Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GLOMOsys: A Systems Account of Global Versus Local Processing

Within GLOMOsys (the GLObal versus LOcal processing MOdel, a systems account) we examine the functionalities of two processing systems that process information either globally or locally (looking at the forest vs. the trees). GLOMOsys suggests that (a) global versus local perceptual processing carries over to other tasks; (b) perceptual processing is related to conceptual processing (e.g., creative/analytic tasks; face/verbal recognition; similarity/dissimilarity generation; abstract/concrete construals, distance estimates, inclusive/exclusive categorization; assimilation/contrast in social judgments); (c) perceptual and conceptual processing is elicited by real-world variables (e.g., mood, exteroceptive and interoceptive cues of approach/avoidance, promotion/prevention focus, high/low power, distance, obstacles, novelty/familiarity, love/sex, interdependent/independent selves); (d) regulatory focus, psychological distance, and novelty are driving effects; and (e) the global system (glo-sys) processes novelty and the local system (lo-sys) processes familiarity. We discuss whether glo-sys is responsible for understanding meaning, relate the systems to physiological research, and discuss new research questions.
Parameter extraction for diagnosing patent ductus arteriosus in preterm neonates using phonocardiography

In this paper a method is described for parameter extraction from murmur related to patent ductus arterio-sus (PDA) in case of preterm infants using phonocardiography. The relationship between the extracted time and frequency domain parameters and the medical parameters of the patent ductus arteriosus has been investigated. This analysis revealed that the frequency parameters of the murmur could be related to the diameter of the PDA and to the maximal blood flow velocity through the PDA. Nevertheless the results are promising, further work is needed for more reliable parameter estimation for robust verification of the mentioned relationships.
Evaluating CoLiDeS + Pic: the role of relevance of pictures in user navigation behaviour

CoLiDeS + Pic is a cognitive model of web-navigation that incorporates semantic information from pictures intoCoLiDeS. In our earlier research, we have demonstrated that by incorporating semantic information from pictures, CoLiDeS + Pic can predict the hyperlinks on the shortest path more frequently, and also with greater information scent, compared to earlier cognitive models of web-navigation like CoLiDeS that relied only on textualinformation from hyperlinks. In this article, we investigate the following research questions. First, would the increase in information scent have an impact on the actual user navigation behaviour? Second, do users actually follow the navigation path predicted by CoLiDeS + Pic? In other words, would CoLiDeS + Pic predict actual user navigation behaviour more accurately than CoLiDeS? We investigate these questions by varying the relevance of pictures on aweb page and studying the impact of varying relevance on the user navigation patterns. We found that under the highly relevant picture condition, users were more accurate and took less time to finish their tasks. Also, under thehighly relevant picture condition, CoLiDeS + Pic predicts significantly greater number of actual user clicks. There was no significant difference in model predictions between the lowly relevant picture condition and no-picture condition. These results validate the predictions made by CoLiDeS + Pic.
Wide area camera calibration using virtual calibration objects

The paper introduces a method to calibrate a wide area system of unsynchronized cameras with respect to a single global coordinate system. The method is simple and does not require the physical construction of a large calibration object. The user need only wave an identifiable point in front of all cameras. The method generates a rough estimate of camera pose by first performing pair-wise structure-from-motion on observed points, and then combining the pair-wise registrations into a single coordinate frame. Using the initial camera pose, the moving point can be tracked in world space. The path of the point defines a "virtual calibration object" which can be used to improve the initial estimates of camera pose. Iterating the above process yields a more precise estimate of both camera pose and the point path. Experimental results show that it performs as well as calibration from a physical target, in cases where all cameras share some common working volume. We then demonstrate its effectiveness in wide area settings by calibrating a system of cameras in a configuration where traditional methods cannot be applied directly.
Is There an Association between Socioeconomic Status and Body Mass Index among Adolescents in Mauritius?

There are no documented studies on socioeconomic status (SES) and body mass index (BMI) among Mauritian adolescents. This study aimed to determine the relationships between SES and BMI among adolescents with focus on diet quality and physical activity (PA) as mediating factors. Mauritian school adolescents (n = 200; 96 males, 104 females) were recruited using multistage sampling. Participants completed a self-reported questionnaire. Height and weight were measured and used to calculate BMI (categorised into underweight, healthy-weight, overweight, obese). Chi-square test, Pearson correlation, and Independent samples t-test were used for statistical analysis. A negative association was found between SES and BMI (χ 2 = 8.15%, P < 0.05). Diet quality, time spent in PA at school (P = 0.000), but not total PA (P = 0.562), were significantly associated with high SES. Poor diet quality and less time spent in PA at school could explain BMI discrepancies between SES groups.
Bench‐Scale Biofilter for Removing Ammonia from Poultry House Exhaust

