Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical Models for Simulation and Reconstruction of Human Tissue Deformation Fields in Dynamic MRI

Objective: Medical image registration can be formulated as a tissue deformation problem, where parameter estimation methods are used to obtain the inverse deformation. However, there is limited knowledge about the ability to recover an unknown deformation. The main objective of this study is to estimate the quality of a restored deformation field obtained from image registration of dynamic MR sequences. Methods: We investigate the behavior of forward deformation models of various complexities. Further, we study the accuracy of restored inverse deformations generated by image registration. Results: We found that the choice of 1) heterogeneous tissue parameters and 2) a poroelastic (instead of elastic) model had significant impact on the forward deformation. In the image registration problem, both 1) and 2) were found not to be significant. Here, the presence of image features were dominating the performance. We also found that existing algorithms will align images with high precision while at the same time obtain a deformation field with a relative error of $40\%$. Conclusion: Image registration can only moderately well restore the true deformation field. Still, estimation of volume changes instead of deformation fields can be fairly accurate and may represent a proxy for variations in tissue characteristics. Volume changes remain essentially unchanged under choice of discretization and the prevalence of pronounced image features. Significance: We suggest that image registration of high-contrast MR images has potential to be used as a tool to produce imaging biomarkers sensitive to pathology affecting tissue stiffness.
Exploring the radiating effect of domestic abuse: a qualitative investigation using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Domestic abuse is often viewed as an individual matter, affecting only those in the abusive relationship. Research suggests domestic abuse has a radiating effect on others in the victim’s social network. In attempt to fill a gap in the literature this research explored the impact of domestic abuse upon family members. Three semi-structured interviews were carried out and these were transcribed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The analysis suggests domestic abuse has negative repercussions for family members; physical and psychological. Furthermore, the analysis revealed several factors that contribute to the radiating effect including adhering to myths, attributing blame and ‘Othering’ the victim. Understanding of the radiating effect may be further advanced by exploring these contributing factors. This research therefore lends support to the radiating effect and demonstrates the need for further investigations.
Action Research and the Politics of Educational Knowledge

Abstract There has been an explosion of interest in educational action research. As with many new forms of discourse which challenge existing orthodoxies there is a danger that those dominating what counts as ‘rational’ and ‘educational’ knowledge within our institutions of higher education will attempt to colonise the movement by taking over its rhetoric and incorporating it within the propositional form of their discourse. What counts as valid practice in schools, an area of knowledge long despised by theoreticians as mundane and trivial, and therefore left to the control of practitioners, would be appropriated. We believe that the emancipatory potential of action research, a potential that could raise the intellectual status of competent professional practice and the theories‐in‐use underlying it depends on a logic of question and answer. We think that action research needs a rationale which allows practitioners, through negotiation and collaboration, to regain control of their definitions of good prac.
ProtCV: A Tool for Extracting, Visualizing and Validating Protein Clusters Using Mass Spectra Peak-Lists

We present ProtCV (protein clustering and visualization) a new software tool for grouping samples (mass spectra peak-lists) emanating from a high throughput proteomics analysis based on their spectral similarities, and summarizing effectively for the user the clustering results using advanced visualization methods. A unique feature of ProtCV is that it can compare clustering methods applied to the same data set based on several validity in dices to assist the user identify groupings that seem to capture best the underlying structure of the data set. Moreover, ProtCV can assist in formulating hypotheses about the potential role of unidentified proteins in a cluster, identify sets of proteins which act jointly at a specific biological state etc. All these data set mining and exploration operations are very useful for interpreting the results of high throughput MS based proteomics analyses that are commonly used for biomarkers discovery.
Non-flat Road Detection Based on A Local Descriptor

The detection of road surface and free space remains challenging for non-flat plane, especially with the varying latitudinal and longitudinal slope or in the case of multi-ground plane. In this paper, we propose a framework of the road surface detection with stereo vision. The main contribution of this paper is a newly proposed descriptor which is implemented in disparity image to obtain a disparity feature image. The road regions can be distinguished from their surroundings effectively in the disparity feature image. Because the descriptor is implemented in the local area of the image, it can address well the problem of non-flat plane. And we also present a complete framework to detect the road surface regions base on the disparity feature image with a convolutional neural network architecture.
Does group identification mediate the negative impact of perceived discrimination on well-being and outgroup attitudes? A study of immigrant adolescents in Greece

