Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Topological Filtering of Dynamic Functional Brain Networks Unfolds Informative Chronnectomics: A Novel Data-Driven Thresholding Scheme Based on Orthogonal Minimal Spanning Trees (OMSTs)

The human brain is a large-scale system of functionally connected brain regions. This system can be modeled as a network, or graph, by dividing the brain into a set of regions, or “nodes,” and quantifying the strength of the connections between nodes, or “edges,” as the temporal correlation in their patterns of activity. Network analysis, a part of graph theory, provides a set of summary statistics that can be used to describe complex brain networks in a meaningful way. The large-scale organization of the brain has features of complex networks that can be quantified using network measures from graph theory. The adaptation of both bivariate (mutual information) and multivariate (Granger causality) connectivity estimators to quantify the synchronization between multichannel recordings yields a fully connected, weighted, (a)symmetric functional connectivity graph (FCG), representing the associations among all brain areas. The aforementioned procedure leads to an extremely dense network of tens up to a few hundreds of weights. Therefore, this FCG must be filtered out so that the “true” connectivity pattern can emerge. Here, we compared a large number of well-known topological thresholding techniques with the novel proposed data-driven scheme based on orthogonal minimal spanning trees (OMSTs). OMSTs filter brain connectivity networks based on the optimization between the global efficiency of the network and the cost preserving its wiring. We demonstrated the proposed method in a large EEG database (N = 101 subjects) with eyes-open (EO) and eyes-closed (EC) tasks by adopting a time-varying approach with the main goal to extract features that can totally distinguish each subject from the rest of the set. Additionally, the reliability of the proposed scheme was estimated in a second case study of fMRI resting-state activity with multiple scans. Our results demonstrated clearly that the proposed thresholding scheme outperformed a large list of thresholding schemes based on the recognition accuracy of each subject compared to the rest of the cohort (EEG). Additionally, the reliability of the network metrics based on the fMRI static networks was improved based on the proposed topological filtering scheme. Overall, the proposed algorithm could be used across neuroimaging and multimodal studies as a common computationally efficient standardized tool for a great number of neuroscientists and physicists working on numerous of projects.
Justly so? Employee justice perceptions of legitimate and opportunistic complaints

Unjust customer complaints are increasing, liberal redress policies are becoming more commonplace, and front line employees are expected to smile and just deal with fictitious complaints with redress and a sincere smile. Is this justly so? This research helps to fill the current gaps in complaint, justice, and emotional labor research by empirically examining employee perceptions of perceived opportunistic versus perceived legitimate complaints. This research completed one hotel and one restaurant study using a 2 x 2 betweensubjects experimental design to examine complaint type (opportunistic/ legitimate) and perceived organizational support (high/low). Data was collected from a large reputable market research firm. Results find that employees from both studies experience statistically significantly lower perceptions of procedural, interactional, and distributive justice when dealing with opportunistic as opposed to legitimate complaints. Perceptions of distributive justice statistically significantly increased employee’s emotive effort and emotional dissonance. Additionally, for all of the relationships in the hotel study and with distributive justice in the restaurant study, perceived organizational support had no significant effect on employee perceptions of justice or emotional dissonance or effort. Managerial implications of employee justice perceptions and customer complaint policies are discussed.
Calpain Mediates Excitotoxic DNA Fragmentation via Mitochondrial Pathways in Adult Brains

Calpain has been implicated in excitotoxic neurode-generation, but its mechanism of action particularly in adult brains remains unclear. We generated mutant mice lacking or overexpressing calpastatin, the only solely calpain-specific inhibitor ever identified or synthesized. Modulation of calpastatin expression caused no defect in the mice under normal conditions, indicating that calpastatin functions as a negative regulator of calpain only under pathological conditions. Kainate-evoked excitotoxicity in hippocampus resulted in proteolytic activation of a proapoptotic Bcl-2 subfamily member (Bid), nuclear translocation of mitochondria-derived DNA fragmentation factors (apoptosis-inducing factor and endonuclease G), DNA fragmentation, and nuclear condensation in pyramidal neurons. These apoptotic responses were significantly augmented by calpastatin deficiency. Consistently calpastatin overexpression suppressed them. No evidence of caspase-3 activation was detected. Our results demonstrated that calpain mediates excitotoxic signals through mobilization of proapoptotic factors in a caspase-independent manner. These mutant mice will serve as useful tools for investigating calpain involvement in various diseases.
Linear and non-linear contributions to pairwise peculiar velocities

We write the correlation function of dark matter particles, ξ(r), as the sum of two terms – one which accounts for non-linear evolution, and dominates on small scales, and another which is essentially the term from linear theory, and dominates on large scales. We use models of the number and spatial distribution of haloes and halo density profiles to describe the non-linear term and its evolution. The result provides a good description of the evolution of ξ(r) in simulations. We then use this decomposition to provide simple and accurate models of how the single-particle velocity dispersion evolves with time, and how the first and second moments of the pairwise velocity distribution depend on scale. The key idea is to use the simple physics of linear theory on large scales, the simple physics of the virial theorem on small scales and our model for the correlation function to tell us how to weight the two types of contributions (linear and non-linear) to the pairwise velocity statistics. When incorporated into the streaming model, our results will allow a simple accurate description of redshift-space distortions over the entire range of linear to highly non-linear regimes.
Using Grass Roots Community Programs as an Anti-Extremism Strategy.

