Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Bidirectional Brain-Machine Interface Featuring a Neuromorphic Hardware Decoder

Bidirectional brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) establish a two-way direct communication link between the brain and the external world. A decoder translates recorded neural activity into motor commands and an encoder delivers sensory information collected from the environment directly to the brain creating a closed-loop system. These two modules are typically integrated in bulky external devices. However, the clinical support of patients with severe motor and sensory deficits requires compact, low-power, and fully implantable systems that can decode neural signals to control external devices. As a first step toward this goal, we developed a modular bidirectional BMI setup that uses a compact neuromorphic processor as a decoder. On this chip we implemented a network of spiking neurons built using its ultra-low-power mixed-signal analog/digital circuits. On-chip on-line spike-timing-dependent plasticity synapse circuits enabled the network to learn to decode neural signals recorded from the brain into motor outputs controlling the movements of an external device. The modularity of the BMI allowed us to tune the individual components of the setup without modifying the whole system. In this paper, we present the features of this modular BMI and describe how we configured the network of spiking neuron circuits to implement the decoder and to coordinate it with the encoder in an experimental BMI paradigm that connects bidirectionally the brain of an anesthetized rat with an external object. We show that the chip learned the decoding task correctly, allowing the interfaced brain to control the object's trajectories robustly. Based on our demonstration, we propose that neuromorphic technology is mature enough for the development of BMI modules that are sufficiently low-power and compact, while being highly computationally powerful and adaptive.
Melanotic nerve sheath tumors.

✓ A solitary intraspinal, extradural melanotic tumor was subtotally resected in a 59-year-old man who had a 17-year history of radicular pain and later evidence of progressive spinal cord compression. The neoplasm revealed the histological features of a benign nerve sheath tumor with massive but uneven melanin production. In electron micrographs the tumor cells contained masses of melanosomes of the type seen in normal skin melanocytes and in B type melanocarcinomas. In the 16-month postoperative period there has been only minimal radiological indication of local recurrence and no metastases.
Effect of Treadmill Exercise Training on VO 2 Peak in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Background: Impairment of exercise tolerance in chronic respiratory disorders and in particular, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), has important implications on health-related quality of life, hospitalization rate and survival. Although COPD patients have shortness of breath, programmed exercise can increase the activity tolerance in these patients. Maximal oxygen uptake (VO 2 peak) is a fundamental measure of exercise physiology. It is an index of cardiovascular performance as well as a measure of aerobic capacity. VO 2 max can be measured by expensive devices or predicted by a valid formula. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of treadmill exercise training (TET) on patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease after a 4-week program. Materials and Methods: Thirty-eight subjects with COPD were recruited in the study and were randomly divided into two groups of control (n=18) and treatment (TET, n=20). The control group did not do any treadmill exercise training (TET). The treatment group exercised on a treadmill three times a week. VO 2 max was assessed in each group before and after the training period by using a modified formula. Results: After 4 weeks of training, VO 2 peak was significantly greater in the TET group. Conclusion: Considering the increase in VO 2 peak, It was concluded that TET benefits exercise performance, inspiratory muscle strength, dyspnea and health-related quality of life. (Tanaffos 2007; 6(4): 18-24)
Fit to Perform: An Investigation of Higher Education Music Students’ Perceptions, Attitudes, and Behaviors toward Health

Making music at the highest international standards can be rewarding, but it is also challenging, with research highlighting pernicious ways in which practicing and performing can affect performers’ health and wellbeing. Several studies indicate that music students’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors toward health and healthy living are less than optimal, especially considering the multiple physical and psychological demands of their day-to-day work. This article presents the results of a comprehensive screening protocol that investigated lifestyle and health-related attitudes and behaviors among 483 undergraduate and postgraduate students (mean age = 21.29 years ± 3.64; 59% women) from ten conservatoires. The protocol included questionnaires measuring wellbeing, general health, health-promoting behaviors, perfectionism, coping, sleep quality, and fatigue. On each measure, the data were compared with existing published data from similar age groups. The results indicate that music students have higher levels of wellbeing and lower fatigue than comparable samples outside of music. However, they also reveal potentially harmful perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors toward health. Specifically, engagement in health responsibility and stress management was low, which along with high perfectionistic strivings, limited use of coping strategies, poor sleep quality, and low self-rated health, paints a troubling picture both for the music students and for those who support their training. The findings point to the need for more (and more effective) health education and promotion initiatives within music education; in particular, musicians should be better equipped with mental skills to cope with constant pressure to excel and high stress levels. In part, this calls for musicians themselves to engage in healthier lifestyles, take greater responsibility for their own health, and be aware of and act upon health information in order to achieve and sustain successful practice and performance. For that to happen, however, music educators, administrators, and policy makers must play an active role in providing supportive environments where health and wellbeing is considered integral to expert music training.
Effects of sex on compensatory landing strategies upon return to sport after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