Perceived discrimination has been found to pose a serious threat to the psychological adaptation of immigrant youth. At the same time, it may undermine intergroup relations by increasing hostility of immigrants against the nationals. Within the MIRIPS framework, perceived discrimination is closely related to the multiculturalism and integration hypotheses since it can be considered a proxy for cultural insecurity and a barrier in seeking interactions with the dominant outgroup. Various social psychological models attempt to explain the deleterious outcomes of perceived discrimination in terms of group identification. The present study draws on this theoretical background in order to examine whether and how ethnic and national identification of immigrant adolescents in Greece mediate the effect of perceived discrimination on their well-being and outgroup attitudes. The sample consisted of 510 immigrant children and adolescents (52% male, 63% second generation, mean age=12.7 years, age range 10-17 years) of various ethnic backgrounds (58% Pontian remigrants from the former Soviet Union, 32% from Albania) who were enrolled in Greek urban schools of primary and secondary education. Measures included perceived discrimination and national identification items drawn from the MIRIPS study, the revised Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, Nguyen & Von Eye’s Acculturation Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. SEM analyses showed that perceived discrimination, as expected, is negatively related to well-being as well as to national outgroup attitudes. Ethnic group identification promoted well-being; furthermore, it was found to buffer the negative effect of perceived group (but not personal) discrimination on well-being. On the other hand, decreased national identification partly explained the negative impact of perceived personal and group discrimination on national acculturation, in line with the Rejection-Disidentification model. The implications of the above findings are discussed in relation to psychological (developmental) and contextual (sociocultural) factors. Perceived discrimination and the MIRIPS hypotheses  Multiculturalism hypothesis. PD is expected to result from discriminatory behaviors of members of the majority society in the presence of realistic or symbolic threat (Stephan et al., 1999).  Contact hypothesis. PD may be indicative of a group-based hierarchy and the domination of 'inferior‘ by 'superior' groups (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999) which, in turn, undermines the conditions for positive contact outcomes.  Integration hypothesis. Several social psychological theories deriving mainly from SIT (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) suggest that PD may lead to increased ethnic group identification and hostile intergroup relations as strategies to maintain a positive selfesteem. Psychological well-being Ethnic identification Perceived discrimination The Rejection-Identification Model (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999)
An Analysis of Resistance to Change Exposed in Individuals' Thoughts and Behaviors

Abstract Resistance to change can be the cause of difficulty when it is either too strong or too weak. Therapy or information can be used to either strengthen or weaken resistance to change to appropriate levels. The purpose of this article is intended to disclose the relationship between resistance to change and some aspects of human behavior. Resistance to change has affective, cognitive, and behavioral components that create a psychological resistance to making a change in particular situations or overall changes in one's life, and often appears in psychotherapy and/or when organizational alterations are underway. Four subfactors of resistance to change have been found and are related to extraversion and neuroticism in the “Big Five” personality model. Much indicates that the development of resistance to change begins early in childhood and may be neurophysiologically founded. It can be traced in both macro and micro gestures in body language and is believed to influence general health. Whereas previou.
Equilibrium Analysis of Political Institutions

At their most political, institutions determine who holds power and how power is exercised. Political institutions thus shape the influence and behavior of their participants and, for that very reason, their adoption and design are the subject of political struggle. Formal political theory – the application of game theoretic methods to political phenomena – develops this basic insight. Game-theoretically inspired arguments explain the emergence and persistence of political institutions as the equilibrium outcome of strategic interaction among actors who strive to anticipate the implications of the institutional status quo and its conceivable alternatives for both their own and others’ welfare.
EmailValet: Learning Email Preferences for Wireless Platforms

Imagine that while commuting home you receive an email message on your pager from your spouse asking you to pick up some milk on your way home. Compare this with commuting home and receiving an email message on your pager from a coworker with a monthly reminder to use the recycle bins at work. One of these messages would likely be relevant to you at that particular point in time, while the other would not be. It would be nice if it was possible to automatically decide which messages to send to the pager in such a way that the first message would be forwarded and the second one would not. Furthermore, it would be nice if such forwarding could take place in a transparent fashion for the people sending and receiving the email. For example, it would be desirable to have a single, centralized email address to which email would be sent, and some software agent residing at that location could then forward each message to where the receiver would like to read it, eliminating the need for both receiver or sender to figure out where to read a message from or send a message to. Ideally, this agent would work in a way much akin to a secretary, knowing where the user is and knowing which messages to forward to where. Thus, for example, if the user had a palmtop device with a wireless data service, a pager, a computer at home, and a desktop at work, the agent would need to decide where a message should be delivered, based on a number of factors, such as what the message is about, and when and where the user would want to read this message. Obviously different people would have different preferences even in identical circumstances, so the agent must tailor itself the user’s email-reading preferences. We call such an agent an EmailValet, in that it provides “valet”-like functionality to help users manage email.
EFFECTS OF CURIOSITY ON SOCIALIZATION-RELATED LEARNING AND JOB PERFORMANCE IN ADULTS

