Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial and Temporal Variations in the Geochemistry of the Brahmaputra River Water

Spatial and temporal variation in the major ion composition of the waters in the Brahmaputra River has been measured to understand chemical weathering and the factors controlling these processes. Samples were collected from the Brahmaputra mainstream at five stations Pasighat, Dibrugarh, Tezpur, Guwahati and Dhubri during monsoon and post monsoon seasons. The total dissolved solids in the waters of the Brahmaputra system ranges between 62.5 and 192.5 mgl-1. The (Total dissolved solids) TDS of the Brahmaputra measured in this study are less than the values reported by earlier workers. Gibbs plot was plotted to investigate the dominant process controlling the water chemistry of the Brahmaputra. The plots of TDS vs. (Na + K)/(Ca + Na + K) and TDS vs. indicate that rock weathering is the main process controlling the chemistry of water in the Brahmaputra River. Factor analysis was done to study the factors controlling the water chemistry of the Brahmaputra.
When unconscious rewards boost cognitive task performance inefficiently: the role of consciousness in integrating value and attainability information

Research has shown that high vs. low value rewards improve cognitive task performance independent of whether they are perceived consciously or unconsciously. However, efficient performance in response to high value rewards also depends on whether or not rewards are attainable. This raises the question of whether unconscious reward processing enables people to take into account such attainability information. Building on a theoretical framework according to which conscious reward processing is required to enable higher level cognitive processing, the present research tested the hypothesis that conscious but not unconscious reward processing enables integration of reward value with attainability information. In two behavioral experiments, participants were exposed to mask high and low value coins serving as rewards on a working memory (WM) task. The likelihood for conscious processing was manipulated by presenting the coins relatively briefly (17 ms) or long and clearly visible (300 ms). Crucially, rewards were expected to be attainable or unattainable. Requirements to integrate reward value with attainability information varied across experiments. Results showed that when integration of value and attainability was required (Experiment 1), long reward presentation led to efficient performance, i.e., selectively improved performance for high value attainable rewards. In contrast, in the short presentation condition, performance was increased for high value rewards even when these were unattainable. This difference between the effects of long and short presentation time disappeared when integration of value and attainability information was not required (Experiment 2). Together these findings suggest that unconsciously processed reward information is not integrated with attainability expectancies, causing inefficient effort investment. These findings are discussed in terms of a unique role of consciousness in efficient allocation of effort to cognitive control processes.
Comparison of cardiac output measurements between NICO and the pulmonary artery catheter during repeat surgery for total hip replacement

Objective The aim of this study was to compare cardiac output measurements of the non‐invasive cardiac output and the pulmonary artery catheter during repeat surgery for hip replacement. Methods In this prospective observational study, patients undergoing repeat hip surgery who needed a pulmonary artery catheter were included. A standard protocol was followed for induction, endotracheal intubation and maintenance of anaesthesia (sufentanil, etomidate, sevoflurane, cisatracurium). After endotracheal intubation, the non‐invasive cardiac output was connected and a pulmonary artery catheter was inserted. Data were collected every 3 min until patients were extubated. Results Ten patients were included and 2455 points of comparison recorded. Cardiac output from the pulmonary artery catheter varied from 1.7 to 8.9 L min−1 (mean 4.1 L min−1) and the non‐invasive cardiac output (using averaging mode) from 1.7 to 8.0 L min−1 (mean 3.7 L min−1). There was a significant correlation between them (P < 0.01; bias 0.3 L min−1; limits of agreement +1.9 and ‐2.5 L min−1), although these differed between patients. Conclusion The perioperative bias was small and the non‐invasive cardiac output slightly underestimated cardiac output intraoperatively compared to the pulmonary artery catheter. The bias was smaller when mean cardiac output was below 3 L min−1. Core temperature between 34.4°C and 37.6°C had no influence on the differences.
Learning Bayesian Network Structures to Augment Aircraft Diagnostic Reference Models

Fault detection and isolation schemes are designed to detect the onset of adverse events during operations of complex systems, such as aircraft and industrial processes. The state-of-the-art fault diagnosis systems on aircraft combine an expert-created reference model of the associations between faults and symptoms, and a Naïve Bayes reasoner. For complex systems with many dependencies between components, the expert-generated reference models are often incomplete, which hinders timely and accurate fault diagnosis. Mining aircraft flight data is a promising approach to finding these missing relations between symptoms and data. However, mining algorithms generate a multitude of relations, and only a small subset of these relations may be useful for improving diagnoser performance. In this paper, we adopt a knowledge engineering approach that combines data mining methods with human expert input to update an existing reference model and improve the overall diagnostic performance. We discuss three case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of this method.
Effective and Efficient On-Line Communication

