Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Auditory Cortex Accesses Phonological Categories: An MEG Mismatch Study

The studies presented here use an adapted oddball paradigm to show evidence that representations of discrete phonological categories are available to the human auditory cortex. Brain activity was recorded using a 37-channel biomagnetometer while eight subjects listened passively to synthetic speech sounds. In the phonological condition, which contrasted stimuli from an acoustic /d/-/t/ continuum, a magnetic mismatch field (MMF) was elicited in a sequence of stimuli in which phonological categories occurred in a many-to-one ratio, but no acoustic many-to-one ratio was present. In order to isolate the contribution of phonological categories to the MMF responses, the acoustic parameter of voice onset time, which distinguished standard and deviant stimuli, was also varied within the standard and deviant categories. No MMF was elicited in the acoustic condition, in which the acoustic distribution of stimuli was identical to the first experiment, but the many-to-one distribution of phonological categories was removed. The design of these studies makes it possible to demonstrate the all-or-nothing property of phonological category membership. This approach contrasts with a number of previous studies of phonetic perception using the mismatch paradigm, which have demonstrated the graded property of enhanced acoustic discrimination at or near phonetic category boundaries.
Maternal distress in the context of their child’s type 1 diabetes: exploring the role of adaptive maternal emotion regulation on child outcomes

Abstract Parents of children with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) experience high levels of distress, which may negatively impact child functioning. However, little is known about mechanisms that may buffer the adverse impact of parental distress. The current study explored the possible buffering role of maternal adaptive cognitive emotion regulation (CER) for the relationship between maternal distress and child psychological functioning. Forty-three children with T1D (8–15 years) completed measures assessing trait anxiety and depressive symptoms. Their mothers reported on general distress, illness-related parenting stress, and adaptive CER. Maternal illness-related parenting stress (but not general distress) was significantly associated with child psychological functioning. No buffering role for maternal adaptive CER was observed. As the current study is rather preliminary, future research using other methods to examine maternal adaptive CER, and examining other parental variables that may buffer against the negative impact of parental distress is warranted.
Economic Markets for Video Streaming Services: A Case Study of Netflix and Popcorn Time

Video streaming services are considered as the new standard method of delivering entertainment to the public. Netflix, one of the leading providers of video streaming, has reported that piracy continues to be their biggest competitor, referring to Popcorn Time specifically. Popcorn Time uses illegal means of providing video streaming. Popcorn Time offers a similar or even better video streaming experience compared to Netflix. In this paper, we study the competition between legal and illegal video streaming services. In particular, this paper elaborates on the analysis of network effects in relation to video streaming services and explains how an individual who uses video streaming can affect the overall value of the network where a particular video is being streamed. We propose the Competitive Video Streaming Model (CVSM), based on the Bass Diffusion model. The CVSM is applied to model the competition between Netflix and Popcorn Time. The main findings show that the timing of the onset of network effects is significant for the temporal evolution of adopters. Our results also suggest that the competitiveness of video streaming services depends on how the service provider is distributing the video streaming contents. It shows that distributing video streaming contents through P2P network subsidizes the growth of adopters to a greater extent compared to a client-server network. As such, the results of this study support the hypothesis that network effects can strengthen the competitiveness of illegal video streaming services.
GRAPHICS ARCHITECTURE FOR MULTIMEDIA NON-DESKTOP DEVICES: A STUDY OF DIGITAL TV RECEIVERS

Non-desktop devices, in particular entertainment consumer products, are evolving into advanced interactive multimedia terminals, generating a new set of requirements for their user interface software architecture. Thus, traditional approaches used in desktop computers have to be reconsidered. This thesis proposes a graphics architecture model and presents the experiences of applying it for the design and development of a conﬁgurable digital television receiver. The implementation can run advanced multimedia services such as 3D games, Java applications, and XML based documents.
A comparison of statistical approaches to the derivation of EC3 values from local lymph node assay dose responses

Effective risk assessment and management of allergic contact dermatitis require three key factors: adequate hazard identification, measurement of the relative potency of identified hazards and an understanding of the nature, extent and duration of exposure. Suitable methods for hazard identification, such as the murine local lymph node assay (LLNA) and the guinea‐pig maximization test, are well established and conditions of human exposure normally can be well anticipated. Thus, the need is for a robust and quantitative method for the estimation of relative skin sensitizing potency. One possible approach is via the analysis of LLNA dose–response data, In the LLNA, contact allergens are defined currently as those chemicals that cause a threefold or greater increase in lymph node cell proliferative activity compared with concurrent vehicle‐treated controls. It is possible to estimate the concentration of a sensitizer required to generate a threefold stimulation of proliferation in draining lymph nodes; such a concentration is known as the EC3 value. Using a variety of statistical approaches to derive EC3 values from LLNA dose–response data for 10 chemicals, it has been demonstrated that simple linear interpolation between the values either side of the threefold stimulation index provides a robust assessment of the EC3 value without the need for recourse to more sophisticated statistical techniques. Provided that the appropriate concentrations of test chemical have been selected, EC3 values obtained in this way are reproducible both within and between laboratories and form the basis for examination of the utility of this approach for the estimation of relative skin sensitizing potency.
Lingual microbiota profiles of patients with geographic tongue

