Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can Synchronization Explain Representational Content ? A Reply to

Multivariate decoding provides an important tool for studying the representation and transformation of mental contents in the human brain. Specifically, decoding can be used to identify the neural correlates of contents of consciousness (NCCCs). Decoding of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals has so far mostly revealed content-selectivity in sensory brain regions, but not in prefrontal cortex. The limitations of fMRI-decoding only permit cautious conclusions because fMRI signals are only indirectly related to neural coding. However, the role of prefrontal cortex in visual awareness is also questioned by other findings, reviewed in Schwiedrzik (this collection). Neural synchronization might offer an alternative to solving the binding problem by providing a computational means of integrating information encoded in distributed brain regions. However, it is unclear whether synchronization in itself serves as a coding dimension for visual features. Furthermore, other alternatives to synchronization, especially the role of spatial codes, need to be considered as potential solutions to the feature binding problem.
An Ant Colony Optimization Approach for the Maximum Independent Set Problem

The ant colony optimization (ACO) is a probabilistic Meta-heuristic algorithm which has been developed in recent years. Originally ACO was used for solving the well-known Traveling Salesperson Problem. More recently, ACO has been used to solve many difficult problems. In this paper, we develop an ant colony optimization method to solve the maximum independent set problem, which is known to be NP-hard. In this paper, we suggest a new method for local information of ACO. Parameters of the ACO algorithm are tuned by evolutionary operations which have been used in forecasting and time series analysis. To show the performance of the ACO algorithm, the set of instances from discrete mathematics and computer science (DIMACS) benchmark graphs are tested, and computational results are compared with a previously developed ACO algorithm and other heuristic algorithms.
Mid-infrared active graphene nanoribbon plasmonic waveguide devices

Doped graphene emerges as a strong contender for active plasmonic material in mid-infrared wavelengths due to the versatile external control of its permittivity function and also its highly compressed graphene surface plasmon (GSP) wavelength. In this paper, we design active plasmonic waveguide devices based on electrical modulation of doped graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) on a voltage-gated inhomogeneous dielectric layer. We first develop figure-of-merit (FoM) formulae to characterize the performance of passive and active graphene nanoribbon waveguides. Based on the FoMs, we choose optimal GNRs to build a plasmonic shutter, which consists of a GNR placed on top of an inhomogeneous SiO2 substrate supported by a Si nanopillar. Simulation studies show that for a simple, 50 nm long plasmonic shutter, the modulation contrast can exceed 30 dB. The plasmonic shutter is further extended to build a four-port active power splitter and an eight-port active network, both based on GNR cross-junction waveguides. For the active power splitter, the GSP power transmission at each waveguide arm can be independently controlled by an applied gate voltage with high-modulation contrast and nearly equal power-splitting proportions. From the construct of the eight-port active network, we see that it is possible to scale up the GNR cross-junction waveguides into large and complex active waveguide networks, showing great potential in an exciting new area of mid-infrared graphene plasmonic integrated nanocircuits.
Solving Fixed-Point Problems with Inequality and Equality Constraints via a Non-Interior Point Homotopy Path-Following Method

In recent years, fixed-point theorems have attracted increasing attention and have been widely investigated by many authors. Moreover, determining a fixed point has become an interesting topic. In this paper, we provide a constructive proof of the general Brouwer fixed-point theorem and then obtain the existence of a smooth path which connects a given point to the fixed point. We also present a non-interior point homotopy algorithm for solving fixed-point problems on a class of nonconvex sets by numerically tricking this homotopy path.
Neurotherapeutic effect of allopurinol against brain injury in hyperlipidemic rats

Hyperlipidemia is characterized by abnormally elevated levels of lipids and positively associated with cerebrovascular diseases. The aim of the present study was the evaluation of possible effects of allopurinol against brain injury in hyperlipidemic rats. Hyperlipidemia was induced by maintaining the rats on high fat diet for 6 weeks. The diet was prepared by adding 1% cholesterol powder, 0.2% cholic acid, and 10% fat to the rat powdered standard laboratory diet. , At the end of the 4th week animals were treated with fluvastatin (2.5 mg/kg, p.o) and three dose of allopurinol (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg, p.o) concomitant with hypercaloric diet for 2 weeks. Assessment of activity by grid floor activity cage was done at zero time and the end of the 6 week period. Blood was drawn for biochemical assays as serum cholesterol, triglyceride, liver transaminases and creatine kinase levels. Brains were isolated for determination of malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) contents as well as finally histopathological study. High fat diet -induced hyperlipidemia associated with a reduction in activity of rats and an elevation of serum cholesterol, triglyceride, and liver transaminase. The allopurinol treatment improves the elevation in serum cholesterol, triglyceride, liver transaminase, creatine kinase levels and ameliorates MDA and GSH brain contents as well as attenuates karyolysis. These results suggest that allopurinol has antihyperlipidemic properties as improves hyperlipidemia and its brain complications by modulation of lipid profile elevation and brain oxidative stress. Key words: Allopurinol, activity, brain injury, hyperlipidemia, rats.
How Cooperating Teachers and Interns Understand “Teaching for a Better World” During Internship

