Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving the climate for LGBTQ students at an Historically Black University

ABSTRACT African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students attending an Historically Black College or University (HBCU) may experience bullying. Using snowball sampling, the authors recruited six LGBTQ students for a focus group to learn how they perceived their HBCU campus atmosphere toward LGBTQ students. Thirty faculty members, with unknown sexual orientation, were recruited through e-mail. All groups reported bullying but that the LGBTQ student activity group had improved the atmosphere during the past several years and that faculty needed sensitivity training and administration should take the lead. A curriculum is introduced to provide training to faculty and students to increase support of LGBTQ students.
Crypto-Compression Image Scheme using DWT and AES-Arnold Transforms

With the fast evolution of digital data exchange, security of information becomes massively important in data storage and transmission. Due to the increasing use of images in an different process, it is essential to protect the confidential image data from unauthorized access. If encryption is not well performed then there may be possibility of stealing the information. Image compression is also essential where images need to be stored, transmitted or viewed quickly and efficiently. The current paper proposes an efficient technique to compress image by using Daubechies wavelet transforms. Moreover, it uses two algorithms which are advanced encryption standard (AES) and Arnold transform method for encryption the image. Experimental results show efficient technique that is simple in implementation and has high degree of security.
Hybrid Control of a Turret Wake Bojan Vukasinovic

Effects of hybrid flow control and its active and passive components on the aerodynamic characteristics of flow over a 0.254-m-diam conformal optical aperture embedded in the hemispherical cap of a cylinder turret model (D 0:61 m) are investigated atM 0:3–0:5 and ReD 4:4–7:4 10. Resulting mean flows are characterized by surface static pressure distributions and oil-flow visualizations, while the separated-flow dynamics are assessed by hot-film measurements. Active flow control is effected by arrays of piezoelectrically driven synthetic jet modules distributed in multiple arrays upstream from the aperture. Active flow control is further assisted by global flow alterations induced by a passive forward partition plate, and, when combined, constitute hybrid flow control. It is shown that the hybrid flow control combines the positive effects of its component control elements to yield superior results in any cumulative aerodynamic aspect of the separated flow. This cumulative effect of the actuation is manifested by concomitant delay of flow separation and active, dissipative suppression of turbulent motions downstream of separation. It is also demonstrated by means of direct two-dimensional wave-front measurements that the overall aerodynamic improvements correlate with substantial suppression of optical aberrations through the separatedflow.Furthermore, estimated Strehl ratios for the laser beam indicate that nearly invariant Strehl ratio is establishedwithin the range of tested aperture elevation angles, yielding improvement of about 50% for the highest elevation angle.
Reviewing sonority for word‐final sonorant+obstruent consonant cluster development in Turkish

The purpose of this study is to investigate the acquisition patterns of sonorant+obstruent coda clusters in Turkish to determine whether Turkish data support the prediction the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) makes as to which consonant (i.e. C1 or C2) is more likely to be preserved in sonorant+obstruent clusters, and the error patterns of sonorant+obstruent coda clusters. Data from 350 typically developing monolingual Turkish speaking children (aged 2.0–5.11 years) were used in this study. Six types of sonorant+obstruent clusters were targeted for analysis of deletion, vowel lengthening, and substitution processes in C1 and C2 singletons of clusters separately. The results showed that the acquisition of Turkish clusters does not adhere to the SSP as indicated by a higher percentage of C1 errors than C2 errors. In Turkish, vowel lengthening occurred when C1 was deleted. To account for these, it is proposed that the syllable structure of Turkish plays a role in the acquisition process of sonorant+obstruent clusters. It is argued that Turkish children acquire moraic structure at an early age, as evidenced by vowel lengthening.
Depression and pain among inpatients with spinal cord injury and spinal cord disease: differences in symptoms and neurological function

Purpose: To examine the relationship between depression and pain severity during inpatient rehabilitation for those with new onset of spinal cord injury or spinal cord disease (SCI/D), along with patient characteristics, neurological function and etiology. Method: This cross-sectional study reviewed medical records of 100 adults with SCI/D including their admission scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), a measure of depression, and pain ratings collected at admission and discharge. Results: Upon admission, 28% reported moderate-to-severe symptoms of depression and 69% reported pain. PHQ-9 scores were associated with pain only among those with the least severe impairments, for whom higher scores were associated with greater pain. While depression levels did not differ by etiology, those with traumatic injuries had higher pain ratings. Conclusions: In general, depressive symptoms were not associated with pain severity in this sample. Etiology was associated with pain, those with traumatic SCI reporting more pain at admission. Among demographic characteristics, age was related to pain, with younger subjects reporting higher levels. These findings suggest that certain characteristics may predispose patients to pain and depression upon admission to rehabilitation. By determining who is at risk for these symptoms, clinicians can adopt treatments that prevent these from becoming chronic conditions. Implications for Rehabilitation Depression and pain are often discussed as common symptoms following the onset of spinal cord injury (SCI); however, not everyone who has pain will exhibit depression. Among those with incomplete injuries (AIS D) severity of symptoms seem to be related with those experiencing moderate to severe pain also showing signs of depression. Etiology was found to be a correlate of pain. Those with traumatic SCI experience greater pain than do those with non-traumatic etiologies of SCI. Having ways to identify which patients will most likely experience these symptoms upon admission to rehabilitation can help guide early interventions to prevent secondary complications of pain and depression.
The Myxobacterium Myxococcus xanthus Can Sense and Respond to the Quorum Signals Secreted by Potential Prey Organisms

