Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender and ethnic group differences in neuropsychological test performance in an urban, older adult population

The association of gender and ethnicity within a sample of older adults referred for neuropsychological assessment in an outpatient setting was investigated. Neuropsychological and functional measures included the Boston Naming Test (BNT), reading subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test-3 (WRAT-3), and Money Management (MM) subscale of the Independent Living Scales (ILS). This study replicated and expanded on Baird et al. (2007). European-American men performed significantly better than African-Americans and European-American women on the BNT & WRAT-3, and better than African-Americans on the ILS MM. Findings could not be attributed to discrepancies in age, years of formal education, and cognitive impairment severity and replicated the findings of Baird et al. (2007). Demographic group differences remained on the BNT and ILS MM after covarying on WRAT-3 score. Results highlight that oral word reading ability alone cannot accurately explain demographic group differences on some neuropsychological and functional measures. Acknowledgments Many individuals provided invaluable guidance throughout the completion of my thesis, and I am quite grateful for their support. I sincerely thank my advisor, Dr. Anne Baird for her wisdom, understanding and guidance throughout the entire process. Her encouragement and sharp editing skills were indispensable and I gready appreciate all her hard work. I wish to thank my committee members, Dr. Christopher Abeare and Dr. Lorna de Witt for their insights throughout this year; their suggestions and creativity significandy contributed to the growth of this thesis. Thanks to Dr. Marcia Gragg for the continual positive reinforcement, and to the women of the Rankin house for their irreplaceable support and laughter. Lasdy, my mother and fadier deserve innumerable thanks for their ever-present encouragement, understanding, humour, and love. TABLE OF CONTENTS AUTHOR'S DECLARATION OF ORIGNINALITY ui ABSTRACT IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF TABLES CHAPTER
Automated Speech Recognition in Controller Communications applied to Workload Measurement

—This paper is focused on the description of an Automated Speech Recognition system in Air Traffic Control environment and its application in the automated measurement of controller workload for demand and capacity balance purposes. For years there have been several attempts to properly apply Automated Speech Recognition technologies in the ATC domain, but the results obtained have been quite frequently not positive enough. AENA, the Spanish Air Navigation Service Provider, started a project with the objective to develop a prototype able to recognize voice communications from the controller to the pilot and integrate it on a Real-Time Simulator, closing the loop by generating the answers from the pseudopilots. After several iterations and testing many different technological and commercial Speech Recognition solutions (most of which proved to be inefficient for ATC communications), an ad-hoc system able to successfully recognize the content of the controller communication has been developed, being able to automatically transcribe it and determine the associated controller event. This system is currently obtaining high detection rates, which have allowed its integration with real ATC communications for automated controller voice events detection, that are later used for automated controller workload measurement. This innovative application of Speech Recognition systems to the ATC operation voice communications will be described in this paper.
6.21 BOUNDARY LAYER HEIGHT DETERMINATION UNDER SUMMERTIME ANTICYCLONIC WEATHER CONDITIONS OVER THE COASTAL AREA OF RIJEKA, CROATIA

INTRODUCTION The atmospheric boundary layer height is a fundamental parameter characterising the structure of the lower troposphere. The determination of this parameter is important in applications that range from meteorological modelling and forecasting to dispersion problems of atmospheric pollutants. Since substances emitted into the atmospheric boundary layer are dispersed horizontally and vertically through the action of turbulence, they are well-mixed over this layer that is widely known as "mixing layer". There are two basic approaches for the practical estimation of this height; the first approach suggests profile measurements, either insitu or by remote sounding (sodar, clear-air radar, lidar) and the second one, the use of models with only a few measured parameters as input. As far as the second approach is concerned, the majority of the models use relatively crude estimates of the roughness length that is often based on constant values for land cover (Scaudt and Dickinson, 2000). Consequently, the model results are not quite accurate. The present work aims firstly to evaluate the effect of alternative calculations of the roughness length on the non-hydrostatic mesoscale model (MEMO) performance, based on the use of satellite data, and secondly, to estimate the mixing layer height and analyze its variability in relation to underlying topography and land use. Rijeka, a region with complex topography and several islands in its surroundings, offers the opportunity to examine the above mentioned relationships. The non-hydrostatic mesoscale model MEMO was applied under summertime anticyclonic weather conditions during two multi-day periods characterised by stagnant meteorological conditions. The results proved MEMO capable of simulating mesoscale wind flow reasonably well, however, the use of AVHRR satellite data for calculating the roughness length based on the calculation of the NDVI parameter, optimised the model performance and resulted to a more accurate determination of the mixing layer height.
HEDGE PERFORMANCES OF OIL FUTURES CONTRACTS USING MIXED NORMAL DYNAMIC CONDITIONAL CORRELATION MODELS