A bench‐scale biofilter was evaluated for removing ammonia (NH3) from poultry house exhaust. The biofilter system was equipped with a compost filter to remove NH3 and calcium oxide (CaO) filter to remove carbon dioxide (CO2). Removal of NH3 and CO2 from poultry house exhaust could allow treated air with residual heat to be recirculated back into the poultry house to conserve energy during winter months. Apart from its use as a plant nutrient, NH3 removal from poultry house exhaust could lessen the adverse environmental impacts of NH3 emissions. Ammonia and CO2 were measured daily with gas detector tubes while temperatures in the poultry pen and compost filter were monitored to evaluate the thermal impact of the biofilter on treated air. During the first 37 days of the 54‐day study, exhaust air from 33 birds housed in a pen was treated in the biofilter; for the final 17 days, NH3‐laden exhaust, obtained by applying urea to the empty pen was treated in the biofilter. The biofilter system provided near‐complete attenuation of a maximum short‐term NH3 concentration of 73 ppm. During the last 17 days, with a mean influent NH3 concentration of 26 ppm, the biofilter provided 97% attenuation. The CaO filter was effective in attenuating CO2. Compared with a biofilter sized only for NH3 removal, an oversized biofilter would be required to provide supplemental heat to the treated air through exothermic biochemical reactions in the compost. The biofilter could conserve energy in poultry production and capture NH3 for use as plant nutrient. Based on this study, a house for 27,000 broilers would require a compost filter with a volume of ∼34 m3.
Training Soldiers to Decode Nonverbal Cues in Cross-Cultural Interactions

Abstract : The objective of this effort was to obtain information to increase Soldiers' ability to decode nonverbal cues (NVCs) in cross-cultural interactions. Iraq was selected as the target location for this effort. The authors conducted a literature review, ran two focus groups with Soldiers, and videotaped Iraqi actors hired to display a series of emotions, actions, and gestures that are exhibited in Iraqi culture. The findings paint an unclear picture of the extent to which differences exist in NVCs between Americans and Iraqis and their impact on mission outcomes for U.S. Soldiers. The literature describes a strong universal element to nonverbal communication. However, more recent work also documents an in-group advantage. The Iraqi actors displayed some, but not many, gestures that are unlikely to be seen in the United States. U.S. Soldiers in our focus groups felt they were generally able to read most Iraqis' nonverbal behaviors. The authors recommend that future NVC research target specific, well-defined contexts such as negotiations. They also recommend starting such efforts by carefully collecting and validating Iraqi culture-specific NVC. The final recommendation is to develop a training program that gives careful attention to the setting, training stimuli, practice and feedback, and training impact evaluation.
Dynamic perfusion assessment by contrast-enhanced ultrasound in blood-brain barrier disruption

Recently, blood-brain barrier disruption (BBBD) has been performed by focused ultrasound (FUS) combining with microbubbles (MBs). The outcome of BBBD enhances local drug or gene delivery for improving the treatment efficiency of brain diseases. However, over-excitation of FUS may cause brain damage such as shutdown blood flow, intracerebral hemorrhage and brain edema. Therefore, it is essential to develop a an imaging system to assess dynamic perfusion changes during FUS-induced BBBD process. Here, we used the high-frequency destruction/reperfusion contrast-enhanced imaging technique to observe the cerebral perfusion under the cases of with/without hemorrhage in BBBD procedure. The BBB was disrupted by a 2.25 MHz FUS combining with MBs at 0.5-0.7 MPa (pulse repetition frequency: 1 Hz, pulse length: 1 ms, sonication time: 60 s). The results showed that the velocity of blood flow decreased after BBBD induced by FUS sonication. Particularly, the plateau of time-intensity curve was higher than prior to MBs destruction at 20 s after sonication and the blood flow would be obstructed due to the blood coagulates at 60s after sonication. The pattern of hemorrhagic damage caused by FUS can be monitored by the TIC. In addition, the location of blood flow velocity decrease was consistent with the areas of BBBD and the variation of blood flow depends on the applied acoustic pressure. In conclusion, the blood flow velocity changes have potential as an in vivo tool for quantifying the extent of the FUS-induced BBBD and detecting intracerebral hemorrhage occurrence.
Learning to Plan in Complex Stochastic Domains

