We hypothesize that the salary range is psychologically demarcated by three reference points into four regions, the minimum requirement (MR), the status quo (SQ), and the goal (G). Three studies were conducted: Study 1 analyzed the relationship between turnover intention and the subjective likelihood of falling into each of four expected salary regions; Study 2 tested the mediating effect of pay satisfaction on salary reference point-dependent turnover intention; and Study 3 explored the anchoring effect of estimated peer salaries. The results show that turnover intention was higher in the region below MR or between SQ and G but lower in the region above G or between MR and SQ. That is, turnover intention can be high even in situations of salary raise, if the raise is below a salary goal (i.e., leaving for a lack of opportunity) and low even in situations of salary loss, if the expected salary is still above the MR (i.e., staying for security). In addition, turnover intention was regulated by pay satisfaction and peer salaries. In conclusion, turnover intention can be viewed as a risky choice adapted to salary reference points.
PyrEval: An Automated Method for Summary Content Analysis

The pyramid method is a content analysis approach in automatic summarization evaluation for manual construction of a content model from reference summaries, and manual scoring of unseen summaries with the pyramid model. PyrEval automates the manual pyramid method. PyrEval uses low-dimension distributional semantics to represent phrase meanings, and a new algorithm, EDUA (Emergent Discovery of Units of Attraction), to solve a set cover problem to construct the content model from vectorized phrases. Because the vectors are pretrained, and EDUA is an efﬁcient greedy algorithm, PyrEval can apply pyramid content evaluation with no retraining, and in excellent time. Moreover, PyrEval has been tested on many datasets derived from humans and machine generated summaries, and shown good performance on both.
Bootstrapping Polar-Opposite Emotion Dimensions from Online Reviews

We propose a novel bootstrapping approach for the acquisition of lexicons from unannotated, informal online texts (in our case, Yelp reviews) for polar-opposite emotion dimension values from the Ortony/Clore/Collins model of emotions (e.g., desirable / undesirable ). Our approach mitigates the intrinsic problem of limited supervision in bootstrapping with an effective strategy that softly labels unlabeled terms, which are then used to better estimate the quality of extraction patterns. Further, we propose multiple solutions to control for semantic drift by taking advantage of the polarity of the categories to be learned (e.g., praiseworthy vs. blameworthy ). Experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm achieves considerably better performance than several baselines.
A detection method of ground glass opacities in chest x-ray CT images using automatic clustering techniques

In this paper, we described an algorithm of automatic detection of Ground Glass Opacities (GGO) from X-ray CT images. In this algorithm, first, suspicious shadows are extracted by our Variable N-Quoit (VNQ) filter which is a type of Mathematical Morphology filters. This filter can detect abnormal shadows with high sensitivity. Next, the suspicious shadows are classified into a certain number of classes using feature values calculated from the suspicious shadows. In our traditional clustering method, a medical doctor has to manually classify the suspicious shadows into 5 clusters. The manual classification is very hard for the doctor. Thus, in this paper, we propose a new automatic clustering method which is based on a Principal Component (PC) theory. In this method, first, the detected shadows are classified into two sub-clusters according to their sizes. And then, each sub-cluster is further classified into two sub-sub-clusters according to PC Scores(PCS) calcuated from the feature values of the shadows in the sub-cluster. In this PCS-based classification, we use a threshold which maximizes the distance between the two sub-sub-clusters. The PCS-based classification is iterated recursively. Using discriminate functions based on Mahalanobis distance, the suspicious shadows are determined to be normal or abnormal. This method was examined by many samples (including GGO's shadows) of chest CT images, and proved to be very effective.
Investigating the Influence of Bilingual MWU on Trainee Translation Quality

We applied a method for automatic extraction of bilingual multiword units (BMWUs) from a parallel corpus in order to investigate their contribution to translation quality in terms of adequacy and ﬂuency. Our statistical analysis is based on generalized additive modelling. It has been shown that normalised BMWU ratios can be useful for estimating human translation quality. The normalized alignment ratios for BMWUs longer than two words have the greatest impact on measuring translation quality. It is also found that the alignment ratio for longer BMWUs is statistically closer to adequacy than to ﬂuency.
Frequency restoration in microgrids by means of distributed control with minimum communication requirements

This paper presents a solution for improving the functionality and reliability of the frequency restoration process in autonomous microgrids (MG), which is known as secondary control. The main advantage of the proposed method consists in not requiring extensive communication between the involved regulating units. Due to the integrative action of the secondary control level, the distribution of multiple controllers throughout the system is unpractical, without a synchronization mechanism, and therefore the most adopted solution is a centralized control with communication links with the associated regulating units inside the MG. However, the reliability of the control process strongly depends of the communication infrastructure. For this reason, this paper tackles the distributed control method and improves it to make it practical and minimizing the communication requirements. The proposed concept is assessed on a laboratory experimental microgrid.