Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pupil-Linked Arousal Determines Variability in Perceptual Decision Making

Decision making between several alternatives is thought to involve the gradual accumulation of evidence in favor of each available choice. This process is profoundly variable even for nominally identical stimuli, yet the neuro-cognitive substrates that determine the magnitude of this variability are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that arousal state is a powerful determinant of variability in perceptual decision making. We measured pupil size, a highly sensitive index of arousal, while human subjects performed a motion-discrimination task, and decomposed task behavior into latent decision making parameters using an established computational model of the decision process. In direct contrast to previous theoretical accounts specifying a role for arousal in several discrete aspects of decision making, we found that pupil diameter was uniquely related to a model parameter representing variability in the rate of decision evidence accumulation: Periods of increased pupil size, reflecting heightened arousal, were characterized by greater variability in accumulation rate. Pupil diameter also correlated trial-by-trial with specific patterns of behavior that collectively are diagnostic of changing accumulation rate variability, and explained substantial individual differences in this computational quantity. These findings provide a uniquely clear account of how arousal state impacts decision making, and may point to a relationship between pupil-linked neuromodulation and behavioral variability. They also pave the way for future studies aimed at augmenting the precision with which people make decisions.
Fuzzy Q-Learning for Mobility Robustness Optimization in wireless networks

The high popularity of smartphones and mobile PCs is expected to increase wireless data traffic in the order of 1000 times by 2020 [1]. However, the current situation of Mobile Network Operator (MNO)s is characterized by increasing margin pressure due to declining revenues and an increasing cost base. Self-optimization functionalities, e.g. for Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO), are essential means for reducing Operational Expenditure (OPEX). In particular, mobile user groups or moving networks at high speeds impose challenges and may severely degrade network performance as well as user experience. The Fuzzy Q-Learning-based approach presented in this paper aims at providing a generic basis for enabling self-optimizing and self-healing network operations. The designed concept consists of the following key components: Fuzzy Inference System (FIS), heuristic Exploration/Exploitation Policy (EEP), and Q-Learning (QL). Its performance in a reference scenario is compared with a trend-based handover (HO) optimization scheme presented in [2] and a scheme that assigns time-to-trigger (TTT) values based on velocity estimates.
SOME ALGORITHMIC ASPECTS OF THE EMPIRICAL LIKELIHOOD METHOD IN SURVEY SAMPLING

Recent development of the empirical likelihood method in survey sam- pling has attracted attention from survey statisticians. Practical considerations for using the method in real surveys depend largely on the availability of sim- ple and efficient algorithms for computing the related weights for the maximum empirical likelihood estimators. In this article we briefly describe the modified Newton-Raphson procedure of Chen, Sitter and Wu (2002) for non-stratified sam- pling designs and show that under suitable reformulation the algorithm can also be used to handle stratified sampling, the most commonly used design in survey prac- tice. The idea of the q-weighted empirical likelihood approach is briefly introduced and the related algorithms are discussed. The proposed algorithms are tested in a limited simulation study and are shown to perform well.
Named Entity Recognition for Opinion Summarization using Tweet Segmentation over Twitter Dataset

Millions of people share their most up to date information by using Twitter, which results in a large volume of data generated every day. Due to very useful business information obtained from tweets, it is necessary to study and understand tweet’s language for applications, such as named entity recognition (NER). Real-time applications like traffic detection and response system with tweets required good NER system, which automatically discover named entities (i.e., names of locations) that are potentially linked to the traffic. But, tweets are noisy and short in nature. This leads to failure of many standard NER techniques. In this paper, we present a 4-step NER system for Twitter stream to solve these problems. In the first step, the system removes all noise (e.g., non-letter symbols and punctuations) from tweets. In the second step, tweet segmentation and POS tagger is used to extract segments and noun phrases from tweets. Then system combines segments and noun phrases, while combining segments and noun phrases it removes all duplicate elements and applies global and local context. The output of this stage is used as candidate named entities. In the third step, we use the random walk model to utilize the gregarious property of tweets by building a graph. Nodes in this graph are candidate named entities collected from the previous step. After applying random walk model, each node is weighted by some value. Nodes that are highly ranked have a great possibility of being true final named entities. After collecting final named entities, in the fourth step, the system collects tweets related to the extracted named entities. Finally, the summary is generated for each queried entity
Network Time Protocol (version 1) specification and implementation

