Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electrophysiological, pupillary, oculomotor correlates of inhibitory control and cognitive effort in anxiety

Neurocognitive models of anxiety highlight the importance of attentional control and prefrontal control mechanisms and posit that anxiety is characterised by impaired effectiveness and efficiency during inhibition, especially under high cognitive load and in the presence of threat-related stimuli (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007). The current thesis utilised behavioural, oculomotor, pupillary, and neurophysiological measures to examine the inefficient/ineffective inhibitory control and increased cognitive effort in high (vs. low) anxious individuals in the presence and absence of threat under high and low cognitive load conditions. Across three experiments, the results demonstrated that, high (vs. low) trait anxious individuals exert increased effort (as evidenced by increased pupillary responses) and invest more attentional resources during response preparation (as evidenced by decreased negative frontal neurophysiological responses), yet they have impaired inhibitory control (as evidenced by slower and erroneous oculomotor responses and less negative inhibition-related neurophysiological responses), especially under high cognitive load. These findings indicate inefficient inhibitory processing and ineffective inhibitory performance in high trait anxious individuals, especially when the task demands are high.
Senior and youth national team competitive experience: influence on player and team performance in European basketball championships

Abstract This study aimed to discover if the number of previous senior and youth national team championships played relates to the team and player performance at the European basketball championships. The sample consisted of all national teams and their players participating in the 2011, 2013 and 2015 European Championships for men (teams n = 72; players n = 697) and women (teams n = 52, players = 520). The teams were classified into four groups based on their highest stage reached in the tournament. A k-means cluster was used to group the players as high, medium or low performers according to their efficiency rating. The number of previous senior and youth championships was compared between groups. Better performing teams and players had a higher number of previous senior championships. The competitive experience differentiates low performing players for both genders, but only distinguishes high from medium performing players for women. No differences in the number of youth championships were found. It appears to be critical to have a sufficient amount of accumulated senior competitive experience within the team to reach the semi-final phase both for men’s and women’s national teams.
Bare action and regularized functional integral of asymptotically safe quantum gravity

Investigations of quantum Einstein gravity (QEG) based upon the effective average action employ a flow equation which does not contain any ultraviolet (UV) regulator. Its renormalization group trajectories emanating from a non-Gaussian fixed point define asymptotically safe quantum field theories. A priori these theories are, somewhat unusually, given in terms of their effective rather than bare action. In this paper we construct a functional integral representation of these theories. We fix a regularized measure and show that every trajectory of effective average actions, depending on an IR cutoff only, induces an associated trajectory of bare actions which depend on a UV cutoff. Together with the regularized measure these bare actions give rise to a functional integral which reproduces the prescribed effective action when the UV cutoff is removed. In this way we are able to reconstruct the underlying microscopic (classical) system and identify its fundamental degrees of freedom and interactions. The bare action of the Einstein-Hilbert truncation is computed and its flow is analyzed as an example. Various conceptual issues related to the completion of the asymptotic safety program are discussed.
CCII-based high-valued inductance simulators with minumum number of active elements

This paper presents novel CCII-based circuit solutions for the implementation of grounded and floating inductance simulators for integrable low frequency applications. The circuits, implementing a minimum number of active components, allow the reduction and, in theory, the zeroing of the undesired inductance series resistance, with consequent increase of operating range towards the low frequencies. A novel idea to increase the value of the equivalent inductance achievable with CCII based topologies is presented. Simulation results, confirming the theoretical expectations, are also included.
Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) Predicts Middle Distance Running Performance

Background Running economy and performance in middle distance running depend on several physiological factors, which include anthropometric variables, functional characteristics, training volume and intensity. Since little information is available about hematological predictors of middle distance running time, we investigated whether some hematological parameters may be associated with middle distance running performance in a large sample of recreational runners. Methods The study population consisted in 43 amateur runners (15 females, 28 males; median age 47 years), who successfully concluded a 21.1 km half-marathon at 75–85% of their maximal aerobic power (VO2max). Whole blood was collected 10 min before the run started and immediately thereafter, and hematological testing was completed within 2 hours after sample collection. Results The values of lymphocytes and eosinophils exhibited a significant decrease compared to pre-run values, whereas those of mean corpuscular volume (MCV), platelets, mean platelet volume (MPV), white blood cells (WBCs), neutrophils and monocytes were significantly increased after the run. In univariate analysis, significant associations with running time were found for pre-run values of hematocrit, hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), red blood cell distribution width (RDW), MPV, reticulocyte hemoglobin concentration (RetCHR), and post-run values of MCH, RDW, MPV, monocytes and RetCHR. In multivariate analysis, in which running time was entered as dependent variable whereas age, sex, blood lactate, body mass index, VO2max, mean training regimen and the hematological parameters significantly associated with running performance in univariate analysis were entered as independent variables, only MPV values before and after the trial remained significantly associated with running time. After adjustment for platelet count, the MPV value before the run (p = 0.042), but not thereafter (p = 0.247), remained significantly associated with running performance. Conclusion The significant association between baseline MPV and running time suggest that hyperactive platelets may exert some pleiotropic effects on endurance performance.
10, 000+ Times Accelerated Robust Subset Selection