In recent times the Australian Government has become increasingly concerned with the challenge to the dominant culture by humanitarian immigrants entering the country. As a part of a complex strategy, emerging from the events of 9/11 and the perceived changing face of multiculturalism in Australia, the Attorney-General Robert McClelland announced in 2011 more than $1.1 million in funding for projects to mentor and support young people to stay disengaged from intolerant and radical ideologies. The grants have been awarded under the Building Community Resilience - Youth Mentoring Grants Program (2010) and are designed to promote a tolerant, safe and inclusive society.
Extension of Quantifiable Modification of sLORETA for Induced Oscillatory Changes in Magnetoencephalography

Quantifiable modification of standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA-qm), which is one of the non-adaptive beamformer spatial filtering techniques, has been applied to source localization and quantification of evoked field or oscillatory changes in magnetoencephalography (MEG). Here, we extended this technique to induced oscillatory brain activity changes, so-called event-related desynchronization or event-related synchronization. For localizing of significantly activated brain areas at the whole-brain level, permutation tests and multiple comparison corrections with false discovery rate were applied. Induced β- and γ-band oscillatory changes by right hand clenching task were demonstrated as an example of simple induced brain activity.
Communication in Organizations.

Abstract : The paper contains a critical review of the communication literature published during the past ten years. The literature is reviewed for the implications for communication behavior in work organization settings, and is organized into the following sections: contributions from organization theory, research related to the interpersonal milieu, research related to the organizational milieu, methodological considerations, and conclusions. (Author)
The rise of transnational social formations: Mexican and Dominican state responses to transnational migration.

Transnational migration constitutes a significant global force. While transmigrants transformative powers are less apparent and their practices less glamorous than those of global corporate capital their influence on social and institutional transformations rivals that of capital. Most studies of these transformations have focused on labor-importing countries. This paper presents a view from labor-exporting countries by analyzing the effects of transnational migration on Mexican and Dominican societies. It compares recent changes in the relationship between the Mexican and the Dominican states and their nationals abroad and examines the resulting changes in the definition of citizenship national identity and class relations. Using different institutional and political means these states are promoting the inclusion of migrants into the nation of origin and instrumentally facilitating their incorporation in the U.S. polity. Both states are increasingly dependent on transmigration because it: (a) constitutes a sociopolitical safety valve; (b) generates both hard currency and political supporters from afar; and (c) provides advocates of government agendas vis-a-vis the United States. The paper argues that the Mexican and Dominican states decision to construct a more inclusive transterritorialized society has not led to social equality among the migrant population but to the transnationalization of old social gender and regional inequalities. (authors)
Giving is caring: understanding donation behavior through email

Every day, thousands of people make donations to humanitarian, political, environmental, and other causes, a large amount of which occur on the Internet. The solicitations for support, the acknowledgment of a donation and the discussion of corresponding issues are often conducted via email, leaving a record of these social phenomena. In this paper, we describe a comprehensive large-scale data-driven study of donation behavior. We analyze a two-month anonymized email log from several perspectives motivated by past studies on charitable giving: (i) demographics, (ii) user interest, (iii) external time-related factors and (iv) social network influence. We show that email captures the demographic peculiarities of different interest groups, for instance, predicting demographic distributions found in US 2012 Presidential Election exit polls. Furthermore, we find that people respond to major national events, as well as to solicitations with special promotions, and that social connections are the most important factor in predicting donation behavior. Specifically, we identify trends not only for individual charities and campaigns, but also for high-level categories such as political campaigns, medical illnesses, and humanitarian relief. Thus, we show the extent to which large-scale email datasets reveal human donation behavior, and explore the limitations of such analysis.
The application of the acoustic spectrophonometer to biomolecular spectrometry: a step towards acoustic ‘fingerprinting’

