Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts PUBERTAL MATURATION AS A MODERATOR OF GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON INTERNALIZING BEHAVIOR A Thesis in Psychology by

Pubertal development is a socially salient, physiological process that may impact concurrent internalizing problems via physiological, genetic and/or environmental pathways. The present study uses two genetically informed samples to examine (1) sex differences in genetic and environmental influences on internalizing behavior, and (2) the moderating effects of pubertal maturation, and a subset of items indexing gonadal maturation, on genetic and environmental influences on internalizing behavior in boys and girls during adolescence. Genetic and environmental influences on internalizing behavior differed for boys and girls in both samples. Total pubertal maturation moderated genetic and environmental influences on internalizing behavior for girls in one sample, such that genetic influences accounted for more of the variance in internalizing behavior among pre-pubertal girls than pubertal girls but shared and nonshared environmental influences accounted for more of the variance in internalizing behavior among pubertal girls than pre-pubertal girls. Gonadal maturation marginally moderated genetic influences on internalizing behavior for girls in the other sample such that genetic influences accounted for more variance in internalizing behavior among pubertal girls than pre-pubertal girls. Pubertal maturation did not moderate genetic and environmental influences on internalizing behavior for boys. In sum, results suggest multiple pathways for the influence of pubertal maturation on genetic and environmental influences on internalizing behavior in girls depending on the index of pubertal maturation.
Predicting the Effects of Fuel Composition and Flame Structure on Soot Generation in Turbulent Non-Premixed Flames

Abstract : This project aimed to develop a reduced chemistry and soot model for making accurate predictions of soot emissions from military gas turbine engines. Measurements of soot formation were performed in laminar flat premixed flames and turbulent non-premixed jet flames at 1 atm pressure and in turbulent liquid spray flames under representative conditions for takeoff in a gas turbine engine. Fuels investigated included ethylene and a JP-8 surrogate consisting of n-dodecane and m-xylene. The pressurized turbulent jet flame measurements demonstrated that the surrogate fuel was representative of actual JP-8. The premixed flame measurements revealed that flame temperature has a strong impact on the rate of soot nucleation and particle coagulation. Mean and rms soot concentrations were measured throughout the turbulent non-premixed jet flames, together with soot concentration-temperature data, as well as spatially resolved radiant emission. A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism for ethylene combustion, including fuel-rich chemistry and benzene formation steps, was compiled, validated, and reduced. The reduced ethylene mechanism was incorporated into a high-fidelity large eddy simulation (LES) code, together with a moment-based soot model and different models for thermal radiation. The LES results highlight the importance of including an optically-thick radiation model to accurately predict gas temperatures and thus soot formation rates. When including such a radiation model, the LES model predicts mean soot concentrations within 30% in the ethylene jet flame.
Design and Implementation of Respiration Rate Measurement System Using Information Filter on Embedded Device Radius

In this work, an algorithm was developed to measure the respiration rate for an embedded 1 device that can be used by a field robot for relief operation. With this algorithm, the rate measurement 2 was calculated based on direct influences of respiratory-induced intensity variation (RIIV) on 3 blood flow in cardiovascular pathways. For that, a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor was used 4 to determine changes in heartbeat frequencies. The PPG sensor readings were filtered using an 5 Information Filter and a Fast Fourier transform (FFT) to determine the state of RIIV. With a relatively 6 light initialization, the information filter can estimate unknown variables based on a series of 7 measurements containing noise and other inaccuraties. Therefore, this filter is suitable for application 8 on an embedded device. For faster calculation time in the implementation, the FFT analysis was 9 calculated only for a major peak in the frequency domain. Test and measurement of respiration rate 10 was conducted based on the device algorithm and spirometer. Heartbeat measurement was also 11 evaluated by comparing the heartbeat data of the PPG sensor and the medical tool kit. Based on the 12 test, the implemented algorithm can measure respiration rate with about 80% accuracy compared 13 with the spirometer. 14
A Statistical Explanation of the Distribution of Sortal Classifiers in Languages of the World via Computational Classifiers

ABSTRACT Previous studies demonstrate that morphosyntactic plural markers and the structure of numeral systems have individually strong predictive power with regard to the usage of sortal classifiers in languages. We use these two factors as explanatory variables to train the computational classifier of random forests and evaluate the accuracy of their predictive power when selecting the existence/absence of sortal classifiers as response variable. Our results show that these two factors result in an excellent discrimination performance of random forests, even when taking into account sortal classifiers as an areal feature. However, the correlation between morphosyntactic plural markers and multiplicative bases is weaker than the correlation between sortal classifiers and plural markers plus multiplicative bases. We are thus able to provide novel insights with regard to probabilistic universals on sortal classifiers, and suggest an innovative cross-disciplinary approach to test the effect of implicational universals with computational methods.
Real Time Blind Source Separation in Reverberant Environments