STUDY DESIGN Controlled laboratory, cross-sectional, cohort design. OBJECTIVE To determine if a sex-specific pattern of lower limb asymmetries is present during a drop vertical jump (DVJ) maneuver at the time of return to sport after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. BACKGROUND A high incidence of second ACL injury is reported after reconstruction; however, the underlying mechanisms of this injury are unclear. While asymmetrical dynamic loading patterns predictive of primary ACL injury in healthy female athletes were observed in female athletes 2 years after ACL reconstruction, it is unknown if similar asymmetries are present in male athletes after ACL reconstruction at the time of return to sport. METHODS A total of 98 participants were included in the study, 56 of whom had unilateral ACL reconstruction (35 female, 21 male) and had been released to return to unrestricted level 1 and 2 sports, and 42 of whom were uninjured, activity-matched control participants (29 female, 13 male). Lower extremity kinetic data were analyzed during a bilateral drop vertical jump maneuver from a 31-cm box. Peak vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) was calculated during the landing phase of the drop vertical jump and normalized to body weight (BW). A 2-by-2-by-2 analysis of variance was used to determine differences between side (involved versus uninvolved), group (ACL reconstruction versus control), and sex (female versus male) for the peak VGRF. RESULTS A significant side-by-group interaction for peak VGRF (P = .002) was observed during the landing phase of the drop vertical jump in the entire cohort. The involved limb of the ACL reconstructed group displayed significantly lower VGRF (mean ± SD, 1.77 ± 0.35 BW) than the uninvolved limb (2.2 ± 0.4 BW, P<.001) and both the preferred limb (2.0 ± 0.4 BW, P = .002) and nonpreferred limb (2.09 ± 0.42 BW, P<.001) in the control group. No effect of sex was noted. CONCLUSION After ACL reconstruction, both male and female participants at the time of return to sport demonstrated involved limb asymmetries in peak VGRF during landing from a bipedal task. These deficits, which persist at the time of return to sport, may increase the risk of future injury and indicate that rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction may require more targeted interventions to address involved limb biomechanical deficits in athletes of both sexes prior to return to sport participation.
Alignment in Interactive Reference Production: Content Planning, Modifier Ordering, and Referential Overspecification

Psycholinguistic studies often look at the production of referring expressions in interactive settings, but so far few referring expression generation algorithms have been developed that are sensitive to earlier references in an interaction. Rather, such algorithms tend to rely on domain-dependent preferences for both content selection and linguistic realization. We present three experiments showing that humans may opt for dispreferred attributes and dispreferred modifier orderings when these were primed in a preceding interaction (without speakers being consciously aware of this). In addition, we show that speakers are more likely to produce overspecified references, including dispreferred attributes (although minimal descriptions with preferred attributes would suffice), when these were similarly primed.
Passive displacement sensing using backscatter RFID with multiple loads

Backscatter radio frequency (RF) tags and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can be used to create wireless sensors that do not require a battery by using the tag antenna's electrical load as a transducer. This paper presents such a backscatter sensor system operating in the 5.8 GHz unlicensed frequency band that wirelessly senses distance (i.e., displacement) between one and five millimeters. The system senses the variable impedance of a covered, open-circuit microstrip line and uses two fixed antenna load impedances to remove the effects of the radio channel. The primary contribution of this paper is a demonstration of the wireless sensing system in which the binary position of a human finger (e.g., “bent” or “straight”) is measured using a passive transducer for wireless human-computer-interaction (HCI) applications.
Energy efficient data dissemination protocol for a mobile sink group in WSNs