ABSTRACT Geographic tongue (GT) is an oral mucosal lesion that affects the tongue. The association between GT and the bacterial colonization profiles of the tongue is not clear. Lingual swabs were collected from lesion sites and healthy sites of 35 patients with GT (19 males and 16 females; Mage = 54.3 ± 16.1 years) and 22 controls (12 males and 10 females; Mage = 56.3 ± 15.8 years). Bacterial DNA was extracted and sequenced by next-generation sequencing. At the phylum level, Fusobacteria were significantly less abundant, while Spirochaetes were significantly more abundant in GT patients compared to controls. At the operational taxonomic units level, multivariate analysis revealed distinct clusters for the three groups based on the lingual microbiota composition. Acinetobacter and Delftia were significantly associated with GT lesion and healthy sites. However, Microbacterium, Leptospira, Methylotenera, and Lactococcus were significantly associated with GT lesion sites. Additionally, Mogibacterium and Simonsiella were significantly associated with GT healthy sites and controls. The changes in the lingual microbiota profiles of patients with GT imply a shift in the lingual bacterial ecology. However, it remains unknown if this shift is a consequence of the lesions or of factors associated with the initiation and progression of the disease.
Role of ordinal contrast relationships in face encoding

What aspects of facial information do we use to recognize individuals? One way to address this fundamental question is to study image transformations that compromise facial recognizability. The goal would be to identify factors that underlie the recognition decrement and, by extension, are likely constituents of facial encoding. To this end, we focus here on the contrast negation transformation. Contrast negated faces are remarkably difficult to recognize for reasons that are currently unclear. The dominant proposals so far are based either on negative faces' seemingly unusual pigmentation, or incorrectly computed 3D shape. Both of these explanations have been challenged by recent results. Here, we propose an alternative account based on 2D ordinal relationships, which encode local contrast polarity between a few regions of the face. Using a novel set of facial stimuli that incorporate both positive and negative contrast, we demonstrate that ordinal relationships around the eyes are major determinants of facial recognizability. Our behavioral studies suggest that destruction of these relationships in negatives likely underlies the observed recognition impairments, and our neuro-imaging data show that these relationships strongly modulate brain responses to facial images. Besides offering a potential explanation for why negative faces are hard to recognize, these results have implications for the representational vocabulary the visual system uses to encode faces.
Les antécédents et les conséquences de la confiance en ligne : le cas du secteur financier

La confiance en ligne revet un role important dans le secteur financier caracterise notamment par la complexite et l'intangibilite des produits/services, le contact humain limite et le risque percu sur Internet. En outre, ses antecedents et ses consequences sont rarement integres dans un meme modele. Ce travail doctoral vise ainsi a etudier les antecedents et les consequences de la confiance en ligne dans le secteur financier suivant une approche integratrice. Plus specifiquement, cette recherche repond a deux questions : - Quels sont les antecedents qui ont un impact sur la confiance en ligne, et parmi ceux-ci, lesquels sont les plus importants? - Quelles sont les consequences de la confiance en ligne, et parmi celles-ci, lesquelles sont les plus importantes? Suite a une revue detaillee de la litterature traitant du sujet, le cadre conceptuel a pu etre degage. Celui-ci fait ressortir les caracteristiques de quatre categories principales d'antecedents de la confiance en ligne se rapportant respectivement au site, au marchand, a la nature des relations et a l'individu. Ensuite, le cadre montre que la valeur percue, la fidelite cognitive, affective et conative, la frequence des visites, le bouche a oreille positif/recommandation, la part du portefeuille et les couts de transfert constituent les consequences de la confiance en ligne. Quant a la recherche empirique, dont le secteur financier est le terrain, elle a ete effectuee par une grande maison de sondage canadienne au moyen d'un sondage sur le Web sous forme de questionnaire auto-administre aupres de 476 membres d'un panel, clients en ligne de 18 ans et plus. Les donnees recueillies ont ete analysees au moyen du logiciel EQS 6.1 de modelisation par equations structurelles. Les resultats indiquent notamment que, par ordre d'importance, ce sont le design, la qualite du support, la qualite de l'information et la vie privee/securite qui influent le plus sur la confiance en ligne dans un modele global. Enfin, la fidelite affective/conative est la principale consequence de la confiance en ligne. Les resultats associes aux variables moderatrices montrent, entre autres, que la vie privee/securite a un impact plus eleve sur la confiance en ligne chez les personnes ayant une propension faible a faire confiance et que la reputation a un impact significatif sur la confiance en ligne chez les personnes percevant un risque eleve. Ainsi, cette recherche permet d'approfondir les connaissances theoriques liees a la confiance en ligne dans le secteur financier. Elle permet egalement aux gestionnaires de beneficier de recommandations pertinentes. ______________________________________________________________________________
An information-gain approach to detecting three-way epistatic interactions in genetic association studies