An online convolutive blind source separation solution has been developed for use in reverberant environments with stationary sources. Results are presented for simulation and real world data. The system achieves a separation SINR of 16.8 dB when operating on a two source mixture, with a total acoustic delay was 270 ms. This is on par with, and in many respects outperforms various published algorithms [1],[2]. A number of instantaneous blind source separation algorithms have been developed, including a block wise and recursive ICA algorithm, and a clustering based algorithm, able to obtain up to 110 dB SIR performance. The system has been realised in both Matlab and C, and is modular, allowing for easy update of the ICA algorithm that is the core of the unmixing process.
Firm’s Credit Risk in the Presence of Market Structural Breaks

The financial crises which occurred in the last several decades have demonstrated the significant impact of market structural breaks on firms’ credit behavior. To incorporate the impact of market structural break into the analysis of firms’ credit rating transitions and firms’ asset structure, we develop a continuous-time modulated Markov model for firms’ credit rating transitions with unobserved market structural breaks. The model takes a semi-parametric multiplicative regression form, in which the effects of firms’ observable covariates and macroeconomic variables are represented parametrically and nonparametrically, respectively, and the frailty effects of unobserved firm-specific and market-wide variables are incorporated via the integration form of the model assumption. We further develop a mixtured-estimating-equation approach to make inference on the effect of market variations, baseline intensities of all firms’ credit rating transitions, and rating transition intensities for each individual firm. We then use the developed model and inference procedure to analyze the monthly credit rating of U.S. firms from January 1986 to December 2012, and study the effect of market structural breaks on firms’ credit rating transitions.
Heterotrophic Nitrogen Removal Bacteria in Sedimentary and Water of Striped Catfish Ponds In The Mekong Delta, Vietnam

A total of 1682 heterotrophic nitrogen removal (HNR) bacteria isolated from sedimentary and water of striped catfish ponds were classified in four kinds of heterotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (402 isolates), nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (438 isolates), nitrate-oxidizing bacteria (444 isolates) and heterotrophic nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria (398 isolates). The virtually complete 16S rRNA gene was PCR amplified and sequenced. The sequences from the selected HNR bacteria showed high degrees of similarity to those of the GenBank references strains (between 97% and 99.8%). Phylogenetic trees based on the 16S rDNA sequences displayed high consistency, with nodes supported by high bootstrap (500) values. These presumptive HNR isolates were divided four groups that included members of genera Arthrobacter, Corynebacterium, Rhodococcus (high G+C content gram-positive bacteria), Bacillus (low G+C content gram-positive bacteria) and Pseudomonas (gram-negative bacteria). Based on Pi value (nucleotide diversity), heterotrophic ammonium-oxidizing bacteria group had highest values and heterotrophic nitrifying-denitrifying bacteria group had the lowest values and Theta values (per sequence) from S of SNP for DNA polymorphism showed that heterotrophic nitrate-oxidizing bacteria group had the highest theta values in comparison of three groups. The present study, the HNR bacteria from sedimentary and water of striped catfish ponds, showed a very diverse community of HNR bacteria with a relatively high number of species involved in sedimentary and water samples and many isolates have nitrogen utilization ability at high concentration (800 – 1200 mM) and high G+C gram-positive bacteria strain occupied higher than low G+C gram-positive bacteria strain.
Study and Comparison of Digital Image Steganography

Steganography is the art of hiding the fact that communication is taking place, by The Wrapping information in other information. Many different carrier file formats can be used, but digital images are the most popular because of their frequency on the internet. For hiding secret information in images, there exists a large variety of steganography techniques some are more complex than others and all of them have respective strong and weak points. Different applications may require absolute invisibility of the secret information, while others require a large secret message to be hidden. This paper intends to give an overview of image Steganography, its uses and techniques. It also attempts to identify the requirements of a good Steganography.
tate-space methods for more completely capturing behavioral dynamics from nimal tracks reg

State-space models (SSMs) are now the tools of choice for analyzing animal tracking data. A wide variety of such data are being collected worldwide and modeled using state-space methods to better understand population dynamics, animal behavior and physical and environmental processes. The central goal of such analyses is the estimation of biologically interpretable static parameters. Most approaches implement some form of MCMC or Kalman filter to estimate these parameters. We demonstrate the utility in allowing time-varying (rather than static) parameters to more completely capture dynamic features of the processes of interest, in this case the behavioral dynamics of tracked marine animals. We develop arameter estimation article filters article smoothers tate augmentation and demonstrate a parameter augmented sequential Monte Carlo method (also referred to as an augmented particle filter or particle smoother (PF or PS)) that allows straightforward estimation of both static and time-varying parameters from tracking data. We focus specifically on temporally irregular GPS data describing marine animal movement with the goal of better understanding the underlying behavioral dynamics. Using tracking data from California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) we demonstrate the approach’s ability to detect subtle yet biologically relevant changes in behavior.
Inner Containment and Delinquency