Subset selection from massive data with noised information is increasingly popular for various applications. This problem is still highly challenging as current methods are generally slow in speed and sensitive to outliers. To address the above two issues, we propose an accelerated robust subset selection (ARSS) method. Extensive experiments on ten benchmark datasets verify that our method not only outperforms state of the art methods, but also runs 10,000+ times faster than the most related method.
Unearthing the geotourism experience: Geotourist perspectives at Mount Pinatubo, Philippines

This study aims to explore the geotourism experience by undertaking a qualitative inquiry of the narratives of geotourists to Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. This study proposes that the geotourism experience is created onsite through the tourists’ visual, performative and social aspects of gazing and produced in the tourists’ minds through their perception, imagination and self-reflection. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 12 purposefully selected geotourists. Thematic analysis procedures reveal 11 experiential themes that illustrate varying perspectives on the geotourism experience, categorised into three dimensions: ‘natural’, ‘recreational’ and ‘socio-cultural’. The findings indicate that apart from the expected leisure, hedonic and adventurous experiences, deeper outcomes such as a sense of awe, personal reflections and spiritual outcomes are apparent in the geotourism experience, as a result of individuals’ negotiations with Mount Pinatubo’s natural landscape and touristic environment. More meaningful and transformative experiences are also discovered from geotourists’ engagement with the landform’s cultural landscape, particularly from their social interaction with the indigenous people who live at Mount Pinatubo. These outcomes suggest the gaining of a holistic view of the Earth and its inhabitants through geotourism. This article thus provides some understanding of the experiential aspects of geotourism.
Digital Introspection Within Learning-on-my-Own Rhetoric Among Computer Gamers

ABSTRACT In activity theory, most studies have focused on examining learning centered around interactions with peers or mentors; but the personal learning frame centered on externalization of internal activity is yet to be fully examined. I performed an ethnographic study of a computer-mediated form of such self-teaching activity in the electronic sport game StarCraft. I found that expert players relied significantly on digitally-mediated introspection—self-examination and critique of personal practices mediated by digital archives—to reveal psychological contradictions which become new objects of learning. I argue that psychological contradiction is a useful concept for examining self-teaching activities within computerized environments.
Update Log Dissemination in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In mobile ad hoc networks where data items are updated, each mobile host cannot verify whether its own replica is the same version as the original when it does not connect to the mobile host holding the original (original holder). In this paper, we propose two update log dissemination methods that efficiently verify the validity of tentative accesses to replicas. In the first method, the original holder efficiently disseminates the update logs to other hosts. In the other method, mobile hosts which are not the original holder also manage the update logs and two newly connected mobile hosts re-disseminate the logs. We also present simulation results to evaluate the performance of our methods.
The first stars in the Universe

Large telescopes have allowed astronomers to observe galaxies that formed as early as 850 million years after the big bang. We predict when the first star that astronomers can observe (i.e. in our past light cone) formed in the Universe, accounting for the first time for the size of the Universe and for three essential ingredients: the light travel-time from distant galaxies, Poisson and density fluctuations on all scales, and the effect of very early cosmic history on galaxy formation. We find that the first observable star is most likely to have formed 30 million years after the big bang (at redshift 65). Also, the first galaxy as massive as our own Milky Way likely formed when the Universe was only 400 Myr old (at redshift 11). We also show that significant modifications are required in current methods of numerically simulating the formation of galaxies at redshift 20 and above.
Analyzing the Characteristics of Gnutella Overlays

Mapping and analyzing the topological properties of P2P overlay network will benefit the further design and development of the P2P networks. In this paper, the measured Gnutella network topology is basically taken as an example. The properties of degree-rank distribution and frequency-degree distributions of the measured topology graphs are analyzed in detail. The small world characteristics for Gnutella network are discussed. The results indicate that each tier of Gnutella network shows individual characters, namely, the top level graph fits the power law in degree-rank distribution, but follows the Gaussian function in frequency-degree distribution. The bottom level graph shows power law both in its degree-rank distribution and in its frequency-degree distribution. Fitting results indicate that power law could fit better for the degree-rank distribution and frequency-degree distribution of bottom level graphs, while Gaussian could describe the frequency-degree distribution of the top level graphs. Gnutella overlay network has the small world characters, but it is not a scale-free network, which has developed over time following a different set of growth processes from those of the BA (Barabdsi-Albert) model. The measured results show that Gnutella network has pretty well scalability as well as the abilities to tolerating failures and attacks against peers, but with low routing efficiencies
FISH analysis of chromosome X, Y and 18 abnormalities in testicular sperm from azoospermic patients.