This study utilized a descriptive questionnaire to determine how interns and cooperating teachers translate the faculty’s expectations for teaching for social justice into practice during internship. The following research questions were formulated to guide the study: what are the similarities and differences between the intern’s and cooperating teacher’s receptiveness to teaching for social justice during in internship? And, how do interns and cooperating teachers differ in their perception of being controversial and integrating world views and perspectives in content and instructional approaches during internship? The participants included 142 cooperating teachers and 54 interns. Just over half of the cooperating teachers described their interns as either rigorously or actively finding some opportunities to teach for social justice. And, even though over a third of the interns reported that they were either rigorously or actively integrating some opportunities, it is notable that fewer interns than cooperating teachers were certain that they were teaching for social justice. The site of greatest tension between interns and cooperating teachers appeared to be in relation to discussing personal biases and what it means to be intentionally controversial.
Enhancing silicon quantum dot uptake by pancreatic cancer cells via pluronic® encapsulation and antibody targeting

Objectives: Silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) are of great interest for bio - imaging applications due to their tunable luminescence, low toxicity, unique surface chemistry, and high quantum yield. Most synthesis routes produce SiQDs that are not water-dispersible, making them unattractive for biological applications. Here, we show that Pluronic® block copolymers can encapsulate SiQDs to make them water dispersible and suitable for cancer imaging applications. Methods: Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta potential, and temperature and pH stability measurements were used to evaluate these Pluronic®-encapsulated SiQDs (PSiQDs). The particles were also tested targeted in vitro imaging and in vivo bio - distribution. Results: Encapsulation with Pluronic® polymers renders the SiQDs water dispersible, preserves their optical properties, protects them from oxidation, and prevents aggregation. Surface modification of the PSiQDs with pancreatic cancer targeting moieties, anti-claudin-4 and anti-mesothelin, led to enhanced uptake of these nanoconstructs in comparison to PSiQDs modified with folate as the targeting moeity. Conclusions: The particles are stable at biological conditions, and show promise for targeted diagnostic applications without possessing elementally toxic components.
A Novel Method of Significant Words Identification in Text Summarization

Text summarization is a process that reduces the size of the text document and extracts significant sentences from a text document. We present a novel technique for text summarization. The originality of technique lies on exploiting local and global properties of words and identifying significant words. The local property of word can be considered as the sum of normalized term frequency multiplied by its weight and normalized number of sentences containing that word multiplied by its weight. If local score of a word is less than local score threshold, we remove that word. Global property can be thought of as maximum semantic similarity between a word and title words. Also we introduce an iterative algorithm to identify significant words. This algorithm converges to the fixed number of significant words after some iterations and the number of iterations strongly depends on the text document. We used a two-layered backpropagation neural network with three neurons in the hidden layer to calculate weights. The results show that this technique has better performance than MS-word 2007, baseline and Gistsumm summarizers.
DUAL-WIDEBAND SYMMETRICAL G-SHAPED SLOTTED MONOPOLE ANTENNA FOR WLAN/WIMAX APPLICATIONS

A novel dual-wideband printed monopole antenna is proposed for wireless local area network (WLAN) and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) applications. The proposed antenna consists of a T-shaped monopole on top and dual combined G-shaped slots etched symmetrically on the ground plane to achieve a dual-wideband performance. Prototype of the proposed antenna has been constructed and tested. The measured 10dB bandwidths for return loss are 1.76GHz from 2.13 to 3.89GHz and 0.92GHz from 5.03 to 5.95GHz, covering all the 2.4/5.2/5.8GHz WLAN and 2.5/3.5/5.5GHz WiMAX bands. And this antenna also has omni-directional patterns over the lower operating range.
Pleurotus sajor-caju W ASTE