A central question confronting delinquency theory and research over the years has been the maintenance of non-delinquent behavior patterns in social environments thought to be highly conducive to delinquency. One of the most widely noted and reprinted attempts to deal with this issue has been the work of Walter Reckless and the "containment theorists," 1 who have introduced the notion of "inner containment" to explain variable responses to criminogenic situations. Inner containment is vaguely defined as referring to the "inner ability" of a person to direct himself, or to "inner strengths" which help a person resist "deflection" from conventional norms, and supposedly encompasses a variety of related psychological and social-psychological concepts such as "self-control," "good self-concept," "ego strength," "welldeveloped superego" and "high resistance to diversions. " Most of the containment theorists' research related to this issue has centered around the "self-
PATHOGEN SURVEY , GILL NaK-ATPase ACTIVITY , AND LEUKOCYTE PROFILE OF ADULT DELTA SMELT

Delta smelt abundance has declined drastically and the species was listed as threatened in 1993. The role of disease in this decline is largely unknown. One hundred and five adult smelt, collected from the lower Sacramento River between January and May 2010, were surveyed for infectious agents, blood leukocyte profile, and gill Na-K-ATPase activity. Few tissue changes or significant parasitic infections were observed in histological specimens and there was a low incidence of bacterial isolations. Asymptomatic Mycobacterium sp. infection was detected in 54% of the samples by PCR; however, this bacterial group was not isolated in culture. Gill Na-K-ATPase activity was lower in the January sample than subsequent month collections. The number of blood granulocytes increased between March and May. Disease did not appear to be an overt influence on the surveyed population in the spring of 2010.
TOPICAL REVIEW: Highest energy cosmic-rays and results from the HiRes experiment

The status of the field of ultrahigh energy cosmic-ray physics is summarized, from the point of view of the latest results of the High-Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) Experiment. HiRes results are presented, and compared with those of the Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA), plus the Telescope Array and Pierre Auger experiments. The HiRes measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum and the observation of the GZK cutoff are presented. HiRes results on composition, searches for anisotropy, measurement of the proton-air total cross-section and shapes of shower profiles are presented.
Message Embedding In PNG File Using LSB Steganographic Technique

Many types of Internet-based applications have been used for centuries to be secure important information and data. In some case, the communication is necessary to be secret. Consequently, the security of information has become a fundamental issue. In this paper, an image steganographic technique is presented by combining cryptographic and steganographic techniques. This system uses LSB-based data embedding technique to hide the encrypted message. Before embedding the secret message, RC4 algorithm is also used for message encryption. In this system, BBS (Blum Blum Shub) Pseudo Random Number Generator is used for generating the random sequences and then the secret messages can be hidden in PNG image file by using random sequences. This system is intended to emphasis on digital applications, focusing on hiding information under PNG image file.
Multimodal System Based on Electrooculography and Voice Recognition to Control a Robot Arm

People with severe motor disorders cannot use their arms and/or hands to interact with the environment. In such cases, a human-machine interface can be used to allow these people to perform activities of daily life. Voice recognition would be the best method to control a device devoted to help with these tasks, but this method is very dependent on the background noise and, under certain circumstances, it cannot be used successfully. In this sense, other methods must be included in the system to assist the voice recognition module. In this project, electrooculography (EOG) has been selected due to its stability and robustness. This way, a multimodal system based on EOG and voice recognition has been developed to control a robotic arm. This paper presents the procedures designed to combine both methods to create a multimodal interface useful for disabled people. Tests presented in this document compare the skills of five different users while controlling the robotic arm to perform pick-and-place tasks. Task duration and accuracy have been measured to obtain specific scores that are used to evaluate both interaction methods independently and the multimodal combination of them. The system works successfully using both methods (EOG and voice recognition). In addition, the multimodal interface improves robustness and reduces the uncertainty generated by the environment when there is background noise.
16S rRNA gene sequences analysis of acetic acid bacteria isolated from Thailand

