Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primatology is Politics by Other Means

The scientific field studies of monkeys and apes are constrained by complex story-telling practices structured by major organizing axes for western symbolic and social systems. Arguing that feminist contests for authoritative accounts of evolution and behavioral biology work by phase shifts and field disruptions in narrative patterns, and not by paradigm replacement or other processes commonly examined in the philosophy and history of science, this paper examines the practice of women primatologists in the U.S. in the late 20th century in relation to the crucial dialectical, antagonistic constructions: nature/culture and sex/gender.
A computational framework for the study of confidence in humans and animals

Confidence judgements, self-assessments about the quality of a subject's knowledge, are considered a central example of metacognition. Prima facie, introspection and self-report appear the only way to access the subjective sense of confidence or uncertainty. Contrary to this notion, overt behavioural measures can be used to study confidence judgements by animals trained in decision-making tasks with perceptual or mnemonic uncertainty. Here, we suggest that a computational approach can clarify the issues involved in interpreting these tasks and provide a much needed springboard for advancing the scientific understanding of confidence. We first review relevant theories of probabilistic inference and decision-making. We then critically discuss behavioural tasks employed to measure confidence in animals and show how quantitative models can help to constrain the computational strategies underlying confidence-reporting behaviours. In our view, post-decision wagering tasks with continuous measures of confidence appear to offer the best available metrics of confidence. Since behavioural reports alone provide a limited window into mechanism, we argue that progress calls for measuring the neural representations and identifying the computations underlying confidence reports. We present a case study using such a computational approach to study the neural correlates of decision confidence in rats. This work shows that confidence assessments may be considered higher order, but can be generated using elementary neural computations that are available to a wide range of species. Finally, we discuss the relationship of confidence judgements to the wider behavioural uses of confidence and uncertainty.
Hemodynamic and sympathetic effects of fenoldopam and sodium nitroprusside

Background: Fenoldopam is a novel dopamine‐1 receptor selective agonist that can be used as a vasodilator perioperatively to treat hypertension and to produce induced hypotension. We were interested to find out whether there were any differences between fenoldopam (FM) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP), one of the most popular vasodilators, in their effects on hemodynamics and sympathetic outflow using not only neuraxis intact but also baro‐denervated animal models.
Community Participation : A Technology Acceptance Perspective

Online community participation has not been well understood from the perspective of technology adoption and use. Using a national sample of 537 online community participants in the United States and structural equation modeling, this study demonstrates that the technology acceptance model (TAM) can provide a useful foundation for theoretical explanation. By empirically testing the original TAM and comparing it with an alternative model, our results confirmed that perceived usefulness (PU) outweighs perceived ease of use (PEOU) in explaining actual use. Our final model further suggested a feedback loop between PU and PEOU, which significantly improved the model fit at both global and local levels. In addition, three exogenous variables (i.e., Internet self-efficacy, community environment, and intrinsic motivation) were proposed and validated. These findings have clear implications for the structure of the TAM as well as for its usefulness for the newly burgeoning practice of online community participation.
Cost-effective diffusion Kalman filtering with implicit measurement exchanges

A resource effective extension to the class of distributed real-time diffusion Kalman filters is proposed. The proposed scheme removes the need to share measurement variables explicitly, by sharing only the state estimates and state error covariance matrices which implicitly contain the information about the measurements, observations matrices, and noise covariance matrices. The proposed distributed Kalman filter is quiet general, and its performance is comparable to that of existing diffusion based schemes, while having lower communication and computational requirements per-iteration compared to current distributed Kalman filtering algorithms.
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC PROCESSING OF LOW ALTITUDE IMAGE SEQUENCES BY UNMANNED AIRSHIP

