Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local Gabor Binary Patterns from Three Orthogonal Planes for Automatic Facial Expression Recognition

Facial actions cause local appearance changes over time, and thus dynamic texture descriptors should inherently be more suitable for facial action detection than their static variants. In this paper we propose the novel dynamic appearance descriptor Local Gabor Binary Patterns from Three Orthogonal Planes (LGBP-TOP), combining the previous success of LGBP-based expression recognition with TOP extensions of other descriptors. LGBP-TOP combines spatial and dynamic texture analysis with Gabor filtering to achieve unprecedented levels of recognition accuracy in real-time. While TOP features risk being sensitive to misalignment of consecutive face images, a rigorous analysis of the descriptor shows the relative robustness of LGBP-TOP to face registration errors caused by errors in rotational alignment. Experiments on the MMI Facial Expression and Cohn-Kanade databases show that for the problem of FACS Action Unit detection, LGBP-TOP outperforms both its static variant LGBP and the related dynamic appearance descriptor LBP-TOP.
High-Order Consensus Seeking: A Frequency Domain Approach

High-order consensus, in which individual high-order dynamic units keep in pace with each other in a distributed fashion, depends both on the feedback gains of the protocol and on the properties of the interaction network. By employing a frequency domain method, we explicitly derive analytical equations that clarify a rigorous co nnection between the stability of general high-order consensus and the system parameters such as the network topology and feedback gains. Using the derived consensus polynomials, the general sufficient and necessary stability criterion is obtained for high-order co nsensus networks of arbitrary topology. Furthermore, a sufficient condition of desirable time complexity for high-order consensus is given by exploiting the topology properties of underlying networks. Numerical simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results.
After the apology: Reframing violence and suffering in First Australians, Australia, and Samson and Delilah

This article explores the cinematic reframing of media images that normalize violence and suffering in remote Aboriginal communities. It proposes that, in the light of the 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response and the 2008 apology to the Stolen Generations, the archival history series First Australians, the postmodern blockbuster Australia, and the arthouse drama Samson and Delilah contribute to an anti-colonial politics by creating cinematic spaces for affective and ethical response to issues of ‘bare life’ that tend to be exhausted, rather than worked through, in media temporality.
Gender and sexual identity authentication in language use: the case of chat rooms

In this article, I investigate the linguistic practices by which participants in online dating chats become authentic gendered and sexual beings in the virtual world. This process of authentication validates them as members of a specific gender or sexual group, which is a key prerequisite for engaging in the intricacies of online desire and eroticism. Authentication in this context is necessarily a discursive act because of the absence of visual or aural cues, and it takes place through linguistic strategies such as the age/sex/location schema, descriptions of the self, and screen names. The resulting gender and sexual identities are sketches or stereotypes whose value derives from the acceptance of social and cultural discourses on gender and sexuality that are negotiated in the interactions. Authentication, therefore, is not an external process imposed upon people, but the result of specific social practices.
Testosterone and unconscious positive priming increase human motivation separately

Clinical observations suggest that testosterone generates unconscious broad-spectrum motivations to act. It has also been suggested that subliminal positive-priming techniques also unconsciously enhances motivation for action. This placebo-controlled study examined the separate and possible joint contributions of these assumed unconscious sources of human motivation. Healthy females were administered 0.5 mg sublingual testosterone or placebo. Next, they were subliminally primed with action concepts that were paired with positive or neutral cues, and indicated their motivation for the respective action. Testosterone and positive priming both increased the motivation for action, but there was no joint contribution. Possibly, testosterone pushed the motivational brain system to a limit allowing no add-on contribution by priming, but our data also agree with neuroimaging evidence showing that the neural (subcortical and cortical) pathways of motivation can be functionally disconnected by testosterone administration.
An Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents.

BRYANT, BRENDA K. An Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 413-425. This study presents the development and validation of an index of empathy for use with children and adolescents. 56 first graders, 115 fourth graders, and 87 seventh graders were studied. Item means, item total correlations, test-retest reliabilities, correlations testing the relationship of empathy to aggressiveness and acceptance of individual differences, correlations testing the relationship of this adapted index of empathy to other existing measures of empathy as well as to social desirability response set and reading achievement formed the basis of internal, discriminant, convergent, and general construct validation. The measure demonstrated satisfactory reliability and preliminary construct validity. The study of a subset of items controlling for same-sex versus cross-sex stimulus figures provided the basis for investigating developmental aspects of empathic arousal toward peers of different sexes. Overall, the availability of comparable forms of a measure of empathy for use with children, adolescents, and adults will be useful for exploring the developmental antecedents and conditions surrounding the expression of emotional empathy.
Combined Optimisation of Baseforms and Subword Models for an Hmm Based Speech Recogniser

