Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The New ABCs: A Practitioner's Guide to Neuroscience-Informed Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy models are evolving to take into account the impact of physiological responses on client distress and the secondary role of conscious cognitions and beliefs in perpetuating distress and dysfunction. This article presents an accessible and practical description of a neuroscience-informed cognitive-behavior therapy model, in the hope that readers will learn how to apply this model in practice.
Image Steganography Based On Optimal LSB Pixel Adjustment Method

Now a days, internet becomes major channel for communicating information one place to other such as text, image, audio, video data. Steganography is a technique in which information can to be communicating secretly by hiding in another such as secondary information with changing its significance. This paper presents a new approach of image steganography using polynomial based optimal LSB and pixel adjustment method. This method main focus on adaptiveness of LSB’s replacement and pixel adjustment for improving the capacity of hiding data and robustness of steganography. Objective analysis is done over the proposed method using MSE, PSNR and Normalized correlation method.
Evaluation of Power Management Strategy for Renewable Microgrid System

This paper presents the evaluation and control of renewable energy sources based micro-grid system having solar photovoltaic, wind turbine generator, fuel cell and diesel engine generator. A battery storage system has also been installed to provide unintrupted power supply and to store excess power. The proposed micro-grid system is simulated on Matlab/Simulink software and the performance has been analysied with two cases considering different environmental conditions to check the optimal performance of the system. In the first case, the solar photovoltaic, fuel cell, diesel engine generator and battery storage system has been considered and in the second case, the solar photovoltaic source is replaced by the wind turbines. For both the cases, simulation has been done for 300 seconds to findout the optimal fulfilment of the demand. The time domain analysis has been done by varying the solar irradiance and wind speed in respective cases to check the system performance. This work shows the efficient control of various distributed energy resources in the micro-grid system and meeting the load demand efficiently.
Decreased litter size in inactive female mink (Neovison vison): Mediating variables and implications for overall productivity

Meagher, R. , Bechard, A. , Palme, R. , Díez-León, M. , Hunter, D. B. and Mason, G. 2012. Decreased litter size in inactive female mink ( Neovison vison ): Mediating variables and implications for overall productivity. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 92: 131-141. Farmed mink vary dramatically in activity: very inactive individuals rarely leave the nest-box, while others spend hours active daily, often performing stereotypic behaviour (SB). SB typically correlates with increased reproductive output, and inactivity, with decreased output. Our objectives were to determine whether SB or inactivity best predicted litter size (LS), and to test three hypothesized reasons for inactive dams′ reduced LS: H1, excess fat; H2, chronic stress (potentially underlying inactivity because fear motivates hiding); and H3, health problems. We assessed time budgets pre-breeding, scored body condition visually, conducted health exams, and assessed stress using faecal cortisol metabolites (FCM) and "glove tests" for fear. Results did not support H2 and H3: inactive females were no more fearful than active females (P>0.10), they excreted lower levels of FCM (P=0.033), and were considered healthy. As predicted by H1, inactive females had higher body condition scores (P<0.0001), which predicted decreased LS (P=0.040). However, path analysis determined this was unlikely to mediate the inactivity-LS relationship. Compared with SB, inactivity more consistently predicted both LS (negatively, P ≤ 0.038) and kit weight (positively, P ≤ 0.037). Therefore, decreasing inactivity in farmed mink, rather than increasing their SB or decreasing their body condition should most improve productivity.
Semantic Information Management Control of Mission Asset State Changes

Abstract : Managing state changes for semantically represented mission assets can be complex and burdensome. Standard practice simplifies updating state-based relationships by performing sequential delete and add operations, or by creating a new instance of the asset with updated state values. The former is inflexible and constraining as it eliminates historical state tracing, making it impossible to implement state provenance and advanced semantic queries. The latter causes mass duplication of non-stateful attributes while requiring asset redefinitions upon each stateful relationship change event. Our research implements an alternative solution by representing the asset definition once and declaring each state change as an instance specialization under the W3C Provenance Ontology (Prov-O).
The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering MODELING SAFETY EFFECTS OF GEOMETRIC DESIGN CONSISTENCY ON TWO-LANE RURAL ROADWAYS USING MIXED EFFECTS NEGATIVE BINOMIAL REGRESSION A Thesis in Civil Engineering by