Status of this Memo This memo describes the Network Time Protocol (NTP), specifies its formal structure and summarizes information useful for its implementation. NTP provides the mechanisms to synchronize time and coordinate time distribution in a large, diverse internet operating at rates from mundane to lightwave. It uses a returnable-time design in which a distributed subnet of time servers operating in a self-organizing, hierarchical master-slave configuration synchronizes logical clocks within the subnet and to national time standards via wire or radio. The servers can also redistribute reference time via local routing algorithms and time daemons. The NTP architectures, algorithms and protocols which have evolved over several years of implementation and refinement are described in this document. The prototype system, which has been in regular operation in the Internet for the last two years, is described in an Appendix along with performance data which shows that timekeeping accuracy throughout most portions of the Internet can be ordinarily maintained to within a few tens of milliseconds, even in cases of failure or disruption of clocks, time servers or nets. This is a Draft Standard for an Elective protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Adoptive Transfer of EBV-specific T Cells Results in Sustained Clinical Responses in Patients With Locoregional Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Patients with recurrent or refractory Epstein Barr Virus (EBV)-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) continue to have poor outcomes. Our earlier Phase I dose escalation clinical study of 10 NPC patients showed that infusion of EBV-specific cytotoxic T cells (EBV-CTLs) was safe and had antitumor activity. To better define the overall response rate and discover whether disease status, EBV-antigen specificity, and/or in vivo expansion of infused EBV-CTLs predicted outcome, we treated 13 additional NPC patients with EBV-CTLs in a fixed-dose, Phase II component of the study. We assessed toxicity, efficacy, specificity, and expansion of infused CTLs for all 23 recurrent/refractory NPC patients treated on this Phase I/II clinical study. At the time of CTL infusion, 8 relapsed NPC patients were in remission and 15 had active disease. No significant toxicity was observed. Of the relapsed patients treated in their second or subsequent remission, 62% (5/8) remain disease free (at 17 to 75 mo), whereas 48.7% (7/15) of those with active disease had a CR/CRu (33.3%) or PR (15.4%). In contrast to locoregional disease, metastatic disease was associated with an increased risk of disease progression (HR: 3.91, P=0.015) and decreased overall survival (HR: 5.55, P=0.022). Neither the specificity of the infused CTLs for particular EBV antigens nor their measurable in vivo expansion discernibly influenced outcome. In conclusion, treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory EBV-positive NPC with EBV-CTLs is safe and can be associated with significant, long-term clinical benefit, particularly for patients with locoregional disease.
Adult ADHD Patients : Emotional Dysregulation and Personality Dimensions

Objectives: To evaluate personality dimensions especially emotional dysregulation (ED), in adults with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to investigate differences in ADHD types and ED between patients and controls. Method: We performed a cross-sectional study of patients with ADHD and controls. The study population comprised 78 outpatients attending Arganda Mental Health Center (MHC) (Arganda del Rey, Spain) and 27 control patients, who were also attending MHC. The study was performed from January 2013 to August 2016. A review of ED and personality dimensions in ADHD is shown. Results: The DERS (Difficulties in emotion regulation scale) and CAARS (Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scale) dimensions of ED were associated with ADHD. Some NEO-PI-R (Revised NEO Personality Inventory) personality dimensions are seen in both ADHD subtypes. Conclusion: In adult ADHD, several dimensions are compatible with ED. Some ED subscales (eg, awareness, clarity and no acceptance) are not specific to ADHD. High neuroticism and low conscientiousness are personality dimensions in adults with ADHD.
Parental Perceptions of Pediatric Pain and POTS-Related Disability

Adolescents with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) often have pain and functional impairment. This study evaluated how parental attributions of children’s symptoms relate to child functional impairment. Adolescents with chronic pain and clinical symptoms suggestive of autonomic dysfunction (fatigue, dizziness, nausea) that attended a multidisciplinary chronic pain clinic completed measures of depression, anxiety, and functioning (n = 141). Parents of 114 of these patients completed the Parent Pain Attribution Questionnaire (PPAQ), a measure indicating the extent they believe physical and psychosocial factors account for their child’s health condition. Patients were retrospectively grouped as to whether or not they had significant POTS on tilt table testing (n = 37). Greater parental attribution to physical causes was associated with increased levels of functional disability whether patients had POTS (r = 0.45, P = .006) or not (r = 0.25, P = .03). These results suggest that providers should advocate a more comprehensive family-oriented rehabilitative approach to treatment.
Quantum filter for a class of non-Markovian quantum systems

In this paper we present a Markovian representation approach to constructing quantum filters for a class of non-Markovian quantum systems disturbed by Lorentzian noise. An ancillary system is introduced to convert white noise into Lorentzian noise which is injected into a principal system via a direct interaction. The resulting dynamics of the principal system are non-Markovian, which are driven by the Lorentzian noise. By probing the principal system, a quantum filter for the augmented system can be derived from standard theory, where the conditional state of the principal system can be obtained by tracing out the ancillary system.
Adaptive models of Arabic text