BACKGROUND Sperm extracted from testicular biopsies of azoospermic men can successfully be used for ICSI. The concern exists that testicular sperm from azoospermic men suffering from severe testicular failure may have a higher frequency of aneuploidy, which may lead to an increased risk for chromosomally abnormal offspring. METHODS Testicular sperm from patients showing spermatogenic failure (n = 17) and from patients with normal spermatogenesis (n = 26) were analysed by fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH). Numerical chromosomal abnormalities for chromosomes X, Y and 18 were evaluated by FISH in a total of 1697 testicular sperm derived from 43 azoospermic patients. RESULTS No difference was observed between the frequency of chromosomal abnormalities in testicular sperm from patients with normal spermatogenesis (5.6%) and from patients with spermatogenic failure (8.2%). However, the frequency of aneuploidy for chromosome 18 was higher in the group of azoospermic patients with spermatogenic failure than in the group with normal spermatogenesis (3.2 versus 1.3%). Within the obstructive group, sex chromosome aneuploidy (4.5%) occurred more frequently than chromosome 18 aneuploidy (1.3%; P < 0.001). Among testicular sperm derived from patients with spermatogenic failure, sex chromosomal aneuploidy (5.8%) was similar to that for chromosome 18 (3.2%). CONCLUSIONS So far, no difference in the total frequency of chromosomal abnormalities has been observed between patients with normal spermatogenesis and patients with severe testicular failure. However, aneuploidy for chromosome 18 was higher in the group with spermatogenic failure.
Light Weight Encryption Technique for Group Communication in Cloud Computing Environment

Cloud computing is a typical example of distributed computing and emerged as a new paradigm that moves computing and data away from desktop and portable PCs into large data centers. Cloud services have three broad categories based on the fundamental nature of the cloud-based solution they provide: infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-aservice (PaaS), or software-as-aservice (SaaS). In this work we have focused on the SaaS services provided by the Cloud service providers (CSP). The issue with SaaS is data security and confidentiality that makes the cloud user reluctant towards the cloud services. Data confidentiality can be achieved by encrypted outsourced content before outsourcing to cloud servers. But due to excessive computation of existing cryptographic algorithms and distributed nature of cloud computing, there is a need of a light weight cryptographic technique that has less computational overhead and high throughput. In this paper a light weight encryption technique is proposed which has less computational time and overall good performance. In order to prove it, the proposed algorithm is compared with the existing encryption techniques and results are analyzed. The key distribution of the shared key and secret key between the two group members is also handled efficiently using the same algorithm. Enormous overhead due to the large key size has been effectively ruled out in this paper. Light weight nature of proposed algorithm is well suited for distributed nature of cloud servers for an efficient processing with greatly enhanced user‘s confidence in cloud computing.
Schedulability analysis for systems with data and control dependencies

Presents an approach to schedulability analysis for hard real-time systems with control and data dependencies. We consider distributed architectures consisting of multiple programmable processors, and the scheduling policy is based on a static priority pre-emptive strategy. Our model of the system captures both data and control dependencies, and the schedulability approach is able to reduce the pessimism of the analysis by using the knowledge about control and data dependencies. Extensive experiments as well as a real-life example demonstrate the efficiency of our approach.
Enhancing both generalization and fault tolerance of multilayer neural networks