The myxobacterium Myxococcus xanthus is a predatory member of the soil microfauna, able to consume bacteria (Gram-negative, Gram-positive), archaea, and fungi. Many potential prey of M. xanthus communicate amongst themselves using acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs) as quorum signals. M. xanthus cannot itself produce AHLs, but could potentially benefit by responding to exogenous AHLs produced during signaling between proximal prey. Four AHLs of different side chain length were tested and all found to delay sporulation of M. xanthus vegetative cells, and to stimulate germination of myxospores, increasing the proportion of predatory vegetative cells in the population. The predatory activity and expansion rates of M. xanthus colonies were also found to be stimulated by AHLs. Thermally inactivated AHLs had no effect on M. xanthus cells, and the response to AHLs depended (non-linearly) on the length of AHL side chain, suggesting that the effect of AHLs was mediated by specific signaling within M. xanthus, rather than being a consequence of the chemical or physical properties of AHLs. Therefore, it seems that the presence of xenic quorum signaling molecules enhances the predatory activity of M. xanthus. AHLs increase the proportion of the population capable of predation, and stimulate the motility and predatory activity of vegetative cells. We therefore propose that in the wild, M. xanthus uses AHLs as markers of nearby prey, potentially eavesdropping on the conversations between prey organisms.
A Model of Binding Concepts to Spoken Names

ing is permitted with due credit to the Australian Journal of Intelligent Information Processing Systems. Subscriptions: Individual rate: A$80. Institutional rate: A$220 for paper or online 1 subscription. Individual copies can be purchased at A$15 per single copy. Reprints of technical articles are available, quantities no less than 50 can be ordered. Orders should be addressed to: AJIIPS, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia. Email address: ajiips@cs.anu. edu.au. 1 Online subscription gives additional access to back issues without any fee. Nikola Kasabov Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand László Kóczy Budapest University of Technology & Economics, Hungary Takeshi Furuhashi Nagoya University, Japan Marimuthu Palaniswami University of Melbourne, Australia M. V. Srinivasan University of Queensland, Australia A. Venetsanopoulos University of Toronto, Canada Australian Journal of Intelligent Information Processing Systems Volume 11, No.2 ISSN: 1321-2133 2010 COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE
An Educational Logic Tool for the Formal Verification , Design by Contract , and Algorithmic Debugging of Imperative Programs

While logic plays an important role in several areas of Computer Science (CS) and Software Engineering (SE), most of the educational technology developed for teaching logic ignores their application in a more large portion of the CS and SE education domain. In this paper we describe an innovative methodology based on a prototype logic teaching tool on semantic tableaux to prepare and train the students for using logic as a formal proof technique in other topics of CS and SE, such as the formal verification of algorithms and the declarative debugging of imperative programs, which are at the basis of a good development of software. Along the academic course 2009/2010 we have evaluated the part of the tool concerning the analysis of algorithms and software engineering. The tool evaluation is carried by means of tests, some of them managed from a Virtual Campus, with open access to all the students, and another one managed in a computer laboratory with a controlled group. We show this educational experience about the benefits that the students get from the tool in the current teaching of the design of software.
Path planning with Multiple Rapidly-exploring Random Trees for teams of robots

This paper addresses the problem of real-time planning and control of a group of aerial vehicles flying in environments with obstacles and subject to disturbances and uncertainties.We present a novel methodology to the coordination of multiple vehicles based on a classical technique known as Closed Loop Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (CL-RRT). We use a distributed processing framework and communication to optimize the plans being executed by each agent of the team, providing better solutions to the execution step of the CL-RRT. This technique endows each agent with the capability to navigate through the environment while avoiding collisions with obstacles as well as with other team agents. The keypoint is a prediction scheme executed by each robot that infers the behavior of the entire team at each time step. We show the applicability of the method by planning and executing waypoint navigation tasks for a group of Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (MUAVs) - modelled in SE(3) - in outdoor environments.
On influence maximization to target users in the presence of multiple acceptances