The main aim of this thesis is to build adaptive language models of Arabic text that can achieve the best compression performance over existing models. Prediction by partial matching (PPM) language models has been the best performing over the other adaptive language models through the past three decades in term of compression performance. In order to get such performance for Arabic text, the rich morphological nature of Arabic language should be taken into consideration. In this thesis, two new resources of Arabic language have been introduced for understanding the nature of Arabic language and standardizing the experiments on Arabic text. The first is a new corpus, the Bangor Arabic Compression Corpus (BACC), for standardizing compression experiments and creating a benchmark corpus for future compression experiments on Arabic text. The second is a new corpus, Bangor Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Arabic (BBCCA), The purpose of this corpus is to mirror similar balanced corpora that are available for the English language (Brown and LOB) but instead comprises the Arabic language. Two new adaptive models, BS-PPM and CS-PPM, based on the Prediction by Partial Matching (PPM) compression scheme are then introduced to improve the compression performance of standard PPM model by using preprocessing techniques. The first model works by replacing the most
Correlative study between perceived emotions, level of wellbeing and personality traits at undergraduate students at psychology

The present correlative study investigates the possible relationships between personality traits, dimensions of wellbeing, positive and negative emotions and perceived stress among undergraduate students at psychology in Bucharest, Romania. The participants are a number of 69 undergraduate students at psychology, University of Bucharest, age between 19 and 34 years old (M=20.72; S.D.=2.67). Instruments are the following scales: HexacoPI-R Personality Inventory (Lee and Ashton, 2004), Ryff’s Well Being Scale (Ryff, 1995), Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein, 1983) and Mest-RO (Pitariu et al, 2006) the questionnaire which evaluates the intensity of emotions. Testing the hypotheses with Pearson correlation test, the results highlight that some of the correlations were statistically significant (p<.05). Hence, there were found correlations between: environmental control and positive relationships (r = .52; p <.01); personal development and goal of life (r = .33; p <.01); positive relationships and environmental controls (r = .52; p <.01); positive relationships and personal growth (r = .28; p <.05); the goal of life and self-acceptance (r = .33; p <.01); and more specified at “results” paragraph. Conclusions highlight the new directions of future studies and the importance personality traits in perceiving stress and wellbeing. © 2015 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy. org.uk
Comparative Study on Trace Element Excretions between Nonanuric and Anuric Patients Undergoing Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis

Few studies have been reported on alterations of trace elements (TE) in peritoneal dialysis patients. Our objective was to investigate and assess the characteristics of daily TE excretions in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients. This cross-sectional study included 61 CAPD patients (nonanuric/anuric: 45/16) and 11 healthy subjects in Wuhan, China between 2013 and 2014. The dialysate and urine of patients and urine of healthy subjects were collected. The concentrations of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), molybdenum (Mo), and arsenic (As) in dialysate and urine were determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). Various clinical variables were obtained from automatic biochemical analyzer. Daily Cu, Zn, Se, and Mo excretions in nonanuric patients were higher than healthy subjects, while arsenic excretion in anuric patients was lower. A strong and positive correlation was observed between Se and Mo excretion in both dialysate (β = 0.869, p < 0.010) and urine (β = 0.968, p < 0.010). Furthermore, the clinical variables associated with Se excretion were found to be correlated with Mo excretion. Our findings indicated that nonanuric CAPD patients may suffer from deficiency of some essential TEs, while anuric patients are at risk of arsenic accumulation. A close association between Se and Mo excretion was also found.
How can supply chain managers classify and differentiate supply chain partners?

The purpose of this paper is to explore how supply chain managers can classify and differentiate supply chain partners. Based on a literature review, the authors studied a typology that distinguishes between four relationship types: logistics integration, unilateral learning, unilateral development and bilateral learning. This paper reports the first empirical test of this typology. Fourteen in-depth personal and structured interviews with key informants in Supply Chain Relationships (SCRs) in various industries were used as the data collection method. The finding was that few firms have developed strategies for differentiating between their supply chain partners. To remedy this, it is suggested that the first step should be to decide which cooperative activities to strive for, and which relationship types are required. The second step is to determine the required focus of coordination and to assess how to develop the required operational and/or organisational linkages to the partner firm. We also discuss implications for further research.
Biomechanical Reconstruction Using the Tacit Learning System: Intuitive Control of Prosthetic Hand Rotation

