Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Aging in Multisensory Integration: A Systematic Review

Multisensory integration (MSI) is the integration by the brain of environmental information acquired through more than one sense. Accurate MSI has been shown to be a key component of successful aging and to be crucial for processes underlying activities of daily living (ADLs). Problems in MSI could prevent older adults (OA) to age in place and live independently. However, there is a need to know how to assess changes in MSI in individuals. This systematic review provides an overview of tests assessing the effect of age on MSI in the healthy elderly population (aged 60 years and older). A literature search was done in Scopus. Articles from the earliest records available to January 20, 2016, were eligible for inclusion if assessing effects of aging on MSI in the healthy elderly population compared to younger adults (YA). These articles were rated for risk of bias with the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment. Out of 307 identified research articles, 49 articles were included for final review, describing 69 tests. The review indicated that OA maximize the use of multiple sources of information in comparison to YA (20 studies). In tasks that require more cognitive function, or when participants need to adapt rapidly to a situation, or when a dual task is added to the experiment, OA have problems selecting and integrating information properly as compared to YA (19 studies). Additionally, irrelevant or wrong information (i.e., distractors) has a greater impact on OA than on YA (21 studies). OA failing to weigh sensory information properly, has not been described in previous reviews. Anatomical changes (i.e., reduction of brain volume and differences of brain areas’ recruitment) and information processing changes (i.e., general cognitive slowing, inverse effectiveness, larger time window of integration, deficits in attentional control and increased noise at baseline) can only partly explain the differences between OA and YA regarding MSI. Since we have an interest in successful aging and early detection of MSI issues in the elderly population, the identified tests form a good starting point to develop a clinically useful toolkit to assess MSI in healthy OA.
SPPM: Sparse Privacy Preserving Mappings

We study the problem of a user who has both public and private data, and wants to release the public data, e.g. to a recommendation service, yet simultaneously wants to protect his private data from being inferred via big data analytics. This problem has previously been formulated as a convex optimization problem with linear constraints where the objective is to minimize the mutual information between the private and released data. This attractive formulation faces a challenge in practice because when the underlying alphabet of the user profile is large, there are too many potential ways to distort the original profile. We address this fundamental scalability challenge. We propose to generate sparse privacy-preserving mappings by recasting the problem as a sequence of linear programs and solving each of these incrementally using an adaptation of Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition. We evaluate our approach on several datasets and demonstrate that nearly optimal privacy-preserving mappings can be learned quickly even at scale.
Toward automatic zonal segmentation of prostate by combining a deformable model and a probabilistic framework

This paper introduces an original method for automatic 3D segmentation of the prostate gland from Magnetic Resonance Imaging data. A statistical geometric model is used as a priori knowledge. Prostate boundaries are then optimized by a Bayesian classification based on Markov fields modelling. We compared the accuracy of this algorithm, free from any manual correction, with contours outlined by an expert radiologist. In 3 random cases, including prostates with cancer and benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), mean Hausdorff s distance (HD) and overlap ration (OR) were 8.07 mm and 0.82, respectively. Despite fast computing times, this new method showed satisfying results, even at prostate base and apex. Also, we believe that this approach may allow delineating the peripheral zone (PZ) and the transition zone (TZ) within the gland in a near future.
Optimal Partitioning of Cache Memory

A model for studying the optimal allocation of cache memory among two or more competing processes is developed and used to show that, for the examples studied, the least recently used (LRU) replacement strategy produces cache allocations that are very close to optimal. It is also shown that when program behavior changes, LRU replacement moves quickly toward the steady-state allocation if it is far from optimal, but converges slowly as the allocation approaches the steady-state allocation. An efficient combinatorial algorithm for determining the optimal steady-state allocation, which, in theory, could be used to reduce the length of the transient, is described. The algorithm generalizes to multilevel cache memories. For multiprogrammed systems, a cache-replacement policy better than LRU replacement is given. The policy increases the memory available to the running process until the allocation reaches a threshold time beyond which the replacement policy does not increase the cache memory allocated to the running process. >
Demographic Influences on Environmental Value Orientations and Normative Beliefs About National Forest Management

Using the cognitive hierarchy as the theoretical foundation, this article examines the predictive influence of individuals' demographic characteristics on environmental value orientations and normative beliefs about national forest management. Data for this investigation were obtained from a random sample of Colorado residents ( n = 960 ). As predicted by theory, a structural equation analysis demonstrated that the biocentric/anthropocentric value orientation continuum predicted respondents' norms toward national forest management, and the value orientation mediated the relationship between the demographic predictors and the normative belief. Individuals who had lived longer in the state and those with more income tended to be more anthropocentric. Females and those with higher education levels, on the other hand, were closer to the biocentric end of the conceptual continuum. Overall, this article provides empirical support for expanding the cognitive hierarchy to include other predictor constructs when a.
Selective Saturation NMR Imaging