In wireless sensor networks, there have recently been studies on mobile sinks groups such as groups of soldiers on battlefields, which are characterized by geographically collective movement. Although the existing protocols for individual mobile sinks can support the mobile sinks groups, they suffer from high congestion and control overhead due to location updates by each sink in the groups. To solve the location update problem by individual sinks, a protocol, called M-Geocasting only updates the region information of the mobile sink groups to sources. However, since M-Geocasting uses the flooding within the group regions for data delivery to member sinks, it excessively consumes the energy of sensor nodes in the group region. Moreover, the flooding potentially causes broadcast storms within the group region when many events exist. Thus, in this paper, we propose an efficient data dissemination protocol which can avoid the flooding within the group region for supporting mobile sink group. The proposed protocol introduces a virtual pipe in the group region for data dissemination as data storage. In the proposed protocol, a source sends data to the pipe and member sinks retrieve data directly from the pipe. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol is superior to the existing protocols in terms of the energy consumption and the data delivery ratio.
Signifiers of the life we value? – considering human development, technologies and Fair Trade from the perspective of the capabilities approach

This paper argues that the capabilities approach challenges us to co-design technologies with users in a way that expands the freedom of the user to live the life they themselves value. The aim is to show, with the help of a concrete example, our attempt at applying the capabilities approach to an information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) action research project. The objective of the Fair Tracing project was to support both producers and consumers in their decision-making in Fair Trade value chains by using information and communication technologies to provide them with information. Based on survey data, formal and informal interviews, group meetings, accompanied shopping and a design workshop with potential users, the project applied the bottom-up, participatory approach to technology design that the capabilities approach demands. Key challenges that were encountered included the competing capabilities of making informed buying decisions and of having more time. Action research and participatory design create important and challenging test settings for introducing the capabilities approach in ICT4D work. Annika Andersson, Åke Grönlund and Gudrun Wicander are the accepting Guest Editors for this article.
Market Market development as a result of innovation adoption

Current research focuses on the dynamics of mobile telecommunications market either from the perspectives of technology innovation or service adoption. However, because there is a mutual dependency between them, each perspective alone can only partly explain the pace and direction of change we currenly witness in this market. This article combines them into one framework to pursue a holistic understanding of mobile telecommunications market innvoation. To test its explanatory power, we apply this framework to dissecting the case of China based on second-hand data. It concludes that our model enables a systematic description on the mutual influence of infrastructure innovation and innovation adoption that moves beyond unilateral accounts. Our framework also captures the interplay between mobile telecommunications market and the social network formed by interrelated providers, users and institutions.
Linked data technologies to support higher education challenges : student retention, progression and completion

Around the world, higher education institutions are facing a growing number of challenges. In recent decades, considerable interest has emerged on identifying those challenges and proposing efficient ways to address them. This thesis reviews a wide range of literature on higher education challenges and identifies related intuitional data, data repositories and external open data sources to address these challenges. It subsequently explores whether certain higher education challenges and in particular student retention, progression and completion can be better addressed using data from various data sources and the recent development of technologies such as, data analytics and linked data. Traditionally, research in this area is survey-based and survey-based studies have some drawbacks such as, low participation rate and the high cost associated with it. This research sought to overcome these problems. To this end, two experiments were conducted. The first experiment examined the sufficiency of linked data and external open data sources to develop blended prediction models to predict at-risk students in their first year of study. The result based on 149 undergraduate students’ data, established that prediction models based on institutional repositories and external open data perform better than survey-based one. The second experiment examined the capabilities of institutional repositories and external open data sources in predicting students’ first year marks and established that models using institutional repositories and external open data sources can perform better than models based on only institutional repositories. In order to examine the capabilities of linked data, external open data and data analytics, a data integration and analytics environment was deployed. The four key contributions of this thesis are: (1) it presents a comprehensive list of higher education challenges and required data and data repositories to address these challenges; (2) it demonstrates how external open data sources can be used to accurately predict students at-risk and students’ first year marks; (3) it shows how including external open data sources in prediction models can increase the overall model accuracy and (4) it establishes the strengths and weaknesses of linked data to support in employing data analytics for predictive models in student retention, progression and completion.
Dual-Factor Model of Mental Health: Surpass the Traditional Mental Health Model