Probabilistic planning offers a powerful framework for general problem solving. Historically, probabilistic planning algorithms have contributed to a variety of critical application areas and technologies, including conservation biology [42], self-driving cars [48, 37], and space exploration [14, 6, 20]. However, optimal planning is known to be P-Complete with respect to the size of the state-action space [41], imposing a harsh constraint on the types of problems that may be solved in real time. One way of enabling probabilistic planning algorithms to efficiently solve more complex problems is to provide knowledge about the task of interest; this knowledge might be in the form of an abstracted representation that reduces the dimensionality of the problem, or a heuristic that biases exploration toward the optimal solution. Unfortunately, these forms of knowledge are highly specific to the particular problem instance, and often require significant reworking in order to transfer between slight variants of the same task. As a result, each new problem instance requires a newly engineered body of knowledge. Alternatively, we propose learning to plan, in which planners acquire useful domain knowledge about how to solve families of related problems from a small training set of tasks, eliminating the need for hand engineering knowledge. The critical insight is that problems that are too complex to solve efficiently often resemble much simpler problems for which optimal solutions may be computed. By extracting relevant characteristics of the simple problems’ solutions, we develop algorithms to solve the more complex problems by learning about the structure of optimal behavior in the training tasks. In particular, we introduce goal-based action priors [2], that guide planners according to which actions are likely to be useful under different conditions. The priors are informed during a training stage in which simple, tractable tasks are solved, and whose solutions inform the planner about optimal behavior in much more complex tasks from the same domain. We demonstrate that goal-based action priors dramatically reduce the time taken to find a near-optimal plan compared to baselines, and suggest that learning to plan is a compelling means of scaling planning algorithms to solve families of complex tasks without the need for hand engineered knowledge.
Results on Punctured Low-Density Parity-Check Codes and Improved Iterative Decoding Techniques

This paper first introduces an improved decoding algorithm for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over binary-input-output-symmetric memoryless channels. Then some fundamental properties of punctured LDPC codes are presented. It is proved that for any ensemble of LDPC codes, there exists a puncturing threshold. It is then proved that for any rates R1 and R2 satisfying 0<R1<R 2<1, there exists an ensemble of LDPC codes with the following property. The ensemble can be punctured from rate R1 to R2 resulting in asymptotically good codes for all rates R1lesRlesR2. Specifically, this implies that rates arbitrarily close to one are achievable via puncturing. Bounds on the performance of punctured LDPC codes are also presented. It is also shown that punctured LDPC codes are as good as ordinary LDPC codes. For BEC and arbitrary positive numbers R1<R2<1, the existence of the sequences of punctured LDPC codes that are capacity-achieving for all rates R1 lesRlesR2 is shown. Based on the above observations, a method is proposed to design good punctured LDPC codes over a broad range of rates. Finally, it is shown that the results of this paper may be used for the proof of the existence of the capacity-achieving LDPC codes over binary-input-output-symmetric memoryless channels
Randomized Algorithms over Finite Fields for the Exact Parity Base Problem

Abstract We present three randomized pseudo-polynomial algorithms for the problem of finding a base of specified value in a weighted represented matroid subject to parity conditions. These algorithms, the first two being an improved version of those presented by P. M. Camerini et al. (1992, J. Algorithms13, 258–273) use fast arithmetic working over a finite field chosen at random among a set of appropriate fields. We show that the choice of a best algorithm among those presented depends on a conjecture related to the best value of the so-called Linnik constant concerning the distribution of prime numbers in arithmetic progressions. This conjecture, which we call the C-conjecture, is a strengthened version of a conjecture formulated in 1934 by S. Chowla. If the C-conjecture is true, the choice of a best algorithm is simple, since the last algorithm exhibits the best performance, either when the performance is measured in arithmetic operations, or when it is measured in bit operations and mild assumptions hold. If the C-conjecture is false we are still able to identify a best algorithm, but in this case the choice is between the first two algorithms and depends on the asymptotic growth of m with respect to those of U and n, where 2n, 2m, U are the rank, the number of elements, and the maximum weight assigned to the elements of the matroid, respectively.
Adapting to an Uncertain World: Cognitive Capacity and Causal Reasoning with Ambiguous Observations

Ambiguous causal evidence in which the covariance of the cause and effect is partially known is pervasive in real life situations. Little is known about how people reason about causal associations with ambiguous information and the underlying cognitive mechanisms. This paper presents three experiments exploring the cognitive mechanisms of causal reasoning with ambiguous observations. Results revealed that the influence of ambiguous observations manifested by missing information on causal reasoning depended on the availability of cognitive resources, suggesting that processing ambiguous information may involve deliberative cognitive processes. Experiment 1 demonstrated that subjects did not ignore the ambiguous observations in causal reasoning. They also had a general tendency to treat the ambiguous observations as negative evidence against the causal association. Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 included a causal learning task requiring a high cognitive demand in which paired stimuli were presented to subjects sequentially. Both experiments revealed that processing ambiguous or missing observations can depend on the availability of cognitive resources. Experiment 2 suggested that the contribution of working memory capacity to the comprehensiveness of evidence retention was reduced when there were ambiguous or missing observations. Experiment 3 demonstrated that an increase in cognitive demand due to a change in the task format reduced subjects’ tendency to treat ambiguous-missing observations as negative cues.
A comparison of performance of three orthogonal polynomials in extraction of wide-band response using early time and low frequency data