In this paper, we study a novel problem of influence maximization in social networks: Given a period of promotion time and a set of target users, each of which can be activated by its neighbors multiple times, we aim at maximizing the total acceptance frequency of these target users by initially selecting k most influential seeds. The promising viral marketing paradigm on social network is different from the current research in two main aspects. First, instead of maximizing the message spread over the entire social network, we focus on the target market since the business vendors almost specify the target users before designing its marketing strategy. Second, the status of a user is no longer a binary indicator representing either active or inactive. In the new model the user status turns to be an integer value reflecting the amount of influences delivered to that user. In this paper, we prove the NP-hard nature of this challenging problem.
Distribution and lateral mobility of glycine receptors on cultured spinal cord neurons

Strychnine is one of the most potent antagonists of glycine-mediated inhibitory conductances in the mammalian spinal cord. In order to examine the distribution of glycine receptors (GlyRs) on neuronal cells, 2 novel fluorescent strychnine derivatives were synthesized and characterized chemically, spectroscopically, and biologically. Both compounds retain their biological activity after derivatization and are potent inhibitors of 3H-strychnine binding to bovine spinal cord membranes and membranes from rat spinal cord cultures. Using these fluorescent strychnine analogs, the cellular distribution and lateral mobility of GlyRs on cultured rat spinal cord neurons were studied by digital fluorescence imaging and photobleach recovery microscopy. On these neurons, even in the absence of observable synaptic contact and early in development GlyRs are predominantly localized to cell bodies with sparse labeling of neuritic processes. Although GlyRs are confined to the neuronal cell body, approximately 50% of the receptors are very mobile, with lateral diffusion coefficients of 1.15 +/- 0.05 x 10(-9) cm2/sec, a value which is characteristic of unrestricted protein lateral diffusion. However, the remaining fraction of these receptors are immobile on the neuronal cell body. More than 70% of the GlyRs distributed on neuronal processes are immobile, while 30% are laterally mobile, with diffusion rates of 5.50 +/- 0.1 x 10(-10) cm2/sec. The results indicate that even early in development GlyRs are expressed and segregated to the cell body, where they are confined within a domain that restricts their redistribution.
Signal-to-Signal Ratio Independent Speaker Identification for Co-channel Speech Signals

In this paper, we consider speaker identification for the co-channel scenario in which speech mixture from speakers is recorded by one microphone only. The goal is to identify both of the speakers from their mixed signal. High recognition accuracies have already been reported when an accurately estimated signal-to-signal ratio (SSR) is available. In this paper, we approach the problem without estimating SSR. We show that a simple method based on fusion of adapted Gaussian mixture models and Kullback-Leibler divergence calculated between models, achieves an accuracy of 97% and 93% when the two target speakers enlisted as three and two most probable speakers, respectively.
Markers of Oxidative Stress in Dogs with Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease are Influenced by Sex, Neuter Status, and Serum Cholesterol Concentration

Background Cardiovascular disease has been associated with oxidative stress, which has been suggested to contribute to myocardial remodeling in human patients. Little is known about the relationship between myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) and oxidative stress in dogs. Objective To determine whether clinical stage of MMVD is associated with changes in the plasma concentrations of certain markers of oxidative stress in clinically healthy dogs and dogs with MMVD. Animals Seventy five privately owned dogs: 59 cavalier King Charles Spaniels (CKCS) with different severities of MMVD and 16 dogs of different breeds with clinical signs of congestive heart failure (CHF) caused by MMVD. Methods Markers of oxidative stress including malondialdehyde (MDA), oxidized low‐density lipoprotein (oxLDL), and vitamin E (α‐tocopherol and γ‐tocopherol) were measured in plasma and their association with clinical stage of MMVD was assessed by regression analyses. Results Plasma oxLDL concentration was significantly lower in female dogs compared with males (P = .01). Significantly higher plasma γ‐tocopherol concentrations were found in neutered (P = .003) dogs. Vitamin E (α‐tocopherol [P = .0004] and γ‐tocopherol [P = .003]) was associated with body condition score (BCS), but the association disappeared when cholesterol was included in the analyses. All markers of oxidative stress (MDA, oxLDL, and vitamin E) were positively associated with serum cholesterol concentration (P ≤ .04), but none were associated with clinical stage of MMVD. Conclusions In conclusion, markers of oxidative stress are associated with sex, BCS, neuter status, and cholesterol. The results cannot confirm a relationship between oxidative stress and clinical stage of the disease in dogs with MMVD.
A study on the reproducibility of biometric authentication based on electroencephalogram (EEG)

This paper introduced a method for biometric authentication using EEG signals. Especially, we focused on the performance of reproducibility for personal authentication. Four healthy subjects participated in the experiment. EEG was measured from only one bipolar channel (O1A2) during resting state with closed eyes. EEG was also recorded with same protocol from same subjects on different days to verify reproducibility (the interval between 1st and 2nd recording: 10 days or 5 months). Three features were extracted: the spectral power, the maximum power, and the frequency of maximum power in alpha band. Linear discriminant analysis was used as a classifier. The authentication accuracy for reproducibility was 98.33% with 20s data length and 100% with 50s data length.
A case study of the forgetting of autobiographical knowledge: Implications for the study of retrograde amnesia.