The application of selective saturation (or solvent suppression) techniques in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging offers the opportunity to significantly expand the range of NMR studies. Data acquired at 1.44 T are presented using a two-dimensional spin-echo sequence preceded by a selective (saturating) radiofrequency pulse. Individual water or lipid proton resonances were eliminated (>90% reduction in signal intensity) resulting in images of H2O or -CH2- distribution with resolution and imaging time equivalent to conventional proton images. Data are also presented demonstrating the feasibility of using selective saturation to image proton metabolites at low concentrations with a three-dimensional chemical shift imaging approach. Lactate was investigated because of its importance in the pathophysiology of ischemic insult. Phantom studies without solvent suppression failed to detect lactate at 80 mM; however, with solvent suppression, lactate at 40 mM was imaged in a reasonable time (approximately 50 min). With the favorable NMR characteristics of the methyl protons of lactate and with improvements in imaging systems, this technique may play an important role in the noninvasive evaluation of tissue ischemia using 1H NMR.
Expression of Fap amyloids in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, P. fluorescens, and P. putida results in aggregation and increased biofilm formation

The fap operon, encoding functional amyloids in Pseudomonas (Fap), is present in most pseudomonads, but so far the expression and importance for biofilm formation has only been investigated for P. fluorescens strain UK4. In this study, we demonstrate the capacity of P. aeruginosa PAO1, P. fluorescens Pf‐5, and P. putida F1 to express Fap fibrils, and investigated the effect of Fap expression on aggregation and biofilm formation. The fap operon in all three Pseudomonas species conferred the ability to express Fap fibrils as shown using a recombinant approach. This Fap overexpression consistently resulted in highly aggregative phenotypes and in increased biofilm formation. Detailed biophysical investigations of purified fibrils confirmed FapC as the main fibril monomer and supported the role of FapB as a minor, nucleating constituent as also indicated by bioinformatic analysis. Bioinformatics analysis suggested FapF and FapD as a potential β‐barrel membrane pore and protease, respectively. Manipulation of the fap operon showed that FapA affects monomer composition of the final amyloid fibril, and that FapB is an amyloid protein, probably a nucleator for FapC polymerization. Our study highlights the fap operon as a molecular machine for functional amyloid formation.
Volunteer Tourism: Evidence of Cathartic Tourist Experiences

This Department is devoted to research reports, notes, conference résumés and other significant research events. Two copies of write-ups, not exceeding 3,000 words, may he mailed to the Section Editor, Professor David A. Fennell, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3A1; e-mail: david.fennell@brocku.ca. In all cases, one copy of the report should be mailed to the Chief Editor, TRR.
Cutaneous Wound Closure Materials: An Overview and Update

Introduction: On a daily basis, dermasurgeons are faced with different kinds of wounds that have to be closed. With a plethora of skin closure materials currently available, choosing a solution that combines excellent and rapid cosmetic results with practicality and cost-effectiveness can be difficult, if not tricky. Objectives: We aimed to review the available skin closure materials over the past 20 years and the scientific claims behind their effectiveness in repairing various kinds of wounds. Materials and Methods: The two authors independently searched and scrutinised the literature. The search was performed electronically using Pub Med, the Cochrane Database, Google Scholar and Ovid as search engines to find articles concerning skin closure materials written since 1990. Conclusion: Many factors are involved in the choice of skin closure material, including the type and place of the wound, available materials, physician expertise and preferences, and patient age and health. Evidence-based main uses of different skin closure materials are provided to help surgeons choose the appropriate material for different wounds.
New Operations for Display Space Management and Window Management

We present a set of new operations for managing screen real estate that allow windows to acquire more desktop space. This set of operations obeys the following guidelines: (1) the visible information contents of each window are preserved (i.e., operations never result in covering already-exposed window contents), (2) operation invocation requires only simple user action, and (3) windows grow and move in a natural and easily understandable manner, mimicking the interactions of colliding physical objects. We call the main operations expandandshove. Expand and shove represent two endpoints on a space-acquisition scale, and we give other possible operations called j stle andram that fall between these two points. Additional concepts of undo(to allow windows to revert to earlier sizes and positions) andrelevant regions(to allow more tightly controlled window information regions to be indicated) are also introduced. To theoretically support the met hods used by the operations, we present a classification of the possible ways that pairs of windows can initially overlap and subsequently interact during the operations.
J un 2 00 2 Supersymmetric branes with ( almost ) arbitrary tensions