As Web, Web2.0 and semantic channels are constantly growing we are facing new challenge in on-line communication. This paper present a new methodology based on distinguishing and explicitly interweaving content and communication as a central means for achieving content reusability, and thereby scalability over various heterogeneous channels. Our approach enables smaller organizations to perform effective and efficient on-line communication and thus to increase their profitability.
A one-shot dynamic optimization methodology for wireless sensor networks

—Wireless sensor networks (WSNs), consisting of autonomous sensor nodes, have emerged as ubiquitous networks which span diverse application domains (e.g., health care, logistics, defense) each with varying application requirements (e.g., lifetime, throughput). Sensor nodes possess tunable parameters (e.g., processor voltage, sensing frequency), which enable platform specialization for particular application requirements. WSN application design can be daunting for application developers, which are oftentimes not trained engineers (e.g., biologists, agriculturists) who wish to utilize the sensor-based systems within their given domain. Dynamic optimizations enable sensor-based platforms to tune parameters in-situ to automatically determine an operating state. However, rapidly changing application behavior and environmental stimuli necessitate a lightweight and highly responsive dynamic optimization methodology. In this paper, we propose One-Shot – a lightweight dynamic optimization methodology that determines initial tunable parameter settings to give a high-quality operating state in One-Shot for time-critical and highly constrained applications. Results reveal that One-Shot solution is within 5.92% of the optimal solution on average. To assist dynamic optimizations in determining an operating state, we propose an application metric estimation model to establish a relationship between application metrics (e.g., lifetime) and sensor-based platform parameters.
Articulatory synthesis and perception of plosive-vowel syllables with virtual consonant targets

Virtual articulatory targets are a concept to explain the different trajectories of primary and secondary articulators during consonant production, as well as the different places of the tongue-palate contact depending on the context vowel, for example in [igi] vs. [ugu]. The virtual targets for the tongue tip and the tongue body in apical and dorsal plosives are assumed to lie above the palate, and for bilabial consonants, the target is a negative degree of lip opening. In the present study, we discuss the concept of virtual targets and its application for articulatory speech synthesis. In particular, we examined how the location of virtual targets affects the acoustics and intelligibility of synthetic plosive-vowel syllables. It turned out that virtual targets that lie about 10 mm beyond the consonantal closure location allow a more precise reproduction of natural speech signals than virtual targets at a distance of about 1 mm. However, we found no effect on the intellegibility of the consonants.
Highly Sensitive Bacteria Quantification Using Immunomagnetic Separation and Electrochemical Detection of Guanine-Labeled Secondary Beads

In this paper, we report the ultra-sensitive indirect electrochemical detection of E. coli O157:H7 using antibody functionalized primary (magnetic) beads for capture and polyguanine (polyG) oligonucleotide functionalized secondary (polystyrene) beads as an electrochemical tag. Vacuum filtration in combination with E. coli O157:H7 specific antibody modified magnetic beads were used for extraction of E. coli O157:H7 from 100 mL samples. The magnetic bead conjugated E. coli O157:H7 cells were then attached to polyG functionalized secondary beads to form a sandwich complex (magnetic bead/E. coli/ secondary bead). While the use of magnetic beads for immuno-based capture is well characterized, the use of oligonucleotide functionalized secondary beads helps combine amplification and potential multiplexing into the system. The antibody functionalized secondary beads can be easily modified with a different antibody to detect other pathogens from the same sample and enable potential multiplexing. The polyGs on the secondary beads enable signal amplification up to 108 guanine tags per secondary bead (7.5 × 106 biotin-FITC per secondary bead, 20 guanines per oligonucleotide) bound to the target (E. coli). A single-stranded DNA probe functionalized reduced graphene oxide modified glassy carbon electrode was used to bind the polyGs on the secondary beads. Fluorescent imaging was performed to confirm the hybridization of the complex to the electrode surface. Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) was used to quantify the amount of polyG involved in the hybridization event with tris(2,2′-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) ( Ru(bpy)32+) as the mediator. The amount of polyG signal can be correlated to the amount of E. coli O157:H7 in the sample. The method was able to detect concentrations of E. coli O157:H7 down to 3 CFU/100 mL, which is 67 times lower than the most sensitive technique reported in literature. The signal to noise ratio for this work was 3. We also demonstrate the use of the protocol for detection of E. coli O157:H7 seeded in waste water effluent samples.
Caveats and pitfalls of ROC analysis in clinical microarray research (and how to avoid them)

