Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Imaging neural activity using MEG and EEG.

The authors have developed a Bayesian framework for image estimation from combined MEG/EEG data. Their results indicate that performance of their imaging approach is superior to that of weighted minimum norm when the image is sparse and focal. Note however that if the image is not sparse, the authors' method would perform poorly since their prior is specifically designed to give sparse focal sources. This observation serves to emphasize the fact that the use of prior information is crucial in extracting useful spatial information from the data. The authors have also found that combining MEG and EEG gives superior results when compared to using the modalities individually. This improvement is due not only to increasing the number of measurements, but also because of the complimentary nature of MEG/EEG. Even when working with the two modalities in combination, significant limitations to electromagnetic imaging exist. Regardless of the number and placement of sensors, reconstructions are generally only reliable if relatively few source clusters exist. If a large number of distributed sources exist, no imaging technique can hope to reconstruct them accurately strictly from the MEG/EEG data given. Such complex distributions will generally be matched as well or better by simpler solutions. Thus, if used on their own, the authors expect MEG/EEG data to be most useful when the number of activated sites is small. Alternatively, when used in combination with fMRI or PET, it may be possible to produce dynamic images of more complex processes.
Comparing Forecasting Models in Tourism

This study uses three major U.S. national parks as applications of statistically selecting appropriate methods to forecast attendance. Forecasting methods assessed include Naïve 1, Naïve 2, single moving average (SMA), single exponential smoothing (SES), Brown's, Holt's, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), derived time series cross-section regression (TSCSREG), and time series analysis with explanatory variable models. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is used to measure the accuracy of forecasting methods. Based on the MAPE values, SMA produces the most accurate forecasting, followed closely by ARIMA, Brown's, and Naïve 1 models. Holt's and TSCSREG models produce the next most accurate forecasting, followed by SES, time series analysis with explanatory variable model, and Naïve 2. Methods used in this article are readily transferable to other hospitality and tourism data sets with annual visitation figures. Merits and limits of the proposed forecasting methods are discussed.
A two-step method to process bistatic SAR data in the general configuration

This paper describes a two-step processing procedure which has a capacity of processing bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (BSAR) data in the general configuration based on the extended Loffeldpsilas Bistatic Formula (LBF). For LBF, in any configuration, equal contributions to the total azimuth Doppler spectrum are assumed, which results in the failure of LBF in the high bistatic grade configurations (e.g. spaceborne/airborne configuration and highly different squint configuration). In this paper, we consider the different contributions of transmitter and receiver to the total Doppler spectrum to extend LBF. To illustrate the character of bistatic SAR signal, the two-dimension linearization operation is used to project the quasi-monstatic (QM) and bistatic deformation (BD) terms into the 2-dimensional space (slant range and azimuth time) domain. After the linearization, it can be seen that the bistatic point target reference spectrum (BPTRS) is linearly dependent on the two-dimension space variables. The azimuth-dependent phenomenon is an intrinsic feature of bistatic SAR in the general configuration. To address the two-dimension space-dependent problem, we use the two processing procedures: one is range processing which will remove the dependency of BPTRS on the range space variable, another is azimuth processing which will eliminate the dependency of BPTRS on the azimuth time variable. For the range processing, we prefer the well-known range-Doppler algorithm to cancel the dependency (i.e. RCM). For the azimuth, an additional interpolation operation is required to remove the dependency.
Assessment of the Partnership Quality between Travel Agencies and Health Care Organizations on the International Medical Tourism Market in Taiwan

The medical tourism literature lacks insight into related issues of these types of partnerships. Those that integrate multiple perspectives into one research framework are especially rare. This study evaluated and compared the influence of external environment uncertainty, trust, and resource dependence perspectives on the quality of interorganizational partnerships in the international medical tourism market and quantified these elements using external environment uncertainty assessment on the international medical tourism development. The research sample was based on a survey from 161 travel agency managers in Taiwan. This study found that external environment uncertainty has direct negative impact on trust and resource dependence has a positive influence on interorganizational partnership. Moreover, trust has a significant impact on partnership quality while resource dependence does not. Therefore, medical travel agents should extend their network of trustworthy health care organization partners in order to improve performance, decrease their self-risk, collect information, and avoid missed opportunities.
Impacts of Rho kinase inhibitor Fasudil on Rho/ROCK signaling pathway in rabbits with optic nerve injury.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to study the impacts of Rho kinase inhibitor Fasudil on expressions of Rho/ROCK signaling pathway associated genes in rabbits with optic nerve injury (ONI), and to explore the therapeutic mechanisms towards ONI. METHODS The rabbit ONI model was established, then the rabbits were divided into model group (treated with saline), control group (treated with dexamethasone, Dex), and intervention group (treated with Fasudil, Fas). The eyeball and optic nerve were sampled at 3, 7, 14 and 21 days after injury. The morphological changes of retina and optic nerve were observed. The expressions of RhoA, Caspase-3, Rock 2 and Nogo-A gene were determined by immunohistochemistry and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) methods. RESULTS At different time after injury, there were significant differences of RhoA, Caspase-3, Rock 2 and Nogo-A gene expression among three groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS After ONI, Fas can decrease the expression of Caspase-3 gene, and down-regulate the expressions of Nogo-A and Rock 2 gene. Therefore, it can treat ONI through affecting the Rho/ROCK signaling pathway.
Enabling Energy Efficient Resource Management in Cloud Systems