Previous research has examined the relationship between roadway safety and design consistency using measures such as the difference between design and operating speeds and the difference in operating speeds on successive elements. While such measures have proven effective in identifying inconsistencies in the roadway, they do not directly identify the conditions associated with safety performance. The purpose of this research was to directly quantify the effects of geometric design consistency on roadway safety using measures that can be linked to specific geometric elements. To do so, five years of crash data and roughly 5,000 miles of alignment data from the state of Washington were utilized to model crash experience on 2.5 mile segments. Using mixed effects negative binomial modeling, three safety performance functions (SPFs) were developed. The first contained typical roadway parameters that were suggested for use by several contemporary safety management tools, while the second contained various geometric design consistency measures developed from the dataset. The final SPF contained both typical and design consistency parameters. After Empirical Bayes adjustments were applied using the conditional overdispersion parameters from the mixed effects negative binomial models, sites with potential (SWiPs) for safety improvements were ranked for each model using the scaled differences in frequencies between the predicted and adjusted number of crashes. A comparison was then made based on differences in SWiP rankings between the typical parameter model and the final model containing additional design consistency parameters. Ultimately, 40 unique segments were identified by each SPF out of the top 220 segments ranked; this constitutes a 19 percent change in the top 10 percent of
A Probabilistic Approach to the Primary Visual Cortex

What can the statistical structure of natural images teach us about the human brain? Even though the visual cortex is one of the most studied parts of the brain, surprisingly little is known about how exactly images are processed to leave us with a coherent percept of the world around us, so we can recognize a friend or drive on a crowded street without any effort. By constructing probabilistic models of natural images, the goal of this thesis is to understand the structure of the stimulus that is the raison d’etre for the visual system. Following the hypothesis that the optimal processing has to be matched to the structure of that stimulus, we attempt to derive computational principles, features that the visual system should compute, and properties that cells in the visual system should have. Starting from machine learning techniques such as principal component analysis and independent component analysis we construct a variety of statistical models to discover structure in natural images that can be linked to receptive field properties of neurons in primary visual cortex such as simple and complex cells. We show that by representing images with phase invariant, complex cell-like units, a better statistical description of the visual environment is obtained than with linear simple cell units, and that complex cell pooling can be learned by estimating both layers of a two-layer model of natural images.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders among the Survivors of 2015 Nepal Earthquake, in Dhading, Nepal

Abstract Background Nepal is considered to be the 11th most earthquake prone country in the world. On Saturday, 25 April 2015 an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on Richter scale struck in Barpak of central Nepal. It results over 8,790 casualties and 22,300 injuries. Mental health disturbances, especially post-traumatic stress disorders are major public health issues arising in the aftermath of such natural disasters of higher intensity. Aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and perceived social support, their risk factors and relationship of PTSD to perceived social support among survivors of the Barpak earthquake in Dhading District, Nepal. Methods Cross sectional study was conducted among the five hundred and thirty-five survivors from the rural Dhading District. A conjoint study tool had been administered for evaluating Post traumatic stress disorders and perceived social support by using the PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C) questionnaire and Oslo Social Support Scale. Univariate analysis was done for the description of sample characteristics. Chi-square test was done to establish the association between predictors and outcome variable of interest. Further, binary regression model was used to adjust the confounders. Results The prevalence of PTSD among survivors was 18.5%. Significant risk factors of PTSD included gender (females 26.31%, males 11.80%), age (18â€“35 years 10.85%, 36â€“59 years 23.89%, ≥60 years 45.09), lost their job or income generating activities of the family(60%). Approximately 62 percent of PTSD was attributable for low social support. Multivariate logistic regression showed that females, older people, lost of job, difficulty in communication were significantly more likely to develop PTSD. Prevalence of the low social support was found to be 25.2%. Conclusions: Posttraumatic stress symptoms remained relatively common among survivors nine month after Barpak earthquake. It is important to provide psychological aid and social support for survivors to decrease health burden from PTSD, especially for females, old age survivors and those who lost their job and income generation activities. Keywords: Barpak Earthquake, Posttraumatic stress disorder, Social support,
Riveting process simulation - upsetting of the mushroom rivet

The paper deals with the analysis of residual stress and strain fields in a riveted joint. This stage of study concerns improving of the fatigue performance of riveted joints in an airframe. Riveting, particularly in aviation, is a traditional but still commonly used method of joining sheet metal components. Aircraft structures are thin-walled ones, with coverings made of thin sheets stiffened by stringers, frames or ribs. Sheets are typically assembled by multiple rivet or bolt joints. Rivets and bolts are also used to joint sheets and stiffeners. Therefore, fatigue resistance of the aircraft structure depends on tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands rivet joints, which are used to build it. The local numerical models of the joint are considered with regard to the aim introduced in the paper. Numerical FE simulations of upsetting process are carried out using the MARC code. Three-dimensional numerical models are used to determine the resulting stress and strain fields at the mushroom rivet and around the hole. This type of problem requires the use of contact between the elements assembled and non-linear geometric and elasto-plastic multilinear material models to simulate the behaviour of the rivet and sheets. The influence of the squeezing force on strain and stress states is studied. A certain solution to the problem connected with non-uniform stress distribution in the rivet hole is proposed and analysed.
From Matrix Models and quantum fields to Hurwitz space and the absolute Galois group

