Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-Efficacy Beliefs Are Associated with Visual Height Intolerance: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Background Responses to height may range from indifference to minor distress to severe symptoms of fear of heights (acrophobia); visual height intolerance (vHI) denotes the whole spectrum of symptoms. Although there are options to manage vHI, only a small part of persons affected by vHI are willing to seek professional help or confront their problem. Purpose of this study was to determine if persons with vHI, specifically those who show avoidant behavior towards heights (avoiders), score lower in their general self-efficacy (GSE) than those who confront vHI (confronters). Method Cross-sectional survey in 607 individuals living in the urban region of Munich, Germany, using a mailed questionnaire on presence or absence of vHI, confronting or avoiding behaviour, and GSE. Results Of all participants (mean age 53.9, 50.3% female), 407 reported life-time presence of vHI. Participants with vHI had a mean GSE score of 31.8 (SD 4.3) points (participants without vHI: 32.5, SD 4.3, p = 0.008 for difference). Among individuals with vHI, 23% reported confronting behavior. Confronters were significantly younger (p<.0001, 50.2 vs. 55.7 years), more likely to be female (p = 0.0039, 64.3% female), and had a higher GSE score (p = 0.0049, 32.5 vs. 31.1). Associations remained significant after multiple adjustment. Conclusions Our study provides evidence for the association of GSE and vHI. These findings may have consequences for strategies of alleviation and therapy of vHI.
Analysis of Equal Gain Combining in Energy Detection for Cognitive Radio over Nakagami Channels

This paper addresses the problem of energy detection of unknown deterministic signal of a primary user in a cognitive radio environment. As an extension to the previous works, we focus on equal gain combining technique when the wireless channel is modeled as Nakagami-m. We derive series form exact expressions for probability of detection and false alarm when the number of diversity branches are 1, 2, 3 and L ges 4. Finally, performance variation is shown against the number of diversity branches and the time bandwidth product in decision statistic with the aid of numerical results.
Attention to affective audio-visual information: Comparison between musicians and non-musicians

Individuals with more musical training repeatedly demonstrate enhanced auditory perception abilities. The current study examined how these enhanced auditory skills interact with attention to affective audio-visual stimuli. A total of 16 participants with more than 5 years of musical training (musician group) and 16 participants with less than 2 years of musical training (non-musician group) took part in a version of the audio-visual emotional Stroop test, using happy, neutral, and sad emotions. Participants were presented with congruent and incongruent combinations of face and voice stimuli while judging the emotion of either the face or the voice. As predicted, musicians were less susceptible to interference from visual information on auditory emotion judgments than non-musicians, as evidenced by musicians being more accurate when judging auditory emotions when presented with congruent and incongruent visual information. Musicians were also more accurate than non-musicians at identifying visual emotions when presented with concurrent auditory information. Thus, musicians were less influenced by congruent/incongruent information in a non-target modality compared to non-musicians. The results suggest that musical training influences audio-visual information processing.
Estimating the Concentration and Biodegradability of Organic Matter in 22 Wastewater Treatment Plants Using Fluorescence Excitation Emission Matrices and Parallel Factor Analysis

This study aimed at monitoring the changes of fluorescent components in wastewater samples from 22 Korean biological wastewater treatment plants and exploring their prediction capabilities for total organic carbon (TOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and the biodegradability of the wastewater using an optical sensing technique based on fluorescence excitation emission matrices and parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC). Three fluorescent components were identified from the samples by using EEM-PARAFAC, including protein-like (C1), fulvic-like (C2) and humic-like (C3) components. C1 showed the highest removal efficiencies for all the treatment types investigated here (69% ± 26%–81% ± 8%), followed by C2 (37% ± 27%–65% ± 35%), while humic-like component (i.e., C3) tended to be accumulated during the biological treatment processes. The percentage of C1 in total fluorescence (%C1) decreased from 54% ± 8% in the influents to 28% ± 8% in the effluents, while those of C2 and C3 (%C2 and %C3) increased from 43% ± 6% to 62% ± 9% and from 3% ± 7% to 10% ± 8%, respectively. The concentrations of TOC, DOC, BOD, and COD were the most correlated with the fluorescence intensity (Fmax) of C1 (r = 0.790–0.817), as compared with the other two fluorescent components. The prediction capability of C1 for TOC, BOD, and COD were improved by using multiple regression based on Fmax of C1 and suspended solids (SS) (r = 0.856–0.865), both of which can be easily monitored in situ. The biodegradability of organic matter in BOD/COD were significantly correlated with each PARAFAC component and their combinations (r = −0.598–0.613, p < 0.001), with the highest correlation coefficient shown for %C1. The estimation capability was further enhanced by using multiple regressions based on %C1, %C2 and C3/C2 (r = −0.691).
A Study of XSS Worm Propagation and Detection Mechanisms in Online Social Networks