Low altitude aerial image sequences have the advantages of high overlap, multi viewing and very high ground resolution. These kinds of images can be used in various applications that need high precision or fine texture. This paper mainly focuses on the photogrammetric processing of low altitude image sequences acquired by unmanned airship, which automatically flies according to the predefined flight routes under the controlment of autopilot system. The overlap and relative rotation parameters between two adjacent images are estimated by matching two images as a whole and then precisely determined by pyramid based image matching and relative orientation. The matched image points and ground control points are then used for aerial triangulation with collinearity equations. The aerial triangulated high resolution images can be used to obtain precise spatial information products, such as Digital Surface Model (DSM), Digital Ortho Map (DOM) large scale Digital Linear Graphic (DLG) and three-dimensional (3D) city model. Experimental results show that the developed remote sensing system is qualified for high overlap and high resolution stereo imagery acquisition. Moreover, the proposed approaches are effective for photogrammetric processing of low altitude image sequences, and have well potentials in large scale topographic mapping and precise 3D reconstruction areas.
Does Dixon's Integrative Environmental Health Model inform an understanding of rural parents' perceptions of local environmental health risks?

A qualitative study of parents' perceptions of local environmental health risks was conducted to assess the fit between concepts from Dixon's Integrative Environmental Health Model (DIEH model) and field-generated data. This research was part of a prospective study addressing environmental exposures of rural low-income children. Home visit data from 11 parents were analyzed (1) thematically and (2) according to DIEH concepts. These complementary analyses allowed the researchers to examine perceptions that were congruent with or diverged from the DIEH model. Findings revealed that participants were concerned about children's exposure to pathogenic molds and cigarette smoke and felt uninformed about risks and prevention strategies. Barriers to preventive actions included families' lack of time and a disinterest in brochures. Participants reported being "stuck" in substandard housing by poverty and family demands. They expressed concern about risks, but were unsure "what to worry about. " Results provided the researchers with confidence that the DIEH model aligned with participants' cognitive constructions of risk. As a result, the DIEH model was incorporated into the conceptualization for the clinical trial phase of the study. This type of check between a theoretical approach and field data can be a helpful intermediate step for researchers involved in multiyear studies.
Recent lattice QCD results at non-zero baryon densities

At zero baryon density lattice QCD is an established tool, that provides precise theoretical results. Calculations at non zero densities however require new techniques to deal with the sign problem. In this talk I will review the recent progress that is made in lattice QCD to investigate QCD at non-vanishing baryon chemical potential.
Alcohol Affects Emotion Through Cognition

Determining how cognition and emotion interact is pivotal to an understanding of human behavior and its disorders. Available data suggest that changes in emotional reactivity and behavior associated with drinking are intertwined with alcohol's effects on cognitive processing. In the study reported here, we demonstrated that alcohol dampens anticipatory fear and response inhibition in human participants not by directly suppressing subcortical emotion centers, as posited by traditional tension-reduction theories, but instead by impairing cognitive-processing capacity. During intoxication, reductions in fear response (assessed via startle potentiation) occurred only under dual-stimulus conditions, and coincided with reduced attentional processing of threat cues as evidenced by brain response (assessed via P3 event-related potentials). The results are consistent with higher cortical mediation of alcohol's effects on fear, and illustrate more broadly how disruption of a cognitive process can lead to alterations in emotional reactivity and adaptive behavior.
Targeted or whole genome sequencing of formalin fixed tissue samples: potential applications in cancer genomics

Current genomic studies are limited by the poor availability of fresh-frozen tissue samples. Although formalin-fixed diagnostic samples are in abundance, they are seldom used in current genomic studies because of the concern of formalin-fixation artifacts. Better characterization of these artifacts will allow the use of archived clinical specimens in translational and clinical research studies. To provide a systematic analysis of formalin-fixation artifacts on Illumina sequencing, we generated 26 DNA sequencing data sets from 13 pairs of matched formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) and fresh-frozen (FF) tissue samples. The results indicate high rate of concordant calls between matched FF/FFPE pairs at reference and variant positions in three commonly used sequencing approaches (whole genome, whole exome, and targeted exon sequencing). Global mismatch rates and C·G > T·A substitutions were comparable between matched FF/FFPE samples, and discordant rates were low (<0.26%) in all samples. Finally, low-pass whole genome sequencing produces similar pattern of copy number alterations between FF/FFPE pairs. The results from our studies suggest the potential use of diagnostic FFPE samples for cancer genomic studies to characterize and catalog variations in cancer genomes.
On the Application of Active Learning and Gaussian Processes in Postcryopreservation Cell Membrane Integrity Experiments