Background Epistasis has been historically used to describe the phenomenon that the effect of a given gene on a phenotype can be dependent on one or more other genes, and is an essential element for understanding the association between genetic and phenotypic variations. Quantifying epistasis of orders higher than two is very challenging due to both the computational complexity of enumerating all possible combinations in genome-wide data and the lack of efficient and effective methodologies. Objectives In this study, we propose a fast, non-parametric, and model-free measure for three-way epistasis. Methods Such a measure is based on information gain, and is able to separate all lower order effects from pure three-way epistasis. Results Our method was verified on synthetic data and applied to real data from a candidate-gene study of tuberculosis in a West African population. In the tuberculosis data, we found a statistically significant pure three-way epistatic interaction effect that was stronger than any lower-order associations. Conclusion Our study provides a methodological basis for detecting and characterizing high-order gene-gene interactions in genetic association studies.
A Hybrid Recommendation Framework Exploiting Linked Open Data and Graph-based Features

In this article we propose a hybrid recommendation framework based on classification algorithms as Random Forests and Naive Bayes. We fed the framework with several heterogeneous groups of features, and we investigate to what extent features gathered from the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud (as the genre of a movie or the writer of a book)) as well as graph-based features calculated on the ground of the tripartite representation connecting users, items and properties in the LOD cloud impact on the overall accuracy of the recommendations. In the experimental session we evaluate the effectiveness of our framework on varying of different groups of features, an results show that both LOD-based and graph-based features positively affect the overall performance of the algorithm, especially in highly sparse recommendation scenarios.
Child and Adolescent Development for Educators

List of Features Preface Chapter 1: Studying Child and Adolescent Development Chapter 2: Physical Development Chapter 3: Cognitive Development: Piaget's and Vygotsky's Theories Chapter 4: Cognitive Development: Information Processing and Intelligence Theories Chapter 5: Language and Literacy Development Chapter 6: Self-Concept, Identity, and Motivation Chapter 7: Peer Relations and Moral Development Chapter 8: The Family: Partners in Education\ Chapter 9: Supporting the Development of Children and Youth in School Glossary References Text Credits Name Index Subject Index
Theory of mind in individuals with paranoid schizophrenia

Individuals with schizophrenia show deficits in theory of mind (ToM), however the nature of these deficits in individuals with paranoid symptoms is unclear. This study examined whether ToM ability in individuals with paranoid schizophrenia varied according to the emotional valence of items within ToM tasks. Eight participants with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia (patient group) and eight healthy controls completed two ToM tasks, the revised Eyes Test and a newly developed mental state reasoning task (New ToM Measure). Controls were significantly more accurate than the patient group on both tasks (revised Eyes Test: t (14) = 4.48, p = . 001, d = 2.24, New ToM Measure: t (14) = 3.63, p = . 003, d = 1.82). There was evidence of a trend for a mediating role of emotional valence in the patient group on the revised Eyes Test, although contrary to the study’s hypothesis, patients were more accurate on positive items than threat items (t (7) = 2.19, p = . 07, d = 1.01). There was no evidence of a mediating role of emotional valence on the New ToM Measure. This study provides further evidence of ToM deficits in individuals with schizophrenia. The mixed evidence for the mediating role of emotional valence is discussed in relation to existing literature and the study’s limitations.
Revealing Shifts and Diversity in Understandings of Self Access Language Learning

This study has traced the growth of a new facility intended to promote independent language study in a Japanese university. The study traces this Self Access Learning Center (SALC) from its inception through the first two years of its development. It has revealed how key qualitative insights from an archive of semi-structured interviews, conversational narratives and questionnaires with students, teachers, center staff and university management are marked by their shifting and diverse nature. Findings related to language policy for the center show how initial ‘English only’ regulations have been opposed and amended by stakeholders. Findings focusing on the center stakeholders’ metaphors of self access language learning have changed or been supplemented and show great diversity. Importantly, SALC’s positioning in the wider university has experienced problems with diverse evaluation expectations and, despite considerable financial backing, remains marginalized. Finally, SALC’s integration with university curricula has seen mixed results; the center is connected closely to the English curriculum as taught by non-Japanese, but not to curricula taught by Japanese teachers of English or content subjects. This indicates that integration of university-wide curricula with autonomous modes of learning remains a hurdle. This study may inform other centers seeking to gather data on the diverse voices impacting upon their development.
Variable Noise and Dimensionality Reduction for Sparse Gaussian processes