In this study, bivariate mixed normal time varying GARCH models are proposed for capturing the skewness and kurtosis detected in both conditional and unconditional return distributions. Overall, this study investigates that separating the effects of positive and negative basis on market volatility and the correlation between two markets as well as jointly incorporating the long memory effect of the basis on market returns not only provides better descriptions of the dynamic behavior of the oil prices, but also plays an important role in discovering the dynamic hedging strategies. The proposed models are compared with different standard bivariate GARCH models in terms of both the percentage variance reduction of the out-of-sample hedged portfolio and the statistical significance test of the performance improvements. All models are applied to the crude and heating oil markets and the out-ofsample evaluation is carried out by comparing the hedged portfolio variances over one to 50 days hedge horizons. JEL Classification: C13, C32, G13
Role of MicroRNA-124 as a Prognostic Factor in Multiple Neoplasms: A Meta-Analysis

Objective MicroRNA-124 (miR-124) was revealed to be an attractive prognostic tumour biomarker in recent studies. However, the results remain inconclusive. Hence, this meta-analysis was carried out to clarify the precise predictive value of miR-124. Materials and Methods Relevant studies were searched in PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library up to October 2018. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were extracted from the selected studies. Results A total of 29 articles investigating the correlation between miR-124 expression and prognosis were initially identified. The pooled HR for overall survival (OS) of high miR-124 expression in multiple cancers was 0.55 (95%CI = 0.50–0.61). Disease-free survival (DFS)/progression-free survival (HR = 0.48, 95%CI = 0.38–0.61) revealed a protective role of increased miR-124 expression. Epigenetic hypermethylation of miR-124 mediated the silencing of its expression, which is correlated significantly with unfavourable survival (OS: HR = 2.06, 95%CI = 1.68–2.53; DFS/recurrence-free survival: HR = 2.77, 95%CI = 1.85–4.16). Conclusions Taken together, our results suggest that miR-124 plays an antioncogenic role in various tumors, such as lung cancer and colorectal cancer. If methylation of miR-124 could be prevented, progression and metastasis would be improved; thus, miR-124 may be a promising biomarker and novel therapeutic target. Further large-scale studies are needed to confirm this possible effect.
Differences in care use between men and women: The role of publicly financed and informal care at home

Although most recipients of long-term care are women, due to rising life expectancy among men, future users of care are increasingly likely to be men. There are indications that gender is an important factor in the way in which a country organizes its care, and that social policy can have diverging outcomes on the average health of men and women. Nevertheless, gender differences in the use of care are seldom considered. Research into possible explanations for these differences has focused mainly on differences between individual characteristics of men and women. In addition, this study examines the effect of public spending on professional home care and the average availability of informal care by over-50s on the actual use of care. Data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement 2004, 2007, and 2013 from eight European countries were used, in combination with OECD data on public spending on professional home care. A multinomial regression with fixed effects was estimated for the correlation between these macro characteristics and individual use of care for men and women separately. Findings show that higher public expenditure on home care is associated with less use of paid care, but also that this is particularly the case among men (“paid care” includes care paid for by the user himself or herself). More plentiful informal care is associated with lower use of paid care, in both men and women. One of the possible implications for future policy on long-term care is that men are relatively more likely to respond to changes in the availability of home care than women and that this responsiveness will become even more marked as the proportion of men using care rises. Key Practitioners Message In social policies and the organization of long-term care, gender differences are seldom considered. This study examines the effect of public spending on professional home care and the average availability of informal care by over-50s for men and women separately. Higher public expenditure on home care is associated with more use of paid care, particularly among men. More plentiful informal care is associated with lower use of paid care, in both men and women. Men are relatively more likely to respond to changes in public spending on home care than women, and this responsiveness will likely become even more marked as the proportion of men using care rises.
Transforming the business portfolio: how multinationals reinvent themselves

Sebastian Schönhaar is based at the Faculty of Business Administration, Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany. Ulrich Pidun is an Associate Director at The Boston Consulting Group, Frankfurt, Germany. Michael Nippa is Head of the Chair of Management, Leadership, and Human Resources at the Faculty of Business Administration, Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany. Introduction
A Groundwater Modelling Investigation of Greywater Disposal