Biological cell cryopreservation permits storage of specimens for future use. Stem cell cryostorage in particular is fast becoming a broadly spread practice due to their potential for use in regenerative medicine. For the optimal cryopreservation process, ultralow temperatures are needed. However, elevated temperatures are often unavoidable in a typical sample handling cycle which in turn negatively affects the postcryopreservation integrity of cells. In this paper, we present an application of active learning using an underlying Gaussian Process (GP) model in an experimental study on postcryopreservation membrane integrity response to a range of elevated temperature conditions. We tailored this technique for the current investigation and developed an algorithm which enabled identification of the sampling locations for the experiments in order to obtain the highest information return about the process from a limited size sample set. We applied this algorithm in the experimental study investigating the effects of severe temperature elevation (ranging from -40 to 20°C) over a short term event (48 hours) on the postcryopreservation membrane integrity of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) derived from human bone marrow. The algorithm showed excellent performance by selecting the locations which maximized the reduction of variance of the process response estimate. An approximating GP model developed from this experimental data shows that the elevated temperatures during cryopreservation have an imminent detrimental effect on cell integrity.
Understanding Police Gang Data at the Aggregate Level: An Examination of the Reliability of National Youth Gang Survey Data (Research Note)

The National Youth Gang Survey (NYGS) is an annual survey of a nationally representative sample of police agencies administered by the National Gang Center that provides data on the number of gangs, gang members, and gang homicides across jurisdictions. The focus of the current study is the reliability of key measures of gang behavior measured by the NYGS. Specifically, the current study assesses NYGS data from 2005 to 2009 in terms of missing data, test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, and inter-observer reliability. Results showed low levels of missing data for number of gangs and number of gang homicides in jurisdictions with fewer than 200,000 people, while measures of number of gang members and gang homicides in jurisdictions over 200,000 people had missing data from about 30% of participating jurisdictions. The findings also suggest that the NYGS data on gangs and gang members are generally highly reliable. Data on gang homicides also exhibited a high degree of reliability, but only for jurisdictions with populations over 200,000. Implications of the findings and recommendations for future research are discussed.
An improved RANSAC algorithm using within-class scatter matrix for fast image stitching

An improved RANSAC algorithm using within-class scatter matrix for fast image stitching is proposed in this paper. First, features described by SIFT are extracted. Next, the Min-cost K-flow algorithm is used to match SIFT points in different images. Then, the improved RANSAC algorithm with the within-class scatter matrix is used to divide the matching feature points into two classes: inliers and outliers. Finally, the homography is computed in the set of inliers. Experiment results show that the improved algorithm can increase the registration speed by some 20 percent with the same accuracy and robustness comparing to the original RANSAC algorithm.
Extraction and integration of web sources with humans and domain knowledge

The extraction and integration of data from many web sources in different domains is an open issue. Two promising solutions take on this challenge: top down approaches rely on a domain knowledge that is manually crafted by an expert to guide the process and bottom up approaches try to infer the schema from many web sources to make sense of the extracted data. The first solutions scale over the number of web sources, but for settings with different domains, an expert has to manually craft an ontology for each domain. The second solutions do not require a domain expert, but high quality is achieved only with a lot of human interactions both in the extraction and integration steps. We introduce a framework that takes the best from both approaches. The framework addresses synergically both extraction and integration of data from web sources. No domain expert is required, it exploits data from a seed knowledge base to enhance the automatic extraction and integration (top down). Human workers from crowdsourcing platforms are engaged to improve the quality and the coverage of the extracted data. The framework adopts techniques to automatically extract both the schema and the data from multiple web sources (bottom up). The extracted information is then used to bootstrap the seed knowledge base, reducing in this way the human effort for future tasks.
Performance Bound Analysis on Transmit Antennas Selection Systems Considering Erroneous Channel Information