We present a supersymmetric version of the two-brane Randall-Sundrum scenario, with arbitrary brane tensions T1 and T2, subject to the bound |T1,2| ≤ √ −6Λ5, where Λ5 < 0 is the bulk cosmological constant. Dimensional reduction gives N = 1, D = 4 supergravity, with cosmological constant Λ4 in the range 1 2Λ5 ≤ Λ4 ≤ 0. The case with Λ4 = 0 requires T1 = −T2 = √ −6Λ5. This work unifies and generalizes previous approaches to the supersymmetric Randall-Sundrum scenario. It also shows that the Randall-Sundrum fine-tuning is not removed by supersymmetry. bagger@jhu.edu belyaev@pha.jhu.edu
The European Union and the Securitization of Migration

This article deals with the question of how migration has developed into a security issue in western Europe and how the European integration process is implicated in it. Since the 1980s, the political construction of migration increasingly referred to the destabilizing effects of migration on domestic integration and to the dangers for public order it implied. The spillover of the internal market into a European internal security question mirrors these domestic developments at the European level. The Third Pillar on Justice and Home Affairs, the Schengen Agreements, and the Dublin Convention most visibly indicate that the European integration process is implicated in the development of a restrictive migration policy and the social construction of migration into a security question. However, the political process of connecting migration to criminal and terrorist abuses of the internal market does not take place in isolation. It is related to a wider politicization in which immigrants and asylum-seekers are portrayed as a challenge to the protection of national identity and welfare provisions. Moreover, supporting the political construction of migration as a security issue impinges on and is embedded in the politics of belonging in western Europe. It is an integral part of the wider technocratic and political process in which professional agencies ‐ such as the police and customs ‐ and political agents ‐ such as social
BC-BSP: A BSP-Based System with Disk Cache for Large-Scale Graph Processing

Many applications in real life can be modeled by Graph, and the data scale is very large in many fields. People have paid more attention to large-scale graph processing. A BSP-based system with disk cache for large-scale graph processing is proposed in this paper. The system has the ability to expand the functions and strategies (such as adjusting the parameters according to the volume of data and supporting multiple aggregation functions at the same time), to process large-scale data, to balance load, and to run clustering or classification algorithms on metric datasets. Some experiments are done to evaluate the scalability of the system implemented in the paper, and the comparison between BC-BSP-based applications and MapReduce-based ones are made. The experimental results show that BSP-based applications have higher efficiency than the MapReduce-based applications when the volume of data can be put in the memory during the course of processing; on the contrary the latter is better than the former.
Diversity, College Costs, and Postsecondary Opportunity: An Examination of the Financial Nexus between College Choice and Persistence for African Americans and Whites

Historically, federal student aid focused on expanding financial access for low-income students, but this goal is no longer central to federal policy. This article examines how the financial reasons for choosing a college and the actual costs of attending college influence persistence by African Americans and Whites. It reveals diverse patterns of educational choice with continuities across the choice sequence. African Americans were more adversely influenced by grant inadequacy than Whites were. These findings support the argument that the decline in federal grants was a contributing factor to the gap in postsecondary opportunity that opened after 1980.
Look Ma, No Hands: Supporting the Semantic Discovery of Services without Ontologies

The work reported in this article aims to the discovery of WSDL specifications that are assessed to match to specific data requirements: Going beyond the syntactic level, we aim at exploiting the human-intended semantics of WSDL specifications At the core of the proposed method lies the Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) method, which automatically maps data requirements specified in a query to part elements of WSDL input and output messages. We study extensively the performance of the proposed method for different types of experiments' configurations. Experiments have been performed over an extended number of services for various domains, with very encouraging results.
Influences on Women's Reproductive Lives

Modern women's reproductive lives vary considerably, in a patterned fashion. Although cultural factors are important, across societies—even across species— there exist strong patterns predicted by life history theory. For example, the shorter life expectancy e 0 is at birth, the earlier it pays in biological terms to reproduce. Few factors analyzed in women's life patterns in more than 170 nations influence the divergence. Studies on other species assume that (a) the variation is species specific and (b) the conditions are at equilibrium; the relationship between life expectancy and age at first birth is strong, but varies across populations, and is frequently not at equilibrium. Human patterns, like those of other species, may have ecological or life history underpinnings. The answers we find may have policy implications for women's lives and fertility.
Fast Factored DCT-LMS Speech Enhancement for Performance Enhancement of Digital Hearing Aid