Although the significance of curiosity in motivating and directing learning has received substantial scholarly support, little information exists about curiosity's importance in adult learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate curiosity's possible relevance in an adult learning context, the workplace. Specifically, this study was an examination of adult curiosity's relationship to socialization-related learning, and ultimately job performance. one job performance instrument (developed to assess technical and interpersonal job performance) were administered in four service-industry organizations. Demographic data were also collected and the final sample included 233 employees. Two-, three-, and four-factor curiosity models were examined to clarify the nature of the curiosity construct. Curiosity factor scores were subsequently used as independent variables in multiple regression equations to assess their research utility. Three a priori determined, recursive path models suggesting a causal influence of curiosity on socialization-related learning and job performance were tested as well. Standardized partial regression coefficients were calculated from a combination of the correlational matrix containing the three main study variables (curiosity, socialization-related learning, and job performance), and their standard deviations, using the EQS for Windows 5.4 routine. Multiple loadings of several of the curiosity subscales on the curiosity factors indicate a conceptual overlap between the Sensation Seeking and Venturesomeness curiosity factors; thus, the nature of curiosity may be best represented by a Cognitive Curiosity and Sensation Seeking factor interpretation. The findings also suggest that the two-factor curiosity model may have had the best research utility for the purposes of this study. The three-and four-factor curiosity solutions did not explain a significant amount of additional variance in the multiple regression models predicting socialization-related learning and job performance. Results suggest, too, that curiosity has both a direct and an indirect causal influence on job performance. This research indicates that curiosity or the desire for information has a weak but significant direct effect on total job performance, and its effect on total job performance can also be mediated by the learning associated with the socialization process. When examining curiosity's effect on the two separate job performance dimensions, i.e., technical and interpersonal, curiosity's only significant effect on both job performance dimensions was mediated through the socialization-related learning variable. Overall, this study's findings suggest support for adult curiosity as being relevant in the socialization process and in job performance as well. iv To my children, Stephanie, Brooke, and Dillon, with all my love v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take …
Optimizing File Replication over Limited-Bandwidth Networks using Remote Differential Compression

A horizontal circulating carbonizer comprising an annular horizontally rotatable circulating hearth disposed rotatably, a carbonizer body covering said hearth, a coal feeder equipped on the carbonizer body, a preheating zone disposed in the vicinity of said feed coal supply opening, a carbonizing zone connected to said preheating zone, a cooling zone connected to the carbonizing zone, and a discharger of cooled coke, and a process for the preparation of coke using this horizontal circulating carbonizer.
Molecular Profiling of Patients with Colorectal Cancer and Matched Targeted Therapy in Phase I Clinical Trials

Clinical experience increasingly suggests that molecular prescreening and biomarker enrichment strategies in phase I trials with targeted therapies will improve the outcomes of patients with cancer. In keeping with the exigencies of a personalized oncology program, tumors from patients with advanced chemorefractory colorectal cancer were analyzed for specific aberrations (KRAS/BRAF/PIK3CA mutations, PTEN and pMET expression). Patients were subsequently offered phase I trials with matched targeted agents (MTA) directed at the identified anomalies. During 2010 and 2011, tumor molecular analysis was conducted in 254 patients: KRAS mutations (80 of 254, 31.5%), BRAF mutations (24 of 196, 12.2%), PIK3CA mutations (15 of 114, 13.2%), KRAS and PIK3CA mutations (9 of 114, 7.9%), low PTEN expression (97 of 183, 53.0%), and high pMET expression (38 of 64, 59.4%). In total, 68 patients received 82 different MTAs: phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway inhibitor (if PIK3CA mutation, n = 10; or low PTEN, n = 32), PI3K pathway inhibitor plus MEK inhibitor (if KRAS mutation, n = 10; or BRAF mutation, n = 1), second-generation anti-EGF receptor monoclonal antibodies (if wild-type KRAS, n = 11), anti-hepatocyte growth factor monoclonal antibody (if high pMET, n = 10), mTOR inhibitor plus anti-insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor monoclonal antibody (if low PTEN, n = 5), and BRAF inhibitor (if BRAF mutation, n = 3). Median time-to-treatment failure on MTA was 7.9 versus 16.3 weeks for their prior systemic antitumor therapy (P < 0.001). Partial response was seen in 1 patient [1.2%, PI3K inhibitor with PIK3CA mutation] and stable disease >16 weeks in 10 cases (12.2%). These results suggest that matching chemorefractory patients with colorectal cancer with targeted agents in phase I trials based on the current molecular profile does not confer a significant clinical benefit. Mol Cancer Ther; 11(9); 2062–71. ©2012 AACR.
Introduction: recent developments in the study of gamma-ray bursts