We show that correlators of the hermitian one-Matrix model with a general potential can be mapped to the counting of certain triples of permutations and hence to counting of holomorphic maps from world-sheet to sphere target with three branch points on the target. This allows the use of old matrix model results to derive new explicit formulae for a class of Hurwitz numbers. Holomorphic maps with three branch points are related, by Belyi's theorem, to curves and maps defined over algebraic numbers $\bmQ$. This shows that the string theory dual of the one-matrix model at generic couplings has worldsheets defined over the algebraic numbers and a target space $ \mP^1 (\bmQ)$. The absolute Galois group $ Gal (\bmQ / \mQ) $ acts on the Feynman diagrams of the 1-matrix model, which are related to Grothendieck's Dessins d'Enfants. Correlators of multi-matrix models are mapped to the counting of triples of permutations subject to equivalences defined by subgroups of the permutation groups. This is related to colorings of the edges of the Grothendieck Dessins. The colored-edge Dessins are useful as a tool for describing some known invariants of the $ Gal (\bmQ / \mQ) $ action on Grothendieck Dessins and for defining new invariants.
Information Management for Mobility-as-a-Service Based on Autonomous Vehicles

The Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) concept is proposed to facilitate integration of transport modes regarding personalized journey planning and payment. When conventional vehicles are replaced by autonomous road vehicles (AVs) in MaaS, the information management processes alter significantly. The research questions were: how to model, design, and operate the new mobility services based on AVs in MaaS framework, focusing on information management. System engineering (SE) principles were applied. We elaborated the system structure model, the data model and the operational model. The connections among models were also presented. A dynamic pricing method was introduced to conciliate the demand and capacity as well as to calculate the service fee in MaaS. The theoretical results are applicable during design of the new service.
The Effect of Picroside-2 on Erythrocyte Deformability and Lipid Peroxidation in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats Subjected to Left Anterior Descending Artery-Ischaemia Reperfusion

Aim: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder principally characterized by an elevation in oxidative stress levels. Ischaemia-reperfusion (IR) injury starts a cascade of events that lead to tissue ischaemia and cellular damage produced by reperfusion causing an inﬂammatory like response. Erythrocyte deformability and plasma viscosity are important clinical implications for organ and tissue perfusion. Recent studies have found that picroside-2 has antioxidant, neuroprotective and anti-inflamatory effects. The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of picroside-2 on erythrocyte deformability and lipid peroxidation in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats subjected to left anterior descending (LAD) artery IR. Methods: The animals were randomly assigned to one of five experimental groups. In Group (control) C, DC (diabetes-control group), and DP (diabetes-picroside-2 group) neither coronary artery occlusion nor reperfusion were performed in the control rats. In Group DIR, a branch of the LAD artery was occluded for 45 minutes followed by 90 minutes of reperfusion to produce IR. In Group DIRP, picroside-2 was administrated via 10 mg.kg -1 inraperitoneal (IP) route 30 minutes before ligating the LAD artery. Serum malondialdehyde and nitric oxide activities were investigated to document lipid peroxidation and erythrocyte deformability index. Results: Deformability index was notably increased in diabetic rats (p<0.0001). It was notably increased in Group DIR when compared to Group C, DC, DP and DIRP (p<0.0001, p=0.009, p=0.013, p=0.009, respectively). MDA level and NO activity were also higher in IR group than the other groups. Conclusion: Erythrocyte deformability index was decreased in rats with diabetes and IR injury. This injury may lead to further microcirculatory problems. Picroside 2 was shown to be useful in reducing the side effects of this kind of injury.
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE MICROSOFT KINECT TO OBTAIN THE EXECUTION TIME OF THE TAEKWONDO'S FRONTAL KICK

The aim of this study was to verify the validity and reliability of the Microsoft Kinect® as a tool to analyze the time of the frontal kick of the Taekwondo (ap chagui). The volunteers performed 15 repetitions of this kick while the execution time data was been obtained, simultaneity, by the Microsoft Kinect® and the OptiTrack System (golden pattern). In order to verify the reliability of the durations of the kicks we calculated the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC3,k) between execution times found for each system. The Pearson Correlation was used to test the concurrent validity. The results of ICC and r Pearson presented in this study indicate that the Microsoft Kinect®, associated with a tracking algorithm, could be a feasible tool to evaluate the execution time of the frontal kick of the Taekwondo (ap-chagui).
Locating the Semiotic Power of Multimodality