In this paper a framework for combined optimisation of baseforms and subword models for a speech recogniser is proposed. Given a set of subword Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) and a set of utterances of a specific word, the modified tree-trellis algorithm and the BaumWelch re-estimation procedure is used iteratively to achieve a combined optimisation of baseforms and subword models. The DARPA Resource Management (RM) database was used to evaluate the combined optimisation scheme. The proposed method resulted in a monotonic increase in the likelihood score of both test- and training data. When compared to the initial lexicon derived from the DARPA RM-distribution and a set of initial HMMs, a 13% reduction in word error rate is achieved at best.
Urban Planners” Skills and Competencies

A survey asks 638 planning, planning-related, and nonplanning professionals in Southern California which job skills they value most. The authors want to know whether planners” perceptions of significant skills are different from other professions, whether the context within which planners operate makes a difference, and whether the perceived importance of skills evolves with career experience. They find communication skills to be valued more than technical and quantitative skills across all three groups. However, planners value certain types of communication—report writing and writing for the public—more than planning-related and non-planning professionals. Professional planning con-text matters; public-sector planners value written communication more than private-sector planners. And, planners” valuation of skills changes with length of planning experience, implying an evolutionary model. The authors discuss implications for graduate education and training curricula.
ThreeTree: A New Method to Reconstruct Phylogenetic Trees

Numerous methods have been invented to reconstruct phylogenetic trees. However, criteria used here may not necessarily suitable in actual biological data. On the other hand, if we obtain the same result from methods based on different criteria, the inference can be considered to be robust and reliable. Therefore, some complementary method to existing methods will improve accuracy at inference of phylogenetic trees when they are applied together. The objectives in this paper are as follows:
Resource allocation optimization for time and wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network enabled mobile fronthaul with bitrate-variable compressed common public radio interface

Recently, a cloud radio access network (C-RAN) has been proposed as a candidate architecture for fifth-generation mobile communication. Fronthaul is a new segment in C-RAN. In this paper, we investigate the algorithms for resource allocation in time and wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network enabled front-haul. We formulate an integer nonlinear programming (INLP) model, considering the operation mode of the small cell. A heuristic method is also proposed based on an adaptive parallel genetic algorithm (GA). Three optimization objectives are considered when we implement the resource allocation schemes in the fronthaul: 1) minimize the total number of used wavelengths, 2) minimize the load imbalance of the fronthaul, and 3) minimize the amount of traffic influenced by fronthaul virtual topology change. The results show that INLP and adaptive parallel GA have good performance for resource allocation in the fronthaul. Wavelength resources can be significantly saved in different load scenarios, so that the load difference can be minimized with minimal topology adjustment. Furthermore, the adaptive parallel GA obtains more efficient resource allocation than the traditional GA with much less running time, which makes it applicable for the large-scale fronthaul network optimization with fast convergence.
Can social desirability interfere with success in a behavioral weight loss program?

Social desirability is an individual difference characteristic that extends beyond biased responding to questionnaires. Social desirability has the potential to negatively impact treatment outcome including weight loss. This study examines the association between social desirability and percent body weight loss in thirty-six obese participants completing a behavioral weight loss program (BWLP). At baseline, higher social desirability was associated with: (1) greater reported weight control competence and weight loss self-efficacy, (2) the reported consumption of fewer calories, and (3) fewer reported dietary lapses and more positive attitudes toward their diet as recorded in lapse diaries. Higher social desirability was significantly associated with less weight lost at the end of the 6-month intervention. Weight control competence, self-efficacy, and abstinence violation effects mediated the social desirability and weight loss association. Individuals high in social desirability may overestimate their ability to succeed in a BWLP and may have difficulties accurately self-monitoring diet-related behaviors, thereby contributing to a poor weight loss treatment outcome.
Determinants of disability using count-based approaches to ICF-based definition of neurological disability.

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to explore the most relevant determinants of severe disability in a heterogeneous sample of patients with neurological conditions. OBJECTIVES We used data from previous studies on patients with myasthenia gravis (MG), migraine, Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke and epilepsy (349 patients, aged 18-74 years; mean 48.0, SD 11.7). We calculated count-based extension indexes to address severe disability, and hierarchical logistic regression to assess the association between severe disability, sociodemographic and health status information. CONCLUSIONS Results show that sociodemographic variables played a minor role, while health state information was a stronger determinant of severe disability. Compared to the reference value of TBI patients, those with MG, PD and epilepsy had higher odds to have severe difficulties undertaking daily activities despite the presence of environmental factors. Our results contrast with those of previous studies, mostly derived from general populations, showing the different impact of clinical and sociodemographic variables.
The NCI and the Takeoff of Nanomedicine