In accordance with the Convention on Biological D ivers i ty (CBD) , the Nat i ona l Ins t i tu te o f Technology and Evaluation in Japan and the National Center for Genetic Engineering and B i o t e chno l ogy i n Tha i l and comp l e t ed the Memorandum of Understanding for conducting cooperative research to promote the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources in Japan and Thailand for academic, industrial, and other purposes. It is expected that their utilization and commercialization will provide benefits to both countries. The NITE Biological Resource Center (NBRC) and the BIOTEC Culture Collection (BCC) started joint research projects on bacteria, yeast, and fungi in 2005 to increase microbiological resources in both collections. Acetic acid bacteria are important organisms in food and beverage industries etc. It is known that they adapt well to sugary and alcoholized fluid and are isolated from vinegar, fruit juice, sap water, alcoholic beverages and flowers. A common feature of this group is the aerobic oxidation of ethanol to acet ic acid . The family Acetobacteraceae in the Alphaproteobacteria currently accommodates 10 gene r a A c e t o b a c t e r , A c i d o m o n a s , A s a i a , Gluconacetobacter, Gluconobacter, Granulibacter, K o z a k i a , N e o a s a i a , S a c c h a r i b a c t e r , a n d Swaminathania. They have been isolated in various countries in East and Southeast Asia, such as Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines since 1996 (Kersters, et al. , 2006; Sievers & Swings, 2005; Uchimura, 2007; Yamada & Yukphan, 2008). More than 300 strains of acetic acid bacteria were isolated from various sources collected from various areas in Thailand and maintained at the BCC (Yukphan et al., 2004c) to be identified at a later date. To publicize these strains in our strain catalogues and to opti-
DIFFERENT FATES OF ISLAND BROOMS: CONTRASTING EVOLUTION IN ADENOCARPUS, GENISTA AND TELINE (GENISTEAE, LEGUMINOSAE) IN THE CANARY ISLANDS AND MADEIRA

Analysis of sequence data from the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) and 5.8S region of nuclear ribosomal DNA show that Canarian and Madeiran brooms (Genisteae) of the genera Teline, Adenocarpus and Genista are related to Mediterranean species and not to species from adjacent parts of Morocco. Each separate colonization of the islands has resulted in contrasting patterns of adaptation and radiation. The genus Teline is diphyletic with both groups (the ‘T. monspessulana group’ and the ‘T. linifolia group’) separately nested within Genista. Genista benehoavensis (La Palma) and G. tenera (Madeira) form, with G. tinctoria of Europe, a single clade characterized by vestigially arillate seeds. The Canarian species of Adenocarpus have almost identical sequence to the Mediterranean A. complicatus, and are likely to be the result of island speciation after a very recent colonization event. This Canarian/Mediterranean A. complicatus group is sister to the afrotropical montane A. mannii which is probably derived from an earlier colonization from the Mediterranean, possibly via the Red Sea hills. The independent colonization and subsequent radiation of the two Teline groups in the Canary Islands make an interesting comparison: the phylogenies both show geographical structuring, each with a central and western island division of taxa. Within the ‘T. monspessulana group’ there is evidence that both continental and Madeiran taxa could be derived from the Canary Islands. The finding of two groups within Teline also has implications for patterns of hybridization in those parts of the world where Teline species are invasive; in California members of the T. monspessulana group hybridize readily, but no hybrids have been recorded with T. linifolia which has been introduced in the same areas. CHAPTER FOUR: LEGUME DIVERSITY 261 -
A Study of Sybil and Temporal Attacks in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks: Types, Challenges, and Impacts

In recent years, the number of automobiles on the road has increased tremendously. Due to high density and mobility of vehicles, possible threats and road accidents are increasing. Wireless communication allows sending safety and other critical information. Due to this inherent wireless characteristic and periodic exchange of safety packets, Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is vulnerable to number of security threats like Sybil attack or temporal attack. In this paper, a detailed discussion has been done on both the type of attacks. With the help of already published works, some approaches have also been studied which have proved to be of significance in detection of these attacks.
Fast Poissonian-Gaussian Noise Estimation

We propose a fast and straightforward noise level function estimation method for signal-dependent noise from single-image raw-data. The noise is modeled as Poissonian-Gaussian as it is naturally suited for the raw-data of modern digital imaging sensors. We believe that hard segmentation approach used in the conventional noise estimation schemes degrades the accuracy of the estimation by reducing the sample size for estimation. Increasing the sample size, by using soft segmentation approach, improves the accuracy of the estimation. We propose to estimate the noise variance directly in the image intensity domain via weighted summation. Experiments on synthetic as well as real raw-images show that proposed method provides reliable noise estimation 20 times faster than the state-of-the-art.
Technical, Financial, Social Barriers and Challenges in Deep Building Renovation: Integration of Lessons Learned from the H2020 Cluster Projects

With a low rate of new building construction and insufficient rate of existing building renovation, there is the need for stepping up the pace of building renovation with ambitious performance targets to achieve EU climate change policies. However, effective technologies alone cannot solve the low renovation rate of existing buildings in Europe that is hindering the reaching of EU-wide targets. A workshop was held at the Sustainable Place Conference 2018 to present successful experiences with an integrative approach from H2020 innovation actions (4RinEU, P2ENDURE, Pro-GET-OnE, MORE-CONNECT) aiming at improving building energy performance through deep renovation. This article presents the outcomes of the joint workshop and interactive discussion, by focusing on the different technical, financial and social added values, barriers and challenges in building renovation as well as on the identification of open questions to address future innovation opportunities.