Background: For mechanically reconstructing human biomechanical function, intuitive proportional control, and robustness to unexpected situations are required. Particularly, creating a functional hand prosthesis is a typical challenge in the reconstruction of lost biomechanical function. Nevertheless, currently available control algorithms are in the development phase. The most advanced algorithms for controlling multifunctional prosthesis are machine learning and pattern recognition of myoelectric signals. Despite the increase in computational speed, these methods cannot avoid the requirement of user consciousness and classified separation errors. “Tacit Learning System” is a simple but novel adaptive control strategy that can self-adapt its posture to environment changes. We introduced the strategy in the prosthesis rotation control to achieve compensatory reduction, as well as evaluated the system and its effects on the user. Methods: We conducted a non-randomized study involving eight prosthesis users to perform a bar relocation task with/without Tacit Learning System support. Hand piece and body motions were recorded continuously with goniometers, videos, and a motion-capture system. Findings: Reduction in the participants' upper extremity rotatory compensation motion was monitored during the relocation task in all participants. The estimated profile of total body energy consumption improved in five out of six participants. Interpretation: Our system rapidly accomplished nearly natural motion without unexpected errors. The Tacit Learning System not only adapts human motions but also enhances the human ability to adapt to the system quickly, while the system amplifies compensation generated by the residual limb. The concept can be extended to various situations for reconstructing lost functions that can be compensated.
Assessing variability in audiovisual speech integration skills using capacity and accuracy measures

Abstract Objective: While most normal-hearing listeners rely on the auditory modality to obtain speech information, research has demonstrated the importance that non-auditory modalities have on language recognition during face-to-face communication. The efficient utilization of the visual modality becomes increasingly important in difficult listening conditions, and especially for older and hearing-impaired listeners with sensory or cognitive decline. First, this report will quantify audiovisual integration skills using a recently developed capacity measure that incorporates speed and accuracy. Second, to investigate sensory factors contributing to integration ability, high and low-frequency hearing thresholds will be correlated with capacity, as well as gain measures from sentence recognition. Design: Integration scores were obtained from a within-subjects design using an open-set sentence speech recognition experiment and a closed set speeded-word classification experiment, designed to examine integration (i.e. capacity). Study sample: A sample of 44 adult listeners without a self-reported history of hearing-loss was recruited. Results: Results demonstrated a significant relationship between measures of audiovisual integration and hearing thresholds. Conclusions: Our data indicated that a listener's ability to integrate auditory and visual speech information in the domains of speed and accuracy is associated with auditory sensory capabilities and possibly other sensory and cognitive factors.
2 Production theory : alternative views , and a conjectural equilibrium approach

In this article we discuss the dynamics of organizational change when agents have heterogeneous initial conjectures and do learn. In this framework, conjectural equilibrium is defined as a steady state of the learning process, and all the adjustment occurs in disequilibrium. We discuss the properties of the system under different “rationality” assumptions, and using well-known learning algorithms. We prove analytically that multiplicity of equilibria, and failure of good organizational routines, cannot be ruled out: better, they are fairly probable. Stability is a crucial matter: it is shown to depend on initial conjectures. Finally, learning does not necessarily select the best. JEL Classification: D21, D23, D84
Increased endothelial activation in recently symptomatic versus asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis and in cerebral microembolic‐signal‐negative patient subgroups

von Willebrand factor propeptide (VWF:Ag II) is potentially a more sensitive marker of acute endothelial activation than von Willebrand factor antigen (VWF:Ag). These biomarkers have not been simultaneously assessed in asymptomatic versus symptomatic carotid stenosis patients. The relationship between endothelial activation and cerebral microembolic signals (MESs) detected on transcranial Doppler ultrasound is unknown.
A Super-Resolution Framework for 3-D High-Resolution and High-Contrast Imaging Using 2-D Multislice MRI

A novel super-resolution reconstruction (SRR) framework in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is proposed. Its purpose is to produce images of both high resolution and high contrast desirable for image-guided minimally invasive brain surgery. The input data are multiple 2-D multislice inversion recovery MRI scans acquired at orientations with regular angular spacing rotated around a common frequency encoding axis. The output is a 3-D volume of isotropic high resolution. The inversion process resembles a localized projection reconstruction problem. Iterative algorithms for reconstruction are based on the projection onto convex sets (POCS) formalism. Results demonstrate resolution enhancement in simulated phantom studies, and ex vivo and in vivo human brain scans, carried out on clinical scanners. A comparison with previously published SRR methods shows favorable characteristics in the proposed approach.
Quality Time: How Assertions Can Increase Test Effectiveness

Novel views of mature ideas on software and quality productivity are presented. The author investigates the nature of object oriented development and what it says about the nature of testing techniques. Specifically, he explores an approach to assertion placement based on error masking. As expected, he found that information hiding and encapsulation can be detrimental to system level and integration testing, but not always.