This paper presents an analysis of the role of US National Nanotechnology Initiative’s Federal funding in the takeoff of nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine. Our comparative analysis of leading nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine scientists funded by the National Cancer Institute highlights the programmatic efforts of the NCI’s Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer beginning in 2005. We use a data science approach combining web data extraction, bibliometrics and social network analysis to identify leading nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology scientists and profile their research and commercialization efforts. By coupling leading nanomedicine researchers profiles to NNI Federal funding data we discover and document the relative importance of the US National Cancer Institute’s Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer (NCI Alliance) to the takeoff of nanomedicine. The NCI appears to be achieving its stated goal of contributing to both the scientific and commercial infrastructure of translational nanomedicine. Using Gilsing et al.’s innovation network embeddedness model from 2008 we find that the creation and strategic placement of NCI Alliance Centers at critical positions in the Alliance network has enhanced the ability of the NCI to build a sustainable architecture for nanomedicine and foster potentially disruptive pioneering innovation.
Fractional order proportional integral controller for active queue management of wireless network

A new active queue management (AQM) algorithm named fractional order proportional integral (FOPI) controller was proposed, which was used for congestion control of networks with traditional wired backbone and wireless terminal user supporting Internet TCP flows. First, the small signal theory was introduced to linearize the dynamic model for the congestion control of wireless networks in the steady state. Second, for meeting the system stability and robustness requirements, the parameters of FOPI were presented based on the frequency specifications concerned with the phase and the gain of the system open-loop transfer function. Simulation results show the excellent robustness performance of FOPI with system parameter variation and external disturbance experiments respectively.
A Butyl Methacrylate Monolithic Column Prepared In-Situ on a Microfluidic Chip and its Applications

A butyl methacrylate (BMA) monolithic column was polymerized in-situ with UV irradiation in an ultraviolet transparent PDMS micro-channel on a homemade micro-fluidic chip. Under the optimized conditions and using a typical polymerization mixture consisting of 75% porogenic solvents and 25% monomers, the BMA monolithic column was obtained as expected. The BET surface area ratio of the BMA monolithic column was 366 m2·g-1. The corresponding SEM images showed that the monolithic column material polymerized in a glass channel was composed of uniform pores and spherical particles with diameters ranging from 3 to 5 μm. The promethazine–luminal–potassium ferricyanide chemiluminescence system was selected for testing the capability of the column. A flow injection analytical technique–chemiluminescence (FIA–CL) system on the microfluidic chip with a BMA monolithic column pretreatment unit was established to determine promethazine. Trace promethazine was enriched by the BMA monolithic column, with more than a 10-fold average enrichment ratio. The proposed method has a linear response concentration range of 1.0×10-8 - 1.0×10-6g·mL-1 and the detection limit was 1.6×10-9g·mL-1.
highlighted topics Physiological and Genomic Consequences of Intermittent Hypoxia Selected Contribution: Phrenic long-term facilitation requires 5-HT receptor activation during but not following episodic hypoxia

Mitchell. Selected Contribution: Phrenic long-term facilitation requires 5-HT receptor activation during but not following episodic hypoxia. J Appl Physiol 90: 2001–2006, 2001. —Episodic hypoxia evokes a sustained augmentation of respiratory motor output known as long-term facilitation (LTF). Phrenic LTF is prevented by pretreatment with the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptor antagonist ketanserin. We tested the hypothesis that 5-HT receptor activation is necessary for the induction but not maintenance of phrenic LTF. Peak integrated phrenic nerve activity ( * Phr) was monitored for 1 h after three 5-min episodes of isocapnic hypoxia (arterial P O 2 5 40 6 2 Torr; 5-min hyperoxic intervals) in four groups of anesthetized, vagotomized, paralyzed, and ventilated Sprague-Dawley rats [ 1 ) control ( n 5 11), 2 ) ketanserin pretreatment (2 mg/kg iv; n 5 7), and ketanserin treatment 0 and 45 min after episodic hypoxia ( n 5 7 each)]. Ketanserin transiently decreased * Phr, but it returned to baseline levels within 10 min. One hour after episodic hypoxia, * Phr was signiﬁcantly elevated from baseline in control and in the 0- and 45-min posthypoxia ketanserin groups. Conversely, ketanserin pretreatment abolished phrenic LTF. We conclude that 5-HT receptor activation is necessary to initiate (during hypoxia) but not maintain (following hypoxia) phrenic LTF. CO 2 pres- sures O Rectal of all experi- ments, urethane overdose.
Characterization of the glucose-induced inactivation of maltose permease in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The addition of glucose to maltose-fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells causes a rapid and irreversible loss of the ability to transport maltose, resulting both from the repression of transcription of the maltose permease gene and from the inactivation of maltose permease. The latter is referred to as glucose-induced inactivation or catabolite inactivation. We describe an analysis of this process in a maltose-fermenting strain expressing a hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged allele of MAL61, encoding maltose permease. The transfer of maltose-induced cells expressing the Mal61/HA protein to rich medium containing glucose produces a decrease in maltose transport rates which is paralleled by a decrease in Mal61/HA maltose permease protein levels. In nitrogen starvation medium, glucose produces a biphasic inactivation, i.e., an initial, rapid loss in transport activity (inhibition) followed by a slower decrease in transport activity, which correlates with a decrease in the amount of maltose permease protein (proteolysis). The inactivation in both rich and nitrogen-starved media results from a decrease in Vmax with no apparent change in Km. Using strains carrying mutations in END3, REN1(VPS2), PEP4, and PRE1 PRE2, we demonstrate that the proteolysis of Mal61/HAp is dependent on endocytosis and vacuolar proteolysis and is independent of the proteosome. Moreover, we show that the Mal61/HA maltose permease is present in differentially phosphorylated forms.
Does Animation Amplify the Modality Effect – or is there any Modality Effect at All?