The accumulation of waste is a growing environmental concern on the issues all around the world. One green option is to convert waste into valuable materials. This study aims to recycle mushroom waste from Pleurotus sajor-caju from ‘Rumah Cendawan’, Politeknik Nilai to develop biofilm which has the potential to be molded into a variety of products. Forty two formulations have been molded and 14 best formulations have been tested. The tensile strengths of these 14 biofilms have been determined by using Shimadzu Universal Testing Machine and the biodegradability characteristics of the films have been tested. In a conclusion, biodegradable films from Pleurotus sajor-caju waste can be developed as a better alternative to the existing plastics in the market.
Geomagnetic field for 0–3 ka: 2. A new series of time‐varying global models

Steadily increasing numbers of archeomagnetic and paleomagnetic data for the Holocene have allowed development of temporally continuous global spherical harmonic models of the geomagnetic field extending present and historical global descriptions of magnetic field evolution. The current work uses various subsets of improved data compilations, details of which are given in a companion paper by Donadini et al. (2009), and minor modifications of standard modeling strategies (using temporally and spatially regularized inversion of the data and cubic spline parameterizations for temporal variations) to produce five models with enhanced spatial and temporal resolution for 0–3 ka. Spurious end effects present in earlier models are eliminated by enforcing large‐scale agreement with the gufm1 historical model for 1650–1990 A.D. and by extending the model range to accommodate data older than 3 ka. Age errors are not considered as a contribution to data uncertainties but are included along with data uncertainties in an investigation of statistical uncertainty estimates for the models using parametric bootstrap resampling techniques. We find common features but also significant differences among the various models, indicating intrinsic uncertainties in global models based on the currently available Holocene data. Model CALS3k.3 based on all available archeomagnetic and sediment data, without a priori quality selection, currently constitutes the best global representation of the past field. The new models have slightly higher dipole moments than our previous models. Virtual axial dipole moments (VADMs) calculated directly from the data are in good agreement with all corresponding model predictions of VADMs. These are always higher than the spherical harmonic dipole moment, indicating the limitations of using VADMs as a measure of geomagnetic dipole moments.
Gains from trade in a Hotelling model of dierentiated duopoly

Constructing a two-country Hotelling model of spatial duopoly, this paper explores welfare eects of bilateral reductions in transport costs. We show that welfare in trade is necessarily less than welfare in autarky for any level of trade cost, which sharply contrasts Clarke and Collie (2003) prove Pareto superiority of any trade over autarky in a non-address model. We discuss that gainfulness of trade is crucially aected by whether demand is elastic.
The Mediating Role of Awareness in the Intention to Use Internet Banking Among SMES in YEMEN

This study examines the direct empirical relationship between independent variables (technology, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use) and intention to use internet banking (IB) among 200 SMEs owners in Yemen. Moreover, the research identifies the significance of intention to use IB as a plausible mediator in the relationship between independent variable (technology, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use) and intention to use IB - intention to use internet-banking rates. The analyses of the gathered data employed the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that technology and perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness positively influences intention to use, Moreover, awareness was found to be significant mediating factors in the relationship among technology and perceived ease of use, and intention to use IB among SMEsâÂÂ owners. Awareness was a negative mediating factor in the relationship between technology and perceived ease of use among SMEsâÂÂ owners. The relationship between awareness, (technology, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use), and intention to use IB play a particularly important role in developing IB among SME in Yemen. Based on research findings, theoretical and practical implications were discussed. Limitations and recommendations for future research were also highlighted.
A Comparison of Dielectric Properties of Palm Oil with Mineral and Synthetic Types Insulating Liquid under Temperature Variation

Mineral oil is known to have a low biodegradability level and high susceptibility to the fire. These conditions motivate many researchers to look for alternative sources for insulating oil. One of the alternative liquid is palm oil. To verify the suitability of using palm oil as an insulating liquid, it is important to make dielectric properties comparison with the commonly used insulating liquid. This paper presents comparison of temperature effect on dielectric properties of palm oil with mineral type insulating liquid and silicone oil. The measured parameters were breakdown voltage, dissipation factor (tan δ), and dielectric constant. Breakdown voltage measurement was performed in accordance with IEC 156 standard, whereas, the dissipation factor and dielectric constant measurement were conducted based on IEC 60247 standard test methods. The results showed that variations of dielectric properties of palm oil to the temperature change, in general, have the same tendency with those of commonly used insulating liquids i.e. mineral oil and silicone oil. Breakdown voltages and dissipation factors of all tested oils were increased, while their dielectric constants were slightly decreased with the increase of temperature.
Aggregation of performance measures for supporting decision makers