Rapid growth of the demand for computational power by scientific, business and web-applications has led to the creation of large-scale data centers consuming enormous amounts of electrical power. Generally it has been proposed that energy efficient resource management system for virtualized Cloud data centers that reduces operational costs and provides required Quality of Service (QoS). Energy savings are achieved by continuous consolidation of VMs according to current utilization of resources, virtual network topologies established between VMs and thermal state of computing nodes. From so long improving performance has been the primary motive of computing systems industry whose growth is steadily fuelled by resource hungry applications. A typical data centre with 1000 racks needs 10 MW of power to operate, which is sufficient enough to power a small city. With increasing shift in migrating services to cloud the power demands of the backend data centers will continue to grow. Apart from consuming enormous power, 'Cloud's also increase global carbon foot print. It is mentioned in the popular reports that industry generates about 2% of the total global CO2 emissions, which is equivalent to the aviation industry. The primary objectives of this research are to create Simplified Energy models for physical systems and virtual machines by monitoring their resource usage.
Allozyme diversity in the tetraploid endemic Thymus loscosii (Lamiaceae).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Thymus loscosii (Lamiaceae) is a tetraploid perennial species endemic to the Ebro river basin (north-eastern Spain), which is included in the National Catalogue of Endangered Species. It is a tetraploid species (2n = 54), presumably an autotetraploid originated by the duplication of a 2n = 28 genome and the subsequent loss of two chromosomes. Allozyme electrophoresis was conducted to survey the levels and distribution of genetic diversity and to test the previous autopolyploid hypothesis for its origin. In addition, both in situ and ex situ conservation measures are proposed. METHODS Eight populations were sampled for analysis by standard methods of starch gel electrophoresis, and six putative enzymatic loci were resolved (five consistently and one only partially). KEY RESULTS Banding patterns exhibited no evidence of fixed heterozygosity and showed both balanced and unbalanced heterozygotes. In addition, most individuals showed a pattern consistent with the presence of three or four alleles at a single locus. High levels of genetic variability were found at population level (P = 85 %, A = 3.0, He = 0.422), in addition to a trend of an excess of heterozygotes. CONCLUSIONS Allozyme data support the hypothesis that T. loscosii is an autotetraploid, and the high number of alleles at some loci may be due to repeated polyploidization events. The high values of genetic variation found in this species agree with those expected for tetraploids. The excess of heterozygotes may be due to some barriers to inbreeding (e.g. occurrence of gynodioecy) and/or selection for heterozygosity.
A STUDY OF ACCRUALS QUALITY ON RISK ASSESSMENT OF SECURITIES IN IRAN

In recent years, there has been increasingly debate about the impact of quality of accounting information on cost of capital or expected return of stock. The focus of these discussions is the quality of accruals. In particular, two recent papers by Francis et al (2004, 2005) were impressive articles in this Field. The two papers were shown the quality of accruals have an inverse relationship between the costs of capital, it means low quality of accruals lead to cost of capital or expected return of stock. However, Core et al (2008) showed that accruals quality developed by Francis and hiscolleagues were not able to explain the volatility of stocks. Consequently, accrual quality as characteristics of accounting information can help predict future stock returns. Other similar studies, in this research relation between accrual quality and risk premium companies were investigated by data relating to 73 companies during 2009 and 2010. The results of the statistical analysis and hypotheses showed that the relationship did not exist between the quality of accruals and equity risk premium and there is no significant accruals quality and equity risk premium.
When noise trading fades, volatility rises

We hypothesize and test an inverse relation between liquidity and price volatility derived from microstructure theory. Two important facets of liquidity trading are examined: volume and noisiness. As represented by the expected turnover rate (volume) and realized average commission cost per share (noisiness) of NYSE equity trading, both facets are found negatively associated with the ex post and ex ante return volatilities of the NYSE stock portfolios and the NYSE composite index futures. Furthermore, the inverse association between noisiness and volatility is amplified in times of market crisis. The negative noisiness–volatility relation is also supported by our analysis on the effects of trade size on price volatility. The overall results demonstrate that volatility increases as noise trading declines.
Action research for operations management