Abstract.This study aimed to examine if the modality effect is amplified by the matter of animation. Visual dynamics are suspected to increase split attention affordances due to a higher salience and transience compared to static visuals. In two experiments students watched an instruction on the formation of lightning while their eye movements were recorded. Both experiments varied text presentation (spoken, written) and visualization format (dynamic, static) in a 2x2 design. Learning outcomes were measured with verbal retention, visual retention, and transfer tests. Experiment 1 (N = 50) revealed a modality effect (i. e. better performance in spoken text groups) for visual retention but not for verbal retention and transfer. Experiment 2 (N = 60) replicated Experiment 1 with a faster presentation pace, expecting faster presentation to enlarge modality effects. In contrast, Experiment 2 revealed no modality effects in learning outcomes. In both experiments participants spent less time viewing visualizatio.
CABAS Parent Education: Increasing Child Compliance via Parental Emission of Unflawed Commands and Contingent Consequations During Play

This study examined the efficacy of the parent education/training program of the Comprehensive Application of behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS) model (Greer, 2000) in increasing rates of child compliance. Five parents of children attending a CABAS special needs preschool received both didactic instruction and home-based in vivo training in the use of unflawed antecedent commands and contingent consequations (including verbal and physical positive reinforcement, planned ignoring, and physical follow-through) during weekly toy playing, sharing and clean up sessions with their siblings. The study incorporated a multiple probe design using five parents who started receiving parent training on different days, resulting in a variation of a delayed multiple baseline across subjects design. Results indicated that rates of child compliance increased for all five children as a function of parental expertise in emitting unflawed commands and providing contingent consequations for their children. The collateral benefits of the parent program included (a) a reported increase in the frequency and duration of independent toy playing and sibling sharing repertoires and (b) an establishing operation effect for the target student whose increased rate of compliance may have been related to parental verbal and physical positive reinforcement of sibling compliance to parental commands. The effectiveness of the CABAS parent education component was discussed in relation to the comprehensive, perpetual, and interlocking school-home contingencies inherent in the entire CABAS model.
Bias analyses of spontaneous facial expression database

In this paper, cross-corpora evaluations are used to analyze the bias of spontaneous facial expression databases. Local binary pattern, Gabor, eigenface and fisherface features are extracted and applied to the four spontaneous expression databases: USTC-NVIE, VAM, Belfast Naturalistic and SEMAINE to recognize arousal (high/low) and valance (positive/negative) respectively. Experimental results indicate that there exists bias among different spontaneous expression databases. The emotion-induction methods, the variety of subjects and the quantity of raters may have caused such a bias.
Having Casual Sex: Additive and Interactive Effects of Alcohol and Condom Availability on the Determinants of Intentions

The impact of alcohol, condom availability, and gender on intentions to engage in casual sex and its antecedents was investigated. Students (N= 384) who were or were not intoxicated with alcohol completed measures based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in relation to having casual sex in a scenario. The scenario described sex between 2 individuals not in a relationship and manipulated the consumption of alcohol of the sexual partners and availability of condoms. The data were supportive of the TPB: Intentions were predictable from attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Results also support the inclusion of measures of past behavior and anticipated affective reactions, but not self-identity or moral norms as predictors of intentions. Alcohol in the scenario and condom availability increased intentions to have sex. There were also several interaction effects. Implications for using the TPB to understand sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol are discussed.