The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) has emerged as the gold standard for assessing and comparing the performance of classifiers in a wide range of disciplines including the life sciences. ROC curves are frequently summarized in a single scalar, the area under the curve (AUC). This article discusses the caveats and pitfalls of ROC analysis in clinical microarray research, particularly in relation to (i) the interpretation of AUC (especially a value close to 0.5); (ii) model comparisons based on AUC; (iii) the differences between ranking and classification; (iv) effects due to multiple hypotheses testing; (v) the importance of confidence intervals for AUC; and (vi) the choice of the appropriate performance metric. With a discussion of illustrative examples and concrete real-world studies, this article highlights critical misconceptions that can profoundly impact the conclusions about the observed performance.
Neurotoxicity in single photon emission computed tomography brain scans of patients reporting chemical sensitivities†

The subset of patients reporting chemical sensitivity with neurocognitive complaints usually exhibits specific abnormalities of brain metabolism consistent with neurotoxicity, on imaging with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). These recurrent neurotoxic patterns are characterized by a mismatch in tracer uptake between early-and late-phase imaging, multiple hot and cold foci throughout the cortex, temporal asymmetry and increased tracer uptake into the soft tissues and, sometimes, the basal ganglia. Previous studies confirm these neurotoxic findings in patients with neurotoxic chemical exposures and breast implants. Affective processes such as depression do not, alone, show this pattern. These abnormalities in SPECT images correlate with documented neurocognitive impairment. Controlled challenges to ambient chemicals can induce profound neurotoxic changes seen on SPECT imaging in chemically sensitive patients. Detoxification treatment techniques frequently produce significant improvement on brain SPECT brain imaging in these patients. Neurotoxicity appears to be characteristic in many cases of chemical sensitivity.
FingerMouse - Architecture of an ASIC-based Mobile Stereovision Smart Camera

The FingerMouse is a gumstick-sized (43 mm times 18 mm) visual input system for wearable computers. Worn on the body, the system captures the user's hand and outputs in real-time the coordinates as well as a 1-bit image of the hand segmented from a (moving) background. It integrates cameras and vision processing using a custom designed FingerMouse-ASIC, processing images at 20 GOp/s, using only 78 mW power. This paper describes how the architecture of the FingerMouse outperforms PC-based implementations in efficiency and latency, while operating under strict size and power consumption constraints.
Nutrition Knowledge, Attitude and Dietary Restriction Behaviour of the Elderly in Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria

This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Authors OCN and IMT designed the study, performed the statistical analysis, wrote the protocol and first draft of the manuscript. Authors IMT and UCE managed the analyses of the study. All the authors managed the literature searches. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. ABSTRACT Aim: To assess the nutrition knowledge, attitude and dietary restriction behaviour of the elderly. Study Design: The study is a multi-stage cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Umuahia South Local Government Area selected used study. Validated, structured and an interviewer-administered questionnaire used to obtain information on demographic characteristics, nutrition knowledge, attitude and dietary restriction behaviour. Nutrition knowledge, attitude and dietary restriction behaviour responses were classified as poor (0-39%), fair (40- 59%) and good ( ≥ 60%) while SPSS software version 20.0 was used for statistical analysis using descriptive statistics and ANOVA and significance was judged at P = . 05 and p < . 01. and television (69.17%). Nutrition knowledge showed (49.6%) males and 46.5% females had fair knowledge; 43.4% males and 37.8% females had good knowledge while few (7.1%) males and 15.7% females had poor knowledge. There was a significant difference (P = .01) in the knowledge of respondents (poor, fair and good) for both males (F = 426.091) and females (F= 530.117). In attitude (51.33% males, 45.67% females) had a good attitude to nutrition while few (9.73% males and 14.17% females) had a poor attitude. Dietary restriction behaviour (57.52% males, 66.14% females) had good dietary restriction behaviour. There was a significant difference (P = .01) in dietary restriction behaviour scores for the males (F=111.722) and females (F=203.744). Conclusion: Nutrition knowledge was generally above average; those with good attitude were statistically higher than those with fair or poor attitude to nutrition and most had good dietary restriction behaviour. Nutrition education regularly organized for the elderly will help to improve their knowledge.
Exploring occupational and health behavioral causes of firefighter obesity: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND Firefighters, as an occupational group, have one of the highest prevalence rates of obesity. A qualitative study investigated occupational and health behavioral determinants of obesity among firefighters. METHODS Four focus groups were conducted with firefighters of every rank as Phase I of the FORWARD study which was designed to assess health behavioral and occupational characteristics related to obesity in firefighters. RESULTS Analysis revealed five main themes of central importance to firefighters: (1) fire station eating culture; (2) night calls and sleep interruption; (3) supervisor leadership and physical fitness; (4) sedentary work; and (5) age and generational influences. CONCLUSION The results showed a strong interrelationship between occupational and health behavioral causes of obesity in firefighters. The relevance of these qualitative findings are discussed along with the implications for future obesity interventions with firefighters.
Thoughts on software engineering knowledge, and how to organize it