A tunable acoustic biosensor for investigating the properties of biomolecules at the solid–liquid interfaces is described. In its current, format the device can be tuned to frequencies between 6.5 MHz and 1.1 GHz in order to provide a unique detection feature: a variable evanescent wave thickness at the sensor surface. The key to its successful implementation required the careful selection of antennae designs that could induce shear acoustic waves at the solid–liquid interface. This non‐contact format makes it possible to recover resonant shear acoustic waves over 100 different harmonic frequencies as a result of the electrical characteristics of the spiral coil. For testing this multifrequency sensing concept the surface of a quartz disc was exposed to solutions of immunoglobulin G (IgG) to form an adsorbed monolayer, whence protein A and IgG were added again in order to form multilayers. Spectra at frequencies between 6 and 600 MHz were generated for each successive layer and revealed two characteristic phases: an initial phase at the low megahertz frequencies consistent with the conventional Sauerbrey relation, and a possible additional phase towards the high megahertz to gigahertz frequencies, that we believe relates to the structure of the biomolecular film. This two‐phase behaviour evident from differences between high and low frequencies, rather than from any distinct frequency transition, was anticipated from the reduction in evanescent wave thickness down to nanometre dimensions, and thin film resonance phenomena that are known to occur for film and fluid systems. These measurements suggested that the single element acoustic biosensor we present here may form the basis from which to generate acoustic molecular spectra, or ‘acoustic fingerprints’, in a manner akin to optical spectroscopy. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
CapriDB - Capture, Print, Innovate: A Low-Cost Pipeline and Database for Reproducible Manipulation Research

We present a novel approach and database which combines the inexpensive generation of 3D object models via monocular or RGB-D camera images with 3D printing and a state of the art object tracking algorithm. Unlike recent efforts towards the creation of 3D object databases for robotics, our approach does not require expensive and controlled 3D scanning setups and enables anyone with a camera to scan, print and track complex objects for manipulation research. The proposed approach results in highly detailed mesh models whose 3D printed replicas are at times difficult to distinguish from the original. A key motivation for utilizing 3D printed objects is the ability to precisely control and vary object properties such as the mass distribution and size in the 3D printing process to obtain reproducible conditions for robotic manipulation research. We present CapriDB - an extensible database resulting from this approach containing initially 40 textured and 3D printable mesh models together with tracking features to facilitate the adoption of the proposed approach.
C2DF: High Rate DDOS filtering method in Cloud Computing

Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks have become one of the main threats in cloud environment. A DDOS attack can make large scale of damages to resources and access of the resources to genuine cloud users. Old-established defending system cannot be easily applied in cloud computing due to their relatively low competence and wide storage. In this paper we offered a data mining and neural network technique, trained to detect and filter DDOS attacks. For the simulation experiments we used KDD Cup dataset and our lab datasets. Our proposed model requires small storage and ability of fast detection. The obtained results indicate that our model has the ability to detect and filter most type of TCP attacks. Detection accuracy was the metric used to evaluate the performance of our proposed model. From the simulation results, it is visible that our algorithms achieve high detection accuracy (97%) with fewer false alarms.
The use of Q-Methodology to Obtain Stakeholder Discourses on the Future Development of Ria Formosa Coastal Zone, South of Portugal

Uma estratégia eficiente de conservação da natureza implica a análise de interesses dos intervenientes envolvidos. O presente artigo apresenta a metodologia Q como ferramenta no desenvolvimento dessa análise. O objectivo é a análise de intervenientes locais através dos seus próprios termos e categorias, não apresentando ideias pré formadas de quais as suas necessidades e ou problemas. O estudo revela a existência de 4 perspectivas sobre o desenvolvimento futuro da Ria Formosa: pró educação ambiental e capacitação; desenvolvimento turístico e pesqueiro; burocracia, condições do sector pesqueiro e ordenamento do território; qualidade ambiental, integração e organização. Finalmente, estas perspectivas foram comparadas com as acções do plano POLIS 2008. Verificou-se que o plano responde transversalmente à maioria das preocupações identificadas. O ponto de maior conflito é a questão da demolição das casas existentes nas ilhas barreira.
A graphical user interface for designing time-varying IIR filters with equalized group delay

The paper presents a graphical user interface for designing time-varying IIR filters with equalised group delay characteristic. The problem of non-constant group delay characteristic of the IIR filters is well known. The allpass based equalisers are used as a solution with fine results. Unfortunately, the equalisation introduces distortions to the time-domain characteristics of the original IIR filter. The concept of the time-varying coefficients proved to deal with that fact. Due to complex calculations and needed optimisation a tool in the form of a graphical system is greatly required to improve the robustness of simulations and studies of the equalised time-varying IIR filters.
General Strategies for Assessing Convergence of Mcmc Algorithms Using Coupled Sample Paths

DRAFT 1 Preliminaries In a previous paper (Johnson 96), convergence properties of Gibbs samplers and certain other Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms were studied through a simple modiication of the manner in which random deviates were drawn to update variables. In the modiied procedures, \comparable" random deviates were used to update multiple sample sequences started at independent draws from an over-dispersed estimate of the posterior distribution. The resulting chains typically coupled after a nite number of updates, and the distribution of the coupling iteration was found to provide a bound on total variation distance of iterates in the MCMC chain from the desired stationary distribution. Unfortunately, the updating scheme proposed by Johnson (1996) requires that similar random deviates be used to update each chain. In the case of
A Variant of Newton ' s Method for the Computation ofTraveling Waves of Bistable Di erential-Di erence