This report focused on a numerical modelling assessment of the possible effects of greywater reuse on the freshwater lenses in South Tarawa, Kiribati. Conceptual models and 2D cross-sectional numerical models of selected transects of Betio, Bairiki and Bikenibeu Islands were developed based on available field data. Simulations then were used to assess greywater transport and its effects on freshwater lenses in current situation and future scenarios. The modelling results show that adding the greywater discharge increases notably the freshwater thickness compared to the baseline scenario where greywater discharge is neglected. Eight scenarios were simulated to test the influence of rainfall dynamics and groundwater abstraction rates on the contribution of greywater disposal on freshwater lens thickness. The report then provides recommendations for future work to enhance the outcomes of future modelling efforts and the feasibility of indirect greywater reuse.
ICLR 2020 Table 1 : Empirical adversarial accuracy of ImageNet classifiers defended with Local Gradient Smoothing and Digital Watermarking

Adversarial patch attacks are one of the most practical threat models against realworld computer vision systems. This paper studies the certified and empirical performance of defenses against patch attacks. We begin with a set of experiments showing that most existing defenses, which work by pre-processing input images to mitigate adversarial noise, are easily broken by simple white-box adversaries. Motivated by this finding, we present an approach for certified defense against patch attacks, and propose methods for fast training of these models. Finally, we experiment with different patch shapes for testing, and observe that robustness transfers across shapes surprisingly well.
Robust Logic Obfuscation for Trusted Design Synthesis

Logic obfuscation/encryption/locking refers to a class of techniques to prevent IC counterfeiting, reverse engineering, piracy, unauthorized over production or use. In these methods, a logic design is encrypted during or after logic synthesis and a key is generated. The encrypted logic design may be fabricated at a foundry which is untrusted. The key generated at the time of encryption is provided to a trusted user and should be suppled during operation. Valid outputs are produced by the IC if and only if a valid key is supplied. In the past few years, several proposed logic obfuscation methods were shown to be vulnerable to a variety of attacks including the satisfiability attack, skew attack, logic removal attack etc. Further, it is hard to integrate some of the proposed obfuscation methods with standard synthesis tools and methodologies. In this paper, we report our efforts to develop robust obfuscation methods compatible with COTS logic synthesis tools. We explore the use of sub-circuit obfuscation using look-up tables and logic duplication to improve the quality of encryption. Experimental results show negligible area overhead and robust encryption for several benchmark circuits. In addition, we discuss how these methods can be integrated with a COTS logic synthesis tools.
The Cross-Modal Effects of Sensory Deprivation on Spatial and Temporal Processes in Vision and Audition: A Systematic Review on Behavioral and Neuroimaging Research since 2000

One of the most significant effects of neural plasticity manifests in the case of sensory deprivation when cortical areas that were originally specialized for the functions of the deprived sense take over the processing of another modality. Vision and audition represent two important senses needed to navigate through space and time. Therefore, the current systematic review discusses the cross-modal behavioral and neural consequences of deafness and blindness by focusing on spatial and temporal processing abilities, respectively. In addition, movement processing is evaluated as compiling both spatial and temporal information. We examine whether the sense that is not primarily affected changes in its own properties or in the properties of the deprived modality (i.e., temporal processing as the main specialization of audition and spatial processing as the main specialization of vision). References to the metamodal organization, supramodal functioning, and the revised neural recycling theory are made to address global brain organization and plasticity principles. Generally, according to the reviewed studies, behavioral performance is enhanced in those aspects for which both the deprived and the overtaking senses provide adequate processing resources. Furthermore, the behavioral enhancements observed in the overtaking sense (i.e., vision in the case of deafness and audition in the case of blindness) are clearly limited by the processing resources of the overtaking modality. Thus, the brain regions that were previously recruited during the behavioral performance of the deprived sense now support a similar behavioral performance for the overtaking sense. This finding suggests a more input-unspecific and processing principle-based organization of the brain. Finally, we highlight the importance of controlling for and stating factors that might impact neural plasticity and the need for further research into visual temporal processing in deaf subjects.
AN EFFICIENT HOMOTOPY TRAINING ALGORITHM FOR NEURAL NETWORKS

We present a Homotopy Training Algorithm (HTA) to solve optimization problems arising from neural networks. The HTA starts with several decoupled systems with low dimensional structure and tracks the solution to the high dimensional coupled system. The decoupled systems are easy to solve due to the low dimensionality but can be connected to the original system via a continuous homotopy path guided by the HTA. We have proved the convergence of HTA for the non-convex case and existence of the homotopy solution path for the convex case. The HTA has provided a better accuracy on several examples including VGG models on CIFAR-10. Moreover, the HTA would be combined with the dropout technique to provide an alternative way to train the neural networks.
Frequency and Vibration Characteristics of High-Speed Gear-Rotor-Bearing System with Tooth Root Crack considering Compound Dynamic Backlash