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely powerful explosions, originating at cosmological distances, whose outbursts persist for durations ranging from milliseconds to tens of seconds or more. In these brief moments, the explosions radiate more energy than the Sun will release in its entire 10 Gyr lifetime. Current theories attribute these phenomena to the final collapse of a massive star, or the coalescence of a binary system induced by gravity wave emission. New results from Swift and related programmes offer fresh understanding of the physics of GRBs, and of the local environments and host galaxies of burst progenitors. Bursts found at very high red shifts are new tools for exploring the intergalactic medium, the first stars and the earliest stages of galaxy formation. This Royal Society Discussion Meeting has brought together leading figures in the field, together with young researchers and students, to discuss and review the latest results from NASA's Swift Gamma-ray Burst Observatory and elsewhere, and to examine their impact on current understanding of the observed phenomena.
Fundamental frequency of child-directed speech using automatic speech recognition

It has long been recognized that speech directed to infants and toddlers - child-directed speech (CDS) or motherese - is characterized by a collection of features including hyperarticulation, a distinctive lexicon, reduced structural complexity, and increased fundamental frequency (f0). This paper examines f0 in nearly 500 hours of recordings from 33 families, showing that mothers, but not fathers, distinguish CDS with consistently higher f0. We also found that, compared with parents of typically-developing children, parents of children who are hard-of-hearing do not differ in production of f0 to their children. Results are relevant for improved ASR application and better understanding of mothers' and fathers' speech to their children.
FastLanes: An FPGA accelerated GPU microarchitecture simulator

Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) have emerged as a new general purpose computing platform that attracts significant research efforts. Currently, GPU architecture research resorts to time-consuming software simulations to evaluate microarchitecture innovations. In this paper, we propose FastLanes, an FPGA based simulator for a generic GPU microarchitecture, to enable hardware-accelerated simulation. FastLanes consists of a function model and a timing model, both implemented on FPGA. The functional model implements the full functionality of a multiprocessor of GPU and emulates multiple multiprocessors via time-division multiplexing. We develop a hybrid implementation strategy in which certain GPU logic is directly mapped to FPGA while the other logic is simulated by reusing the same FPGA logic. A corresponding context shifting mechanism is proposed to store execution states of threads from FPGA to external on-board memory, and vice versa. Such a mechanism makes it possible to simulate hundreds of GPU cores on a single FPGA evaluation board. Driven by the functional simulation results, the timing model considers the detailed configuration of GPU microarchitecture to derive the performance evaluation. A compiler tool-chain is also developed to allow the execution of NVIDIA GPU binary on FastLanes. Experimental results prove that FastLanes outperforms its software equivalent by up to 2 orders of magnitude.
A shut‐down in expression of an insulin‐like peptide, ILP‐1, halts ovarian maturation during the overwintering diapause of the mosquito Culex pipiens

Short day‐length is used to programme adult diapause in the mosquito, Culex pipiens. The downstream endocrine event that halts ovarian maturation is a shut‐down in juvenile hormone (JH) production, and recent evidence suggests that the insulin signalling pathway may be a key upstream player in executing this developmental arrest. Genes encoding insulin‐like peptides‐1, ‐2 and ‐5 were identified in C. pipiens, and we report that transcript levels of insulin‐like peptides‐1 and ‐5 were significantly lower in diapausing females than in their nondiapausing counterparts. Genes encoding both insulin‐like peptides‐1 and ‐5 were suppressed using RNA interference in mosquitoes programmed for nondiapause, and ovarian maturation was monitored. Knocking down insulin‐like peptide‐1 with RNAi in nondiapausing mosquitoes resulted in a cessation of ovarian development akin to diapause, and this arrest in development could be reversed with an application of JH. Knocking down insulin‐like peptide‐5 did not alter ovarian development. These results are consistent with a role for insulin‐like peptide‐1 in the signalling pathway leading from the perception of short day‐lengths to the shut‐down in JH production that characterizes adult diapause in C. pipiens.
A Fast Sub-Volume Search Method for Human Action Detection

This paper discusses the task of human action detection. It requires not only classifying what type the action of interest is, but also finding actions’ spatial-temporal locations in a video. The novelty of this paper lies on two significant aspects. One is to introduce a new graph based representation for the search space in a video. The other is to propose a novel sub-volume search method by Minimum Cycle detection. The proposed method has a low computation complexity while maintaining a high action detection accuracy. It is evaluated on two challenging datasets which are captured in cluttered backgrounds. The proposed approach outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in most situations in terms of both PrecisionRecall values and running speeds. key words: action detection, graph representation, Minimum Cycle detection, sub-volume search