A fundamental methodological question guides this paper: How can operations managers and researchers learn from the applied activity that characterises the practice of OM? To address this question, defines and explores the legitimacy of an action‐oriented research approach in OM, and the particular logic and value of applying action research (AR) to the description and understanding of issues in OM. Begins with a review of the role of empirical research in OM and how AR features within the OM research literature. Introduces the theory and practice of AR and outlines the AR cycle and how AR is implemented. Finally, describes the skills required to engage in AR and explores issues in generating theory. Concludes with the assertion that AR is relevant and valid for the discipline of OM in its ability to address the operational realities experienced by practising managers while simultaneously contributing to knowledge.
Three Worlds of Welfare Chauvinism? How Welfare Regimes Affect Support for Distributing Welfare to Immigrants in Europe

Abstract Analyzing the 2008 wave of the European Social Survey, this study assesses whether an elaborate institutional theory is able to explain why levels of welfare chauvinism differ among welfare regimes. As expected, native populations in liberal and conservative welfare regimes prove more reluctant to distributing welfare services to immigrants than those in social-democratic ones. Adding country-level data, it is demonstrated that neither differences in the selectivity nor differences in employment protection and unemployment levels can explain these varying levels of welfare chauvinism. Instead, regime differences in welfare chauvinism can be fully attributed to their differences in income inequality.
Effects of heavy drinking by maritime academy cadets on hangover, perceived sleep, and next-day ship power plant operation.

OBJECTIVE The effects of an evening of heavy drinking on next-day occupational performance are mixed across studies and have not been investigated for ship-handling performance. Furthermore, it is not known whether the residual effects of alcohol on next-day performance are due to its effects on sleep. METHOD Merchant marine cadets (N=61) who had been trained on a diesel power plant simulator and who drank heavily at least episodically were given placebo beer one evening and were randomized on a second evening to placebo or real beer that resulted in a mean breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) of . 115 g%. After an 8-hour sleep period, a meal, and a return to < or = . 02 g% BrAC, cadets were assessed with self-report measures and the power plant simulator. RESULTS No effects of beverage condition were seen on actual performance, although cadets who consumed alcohol rated their performance as impaired compared with the placebo conditions. Alcohol consumption also increased the Acute Hangover Scale score, improved perceived sleep quality, and decreased perceived latency to sleep onset while not affecting perceived sleep duration. CONCLUSIONS While residual alcohol effects are found on some complex performance tasks, residual effects of . 11 to . 12 g% BrAC were not seen on ship engine simulator performance despite increased hangover symptoms and perceived impairment from the hangover. Therefore, this level of heavy drinking might not be deleterious to next-day routine occupational performance by young ship engineers despite the subjective ill effects. The perception that alcohol improves sleep onset might be a motivation for some to drink heavily. The effects on older engineers, at higher alcohol levels, and on other ship-handling tasks still need to be studied.
SSR allelic diversity in relation to morphological traits and resistance to grain mould in sorghum

Allelic variation at 46 simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker loci well distributed across the sorghum genome was used to assess genetic diversity among 92 sorghum lines, 74 resistant and 18 susceptible to grain mould. Of the 46 SSR markers, 44 were polymorphic, with the number of alleles ranging from 2 to 20 with an average of 7.55 alleles per locus. Genetic diversity among the sorghum lines was high as indicated by polymorphic information content (PIC) and gene diversity values. PIC values of polymorphic SSR markers ranged from 0.16 to 0.90, with an average of 0.54. Gene diversity among the sorghum lines varied from 0.16 to 0.91, with an average score of 0.58 per SSR marker. AMOVA indicated that 12% of the total variation observed among the sorghum lines was accounted for between grain mould resistant and susceptible types. Diversity based on six morphological traits and grain mould scores indicated major roles of panicle type and glumes coverage, followed by grain colour, in clustering of the lines. Seven grain mould resistant/ susceptible pairs with dissimilarity indices >0.50, but with similar flowering time, plant height, and panicle type/ inflorescence within each pair, were selected for use in developing recombinant inbred line mapping populations to identify genomic regions (and quantitative trait loci) associated with sorghum grain mould resistance.
ATTITUDES TOWARD MOBILE ADVERTISING: A STUDY OF MOBILE WEB DISPLAY AND MOBILE APP DISPLAY ADVERTISING

The rapid development of smartphones has resulted in the increasing use of mobile devices to deliver advertisements for products and services. Many firms in Vietnam have invested numerous resources in this field, and an in-depth understanding of mobile advertising is necessary to develop a successful mobile advertising strategy. Based on the existing literature regarding attitudes toward mobile advertising, a questionnaire was constructed to illustrate the factors affecting consumer attitudes toward advertisements on the mobile web and mobile applications. A survey of 206 participants was conducted in this study using the convenience sampling method. The findings of this study show that although many users do not have positive feelings toward advertising, they cannot ignore the importance of mobile advertising. If mobile advertisers can present credibility and entertainment in their advertisements, consumers are willing to view the ads and be influenced to buy products and services. Implications and suggestions for further studies are also provided in this study.
A cascade of complex subtelomeric duplications during the evolution of the hominoid and Old World monkey genomes.