Considering the microstructure of tooth surface and the dynamic characteristics of the vibration responses, a compound dynamic backlash model is employed for the gear transmission system. Based on the fractal theory and dynamic center distance, respectively, the dynamic backlash is presented, and the potential energy method is applied to compute the time-varying meshing stiffness, including the healthy gear system and the crack fault gear system. Then, a 16-DOF coupled lateral-torsional gear-rotor-bearing transmission system with the crack fault is established. The fault characteristics in the time-domain waveform and frequency response and statistics data are described. The effect of crack on the time-varying meshing stiffness is analyzed. The vibration response of three backlash models is compared. The dynamic response of the system is explored with the increase in crack depth in detail. The results show that the fault features of countershaft are more obvious. Obvious fluctuations are presented in the time-domain waveform, and sidebands can be found in the frequency domain responses when the tooth root crack appears. The effect of compound dynamic backlash on the system is more obvious than fixed backlash and backlash with changing center distance. The vibration displacement along meshing direction and dynamic meshing force increases with the increase in crack depth. Backlash and variation of center distance show different tendencies with increasing crack depth under different rotational speeds. Amplitude of the sidebands increases with crack depth increasing. The amplitude of multiplication frequency of rotational frequency has an obvious variation with growing crack depth. The sidebands of the multiplication frequency of meshing frequency show more details on the system with complex backlash and crack fault.
Effect of Diclofenac on Plasma Glucose level, Insulin Resistance, Inflammatory Markers and Hepatocytes in Diabetic Albino Rats

Background and aim of the study: diabetes wasproposed to be an inflam­matory disease. Growing evidence has pointed to a correlation between various proinflammatory cytokines, insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Materials and Methods: This study was carried out on one hundred Albino rats, distributed into four groups. Group I: control group, Group II: diabetic rats with no treatment, Group III: diabetic rats treated with Glipenclamid and Group IV: diabetic rats treated with Diclofenac sodium. Blood samples were taken and the following biochemical parameters were done: fasting blood glucose (FBG), serum insulin, aspartate transaminase (AST), Alanine transaminase (ALT), serum Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), serum protein, serum albumin, serum triglyceride (TGs), serum cholesterol level (TC), High Density Lipoprotein (HDL), Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF-α) and C-Reactive Protein (CRP). HOMA IR and HOMA B were calculated. Liver samples from all rats were obtained and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin, Masson's trichrome and Periodic acid–Schiff (PAS) for histological examination. Results: Declofenac caused significant lowering in FBG, lipid profile, TNF-α level, CRP, increased insulin secretion with improved IR and beta cell function compared to the diabetic group. There was a positive correlation between HOMA-IR and CRP; HOMA-IR and serum TNF-α. Liver of diabetic rats showed periportal fibrosis, vacuolated cytoplasm and nuclei and glycogen deposition. These changes improved markedly in Glibenclamide treated groups while liver of Declofenac treated group revealed parenchymal cell necrosis, sinusoidal dilatation with some pyknotic nuclei and marked glycogen deposition. Conclusions: inflammatory pathways may play an important part in IR of T2DM. Therefore, antinflammatory drugs may have a role in diabetes therapy through improving IR because of its insulin-sensitiz­ing and anti-inflammatory properties.
Tractable Probabilistic Models for Moral Responsibility

Moral responsibility is a major concern in autonomous systems, with applications ranging from self-driving cars to kidney exchanges. Although there have been recent attempts to formalise responsibility and blame, among similar notions, the problem of learning within these formalisms has been unaddressed. From the viewpoint of such systems, the urgent questions are: (a) How can models of moral scenarios and blameworthiness be extracted and learnt automatically from data? (b) How can judgements be computed effectively and efficiently, given the split-second decision points faced by some systems? By building on constrained tractable probabilistic learning, we propose a learning framework for inducing models of such scenarios automatically from data and reasoning tractably from them. We report on experiments that compare our system with human judgement in three domains: lung cancer staging, teamwork management, and trolley problems.
Collegiate Program Safety Culture Survey – a Comparison of Disciplines

The use of safety culture surveys to determine constituent perception of an organization’s efforts toward safety is widely accepted. However, the use of such surveys to compare disciplines within a collegiate aviation department has infrequently been employed. Students enrolled in flight, maintenance, and UAS programs participated in a safety culture survey, providing data on the safety culture within each program as well as the ability to compare programs. Subscales for safety values, safety fundamentals, and risk assessment were included. There were statistically significant differences in safety values between the maintenance group and both the flight and UAS groups, and between all three groups in safety fundamentals, but no statistically significant difference between programs in risk assessment.