SWEBOK describes what knowledge a software engineer who has a Bachelor's degree and four years of experience should have. SEEK describes the knowledge to be taught in an undergraduate program in software engineering. Although different in scope and purpose, there are many similarities between the two, and after all, even experienced developers need an education, don't they? A full-day workshop on the alignment between SWEBOK and SEEK, held at STEP 2002, revealed a number of issues that received either a scant or a scattered treatment in either or both documents. These issues include: software architecture, software measurement, and software quality. In addition, topics of debate were whether or not user interface design should be considered part of software design, or rather deserves its own, separate treatment; and whether maintenance/evolution merits a separate discussion, or should rather be seen as the default mode of operation in software development. This paper elaborates the discussions of this workshop.
Fault-based testing of database application programs with conceptual data model

Database application programs typically contain program units that use SQL statements to manipulate records in database instances. Testing the correctness of data manipulation by these programs is challenging. When a tester provides a database instance to test such a program, the program unit may output faulty SQL statements and, hence, manipulate inappropriate database records. Nonetheless, these failures may only be revealed in very specific database instances. This paper proposes to integrate SQL statements and the conceptual data models of an application for fault-based testing. It proposes a set of mutation operators based on the standard types of constraint used in the enhanced entity-relationship model. These operators are semantic in nature. This semantic information guides the construction of affected attributes and join conditions of mutants. The usefulness of our proposal is illustrated by an example in which a missing-record fault is revealed.
Prevalence of thyroid nodular lesions in children and adolescents.

Department of Laboratory Medicine, Department of Thyroid and Endocrinology, Department of Radiation Health Management, Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan, Department of Global Health, Medicine and Welfare, Department of Radiation Medical Sciences, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan, Department of Clinical Studies, Radiation Effects Research Foundation, Nagasaki, Japan, Department of Social Medicine, Department of Emergency and Disaster Medicine, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Hirosaki University Graduate School of Medicine, Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan, Third Department of Internal Medicine, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan, Department of Social Medicine, Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Jichi Medical University, Tochigi, Japan, The First Department of Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Showa General Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Open Access Research Article Differential Gene Expression in Brain Tissues of Aggressive and Non-aggressive Dogs

Background: Canine behavioural problems, in particular aggression, are important reasons for euthanasia of otherwise healthy dogs. Aggressive behaviour in dogs also represents an animal welfare problem and a public threat. Elucidating the genetic background of adverse behaviour can provide valuable information to breeding programs and aid the development of drugs aimed at treating undesirable behaviour. With the intentions of identifying gene-specific expression in particular brain parts and comparing brains of aggressive and non-aggressive dogs, we studied amygdala, frontal cortex, hypothalamus and parietal cortex, as these tissues are reported to be involved in emotional reactions, including aggression. Based on quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) in 20 brains, obtained from 11 dogs euthanised because of aggressive behaviour and nine non-aggressive dogs, we studied expression of nine genes identified in an initial screening by subtraction hybridisation. Results: This study describes differential expression of the UBE2V2 and ZNF227 genes in brains of aggressive and non-aggressive dogs. It also reports differential expression for eight of the studied genes across four different brain tissues (amygdala, frontal cortex, hypothalamus, and parietal cortex). Sex differences in transcription levels were detected for five of the nine studied genes. Conclusions: The study showed significant differences in gene expression between brain compartments for most of the investigated genes. Increased expression of two genes was associated with the aggression phenotype. Although the UBE2V2 and ZNF227 genes have no known function in regulation of aggressive behaviour, this study contributes to preliminary data of differential gene expression in the canine brain and provides new information to be further explored. Background The domestic dog (Canis familiaris), with its more than 400 recognised breeds [1], displays great variation in behaviour phenotypes. Favourable behaviour is important for well-being and negative traits such as aggression may ruin the owner-dog relationship and lead to relin-quishment to shelters or even euthanasia of otherwise healthy dogs [2,3]. Behavioural traits result from an interaction of both genetic and environmental factors. Breed-specific behavioural traits such as hunting, herding and calmness/aggression are, however, evidence of a large genetic component and specific behaviours show high heritabilities [4-8].