The objective of this paper is to generate a wideband and temporal response of three-dimensional composite structures by using a hybrid method that involves generation of early time and low-frequency information. The data in these two separate time and frequency domains are mutually complementary and contain all the necessary information for a sufficient record length. Utilizing a set of orthogonal polynomials, the time domain signal (be it the electric or the magnetic currents or the near/far scattered electromagnetic field) could be expressed in an efficient way as well as the corresponding frequency domain responses. The available data is simultaneously extrapolated in both domains. Computational load for electromagnetic analysis in either domain, time or frequency, can be thus significantly reduced. Three orthogonal polynomial representations including Hermite polynomial, Laguerre function and Bessel function are used in this approach. However, the performance of this new method is sensitive to two important parameters-the scaling factor l/sub 1/ and the expansion order N. It is therefore important to find the optimal parameters to achieve the best performance. A comparison is presented to illustrate that for the classes of problems dealt with, the choice of the Laguerre polynomials has the best performance as illustrated by a typical scattering example from a dielectric hemisphere.
Application of Diffusion-Weighted Imaging in the Detection of Active Sacroiliitis and the Comparison of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient and Relative Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Values.

Objectives This study aims to evaluate the role of diffusion-weighted imaging in detection of active sacroiliitis and compare the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and normalized relative ADC (r-ADC) values by using vertebra and iliac wings as reference organs. Patients and methods The study included 56 patients (26 males, 30 females; mean age 37.7±10.1 years; range 18 to 66 years) with chronic back pain and without history of sacroiliitis who underwent magnetic resonance imaging. T2-weighted spectral presaturation with inversion recovery, contrast-enhanced T1-weighted spectral presaturation with inversion recovery, and diffusion-weighted (b values: 0 and 600 s/mm2) images were obtained. All images were evaluated by two different radiologists for interobserver variability. All individuals were grouped in either mechanical low back pain (control group) or active sacroilitis (disease group) groups according to the presence or absence of MRI findings of active sacroilitis. ADC values of both surfaces were measured from normal and affected areas of joints. Also, ADC values of L5 vertebra and iliac wings were measured as reference organs to calculate r-ADC values. Results Mean ADC and r-ADC values measured from lesions were significantly higher than that of normal appearing bone marrow areas in both patients with mechanical low back pain (n=17) and active sacroiliitis (n=39). Both ADC values and r-ADC values could differentiate active lesions from normal appearing bone marrow areas as well as contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images. According to r-ADC values calculated with the L5 vertebra, unaffected portions of bone marrow areas in patients with sacroiliitis were normalized whereas r-ADC remained higher than normal in affected portions of the bones. Conclusion Diffusion-weighted imaging is a fast, sensitive magnetic resonance imaging sequence in detection of active sacroiliitis. It does not require contrast agent and can be safely used as an adjunct to conventional magnetic resonance images. r-ADC is also highly sensitive in detecting active sacroiliitis and may be used as an alternative to standard ADC measurements for the demonstration of inflammation. It helps eliminate individual bone marrow differences by using patients' own normal bone marrow measurements and increases diagnostic accuracy.
Size and Liquidity Effects in Nigeria: An Industrial Sector Study

This study estimates liquidity premiums using the recently developed Liu (2006) measure within a multifactor capital asset pricing model (CAPM) including size premiums and a time varying parameter model for the West African emerging market of Nigeria. The evidence suggests that liquidity factors are relevant only for financial and basic materials sector stocks while size factor is more generally relevant in explaining the cross section of stock returns in the Nigerian domestic equity market. Costs of equity estimates are high further underlining the limitations of this market as a capital-raising venue in contrast to the dominant banking sector.
Does a risky outcome of antenatal screening test indicate oxidative stress?

Abstract Objective: The study aimed to investigate a possible relationship between second trimester aneuploidiy screening results and oxidative stress in foetal amnion and maternal serum. Methods: Concerning the outcome of the second-trimester screening test, 50 pregnant women of high risk were included in the experimental group, whereas 50 pregnant women with normal scores who wished to proceed with the amniocentesis procedure due to advanced maternal age and counselling were included in the control group. The biochemical parameters of total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS) and oxidative stress index (OSI) were measured in the amniotic fluid samples and maternal serum samples. Results: OSI in the maternal serum samples, as well as TAS and TOS in the amniotic fluid, was significantly higher in the control group compared to the experimental group (p < 0.001, p = 0.047, p = 0.005, respectively). There was no significant difference in the TAS and TOS in the maternal serum samples or the OSI in the amniotic fluid between the groups. Conclusions: The results indicate that the positivity of the screening test is not significantly correlated with oxidative stress, a factor regarded as a pathological mechanism in various diseases. Potential maternal anxiety could underlie the elevated oxidative stress in the control group.