Subtelomeric duplications of an obscure tubulin "genic" segment located near the telomere of human chromosome 4q35 have occurred at different evolutionary time points within the last 25 million years of the catarrhine (i.e., hominoid and Old World monkey) evolution. The analyses of these segments reported here indicate an exceptional level of evolutionary instability. Substantial intra- and interspecific differences in copy number and distribution are observed among cercopithecoid (Old World monkey) and hominoid genomes. Characterization of the hominoid duplicated segments reveals a strong positional bias within pericentromeric and subtelomeric regions of the genome. On the basis of phylogenetic analysis from predicted proteins and comparisons of nucleotide-substitution rates, we present evidence of a conserved b-tubulin gene among the duplications. Remarkably, the evolutionary conservation has occurred in a nonorthologous fashion, such that the functional copy has shifted its positional context between hominoids and cercopithecoids. We propose that, in a chimpanzee-human common ancestor, one of the paralogous copies assumed the original function, whereas the ancestral copy acquired mutations and eventually became silenced. Our analysis emphasizes the dynamic nature of duplication-mediated genome evolution and the delicate balance between gene acquisition and silencing.
The constraint factors of potential international sports fan tourists

This study examines the global market diversification and constraint factors associated with potential Japanese international sports fan tourists. Data were gathered from Japanese general tourists (N = 3773) in an annual Japan Travel Bureau Foundation survey conducted by email. Of those surveyed, 7.7% (N = 292) had considered watching sports in foreign countries. The International Sports Fan Constraints Scale (alternative leisure options, security, the lack of tourist attractiveness, different culture, companions and distance) was developed. Then, the mean scores by sports and destination were compared and discussed. The results provide practical implications for stakeholders including not only sports organisation marketing managers but also tourist marketing managers.
Ultrasound for fetal assessment in early pregnancy.

BACKGROUND Advantages of early pregnancy ultrasound screening are thought to be more accurate calculation of gestational age, earlier identification of multiple pregnancies, and diagnosis of non-viable pregnancies and certain fetal malformations. OBJECTIVES The objective of this review was to assess the use of routine (screening) ultrasound compared with the selective use of ultrasound in early pregnancy (ie before 24 weeks). SEARCH STRATEGY The Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group trials register and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (up to July 1998) were searched. SELECTION CRITERIA Adequately controlled trials of routine ultrasound imaging in early pregnancy. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS One reviewer assessed trial quality and extracted data. Study authors were contacted for additional information. MAIN RESULTS Nine trials were included. The quality of the trials was generally good. Routine ultrasound examination was associated with earlier detection of multiple pregnancies (twins undiagnosed at 26 weeks, odds ratio 0.08, 95% confidence interval 0.04 to 0.16) and reduced rates of induction of labour for post-term pregnancy (odds ratio 0. 61, 95% confidence interval 0.52 to 0.72). There were no differences detected for substantive clinical outcomes such as perinatal mortality (odds ratio 0.86, 95% confidence interval 0.67 to 1.12). Where detection of fetal abnormality was a specific aim of the examination, the number of terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomaly increased. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS Routine ultrasound in early pregnancy appears to enable better gestational age assessment, earlier detection of multiple pregnancies and earlier detection of clinically unsuspected fetal malformation at a time when termination of pregnancy is possible. However the benefits for other substantive outcomes are less clear.
Facial expression recognition using local Gabor filters and PCA plus LDA

A simple smile can indicate our approval, happiness or positive thoughts, while a scowl might signal displeasure or anger. Understanding facial expressions and their meanings are crucial not only in our daily life communication, but also in many applications. For example, in marketing, the customers' facial expressions indicate their response towards a product. In artificial intelligence (AI), robots can use human facial expressions as a cue for understanding their emotion in order to respond appropriately. This paper proposes a method for recognizing human facial expressions from images using local Gabor filter, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). The system starts by applying the face detection algorithm to detect the face from an image. From the face, the system extracts the Gabor filter responses and maps these responses into the novel feature subspace using the joined framework of PCA and LDA. Note that, in our framework, the principle component removal is also integrated into the framework. Based on the weighted neighbor approach, the system finally classifies human expressions into 4 different classes: anger, surprise, happiness and neutral. The results demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms the baselines.