We present analytical models and simulation results that characterize the impacts of the following factors on the propagation of cross-site scripting (XSS) worms in online social networks (OSNs): 1) user behaviors, namely, the probability of visiting a friend's profile versus a stranger's; 2) the highly clustered structure of communities; and 3) community sizes. Our analyses and simulation results show that the clustered structure of a community and users' tendency to visit their friends more often than strangers help slow down the propagation of XSS worms in OSNs. We then present a study of selective monitoring schemes that are more resource efficient than the exhaustive checking approach used by the Facebook detection system which monitors every possible read and write operation of every user in the network. The studied selective monitoring schemes take advantage of the characteristics of OSNs such as the highly clustered structure and short average distance to select only a subset of strategically placed users to monitor, thus minimizing resource usage while maximizing the monitoring coverage. We present simulation results to show the effectiveness of the studied selective monitoring schemes for XSS worm detection.
Mapping functional architecture in neocortical epileptic networks

Epilepsy is a debilitating brain disorder that causes recurring seizures in approximately 60 million people worldwide. For the one-third of epilepsy patients whose seizures are refractory to medication, effective therapy relies on reliably localizing where seizures originate and spread. This clinical practice amounts to delineating the epileptic network through neural sensors recording the electrocorticogram. Mapping functional architecture in the epileptic network is promising for objectively localizing cortical targets for therapy in cases of neocortical refractory epilepsy, where post-surgical seizure freedom is unfavorable when cortical structures responsible for generating seizures are difficult to delineate. In this work, we develop and apply network models for analyzing and interrogating the role of fine-grain functional architecture during epileptic events in human neocortical networks. We first develop and validate a model for objectively identifying regions of the epileptic network that drive seizure dynamics. We then develop and validate a model for disentangling network pathways traversed during ``normal'' function from pathways that drive seizures. Lastly, we devise and apply a novel platform for predicting network response to targeted lesioning of neocortical structures, revealing key control areas that influence the spread of seizures to broader network regions. The outcomes of this work demonstrate network models can objectively identify and predict targets for treating neocortical epilepsy, blueprint potential control strategies to limit seizure spread, and are poised for further validation prior to near-term clinical translation. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Bioengineering First Advisor Brian Litt
The Changes in Ca2+ Sparks Associated with Measured Modifications of Intra-store Ca2+ Concentration in Skeletal Muscle