We consider a variant of Newton's method for solving nonlinear diierential-diierence equations arising from the traveling wave equations of a large class of nonlinear evolution equations. Using the Fredholm theory developed by J. Mallet-Paret we prove convergence of the method. The utility of the method is demonstrated with a series of numerical experiments.
A 2.4 GHz 0.1-Fref-Bandwidth All-Digital Phase-Locked Loop With Delay-Cell-Less TDC

An all-digital phase locked loop (ADPLL) with a proposed time-to-digital converter (TDC) which has no delay cell is designed by the 0.13- μm CMOS process. The delay-cell-less TDC (DLTDC) that can suppress device noises and PVT mismatches is essential for wider bandwidth operations. Moreover, sub-gate TDC resolution can be achieved with the proposed DLTDC. A ring-VCO based digitally-controlled oscillator (DCO) which reduces 1/f noise is also proposed to enhance noise performance. The 2 MHz BW ADPLL which occupies 0.42 mm2 consumes 12 mA and its measured jitter is 4 psrms at 2.4 GHz.
Colorectal Cancer in African Americans

Colorectal cancer in African Americans has an increased incidence and mortality relative to Whites. The mean age of CRC development in African Americans is younger than that of Whites. There is also evidence for a more proximal colonic distribution of cancers and adenomas in African Americans.African Americans are less likely to have undergone diagnostic testing and screening for colorectal cancer. Special efforts are needed to improve colorectal cancer screening participation rates in African Americans.Clinical gastroenterologists should play an active role in educating the public and primary care physicians about special issues surrounding colorectal cancer in African Americans. Community healthcare groups and gastrointestinal specialists should develop culturally sensitive health education programs for African Americans regarding colorectal cancer. The high incidence and younger age at presentation of colorectal cancer in African Americans warrant initiation of colorectal cancer screening at the age 45 yr rather than 50 yr.
Real-Time 3D multi-person tracking using Monte Carlo Surface Sampling

The current paper presents a low-complexity approach to the problem of simultaneous tracking of several people in low resolution sequences from multiple calibrated cameras. Redundancy among cameras is exploited to generate a discrete 3D colored representation of the scene. The proposed filtering technique estimates the centroid of a target using only a sparse set of points placed on its surface and making this set evolve along time based on the seminal particle filtering principle. In this case, the likelihood function is based on local neighborhoods computations thus drastically decreasing the computational load of the algorithm. In order to handle multiple interacting targets, a separate filter is assigned to each subject in the scenario while a blocking scheme is employed to model their interactions. Tests over a standard annotated dataset yield quantitative results showing the effectiveness of the proposed technique in both accuracy and real-time performance.
Fragile watermarking for authenticating 3-D polygonal meshes

Designing a powerful fragile watermarking technique for authenticating three-dimensional (3-D) polygonal meshes is a very difficult task. Yeo and Yeung were first to propose a fragile watermarking method to perform authentication of 3-D polygonal meshes. Although their method can authenticate the integrity of 3-D polygonal meshes, it cannot be used for localization of changes. In addition, it is unable to distinguish malicious attacks from incidental data processings. In this paper, we trade off the causality problem in Yeo and Yeung's method for a new fragile watermarking scheme. The proposed scheme can not only achieve localization of malicious modifications in visual inspection, but also is immune to certain incidental data processings (such as quantization of vertex coordinates and vertex reordering). During the process of watermark embedding, a local mesh parameterization approach is employed to perturb the coordinates of invalid vertices while cautiously maintaining the visual appearance of the original model. Since the proposed embedding method is independent of the order of vertices, the hidden watermark is immune to some attacks, such as vertex reordering. In addition, the proposed method can be used to perform region-based tampering detection. The experimental results have shown that the proposed fragile watermarking scheme is indeed powerful.
A comparison of primary oesophageal squamous epithelial cells with HET‐1A in organotypic culture

Background Information. Carcinoma of the oesophagus is the sixth leading cause of cancer death in the western world and is associated with a 5‐year survival of less than 15%. Recent evidence suggests that stromal—epithelial interactions are fundamental in carcinogenesis. The advent of co‐culture techniques permits the investigation of cross‐talk between the stroma and epithelium in a physiological setting. We have characterized a histologically representative oesophageal organotypic model and have used it to compare the most commonly used squamous oesophageal cell line, HET‐1A, with primary oesophageal squamous cells for use in studies of the oesophageal epithelium in vitro.