Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Training Content Variability and the Effectiveness of Learning: An Adult Age Assessment

Making training easy and rapid has been a goal for those who train older learners. Even though they may initially produce easy and rapid performance change, however, some training conditions may actually hinder learning by reducing subsequent retention and generalization (Schmidt & Bjork, 1992). To assess this, older and younger adults were trained on an algorithm for mentally squaring two-digit numbers. Half of our participants received training in a high-variability content condition involving problems widely dispersed across the range of decade and 1's digits of two-digit numbers; the other participants were in the low- variability content condition that involved training problems with a narrow range. For both age groups, high- variability training resulted in inferior performance at the end of training, compared to low-variability training. Consistent with Schmidt and Bjork, however, high-variability trained younger adults were marginally better at retention, and were significantly better on nontrained transfer problems. In contrast, high-variability trained older adults did not differ from their low-variability trained agemates at either retention or generalization.
Utilizing Machine Learning to Enhance Profit Generation from Technical Trading Rules in Portfolio Construction within the Stock Exchange of Thailand

In this paper, we propose a portfolio management method that combines a technical indicator with machine learning. We compare our method with two other popular approaches: the Markowitz Mean-Variance Portfolio and a portfolio constructed solely from a technical indicator. Our proposed method aims to reduce transaction costs by identifying and avoiding false signals generated by the technical analysis method. To evaluate the efficiency of our method, we compare the performance of the three models in terms of profitability and risk, considering both with and without transaction costs scenarios. Our experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms the other two approaches in terms of profitability, with and without transaction costs considered. This study's findings could have practical implications for investors who seek to improve their portfolio performance while reducing transaction costs. Our approach demonstrates that a combination of technical indicators and machine learning can lead to superior portfolio performance compared to traditional methods. In conclusion, our study provides empirical evidence that our proposed portfolio management method can yield better results than traditional approaches in terms of efficiency, especially when transaction costs are considered.
Network Coding Scheme Based on LDPC Product Codes in Multiple-Access Relay System

In this paper, we consider a multiple-access relay system with two users, one relay, and one destination. The relay combines the data packets received from these two users and then forwards the data packets to the destination. We consider a novel network coding scheme for information combing at the relay, namely, Low-density parity-check (LDPC) product coding. For LDPC product codes, we propose a joint iterative channel decoding (JICD) scheme based on bipartite graph under the log-likelihood ratio belief propagation (LLR-BP) algorithm resist the interference and fading at the destination. Simulation results show that the packet-error-ratio (PER) performance of LDPC product codes based network coding scheme outperforms the traditional XOR-operation based network coding scheme.
Psychological and Physical Activity Training for Older Persons: Who Does Not Attend?

Background: Interventions to promote successful aging include psychological and physical activity programs. Identification of determinants of attendance of older persons may be useful to develop strategies to improve attendance. For physical activity programs determinants of attendance have been investigated extensively. For psychological programs hardly any knowledge is available. Determinants of attendance at psychological and physical activity programs have never been investigated simultaneously. Objective: To identify demographic, physical and psychological determinants of attendance of older subjects following multifaceted psychological training – aimed at promoting active social participation – and physical activity training and to compare the variation of these determinants between the two training programs. Method: 118 subjects aged 65–92 years were randomized over psychological and physical activity training. Determinants of attendance were obtained at pretest with questionnaires and performance-based tests. Results: Mean attendance was 62%. Attendance was not related to type of program. Having chronic diseases facilitated attendance in the psychological training group and limited attendance in the physical activity training group. Low and high levels of Activities of Daily Living performance (ADLs) and walking endurance were related to a high attendance in the psychological training group. A low level of activities of daily living (ADL) and a low walking endurance were related to a low attendance in the physical activity training group. For both training groups, persons living with a partner had higher attendance rates than persons living alone, and persons with a low level of anxiety had higher attendance rates than persons with a moderate or a high level of anxiety. Conclusion: Psychological training may be more suitable for frail older persons with chronic diseases, low ADL levels and low walking endurance than physical activity training, and may help to prepare such persons for physical activity.
Creating and sharing Fuzzy Color Spaces by an online repository for color modeling