The sparse pseudo-input Gaussian process (SPGP) is a new approximation method for speeding up GP regression in the case of a large number of data points N. The approximation is controlled by the gradient optimization of a small set of M `pseudo-inputs', thereby reducing complexity from N^3 to NM^2. One limitation of the SPGP is that this optimization space becomes impractically big for high dimensional data sets. This paper addresses this limitation by performing automatic dimensionality reduction. A projection of the input space to a low dimensional space is learned in a supervised manner, alongside the pseudo-inputs, which now live in this reduced space. The paper also investigates the suitability of the SPGP for modeling data with input-dependent noise. A further extension of the model is made to make it even more powerful in this regard - we learn an uncertainty parameter for each pseudo-input. The combination of sparsity, reduced dimension, and input-dependent noise makes it possible to apply GPs to much larger and more complex data sets than was previously practical. We demonstrate the benefits of these methods on several synthetic and real world problems.
Duration of red-cell storage and complications after cardiac surgery.

BACKGROUND Stored red cells undergo progressive structural and functional changes over time. We tested the hypothesis that serious complications and mortality after cardiac surgery are increased when transfused red cells are stored for more than 2 weeks. METHODS We examined data from patients given red-cell transfusions during coronary-artery bypass grafting, heart-valve surgery, or both between June 30, 1998, and January 30, 2006. A total of 2872 patients received 8802 units of blood that had been stored for 14 days or less ("newer blood"), and 3130 patients received 10,782 units of blood that had been stored for more than 14 days ("older blood"). Multivariable logistic regression with propensity-score methods was used to examine the effect of the duration of storage on outcomes. Survival was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and Blackstone's decomposition method. RESULTS The median duration of storage was 11 days for newer blood and 20 days for older blood. Patients who were given older units had higher rates of in-hospital mortality (2.8% vs. 1.7%, P=0.004), intubation beyond 72 hours (9.7% vs. 5.6%, P<0.001), renal failure (2.7% vs. 1.6%, P=0.003), and sepsis or septicemia (4.0% vs. 2.8%, P=0.01). A composite of complications was more common in patients given older blood (25.9% vs. 22.4%, P=0.001). Similarly, older blood was associated with an increase in the risk-adjusted rate of the composite outcome (P=0.03). At 1 year, mortality was significantly less in patients given newer blood (7.4% vs. 11.0%, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS In patients undergoing cardiac surgery, transfusion of red cells that had been stored for more than 2 weeks was associated with a significantly increased risk of postoperative complications as well as reduced short-term and long-term survival.
Removal of Toxin (Tetrodotoxin) from Puffer Ovary by Traditional Fermentation

The amounts of puffer toxin (tetrodotoxin, TTX) extracted from the fresh and the traditional Japanese salted and fermented “Nukazuke” and “Kasuzuke” ovaries of Takifugu stictonotus (T. stictonotus) were quantitatively analyzed in the voltage-dependent sodium current (INa) recorded from mechanically dissociated single rat hippocampal CA1 neurons. The amount of TTX contained in “Nukazuke” and “Kasuzuke” ovaries decreased to 1/50–1/90 times of that of fresh ovary during a salted and successive fermented period over a few years. The final toxin concentration after fermentation was almost close to the TTX level extracted from T. Rubripes” fresh muscle that is normally eaten. It was concluded that the fermented “Nukazuke” and “Kasuzuke” ovaries of puffer fish T. Stictonotus are safe and harmless as food.
Automatic Reconstruction of Neural Morphologies with Multi-Scale Tracking

Neurons have complex axonal and dendritic morphologies that are the structural building blocks of neural circuits. The traditional method to capture these morphological structures using manual reconstructions is time-consuming and partly subjective, so it appears important to develop automatic or semi-automatic methods to reconstruct neurons. Here we introduce a fast algorithm for tracking neural morphologies in 3D with simultaneous detection of branching processes. The method is based on existing tracking procedures, adding the machine vision technique of multi-scaling. Starting from a seed point, our algorithm tracks axonal or dendritic arbors within a sphere of a variable radius, then moves the sphere center to the point on its surface with the shortest Dijkstra path, detects branching points on the surface of the sphere, scales it until branches are well separated and then continues tracking each branch. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm on preprocessed data stacks obtained by manual reconstructions of neural cells, corrupted with different levels of artificial noise, and unprocessed data sets, achieving 90% precision and 81% recall in branch detection. We also discuss limitations of our method, such as reconstructing highly overlapping neural processes, and suggest possible improvements. Multi-scaling techniques, well suited to detect branching structures, appear a promising strategy for automatic neuronal reconstructions.