This work has presented and analysed three methods (Aggregation of information, aggregation of performance metrics and quantitative model for performance measurement systems based on ANP) for aggregating performance measurement information in order to provide decision-makers with additional information. The analysis has shown that the most complete method by far is the ANP, as it enables an easy modification of the initial structure of the performance measurement components, as well as a good performance regarding simplicity, visibility and presentation of information.
Development for a quality improvement training programme for health professionals in the ministry of health and social services in Namibia

The aim of this paper is to describe the quality improvement training programme for health professionals in the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia. The Practice Oriented Theory of Dickoff (1968) was used as practical guidelines to develop the conceptual framework. This framework was employed during the research and the educational programme development process. During the research process, the agent was the researcher; recipients (Managers/leadership and health professionals); the context (MoHSS head office and healthcare facilities); dynamics (findings for objective one and two); Procedure (research process) and terminus (foundations for development of educational programme). For the educational programme developing process, agent (quality specialist), recipients (health professional), context (health facilities), procedure (training programme for health professionals), dynamics, (challenges hampering successful implementation of the programme) and the terminus (knowledge, skills and abilities acquired through the training programme). During the development of the quality improvement training programme, two main theories were adapted. The most prominent one was a model by Meyer and Van Niekerk (2008), which was adapted to guide the process of developing the training programme. Kolb’s experiential learning theory was used to explain the learning process and styles of developing knowledge through experiences. The content of the training programme was derived from five main themes, 17 sub-themes and the conceptual framework based on the situation analysis about challenges faced by the health care facilities. The five themes were lack of implementation of policies and guidelines; inadequate resources; lack of interpersonal relationships; inadequate understanding of quality assurance and quality improvement; and inadequate research to provide evidence-based information during treatment and patient care. The educational programme consisted of the purpose / aim, objectives, structure / design, facilitation process, implementation process, and evaluation of the programme.
Interactive comment on “Improvements of organic aerosol representations and their effects in large-scale atmospheric models” by H. Tost and K. J. Pringle

We agree with the reviewer that also the hydrophobic material should be able to be oxidised as in the “Insol” simulation. However, this simulation showed a substantial difference in the atmospheric burden compared to the other model configurations. Since the comparison with observations presented in Pringle et al. (2010) showed a relatively good agreement, this would be considerably disturbed by the ageing process. Consequently, the good agreement can potentially result from compensating errors, i.e. the chemical and microphysical ageing compete for the hydrophobic material. Furthermore, in our simplified approach we assumed the oxidised hydrophobic material to be converted into hydrophilic OC: in reality that is not always the case such that our “Insol” configuration overestimates the conversion from hydrophobic to hydrophilic material. Based on these two considerations we decided for a more conservative approach, and used another scenario as best guess, in which a reasonable agreement with O:C ratios with observations has been obtained.
Defining Comfort Properties in Polyurethane Foam

The Woodbridge Group continues to explore the role of the PUF cushion in the measured comfort of the entire seating system. In this investigation our expanded comfort analysis of 60 PUF cushions, currently in the market, is illustrated through statistical analysis and comparisons drawn between PUF front seat driver cushions designed in North America, Europe, and Japan. All of the cushions included in this study were obtained from production moulds using production chemistries. A principal component analysis was conducted on sixteen different physical properties. In this manner we sought to reveal relationships not previously understood and subsequently allow for simpler interpretation. Using multivariate statistical methods all cushions, regardless of cushion type or origin, can be simultaneously analyzed. This analysis has revealed a number of critical foam characteristics. We have also identified those physical property tests that are highly correlated with each foam characteristic. Additionally, the analysis also facilitated the identification of three distinct cushion design philosophies as evidenced by cushions designed in North America, Europe, and Japan. Subsequently, differences in the PUF cushion design philosophies are illustrated. The future directions based on this multivariate analysis are discussed. We show a scheme that illustrates the effective use of chemistry that seeks to manipulate those specific physical property tests that impacts those foam characteristics, which we hypothesize, alter comfort performance.
Corruption, Income Inequality and Poverty in Central and Eastern European Union Countries: A Panel Causality Analysis

The global wealth has increased considerably and decreases in income inequality and poverty have been experienced in the recent years. However, both income inequality and poverty have still stayed at critical dimensions. This study investigated the causal interaction among corruption, income inequality, and poverty in Central and Eastern European Union transition economies during 2005-2016 period by employing panel causality test of Dumistrescu and Hurlin (2012). The results revealed a one-way causality from poverty to corruption and also a one-way causality from income inequality to poverty.