This paper introduces new online tools to create fuzzy color spaces and share them with researchers in computational color modeling. Fuzzy color spaces, which are able to fill the semantic gap between the color representation in computers and the subjective human perception, are built according to an approach proposed by the authors in previous works. The methodology for building fuzzy color spaces is based on the paradigm of conceptual spaces including fuzzy boundaries, and considering a collection of color names and corresponding crisp color representatives. In this sense, existing color naming systems in the literature, providing a crisp representative color for each color term, can be employed for building fuzzy color spaces automatically. The fuzzy color spaces are stored in files with a specific format which can be used in JFCS (Java Fuzzy Color Space), a Java open source software for modeling colors developed by the authors. In addition, color naming systems represented in files with a specific format (representative color value and a name for each color term) are also created with these tools. The proposed tools, which are integrated into the website associated to JFCS, enable a functional common repository of fuzzy color spaces as a sharing point to researchers in color modeling.
Modulation by Mianserin Pretreatment of the Chronic Electroconvulsive Shock Effects on the Adrenergic System in the Cerebral Cortex of the Rat

The effect of a series of electroconvulsive shock (ECS) applied after chronic administration of mianserin was tested in the rat. ECS in the group pretreated with mianserin produced a significantly larger increase in the density of α1‐adrenoceptors, while its effect on β‐adrenoceptor density and cyclic AMP response to noradrenaline were independent of the mianserin pretreatment. However, the cyclic AMP response to isoproterenol in the presence of 12‐O‐tetradecanoylphorbol 13‐acetate (TPA) in slices from rats receiving ECS after mianserin pretreatment was significantly higher than in the slices of rats receiving either treatment alone. While ECS did not change the responsiveness of α1‐adrenoceptors as measured by IP response to noradrenaline, it significantly attenuated the responses when given after mianserin; mianserin alone significantly increased the responsiveness of α1‐adrenoceptors. All treatments reduced the attenuation of IP response by protein kinase C activator TPA. The results suggest that pretreatment with mianserin may affect the ECS action of direct and PKC‐modulated adrenergic response systems.
ERK1/2 Activation in Preexisting Oligodendrocytes of Adult Mice Drives New Myelin Synthesis and Enhanced CNS Function

Growing evidence shows that mechanisms controlling CNS plasticity extend beyond the synapse and that alterations in myelin can modify conduction velocity, leading to changes in neural circuitry. Although it is widely accepted that newly generated oligodendrocytes (OLs) produce myelin in the adult CNS, the contribution of preexisting OLs to functional myelin remodeling is not known. Here, we show that sustained activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) in preexisting OLs of adult mice is sufficient to drive increased myelin thickness, faster conduction speeds, and enhanced hippocampal-dependent emotional learning. Although preexisting OLs do not normally contribute to remyelination, we show that sustained activation of ERK1/2 renders them able to do so. These data suggest that strategies designed to push mature OLs to reinitiate myelination may be beneficial both for enhancing remyelination in demyelinating diseases and for increasing neural plasticity in the adult CNS. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Myelin is a crucial regulator of CNS plasticity, function, and repair. Although it is generally accepted that new myelin production in the adult CNS is initiated by newly generated oligodendrocytes (OLs), great interest remains in additionally driving mature preexisting OLs to make myelin. The ability to induce myelination by the larger population of preexisting OLs carries the potential for enhanced remyelination in demyelinating diseases and increased neural plasticity in the adult CNS. Here, we show that sustained activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) signaling pathway is sufficient to drive mature OLs in the adult mouse CNS to reinitiate myelination, leading to new myelin wraps and functional changes.
Survey over image thresholding techniques and quantitative performance evaluation

We conduct an exhaustive survey of image thresholding methods, categorize them, express their formulas under a uniform notation, and finally carry their performance comparison. The thresholding methods are categorized according to the information they are exploiting, such as histogram shape, measurement space clustering, entropy, object attributes, spatial correlation, and local gray-level surface. 40 selected thresholding methods from various categories are compared in the context of nondestructive testing applications as well as for document images. The comparison is based on the combined performance measures. We identify the thresholding algorithms that perform uniformly better over nonde- structive testing and document image applications. © 2004 SPIE and IS&T. (DOI: 10.1117/1.1631316)
Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime?