In cardiac muscle and amphibian skeletal muscle, the intracellular Ca2+ release that signals contractile activation proceeds by discrete local packets, which result in Ca2+ sparks. The remarkably stereotyped duration of these release events requires a robustly timed termination mechanism. In cardiac muscle the mechanism of spark termination appears to crucially involve depletion of Ca2+ in the lumen of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), but in skeletal muscle, the mechanism is unknown. We used SEER (shifted excitation and emission ratioing of fluorescence) of SR-trapped mag-indo-1 and confocal imaging of fluorescence of cytosolic rhod-2 to image Ca2+ sparks while reversibly changing and measuring [Ca2+] in the SR ([Ca2+]SR) of membrane-permeabilized frog skeletal muscle cells. Sparks were collected in cells immersed in a solution promoting production of events at moderate frequency. Just after permeabilization, event frequency was zero, and in 10 minutes it reached close to a steady value. Controlled interventions modified [Ca2+]SR reversibly between a low value (299 μM on average in 10 experiments) and a high value (433 μM, a 45% average increase). This change increased sparks frequency by 93%, spatial width by 7%, rise time by 10%, and peak amplitude by 38% (provided that it was calculated in absolute terms, rather than normalized by resting fluorescence). The changes in event frequency and amplitude were statistically significant. The “strength” of the effect of [Ca2+]SR on frequency, quantified by decomposition of variance, was <6%. While the average change in [Ca2+]SR was limited, it reached up to 200% in individual fibers, without causing massive Ca2+ release or an increase of >3.5-fold in event frequency. Taken together with existing evidence that depletion is modest during Ca2+ sparks or release elicited by an action potential, the mild effects of [Ca2+]SR reported here do not support a major role of depletion in either the termination of sparks or the strong inactivation that terminates Ca2+ release at the global level in frog skeletal muscle.
Comparison of RAPD, RFLP, AFLP and SSR markers for diversity studies in tropical maize inbred lines

In order to compare their relative efficiencies as markers and to find the most suitable marker for maize diversity studies we evaluated 18 inbred tropical maize lines using a number of different loci as markers. The loci used were: 774 amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs); 262 random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs); 185 restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs); and 68 simple sequence repeats (SSR). For estimating genetic distance the AFLP and RFLP markers gave the most correlated results, with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.87. Bootstrap analysis were used to evaluate the number of loci for the markers and the coefficients of variation (CV) revealed a skewed distribution. The dominant markers (AFLP and RAPD) had small CV values indicating a skewed distribution while the codominant markers gave high CV values. The use of maximum values of genetic distance CVs within each sample size was efficient in determining the number of loci needed to obtain a maximum CV of 10%. The number of RFLP and AFLP loci used was enough to give CV values of below 5%, while the SSRs and RAPD loci gave higher CV values. Except for the RAPD markers, all the markers correlated genetic distance with single cross performance and heterosis which showed that they could be useful in predicting single cross performance and heterosis in intrapopulation crosses for broad-based populations. Our results indicate that AFLP seemed to be the best-suited molecular assay for fingerprinting and assessing genetic relationships among tropical maize inbred lines with high accuracy.
developmental disorders Perception of facial expression and facial identity in subjects with social

Abstract— Background: It has been hypothesized that the social dysfunction in social developmental disorders (SDDs),such as autism, Asperger disorder, and the socioemotional processing disorder, impairs the acquisition of normal face-processing skills. The authors investigated whether this purported perceptual deficit was generalized to both facialexpression and facial identity or whether these different types of facial perception were dissociated in SDDs. Methods: They studied 26 adults with a variety of SDD diagnoses, assessing their ability to discriminate famous from anonymousfaces, their perception of emotional expression from facial and nonfacial cues, and the relationship between these abilities.They also compared the performance of two defined subgroups of subjects with SDDs on expression analysis: one withnormal and one with impaired recognition of facial identity. Results: While perception of facial expression was related tothe perception of nonfacial expression, the perception of facial identity was not related to either facial or nonfacialexpression. Likewise, subjects with SDDs with impaired facial identity processing perceived facial expression as well asthose with normal facial identity processing.
Pseudo-LIFO: The foundation of a new family of replacement policies for last-level caches