Introduction There is little doubt that cognitive psychology has made a great contribution to the study of organic amnesia. Most of the published investigations of amnesia during the past 15 years have involved the application of cognitive concepts or theories to the severe memory disorders of patients with diencephalic or medial temporal lobe dysfunction. Theories stressing the distinction between episodic and semantic memory, the role of proactive interference in retrieval processes, and failures in encoding have all been thoroughly explored, with their limitations as well as their utility as heuristic models for guiding amnesia research duly recorded (for reviews, see Butters & Cermak, 1980; Hirst, 1982; Piercy, 1977; Squire, 1982). This reliance upon a field that clearly emphasizes memory for recently acquired information (usually learned in the laboratory) has resulted in a disproportionate emphasis on anterograde rather than retrograde amnesia (RA). Most of the reported studies since 1970 have been concerned with information-processing deficits underlying amnesic patients' inability to learn new information presented subsequent to the onset of their amnesia (i.e., anterograde amnesia). Relatively few studies have been concerned with the amnesics' diminished ability to recall events and information learned prior to the onset of their neurological disorder (i.e., retrograde amnesia). Those that have been reported are generally more concerned with delineating the severity and duration of this impairment than with describing the cognitive processes that might contribute to the disorder.
EcoCyc: A comprehensive view of Escherichia coli biology

EcoCyc (http://EcoCyc.org) provides a comprehensive encyclopedia of Escherichia coli biology. EcoCyc integrates information about the genome, genes and gene products; the metabolic network; and the regulatory network of E. coli. Recent EcoCyc developments include a new initiative to represent and curate all types of E. coli regulatory processes such as attenuation and regulation by small RNAs. EcoCyc has started to curate Gene Ontology (GO) terms for E. coli and has made a dataset of E. coli GO terms available through the GO Web site. The curation and visualization of electron transfer processes has been significantly improved. Other software and Web site enhancements include the addition of tracks to the EcoCyc genome browser, in particular a type of track designed for the display of ChIP-chip datasets, and the development of a comparative genome browser. A new Genome Omics Viewer enables users to paint omics datasets onto the full E. coli genome for analysis. A new advanced query page guides users in interactively constructing complex database queries against EcoCyc. A Macintosh version of EcoCyc is now available. A series of Webinars is available to instruct users in the use of EcoCyc.
THE RELATIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF SYNTACTIC KNOWLEDGE AND VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Title of Dissertation: THE RELATIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF SYNTACTIC KNOWLEDGE AND VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE LISTENING COMPREHENSION Payman Vafaee, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Directed By: Dr. Steve Ross, Second Language Acquisition The main purpose of the current study was to examine the role of vocabulary knowledge (VK) and syntactic knowledge (SK) in L2 listening comprehension, as well as their relative significance. Unlike previous studies, the current project employed assessment tasks to measure aural and proceduralized VK and SK. In terms of VK, to avoid underrepresenting the construct, measures of both breadth (VB) and depth (VD) were included. Additionally, the current study examined the role of VK and SK by accounting for individual differences in two important cognitive factors in L2 listening: metacognitive knowledge (MK) and working memory (WM). Also, to explore the role of VK and SK more fully, the current study accounted for the negative impact of anxiety on WM and L2 listening. The study was carried out in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, and participants were 263 Iranian learners at a wide range of English proficiency from lower-intermediate to advanced. Participants took a battery of ten linguistic, cognitive and affective measures. Then, the collected data were subjected to several preliminary analyses, but structural equation modeling (SEM) was then used as the primary analysis method to answer the study research questions. Results of the preliminary analyses revealed that MK and WM were significant predictors of L2 listening ability; thus, they were kept in the main SEM analyses. The significant role of WM was only observed when the negative effect of anxiety on WM was accounted for. Preliminary analyses also showed that VB and VD were not distinct measures of VK. However, the results also showed that if VB and VD were considered separate, VD was a better predictor of L2 listening success. The main analyses of the current study revealed a significant role for both VK and SK in explaining success in L2 listening comprehension, which differs from findings from previous empirical studies. However, SEM analysis did not reveal a statistically significant difference in terms of the predictive power of the two linguistic factors. Descriptive results of the SEM analysis, along with results from regression analysis, indicated to a more significant role for VK. THE RELATIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF SYNTACTIC KNOWLEDGE AND VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE LISTENING COMPREHENSION