Abstract We consider multiple-inputs-single-output (MISO) systems equipped with N transmit and single receive antennas, and concentrate on transmit antenna selection (TAS) for flat Rayleigh fading channels. We assume perfect channel state information (CSI) at receiver and imperfect CSIs through an feedback link at transmitter. The metric of TAS are those with the largest instantaneous signal-to- noise ratio (SNR), the best 2 out of N available transmit antennas always are selected. We use Alamouti encoding scheme and derive the probability density function (PDF) of Frobenius norm of column vector of the channel matrix. Using the known PDF we can derive the joint PDF of order statistics channel for the subseti, j. Assuming that the transmitted signals employ Mary phase-shift keying (MPSK) constellation, we consider the impact of imperfect antenna selection subsets on system performance, and explicitly derive a closed-form BER expression of Chernoff upper bounds (CUB). For two special cases with 2 out of N =3 and 4 possible transmit antennas, we analyses asymptotic performance of selected subsets. Numerical and simulating results show that we can achieve full spatial diversity with antenna selection in the presence of imperfect CSI and the largest ordinal number antenna selected as if all the transmit antennas were used; there may be some loss in the diversity order without the best transmit antenna.
The evaluation of microbial contamination in the working environment of tanneries.

BACKGROUND Due to their animal material processing, tannery workers may be exposed to biological agents. The aim of the study was the microbial contamination assessment of tanneries with different production specifications. Health risk was estimated based on particle size distribution. Moreover, indicators of microbial contamination of tanneries were selected. MATERIALS AND METHODS The studies were conducted in 2 types of tanneries - processing raw hides and producing chrome-tanned leather. Air was sampled with MAS-100 Eco Air Sampler, leathers using RODAC Envirocheck contact plates and swab method, microbial numbers were determined by a culture method. For the bioaerosols size distribution analysis, a six-stage Andersen sampler was used; identification was performed using microscopy and biochemical methods. Microbial contamination was identified by 16S RNA and ITS1/2 rDNA analysis for bacteria and fungi respectively. RESULTS The microbial number in the air ranged between 1.2 x 10(3) and 3.7 x 10(3) CFU/m3. While on the leather, it ranged between 7.6 x 10(1) and 5.5 x 10(5) CFU/100 cm2. Bacteria dominated in the tanneries (air: 51-92%, leathers: 60-100%). Results indicate that potential health risks arise from the fungal small bioaerosol particles presence (0.65-2.1 microm). Eleven indicator microorganisms were determined: B. pumilus, B. subtilis, B. cereus, C. lubricantis, C. cladosporioides, P. commune, P. echinulatum, P. chrysogenum, P. crustosum C. parapsilosis and C. albidus. CONCLUSIONS Microbial contamination evaluation in the tanneries showed the increased bacteria and fungi number in the air in relation to the outdoor air, which indicates an occupational inhalation risk to workers. The designated indicators of microbial contamination in the tanneries are associated with their specific and potentially pathogenic working environment.
Collapse of the native structure caused by a single amino acid exchange in human NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase

Human NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) is essential for the antioxidant defense system, stabilization of tumor suppressors (e.g. p53, p33, and p73), and activation of quinone‐based chemotherapeutics. Overexpression of NQO1 in many solid tumors, coupled with its ability to convert quinone‐based chemotherapeutics into potent cytotoxic compounds, have made it a very attractive target for anticancer drugs. A naturally occurring single‐nucleotide polymorphism (C609T) leading to an amino acid exchange (P187S) has been implicated in the development of various cancers and poor survival rates following anthracyclin‐based adjuvant chemotherapy. Despite its importance for cancer prediction and therapy, the exact molecular basis for the loss of function in NQO1 P187S is currently unknown. Therefore, we solved the crystal structure of NQO1 P187S. Surprisingly, this structure is almost identical to NQO1. Employing a combination of NMR spectroscopy and limited proteolysis experiments, we demonstrated that the single amino acid exchange destabilized interactions between the core and C‐terminus, leading to depopulation of the native structure in solution. This collapse of the native structure diminished cofactor affinity and led to a less competent FAD‐binding pocket, thus severely compromising the catalytic capacity of the variant protein. Hence, our findings provide a rationale for the loss of function in NQO1 P187S with a frequently occurring single‐nucleotide polymorphism.
Bandwidth-tunable filter consisting of SAW resonators and BaSrTiO3 varactors directly fabricated on a LiTaO3 wafer

A prototyped bandwidth-tunable filter consisting of SAW resonators and BaSrTiO3 (BST) varactors is discussed in this paper. In general, the BST varactors require high deposition temperature (>600°C) in order to obtain good varactor performances. Thus special cared wafer integration process of BST varactors onto a 42°YX-LiTaO3 wafer was newly developed to prevent performance deterioration in SAW resonators. The bandwidth-tunable filter composed of ten pieces of both surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators and BST varactors on the 42°YX-LiTaO3 substrate was successfully fabricated using the integration process. The measured center frequency of the filter is 1GHz, and the 3dB bandwidth is electrically tuned from 4.5 to 9.6MHz by adjusting a DC supply voltage from 0 to 10V.
Decompressing rescue personnel during Australian submarine rescue operations.

INTRODUCTION Personnel rescuing survivors from a pressurized, distressed Royal Australian Navy (RAN) submarine may themselves accumulate a decompression obligation, which may exceed the bottom time limits of the Defense and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine (DCIEM) Air and In-Water Oxygen Decompression tables (DCIEM Table 1 and 2) presently used by the RAN. This study compared DCIEM Table 2 with alternative decompression tables with longer bottom times: United States Navy XVALSS_DISSUB 7, VVAL-18M and Royal Navy 14 Modified tables. METHODS Estimated probability of decompression sickness (PDCS), the units pulmonary oxygen toxicity dose (UPTD), the volume of oxygen required and the total decompression time were calculated for hypothetical single and repetitive exposures to 253 kPa air pressure for various bottom times and prescribed decompression schedules. RESULTS Compared to DCIEM Table 2, XVALSS_DISSUB 7 single and repetitive schedules had lower estimated PDCS, which came at the cost of longer oxygen decompressions. For single exposures, DCIEM schedules had PDCS estimates ranging from 1.8% to 6.4% with 0 to 101 UPTD and XVALSS_DISSUB 7 schedules had PDCS of less than 3.1%, with 36 to 350 UPTD. CONCLUSIONS The XVALSS_DISSUB 7 table was specifically designed for submarine rescue and, unlike DCIEM Table 2, has schedules for the estimated maximum required bottom times at 253 kPa. Adopting these tables may negate the requirement for saturation decompression of rescue personnel exceeding DCIEM limits.
Developing an instrument to measure the adoption of mobile services

Currently, there is no standard instrument for measuring user adoption of mobile services. Based on the mobile service acceptance model, this paper reports on the development of a survey instrument designed to measure user perception on mobile services acceptance. A survey instrument was developed by using some existing scales from prior instruments and by creating additional items which might appear to fit the construct definitions. In addition, a pilot study was conducted by distributing the survey to 25 users of a mobile service called Mobile Student Information Systems. As a result, a survey instrument containing 22 items were retained. Furthermore, the results showed that the reliabilities of all the scales in the survey instrument were above the target acceptance level.