Cache blocks often exhibit a small number of uses during their life time in the last-level cache. Past research has exploited this property in two different ways. First, replacement policies have been designed to evict dead blocks early and retain the potentially live blocks. Second, dynamic insertion policies attempt to victimize single-use blocks (dead on fill) as early as possible, thereby leaving most of the working set undisturbed in the cache. However, we observe that as the last-level cache grows in capacity and associativity, the traditional dead block prediction-based replacement policy loses effectiveness because often the LRU block itself is dead leading to an LRU replacement decision. The benefit of dynamic insertion policies is also small in a large class of applications that exhibit a significant number of cache blocks with small, yet more than one, uses. To address these drawbacks, we introduce pseudo-last-in-first-out (pseudo-LIFO), a fundamentally new family of replacement heuristics that manages each cache set as a fill stack (as opposed to the traditional access recency stack). We specify three members of this family, namely, dead block prediction LIFO, probabilistic escape LIFO, and probabilistic counter LIFO. The probabilistic escape LIFO (peLIFO) policy is the central contribution of this paper. It dynamically learns the use probabilities of cache blocks beyond each fill stack position to implement a new replacement policy. Our detailed simulation results show that peLIFO, while having less than 1% storage overhead, reduces the execution time by 10% on average compared to a baseline LRU replacement policy for a set of fourteen single-threaded applications on a 2 MB 16-way set associative L2 cache. It reduces the average CPI by 19% on average for a set of twelve multiprogrammed workloads while satisfying a strong fairness requirement on a four-core chip-multiprocessor with an 8 MB 16-way set associative shared L2 cache. Further, it reduces the parallel execution time by 17% on average for a set of six multi-threaded programs on an eight-core chip-multiprocessor with a 4 MB 16-way set associative shared L2 cache. For the architectures considered in this paper, the storage overhead of the peLIFO policy is one-fifth to half of that of a state-of-the-art dead block prediction-based replacement policy. However, the peLIFO policy delivers better average performance for the selected single-threaded and multiprogrammed workloads and similar average performance for the multi-threaded workloads compared to the dead block prediction-based replacement policy.
INSTITUTIONAL ROLES AND RELATIONSHIPS GOVERNING THE QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE

This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and authored by Lisa Tarantino, Kelley Laird, Amanda Ottosson, Ruben Frescas, Kedar Mate, Vivian Addo-Cobbiah, Cynthia Bannerman, Paulina Pacheco, Daniel Burssa, Andrew Likaka, Mirwais Rahimzai, M. Rashad Massoud, and Shams Syed. The work described was carried out by the USAID Health Finance and Governance and USAID Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems projects and made possible by the generous support of the American people through USAID. INSTITUTIONAL ROLES AND RELATIONSHIPS GOVERNING THE QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE
Extracellular single neuron stimulation with high-density multi-electrode array

Recent advances in fabrication and processing techniques have made it possible to develop Multi-Electrode Arrays (MEA) with a very high density (HD). Such systems can not only be used for HD in-vivo recording, but also for actively stimulating neural tissue with high precision. Recent studies have shown how HD MEA can identify the neuron soma position and reconstruct the axonal arbor. With the position of the soma and axon hillock of the neurons in proximity of the HD MEA known, we propose a method based on a genetic algorithm to shape the electric potential in the surrounding tissue to selectively activate individual neurons while avoiding to stimulate all others. For a number of realistic neuronal distributions around the MEA we have performed a Monte Carlo simulation that shows 99.5% specificity (SP) for the genetic approach, and compared the result with straight-forward monopolar nearest electrode stimulation (SP = 80.53%) and bipolar stimulation of the two nearest electrodes to the axon hillock along the axonal direction (SP = 74.10%).
Performance analysis of business process models with advanced constructs

The importance of actively managing and analysing business processes is acknowledged more than ever in organisations nowadays. Business processes form an essential part of an organisation and their application areas are manifold. Most organisations keep records of various activities that have been carried out for auditing purposes, but they are rarely used for analysis purposes. This paper describes the design and implementation of a process analysis tool that replays, analyses and visualises a variety of performance metrics using a process definition and its corresponding execution logs. The replayer uses a YAWL process model example to demonstrate its capacity to support advanced language constructs.
Meeting the Responsibility That Comes with the Privilege: Introducing a Taxonomic Code for Understanding Occupation