In this paper, we propose the method to enhance both generalization ability and fault tolerance of multilayer neural networks. Many methods that enhance either generalization ability or fault tolerance have been proposed, but very few methods enhance both of them. We discuss the combination of the method for good generalization and the method for high fault tolerance. Avoiding the interference, we propose local augmentation method (LAUG) to enhance fault tolerance. It duplicates hidden units according to the importance of each unit. Since it manipulates a trained network keeping the input-output relation of the network, LAUG does not interfere with any training algorithms to enhance generalization ability. Finally, we show the effectiveness of our method through some experiments.
Main ion channels and receptors associated with visceral hypersensitivity in irritable bowel syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a very frequent functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by recurrent abdominal pain or discomfort and alteration of bowel habits. The IBS physiopathology is extremely complex. Visceral hypersensitivity plays an important role in the pathogenesis of abdominal pain in both in vitro and in vivo models of this functional disorder. In order to obtain a general view of the participation of the main ion channels and receptors regarding the visceral hypersensitivity in the IBS and to describe their chemical structure, a literature review was carried out. A bibliographical research in the following electronic databases: Pubmed and Virtual Library in Health (BVS) was fulfilled by using the search terms “ion channels” “or” “receptors” “and” “visceral hypersensitivity” “or” “visceral nociception” “and” “irritable bowel syndrome”. Original and review articles were considered for data acquisition. The activation of the ATP ion-gated channels, voltage-gated sodium (Nav) and calcium (Cav) channels, as well as the activation of protease-activated receptors (PAR2), transient receptor potential vanilloide-1, serotonin, cannabinoids and cholecystokinin are involved in the genesis of visceral hypersensitivity in IBS. The involvement of ion channels and receptors concerning visceral hypersensitivity is noteworthy in IBS models.
Generating Dynamic Cross‐Organizational Process Visualizations through Abstract View Model Pattern Matching

Visualizations are a common means to perform analyses of business processes. In a collaborating environment these visualizations are based on an underlying organizationspecific information model reflecting the most important entities and their interrelationships. For dynamic business processes with changing participants existing solutions apply ontologies to create an integrated information model at runtime. However, these solutions do not provide any guidance with regards to the generation of cross-organizational process visualizations originating from a dynamically integrated information model. To overcome this challenge, this paper applies pattern matching techniques between the integrated information model and abstract view models which capture the information demands for generating a specific visualization. After having motivated the topic, a conceptual model enabling the generation of ad-hoc inter-enterprise visualizations is presented. By means of an example, we further show how a pattern matching approach can be applied to create visualizations which are based on integrated arbitrary information models.
MPC on manifolds with applications to the control of systems on matrix Lie groups

This paper presents a model predictive control scheme for systems with discrete-time dynamics evolving on configuration spaces that are smooth manifolds. The scheme exhibits similar properties to that of ordinary model predictive control applied to dynamics evolving on R^n. It also exhibits global asymptotic stability properties even in the case when there does not exist a globally stabilizing, continuous control law, implying that the model predictive control law is discontinuous. We also demonstrate that there do not exist globally stabilizing, continuous control laws for manifolds with Euler characteristic equal to 1. In particular, the case of matrix Lie groups is considered, which are manifolds whose Euler characteristic is equal to 0. An application to spacecraft attitude control is also considered in the paper, in which spacecraft attitude evolves on the matrix Lie group SO(3). Two simulation results are reported. The first demonstrates that the scheme is able to enforce constraints. The second simulation considers the unconstrained case in order to test properties relating to global stability and it is shown that the stabilizing model predictive control law is discontinuous.
Metabolism of ApoA-I as Lipid-Free Protein or as Component of Discoidal and Spherical Reconstituted HDLs: Studies in Wild-Type and Hepatic Lipase Transgenic Rabbits

Objective—Apolipoprotein (apo)A-I exists in 3 forms in plasma: as lipid-free apoA-I, as a component of pre–&bgr;-migrating discoidal high density lipoproteins (HDLs), and as a component of &agr;-migrating spherical HDLs. This study investigates (1) the in vivo metabolism of apoA-I in each of these forms and (2) the effects of hepatic lipase (HL) on apoA-I metabolism. Methods and Results—Wild-type and HL transgenic rabbits were studied. When lipid-free 125I-apoA-I and 125I-apoA-I in pre–&bgr;-migrating discoidal reconstituted HDLs (rHDLs) were injected into wild-type rabbits, the label rapidly appeared in &agr;-migrating particles and decayed with the same fractional catabolic rate (FCR) as when they were injected as a component of spherical rHDLs. Spherical rHDLs did not change in size when they were injected into wild-type rabbits but were reduced in size in HL transgenic rabbits. The FCR of apoA-I in HL transgenic rabbits was double that in wild-type rabbits. Conclusions—In vivo, (1) lipid-free apoA-I rapidly incorporates into preexisting &agr;-migrating particles, (2) pre–&bgr;-migrating discoidal HDLs are rapidly converted into &agr;-migrating HDLs, (3) the FCR of apoA-I is independent of the form in which it is introduced into plasma, and (4) HL reduces the size of &agr;-migrating HDLs and increases the rate of catabolism of apoA-I.