The authors use data from two national surveys to shed light on panhandling among homeless people and the public’s responses to it. A comparison of homeless panhandlers and nonpanhandlers shows the former group to be more isolated, troubled, and disadvantaged than the latter. Although only a minority of all homeless say that they panhandle, a majority of domiciled individuals report being panhandled, and most give at least occasionally. Such encounters have mixed but limited effects on the public’s attitudes and behaviors. Overall, results challenge the notion that panhandling constitutes an especially threatening feature of urban life. The wisdom of anti-panhandling ordinances is discussed in light of this conclusion.
Are trending topics useful for marketing?: visibility of trending topics vs traditional advertisement

Trending Topics seem to be a powerful tool to be used in marketing and advertisement contexts, however there is not any rigorous analysis that demonstrates this. In this paper we present a first effort in this direction. We use a dataset including more than 110K Trending Topics from 35 countries collected over a period of 3 months as basis to characterize the visibility offered by Local Trending Topics. Furthermore, by using metrics that rely on the exposure time of Trending Topics and the penetration of Twitter, we compare the visibility provided by Trending Topics and traditional advertisement channels such as newspapers' ads or radio-stations' commercials for several countries. Our study confirms that Trending Topics offer a comparable visibility to the aforementioned traditional advertisement channels in those countries where we have conducted our comparison study. Then, we conclude that Trending Topics can be useful in marketing and advertisement contexts at least in the analyzed countries.
MAINTENANCE OF GENETIC VARIATION IN HUMAN PERSONALITY: TESTING EVOLUTIONARY MODELS BY ESTIMATING HERITABILITY DUE TO COMMON CAUSAL VARIANTS AND INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF DISTANT INBREEDING

Personality traits are basic dimensions of behavioral variation, and twin, family, and adoption studies show that around 30% of the between‐individual variation is due to genetic variation. There is rapidly growing interest in understanding the evolutionary basis of this genetic variation. Several evolutionary mechanisms could explain how genetic variation is maintained in traits, and each of these makes predictions in terms of the relative contribution of rare and common genetic variants to personality variation, the magnitude of nonadditive genetic influences, and whether personality is affected by inbreeding. Using genome‐wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from > 8000 individuals, we estimated that little variation in the Cloninger personality dimensions (7.2% on average) is due to the combined effect of common, additive genetic variants across the genome, suggesting that most heritable variation in personality is due to rare variant effects and/or a combination of dominance and epistasis. Furthermore, higher levels of inbreeding were associated with less socially desirable personality trait levels in three of the four personality dimensions. These findings are consistent with genetic variation in personality traits having been maintained by mutation–selection balance.
Faculty Actions that Result in Student Satisfaction in Online Courses.

This study identified faculty actions which positively influenced student satisfaction in the online classroom at the community college level. The escalating demand for Internet-based, distance education courses has been met by an increased inventory of them. However, while online education has been in existence for over a decade, standardized practices in the online classroom have not been fully identified, developed, and implemented. Data was collected from student evaluations of web-based courses at two Texas community colleges. Descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations and multiple regressions were used to identify faculty behaviors which affected the satisfaction of students enrolled in these courses. The results of the study indicated that faculty actions within online courses appeared to impact student satisfaction. The identification of faculty actions which impact student satisfaction in online courses will greatly assist colleges and universities in strengthening their abilities to provide quality online experiences for their students.
A Study of I/O Techniques for Parallel Visualization

This paper presents two parallel I/O methods for the visualization of time-varying volume data in a high-performance computing environment. We discuss the interplay between the parallel renderer, I/O strategy, and file system, and show the results of our study on the performance of the I/O strategies with and without MPI parallel I/O support. The targeted application is earthquake modeling using a large 3D unstructured mesh consisting of one hundred millions cells. Our test results on the HP/Compaq AlphaServer operated at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center demonstrate that the I/O methods effectively remove the I/O bottlenecks commonly present in time-varying data visualization, and therefore help significantly lower interframe delay. This high-performance visualization solution allows scientists to explore their data in the temporal, spatial, and visualization domains at high resolution. Such new explorability, likely not presently available to most computational science groups, will help lead to many new insights.
SoC-FPGA implementation of the sparse fast fourier transform algorithm

This brief presents the SoC-FPGA implementation of the modified Nearly Optimal Sparse Fast Fourier Transform (sFFT) algorithm. The implementation was carried out by using hardware/software co-design based on software profiling that helped to find out that pseudo-random Spectral Permutation, Windowing, and Sub-Sampling (SPWS) are the signal processing operations that require most processing time in the modified sFFT algorithm. Then, by considering the software profiling results, a SPWS hardware accelerator was designed by using structural and generic VHDL. The SPWS hardware accelerator is composed of one Random Sampling Direct Memory Access Controller (RS-DMAC) and one Windowing and Sampling (WS) circuit. Later, the SPWS is integrated into the FPGA fabric of the SoC-FPGA to accelerate the whole modified sFFT algorithm. In this case, the software sub-system is managed by the Real Time Operating System (RTOS) QNX Neutrino. Finally, the verification results showed that 4.6 times acceleration is achieved for the SPWS, and 3.1 times acceleration is achieved for the whole modified sFFT algorithm when it is compared with the fully software implementation.
Anoctamin 1 (TMEM16A) is essential for testosterone-induced prostate hyperplasia