Aiming at the limitations of traditional mental health model, the dual-factor model of mental health (DFM) was proposed as a new idea under the background of positive psychology trend. According to the DFM, mental health is a complete state; subjective well-being should be included into the mental health evaluation system as a positive indictor; in terms of prevention and intervention, the DFM asserted that the decrease of symptoms is only the first step of intervention, and the improvement of subjective well-being should be followed, in order to achieve the complete mental health states and reduce the recurrence of illness. Finally, this paper put forward evaluation on DFM and its future research directions.
Identification and Functional Characterization of flgM, a Gene Encoding the Anti-Sigma 28 Factor in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT We describe here the functional characterization of the putative flgM gene of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. FlgM of P. aeruginosa is most similar to FlgM of Vibrio parahaemolyticus. A conserved region is present in the C-terminal half of the FlgM of P. aeruginosa and in FlgM homologues of other organisms that includes the σ28 binding domain. A role for the flgM gene of P. aeruginosa in motility was demonstrated by its inactivation. The β-galactosidase activity of a transcriptional fusion of the fliC promoter to lacZ was upregulated in the flgM mutant, suggesting that the activity of FliA, the sigma factor that regulates fliC, was increased. Consistent with these results, an increased amount of flagellin was demonstrated in the flgM mutant of P. aeruginosa strain PAK by Western blot, suggesting that FlgM negatively regulates transcription of fliC by inhibiting the activity of FliA. Direct interaction of the P. aeruginosa FlgM with the alternative sigma factor σ28 was demonstrated by utilizing the yeast two-hybrid system. Three putative consensus σ54 recognition sites and one σ28 site were found in the flgM upstream region. However, analysis of the transcriptional fusion of the flgM promoter to lacZ in different mutant backgrounds showed that the flgM promoter was not entirely dependent on either σ28 or σ54. A transcript was detected by primer extension that was 8 bp downstream of the consensus σ28-binding site. Thus, a system for the control of flagellin synthesis by FlgM exists in P. aeruginosa that is different from that in the enteric bacteria and seems to be most similar to that of V. cholerae where both σ28-dependent and -independent mechanisms of transcription exist.
How does Product Innovation Affect Export Margins ?

The previous studies on the factors affecting trade margins emphasize the importance of exogenous trade costs; however, the role of product innovation has not been thoroughly investigated. Product innovation activities of a firm directly determine how efficiently its product matches the target consumers’ preferences and in turn significantly affects a country's trade growth patter. Therefore, we attempt to explain the driving factors of trade growth by observing and examining the efficacy of product innovation strength on trade margin. This paper sheds light on how product innovation affects the dual margins of export growth. The research results have shown that product innovation promotes the expansion of extensive margin (Proposition 1) * Corresponding Author, School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, China. Email: liner_100@126.com ╂ School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, China ╂ ╂ School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, China and product innovation negatively affects intensive margin when the overall level of product innovation in a certain country (or industry) is very low (Proposition 2). Using micro-level data from Chinese manufacturing firms, our empirical results are in line with our theoretical hypothesis. In other words, product innovation significantly promotes the extensive margin of Chinese export while the impact of product innovation on the intensive margin is negative. Furthermore, the effects of product innovation on export margins are significantly different among industries with differentiated characteristics. Relevant policy recommendations are obvious. In order to maintain the sustainability of trade growth, a country should balance the internal and external equilibrium of development path and take a variety of measures to actively guide firms to enhance product innovation strength. To achieve a healthy and balanced trade development the government should encourage more firms to enter into the international market.
Isolating "Uncultivable" Microorganisms in Pure Culture in a Simulated Natural Environment

The majority (>99%) of microorganisms from the environment resist cultivation in the laboratory. Ribosomal RNA analysis suggests that uncultivated organisms are found in nearly every prokaryotic group, and several divisions have no known cultivable representatives. We designed a diffusion chamber that allowed the growth of previously uncultivated microorganisms in a simulated natural environment. Colonies of representative marine organisms were isolated in pure culture. These isolates did not grow on artificial media alone but formed colonies in the presence of other microorganisms. This observation may help explain the nature of microbial uncultivability.
Fast and Accurate Face Orientation Measurement in Low-resolution Images on Embedded Hardware

In numerous applications it is important to collect information about the gaze orientation or head-angle of a person. Examples are measuring the alertness of a car driver to see if he is still awake, or the attentiveness of people crossing a street to see if they noticed the cars driving by. In our own application we want to apply cinematographic rules (e.g. the rule of thirds where a face should be positioned left or right in the frame depending on the gaze direction) on images taken from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). For this an accurate estimation of the angle of the head is needed. These applications should run on embedded hardware so that they can be easily attached to e.g. a car or a UAV. This implies that the head angle detection algorithm should run in real-time on minimal hardware. Therefore we developed an approach that runs in real-time on embedded hardware while achieving excellent accuracy. We demonstrated these approaches on both a publicly available face dataset and our own dataset recorded from a UAV.