This article reports research that attempts to characterize what is powerful about digital multimodal texts. Building from recent theoretical work on understanding the workings and implications of multimodal communication, the authors call for a continuing empirical investigation into the roles that digital multimodal texts play in real-world contexts, and they offer one example of how such investigations might be approached. Drawing on data from the practice of multimedia digital storytelling, specifically a piece titled “Lyfe-N-Rhyme,” created by Oakland, California, artist Randy Young (accessible at http://www.oaklanddusty.org/videos.php), the authors detail the method and results of a fine-grained multimodal analysis, revealing semiotic relationships between and among different, copresent modes. It is in these relationships, the authors argue, that the expressive power of multimodality resides.
Determinants of Inflation Perceptions and Expectations: an Empirical Analysis for Austria

This study uses micro data from a survey among 2,000 Austrian households conducted in 2013 to investigate the socioeconomic determinants of inflation perceptions and expectations. In our econometric analysis, we find that socioeconomically disadvantaged respondents (less income, lower educational attainment) and older interviewees tend to have higher inflation perceptions. In contrast, respondents living in larger households or in agglomerations with more than 5,000 inhabitants have lower inflation perceptions. As to inflation expectations, we find that older and less educated people tend to report higher inflation expectations. Additionally, we document that women tend to have higher inflation expectations than men and that knowledge of the Eurosystem’s definition of price stability dampens inflation expectations. Moreover, respondents who are skeptical about the reliability of the official inflation indicators state higher inflation expectations. As largely correct and realistic inflation perceptions and expectations are important for the credibility of monetary policy, these results suggest that financial education strategies should be focused on population groups with lower educational attainment, less income and on younger people.
Preliminary Investigation of the Systematics of Didymodon (Pottiaceae, Musci) Based on nrITS Sequence Data

Abstract A phylogenetic analysis of species of Didymodon from the Mediterranean area, Macaronesia, and Southwestern and Central Asia is presented. The ITS1, 5.8S rRNA gene, and ITS2 for 30 species have been sequenced, which represent about 25% of the recognized species in the genus. The molecular data confirm the monophyly of Didymodon as clearly separated from Barbula. The transfer of Didymodon giganteus to Geheebia, of D. sinuosus to Oxystegus, and D. australasiae to Trichostomopsis is not supported by the molecular data. The phylogenetic affinities of the species generally do not correspond with the infrageneric classification proposed for the genus based on morphological characteristics. The only monophyletic section is Asteriscium, but only after the inclusion of D. bistratosus.
GENETIC DISTANCE MAY UNDERLIE VIRULENCE DIFFERENCES AMONG ISOLATES OF A BACTERIAL PLANT PATHOGEN

SUMMARY Certain pathogens evolve with their hosts in a stepwise arms race of virulence and resistance, mediated by one or a few genetic loci in their genomes. Other pathogens may retain the ability to colonize hosts through multiple small genetic changes, which do not necessarily occur solely at loci under selective pressure. The bacterial plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa lacks classic indicators of pathogenicity such as a type III secretion system, which makes the identification of its virulence mechanism challenging. We tested the hypothesis that quantitative differences in virulence between pairs of X. fastidiosa isolates were correlated with their respective genetic distances. Isolates from two different X. fastidiosa subspecies were genetically typed using 20 loci, generating information on the genetic distance among pairs of isolates. Virulence data were obtained by determining the impact of these genotypes on the phenotype of alfalfa plant hosts. Results show significant or marginally significant correlations with respect to differences in infection level and alfalfa stunting, suggesting that genetic distance partially explains plant phenotypic differences in virulence among X. fastidiosa isolates. Furthermore, the data demonstrate substantial amount of phenotypic variation among X. fastidiosa isolates within subspecies fastidiosa and multiplex.
Development of Foreign Language Lesson Satisfaction Scale (FLSS): Validity and Reliability Study

In this research it is aimed to develop an instrument that could be used to measure university students' satisfactionwith foreign language lessons in a valid and reliable manner. The research was conducted on three separate studygroups consisting of 460 students in the spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. In the research, firstly, anexpert opinion was applied for the content and face validity of the scale prepared in accordance with literature review,student and expert opinions. In the final form, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) were applied. The EFA yielded a construct that consisted of 28 items and three factors that explained the59.97% of the total variance. These factors were named as follows: the Curriculum, Teaching Staff and PhysicalConditions. CFA was performed in the final application phase and the fit indexes were determined to be acceptable.For the criterion validity, the correlations of the factors with the total points of the scale were calculated and a highlevel of meaningful correlation was observed between these values. Internal consistency and split half test values forthe whole scale show that the scale is highly reliable. Based on these findings, it can be said that this scale is a validand reliable measurement tool for university students to measure their satisfaction with foreign language lessons.