Significance Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is characterized by an enlargement of the prostate gland, a common disease in elderly men. Excessive testosterone is considered to cause BPH. However, its etiologic mechanisms are elusive. We found that ANO1, a Ca2+-activated Cl− channel, is essential for the testosterone-induced BPH. ANO1 was highly expressed in dihydrotestosterone (DHT)-treated prostate epithelial cells. The selective knockdown of ANO1 suppressed DHT-induced cell proliferation. Surprisingly, we found that there were three androgen-response elements in the ANO1 promoter region, which were relevant for the DHT-dependent induction of ANO1. Intraprostate treatment of Ano1 siRNA inhibited the prostate enlargement in vivo. Thus, ANO1 appears essential for the development of prostate hyperplasia and becomes a useful target for treating BPH. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is characterized by an enlargement of the prostate, causing lower urinary tract symptoms in elderly men worldwide. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of BPH is unclear. Anoctamin1 (ANO1) encodes a Ca2+-activated chloride channel (CaCC) that mediates various physiological functions. Here, we demonstrate that it is essential for testosterone-induced BPH. ANO1 was highly amplified in dihydrotestosterone (DHT)-treated prostate epithelial cells, whereas the selective knockdown of ANO1 inhibited DHT-induced cell proliferation. Three androgen-response elements were found in the ANO1 promoter region, which is relevant for the DHT-dependent induction of ANO1. Administration of the ANO1 blocker or Ano1 small interfering RNA, inhibited prostate enlargement and reduced histological abnormalities in vivo. We therefore concluded that ANO1 is essential for the development of prostate hyperplasia and is a potential target for the treatment of BPH.
Cenozoic benthic foraminiferal Mg/Ca and Li/Ca records: Toward unlocking temperatures and saturation states

The sensitivities of benthic foraminiferal Mg/Ca and Li/Ca to bottom water temperature and carbonate saturation state have recently been assessed. Here we present a new approach that uses paired Mg/Ca and Li/Ca records to calculate simultaneous changes in temperature and saturation state. Using previously published records, we first use this approach to document a cooling of deep ocean waters associated with the establishment of the Antarctic ice sheet at the Eocene-Oligocene climate transition. We then apply this approach to new records of the Middle Miocene Climate Transition from ODP Site 761 to estimate variations in bottom water temperature and the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater. We estimate that the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater varied by ∼1‰ between the deglacial extreme of the Miocene Climatic Optimum and the glacial maximum following the Middle Miocene Climate Transition, indicating large amplitude variations in ice volume. However, the longer-term change between 15.3 and 12.5 Ma is marked by a ∼1°C cooling of deep waters, and an increase in the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater of ∼0.6‰. We find that bottom water saturation state increased in the lead up to the Middle Miocene Climate Transition and decreased shortly after. This supports decreasing pCO2 as a driver for global cooling and ice sheet expansion, in agreement with existing boron isotope and leaf stomatal index CO2 records but in contrast to the published alkenone CO2 records.
Repeat sequence analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a major cause of human death around the world and is caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacterium infects 1.8 billion people yearly which equals one-third of the world population. Pathogenic bacterial genomes contain many perfect, imperfect and approximate tandem repeats that can serve as marker for genotyping these pathogens. Tandem repeats are generated by duplications during successive generations which changes genome structures, thereby providing diversity and improving the fitness of the pathogen during infection. In the present study, we have retrieved reference genomes of 30 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains and used Tandem Repeats Finder tool for the prediction of genome-wide repeats. The genomes of publicly available Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains varied in size from 4.38 MB to 4.42 MB. After trimming out low quality tandem repeats, we found the strain M. tuberculosis CCDC5079 to have the maximum tandem repeats density number (DN) while density length (DL) was found to be maximum in M. tuberculosis KIT87190.We found the lowest repeat density number and length in M. tuberculosis Erdman. This study would help in mapping and identification of pathogenic bacterial species and to understand the importance of tandem repeats in their evolution.