Background noise is particularly damaging to speech intelligibility for people with hearing loss especially for sensorineural loss patients. Several investigations on speech intelligibility have demonstrated sensorineural loss patients need 5-15 dB higher SNR than the normal hearing subjects. This paper describes Discrete Cosine Transform Power Normalized Least Mean Square algorithm to improve the SNR and to reduce the convergence rate of the LMS for Sensory neural loss patients. Since it requires only real arithmetic, it establishes the faster convergence rate as compare to time domain LMS and also this transformation improves the eigenvalue distribution of the input autocorrelation matrix of the LMS filter. The DCT has good ortho-normal, separable, and energy compaction property. Although the DCT does not separate frequencies, it is a powerful signal decorrelator. It is a real valued function and thus can be effectively used in real-time operation. The advantages of DCT-LMS as compared to standard LMS algorithm are shown via SNR and eigenvalue ratio computations. Exploiting the symmetry of the basis functions, the DCT transform matrix [AN] can be factored into a series of ±1 butterflies and rotation angles. This factorization results in one of the fastest DCT implementation. There are different ways to obtain factorizations. This work uses the fast factored DCT algorithm developed by Chen and company. The computer simulations results show superior convergence characteristics of the proposed algorithm by improving the SNR at least 10 dB for input SNR less than and equal to 0 dB, faster convergence speed and better time and frequency characteristics. Keywords—Hearing Impairment, DCT Adaptive filter, Sensorineural loss patients, Convergence rate.
Potential Malicious Users Discrimination with Time Series Behavior Analysis

Discriminating the malicious users in a network is crucial in protecting the network entities and preventing any ongoing attacks. In an organized attack, a group users are supposed to behave synchronously in the same manner. In this study, we particularly focus on organized attacks where the attackers create a high volume of requests to overwhelm the server under heavy resource consumption. We propose a novel behavior analysis based on the time series alignment kernel and spectral clustering to determine the group of users that concurrently perform similar behaviors (or dissimilar behavior to that of innocent users). We experiment the proposed model on the simulated data.
Radial Density and Temperature Profiles of the Intracluster Gas Constructed Jointly from the X-Ray Surface Brightness Measurement and the Universal Density Profile

In this paper we have made an attempt to derive the radial profiles of the density and temperature of intracluster gas based on two currently well-established facts: the X-ray observed surface brightness of clusters described by the standard β model, and the (NFW) universal density profile as the underlying dark matter distribution. We have numerically solved the hydrostatic equation by requiring that the volume-averaged baryon fraction of a cluster should asymptotically approach the universal value at its viral radius. We have shown that the radial temperature variation derived from these constraints differs significantly from the conventional polytropic equation of state: the gas temperature profile may show a dramatic increase or decrease with outward radius, depending sensitively on the β parameter. A large β value (typically >0.8) is required in order to ensure that the X-ray temperature makes a drop at the virial radius. This indicates either that the NFW profile is inappropriate to apply to the overall dark matter distribution of clusters, or that other nongravitational heating processes may play an important role in the dynamical evolution of clusters.
Oral hygiene in patients with oral cancer undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy after prosthesis rehabilitation: protocol proposal.

PURPOSE This study was aimed at assessing the effectiveness and the importance of an oral hygiene (OH) protocol in patients undergoing radiation therapy and chemotherapy after prosthesis rehabilitation, in order to reduce or minimize oral complications. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was carried out at the Department of Dental Science, at the University of Bari-Italy from December 2012 to December 2015 on 34 selected patients with primary oral cancer undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy after prosthesis rehabilitation. They were divided into 2 groups according to their age, sex and cancer therapy. Seventeen patients were assigned to the control group and seventeen in the experimental one. In the experimental group (Table 1), patients underwent an oral hygiene protocol whereas in the control group (Table 2) patients received the usual care provided within the clinical setting. All the patients gave written informed consent. It has been asked and obtained the authorisation from the Ethics Committee of the Dental Science and Surgery Department. RESULTS Results show that in patients undergoing the oral hygiene protocol, the complications and the risks of infection and permanent dental problems have been minimized. Indeed, of the seventeen patients undergoing the OH protocol, 70% obtained positive results and were satisfied with the program outcome. CONCLUSIONS The role of the health care providers is essential to educate patients to adhere to the prescribed treatments and reinforce their motivation in oral hygiene. The oral hygiene procedures prevent and ameliorate oral complications due to the radiation therapy and chemotherapy.