NUMBER 2 ■ CANADIAN JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY ■ APRIL 2005 125 © CAOT PUBLICATIONS ACE References Creek, J. (2003). Occupational therapy defined as a complex intervention. London: College of Occupational Therapists. Hagedorn, R. (1995) Occupational therapy: Perspectives and processes. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. Hagedorn, R. (2000) Tools for practice in occupational therapy: A structured approach to core skills and processes. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
Dependence of in vitro Demineralization of Apatite and Remineralization of Dental Enamel on Fluoride Concentration

The Anticaries activity of fluoride is contributed to in several ways. Two major aspects of fluoride action are (i) the inhibition of demineralization at the crystal surfaces within the tooth, and (ii) the enhancement of subsurface remineralization resulting in arrestment or reversal of caries lesions. Fluoride present in the aqueous phase at the apatite crystal surface may play a determining role in the inhibition of enamel or dentin demineralization. In one part of the present study, the initial dissolution rate of synthetic carbonated-apatite in acetate buffers was measured with fluoride present in the buffer in the 0–2.6 mmol/L (0–50 ppm) range. Inhibition of demineralization was shown to be a logarithmic function of the fluoride concentration in solution. In the second part of the present study, an in vitro pH-cycling model was used for determination of the effect on net del remineralization of enamel by treatment solutions containing fluoride in the 0–26 mmol/L (0–500 ppm) range. The net mineral loss was shown to be negatively related to the logarithm of the fluoride concentration. These studies have demonstrated an exponential quantitative relationship between fluoride concentration and inhibition of apatite demineralization or enhancement of remineralization. The clinical implications are (i) that simply increasing fluoride concentration may not necessarily give increased cariostatic benefit, and (ii) that improving the means of delivery of relatively low fluoride concentrations for longer times should be more appropriate for enhancing clinical efficacy.
Characterization of image heterogeneity using 2D Minkowski functionals increases the sensitivity of detection of a targeted MRI contrast agent

A targeted Gd3+‐based contrast agent has been developed that detects tumor cell death by binding to the phosphatidylserine (PS) exposed on the plasma membrane of dying cells. Although this agent has been used to detect tumor cell death in vivo, the differences in signal intensity between treated and untreated tumors was relatively small. As cell death is often spatially heterogeneous within tumors, we investigated whether an image analysis technique that parameterizes heterogeneity could be used to increase the sensitivity of detection of this targeted contrast agent. Two‐dimensional (2D) Minkowski functionals (MFs) provided an automated and reliable method for parameterization of image heterogeneity, which does not require prior assumptions about the number of regions or features in the image, and were shown to increase the sensitivity of detection of the contrast agent as compared to simple signal intensity analysis. Magn Reson Med, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Phase II Clinical Trial of Sipatrigine (619C89) by Continuous Infusion in Acute Stroke

Background: The sodium channel blocker sipatrigine (619C89) prevents ischemia-induced glutamate release and is neuroprotective in animal models of stroke. Previous clinical experience found neuropsychiatric effects attributed to sipatrigine that may have been related to peak plasma concentrations of the drug. Methods: Patients within 12 h of clinically diagnosed stroke were randomized to placebo or sipatrigine at total doses of 10, 18, 27, or 36 mg/kg by continuous intravenous infusion over 65 h. Pharmacokinetic and routine laboratory analyses were undertaken. The outcome at 30 days or 3 months was assessed by Barthel and Rankin scores. Results: Twenty-seven patients were recruited: 7 of 21 patients stopped the sipatrigine infusion early due to adverse events as compared with none of 6 placebo patients. Neuropsychiatric effects (reduced consciousness, agitation, confusion, visual perceptual disturbance, or frank hallucinations) occurred in 16 of 21 patients receiving sipatrigine and in no placebo patients. Nausea, vomiting, infusion site reactions, and hyponatremia were also commoner in sipatrigine patients. Pharmacokinetic parameters were similar to those observed previously. No effects on outcome measures were demonstrated. Conclusions: Continuous infusion of sipatrigine is associated with neuropsychiatric effects. No difference in the nature of these events was evident between this regimen and repeated short infusions, but it was possible to administer higher doses.